|
An occasional blog about populist politics and popular music, not necessarily at the same time. LinksLocal Links My Other Websites Music Politics Others Networking Music DatabaseArtist Search: Website SearchGoogle: Recent Reading
Music DatabaseArtist Search: Website SearchGoogle: |
Monday, February 24, 2025 Music Week
Music: Current count 43749 [43700) rated (+49), 46 [44] unrated (+2). I've had a very rough week, or at least the last couple of days, and at the moment I'm so depressed I have nothing to say on this or any other subject. The only rationale I could come up with for posting this at all is that this way I won't have to give it another thought for the rest of the week. This is the last Monday in February, so I've marked the archive file closed, and opened a new one for March, but I haven't done any bookkeeping (probably for months, but certainly not this month). I haven't forked off a frozen copy of my 2024 List, which is usually an end-of-February thing. I did review a few 2025 promos below, on a particularly miserable day when the Internet couldn't be trusted, but since then I've gone back to sifting crumbs from 2024. Neither pursuit netted much. The one thing I should mention is that I answered some questions. Also that I'm on Bluesky (link to left), and not on Facebook. No more news to speak of. It occurs to me that an update wouldn't be amiss here. I rushed this out Monday evening, just to get past it, while being very uncertain how the week was going to week was going to develop, other than that I had much to worry about. I'm scheduled for cataract surgery on Thursday, Feb. 27. While the prognosis for such surgery is usually very good, the short-term effects seem to be very hard to gauge. I am told, for instance, to expect that eyesight will be blurry (perhaps very blurry) for as long as a week. Even after that, my eyeglass prescription is likely to be way out of whack until after the second eye is operated on, and it too heals. I'm also reading things like bruising around the eye ("black eye") is to be expected. While my sight has been declining for years, with many things -- like reading print on CD cases -- practically impossible, I'm expecting the short-term disruption to be . . . well, I really have no idea. Nonetheless, I had a more pressing (and depressing) problem on Monday. I had developed a dental problem over the previous week, and went in to have it checked that afternoon. We decided to do a root canal and crown, which took a little more than 3 hours. When the novocain finally wore off, I found myself with the exact same pain I had started out with, making me wonder if the dentist had missed the actual problem and done something irrelevant. I was also led to believe I'd be needing antibiotics and narcotics for pain, so I filled those prescriptions, but -- wisely it turns out -- waited before starting them. I was pretty wiped out that evening, when I posted this, but next day wasn't too bad. The temporary crown has some annoying imperfections, but no significant pain, and no reason to think the tooth was infected. I also had to start eye drops for the surgery on Monday. I've always hated and dreaded eye drops, but by Tuesday was starting to get the hang of it, so I think that will be ok. Just, for now, trying not to think too much about it all. My wife's birthday was last week, same day as the sole remaining nephew in these parts, so what she wanted to do was for us to go out to some upscale restaurant. However, the weather was awful cold on the day, so she consented to allowing me to cook up a bit of dinner. My self-imposed limit was to only use items in stock. She wanted Ants Climbing Tree, a classic Chinese dish of ground pork and cellophone noodles. I found a pound of ground wild boar in the freezer, so substituted that for the pork. I also found a chunk of boneless pork butt, which I could have used, but thought it might be better in Twice-Cooked Pork: boiled, sliced thin, and stir-fried with bell peppers in a sauce of hoisin, ground bean, black soy, and brown sugar. I made one of my fried rice combos with it, using velveted shrimp, Chinese sausage, stir-fried lima beans, sauteed zucchini, egg, scallions, and pine nuts. Recently, I've been starting fried rice with a shallot, adding some chicken stock to further soften up the rice, and adding a generous sprinkling of curry spices, so the rice could have served as a meal in itself. Dessert was flourless chocolate cake, with ice cream. After the thaw, we did finally go out to George's Bistro on Tuesday, to see how the pros do it. That was my specific intent in ordering the duck à l'orange with cassoulet: I've made both dishes (only a couple times, and not with great success, but pretty close to what they served). Also had their profiteroles for dessert -- I've made them too, but they really nailed the presentation this time. All in all, a very nice dinner. Does, however, make me want to try something a bit more ambitious. I had some more things I wanted to mention, but it's gotten late, so I should post what I have, and return when next I'm able. I should note that I finally finished Eric Hobsbawm's The Age of Extremes, which has been an extraordinary read these last few weeks. Not sure what's next: I have a half-dozen candidates readily available, none of which promises to come close in terms of historical depth and global sweep -- unless, as I'm tempted, I just carry on with Hobsbawm's slightly later memoir, Interesting Times. On the other hand, unclear how much reading I'll be able to do in coming weeks. Also how much music I'll be able to write up. But for now, I can tease you with a couple of album covers, picked up as I've been going through Chuck Eddy: 150 Best Albums of 2024. New records reviewed this week: Ab-Soul: Soul Burger (2024, Top Dawg): Los Angeles rapper Herbert Stevens IV, sixth album since 2011. B+(***) [sp] Beatenberg: The Great Fire of Beatenberg (2024, Leafy Outlook): South African pop/rock band, out of Cape Town, fourth album since 2011, as African bands go, they sound a lot like Vampire Weekend, but more consistently African. B+(***) [sp] BigXthaPlug: Take Care (2024, United Masters): Rapper Xavier Landrum, from Dallas, second album. B+(**) [sp] Fashion Club: A Love You Cannot Shake (2024, Felte): Alias for Pascal Stevenson, from Los Angeles, who plays most instruments and sings, although the credits include a dozen guest spots. Second album. Has a shoegaze fuzz I like, but I don't know what it means. B+(**) [sp] Foxing: Foxing (2024, Grand Paradise): Rock band from St. Louis, fifth album since 2013, must have been confused in my mind with someone else, as they're way too hyperbolic for my taste. B- [sp] Friko: Where We've Been, Where We Go From Here (2024, ATO): Indie band from Chicago, or duo -- Niko Kapetan (guitar/vocals) and Bailey Minzenberger (drums) -- first album, I'm only a bit impressed, and have no idea what genres like "chamber pop" and "noise pop" might mean. B+(*) [sp] David Gilmour: Luck and Strange (2024, Sony): Famed Pink Floyd guitarist, did a nondescript solo album in 1978, returned with another roughly every decade since, this his fifth (not counting a couple live albums). Some signature guitar, plus keyboards recorded before Rick Wright died in 2008. B [sp] Girl Ultra: Blush (2024, Big Dada, EP): Pop singer Mariana de Miguel, from Mexico City, released an LP in 2019, and has several EPs since 2017, this one 7 songs, 14:37. B+(*) [sp] Groovology: Almost Home (2024 [2025], Sugartown): Mainstream jazz quartet from Honolulu, Aaron Aranita (woodwinds, piano) wrote five songs, David Yamasaki (guitar) two more (one reprised), Scott Shafer (drums) two, Ernie Provender (bass) one). B [cd] Muriel Grossmann: The Light of the Mind (2024, RR Gems): Saxophonist, mostly tenor but plays them all, born in Paris, grew up in Vienna, wound up in Ibiza, 16th album since 2007, quartet with guitar, keyboards, and drums, strong whiff of Coltrane throughout. B+(***) [sp] Tim Heidecker: Slipping Away (2024, Bloodshot): Folkie singer-songwriter, albums go back to 2000, has a rep for comedy. B [sp] Eugenie Jones: Eugenie (2024 [2025], Open Mic): Jazz singer, fourth album since 2013, writes about half of her material, with covers like "Natural Woman," "Work Song," "Trouble Man," and "It Don't Mean a Thing." B+(**) [cd] Justice: Hyperdrama (2024, Ed Banger/Because Music): French electronica duo, Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspare Augé, fourth studio album since 2007, they also have three live albums, six EPs, singles back to 2004. Grammy seems to like them. B [sp] Jerry Kalaf: Safe Travels (2024, self-released): Drummer, composed this for piano-bass-drums trio plus string quartet (two violins, viola, cello), which gives it classical airs I rarely enjoy. Tolerable enough. B [cd] Kehlani: Crash (2024, Atlantic): R&B singer-songwriter, last name Parrish, fourth studio album since 2017, along with as many mixtapes. B+(**) [sp] b>Kehlani: While We Wait 2 (2024, Atlantic): Mixtape, came out a couple months after the studio album Crash, title refers back to a 2019 mixtape. I can't tell much difference. B+(**) [sp] Khruangbin: A La Sala (2024, Dead Oceans): Psych-surf-dub-funk instrumental rock band, started at St. John's Methodist Church in Houston, name is the Thai word for airplane, first album 2015, after an album with Vieux Farka Touré and two EPs backing Leon Bridges, back on their own, and not totally vocal-free. B+(**) [sp] Ravyn Lenae: Bird's Eye (2024, Atlantic): R&B singer-songwriter from Chicago, dropped last name Washington, second album after a couple EPs, has a nice groove it but never jumps out of it. B+(**) [sp] Los Campesinos!: All Hell (2024, Heart Swells): Indie rock band from Wales, name from Spanish translates as "the peasants," released five albums 2008-13, only their second album since. B+(*) [sp] Nobro: Set Your Pussy Free (2023, Dine Alone): Girl-punk band from Montreal, founded and led by bassist-singer Kathryn McCaughey, first studio album after EPs going back to 2016. Same attitude/vibe as the earlier EPs, but the songs hold up better. A- [sp] Nobro: Live Your Truth Shred Some Gnar (2021 [2022], Dine Alone): Seven track EP, 20:43, at least on Spotify. Discogs shows 5 releases, all with 11 songs (31:47), most LPs with the title EP on the first side, and the 2020 EP Sick Hustle on the other. B+(**) [sp] Nobro: Sick Hustle (2020, Dine Alone, EP): Four songs, 11:04. B+(*) [sp] NxWorries: Why Lawd? (2024, Stones Throw): Duo of rapper Anderson .Paak and producer Knxwledge, released an album in 2016, Yes Lawd!, followed by remixes, and now this second album. B+(***) [sp] Noel Okimoto: Hō'ihi (2024 [2025], Noel Okimoto Music): Drummer, from Hawaii, title translates to "respect, reverance," leads an octet with trumpet and sax, but neither as prominent as the vibes. B [cd] Pearl Jam: Dark Matter (2024, Republic): Grunge rock band from Seattle, went multi-platinum with their debut in 1991, I've always credited grunge and gangsta with my turn away from rock/pop in the 1990s toward jazz/roots, and it's safe to say I've never had the slightest interest in this band. (Disliking Nirvana, as I did, at least took some will power.) This one I only bothered with once it hit the top of my unheard metacritic list, and I doubt I'll give it a second spin, but as background goes, I've enjoyed virtually every moment of this one, which I'm pretty sure has never happened before. B+(**) [sp] Benjie Porecki: All That Matters (2024 [2025], Funklove Productions): Pianist, also plays organ, hype sheet says he has many previous sessions but this is first in my database. Trio with bass and drums. Six originals, four covers (notably Hampton Hawes, and organ for Sam Cooke). Nice album. B+(**) [cd] Shellac: To All Trains (2017-22 [2024], Touch and Go): Noise rock band founded by Steve Albini (guitar, formerly of Big Black, but better known as a producer), Bob Weston (bass), and Todd Trainer (drums), all credited with vocals, debut album 1994. Sixth studio album, first in a decade, the last sessions recorded shortly before Albini's death. Short (10 songs, 28:13), which is probably just as well. B+(*) [sp] Jae Sinnett: The Blur the Lines Project (2024 [2025], J-Nett Music): Drummer, I had him filed under vocals but just one here, has a dozen-plus albums back to 1986, runs a fairly hot fusion quintet with Ada Rovatti (tenor sax) and Allen Farnham (keybs), jacking up oldies from Edgar Winter, Steppenwolf, and Led Zeppelin. B+(*) [cd] Steve Smith and Vital Information: New Perspective (2024 [2025], Drum Legacy): Drummer, fusion group, been around a long time, trio with keyboards (Manuel Valera) and bass (Janek Gwizdala). Fusion, two plays leaving little impression. B [cd] Dave Stryker: Stryker With Strings Goes to the Movies (2024 [2025], Strikezone): Guitarist, originally from Omaha, came up in soul jazz groups (Jack McDuff, Stanley Turrentine), had a long-running group co-led by Steve Slagle, has been releasing a new album every January for as long as I can remember. This one is different, with a string orchestra arranged and conducted by Brent Wallarab, includes some horns (especially trombones), with the occasional guest soloist. Eleven movie themes. I swear I don't automatically hate every album with strings, but this is a good example of why I enjoy so few. B- [cd] Rose Tang & Patrick Golden: A White Horse Is Not a Horse (2024, ESP-Disk'): Tang, who "plays in about 30 bands and ensembles in New York and Seattle," wrote the lyrics, and plays guitar, keyboards, and small percussion, improvising with Golden on drums. Earlier in life, she was a "prize-winning journalist," who had studied in China and Australia, and was dubbed by one "high school politics (Maoist/Marxist) teacher" as "Wild Horse Running off the Reins." Motto: "Learn through play. Play by ear. Fuck the rest." Impressive, even on piano, but miffed me a bit when the words lost coherence and the singer tried to compensate with volume. B+(***) [cd] Leon Thomas: Mutt (2024, EZMNY/Motown): Second album, first singles (2012) released as Leon Thomas III, doesn't seem to be related to the jazz singer (1937-99), although the dates (III was b. 1993) aren't impossible. B+(**) [sp] Richard Thompson: Ship to Shore (2024, New West): English folk singer-songwriter, goes way back, starting in the 1960s with Fairport Convention. B+(**) [sp] Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries: None. Old music: Louis Armstrong: Satchmo Sings (1955, Decca): Credited as "with Orchestra," musicians unnamed. Brunswick, in 1961, reordered and cycled this as Sincerely Satchmo: Louis Armstrong Sings Standards, citing Sonny Burke, Sy Oliver, and The Commanders. Recording dates could be earlier, with this LP cobbled together from singles. Sounds like standards now, but Armstrong wrote one ("Someday You'll Be Sorry") and most of the others were relatively recent ("I Wonder," "Pledging My Love," "Your Cheating Heart," "Sincerely," "The Gypsy"). I tend to think of his later sessions with Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington as where he matured as a singer, but he was clearly ready here. A- [sp] Louis Armstrong: Louis and the Angels (1957 [2001], Verve): In the mid-1950s, Armstrong recorded several key albums for Columbia, and in 1957 he recorded at least three albums for Verve -- collected as Pops Is Tops: The Verve Studio Albums and More -- but he doesn't seem to have been done with Decca, his main label for the 1930s and 1940s. Adding to the confusion is that Verve reissued this and a couple more late Decca albums. Ten (of 12) songs here either have "angel" or "heaven" in the title, and the others drop in a lyric. Sy Oliver produced, heavy on the strings and chorus. B- [sp] Louis Armstrong: Satchmo Plays King Oliver (1959 [1960], Audio Fidelity): He got his start with Oliver in 1923, and followed him from New Orleans to Chicago, quickly outshining his mentor. A big part of the idea here seems to be to revive the old songs in state-of-the-art stereo -- at a time when reproductions of the originals were decidedly scratchy (they have since much improved) -- but the intervening decades have taken a bit of lustre off the music, while Armstrong has developed into a more skilled singer. Twelve songs, backed by "his Orch." (per the label; cover just has the title and a pic of star with trumpet, not cornet). They were his All-Stars at the time: Peanuts Hucko (clarinet), Trummy Young (trombone), Billy Kyle (piano), Mort Herbert (bass), and Danny Barcelona (drums). They were well schooled in this music, but not all that excited. [PS: Discogs lists a number of reissues of this album under various titles, including: Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None of My Jelly Roll (1964, Audio Fidelity); The Best of Louis Armstrong (1964 & 1970, Audio Fidelity; 1970, Camden, Bellaphon, Musidisc; 1993, Exit); Louis Armstrong and the All-Stars (1967, Concert Hall); With Love From . . . (1974, Capri); Louis Armstrong (1980, Impacto); Los Grandes Del Jazz 68 (1981, Sarpe); I Giganti Del Jazz Vol. 68 (1982, Curcio); plus a few more, undated. These are all literal reissues, but there is also an expanded edition, below.] B+(***) [r] Louis Armstrong & the All-Stars: Satchmo Plays King Oliver (1959 [2000], Fuel 2000/Varèse Sarabande): A CD reissue of the 1960 LP, with a new cover, more credit for the band, and two extra songs, plus eight alternate takes, arrayed inline so you hear most songs twice before moving on. I never cared for that arrangement, and while it seems fairly harmless here, that one scarcely notices it suggests that the original music wasn't all that riveting. [PS: In 2018, Essential Jazz came out with The Complete Satchmo Plays King Oliver, which moved the alternate takes to a second CD, added various 1955-57 tracks of relevant material to the 76:29 "Master Takes" disc, and more 1926-50 tracks to "The Alternate Takes."] B+(**) [sp] Louis Armstrong/Dukes of Dixieland: Louie and the Dukes of Dixieland (1960, Audio Fidelity): The Dukes were a New Orleans trad jazz band founded by Frank and Fred Assunto in 1948, up to 1974 when another group claimed the name. It's a bit shocking to note that as late as 1957 they recorded an album called Minstrel Time (but the cover shows no evidence of blackface, and I'm more bothered by the Confederate flag on the cover of their 1967 album, On Parade). I don't doubt that they were delighted to have Armstrong join them here, but they made few if any concessions in the song list, which not only includes "South" and "Dixie" but also "Washington and Lee Swing." Armstrong is most in control on the slow "Just a Closer Walk With Thee." [PS: This album was reissued as Louis Armstrong: Yeah! (1965, Fontana).] B [r] Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: The Great Summit: Complete Sessions (1961 [2000], Roulette, 2CD): I've long been confused on this release, probably because the title of my 1990 single CD is The Complete Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington Sessions, which has exactly the same 17 songs that were reissued in 2000 as The Great Summit: The Master Takes. Those 17 tracks were originally issued on two LPs: Recording Together for the First Time (1961, same artwork but different title as my CD) and The Great Reunion (1963). Ellington wrote (or co-wrote) the songs, and plays piano, but not orchestra: the rest of the band is Armstrong's combo, aside from clarinetist Barney Bigard, who did considerable work with both leaders (but not recently). The band works perfectly: Duke keeps them swinging, while the others support but don't crowd Armstrong, who has never sounded so cool. The first disc always has been a rock solid A. The second, titled "The Making of the Great Summit," goes beyond "complete" with nine alternate takes and a 1:09 "Band Discussion on Cottontail." The music is at best redundant, but the false starts and blown notes are annoying, and the disc as a whole is worthless. Only question is how much to devalue this given that you're unlikely ever to give the second disc a second spin. B+(**) [sp] Louis Armstrong: Let's Do It: Best of the Verve Years (1957-65 [1995], Verve, 2CD): An entry in Verve's Take 2 series of 2-CD compilations, a mixed bag series which picked up many of Verve's major 1950s artists, sometimes reissuing larger albums (like The Audience With Betty Carter), or combining 3-LPs on 2-CD (e.g., two Ben Webster sets, Music for Loving and Soul of Ben Webster), or sometimes compiling pieces from scattered LPs (like here). Armstrong didn't record a lot for Verve, and only the first duets with Ella Fitzgerald really panned out. They get a fair amount of space here, along with his lesser 1957 albums, and a couple of much later tracks (originally released on Fontana and Mercury). B+(*) [r] Louis Armstrong: Disney Songs the Satchmo Way (1968 [1996], Walt Disney): Ten songs from Disney entertainments, a minor addition to the his song book efforts, done with a light touch and good humor, which is all you can hope for. Disney's own Tutti Camarata produced, with Maxwell Davies arranging, the strings mostly kept in check. Originally released in 1968 on Buena Vista. CD has new artwork, but no extra music. B+(***) [sp] Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Loves Cole: New Interpretations by Ella Fitzgerald of the Great Cole Porter Songs (1972, Atlantic): With her interlude at Capitol dead-ended, and Pablo not yet open for business, Granz produced this back-to-basics project, reuniting her with Nelson Riddle to recycle 13 songs from the first of her great Song Books. Unavailable as such on streaming, as Granz repossessed it in 1978 and reissued it as Dream Dancing. B+(***) [sp] Ella Fitzgerald: Dream Dancing: Ella Fitzgerald & Cole Porter (1972-78 [1978], Pablo): Here Granz reclaims and recycles 1972's Ella Loves Cole, adding two newly recorded songs -- "Dream Dancing" and "After You, Who?" -- with Nelson Riddle arranging and conducting. While the new cuts don't add much, let's give this package a slight edge. But in both cases, the combination of singer, songwriter, and orchestra is a comforting delight. A- [sp] Ella Fitzgerald/Joe Pass: Take Love Easy (1973 [1974], Pablo): Pass (1929-94, name shortened from Passalaqua), was a guitarist from New Jersey, started recording for Pacific Jazz in 1962, in Gerald Wilson's big band and small soul jazz groups (Richard Holmes, Les McCann) and cool (Bud Shank), but he quite literally came into his own when Norman Granz signed him to Pablo in 1973 and had him record a solo album, revealing enough to be called Virtuoso. Granz recorded him often -- Wikipedia credits him with 50 Pablo albums -- including this first duo with Fitzgerald. My first reaction here is that they take it way too easy, but after a career of dazzling us with speed, she amazes with how slow she can go without stalling. Pass takes it even easier, but adds just enough they return for more albums. B+(**) [sp] Ella Fitzgerald: "Fine and Mellow" (1974 [1979], Pablo): Subtitle is Ella Fitzgerald Jams with a long list of named stars: Harry Edison and Clark Terry (trumpet), Zoot Sims and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (tenor sax), Joe Pass (guitar), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Ray Brown (bass), and Louie Bellson (drums). Lots of good things here, including a stretch where Terry slings even more scat than Ella. B+(***) [sp] Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Fitzgerald at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1975 [1975 [1993], Pablo/OJC): With his new label, Granz seemed to be in a hurry to fill out the catalog, and the venue was famous enough to justify a live set. Nine songs, starting with "Caravan" and "Satin Doll," peaking with "It's All Right With Me," closing with "The Girl From Ipanema" and "T'aint Nobody's Bizness If I Do." Backed by Tommy Flanagan, Keter Betts, and Bobby Durham -- their names added to the 1993 CD cover. B+(***) [r] Ella Fitzgerald/Joe Pass: Fitzgerald and Pass . . . Again (1976, Pablo): Fourteen more standards, sung expertly, with solo guitar accompaniment, artful but demure enough one can be excused for missing much of it. B+(*) [r] Ella Fitzgerald With the Tommy Flanagan Trio: Montreux '77 (1977 [1989], Pablo/OJC): Different songs from 1975, but same group, with Keter Betts (bass) and Bobby Durham (drums). B+(**) [sp] Ella: Lady Time (1978, Pablo): Cover just has her first name, an understated minimalism reflected in the band: just organ (Jackie Davis) and drums (Louie Bellson). Standards, most songs she's done before (like "Mack the Knife") although the Fats Domino opener is one I don't recall hearing before. B+(***) [sp] Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
|
