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Music Week [410 - 419]

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Music: current count 29490 [29476] rated (+14), 378 [368] unrated (+10).

Miserable fucking week. I've developed an itch over much of my body, which dermatologist couldn't identify but it treating symptomatically: various steroid and non-steroid creams and lotions. Marginally better today, but on top of everything else has kept me from feeling like doing much of anything all week. One exception was that I did some cooking.

My nephew Mike, his wife Morgan and sister Kirsten flew into town to try to document my late sister's artwork, which they mostly did in my basement. First night they were working late and getting hungry, so I threw together a quick pad thai -- one of the few dishes I always have ingredients for, and takes less than an hour to prep and cook (mostly prep). I was originally hoping to do a more substantial dinner on Monday before they were to leave, but wound up fixing two more smaller dinners in the meantime: Saturday was shakshuka (eggs poached in Tunisian tomato sauce) and pan-roasted potatoes. Sunday was baked fish topped with tomato, olives and capers, along with roasted potatoes. (I had a bag of Yukon golds to work through). Also made an oatmeal stout cake. Those were just 4-5 people.

For Monday I planned on doing Greek, and finally did some shopping. We wound up crowded with ten adults and a two-year-old baby. I made baked shrimp with feta cheese, roasted brussels sprouts and various root vegetables (red potatoes, sweet potato, carrots, fennel, shallots) with a lemon-caper dressing, green bean ragout, fried lamb liver tidbits, horiatiki salad, and saganaki (fried kefalograviera cheese; also made a batch with haloumi). Also leftover cake.

Mostly listened to oldies last week, except for late nights on the computer. Even then, mostly picked pop records from recent Christgau reviews -- but two A and two A- records fell short for me, each getting two (some three) plays. I didn't find the latest Chopteeth album, but checked out two old ones. Only three records from my jazz queue, and they all got multiple chances.

Unpacking includes records I forgot to list last week.

Kathy's memorial service will be March 31, so things will start to get crazy again as that approaches. I'll probably post a Streamnotes early next week to get it out of the way, but it will be much shorter than usual.

New records rated this week:

• Car Seat Headrest: Twin Fantasy (2018, Matador, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
• Ezra Furman: Transangelic Exodus (2018, Bella Union): [r]: B+(**)
• Hal Galper Quartet: Cubist (2016 [2018], Origin): [cd]: A-
• Sergio Galvao/Lupa Santiago/Clement Landais/Franck Enouf: 2X2 (2017 [2018], Origin): [cd]: B+(***)
• Lucas Niggli: Alchemia Garden (2017 [2018], Intakt): [cd]: B+(*)
• Superchunk: What a Time to Be Alive (2018, Merge): [r]: B+(**)
• Yo La Tengo: There's a Riot Going On (2018, Matador): [r]: B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• Black Panther: The Album (Music From and Inspired By) (2018, Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope): [r]: B+(***)

Old music rated this week:

• Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band: Chopteeth (2008, Grigri Discs): [r]: A-
• Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band: Live (2010, Grigri Discs): [r]: B+(***)
• Walter Norris/George Mraz: Drifting (1974 [2007], Enja): [r]: B+(**)
• Walter Norris/Aladár Pege: Winter Rose (1980, Enja): [r]: B+(*)
• John Surman: Upon Reflection (1979, ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• John Surman: The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon (1981, ECM): [r]: B+(*)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last two weeks:

• Chamber 3: Transatlantic (OA2): March 16
• Johan Graden: Olägenheter (Moserobie)
• Lauren Henderson: Ármame (Brontosaurus): March 30
• Monika Herzig: Sheroes (Whaling City Sound)
• Il Sogno: Birthday (Gotta Let It Out -17)
• Jon Irabagon Quartet: Dr. Quixotic's Traveling Exotics (Irabbagast): May 15
• Martin Küchen & Landaeus Trio: Vinyl (Moserobie)
• Dave Liebman/John Stowell: Petite Fleur: The Music of Sidney Bechet (Origin): March 16
• Johan Lindström Septett: Music for Empty Halls (Moserobie)
• The Maguire Twins: Seeking Higher Ground (Three Tree): March 30
• Diane Moser: Birdsongs (Planet Arts)
• Michael Moss/Accidental Orchestra: Helix (4th Stream): March 24
• William Parker: Lake of Light: Compositions for AquaSonics (Gotta Let It Out): May
• Sonar With David Torn: Vortex (RareNoise): advance, March 30
• Joshua Trinidad: In November (RareNoise): advance, March 30
• Frank Wagner: Floating Holiday (MEII)
• Håvard Wiik Trio: This Is Not a Waltz (Moserobie)

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Monday, March 12, 2018

Music: current count 29476 [29452] rated (+24), 368 [368] unrated (+0).

Nothing to say about music this week. I woke up last Tuesday to the news that my sister had been struck by a car while walking from the parking lot to her work at Wichita State University. The car was not going especially fast, but knocked her to the ground, and she smashed the back of her skull on the pavement. The skull was cracked, and a CT scan showed multiple brain bleeds. The Wesley Hospital ER stapled the skull together, stabilized her, and put her in the Intensive Care Unit. When we saw her, she was conscious, incoherent, agitated, very frustrated. She developed respiratory problems, which they cleared up (mostly) with a 3-hour bronchoscopy operation. After that, she seemed to be improving, becoming calmer and more coherent, although she had bad periods as well. I never got any meaningful review of her brain scan tests. They were mostly described as "unchanged," and the bleeds were deemed inoperable, so they focused on palliative care. There was much discussion of transferring her to a "brain trauma hospital" in Nebraska, possibly early this week.

Last night, around 4AM, Kathy's heart stopped. This occurred during some form of respiratory therapy. Multiple attempts to revive her failed. A friend was staying overnight at the hospital with her, and tells me that they had "about half the floor in her room" and spent about 30 minutes before giving up. I don't know any more than that. The hospital called her son, Ram, who called me about 4:30 AM. Our brother, Steve, had come to Wichita on Wednesday, and planned on going in early morning. He found out when he woke up, and called me. I couldn't go to sleep, so I picked up and we talked about 7 AM.

I sent email to a couple of people before I went to bed. Ram posted something very brief on Facebook. I shared it, then added my own note. He'll be talking to a funeral director tomorrow, so we'll have a better idea of schedule then. I need to call some people, and to catch up with Ram and Steve, but in my current daze I figured I'd knock this out and get it out of the way. I've had a miserable week, with my own problems as well as this. Feeling shocked and helpless now.

New records rated this week:

• Blue Notes Tribute Orkestra: Live at the Bird's Eye (2012 [2017], self-released): [r]: B+(*)
• Nubya Garcia: Nubya's 5ive (2017, Jazz Re:freshed): [r]: B+(**)
• Peter Kuhn: Dependent Origination (2016 [2017], FMR): [cd]: B+(***)
• Peter Kuhn Trio: Intention (2017 [2018], FMR): [cd]: A-
• Emma-Jean Thackray's Walrus: Walrus EP (2017, Deptford Beach, EP): [r]: B+(*)

Old music rated this week:

• The Free Spirits Featuring John McLaughlin: Tokyo Live (1993 [1994], Verve): [r]: B+(**)
• Christof Lauer: Christof Lauer (1989, CMP): [r]: B+(***)
• Christof Lauer/Wolfgang Puschnig/Bob Stewart/Thomas Alkier: Bluebells (1992, CMP): [r]: B+(**)
• Christof Lauer: Fragile Network (1998 [1999], ACT): [r]: B+(***)
• Christof Lauer/NDR Big Band: Christof Lauer & NDR Big Band Play Sidney Bechet: Petite Fleur (2013 [2014], ACT): [r]: B+(**)
• Mahavishnu Orchestra: Between Nothingness & Eternity (1973, Columbia): [r]: B+(*)
• Mahavishnu Orchestra: Apocalypse (1974, Columbia): [r]: C+
• Mahavishnu Orchestra: Visions of the Emerald Beyond (1974 [1975], Columbia): [r]: B-
• Mahavishnu Orchestra/John McLaughlin: Inner Worlds (1975 [1976], Columbia): [r]: B-
• Joe Maneri Quartet: Dahabenzapple (1993 [1996], Hat Art): [r]: B+(**)
• Joe Maneri Quartet: In Full Cry (1996 [1997], ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Joe Maneri/Mat Maneri: Blessed (1997 [1998], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Joe Maneri Trio: The Trio Concerts (1997-98 [2001], Leo, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
• John McLaughlin: Devotion (1970, Douglas): [r]: B+(**)
• John McLaughlin: The Heart of Things (1997, Verve): [r]: B+(*)
• John McLaughlin/Zakir Hussain/T.H. "Vikkur" Vinayakram/Hariprasad Chaurasia: Remember Shakti (1997 [1999], Verve, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
• Shakti/John McLaughlin: Shakti With John McLaughlin (1975 [1976], Columbia): [r]: B+(***)
• Shakti With John McLaughlin: Natural Elements (1977, Columbia): [r]: B+(**)
• Shakti With John McLaughlin: A Handful of Beauty (1976 [1977], Columbia): [r]: B+(***)

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Monday, March 5, 2018

Music: current count 29452 [29423] rated (+29), 368 [367] unrated (+1).

Most of what follows, including all of this week's A- ratings, already appeared in February's Streamnotes, posted last Wednesday. After that I guess I slowed down a bit. Damn little more to report.

I suppose I could offer a link to The new (UK) jazz family tree, although I should note that it actually offers only a rather thin slice of jazz in the UK, with nothing avant (aside from Evan Parker), nothing trad, huge omissions elsewhere (some names that leap to mind: Dave Holland, John McLaughlin, Howard Riley, Tommy Smith, and John Surman, as well as younger musicians like Neil Cowley and Alexander Hawkins). I haven't tried counting, but offhand I think I recognize about a third of the names, mostly falling down where band members are expanded (e.g., the other three-fourths of Camilla George Quartet). The author notes that she started with Emma-Jean Thackray and Sons of Kemet and worked her way out from there. Thackray didn't ring a bell, although I've heard of her group Walrus. Sons of Kemet have a couple albums I like, especially Lest We Forget What We Came Here to Do (2015).

New records rated this week:

• Laurie Anderson/Kronos Quartet: Landfall (2018, Nonesuch): [r]: A-
• Brandi Carlile: By the Way, I Forgive You (2018, Low Country Sound/Elektra): [r]: B-
• Roberta Donnay & the Prohibition Mob Band: My Heart Belongs to Satchmo (2018, Blujazz): [cd]: B+(**)
• Electric Squeezebox Orchestra: The Falling Dream (2015 [2018], OA2): [cd]: B
• GoGo Penguin: A Humdrum Star (2017 [2018], Blue Note): [r]: B+(*)
• Mike Jones/Penn Jillette: The Show Before the Show: Live at the Penn & Teller Theater (2017 [2018], Capri): [cd]: B+(***)
• Femi Kuti: One People One World (2018, Knitting Factory): [r]: B+(*)
• Les Filles De Illighadad: Eghass Malan (2017, Sahelsounds): [r]: B+(**)
• Dave Liebman/Tatsuya Nakatani/Adam Rudolph: The Unknowable (2016 [2018], RareNoise): [cdr]: B+(*)
• Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas: Sound Prints: Scandal (2017 [2018], Greenleaf Music): [cd]: B+(***)
• Youssou N'Dour: Raxas Bercy 2017 (2017, self-released): [dl]: A-
• Amy Rigby: The Old Guys (2018, Southern Domestic): [r]: A-
• Shakers n' Bakers: Heart Love: Plays the Music of Albert Ayler and Mary Maria Parks (2017 [2018], Little i Music): [cd]: B+(*)
• Shopping: The Official Body (2018, FatCat): [r]: A-
• Steve Tyrell: A Song for You (2018, New Design): [cd]: B+(**)
• U.S. Girls: In a Poem Unlimited (2018, 4AD): [r]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

• Marion Brown: Afternoon of a Georgia Faun (1970, ECM): [r]: B
• Marion Brown: Duets Vol. 1 (1970 [2012], 1201/Black Lion Vault): [r]: B+(**)
• Dorothy Donegan: Live at the 1990 Floating Jazz Festival (1990 [1991], Chiaroscuro): [r]: B+(**)
• Chico Freeman: Tradition in Transition (1982, Elektra Musician): [r]: B+(*)
• Chico Freeman/Mal Waldron: Up and Down (1992, Black Saint): [r]: B+(**)
• Jelly Roll Morton: The Piano Rolls (1924 [1997], Nonesuch): [r]: B+(**)
• Original Dixieland Jazz Band: The 75th Anniversary (1917-21 [1992], RCA Bluebird): [r]: B+(***)
• Original Dixieland Jazz Band: In London 1919-1920 Plus the Okeh Sessions 1922-1923 (1919-23 [2001], Retrieval): [r]: B+(**)
• Amy Rigby: Live at Cat's Cradle 02/26/2003 (2003 [2011], self-released): [r]: B+(**)
• Trio-X [Joe McPhee/Dominic Duval/Jay Rosen]: The Sugar Hill Suite (2004, CIMP): [r]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Martin Blume/Tobias Delius/Achim Kaufmann/Dieter Manderscheid: Frames & Terrains (NoBusiness): cdr
• Satoko Fujii Orchestra Berlin: Ninety-Nine Years (Libra)
• Gerry Hemingway/Samuel Blaser: Oostum (NoBusiness): cdr
• Kang Tae Hwan: Live at Café Amores (1995, NoBusiness)
• The Doug MacDonald Quintet/The Roger Neumann Quintet: Two Quintets: Live Upstairs at Vitello's (2018, Blujazz, 2CD)
• Todd Marcus: On These Streets (Stricker Street): April 27
• Wynton Marsalis Septet: United We Swing: Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas (2003-07, Blue Engine): March 23
• Erin McDougald: Outside the Soirée (Miles High): March 16
• Michael Morreale: MilesSong: The Music of Miles Davis (Summit, 2CD)
• Peripheral Vision: More Songs About Error and Shame (self-released): March 30
• Barre Phillips/Motoharu Yoshizawa: Oh My, Those Boys! (1994, NoBusiness)
• Roberta Piket: West Coast Trio (13th Note): April 6
• Jim Snidero & Jeremy Pelt: Jubilation (Savant): advance, May 4
• Spin Cycle [Scott Neumann/Tom Christensen]: Assorted Colors (Sound Footing): April 6
• Dan Weiss: Starebaby (Pi): April 6

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Monday, February 26, 2018

Music: current count 29423 [29386] rated (+37), 367 [375] unrated (-8).

Paid more attention to the new jazz queue last week, but still most of the newly rated albums are old -- some from my unrated list (mostly revisited via Napster, but they clear up old U marks), plus a few others that caught my fancy. The connection between this splurge in old music and my work on the Jazz Guide(s) is more tenuous and opportunistic this week, as I've been having trouble thinking of groups/records to look up. On the other hand, few 2018 releases are coming to my attention. Two months into the new year, my A-list is only five albums long: four jazz (Kevin Sun, Gregory Lewis, Evan Parker, Kris Davis/Craig Taborn), one non-jazz (Mary Gauthier). Part seasonal, I guess, and part don't-give-a-fuck. I'm having a tough time this year.

February Streamnotes should be up by Wednesday. Right now looks like: 57 new records, 2 recent old music releases, 97 old releases. Not sure if that counts as a very big month, or a very slim one. When I post it, I'll copy the new reviews into the Jazz Guide files, and call them done -- at least for what I've been calling Stage 2, pretty close to the compilation of all the reviews in my various CG-like columns since 2003. Currently my files contain 765 pages for the 20th Century (music recorded up through 1999), and 1650 pages for the 21st Century (music released from 2000 on). The definitions allow for a small amount of overlap (e.g., records cut in 1999 but not released until 2000, although some are earlier and/or later). Next step will be to figure out some way to make these files more accessible. The most obvious option is to export PDF, which I did at the end of Stage 1. One possible problem is that the PDF files are much larger than the LibreOffice source files -- though whether that turns out to be a real problem will take some testing.

Another approach would be to export the files as HTML and load them on a website somewhere. LibreOffice has a function to do that, but I've never used it, and it doesn't look like it will work nicely. Perhaps the thing to do then would be to write yet another program to read through the generated HTML and hack it up into usable shape. Seems like some of these things must have been done many times before. In addition to the built-in features, there are some obvious extensions to look at; e.g., LibreWeb, and Writer2ePub. (Actually, at first glance LibreWeb doesn't look useful at all. More promising is third-party free software like Calibre and Alkinea.)

Another interesting question is whether I can convert the book(s) to populate a website CMS like MediaWiki. Whereas exporting from LibreOffice to HTML/E-book would be a periodic (and therefore automated) process as changes are made to the original source file, the idea behind using MediaWiki would be put the work into a playpen where it could be further edited/enhanced. One thing that's clear to me is that while I've invested a hell of a lot of work into writing those 2415 (and counting) pages, I've long lost the struggle to keep on top of the domain -- indeed, that's something no one person can do these days. Indeed, I didn't even bother collecting my non-jazz reviews -- probably another 1000 pages buried all over the current website. That's a project for someone else to step up to, but I suppose I can still try to figure out how it might work.

I started collecting the reviews for the Jazz Guide(s) back in August 2016, more than 18 months ago. During all that time I had the luxury of knowing I had something I could work on no matter how low or dull I felt, but that task is pretty much done now, throwing me back into some sort of transitional phase. Wish I felt up to it, but I don't.

New records rated this week:

• Louise Baranger: Louise Baranger Plays the Great American Groove Book (2017, Summit): [cd]: B
• Dan Block: Block Party: A Saint Louis Connection (2015 [2018], Miles High): [cd]: B+(***)
• Owen Broder: Heritage: The American Roots Project (2017 [2018], ArtistShare): [cd]: B
• Sarah Buechi: Contradiction of Happiness (2017 [2018], Intakt): [cd]: B+(*)
• Kaze: Atody Man (2017 [2018], Libra): [cd]: B+(***)
• Daniel Levin/Chris Pitsiokos/Brandon Seabrook: Stomiidae (2017 [2018], Dark Tree): [cd]: B+(***)
• Living Fossil: Never Die! (2017 [2018], self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
• Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton: Music for David Mossman: Live at Vortex London (2016 [2018], Intakt): [cd]: A-
• Dolores Scozzesi: Here Comes the Sun (2017 [2018], Café Pacific): [cd]: B
• Andy Sheppard Quartet: Romaria (2017 [2018], ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Mike Vax & Ron Romm: Collaboration (2017 [2018], Summit): [cd]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

• The Dirty Dozen Brass Band: The New Orleans Album (1989 [1990], Columbia): [r]: B+(*)
• The Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Jelly: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band Plays Jelly Roll Morton (1992-93 [1993], Columbia): [r]: B
• Gerry Hemingway Quintet: Special Detail (1990 [1991], Hat Art): [r]: B+(***)
• Gerry Hemingway Quartet: Down to the Wire (1991 [1993], Hat Art): [r]: B+(*)
• Gerry Hemingway Quintet: The Marmalade King (1994 [1995], Hat Art): [r]: B+(***)
• Charles Lloyd Quartet: Fish Out of Water (1989 [1990], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Charles Lloyd: The Call (1993, ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Charles Lloyd: All My Relations (1994 [1995], ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Charles Lloyd: Canto (1996 [1997], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Charles Lloyd: Hyperion With Higgins (1999 [2001], ECM): [r]: A-
• Charles Lloyd: Lift Every Voice (2002, ECM, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
• The Jon Lloyd Quartet: Head! (1993, Leo): [r]: B+(***)
• Jon Lloyd Quartet: By Confusion (1996 [1997], Hatology): [r]: A-
• Jon Lloyd Group: Vanishing Points (2013, 33): [r]: B+(**)
• Joe Lovano Nonet: On This Day . . . at the Vanguard (2002 [2003], Blue Note): [r]: B+(**)
• Mokave [Glen Moore/Larry Karush/Glen Velez]: Afrique (1993 [1994], Audioquest): [r]: B+(*)
• Henry Threadgill: X-75 Volume 1 (1979, Arista/Novus): [r]: C+
• Glen Velez: Doctrine of Signatures (1990 [1991], CMP): [r]: B+(**)
• Mal Waldron Trio: Free at Last (1969 [1970], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Mal Waldron: Blues for Lady Day (1972 [1973], Black Lion): [r]: B+(**)
• Mal Waldron: A Little Bit of Miles (1972 [1974], Trio/Freedom): [r]: B+(**)
• Mal Waldron Quintet: Where Are You? (1989 [1994], Soul Note): [r]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Benjamin Boone/Philip Levine: The Poetry of Jazz (Origin): Origin: March 16
• The Heavyweights Brass Band: This City (Lulaworld): March 9
• Patricia Nicholson/William Parker: Hope Cries for Justice (Centering): April 13
• Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp: Oneness (Leo, 3CD)
• Chris Platt Trio: Sky Glow (self-released): March 9
• Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra: Without a Trace (Origin): March 16
• Jay Rodriguez: Your Sound: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola (Whaling City Sound)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, February 19, 2018

Music: current count 29386 [29345] rated (+41), 375 [375] unrated (+0).

Only one record from my jazz queue this week, and only two other "new" records: a guitar band from Niger recommended by Christgau, and a slice (two of three CDs) from the first serious effort to cash in on Ornette Coleman's death -- courtesy of a reader who didn't think the third leg of this stool was worth the trouble. I played the latter at least three times before deciding that it would be recommended if you didn't have to pay much more than I did -- but I certainly can't see forking over $100 for the "budget" edition. Makes me wonder if Benardo has been taking business correspondence courses along with the world's most demanding home schooling on the drums.

Only one recent reissue/compilation, too, sort of a consolation prize as the new Youssou N'Dour bootleg Christgau recommended in the same post proved too elusive for my hacking talents (or, rather, beyond my patience). Maybe it, too, will someday show up unbidden in my post. Meanwhile, I've been playing old jazz, partly because I've been working hard on my Jazz Guides, and partly because it was easier than thinking up (or, ugh, researching) new things to check out.

There is, actually, a small bit of logic to the old picks. I started by looking for old jazz records marked in my database with a U: stands for "ungraded," the initial default state of my new mail, but also used for old records that I haven't played since I started keeping grades, and otherwise don't remember well enough to specify. These constitute most of the "375 unrated" noted above, and it occurred to me that it would be easier to stream them than to dig the LPs out (assuming I still have them), dust off the old turntable, and flip the damn things over.

Then, once I played the unrated Kenny Barron record (Scratch), I noticed a PG 4-star album by Barron (Green Chimneys), and found it as well. Everyone else on the old music list had at least one unrated album (although I didn't actually find any of the unrated DeJohnettes). How many more depended on how quickly my interest waned, with the exercise not yielding much to crow about. Still, I'll most likely keep poking around a bit as I try to wrap up the Jazz Guide(s). Next on my search list is Ricky Ford, but neither of his two unrated records are on Napster. Still, pointed me to a Mal Waldron record I missed. Alas, not a great one.

Substantial progress on the Jazz Guide(s) last week. I finished going through the gigantic Jazz 00's file, and started working back through a scratch file of Streamnotes reviews, including the year-and-a-half's worth written since I started compiling the book(s). I've worked backwards through about four months of them. This brings my page totals to 1616 (21st Century) + 756 (20th Century). Both files are growing at this point, the newer one 4-5 times as fast as the older -- but given that I have to jump around to add each entry, "fast" really isn't the right word. I have no way of estimating how much longer this mop-up phase will take. I also need to look through my JCG/JP/RG file to see if there are any marginal entries I missed, and I need to take another pass through compilations and archival releases. Still, at this point I'm not trying to be too perfectionist. I just want to get to a point where I can say I've packaged what I've written over the past fifteen years, and this is what it looks like. Turning that into a real book (or books) and/or a website, cleaning up the writing, filling in holes, etc., is a next stage thing, hard even to imagine at this point. Before I move on, I'd at least like to be able to distribute what I have, at least to a few friends and associates. How I do that? Right now I have no real idea.

New records rated this week:

• Ornette Coleman: Celebrate Ornette: Brooklyn Prospect Park (2014 [2016], Song X, 2CD): [cdr]: A-
• Samo Salamon/Howard Levy: Peaks of Light (2017 [2018], Sazas): [cd]: B+(***)
• Tal National: Tantabara (2018, Fat Cat): [r]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• Youssou N'Dour: Africa Rekk: Réédition (2016 [2017], Jive/Epic): [r]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

• Kenny Barron: Scratch (1985, Enja): [r]: B+(**)
• Kenny Barron: Green Chimneys (1983-87 [1988], Criss Cross): [r]: B+(***)
• Carla Bley: Tropic Appetites (1973-74 [1974], Watt): [r]: B+(*)
• Carla Bley: Dinner Music (1976 [1977], Watt): [r]: B+(**)
• Carla Bley: Social Studies (1980 [1981], Watt): [r]: B+(*)
• Carla Bley: Live (1981 [1982], Watt/ECM): [r]: A-
• Carla Bley: Heavy Heart (1983 [1984], Watt/ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• The Carla Bley Band: I Hate to Sing (1981-83 [1984], Watt/ECM): [r]: B+(***)
• Carla Bley: Night-glo (1985, Watt/ECM): [r]: B-
• Carla Bley: Sextet (1986-87 [1987], Watt/ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Carla Bley: Fleur Carnivore (1988 [1989], Watt/ECM): [r]: B+(***)
• Carla Bley/Steve Swallow: Go Together (1992 [1993], Watt/ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Carla Bley: Big Band Theory (1992 [1993], Watt/ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Carla Bley/Andy Sheppard/Steve Swallow: Songs With Legs (1994 [1996], Watt/ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• The Carla Bley Big Band: Goes to Church (1996, Watt/ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Carla Bley: Fancy Chamber Music (1997 [1998], Watt/ECM): [r]: B
• Carla Bley/Steve Swallow: Are We There Yet? (1998 [1999], Watt/ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Carla Bley: 4X4 (1999 [2000], Watt/ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Jack DeJohnette: The DeJohnette Complex (1968 [1969], Milestone): [r]: B
• Jack DeJohnette: Pictures (1976 [1977], ECM): [r]: B-
• Jack DeJohnette: New Directions (1978, ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Jack DeJohnette: Special Edition (1979 [1980], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Jack DeJohnette New Directions: In Europe (1979 [1980], ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Any Denio/Pavel Fajt/Csaba Hajnóczy/Gabi Kenderesi: The Danubians (1999 [2000], Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(***)
• Keith Jarrett/Jack DeJohnette: Ruta and Daitya (1971 [1973], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Keith Jarrett: Facing You (1971 [1972], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Keith Jarrett: Arbour Zena (1975 [1976], ECM): [r]: B-
• Keith Jarrett: The Survivor's Suite (1976 [1977], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Keith Jarrett: Nude Ants (1979 [1980], ECM, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
• Keith Jarrett: Personal Mountains (1979 [1989], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Michael Mantler: Something There (1983, Watt/ECM): [r]: B
• Michael Mantler With Don Preston: Alien (1985, Watt/ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Michael Mantler: Live (1987, Watt/ECM): [r]: B-
• Michael Mantler: Many Have No Speech (1987 [1988], Watt/ECM): [r]: C+
• Michael Mantler: Folly Seeing All This (1992 [1993], ECM): [r]: B
• Michael Mantler: Cerco Un Paese Innocente (1994 [1995], ECM): [r]: B+(*)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Heather Bennett: Lazy Afternoon (Summit)
• Dogwood: Hecate's Hounds (Nusica.org)
• Thomas Johansson: Home Alone (Tammt Z)
• Lucas Niggli: Alchemia Garden (Intakt): March 16
• Aruän Ortiz Trio: Live in Zürich (Intakt): March 16
• Sara Serpa: Close Up (Clean Feed): March 18
• Bill Warfield Big Band: For Lew (1990-2014, Planet Arts): March 9

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Friday, January 12, 2018

Music: Current count 29345 [29288] rated (+57), 375 [378] unrated (-3).

I took a break last week from compiling EOY lists, and as such from searching for 2017 records I had missed, to compiling my old reviews into my Recorded Jazz in the 21st Century guide book. Even made some notable progress on it, finishing the Jazz '00s artist list, and reaching midway in the groups list (52% to be precise, Le Boeuf Brothers). That brings the draft file up to 1518 pages. I'll probably finish up the groups this week, reaching a little over 1550 pages. I then need to go back and pick up things I missed, mostly because I've continued to write new reviews since I started compiling in August 2016, but also because there's some fringe stuff I wanted to include but it's filed elsewhere in the database (e.g., Latin, African, rock).

Once I've done all that -- end of February is a possibility but not a lock -- I'm not sure what happens next. I'll probably make a PDF available and issue an RFC (request for comments). I need to look into tools for converting LibreWriter files into E-book format(s). I'm sure it would take a massive further effort to edit it into a worthwhile book -- maybe more than I can ever do (especially given that I don't have a lot of time to work with). I really don't know what happens next. I certainly didn't expect to be stuck at this stage for eighteen months, but that's the size of it.

A side effect of working on the Jazz Guide(s) is that I started checking out old jazz records. First one was the Italian group Scoolptures, in my database but with nothing I'd heard, so seemed like a good idea to give them a try. After that I found it easier to think of old records to check out than new ones, and they sort of took over the week.

At some point I looked at Milo Miles' blog -- probably because he had an RIP post on John Perry Barlow, and as I scrolled through past posts I noticed a long one on Cuneiform Records: they're going on some kind of hiatus, where they'll continue to take orders but not release new records -- usual gripes there about the forces killing the record business. For some time now, they've used Bandcamp as a promo tool but made very little music available to the public there, but last week I noticed that the entire second Fast 'N' Bulbous album was available. (I reviewed it, Waxed Oop, gave it an A-.) Turns out that virtually all of their records are on Bandcamp now, so I started filling in some of the jazz titles I had missed.

I've also noticed that ECM's back catalog is now mostly up on Napster. Thus far the only things I've looked up have been a couple of records that intersect with other artists I've been looking up -- Raoul Björkenheim has several albums on Cuneiform, but also two Krakatau albums on ECM, so it made sense to serialize them below. Still, a lot more unheard ECM to work through sooner or later. I've been working on this stuff pretty quickly, looking for wider rather than deeper coverage. Sometimes that's easy, sometimes it's frustrating. The Tippett-Dunmall-Dean albums tend to blur together. I'm listening to a series of Curlew albums now, and they're even more of a mixed bag.

One last note on Barlow. Seems like he was always identified as a Grateful Dead lyricist, but I never knew or cared whatever that was supposed to signify. I knew him through his work in Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), where he was an important advocate for free software and a free internet. The recent FCC decision to end net neutrality is just further proof that his work is more needed now than ever.

New records rated this week:

• David Bertrand: Palmyra & Other Places (2017, Blujazz): [cd]: B+
• Girma Bèyènè & Akalé Wubé: Éthiopiques 30: "Mistakes on Purpose" (2017, Buda Musique): [r]: A-
• Nick Biello: Vagabond Soul (2016 [2018], Blujazz): [cd]: B+(**)
• Harley Card: The Greatest Invention (2015 [2018], self-released): [cd]: B+(*)
• Fred Farell: Distant Song (2016 [2018], Whaling City Sound): [cd]: B+(*)
• Craig Fraedrich: Out of the Blues (2017, Summit): [cd]: B-
• Brad Garton/Dave Soldier: The Brainwave Music Project (2017 [2018], Mulatta)
• James Hall: Lattice (2016 [2018], Outside In Music): [cd]: B+(*)
• Jupiter & Okwess: Kin Sonic (2017, Glitterbeat): [bc]: B+(**)
• Rich Krueger: Life Ain't That Long (2017 [2018], Rockink): [r]: B+(**)
• Julian Lage: Modern Lore (2018, Mack Avenue): [r]: B
• David Murray feat. Saul Williams: Blues for Memo (2016 [2018], Motéma): [r]: B+(**)
• Negative Press Project: Eternal Life: Jeff Buckley Songs and Sounds (2017, Ridgeway, 2CD): [cd]: B+(*)
• Quelle Chris: Being You Is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often (2017, Mello Music Group): [bc]: B-
• Cecilia Sanchietti: La Verza Via (2017 [2018], Blujazz): [cd]: B+(*)
• Dr. Lonnie Smith: All in My Mind (2018, Blue Note): [r]: B-
• Spellling: Pantheon of Me (2017, self-released): [bc]: B
• Edgar Steinitz: Roots Unknown (2017 [2018], OA2): [cd]: B+(***)
• Bobo Stenson Trio: Contra La Indecisión (2017 [2018], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Hideo Yamaki/Bill Laswell/Bjorn Björkenheim/Mike Sopko/Dominic James: Inaugural Sound Clash for the 2 Americas (2017, MOD Technologies): [r]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• Mulatu Astatke: Mulatu of Ethiopia (1972 [2017], Strut): [r]: B+(***)

Old music rated this week:

• Raoul Björkenheim & Krakatau: Ritual (1988-90 [1996], Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(***)
• George Cartwright: Dot (1994, Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(*)
• George Cartwright: The Memphis Years: Terminal Moraine (2000, Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(**)
• Curlew: Live in Berlin (1986-87 [1990], Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(***)
• Curlew: Bee (1990 [1991], Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(***)
• Curlew: A Beautiful Western Saddle (1993, Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(*)
• Curlew: Paradise (1996, Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(**)
• Curlew: Fabulous Drop (1998, Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(***)
• Curlew: Meet the Curlews (2002, Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(**)
• Curlew: Mercury (1998, Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(***)
• Elton Dean/Howard Riley/Paul Rogers/Mark Sanders: All the Tradition (1990, Slam): [r]: B+(***)
• Elton Dean: The Vortex Tapes (1990, Slam): [r]: B+(**)
• Elton Dean Quintet: Silent Knowledge (1995 [1996], Cuneiform): B+(***)
• Elton Dean Quartet: Rumours of an Incident (1996 [1997], Slam): [r]: B+(**)
• Elton Dean/Paul Dunmall/Tony Levin/Paul Rogers/Roswell Rudd/Keith Tippett: Bladik (1996 [1997], Cuneiform): [bc]: A-
• Paul Dunmall Octet: The Great Divide (2000 [2001], Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(*)
• Paul Dunmall/John Adams/Mark Sanders: Totally Fried Up (1998 [1999], Slam): [r]: B+(**)
• Vinny Golia/Aurora Josephson/Henry Kaiser/Mike Keneally/Joe Morris/Damon Smith/Weasel Walter]: Healing Force: The Songs of Albert Ayler (2006 [2007], Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(***)
• Franz Koglmann: Schlaf Schlemmer, Schlaf Magritte (1984 [1993], Hat Art): [r]: B+(*)
• Franz Koglmann: About Yesterday's Ezzthetics (1988 [1989], Hat Art): [r]: B+(*)
• Franz Koglmann: A White Line (1989 [1990], Hat Art): [r]: B+(**)
• Eero Koivistoinen: Helium (1999 [2001], Texicali): [r]: B+(**)
• Eero Koivistoinen & UMO Jazz Orchestra: Arctic Blues (2005-16 [2016], Svart, 2CD): B+(*)
• Krakatau: Volition (1991 [1992], ECM): [r]: B
• Krakatau: Matinale (1993 [1994], ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Mujician: The Journey (1990, Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(**)
• Mujician: Poem About the Hero (1994, Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(**)
• Mujician: Colours Fulfilled (1997 [1998], Cuneiform): [bc]: A-
• Mujician: Spacetime (2001 [2002], Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(***)
• Scoolptures: Materiale Umano (2009, Leo): [r]: B+(**)
• Scoolptures: White Sickness (2009 [2011], Leo): [r]: B
• Scoolptures: Please Drive-by Carefully (2012 [2013], Leo, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
• Scorch Trio: Brolt! (2007 [2008], Rune Grammofon): [r]: B+(**)
• Keith Tippett: Mujician Solo IV (Live in Piacenza) (2012 [2015], Dark Companion): [r]: B+(**)

Grade (or other) changes:

• Raoul Björkenheim//Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Paal Nilssen-Love: Scorch Trio (2002, Rune Grammofon): [bc]: was A-, B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Peter Kuhn: Dependent Origination (FMR -17)
• Peter Kuhn Trio: Intention (FMR)
• Roberta Donnay & the Prohibition Mob Band: My Heart Belongs to Satchmo (Blujazz): February 28
• Electric Squeezebox Orchestra: The Falling Dream (OA2): February 16
• Hal Galper Quartet: Cubist (Origin): February 16
• Sergio Galvao/Lupa Santiago/Clement Landais/Franck Enouf: 2X2 (Origin): February 16
• Mike Jones/Penn Jillette: The Show Before the Show: Live at the Penn & Teller Theater (Capri): March 16
• Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas: Sound Prints: Scandal (Greenleaf Music): April 6
• Sahkers n' Bakers: Heart Love (Little i Music): February 14 (digital)/May 26 (CD)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, February 5, 2018

Music: Current count 29288 [29253] rated (+35), 378 [378] unrated (+0).

I got to most of this week's count after posting January Streamnotes, but there are a couple of surprises below. I've continued to add to my EOY Aggregate. One new list was Ann Powers' Top 10 Underheard Albums, and three of those records were unknown to me, all on the folk side of Americana. One, by Anna Tivel, proved quite good (the others, well, not so good), so that was my first post-freeze A-. The second was Wu-Tang's The Saga Continues, which first showed up at number 100 on the Banquet Records list. The Stampfel album wasn't available when I looked last year, but showed up when I went looking for this year's album (unavailable on Napster).

Shortly after posting Weekend Roundup, I noticed several quoteworthy tweets:

From LOLGOP (presumably satire, quoting Paul Ryan's presumably sober "pleasantly surprised her pay up $1.50 a week," but the perspective rings true):

Charles, a Koch brother in Wichita, said he was pleasantly surprised that his pay went up $26,923,076 a week . . . he said [that] will more than cover the cost of buying several more Paul Ryans.

From Rep. Keith Ellison (also a bit of a stretch, but shows some understanding of how corporate CEOs think these days):

"Kimberly-Clark, maker of paper products like Kleenex, Viva paper towels, Cottonelle bathroom tissue and Huggies diapers, announced earlier this month it would use its tax cut windfall to pay the costs of closing 10 factories and dumping as many as 5,500 workers."

I also want to link to a piece by Dean Baker, which provides a bit of plausible corrective to expectations of financial collapse under Trump (like yesterday's link to Nomi Prins): It Actually Doesn't Feel at All Like 2006: Refusing to Learn the Lesson of the Housing Bubble. I've come to similar conclusions based on a few less informed hunches: we're beginning to see a small housing bubble, but I doubt anything comparable to 2006 is possible now -- partly because banks are a bit better regulated (although Republicans hope to change that), but more importantly because I can't see that ordinary Americans will again be willing (or, perhaps more important, able) to take on the extraordinary debt they did in the run up to 2008. This doesn't mean the economy won't run into some severe bumps in the years ahead. Baker mentions some problem areas, like the stock bubble. Two more I'll mention are: I expect corruption and deceit to spread out from the White House into even more corporate boardrooms, leading to a long series of scandals and failures; and deregulation is likely to channel capital investment into increasingly risky ventures, some of which will turn into major disasters. I might add a third point, but I'm less certain about how it will play out: over the last forty years, the rich have made a huge power play to amass ever greater wealth, which at least in the US has largely involved capping and withering the welfare and prospects of an overwhelming majority of Americans. Surely they can't keep tightening the screws indefinitely without something snapping.

Paul Krugman covered this same turf last Friday, asking Has Trumphoria Finally Hit a Wall. Baker responded: Taking Issue with Paul Krugman, We're Still Not at Full Employment. I suspect Krugman would agree with Baker's point. All of this appears to have been written before Monday's big market slip -- for that, see Matt Phillips: Dow Jones and S&P Slide Again, Dropping by More Than 4%. Probably not coincidentally, Trump's pick to take over the Fed, Jerome Powell, was sworn in today, replacing Janet Yellen. My impression is that for once Trump didn't pick the worst possible nominee, but that remains to be seen -- he's certainly got investors nervous.

I've started reading David Frum's Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic, which 50-pages in is sober and useful, not that there aren't occasional embarrassments: e.g., his description of Gen. Michael Flynn as a "battlefield commander" (he was an "intelligence" officer), his ridiculous praise for Gen. H.R. McMaster, and his line about the "wise men" of the American foreign policy establishment, immediately followed by a quote from Sen. John McCain. Frum is smarter than most arch-conservatives, but one should not forget that he made his own pitch for membership in the "wise man" club by inserting the "axis of evil" line into GW Bush's 2003 SOTA.

New records rated this week:

• Samuel Blaser With Marc Ducret/Peter Bruun: Taktlos Zurich 2017 (2017 [2018], Hatology): [r]: B+(*)
• Dawn Clement: Tandem (2017 [2018], Origin): [cd]: B+(*)
• George Cotsirilos Quartet: Mostly in Blue (2017 [2018], OA2): [r]: B+(*)
• Rose Cousins: Natural Conclusion (2017, Old Farm Pony): [r]: B
• Duchess: Duchess (2015, Anzic): [r]: B+(**)
• Duchess: Laughing at Life (2016 [2017], Anzic): [r]: B+(*)
• Harris Eisenstadt: Recent Developments (2016 [2017], Songlines): [r]: B+(**)
• Satoko Fujii: Solo (2017 [2018], Libra): [cd]: B+(**)
• Camilla George Quartet: Isang (2016 [2017], Ubuntu Music): [r]: B+(*)
• Dua Lipa: Dua Lipa (2017, Warner Brothers): [r]: B+(**)
• Kate McGarry/Keith Ganz/Gary Versace: The Subject Tonight Is Love (2017 [2018], Binxtown): [cd]: B+(**)
• Mdou Moctar: Sousoume Tamachek (2017, Sahel Sounds): [r]: B+(*)
• Juana Molina: Halo (2017, Crammed Discs): [r]: B+(*)
• Musique Noire: Reflections: We Breathe (2017, self-released): [cd]: B+(*)
• Arturo O'Farrill & Chucho Valdes: Familia: Tribute to Bebo & Chico (2017, Motema): [r]: B+(**)
• Allison Pierce: Year of the Rabbit (2017, Masterworks): [r]: B
• Stuart Popejoy: Pleonid (2017, Leo): [r]: B+(**)
• Margo Rey: The Roots of Rey/Despacito Margo (2017 [2018], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
• Jamie Saft: Solo a Genova (2017 [2018], RareNoise): [cdr]: B+(***)
• Ryuichi Sakamoto: Async (2017, Milan): [r]: B+(*)
• Peter Stampfel and the Brooklyn & Lower Manhattan Fiddle/Mandolin Swarm: Holiday for Strings (2016, Don Giovanni): [r]: A-
• Anna Tivel: Small Believer (2017, Fluff and Gravy): [r]: A-
• Traxman: Tekvision (2017, Teklife): [r]: B-
• Ty Dolla Sign: Beach House 3 (2017, Atlantic): [r]: B+(*)
• Michael Waldrop: Origin Suite (2017 [2018], Origin): [cd]: B-
• Wu-Tang: The Saga Continues (2017, eOne): [r]: A-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• Louis Armstrong: The Standard Oil Sessions (1950 [2017], Dot Time): [r]: B+(**)
• Azar Lawrence: Bridge Into the New Age (1974 [2017], Prestige): [r]: A-
• Lucky Thompson: In Paris 1956: The All Star Orchestra Sessions (1956 [2017], Fresh Sound): [r]: B+(*)
• Lucky Thompson: Complete Parisian Small Group Sessions 1956-1959 (1956-59 [2017], Fresh Sound, 4CD): [r]: A-
• Trevor Watts Amalgam: Closer to You (1976 [2018], Hi4Head): [bc]: B+(***)

Old music rated this week:

• Derek Bailey/Evan Parker/Hugh Davies/Jamie Muir/Christine Jeffrey: The Music Improvisation Company (1970, ECM): [r]: B
• Cecil Taylor: Garden 2nd Set (1981 [2015], Hatology): [r]: B+(***)
• Colin Vallon Trio: Ailleurs (2006, Hatology): [r]: B+(**)

Grade (or other) changes:

• Mary Gauthier: Rifles & Rosary Beads (2018, In the Black): [r]: [was B+(***)] A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Dan Block: Block Party: A Saint Louis Connection (Miles High)
• Owen Broder: Heritage: The American Roots Project (ArtistShare): March 1
• Dave Liebman/Tatsuya Nakatani/Adam Rudolph: The Unknowable (RareNoise): cdr, February 25
• Bobby Previte: Rhapsody (RareNoise): cdr, February 25
• Steve Tyrell: A Song for You (New Design): February 9

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, January 29, 2018

Music: Current count 29253 [29219] rated (+34), 378 [373] unrated (+5).

Ran out of time again, so I'll have to let the lists speak for themselves. The reviews will show up in Streamnotes later this week/month, so I probably mean Wednesday, although I'm not sure how I'll manage that either. My mother's birthday -- she would have been 105 -- I usually mark the day with some home cooking (or Chinese, which is most of what we ate together in 2000). But I'm likely to take a break this year and go out for some inferior fried chicken. (I can match hers, but for some reason Strouds can't.)

Wednesday is also the likely freeze date for my 2017 list. Seems too early, partly because I didn't get much closure from the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll. Some hope they will eventually manage to post the ballots, but I'm informed their web platform change made that difficult. Nothing on Glenn McDonald's site either, so they've probably frozen him out -- I have little doubt that if he had the data it'd be up now. Still, I noticed a few more pieces dribbling out at the Voice. Here's what I know about so far:

• Pazz & Jop: It's Kendrick's and Cardi's World. We're All Just Living in It. Top 100 albums, top 50 singles.
• Robert Christgau: Personal, Political, and Otherwise: King Kendrick Rules Pazz & Jop
• Alex Frank: SZA, Lorde, and the Pazz & Jop Rise of Songs of the Self
• Sasha Frere-Jones: Cardi B: In Control of Pazz & Jop Singles
• Liz Pelly: Pazz & Jop: Outsiders, Punks, and Poets Raise Their Voices
• Carl Wilson: 2017 Pazz & Jop Surprises: Slowdive (Yes!) Taylor (Meh)
• Pazz & Jop Comments: Top Albums and Singles
• Pazz & Jop Comments: Further Listening
• Pazz & Jop Comments: Protests and Escapes
• Pazz & Jop: Top 10 Albums by Year, 1971-2016
• Michael J Agovino: 2017: The Year in Jazz

After a long hiatus, I did manage to make a bit of progress on the jazz guides. Up to Adam Schroeder in the Jazz '00s file, 80% (minus the groups which I've been collecting for later), bringing the 21st Century guide to 1351 pages. Still, progress is erratic, and I wouldn't bet on much soon.

As I said, no time left to comment, but I will note that one album I initially graded B+(***) based on a download but bumped up after the publicist sent a CDR. Doesn't happen often, but sometimes extra plays do help (at least if the record is good to start with).

New records rated this week:

• Cardi B: Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 1 (2016, KSR): [r]: B+(**)
• Cardi B: Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 2 (2017, KSR): [r]: B+(*)
• Stefano Battaglia: Pelagos (2016 [2017], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Beck: Colors (2017, Capitol): [r]: B
• Dave Bennett: Blood Moon (2017, Mack Avenue): [r]: B+(**)
• Bibio: Phantom Brickworks (2017, Warp): [r]: B
• Bicep: Bicep (2017, Ninja Tune): [r]: B+(**)
• Raoul Björkenheim Triad: Beyond (2016 [2017], Eclipse): [r]: B+(**)
• The Clientele: Music for the Age of Miracles (2017, Merge): [r]: B+(***)
• The Courtneys: II (2017, Flying Nun): [r]: B+(**)
• Charlotte Gainsbourg: Rest (2017, Because Music): [r]: B+(**)
• EMA: Exile in the Outer Ring (2017, City Slang): [r]: B+(**)
• Peter Evans/Agustí Fernández/Mats Gustafsson: A Quietness of Water (2012 [2017], Not Two): [r]: B+(*)
• Mary Gauthier: Rifles & Rosary Beads (2018, In the Black): [r]: B+(***)
• Nona Hendryx & Gary Lucas: The World of Captain Beefheart (2017, Knitting Factory): [r]: A-
• Robyn Hitchcock: Robyn Hitchcock (2017, Yep Roc): [r]: B+(*)
• Ibeyi: Ash (2017, XL): [r]: B+(*)
• Ted Leo: The Hanged Man (2017, SuperEgo): [r]: B
• Aimee Mann: Mental Illness (2017, SuperEgo): [r]: B+(*)
• The Ed Palermo Big Band: The Adventures of Zodd Zundgren (2017 [2018], Cuneiform): [cdr]: C+
• Leslie Pintchik: You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl! (2018, Pintch Hard): [cd]: B+(**)
• Christian Sands: Reach (2017, Mack Avenue): [r]: B+(**)
• Rev. Sekou: In Times Like These (2017, Zent): [r]: B-
• Siama: Rivers From the Congo to the Mississippi (2016, Siama Music): [r]: B+(**)
• Harry Styles: Harry Styles (2017, Columbia): [r]: B
• Kevin Sun: Trio (2017 [2018], Ectomorph Music): [cd]: A-
• Steve Swell: Music for Six Musicians: Hommage À Olivier Messiaen (2017, Silkheart): [cd]: B+(***)
• Zola Jesus: Okovi (2017, Sacred Bones): [r]: B

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• Kenny Burrell: A Generation Ago Today (1966-67 [2018], Verve): [r]: B+(*)
• The Replacements: For Sale: Live at Maxwell's 1986 (1986 [2017], Rhino, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
• Buddy Terry: Awareness (1971 [2017], Wewantsounds): [r]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

• Fast 'N' Bulbous: Waxed Oop (An Impetuous Stream Bubbled Up) (2009, Cuneiform): [bc]: A-
• The Replacements: All Shook Down (1990, Sire): [r]: B+(*)
• The Replacements: All for Nothing/Nothing for All (1985-90 [1997], Reprise, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)

Grade (or other) changes:

• Raoul Björkenheim Ecstasy: Doors of Perception (2017, Cuneiform): [cdr]: was B+(***) A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Louise Baranger: Louise Baranger Plays the Great American Groove Book (Summit)
• Sarah Buechi: Contradiction of Happiness (Intakt): February 16
• Kaze: Atody Man (Libra)
• Daniel Levin/Chris Pitsiokos/Brandon Seabrook: Stomiidae (Dark Tree)
• \\livingfossil//: Never Die! (self-released): February 2
• Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton: Music for David Mossman: Live at Vortex London (Intakt): February 16
• Samo Salamon/Howard Levy: Peaks of Light (Sazas)
• Dolores Scozzesi: Here Comes the Sun (Café Pacific): March 1
• Mike Vax & Ron Romm: Collaboration (Summit)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, January 22, 2018

Music: Current count 29219 [29181] rated (+38), 373 [367] unrated (+6).

Before we get to music, I want to point out Leonard Pitts' column trying to sum up what Donald Trump, his enablers and fellow travelers have wrought in just one year. This would have fit neatly as a coda to yesterday's Weekend Roundup:

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more visceral illustration of how our sensibilities have been bludgeoned into submission in the last year. Surprises no longer surprise. Shocks no longer shock. We have bumped up against the limits of human bandwidth, find ourselves unable to take it all in.

One simply cannot keep up with, much less respond with proper outrage to, all of this guy's scandals, bungles, blame-shifting, name-calling and missteps, his sundry acts of mendacity, misanthropy, perversity and idiocy. It's like trying to fill a teacup from Niagara Falls. It's like trying to read the Internet.

One year later, we've seen a procession of feuds that would impress a Hatfield, a McCoy or a '90s rapper, running beefs with Mitch McConnell, Elizabeth Warren, Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, Jeff Sessions, Dick Durbin, Colin Kaepernick, James Comey, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, CNN, The New York Times and reality, to name just a few.

One year later, the man who promised to "work so hard" for the American people is setting new standards for presidential laziness, a short work day, hours of television and endless golf.

One year later, the man who vowed to bring in "the best people" has hired and fired the sorry likes of Michael Flynn, Sean Spicer, Steve Bannon, Omarosa Manigault Newman, Reince Priebus and Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci.

One year later, the man who bragged of having "the best words" has pundits parsing the difference between "shithouse" and "shithole" as descriptors of Africa, El Salvador and Haiti, home, collectively, to about 17 percent of humanity.

One year later, the man who asked African Americans "what the hell" they had to lose by voting for him, is praised by tiki-torch-wielding white supremacists -- "very fine people," he says -- and his name is chanted as a racist taunt by white mobs.

One year later, we live in a state of perpetual nuclear stand off, a Cuban Missile Crisis that never ends.

But hey, at least the stock market is doing well.

Almost fifty years ago I read an essay, "The Obvious," by R.D. Laing, which pointed out that different people have very different notions of what's obvious. This resonated with a word I had recently learned from John N. Bleibtreu's book about cognitive differences between different species, The Parable of the Beast (1968). The word was Umwelt, from the German, the world around oneself. Everyone sees a limited slice of the world, at best tenuously connected to other people's slices, and that's been a limitation since time immemorial. Epistemologists like Kant struggled to find interlinked forms beneath the appearances, but there's a more empirical way to show how external changes affect and limit our understanding of the world. Given that our comprehension of the world is achieved and articulated through a prism of language, we generally find ourselves trapped in a world spun by mass media. Hence, overexposure to Trump normalizes him, and changes us. I'm not at all sure this is deliberate -- ineptness seems more plausible -- but it is strangely effective.

But I am sure that there are many forces which seem to subtly shape our environment in ways that serve their purposes and preclude chances for alternatives -- in business, politics, religion, etc. For instance, I have a book on the shelf in front of me by Philip Mirowski called Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, about the 2008 financial meltdown and recession, and more specifically how the crisis, which should have totally discredited neoliberal economic theory, resulted in virtually no real change -- mostly because no one in a position of power could see their way around those beliefs. Obama's election in 2008 represented a desire for change, but it wasn't accompanied by any real change in the way Democrats thought about such basic issues as economics and war.

Listened to quite a few records last week, informed by numerous EOY lists (notably including one from Jason Gross), yet I didn't find much to recommend. I did dig into a bunch of Soul Jazz compilations, which might have fared better if I had the booklets (usually pretty good) to go along with the music. The two A-list records I did come up with turned out to be 2016 releases.

The Village Voice has published a list of the top 100 albums and top 50 singles from its Pazz & Jop Critics Poll, plus two essays: one by Robert Christgau, Personal, Political, and Otherwise: King Kendrick Rules Pazz & Jop; the other by Sasha Frere-Jones, Cardi B: In Control of Pazz & Jop Singles. I don't see complete totals, individual ballots, or critic comments, as in previous years, and I don't see any statistical analysis over at Glenn MacDonald's Furia site, which has been an invaluable resource in recent years (2008-2016). We don't even have such basic information as who voted. I'll hold off on commenting on Pazz & Jop and my own EOY Aggregate until next week, by which point I should have stopped fiddling with the latter.

I've been working on bringing Robert Christgau's website up to date. In my private copy, I now have all of the Expert Witness monthlies up to last week, and I have all of those stuffed into the database. I'm still a day or two away from updating the website, but have squirreled away two files of EW entries in the hopes that someone with better eyes might take a look at them and spot errors. See January 2017-June 2017 and July 2017-January 2018. Email me directly or webmaster (which comes to me). Please excuse the broken style sheet and other links.

The update will also include a 2017 Dean's List (not published at Village Voice). One of the tasks I have left to do is to format that and hook in the links.

New records rated this week:

• 21 Savage/Offset/Metro Boomin: Without Warning (2017, Epic): [r]: B+(*)
• Fatima Al Qadiri: Shaneera (2017, Hyperdub, EP): [r]: B
• Django Bates' Beloved: The Study of Touch (2016 [2017], ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Bully: Losing (2017, Sub Pop): [r]: B+(**)
• Chronixx: Chronology (2017, Soul Circle Music/Virgin): [r]: B+(*)
• Cleric: Resurrection (2017, Figure, EP): [r]: B+(*)
• Cleric: Retrocausal (2017, Web of Memory): [r]: B-
• Sylvie Courvoisier Trio: D'Agala (2017 [2018], Intakt): [cd]: B+(***)
• Scott DuBois: Autumn Wind (2017, ACT): [r]: B+(***)
• Fleet Foxes: Crack-Up (2017, Nonesuch): [r]: C+
• Jeff Hamilton Trio: Live From San Pedro (2017 [2018], Capri): [cd]: B+(**)
• Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings: Soul of a Woman (2017, Daptone): [r]: B+(*)
• Stacey Kent: I Know I Dream: The Orchestral Sessions (2017, Okeh): [r]: B+(**)
• The Koreatown Oddity: Finna Be Past Tense (2017, Stones Throw): [r]: B+(**)
• Mr. Lif & Brass Menazeri: Resilient (2017, Waxsimile): [r]: B+(*)
• L'Orange: The Ordinary Man (2017, Mello Music Group): [r]: B+(***)
• Luka Productions: Fasokan (2017, Sahel Sounds): [r]: B+(**)
• Miguel: War & Leisure (2017, ByStorm/RCA): [r]: B+(*)
• Mount Kimbie: Love What Survives (2017, Warp): [r]: B
• Maciej Obara Quartet: Unloved (2017, ECM): [r]: B
• Lucas Pino: The Answer Is No (2017, Outside In Music): [r]: B+(***)
• Queens of the Stone Age: Villains (2017, Matador): [r]: B
• Real Estate: In Mind (2017, Domino): [r]: B
• The Regrettes: Feel Your Feelings Fool! (2017, Warner Brothers): [r]: B+(**)
• Nadine Shah: Holiday Destination (2017, 1965): [r]: B+(*)
• Ecca Vandal: Ecca Vandal (Dew Process): [r]: B+(**)
• Weird Beard [Florian Egli/Dave Gisler/Martina Berther/Rico Bauman]: Orientation (2017 [2018], Intakt): [cd]: B+(**)
• Roy Woods: Say Less (2017, OVO Sound/Warner Brothers): [r]: B+(**)
• Msafiri Zawose: Uhamiaji (2017, Soundway): [r]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• Acetone: 1992-2001 (1992-2001 [2017], Light in the Attic): [r]: B
• Boombox: Early Independent Hip Hop, Electro and Disco Rap 1979-82 (1979-82 [2016], Soul Jazz): [r]: A-
• Boombox 2: Early Independent Hip Hop Electro and Disco Rap 1979-83 (1979-83 [2017], Soul Jazz): [r]: B+(***)
• Dancehall: The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture (1977-93 [2017], Soul Jazz, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
• Deutsche Elektronische Musik 3: Experimental German Rock and Electronic Music 1971-81 (1971-81 [2017], Soul Jazz, 2CD): [r]: B+(*)
• The Lloyd McNeill Quartet: Asha (1969 [2017], Soul Jazz): [r]: B+(*)
• The Lloyd McNeill Quartet: Washington Suite (1970 [2017], Soul Jazz): [r]: B
• New Orleans Funk Vol. 4: Voodoo Fire in New Orleans 1951-77 (1951-77 [2016], Soul Jazz): [r]: A-
• Punk 45: Les Punks: The French Connection: The First Wave of French Punk 1977-80 (1977-80 [2016], Soul Jazz): [r]: B+(***)
• Space, Energy & Light: Expermental Electronic and Acoustic Soundscapes 1961-88 (1961-88 [2017], Soul Jazz): [r]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

• Luka Productions: Mali Kady (2016, Sahel Sounds): [r]: B+(*)
• New Orleans Funk Vol. 3: Two-Way-Pocky-Way, Gumbo Ya-Ya & the Mardi Gras Mambo (1959-84 [2013], Soul Jazz): [r]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• David Bertrand: Palmyra & Other Places (Blujazz)
• Nick Biello: Vagabond Soul (Blujazz)
• Fred Farell: Distant Song (Whaling City Sound): January 26
• Craig Fraedrich: Out of the Blues (Summit)
• James Hall: Lattice (Outside In Music): February 8
• Cecilia Sanchietti: La Verza Via (Blujazz)
• Steve Swell: Music for Six Musicians: Hommage À Olivier Messiaen (Silkheart)

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Monday, January 15, 2018

Music: Current count 29181 [29150] rated (+31), 367 [368] unrated (-1).

Initial calculation came out at 24 new ratings, surprisingly low. Still, the list below only comes to 26. I looked through the unrated list and found the discrepancies, plus a few others, nudging me over the thirty mark. That should have been easy given the weather and the availability of EOY lists suggesting things to check out. Still, main reason I didn't get more done was the Danny Fox Trio album, which I must have listened to 7-8 times. Came out pretty much as I surmised from the first play, but I couldn't come up with anything to write -- indeed, I don't seem to have any vocabulary to describe what I was hearing. Very frustrating.

Also must have played Gregory Lewis at least five times -- a surprise, but I noticed several critics jumped the gun and listed this 2018 release on their 2017 Jazz Critics Poll ballots. One record with some upside potential that only got two plays was Big K.R.I.T.'s double: I concluded, as far as I got, that first disc is A-, but second falls a bit short.

One thing I could use some help on is proofreading updates to Robert Christgau's CG database. All of the reviews from January through June 2017 are here (please excuse the style sheet confusion). I'll add a second batch when I get it entered. Christgau is writing a Pazz & Jop piece for the Village Voice this year. Not sure when that's going to be posted, but he expressed a desire that I get his reviews up by then. (Probably won't happen this week, but odds are much better for next.) Main things to look out for are missing italics and elided words -- for technical reasons the things I'm most likely to screw up.

I'm still fiddling with my EOY Aggregate file. It should correlate somewhat well with the Pazz & Jop results, but retains a relative (but not very significant) UK bias, and has a distortion that raised three Expert Witness favorites into the top twenty (Jason Isbell, Jens Lekman, Waxahatchee). I went back and spent more time on several Christgau favorites, resulting in two upgrades (Isbell, Princess Nokia), though I couldn't quite see adding them to my still short non-jazz A-list.

New records rated this week:

• Big K.R.I.T.: 4Eva Is a Mighty Long Time (2017, Multi Alumni/BMG, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
• Anouar Brahem: Blue Margins (2017, ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Daniel Caesar: Freudian (2017, Golden Child): [r]: B+(*)
• CunninLynguists: Rose Azura Njano (2017, A Piece of Strange Music/RBC): [r]: B+(**)
• CupcakKe: Ephorize (2018, self-released): [r]: B+(***)
• Eminem: Revival (2017, Aftermath/Shady/Interscope): [r]: A-
• Danny Fox Trio: The Great Nostalgist (2016 [2018], Hot Cup): [cd]: B+(***)
• Ghostpoet: Dark Days + Canapes (2017, Play It Again Sam): [r]: B+(**)
• Ishmael Ensemble: Songs for Knotty (2017, Banoffee Pies, EP): [r]: B
• Kondi Band: Salone (2017, Strut): [r]: B+(***)
• Gregory Lewis: Organ Monk Blue (2017 [2018], self-released): [cd]: A-
• Lil Uzi Vert: Luv Is Rage 2 (2017, Atlantic): [r]: B+(*)
• Roc Marciano: Rosebudd's Revenge (2017, Quality Control/300/Atlantic): [r]: B+(**)
• JD McPherson: Undivided Heart & Soul (2017, New West): [r]: B+(*)
• Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band: Front Porch Sessions (2017, Family Owned): [r]: B+(**)
• Portico Quartet: Art in the Age of Automation (2017, Gondwana): [r]: B+(**)
• Dan Pugach Nonet: Plus One (2017 [2018], Unit): [cd]: B-
• Steve Slagle: Dedication (2017 [2018], Panorama): [cd]: B+(***)
• Mavis Staples: If All I Was Was Black (2017, Anti-): [r]: B+(***)
• David Virelles: Gnosis (2016 [2017], ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Mark Wade Trio: Moving Day (2017 [2018], self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
• Wiki: No Mountains in Manhattan (2017, XL): [r]: B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• Otim Alpha: Gulu City Anthems (2004-15 [2017], Nyege Nyege): [bc]: B
• Willie Nelson: Willie's Stash Vol 2: Willie Nelson and the Boys (2011-12 [2017], Legacy): [r]: B+(*)
• Hermeto Pascoal & Grupo Vice Versa: Viajando Com O Som: The Lost 1976 Vice Versa Studio Sessions (1976 [2017], Far Out): [r]: B+(**)
• Soul of a Nation: Afro-Centric Visions in the Age of Black Power: Underground Jazz Street Funk & the Roots of Rap 1968-79 (1968-79 [2017], Soul Jazz): [r]: B+(*)

Grade (or other) changes:

• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: The Nashville Sound (2017, Southeastern): [r]: [was B+(**)] B+(***)
• Princess Nokia: 1992 Deluxe (2017, Rough Trade): [r]: [was B] B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Dawn Clement: Tandem (Origin): January 19
• George Cotsirilos Quartet: Mostly in Blue (OA2): January 19
• Kate McGarry/Keith Ganz/Gary Versace: The Subject Tonight Is Love (Binxtown)
• Leslie Pintchik: You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl! (Pintch Hard): February 23
• Margo Rey: The Roots of Rey/Despacito Margo (Origin): January 19
• Edgar Steinitz: Roots Unknown (OA2)
• Kevin Sun: Trio (Ectomorph Music): February 2
• Thiefs: Graft (Le Greffe) (Jazz & People)
• Michael Waldrop: Origin Suite (Origin): January 19

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