Music Week

Expanded blog post, November archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 31 albums, 5 A-list

Music: Current count 45079 [45048] rated (+31), 14 [22] unrated (-8).

New records reviewed this week:

• Aesop Rock: I Heard It's a Mess There Too (2025, Rhymesayers): [sp]: A-
• Patricia Brennan: Of the Near and Far (2024 [2025], Pyroclastic): [cd]: B+(***)
• Carrier: Rhythm Immortal (2025, Modern Love): [sp]: B+(*)
• Brìghde Chaimbeul: Sunwise (2025, Tak:til): [sp]: B+(*)
• Paul Cornish: You're Exaggerating! (2025, Blue Note): [sp]: B+(**)
• Dave: The Boy Who Played the Harp (2025, Neighbourhood): [sp]: A-
• Deena: This Is the Time (2025, self-released, EP): [sp]: B+(*)
• Grey DeLisle & Friends: It's All Her Fault: A Tribute to Cindy Walker (2025, Brooklyn Basement): [sp]: B+(**)
• Adam Forkelid: Dreams (2024 [2025], Prophone): [cd]: B+(***)
• David Greenberger & the Hi-Ho Barbers: Ginger Ale (2025, Pel Pel): [cd]: A- [11-17]
• Jazzwrld & Thukuthela: The Most Wanted (Waltz Music Group/Empire): [sp]: B+(**)
• Cate Le Bon: Michelangelo Dying (2025, Mexican Summer): [sp]: B+(**)
• Demi Lovato: It's Not That Deep (2025, Island): [sp]: B+(*)
• Joe McPhee & Strings: We Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (2021 [2025], RogueArt): [cdr]: B+(***)
• Roscoe Mitchell/Michele Rabbia: In 2 (2024 [2025], RogueArt): [cdr]: B+(**)
• Mobb Deep: Infinite (2025, Mass Appeal): [sp]: B
• Roberto Montero: Todos Os Tempos (2025, Vaicomtudo Music): [cd]: B+(*)
• John O'Gallagher/Ben Monder/Andrew Cyrille/Billy Hart: Ancestral (2024 [2025], Whirlwind): [cd]: A-
• Tom Ollenberg: Where in the World (2025, Fresh Sound New Talent): [cd]: B+(**) [11-21]
• Ted Piltzecker: Peace Vibes (2024 [2025], OA2): [cd]: B+(**)
• Deborah Shulman: We Had a Moment (2025, Summit): [sp]: B+(*)
• Enoch Smith Jr.: The Book of Enoch Vol. 1 (2025, Misfitme Music): [cd]: B+(*)
• Pat Thomas: Hikmah (2024 [2025], TAO Forms): [cd]: B+(***) [11-07]
• Premik Russell Tubbs & Margee Minier-Tubbs: The Bells (2025, Margetoile, EP): [cd]: B
• Cameron Winter: Heavy Metal (2024, Partisan): [sp]: B-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Alts 'N Outs: The Other Side of Blue Note (1958-64 [2025], Blue Note): [sp]: B+(**)
• Big L: Harlem's Finest: Return of the King (1992-99 [2025], Mass Appeal): [sp]: B+(***)
• Horace Silver: Silver in Seatte: Live at the Penthouse (1965 [2025], Blue Note): [sp]: A-

Old music:

• Big L: Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous (1995, Columbia): [sp]: B+(***)
• Big L: The Big Picture: 1974-1999 (1997-99 [2000], Rawkus): [sp]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• John Gunther: Painting the Dream (Origin) [11-21]
• Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Vibrations in the Village: Live at the Village Gate (1964, Resonance) [11-28]
• Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Seek & Listen: Live at the Penthouse (1967, Resonance, 2CD) [11-28]
• Bobby Rozario: Healer (Origin) [11-21]

Daily Log

Got up early, shortly after 9. I cooked a bit yesterday. I had some chicken livers left over from the birthday shopping. They were past their sell date, but looked good, so I fried some bacon and onions, dredged them in flour, and pan-fried them. I also had some yukon potatoes left, so I diced them and did basically the same thing: onion and bacon, pan-fried them, with a bit of water to speed up the cooking. I still have some cabbage, eggplant, a coconut. Leftovers from the last couple days in the refrigerator.

The latter, by the way, is turning into a disaster zone. I've had a leak near the water filter for some time. Below it there is a large and heavily loaded deli tray, and below that the base of the section. The latter collects leaked water, and freezes it into a sheet that can get nearly 1/2-inch thick. When it does so, it freezes the deli tray in place. I have to dislodge it, and scrape the glacial freeze out. I've been using third-party filters, but tried a "genuine Samsung" on the off chance that it might seal better. Maybe better, but still not good enough. Refrigerator has two ice makers: one high, which distributes ice through the door; the other low, in the freezer compartment. Both have long had problems. Indeed, practically the only problems I've ever had with refrigerators have been in ice making. Anyhow, I found the bottom compartment frozen into a single block of ice. Evidently the ice maker leaked, then the leak froze. I cleaned it all up, and turned the bottom ice maker off. It remained dry for a couple days, so now I'm freezing ice in trays, and dumping them in the ice maker tray. It occurs to me that maybe I should shop for a standalone ice maker. I don't know where I would put it.

Talked to Hometown Roofing yesterday. Started to write up a planning document. It's the first actual contract proposals I have in hand, $16,168.80 for the high roof and the carport. DHI's verbal offer was for $11,400 for the high roof + $2,500 for the carport, so that's a bit less. Hometown is calling for insurance filings that could effectively reduce their price. Same thing should work with any contractor, but Hometown is more on top of that front. Tom James is coming over late afternoon. I need to give Gottschalk a call. I can probably forget about Dolphin, and I'm not anxious to get anyone else involved.

I also need to set up dentist appointment for filling. I'm not inclined to do the retreatment on 18. While the feeling there is not right, it isn't really painful either. I've been feeling real pain in my right wrist. I'm sure there's surgery available for that, but seems like I'm increasingly just having to live with shit. And unless something really nasty comes along, probably better that way. Kitchen sink is fixed, but I need to do some work under it, mostly to get the wiring out of the way, before we can put all the stuff back. It's been cool, but is supposed to warm up tomorrow, so that may be my best chance to work on the grill, and more general outside work. Election Tuesday as well, so we need to vote.

I had a long talk with Mike the other night. He says he's thinking a lot about my mother recently. I should get him to prod me into writing more memoir..

Email (12 messages):

• Brad Luen's Semipop Life: added the new batch of records to my metacritic file, evidently for the first time this year. I should go back and catch up.
• Substack stats: 77 (+10) free subscribers, 245 (+86) post reads. 45% of subscribers are coming from tomhull.com, 18% direct-to-app, 9% Facebook.
• Rubén Reinaldo, thanking me again for the review.

Daily Log

"Fall back" last night, so I got an hour's more sleep than the 10:20 the clock currently reads. I made a couple more Indonesian dishes yesterday:

1. I had a roast duck half, which I chopped up and browned a bit, then pulled it aside and made a flavoring paste with coconut, shallots, ginger, etc., and cooked it in coconut cream, then added the duck and a can of chickpeas. Based on an "Aceh style" recipe, but the technique there was so screwy I wound up streamlining it. In retrospect, it would have been better to cut the meat off the bone. But last time I did that I couldn't resist making stock off the bones, and I was trying to clean up, not build out.
2. I found a similar recipe for fried eggplant in coconut milk. I used the small purple ones: cut them in quarters, then sliced into 1-inch chunks. I pan-fried them, another flavor paste, and more coconut cream. Then I deviated from the recipe, and mixed a couple tablespoons of peanut sauce (basically a paste) into some more coconut cream, and added that.
3. I reheated the fried rice from the previous night. I originally thought about giving it an Indonesian twist, but ultimately left it as is.

A guy from Hometown Roofing came over, climbed up on the roof, and pronounced the tarp he had installed still good. We talked some, about roofing, but also he has some tech interests and some experience with AI programming tools (e.g., for websites), and is publishing a book on his experiences as a private security contractor in Texas, where he seems to be persona non grata. I need to talk to his boss today, about his roof estimate. The boss is going in for surgery on Monday, so won't be available for a few days after that. I need to figure out more about the scope of the work before I talk to other contractors next week. I should have estimates coming in soon from DHI and Arambula, possibly Gottschalk, probably not Dolphin.

I still have chicken livers in the refrigerator, so I plan on frying them today. That leaves more eggplant leftover (a couple long purple ones, a bunch of green round ones). They're probably headed for the garbage, unless I want to try to turn them into caviar or something like that. I still need to work more on the jazz poll. I've been editing the invites. That mostly just leaves the doc files. I might start with them by just commenting out all the old stuff, then put off rebuilding them.

Email (8 messages). First album today is Wire.

Daily Log

Got up around 10. Finished the first section of The Shock of the Anthropocene, which has yet to become as interesting as I had hoped, but here and there offers big points, like that over 30% of all land-based vertebrate biomass is human, with another 60%-plus in livestock, leaving about 7% for the rest of "nature." Came downstairs. Checked my phone voicemail: 6 messages, all pretty old. This doesn't strike me as a very good system. It's not clear when the call was received. Also who was calling. I think there was a call from Gottschalk about roofing, but without being able to cross-reference my phonebook, I'm just going by voice recollection and context. Another was from a guy I would have liked to add to my phonebook, but couldn't at the time. I could have called back, but that wasn't something I wanted to do just then.

Plan for today is to cook the duck, "Aceh-style," which is a typical Indonesian flavor paste + coconut milk. I should make another pass at the grill. If that works, I can grill some of the eggplant, and serve it with peanut sauce. I had library books due today, but they seem to have been renewed. I should check that. [I did. They're all good to 11/15.] I need to do more jazz poll work.

Email (9 messages):

• Christian Iszchak: Mostly albums I've heard, except: Cameron Winter (Heavy Metal). Mostly a notch above or below my grades, except for Geese (A- vs. B), which Christgau has already noted as "some kind of A."
• Robert Wright on "NYT's Dangerous Distortion of the Trump-Xi Summit," which is pretty good. Our expectations of Trump are so low that we seek to reflexively reject his occasional lapses into sanity.

Oct 2025