Tom Hull: Tom Hull - on the Web

I saw the eye doctor yesterday, which left me in no shape to do any work whatsoever. We picked up some food on the way home, and I spent the rest of the day watching TV, which seems to be my lowest energy setting. We started watching season one of Funny Woman, which hit the spot nicely -- not least for exceptional music. Upshot of the appointment is that I have cataract surgery scheduled for Feb. 27, with the other eye a month or so later, so I'm expecting much more similar disruption and despair.

Before my appointment, I had decided not to publish Music Week until I got my server mess sorted out. I had expected to figure that out last week, but wasted a couple days blogging, and didn't make much progress until Friday, by which point I figured I had the weekend to write some letters, and Monday-Tuesday to gauge responses. But I didn't get any letters written, and Monday was a wash. But it takes a while for me to get going, so I thought I might as well go ahead and post what I have, and get it out of the way. So that's all this will be.

I suppose I can point to my server notes, if you have any technical curiosity. I've pretty much given up on replacing my current dedicated server with another: the low-end hardware is as expensive as ever, and cPanel's software prices have been jacked way up. (DirectAdmin is a cheaper alternative, and may well be as good, but it still adds a $30/month premium.) VPS deals are somewhat more affordable, and can be expanded pretty much on demand, but they're harder to evaluate.

So for the moment, I'm looking for a "reseller hosting" deal, which is a shared server slice that can support multiple domains, each with its own account interface. Some of these plans are quite cheap (suspiciously so), but they seem to fill my basic needs: hosting 10-15 websites, most hand-coded or WordPress, with email the only other real consideration. I'd be giving up some measure of detailed control over the server configuration and software, but I also could be saving myself headaches, as server management these days is mostly a matter of defending against external attacks and internal defects -- skills I find myself increasingly lacking.

Still, I'm going to be looking for deals that seem to come with decent support, and that don't lock me into something if it turns out to be a mistake. I've identified at least 60 vendors. While many of them look dubious -- especially the ones with long terms and/or automatic price hikes -- even the most expensive plans are about half what I've been paying. While the resource quotes often look paltry to me, they're probably more realistic for my needs. The big advantage of having a dedicated server is having all the resources to yourself, but my load levels are actually very light, on hardware that is six years old. So while it's hard to be certain, it's likely that the new deal will come out cheaper, faster, and less demanding of my management time. It also looks like most vendors will jump in and do the migration work, so once I make a decision, this could move very fast.

I finished that last paragraph six hours ago, and spent the time since tacking more notes onto the server file. As I still need to put up the news notice (although probably not the archive file) for Robert Christgau's Dean's List: 2024 -- "The 74 best albums of the past year (or so)", emphasis on "or so" -- I probably won't get around to writing my first letters until tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have these things sorted by next week. If not, I can't imagine how depressed I'm going to be.

_thesmoothcat & Wino Willy: Ready, Set (2024, Sinking City): New Orleans rapper Josh Henderson, with beatmaker Charles Corpening. B+(*) [bc]

Being Dead: Eels (2024, Bayonet): Garage rock band from Austin, second album, title usually capitalized -- no idea why, perhaps to distance themselves from the group Eels, which I initially assumed was responsible for this album. This got enough praise to his 82 in my EOY Aggregate, but all I hear is tuneless and senseless. B- [sp]

Kimmi Bitter: Old School (2024, self-released): Discogs says that's her real name. Country singer-songwriter, from San Diego, second album, aims for retro, which means Patsy Cline and Wanda Jackson. B+(**) [sp]

Body Count: Merciless (2024, Century Media): Gangsta rapper Ice-T's metal band, eighth album since their eponymous 1992 debut, back cover promises: "Start to finish, with Merciless, Body Count is back for an even bloodier murder spree than anything they've done before." Fourth of that series I've heard, which I've generally found tolerable, perhaps because the fusion seems even more comic than their unadulterated roots. B+(***) [sp]

Kaitlin Butts: Roadrunner! (2024, Soundly Music): Country singer-songwriter from Oklahoma, based in Nashville, third album. Some high concept here, which doesn't always work. B+(*) [sp]

Luke Combs: Fathers & Sons (2024, Columbia Nashville): Country singer-songwriter, from North Carolina, fifth album since 2017, all charted 1-2 country, 1-6 pop. Super voice, songs themed to the title are sensitive and considered enough my personal indifference must be just that. B+(**) [sp]

Ernest: Nashville, Tennessee (2024, Big Loud): Last name Smith, had some success as a songwriter before he got his own contract, third album since 2019. B+(**) [sp]

Jake Xerxes Fussell: When I'm Called (2024, Fat Possum): Folksinger from North Carolina, fifth album since 2015, built from music "that holds lifelong sentimental meaning, contemplating the passage of time and procession of life's unexpected offerings." James Elkington produced, adding bits that still feel pretty minimal. B+(**) [sp]

Homeboy Sandman: Nor Can These Be Sold (At Least by Me) (2024, self-released): Brooklyn underground rapper, many albums, third variation on this title, presumably for uncleared samples, but on Bandcamp with a "name your price." B+(**) [sp]

Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta: Mapambazuko (2025, Nyege Nyege Tapes): Peruvian composer Alejandra Luciana Cárdenas, based in Berlin, half-dozen albums since 2017, first one I've heards, so I have little sense of how this collaboration with a Congolese guitarist fits in. Actually, he seems dominant. B+(***) [sp]

Inert: 2Inert (2024, self-released): Rock singer-songwriter from Cincinnati, Mark Messerly, almost all of his previous credits are with the band Wussy, where he's played bass since 2005. Second album on his own, plays guitar here, in a group with violin, cello, and pedal steel guitar. Has a bit of Dylan in his voice. B+(**) [sp]

Sarah Jarosz: Polaroid Lovers (2024, Rounder): Singer-songwriter, originally from Austin, based in Nashville, plays guitar/banjo/mandolin, seventh album since 2009, has some Grammy awards, and seems less and less like a niche artist. B+(**) [sp]

Cody Jinks: Cody Jinks Sings Lefty Frizzell (2024, Late August): Singer-songwriter from Texas, started in a thrash metal band called Unchecked Aggression before switching to outlaw country, where he has a dozen-plus albums since 2006, and moderate success since 2016. Needless to say, no one sings Frizzell like Lefty, but this is pleasant enough on its own terms. B+(*) [sp]

Merce Lemon: Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild (2024, Darling): Singer-songwriter, from Pittsburgh, second album, shows up on my country list but why isn't obvious. B+(*) [sp]

Post Malone: F-1 Trillion (2024, Mercury/Republic): Actual name Austin Post, stage name adopted at 15 reportedly came out of "rap name generator," his first albums got him slotted in my "rap" file, but here at least he sings much more than he raps, and gets tagged as country, which may or may not include his Super Bowl duet with Beyoncé. Or maybe it's just this album, his sixth, all big hits, which with fifteen certified all-star duets crashed the country charts harder than Beyoncé did. Some decent stuff here, but runs long. B [sp]

MC Lyte: 1 of 1 (2024, Sunni Gyrl/My Block/Vydia): Rapper Lana Moorer, her 1988 debut is remembered as the first by a female rapper, released five more albums through 1998, only three since. B+(**) [sp]

Scotty McCreery: Rise & Fall (2024, Triple Tigers): Country singer-songwriter, started by winning American Idol season, quickly cashing in with a 2011 album. This is his sixth, his songwriting and voice above average without ever suggesting he might ever break out of the mold. Sample line: "done a lot of good living, just sitting on the porch." B+(*) [sp]

Lizzie No: Halfsies (2024, Miss Freedomland/Thirty Tigers): Singer-songwriter, last name Quinlan, second album, plays guitar and harp, slotted folk, shows up in some country lists, but I'm not hearing why -- she doesn't even have a Nashville connection, having grown up in NJ and moved to NYC. Well, if not the sound, maybe the songs? B+(**) [sp]

Joy Oladokun: Observations From a Crowded Room (2024, Amigo): Singer-songwriter from Arizona, parents Nigerian, moved to Los Angeles, then to Nashville. Several albums, the last two quite good. B+(***) [sp]

PyPy: Sacred Times (2024, Goner): "Psych-punk garage pop band from Montreal," which is nichey enough for their densely hooked crunch. Third album, the others from 2007 and 2014. B+(***) [sp]

Red Clay Strays: Made by These Moments (2024, RCA): Country rock band from Alabama, second studio album. B+(*) [sp]

Reyna Tropical: Malegría (2024, Psychic Hotline): Band from McAllen, Texas, principally singer-songwriter Fabi Reyna with miniaturist beats by Neclail Diaz. The value of the spoken word is hard to discern (and not just the Spanish), but I love the musical stretches, even when the whispers seem too insignificant to credit. B+(***) [sp]

Chase Rice: Go Down Singin' (2024, Broken Bow): Country singer-songwriter from Florida, fifth album since 2012. Sometimes seems like the perfect country singer, but more when he eases back than when he pushes hard. Includes a duet with Lori McKenna. B+(***) [sp]

Serengeti: Palookaville (2024, CC King): Underground rapper from Chicago, dropped this late December, dispenses with his usual characters, who I never cared that much about anyway, for a deeper focus on vibe and nuance, which is where he's always shined. A- [sp]

Brittney Spencer: My Stupid Life (2024, Elektra): Singer-songwriter from Baltimore, started singing in church but moved to Nashville to try her hand at country music. First album after a couple of EPs. B+(**) [sp]

St. Lenox: Ten Modern American Work Songs: In Honor of the 10-Year Reunion of the NYU Law Class of 2014 (2024, Don Giovanni/Anyway): Folk singer-songwriter Andrew Choi, day job attorney, has four previous Ten Songs albums (back to 2015), starting with more generic themes (e.g., Memory and Hope, Young Ambition and Passionate Love), but eventually the work grind gets you down. B+(***) [sp]

Billy Strings: Highway Prayers (2024, Reprse): Bluegrass singer-songwriter, actual name Apostol, dozen-plus albums since 2013. B+(*) [sp]

Jesse Terry: Arcadia (2024, Wander): A singer-songwriter I hadn't noticed before, seventh album since 2009. Gets some guitar help, which often saves you from having to pay attention, but sometimes it's better when you have to. B+(***) [sp]

Homeboy Sandman: Rich 2.5 (2023-24 [2025], self-released): Brooklyn rapper Angel Del Villar II, lots of records since 2007, this appears to be a compilation of two recent albums -- Rich (2023) and Rich II (2024) -- "Plus Four Butters Remixes!" B+(***) [sp]

My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall (2024, Oh Boy): Randall was born in Detroit, grew up in DC, graduated from Harvard, has written six novels starting with a "reinterpretation and parody' of Gone With the Wind, got a job teaching writing at Vanderbilt (in Nashville), where she ran into Steve Earle, who pointed her toward songwriting. This tribute offers 11 of her songs, by as many artists -- most (possibly all) roots-oriented black women. Doesn't grab hard, but impresses with staying power. B+(***) [sp]

Super Disco Pirata: De Tepito Para El Mundo 1965-1980 (1965-80 [2024], Analog Africa): Seems to be mostly Colombian cumbia, bootlegged and reprocessed in Mexico. Starts with some cheesy disco keyboards, but goes hard on the rhythm. B+(***) [sp]

Loud, Fast & Out of Control: The Wild Sounds of '50s Rock (1951-59 [1999], Rhino, 4CD): I rescued this from my long-ignored archival shelves a couple weeks ago, and it's been my staple for the last 2-3 weeks, both as a morning pick me up and in the car. Structured as a randomized jukebox, draws on three main components: a core of rockabilly classics -- the big names (including Elvis, right after "My Boy Elvis"), some strategic covers (like Ronnie Hawkins' "Forty Days" and Johnny Burnette's "Honey Hush"), and less-famous novelties (like "Red Hot" and "Action Packed"); major rockers (Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, the Coasters, and Eddie Cochran -- who leads off two discs); and older jump blues that fit in seamlessly (like "Jump, Jive and Wail" and "Rocket 88"). Sure, anyone could score high with such obvious picks, but close to a quarter of these were under my radar, and few if any feel out of place -- e.g., the sequence of "Frenzy," "Koko Joe," and "King Kong" before the more familiar "Ubangi Stomp" and "Flying Saucers Rock & Roll." [was: B+] A

Corb Lund: El Viejo (2024, New West): Canadian country singer-songwriter, twelfth album since 1995, last year's reservations about "hit and miss" songs hard to recall after a revisit, where I found a "Deluxe Edition" with three extra songs (two new) finishing strong. [was: B+(***)] A- [sp]

Megan Moroney: Am I Okay? (2024, Columbia Nashville): Country singer-songwriter, second album, seemed consistently good when I first sampled this, qualities I appreciate even more now. [was: B+(***)] A- [sp]

Every morning, I wake up with big thoughts about the state of the world (usually intercut with fragments of a catchy song I've played recently). My self-imposed news embargo has helped to sideline many major irritants, but I remain cognizant of deeper problems, and I'm able to come up with some fairly novel solutions. Just to note one example, I have a very rough scheme for war insurance, which could operate in the absence of any sort of world governing authority. Or another concept from a year or two back: a scheme for representative democracy which would end such perversions as gerrymandering, and significantly disincentivize the import of money in politics. Those are just examples, possibly worth exploring in long essays, but that's not where I want to go with this. I just want to introduce something I read with a description of how I got there.

Mornings are very routine for me. I become conscious, in thought and (often) tune. If it seems too early, I turn over and try to go back to sleep, but that rarely works. After some shifting around, I disconnect the CPAP machine, take a couple free breaths, take two pain pills, pick up my book, stumble to the bathroom, turn on the space heater, sit to give my body a chance to purge itself, and as I'm trying to focus my eyes, I read a few pages. After a while, I'll get up, maybe take a shower and/or weigh myself, get dressed, head downstairs, take some pills, put some music on, check email, see if I have any social media, possibly work on the jigsaw puzzle, and eventually eat some breakfast: a cup of yogurt with raisins, washed down with Diet Coke.

Since the election, I've mostly been reading old books from my Marxist heritage. I read such material quite deeply from 1967 up to about 1973, as I was searching to understand and develop some rational command of a world that deeply disturbed me, one that shook my confidence in everything I had been taught, and all that I once believed in. I stopped when I rather accidentally slipped out of academia and into the so-called real world, where I finally found jobs I could do, people I could care for, and the prospect of an ordinary life, as I have indeed enjoyed in my own peculiar fashion over the past forty years.

I've read steadily during those forty years, but very little from the Marxists, whose insights I had internalized to the point they seemed reflexive, and whose rhetoric seemed superfluous and sometimes petty. But mostly I went where my curiosity led me, which included rock criticism in the 1970s, followed by science and technology in the 1980s, business management and antitrust in the 1990s, with a return to political matters with the "war on terror": it's easy to cite 9/11 as the turning point, and for my attention it was, but it is clear now that it was just a skirmish, not a cause, and that the real story started with the desperate defense of American hegemony, leading inexorably to the genocide in Gaza. (If you don't understand this, you must have missed the clue that PNAC, the original neocon lobby, was originally formed to fight against the Oslo Accords.)

Along the way, I did pick up a few Marxian tomes that struck me as particularly close to my earlier interests, but I never got into them. One was Marshall Berman's All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (1983). Another was Eric Hobsbawm's The Age of Extremes (1994). I suspect that the November election will eventually be regarded as a fateful pivot date, comparable to 9/11, 12/7 (1941), 10/24 (1929), and 6/28 (1914). But the one big thing that Marxists know is that such fractures result from much deeper tectonic stresses, and are incomprehensible apart from understanding the forces that drive them. I can't say that was instantly clear to me on Nov. 6, but certainly I had that intuition. Since then, I read Berman and have slowly worked my way into the fourth of Hobsbawm's Age Of volumes (Revolution, read earlier in 2024, followed by Capital and Empire since the election). And I've met with profound insights nearly every day.

I've often felt like I should post these bits as I've read them, but rarely get around to doing so. But today's choice quote, from The Age of Extremes (pp. 102-103), is worth the trouble. I'm giving you the whole paragraph below, but my first thought was just the first bit in bold, with the second bold line there to drive the point home (so you might read the bold first, then go back for the elaboration):

This may look like tough reading, but even if you can't identify Say's Law, you should recognize the recurring economist-logic -- what Paul Krugman and John Quiggin have enjoyed debunking as "zombie economics" -- if not from the 1930s or 1980s, at least from its revival in the 2000s, immortalized in yet another major slump. (Since 2008, a lot of books have been written on the failures of neoliberal economic doctrine -- Quiggin's Zombie Economics (2010) and Economics in Two Lessons (2019) are good primers, but Philip Mirowski's Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown is a sober assessment of how those in power avoided learning the obvious lessons of the meltdown. There is much less literature on the 2020 pandemic recession, probably because it differs in several significant ways, and the political response remains in radical flux. Quiggin promised a post-pandemic book, and posted parts of it, but he seems to have held it back, possibly because the inflationary recovery now seems to matter more than the short but largely controlled collapse.)

The note about forgetting is also freshly relevant right now, applicable as it is not just to convenient economic theories but to all matters political, where public discourse is marked both by dementia and schizophrenia. The amount of forgetting it takes for Trump to be elected to a second term is really staggering. On the other hand, our ability to reason by historical analogy is increasingly suspect. We wasted a ridiculous amount of time and energy last year debating how fascism fits into the Trump campaign, while overlooking its novel features, which while less ominous than Hitler's are likely to harm us in ways we can hardly imagine. Indeed, our historical models seem likely to keep us from seeing, much less effectively countering, many of their threats -- a task made even harder by the clouds of nonsense they spew as camouflage.

I have one more Hobsbawm quote (p. 78) I wanted to share (again, the key bit in bold, but less context here, because I need neither Napoleon nor Mao for my point):

My point, of course, is that "sceptical city observers" continue to make the same mistake today. I could write tons unpacking this line, but for now just focus on the double-edged sword of "easily confused." The bottom line is that the viability of opposition to Trumpism -- which for the moment seems like a fair label, given that all alternatives theories of G.O.P.-ness have been obliterated -- depends on us learning not to be so easily confused, not just on this point but on many more.

And now, having said my small piece, I return to everyday life: a lunch with a bit of salt-cured salmon and onion on a poor excuse for a half-slice of bread; a bundle up to walk the dog; more music; back to my computer problems, and my silly lists; a few more pages when I find the moment; and some prefab frozen thing for dinner, possibly livened up with a dab of chutney or some extra cheese; more music and more computer; an hour or two of mystery on TV; and back to bed, only to wake up thinking again.

Next day, I picked up Hobsbawm on pp. 114-115, with a paragraph that follows mention of Antonio Salazar (Portugal) and Francisco Franco (Spain). I can skip over some of the details here:

Yet if reactionary regimes of this kind had origins and inspirations both older than fascism, and sometimes very different from it, no clear line separated the two, because both shared the same enemies, if not the same goals. Thus the Roman Catholic Church, profoundly and unswervingly reactionary as it was in the version officially consecrated by the first Vatican Council of 1870, was not fascist. Indeed, by its hostility to essentially secular states with totalitarian pretensions, it had to be opposed to fascism . . . What linked the Church not only with old-fashioned reactionaries but with fascists, was a common hatred for the eighteenth century Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and all that in the Church's opinion derived from it: democracy, liberalism and, of course, most urgently, 'godless communism'.

The next page goes into the evolution of Catholic politics as the Church and its followers slowly sought to disentangle from fascism, but the bold line reminds us that it has always been ready to offer intellectual and moral authority against the left -- as have the more authoritarian elements of American protestantism, although the latter have always been more comfortable with capitalism, just not its liberal pretensions. The line also reminds us that opposition to fascism, then and now is practical basis for liberals and the left to join in a common front, then and now much more urgent than our shared roots in the Enlightenment and faith in progress. The difference between liberals and the left is that the former are easily satisfied with their own freedom and prosperity, while those on the left seek to extend freedom and prosperity to everyone. With their focus on individualism, "liberal elites" isn't an oxymoron. It is the telos of their ambition, and the more they succeed, the easier it is for the right to turn them against the left.

It should also be noted that for most leftists, fascism isn't a fixed ideology but a common bind among multiple groups of people who agree on one thing: they want to crush your hopes in order to secure their authority, and they have few qualms about killing you in the process. Among fascists, Hitler was champion not because he exemplified some ideology but because he killed the most real and imagined leftists.

Hitler is also the most totally discredited figure in history, but it should be recalled that before his fall, he was widely admired by nearly everyone on the right, and their reasoning had little to do with Hitler's personal quirks -- I'd include his anti-semitism here, although that was more widely shared than his vegetarianism or his mustache -- and everything to do with his violence against the left. As a historian, Hobsbawm is careful to make distinctions, even pointing out that more than a few conservatives eventually turned against Hitler when their nationalism was threatened -- he mentions the French far right, but Churchill is an obvious example, De Gaule another.

Further down (p. 117), Hobsbawm explains how fascism differed from older forms of right-wing reaction:

The major difference between the fascist and the non-fascist Right was that fascism existed by mobilizing masses from below. It belonged essentially to the era of democratic and popular politics which traditional reactionaries deplored and which the champions of the 'organic state' tried to by-pass. Fascism gloried in the mobilization of masses, and maintained it symbolically in the form of public theatre — the Nuremberg rallies, the masses on the Piazza Venezia looking up to Mussolini's gestures on his balcony — even when it came to power; as also did Communist movements. Fascists were the revolutionaries of counter-revolution: in their rhetoric, in their appeal to those who considered themselves victims of society, in their call for a total transformation of society, even in their deliberate adaptation of the symbols and names of the social revolutionaries, which is so obvious in Hitler's 'National Socialist Workers Party' with its (modified) red flag and its immediate institution of the Reds' First of May as an official holiday in 1933.

The latter point proved useful for those who orchestrated the post-WWII Red Scare, especially the cowered liberals who implemented the Cold War, as they redefined the fascism which by then everyone opposed to be an archaic subset of totalitarianism, while doing the right the favor of anointing America as "one nation under God" and purging the "pinkos" from the labor unions. But the bold line is of more immediate import. (It is also, by the way, a pretty good one-line synopsis of Robert O. Paxton's 2005 book, The Anatomy of Fascism.) The reason Trump has drawn so much attention for his "fascism" is not just for the "retribution" he promises for his "populism," which shows that he's developed a popular base for an extremism that more conventional Republicans would have had the good taste to hide behind euphemisms (like the "kindler and gentler" Bushes).

That Trump is a colossal fraud -- much more P.T. Barnum than Benito Mussolini, although the first-generation fascists drew heavily on the mass entertainments that developed so rapidly in recent decades -- matters little here. As with Italy and Germany, the leaders just set the tone, while the followers do the dirty work, and as such prove decisive. And when you look at Trump's lieutenants, cronies, operatives, and groupies, they sure seem closely aligned with their predecessors from the 1930s. There can be little doubt that they want to crush the hopes (and if necessary or convenient, the bodies) of the left, and that they are equally antagonistic to the residual liberalism of wealthy cosmopolitan elites.

While the left was the first to recognize the implicit fascism of the "new right" -- see Chris Hedges' 2007 book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America -- as indeed the ability to spot a fascist has always been a survival skill. (That liberals were always much slower to anticipate peril was pretty clearly admitted in their characterizing the pre-WWII left as "premature anti-fascists." They seemed to feel that the only time they needed the left was when the fascists threatened them personally. Otherwise, they weren't all that bothered by fascists killing leftists.) But the mainstreaming of the "Trump is fascist" meme came from the liberals, partly because they feared the mass popularity of Trump's illiberalism might impinge on their elite liberty, and quite possibly because they feared Trump might sacrifice their beloved "war for liberal democracy" in Ukraine.

I don't wish to try to unpack the political failures of 2024, which could fill up a book, but I will note that the charge that Trump is a fascist met very different reactions from different parts of the public: on the left it was "sure, we already knew that"; on the right it ranged from "no, you're the fascist" to "hell yes!" with a lot of blank incomprehension in between; only a few liberals seemed to think that the label accuracy made any practical difference. But the net effect was that, like most attacks on Trump, by failing to make any dent it allowed and encourage Trump to become even more flagrantly fascist, which only made him more appealing to people gullible enough to believe that "Trump will fix it."

I don't think this is because Trump voters understand, let alone approve of, his fascism. (Sure, some do, especially in Republican activist ranks, and among disaffected loners who take his appeals to "second amendment people" literally, but these are both tiny minorities, important only when they act on their deranged beliefs.) But what it does show is that the liberal-dominated Democratic Party has no clue how to talk to people beyond their urban, educated, well-heeled donor class. Sure, they've managed to use fear-of-Trump to keep most of the rational left in line, but having blown two elections so far, they have little credibility on that score. (On the other hand, left-leaning but less rational people appear to be one source of defections to Trump -- most conspicuously RFK Jr., but the shifts in Black, Latino, and Arab-American votes also appear carelessly reasoned.) The popular appeal of fascism seems to rest on attributes like clearly defining enemies, and on promising resolute action against them. You don't have to be a fascist to do those things, as Franklin Roosevelt showed in the 1930s. Democrats have lost that, especially those who spend more time with donors than with the people.

One more Hobsbawm quote here (p. 118):

The past to which they appealed was an artefact. Their traditions were invented. Even Hitler's racism was not the pride in an unbroken and unmixed line of kinship descent which provides genealogists with commissions from Americans who hope to prove their descent from some sixteenth-century Suffolk yeoman, but a late nineteenth-century post-Darwinian farrago claiming (and, alas, in Germany often receiving) the support of the new science of genetics (or more precisely of that branch of applied genetics ("eugenics"); which dreamed of creating a human super-race by selective breeding and the elimination of the unfit. The race destined through Hitler to dominate the world did not even have a name until 1898 when an anthropologist coined the term 'Nordic.' Hostile as it was on principle to the heritage of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment and the French revolution, fascism could not formally believe in modernity and progress, but it had no difficulty in combining a lunatic set of beliefs with technological modernity in practical matters, except where it crippled its basic scientific research on ideological grounds. Fascism was triumphantly anti-liberal. It also provided the proof that men can, without difficulty, combine crack-brained beliefs about the world with a confident mastery of contemporary high technology. The late twentieth century, with its fundamentalist sects wielding the weapons of television and computer-programmed fund-raising, have made us more familiar with this phenomenon.

Hobsbawm wrote this in 1994, before the World Wide Web, before Social Media platforms emerged, let alone AI-based "deep fakes" -- one of the few things that now seems certain is that the Trump campaign was much more adept at exploiting advancing technology, although it's also possible that the nature of the campaign -- rampant lies and disinformation, faux outrage, double standards with scant efforts to expose their machinations -- fit especially well with the technology.

I was about to mention Al-Qaeda as another example of technologically savvy pseudo-archaism, before I opted to drop AI into the new technology mix. It's a sure bet that whatever remnants remain -- or, unless conditions change, revive -- will be quick to adopt such novel technology, as well as numerous state (and private) generators of disinformation, including our own unaccountable "deep state." Fascism is one of many risks in this free-for-all. That suggests much more to write about, but enough for now. I'm barely a quarter into Hobsbawm's book. And even when I finish, he will have come up thirty years short of today.

I have many seemingly more pressing things to do today than compiling, much less annotating, this, but it's due today, and these days I rarely miss an opportunity to put my many other tasks off until later. Of course, the big one is figuring out what to do about my impending server apocalypse. For that, I should probably just point you to my planning file. My hope was to figure this out and do something about it last week. The reality is that I've figured a few things out, but haven't done anything. So that's still the agenda for this week, with virtually everything else in my life postponed until later.

The brief story is that I host this and another half-dozen websites on a dedicated server I've leased since 2018 from a company called Hosting & Designs. The hardware, despite its age, seems adequate for my needs, but age has endangered the software: the Red Hat-derived CentOS Linux has passed its "end-of-life" and is no longer supported, especially by the the server management software -- a commercial package called cPanel, from a company called Web Pros., which has bought up former competitors (like Plesk) and used its leverage to aggressively jack up its prices while if anything reducing its support. H&D itself seems to have folded up its own support operation, or farmed it out -- details there are still hazy, but the bottom line is that the company cannot be trusted for support in the future. The other lesson is that cPanel is software to avoid if at all possible. It is currently the only software that I pay for, and I'm paying in more ways than I can count.

So I'm near the end of my third or fourth leased server. Each time forces me to do a fairly extensive survey of what's available at what cost, which is what I'm trying to do now. It isn't an easy task. At a high level, there are several technologies to choose from -- discrete servers (shared or dedicated, managed or "bare metal") or virtual servers (which may be larger machines jiggered to look like multiple discrete machines, or may be drawn from even larger clouds) -- and several sysadmin software packages (cPanel is the big/expensive one, DirectAdmin is a competitor, and I've run across several others that seem to be specific to vendors; I haven't found much free software yet, but Webmin goes way back, and there must be others -- good chance some vendor-owned panels are open source-based; by the way, I've written lots of software along these lines, but way before 2000, so my sense of the state of the art is pretty atrophied).

My more immediate has been on the vendors: there are dozens, and sorting through their competing offers is a lot of annoying and frustrating work. My file gives you a fairly general idea, with my notes fairly concentrated on smaller dedicated servers, virtual private servers, and hosting reseller packages. My budget isn't much over $100/month, which is arguably already more than my "business" can afford. But I do want to be able to use multiple domains, and I want to be able to continue to build and deploy small websites for friends.

Given how modest my requirements are, and how severely my own sysadmin talents have deteriorated, I can hardly justify another dedicated server, even if I can afford it. A big part of the reason I'm facing some kind of crisis here is that I've never had the time or desire to properly manage my machine. So I've been lowering my sights, looking at virtual private servers, and possibly at some kind of shared hosting reseller program: the latter would limit some software options (and probably come with cPanel), but should support all the things I'm currently using, and cost much less than I'm currently paying. VPS would give me more control, and isolate my load from shared machine impacts, but it's hard to quantify such values. It's also very hard to get a good sense of just how much resource I need, and the pricing for extra CPU, RAM, etc., often strikes me as excessive. (As someone who buys components and builds his own computers, I know what they cost; on the other hand, I never factor in the cost of electricity when adding RAM, but they probably do.)

So, it shouldn't take much longer to decide on a path forward, and start following it. Obviously, I went into this with a lot of fear and uncertainty. I should come out of it with a much better understanding of my system and how to manage it. Most likely, that system will also cost less, and perform better. But there are limits to how much I can rush the process.

I've set up another half-dozen documents in my new planning directory, but have yet to flesh any of them out. Perhaps the most important will be one on what I'll attempt to write about going forward. I have some ideas, but I'm not ready to go into them here. For now, I'll note that I spent an hour or two on an X thread in Sunday's notebook -- someone asked "why does every single part of this economy feel like an obstacle course," and, well, look at my op. cit. server file to see how easily I can relate.

Back on Wednesday I filed away another note on a bit scraped from Facebook about "why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?" I could have written much more, along the lines of why it doesn't do any good to tell stupid people that they're stupid even when the evidence for their stupidity is overwhelming. Of course, if I were still trying to advise Democratic politicians, I'd have to work harder to explain that more carefully.

Looking farther back, there's another note on January 12, on a Biden boast about record job creation, and a riposte that "no matter how many jobs are created, Americans live under a general experience of being constantly fleeced at every turn (by landlords, banks, grocery stores, insurance companies, etc etc) & this significantly impacts perceptions of the economy. But before you get to that, the link first routes you through a compliment John Chacona paid to me about the Jazz Critics Poll. My notebook isn't intended for general readership. It's more of a personal aide de memoire, where sometimes I feel like saving kind words.

I'll point out one more notebook item. One thing I've been wondering about is whether I might find it more productive to write in a more social context. It's very hard for me to gauge my usefulness (let alone effectiveness) when all I do is throw out infrequent (and often terribly long) blog posts. Admittedly, I've had pretty bad experiences attempting to pitch things in the past, leaving me with little hope for anything developing. But when I saw NonZero is Hiring!, I thought it might be an excuse to try to make contact with one of the few Substack writers I actually follow, Robert Wright. His specialty is foreign policy. As I've argued at great length in Speaking of Which, the main source of the Biden-Harris debacle -- the long-term costs of which are quite simply unfathomable -- has been an utterly disastrous foreign policy.

The notebook entry explains this a bit, and includes the letter I wrote, which is probably the closest thing I have to a resume -- at least it covers the essentials, not so much for hiring me to do freelance work (which I'm not especially interested in), but more if you're interested in any sort of collaborative work. Of course, after I sent it, I started having second thoughts -- possibly based on some notes I made on Wright's books. I'll leave it at that for now. I'll look at the writing question more closely after I figure out what to do about the server.

About the only other thing I've worked on this past week was the EOY Aggregate, which I've expanded to 302 lists. I've gone all the way through AOTY's lists, also Year-End Lists. I haven't done anything serious yet with Acclaimed Music Forums. I've only picked up a half-dozen or so FDJCP ballots, and I haven't touched P&J Rip-Off Poll since they wrapped up. I did pick up the Expert Witness Poll. I belatedly added the extra rank points for the Jazz Critics Poll, and also for HHGA's The Best Hip Hop Albums of 2014. I doubt that I'm done here, but not much more is really needed -- it's not like I care for who wins the 4-5 tossup between Fontaines D.C. and M.J. Lenderman (to cite two records given a second chance below, but still not near my top 200). Still, adding more jazz ballots would be more consistent with previous years' results, and I still want to collect other jazz lists for a poll-related file I've been working on (it'll be especially useful for deciding who to invite later).

I'm only gradually realizing how far behind I am at various website management tasks. One egregious example is that I haven't done any Streamnotes indexes since August. (You probably don't care, but I depend on those to recall whether I've heard and forgotten possible review records, and I've been tripped up at least once on that so far). Worse, I haven updated the Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide database in close to a year. I thought I was one month short locally, but just discovered another month I had missed. That should be a pretty high priority item.

There's much more to be done, but that will have to wait until I get to the appropriate planning file. There's also a good chance that the server project will sharpen my interest in website development technique. It's possible I could decide to focus more on that and less on writing.

Records below are widely scattered, mostly things I ran across from various lists, and a few probable duds I pulled off the top of the black print in the EOY Aggregate. I've also taken a bit of time (especially today) revisiting albums I dismissed perhaps too quickly during the year. New this week are adding some notes on records I played but didn't regrade. Blame that on Beyoncé. I will note that changing a grade involves changing 5-7 files, so it's not something I want to do unless I have good reason. In particular, I'm reluctant to downgrade a record just because the replay fell short of what I expected, let alone hoped for -- I could have dropped Beyoncé and/or Lenderman, but I figure they were still plausibly in range, and what I found lacking in each could have been passing.

I'm not sure what else should be rechecked at this point: probably lots of records I'll never get to, because I'll never notice them again. One thing I will note is that I've had zero interest in moving on to 2025 releases so far. My demo queue is up to 30, but still off my desk. Emails with download links are almost always getting deleted as soon as they come in. I expect I'll get around to that stuff when I feel like it, but no need to do so soon. I'll also note that I've done very little on the Jazz Poll since it published. I do have some more things in mind there, including a new round of mail, but I've been distracted and focused on other things, and I'm not getting much feedback I have to deal with -- which is actually fine for now.

One last note is that I've plunged into the fourth of the Hobsbawm Age books, although in this case I still have my original 1994 Pantheon hardcover. For some strange reason, I don't seem to be able to find a scan of its book cover, so I resorted to the paperback, and even there I only found a cover that is skewed and needed to be cropped (which I did a bad job of). I think these are very good books to be reading at this particular time.

2nd Grade: Scheduled Explosions (2024, Double Double Whammy): Power pop band from Philadelphia, fourth album since 2018. B+(*) [sp]

070 Shake: Petrichor (2024, GOOD Music/Def Jam): Rapper-singer Danielle Balbuena, third album since 2020. B+(**) [sp]

Amy Allen: Amy Allen (2024, AWAL): First album as singer, has a considerable reputation as a songwriter working with pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Halsey, Justin Timberlake. A curious lack of reviews or interest in this, as it actually sounds pretty good. B+(***) [sp]

Armbruster: Can I Sit Here (2024, Dear Life): Took a while to map the mononym to one of the dozen-plus Armbrusters in Discogs, but first name seems to be Connor, a composer and violinist from Troy, NY, with one previous album, Masses (2022). Mostly drone, solemn at first, then mellows out, for some stretches may even be pretty. B+(***) [sp]

Avalanche Kaito: Talitakum (2024, Glitterbeat): Kaito Winse, from Burkina Faso, working with Belgian duo Le Jour du Seigneur (Benjamin Chaval and Nicolas Gitto), second album. The African component heats up the frenzied electronic beats and noise. B+(***) [sp]

Kelsea Ballerini: Patterns (2024, Black River): Country pop singer-songwriter, from Knoxville, fifth album since 2015, credits Taylor Swift's debut with introducing her to country music. B+(*) [sp]

Naima Bock: Below a Massive Dark Land (2024, Sub Pop): British singer-songwriter, father Brazilian, formerly bassist in the band Goat Girl, second album, leans to folk. B [sp]

Cigarettes After Sex: X's (2024, Partisan): American dream pop band, from Texas, singer-songwriter is Greg Gonzalez, also plays guitar, third album, I particularly liked their first album. This is very laid back, the songs mere whispers, just enough to draw you in. B+(***) [sp]

Doris: Ultimate Love Songs Collection (2024, Janine): New Jersey rapper Frank Dorrey, nothing on Discogs or Wikipedia, but RYM credits him with a mixtape, 7 EPs, 15 singles, and this 50-track compilation (48:51) of lo-fi fragments, which got a rave review on Pitchfork and very little else. B+(*) [sp]

Judas Priest: Invincible Shield (2024, Columbia): British heavy metal band, one I've never had the slightest interest in, their debut (Rocka Rolla) due for a 50th anniversary retread, Wikipedia counts this as their 19th studio album, first to be graced with a grade in my database. Better than I expected, reminds me that I wasn't always a metalphobe, although what few lyrics I caught did nothing to diminish my sense that they were always full of shit. B+(*) [sp]

Knocked Loose: You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To (2024, Pure Noise): Another top unheard album from my EOY Aggregate list, metalcore and/or hardcore punk, singer Bryan Garris in intense screamo mode, the guitars and rhythm extra crunchy -- traits that seem to impress metal friends but are still tolerable, if not all that comprehensible, to those of us who used to dig punk and early hardcore. Best of all, the 10 songs are done in 27:28. B [sp]

The Lemon Twigs: A Dream Is All We Know (2024, Captured Tracks): Rock band from Hicksville, Long Island, built around brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario, sixth album since 2015, reached the top unheard spot in my EOY aggregate: not my usual anti-metal bias this time, but because I remembered their 2023 album as one of the year's most atrocious. I was surprised to find the opening cut ("My Golden Years") agreeably jaunty, and I don't mind the Beach Boys rip ("In the Eyes of the Girl"), but the harmony on the ambitious title track turned cloying, while elsewhere they turned saccharine. B- [sp]

Alison Moyet: Key (2024, Cooking Vinyl): English pop singer-songwriter, started in early-1980s group Yazoo (1982, shortened to Yaz in US), 1984 debut Alf was a bit UK hit (45 in US), with this career recap -- new takes of old songs -- her 10th. I recognize the name, but missed the albums, so the songs are all new to me. B+(*) [sp]

Mustafa: Dunya (2024, Jagjaguwar): From Toronto, parents from Sudan, Mustafa Ahmed, earlier went as Mustafa the Poet, was a member of Halal Gang. First studio album. Slow, soft, soulful. B+(*) [sp]

Emily Nenni: Drive & Cry (2024, New West): California-born, Nashville-based country singer-songwriter, third album. B+(**) [sp]

Rema: Heis (2024, Mavin/Jonzing World/Interscope): Nigerian singer-songwriter, sometime rapper, second album, choppy beats, runs through 11 songs in a snappy 27:38. B+(**) [sp]

SahBabii: Saaheem (2024, self-released): Chicago rapper Saaheem Valdery, fourth album since 2017, no relation to electronica producer Babii. B+(***) [sp]

De Schuurman: Bubbling Forever (2024, Nyege Nyege Tapes): Dutch electronic producer, "De" subs for first name Guillermo, has an uncle and several cousins with DJ monikers, first album (2021) was Bubbling Inside. This seems to be a specialty of software known as Fruityloops, although I also detect actual drums puncturing the bubbles. A- [sp]

Sexyy Red: In Sexyy We Trust (2024, Rebel): Rapper Janae Wherry, from St. Louis, third album. B+(**) [sp]

Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion: Rectangles and Circumstance (2024, Nonesuch): Vocalist, also plays violin, seems to be slotted as classical but I hear little that marks her as such. This is an impressive songs album -- although I note words from William Blake and Emily Dickinson, and music from Franz Schubert, among others, mixed in with the originals. The percussion group is often outstanding. B+(***) [sp]

Smino: Maybe in Nirvana (2024, Zero Fatigue/Motown): Rapper Christopher Smith, originally from St. Louis, grew up in Chicago, fourth album since 2017, short (10 tracks, 28:55). B+(**) [sp]

Astrid Sonne: Great Doubt (2024, Escho): Danish singer-songwriter, plays viola, based in London, fifth album since 2018, also plays some bass guitar and drums, but keeps it basic. And short (9 tracks, 26:50). B [sp]

Takkak Takkak: Takkak Takkak (2024, Nyege Nyege Tapes): Japanese electronica producer, Shigeru Ishihara, based in Berlin, first album under this alias but he's used many more, like Scotch Rolex, and has been a recent member of Seefeel. The Kampala label has become a magnet for artists eager to kick up the rhythm and bang on some metal, which is pretty much what you get here. A- [sp]

That Mexican OT: Texas Technician (2024, Manifest/Good Talk/Good Money Global/Capitol): Rapper Virgil René Gazca, from Bay City, Texas, second album, after several mixtapes. B+(***) [sp]

Dlala Thukzin: Finally Famous Too (2024, Dlala): South African producer, "famous for his versatility in blending amapiano and afro tech with gqom," only album on Discogs but I've heard three previous volumes of Permanent Music. B+(***) [sp]

Anna Tivel: Living Thing (2024, Fluff and Gravy): Folk singer-songwriter from Oregon, half-dozen albums since 2014. Pretty nice. B+(***) [sp]

Sam Wilkes/Craig Weinrib/Dylan Day: Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib and Dylan Day (2024, Leaving): Bass guitar, drums, electric guitar. PopMatters touted this as the best ambient album of 2024, which runs counter to my assumption that ambient records are mostly electronics, while this configuration usually means jazz. But listening to it, I can see their point, or half of it anyway. Wilkes has some previous history, both in and out of jazz, including a duo album with Sam Gendel. The others thus far only show up with Wilkes. B+(*) [sp]

Willow: Empathogen (2024, Three Six Zero/Gamma): Singer-songwriter, last name Smith, daughter of actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, also acts -- first film when she was six, first album when she was 14, sixth album at 23. B+(**) [sp]

Remi Wolf: Big Ideas (2024, Island): American "funky soul pop" singer-songwriter, from Palo Alto, started with three EPs about dogs, released an album in 2021, now this second one, co-produced by high school friend Solomophonic (Jared Solomon). The ideas are promising, but the big production doesn't always help. The nominal closer, "Just the Start," suggests a different album, then sets up the "Slay Bitch" bonus track, which finally does work as dance pop. B+(*) [sp]

WoochieWobbler: Thrilla (2024, self-released, EP): Second EP, I still know nothing about the artist(s), and listening to a very fractured 10 tracks (19:09) doesn't help much. B [sp]

Dwight Yoakam: Brighter Days (2024, VIA/Thirty Tigers): Country singer-songwriter, debut 1986, 17th studio album, only one lacking a Wikipedia page, but hardly anyone seems to have noticed his first album since 2016. B+(**) [sp]

Zawose Queens: Maisha (2024, Real World): Two women, Pendo Hukwe Zawose and her daughter Leah Zawose, from central Tanzania, the former the daughter of Hukwe Zawose (1940-2003), who had several albums, including two given international release on this label. B+(***) [sp]

Joe Ely: Driven to Drive ([2024], Rack 'Em): Singer-songwriter from Lubbock, started in the Flatlanders with Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, recorded the perfect Honky Tonk Masquerade in 1978, many more fine albums since then. I don't see dates, but this is reportedly a compilation of (mostly) old demos, themed to the road and spanning several decades. So should we count it as a vault album? Or just as his best in 20 years? A- [sp]

Funk.BR - São Paulo (2024, NTS): Twenty-two short (54:21 total) radio shots, nearly all by artists named as DJ something-or-other. Not much more than beats, but they are distinctive. B+(**) [sp]

Margo Guryan: Words and Music (1957-68 [2024], Numero Group, 2CD): Better known as a songwriter (1937-2021, played piano and sung, leaving one album (1968) and some demos, most or all collected here (2-CD or 3-LP). This leaves a variety of impressions, suggesting more than there may be. I especially line later tracks like "Hold Me Dancin'." B+(***) [sp]

Like Someone I Know: A Celebration of Margo Guryan (2024, Sub Pop): New covers of 12 songs written by Guryan (1937-2021), the first 11 in order from her 1968 album Take a Picture, most handled by obscure but sympathetic alt/indie singers -- most famous are probably Clairo and Empress Of, plus Margo Price on the bonus cut. B+(*) [sp]

Fumio Itabashi: Watarase (1982 [2024], Wewantsounds): Japanese pianist, debut 1979, second album, solo, starts with three covers (through "I Can't Get Started"), then four originals. [sp]

Skip James: Today! (1966 [2024], Craft): Delta blues legend (1902-69), recorded nine singles for Paramount in 1931, which are revered by many, but I panned Yazoo's compilation for its poor sound. He got rediscovered in the early 1960s folk blues boomlet, and recorded several albums from then to 1969. High voice, delicate songs, plays some piano as well as guitar. B+(***) [sp]

Judas Priest: Rocka Rolla [50th Anniversary Edition] (1974 [2024], MNRK/Exciter/Reach): The venerable British metal band's first album, Discogs styles it as Classic Rock. Indeed, one thing you notice is that many of the clichés of heavy metal had yet to be invented. Another thing is that this band had a built-in need for them. B [sp]

Paul McCartney & Wings: One Hand Clapping (1974 [2024], MPL): Live-in-studio recordings, mostly reprising the group's 1973 album Band on the Run, performed for a documentary movie that wasn't released until 2010 in conjunction with a box set, but has been remastered for theatrical release in 2024. Own songs offer no improvement over the album, but a few oldies covers help out. B [sp]

Michel Petrucciani Trio: Jazz Club Montmartre - CPH 1988 (1988 [2024], Storyville): French pianist, had a genetic disorder which left him stunted and brittle, but during his short life (1962-99) he displayed extraordinary mastery over the piano. His two 1983-84 albums for Blue Note were especially notable (100 Hearts and Live at the Village Vanguard). And since his death, various live tapes have appeared to remind us of him, including this trio set with Gary Peacock (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums). B+(***) [sp]

Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology (2024, Republic): When I reviewed her album back in May, I limited myself to the 16-song, 65:08 album proper. I liked it fine, but ignored this extras package (another 15 songs, 57:13; the digital combines them both, and evidently there is a "physical edition" with four more bonus tracks). When I started compiling EOY lists, I opted to count this among the reissues/vault music, which now looks like a technical error: they do seem to be all new (or at least different) songs, unlike the Charli XCX remix, or her own "Taylor's Version" albums). These seem like good songs, but I neither paid close enough attention (nor wanted to) to say for sure. B+(**) [sp]

Virtual Dreams, Vol. II: Ambient Explorations in the House & Techno Age, Japan 1993-1999 (1993-99 [2024], Music From Memory): Hard to judge this remarkably pleasant 97 minute selection, especially without having heard its previous volume, or literally any of its source material. B+(***) [sp]

Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations in the House & Techno Age, Japan 1993-1999 (1993-99 [2020], Music From Memory): Predecessor to this year's Vol. II, offers 16 pieces in 78 minutes (3-LP or 2-CD), again artists and music I have no prior or comparative experience with. B+(***) [sp]

Zach Bryan: The Great American Bar Scene (2024, Belting Bronco/Warner): His songs grew on you, which led me to upgrade Zach Bryan in 2023, so odds favored this one as well. [was: B+(**)] B+(***) [sp]

Sabrina Carpenter: Short 'n' Sweet (2024, Island): Not sure why I resisted this pop chanteuse, aside from that it could be shorter, maybe even sweeter, but half of the songs are brilliantly hooked, and there's little point quibbling about the filler. This year's sensation, but she's been around: started posting YouTube videos when she was 10, became a Disney teen actor, first album at 16, fourth at 25. [was: B+(***)] A- [sp]

Doechii: Alligator Bites Never Heal (2024, Top Dawg/Capitol): Rapper Jaylah Hickman, third mixtape, has a couple noteworthy EPs, got some major label push here, although I still have trouble noticing what other critics are raving about. [was: B+(**)] B+(***) [sp]

Rosali: Bite Down (2024, Merge): I played this back in May, and judging from my review then, got literally nothing out of it, so I was surprised to find it appear in a Christgau CG. After further review, I'm noting some songcraft and decent guitar, but still not much. [was: B]: B+(*) [sp]

Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us (2024, Columbia): Major group in a genre I have little patience for, huge critical following for their first three albums (2008-13), lost a key member and seemed lame on their fourth (2019), by 2024 they were a group I had no interest in or patience for, so I'm not just surprised but amazed at this revisit. [was: B+(**)] A- [sp]

Yard Act: Where's My Utopia? (2024, Island): British group, from Leeds, second album, James Smith's vocals are most often spoken, with bits of skits cut up and scattered. Much of this remains below my level of consciousness, but the more I focus, the more interesting bits I find. One thing I can say is that back in my teens I was fascinated with the idea of utopia, and some of that interest is resurfacing with 2024's dystopian turn in politics. [was: B+(**)] A- [sp]

Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter (2024, Parkwood/Columbia): Enough talent and ideas here to make an impressive album, but I'm more struck by how irritating much of this is. The mix justifies keeping the grade, but if it wasn't such work to move it, chagrin would win out. B+(**) [sp]

The Cure: Songs of the Lost World (2024, Fiction): An auteur band I've never felt any affinity to makes a very listenable album of no real import. B+(*) [sp]

Fontaines D.C.: Romance (2024, XL): Still sounds good. Just not good enough to bump it up. B+(**) [sp]

MJ Lenderman: Manning Fireworks (2024, Anti-): I don't dislike this enough to downgrade it, but this pass I didn't hear anything to make me prefer this to the recently replayed but lower-graded Fontaines D.C., which I didn't like enough to upgrade. Those two records are neck-and-neck for 4th in my EOY Aggregate, and I really don't get why. B+(***) [sp]

Mach-Hommy: #Richaxxhaitian (2024, Mach-Hommy): Like all of his records, just a bit too inscrutable for my limited attention span. B+(***) [sp]

After several weeks of delaying these nominaly weekly reports into mid-week, I let this one wrap along to resync on Monday. So this "week" covers nine days, which certainly contributed to the length, but the haul would have been robust for any seven days. And after 6-8 weeks of little but jazz, there is little more below. That's not because I ran out -- there's still a good 150 more albums that got votes in the recently published Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll (not counting the extra categories, because I stopped after Rara Avis), but it was taking more effort to find more obscure albums, and once I had a bit of time, I started finding tons of interesting non-jazz.

My main tools here has been compiling an EOY Aggregate based on 2024 list. That list has now tapped 234 lists for a total of 2705 records. While this is still way short of what I've done in recent years, I don't have to think very hard about what to play next. I don't know how much longer I'll work on this. It doesn't look like I'll have much time -- but lots of things are up in the air (some noted below).

One thing I've been meaning to do is to revisit some 2024 releases that I liked but, perhaps in haste, not as much as many others. Charli XCX is the runaway winner in the EOY aggregate, while Waxahatchie has slipped from its mid-year lead to 4th. More next week. I rarely expect much, and therefore regret much, in the EOY aggregate standings, but I will say I'm disappointed to see the Cure climb into 2nd place.

Something I almost never do is listen to podcasts, but I did get curious enough to check out Scott Woods' YouTube tele-interview, A Misguided Tour Through the Aesthetics of Rock (with guests Kevin Bozelka and Chuck Eddy), and stuck with it through the 1:36:05 end. The topic was R. Meltzer's 1970 The Aesthetics of Rock, to which Eddy's The Accidental Evolution of Rock 'n' Roll (1997) was offered as a sequel. Part of the attraction was that these are all people I'm acquainted with: Eddy was music editor at the Village Voice when I started writing Jazz CG, and the only one I've actually met; Woods interviewed me for RockCritics.com, which established most of the footnotes that someone turned into my Wikipedia page; Bozelka is a long-time critic and a major presence on The Witnesses, a Facebook group I frequently check out. When I saw a post about this there, I was spurred to order a couple of Eddy's books (although, in what I'm inclined to regard as unprecedented lapse of memory, it turns out that I already had one).

One thing I discovered is that I'm older than these guys, which I established when I found my old, somewhat marked up copy of R. Meltzer's The Aesthetics of Rock, and it turns out I'm the only one with the 1970 Something Else Press edition (paperback), whereas they were flashing 2nd and 3rd editions, and talking about discovering it in the 1980s and 1990s. I would have read it around 1974-75, which was my rebound period after not graduating from college. (I fell a few credits short due to incompletes, which I left unfinished because I was burned out, ill advised, and simply pleased to (for the first time in my life) have landed a job and started making my own money. Some of those memories were triggered by discussion of Meltzer's own academic history, where his book started as a thesis before some kind of blowout, and of Bozelka's grad school reading of Adorno (which I had done pretty intensely before my own blowout).

Aside from reading The Aesthetics of Rock -- I remember very little of it, but my copy is lightly marked up (very lightly, I might note, at least compared to some old Adorno books I also remember very little from, except perhaps how to think -- it's hard to shake that), and I wrote a piece about it in 1977, including this rather hideous paragraph:

I should go back and transcribe the Don Malcolm piece on Meltzer, and the Paul Yamada piece on Charlie Gillett, as those were the sources I was actually arguing with. I knew far less about the history of rock (except, of course, for my personal experience) then than either of them, but I was pretty sure of my critical and philosophical sources and their logic. What I do remember is that rock criticism was open to serious thinking about everyday life, so something I could read and think (and sometimes rant) about while still making a break from academia.

While I was working on the 19th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll, I engaged in some idle thought about what the week or two after the poll appears might be like. I thought I'd return to the poll data and come up with all sorts of other insights. I thought I would lobby the voters to give the poll some publicity, and open up discussions into what it all means. I thought I'd add some new pieces to the website, and perhaps get others to contribute pieces (as Larry Blumenfeld did; one easy piece would be a counterpoint to his Top Ten Reasons to Hate Top 10 Lists). We had some Spotify playlists we could publicize. I started a piece collecting lists of other jazz EOY lists -- the next step beyond that would be to compile a list of all the albums mentioned there that didn't get votes in the poll. I thought about formats for distributing the data so other people could so their own analysis. But thus far I haven't done any of that. The next thing on my list was to add all the new voters to the "jazzpoll" mailing list. I started a list, but haven't even managed that.

I'm not especially surprised by my post-poll torpor. Every year ends like that, in a stew of exhaustion and frustration where I just want a break from it all. But while there was some of that, this year I ran into another problem, which is that I had put off a bunch of things to focus on the poll, and now they've come back with a vengeance. I've had a very bad week, and from what I can tell, next week's going to be even worse. Last week, the biggest hassle was with insurance, but no need to rehash that now. Same for lots of little things, starting with the exceptional cold, which after a couple days edged above freezing is back with us again. It bothers me more and more each year.

But there is one major problem I struggled with last week to no avail, and now it turns out it's much worse than even I had feared. I now expect it will consume all of next week, and then some. The situation is that for the last 20+ years, I've been leasing a dedicated server, on which I can host multiple domains and websites (usually around 10, a bit less than that at the moment). For some time now, I've been leasing a machine from a small company called Hosting & Designs, which way back when seemed to offer a fairly decent deal. However:

So I need to take a hard look at my needs, then shop around for a new system that meets them, as affordably as possible. I haven't done this in quite some time, so I have a lot of research to do, before I can figure out what makes sense to do, let alone to do it (configuring and migrating websites, etc.). I will in due course attempt to write this up more precisely, but that's the general outline. If any readers have thoughts on this, please let me know.

At the same time, I'm also trying to figure out what my writing plans are for the future. In some ways, the server is just a tool for my writing -- although having a server such as I have done gives me considerable flexibility in creating websites, and also allows me to offer hosting and other technical services to a few friends, whose accounts could be in jeopardy if I find it no longer makes sense to keep paying for the server. This would have been my biggest concern after the poll, until the server itself became such an urgent problem. I have many thoughts here, but don't feel like ruminating on them here.

I've started to set up a forum for future thoughts. Nothing to share there yet, and I'm not sure that any of it will be of much interest, but writing things out helps clear my head, and I need a lot of that right now.

Ab Baars/Joost Buis/Berlinde Deman: Cecil's Dance (2023 [2024], Wig): Dutch free jazz trio, with clarinet/shakuhachi, trombone, and tuba/serpent. B+(*) [sp]

Bashy: Being Poor Is Expensive (2024, Bish Bash Bosh): British rapper Ashley Thomas, mixtapes go back to 2004 but this is his first since 2011 (or 2009), has enjoyed some success acting since then. I haven't heard the early mixtapes, but as a comeback he has much to say. Some very pointed songs here, notably "How Black Men Lose Their Smile." In Linton Kwesi Johnson's neighborhood. A- [sp]

BkTherula: LVL5 P2 (2024, Warner): Atlanta rapper Brooklyn Rodriguez, studio album following her LVL5 P1 mixtape. B+(**) [sp]

Blood Incantation: Absolute Elsewhere (2024, Century Media): "Progressive death metal band" from Denver, formed 2011, fourth album since 2016, only listening to it because it's the top-rated so-far unheard album (at least in my EOY Aggregate, although two more metal bands, Knocked Loose and Chat Pile, are close behind). The subterranean vocals and speed drumming are defining points of metal, the Pink Floyd nods less so, none of which bothers (or inspires) me. B+(*) [sp]

Camila Cabello: C,XOXO (2024, Geffen/Interscope): Cuban-born pop singer, moved at 6 via Mexico to Miami, member of the teen vocal group Fifth Harmony, fourth album on her own. B+(*) [sp]

Caribou: Honey (2024, Merge/City Slang): Canadian electropop producer Dan Snaith, sixth studio album under this alias (also has earlier albums as Manitoba, and others as Daphni). Light and sprightly. B+(**) [sp]

Hayes Carll/Band of Heathens: Hayes & the Heathens (2024, BOH): Senior partner here is probably the Austin-based band -- their label, Discogs lists 19 albums since 2006, but at least half of those were live shots, including their first two -- but while they are probably much more famous, I've passed until now. Carll, on the other hand, won me over with 2005's Little Rock, even before 2008's Trouble in Mind breakthrough. He gives them a first-rate songwriter and a distinctive voice -- needs you notice when they give him a chance, which isn't often enough. B+(***) [sp]

Cavalier & Child Actor: Cine (2024, Backwoodz Studioz): Rapper, albums since 2014, Different Type Time got some notice earlier in 2024, this with producer Child Actor, who has several other credits (back to 2012). B+(**) [sp]

Chat Pile: Cool World (2024, The Flenser): "Sludge metal" band from Oklahoma, number 3 on my EOY Metal charts, second album, a rare metal band where I've heard a previous album. I can't evaluate this as metal, but at low volume this has a certain abstract-clunky appeal. B+(**) [sp]

Ed Clute: Shadows on the Moon (2024, Rivermont): Stride pianist, b. 1943, blind, has one previous album as far as I can tell (from 2017), solo, runs quickly through 27 songs dating from 1927-41 (64:40). B+(**) [sp]

Denzel Curry: King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2 (2024, PH/Loma Vista/Concord): Rapper, from Florida, Wikipedia divides his output as: studio albums (5 since 2013), collaborative albums (2, with Kenny Beats), EPs (4), and mixtapes (7 since 2011, including this one and its predecessor, a "Underground Tape 1996" released in 2012). Trap beats, seems small but tight. [PS: Later reissued + 5 tracks as King of the Mischievous South.] B+(**) [sp]

Karl D'Silva: Love Is a Flame in the Dark (2024, Night School): British singer-songwriter, has "two decades playing saxophone with the esoteric and experimental likes of Thurston Moore and Ex-Easter Island Head," produces a complex, polished first pop opera as his album. B+(*) [sp]

Daisy Moon: System Creak (2024, Peach Discs, EP): Electronica producer/DJ from Bristol, has a couple EPs since 2019, this one 4 tracks, 25:08, nice, tight rhythm tracks. B+(***) [sp]

Dar Disku: Dar Disku (2024, Soundway): UK-based duo, Mazen AlMaskati and Vish Mhatre, originally from Bahrain, first album, draw on a range of Arabic pop and disco sounds. B+(*) [sp]

Kim Deal: Nobody Loves You More (2024, 4AD): Played bass and sometimes sang in Pixies (1987-91), led the Breeders from 1990 until whenever, with the Amps as a 1995 side-project. Released some solo singles 2012-14, but no full album until this one, which by FDJCP rules makes this her debut. It's not a very imposing one, but that seems part of the point, but there is something of a signature sound. B+(**) [sp]

Father John Misty: Mashashmashana (2024, Sub Pop/Bella Union): Singer-songwriter Josh Tillman, recorded as J. Tillman 2003-10, before adopting this name in 2012, had his commercial/critical breakthrough with his 2014 album, returning here for his 6th FJM album. Seems like this one may have more interest than most, but not reliably so. B+(*) [sp]

Fievel Is Glauque: Rong Weicknes (2024, Fat Possum): Jazzy pop duo of multi-instrumentalist Zach Phillips (New York) and singer Ma Clément (Brussels), third album, recorded "in triplicate" then "subtractively edited," giving it a slippery sound that rarely sticks. B+(*) [sp]

Girl Scout: Headache (2024, Human Garbage, EP): Alt-pop band from Sweden, Evelina Arvidsson Eklind the singer (and bassist), debut album 2023, back with a 5-track, 17:47 EP. B+(*) [sp]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor: No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead (2024, Constellation): Canadian post-rock band, debut 1997, broke up 2003 but regrouped 2010, presents as a collective but Efrim Menuck (guitars, tape loops) has been a constant, along with Mauro Pezzente (bass guitar). Eighth album, the obvious meaning of the title only just dawned on me, although I now see a 2002 note accusing Ariel Sharon of "provoking another Intifada." Politics are integral to this group, but you rarely hear it coming. B+(***) [sp]

Gouge Away: Deep Sage (2024, Deathwish): Hardcore (post-hardcore?) punk (post-punk?) band from Florida, named for a Pixies song, third album since 2016, Christina Michelle the singer, not a band I would normally pick up on but this was Dan Weiss's number 2 album (after Sabrina Carpenter). B+(**) [sp]

Geordie Greep: The New Sound (2024, Rough Trade): Guitarist-singer for the English group Black Midi, first solo album with group "on indefinite hiatus." Shifts focus from sound to songs, with mixed results, as he has some craft, but is also given to overkill. B [sp]

Heavee: Unleash (2024, Hyperdub): Chicago juke/footwork DJ/producer Darryl Bunch, singles from 2013, has another album from 2018, this his second. B [sp]

High Vis: Guided Tour (2024, Dais): English hardcore post-punk group, third album, Graham Sayle singer, seems pretty conventionally solid. B+(*) [sp]

Lambrini Girls: Who Let the Dogs Out (2025, City Slang): British punk duo of Phoebe Lunny (guitar/vocals) and Lilly Macieira-Bosgelmez (bass guitar), plus drums, first album after several singles and an EP, 11 songs (29:25). B+(*) [sp]

Latto: Sugar Honey Iced Tea (2024, Streamcut/RCA): Atlanta rapper Alyssa Stephens, third studio album, after three mixtapes). Runs long, but pretty consistent. B+(***) [sp]

Jeffrey Lewis: Ghosterbusters (2024, self-released, EP): Antifolk singer-songwriter, started as a comic book writer, output has been very erratic of late, his Bandcamp lately focusing on cassette tape collections -- limited songs available there, and none on streaming -- while this five-track, 26:36 EP can be streamed but has no documentation I can find. Title song is a perturbation of the movie jingle, followed by a history of NY punk rock (1950-75) which roots it in antifolk ethos & medley. Other three songs are less developed. One can hardly take much comfort from an "It Could Be Worse" now that it is. B+(**) [sp]

Loidis: One Day (2024, Incienso): New alias for Brian Leeds, a deep house producer from Kansas, who's used a bunch of them, most notably Huerco S. A nice, steady simmer of beats. B+(***) [sp]

Lollise: I Hit the Water (2024, Switch Hit): A "musician, visual artist and fashion designer from Botswana, currently living in NYC," last name Mbi, first album. B+(**) [sp]

Low Cut Connie: Connie Live (2024, Contender): Indie band from Philadelphia, Adam Weiner the singer-songwriter, also plays a mean piano. I liked their first couple albums lots, but lost interest with Dirty Pictures and never got into their much touted pandemic covers (Tough Cookies). By all accounts, still an exciting live band, although making a live album is a somewhat different proposition. B+(*) [sp]

Lyrics Born: That 1 Tyme in the Studio: Acoustic Selections (2019 [2024], Mobile Home): Rapper Tom Shimura, started in Latyrx, solo albums from 2003, announced that Goodbye Sticky Rice would be his last, but slipped this one out a few months earlier. A couple songs I recognize as remakes from elsewhere, and it's possible they all are. B+(**) [sp]

Kira Martini: Open Wide (2024, Storyville): Danish jazz singer-songwriter, several albums since 2012. B+(*) [sp]

The Mavericks: Moon & Stars (2024, Mono Mundo): Country-rock band from Florida, singer is Raul Malo and lead guitarist is Eddie Perez, had a run from 1990-2003, then regrouped in 2012, often have a Tex-Mex tinge that can remind one of Marty Robbins (for better or worse). That seems especially pronounced here (for better and worse -- sometimes it's hard to tell, as even the obviously bad seems to be growing on me). B+(***) [sp]

Mount Eerie: Night Palace (2024, PW Elverum & Sun): Singer-songwriter Phil Elverum, started recording as the Microphones, titled an album Mount Eerie and decided to go with that. Eleventh album since 2005, long at 80:47. I know some serious listeners who have been impressed by his records, but I find them impossible to follow, so I look for sonic hints. I hear some, which makes me suspect there's more to this. B+(*) [sp]

Molly Nilsson: Un-American Activities (2024, Night School/Dark Skies Association): Swedish musician/producer, based in Berlin, unexamined early work (nine albums 2008-22) all have black/white abstract covers, this one breaks out a color with a blindfolded portrait pic, with a batch of songs, most (all?) with political themes, which were "written and recorded entirely on location in California in the former home of writer, poet, and early opponent of the National Socialist regime in 1930s Germany, Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta." B+(**) [sp]

Nines: Quit While You're Ahead (2024, Zino): British rapper Courtney Freckleton, 34, sixth and reportedly his last album (whence the title), all top-five in UK but nowhere else (only other chart Wikipedia provides is IRE). B+(*) [sp]

Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp: Ventre Unique (2024, Bongo Joe/Red Wig): Swiss group, billed as "a dream amalgam of folk, krautrock, post-punk and African rhythms," sixth album since 2007. B+(**) [sp]

Peverelist: Pulse EP (2023, Livity Sound, EP): British electronics producer Tom Ford, from Bristol, couple albums, many singles/EPs since 2006, many released as Pev. This kicks off a series of four EPs with 4 tracks, 28:50, of neatly manicured beats. B+(***) [sp]

Peverlist: Pulse Modulation (2023, Livity Sound, EP): Four more tracks, "Pulse V" through "Pulse VIII," 25:02, seems unlikely that I will be able to make discerning judgments among this small but delightful bag of tricks (although I did particularly enjoy "VI"). B+(***) [sp]

Peverelist: Pulse Phase (2024, Livity Sound, EP): Third installment, "Pulse" titles "IX" through "XII" (4 tracks, 25:03). B+(**) [sp]

Peverelist: Pulse Echo (2024, Livity Sound, EP): Fourth installment, "Pulse" titles "XIII" through "XVI" (4 tracks, 25:01). B+(**) [sp]

Pixies: The Night the Zombies Came (2024, Pixies/BMG): American rock band, kind of a big deal from 1988 to their 1991 breakup, after which Black Francis went solo, and Kim Deal formed the Breeders. Regrouped in 2013, but Deal left before their 2014 album, and I can't say as I've noticed anything since (this is their fifth). B [sp]

Tim Reaper & Kloke: In Full Effect (2024, Hyperdub): British jungle/drum & bass producer Edem Alloh, with Australian producer Andy Donnelly. B+(**) [sp]

Porter Robinson: Smile! :D (2024, Mom+Pop/Sample Sized): American electronic producer, third studio album, vocals strike me as more of an electropop focus. B [sp]

Saint Etienne: The Night (2024, Heavenly): British indie pop group, considered "alternative dance" in the 1990s, return here with their 12th album, low key almost to the point of vanishing. B+(*) [sp]

Secret Sisters: Mind, Man, Medicine (2024, New West): Country music duo, sisters Laura Rogers and Lydia Slagle, fifth album since 2010. Some winning harmonies, rising out of solid songs. B+(***) [sp]

Harri Sjöström/Erhard Hirt/Philipp Wachsmann/Paul Lytton: Especially for You (2022 [2023], Bead): Finnish saxophonist (soprano/sopranino), has a fair number of albums since 2010, this a quartet with guitar, violin, and drums, recorded live at a festival in Munich, a long piece in two parts (49:27), followed by a short "Encore" and, nearly as short, a "Lullaby." B+(*) [bc]

Skee Mask: Resort (2024, Ilian Tape): German electronica producer Bryan Müller, fourth album since 2016 (not counting four self-released items titled A to D, a shorter series numbered up to ISS010, or other titles as SCNTST). Very nice beats, with some ambient swirls, which is all it really needs. A- [bc]

The Smile: Cutouts (2024, XL): British group, two principals from Radiohead (Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke), plus a pretty talented drummer (Tom Skinner, from Sons of Kemet), third album since 2022, second this year. B+(*) [sp]

Tems: Born in the Wild (2024, RCA): Nigerian singer-songwriter Temilade Openiyi, from Lagos, moved to UK as an infant but returned when she was 5, where she remained until studying in South Africa. First album after a couple EPs. Since 2022, she's been touring in Europe and the US with some success, this album charting 30 in UK, 56 in US, and showing up on some scattered EOY lists, plus a small bit Grammy. Reportedly, she stopped listening to other music to find her own unique take. I'm dubious about that as method, but what she's come up with is very hard to slot anywhere. A- [sp]

Transmission Towers: Transmission One (2024, É Soul Cultura/Mr Bongo): British EDM duo, Mark Kyriacou and Anorbea Mante, seems like a throwback to cheesy space disco, then midway I hear what sounds like a Pere Ubu vocals (circa The Modern Dance, which wasn't as far removed from disco as we thought at the time). But those are just high points. B+(**) [sp]

Two Shell: Two Shell (2024, Young): British electronics duo, Jack Benson and Patrick Lewis, first album after several impressive EPs. B+(**) [sp]

Lucinda Williams: Sings the Beatles From Abbey Road (2024, Highway 20): Title suggests she's recreating my least favorite Beatles album, but the only one from there she picked for this dozen was "Something." Turns out this is volume 7 of her Lu's Jukebox in Studio Concert Series, the first to appear since 2021 when the series seemed to be a scheme to recoup pandemic losses. I missed them all, because her stuff was hard to stream back then. Maybe I should look again? This is credible enough: her voice isn't as rough as it's been of late, but it cuts through the varnish, and the guitar adds some heft, but while the good songs are still good, the bad ones don't improve much. B+(*) [sp]

Wussy: Cincinnati Ohio (2024, Shake It): Indie band from, well, that's obvious, founded by Chuck Cleaver, who had a 1990s band of some note (The Ass Ponys), and Lisa Walker, recognizing his need for a better half. Robert Christgau deemed their first album "more Velvets than Burritos," then dispensed with comparisons, giving them one A+, 7 A, 5 A-, 2 B+, and one ***. I like them, but rarely that much. This has moments when it sounds like it might amount to something, but you have to want it to, else the feeling passes and leaves you empty. [I tried looking up a line in "Disaster About You" and couldn't find any lyrics. What's with that? Isn't this supposed to be a band where lyrics matter? I saw a comment expressing surprise that Christgau "felt the loss apparent" here but not "the equally devastating beauty of Nick Cave's mournful Ghosteen." Not such a surprise, as he clearly cares about Wussy and wants to understand them, whereas he has always disliked Cave, and probably not just his music. After writing this review, I read a bunch of EW comments, and gave this another play. As songs like "Disaster About You" and "Winged" finally started to register, I bumped it up a notch. I can see how people who really want to can come to love this album, but it takes a lot more work than I normally allow. I also know that other people do the same thing with other albums. I've seen it in others, and I've done it myself. It also helps explain why anyone liked Cave's latest album.] B+(***) [sp]

Wussy: The Great Divide (2017-24 [2024], Shake It, EP): Three songs, 11:08. Released same day as album, includes a murky "single mix" of the album's first song, plus two leftovers from a 2017 session that are a good deal snappier than the lead. B [sp]

Wussy Duo: Cellar Door (2024, Shake It, EP): The band reduced to its two key members, Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker, of necessity during the pandemic, and recreated here for three songs, 10:45. B+(*) [sp]

Xylitol: Anemones (2024, Planet Mu): British electronica producer Catherine Backhouse, several albums since 2013, singles go back to 2006. Tagged as "atmospheric drum and bass." B+(***) [sp]

Carlos Zingaro/João Madeira/Sofia Borges: Trizmaris (2023 [2024], 4DaRecord): Violin-bass-drums trio, from a live set in Lisbon, free jazz with just enough edge. A- [cd]

John Zorn: Ballades (2024, Tzadik): Eleven numbered pieces composed by Zorn, played by a trio of Brian Marsella (piano), Jorge Roeder (bass), and Ches Smith (drums), claiming inspiration from Bach and Chopin through Debussy and Bartók plus Bill Evans. B+(*) [sp]

John Zorn: Lamentations (2024, Tzadik): Four extended pieces composed by Zorn, designed as a tribute to Dylan Thomas, played by a trio of guitarists: Bill Frisell, Gyan Riley, and Julian Lage. B+(**) [sp]

John Zorn: Ou Phrontis (2024, Tzadik): Zorn songs, piano-bass-drums trio again, Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, and Ches Smith. B+(**) [sp]

Charli XCX: Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat (2024, Atlantic): Remix album, repeats Brat's 15 songs in order, plus 1 or 2 (depends) of 3 "deluxe edition" adds. As such, the beats are sharpened, and the songs pick up extraneous guest vocals and sonic effects, the net effect is to push the star back into the background, which may not matter as long as you're dancing, but otherwise leads to indifference (some bits sound good, some don't, but few distinctions matter). And by the way, the hooks you do notice are hers. (A point proven by appending the original -- well, plus bonus cuts -- album in the digital.) B+(**) [sp]

Denzel Curry: King of the Mischievous South (2024, PH/Loma Vista): Reissue of Vol. 2 with five extra tracks, one inserted at 5, another at 11, expanding from 34:29 to 51:10. Sounded marginally better, which may just be the extra play I gave it, until one at the end I would have rather done without. B+(**) [sp]

Lucinda Williams: Runnin' Down a Dream: A Tribute to Tom Petty [Lu's Jukebox in Studio Concert Series Vol. 1] (2021, Highway 20): First volume of her Lu's Jukebox in Studio Concert Series, a canny choice: a peer-level artist, died recently (2017), some good songs but not too familiar, no great stretch in style. Ends with one of her own. Nothing wrong with that, and these days you might as well document everything. B [sp]

Lucinda Williams: Southern Soul: From Memphis to Muscle Shoals and More [Lu's Jukebox in Studio Concert Series Vol. 2] (2021, Highway 20): Seems like a natural progression, but risks comparison with the singers who own these songs. Not that that's necessarily the problem. ("Take Me to the River" is one of the best things here.) B [sp]

Lucinda Williams: Bob's Back Pages: A Night of Bob Dylan Songs [Lu's Jukebox in Studio Concert Series Vol. 3] (2021, Highway 20): Unlike Tom Petty, this one has been done dozens of times before, and unlike the soul singers, we're used to Dylan songs in someone else's voice. While her performance is credible, this rises and falls with the songs: "Political World" and "Man of Peace" are terrific, "Queen Jane Approximately" and "Idiot Wind" are same as they ever were. B+(**) [sp]

Lucinda Williams: Funny How Time Slips Away: A Night of 60's Country Classics [Lu's Jukebox in Studio Concert Series Vol. 4] (2021, Highway 20): Another concept-defined grab bag, again ending with one of hers (a highlight). While her first Willie Nelson song doesn't impress, the title one does, coming after two songs I wouldn't have expected so much from, "Gentle on My Mind" and "The End of the World." B+(***) [sp]

Lucinda Williams: Have Yourself a Rockin' Little Christmas [Lu's Jukebox in Studio Concert Series Vol. 5] (2021, Highway 20): The season may have passed, but it's been a long time since it's put me in the mood for the standard repertoire (if indeed it ever did). Although eight of these songs namecheck Christmas -- with one more each for Santa and Rudolph -- only a couple ever got picked up by anyone, and even those don't turn me off. B+(**) [sp]

Lucinda Williams: You Are Cordially Invited . . . A Tribute to the Rolling Stones [Lu's Jukebox in Studio Concert Series Vol. 6] (2021, Highway 20): Discogs has an alternate version of this with a different title, supposedly released in 2020, and therefore predating series it was finally slotted into. That may explain why there's 16 songs, instead of the usual 12-13. The most straightforward album in the series, probably because the fit is most natural. B+(***) [sp]

Charli XCX: Brat (2024, Atlantic): British pop star, Charlotte Aitchison, sixth album since 2013, all hits but none really huge until this one (Crash was also 1 in UK charts, but BPI was silver, vs. platinum here; Crash was 7 in US, this one up to 3, which pushed it to ARIA gold; bigger advance in critical coverage, where this one easily led all EOY aggregates), so the extra hype and/or anticipation paid off. I gave this 5 plays back in June and was on the fence. Five more plays, and I've barely moved, but it was always a close call. [NB: "Deluxe Edition" got a new name: Brat and It's the Same but There's Three More Songs So It's Not, while the remix was called Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat.] [was: B+(***)] A- [sp]

Carly Pearce: Hummingbird (2024, Big Machine): Country singer-songwriter from Kentucky, fourth album since 2017, found herself in her age-marking 29: Written in Stone. This sounds real good for four fast ones, flounders a bit in a Chris Stapleton duet, struggles to win back the slow ones, often with a memorable turn of phrase (like "we're living on a fault line/ the fault is always mine"). [was: B+(***)] A- [sp]

Waxahatchee: Tigers Blood (2024, Anti-): Singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, out of Alabama (Bandcamp puts her in Kansas City), formerly of P.S. Eliot, also of Plains, sixth Waxahatchee album since 2012, sounds easy here but songs are solid and grow on you if you give them a chance. I didn't first time around, but even then noted that a revisit might be in order. [was: B+(***)] A- [sp]

I figured I should post something when the 19th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll got its big reveal. Music Week has been floating mid-week for a while now, and has piled up this week as I've been very tied up trying to get all of the various pieces into alignment. So it would have to wait until the poll came out, plus whatever post-poll emergencies I had to attend to. (And indeed, there were some broken links and garbled tables to straighten out.) Plus I had to notify voters -- at least, make a good faith effort to the extent that the email barons permit -- and work my own social media outlets. But in the end, I realized it would be easier to do both things in one post. So below you'll find my announcements, 10-days worth of reviews, and a few asides.

I manage the poll through a website on my server. The best place to start exploring the poll from is the home page. From there, you can easily get to the essays that Arts Fuse published:

We also have a voter-provided essay that is not part of the poll, but related to it:

I'm willing to consider further submissions here, and not just from voters. If you want to contribute -- and be aware that there's no money for these things -- get in touch and give me an outline, and I'll consider it. I also hope that voters and others will write and publish pieces about the poll on their own, wherever they usually do so.

Below the essays, the poll index page offers Complete Results (New Albums, Rara Avis (Reissues/Historical), Vocal Jazz, Latin Jazz, and Debut Albums). All of these categories are significantly deeper than ever before, mostly because we surveyed an all-time record 177 critics (+18 from 2023). You may browse through the ballots in batches of 20, or go to the index and pick out any voter. Or you can go to a totals page, click on an arrow link, and see who voted for that album, then click on a critic name and see their whole ballot. (Well, you can do that for New Albums and Rara Avis; I didn't program the others to work that way, but I should fix that.) The pages also include extensive notes, because not everything is always clear when you look at an album.

The website also houses archives for the previous 18 polls (plus the 2024 mid-year poll). Previous years were tacked on one-by-one, so not everything is always treated consistently -- and indeed, some bits of older history are currently missing. We'd like to go back and clean all that up, and turn the poll website into an integrated resource for the age. That's one of many projects I'm considering for what's left of my future.

Coincidentally, El Intruso released the results of their International Critics Poll the same day ours appeared. I don't have time to compare notes right now, but Patricia Brennan winning both polls is a rather stunning convergence. It was just 2023 when El Intruso's record of the year only finished 24 in our poll (Rodrigo Amado, Beyond the Margins, although I had it number 1 on my 2023 ballot). Their electorate is about half American, while ours was close to 90% American in 2023, somewhat less in 2024 -- not least because I invited a bunch of their voters, who in addition to being international tend to be more favorable to free jazz.

I should also mention that I answered a couple questions on January 9. The one on the poll has been superseded by events, but there's also a fairly long one on cryptic grades and notes.

While I was working on the poll, I was furiously listening to new music. (I actually spent very little time re-listening to the poll leaders, and mostly consulted my notes and memory for what little I had to say about what were generally very good records.) The long list of records that follow were mostly suggested by the poll, although occasionally I saw other items of interest, and strayed off the beaten path. You might notice that a couple of these are noted "[Review lost?]." These were albums that I did listen to and write about, but for some reason I wasn't able to find the reviews. The best I can figure is some accidental edit snafu, as I don't know where else to look. I figure I still might as well keep the grades.

Nearly all of these records are jazz. I calculated somewhere near the end that I still had 190 new albums from the poll that I had not heard, so it was probably 50 more when I started this Music Week. I certainly won't reach the bottom of this barrel, as I'm increasingly running into items that aren't available on Bandcamp or streaming. I pretty much gave up on chasing records down after the Voice shut down Jazz Consumer Guide. Nor do I buy much, especially on spec. I expect this attitude will eventually freeze me out as a viable critic, but the extra visibility I've gotten in the last 2-3 years with the poll has had the opposite effect. Age and ennui seem more likely to do me in.

I did take a brief break from jazz when Robert Christgau's January CG came out, and I found myself liking the first three albums I checked out (Phelimuncasi, Previous Industries, Fake Fruit -- well enough, anyway, to add them to my Best Non-Jazz of 2024 list, though the first two nowhere near as high as they're likely to show up on the Dean's List). That mostly leaves Wussy unheard: I like them fine, but I'm in no rush. (Also unheard: Bright Eyes, Kim Deal, and Lucinda Williams singing the Beatles -- title suggests my least favorite of their albums, but song list is more catholic; Rosali was a B back in May; Willie Nelson a ** and Kendrick Lamar a ***, but neither is in my streamnotes index, a reminder of how I've let things slip).

While there is still lots of 2024 jazz I could listen to, I may take a break and see if I can even up the Jazz/Non-Jazz split (even with the CG, my Non-Jazz A-list is down at 52 (+8 old music), while the Jazz A-list has zoomed to a most-ever 109 albums (+ 29 old music). The obvious explanation is that my 2024 listening, so far at least, has been very lopsided, as summing up the above files shows that I've heard 896 jazz albums vs. 389 non-jazz (total 1285, unless any records appeared on both lists, so the split is 69.7% jazz). That total is substantial, but if memory serves, down from 2023 and several other peak years. That it is as high as it is can be ascribed to my work on the jazz critic polls (especially the mid-year), which dredged up so many prospects. Conversely, I've fallen way behind on my Metacritic/EOY Aggregate, which is my most useful prospecting tool. (I'm likely to make up some ground there in the next few weeks, but this year's source list (currently 177 sources) has zero chance of ever matching last year's (617; the big difference is massive amounts of individual JCP and PJRP lists, which I've barely touched so far this year).

Speaking of individual lists, I waited until the last minute to submit one to PJRP (which I also sent to Brad Luen for his EW poll, ignoring all the extra categories of the latter):

Main difference from the source lists is that I combined both two Allen Lowe volumes into one album (as we allowed for the FDJCP). By the way, the 100-point distribution I used here isn't far removed from the scale I used in the FDJCP: if you scale the points in the latter to add up to 100, 1st place = 17.856 (I used 18), 2nd place = 14.284 (I used 12), 3rd = 11.904 (I used 12 again), down to 10th = 5.952 (I used 7). I wasn't thinking of the scale when I allocated these points, but I was thinking of how I had always generally Pazz & Jop points in the past when I came up with the FDJCP scale. In other words, the scale approximates what conscientious voters tend to conclude as the relative merits of 10 albums, but it has two advantages: voters only have to think about order, without having to do the extra work of allocating points (as well as our extra work checking their arithmetic and registering the points); and it doesn't tempt voters to game the system, which is the idea behind virtually every 30-point vote.

I don't have any firm plans for the next days, weeks, months, year -- it's hard to imagine even longer time frames. I've let a lot of things slip, like the aforementioned indexes, or updating the CG database on Robert Christgau's website. I have bunches of domestic projects that need attention: a lot of filing, sorting, cleaning, unloading. I can't begin to list them all, or don't want to, as several at the top of my mind are pretty unpleasant.

The last week has been especially miserable. I've reached the age where cold has turned painful, so I've spent much of the last week huddled in front of space heaters. It got cold enough to freeze up the dishwasher, so I spent considerable time figuring out how to get it working again. (I need to take it out, and put more insulation around it, and possibly some ventilation, and while I'm at it, I think the floor needs some repair. Years ago I wouldn't have flinched at small jobs like that, but now I do.) We could probably get out if we really wanted to, but for a week now we're acting like we're snowed in.

I haven't emerged from my post-election news blackout yet. I'm starting to wonder how long I can extend it. Biggest impact so far was not knowing when it was going to get so cold. Main regret is that I have no idea how the NBA season is shaping up. I do occasionally scan through my X feed, which isn't much good for news, but reminds me that the problems I used to worry about are still very much evident, and that the quality of thinking and speaking about them is even worse than I remember. But my wife has returned to following the news -- perhaps more guardedly than before, but she can fill me in on whatever assassination, explosion, or unnatural disaster has blindsided reporters on any given day.

Most likely I will eventually write more on political issues, but I'm unlikely to return to a weekly chronicle (as I did for many years, and I'm much less try to mediate in Democratic Party squabbles, especially to defend the anti-left faction whose sole appeal has proven to be the empty promise of stopping Trump. They had their chance. They failed. Sure, that doesn't prove the left would have won in their stead, but at least the left would have been arguing for things that would make a difference. Not that I wouldn't vote for the Popular Front again, but I'm losing my patience trying to make sense with and out of them.

I started to write a second Odds & Sods last week, then scratched it. I still have scattered topics to comment on. For instance, I want to write something about the late Jack Williams (1935-2024), perhaps expanding it into a slice of memoir. I'm less certain of writing anything, but I also want to notice the passing of Tom Johnson (1939-2024), a writer I knew briefly in my New York days and much admired. I could just focus on memoir from here out. At least I'd be writing on a subject I'm a credible authority on. One item I won't bother saving for another post is yesterday's meatloaf. Seemed like the perfect thing to cope with the cold.

I do expect to continue following up on whatever needs to be done regarding the poll. Thus far I've noticed very little public reaction to it, but I haven't had time to look much either. I did get a couple of exceptionally nice notes. One thing I meant to do before (now after) writing this post was add a bunch of late voters to the email list. Email remains a very serious headache. Although I'm inclined to blame the world, it's possible that the root of the problem is on my server. I need to get a much better handle on that. I just got a notice that my SSL certificate is expiring and won't be replaced, so something there is seriously screwed up. That should probably be my priority next week, but it's hardly the only imminent catastrophe, as you can well imagine.

Luther Allison: I Owe It All to You (2023 [2024], Posi-Tone): I did a double take when I saw this name show up on a debut ballot, flashing immediately to the bluesman (1937-97) with the same name. This one's a young pianist, first album as leader after several side credits on/around his label. Trio with Boris Kozlov (bass) and Zach Adleman (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Arild Andersen/Daniel Sommer/Rob Luft: As Time Passes (2023 [2024], April): Norwegian bass legend gets top billing for the first chapter in the Danish drummer's "Nordic Trilogy, this trio also featuring Luft's guitar. B+(***) [sp]

Steve Baczkowski: Cheap Fabric (2022 [2024], Relative Pitch): Saxophonist, from Buffalo, has a couple dozen albums since 2005, plays solo here, baritone and tenor, plus "homemade winds" on two tracks. This is engaging, but naturally within the limits of the format. B+(**) [sp]

John Butcher + 13: Fluid Fixations (2021 [2024], Weight of Wax): British avant-saxophonist, started recording around 1985, very prolific -- Discogs credits him with 149 albums, among 253 performance credits. I've only lightly sampled him -- this is my 19th album under his name, and the only one I've listened to more than twice -- but my impression is that most are small improv groups where he gets a chance to wail. This is something else, a composed piece "with a lot of subtext," written for "14 highly individual players into a framework built from instructions that direct ever-shifting groupings, materials and relationships," which is to say that, like Godot, we spend a lot of time waiting for things to happen that turn out not to be the point. His sax contribution is minor, but ultimately decisive. A- [dl]

Caxtrinho: Queda Livre (2024, QTV): Brazilian singer Paulo Vitor Castro, "offers deconstructed Bossa Nova tunes," seems to be his first album. First pass suggests it's too convoluted for me, but so was Tom Zé. B+(***) [bc]

Brian Charette: You Don't Know Jack! (2024, Cellar Music): Organ player, started recording c. 2008, seemed like he had some unconventional ideas at the time, but the more he produces, the more he slips back into the tradition. Or maybe it's just producer Corey Weeds who indulges his fancy for Jack McDuff -- their previous album together was called Jackpot. Weeds plays tenor sax here, with Dave Sikula (guitar) and John Lee (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Mahmoud Chouki: Caravan: From Marrakech to New Orleans (2024, Gallatin Street): From Morocco, plays oud, moved to New Orleans, where his French made some connections, and he's had no problem lining up horns and rhythm, and a couple nice vocal turns (one probably Chouki, others I'm not so sure of). B+(**) [sp]

Anat Cohen: Quartetinho: Bloom (2024, Anzic): The New York-based clarinetist's Brazil-oriented "little quartet" -- Vitor Gonçalves (piano/accordion), Tal Mashiach (bass, guitar), and James Shipp (vibes/marimba/percussion) -- return for a second album, a light and but not quite frothy delight. B+(***) [sp]

Avishai Cohen: Bright Light (2024, Naïve): Israeli bassist, not Anat Cohen's brother, couple dozen albums since 1998, when he was living in New York and playing with Chick Corea. He moved back to Israel in 2008, and is presumably still there -- something I don't want to think about. I can comment on the music, which opens with eight nicely paced and toned originals, and closes with three covers: a Liszt piece I didn't really notice, and takes of "Summertime" and "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" that I really loved (the former with his own vocal, the latter with a lovely sax solo). [Note: Discogs and other sources read the title as one word, but cover shows it split over two lines witout hyphen, so I'm reading it as two words.] B+(**) [sp]

Emmet Cohen: Vibe Provider (2024, Mack Avenue): Pianist, born in Miami, grew up in New Jersey, albums since 2011 include five Legacy Masters Series volumes -- I especially like the one with Houston Person, but then I would. Five originals, four covers, mostly trio but three tracks pick up some horns, no vibraphone in case you're wondering. B+(**) [sp]

Tomasz Dąbrowski & the Individual Beings: Better (2023 [2024], April): Polish trumpet player, based in Denmark, albums since 2012, second group album, a septet with two saxophones, piano/synthesizer, bass, and two drummers. B+(**) [sp]

Caroline Davis and Wendy Eisenberg: Accept When (2023 [2024], Astral Spirits): Alto sax and guitar duo, both with voice credits (although more likely Eisenberg), Davis also for synths, plus Greg Saunier also played some drums. B+(*) [sp]

Dubbeltrion: Bringing Scandi-Baltic Powerhousejazz to the People (2024, Sonic Transmissions): First album from a sextet -- one could say "double trio," as there are two each at saxophone, bass, and drums -- that hails from Denmark, Sweden, and Estonia. I'm not sure they count as "powerhouse" in a region that's produced Atomic and The Thing, but their populist instincts are sound. B+(**) [sp]

Kurt Elling/Sullivan Fortner: Wildflowers Vol. 1 (2024, Edition): Jazz singer, from Chicago, recorded for Blue Note 1995-2003, showing off remarkable technical skills which for most established him as the top male jazz vocalist of his generation. Even when he dazzled me, I never liked his stuff, and he's showing signs of slowing down and cracking up. He has a good pianist here, and Cécile McLorin Salvant joins in on "A Wish (Valentine)," which is scant improvement. 6 tracks, 32:02. B- [sp]

Kurt Elling: Wildflowers Vol. 2 (2024, Edition): Recorded less than a month after Vol. 1, with new pianist Joey Calderazzo, and Ingrid Jensen (trumpet) the guest for one song. Adds up to 5 tracks, 28:14. C [bc]

Fake Fruit: Mucho Mistrust (2024, Carpark): Oakland group, second album, Hannah D'Amato the singer (but not the only one), the songs jointly credited. Post-punk, but so were the B-52s, which they remind me of. A- [sp]

The Flowers of Indulgence: Dylan's Lost Songs, Vol. 1 (2024, Bothy Studio): Twelve songs that sound like they could have been Dylan throwaways, recorded in Scotland by a group reported to consist of: Don Khan (lead vocals/guitar), Tiny Montgomery (lead vocals/bass/guitars), Silly Nellie (guitars), Skinny Moo (piano/organ), T-Bone Frank (drums/persussion) and the Rose Maries (backing vocals). Not obviously a spoof, or important enough to take seriously, but entertaining as trivia. B+(**) [sp]

Michael Foster/Ben Bennett/Jacob Wick: Carne Vale (2024, Relative Pitch): Sax/percussion/trumpet trio, offering abstracts of intermittent interest. B+(*) [sp]

Joel Frahm Trio: Lumination (2023 [2024], Anzic): Mainstream tenor saxophonist from Wisconsin, twenty or so albums since 1999, plus a lot of notable side work. Down to basics here in a trio with Dan Loomis (bass) and Ernesto Cervini (drums), which he handles with characteristic aplomb. B+(***) [sp]

Joel Futterman: Forever (2022 [2024], Mahakala Music): Avant-pianist, from Chicago, many albums since 1979. This one is solo, a bit too deep in its own shell for me to unpack. B+(*) [bc]

Sally Gates/Steve Hirsh/Daniel Carter: Phosphene (2024, Mahakala Music): Trio of guitar, drums, and whatever Carter feels like playing ("saxophones, flute, trumpet"). Gates was one of the guitarists on Elliott Sharp's Ere Guitar, and has several projects with Trevor Dunn. B+(***) [bc]

Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band: Live at the Texas Theatre (2024, Astral Spirits): Tribute to the late avant-trumpeter, with two of his sons (Aaron on bass and Stefan on drums), playing four of his pieces, with Rob Mazurek and Jawwaad Taylor playing trumpet, Danny Kaims and Joshua Miller sax, Gaika James trombone, and Drew Phillips bass, with Lily Taylor stepping up for "Song for a Singer." A- [sp]

Charles Goold: Triptych Lespri (2023 [2024], La Reserve): Drummer, from New York, son of saxophonist Ned Goold, mother from Haiti (which figures significantly here), second album, built around a trio with Davis Whitfield (piano) and Mark Lewandowski (bass), supplemented by vibes (Juan Diego Villalobos) and "my fellow colleagues of the Haitian diaspora," including trumpet and "traditional Haitian percussion." B+(**) [sp]

Devin Gray: Melt All of the Guns II (2024, Rataplan): Drummer, has a fair amount of work since 2005 (notably with Ellery Eskelin), did an EP in 2021 called Melt All the Guns, a trio with trumpet and piano, with Ralph Alessi returning here, along with new pianist Myslaure Augustin. I don't doubt the "politically leaning songs," but they're no more obvious than any other free jazz venture. B+(**) [bc]

David Hazeltine: Ballads and Blues Volume 1 (2023 [2024], Cellar Music, EP): Mainstream pianist, has a long and distinguished career, led his trio of Neal Miner (bass) and Peter Van Nostrand (drums) into a NYC studio and recorded an album's worth of material, but the label opted to split it into two digital EPs, this one 4 track, 23:32. B+(*) [bc]

David Hazeltine: Ballads and Blues Volume 2 (2023 [2024], Cellar Music, EP): Four more tracks, 23:23. B+(*) [bc]

Hubbub: abb abb abb (2019 [2024], Relative Pitch): French group, sixth album since 2001, name I recognize is Bertrand Denzler (tenor sax), but I may have run across some others: Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto sax), Frédéric Blondy (piano), Jean-Sébastian Mariage (electric guitar), and Edward Perraud (percussion). Mostly slow, rather dark atmospherics. B+(**) [sp]

Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra: Harbour (2022 [2024], Justin Time): Canadian soprano saxophonist, 11th album since 2000, 3rd with this big band, younger sister of trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, who gets a "featuring" credit here, front and center in a back cover picture of 19 musicians. B+(*) [sp]

Ryan Keberle: Bright Moments (2023 [2024], Posi-Tone): [Review lost?] B+(**) [sp]

Kira Kira: Kira Kira Live (2024, Alister Spence Music): Quartet of Natsuki Tamura (trumpet), Satoko Fujii (piano), Alister Spence (keyboards), and drums, recorded the excellent Bright Force in 2017, has a new drummer (Tatsuya Yoshida) for this live return. B+(**) [bc]

Mike LeDonne Groover Quartet + Gospel Choir: Wonderful! (2023 [2024], Cellar Music Group): Pianist elsewhere, but he plays organ in this group, with Peter Bernstein (guitar) and Joe Farnsworth (drums) securing the group name, and Eric Alexander (tenor sax) up front. I almost balked at the gospel choir, but think of them as harmony for the sax leads. Still, it works best when the choir steps back, and even then it only goes so far. I concede that they can groove and grind "Bridge Over Troubled Water," but that doesn't mean I want to hear it again. B- [sp]

Jihye Lee Orchestra: Infinite Connections (2023 [2024], Motéma Music): Korean composer/conductor, based in New York, third album, co-produced by Darcy James Argue, conventional 17-piece big band, plus guest Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet) on two tracks. B+(*) [sp]

Peggy Lee/Julien Wilson/Theo Carbo/Dylan van der Schyff: Open Threat (2024, Earshift Music): Advertised as a Melbourne-based group, although I recognize the cellist (Lee) and drummer (van der Schyff) as major figures from the Vancouver scene. The others are presumably Australians, playing tenor sax and guitar. B+(***) [bc]

Lionel Loueke & Dave Holland: United (2023 [2024], Edition): Guitarist-singer from Benin, debut 1997, perhaps best known for his 2008-15 series on Blue Note, moved to this label in 2020, as had the English bassist in 2019. Just the two of them, playing Loueke's songs, the minimal support rendering them lighter than ever. B+(**) [sp]

Michael Mayo: Fly (2024, Mack Avenue): Singer. I filed his first album under rock -- I guess I was thinking neo-soul, but this is being taken as jazz, which he seems to have a degree in. Looks like he wrote 5 (of 11) songs here, and arranged the others, including jazz standards like "Four" and "Speak No Evil." Backed by Shai Maestro (keyboards), Linda May Han Oh (bass), and Nate Smith (drums), with Scott Mayo on sax for a couple cuts. B+(*) [sp]

Microplastique: Blare Blow Bloom! (2024, Irritable Mystic): [Review lost?] B+(**) [bc]

Grey McMurray: Crying at Breakfast (2024, Out of Your Head, EP): [Review lost?] B- [sp]

Ben Monder: Planetarium (2020-23 [2024], Sunnyside): Guitarist, debut album 1995, lots of side-credits, this is "a prodigious piece of art," sprawling over 3-CD (172 minutes), backed by bass and drums, vocalist Theo Bleckman and/or three other vocalists. The vocals aren't much more than color, but I can't say as I care for them. The guitar is fine, but hardly justifies the length. B [sp]

Wolfgang Muthspiel: Etudes/Quietudes (2024, Clap Your Hands): [Review lost?] B+(**) [sp]

Camila Nebbia & Angelica Sanchez: In Another Land, Another Dream (2023 [2024], Relative Pitch): Tenor sax and piano duo, the former from Argentina, the latter from Phoenix, recorded live in New York. This strikes a very nice balance, one in constant motion and fascination. A- [sp]

Camila Nebbia/Leo Genovese/Alfred Vogel: Eyes to the Sun (2023 [2024], Boomslang): Tenor saxophonist from Argentina, American pianist, Austrian drummer, recorded in Buenos Aires. [bc]

New Orleans Klezmer All Stars: Tipish (2024, self-released): Discogs lists six albums for them 1995-2008, plus this revival. Credits are skimpy, but Ben Ellman (tenor sax), Jonathan Freilich (guitar), and Glenn Hartman (accordion) go back at least to 1998. B+(***) [sp]

Bill Orcutt: How to Rescue Things (2024, Palilalia): Guitarist, filed him under rock in the 1990s but lately he's been showing up on jazz lists, like his Music for Four Guitars and, especially, Four Guitars Live. Tries something else here, the hype talking about saccharine strings (and Charlie Parker), but more conspicuous, at least at first, is voice(s). While the guitar is the antidote, it isn't always up to the task. Short (29:58). B [sp]

Ivo Perelman/Iva Bittová/Michael Bisio: Vox Popoli Vox Dei (2017 [2024], Mahakala Music): Tenor sax, violin, and bass trio play free jazz with folk roots, with a major vocal contribution by Bittová, which I found annoying at first but the closer I listened, the more intriguing it got. B+(**) [bc]

Danilo Pérez & Bohlusän Big Band: Lumen (2021 [2024], Prophone): Pianist from Panama, was a Dizzy Gillespie protégé, emerging as a significant performer in the 1990s. Teems up here with a Swedish big band -- not the ideal combination, but they're game. B+(*) [sp]

Phelimuncasi & Metal Preyers: Izigqinamba (2024, Nyege Nyege Tapes): South African (Durbin-based) gqom trio we've noticed before, teamed up with "a loose group consisting of core members Jesse Hackett and Chicago's Mariano Chavez" (Hacket, I gather, is based in London) for 31:07 of metal-flecked beats and chants, with samples of older South African forms, and no idea of what's going and coming. I'm catching what feels like very little of it, yet find myself returning for more. A- [sp]

Previous Industries: Service Merchandise (2024, Merge): Los Angeles-based hip-hop trio, Open Mike Eagle is the one you've heard of, joined by Still Rift and Video Dave -- the latter has two previous albums, but both are better known in Eagle's company. "The album's central concept is related to defunct American retail chain stores." A- [sp]

Tomeka Reid/Isadora Edwards/Elisabeth Coudoux: Reid/Edwards/Coudoux (2021 [2024], Relative Pitch): Three cellists, Reid by far the most famous, then Coudoux, who has a 2016 album and some co-credits. This is the sort of small-scale craft the label specializes in. B+(**) [sp]

Renee Rosnes: Crossing Paths (2024, Smoke Sessions): Pianist, albums start around 1989, including a long run on Blue Note, moved to Smoke Sessions from 2016, although her "supergroup" Artemis has two albums on Blue Note. This one focuses on Brazilian music, with featuring spots for Edu Lobo, Joyce Moreno, and Maucha Adnet, plus support from Chico Pinheiro, John Pattitucci, Adam Cruz, Rogerio Boccato, Chris Potter, Steve Davis, and Shelley Brown. B+(*) [sp]

Toms Rudzinskis: Abyss (2019-21 [2023], self-released): Saxophonist from Latvia, based in Berlin, several albums since 2014, nice postbop here with a guest vocal. B+(**) [sp]

Akira Sakata/Jim O'Rourke/Mette Rasmussen/Chris Corsano: Live at SuperDeluxe Volume 1 (2017 [2024], Trost): Japanese alto saxophonist, born in Hiroshima a few months before the bomb, in an extended bash with the Sonic Youth guitarist, another saxophonist (tenor), and a drummer who likes it rough. B+(*) [bc]

Michael Sarian: Live at Cliff Bell's (2023 [2024], Shifting Paradigm): Trumpet player, half-dozen previous albums since 2020, quartet here with piano (Santiago Liebson), bass (Marty Kenney), and drums (Nathan Ellman-Bell), live set playing eight Sarian originals and a piece by Armenian poet Sayat-Nova (1712-95). Impressive work here. B+(***) [sp]

Brad Shepik: Human Activity: Dream of the Possible (2022 [2024], Shifting Paradigm): Guitarist, early (1996-97) work in Tiny Bell Trio with Dave Douglas, has long been interested in the music of the Balkans, which ties into his use of Bulgarian tambura and saz here, as well as banjo. Title refers back to his excellent 2009 Human Activity Suite. Quintet here with Layale Chaker's violin the perfect complement to his strings, and a terrific rhythm section of Amino Belyamani (piano), Sam Minaie (bass), and John Hadfield (drums). A- [sp]

Daniel Sommer/Arve Henriksen/Johannes Lundberg: Sounds & Sequences (2022-23 [2024], April): Danish drummer, had a Duets album in 2017, several more, although the related predecessor to this one (the 2nd installment in his "Nordic Trilogy") listed Arild Andersen first, so is filed there. The others play trumpet and bass, both electronics. B+(**) [sp]

Peter Somuah: Highlife (2024, ACT Music): Trumpet player, from Ghana, third album, second on the German jazz label, but recapitulating his roots starting out playing in dance bands in Accra. Some riffing over the beats, and some guest spots for highlife stars. B+(**) [sp]

Sound the Alarm: Sound the Alarm: A Large Ensemble Instigation for Palestine [Recorded Live in Concert] (2024, Relative Pitch): I filed this under Clayton Thomas, the Australian bassist who instigated this "composed improvisation, a sonic allegory and a simple way to collect human energy in the right place for the right reasons." The occasion is the 264th day of Israel's genocide against Gaza, which is to say a little more than half way to now. Proceeds go to "humanitarian organizations working on the ground in Gaza," which is to say targets of the genocide -- a hopeless proposition until someone stops the killing. As a big band, this group is short on brass, but the three pieces each build up into something substantial, perhaps a tribute to human resilience in face of disaster, or maybe just a wish that such were possible. I wouldn't advise trying to read much into it. A- [sp]

Vinnie Sperrazza Apocryphal: Sunday (2022 [2024], Loyal Label): Brooklyn-based drummer, albums since 2006, this title suggests a follow up to 2023's Saturday, but the group name reminds us of his 2015 quartet with Loren Stillman (tenor/soprano sax), Brandon Seabrook (guitar/banjo/mandolin), and Eivind Opsvik (bass). B+(***) [bc]

Dayna Stephens: Closer Than We Think (2023 [2024], Cellar Music): Tenor saxophonist, dozen albums since 2007, lots of side credits (70+), wrote 3 songs here, got more from band members Emmanuel Michael (guitar, also 3) and Kanoa Mendenhall (bass, 1). With Jongkuk Kim on drums, and producer Jeremy Pelt for a guest spot. B+(***) [sp]

Aki Takase/Daniel Erdmann: Ellington (2023 [2024], Enja/Yellowbird): Japanese pianist, long based in Berlin (with many records since 1979), in a duo with the German saxophonist (tenor/soprano), whose own discography dates from 2004, and includes credits with Takase's Japanic. The artists write a couple pieces to supplement nine Ellington songs, Juan Tizol's two classics, and a short coda of the Mingus tribute, "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love." B+(**) [sp]

Pat Thomas: This Is Trick Step (2023 [2024], 577): British avant-pianist, early albums back to 1993 but has been very prolific over last decade. Sole credit here is electronics. B+(**) [dl]

Tulpas: Atisbo (2021 [2024], Astral Spirits): Avant-jazz quartet from Mexico City, with two saxophonists -- Germán Bringas (tenor/soprano) and Jarret Gilgore (alto) -- backed with bass (Arturo Báez) and drums (Gibrán Andrade). First group album, but Bringas did his debut in 1992, and the others have co- or at least side-credits. B+(**) [sp]

Weird of Mouth [Mette Rasmussen/Craig Taborn/Ches Smith]: Weird of Mouth (2022 [2024], Otherly Love): First group album (I found out about it because I rejected a "debut" vote for it): most artists this famous include their own names on the cover, then switch to the group name later when they need a different title, but these three make you dig deeper, a practice they carry over into the music. Tenor sax, piano, drums. The saxophonist seemed a bit rugged at first, but I was won over when Taborn matched and maybe even passed. A- [sp]

Kathrine Windfeld Sextet: Aldebaran (2024, Stunt): Danish pianist, has three Big Band albums since 2015, a fourth where she joins the Bohlusän Big Band, and now this nominally smaller group, which still adroitly deploys its three horns -- trumpet (Tomasz Dabrowski) and two saxes (Marek Konarski, Hannes Bennich) -- in precise arrangements. This is very nice. B+(***) [sp]

Warren Wolf: History of the Vibraphone (2023 [2024], Cellar Music): Vibraphonist, started with Christian McBride, debut album 2011, presents ten songs from Gibbs, Hampton, Lewis (Jackson), Hutcherson, Tjader, Corea (Burton), Ayers, Samuels, Locke, and himself, plus an alternate take of "Midnight Sun" to loop back to Hampton. (You weren't seriously expecting Khan Jamal or Gunter Hampel, were you?) With Tim Green (alto/soprano sax), Alex Brown (keybs), bass, and drums. B+(**) [sp]

Eri Yamamoto Quadraphonic: Fly With the Wings (2024, Mahakala Music): Japanese pianist, based in New York, mostly recorded trios until she hooked up with Chad Fowler, the avant-saxophonist who runs this Arkansas-based label, at which point things get interesting. She sings two songs here. He switches off to flute for a bit of surface bliss. And she switches over to melodica for the final piece. Quartet with bass and drums, varied, perhaps a bit much. B+(***) [bc]

Peter Brötzmann/Paal Nilssen-Love: Butterfly Mushroom (2015 [2024], Trost): This barely qualifies as a "New Album" under our 10-year rule, but the saxophonist died in 2023, leaving his heirs to search through his old tapes for reminders of vitality. I previously decided to count his 2016 recording of Complete Link, released in 2024, under Historical, so I should do the same for this later-released-but-earlier recorded album -- as I should for another 2024 release which this is a second volume to (which bore a different title: Chicken Shit Bingo). Duo with the Norwegian drummer, not their first and not their last. Brötzmann plays tarogato, contra-alto clarinet, and bass sax, each of which blunts the hard edges of his usual tenor sax -- with him, that's usually a plus, as the hard stuff can rub you raw. B+(**) [sp]

George Cartwright: Send Help (2008 [2024], Mahakala Music): Saxophonist, originally in the band Curlew, released this Minnesota quartet -- Adam Linz (guitar/vocals), Andrew Broder (bass), Aiden Ikeda (drums) -- album on Innova. B+(*) [bc]

Duke Ellington: Copenhagen 1958 [Bonus: After Hours 1950] (1950-58 [2024], Storyville): The Orchestra on the road, playing their standard set, which was fine but didn't really grab me until the Cat Anderson finale. The bonus is four tracks, with Ellington at the piano, with some superb tenor sax (Don Byas) and clarinet (Jimmy Hamilton). B+(**) [sp]

Michael Griener & Jan Roder: Be Our Guest (1994-2022 [2024], Trouble in the East): German drummer and bassist, both born in 1968, played together frequently since Squakk in 2009, but this compilation pairs them earlier and more often over nearly three decades, picking 25 tracks from nearly as many sessions and/or groups (including Squakk+ mid-way, and ending with Griener joining Roder in later versions of Monk's Casino and Die Entäuschung. Along the way, they support many luminaries of the German avant-garde -- Rudi Mahall and Axel Dörner return periodically, and while there isn't a lot of piano, you cannot miss Aki Takase and Alexander von Schlippenbach -- and many more lesser-known figures, plus a few passing visitors, like Ken Vandermark and Brandon Seabrook. A- [bc]

Happy Apple: New York CD ([2024], Sunnyside): Trio from Minnesota -- Erik Fratzke (electric bass), Dave King (drums), Michael Lewis (saxophones/keyboards) -- recorded a bunch of albums (Discogs lists 8; the two late ones I've heard are really good) 1997-2007, released this set of digital files in 2020 on Bandcamp, so this is certainly a reissue, although it's not clear of what. The only thing the label tells us is that "The music from New York CD comes from two recording sessions a few years apart," but doesn't tell us which years (or decade or century), although we are informed that one session was in Minnesota, the other in Wisconsin, and that "most of the pieces were done in first takes and without overdubs." Also no clue as to where the title came from. Some suggestion of a reunion in 2018, which might put the second session in 2020. Some nice bits, but nothing that justified my initial hopes, or took my mind away from the missing documentation. B+(*) [sp]

Van Morrison: Live at Orangefield (2014 [2024], Townsend Music/Orangefield): Orangefield Secondary School, in Belfast, was closed in 2014, occasion for a memorial concert by its most famous alumnus, who had made his first stage appearance there in 1959. (Wikipedia has a page on the school, including a list of "notable alumni," with Morrison the only name I recognize.) His most familiar songs have seen better days, but the lesser known material remind one of how mesmerizing a performer he can be. B+(***) [sp]

Kurt Rosenwinkel: The Next Step Band: Live at Smalls 1996 (1996 [2024], Heartcore): Guitarist, from Philadelphia, studied at Berklee, moved to New York, eventually to Berlin. Was in the group Human Feel (1991-96), solo debut 1996, this group is from back then but named (retrospectively?) for his fourth album, The Next Step, which appeared in 2001. Same group -- Mark Turner (tenor sax), Ben Street (bass), and Jeff Ballard (drums) -- but you also notice piano on two tracks here: Brad Mehldau sits in on one superb track, and Rosenwinkel plays a pretty fair solo on the title piece. I'm not a big fan of the 2001 album, or anything else he's done, but I am impressed here. A- [sp]

Brenton Wood: Brenton Wood's 18 Best (1967-71 [2024], Craft): R&B singer-songwriter Alfred Jesse Smith (1941-2025), originally from Shreveport but moved to Los Angeles as a child, broke out with three minor hit singles in 1967 ("Gimme Little Sign," "Oogum Boogum," "Baby You Got It"), stretched his career all the way out to a 2024 announcement of Catch You on the Rebound: The Last Tour, but this best-of, which originally appeared in 1990, just samples his brief heyday. B [sp]

Fake Fruit: Fake Fruit (2021, Rocks in Your Head): First album, although Hannah D'Amato had a couple singles in 2020 as Flex TMG, followed by a later EP. Bandcamp page drops hints of Wire, Pylon, and Mazzy Star. That's a pretty good start. B+(**) [sp]

Metal Preyers: Metal Preyers (2020, Nyege Nyege Tapes): Jesse Hackett (from London) and Mariano Chavez (Chicago) hooked up in Kampala (Uganda) with Lord Tusk and various local musicians to produce this "industrial/ambient film soundtrack" to go with visual art they call Teeth Agency. B+(*) [sp]

Allen Ravenstine: Nautilus/Rue de Poisson Noire (2021, Waveshifter): Multi-instrumentalist, mostly synthesizers, best known for his work in Pere Ubu, but has reeleased several mostly instrumental albums since 1987. Discogs has this as a single release, but Spotify has it as two separate albums. I'll go with one, because the distinctions are minor, and I haven't been paying enough attention. B+(**) [sp]

No introduction this week. I'm working on an introductory piece (or two) for the 19th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll. I only took a break for the cutoff because the calendar demanded it, and it's unclear when I'm going to get a better chance.

Needless to say, I haven't done any accounting for the switch from December to January, or 2024 to 2025.

Sakina Abdou/Toma Gouband/Maria Warelis: Hammer, Roll and Leaf (2024, Relative Pitch): Alto/tenor saxophonist, has a couple previous albums, here in a trio with drums and piano. B+(***) [sp]

ADHD: ADHD 9 (2024, Enja/Yellowbird): Jazz group from Iceland, ninth album since 2009, all neatly numbered, four members: Magnús Trygvason Eliassen (drums), Ómar Guðjónsson (guitar/pedal steel/bass guitar), Óskar Guðjónsson (tenor/soprano sax), and Tómas Jónsson (keyboards, who replaced Davíð Þór Jónsson on ADHD 7. First impression is that they're an ultra-chill Weather Report. B+(*) [sp]

Ricky Alexander: Just Found Joy (2024, Turtle Bay): Soprano sax/clarinet player, trad jazz-oriented, first album as leader, Discogs gives him three credits but two are on 2012 heavy metal albums. He also sings a bit, but turns most of that over to Vanisha Gould. B+(**) [sp]

Lina Allemano's Ohrenschmaus: Flip Side (2023 [2024], Lumo): Canadian trumpet player, Discogs lists one 1998 album but nothing else until 2018, after which there is quite a bit. Based in Toronto, but has a connection to Berlin, reflected in this trio with Dan Peter Sundland (electric bass) and Michael Griener (drums), joined on 3 (of 7) tracks here by Andrea Parkins (accordion, objects, electronics). B+(**) [bc]

Pedro Melo Alves: Conundrum Vol. 1: Itself Through Disappearance (2019-23 [2024], Clean Feed): Portuguese drummer, several albums since 2017, thirteen duos here (73:52) with names on cover: João Barradas (MIDI accordion), Audrey Chen (voice/electronics), Ignaz Schick (turntable/electronics), Nuno Rebelo (guitar), Marta Warelis (piano), Violeta Garcia (cello/electronics), Jacqueline Kerrod (harp), Carlos Barretto (bass), Sara Serpa (voice), Rafael Toral (electronics), Grillo (prepared piano), Gil Dionisio (voice/electronics), Ece Canli (voice/electronics). They offer a range of sonic textures, with the drums as a common point of interest. B+(**) [bc]

Angles + Elle-Kari With Strings: The Death of Kalypso (2022 [2024], Thanatosis Produktion): Swedish saxophonist Martin Küchen's flagship group, first appeared in 2007, many albums since, scaled up or down, deployed her as an octet plus a string quartet and a singer, Elle-Kari Sander, who renders Küchen's libretto as some kind of opera. B+(**) [sp]

Mulatu Astatke and Hoodna Orchestra: Tension (2023 [2024], Batov): Ethio-jazz pioneer, active since the 1969, but his rediscovery c. 2008 kicked off a remarkable second career spurt. He plays vibraphone, piano, and percussion. The 12-piece Hoodna Ensemble is described as "Tel Aviv's number one Afro funk collective." This was recorded in March, before the Gaza genocide kicked off, when tension may have still seemed like an interesting concept. B+(**) [sp]

Adriano Clemente: The Coltrane Suite and Other Impressions (2021-22 [2023], Dodicilune, 2CD): Italian composer, plays many instruments -- harp and pocket trumpet seem most common here, at least for his solos -- leads Akashmani Ensemble, their first album was The Mingus Suite in 2016. "The Coltrane Suite" fills the first disc here, with 12 parts, 49:39. Second disc offers "Other Impressions" and "New Orleans Portrait." Many Italians in the Ensemble I don't recognize, but two ringers really stand out: David Murray and Hamid Drake. B+(***) [sp]

Ezra Collective: Dance, No One's Watching (2024, Partisan): British jazz-funk group, third album, led by brothers Femi Koleoso (drums) and TJ Koleoso (electric bass), with Joe Armon-Jones (keyboards), with trumpet (Ife Ogunjobi), tenor sax (James Mollison), with a guest vocal by Yazmin Lacey (the catchy "God Gave Me Feet for Dancing"). B+(*) [sp]

Mabe Fratti: Sentir Que No Sabes (2024, Tin Angel/Unheard of Hope): Singer-songwriter from Guatemala, based in Mexico City, plays cello and synthesizer, fourth album since 2019, got a jazz vote but also reviewed in Pitchfork. B+(**) [sp]

The Fury: Live in Brooklyn (2023 [2024], Giant Step Arts): First outing for all-star group of Mark Turner (tenor sax), Lage Lund (guitar), Matt Brewer (bass), and Tyshawn Sorey (drums), with the first three contributing songs (Lund 3, Turner 2, Brewer 1, plus a cover from Myron Walden). Group name comes from a Faulkner novel, a reference I don't get, as Turner and especially Lund seem about as far from furious as one can get. B+(**) [cd]

Ganavya: Like the Sky I've Been Too Quiet (2024, Native Rebel): Singer-songwriter, born in New York but raised in India (Tamil Nadu) and based in California, second album, has a jazz following but this is something else, possibly rooted in Indian classical music but transcendental in ways that terms like "ambient," "spiritual," "new age," and "exotic" only hint at. B+(**) [sp]

Ganavya: Daughter of a Temple (2024, Leiter): Third album, more obviously pitched to her jazz audience, built around the works of Swamini Turiyasangitananda (aka Alice Coltrane) and her spouse, including an abbreviated but still four-part version of his masterwork, "A Love Supreme," with guest spots for Esperanza Spalding, Vijay Iyer, Immanuel Wilkins, and Shabaka Hutchings. Interesting ideas, but I can't say it particularly works. B+(*) [sp]

GloRilla: Glorious (2024, CMG/Interscope): Crunk rapper Gloria Hallejuah Woods, from Memphis, first proper album after a well-received mixtape (Ehhthang hhthang) and two compilations of Gangsta Art. Hard trap beats. B+(**) [sp]

Tord Gustavsen Trio: Seeing (2023 [2024], ECM): Norwegian pianist, steady stream of albums since joining ECM in 2003, mostly trios, here with Steinar Raknes (bass) and Jarle Vespestad (drums). I've usuallyl been impressed by his albums, but this one barely registers. B [sp]

Caity Gyorgy: Hello! How Are You? (2024, La Reserve): Canadian "swing and bebop singer and songwriter," several albums since 2022. Presumably writes her own songs. Title one is snappy, only to be followed by something torchy, then a load of scat. I can't read the white-on-pink text on her Bandcamp page, so remain ignorant of explications. B+(**) [sp]

Josh Johnson: Unusual Object (2024, Northern Spy): Mostly a saxophonist, from Chicago, but plays keyboards and possibly much more -- credit on this solo album is simply "sounds," with the sax reprocessed and subtle beats dubbed in. B+(**) [sp]

The Joymakers: Down Where the Bluebonnets Grow (2024, Turtle Bay): Trad jazz outfit based in Austin, TX, fronted by cornetist Colin Hancock, with two saxophonists, piano/accordion, tenor banjo, piano, string bass, and drums, with three members stepping up for vocals, playing oldies from the 1920s, give or take a smidgen. Seems to be their first album, but not the first band to use the name. B+(***) [sp]

Rolf Kühn: Fearless (2022 [2024], MPS): German clarinetist (1929-2022), brother of pianist Joachim Kühn, first album 1957, this is his last, when he was 92, leading a tight quartet of piano (Frank Chastenier), bass (Lisa Wulff), and drums (Túpac Mantilla). B+(**) [sp]

Jason Palmer: The Cross Over: Live in Brooklyn (2023 [2024], Giant Step Arts): Trumpet player, from North Carolina, steady stream of albums since 2007, his recent live ones generally a step up from his studio efforts (mostly on SteepleChase). Strong quartet here, with Mark Turner (tenor sax), Larry Grenadier (bass), and Marcus Gilmore (drums). A- [cd]

Aaron Parks: Little Big III (2024, Blue Note): Pianist, albums since 2000, recorded one for Blue Note in 2008, returns here after two previous Little Big albums on Ropeadope. Quartet with guitar (Greg Tuchey), bass (David Ginyard), and drums (Jongkuk Kim). More little than big. B+(*) [sp]

Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba: Now! (Instant Classics): Polish saxophonist, side credits go back to 1993, own albums start around 2014, plays soprano & tenor sax, clarinet, flute & tape here, and takes all of the composition credits. Amba adds an extra tenor sax into the mix. B+(*) [sp]

Troy Roberts: Green Lights (2021 [2024], Toy Robot Music): Tenor saxophonist, from Australia, Bandcamp page says this is his "16th release as a leader," but Discogs only counts five (plus 36 side credits since 2000, including several with Van Morrison). Quartet with Paul Bollenback (guitar), John Pattitucci (bass), and Jimmy MacBride (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Kavain Wayne Space & XT: Yesyespeakersyes (2024, Feedback Moves): The former is a Chicago footwork DJ, active since 1997, much better known as RP Boo, teamed up here with the English duo of Paul Abbott and Seymour Wright, with albums as XT since 2016. B [bc]

Colin Stetson: The Love It Took to Leave You (2024, Invada): Not really in the jazz tradition, but plays a wide range of saxophones (especially bass saxophone), as well as other horns. Debut 2003, moved into soundtracks c. 2013, now the majority of his output. This isn't, but could be. B+(**) [sp]

Sweet Megg: Bluer Than Blue (2024, Turtle Bay): Singer Megg Farrell, had a 2000 album as Sweet Megg, a 2009 album under her own name (Dig a Pony: The Beatles Complete on Ukulele), then nothing until 2021, when she landed on Turtle Bay with Ricky Alexander. Two or three (if you count Santa Baby) albums later, she's basically running a western swing combo, mixing Ellington with Bob Wills and Moon Mullican. Alexander has shifted more from sax to clarinet, and you get a lot of lap steel (Chris Scruggs) and fiddle (Billy Contreras) to go with the horns and rhythm. B+(**) [sp]

Sweet Megg: Live at Honky Tonk Tuesday July 2024 (2024, self-released): Fan bait, a quickie digital album where she heads to Nashville, loses the horns, picks up an acoustic guitar, and a batch of hard drinking country standards. The steel and fiddle don't swing like they do our west, not that you can tell much with the weak sound. B [bc]

Natsuki Tamura/Satoko Fujii/Ramón López: Yama Kawa Umi (2023 [2024], Not Two): Trumpet, piano, drums trio, fifth album as a trio, the first two having shared billing dozens of times. B+(***) [cd]

Andromeda Turre: From the Earth (2024, Starbilt): Singer/composer, debut 2008, daughter of trombonist Steve Turre, presents this as "a jazz suite." B+(*) [sp]

Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O: Tree Jazz: The Shape of Christmas to Come (2024, Palmetto): I think this is the first year since I started getting promos that I haven't had to deal with a single album of Christmas music. Still, I had reason to suspect there might be more to this reunion of the drummer's 2010 holiday trio ("Tree-O"), with Jeff Lederer (reeds) and Paul Skivie (bass), especially with the cover playing on two classic Ornette Coleman albums, and working "Up on the Rooftop" into the canon. B+(***) [sp]

Bobby Hutcherson: Total Eclipse (1068 [2024], Blue Note Tone Poet): Vibraphonist, recorded for Blue Note 1963-77. This a quintet with Harold Land (tenor sax/flute), Chick Corea (piano), Reggie Johnson (bass), and Joe Chambers (drums). B [sp]

Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra: L'Intercommunal (1976-78 [2024], Souffle Continu): French group, released four numbered volumes 1974-82, plus a fifth album in 1983 listing its composer-leaders François Tusques (piano) and Carlos Andreu (voice) on the credit line. B+(**) [bc]

Byard Lancaster/Steve McCall/Sylvain Marc: Us (1973 [2024], Souffle Continu): Avant-alto saxophonist (1942-2012), from Philadelphia, first album (1968) was called It's Not Up to Us, his early 1970s recordings were released by Palm in France -- except for the group Sounds of Liberation (1972), which came out on the even more obscure Dogtown label, and is one of the best examples of the early 1970s underground. Trio with drums and electric bass, a bit too much flute. B+(***) [bc]

Byard Lancaster: Mother Africa (1974 [2024], Souffle Continu): A second album for the French label palm, sparring with Clint Jackson III (trumpet), backed by Jean-François Caloire (bass), Keno Speller (percussion) and Jonathan Dickinson (drums), for two side-long free jazz bashes, with an extra 15:18 bonus for the CD reissue. Second cut shows some cognizance of South African jazz. B+(***) [bc]

Byard Lancaster/Keno Speller: Exactement (1974 [2024], Souffle Continu, 2CD): Opens with Lancaster on piano solo, before he moves on to flute, alto sax, bass clarinet, and more flute, joined for most of that with Speller on percussion. Originally released as 2-LP, could have fit on one 79:40 CD. B+(**) [bc]

Byard Lancaster: Funny Funky Rib Crib (1974 [2024], Souffle Continu): Pulled from several sessions, and only released in 1979, some afro-funk groove (notably guitar from François Nyombo), with a couple of weak but bluesy vocals from the leader. Not quite as good as it should have been. B+(**) [bc]

Byard Lancaster: The Complete Palm Recordings 1973-1974 (1973-74 [2024], Souffle Continu): Four albums, from a period when this little-recognized avant-saxophonist was just finding himself, working in France where the African connection was vibrant. Musically, this recapitulates the albums above. I can't speak to the packaging, which includes 5 LPs (Exactement was a double), a one-sided 12-inch EP, a 7-inch single, and a 20-page booklet. B+(***) [bc]

Lee Morgan: Taru (1968 [2024], Blue Note): Major trumpet player (1938-72), played in what was perhaps Art Blakey's most famous lineup 1959-61, while leading a mixed bag of sessions for Blue Note that included several hard bop classics -- the label recorded many masterpieces in the early 1960s, but seemed to lose the thread later in the decade, one result being that this session with younger players -- sure, you know them now: Bennie Maupin (tenor sax), John Hicks (piano), George Benson (guitar), Reggie Workman (bass), and Billy Higgins (drums) -- got locked away until some housecleaning in 1980. B+(**) [sp]

Elvis Presley: Memphis (1956-76 [2024], RCA/Legacy, 5CD): Theme is recordings made in his home town, which means the first disc collects the Sun masters, then one disc each for concerts in 1969, 1973, 1974, and 1976, before he died in 1977 -- a total of 111 tracks, "88 of which are newly mixed versions of the select recordings, pure and without overdubs." The early stuff is great, as you know, but no better here than elsewhere. I'm not about to do comparisons, but most of the live stuff sounds a bit thin. But the fifth disc, with the 1976 Graceland set, is magnificent. By this point, his rocking days are past, and he's just a standards singer, but he leaves his own mark on everything he touches. [PS: After some bootlegs, the 1976 Graceland sessions got an official release in 2016 as Way Down in the Jungle Room, with a second disc of outtakes. I don't remember the details, but gave that set a B+(*), so perhaps today's reaction should be taken with a grain of salt, or maybe the sound and/or the selection is better.] B+(***) [sp]

The Byard Lancaster Unit: Live at MacAlester College (1970-73 [2008], Porter): The original Dogtown release (1972) was credited to "the J.R. Mitchell/Bayard Lancaster experience," with the title Live at Mac Alester College '72. Mitchell was the drummer ("percussionist"), but it's the saxophonist ("horns") you notice first and remember longest. The reissue also moves the three live quartet tracks back a year, to 1971, with the first track on both from 1970, and two later bonus tracks credited to "The J. R. Mitchel Experimental Unit," which is Lancaster, Mitchell, Calvin Hill, and "unfortunately unknown." A- [sp]

Byard Lancaster: Soul Unity (2005 [2022], Komos): "Recorded one sunny afternoon in March 2005," "a devotional journey through jazz history from Africa to Coltrane, from Spirituals to Now, Searching for the Source behind the forms," released on CD in 2006 and 2-LP in 2022 -- reordered with a new cover, but that's what I'm streaming. Reverend Joe Craddock helps the the vocals. B+(**) [sp]

Sweet Megg and Ricky Alexander: I'm in Love Again (2020 [2021], Turtle Bay): Singer Megg Farrell had two previous albums, a Beatles-on-ukulele under her own name, and a debut as Sweet Megg way back in 2002. Alexander, who plays sax and clarinet, had self released Strike Up the Band in 2018. Mostly swing standards, with a "Ragged but Right" dragged in from the country. B+(**) [sp]

Sweet Megg: My Window Faces the South (2022, Turtle Bay): Here's where she dons her cowboy hat, rejiggers her band around steel guitar and fiddle, and swings west, drawing several times on Bob Wills, with other songs like "Tennessee Waltz" and even "Stardust" not so far removed. B+(***) [sp]

John Abercrombie: Timeless (1974 [1975], ECM): First album, one I definitely had the LP of and possibly could have graded from memory, but I figured it was worth another spin. Another trio, with Jan Hammer (keyboards) and Jack De Johnette (drums) just below the title line. [PS: Later found I had graded it, but the refresher bumped it up a notch.] [was: B] B+(*) [sp]

I know I should be working on my big essay for the 19th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll. I've struggled with the task in the past, as may be painfully evident if you look back at my 2022 and 2023 essays:

I've been fairly calm about the impending task, at least up until yesterday, which I spent hacking out a fairly wordy Music Week, instead of moving on to the next obvious step, which is to examine the results and write up footnotes on all the various discrepancies (2023 albums that got votes in both years, albums that got votes in wrong categories, albums that could be split or combined, albums in categories that got top-ten votes from critics who left them off their category lists; I also need to count up how many voters skipped the categories altogether, or only included top-ten picks there -- the latter was often at my urging, so barely counts as endorsement of the category). Given that this next step is mere paper shuffling, something that in years past I've been really adept at, I'm baffled at my procrastination. I'm accustomed to avoiding writing, but dread of mere gruntwork is something new and unsettling.

Yet here I am, not just procrastinating but inventing a new blog post: something to do while I'm not doing what I ought to be doing, but also a workaround, a way of sneaking up on the real task. For instance, in adding the links above, I now have the relevant pieces opened in tabs, as ready references, and repositories of ideas I could eventually employ.

But before we circle back to the Poll, I have a couple other things I want to address -- and, as the title suggests, don't expect any thematic organization here, other than that I'm anticipating a wish to occasionally post personal thoughts, as random and haphazard as everyday life (which suggests differentiation as a numbered series; as for "sods" instead of "ends," that comes from the title of a Who album, a compilation of their miscellany and detritus, an Anglicism which has since entered my vocabulary).

I keep copies of most of my blog writings, plus occasional notes I'm less concerned with in sharing, in my online notebook. One thing it's especially handy for is keeping track of past calendar events, including the occasional fancy (or at least hearty) dinners I've been known to prepare. As the dinners are somewhat popular items, I often note them on Facebook, and occasionally mention them in my Music Week posts. I meant to say something about Xmas Eve yesterday, but didn't get to it before I felt the compunction to post. Later last night, I had second thoughts, and added the following section, but didn't post it. This morning, it seemed like it might fit better here.

I did finally take some time off to rustle up a small Xmas Eve dinner: two guests, my nephew Ram and long-time family friend Kathy Jenkins, who had been a regular for that particular event until she moved out of Wichita a few years ago. I wanted to do something easy but still outstanding. In a dream, I imagined roasting chicken thighs on a rack above root vegetables, which would be enriched by drippings. We made a quick shopping run the day before, and couldn't find some things I had wanted, so I wound up doing a lot of improvising.

I had two Ottolenghi recipes in mind for the chicken, but didn't have and couldn't find the complements (fennel and clementines for one, Jerusalem artichokes for the other), so I consulted the web and settled on a sumac-and-zataar variant. For the vegetables, I had onions, yukon gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, a turnip, golden beets, delicata squash, and leeks. The beets had to start early, and that turned disastrous: I put them in a glass dish I assumed to be oven-safe but which shattered. I had to cool the oven, clean the mess up, throw them away, and start all over. Beyond that, the main problem was that I had too much of everything for my pretty large roasting pan. And my idea of reducing the marinade to make a sauce never really panned out, although I did brush more, including a few bits of onion and lemon, on top of the chicken, which helped it brown up. So I didn't have the sauce and garnish to finish the chicken.

I also bought a package of baby spinach, figuring I could turn it into a side salad. I was thinking of the Bella Luna salad (a local restaurant), but didn't find a close enough recipe. Instead, I just threw all sorts of things in: cucumber, onion, pepper, and tomatoes from my Greek salad; bacon and sauteed mushrooms (I had bought them thinking I might add them to the roots, but had no space); toasted pecans; creamy goat cheese and gorgonzola; capers; some olive-feta antipasto; golden raisins; and I made a balsamic vinaigrette with mustard and a bit of honey; and a generous sprinkle of sumac and black pepper. Turned out to be a really nice combination of textures and flavors.

I had just enough leftover applesauce to make a cake, so I served it with ice cream for dessert. Here's the Facebook write-up (same pic as above).

I took another picture today, of my main computer workspace, which has turned into a ridiculous mess. One of the main things I need to do before I can make any real headway on my essay is to clear this desk. The really critical problem is the stack of CDs, in front of the three-tier CD shelf unit, with the stack on top of it. I need to be able to find my 2024 Jazz A-List albums (at least the ones I actually possess), few of which I've actually replayed since I initially reviewed them. The shelf unit I assembled and positioned when I was doing the 2023 essay, at which point it was jammed to the gills with 2023 and 2022 CDs -- all really good records, by the way. I need to remove enough of the older ones so I can file the newer ones and find them when I want one. The daunting problem here isn't so much sweeping the desk clear as finding other places to put everything, given that all the other places have similar problems.

The first thing that needs to go is the black basket, which has my promo CD queue with hype sheets. Everything there is 2025, and none of it has to be touched until I'm done with 2024. (For similar reasons, I'm automatically deleting all of my 2025 email, so nothing extraneous gets stuck in my inbox.) Then I need to clear out the baskets to the lower right, refiling them elsewhere, which will open up space for thinning out the shelf unit. Probably not a huge amount of work, but every item needs to be gone over and dealt with accordingly.

While writing about this, I got distracted with the thought that it would be nice to be able to take a wider-angle picture (maybe a fisheye lens? or is there one with less distortion?). I did some shopping, and ordered a 3-lens clip-on for my phone (or so the pitch says). As an engineer who's pretty skilled at figuring out the ramifications of how small changes, I see this as the start of a much more overwhelming project. Still, it's more tangible than imagining an open-ended essay based on an enormous lode of significant data.

I haven't been following politics since signing off with my last Speaking of Which, but I do have some thoughts about what happened in the 2024 election, and why it happened. I'm nowhere near wanting to write them up, but I do have enough grounding to react to this item in today's Xgau Sez:

Pini makes four points here, and they're basically correct, not that I wouldn't shade them a bit differently:

As for Christgau's last sentence, it's not implausible, but also far from certain (and one that I find both unlikely and unhelpful). The election was close enough that dozens of things could have shifted it enough to change the result. Everyone is free to pick their own fave theories and pet peeves. Mine is that Biden's wars doomed Harris, and not because there's some sliver of voters who think he picked the wrong side, but simply because he allowed them to drag on, with no hope of resolution and recovery. Most people don't have much understanding of the conflicts that led to those wars, but they do realize that whatever they may be, they're not worth the costs of war. Some responsible party needs to shut them down, much like the US and USSR agreed to do -- within just a few weeks, at most -- with Israel's wars in 1956, 1967, and 1973. And Biden failed to miserably at that simple task that some voters chose instead to believe Trump's promise to "fix it."

While I don't doubt that there are people who voted against Harris because of "her gender, her color, her classiness," I doubt that any of those traits were decisive. As for "the Dems' failure to address the economy in a clear and plausible way," I don't even think they failed. Their problem wasn't the insufficiency of their argument, or their failure to advance practical reforms that would help most people. Their problem was that half of America refused to listen to anything they had to say, in large part because they had come to discredit anything any Democrat might say, and indeed to doubt the validity of rational discourse.

The main thing that's become clear to me from the 2024 election is that Democrats don't know how to talk to other people, even when they really want to. Nor do Republicans, 'but for some reason that hurts them less, and may even help them fire up their base. It's going to be really hard for Democrats to turn this around: the foundation of credibility is incorruptibility, which isn't easy to politicians who spend most of their waking hours desperately begging for money. I don't doubt that the pendulum will swing again, but it's much more likely that Republicans will discredit themselves than that Democrats will discover integrity.

PS: I've been toying with the idea of writing something on the 2024 election, tentatively titled, "Did Something Weird Just Happen?" I doubt I have the stomach for wading through the minutiae of Trump campaign agitprop, let alone for interviewing the people who voted for him, but sooner or later someone is going to figure this out -- or at least some of it. (I suspect I have some angles that won't come easily to others.)

I promised to come back to the poll, but at this stage it would be better just to post this and start with the work of footnoting and/or desk clearing. At this point I've finished the leftovers (aside from one last piece of cake for tomorrow) -- something I'm usually not too keen on, but they've been really delicious. I also need to post Christgau's Q&A, which should make it up tonight. (I keep putting off updating the database, which still needs some rather tricky utility work, but is way overdue, and would no doubt help him with his upcoming Dean's List.) And I gave up on trying to figure out which new jazz album I should play next, and settled into five hours of an Elvis Presley box I stumbled and don't begin to understand. It's getting late, and I've avoided useful work for another day.

Voting for the 19th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll is over now, with ballots counted from 177 distinguished experts (+18 over 2023). They voted for 614 different New Albums, 149 Rara Avis (new releases of older music, recorded in or before 2014; a couple albums got confused votes in both age categories). We also collect votes in three special categories, in hopes of noting more albums that tend to be overlooked overall: Vocals (123 albums), Latin (85), and Debut (89). Album counts in these categories are up significantly this year, as I change the rules to allow voters to vote for 3 (or in some cases more) albums in each, instead of only 1 in past years. About a third of all voters still skipped those categories. Several also skipped Rara Avis. I don't have the numbers handy, but will figure that out in coming days.

After the election -- which I still believe was not just horrific but profoundly weird -- I decided to stop bothering with the extreme time sink that my weekly Speaking of Which columns had become, and put my efforts into making something of the Jazz Critics Poll, which Francis Davis had founded in 2006 and sustained as long as health permitted. I've helped out over the years, and taken over the last couple. I've felt a great responsibility to maintain the poll's reputation as "biggest and best." It's been an uphill struggle, with what seems like a lot of attrition as voters age, their lives change, and they tire of the intense interest expected of critics (not to mention that it isn't a very remunerative career choice).

I've also run into a lot of problems, and perhaps worse still, uncertainty, with email. I lease a dedicated server, which I run a half-dozen websites from. I can run GNU Mailman lists from there, and I have a few, including two I use for the poll: one to message voters, and one for discussing admin issues. These are easy for me to send to, but for reasons unclear to me, several of the major email vendors have decided that to block or reroute mail I send (this applies to personal accounts on the server, as well as the lists). It's very hard to fight back against such judgments, and doing so is very draining. (Needless to say, the election is only going to make shady business practices, especially fraud, both more prevalent and harder to resist.)

My main metric for whether I've been doing a good job has been how many voters I could turn out. In 2022, which is when I assumed responsibility for handling voter correspondence, the number of voters dropped off from 156 to 151. Last year, with a lot of desperate last-minute cajoling, I finally wound up with a record 159. After that, I did some research to build up a more comprehensive index of publications and writers (not that it turned out to be very comprehensive). I tried it out, with some rule tweaks aimed at simplifying the process, in a mid-year poll, but interest there was pretty limited, with only 90 ballots.

Still, that set me up for expanding this year's poll. One thing that has long been obvious is that interest in jazz -- fans, of course, but also musicians -- is worldwide, and we were missing a lot with a 90% American voting base. I haven't tried figuring out the spread this year, but I sent significantly more invites out this year (approx. 280, vs. 220 in 2023, vs. 200 in 2022), and half or so of the increase came from abroad (mostly Europe, and most of that Western, but also Latin America and Japan). I have no idea whether that skewed the top results. It certainly did add to the number of albums that got 1 or 2 votes. Most of the new invitees didn't vote -- how many didn't even get the message? -- but that's the main reason this poll is bigger than ever.

It's premature to declare it the best ever. My big job for the next week will be to sort through the data, and try to figure out what's significant, or at least interesting, and turn whatever insights I may glean into an introductory essay, for Arts Fuse, when they present the poll results -- sometime shortly after Jan. 1. I've struggled with these essays in the past, and don't doubt that I will do so again. But I take some comfort in knowing that in the unknowable and possibly unimaginable vastness of the jazz niche in the world, I have a pretty substantial personal store of knowledge -- perhaps here I should point you to my personal Best Jazz of 2024, where my New Albums A-List has broke 100 for the first time ever (among 795 total albums listed, and listened to) -- as well as the collective intelligence of so many of my peers.

Hopefully the poll, and jazz in general, will get some more attention after it's published. If you have ideas about better ways to publicize the poll, I'd be interested in hearing them. I'm also curious about data analysis tools, and how to present the data for further analysis. And after the dust settles, and we get a breather, I'd like to do some work on rebuilding the website, to integrate all of the accumulated data. I might also add that the more I do this, the more impressed I become with the expertise and care of the critical community, so maybe there's some way to build on that.

Once again, I've been exclusively focused on jazz these last few weeks, so there is very little else below. Maybe I'll pivot back in January, but there is still a vast number of records revealed in the poll that I haven't gotten to. Total rated count for this year is 1155, which seems like a lot but is way down from 1834 in 2023, 1670 in 2022, 1480 in 2021, 1637 in 2020, etc. Part of the reason is that we're still a month or two from freeze point for 2024. Another may be that I've been pretty consistently logging late 2023 finds under 2023 instead of entering them into the 2024 file (marked as '23). Still, evidence suggests I'm slowing down. That's also my subjective impression.

I've done a tiny bit of work on the EOY aggregate, but very little. I'm way behind, and don't even have all of my own grades copied into the file. Moreover, when I went to work on it a bit today, I found my eyes weren't up to the task. It's probably a lost cause.

In recent years, I've allowed Music Week to go all the way to Dec. 31, regardless of whatever day it falls on. I'll try to follow that practice again this year.

AALY Trio [Mats Gustafsson/Peter Janson/Kjell Nordeson]: Sustain (2024, Silkheart): Free jazz sax-bass-drums trio, founded earlier, but their discography was limited to 5 1997-2002 albums with Ken Vandermark (the last as DKV Trio, his group with Hamid Drake and Kent Kessler). By then, Gustafsson had moved to a new trio, the Thing. Still harsher than most, but they've settled down enough to let you make sense of what they're doing, which is quite a lot. A- [bc]

Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix Reimagined (Live) (2024, Ropeadope): Alto saxophonist, from New York, debut 2012, fourth album was Phoenix (2023) had a number of guest spots, including Dianne Reeves (vocals), Sonia Sanchez (poetry), and Angela Davis (spoken word). Fewer vocal options here, so she heats the sax up. B+(***) [sp]

John Blum Quartet Featuring Marshall Allen: Deep Space (2024, Astral Spirits): Pianist, first album 2002, not a lot of records but he's made some interesting rounds lately, with a very good 2023 album with David Murray, and now this one with Marshall Allen -- who is counted in this superb quartet, along with Elliott Levin (tenor sax/flute) and Chad Taylor (drums). A- [bc]

Silvia Bolognesi/Dudú Kouate/Griffin Rodriguez: Timing Birds (2021 [2024], Astral Spirits): Italian bassist, first album 2005, mostly shares credit line with others like these: Kouate on percussion (ngoni, kalimba), Rodriguez with electronics, all three credited for voice -- some African chant, some spoken word, various bits that play off nicely against the fascinating groove and ambiance. A- [bc]

C6Fe2RN6: C6Fe2RN6 (2023 [2024], Astral Spirits): Duo of Nick Terry (electric guitar, kalimba, music box) and Rob Mazurek (trumpet, piano, mbira, flutes, bells, synth, electronics), group/album name "is almost all of the elements that make up the color Milori Blue," both musicians also being visual artists (and, evidently, chemists). I'd slot this as ambient, but holds one's interest. B+(***) [bc]

Summer Camargo: To Whom I Love (2022 [2024], Blue Engine): Trumpet player, first album, at least two cuts recorded in 2022 because they feature the late organ player Joey DeFrancesco. Mostly a sextet, with Veronica Leahy (reeds), Jeffery Miller (trombone), Esteban Castro (piano), bass, and drums, plus extra percussion (James Haddad) on 5 tracks. B+(**) [sp]

Devon Daniels Quintet: LesGo! (2024, Sam First): Alto saxophonist, debut album 2020, quintet with Julien Knowles (trumpet), Chris Fishman (piano), bass, and drums, playing five originals plus covers of Charlie Parker, Monk, and Coltrane. A pretty good example of postbop not far removed from its roots. B+(***) [sp]

Vanisha Gould: She's Not Shiny, She's Not Smooth (2024, Cellar Live): Jazz singer, seems to write her own material on this second album, following Life's a Gig in January -- recorded in 2022, and co-credited to pianist Chris McCarthy, who returns in a piano-bass-drums here. B+(**) [sp]

Mats Gustafsson & Liudas Mockūnas: Watching a Dog. Smiling (2022 [2024], NoBusiness): Avant-sax duo, one from Norway, the other from Lithuania, together they cover all the variants, from flute (and slide flute) to bass sax and contrabass clarinet, dropping in some live electronics. B+(*) [bc]

Steve Hirsh/Steve Swell/Jim Clouse/William Parker: Out on a Limb (2024, Soul City Sounds): Drums, trombone, saxophones, bass. Three long pieces, 73:50, high quality free jazz, especially the trombone. A- [bc]

Jasper Høiby's 3 Elements: Like Water (2024, Edition): Danish bassist, side credits start 2000, Phronesis in 2007, Kairos 4Tet in 2011, solo work from 2016. This one complements his 2023 Earthness: both are trios with Noah Stoneman (piano) and Luca Caruso (bass). B+(***) [sp]

Susie Ibarra/Jeffrey Zeigler/Graham Reynolds: Insectum (2024, Golden Hornet): Percussionist, born in Anaheim, raised in Houston, in New York since 1989, this piece a commission as "a sonic exploration of the world of arthropods," with all three listed as "composer/performer": Zeigler is a cellist from Kronos Quartet; Reynolds mostly seems to have done soundtracks since 2001. B+(**) [sp]

Joaju Cuarteto: Avy' a Jave (2023 [2024], Polka Blue): Group from Paraguay, "with predominant Paraguayan rhythms, such as polkas and guaranias in a language that converges with improvisation and jazz aesthetics with their own identities," or so goes the machine translation of one of the few pieces I've found on them/this, even in Spanish. B+(**) [sp]

Mike LeDonne/Eric Alexander [Heavy Hitters []: That's What's Up! (2023 [2024], Cellar Music): No clean way to parse this cover: Top line (large white type on black, all caps throughout: "That's What's Up!" Second line, medium brown type: "Mike LeDonne Eric Alexander." Third line, big type again, but light blue: "Heavy Hitters." Fourth line, small white type: "Jeremy Pelt Vincent Herring Alexander Clafty Kenny Washington." Background is the group's previous (2023) album, titled The Heavy Hitters, under six small print names (LeDonne, Alexander, Pelt, Herring, Washington, Peter Washington). Mainstream, aptly named. B+(***) [sp]

Alex LoRe: Motivity (2022 [2024], Weirdear): Alto saxophonist, also plays C-melody sax here, from Florida, based in Brooklyn, several albums since his 2014 debut trio, label name started off as group name (2019). Trio here with Thomas Morgan (bass) and Johnathan Blake (drums). This has a nice, airy feel to it. B+(***) [sp]

Matt Mitchell: Illimitable (2023 [2024], Obliquity): Pianist, has made a name for himself since 2006, and is clearly an exceptional pianist. Still, takes a lot to focus through 110 minutes (4 tracks) of solo improv. B+(***) [bc]

MTB [Brad Mehldau/Mark Turner/Peter Bernstein]: Solid Jackson (2023 [2024], Criss Cross Jazz): Group name from initials, playing piano/tenor sax/guitar, with a second line of names that are nearly as prominent: Larry Grenadier (bass) and Bill Stewart (drums). For the first four, this is a reunion of a 1994 quintet on the Dutch mainstream label, also credited to MTB, the only change the drummer (Leon Parker in 1994). While everyone is quite capable, the one who really carries the album is Bernstein. B+(***) [sp]

Demetrio Muñiz: Tromboneando con Demetrio Muñiz (2024, Egrem): Cuban trombonist, former musical director of Buena Vista Social Club, Discogs doesn't show many albums under his own name, but he has a fair number of side credits going back to 1982. Fairly wide range of sounds and styles here. B+(**) [sp]

Camila Nebbia/Sofia Salvo/Lara Alarcón/Alfred Vogel: Pnkstrasse53 (2023 [2024], Boomslang): Three musicians from Buenos Aires -- tenor sax, baritone sax, vocals + fx -- plus a drummer from Austria, recording in Berlin, promise "free improvisation with a punk jazz attitude." One thing punk is that the 9 pieces are short: 25:38. B+(**) [bc]

New Regency Orchestra: New Regency Orchestra (2024, Mr Bongo): "An 18-piece Afro-Cuban jazz big band, inspired by the musical melting pot of NYC in the 1950s, but with the punch and power of a whole host of London's best Latin and jazz musicians." I'm not seeing a roster of musicians, but the musical director is Lex Blondin. They offer a pretty fair echo of Mario Bauza and Tito Puente, which may be all you need. B+(**) [sp]

Margaux Oswald Collateral Damage: In Time, Hollow Oaks Become Chapels (2021 [2024], Clean Feed): Pianist, "of French-Filipina origin, both in Geneva, and currently based in Copenhagen." Half-dozen albums since 2021, this group lists two guitarists, three bassists, and a drummer. B+(**) [bc]

Berke Can Özcan & Jonah Parzen-Johnson: It Was Always Time (2024, We Jazz): Turkish drummer/sound designer, in a duo with a New York-based baritone saxophonist, both also credited with "instruments." B+(**) [bc]

Jamie Saft Trio: Plays Monk (2022 [2024], Oystertones): Pianist, albums start 1996, many side credits (especially with Bobby Previte and John Zorn), plays a lot of electric and organ but sticks to piano here, backed by Brad Jones (bass) and Hamid Drake (drums). B+(*) [sp]

Tom Skinner: Voices of Bishara Live at "mu" (2023 [2024], International Anthem): British drummer, mostly jazz credits since 1998, including Sons of Kemet, but also plays in post-Radiohead Britpop The Smile, led his first album in 2022, Voices of Bishara, and here takes them on the road, with two tenor saxophonists (Robert Stillman and Chelea Carmichael, the latter also on flute), cello, and bass I thought the album was pretty great, so I'm not surprised that this is pretty good, but it lacks that extra wallop you hope for in live albums. B+(**) [sp]

Steve Swell's Imbued With Light: Hommage à Galina Ustvolskaya (2024, Silkheart): Fourth in the avant-trombonist's series of hommages to modern-classical composers, first one I've never heard of, a Russian (1919-2006), per Wikipedia: "Known as 'the lady with the hammer,' her music has been described as demanding 'everything from the performer,' uncompromising in her trademark textured homophonic blocks of sound." Septet here, with trumpet, tuba, bassoon, cello, piano, and drums. B+(***) [bc]

Thumbscrew: Wingbeats (2024, Cuneiform): Trio of Tomas Fujiwara (drums/vibraphone), Michael Formanek (bass), and Mary Halvorson (guitar), with three song credits each (plus a Mingus cover), eighth group album since 2014. Each brings real talent, and they mesh well enough, but the album slips past without leaving enough of an impression. B+(***) [dl]

Tomin: Flores Para Verene/Cantos Para Caramina (2020-24 [2024], International Anthem): First name, last is Perea-Chamblee, based in New York, plays reeds (clarinets) and brass (cornet). This "debut album" is a compilation from singles and EPs (as far as I can tell), 24 short pieces adding up to 36:43. Feels a little sketchy. B+(*) [sp]

Tomin: A Willed and Conscious Balance (2024, International Anthem): This is billed as his "debut full-length work," 10 songs, 35:49, where Tomin Perea-Chamblee plays "flute, alto and bass clarinets, trombone, euphonium, bells, sine waves (Casio MT-70) and additional trumpet" -- Linton Smith II is the main trumpet player, with keyboards (Telana Davis), bass (Luke Stewart), two cellos, and drums. B+(**) [sp]

Village of the Sun: Live in Tokyo (2023 [2024], Gearbox): This is Simon Ratledge, who is half of the British electronic duo Basement Jaxx, working with jazz musicians Binker Golding (sax) and Moses Boyd (drums), themselves the notable duo Binker & Moses. Live set, follows their eponymous 2020 album, for three tracks, 32:14. B+(**) [bc]

Liba Villavecchia Trio + Luis Vicente: Muracik (2022 [2024], Clean Feed): Spanish alto saxophonist, has credits going back to 1999 but his own groups really pick up around 2020, trio here with bass (Alex Reviriego) and drums (Vasco Trilla), with trumpet on the side. B+(**) [sp]

Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band: Treasury Volume 1 (2024, Turtle Bay): Pianist, b. 1944, an interest in ragtime drew him to Eubie Blake, called his first group Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators, formed his Gotham City Band after moving to New York in 1980. Unclear when or where this was recorded: his releases seem to thin out after 2010, but this is largely the same band as on the 2021 album, and the singer there has nothing before 2019, so the guess here is that this is a fairly recent recording, even if they're direct-cutting 78s and sending them off to Archeophone for restoration. A- [sp]

Cory Weeds Meets Champian Fulton: Every Now and Then: Live at OCL Studios (2024, Cellar Music): Alto saxophonist, albums since 2010, runs the mainstream-oriented label, duets with the pianist-singer. She's a fine singer, but my favorite track is the opener, just sax and piano. Oh, and this isn't their first meeting. B+(***) [sp]

Lucy Wijnands/John Di Martino: Call Me Irresponsible: The Songs of Jimmy Van Heusen (2022 [2023], Night Is Alive): Jazz singer, from Kansas City, father is stride pianist Bram Wijnands, album is sometimes just credited to the pianist (I've seen covers with both names, just his, or none with no subtitle), as well as references to the Night Is Right Band -- with Harry Allen (tenor sax), Dave Stryker (guitar), Peter Washington (bass), and Willie Jones III (drums) -- and no clear release date. The songs earned their standards status, the headliners are well suited, and Allen is better still. B+(***) [sp]

Lucy Wijnands: Something Awaits (2023, 4605843 DK2, EP): Jazz singer, father a stride pianist, neither this nor the album with John Di Martino above appear on Discogs or other discographies, but Will Friedwald, Michael Steinman, and Francis Davis are fans, and not without reason. Six songs, 24:55. B+(*) [sp]

Andrea Wolper: Wanderlust (2024, Moonflower Music): Jazz singer, only her fourth album since 1998, writes most of her own material, but opens with a Ray Charles tune here, and returns for Carole King and Sting. Band is first-rate, with John Di Martino (piano), Ken Filiano (bass), Michael TA Thompson (drums), Charles Burnham (violin), and co-producer Jeff Lederer (clarinet/flute), and she is masterful. A- [sp]

Children of the Sun: Ofamfa (1971 [2024], Moved-by-Sound): Basically the same St. Louis group that also recorded as Black Artist Group and Human Arts Ensemble, the most famous alumnus of which is saxophonist Oliver Lake. This particular recording is build around the poems of Bruce Rutlin (aka Ajule). The poetry itself is fairly marginal, but the music, and especially the saxophone, can really take off. B+(***) [sp]

Iancu Dumitrescu: Ansamblul Hyperion (1980 [2024], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Romanian composer, reissue of his first album, originally relesed in 1981, his Ensemble including clarinet, flute, bassoon, viola, cello, double bass, trombone, and percussion, with his piano on one track, and there's certainly some uncredited electronics in the mix. The first piece doesn't go far beyond surveying the sound pallette, but the later pieces are often quite remarkable. A- [bc]

The Jazzmen: Nineteen Sixty-Six (1966 [2024], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Previously unreleased tape by a Poughkeepsie group led by bassist Tyrone Crabb, with the first recording of Joe McPhee on trumpet -- his sax debut, Underground Railroad came in 1969 -- with two saxophonists (Harry Hall and Reggie Marks), with Mike Kull on piano and Charlie Benjamin on drums. Opens with 9:56 wrapped around "One Mint Julep," then a 34:05 piece called "Killed in Vietnam/Milestones." The former is possibly over-constrained by an irresistible melody, while the latter can go off the rails, but that's not such a bad thing. B+(**) [bc]

Louis Jordan: World Broadcast Recordings 1944/45 (1944-45 [2024], Circle, 2CD): Radio shots, recorded for World Broadcasting System (WBS), 48 tracks "including previously unissued alternate takes." Terrific ditties, half familiar, all enjoyable, sound a bit less than ideal. B+(***) [sp]

Nature's Consort: Nature's Consort (1969 [2024], Aguirre): One-shot quintet album, four of five songs written by pianist Robert Naughton (aka Bobby Naughton, 1944-2022, mostly played vibraphone later on, was involved in Creative Improvisers Orchestra and related groups led by Leo Smith and Roscoe Mitchell), the other a Carla Bley cover, with James Duboise (brass), Mark Whitecage (reeds), Mario Pavone (bass), and Laurence Cook (percussion). B+(***) [yt]

Nisse Sandström Group: Öppet Ett (1965-67 [2023], Caprice): Swedish saxophonist (1942-2021), also plays bass clarinet, three early tracks, adds up to 40 minutes, some psychedelic rock influence with scattered chatter but eventually hits its mark. Mats Gustafsson curated the reissue series and wrote the liner notes -- I haven't read them, but recognize the influence. B+(***) [sp]

Omar Sosa: Omar Sosa's 88 Well Tuned Drums (1996-2018 [2024], Otá): Cuban pianist, moved to Ecuador in the 1990s, passed through California before settling in Barcelona. This is a soundtrack to a feature documentary, so it appears to pick up a range of pieces across his career, ranging from solo piano to big band. All are quite striking. A- [sp]

Charles Tolliver Music Inc: Live at the Captain's Cabin (1973 [2024], Cellar Music): Trumpet player, from Florida, started working with Jackie McLean in 1964 (e.g., It's Time!), produced a number of striking albums from 1968 well into the 1970s, many on the Strata-East label which he co-founded with Stanley Cowell. Sizzling live set here with John Hicks (piano), Clint Houston (bass), and Clifford Barbaro (drums). A- [sp]

Steve Swell's Systems for Total Immersion: Hommage à Luciano Berio (2021 [2022], Silkheart): Free jazz trombonist, many albums since 1996, most relevant here are a series of "hommage" albums to modern composers, starting with Bartók and Messaien. I'm not very knowledgeable about any of these subjects, and this one is especially tricky. Ellen Christi sings, which is often a problem for me. Swell plays some pocket trumpet, with Marty Ehrlich on flute and reeds, Sam Newsome on soprano sax, Jim Pugliese on marimba, and Gerald Cleaver on drums, plus odd sounds I can't quite account for. Very tricky, but it never quite turned me off, and started to grow on me. B+(***) [bc]

Terry Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators: Hot House Rag (1971 [2001], Delmark): Ragtime pianist, started out in Ohio and sought out Eubie Blake. His first album was released as Jazz in the Afternoon by Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators, as part of Blackbird's "Jazz From Ohio Series." Those eight standards form the core of this 13-track reissue, with ragtime piano at the heart of a classic Hot Seven, the horns brilliant, the rhythm sustained by Bob Sundstrom's banjo and Mike Walbridge's tuba. B+(***) [r]

Terry Waldo: The Soul of Ragtime ([2014], Tompkins Square): Ragtime pianist from Ohio, b. 1944, learned his craft in the 1970s, when Eubie Blake was still around to mentor him. Sixteen tunes, not clear when they were recorded -- there's an earlier, undated album cover, showing a much younger man -- but it was certainly long after the tunes were first punched into rolls. B+(**) [r]

Terry Waldo/Tatiana Eva-Marie: I Double Dare You (2021, Turtle Bay): The singer started with the trad-oriented Avalon Jazz Band c. 2019. Trad/swing band led by the pianist, where Nick Russo's banjo is prominent. Nice duet to close. B+(*) [r]

I wasn't sure when (or if) I'd find time to run a Music Week post this week, but caught up with my daily mail late Tuesday evening, so I took a few minutes to run the break, leaving me just an introduction to write before posting.

I'm preoccupied with the 19th annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll, where we are facing a Friday, Dec. 20 deadline. I've counted 93 100 ballots so far. Last year I wound up with 159, up from 151 in 2022. I think we'll probably top these figures, but there's still a fair amount of uncertainty at this late date. The main reason for hope is that I've put quite a few more invites out this year, especially to critics in Europe. On the other hand, attrition (that I know about) strikes me as unusually high, and the unknown looms larger than ever.

Still, even the worst case imaginable (which is probably down around 140) means that this is a very large, very wide-ranging poll, which will generate a lot of tips for readers to explore. I'm generating lists of albums, which show that thus far 388 different new albums have received votes, plus 96 for the Rara Avis category (new releases of older music, recorded no later than 2014).

While I caught up with my mail around 8 pm, the next couple days should be a lot of work (and if not it will be pretty depressing). Meanwhile, I'm listening to whatever I can squeeze in. The only non-jazz album below is one that I stumbled across an open tab on, and figured it's short, so why not now? Glad I did.

John Butcher/Florian Stoffner/Chris Corsano: The Glass Changes Shape (2023 [2024], Relative Pitch): Sax/guitar/drums trio, Corsano also credited with "half clarinet." B+(**) [sp]

Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few: The World Is on Fire (2023 [2024], Division 81): Saxophonist (tenor, I think), from Chicago, started out as one of Ernest Dawkins' Young Masters, fifth group album, album credits break into three tiers, with a core quartet (piano-bass-drums), extras -- Corey Wilkes (trumpet), Ed Wilkerson Jr. (alto clarinet), plus harp, cello, flutes -- and vocals (also a Collier credit). The latter aren't the point, but sometimes the world impinges on your art, and you have to fight back. A- [sp]

Elephant9 With Terje Rypdal: Catching Fire (2017 [2024], Rune Grammofon): Norwegian fusion trio -- keyboards (Ståle Storløkken), bass (Nikolai Hængsle), drums (Torstein Lofthus) -- 11th album since 2008, in a live set with the guitarist. Starts tentative, but they do finally catch fire, which is something to behold. B+(***) [sp]

Eliane Elias: Time and Again (2024, Candid): From Brazil, initially established herself as a postbop pianist, married her bassist (Marc Johnson), first significantly Brazilian album was an instrumental Jobim tribute in 1990, then finally sang Jobim in 1998 (quite well). Since then she has mostly gravitated toward playing and singing Brazilian standards, as she does here, with the guitar finally overshadowing the piano. B+(**) [sp]

Peter Evans: Extra (2023 [2024], We Jazz): Trumpet player, started out in Mostly Other People Do the Killing, own albums start in 2004, including many collaborations with various European free jazz figures. Trio here with Petter Eldh (bass) and Jim Black (drums), both electronics, while he plays piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn, and piano. B+(***) [sp]

Kate Gentile/International Contemporary Ensemble: B i o m e i.i (2021 [2023], Obliquity): Drummer, albums since 2015, composed these pieces for a small chamber orchestra -- a group of 7 drawn from the venerable (since 2001) and much larger (34 is the number I keep running across) artist collective, so: flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon, violin, vibraphone, piano, and the leader's drums. B+(***) [bc]

Ayumi Ishito: Roboquarians Vol. 1 (2022 [2024], 577): Japanese saxophonist, based in Brooklyn, several albums since 2015, this an "avant-punk" trio with George Draguns on guitar and Kevin Shea on drums. Evidently, Draguns goes back to the 1980s: Discogs calls him a bassist, and locates him in groups like Form and Mess, Storm and Stress, and Slag. The hard edges I associate with punk give way to synth effects here, credited to Ishito, whose horn is less evident. B+(**) [bc]

Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra: Live at the Adler Planetarium (2023 [2024], International Anthem): Trumpet player, groups started with Chicago Underground and eventually led to this Exploding Star Orchestra (debut 2007, this is their 10th album). Fitting, at least to anyone who remembers Sun Ra, that the latter (now 9-piece) group should wind up performing in the Grainger Sky Theater. B+(**) [sp]

Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra/Small Unit: Spectral Fiction (2023 [2024], Corbett vs. Dempsey): The "compact version" of the trumpeter's big band is slimmed down to six, each well known: Damon Locks (voice/electronics), Tomeka Reid (cello), Angelica Sanchez (Wurlitzer), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass), and Chad Taylor (drums). The music is interesting, but how good the album really is will turn on Locks' words, which I haven't been able to really focus on yet. But my first impression is they may be a plus. B+(***) [bc]

Milton Nascimento/Esperanza Spalding: Milton + Esperanza (2024, Concord): Legendary Brazilian singer-songwriter, active since the late 1960s, holds home court in these duets with the young American bassist-turned-singer, who complements him nicely, much as you'd expect. B+(**) [sp]

Eva Novoa: Novoa/Gress/Gray Trio, Volume 1 (2019 [2024], 577): Earlier, more conventional piano-bass-drums trio, although Gress is also credited with modular synthesizer, and the leader with Chinese gongs. B+(**) [os]

Ivo Perelman/Aruán Ortiz/Ramón López: Ephemeral Shapes (2024, Fundacja Słuchaj): Tenor sax, piano, and drums trio, improv, seven numbered "Shape" pieces, plus one called "Ephemeral." B+(***) [dl]

Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp: Magical Incantations (2024, Soul City Sounds): Tenor sax and piano duo, a partnership which goes back at least to 1996's Bendito of Santa Cruz, intensified after 2011, peaking with the multi-volume The Art of Perelman-Shipp (2017), and continuing -- this is the 11th Shipp co-credit I have filed under Perelman since 2018. Impossible to make fine distinctions, but this does seem to merit its title. A- [sp]

Ivo Perelman/Gabby Fluke-Mogul: Duologues 2: Joy (2024, Ibeji Music): Tenor sax and violin duo. Part of a series that started with Nate Wooley, although there must have been dozens of prior Perelman duos, with many more to come. B+(**) [sp]

Ivo Perelman/Ingrid Laubrock: Duologues 3: Crystal Clear (2024, Ibeji Music): Duo, both play tenor sax. This reminds me that I still haven't listened to Perelman's Reed Rapture in Brooklyn (2022): 11 two-sax duos, each given a full CD. Laubrock would have made sense in that company. B+(***) [sp]

Ivo Perelman's São Paulo Creative 4: Supernova (2024, self-released): Brazil's most famous avant-saxophonist, who seems to have played with every peer in America and Europe, returns home for a sax quartet, with Lívio Tragtenberg (bass clarinet/alto sax), Rogério Costa (soprano/alto sax), and Manu Falleiros (soprano/baritone sax). B+(**) [sp]

Neta Raanan: Unforeseen Blossom (2024, Giant Step Arts): Tenor saxophonist, from New Jersey, quartet where Joel Ross (vibes) is very prominent, especially at first. Eventually the group settles down, and gets better for it. B+(***) [bc]

Christian Tamburr/Dominick Farinacci/Michael Ward-Bergeman: Triad (2024, Ropeadope): Trio of vibraphone/marimba, trumpet, and accordion, the first two Americans, but Ward-Bergeman's bio is cagier, with study at Berklee and stops in New Orleans and Vancouver. The accordion is more common in European jazz, but also explains the Astor Piazzolla opener. The trumpet is more at home in New Orleans, which gives us a cover of "St. James Infirmary" -- one of three guest vocal spots for Shenel Johns, starting with a gutsy "I Put a Spell on You" and ending with a torchy ballad. The other guest is Jamey Haddad, on percussion (6 of 10 tracks). Album title will no doubt carry on as the group name. A- [sp]

Teiku: Teiku (2022 [2024], 577): Group led by Josh Harlow (piano/electronics) and Jonathan Barahal Taylor (drums), composers who based this on Passover songs, offered as "liberation music . . . a call for justice for all oppressed peoples," noting that "as Jews, we decry the senseless violence, displacement, and killing perpetrated in our name." Group adds Peter Formanek (tenor/alto sax/clarinet), Rafael Leafar (bass clarinet/bass flute/tenor/soprano sax), and Jaribu Shahid (bass/percussion). B+(***) [sp]

Trance Map (Evan Parker and Matthew Wright): Horizons Held Close (2024, Relative Pitch): Wright is a British "sound artist," using electronics, turntables, and various other contraptions. He released a duo album with the avant-saxophonist in 2011 called Trance Map, and they've had several more group collaborations since, including two albums on Intakt. Back to a duo here, with Parker playing soprano. B+(**) [sp]

Transatlantic Trance Map: Marconi's Drift (2022 [2024], False Walls): Trance Map was a 2011 duo album of "sound designer" Matthew Wright and avant-saxophonist Evan Parker. They've collaborated several times since, including a recent duo, two mixed group albums on Intakt, and this their most complex endeavor: "two ensembles playing simultaneously on either side of the Atlantic ocean, connected through the internet and improvising through the airwaves." B+(**) [bc]

Unionen: Unionen (2024, We Jazz): Two stars each from Norway and Sweden -- Per "Texas" Johansson (reeds), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards), Petter Eldh (basses), and Gard Nilssen (drums) -- their name referring back to the 1814-1905 United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway (and not to the Swedish trade union, which was Google's first suggestion). B+(***) [sp]

John Zorn: New Masada Quartet, Volume 3: Live at Roulette (2024, Tzadik): Zorn puts his name on so many albums he doesn't play on that it's surprising not to see it here -- not that there's no precedent for attributing it as I did (and as I've done for both previous volumes) -- where he plays his usual alto sax on his book of well-rehearsed tunes, backed by Julian Lage (guitar), Jorge Roeder (bass), and Kenny Wollesen (drums). Great to hear him cut loose, but this adds a whole other dimension to Lage's guitar. A- [sp]

Tim Berne/Michael Formanek: Parlour Games (1991 [2024], Relative Pitch): Sax and bass duo, Berne playing alto and baritone, in a previously unreleased session that predates their 1998 duo, Ornery People. This is terrific all the way through. A- [sp]

Brian Calvin and Devin Johnston: Some Hours (1999 [2024], Corbett vs. Dempsey, EP): Short album (5 songs, 22:53), recorded by Jim O'Rourke, with Calvin (guitar/vocals) evidently writing the music to poet Johnston's words (who also plays guitar and offer backing vocals). B+(**) [bc]

Johnny Cash: Songwriter (1993 [2024], Mercury Nashville): Just his vocals, scraped from a demo tape from the void between Cash's Mercury albums (1987-91) and his 1994 work with Rick Rubin, with new instrumentals constructed by John Carter Cash and his crew. A couple of new songs appeared later (like "Drive On"), and some go way back (like "Sing It Pretty, Sue"). Short (11 songs in 30:53), very nicely done. A- [sp]

Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Paul Motian: The Old Country: More From the Deer Head Inn (1992 [2024], ECM): The pianist is still alive, but was knocked out of action by a stroke in 2018, so his label has ever since been scrounging around old tapes for more work by their best-selling-ever artist, as if the market for his wares is inexhaustible. This picks up where his trio's 1994 At the Deer Head Inn left off, with a set of 8 standards running 73:29, with the Nat Adderely title piece the longest. B+(*) [sp]

Soft Machine: Høvikkoden 1971 (1971 [2024], Cuneiform): British prog rock group from Canterbury, started 1968 with a set of odd ditties dominated by singer-songwriter Kevin Ayres. After Ayres split, the rest -- Mike Rutledge (keyboards), Hugh Hopper (bass), and Robert Wyatt (drums), joined by avant-saxophonist Elton Dean (curiously, the source of half of Reginald Dwight's stage name, the other bit taken from Long John Baldry) -- stretched out, with Wyatt the only vocalist, and an odd duck at that. (Wyatt's "The Moon in June" side on Third is my favorite Soft Machine track. After a fall left him paralyzed from the waist down, he went solo, working with Eno and Carla Bley -- high points include his vocals on Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports and Michael Mantler's The Hapless Child -- and ultimately releasing some notable agitprop.) While the group's studio albums, at least through Seven in 1974 (I missed three more through 1981, including one with Allan Holdsworth), tended toward pleasant noodling, several interesting live tapes have surfaced recently, as well as periodic revivals (starting with Soft Machine Legacy in 2005). The live albums, especially the Dean years (1970-72), are much more jazz-oriented, contributing to the burgeoning fusion tide. The best example remains Grides, released in 2006 along with the Legacy disc. This at best is comparable, but two long sets unedited can seem redundant and meander a bit. B+(***) [dl]

Schedule around here has gone haywire. Last week I posted on Tuesday, but this Tuesday I was frantically struggling to mail out a second round of invites to vote in the 19th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll. I finally got my list of 300+ prospects down to less than 50 high priorities, and after midnight sent out 35 emails. (Some names on my list still lacked email addresses, so I saved them for further investigation.) After that mailing, plus a notice sent to previous invitees via my jazzpoll email list, I got a deluge of mail to sort through, which took me through the end of Wednesday.

In between Tuesdays, Laura's cousin came for a 3-day visit, during which I got very little poll work done, but did manage to cook a nice Jewish dinner that compared favorably to the fancy Chinese restaurant and to the barbecue takeout of the other days: roast chicken with tsimmes, latkes with all of the trimmings, mustard slaw, chopped liver, applesauce cake. I didn't collect any photographic evidence, but the chicken was exceptionally lovely, and everything else was just plain yummy. We did manage to get the construction cleaned up before the visit, so now we can rest on our laurels.

As I'm writing this, I'm caught up, with 62 ballots counted, and eight days to go until the Dec. 20 deadline. All year (well, month) long I've hoped for the biggest and best poll ever. It's impossible at this point to tell whether we're on track or not. What I can say is that I've had a lot of warm responses, and that whatever results we wind up with will very interesting to readers who want a better idea of how much really high qualify jazz is being created in 2024.

One of the invitees who has yet to submit a ballot is Tom Hull, who will try to rectify that here and now. The ballot is just a sample from my ever-expanding Best Jazz of 2024 list, which at the moment counts 92 New Music albums graded A- or above (probably an all-time record high, and I'm still a long ways from processing many records I'm only discovering now as I compile the poll results) + 3 late adds from 2023. Also 23 (+1) new releases of older music A- or higher. These top picks are followed at B+(***) with 188 (+8) new music albums plus 26 (+4) old music albums. Lest you think I'm a pushover, the file also lists 355 new and 30 old music albums that I assigned lower grades to (for a total to date of 646 new music albums + 84 old music albums; that's just jazz, as I've also listened to some non-jazz during 2024).

One thing I did last week was to write up a shorter version of the invite letter, where I tried to downplay the rules a bit and make it sound less like contract law. I like this part:

I haven't really followed my advice here: this is much more exhaustively overthought than I expect or even want other people to do. But these lists don't just tell us things about the music on the list, but about the voter, what you know, how you work, and how you view the world. These ballots matter not just because they're easy to aggregate and analyze, but because each tells its own story. That's why we make them all available, even if few readers really care to know that much.

Pretty much everything below is jazz, and that pattern is likely to hold for a couple more weeks. I haven't begun to tabulate all the albums I haven't heard yet that have gotten votes in the poll so far, but the number must be over 100. One resource I've only started to look at is the folder where I've been stuffing all my download link/codes for the past year.

I'll try to post another Music Week toward the middle of next week, but cannot guarantee anything. I basically need a break like I had today, and that seems unlikely. Meanwhile, I'm playing stuff almost continuously, and working my way through whatever happens. After the shock and nausea of the election, this kind of busy work is some kind of blessing -- just not the kind that clarifies thinking. Instead, we just do, and hope for the best. The poll, at least, will be a good thing to come from this period. Syria, I'm not so sure about.

I should mention that while I'm way behind, I've done occasional bits of work on the Metacritic/EOY Aggregate file. Charli XCX has opened up a fairly clear lead, but I don't know whether that's due to early UK reporting, or whether it will sustain as I count more US sources (among others, I haven't done Pitchfork or Rolling Stone yet).

I have a question about Speaking of Which that I want to respond to, but I don't want to hold this up for that. Besides, I have another ballot wanting attention, so I need to get to that. Always open to more questions.

Alfa Mist & Amika Quartet: Recurring: Live at King's Place (2024, Sekito): Group and/or alias for British keyboardist Alfa Sekitoleko, four previous albums since 2017, unclear on credits and recording date, but the string quartet makes its presence felt. B+(**) [sp]

The Bad Plus: Complex Emotions (2023 [2024], Mack Avenue): Originally a piano-bass-drums trio (2000-17), had some crossover success with their Nirvana cover, auditioned a new pianist after Ethan Iverson left, but founder Reid Anderson (bass) and Dave King (drums) are exploring their options: here (as with their 2022 album) with Ben Monder (guitar) and Chris Speed (reeds). They seem to have settled into something merely nice. B+(**) [sp]

Dmitry Baevsky: Roller Coaster (2024, Fresh Sound New Talent): Russian alto saxophonist, based in New York, sought out Cedar Walton and Jimmy Cobb for his 2004 Introducing, third album for Jordi Pujols' label, a quartet with Peter Bernstein (guitar), bass, and drums. B+(**) [sp]

Bark Culture: Warm Wisdom (2023 [2024], Temperphantom): Philadelphia group, a trio led by composer-vibraphonist (Victor Vieira-Branco), with bass (John Moran), and drums (Joey Sullivan). First album. B+(*) [sp]

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin: Spin (2023 [2024], Ronin Rhythm): Swiss pianist, mostly produces extremely enticing rhythm tracks -- an early album was called Ritual Groove Music, before this became his primary group in 2002, with Sha on alto sax and bass clarinet, plus bass and drums. B+(***) [sp]

Body Meπa: Prayer in Dub (2024, Hausu Mountain): New York-based fusion group -- Greg Fox (drums), Sasha Frere-Jones (owl guitar), Melvin Gibbs (bass), Grey McMurray (deer guitar) -- second album, all rich textures and glimmering sufaces. B+(***) [sp]

Willi Bopp/Camille Émaille/Gianni Gebbia/Heiner Goebbels/Cécile Lartigau/Nicolas Perrin: The Mayfield (2022 [2024], Intakt): Many names above and below the title, the sort alphabetical but Bopp's credit (sound design) seems foundational. As for the others: percussion, saxophones, piano, ondes martenot, guitar/electronics. B+(**) [sp]

Karen Borca/Paul Murphy: Entwined (2024, Relative Pitch): Bassoon player, from Wisconsin, studied with Cecil Taylor there, and became his assistant at Antioch, in 1974 marrying his saxophonist, Jimmy Lyons, who she played with until his death in 1986 -- Murphy was the drummer in that same group. Though fairly well known for her side credits, Borca never had an album under her own name until 2024, when NoBusiness collected a couple Vision Festival group sets as Good News Blues. Now comes "her first proper album," an improv duo with drums. B+(***) [sp]

Sarah Buechi/Franz Hellmüller/Rafael Jerjen: Pink Mountain Sagas (2024, Intakt): Swiss jazz singer, sixth album since 2014 on Intakt, second to share credit line with guitarist and bassist, this time adding a "feat." cover credit for Kristina Brunner (Schwyzerörgeli [an accordion]) and Andreas Gabriel (violin). B+(**) [sp]

Anna Butterss: Mighty Vertebrate (2024, International Anthem): Bassist, member of Jeff Parker's IVtet, same concept here with Josh Johnson (alto sax/effects), but different guitarist (Gregory Uhlmann) and drummer (Ben Lumsdaine), with the leader also contributing some guitar, synths, flute, and drum machine, which can add a bit of bounce. Parker guests on one (of ten) tracks. I like the lead track even more than the Parker album, but it loses a step later on. B+(***) [sp]

Charlie and the Tropicales: Jump Up (2024, Nu-Tone): Third group album, led by New Orleans trombonist Charlie Halloran, warms up a mambo, adds a dash of calypso, a cover of "Gee Baby," and plenty more salsa picante, often depending on which guest singer they can line up for what. B+(**) [sp]

Sylvie Courvoisier: To Be Other-Wise (2024, Intakt): Swiss pianist, based in New York since 1998, shortly after her long string of records begins. This one is solo. B+(***) [sp]

Josephine Davies: Satori: Weatherwards (2024, Whirlwind): British tenor saxophonist, originally from the Shetland Islands, debut 2006, released Satori in 2017, initially a trio with bass (Dave Whitford) and drums (later James Maddren), adding Alcyona Mick on piano for this fourth album. Very poised, albeit with a couple of tentative spots. B+(***) [sp]

Caroline Davis: Portals Vol. 2: Returning (2022 [2024], Intakt): Alto saxophonist, based in New York, several albums since 2011, including a Portals Vol. 1: Mourning (2020). Interesting music, guest vocals a mixed bag. B+(**) [sp]

David Friesen: A Light Shining Through (2021 [2024], Origin): Bassist-composer, steady stream of albums ever since 1976, approaching 80 when he took his quartet -- Joe Manis (saxes), Alex Fantaev (percussion), and Charlie Doggett (more percussion) -- to pre-invasion (but not pre-war) Ukraine to record with the Kyiv Mozart String Quartet. B+(***) [cd]

Asher Gamedze & the Black Lungs: Constitution (2023 [2024], International Anthem): Jazz drummer from Capetown, South Africa, with several albums since 2020, this an octet plus vocals (Tina Mene) and words (Fred Moten). The latter are engaging, but the former veer toward opera. B+(*) [sp]

Ginetta's Vendetta: Fun Size (2024, Kickin' Wiccan Music): Group led by Ginetta M. (for Minichiello), who plays pocket trumpet and sings, sixth album, wrote a couple songs while covering tunes like "Moon River" and "Misty." Band includes tenor/soprano sax (Danny Walsh, piano (Jon Davis), bass, and drums. B+(*) [cd]

Louis Hayes: Artform Revisited (2024, Savant): Drummer, from Detroit, played with Horace Silver, John Coltrane, and Cannonball Adderley in the late 1950s, has a 1960 album but emerged as a leader in the late 1970s, and again in the early 1990s. Last heard on his 2017 Serenade for Horace, back here at 86 with a vibrant quintet -- Abraham Burton (tenor sax), Steve Nelson (vibes), David Hazeltine (piano), Dezron Douglas (bass) -- adding a couple originals (and "A Flower Is Lovesome Thing") to a program of bop-era standards. B+(***) [sp]

The Jazz Passengers: Big Large: In Memory of Curtis Fowlkes (2023 [2024], FOOD): Recorded "shortly before [the trombonist's] death," the octet he co-led with saxophonist Roy Nathanson still sounds fabulous ranging "from the wistful and tragic to the vaudevillian and absurd, . . . a living memory, a yearning we all have for something just out of reach," although their vocals rarely approach the same level of craft. B+(***) [sp]

Emiliano Lasansky: The Optimist (2024, Outside In Music): Bassist, from Iowa, studied in Rochester, moved to New York, released an album with the group Kin (2019), moved on to Los Angeles, this counts as his debut, a quartet with Devin Daniels (alto sax), Javier Santiago (piano), and Benjamin Ring (drums), with vocals (Genevieve Artadi) on 4 tracks. B+(***) [sp]

Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: Brink (2024, Intakt): German saxophonist (tenor/soprano), based in New York, has been playing with the drummer at least since 2008, with several duo albums (especially during the 2020 lockdown). B+(**) [r]

Jeff Lederer: Guilty! (2024, Little (i) Music): Saxophonist (tenor/alto), has several albums under his own name but also works under group names (Brooklyn Blowhards, Shakers n' Bakers) and side credits. Here he revives his "post-modern Traditional Jazz band" Swing n' Dix -- Kirk Knuffke (cornet), Bob Stewart (tuba), and Matt Wilson (drums), with guest spots for Curtis Hasselbring (trombone/electronics) and Mary LaRose (vocals) -- for another round of old-timey sounds wracked by modernist maelstrom. B+(**) [sp]

Luis Lopes Humanization 4tet: Saarbrücken (2021 [2024], Clean Feed): Portuguese electric guitarist, fifth album since 2008 with this group, with tenor sax great Rodrigo Amado and two sons of the American trumpet player Dennis Gonzalez -- Aaron on bass, Stefan on drums. While the saxophonist is always impressive, the guitar is especially distinctive here. A- [bc]

Luis Lopes: Dark Narcissus: Stereo Guitar Solo (2024, Shhpuma): Not sure what the technical gimmick is here, but the tone is metallic, a collage of sound that retains its interest. B+(**) [bc]

Roberto Magris: Europlane for Jazz: Freedom Is Peace (2024, JMood): Italian pianist, led Gruppo Jazz Marca in the 1980s, solo albums start from 1990. This revives his Europlane group, which had recorded three albums 1998-2005: currently a sextet with Tony Lakatos (tenor/soprano sax), Florian Bramböck (alto/baritone sax), Lukás Oravec (trumpet/fluegelhorn), bass, and drums, for a long and often delightful (75:50) live set. B+(***) [cd]

Francisco Mela/Zoh Amba: Causa y Efecto (Vol. 2) (2021 [2024], 577): Drums and tenor sax duo, some voice from Mela, some flute from Amba. Label like to split its sessions into paired volumes then delay the second part. B+(**) [bc]

Eva Novoa: Novoa/Carter/Mela Trio, Vol. 1 (2021 [2024], 577): Spanish pianist, debut 2016, third different trio she's assembled for this label, this with Daniel Carter (tenor sax, trumpet, flute, clarinet) and Francisco Mela (drums). Long first-side piece is beautifully balanced. Second side drops in a bit of vocal (Mela) on one piece, some electric keyb on the other, but Carter is again superb. A- [os]

Adam O'Farrill: Hueso (2024, FOOD): Trumpet player, from New York, father and grandfather are famous Latin Jazz masters, but he's more likely to show up in free jazz contexts. Quartet here with Xavier Del Castillo (tenor sax), Walter Stinson (bass), and brother Zack O'Farrill (drums). B+(***) [sp]

Out Of/Into [Joel Ross/Gerald Clayton/Kendrick Scott/Matt Brewer/Immanuel Wilkins]: Motion I (2024, Blue Note): One of the label's occasional ad hoc supergroup projects, where Wilkins (alto sax) and Ross (vibes) are their latest generation of stars, backed here by well established piano-bass-drums players. They're all superb players, and this could easily pass as a fine album, if you didn't listen to much else that's been coming out. B+(**) [sp]

Jeff Parker ETA IVtet: The Way Out of Easy (2023 [2024], International Anthem): Guitarist, long associated with Chicago but seems to be based in Los Angeles these days, started in post-rock group Tortoise while working with Chicago Underground, Hamid Drake, Joshua Abrams, and others. ETA refers to Enfield Tennis Academy, the site of this quartet's breakout 2022 live album. With better PR/distribution, this album has already [by the day it appeared on streaming platforms] been reviewed by Guardian (4 stars) and Pitchfork (8.4!). Another live album, with Jeff Johnson (alto sax/electronics) riffing over immensely appealing grooves -- Anna Butterss (bass), Jay Bellerose (drums), and the leader's guitar. Perhaps a bit more focused on the landing than on the takeoff. A- [sp]

Ivo Perelman/Fay Victor/Jim Morris/Ramon Lopez: Messa Di Voce (2018 [2024], Mahakala Music): Avant-saxophonist from Brazil, first albums date from 1989, and he's become more and more prolific over the years: this is the 6th I've heard of 9 2024 albums in my tracking file, which I'm pretty sure is incomplete. Victor is a vocalist who is up to the challenge of a horn joust, with the others filling and driving on bass and drums. B+(***) [bc]

Ivo Perelman/Nate Wooley: Polarity 3 (2024, Burning Ambulance): Tenor sax and trumpet duo, their third since 2020. A fairly limited sonic pallette, especially without a rhythm section to move them along. B [bc]

Joe Sanders: Parallels (2021 [2024], Whirlwind): Bassist, based in New York, credits also include "drums, piano, voice, programming." Has a 2012 debut on Criss Cross, mostly side credits after that. Opens with four live tracks from 2021, with two saxes (Logan Richardson and Seamus Blake) and drums (Greg Hutchinson), followed by six undated studio tracks with only two guest spots. Each interesting in different ways, which don't add up. B [sp]

Jenny Scheinman: All Species Parade (2024, Royal Potato Family): Violinist, a dozen or so albums since 2000, plus quite a few side credits. Reflects on her roots in Humboldt County, California, which she returned to after making a name for herself in New York. Carmen Stief (piano) and Bill Frisell (guitar) blend into the countryside, with bass (Tony Scherr), drums (Kenny Wollesen), and additional guitar spots for Julian Lage or Nels Cline. Sprawls over 2-LP, but the 72 minutes fits a single CD. B+(***) [sp]

Jörg A. Schneider/Luis Lopes: Schneider/Lopes (2023 [2024], Schneidercollaboration): Drums and guitar duo. B+(**) [bc]

Shabaka: Possession (2024, Impulse!, EP): One of the most imposing saxophonist to come out of the UK ever, Shabaka Hutchings swore off his instrument last time out, opting for flute and a more ambient/spiritual flow. He continues here, with five songs, 23:37, drawing on hip-hop guests (like Billy Woods, Elucid, and fellow flute devotee André 3000), as well as Esperanza Spalding and Nduduzo Makhathini. B [sp]

Linda Sikhakhane: Iladi (2024, Blue Note): Tenor saxophonist from South Africa, based in New York, he has a couple self-released albums, one on Ropeadope, then this one on his pianist Nduduzo Makhathini's major label. With bass (Zwelakhe-Duma Bell Le Pere) and drums (Kweku Sumbry), and a strong sonic (sounds like spiritual) debt to Coltrane. B+(***) [sp]

Ben Solomon: Echolocation (2023 [2024], Giant Step Arts): Tenor saxophonist, based in New York, this got some votes for Debut album, but while Discogs doesn't list anything, his Bandcamp has two previous albums (one from 2023). Quartet with piano (Davis Whitfield), bass (Rahsaan Carter), and drums (Kush Abadey). Includes tributes to Coltrane and Shorter, whose influence is evident. B+(***) [sp]

Joe Syrian Motor City Jazz Octet: Secret Message (2023 [2024], Circle 9): Drummer, presumably from Detroit although this second group album was recorded in Paramus, has a swishy, big band feel but not the body count, swinging eight standards -- from Porter into Lennon-McCartney, Leon Russell, and Stevie Wonder. B+(**) [cd]

Chucho Valdés/Royal Quartet: Cuba and Beyond (2024, InterCat Music Group): Cuban pianist, father was a major bandleader, founded and led the group Irakere, still impressive in his 80s, his group a quartet with bass, drums, and percussion. B+(**) [sp]

Anna Webber: Simpletrio2000 (2023 [2024], Intakt): Canadian tenor saxophonist, also plays flute, born in Vancouver, studied in Montreal, moved to New York, steady stream of albums since 2010, this as advertised with below-the-title cover credit for Matt Mitchell (piano) and John Hollenbeck (drums), who are nobody's idea of simple. The fast stretches are exceptional, but the flute can slow them down. B+(***) [bc]

Ben Wolfe: The Understated (2023 [2024], Resident Arts): Bassist, tenth album since 1998, composed all pieces, most with Nicole Glover (tenor sax), Orrin Evans (piano), and Aaron Kimmel (drums), with guest spots (two tracks each) for Russell Malone (guitar) and Sullivan Fortner (piano). B+(*) [sp]

John Zorn & Jesse Harris: Love Songs Live (2023 [2024], Tzadik): Songwriters, music and lyrics respectively, Harris best known for his 2001-09 work with Norah Jones (although he has done much more since). The singer here is Petra Haden, backed by Brian Marsella (piano), Jorge Roeder (bass), and Ches Smith (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Louis Armstrong All Stars: Lausanne 1952 [Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series, Vol. 48] (1952 [2024], TCB): No real surprises here, as the set list is familiar from other live shots from the period, when the legitimately named "All Stars" that in 1947 featured Earl Hines, Barney Bigard, Jack Teagarden, and Big Sid Catlett, were down to Bob McCracken (clarinet), Trummy Young (trombone), Marty Napoleon (piano), Arvell Shaw (bass), and Cozy Cole (drums). They make for a very hot five, although the program becomes more varied when Velma Middleton enters, followed by features for the various "stars." B+(***) [bc]

Jakob Bro/Lee Konitz/Bill Frisell/Jason Moran/Thomas Morgan/Andrew Cyrille: Taking Turns (2014 [2024], ECM): Danish guitarist, debut album 2003, recorded his first ECM album in Oslo in 2013, a few months before this shelved studio session in New York. Bro original compositions, everyone lays back, though at this point anything by Konitz is welcome. B+(*) [sp]

Bill Evans: In Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (1970 [2024], Elemental Music): Pianist (1929-80), legend enough he has quite a bit of newly discovered archival work out. This is a trio with Eddie Gomez (bass) and Marty Morell (drums), from a strong year. CD runs 79:33, 2-LP runs €49.98. B+(***) [cd]

Al Jarreau: Wow! Live at the Childe Harold (1976 [2024], Resonance): Jazz singer (1940-2017), enjoyed some vogue in the late 1970s as a semipop crossover (five Grammys 1978-82, 5 more in 1986, 1993, and 2007; albums in 1981 and 1983 charted 9 and 13). Christgau dismissed him, "maybe because he neither writes nor interprets songs with the soul to match his freeze-dried facility." I checked him out, didn't care for what I heard, and forgot all but his name. But this newly discovered live tape does attest to his "facility," and largely justifies its title. B+(***) [cd]

NRG Ensemble: Hold That Thought (1996 [2024], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Group originally founded by avant-saxophonist Hal Russell (1926-92), with Mars Williams continuing the group for a few years after his death, notably recruiting young saxophonist Ken Vandermark, who would shortly bring Williams and bassist Kent Kessler into his Vandermark 5. (I didn't realize this until just now, but Russell's original name was Luttenbacher, hence he was the inspiration as well as a founding member of Weasel Walter's no-wave post-rock band, the Flying Luttenbachers.) Williams died last year, and this live set, from Utrecht, was found among his archives. It's an extraordinary piece of work, not just a tribute to past Russell but a harbinger of future Vandermark. A- [bc]

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