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Sunday, January 31, 2021

January archive (final).

Music: Current count 37201 [37117] rated (+44), 132 [140] unrated (-8).

As I tweeted early last week, I got a big boost in my search for 2021 albums from Jason Gross's long Ye Wei Blog EOY lists. I also noticed a Brazilian artist/title I was previously unaware of that broke into the top 50 of the Expert Witnesses Poll (the Facebook post is here, but I've compiled a more succinct albums list (with my grades, also Christgau's, as they are most influential in this poll). I later found that Rod Taylor's Brazil Beat includes detailed reviews of several dozen recent Brazilian albums, including many he prefers to my pick. I've checked out a half-dozen or so, and nothing else struck me as favorably as Delta Estácio Blues, but what do I know? (For starters, one thing I don't know is Portuguese.)

Robert Christgau published his 2021 Dean's List last week. Most years he tips his hand by listing 3-5 unreviewed albums, but this year the only one was Doja Cat's Planet Her -- I had it at B+(*), so should give it another chance (same for his number 3 pick, Spilligion from 2020). I held off on posting his list and essay to his website, and still have a little more work to do before I can.

January 2022 Streamnotes is closed (link up top), but once again I haven't gotten my indexing done. I also haven't frozen my 2021 file, as I usually do around this time. Still, I might as well go ahead and post this much. Looks like this is going to be a difficult week.

Observed my late mother's birthday today by cooking one of her signature comfort food dishes: fried round steak in mushroom gravy. Small pleasures.

New records reviewed this week:

Black Pistol Fire: Look Alive (2021, Black Hill): Garage rock duo from Austin, Eric Owen and Kevin McKeown, half-dozen albums since 2011. Strike me as minor, but functional, the sort of band you can always enjoy but never remember. B+(*) [sp]

Solemn Brigham: South Sinner Street (2021, Mello Music Group): North Carolina rapper, has a couple good albums as Marlowe -- with L'Orange, a producer here. Rapid fire volleys most striking. B+(*) [bc]

The Brother Moves On: Tolika Mtoliki (2021, Matsuli Music): South African group, uses initials TBMO, opens with a politically charged rap ("You Think You Know Me") over a light township jive riff. Shades of Mzwakhe Mbuli, without the zing. B+(**) [bc]

Cheekface: Emphatically No (2021, New Professor Music): Indie rock trio from Los Angeles, with Greg Katz singing (also guitar), Amanda Tannen (bass), and Mark Edwards (drums). Second album. Fair mix of political ("it turns out the whole world will collapse/ but that's just a mistake"), personal ("I'm feeling good/ but I'm sure it will pass"), and a nod toward others ("there's always some reason to talk about yourself"). B+(***) [bc]

Chris Conde: Engulfed in the Marvelous Decay (2021, Fake Four): San Antonio-based rapper, previous album Growing Up Gay, "combines the classically detached spheres of hip hop, indie rock and avant-garde art punk of the drag variety." Has a metal edge not unlike Backxwash, but I'm not sure it helps. B+(*) [bc]

Andrew Cyrille/William Parker/Enrico Rava: 2 Blues for Cecil (2021 [2022], TUM): Drums, bass, flugelhorn. "Cecil," of course, is Taylor, the late pianist. The title tracks are jointly credited, as are two improvisations, with each contributing additional pieces, ending with a cover of "My Funny Valentine." None of which is especially reminiscent of Taylor. A- [cd]

Danger Dan: Das Ist Alles Von Der Kunstfreiheit Gedeckt (2021, Altilopen Geldwäsche): German rapper Daniel Pongratz, from Aachen, part of the Antilopen collective, third album. Title refers to artistic freedom, the suggestion that covering songs with alternate lyrics is what we call "fair use." Most are speak-singing over piano. The first sounds like Randy Newman, the title "Lauf Davon" close enough to "Sail Away." I can't place the others, and don't follow German well enough to get any subtle points. B+(*)

Jamael Dean: Primordial Waters (2021, Stones Throw): Pianist, third album. Sharada Shashidhar sings, effectively taking over. Bandcamp includes an extra 10-track hip-hop album, which has some plusses, but at that length it's kind of a wash. B+(*)

Kari Faux: Lowkey Superstar (2020 [2021], Don Giovanni): Rapper from Little Rock, second album, originally an 8-track EP, grows to 12 tracks here (still short: 29:03). B+(*)

FKA Twigs: Caprisongs (2022, Young/Atlantic): British pop star, Tahliah Debrett Barnett, two previous albums, well-regarded but left me unimpressed. This one is considered a mixtape, something to do with the long list of featured artists and possibly the array of writers and producers. Slips up in a couple spots, but at least has a beat, and the singer seems to be onto something. B+(**)

Ghost of Vroom: 1 (2021, Mod Y Vi): Collaboration by Mike Doughty (ex-Soul Coughing, vocals/sampler/guitar) and Andrew Livingston (cello/piano/organ). Talkie vocals over garage beats, some as singular as "More Bacon than the Pan Can Handle," some as timeless as "Revelator." A-

Lande Hekt: Going to Hell (2021, Get Better): Singer for British punk band Muncie Girls, first or second solo album (after a 2019 7-track mini). Starts with but doesn't sustain punk anger, reflecting: "You're doing fine and you're doing well/ but the Catholics think you're going to hell." B+(***)

Lande Hekt: Gigantic Disappointment (2019, self-released, EP): Solo debut, 7 songs, 18:23. Starts near-solo for its most striking song, falls back on a fairly average band. B+(*) [bc]

Kiefer: When There's Love Around (2021, Stones Throw): Last name Shackelford, plays piano/keyboards, fourth album, filed it under "pop jazz" because I don't quite buy it as instrumental hip-hop, and it got a couple Jazz Critics Poll votes. Pleasant enough, but who cares? B [bc]

Boris Kozlov: First Things First (2020 [2022], Posi-Tone): Bassist, from Russia, moved to New York in the 1990s, has a couple albums as leader, many side credits. With Donnie McCaslin (tenor sax/alto flute), Art Hirahara (piano), Behn Gillece (vibes), and Rudy Royston (drums). B+(**)

Alessandra Leão: Acesa (2021, self-released): Brazilian, several albums since 2006, don't know much more, can't even find a label for this one. Rhythm appeals here, fractured and complex. B+(***) [sp]

Carol Liebowitz/Adam Lane/Andrew Drury: Blue Shift (2019 [2022], Line Art): Piano-bass-drums trio. Pianist has albums back to 1994. B+(**) [cd] [03-04]

Roberto Magris: Match Point (2018 [2021], JMood): Italian pianist, many records, quartet Alfredo Chacon (vibes/congas), bass (Dion Kerr), and Rodolfo Zuniga (drums). Four originals, covers include Monk, Randy Weston, and McCoy Tyner. Nice and bright. B+(**) [bc]

Pete Malinverni: On the Town: Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein (2021 [2022], Planet Arts): Pianist, mostly trio albums since 1988, this one with Ugonna Okegwo and Jeff Hamilton, doing Bernstein songs, as Nate Chinen put it, "forthright and elegant." B+(***) [cd]

Aimee Mann: Queens of the Summer Hotel (2021, SuperEgo): Singer-songwriter, 10th studio album since 1993, not counting band projects (like Til Tuesday). Part of a stage adaptation of Susan Kaysen's 1993 memoir, Girl, Interrupted. That introduces an element of distance that leaves one uncertain how to gauge the songs. B+(*) [sp]

Juçara Marçal: Delta Estácio Blues (2021, QTV Selo/Mais Um): Brazilian singer, appeared in Vésper and Metá Metá before going solo in 2014. Second solo album. Combines a soft touch with sharp angles and unexpected rhythms. A-

Oz Noy/Ugonna Okegwo/Ray Marchica: Riverside (2020 [2022], Outside In Music): Guitarist, from Israel, based in New York since 1996, trio with Ugonna Okegwo (bass) and Ray Marchica (drums), usually tends toward fusion and funk but sticks with bebop standards here: not his fanciest, but pretty enjoyable. B+(***) [cd]

The OGJB Quartet: Ode to O (2019 [2022], TUM): Second album: Oliver Lake (alto sax), Graham Haynes (cornet/electronics), Joe Fonda (double bass), Barry Altschul (drums). Filed it under Lake, who dominated the previous Bamako, but Altschul wrote the title piece (where "O" stands for Ornette) and two more ("Da Bang" for Billy, and "Caring"). Those are high points, and Lake's free blowing impresses as ever, but nicked a bit for electronics that don't go anywhere. B+(***) [cd]

Emile Parisien: Louise (2021 [2022], ACT): French soprano saxophonist, tenth album since 2006, more postbop textures, a sextet with Theo Croker on trumpet, both piano and guitar, bass and drums. B+(**) [cd]

Pony: TV Baby (2021, Take This to Heart): Canadian pop group, Sam Bielanski singer-songwriter, first album after an EP. B

Masha Qrella: Woanders (2021, Staatsakt): German indie pop singer, originally Mariana (or Masha) Kurella, father Russian, started in bands before going solo in 2004, released an album of Loewe and Weill in Exile in 2009. In German, mine not good enough to follow but I catch words here and there, and find that comforting. One can hear bits of vintage krautrock in the electro, but they blend into something more . . . human? B+(***) [sp]

Raw Poetic Featuring Damu the Fudgemunk: Big Tiny Planet (2021, Redefinition, EP): DC rapper Jason Moore, albums since 2014, many with producer Earl Davis. Five tracks, 25:34. B+(*) [bc]

Samo Salamon/Cene Resnik/Jaka Berger: Takt Ars Sessions: Vol. 1 (2021, Samo): Guitar/tenor sax/drums trio, recorded on Oct. 29 and offered on Bandcamp on Oct. 31. Five pieces are jointly credited, all numbered "Free." Renik wrote one piece, Salamon four, and Paul Motian got covered. B+(***) [bc]

Samo Salamon/Cene Resnik/Jaka Berger: Takt Ars Sessions: Vol. 2 (2021, Samo): Four more "Free" pieces from the same session, long ones (76:38). B+(**) [bc]

Doug Scarborough: The Color of Angels (2021 [2022], Origin): Trombonist, has a couple previous albums (one from 2000), teaches in Walla Walla, WA. Original pieces, with piano (Jeremy Siskind) and violin (Akram Abdulfattah) prominent, also bass, drums, and darbuka (Mustafa Boztüy). B+(**) [cd]

Maria Sena: De Primeira (2021, Alá Comunicação E Cultura): Brazilian singer, first album. Dance beats with typical Brazilian sway, in other words pop. B+(***)

Piet Verbist: Secret Exit to Another Dimension (2020 [2022], Origin): Belgian bassist, several albums, leads a trio with Hendrik Braeckman (guitar) and Lionel Beuvens (drums), both of whom contribute songs, with covers of Monk and Charlie Parker tying this to the bop tradition. B+(*) [cd]

Viagra Boys: Welfare Jazz (2021, Year0001): Swedish post-punk group, second album, Sebastian Murphy the singer, original guitarist died after this album, sax is a nice touch. Ends with an estranged cover of John Prine's "In Spite of Ourselves," with Amy Taylor (Amyl and the Sniffers) reprising Iris DeMent. B+(***)

Ghalia Volt: One Woman Band (2021, Ruf): Last name Vauthier, singer-songwriter from Belgium, plays blues, looking to Tampa Red and Ike Turner for the two covers. Has a couple guest spots, but plays her own drums. B+(**)

Kanye West: Donda (2021, GOOD Music/Def Jam, 2CD): No rush to get into this 108:48 sprawl, with its 53 Metacritic score coming off the B- Jesus Is King, not to mention his dalliance with Trump and his feint at the 2020 presidential election. I figured I could wait for a sign, but none came. Still big enough to finish 19 on Billboard's Top R&:B/Hip-Hop Albums list, and 23 in the Hip-Hop breakout from my EOY Aggregate (highest unheard album until now). His minimalist raps over beats aren't all tedious, but his attempts at church music (see "24") are beyond awful. No, I didn't get to the 130:52 Deluxe Edition. C+

Joyce Wrice: Overgrown (2021, Joyce Wrice Music): R&B singer from Los Angeles, first album after an EP and singles, "grew up with the silky tones of R&B's golden era," by which she means the early '00s. B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan: Volume 3 (1970-85 [2021], BBE, 2CD): As with previous volumes, this shows that there's a lot more depth in Japanese jazz than we've known from the occasional musician who gets away to Europe or America. (Aki Takase, long resident in Berlin, is the most recognizable name here.) The most striking pieces are not just proficient postbop or free jazz but go places we're not used to: Hiroshi Murakami's party music, or Tatsuya Nakamura's samba, or Koichi Yamazaki's sax closer. B+(***) [bc]

Modern Love (2021, BBE): New covers of David Bowie songs, commissioned by the British label, initials standing for Barely Breaking Even. Not their usual fare, which focuses on 1970s funk and Japanese jazz, so they don't have a house roster of artists to draw on. They managed to round up many artists I've heard of, with Meshell Ndegeocello and Jeff Parker the longest-established, L'Rain the most au courrant (and least interesting). The most successful tactic is to slow it down a bit and let the melody sneak up on you (e.g., Léa Sen on "Golden Years"). B+(**) [bc]

George Otsuka Quintet: Loving You George (1975 [2021], Wewantsounds): Japanese drummer, Discogs has last name Ohtsuka. He joined Sadao Watanabe's quartet in the late 1950s, released albums on his own from 1967, mostly quintets. This one features Shozo Sasaki on soprano and tenor sax, with fusion keyboards: Fumio Karashima, who wrote the first piece, followed by covers from Steve Kuhn, John Coltrane, and Minnie Riperton. B+(**) [bc]

Pink Floyd: Live at Knebworth 1990 (1990 [2021], Pink Floyd): I saw them once, at Madison Square Garden, and thought they put on a fine show, but all they did was literally play their last two albums (Animals and Wish You Were Here), with a couple cuts from Dark Side of the Moon for the encore, all with then-state-of-the-art videos. Here, 12-13 years later, they're picking and choosing songs, the band beefed up with Michael Kamen (keyboards) and Candy Dulfer (sax), and backup singer Clare Torry taking over "The Great Gig in the Sky," and Roger Waters nowhere in the credits. It's all music I love, but not until "Run Like Hell" did I start to consider I might prefer it here. B+(***) [sp]

Shintaro Quintet: Evolution (1984 [2021], BBE): Japanese bassist Shintaro Nakamura, quintet recorded in New York with Jeff Jenkins (piano), Bob Kenmotsu on tenor sax, Shunzo Ohnn on trumpet, and Fukushi Tainaka (drums). B+(**) [bc]

The Thing [Mats Gustafsson/Joe McPhee/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Paal Nilseen-Love]: She Knows . . . (2001 [2021], Ezz-Thetics): Norwegian free jazz trio, started with eponymous group album in 2000, adds American free jazz legend McPhee (pocket trumpet/tenor sax) to pump up the volume. Previously released on Crazy Wisdom, and included in their Now and Forever box. B+(***) [bc]

Old music:

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Dahomey: The 1st Album (1973 [2011], Analog Africa): Long-running band from Cotonou in Benin (formerly Dahomey). Album originally credited to vocalist Ahehehinou Vincent as well as the and. Reissue adds two previously unreleased tracks, adding up to 4 tracks, 33:22. Keyboard pomp, horns, rhythms every which way. A-

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou: The Vodoun Effect: Funk & Sato From Benin's Obscure Labels 1972-1975 (1972-75 [2008], Analog Africa): In my database as Vol. 4, which now appears to be the label's release number. The German label started excavating the music of the former German "protectorate" of Togo and the adjacent French Dahomey (Benin since 1990), with albums like African Scream Contest: Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds From Benin & Togo 70s. It was only a matter of time before they got to the signature band of Benin's largest city. B+(**) [bc]

Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou: Volume Two: Echos Hypnotiques: From the Vaults of Albarika Store 1969-1979 (1969-79 [2009], Analog Africa): Mostly produced by Adissa Seidou, for Benin's leading label, Albarika Store. B+(***) [bc]

Orchetre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou: The Skeletal Essences of Afro Funk 1969-1980 (1969-80 [2013], Analog Africa): Another substantial compilation of their work. B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Martin Wind/New York Bass Quartet: Air (Laika) [02-25]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, January 24, 2022

January archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 37154 [37117] rated (+37), 140 [137] unrated (+3).

I wrote quite a bit about political matters in yesterday's Speaking of Which. One point I want to emphasize because this isn't a commonly stated point: NATO was never about defending Europe from Russian aggressiveness. It was a tool for imposing American control over Western Europe without the risk and expense of maintaining an occupation force. The main effect was to force Europe to turn its colonies over to local oligarchs, opening them up for American (and ultimately other globalized) business interests. The "spectre of communism" was more worrisome in the "third world," but was necessary to sell NATO, and it helped conservative business interests control their labor problems and left-leaning publics.

The current demonization of Russia and China is every bit as manufactured as the Cold War was, and predictably falls into the same rhetoric and logic. Why it's happening is rather harder to understand, given that China and (especially) Russia are governed by the same sort of repressive oligarchs that the US has been happy to do business with all along. It's possible that it's no more than a scam by the politically influential arms industry to sell more arms. That was pretty clearly the point of NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, where nations were led to believe that if they joined NATO (and bought new weapons systems) they'd get a chance to join the EU. And that, in turn, has created a cycle of aggressive pettiness that seems to be coming to a head.

Another point that I didn't get into is that Putin (and Xi) are far from political geniuses. The US (and not just Trump) is leaving them a lot of moral high ground they aren't showing much consideration for. Part of this is that they misjudged Trump as someone they could deal with, oligarch to oligarch. Worse was Putin's election meddling, which served mostly to make Democrats more irrationally anti-Russian. The obvious thing would be to offer serious arms limitation talks, while trying to shift international conflict resolution back to the UN (which Russia and China would have to buy into, and which the US could still veto, but responsibility for failures there would be clearer). I could go on and on, especially if we allowed for some positive attitude adjustment on both sides. China doesn't need to treat the Uighurs as brutally as it does, and doesn't need to keep pressure on Taiwan. Russia doesn't need to help its clients repress democracy movements, or to annex bits of neighboring territory. The US doesn't need Ukraine in NATO or the EU. All sides need to cut back on the cyberwarfare. Russia did a good thing last week in arresting the REvil hacker group, but they're not getting any credit because the US propaganda machine only ratchets toward war. All three could benefit from a change of heart that prioritizes peace, openness, and mutual support over zero-sum antagonism.

Nothing much to say about this week's music. I've slowed down on the EOY list aggregate, but I'll probably continue a bit until the end of the month. I'm having a hard time finding things to play, which led to two strategies this week: I spent a bunch of time on the Ezz-Thetics Bandcamp page, including playing some things I had heard in earlier editions (like the Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman Blue Notes); and I went back to my list of unheard Christgau-graded albums, particularly as some I hadn't been able to find on Napster show up on Spotify (or sometimes YouTube).

Calendar shows one more Monday in January, so we'll wrap up the month, then -- effectively the year as well. Maybe I'll have some numbers to talk about then.

Note that I've added a couple of old Carola Dibbell pieces to her website, on Jeanne Moreau and Moe Tucker. Robert Christgau's latest Xgau Sez is also publicly available.

New records reviewed this week:

Alice Phoebe Lou: Glow (2021, self-released): Singer-songwriter from South Africa, surname Matthew, has lived in Paris and seems to be based in Berlin, third album (fourth later in 2021). B+(*)

Alice Phoebe Lou: Child's Play (2021, self-released): Fourth album. More ambient, which in a pop star should be a downer, but in this case isn't. B+(*)

Scott Burns/John Wojciechowski/Geof Bradfield: Tenor Time (2021 [2022], Afar Music): Three tenor saxophonists, backed by piano (Richard D. Johnson), bass (Clark Sommers), and drums (Greg Arby). Eight pieces, two each for the saxophonists and Johnson. B+(*) [cd] [01-21]

Chris Castino & Chicken Wire Empire: Fresh Pickles (2022, self-released): Singer-songwriter for a Minnesota jam band called the Big Wu, tries his hand as a leader, drawing on bluegrass guests like Jerry Douglas and Peter Rowan, but dropping a little Tex-Mex into the mix. B+(***) [cd] [02-04]

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Septet With Wynton Marsalis: The Democracy! Suite (2020 [2021], Blue Engine): "Jazz music is the perfect metaphor for democracy," sez Marsalis, who taps into vintage brass band traditions and adds considerable swing and swagger. B+(***)

The Killers: Pressure Machine (2021, Island): Rock band from Las Vegas, principally Brandon Flowers (vocals), early albums sold millions, and they sound more arena than indie to me. Seventh album since 2003. Not unappealing once it settled down. There's also an "abridged version," which knocks out 5 minutes of spoken introductions. B+(*)

Man on Man: Man on Man (2021, Polyvinyl): Pandemic lockdown recording by 58-year-old Imperial Teen Roddy Bottum, with boyfriend Joey Holman. B+(**) [sp]

Joe McPhee: Route 84 Quarantine Blues (2020 [2021], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Numbered 2 following Ken Vandermark's solo album, another pandemic solo outing, for tenor sax and found sounds. Odds and ends, most touching his Mingus-on-Lester-Young, "Goodbye Porky Pig Hat." B+(**)

Matt Olson: Open Spaces (2021 [2022], OA2): Tenor saxophonist, leads a sprightly postbop quintet with alto sax, guitar, bass, and drums. B+(**) [cd]

Hank Roberts Sextet: Science of Love (2021, Sunnyside): Cellist, one of the few in jazz following his 1987 debut, ten or so albums as a leader, three with Arcado String Trio, regular side credits with Tim Berne and Bill Frisell. Nicely balanced sextet with Mike McGinniss (clarinet/soprano sax), Brian Drye (trombone), Dara Lyn (violin), Jacob Sacks (piano), and Vinnie Sperrazza (drums). B+(**)

Rostam: Changeophobia (2021, Matsor Projects): Last name Batmanglij, US-born, parents Iranian, founding member of Vampire Weekend, second solo album. Has a good command of popcraft. B+(*)

Anna B Savage: A Commmon Turn (2021, City Slang): English singer-songwriter, first album. Remarkable voice, just one I don't particularly enjoy. B

Elvie Shane: Backslider (2021, Wheelhouse): Country singer from Kentucky, got the drawl, the testosterone, a "public education in the back of the bus," blind props to God and Country, an anthem that could be hateful or maybe just dumb: "Amazing Grace/how sweet the sound/of Sundays in the South." B+(*)

Ayanda Sikade: Umakhulu (2021, Afrosynth): South African drummer, second album, credit info hard to come by, but looks like: Nduduzo Makhathini (piano), Simon Manana (alto sax), Nhlanhla Radebe (bass). Early on barely hints at township jazz heritage, but as the album develops, first the piano then the sax come into focus. Manana is described as "young," but he impresses like Dudu Pukwana. A- [bc]

Ken Vandermark: The Field Within a Line (2020 [2021], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Pandemic project: "a new book of works for solo reed instruments." B+(***) [bc]

Vario 34-3: Free Improvised Music (2018 [2021], Corbett Vs. Dempsey): German free jazz musician Günter Christmann, plays cello and trombone, played in Globe Unity Orchestra, has organized fifty-some iterations of "Vario" since 1979. Vario 34 originally recorded in 1993, returns here with 5 (of 6) original members: Christmann, Mats Gustafsson (soprano sax), Thomas Lehn (electronics), Alexander Frangenheim (double bass), and Paul Lovens (percussion). B+(*) [bc]

Villagers: Fever Dreams (2021, Domino): Irish band, principally Conor J O'Brien, sixth album since 2010. B

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Albert Ayler: La Cave Live Cleveland 1966 Revisited (1966 [2022], Ezz-Thetics, 2CD): Previously unreleased (at least with any official imprimatur), three sets over two days in Ayler's home town, one a quintet with trumpet (Donald Ayler), violin (Michel Samson), bass, and drums; the other adds Frank Wright (tenor sax). B+(***) [bc]

Paul Bley Trios: Touching & Blood Revisited (1965-66 [2021], Ezz-Thetics): Canadian pianist, a decade into his career, had already played in Jimmy Giuffre's famous trio, led the quintet that first recorded Ornette Coleman, and had at least one dazzling trio album (his 1953 debut). This reissues the album Touching, recorded live in Copenhagen with Kent Carter (bass) and Barry Altschul (drums), plus the 18:45 title piece from the follow-up album Blood, with Mark Levinson taking over bass. Three of his own songs, one from first wife Carla, four from second wife Annette Peacock. Black Lion's 1994 CD of Touching includes the same bonus. B+(**) [bc]

Marion Brown: Why Not? Porto Novo! Revisited (1966-67 [2021], Ezz-thetics): Alto saxophonist, reissues two major albums: a quartet with Stanley Cowell, Sirone, and Rashied Ali, that originally appeared on ESP-Disk; and a trio recorded in the Netherlands with Maarten Van Regerten Altena and Han Bennink, that appeared on Polydor in 1969, and later on Freedom and Black Lion (the latter added two later cuts, not included here). A- [bc]

Don Cherry: Complete Communion & Symphony for Improvisers Revisited (1965-66 [2021], Ezz-Thetics): Cornet player, in with Ornette Coleman's legendary quartet, early appearances with Albert Ayler, Steve Lacy, George Russell, and John Coltrane. These were his first albums as leader, released on Blue Note, and squeezed down to 79:24 for this compilation. The quartet with Gato Barbieri (tenor sax), Henry Grimes, and Ed Blackwell is epic. The larger group, adding Pharoah Sanders (tenor sax), Karl Berger (vibes & piano), and a second bassist -- is more unruly. B+(***) [bc]

Ornette Coleman: New York Is Now & Love Call Revisited (1968 [2021], Ezz-Thetics): Two 1968 albums, the end of Coleman's brief 1960s fling with Blue Note, still best remember for his live trio sets, At the "Golden Circle" Stockholm: Volume One and Two. This was a quartet, with Dewey Redman (tenor sax) plus Coltrane's former bass-drums duo, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. Not always top drawer material, but often amazing anyway. A- [bc]

Instant Composers Pool: Incipient ICP (1966-71 [2021], Corbett Vs. Dempsey): First tremors of the Dutch avant-garde, with Misha Mengelberg (piano), Willem Breuker (reeds), and Han Bennink (drums) in on the ground floor. The group eventually settled on ICP Orchestra, and recently released a 53-CD box set collecting their work -- the group continues today, although Breuker and Mengelberg have passed. A- [bc]

The New York Contemporary Five: Copenhagen 1963 Revisited (1963 [2021], Ezz-Thetics): Before Archie Shepp emerged as a leader, he spent some time in Copenhagen, with local alto saxophonist John Tchicai and a few fellow New Yorkers (notably cornetist Don Cherry). They went on to record two volumes in 1964, and reunited for a 1966 album. This early live set eventually appeared on Storyville in 1972, reissued on CD in 1992. This has same songs, but finally reordered in set sequence, with enough applause and chatter removed to squeeze it down to 79:30. Exciting music. A- [bc]

New York Contemporary Five: Consequences Revisited (1963-64 [2020], Ezz-Thetics): Reissue of their 1966 album, originally recorded in August 1963 in New York except for one cut from Copenhagen (October 1963), plus three more cuts (total 68:15) from a 1964 session in Newark, with Ronnie Boykins (bass) and Sunny Murray (drums) replacing Don Moore and J.C. Moses, and Ted Curson instead of Don Cherry on two tracks. B+(***)

Akira Sakata/Takeo Moriyama: Mitochondria (1986 [2022], Trost): Japanese duo, alto sax and drums, fairly intense free jazz, not least because the drummer is not just engaged but commands attention even on his solos. B+(***) [bc]

Old music:

The Robert Cray Band: Shame + a Sin (1993, Mercury): Blues singer-guitarist, touted as the next great hope but came up as the genre was going down. Still, got a lot of ridiculous hype for 1986's Strong Persuader, and sold impressively. I eventually decided I really disliked the album, and followed him long enough to note that he got worse. I gave up before this one, the last of five Christgau A-listed (not counting his Heavy Picks comp). This is less obnoxious, but still a few cringe-inducing moments, and not enough chops, let alone inspiration, to make me care. B

The Robert Cray Band: Heavy Picks: The Robert Cray Collection (1980-97 [1999], Mercury): Spans much of his career, including albums before he had his breakthrough on Mercury. Several I recognized, but even title songs don't stand out much. Not as annoying as I feared, but not close to great either. B

Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society: Nasty (1981, Moers Music): Drummer from Texas (1940-2013), most of his records include his first name (Ronald), first recordings in late 1960s with Albert Ayler and Charles Tyler, worked with Ornette Coleman in mid-1970s, formed his own "free funk" group in 1980. This version has three saxes (Byard Lancaster, Charles Brackeen, Lee Rozie), electric guitar (Vernon Reid), electric bass (Melvin Gibbs and Bruce Johnson), and vibes (Khan Jamal). A- [yt]

Jaojoby: Malagasy (2004, Discorama): From Madagascar, proximate to Africa but geologically far removed, and populated initially by people from Indonesia, a unique terrain, overlaid with various waves of imperialism. The most celebrated music there is Salegy, and Eusèbe Jaojoby is their star, although interest from elsewhere has been spotty. B+(***)

Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Inala (1985 [1986], Shanachie): South African male choral group, founded by Joseph Shabalala in 1960 but unknown in America until Shanachie started reissuing their Gallo albums with 1984's Induku Zethu. So while this is well into their discography, it's only number three for Americans (or number one if you started with Paul Simon's Graceland, which featured them). Only problem is they're pretty much interchangeable, although I think Classic Tracks is especially well selected. B+(***) [sp]

Lifter Puller [LFTR PLLR]: Soft Rock (1996-2000 [2002], The Self Starter Foundation, 2CD): Minnesota rock group, immediately recognizable as singer-songwriter Craig Finn, before Hold Steady. Collects much of what they recorded, sprawling out to 2:19:39. And no, there's nothing soft to it. A- [yt]

Los Guanches: The Corpse Went Dancing Rumba (1996, Corason): Cuban ensemble, a son band from Santiago de Cuba, released three albums in the late 1990s, the third also under Armando Garzón's name. This was the second, a fine balance between folkie and fancy. A- [sp]

Orchestra Baobab: La Belle Époque: Volume 2 (1973-76 [2011], Syllart, 2CD): Senegalese band, established 1970 as house band of the Baobab Club in Dakar, drawing on Star Band of Dakar. During the mid-1970s, they were the nation's most popular band, but the Club closed in 1979, and they broke up in 1987 -- only to reunite in 2001, and go on to release new albums to international acclaim. This adds to a 2-CD first volume, somewhat haphazardly, although you edit it down to one landmark disc, or credit its historical import. [Digital splits this into Volume 2 and Volume 3.] B+(***) [sp]

Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together/Attica/Les Moutins de Panurge (1973 [1974], Opus One): Composer-pianist, died last year, made his mark early with this remarkable LP. Three pieces, the first two with Steve Ben Israel speaking texts by Sam Melville and Richard X. Clark over jazzy minimalist patterns. Third piece is for percussion group. A- [yt]

Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1986 [1990], Hat Art): His most famous composition, "36 Variations on a Chilean Song," for solo piano, often recorded. The version I first encountered was played by Ursula Oppens and released by Vanguard in 1978, but there are others: by Stephen Drury on New Albion (1994); by Marc André Hamelin on Hyperion (1998); by Ralph van Raat on Naxos (2008), by Corey Hamm on Redshift (2014); by Lee Sangwook on Audioguy (2014; by Omri Shimron on New Focus (2014); by Igor Levit on Sony (2015); by Daan Vandewalle on Etcetera (2017); and a "four hands" version by Oppens and Jerome Lowenthal (2015). Rzewski has recorded it himself at least twice: for Edizioni di Cultura Popolare in 1977, and here. B+(***)

Frederic Rzewski: North American Ballads & Squares (1991, Hat Art): Piano pieces, the four ballads -- extended improvs on trad pieces like "Which Side Are You On" and "Down by the Riverside" -- run long (38:40). The four "Squares" are briefer (19:05). B+(***)

Frederic Rzewski: De Profundis (1993 [1994], Hat Art): Two compositions (36:32 + 31:38), performed solo by Rzewski, his 1991 "Sonata for Piano" and 1992 "De Profundis for a Speaking Pianist." B+(**)

Limited Sampling: Records I played parts of, but not enough to grade: -- means no interest, - not bad but not a prospect, + some chance, ++ likely prospect.

Darius Jones: Raw Demoon Alchemy (A Lone Operation) (2019 [2021], Northern Spy): Alto saxophonist, tends to run hot and rough, solo here, settles for plug ugly. [2/5 tracks] - [bc]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Pete Malinverni: On the Town: Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein (Planet Arts)
• Noertker's Moxie: Walking on Blue Eggshells in Billville (Edgetone -21)
• Noertker's Moxie: More Fun in Billville (Edgetone -21)
• Noertker's Moxie: Pantomime in Billville (Edgetone -21)
• Samo Salamon: Dolphyology: Complete Eric Dolphy for Solo Guitar (Samo, 2CD)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, January 23, 2022

I thought maybe I should do one of these columns last week. I had several pieces piled up in open tabs, but couldn't get started. Back when I started doing this things, I aimed for Fridays, but didn't get started this week until Friday afternoon, and then it just started sprawling. I will say that one incentive has been the cascade of reports on how Biden and the Congressional Democrats are losing the faith of the American people, and how Republicans are poised to make major gains in 2022. (I won't bother looking up the link, as I haven't actually read the piece, but Henry Olsen has something on how Republicans are gaining "majority party" status.) I think this is all bullshit, but it wouldn't hurt Democrats to be a bit paranoid, as the consequences of failure in 2022 and (especially) 2024 are dire. Meanwhile, here's what I did come up with.

One open tab I didn't write about below, but don't want to lose, is William Horne's Twitter thread on the Jan. 6 anniversary.

Here's the latest coronavirus map: looks like new cases have peaked, although the 14-day change is still up 11%, and hospitalized and deaths (which lag new cases) are up 30% and 44% respectively, the latter to 2,162 per day (864,182) total, which is higher than the September 2021 peak, a bit less than April 2020. The map is pretty uniform everywhere (except Maine). The unvaccinated death rate is back up to 20x the vaccinated rate.

Jedediah Britton-Purdy: The Republican Party Is Succeeding Because We Are Not a True Democracy: I came to this piece after writing most of the below, and could have filed it under any of several entries, but the point is worth underlining (and alphabetic order by author helps, too). For one example: "Trump could have tied Biden and forced the election into the House of Representatives by flipping just 43,000 votes in three states," which would have disqualified 7 million Biden voters for living in the wrong states. That's just one of many undemocratic advantages the party of wealth and privilege enjoys, so it shouldn't be surprising how harshly they've turned against democracy: their very success depends on upending or preventing it. Conclusion: "The way to save democracy is to make it more real." Article includes links to a number of articles collectively titled The Uncomfortable Lessons of Jan. 6. In particular, see Rebecca Solnit: Why Republicans Keep Falling for Trump's Lies.

Neel Dhanesha: Texas went big on oil. Earthquakes followed. "Thousands of earthquakes are shaking Texas. What the frack is going on?" Well, it's wastewater injection. The wastewater is pumped up with oil, especially from mature wells where much of the oil has already been pumped out. This isn't exactly caused by fracking, but fracking is used to increase yields in old wells, so they tend to go hand in hand. (Fracking is also used to break up shale to extract gas, and that's more problematical, in large part because the fracking compounds are more toxic, and more likely to leak into the water supply.) I wasn't aware of Texas having this problem, but it's no surprise. Oklahoma has experienced thousands of earthquakes, up to around 5.5, in the last decade, and we've had a few dozens in south-central Kansas (or maybe hundreds, depends on where you draw the line -- I get USGS reports on everything over 4.0, but there are many more closer to 3.0).

Jacob S Hacker: What does Jan. 6 say about American democracy -- and the prospects for war? Reviews two books: Mark Bowden/Matthew Teague: The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It (Atlantic Monthly Press), and Barbara P. Walter: How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them (Viking). The former is detailed reporting which provides the broader (and critical) context behind the January 6 riot/insurrection. In focusing on the storming of the Capitol, we run the risk of turning that singular, inept, bumbling event into camouflage for the far more ominous Trump team schemes to steal the election via "legal" means, through the courts (which have been systematically packed with Republican loyalists) and ultimately by simply rejecting the certified electors from selected states (e.g., ones with gerrymandered Republican control of state offices). Trump's attempt to steal the election was always a multi-pronged effort, of which the mob was just one tool, a rather desperately employed one. (I've seen Peter Diamond grouching that the mob was counterproductive, disrupting the "real plan" of getting Pence and the Senate Republican majority to reject the electoral votes.) But one should bear in mind that the Republican assault on democracy has always been a multi-pronged affair, and has mostly been achieved through legally-sanctified means -- gerrymanders and voting restrictions get the most press, but the initial and paramount affront to democracy has been the overwhelming of politics by money (which Democrats of means, like Obama and the Clintons, even more blatantly Bloomberg, have contributed to).

Another danger of overly focusing on the riot/insurrection is that it suggests the Trump mob will turn increasingly violent if they don't get their way, plunging the nation into some kind of civil war. The Walter book provides a survey of civil wars around the world, like Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt in their much-touted How Democracies Die. I'm more tempted to order Walters' book, because I'm more interested in general patterns than in the details of which Trump flunkies came up with which harebrained excuses to rationalize a 7-million-vote deficit, but I also have reservations (which is why I didn't bother with Levitsky/Ziblatt or several similar tomes -- I did read Timothy Snyder's The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, which was time wasted enough). It's not that I don't see value in comparative histories, but they slight the differences unique in our situation, while often falling back on prejudices. No surprise that most of these examples are steeped in German and East European examples, allowing the authors to be uncritical of what passes for democracy in America. We flatter ourselves as the world's oldest democracy, which leads one to think of decrepitude, but it's more accurate to say that democracy was an ideal that was embraced early but never fulfilled -- in large part because real democracy has always had domestic enemies. Looking afar for ominous examples abroad tends to overlook obvious ones at home. It also misses how often new threats to democracy focus on past fractures.

One chapter in Waters' book that seems especially relevant is "The Dark Consequences of Losing Status." That seems to describe the Trump mob, even if there is little objective support for their fears. The fears, of course, exist because they're drummed into people by the Fox propaganda machine, which is the only way to motivate people to follow such a counterproductive agenda.

A few more civil war/eclipse of democracy links:

• Zack Beauchamp: The intellectual right's war on America's institutions: This piece is old enough (11/19/2021) I must have cited it before, but I found it in an open tab, and it fits here. No evidence here that Chris Rufo and Patrick Deneen are very smart intellectuals, or that the Trump fan club cares about what their so-called intellectuals think, but those who are campaigning for a civil war shouldn't have any trouble lining up with guys who want to tear America down and start all over again. And why shouldn't they, if they really believe "the entire edifice of the American state has become a tool for repressing conservatives." I've long found it tiresome when liberals like Obama spout pious clichés about American virtue, but that seemed like part of the cost of doing retail politics. So I was shocked when I heard Trump mocking Obama for closing his speeches with "God bless America," and getting cheers for doing so.
• Thomas B Edsall: How to Tell When Your Country Is Past the Point of No Return: Long on poli-sci studies about things like "nonlinear feedback dynamics of asymmetric political polarization," but the bottom line is that R's and D's are polarized to different degrees and in different ways, which in the case of R's (but not D's) has mostly driven them over the deep end. I think it's significant that when the Trump mob turned out to violently overthrow the 2020 election results, they weren't met by a corresponding D (or even antifa) mob. They were met by police (and eventually national guard), whom D's trusted to uphold the rule of law.
• Michelle Goldberg: Are We Really Facing a Second Civil War? Writes about the Walter book, also Stephen Marche's more speculative The Next Civil War: Dispatches From the American Future. While Goldberg plays down the likelihood, she notes that "it's no secret that many on the right are both fantasizing about and planning civil war."

Jeff Hauser/Max Moran: What Biden's Message Should Be. I flagged this because I'm interested in messaging for the upcoming elections. I don't necessarily agree with everything here -- e.g., I doubt that political prosecutions against Facebook and Boeing would help much -- but I do think it's important to impress on people how much they have to lose if Republicans win. By the way, this is a little wonky, but is good messaging: Nathan Newman: How Dems Saved the Economy.

Michael Hudson: When Debts Become Unpayable, They Should Be Forgiven. Interview with the economist, pointing out that debt jubilees have been common throughout history. "Every economy that has interest-bearing debt has to restructure at some point, or else all of the economy will end up being owned by just a teeny group of people at the top, like you had in Rome." Or here and now. There's always been an element of pretense to debt. The rich get to pretend their money is working, protected by the promise of repayment which leaves them richer than ever, enjoying power over their debtors. Debtors, in turn, get to actually do something with money they don't own, but have to sacrifice to pay it back, and grovel along the way. As debt is a power relation, bankruptcy exacts a political as well as a financial reckoning.

Fred Kaplan: The End of the Afghanistan War Was Even Worse Than Anyone Realized: This summarizes a longer piece by Steve Coll/Adam Entous: The Secret History of the US Diplomatic Failure in Afghanistan, which I imagine will shortly turn into a book, following Coll's Directorate 5: The CIA and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan (2018), and, much earlier but essential background, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden (2004). I don't feel like writing about this in any depth, but the following quote from Kaplan sums up the war fairly well:

Duplicity reigned in this war from the very beginning. President George W. Bush and his crew thought the war was over when the anti-Taliban rebels conquered Kabul and a Western-chosen president, Hamid Karzai, was installed, thus allowing U.S. troops to thin out and invade Iraq. In fact, the Taliban, who had never left, resumed the fight. Under President Barack Obama, when the U.S. effort escalated and switched to a strategy of nation-building, the generals sent rosy-eyed assessments from the front, claiming progress and promising more, knowing that they were at the very least exaggerating. (Obama eventually caught on, drew down the troops, and switched to a less ambitious strategy.) Trump wanted to get out of Afghanistan; his negotiator tried to maneuver the Taliban into a deal that gave a win to all parties, but he was the one maneuvered. Biden's team thought -- or pretended to think (it's unclear which) -- that a semblance of victory could be pried from abject defeat. All of these players were dishonest, with their allies, their adversaries, and, most damagingly, themselves.

The line "pretended to think" belies a persistent problem which Obama suffered from even more than Biden: the belief that projecting confidence influences reality toward desired ends. Ron Suskind's book on Obama's handling of the recession was called Confidence Men, based on their belief that the recession could simply be wished away. Such magical thinking is even more prevalent among America's defense and foreign policy mandarins. For all his blunders, Biden at least deserves credit for breaking the cycle of self-delusion. It is sad and pathetic that his approval ratings started to crumble when the US departed Afghanistan. Leaving was the best thing he's done, and we should all applaud his resolution in doing that.

Ed Kilgore: Biden Didn't Have the power or Luck to Become FDR or LBJ: True on both counts. The Congressional margins in 1933 and 1965 are in the article (as are notes about recalcitrant Southern Democrats, but also Progressive Republicans who supported FDR and LBJ programs. In order for any significant legislative program to pass, the opposition party has to collapse, and that hasn't happened (yet). A big part of the problem is the persistence of Republicans in voting their party line regardless of how severely disgraced its candidates are. Kilgore also wrote a piece which tries to explain this: Never Mind the Facts. Trump Fans Feel Like a Majority. I get the sensation, but can't help but feel it's illusory. You're not seeing Democrats out marching in the streets or tearing their hair out on Facebook, because those aren't arenas where we need to be fighting right now.

Ezra Klein: Steve Bannon Is Onto Something: Better title, provided by Paul Woodward, is: To protect democracy, Democrats have to win more elections. Klein's mostly talking about the need to recruit Democrats to run for small, unglamorous offices, because that's where the roots of political movements lie. At least that's what Republicans got real good at back in the 1990s, leading Jim Hightower to publish a book called If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote, They'd Have Given Us Candidates. While they may still have an advantage, the gap's closed some in recent years, and the quality of Republican candidates is often ridiculous. This led me to another Klein article on political strategy: David Shor Is Telling Democrats What They Don't Want to Hear. I don't see Shor as much of an oracle, but he's pointing out things like: "Senate Democrats could win 51 percent of the two-party vote in the next two elections and end up with only 43 seats in the Senate." The obvious conclusion there is that Democrats have to win big, and they especially have to learn to win in Red States. Given where Republicans stand, it shouldn't be hard to craft a winning program. Selling it is another story. Shor's opinion is that trimming the left would help, and that's an opinion widely shared among Democratic Party functionaries, even among some nominally left-leaning, but the left also offer things that former New Democrats fail miserably at, like ideas and integrity.

Chris Lehman: How the Fed Supercharged Inequality: Review of Christopher Leonard's book, The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy, which "follows the unintended consequences of quantitative easing." I'm not following this perfectly, but I'm not surprised that trying to pump up the economy by pushing vast sums of money out through the banks would result in numerous asset bubbles, since that's what you get when people with too much money try to park it in investments bought from other people with too much money. One might contrast this with offering to replace consumer debt, including school and home, with long-term 0% loans, which would significantly reduce debt overhang, increased spending, and (probably) reduce asset bubbles. Just an idea, and one that could be further tuned.

Eric Levitz: Give Manchin What He Wants Already: Sure, why the hell not? He's proven he can block anything he doesn't want. I think it's good to have passed the "bipartisan" infrastructure bill (which wasn't very bipartisan at all in the House). Unless you have some runaround to get Murkowski or Collins to cross the line, Manchin is the only game in town, so take what you can get. And run for more in 2022. And if, heaven forbid, you lose in 2022, at least you'll have however much this is in the bank. Manchin's wrong about a lot of things here, starting with inflation and the deficit. But you're not going to convince him of that. And before long he's not going to matter.

Anatol Lieven: Did this week's US-NATO-Russia meetings push us closer to war? Also recently wrote: Don't kick the can: two key US proposals for upcoming Russia talks, and: Ukrainian neutrality: a 'golden bridge' out of the current geopolitical trap. All three articles point out that the seemingly escalating tensions between Russia and the US over Ukraine could be negotiated away simply enough: by agreeing that Ukraine should remain neutral, with no prospect of membership in NATO (similar to the 1955 agreement where Austria was recognized as neutral in the Cold War division of Europe), and by implementing a 2015 agreement to provide some degree of autonomy for the Russian-aided separatist Donbass region. Both of these seem like painless deals for the US, and offer Putin with a degree of face-saving political cover. That matters mostly because Russia overreacted to the 2014 "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine by supporting separatist groups, and got away with it in Crimea, much less successfully in Donbass. I don't quite understand why this is a big deal for Putin, but backing down is never easy. On the other hand, the US is the one that's seriously overstretched and deluded in this conflict. NATO should have been phased out after the fall of the Soviet Union, but instead sought to perpetuate itself through expansion, eventually provoking the hostility it was meant to defend against. The key question is whether Ukraine (or any other state) is safer in or independent of NATO. During the 1950s, Austria and Finland chose to stay out of NATO, and their neutrality was respected by the Soviet Union. Most Eastern European countries signed up for NATO not because they feared Russia but because NATO was presented to them as a stepping stone to entry in the European Union. The problem is that as NATO expanded, the US became more negative and more militant toward Russia -- especially in the use of sanctions targeting not just the state but prominent individuals. Why is harder to explain as anything other than self-delusion: we lie to ourselves about our foreign policy aims and desires.

It's worth remembering why NATO was created in the first place. The "Allies" (principally the US and the Soviet Union) had defeated Nazi Germany in WWII, with American and Russian armies meeting in and dividing Germany, both intent on pacifying Europe and favoring their own interests. But occupation of Europe was expensive and potentially alienating. Under NATO, the US effectively took command of all of the military resources of western Europe, assuring that as they were rebuilt they would remain subservient to US foreign policy. But to make NATO attractive, the US had to posit an external threat. The "spectre of communism" sufficed, what with Russian armies still occupying central and eastern Europe, and labor movements in the west (especially in Italy and France) still feeling solidarity with the Soviets. The Soviet Union responded by organizing the Warsaw Pact and locking down the "Iron Curtain," although Yugoslavia and Albania, ruled by indigenous anti-Nazi resistance movements, resisted control from Moscow.

The resulting "Cold War" served US business interests in several important ways. First, "red scares" in the US and elsewhere helped suppress and in some cases break labor movements. Second, it became clear after WWII that Britain and France could no longer afford their colonial empires -- especially with their militaries circumscribed by NATO -- plus there was the risk that continued colonial rule would fuel independence movements led by communists, much as communists had led anti-fascist resistance movements during (and even before) WWII. The result was that by 1960 nearly all European colonies had been handed over to pliable local oligarchies, bound to the US through business interests and arms deals. (There were, of course, variations along the way: the US encouraged Britain and France to fight against independence movements led by communists, especially in Malaya and Vietnam.)

One can debate whether NATO in 1949 was a good or bad idea -- I'd argue that it was profoundly bad, both for Americans and for everyone else -- but the more pertinent question is why NATO didn't close up shop when the Warsaw Pact disbanded and the Soviet Union split up. Aside from losing their pet enemy, by then decolonialism was complete, the whole world (except for a handful of "rogue states" -- ones that the US bore long-standing grudges against but that, unlike China, were small enough to ignore) was integrated into the neoliberal order, and Europe itself had lost all interest in militarism and empire, its many nation states melting into the EU. Nothing NATO did after 1991 had to be done by NATO -- the US-led coalition against Iraq in 1990 had been organized under the UN, with broad support, and that could just as well have been the model for subsequent NATO interventions in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and/or Libya (if supportable cases had been made; with NATO the US was the only decider, so could get away with flimsier excuses and callous acts that ultimately made matters worse; NATO managed to stay out of Iraq, as Germany, France, and Turkey refused to cooperate, but that didn't stop Bush from proclaiming his "Coalition of the Willing"). And, in due course, NATO has managed to push Russia around enough to create the enemy it needs to justify itself. That's a consequence that was totally unnecessary, yet today threatens the world, as anti-Putin propaganda merges with Cold War propaganda into a kind of brain freeze that affects many Democrats as much as it does Republicans (who at least profit from selling arms, fomenting hate, and smashing the working class).

For an example of that "brain freeze," see Alexander Vindman/Dominic Cruz Bustillos: The Day After Russia Attacks: What War in Ukraine Would Look Like -- and How America Should Respond. The most telling line here is the summary dismissal of Lieven's arguments: "Presuming that diplomacy fails, there are three scenarios that could play out." All of the imagined scenarios start with more-or-less-limited Russian advances into Ukrainian territory (much of which isn't currently controlled by the Kiev regime). Some other references in the piece: "Kremlin's network of malign influence"; "marshal a unified response to Russian aggression"; "if Russian military action is a given"; "impose additional costs on Russian invaders and contribute to deterrence when paired with other actions"; "avoiding a one-on-one military confrontation with Russia while punishing Russia for creating this harsh new reality." By the latter, they mean that Ukrainians should bear the pain of America's demonization and isolation of Russia, which the US can continue at no risk to its own interests. Isn't is rather late to still believe that American intentions are always benign? Let alone that events always break favorably for the US?

Americans have been feeding off their own propaganda since the early days of the Cold War (or maybe since the Monroe Doctrine, but the quantity and quality took a huge leap in the 1950s, and became increasingly deranged through Nixon and Reagan and Clinton and Bush, to the point where US foreign policy gyrates between schizophrenia and dementia. (Obama was a believer who still tried to rationalize fringe cases, leading to half-hearted openings to Cuba and Iran, but never questioning something as sacrosanct as NATO, so he wound up promoting conflict with Russia and China. Trump was a cynic, but his only real interest was in graft, so he effectively changed nothing, other than to make "US interests" look even more selfish and cynical.) This needs to change, but Biden's team is reflexively locked into the mythology, and the left has deprioritized foreign affairs given the need to advance domestic goals and oppose Republicans. But also note that the ability of the US to dictate craziness to its "allies" has long been diminishing, and could collapse. It's one thing to blackball inconsequential countries like North Korea and Cuba; quite another to bite off one as large and connected as China, where sanctions may push nations to isolate the US instead. Russia is dangerous because no one knows the limits of possible US bullying, least of all Washington.

By the way, Lieven also wrote: America must stay away from Kazakhstan's troubles. He probably has the same article somewhere on Belarus, and I wouldn't be surprised to find one forthcoming on Turkmenistan, maybe even Moldova -- countries that Americans have no understanding of and negligible interests in, but plenty of conceited opinions about -- a conceit peculiar to people who think they rule the world, but who don't. Some other pieces on Russia/Ukraine (including one more by Lieven that appeared after I wrote the section above):

• Anatol Lieven: Diplomats & experts: negotiate, or expect 'drastic escalation' by Russia. Also: How Emmanuel Macron can end the threat of war in Europe.
• Doug Bandow: The Farkas effect: When the Blob mobilizes for war: "A former State Department official pens an article calling for an 'international coalition of the willing' to go to battle with Russia." That from Evelyn Farkas, evidently a Democrat but not part of the Biden administration. Bandow also wrote: GOP war drummers demanding action against Russia.
• Fred Kaplan: Would Putin Really Invade Ukraine for This? Kaplan has been covering this story for a while, and offers a pretty good summary.

Jane Mayer: Is Ginni Thomas a threat to the Supreme Court? That's Justice Clarence Thomas's wife, who has long worked for right-wing think tanks and lobbying firms (currently one called Liberty Consulting). That not only provides her with untoward influence on the Court, it is an obvious vector for bribery and influence peddling. I've long thought that Thomas could and should be impeached for this relationship, but there's never been a political consensus behind doing so. (As I recall, Antonin Scalia had a similarly compromising spouse, and his son became a prominent member of the Bush and Trump administrations.)

Ian Millhiser: The Supreme Court can't get its story straight on vaccines: "The Court is barely even pretending to be engaged in legal reasoning." The Supreme Court overturned the Biden administration's OSHA rule requiring vaccination or testing for workers in covered businesses, but allowed another rule on health care workers. As a subhed put it: "The Court is fabricating legal doctrines that appear in neither statute nor Constitution." In other words, they're making this shit up as they go along, responding to a political agenda that that is rooted in nothing but their own presumed powers. When Trump packed the court, I thought it was premature to talk about rebalancing schemes. In order to be politically possible, people first have to be convinced that the current Court is out of control. That's what these rulings provide evidence of.

Millhiser also wrote: It was a great day in the Supreme Court for anyone who wants to bribe a lawmaker.

Rani Molla: A new era for the American worker: "American workers have power. That won't last forever." But it could last longer if Democrats got behind it. To some extent, they did: the first Covid-19 stimulus bill, which Trump was so desperate for he largely let Democrats craft it, was probably the most pro-worker legislation in this century (or well back into the last). The disease itself gave some workers leverage. Partial enactment of the $15 minimum wage also helped. But most important was the reluctance of workers to settle for the lowest paying jobs offered. That left many businesses moaning about labor shortages, but it also incentivized them to do what markets are supposed to do: adjust prices so supply can meet demand.

David Sirota: Voting Rights Alone Will Not Save the Democrats: One thing that Republicans and Democrats seem to agree on is that Democrats do better when the American voting public expands, while Republicans gain when the voting public contracts. That much is clearly expressed in myriad state bills Republicans have passed since 2020, and in the federal bill Democrats failed to pass last week. I doubt that's true. For one thing, increasing the voting share means that you get more ill-informed and even marginally interested voters, who are more likely to vote based on style than substance. We had an exceptionally high turnout in 2020, yet Democrats lost ground from 2018, and won the presidency by about half the expected margin, despite running against the most embarrassing fuckup imaginable. The key for Democratic wins is the same as it ever was: getting your people to come out en masse, which takes a combination of two fundamentals: making them fear the consequences of loss, and giving them some positive hope to vote for. Saving democracy offers something on both sides of that equation, but it would mean more if you can show that democracy is good for most people. Republicans are doing their part by showing that their corruption of democracy is pretty awful.

Michael Wines: Census Memo Cites 'Unprecedented' Meddling by Trump Administration: A fairly minor story, but another example of how obsessively thorough Republicans are when it comes to tilting the political playing field.

I saw this "Media Bias Chart" in a Facebook post. I don't know anything about its provenance, but it seems roughly plausible as far as it goes. (One common objection is that their center is farther to the right than they represent. Another is that what's blithely grouped together as "opinion pieces" divides between based on a deeper factual understanding of the world, common on the left, and opinions based on rank fallacies, so often found on the right. Even with so much effort at balancing, note that the right dips much further on the "News Value and Reliability" axis.)

I mention it mostly because I want to quote/preserve a comment by Peter Feldstein:

An early version of this chart had Natural News on the furthest left! Good they corrected that. That one mistake was highly influential on my understanding of right-wing media strategy five years back -- it hasn't changed -- which is to astroturf continually as "left" in order to woo political unsophisticates (if I may) traditionally claimed by the left on one of their favourite issues; in this case, natural foods. In each case (anti-feminism, taxation, belief in civil liberties, even reflexive anti-Americanism!), the message is, "Blame the (Democratic, (Liberal, Labour, etc.) establishment." Then offer a smorgasbord of other right-wing things to believe in.

I'm convinced this is why, as George Monbiot put it recently (and I've been observing for many years), "in the countercultural movements where my sympathies lie, people are dropping like flies." He means that hippies are turning into right-wing true believers. He goes on, "there has been an almost perfect language swap. Parties that once belonged on the left talk about security and stability while those on the right talk of liberation and revolt." Only those on the right aren't sincere about it, while those on the left are bound to dominant parties using the language of security and stability.

I've largely concluded that all sorts of countercultural interests -- like animal rights, dietary regimes like veganism, psychedelics, and various "spiritual" leanings -- have no bearing on the left-right axis, and trying to throw them into the mix just muddies the matter. There is no reason why people who believe in peace, justice, and equality should give up meat, just as there is no reason that people who relish hamburgers should fear the left. Right-wing propagandists, of course, try to have it both ways. I could add vaccination-phobia to the list: a lot of anti-vaxxers lean left politically, but it is the right that has sought to politicize the issue, further endangering public health.

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Monday, January 17, 2022

January archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 37117 [37068] rated (+49), 137 [133] unrated (+4).

First thing I should note here is the passing of Elsie Lee Pyeatt. At 88, she was my oldest living cousin -- a status she was fifth to hold, so perhaps one should stop keeping track -- the second child of Ted Brown (1902-81), who was in turn the second child (eldest son) of my mother's parents (Ben Brown, 1868-1936, and Mary Lou Lakey, 1877-1946, who both died before I was born; Elsie Lee was the last person with any direct memory of Ben Brown). My mother's family grew up on a farm near the long-defunct town of Vidette, Arkansas (east of Henderson, east of Mountain Home). After Ben died, Ted bought out his siblings and took over the family farm. The rest of the family scattered, some to Oklahoma and Kansas, some as far as Washington and California. Ted's other children left for Washington, with Max coming back to Kansas in 1956, but Elsie Lee stayed close to home.

When I was young, we visited Ted (and Hester) and Elsie Lee (and Pete Pyeatt) about once a year. Ted lived on a farm, in a stone house he had built, with a wood stove that Hester cooked masterfully on. Elsie Lee and Pete lived on a farm about 4 miles west (although the backroads route my father invariably took made it seem much farther), in a log cabin which had been encased in concrete -- the original interior walls were about 2 feet thick -- with extra rooms slapped on most sides. We would usually spend a week, split between the two houses. Elsie Lee and Pete were married in 1956, so I always remember them together in that house, with three little girls, and eventually a son. They were the people I felt closest to there.

I spent several decades running away from my family, then gradually started reacquainting myself. After moving back to Kansas in 1999, I started visiting Arkansas regularly, usually once a year. Pete had died, and Elsie Lee was living alone back in her old farmhouse -- she had spent much of the intervening years living in Mountain Home, close to her work, but kept her farm, and Ted's until its upkeep became too much. The farm remains in the family, but she left it over a decade ago: she lived with daughter Brenda in the Fayetteville area for a while, then moved back to Mountain Home, and spent her last years in a small house next to Rhonda, another daughter, with her other children also in or near Mountain Home. Last time I saw her was a stop off on a drive back from the East Coast, 3-4 years ago. I haven't been anywhere since. Elsie Lee has been in poor health for some time, and suffered from a bit of dimentia, so talking to her became increasingly difficult. But the family did a good job of keeping touch, and I greatly appreciate their efforts.

Since getting the news, I've been in some kind of depressed daze -- not unlike after Devoe Brown's death 18 months ago. At least I got a chance to talk to Devoe regularly in his waning days, when he worked harder to cheer me up than I did for him. More to this I don't want to talk about. Unless something changes for the better (and the other direction seems much more likely), I can see myself pulling back and fading away.

One special source of aggravation this week is Hewlett-Packard. Sometimes I think I should put a boycott page up to identify companies that I consider to be especially egregious. I bought a HP 9015 OfficeJet printer a few months back, largely based on the widespread view that the HP had particularly good Linux support. It doesn't. I'm unable to scan using Xsane (which recognizes the scanner and does test scans, but craps out during data transfer; SimpleScan works, barely). Then there's the proprietary ink problem. Their whole engineering operation seems to be built around locking you into their proprietary ink scam. I signed up for their subscription program (6 months free), and they sent me replacement ink, then also bumped the monthly price up 33%, while limiting the carryover allowance to 3 months. However, I ran out of initial cyan and magenta ink (despite printing approx. zero pages in color), and that locked the machine (despite having quite a bit of black left). For the last two weeks, I've been too upset to figure out how to change the cartridges (no obvious hints either on the machine or the cartridges). I bought my first HP printer c. 1981. I'll never buy anything else from them. (Myriad minor annoyances not noted above. Some of this is probably due to me not being hip to the new ap-based wireless world, but when I can't figure something techy out, I doubt it's all my fault.)

Meanwhile, I did manage to slog through a fair number of records this week. I got some tips from Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide. (I previously had Carly Pearce at A-; Kasai Allstars, Morgan Wade, Baiana System, McKinley Dixon, and Ka at ***.) I also spent a lot of time going through Saving Country Music's 2021 Essential Albums list, which yielded most of this week's A- records. By the way, previously reviewed A- records listed there: James McMurtry: The Horses and the Hounds; Hayes Carll: You Get It All; Carly Pearce: 29: Written in Stone; Sierra Ferrell: A Long Time Coming; John R. Miller: Depreciated; Margo Cilker: Pohorylle; Loretta Lynn: Still Woman Enough.

Added some EOY lists. I added a bunch of individual ballots from Jazz Critics Poll, which increased the pro-jazz skew of my EOY Aggregate: Floating Points bumped Little Simz from the number one spot; James Brandon Lewis rose to number nine; Sons of Kemet (15), Vijay Iyer (23), Henry Threadgill (34), Ches Smith (36), Charles Lloyd (38), William Parker's Mayan Space Station (44), and Wadada Leo Smith's Chicago Symphonies (47) cracked the top 50 (with Anna Webber next at 51). I expect most of those to settle down a bit if/as I keep adding non-jazz lists, but Floating Points seems to be pulling away. I'm not a big fan, but it seems to have hit a chord for the times, and I don't disapprove. (I do disapprove of Low's Hey What, in 6th place with grade C.) Also note that a jazz record is currently the highest ranked among those I haven't heard yet: William Parker's 10-CD box, Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World. (I got a sampler but wasn't blown away by it, not that I don't love almost everything Parker does; by the way, see Britt Robson's A Guide to William Parker, also my own dated but still useful William Parker, Matthew Shipp & Friends: A Consumer Guide.) Alternatively, I've tended to ignore metal-only lists this year (even more than usual), so suspect an anti-metal skew. (The only other unheard albums down to 160 are: Every Time I Die; Gojira; Deafheaven; Mastodon; Converge. After that you get into perennial disappointments like James Blake and the Killers.) Among other lists, the long one at Aquarium Drunkard sent me off on some interesting searches.

New records reviewed this week:

Aeon Station: Observatory (2021, Sub Pop): Kevin Whelan, formerly of the Wrens -- three albums 1994-2003, the last got some critical acclaim, but a 2014 album was never released -- not sure if this is a new group or just a solo project. B+(**) [sp]

Alfa Mist: Bring Backs (2021, Anti-): British producer, real name (probably) Alfa Sekitoleko, part of "creative quartet" Are We Live, third album. I've seen it grouped as jazz, and it does have a bit of saxophone on it. B+(*)

Riddy Arman: Riddy Arman (2021, La Honda): Country singer-songwriter, from Ohio but went to Montana for a video, and Portland to record this short debut album. B+(***)

Blackberry Smoke: You Hear Georgia (2021, 3 Legged): Southern rock band, from Atlanta, 2003 debut called Bad Luck Ain't No Crime. True to form, but I jotted down two lines from the opener: "it's a helluva thing to break your back just to make another man rich" and the refrain, "let's live it up until we can't live it down." B+(*)

Garrett T. Capps: I Love San Antone (2021, Vinyl Ranch): Likes Austin but loves San Antonio, proclaimed in the first song then underscored with Tex-Mex accordion in the second. Seems almost too easy. B+(***)

Melissa Carper: Daddy's Country Gold (2021, self-released): Country singer-songwriter, also plays upright bass, second or third album, plus one as The Carper Family. B+(***)

Sharel Cassity/Rajiv Halim/Greg Ward: Altoizm (2021, Afar Music): Three alto saxophonists, from Chicago, I've seen them ordered every which way, with alphabetical making as much sense as any. Rhythm section: Richard D. Johnson (piano), Jeremiah Hunt (bass), Michael Piolet (drums). Seven tracks (2-3-2). Bebop throwback, like a Charlie Parker tag team. B+(***)

Anansy Cissé: Anoura (2021, Riverboat): Saharan blues groove from Mali, second album, nothing spectacular but true to form. B+(***)

Kiely Connell: Camulet Queen (2021, self-released): Singer-songwriter from Indiana, based in Nashville, first album. Strong voice, some grit to her songs. B+(**)

Jesse Daniel: Beyond These Walls (2021, Die True): Country singer-songwriter, third album. Fine trad sound picking and singing. One in Spanish is high-octane Tex-Mex. B+(***)

Bobby Dove: Hopeless Romantic (2021, self-released): Country singer-songwriter from Canada (Montreal), third album. Reviews display a curious lack of pronouns, but are right as to the classic form and depth of the songs (aside from the one in Spanish, which I still have doubts about). A-

Hope Dunbar: Sweetheartland (2021, self-released): Singer-songwriter from Utica, Nebraska (pop. 800), with a husband and three kids and enough housework to keep her down, but sometimes she'll write a few words and pick up her guitar and sing. Sometimes she oversings, coming off like Bruce Springsteen. B+(***)

Hope Dunbar: You Let the Light In (2021, self-released): Third album, recorded in Nashville. Powerful singer, songs strike me as a bit more generic. B+(**)

Vincent Neil Emerson: Vincent Neil Emerson (2021, La Honda): Singer-songwriter from Texas, third album after East Texas Blues and Fried Chicken and Evil Women, evidently had second thoughts about calling this one "High on Gettin' By" or "Saddled Up and Tamed." Flashes a bit of John Prine early, more Rodney Crowell (producer here) later. Part Choctaw-Apache, good for the deepest ballad here. A-

John Escreet/Pera Krstajic/Anthony Fung: Cresta (2022, self-released): Keyboards, electric bass, drums, eighth album for the leader since 2008. B+(*) [bc]

Flatland Cavalry: Welcome to Countryland (2021, self-released): Lubbock, Texas country group, singer-songwriter Cleto Cordero, fiddle hinting at western swing, third album. B+(*)

Béla Fleck: My Bluegrass Heart (2021, Renew, 2CD): Banjo player, born in New York, has long straddled jazz and bluegrass, with occasional forays elsewhere (one of his best albums is Throw Down Your Heart, recorded in Africa, and another features Zakir Hussain). Instrumental, aside from the occasional giggle, with a few recognizable bluegrass stars dropping in to jam. B+(*)

Linda Fredriksson: Juniper (2021, We Jazz): Finnish saxophonist (alto, baritone, bass clarinet, guitar, piano, synthesizer, voice), first album. With keyboards-bass-drums, soft edges, a bit of space ambiance. B+(**)

Charles Wesley Godwin: How the Mighty Fall (2021, self-released): Country singer-songwriter from West Virginia, second album. Saving Country Music's album of the year. Can't fault it for craft, but a bit too mighty for my taste. B+(*)

John Hébert: Sounds of LoveChanges-era Mingus, with Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Tim Berne (alto sax), Fred Hersch (piano), and Ches Smith (drums). B+(***)

Tom Jones: Surrounded by Time (2021, S-Curve): Welsh crooner, seemed like part of an earlier/obsolete tradition when he had his first hit in 1965, but 40 albums later it's fair to say he's proven resourceful and resilient. Past 80 he's found his blues voice, and backed it with a harsh mechanical grind. All covers, of which "Pop Star" (Cat Stevens) and "Talking Reality Television Blues (Todd Snider) are most striking. B+(*)

Koreless: Agor (2021, Young): Welsh electronica producer Lewis Roberts, first album after a couple EPs. B

Mac Leaphart: Music City Joke (2021, self-released): Nashville singer-songwriter auditioning for the next generation John Prine, aiming high and failing amiably. Aesthetes may seek originals, but many of the rest of us will settle for compatriots. And when you think about it, that's the rule for folksingers. Bob Dylan imitated all sorts of people before he became himself. A-

Rob Leines: Blood Sweat and Beers (2021, self-released): Country singer-songwriter, born in Georgia, bounced back and forth to California, second (or third) album. B+(**)

John McLaughlin: Liberation Time (2021, Abstract Logix): British fusion guitarist, pretty much invented the genre, returned to form after a sabbatical delving into Indian music. B+(*)

Mike and the Moonpies: One to Grow On (2021, Prairie Rose): Austin-based country band, albums since 2010 -- the first two announced their intentions: The Real Country and The Hard Way. B+(*)

Nation of Language: A Way Forward (2021, PIAS): Electropop trio from Brooklyn, second album. B+(**)

NTsKI: Orca (2021, Orange Milk/EM): Kyoto-based J-pop artist, debut album (although her website lists other albums, as well as EPs). B+(**) [bc]

Poppy: Flux (2021, Sumerian): Pop singer Moriah Rose Pereira, fourth album, started closer to bubblegum but moved on to flirt with metal, but the extra heft hasn't harmed her pop sense. B+(***)

Connie Smith: The Cry of the Heart (2021, Fat Possum): Popular country singer for RCA 1965-72, although I can't recommend a compilation from the period (The Essential Connie Smith is part of a generally exemplary series of single-CD compilations, but a B- for me). She moved on to Columbia through 1976 and Monument to 1978, and has recorded a few things since -- produced by Marty Stuart since they married in 1997. One I like a lot is 2011's Long Line of Heartaches, on Sugar Hill. At 80, she still has quite a voice, and more faith in Jesus than seems warranted. B+(**)

The Steel Woods: All of Your Stones (2021, Thirty Tigers): Southern rock group, founded by singer Wes Bayliss and guitarist Jason "Rowdy" Cope (d. 2021), based in Nashville, third album since 2017. Best line was about not being able to feel a broken heart, but that's a pretty low ceiling. B

Billy Strings: Renewal (2021, Rounder): Bluegrass picker William Apostol, main instrument is guitar but also plays banjo and mandolin, and sings. Third album. Classic sound. B+(**)

Aaron Lee Tasjan: Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! (2021, New West): Singer-songwriter, filed under country but latest album listed as "power pop." Indeed, sounds a bit like Marshall Crenshaw, except, you know, not as good. Sample lyric: "cartoon music for plastic people, who don't know how to feel." B

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

The Beaters: Harari (1975 [2021], Matsuli Music): South African "Soweto soul" group, first album, changed their name to Harari thereafter, going on to record another dozen albums up to 1986. Not sure who plays sax on the closer. B+(**) [bc]

Chuck Berry: Live From Blueberry Hill (2005-06 [2021], Dualtone): I lived a couple years in St. Louis: one on Eastgate, across from a bagel bakery, at the east end of what was even then known as the Delmar Loop. Blueberry Hill was the local pub, and I spent a fair amount of time in there -- only Left Bank Books and Streetside Records saw more of me. I don't recall any music there, but Joe Edwards built his empire around it. His biggest coup was getting Chuck Berry to play monthly from 1996 to 2014. This picks 10 tracks from the middle of his run. His voice is shot, and the lean elegance of songs you certainly know has thickened, and the band/sound is far from spectacular, but his excitement is still palpable, and he throws in some ad libs you'll want to hear. After all, "if you love it, you ain't never too old." A- [sp]

Chuck Berry: Toronto Rock 'N' Roll Revival 1969 (1969 [2021], Sunset Blvd.): Remastered complete set of a live concert that's been variously available at least since 1978. The 9:41 "My Ding-A-Ling" is either a high- or a low-point. No debate over the 6:32 "Reelin' and Rockin'." B+(***)

Essiebons Special 1973-1984: Ghana Music Power House (1973-84 [2021], Analog Africa): A compilation of from Ghana's Essiebons label, long headed by producer Dick Essilfie-Bondzie, leans more toward Afrobeat than the earlier highlife style. I usually prefer the light grace of highlife, but this overwhelming deluge of rhythm works too. A- [bc]

Harari: Rufaro/Happiness (1976 [2021], Matsuli Music): Formerly the Beaters, second group album, kept the name of their debut album. B+(**) [bc]

I'll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to the Velvet Underground & Nico (2021, Verve): A project of the late Hal Willner, evidently his last, recreating the Velvet Underground's first album cut-by-cut, with different artists tackling each song, with widely varying degrees of inspiration. I got to the album late. I remember going to at least two people's homes, playing their copies, and having them come into the room and ask me "what is this shit?" The record soon enough became my kind of comfort food, so it's a bit unsettling to hear other people fuck around with it. B+(***)

Khan Jamal: Infinity (1982-84 [2021], Jazz Room): Vibraphone player, born in Florida but raised in Philadelphia, a founder of Sounds of Liberation in 1970. Died January 2022, at 75. Group includes Byard Lancaster (alto sax/flute), plus piano, bass, drums, extra percussion. B+(***)

Leo Nocentelli: Another Side (1971 [2021], Light in the Attic): Guitarist from New Orleans, played for the Meters back in their heyday, side credits include Labelle, Wild Tchoupitoulas, Albert King, Etta James, Taj Mahal, Trombone Shorty. Recorded this one solo album, unreleased until now. B+(*)

Tom Prehn Kvartet: Centrifuga (1964 [2021], Centrifuga): Danish pianist, recorded some remarkable free jazz as early as 1963 but I'm not sure he continued after 1970. John Corbett was a fan, reissuing some of his work in Atavistic's Unheard Music Series, and later on his Corbett Vs. Dempsey label. This is half of a 2021 reissue, but I've only been able to find the original self-released album so far. Quartet with tenor sax Fritz Krogh), bass (Poul Ehlers), and drums (Finn Slumstrup). One 44:09 piece. B+(***) [bc]

Ritmo Fantasía: Balearic Spanish Synth-Pop, Boogie & House (1982-1992) (1982-92 [2021], Soundway): From Spanish islands in the Mediterranean, most famously Ibiza, collected by Berlin-based DJ Trujillo. B+(**)

Star Lovers: Boafo Ne Nyame (1987 [2021], Hot Casa): High life group from Ghana, cover proclaims "Highlife Is Back with Star Lovers," and notes: "Frimpong Manso Production." B+(***) [bc]

The Velvet Underground: A Documentary Film by Todd Haynes (1954-70 [2021], Polydor, 2CD): Soundtrack, 11 group songs not all tied to the four studio albums, one from Nico's solo album, four more including a pre-VU Reed group (The Primitives), pieces from the Diablos, Bo Diddley, and La Monte Young -- the latter a 6:21 minimalist sax solo. The VU songs are mostly live, and often magnificent (especially the 19:04 "Sister Ray"), but they're available in other packages, so I wonder how useful this particular one has. I haven't seen the movie. [PS: Napster credits most of these songs to Amon Tobin, but other sources, including a scan of the booklet, cite the group. My ears concur.] B+(***)

Old music:

Precious Bryant: Feel Me Good (2002, Terminus): Blues singer from the Georgia side of the Alabama line, learned her guitar from an uncle, George Henry Bussey. Got recorded as early as 1967, but didn't release this debut until she turned 60. Live set, solo, just acoustic guitar and voice. B+(**)

Precious Bryant: The Truth (2004, Terminus): Second album, same sensibility but gets a lift from the extra depth of a band, not that you notice it much. Not sure of the provenance of the songs: some I thought I recognized, but not the titles. A-

Precious Bryant: My Name Is Precious (2005, Music Maker Relief Foundation): Label is a non-profit, got some recognition a couple years back with the compilation Hanging Guitar Doors, but it dates back to 1994, and started working with Bryant a decade before this album appeared. She runs through 26 songs here, nice and simple. B+(***)

Anansy Cissé: Mali Overdrive (2014, Riverboat): Guitarist-vocalist from Timbuktu in Mali, first album (at least known to the outside world), finds an undulating groove that many others have pioneered. B+(**)

Hope Dunbar: Three Black Crows (2017, self-released): First album, a dozen homespun songs, but she got some production (from Emily White), strings and percussion and backing vocals. B+(***)

Vincent Neil Emerson: Fried Chicken & Evil Women (2019, La Honda): Title song continues, "will be the death of me," and is followed by "The Bad Side of Luck." His songs flow as easy and natural as anyone's since Billy Joe Shaver. A-

Booker Ervin: Structurally Sound (1966 [2001], Blue Note): Tenor saxophonist from Texas, rarely included in the list of "Texas Tenors" but should be. Emerged as a dominant player with Prestige in the early 1960s, but less known for his late 1960s work, before his death in 1970 at 39. Standard quintet here, but Charles Tolliver (trumpet) and John Hicks (piano) were barely known at the time. Really kicked in for me on Ervin's one original, "Boo's Blues." Reissue adds four tracks. [PS: Allen Lowe included this in a list of life-changing records he first heard at 14. It was the only one I didn't know.] A-

Booker Ervin: The In Between (1968, Blue Note): Last release before Ervin's 1970 death, first actually on Blue Note (which later reissued his two Pacific Jazz albums; also this one in 2004 with no extra material). Richard Williams plays trumpet on 5 (of 6) tracks, with Bobby Few (piano), Cevera Jeffries Jr. (bass), and Lenny McBrowne (drums). Sounds very strong. B+(***)

Limited Sampling: Records I played parts of, but not enough to grade: -- means no interest, - not bad but not a prospect, + some chance, ++ likely prospect.

The Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel Band: Both Ways (2017 [2021], self-released): Holy Modal Rounders redux, download only and very skint on the samples. Bandcamp page touts this as "The Great Lost 2017 Double-Album." Christgau likes it. Maybe. [3/26 tracks] ++

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Scott Burns/John Wojciechowski/Geof Bradfield: Tenor Time (Afar Music) [01-21]
• Eugenie Jones: Players (Open Mic) [03-11]
• Oz Noy/Ugonna Okegwo/Ray Marchica: Riverside (Outside In Music) [01-22]
• Mathis Picard: Live at the Museum (Outside In Music) [01-28]

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Monday, January 10, 2022

January archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 37068 [37032] rated (+36), 133 [128] unrated (+5).

I published a batch of questions and answers on Sunday: on keeping track of grades, on playing vinyl, and political tactics. The latter is something I've been thinking about, but have less and less confidence of convincing anyone. Nonetheless, I've started to think about a Speaking of Which later in the week. I'd also like to do a Book Roundup post before long. I still have a long ways to go with The Dawn of Everything, but quite a bit of new stuff has come out since my latest (April 18, 2021).

Over the weekend, I tweeted a link to a Dessa single I found about Janet Yellen. Probably the best song about a major economist since Loudon Wainwright's Paul Krugman.

I continue to be perplexed as to why all this searching through EOY lists isn't generating more 2021 A- records. Thus far I've found one, vs. 14 new 2020 A- records in January 2021. This week's only new A- is the first 2022 release. Late in the week, I was having so much trouble deciding on which recent release to listen to next I reverted to my old idea of listening to unheard Christgau A-list records. I knew of a couple that I hadn't been able to find on Napster but were on Spotify -- that number is small, but it was one reason for signing up. The other main reason is that Spotify has an application that runs on Linux, whereas I've had to use Napster's web interface. The latter is both a terrible resource hog and is prone to hangs -- problems I haven't encountered on Spotify.

On the other hand, I'm finding it harder to browse for things on Spotify, and I haven't tried to put any playlists together. I assembled the Platters compilation playlist rather easily on Napster. I have a couple of other (shorter and earlier) Platters compilations I'm quite happy with -- The Very Best of the Platters (1955-60 [1991], Mercury), and The Best of the Platters [20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection] (1955-61 [1999], Mercury) -- but this particular one was the one that Christgau eventually settled on. The remaining question is whether the 2-CD The Magic Touch: An Anthology might be the better pick.

I considered doing the same thing with ChangesOneBowie, but didn't take it on until I saw a bunch of tributes on Bowie's birthday. I eventually found the extra single, then noticed that Spotify had the whole album (albeit with later remasters). So I gave it a whirl, knew everything, and appreciated the context. As I noted in the review, I had all the original vinyl LPs (but no longer), and bought the extended CD ChangesBowie early when it came out. It seems a little odd to go to the trouble of reviewing obsolete configurations, but in this case, with resurgent interest in vinyl, the original best-of got reissued (in 2016).

The Charles Brackeen record was suggested by Chris Monsen on news of the saxophonist's death. I'm not a big fan of his other Silkheart albums -- the one time he got a real chance as a leader, although he's been more impressive as a sideman.

El Intruso published their 14th Annual International Critics Poll results. I was one of 71 critics who voted in the poll. My ballot, which was pretty much off the top of my head (with occasional glances at my 2021 list), is second down here. A little less than half of the voters also participated in our Jazz Critics Poll. The El Intruso poll skews more avant than JCP, which is obvious with the results (especially for the instrument slots). More interesting to me is that it draws a lot more on non-American critics.

Still dragging my feet on indexing recent Streamnotes monthlies -- I think I'm down two at present. It's been hard keeping up.

New records reviewed this week:

Gregg Belisle-Chi: Koi: Performing the Music of Tim Berne (2020 [2021], Relative Pitch): Guitarist, based in New York, plays solo on ten pieces composed by Berne, with Berne and David Torn producing. I imagine I could recognize Berne's alto sax anywhere, but the songs themselves are another story. B+(*)

Chris Brokaw: Puritan (2021, 12XU): Singer-songwriter, graduated from Oberlin, played drums in Codeine, co-founded Come, has worked with another dozen groups, went solo around 2001, 25+ albums since then. B+(**)

Sharel Cassity/Rajiv Halim/Greg Ward: Altoizm (2021, Afar Music): Three alto saxophonists, from Chicago, I've seen them ordered every which way, with alphabetical making as much sense as any. Rhythm section: Richard D. Johnson (piano), Jeremiah Hunt (bass), Michael Piolet (drums). Seven tracks (2-3-2). Bebop throwback, like a Charlie Parker tag team. B+(***)

The Coral: Coral Island (2021, Run On, 2CD): English rock band, tenth album since 2002, indie guitars and folk/psychedelic mix. I was intimidated by the 2-CD packaging, but songs are short and the 24 split over two discs only add up to 54:04. B

Dessa: Ides (2021, Doomtree, EP): Minnesota rapper Margret Wander, also writes fiction and poetry, joined Doomtree collective in 2005, 2010 debut (A Badly Broken Code) is about as brilliantly literate as hip-hop gets, four albums and more EPs, sung more after the debut, does both here. Seven songs plus a remix, 25:55. [Bonus choice cut: check out her earlier single, Who's Yellen Now?] B+(***) [bc]

Dltzk: Frailty (2021, Deadair): First album after an EP and a couple singles, slotted under electronica or "digicore," more precisely described as "guitar music created by a Skrillex and Porter Robinson obsessive." That's pretty close to the mark. B

Derrick Gardner and the Big Dig! Band: Still I Rise (2020, Impact Jazz): Trumpet player, as was his father (Burgess Gardner; brother Vincent Gardner plays trombone), from Chicago, has a previous album from 2005 (actually a couple more that didn't show up at first), and a fair amount of big band experience. B+(**) [sp]

Myriam Gendron: Ma Délire: Songs of Love, Lost & Found (2021, Feeding Tube): Folk singer from Ottawa, second album, songs split between French and English, five originals, most of the rest are traditional. B+(**)

Pasquale Grasso: Pasquale Plays Duke (2021, Sony Masterworks): Italian guitarist, based in New York, has released a bunch of solo EPs/albums recently, all covers showing off his virtuosic technique. Here he takes on Ellington, adding bass (Ari Roland) and drums (Keith Balla), with vocal spots for Samara Joy and Sheila Jordan ("Mood Indigo," not her best voice but remarkable nonetheless). B+(*)

Fred Hersch: Breath by Breath (2021 [2022], Palmetto): Piano trio, with Drew Gress and Jochen Rueckert, plus the Crosby Street String Quartet. The writing for strings caught me by surprise, lovely at first with added layers of complexity, which the piano only adds to. A- [cd]

Sven-Åke Johansson/Niklas Fite/Joel Grip: Swinging at Topsi's (2020 [2021], Astral Spirits): Drums, acoustic guitar, double bass. Swedish drummer has been around a long time, mostly playing with German avant-garde groups. Two 25-minute sets are keep interest levels up. Ends with two short songs, sung by Johansson, not well, but that's part of the charm. B+(***) [bc]

Christof Kurzmann/Sofia Jernberg/Joe Williamson/Mats Brandlmayr: Disquiet (2018 [2021], Trost): Title generally taken as group name, but artist names are in smaller print on cover, so we'll parse it that way. Credits: lloopp/vocals, voice, double bass, drums. One 47:14 piece. Not as disquieting as expected, unless you listen closely to the words. B+(*) [bc]

Joëlle Léandre/Pauline Oliveros/George Lewis: Play as You Go (2014 [2021], Trost): Radio shot from Prague, one 43:59 piece, credits: contrabass/voice, Roland Button V-Accordion, laptop electronics/trombone. B+(**) [bc]

João Lencastre's Communion: Unlimited Dreams (2021, Clean Feed): Portuguese drummer, sixth Communion album since 2007, roster highly variable, one a trio, this one an octet, with two saxes (Albert Cirera and Ricardo Toscano), piano/electronics (Benny Lackner), two electric guitars, two basses (one electric, the other acoustic). B+(**) [bc]

L.U.M.E. [Lisbon Underground Music Ensemble]: Las Californias (2021, Clean Feed): Pianist Marco Barroso also credited with composition and direction, leading a 15-piece group in their third album. Expansive, almost circus-like atmosphere, huge swells of sound, stretches that are almost catchy, bits of random dialogue. B+(***) [bc]

Tony Malaby's Sabino: The Cave of Winds (2021 [2022], Pyroclastic): Tenor saxophonist, from Arizona, a dominating player who not infrequently steals others' albums. Group name refers back to a 2000 album, another quartet with Michael Formanek (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums) returning, with Ben Monder taking over guitar. B+(***) [cd]

Michael Mayo: Bones (2021, Artistry Music/Mack Avenue): Singer, from Los Angeles but based in New York, father played saxophone for Earth, Wind & Fire; first album, on a jazz label but at least as close to soft-edged neo-soul. B+(*)

Charnett Moffett: New Love (2019 [2021], Motéma): Bassist, father is drummer Charles Moffet, dozens more side credits. Quartet with Irwin Hall (sax/flute), Jana Herzen (guitar), and drums. Don't care much for the vocals, but one has to admire how he keeps the bass in focus. B

Perila: How Much Time It Is Between You and Me? (2021, Smalltown Soupersound): Alexandra Zakharenko, DJ/producer, based in Berlin, has produced quite a bit since 2019. Ambient, broken up by occasional clunkiness. B

John Pizzarelli: Better Days Ahead: Solo Guitar Takes on Pat Metheny (2021, Ghostlight): Second-generation guitarist, has done a lot of tributes but mostly to singers. This is nice, not that I know Metheny well enough to get the point. B

Mike Pride: I Hate Work (2021, RareNoise): Drummer, moved to New York in 2000, led a group called From Bacteria to Boys, Napster lists him as "smooth jazz," but that's some kind of sick joke: he mostly plays in free jazz groups, but is also into hardcore noise, and sometimes combines them, or in this case flips them over. Ten songs "loosely based" on Millions of Dead Cops' 1982 debut -- a connection from when Pride toured as their drummer -- done with piano trio (Jamie Saft and Brad Jones), but lest you get completely lost three cuts have guest vocals, two have Mick Barr on electric guitar or banjo, and both Pride and Saft play some electric keyboards. B+(*)

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: Uncommon Weather (2021, Tough Love): San Francisco band, principally Glenn Donaldson, who's appeared in a lot of bands since 2001, this one from 2019 and in its third album. Sound much like the Go-Betweens. B+(*)

Alex Riel/Bo Stief/Carsten Dahl: Our Songs (2021, Storyville): Danish drummer, started out in trad jazz bands before 1960, many side credits, bassist and pianist also Danish. Half standards from "My Funny Valentine" to "Giant Steps," half Danish titles. B+(**)

The Rite of Trio: Free Development of Delirium (2021, Clean Feed): Portuguese trio: André B. Sivla (guitar), Filipe Louro (bass), Pedro Melo Alves (drums), all three electric as well as acoustic. Second group album. B+(*)

Ritual Habitual: Pagan Chant (2021, Clean Feed): Portuguese/Dutch sax-bass-drums trio, with Riccardo Margona (tenor, bass clarinet, synthesizers), Gonçalo Almeida, and Philipp Ernsting. Joint improv, nods to Coltrane and Ayler, great strength in the opening and closing sax runs. B+(***) [bc]

Diego Rivera: Indigenous (2019 [2021], Posi-Tone): Tenor saxophonist (soprano on 3 tracks), born in Michigan, family Mexican-American, teaches at Michigan State, couple previous albums, this one backed by an exceptional piano-bass-drums trio (Helen Sung, Boris Kozlov, Donald Edwards) with Etienne Charles (trumpet) joining on 3 cuts. Not Latin Jazz, but lots of joyous tinge. B+(**)

Charles Rumback: Seven Bridges (2021, Astral Spirits): Drummer, tenth album since 2009, mixed bag, vocal songs unimpressive, spots for violin (Macie Stewart) and horns more interesting, the best Ron Miles on cornet. B+(*)

Dave Stryker: As We Are (2021 [2022], Strikezone): Guitarist, many albums since 1988, backed by piano-bass-drums trio (Julian Shore, John Patitucci, Brian Blade), with Shore arranging for string quartet, which is the rub. B+(*)

The Tiptons Sax Quartet & Drums: Wabi Sabi (2021, Sowie Sound): Saxophone quartet from Seattle, has operated under several variations of the name since 1993 (originally as the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet), with a drummer since 2005, and under this name for three albums since 2014. Current saxophonists are Amy Denio (alto), Tina Richerson (baritone), Jessica Lurie (soprano/alto/tenor), and Sue Orfield (tenor), with Robert Kainar on drums. Very upbeat, some vocals. B+(**)

Carlos "Zingaro"/Pedro Carneiro: Elogio Das Sombras (2012 [2021], Clean Feed): Violin and marimba duo. Fairly limited concept, but "Zingaro" has at this for a long time now, and he keeps it interesting. B+(**) [bc]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra: Berlin 1959 (1959 [2021], Storyville, 2CD): There's gotten to be a lot of live Ellington from this period: the orchestra was magnificent, and the songbook was so deep he resorted to medleys. B+(***)

Old music:

The Allman Brothers Band: One Way Out: Live at the Beacon Theatre (2003 [2004], Sanctuary/Peach, 2CD): With founders Duane Allman and Berry Oakley dead, and Dickey Betts departed, the remaining originals are singer-songwriter-keyboardist Gregg Allman and the two drummers. The vocals hold the songbook together, and new guitarists Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks provide the spark. Also helps that they pull three pieces out of the blues archive (Blind Willie McTell, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson). I've never been a big fan, but enjoyed their early work, and enjoyed this one all the way through. B+(***) [sp]

David Bowie: ChangesOneBowie (1969-76 [1976], RCA): First draft for a greatest hits package, 10 obvious songs from 7 albums plus the much-noted but little-heard non-album single "John I'm Only Dancing." Seemed superfluous back when I owned the albums, but nice to recover the high points from the weaker albums, and put them into a a context that looks like a progression. Superseded by the 1990 CD ChangesBowie. A [sp]

David Bowie: ChangesNowBowie (1996 [2020], Parlophone): Packaged like a variant of his greatest hits series, this is a live set of mostly old songs recorded by BBC, starting with unplugged versions of "The Man Who Sold the World," "Aladdin Sane," and "White Light/White Heat." B [sp]

Charles Brackeen Quartet: Attainment (1987 [1988], Silkheart): Tenor saxophonist from Oklahoma City, didn't record much: a Strata-East album in 1968, three albums for Silkheart in 1987, ten or so side-credits, but he often stole the show with his hyper-aggressive playing. Group with Olu Dara (cornet), Fred Hopkins (bass), and Andrew Cyrille (drums), plus voices and extra percussion on the title piece. B+(**) [bc]

Chicago Farmer: Quarter Past Tonight (2018, Chicago Farmer, 2CD): Cody Dieckhoff, moved to Chicago and started self-releasing his talkie folk/country albums in 2005. After six of them, he figured he had enough songs built up to try this live-double, located in Peoria, perhaps looking for a venue he could fill. A- [sp]

The Platters: Enchanted: The Best of the Planters (1956-67 [1998], Rhino): Major, best-selling vocal group of the late 1950s, more pop than doo-wop, not least because they were focused on a single lead singer, Tony Williams. Out-of-print, like all the other great cross-licensed Rhino compilations of the 1990s, I easily picked out all but the last three (inessential) songs from Mercury's 2-CD The Magic Touch: An Anthology -- probably the better deal, although every compilation has quality/quantity trade-offs. A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Black Lives: From Generation to Generation (Jammin' Colors, 2CD) [03-25]
• Nathan Borton: Each Step (OA2) [01-21]
• Andrew Boudreau: Neon (Fresh Sound New Talent) [02-28]
• Julieta Eugenio: Jump (Greenleaf Music) [03-04]
• Stephen Martin: High Plains (OA2) [01-21]
• Matt Olson: Open Spaces (OA2) [01-21]
• Doug Scarborough: The Color of Angels (Origin) [01-21]
• Ben Thomas Tango Project: Eternal Aporia (Origin) [01-21]
• Piet Verbist: Secret Exit to Another Dimension (Origin) [01-21]

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Monday, January 3, 2022

January archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 37032 [37011] rated (+21), 128 [126] unrated (+2).

Update (January 4): Thought this could use another edit pass. Mostly wanted to make plain the line in bold below.

I kept last week's Music Week open until Friday, December 31, so today's report covers a mere three days. The rated count for the two weeks combined is a prodigious 89 -- nothing to sniff at. However, I am surprised that two weeks at this stage in the year would result in only three A- new music releases (well, also three A- new releases of old music, all 1960s British jazz from last week. I've been doing some mop up: I've chopped an initial list of records that I hadn't heard from the upper ranks of Jazz Critics Poll in half (leaving 16 of the top 187 unheard, mostly items I looked for but haven't found complete copies of); I've also knocked off a few of the higher-rated previously-unheards from my EOY aggregate (I've heard the top 91, balking at Deafheaven, Every Time I Die, Gojira, and Mastodon -- they smell of metal); I checked out a bunch of EPs from Dan Weiss's list (on Facebook, but it usually takes me more than EP-length to get into something); I also checked out a couple late adds to Phil Overeem's latest list. Some good stuff there, but the only new record that really stood out for me was one I hadn't heard of until I spotted it on Dave Everall's PJPRP top-ten. I've added a few PJPRP lists to my EOY aggregate, limiting myself to names I recognize for some reason.

The EOY Aggregate has been pretty stable this year, with: Little Simz, Floating Points, Olivia Rodrigo, Tyler the Creator, Dry Cleaning, Japanese Breakfast, Billie Eilish, Low, Turnstile, Arlo Parks, Lucy Dacus, Jazmine Sullivan, Weather Station, Mdou Moctar, Adele, Sons of Kemet, Wolf Alice, Lil Nas X, Nick Cave, Snail Mail (down to 20). (Well, at the top: over the course, Low, Sons of Kemet, and Nick Cave have settled down while Tyler, Billie Eilish, Jazmine Sullivan, and Adele have risen. The top jazz record is James Brandon Lewis at 22: at least that's the one that gives you a barometer of the jazz bias in my lists (he does have a few crossover votes, more than usual, but he's still very strongly identified as jazz; on the other hand, Floating Points and Sons of Kemet are about equally likely to show up on jazz and non-jazz lists). I'm not done fiddling with the EOY Aggregate, but I suspect I've already learned most of what I will.

The Old Music Aggregate has been taken over by jazz reissues, with this year's John Coltrane opening up a 2-to-1 margin over Hasaan Ibn Ali's Lost Atlantic Album. Structurally, there is little chance of anything else happening, although the effect seems greater this year, probably because I haven't been looking for reissue/compilation/archival lists. I've also moved a couple of newly-recorded various artists records into new releases (Sacred Soul of North Carolina, Kimbrough -- the former would actually be leading the Old Music list, which wouldn't be right).

Various other things I was tempted to write about but don't have in me at the moment:

• One nice thing about the Jazz Critics Poll was that I got a small surge of new followers, edging just over 500. Also a lot of thanks for my "hard work." Didn't seem all that hard, but did turn out to be a lot of work.

• I should note that I've gone back and replayed a few records lately, ones others like a lot and I liked enough to wonder if I should have given them more of a chance. I've raised the grades of a couple earlier this year (Dry Cleaning was one), but Little Simz, Mach-Hommy, and Maria Grand (and probably others I've already forgotten) didn't budge last week.

• I got a question about RSS feeds. I have one, but don't know how well it works, mostly because I've never seen a RSS reader that does what I expect it to do. I was able to set up Thunderbird to read my feed (also the one for Robert Christgau).

• I've seen a lot of folk complain about the movie Don't Look Up, and most of them are wildly off base. Still, the worst is the Wikipedia line: "The comet is an allegory for climate change and the film is a satire of government and media indifference to the climate crisis." The comet is a real thing, very unlikely, but one did hit Earth 65 million years ago, which did cause most species at the time to die, so it's something people have thought about, and crunched some numbers on, and the science and math are very clear. Climate change is different in lots of significant details: it moves slower and less dramatically, but it's locked in as a certainty; economic interests promoting it are more mundane, yet are harder to imagine changing; technical solutions are far more complex and probably harder (not that deflecting a comet is as easy as they'd have you think). But I doubt the point here is the crisis: it's the corrupt politics that fucks everything up. Back in 1979 there was a movie called Meteor with the same set up, but one big difference: even in the peak of the Cold War it was conceivable that the US and USSR could team up against a common threat, because both had a fundamental commitment to reason and to humanity. Nothing like that is possible in the world of Don't Look Up, so we're doomed. One thing the comet does, that climate change couldn't, is make that doom explicit and dramatic. If nothing else, that ending disabuses us of the tendency to think that all adversity can be overcome by willing it differently.

  For another take, see Nathan J. Robinson: Critics of Don't Look Up Are Missing the Entire Point.

• I've been sitting on an article by Michael Hiltzik, Farewell to 2021, the stupidest year in American history. Needless to say he's wrong a lot, and not just old canards like "Britain in 1938 under Neville Chamberlain." The year before Roosevelt became president in 1933 was monumentally stupid, as were all the preludes to era-defining political changes: to Lincoln in 1861, to Jefferson in 1801, even to Reagan in 1981. (As Jimmy Carter's Fed pick wrecked the economy to slay inflation and the labor movement, while launching ill-fated conflicts with Afghanistan and Iran, Carter was such a wet rag that he made Reagan -- a Dickensian villain if ever there was one -- look like a glimmer of hope.) And how can any observer really have already forgetten Trump's last year? If 2021 seems stupid beyond that league, it's only because the media are stuck propagating Trumpist-Republican lies and bullshit. The plain and simple truth is that a lot of very positive things have happened since Joe Biden became president, and we do ourselves a grave disservice when we gloss over that. Sure, it could be better. And sure, the residual stupid, including some that has penetrated the DNA of various Democrats, is cause for concern. But 2021 would have been incomparably stupider had Trump and his fascist putschists clung onto the presidency.

• I have a couple questions to answer. One is tricky because it starts from a major misperception from which it draws an even worse conclusion. Kind of like the Hiltik article.

I woke up today in more pain than in weeks or months, and struggled all through this. I'm spent (but, with only a bit less pain, bounced back to edit this, mosty because I felt the need to add the bold line). Sorry I don't have more good new music to share, but perhaps there's something you missed here and/or here. Lots of good new music in 2021. Despite the last week or two, I'm sure we haven't run out.

New records reviewed this week:

Charlie Ballantine: Reflections/Introspection: The Music of Thelonious Monk (2021, Green Mind): Guitarist, several albums including a collection of Bob Dylan songs, does Monk tunes here, half trio with Jesse Whitman and Chris Parker, half quartet with Amanda Gardner on sax and Cassius M. Goens III taking over on drums. I prefer the latter, especially the lovely "Ask Me Now." B+(***)

Bitchin Bajas: Switched on Ra (2021, Drag City): Side project by Cave keyboardist Cooper Crain, with close to one album per year since 2010. Eight Sun Ra tunes, played on synths with Dan Quinlivan, Rob Frye, and (sometimes) Jayve Montgomery joining in. B+(***)

Lindsey Buckingham: Lindsey Buckingham (2021, Buckingham): American singer-songwriter, erratic solo career (mostly since 2006), but formed a duo with Stevie Nicks in 1973, and together they merged with (took over?) British blues-rock band Fleetwood Mac, leading to some of the best-selling albums of the late 1970s. So, strikes me he's a little old (71) to be introducing himself with an eponymous album. Still has some songwriting and arranging skills. Still not much of a singer. B+(*) [sp]

Eris Drew: Quivering in Time (2021, T4T LUV NRG): Chicago house DJ/producer, second album. Fun beats, not much more. B+(**)

Ducks Ltd.: Modern Fiction (2021, Carpark, EP): Jangle pop duo from Toronto, with some sort of connection to Australia. First album, short (7 songs, 21:48), following an EP as Ducks Unlimited. B+(**)

Kurt Elling: Superblue (2021, Edition): Jazz singer, from Chicago, has dominated the category since joining Blue Note in 1995. I've never liked his hip swagger and undeniable chops, and see no reason to start now -- other than that Charlie Hunter's grooves are sinuous indeed, and Elling's one of the few who can follow them. B

Ezra Furman: Sex Education: Songs From Season 3 (2021, Bella Union, EP): American singer-songwriter, has some good albums, got tapped for this British comedy-drama series streaming on Netflix. Five songs, 16:12, "Don't Turn Your Back on Love" the best. B+(**)

Ezra Furman: Sex Education Original Soundtrack (2020, Bella Union): Nineteen songs, no soundtrack dross. Seems odd to pick a quintessentially American rocker for a tie in to a British TV series -- one I haven't seen, so I have no idea how or whether these songs fit. B+(**)

Slava Ganelin/Alexey Kruglov/Oleg Yudanov: Access Point (2017 [2021], Losen): Avant trio -- piano, alto/soprano sax, drums -- recorded live in Moscow. B+(***)

John Glacier: Shiloh: Lost for Words (2021, PLZ Make It Ruins): British hip-hop, or glitch hop, the beat broken and scattered but still more of a focus than the words. Short: 12 songs, 25:16. B+(**)

Charlotte Greve: Sediments We Move (2021, New Amsterdam): German-born, Brooklyn-based composer, singer, and saxophonist. Credit muddled here, as one interpretation is that she is the composer, but the performers are Wood River (a quartet she leads, with guitar, bass, and drums) and Cantus Domus (a Berlin choir conducted by Ralf Sochaczewsky). Way more vocals than I can usually handle, but not so bad here. B+(**)

Kaytranada: Intimidated (2021, RCA, EP): Electronica producer Louis Celestin, born in Haiti, grew up in Montreal, acclaimed debut album in 2016. Three tracks, 9:13. B+(*) [sp]

Lily Konigsberg: Lily We Need to Talk Now (2021, Wharf Cat): New York "polymath," has a couple EPs, some side projects (e.g., Palberta), a compilation Best Of, and has been sneaking up on an album. Not sure whether this one counts (11 tracks, 23:52). But it does earn her self-assurance: "you've got a lot of fucking things to be proud of." B+(**)

Kate McGarry + Keith Ganz Ensemble: What to Wear in the Dark (2021, Resilience): Jazz singer, 8th album since 2003, Ganz plays guitar and is her husband, band includes Ron Miles (cornet), Gary Versace (piano), bass, and drums. Standards, but she prefers late 1960s/early 1970s soft rock (Beatles, Eagles, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon). B+(**)

Youssou N'Dour Et Le Super Étoile De Dakar: Mbalax (2021, Universal Music Africa): Very little information on this, but he's brought back his original band name, and styled a tribute to the style they made famous. Sounds very much of a piece with what he's been doing forty years now. A- [sp]

Helado Negro: Far In (2021, 4AD): Roberto Carlos Lange, born in Florida, parents from Ecuador, based in New York, eighth album since 2009. Has a soft lilt appeal. B+(*)

Orquestra Afro-Brasileira: 80 Anos (2021, Day Dreamer): Brazilian group founded 1942 by Abigail Moura, continued until 1970, although recordings are scarce. Revived here under the direction of Caio Cesar Sitorio. Not sure who the singer is. B+(***) [sp]

Rainbow Girls: Rolling Dumpster Fire (2021, self-released, EP): Folkie group, female harmonies remind me of the Shams, enough to get me wondering whether there's a genius therein. Seven cuts, two of them mere fragments, so total 16:30. B+(*)

Isaiah Rashad: The House Is Burning (2021, Top Dawg Entertainment/Warner): Rapper, last name McClain, from Tennessee, has a easy delivery. B+(*)

Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine: A Beginner's Mind (2021, Asthmatic Kitty): Singer-songwriter from Detroit, prolific since 2000, recorded this collaboration locked down in a cabin in upstate New York. Fourteen songs, each inspired by a film they watched. B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Black Unity Trio: Al-Fatihah (1968 [2021], Salaam/Gotta Groove): One-shot avant-garde trio, credits: Joseph Phillips (Yusuf Mumin): alto sax; Ron DeVaughn (Abdul Wadud): cello and bass; Hasan Abdur Shahid (Hassan-Al-Hut, AKA Hasan Al-Hut): percussion -- the latter was originally Amos Franklin Gordon Jr. By far the best known is Wadud, for his work with Julius Hemphill, Arthur Blythe, and others. B+(**) [bc]

Lily Konigsberg: The Best of Lily Konigsberg Right Now (2017-21 [2021], Wharf Cat): Seventeen DIY cuts posted on the sly while working on her main band, Palberta, released before her short 2021 album. Small songs, neatly done. B+(*) [bc]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Andrew Cyrille/William Parker/Enrico Rava: 2 Blues for Cecil (TUM) [01-22]
• The OGJB Quartet: Ode to O (TUM) [01-22]

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Tuesday, December 28, 2021

December archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 37011 [36943] rated (+68), 126 [125] unrated (+1).

Final Update: December 31: Earlier versions below. The initial post (Dec. 28) was just a placeholder, a day after the expected Music Week date. I was still very busy working on Jazz Critics Poll, but I also recalled holding past end-December Music Weeks open to make a clean break of the year. I added an update on Dec. 29 with links to Jazz Critics Poll, so scroll down to get to those. In the two days since, I've been monitoring Poll reaction (although not very obsessively or assiduously), while adding a few stragglers to the reviews below, and generally decompressing.

I should do a debriefing on the poll at some point, but fear that if I start now I won't get anything out tonight. I would like to refer you to this post by Amir ElSaffar on Facebook. Also, this one by publicist Matt Merewitz, who notes his role in hooking us up with Arts Fuse. I was fully prepared to run the poll on my own, with no outside sponsorship, so Arts Fuse wasn't a make or break deal. But they were more helpful than I expected, and I've enjoyed working with them. I also have to admit that they've gotten us more eyes and clicks than would have been the case had we only had my website.

I reckon it's safe here to point out that I dropped a few lines from my essay that some readers considered "sour grapes" over our previous sponsor, NPR:

When NPR declined to support the Jazz Critics Poll this year, they explained their preference for "a mosaic of outlooks" over "rankings," but the half-dozen essays they offered instead could have used a better grasp of data. For instance, one writer was bewildered that "there wasn't a new face as consensus critical darling this year," but the Poll showed there was a clear answer: James Brandon Lewis. Another writer expounded on The Wisdom of Our Elders without mentioning Wadada Leo Smith, who celebrated his 80th year with 5 highly regarded releases, totaling 12 CDs.

The actual line I was bouncing off of was their less-than-official explanation for dropping Jazz Critics Poll:

What we've set out to accomplish here has less to do with album rankings than reflecting on some form of lived experience: presenting a mosaic of outlooks, rather than a model of consensus.

I suspect that the real reason for dropping us was simply that they wanted to cover jazz like they cover other genres, and we represented this external data-driven appendage doing something very different, an approach they weren't using anywhere else. I can see the logic of that, and I don't doubt their right to direct their coverage. But I did find it interesting that as soon as they turned up their noses out poll, they committed a number of gaffes that would have been obvious to anyone on first glance at the data.

Data analysis isn't easy. It's certainly not something that comes naturally to most people. Even in my piece, I tended to just point out isolated bits that struck me as significant, rather than digging through it all systematically. That's partly because I don't have the tools set up, and partly because we're not collecting nearly as much data as I'd like to see. I offered myself up as an example, as someone who listened to 700 new jazz albums this year -- a fairly basic figure that I don't have for any other jazz critic, although I'd guess that the range is something like 200-1000 (I've come close to the upper bound in previous years).

I should note that I've made one significant change to my Jazz and Non-Jazz EOY lists: five A-list records now appear in both, so 73 + 58 = 126. The records were ones I had originally put in Non-Jazz (Anthony Joseph, Maria Muldaur, Jaubi, Theon Cross, Ruth Weiss; four of those were non-jazz artists in front of jazz bands, the fifth is a jazz artist playing electronica). I did this because I was writing about the increasingly blurry line between jazz and non-jazz, and realized that those five were examples I wanted to buttress my case with. That's helped to shift the Jazz/Non-Jazz spit in the former's favor.

I'm surprised I didn't find more A-list Non-Jazz this week, but new Jazz fell off as well -- and frankly, the EOY list aggregate isn't kicking up a lot of interesting candidates. I've heard everything down to 90-92 (Coral, Deafheaven, Gojira). I've looked for but haven't found jazz albums that finished {19, 35, 50, 54, 79} in the poll; the highest-rated one I haven't looked for yet is Kate McGarry at 84. While that search was frustrating, I took a fairly deep dive into the Jazz in Britain Bandamp stash, so for a while I had many more new reissues/historical than new releases. We're also seeing vinyl/digital reissues of 1960s British jazz classics from Decca. As a Penguin Guide devotee, I've heard of most of these names, so exploring their lost albums has been interesting.

Should get back on schedule with a short Music Week on Monday. I haven't done the December Streamnotes indexing, so need to work on that as well. Also need to think about some New Years changes. This has been a tough year for me, and not much future bodes better.

Update: December 29: The 16th Annual Jazz Critics Poll results are now public. The poll was started by Francis Davis at the Village Voice in 2006, with 30 critics polled. Davis has kept the poll going ever since, through moves to Rhapsody (2 years) then NPR (for 8 years) and The Arts Fuse this year. At the time, I was writing a Jazz Consumer Guide column for the Voice, so got an invite to vote. I got further involved a couple years later, when Voice editor Rob Harvilla asked me to host the ballots. For a number of years, Davis would collect and tabulate everything, then dump it on me after the poll closed, requiring a lot of error-checking. Eventually I developed a few programs to simplify data entry and automate formatting of the web pages. From that point, errors were reduced to a few of my typos, easily fixed. This year we were able to tabulate results as each ballot came in, and return formatted ballots to voters so they could flag mistakes way before the results were announced. This system is also nicely scalable: this year we're up to a record 156 voters. At some point I would expect adding voters would start averaging out the results, but thus far we just keep adding diversity, making the poll more useful and valuable than ever.

We wrote two essays to accompany the results. Those essays were initially published at Arts Fuse, along with the top results. (At some point, I'll add them to the JCP website. Eventually, I hope to have all of the poll materials archived there.) Francis Davis did his usual fine job of summarizing the results, reflecting on the year in jazz, and expanding on his own ballot, in The 2021 Jazz Critics Poll: Only the Best. I wrote a second essay, focusing more on the mechanics of the poll, on what gets measured and what doesn't, and what the more marginal data in the poll reveals, in Behind the 2021 Jazz Critics Poll: A Tool for the Times. We also revived an early JCP tradition and published a R.I.P. 2021's Jazz Notables.

I still have a bit more work to do on the website. I need to add some footnotes to the results, and to add the essays to the pulldown menus. Not sure what else. I keep thinking I should be able to generate voter lists for each album, so I may still fiddle with that. I also want to make it easier to compare results over years, but that will have to be a longer-term project.

I'm still not ready to wrap up this Music Week, though it wouldn't hurt to drop another album cover. I spent a lot of time last week listening to the Ron Mathewson archival tapes, which led me to more early modernist British jazz.

Initial Post: December 28: Music Week will be delayed for a day or two (or three) this week. I'm still working on an essay to go with the 16th Annual Jazz Critics Poll, and I'm having a horrible time trying to wrap it up. The Poll results and a Francis Davis essay will be published by The Arts Fuse real soon now, at which point my Jazz Critics Poll website will go live, with complete results, and complete ballots from our 156 distinguished critics.

When I know more, I'll kick out a tweet, then update this page. By the way, this isn't the first time I've extended the last Music Week of the year. It just seems tidier to wrap up the year on the last day. Although circumstances have made this year a good deal more stressful than in the past. Gloomy, even.

New records reviewed this week:

The Baylor Project: Generations (2021, Be a Light): Husband-and-wife duo Marcus and Jean Baylor, based in New York, she a former Zhané singer, he a former Yellowjackets drummer, slotted as jazz -- with steady help from Keith Loftus (tenor sax) and Freddie Hendrix (trumpet), and guest spots including Kenny Garrett and Jamison Ross -- but effectively a vintage soul throwback. B+(***)

Melanie Charles: Y'all Don't (Really) Care About Black Women (2021, Verve): Brooklyn-born jazz singer, Haitian roots, also plays flute, has a couple previous albums but this is a big step up in terms of label. One original credit, rest standards, but most titles have an appended "(Reimagined)." This strikes me as a bold conceptual tour de force, marred by glitches in execution (though they're hard to pin down.) B+(***)

The Chisel: Retaliation (2021, La Vida Es Un Mus): Punk band, or maybe post-punk (but not by much). Short (27:55), but counts as an album (14 songs). B+(*)

Theon Cross: Intra-I (2021, New Soil): British tuba player, also trombone, plays in Sons of Kemet and other jazz projects, second album, more electronica with Emre Ramazanoglu co-producing, featured guests on 5 (of 10) tracks, adding rap and beats, but the real lesson is: everything goes better with tuba. A-

Steven Feifke Big Band: Kinetic (2019 [2021], Outside In Music): Pianist, from Boston, debug 2015, composed 7 (of 10) pieces here, conventional big band plus guitar (Alex Wintz), with Veronica Swift vocals on 2 standards ("Until the Real Thing Comes Along," "On the Street Where You Live"). B+(*)

The Generations Quartet [Dave Liebman/Billy Test/Evan Gregor/Ian Froman]: Invitation (2021, Albert Murray/John Aveni): Group name, minus definite article, was used in 2016 by a different group (three old guys, including Oliver Lake, and a young drummer). Here it's one old guy, two youngsters, and drummer Froman in between. Favors standards, with a nice, relaxed feel, even when they kick it up a notch and Liebman really shines. Label named for the producers. A-

Hutch Harris: Suck Up All the Oxygen (2021, self-released, EP): Singer-songwriter from Portland, led the Thermals with bassist Kathy Foster 2002-18. Second solo album, a short one at 17:00 but has 10 songs, only two over 2:00. Brash, sharp strummed, cynical and pessimistic. "People say a lot of things, and most of them are lies" B+(**) [bc]

Abdullah Ibrahim: Solotude: My Journey, My Vision (2021, Gearbox): South African pianist, evidently he does a solo concert every year on his birthday. For his 87th, they rushed this gentle, pensive one into print. B+(**)

Il Sogno: Graduation (2021, Auand/Gotta Let It Out): Trio -- Emanuele Maniscalco (electric piano/synthesizer), Tomo Jacobson (bass), Oliver Louis Brostrøm Lauman (drums) -- second album. Has a playful air. B+(**) [sp]

Jlin: Embryo (2021, Planet Mu, EP): Footwork producer Jerrilyn Patton, three albums, offers a 4-cut 14:18 EP. Fairly sharp beats. B+(*)

Jungle: Loving in Stereo (2021, Awal): British dance-pop group with producers Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland, third album. B+(*)

Masabumi Kikuchi: Hanamichi: The Final Studio Recording (2013 [2021], Red Hook): Japanese pianist (1939-2015), moved to US to study at Berklee, wound up in New York. Perhaps best known here for his trio with Paul Motian and Gary Peacock, Tethered Moon (7 albums, 1990-2004). Last studio recording, piano solo. B+(*) [sp]

Katy Kirby: Cool Dry Place (2021, Keeled Scales): Singer-songwriter from Texas, based in Nashville, first album after an EP,a short one (9 songs, 28:17. Filed her under Country, but she doesn't much sound the part. B+(*)

Mon Laferte: 1940 Carmen (2021, Universal Music Mexico): After spending some time in Los Angeles, the Chilean-Mexican singer-songwriter works some English lyrics into her songs, implying gravitas, although the bit I heard most clearly was "couche avec moi." B+(***)

Jihye Lee Orchestra: Daring Mind (2020 [2021], Motéma): Korean composer-arranger, based in New York, second album, at 16 pieces, slightly less than a conventional big band (3 reeds). B+(**)

Lingua Ignota: Sinner Get Ready (2021, Sargent House): Alias for Kristin Hayter, whose biography includes bouts of catholocism and anorexia, fascination with serial killers and Hildegard von Bingen (source of her alias), practice in metal bands and an MFA thesis titled Burn Everything Trust No One Kill Yourself, "linking real-world examples of misogyny in music with her own personal life using a Markov chain." Fourth album, following Let the Evil of His Own Lips Cover Him, All Bitches Die, and Caligula, an EP called Epistolary Grieving for Jimmy Swaggart, and cover singles of "Jolene" and "Kim." I find this all very creepy. I've long felt that exposing children to Christianity was cruel, but have rarely seen so much evidence compacted so assiduously. B-

Mach-Hommy: Balens Cho (2021, Griselda, EP): Rapper Ramon Begon, from New Jersey but not far removed from Haiti, title Kreyol for "Hot Candles." Short: 24:07. B+(**)

Rachel Musson: Dreamsing (2020 [2021], 577): Tenor saxophonist, based in London, debut 2013, regularly works in groups with Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders, Alex Ward, and/or Olie Brice. Solo album, doesn't shy away from the rough edges. B+(**) [bc]

Oz Noy: Snapdragon (2020, Abstract Logix): Israeli fusion guitarist, based in New York since 1996, dozen albums since 2005. Unclear on credits, but certainly has some guitar chops. B+(*)

Jeff Parker: Forfolks (2021, International Anthem): Guitarist, established himself in Chicago, but now based in Los Angeles, I think of him as a jazz guy but more people probably know him from the post-rock group Tortoise. Had some kind of crossover coup in 2020 with Suite for Max Brown, but I can't say as I got it. B+(*) [bc]

Chris Pierce: American Silence (2021, Pierce): Folksinger from California, 10th album since 2002, just guitar, harmonica, and pointed political lyrics. B+(*)

Portico Quartet: Monument (2021, Gondwana): British instrumental group, originally (from 2007) built around a Chinese instrument called the hang, switched to samples after Nick Mulvey left in 2011. B+(*)

Enrico Rava: Edizione Speciale (2019 [2021], ECM): Italian trumpet player, major figure for 50+ years, leads a sextet including long-time pianist Giovanni Guidi. B+(***)

Stephen Riley: I Remember You (2019 [2021], SteepleChase): Tenor saxophonist, 16th album on this label going back to 2005. Quartet with guitarist Vic Juris in his last performance; also Jay Anderson (bass) and Jason Tiemann. Light, lovely tone. B+(***)

Jana Rush: Painful Enlightenment (2021, Planet Mu): Chicago DJ/producer, gets her slotted as footwork (perhaps unfairly), second album, with two cuts featuring DJ PayPal, one with Nancy Fortune. Variously unappealing but not uninteresting sounds. B

Elori Saxl: The Blue of Distance (2021, Western Vinyl): Last name Kramer, from Minneapolis, based in New York, first album, deeply hued ambient clouds. B+(*)

Serengeti: Have a Summer (2021, self-released): Prolific Chicago rapper tries his hand at pop anthems. Maybe to show anyone can do it? I'm perplexed, and annoyed. Short album (9 songs, 27:38). B [sp]

Shame: Drunk Tank Pink (2021, Dead Oceans): English post-punk group, second album, big advance over their debut (if sounding more like the Fall does the trick, which I'd say it does). B+(***)

Skerebotte Fatta: Appaz (2020 [2021], ForTune): Polish sax & drums duo, Jan Malkowski and Dominik Mokrzewski. B+(***) [bc]

Rejjie Snow: Baw Baw Black Sheep (2021, Honeymoon/+1): Irish rapper Alexander Anyaegbunam, from Dublin, father Nigerian, mother Irish-Jamaican, moved to US in 2011 to play soccer, returned to Ireland to focus on music. Second album. Nice flow, light, catchy. B+(**)

Sonic Liberation Front: Moon Rust Red Streets (2020 [2021], High Two): Baltimore jazz group, goes back to 2000, bata drummer Kevin Diehl (aka Kevobatala) the main guy. B+(**) [sp]

Tyshawn Sorey/Alarm Will Sound: For George Lewis/Autoschediasms (2019-20 [2021], Cantaloupe, 2CD): Alarm Will Sound is a large (20 piece) post-classical ensemble, originally formed at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, debut album 2005. Sorey is an important jazz drummer, but here is composer and (2nd disc) conductor. Two long pieces, the first more ambient, the second more disruptive. B+(*)

Spellling: The Turning Wheel (2021, Sacred Bones): Singer-songwriter Tia Cabral, from Sacramento, third album. Arty pop, hard to tell. B+(*)

Throttle Elevator Music: Final Floor (2021, Wide Hive): I'm at a loss to describe this group, which seems to be calling it quits after six albums (plus a Retrospective since 2012. Breakout name is tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington, joined by Kasey Knudsen (sax) and Erik Jekabson (trumpet). Main figure is producer Gregory Howe (guitar/keyboards). Perhaps the idea was to start with bland background ("elevator") music, then give it some muscle tone. They've done that much pretty regularly. But it always seemed like they should have done more. B+(**)

Valerie June: The Moon and Stars: Prescription for Dreamers (2021, Fantasy): Singer-songwriter from Tennesse, last name Hockett, grew up singing gospel in church, fifth album since 2006. Doesn't register as any genre, which wouldn't matter if the songs stuck with you, but they haven't . . . yet. B+(*)

Morgan Wade: Reckless (2021, Ladylike): Country singer-songwriter from Virginia, second album. Great voice, solid songs. B+(***)

Tierra Whack: Rap? (2021, Interscope, EP): First of three-in-three-weeks EPs, three cuts, 8:39. B+(**) [sp]

Tierra Whack: Pop? (2021, Interscope, EP): Second part, 3 more songs, 8:23. More guitar jangle. B+(**) [sp]

Tierra Whack: R&b? (2021, Interscope, EP): Third try, 3 more songs, 9:20. Sings more in that neo-soul vein, which she doesn't have the voice for the usual exaggeration. B+(*) [sp]

Jamire Williams: But Only After You Have Suffered (2021, International Anthem): Drummer, second album, stradles jazz and hip-hop. Interesting sound, more underground hip-hop than jazz, but I'm finding this rather impenetrable. B+(*) [sp]

Willow: Lately I Feel Everything (2021, MSFTS Music/Roc Nation): Last name Smith, singles since 2010 and albums since 2015, seems to have started as a rapper but this is mostly indie rock, with three songs featuring Travis Barker, one more Cherry Glazerr (but also one with Tierra Whack). Brutal but short (11 songs, 26:05). B+(*)

Young Thug: Punk (2021, YSL/300 Entertainment/Atlantic): Atlanta rapper Jeffrey Williams, prolific since 2011 although this is only his second studio album. B+(***) [sp]

Brandee Younger: Somewhere Different (2021, Impulse!): Harp player, fifth album since 2011, her duo with bassist-husband Dezron Douglas was one of the best things to come out of the lockdown. B+(**) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Hasaan Ibn Ali: Retrospect in Retirement of Delay: The Solo Recordings (1962-65 [2021], Omnivore, 2CD): Pianist William Henry Langford Jr. (or Lankford, 1931-80), from Philadelphia, cut one album in 1964, released as The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan, testimony both to the pianist's local reputation and general obscurity. A 1965 album shelved by Atlantic was released to great acclaim in April, 2021, and here we have some previously unknown solo tapes from the period. B+(**)

Neil Ardley & the New Jazz Orchestra: Jazz Calendar: Olympic Studios '66 (1966 [2020], Jazz in Britain, EP): English pianist (1937-2004), was director of NJO 1964-70. This collects five tracks (21:03) from two 10-11 piece lineups. B+(*) [bc]

Neil Ardley: Kaleidoscope of Rainbows: QEH, 20th Oct 75 (1975 [2021], Jazz in Britain, 2CD): Title per front cover, means Queen Elizabeth Hall. Extended piece, a studio version released in 1976 with Ardley playing synthesizer. This live one, performed mostly with New Jazz Orchestra alumni including all of Ian Carr's Nucleus, is significantly longer, but the keyboard/guitar structures extend nicely, and the reeds section is top notch. A- [bc]

Ian Carr Double Quintet: Solar Session (1970 [2021], Jazz in Britain): Trumpet/flugelhorn player, his doppelganger here Harry Beckett, the paired saxophonists Tony Roberts and Brian Smith, the other slots a bit skewed: the drummer paired with congas, bass both acoustic and electric, the chordal instruments electric piano (Karl Jenkins) and guitar (Chris Spedding). Spacey but short (5 cuts, 26:38). B+(**) [bc]

The Allen Cohen Big Band: The Oracle [The Ron Mathewson Tapes Vol. 4] (1968 [2020], Jazz in Britain, EP): Cohen doesn't seem to have any more discography, but is director/arranger for this 11-piece outfit, with many names that since became famous (e.g., Kenny Wheeler, Mike Osborne, Alan skidmore, John Surman). Three tracks, 18:40. B+(*)

Mike Gibbs: Revisiting Tanglewood 63: The Early Tapes (1970 [2021], Jazz in Britain): Rhodesia-born British composer and bandleader, studied at Berklee and was involved with Tanglewood Music Center, also in Massachusetts, whence the title of his second (1971) album, Tanglewood 63. All five pieces that wound up on the album are here: three from late May, and two from November 1, shortly before the album sessions started (November 10). The groups here are smaller (13-16 pieces, no strings). B+(**) [bc]

Group Sounds Four & Five: Black and White Raga (1965-66 [2020], Jazz in Britain): Two rare sessions for groups led by Henry Lowther (trumpet) and Lyn Dobson (tenor sax), recorded by drummer John Hiseman: a quartet with Jack Bruce (bass), and a quintet with Ken McCarthy (piano) and Ron Rubin (bass). B+(**) [bc]

Joe Harriott: Chronology: Live 1968-69 (1968-69 [2020], Jazz In Britain): Alto saxophonist, five quintet tracks (25:54) with Kenny Wheeler (trumpet/flugelhorn), Pat Smythe (piano), bass (Ron Mathewson), and drums (Bill Eyden), followed by two tracks featuring Harriott in the Harry South Big Band (13:10). B+(**) [bc]

Joe Harriott Quintet: Formation: Live '61 (1961 [2021], Jazz in Britain, EP): Previously unreleased, four songs plus a 4:04 drum solo, total 21:11. Alto sax, with Les Condon (trumpet/flugelhorn), Pat Smythe (piano), bass, and drums. B+(*) [bc]

Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers: Ramble in Music City: The Lost Concert (1990 [2021], Nonesuch): Hype refers to the "Nashville debut of the acoustic all-star group," but the names barely register -- not that I'm up on legendary Nashville studio musicians. Wide range of songs: "Sweet Dreams" and "Save the Last Dance for Me" is a nice sequence. B+(**)

The Tubby Hayes Quartet: Free Flight [The Ron Mathewson Tapes Vol. 3] (1972 [2020], Jazz in Britain, 2CD): Britain's major tenor saxophonist of the bop era, died young (38 in 1973), recording this during his brief recovery after major heart surgery in 1971. With Mike Pyne (piano), Mathewson (bass), and Tony Levin (drums). B+(**) [bc]

Tubby Hayes Quartet: The Complete Hopbine '69 [The Ron Mathewson Tapes Vol. 7] (1969 [2021], Jazz in Britain, 2CD): Live date, a month before his on-stage collapse, "signaling the beginning of the final phase of his tragically foreshortened career." With Mick Pyne (piano), Ron Mathewson (bass), and Spike Wells (drums). B+(***) [bc]

Allan Holdsworth/Ray Warleigh/Ron Mathewson/Bryan Spring: Warleigh Manor: The Ron Mathewson Tapes Vol. 1 (1979 [2020], Jazz in Britain): Mathewson was a British bassist (1944-2020), started with Tubby Hayes in 1966, with many side credits over the years, ranging from the Earl Hines Trio to the Charlie Watts Orchestra. His private stash of tapes kicked off this label/project, with this breezy early recording of fusion guitarist Holdsworth and sax/flute player Warleigh. B+(**) [bc]

Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain (1965-1972) (1965-72 [2021], Decca): Up through the 1950s, jazz in Britain was dominated by trad bands, with occasional modernists (like Tubby Hayes and Joe Harriott) emerging toward 1960. After 1970, the British emerged as innovators in prog/fusion and avant. The missing links are found in the ferment of young modernists of the late 1960s. Jazz in Britain has picked up some marginal tapes from this period, but labels like Decca and Columbia hold most of the era's major works. The former is sampled liberally here: Kenny Wheeler, Don Rendell, John Surman, Mike Westbrook, Stan Tracey, Neil Ardley, Alan Skidmore, Michael Gibbs, Michael Garrick, Harry Beckett, and more. A-

Ron Mathewson: Memorial (1968-76 [2020], Jazz in Britain): English bassist (1944-2020), didn't lead any albums but Discogs co-credits him with 9, Wikipedia lists 24 credits, and his numbers are growing at his private tapes have formed the backbone of this label's archives. This grabs six primo pieces from various groups -- highlights include Amalgam and Harry Beckett's S & R Powerhouse Section -- then ends with a solo piece. B+(***) [bc]

Mathewson & Mathewson: Blow (1976 [2020], Jazz in Britain): Bassist Ron and his brother Mat on electric piano, from Ron's tapes. Pretty minor, and short (27:43). B

Lee Morgan: The Complete Live at the Lighthouse (1970 [2021], Blue Note, 8CD): Brilliant trumpet player, lived fast and died young (33, shot by his common-law wife), played with John Coltrane while still a teenager, starred in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, recorded a number of masterpieces under his own name. This is from a 3-day, 12-set stand, with Bennie Maupin (sax), Harold Mabern (piano), Jymie Merritt (bass), and Mickey Roker (drums), initially appearing on a 1971 2-LP set (73:08), expanded to 3-CD (183:47) in 1996, and finally complete here (with a 12-LP option). At best, an exhaustive live box lets you get lost in the music -- examples include Miles Davis: The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel (1965, 7CD), and Art Pepper: The Complete Village Vanguard Sessions (1977, 9CD). This isn't quite that, and never was, but it sure has its share of bright moments. B+(***)

The New Jazz Orchestra: Le Déjuener Sur L'Herbe (1968 [2021], Decca): Directed by Neil Ardley, who wrote the title track and arranged a Miles Davis tune, produced by Tony Reeves, a piano-less big band with most of the usual suspects contributing, including Jack Bruce on bass. B+(***)

Mike Osborne & Friends: Live at the Peanuts Club (1975-76 [2020], Jazz in Britain): British alto saxophonist, friends are all notable in their own right: Alan Skidmore (tenor sax), Harry Beckett and Marc Charig (trumpets), Harry Miller (bass), Louis Moholo-Moholo (drums), and Elton Dean (alto sax) joins in on the two standards ("Well You Needn't" and "Cherokee") -- the latter closes with a tremendous flourish. B+(***) [bc]

PAZ/The Singing Bowls of Tibet/Allan Holdsworth: Live in London '81: The Ron Mathewson Tapes Vol. 2 (1981 [2020], Jazz in Britain, EP): Dick Crouch is composer/director (presumably of PAZ), Alain Presencer is credited with the singing bowls that provide the calming center the other musicians are reluctant to disrupt: Ray Warleigh (alto sax and flutes), Holdsworth (guitar), Geoff Castle (keyboards), and Mathewson (bass). Short (4 tracks, 24:52). B [bc]

Plastic People of the Universe: Magicke Noci 1997 (1997 [2021], Guerilla): Czech rock group, founded by Milan Hlavsa in 1968, drew on Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground (a mix that never made sense to me), strugged under Soviet repression but got an album released in France in 1978. Disbanded 1988, but revived after Communist regime fell, and carried on after Hlavsa's death in 2001. This seems to have been a high-point of their post-Communist period -- I'd recommend their previous 1997 over this one, but they find their groove midway here, and finish strong. B+(***) [sp]

Elvis Presley: Elvis: Back in Nashville (1971 [2021], RCA/Legacy, 4CD): Deep dive into Presley's May-June 1971 Nashville sessions, intended as some sort of progression from his box of 1970 sessions From Elvis in Nashville, beyond his much-heralded 1969 From Elvis in Nashville. Promise here is that returning to the tapes strips away the goop added for his album releases. Unfortunately, his big hit this time was Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas, which was so awful I skipped over most of it (it's largely buried on disc 3). That leads us with two unoriginal insights: he was (still) a very great singer, and his capacity for camp was hinted at but rarely developed (for such a hint, refer to his "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"). There's a famous bootleg called Elvis' Greatest Shit. Given the laws of capitalism, it's only a matter of time before RCA legitimizes it with an official release (possibly a staggeringly huge box set). When they do so,they can draw liberally from this. And the "greatest" isn't hyperbole. Elvis is great. But he's also full of shit. B-

Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet: Blue Beginnings (1964 [2021], Jazz in Britain): Soprano/tenor sax and trumpet/flugelhorn, backed with piano-bass-drums, an important in the more conventional decade before fusion and the avant-garde became defining forces in British jazz. Title may alude to the group's 1965 album Shades of Blue. B+(**) [bc]

The Ray Russell Sextet: Spontaneous Event: Live Vol. 1: 1967-69 (1967-69 [2020], Jazz in Britain): English guitarist, started about here, most recent record was 2020. From several dates and groups, all backed with piano-bass-drums, 4 tracks with Dave Holland. B+(***) [bc]

The Ray Russell Sextet: Forget to Remember: Live Vol. 2: 1970 (1970 [2021], Jazz in Britain): Cover adds: Featuring Harry Beckett (trumpet/flugelhorn). Also Tony Roberts (saxes), Nick Evans (trombone), bass, and drums. The horns, and not just Beckett, are outstanding, but the guitar holds them together and drives them on. A- [bc]

Splinters: Inclusivity (1972 [2021], Jazz in Britain, 3CD): Short-lived group, didn't produce any albums, although a 77:30 live shot appeared in 2009 as Split the Difference. This builds on the same 100 Club performance in May (first two discs here), and adds a later set from September, two weeks before drummer Phil Seamen died. The band includes Trevor Watts (alto sax), Tubby Hayes (tenor sax), Kenny Wheeler (trumpet/flugelhorn), Stan Tracey (piano), Jeff Clyne (bass), and two drummers (Seamen and John Stevens). B+(***) [bc]

Mike Taylor Quartet: Mandala (1965 [2021], Jazz in Britain): British pianist, released two jazz albums on Columbia (UK), one with Jack Bruce on bass, and is perhaps better known as co-writer of three Cream songs (from Wheels of Fire, with Ginger Baker lyrics). Nonetheless, he was homeless when he drowned at age 30. He's gotten a it of attention recently: Ezz-Thetics released a compilation of selected works, some performed by Cream, but this is more impressive. With Dave Tomlin (soprano sax), Tony Reeves (bass), and Jon Hiseman (drums). Four Taylor compositions plus "Night in Tunisia." Tomlin didn't have much of a career, but he's impressive here. B+(***) [bc]

Old music:

Mike Gibbs: Directs the Only Chrome-Waterfall Orchestra (1975, Bronze): Evocative group name, Gibbs' compositions have a shimmering flow. Group is large and star-studded, although the list of featured soloists is much shorter, especially Philip Catherine (guitar, who wrote the only non-Gibbs piece), Tony Coe, and Charlie Mariano. A-

Limited Sampling: Records I played parts of, but not enough to grade: -- means no interest, - not bad but not a prospect, + some chance, ++ likely prospect.

Ikizukuri + Susans Santos Silva: Suicide Underground Orchid (2021, Multikulti Project): Portuguese trio -- Julius Gabriel (soprano sax), Gonçalo Almeida (bass), Gustavo Costa (drums/electronics) -- plus trumpet. ++ [bc]

Grade (or other) changes:

Allen Lowe: Turn Me Loose White Man (1900-60 [2021], Constant Sorrow, 30CD): Due to a bookkeeping error, it didn't occur to me to pick this as the year's top reissue/archival, in jazz or anything else. That's because I got the CDs in 2020, but the second volume of the book didn't come out until February, which merits a revised release date. Hard to overstate what an accomplishment this is. Lowe fancies himself as a renegade, unorthodox thinker, and he's entitled to that view, but in the coming decades whole generations will study it, because no one has, or probably ever will have, done a more thorough or exacting job of integrating American recorded music into a more coherent whole. [was: A-] A [cd]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Carol Liebowitz/Adam Lane/Andrew Drury: Blue Shift (Line Art) [03-04]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, December 20, 2021

December archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 36943 [36898] rated (+45), 125 [123] unrated (+2).

I should wrap this up as quickly as possible, as I have a lot more work to get into. In particular, I need to write an essay introducing the 16th Annual Jazz Critics Poll, results of which will be published by Arts Fuse the week of December 27. All the ballots have been counted. Francis Davis and I know the winners (and losers), and are each supposed to write a little something on that. I'm pretty lost at the moment, but for me the key thing isn't critical consensus but the wide spread of data. We have a record 156 voters this year. They voted for 510 releases of new music, and 96 reissues/archival. I've been drawing inspiration from scattered ballots for a couple of weeks now: this week that includes Bugpowder, Kimbrough, and Sing a Song of Bird (this week's other jazz pick, Henry Threadgill's Poof, was one I was always going to listen to as soon as I got the chance).

I've also been spending time monitoring other EOY lists, compiling my EOY aggregate list (and its poorer reissues/comps sibling). It's not as deep as in past years, but currently sources 147 lists, totalling 2826 new music albums and 254 old. For comparison, that's down from 5557 new music albums in the 2020 EOY Aggregate, with the leader dropping from 814 points (Fiona Apple) to 154 (Little Simz). I suspect that the leader drop isn't just due to fewer list inputs. There's just less consensus this year.

This list-scrounging has helped me flesh out my Jazz and Non-Jazz EOY lists. The Jazz A-list is up to 67 (still down a bit from recent years, but the 26 old music is off the charts). Non-Jazz is up to 57 new, plus a measly 6 old music. I've played about twice as much jazz as non-jazz this year, but the top numbers were close to even when I first compiled this list. Jazz has pulled ahead mostly because I've been getting better intelligence via JCP. Most years the lists even out in January, after I see more trustworthy non-jazz lists.

I've been monitoring, but haven't actually contributed anything to Glen Boothe's Pazz + Jop Rip-Off Poll in recent years. (I wasn't invited to Uproxx's post-P&J Critics Poll, so didn't have to formulate a list earlier.) If I get to it, this is what I'll likely post:

1. East Axis: Cool With That (ESP-Disk) 14
2. Anthony Joseph: The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives (Heavenly Sweetness) 13
3. Gift of Gab: Finding Inspiration Somehow (Nature Sounds) 12
4. Sons of Kemet: Black to the Future (Impulse!) 11
5. James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quintet: Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms) 10
6. Nathan Bell: Red, White and American Blues (It Couldn't Happen Here) (Need to Know) 10
7. Magdalena Bay: Mercurial World (Luminelle) 9
8. Maria Muldaur With Tuba Skinny: Let's Get Happy Together (Stony Plain) 7
9. No-No Boy: 1975 (Smithsonian Folkways) 7
10. Todd Snider: First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder (Aimless) 7

I was feeling pretty glum a month ago, when I decided to go ahead and compile the EOY Aggregates. I've been frustrated by lack of progress on both writing and technical projects, so figured I might as well submerge myself into something rote-mechanical, at least for the duration. When JCP came around, I was already in that mode, so the processing work came easy. (After all, I have a system: a set of programs that convert raw data into a website.) Still, at this point I'm feeling exhausted.

What I'd normally have to look forward to this week is cooking up a Christmas Eve dinner. Last year, I cooked more than usual, but since we couldn't have guests, I bought a lot of containers and packed up dinners-to-go for a dozen friends, who either came by and picked them up, or arranged for delivery. I spent a lot of time last year planning how to do that. (Details should be in last year's notebook. Not on the list, but I think I also made eggplant parmesan.) Probably too late to do anything like that this year. It's looking like the emptiest holiday ever.

New records reviewed this week:

Teno Afrika: Amapiano Selections (2019-20 [2021], Awesome Tapes From Africa): South African DJ/producer, his work included in Amapiano Now (below), co-credited on 6 (of 8) tracks here, suggesting to me that these "selections" were picked up from scattered singles. Steady on the beats. B+(***)

Damon Albarn: The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows (2021, Transgressive): Major British music figure since the 1990s, when he led the Britpop band Blur. In recent years he's mostly toiled as the main singer-songwriter in Gorillaz, while doing various side projects, mostly with African musicians (e.g., Mali Music in 2002, and three records with Tony Allen). He also has four soundtracks, and this is his second solo album. The album was originally planned as "an orchestral piece inspired by the landscapes of Iceland," taking its title from a poem by John Clare, but with nothing better to do during the Covid lockdown metamorphosed into a full album. Still sounds scattered to me. B+(*)

Ben Allison: Moments Inside (2021, Sonic Camera): Bassist, co-founder in New York of Jazz Composers Collective, has impressed me so much as a composer that I've voted for him in DownBeat's Critics Poll, albums since 1996. Quartet with two guitarists (Chico Pinheiro and Steve Cardenas) and drums. B+(*) [sp]

Pedro Melo Alves' Omniae Large Ensemble: Lumina (2020 [2021], Clean Feed): Portuguese drummer, group name comes from his debut Omniae Ensemble in 2017. Large (23 person) ensemble, light on brass but adds bassoon, tuba, strings, voices, and electronics. Three pieces, total 74:56. B+(*) [sp]

Roxana Amed: Ontology (2021, Sony Music Latin): Singer-songwriter from Argentina, sixth album, got JCP votes in Vocal and Latin, but sails over my head. Maybe wafts is the more apt verb? B [sp]

Patricia Barber: Clique! (2021, Impex): Jazz singer, 16 albums since 1989, writes some (one song here) but mostly does standards, also plays piano, backed by guitar-bass-drums, with saxophonist Jim Gailloreto. Every time I play this, I tune in on "I Could Have Danced All Night" and "The In Crowd," but nothing else quite hits that spot -- least of all the Brazilian option, "One Note Samba." B+(***)

Bugpowder: Cage Tennis (2020 [2021], Trytone): Amsterdam-based quartet -- Tobias Klein (alto sax/bass clarinet), Jeroen Kimman (electric/bass guitar), Jasper Stadhouders (bass/acoustic guitar), Tristan Renfrow (drums) -- plays Ornette Coleman compositions, preferring the harmolodic '70s over the now-classic '50s. Repertory from another dimension of funk. A-

Chick Corea Akoustik Band: Live (2018 [2021], Stretch, 2CD): Piano-bass-drums trio, with John Pattitucci and Dave Weckl, a lineup that dates back to their eponymous debut in 1989. I've had a lot of trouble with Corea's fusion bands over the years, but lately his trios have been very respectable. B+(**)

Joy Crookes: Skin (2021, Insanity): Singer-songwriter from London, mother from Dhaka, father from Dublin, first album after three EPs. Unusual voice reminds me of Phoebe Snow, although Crookes is framed more as a pop singer. B+(**)

Erika De Casier: Sensational (2021, 4AD): Pop singer-songwriter, both in Portugal, mother Belgian, father Cape Verdean, moved as a child to Denmark, second album. Light touch, almost raps. B+(**)

Joey DeFrancesco: More Music (2021, Mack Avenue): Organ player, so was his father Papa John DeFrancesco, lots of album since 1989, also plays keyboard, piano, trumpet, and tenor sax, this one with Lucas Brown (guitar) and Michael Ode (drums), as full of swing as ever. B+(***)

Hamid Drake/Elaine Mitchener/William Parker/Orphy Robinson/Pat Thomas: Black Top Presents: Some Good News (2019 [2021], Otoroku, 2CD): Some convoluted parsing here: Black Top is a duo of Robinson (marimba) and Thomas (piano), both also electronics, but since they're listed separately on the credit line, their place here seemed to be in the title. (They have two previous albums, each with a special guest.) Drake and Parker you know. Mitchener is a vocalist. How you react to her chatterbox scat will make or break the album. Everyone else is predictably brilliant, and when she finds a groove, she's pretty delightful too. B+(**)

John Ellis/Adam Levy/Glenn Patscha: Say It Quiet (2021, Sunnyside): Reeds (mostly tenor sax), guitars, keyboards for the headliners, also bass, drums, and vibes on 4 cuts. B+(**) [sp]

Joe Farnsworth: City of Sounds (2021, Smoke Sessions): Mainstream drummer, lots of side credits, only a handful since 2003 with his name up front. This is a piano-bass-drums trio with Kenny Barron and Peter Washington. He wrote 3 songs, Barron 2, and they do 3 standards. B+(*)

Fred Frith/Ikue Mori: A Mountain Doesn't Know It's Tall (2015 [2021], Intakt): Guitarist, also credited with various toys and other objects, duo with laptop electronics. B+(**) [sp]

Goat Girl: On All Fours (2021, Rough Trade): English band, Wikipedia says "post-punk" and another source I jotted down has them as "neo-psychedelia," but they sound to me like a fairly generic alt/indie g-g-b-d band, with appeal from lead singer/guitarist Lottie Pendlebury, calling herself Clottie Cream. Second album. aB+(**)

Cameron Graves: Seven (2021, Mack Avenue): Pianist, composer, founding member of West Coast Get Down Collective, plays with Kamasi Washington (who appears on two songs here), second album, sort of '70s fusion with a side of metal. B-

Grouper: Shade (2021, Kranky): Liz Harris solo project, albums since 2005, plays slow, ethereal electronic music, barely there, but appealing as far as it goes. B+(*)

Alexander Hawkins: Togetherness Music: For Sixteen Musicians (2020 [2021], Intakt): English pianist, debut 2008, picked up momentum around 2016. Cover continues "Feat. Evan Parker + Riot Ensemble." Latter group has a couple albums, personnel seems to be fluid, but they're large enough to fill out the roster. Horns a plus, strings less so. B+(***) [sp]

Jazzmeia Horn and Her Noble Force: Dear Love (2021, Empress Legacy): Jazz singer from Dallas, backed by a 15-piece big band. The more conventional swing standards seem to work best, or when she has something political to say. B+(*) [sp]

Michael Hurley: Time of the Foxgloves (2021, No Quartet): Folksinger, just turned 80, best remembered as the lead credit on 1976's Have Moicy!, where he provided the steady good humor while Peter Stampfel added manic excitement. On his own, he's always been steady, and that's rarely been quite enough. B+(**)

Boldy James & the Alchemist: Bo Jackson (2021, ALC): Detroit rapper James Clay Jones III, working again with L.A. producer Alan Mamam (ex-Cypress Hill). B+(*)

Kimbrough (2021, Newvelle): Quite a tribute to the late pianist Frank Kimbrough, 61 songs he wrote played by 67 musicians who had some direct relation, some famous, many not, recorded over four days, perhaps the most productive wake ever. It's a lot to take in. Seems likely I long underrated him (although I totally enjoyed his Monk's Dreams). A-

Martin Küchen & Michaela Antalová: Thunder Before Lightning (2019 [2021], Clean Feed): Swedish saxophonist, main group Angles but has a lot of projects, duo with Czech drummer. Neither is clear in some kind of industrial drone. B- [sp]

Mike LeDonne's Groover Quartet + Big Band: It's All Your Fault (2020 [2021], Savant): Organ player, respected pianist elsewhere but "Groover" spells organ, Quartet with Eric Alexander (tenor sax), Peter Bernstein (guitar), and Joe Farnsworth (drums). They play throughout, with 4 (of 8) tracks expanded to big band swagger, mostly names you'll recognize (e.g., the sax section picks up Scott Robinson, Jim Snidero, Steve Wilson, and Jason Marshall). Overkill a bit, but must have been fun. B+(*)

Dave Liebman Expansions: Selflessness: The Music of John Coltrane (2021, Dot Time): Saxophonist, huge discography since 1973, including a number of Coltrane tributes. Plays soprano sax and wood flute here, backed by keyboards (Bobby Avey), bass, and drums. B+(**)

Miko Marks & the Resurrectors: Our Country (2021, Redtone): Singer (songwriter I assume, but credits are scarce, and I recognize some covers) from Flint, Michigan; won a "best new country artist" award in 2006, back with her first album since 2007. Sounds like Bonnie Bramlett at first, then morphs into Mavis Staples. One for this year's political mixtape: "Goodnight America." A-

Miko Marks & the Resurrectors: Race Records (2021, Redtone, EP): Six songs, 22:49, countrified blues and soul-tinged country standards, reminding us that race is only in the mind of the beholder, like a fever or a fit of epilepsy. B+(**)

Terrace Martin: Drones (2021, BMG): From Los Angeles, best known as a hip-hop producer, but plays alto sax (also keyboards, drums, guitar) and sings/raps, his own albums often jazz-oriented, this one less so -- probably because most cuts have featured guests. Choice cut: "Sick of Sayin'" (thanks for the saxophone). B+(**)

Lori McKenna: Christmas Is Right Here (2021, CN, EP): Folksinger-songwriter from Massachusetts, doesn't have that country drawl but writes with detail and eloquence that puts her Nashville competitors to shame. Last thing we need from her is a Christmas album. To her credit, these six songs (19:53) don't sound like Christmas music at all, but they're not quite an album either. B+(***)

Mustafa: When Smoke Rises (2021, Regent Park Songs, EP): Canadian soul singer, parents from Sudan, last name Ahmed, first album, short (8 songs, 23:42). B+(*)

Grethen Parlato: Flor (2021, Edition): Jazz singer from Los Angeles, father was a bassist for Frank Zappa, moved to New York in 2003, sixth album since 2005. She wrote 2 songs, added some vocals. Music as a light Brazilian vibe. B+(**)

Greentea Peng: Man Made (2021, AMF): British neo-soul singer Aria Wells, Arab father, African mother, first album after two EPs and three years of singles. Soft beats, loopy, but no sooner than I wrote that down she mixed it up. B+(***)

Mariá Portugal: Erosão (2021, Fun in the Church): Brazilian drummer, from São Paulo, builds these pieces up from "song material, acoustic improvisation and electronic manipulation." The sort of disjointed experimental funk that shows up on the fringes of Brazilian music, and sometimes proves catchy. B+(**)

Jordan Rakei: What We Call Life (2021, Ninja Tune): Born in New Zealand, father Maori, grew up in Australia, wound up in London. Fourth album. Plays piano/keyboards, programs drums, voice glides toward falsetto. B+(*)

Phil Ranelin: Ininite Expressions (2020 [2021], ORG Music): Trombonist, moved to Detroit in the 1960s and co-founded the Tribe, one of the few key regional groups that kept going during the lean days of the avant-garde. Still working past his 80th, he decided to record a solo album during the lockdown, but wound up here with a little help -- especially Andre Beasley on drums. B+(**)

Porter Robinson: Nurture (2021, Mom + Pop): DJ, electronica producer from Chapel Hill, NC, second album. Synth swells and lots of vocals. I feel like he's trying to cheer me up, but it isn't working. B

Sten Sandell/Lisa Ullén: Double Music (2021, Clean Feed): Piano duo, two Swedes, Ullén established since 2009, Sandell since the late 1980s. Billed for "piano lovers," but not so delicate. B+(**) [bc]

Nitin Sawhney: Immigrants (2021, Sony Masterworks): Born in London, parents from India, albums from 1993, produces electronica, draws on Indian classical music and various other sources. Nominally a sequel to his 1999 album Beyond Skin. Interludes with topical texts, songs built from strings and beats, a little rap, a lot to say. A-

Henry Threadgill Zooid: Poof (2019 [2021], Pi): Alto saxophonist, also plays flute (more than I'd like), founded the group Air in the late 1970s, has produced a steady stream of albums since, including some of the best of the last decade. Group is an exquisitely balanced quintet, with Jose Davila (tuba/trombone), Liberty Ellman (guitar), Christopher Hoffman (cello), and Elliot Humberto Kavee (drums). I sampled a cut of two when this came out, and wasn't blown away, but it all seems to work out in the end. A- [cd]

Roseanna Vitro: Sing a Song of Bird (2017-21 [2021], Skyline): Jazz singer, from Arkansas, moved to New York in 1978, 15 albums, the best are tributes but this is unique. She only sings on 6 (of 12) songs, but is key to the networking that makes the record work. Three more singers share cover credit: Bob Dorough, Sheila Jordan, and Marion Cowings. Dorough's songs were recorded in 2017, shortly before his death (at 94). Not clear when Jordan's 4 songs were done, but she's in a band picture with Dorough. The cover also credits Special Guests Gary Bartz and Mark Gross, alto saxophonists who cut their teeth learning Bird licks. Aside from "These Foolish Things" at the end, all of the tunes are from Parker, with various lyrics. I'm not a huge fan of Parker or vocalese, but the whole album is done with such good cheer I can't help but smile (or laugh). A- [sp]

Anna Webber: Idiom (2019 [2021], Pi, 2CD): Tenor saxophonist, also plays flute. First disc is her Simple Trio, with piano (Matt Mitchell) and drums (John Hollenbeck). Second is Large Ensemble, a group of 13 (including conductor Eric Wubbels). Both sides start out basic then build and build, the large ensemble more impressively, no surprise given the wealth of options. B+(***)

Michael Wollny/Emile Parisien/Tim Lefebvre/Christian Lillinger: XXXX (2019 [2021], ACT Music): German pianist, mostly plays electronic keyboards here, with soprano sax, more electronics, and drums. Basically, Weather Report instrumentation, but finds much more interesting shapes and crevices. B+(***)

Yola: Stand for Myself (2021, Easy Eye Sound): Yolanda Quartey, from Bristol, UK, black, 38, improbable for an Americana icon, but she's recorded her two albums in Nashville, and that's how the marketing folk frame her. I don't really buy it, but don't have any other ideas. B

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Amapiano Now ([2021], NTS): South African dance music du jour, "the fledgling post-kwaito genre is the sound of joy in the midst of struggle . . . sweeping the globe." Sixteen tracks selected by Shannen SP and Joe Cotch. This didn't grabe me as fast as Earthworks' kwaito comp (way back in 2000), or recent South African albums by DJ Black Low or Sho Madjozi or Malcolm Jiyane, probably because it's less remarkably close to globalized electronica than township jive, but it keeps coming. B+(***)

Bob Marley & the Wailers: The Capitol Session '73 (1973 [2021], Mercury/Tuff Gong): Stranded in California after being dropped from a tour opening for Sly & the Family Stone, the Wailers headed to Hollywood to tape a live-in-studio set, only now released on DVD. I haven't seen, and probably wouldn't bother watching, the video, but here's the audio. The set's a bit pat, but half the songs I know well from their first two American albums -- Catch a Fire and Burnin', both masterpieces -- and the others fit in nicely. Ends with a rousing "Get Up, Stand Up." A-

Archie Shepp: Live in Paris (1974) (1974 [2021], Transversales Disques): Tenor saxophonist, major avant-garde figure following Ayler and Coltrane, had to scramble in the 1970s, which took him frequently to Europe. Backed by piano trio plus percussion here, no one I recognize. B+(***) [bc]

Old music:

A Soldier's Sad Story: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Black America 1966-1973 [1966-73 [2003], Kent): The first of three volumes in this series, although the third didn't appear until 2021, 16 years after the second. The latter is probably why Christgau unearthed this after 20 years, but it's legacy worth recovering. In the late 1960s I reevaluated everything I believed through the prism of how much I hated the American War in Vietnam. Not that I remember, or even ever heard, much here, but the care and resilience was notable then, invaluable still. A-

Grade (or other) changes:

James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quintet: Jesup Wagon (2020 [2021], Tao Forms): Sitting on top of my A- list for most of the year, all this needed was another play to nudge it over the top. [was: A-] A [cd]

Magdalena Bay: Mercurial World (2021, Luminelle): Synth-pop duo from Miami, singer-songwriter Mica Tennenbaum and producer Matthew Lewin, first album after 3 EPs and 2 mixtapes. Dance beats initially reminded me of Chic. While they increasingly became distinct, they didn't lose anything. Turned out even better. [was: A-] A [cd]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Fred Hersch: Breath by Breath (Palmetto) [01-07]
• Magdalena Bay: Mercurial World (Luminelle)
• Roberto Magris: Match Point (JMood)
• Tony Malaby: The Cave of Winds (Pyroclastic) [01-07]
• Emile Parisien: Louise (ACT) [01-28]
• The Smudges: Song and Call (Cryptogramophone) [02-18]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, December 13, 2021

December archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 36898 [36843] rated (+55), 123 [119] unrated (+4).

Spent most of last week transcribing Jazz Critics Poll ballots. Deadline was Sunday night, so in theory that's done, but we'll accept stragglers at least until tomorrow. We currently have 150 ballots, one more than last year's record. Of course, I can't talk about results now -- you should be able to see the critics list, but when you lick on the links the choices should remain blank, until we unleash them last week of December.

Still, a lot of the records in this week's haul came from picks on those ballots. The total number of records receiving votes is 673, which is about 4.5 times the number of ballots (full ballots list 16 albums). That's the third highest number of albums, behind 2020 (683) and 2019 (674), but could edge up a bit.

Second significant source for records this week was Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide. I had previously looked for Courtney Barnett and Neil Young, but only found them this week. Among other picks, good to see the Gift of Gab album I gave an A to recently, less so a Jason Isbell album that struck me as a B, in between a Parquet Courts I deemed a B+(***). That was also my initial grade for the Burnt Sugar album I revisited. I didn't get to it until after the news that Greg Tate had died, so can't meet Bob's claims to an unaffected grade, but I'm happy to have enjoyed the record more than when I rushed it before.

Something else to note this week is that I signed up for one of those three-month free trials of Spotify. I've been increasingly frustrated by hangs listening to Napster, and coverage of some labels has been spotty. I've suspected that Spotify has a small but significant number of albums not on Napster (or impossible to find on Napster), so I waited until the next offer came around, and took it. I almost immediately got pissed off at it, as the browser ap defaulted to autoplay -- the whole point of streaming for me is that I know what I'm listening to, and when it ends. However, I did some research and discovered that their Linux ap (something Napster doesn't have) has a settings switch, so I downloaded that, and plunged into Limpopo Champions League (a desired album not on Napster that I had found on Spotify). So there's a few "[sp]" records on this week's list, and more to come. One especially pleasant surprise was finding an already constructed playlist for one of the Vietnam War anthologies Christgau reviewed in the latest Consumer Guide. Unfortunately, the other two volumes don't seem to exist.

I don't have a lot to say about the late Greg Tate. He, like me, gained his first prominence as one of Robert Christgau's stable of freelancers at the Village Voice, but he was 7 years younger, and entered that orbit after I had checked out (so I never actually met him). We had one thing in common: we were both huge P-Funk fans before we hooked up with Bob. I remember Carola wondering whether Bob's late conversion might have been influenced by my arrival in New York, but Bob dismissed the idea, instead citing Parliament's Live album, appearing shortly before we saw them at Madison Square Garden (coincidentally, a first date with my future wife) -- we were all in a cluster of freeloaders on the floor, a white hole in the middle of a chocolate donut. Tate, of course, was more credible and more memorable in his enthusiasm. He was one of the few Voice critics I read regularly once I left New York. He had eye-opening insights had an astonishing gift for language. I'm not surprised as I read young critics cite him as their inspiration, but being 7 years older, I can't say that. All I can allow is that after he came around, it's just as well I had retired.

After Tate died, I jotted down some tweets:

Nate Chinen: Absolutely gutted to learn that Greg Tate has left this dimension. What a hero he's been -- a fiercely original critical voice, a deep musician, an encouraging big brother to so many of us. Total shock.

Robert Christgau: Thulani Davis led me to Greg Tate. With his first submission the word "genius" swam in my head. "The more writing like this I get the happier I'll be," I told him. And I did get more--lots. Problem was, all of it was by Greg. He was so inimitable few even tried to rip him off.

Joe Levy: I edited Greg Tate at the Village Voice for five years, '89-'94. The pieces would come in, and of course they'd be great. But there would be bits -- thoughts or language -- that Greg hadn't worked out yet. So then Greg would come in. On the fly, he would spit paragraphs of diamonds, stuff that anyone else would spend hours trying to grasp, then hours more working to articulate. And I'd type it, and then he'd say, "Nah. We can do better." And then he did. The man's verbal and mental dexterity was superhero stuff. Not human, just not possible. He made giant steps look like a casual stroll. He made everyone around him smarter. He did it with warmth and grace and humor, his basso profundo like a warm blanket of knowledge.

Michaelangelo Matos: I keep thinking of Greg Tate stories, Greg Tate quotes, and they're completely, blessedly all over the place, of course.

Moor Mother: Greg Tate was a different type of cool. A style brought to you by gaining respect with words with a vibe no university could ever teach. So they hired him to school folks on what it really means to be apart of the culture and some of us are still realizing what he did for us.

Amanda Petrusich: Gutted to hear that Greg Tate -- an extraordinary critic, the writer who taught me what's possible in this work, how criticism can vibrate, sing, lift -- is gone.

Allen Lowe: Greg Tate's 1992 anthology Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America is about as essential as any critical work I've ever read. Greg and I became friends on Facebook and happened to meet two or three times over the years. We didn't always agree but I found everything he had to say insightful and illuminating. He was also a very nice man who when I first got sick a few years back and needed some help with what became my last book, came immediately to my assistance, no questions asked, with just human kindness and a sharp literary/aesthetic eye. The news that he's just died both grieves me and makes me cringe at not just the temporary state of ideas as cultural capital but also at the temporal state of our cultural memory. Greg was the very definition of "trendy," but they were trends that he helped to root out and that he turned into a very personal critical aesthetic.

I can also cite a few articles, although the collection here is haphazard:

• Kevin Powell: Greg Tate showed me what being a writer in America could mean: I was surprised to find this piece syndicated in the Wichita Eagle over the weekend.
• Clay Risen: Greg Tate, Influential Black Cultural Critic, Dies at 64: Greg Magarian was thinking of this piece when he suggested there was a special category of writing, that offer more tribute in death than a publication ever showed respect in life.
• Marcus J. Moore: There Will Never Be Another Greg Tate.
• Rob Sheffield: A Warrior for the Heart: The Gigantic Music Legacy of Greg Tate.
• RJ Sith: Critic Greg Tate taught a generation how to listen to, love and write about Black music.
• NPR: Stonecoldboldness: A many-sided memorial to the writing of Greg Tate: A bunch of excerpts and quotes.
• Bookforum: Greg Tate (1957-2021): by Daphne A. Brooks, Robert Christgau, Sasha Frere-Jones, and Carl Wilson.
• The Village Voice: Greg Tate: Partial index of his Village Voice reviews.
• The Wire: Greg Tate: Index of articles Tate wrote for The Wire.
• Hua Hsu: The Critic Who Convinced Me That Criticism Could Be Art: New Yorker profile from 2016.
• Greg Tate: Afropessimism and Its Discontents: "A guide for the perplexed, the puzzled, and the politically confused." Recent article (Sept. 17, 2021).

I'm a bit surprised that there's less out on his music. I've listened to (and liked) most of it, but don't have my scraps of writing readily available, nor have I seen much else. Burnt Sugar/The Arkestra Chamber has rarely been reviewed by jazz critics (Angels Over Oakanda has 4 JCP votes this year, probably his first ever), let alone others (only a partial exception is Robert Christgau -- page doesn't yet include his A review of Angels). I've been toying with the idea of jazz as "social music" lately, by which I mean music that organizes social movement, often with a political goal, but always as an assertion of cultural worth. I see this in the crossover jazz that's become popular in London recently. It seems to me that Tate was trying to do something like that here, even though hardly anyone's been paying attention.

Meanwhile, I seem to have misplaced my copy of Flyboy in the Buttermilk, just when I could use something new to read. Ordered a copy of Flyboy 2, but the delivery schedule on that stretches out another week. I have the Graeber/Wengrow The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity in the wings, but that seems like a big chunk to chew off. I've found Amitav Ghosh's The Nutmeg's Curse very stimulating, although not without problems (as I cling to my stubborn faith in reason).

New records reviewed this week:

Rodrigo Amado Northern Liberties: We Are Electric (2017 [2021], Not Two): I'd hazard a guess that per capita the top two jazz countries in Europe are Norway and Portugal. Small size is part of the equation, but wealth isn't: Portugal is the poorest country in western Europe, while Norway is one of the richest. But cross-pollination has helped, especially as Portugal's Clean Feed label regularly hooked Portuguese jazz masters up with peers from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. This particular meeting from the two countries -- Amado (tenor sax), Thomas Johansson (trumpet), Jon Rune Strøm (bass), and Gard Nilssen (drums) -- took place in a London club and is being released on a Polish label. Nothing particularly electric in the lineup, but they do keep you turned on. A- [cd]

Courtney Barnett: Things Take Time, Take Time (2021, Mom + Pop): Singer-songwriter from Australia, breakthrough in 2015 was driven by her guitar, which remains a strong suit here. Innovation here is her phrasing, which reminds me ever so much of Lou Reed, which sometimes rises to the level of a tic -- one I adore. A-

Rubén Blades y Roberto Delgado & Orquesta: Salswing! (2021, Rubén Blades Productions): From Panama, back in the 1980s was a pop star and actor, had a law degree, was touted as a future president of Panama, but never got further than Minister of Tourism.

Theo Bleckmann & the Westerlies: This Land (2019 [2021], Westerlies Music): Jazz singer from Germany, based in New York since 1989, albums since 1993, teaches at Manhattan School of Music. Remarkable skills, but I find his penchant for difficult music very hit and miss. The Westerlies are a brass quartet (two trumpets, two trombones). Sort of a folk Americana thing, with bits of "Wade in the Water" and "In the Sweet By and By," but also "Look for the Union Label" and "Tear the Fascists Down." B+(***) [sp]

Dean Blunt: Black Metal 2 (2021, Rough Trade): Actual name Roy Nnawuchi, London-born, bunch of mixtapes and albums since 2011 including his previous Black Metal in 2014. Hard to describe, but not that. Short: 11 songs, 25:31. B+(**)

Anthony Braxton: 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017 (2017 [2021], Firehouse 12, 12CD): Twelve compositions, numbered between 402 and 420, diagrams on cover, averaging a bit less than an hour each (6 in 40-50 minute range, 4 in 50-60, 2 a bit over 70). Unlikely that all 12 performers play on all 12 pieces, given that 4 credits are for harp, but there's generally a lot going on: notably Dan Peck on tuba, Adam Matlock on accordion and aerophones, cello (Tomeka Reid) violin, brass (Tyler Ho Bynum and Steph Richards), and reeds (Ingrid Laubrock and Braxton). Writing this a bit more than half way through, and contemplating a break. Much more than I have any desire to digest, but lots of fun, interesting things whenever I tune in. B+(***) [bc]

Patricia Brennan: Maquishti (2018 [2021], Valley of Search): Vibraphone/marimba player, born in Mexico, based in New York, first album, various side credits. Solo pieces, using "extended techniques and electronic effects." B+(*)

Bill Charlap Trio: Street of Dreams (2021, Blue Note): Mainstream pianist, albums since 1993, most (11 since 1997) with Peter Washington (bass) and Kenny Washington (drums). Standards, typically light touch. B+(**)

Boubacar "Badian" Diabaté: Mande Guitar (2021, Lion Songs): Guitarist from Mali, mostly solo acoustic. Nice. B+(**)

Mathias Eick: When We Leave (2020 [2021], ECM): Norwegian trumpet player, on ECM since 2008. Only the one horn, over an atmospheric backdrop including piano, violin,, pedal steel guitar, and percussion. B+(**)

Sam Fender: Seveneen Going Under (2021, Polydor): English singer-songwriter, second album, fairly big star in UK, not much beyond. Has a good sense of traditional rock form, including the occasional hook, and sometimes has something to say. Promising, except when the arena beckons. B

Friends & Neighbors: The Earth Is # (2021, Clean Feed): Norwegian group, fifth album since 2011, quintet with trumpet (Thomas Johansson) and tenor sax (André Roligheten, also plays flute, bass clarinet, and bass sax) up front, plus piano-bass-drums. Four composers here, all but one piece coming from the names I skipped. Helps explain why I find this rather mixed, but the saxophonist is a tower of strength throughout. B+(***) [sp]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor: G_d's Pee at State's End (2021, Constellation): Canadian "post-rock" band, had a run 1994-2003, broke up, regrouped in 2011, with 3 albums early, 4 later. Instrumental, thickly layered with intimations of magnificence. B+(*)

Muriel Grossmann: Union (2021, Dreamland): Saxophonist (alto, soprano, tenor), born in Paris, grew up in Vienna, based in Ibiza since 2004, 13th album since 2007, quartet with guitar (Radomir Milojkovic), organ (Llorenç Barceló), and drums (Uros Stamenkovic). Appealing soul jazz groove with cosmic Coltrane overtones, a combo beyond reproach. B+(***)

Thomas Heberer: The Day That Is (2021, Sunnyside): German trumpet player, based in New York, composed this during lockdown, not clear when he recorded it. Another German in New York, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, provides a second horn, backed by John Hébert (bass) and Michael Sarin (drums). B+(***) [bc]

William Hooker: Big Moon (2020 [2021], Org Music): Drummer, entered the New York loft scene in mid-1970s, debut album 1976, has been productive and remained obscure ever since. Nine musicians, including two saxes (Stephen Gauci and Sarah Manning), flute, three keyboardists, bass, and extra percussion. Runs long at 83 minutes, and can get noisy. B+(***) [bc]

François Houle/Samo Salamon: Unobservable Mysteries (2020, Samo): Canadian clarinetist, Slovenian guitarist, improvising long distance. B+(**) [bc]

Susie Ibarra: Talking Gong (2020 [2021], New Focus): Percussionist, albums since 1997, credit here is "gong, percussion, drums." Most tracks add Claire Chase (flutes) and/or Alex Peh (piano). B+(*) [bc]

Susie Ibarra: Walking on Water (2018-19 [2021], Innova): Eleven "spirituals" composed to accompany paintings for the victims of the March 11, 2011 Tohoku Great Earthquake and Tsunami, based on field recordings from underwater microphones. Various voices (most prominently Claudia Acuña), strings (Jennifer Choi), and electronics, strangely affecting. B+(**) [bc]

Frank Kimbrough: Ancestors (2017 [2021], Sunnyside): Pianist, died in late 2020 at 64, was one of the postbop musicians who made Matt Baltisaris' Palmetto an important label in the 2000s. Trio with Kirk Knuffke (cornet) and Masa Kamaguchi (bass), a rather subdued but touching session. B+(***)

Craig Klein: Talkative Horns: Musical Conversations on Lucien Barbarin (2021, Tromboklein Music): New Orleans-based trombonist, one previous album, sings some, as does Kevin Louis (long cornet). Backed with piano, guitar, bass, and drums -- the latter by Barbarin's nephew, Gerry Barbarin Anderson. Lucien Barbarin (1956-2020) was a trad jazz trombonist, and his grand-uncle was drummer Paul Barbarin, who played with King Oliver in Chicago and Luis Russell in New York, as well as leading his own bands. B+(**)

La La Lars: La La Lars III (2021, <1000): Swedish group, third album, principally drummer Lars Skogland, who wrote the songs, produced, also plays some guitar and keyboards. With Goran Kajfes (trumpet), Jonah Kullhammar (tenor sax/flute/bassoon), Carl Bagge (keyboards), and Johan Berthling (bass). B+(***) [bc]

Mary LaRose: Out Here (2021, Little (i) Music): Jazz singer, based in Brooklyn, sixth album since 1995. Title comes from Eric Dolphy, with LaRose writing lyrics to Dolphy's sinewy compositions. Band members are listed on the cover, because they're something to brag about: Jeff Lederer, Tomeka Reid, Patricia Brennan, Nick Dunston, Matt Wilson. B+(***)

James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Code of Being (2021, Intakt): Tenor saxophonist, one of the giants of his generation, backed by Aruán Ortiz (piano), Brad Jones (bass), and Chad Taylor (drums). Something less than his usual tour de force, but softer touches are appealing as well, heightened perhaps by the always present tension. A-

Harold Mabern: Mabern Plays Coltrane (2018 [2021], Smoke Sessions): Pianist, from Memphis, recorded for Prestige 1969-70, didn't find another dependable label until DIW in the 1990s, finally finding a home here from 2014 past his death in 2019. This is the 3rd release (4th CD) they've culled from Mabern's January stand. I was most impressed by the first, The Iron Man: Live at Smoke. That was quartet with Eric Alexander (tenor sax), John Webber (bass), and Joe Farnsworth (drums). This adds a couple extra horns: alto sax (Vincent Herring) and trombone (Steve Davis). Not ideal picks for a Coltrane tribute, but energetic. B+(*)

Nick Mazzarella/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Avreeayl Ra: What You Seek Is Seeking You (2019 [2021], Astral Spirits): Alto sax/bass/drums trio, recorded in Chicago. If I hadn't heard a dozen more records like this, I'd be blown away. B+(***)

Makaya McCraven: Deciphering the Message (2021, Blue Note): Drummer, born in Paris, father an American drummer, mother a Hungarian singer, moved to Chicago in 2007, albums and mixtapes since 2008. This is a remix project, starting with Blue Note tapes from the 1960s, retooling the beats and adding contemporary players like Joel Ross (vibes), Jeff Parker (guitar), Marquis Hill (trumpet), and Greg Ward (alto sax), plus a bit of rap and chant. Not entirely successful. B+(**)

Pat Metheny: Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV) (2019 [2021], Modern): Jazz guitarist, has floundered somewhat since his 1977-2010 Group with Lyle Mays expired, comes up with an effective successor here, with James Francies (keyboards, mostly organ) and Marcus Gilmore (drums). Live set, touring shortly before the pandemic shut them down. Seven originals, plus a cover from old standby Ornette Coleman. B+(*)

Ming Bau Set: Yakut's Gallop (2020 [2021], Fundacja Sluchaj): Gerry Hemingway (drums), Vera Baumann (vocal), and Florestan Berset (guitar). Improv, although the liner notes include lyrics from Paul Eluard, Patti Smith, and Levin Westermann. B+(***) [dl]

Mogwai: As the Love Continues (2021, Temporary Residence): Scottish "post-rock" band, tenth album since 1997, three of four original members still active. Huge waves of instrumentals, only occasional vocals. B

Angelika Niescier/Alexander Hawkins: Soul in Plain Sight (2020 [2021], Intakt): Alto sax and piano duo, both on the adventurous side, impressive but doesn't always sit right. B+(***)

Stephanie Nilles: I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag: The White Flag (2019 [2021], Sunnyside): Title, and music, from Charles Mingus, focusing on his more political titles, from "Fables of Faubus" to "Remember Rockefeller at Attica." Nilles sings some, and plays a lot of solo piano. B+(**) [bc]

Joy Orbison: Still Slipping Vol. 1 (2021, XL): Real name Peter O'Grady, electronica producer, nephew of drum & bass DJ Ray Keith. Numerous singles since 2009, but this is his first album. Nice vibe to it. B+(**)

Hannah Peel: Fir Wave (2021, My Own Pleasure): Irish singer-songwriter and soundtrack producer, based in London, 7th album since 2011. B+(**)

Punkt. Vrt. Plastik [Kaja Draksler/Petter Eldh/Christian Lillinger]: Somit (2020 [2021], Intakt): Piano-bass-drums trio, group name from their 2018 release. B+(***)

Emily Scott Robinson: American Siren (2021, Oh Boy): Folk/country singer-songwriter from North Carolina, signed to John Prine's label, which isn't a lock but they do have a track record. Couple excellent songs, voice way up there. B+(***)

Andreas Røysum Ensemble: Fredsfanatisme (2021, Motvind): Norwegian clarinetist, second album leading this nonet, with flute, two saxophones (Signe Emmeluth and Marthe Lea), a low twist on a string quartet (violin, cello, two basses), and drums. Freedom can get rough. B+(**)

Paula Shocron/William Parker/Pablo Díaz: El Templo (2019 [2021], Astral Spirits): Pianist from Argentina, opens with deft runs before bringing out the strong chords that drive these four pieces. Disappointing when she back off, but then you remember who the bassist is. A- [bc]

Tyshawn Sorey/King Britt: Tyshawn & King (2021, The Buddy System): Latter's full name is King James Britt, probably best known as the DJ in the 1990s jazzy hip-hop band Digable Planets, although he has quite a bit under his own name (or aliases like Fhloston Paradigm) since 1998. He knows his way around beats, but I doubt he's ever worked with a drummer with Sorey's chops before. Loses a bit when the drummer checks out, but by they you're hooked. A-

Rossano Sportiello: That's It (2021, Arbors): Retro swing pianist from Italy, dozen-plus albums since 2003, many with Harry Allen, Scott Hamilton, or Nicki Parrott. This one is solo, mostly standards with a few originals in the mix. B+(**)

Strictly Missionary: Heisse Scheisse (2021, Astral Spirits): Brooklyn group, big names are Chris Pitsiokos (alto sax, voice, electronics, etc.), Wendy Eisenberg (guitar), and Kevin Murray (drums), plus electric bass and extra percussion. Hot indeed. B+(***) [bc]

Ohad Talmor Trio: Mise En Place (2020 [2021], Intakt): Tenor saxophonist, based in New York, albums since 1999, worked often with Lee Konitz. Trio with Miles Okazaki (guitar) and Dan Weiss (drums). Smart, tricky postbop. B+(***)

Unscientific Italians: Play the Music of Bill Frisell Vol. 1 (2019 [2021], Hora): Large (11 piece) Italian band led by pianist Alfonso Santimone, who arranged seven Frisell compositions for a band with four brass, four reeds, piano, bass, and drums. Without guitar, to my ears this doesn't sound anything like Frisell, but it's bright, energetic, amusing, and thought-provoking. A- [bc]

Butch Warren & Freddie Redd: Baltimore Jazz Loft (2013 [2021], Bleebop): Bassist, played on A-list albums 1959-65 (Sonny Clark, Leapin' and Lopin'; Herbie Hancock, Takin' Off; Jackie McLean, Tippin' the Scales; Hank Mobley, No Room for Squares; Thelonious Monk, It's Monk's Time; Horace Parlan, Happy Frame of Mind), before he suffered a mental breakdown and quit. He did start playing a bit in his 70s, a "French Quartet" album in 2011, and finally this one with Redd on piano, Matt Wilson on drums, and Brad Linde on tenor sax, just before his death. B+(**) [bc]

Martin Wind Quartet: My Astorian Queen (2021, Laika): Austrian bassist, recorded this under Matt Baltisaris at Maggie's Farm, Pennsylvania,with Scott Robinson, Bill Mays, and Matt Wilson. B+(**) [cd]

The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong All Stars: A Gift to Pops (2021, Verve): No surprise this opens with "When It's Sleepy Time Down South," but the unique voice took me aback, unquestionably Armstrong himself, plundered from a 1964 live shot. In the tribute that follows, Nicholas Payton (or is it Wynton Marsalis? or one of the not-yet-all-stars who staff this band?) offers a fair approximation of the trumpet, but no one dares the voice, and not for lack of vocals. I wish I had a track-by-track credits list, but only Common's rap on "Black and Blue" is certain. Ends with Armstrong's voice again, on "Philosophy of Life." He was a blessing, who changed the world, and people who don't know that need to listen up. Even if this tribute's a bit half-assed, it still brings me joy. A-

Neil Young/Crazy Horse: Barn (2021, Reprise): Another very solid album, mostly laid back, more comfortable in the country than in Nashville, but they can still bring some heat when they feel it's needed. A-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers: First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings (1961 [2021], Blue Note): Previously unreleased set from January 14, refuting the title of Solar's 2014 compilation Tokyo 1961: The Complete Concerts (which has sets from January 2 & 11). One of Blakey's greatest lineups -- Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, Jymie Merritt -- kicking off what was probably Blakey's greatest year (Roots & Herbs, The Freedom Rider, The Witch Doctor, Mosaic, Buhaina's Delight). So, by now familiar repertoire, but what you want from live: everything cranked up a notch. A- [sp]

Jeanne Lee: Conspiracy (1975 [2021], Moved-by-Sound): Jazz singer, first recordings were backed by Ran Blake's solo piano and dubbed The Newest Sound Around (1962), and was also striking in Carla Bley's 1971 opera Escalator Over the Hill. Most of her recordings in the 1970s were in groups led by Gunter Hampel, who plays flute, piano, vibes, and clarinet here, along with other avant figures like Sam Rivers and Steve McCall. B+(*)

Bheki Mseleku: Beyond the Stars (2003 [2021], Tapestry Works): Pianist from South Africa, self-taught, also played sax and guitar, moved to Botswana and then to London in late 1970s, half-dozen records 1991-2003, died at 53 in 2008. This is a solo piano set. B+(**)

New Life: Visions of the Third Eye (1979 [2021], Early Future): Guitar-bass-drums trio: Brandon Ross, David Wertman, and Steve Reid, drummer listed first (and he's especially inventive). B+(***) [bc]

Bola Sete: Samba in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse 1966-1968 1966-68 [2021], Tompkins Square, 3CD): Brazilian guitarist Djalma de Andrade (1923-87), stage name means "Seven Ball" (a snooker reference), discography starts in 1957 but he began to pick up a US audience with 1962's Bossa Nova. Backed here with bass and drums, which help but are totally overshadowed by the guitar -- I doubt there's a single non-guitar solo here. Way too much to listen to at once, but pretty amazing when you do. A- [bc]

Ken Wheeler and the John Dankworth Orchestra: Windmill Tilter: The Story of Don Quixote (1969 [2021], Decca): Canadian trumpet player, better known as Kenny, moved to UK in 1952, and became a major artist for ECM, with a sideline of playing in many of Europe's top free jazz orchestras. Dankworth is a saxophonist, led a big band and smaller groups from the early 1950s. This was really his group, with the trumpet featured, but winds up being counted as Wheeler's debut album. B+(***) [yt]

Old music:

Sho Madjozi: Limpopo Champions League (2018, Flourish and Multiply): South African rapper Maya Wegerif, main language Tsonga but she's been around, and you'll recognize some English. Terrific beats, very impressive album. A- [sp]

Grade (or other) changes:

Burnt Sugar/The Arkestra Chamber: Angels Over Oakanda (2018-21 [2021], Avantgroidd): Ace critic Greg Tate's jazz project, co-led by bassist Jared Michael Nickerson, 20 years and about that many records into their own long, strange trip. Conducted improv, starts evoking 1970s Miles, adds a bit of mythopoetic vocal chorus, then settles into seductive groove. [was: B+(***)] A- [bc]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Rodrigo Amado Northern Liberties: We Are Electric (Not Two) [11-24]
• Patricia Barber: Clique! (Elusive Disc)
• Chris Castino & Chicken Wire Empire: Fresh Pickles (self-released) [02-04]
• Henry Threadgill Zooid: Poof (Pi) [09-24]
• Anna Webber: Idiom (Pi, 2CD) [05-28]
• Martin Wind Quartet: My Astorian Queen (Laika) [11-12]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, December 6, 2021

December archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 36843 [36797] rated (+46), 119 [125] unrated (-6).

Former Kansas politician and Republican majordomo Robert J. Dole has died at 98, after a long and eventful life that caused immeasurable damage to American society and politics. I remember him mostly for running one of the most scurrilous political campaigns in Kansas history, when he narrowly defeated Bill Roy for his second Senate term in 1972. Dole was the first Republican in Kansas to find a way to politicize abortion and exploit the bigotry and confusion around the issue. That was the first year I voted, and not a single person I voted for -- not even the Republican who was certainly the lesser evil running against Democratic Sheriff/Attorney General Vern Miller -- won. It was also the last time I voted until 1996, and I found myself with another chance to vote against Dole. That time, at least, I was more successful, not that Bill Clinton was much of a prize.

They say that when one dies, if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all. I rarely follow that advice, but in Dole's case I actually can say a few nice things (even if I have trouble limiting myself). Here goes:

1. In 1952, Bob Dole attended my Uncle Allen's funeral. Dole was in the state legislature at the time, from Russell, probably not in the same district Allen lived but not far. He didn't know Allen, but saw good politics in going to the funerals of veterans, and Allen had been in the Navy during WWII. I don't remember it at all, but that was probably the only time Dole and I shared the same roof. He had already figured out how to exploit his war injuries for political gain, as he would continue to do throughout his career.

2. Dole could be funny. I usually regard that as a redeeming human quality, as well as a sign of intelligence (as I recall John Allen Paulos' book, I Think, Therefore I Laugh). My favorite line of his was when he saw a group picture of former presidents Carter, Ford, and Nixon, and quipped "See no Evil, hear no Evil, and Evil." But I read a piece today with a selection of his humor, and few of his other zingers hold up. I also read about the teary eulogy he gave at Nixon's funeral. That doesn't necessarily mean that he stopped regarding Nixon as Evil, as he did plenty in service of Evil throughout his career. But before Watergate, Nixon was clearly Dole's role model of a politician on the make. They had very similar backgrounds, ambitions, and trajectories, although Nixon got there quicker, and more fatefully.

3. Dole was probably the last person ever to make what used to be a common quip about the Democrats being the War Party. This was in a 1996 debate, and while Clinton may have been flattered, the moderator and the press were clearly baffled. The history was that Democrats had led the country into and through two world wars, and into stuck wars in Korea and Vietnam that were ultimately disengaged by Republicans (although Nixon took his bloody time). For much of that time, Republicans tended to be "isolationist" (a term invented to disparage those who prefer to mind their own business), but that started to shift with the rise of the anti-Communist crusaders like Nixon, Joe McCarthy, and Barry Goldwater. By the time you get to Reagan, Republicans had embraced militarism so utterly that Dole's quip fell on deaf ears, while anti-war Americans had shifted to the Democratic Party, only to be frequently betrayed by their leaders. No doubt Dole was just desperately racking his brain for a debate point, but I found his choice somewhat charming.

4. Dole spent most of his career as an extreme partisan hack, but when he finally did decide he wanted to leave a legacy, he came up with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Which is to say, he realized that the way to be remembered for doing something good was, in the New Deal/Great Society manner, to add to the "entitlements" of a class of people discriminated against. This suggests he was still cognizant of the values system that dominated the pre-Reagan era, even though he had spent almost all of his political career fighting against it. I've seen ADA called the last bipartisan act. In other words, it was the last time Republicans ever attempted to use government to help people (although given how many disabled were victims of war, the law also paid tribute to militarism).

But that's all I have. I've never understood why people credit him with anything more. (The biggest critical lapse was by Tom Carson, who treats him as a humble folk hero in his otherwise brilliant novel, Gilligan's Wake.) He pulled Kansas hard to the right, and for a long time remained an outlier, at least compared to decent Republican senators James Pearson and Nancy Kassebaum. It was only with the rise of Sam Brownback and Todd Tiahrt in the 1990s that Dole started to look moderate, but their demagoguery on abortion starts with Dole's 1972 campaign. After his loss in 1996, he settled into the comfortable life of a Washington shill, never using what little political stature he had achieved to try to stem the Republican slide into and beyond Trumpism. He served his party, and was rewarded with wealth and fame and flattery and forbearance. Now he's being showered with flowery eulogies, a symptom of the same mental collapse as we witnessed with Colin Powell and John McCain -- rivals in the sweepstakes to see who could make the most mileage (and moolah) out of unfortunate military careers. And what did you get for all his success? Fucked.

Very busy week looking at EOY lists and playing new music. Magdalena Bay topped the list at Gorilla vs Bear, and is near the top of my A- bracket, a good chance to go full A. Everything else is toward the bottom of the A- bracket, but that mostly reflects the limited time I've been able to give each release. They are all distinctive, interesting albums, very good ones. I probably left a few more short at B+(***) -- Mexstep? Navy Blue? R.A.P. Ferreira? I don't have a good ear for lyrics, and not enough patience to properly process rap albums, so I guess a lot.

Amyl & the Sniffers topped Louder Than War's list (not a source I look to, but still). Little Simz and Floating Points have topped the most lists so far. I gave the former *** and the latter **, and should revisit both. Number three on my EOY Aggregate is Dry Cleaning, which I bumped to A- after an initial lower grade. Tyler, the Creator (another ***) has moved into 4th, displacing Low, which I'll never return to. Tyler is the only US hip-hop contender: Mach-Hommy is at 30, Vince 33, Lil Nas X 38, Doja Cat 71, Armand Hammer 96, J Cole 104.

Jazz Critics Poll ballots are due Sunday, December 12.

New Music:

1. East Axis [Matthew Shipp/Allen Lowe/Gerald Cleaver/Kevin Ray]: Cool With That (ESP-Disk)
2. Sons of Kemet: Black to the Future (Impulse!)
3. James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quintet: Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms)
4. Steve Coleman and Five Elements: Live at the Village Vanguard Volume II (MDW NTR) (Pi)
5. Dave Rempis/Tomeka Reid/Joshua Abrams/Tim Daisy/Tyler Damon: The Covid Tapes: Solos, Duos, & Trios (Aerophonic)
6. Anthony Braxton: Quartet (Standards) 2020 (New Braxton House)
7. François Carrier: Glow (FMR)
8. Barry Altschul's 3Dom Factor: Long Tall Sunshine (Not Two)
9. Wadada Leo Smith: Sacred Ceremonies (TUM)
10. Rodrigo Amado This Is Our Language Quartet: Let the Free Be Men (Trost)

Reissues/Historical:

1. Duck Baker: Confabulations (1994-2017, ESP-Disk)
2. Total Music Association: Walpurgisnacht (1971-88, NoBusiness)
3. Bill Evans: Behind the Dikes: The 1969 Netherlands Recordings (Elemental Music)

Vocal:

• Anthony Joseph: The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives (Heavenly Sweetness)

Debut:

• Malcolm Jiyane Tree-O: Umdali (Mushroom Hour Half Hour)

Latin:

• Miguel Zenón/Ariel Bringuez/Demian Cabaud/Jordi Rossy: Law Years: The Music of Ornette Coleman (Miel Music)

Some brief notes. I jiggled New Music around to get something I found aesthetically pleasing and well-suited to the year. This list (at least at the moment) matches my Jazz EOY List. I favored albums I had physical copies of, but included two I had only streamed (Braxton and Altschul). I did enforce a CD-only policy for the old music section, so my ballot is very different from the EOY list, where the top album was Charles Mingus, Mingus at Carnegie Hall [Deluxe Edition]. The Joseph album is an irregular choice for Vocal, in that I parked it on top of the Non-Jazz EOY List, but I find myself enjoying very few jazz vocalists -- the only ones to make my A-list were Sarah Buechi and Anaïs Reno -- while Joseph's is one of the year's very best albums. I went with somewhat arbitrary choices for Debut and Latin as well. I actually have a group, Body Meπa, higher on my list than Jiyane, but we tend to frown on group debuts. I like classic Latin jazz, but I'm rarely impressed enough by recent efforts to have any of it show up on my A-list, so I usually wind up picking something tangential. This year that's Zenón's not-all-that-Latinized Ornette Coleman tribute, which I prefer over his explicitly Latin El Arte del Bolero. One curious fact from counting the JCP votes is that thus far all but one of Zenón's New Album votes are for Law Years, but all of his Latin votes are for El Arte del Bolero.

It's possible to change ballots up to Dec. 12. (Hopefully, that's incentive to send them in earlier.) I may wind up changing my ballot a bit, but I'm pretty happy with it now. I will certainly wind up changing my EOY files as I find new things, and sometimes as I further review initial grades. I'm finally streaming James Brandon Lewis' Code of Being as I write this. Supposedly, Henry Threadgill's Poof is in the mail. There are at least three Blue Note albums that I haven't been able to stream, as I have their other records for many years now. (I don't even know why does publicity there anymore, but I assume the reason they do so well in polls is the breadth of their PR operation -- I can't say much for their quality in recent years.)

Much more could be said, but I'm pressed for time, and this is enough for now. Still haven't done the indexing on the November Streamnotes file.

I thought I might note that I was pleased with the small-committee selections to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Especially Minnie Minoso, who clearly would have topped 3,000 hits had he not been excluded from the Major Leagues for the first half of his career. I'll also note that while Jim Kaat's 283 career wins were an obvious qualification, the article doesn't note how many Gold Glove awards he won (16) -- Randy Robbins throws some shade on his fielding reputation, but one thing I remember from watching him is how he always looked ready to field a ball hit back to him, unlike most pitchers, who come off their pitch off-balance and are lucky to get out of the way. Gil Hodges and Tony Oliva were slightly lesser stars I have no complaints about. I don't know the Negro League numbers, which have only recently been systematically compiled and accepted as official, like I do the old majors, so I only know Buck O'Neil by reputation (including as the inspiration for Darby Conley's Get Fuzzy cat name), and Bud Fowler less than that. The latter offers us a teachable moment, reminding us that segregation was the cardinal sin of baseball not just when O'Neil played (1937-48) but from the very beginning.

New records reviewed this week:

Adele: 30 (2021, Columbia): British singer-songwriter, last name Adkins, became a huge international star with her age-named albums 19 and 21, only her fourth album, with 25 in between. Marriage and divorce themes. I find it all overblown. B-

Amyl and the Sniffers: Comfort to Me (2021, Rough Trade): Australian post-punk band, Amy Taylor the singer. Reminded me a bit of X-Ray Spex, more of L7. Can't say I didn't get a bit tired by the end of the second play, but as solid as any such band I've heard in more than a few years, and considerable pleasure at first. A-

Florian Arbenz/Hermon Mehari/Nelson Veras: Conversation #1: Condensed (2021, Hammer): Swiss drummer, first of what promises to be a dozen albums conversing with guest musicians: in this case, a trumpeter from America and a guitarist from Brazil. Terrific mix. A- [bc]

Florian Arbenz: Conversation #2 & #3 (2020 [2021], Hammer): Swiss drummer, duo with Jim Hart (vibes/marimba), or trio adding Heiri Känzig (bass). B+(***) [bc]

Florian Arbenz/Maikel Vistel/François Moutin: Conversation #4: Vulcanized (2021, Hammer): drums, tenor/soprano sax, bass. Starts with a swinging "Bemsha Swing," one of two Monk covers, along with pieces by Bill Evans, Joe Zawinul, and Eddie Harris, as well as originals by Vistel (2) and Moutin (1). B+(***) [bc]

Blue Reality [Michael Marcus/Joe McPhee/Jay Rosen/Warren Smith]: Quartet! (2020 [2021], Mahakala Music): Cover can be parsed various ways, but different type colors lean my way. Two reeds players, two drummers, group name from Marcus' 2002 trio album (with Rosen and Taurus Mateen). B+(***)

Weedie Braimah: The Hands of Time (2021, Stretch Music/Ropeadope): Djembe master, born in Ghana, comes from a long line of notable percussionists, raised in East St. Louis, based in New Orleans, bunch of side credits (especially with Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, who plays here) but this seems to be his first album. B+(**)

Chamber 4: Dawn to Dusk (2020 [2021], JACC): Trumpet (Luís Vicente) and strings: violin (Théo Ceccaldi), cello (Valentim Ceccaldi), and acoustic guitar (Marcelo dos Rios). Most impressive when the trumpet opens up. B+(***) [cd]

Margo Cilker: Pohorylle (2021, Loose): Country singer-sonwriter from Oregon, first album. Sounds just about perfect for country. Songs take a bit longer to settle in, but she's got something there too. A-

Theo Croker: BLK2LIFE // A Future Past (2021, Sony Masterworks): Trumpet player, from Florida, eighth album since 2006, sort of a funk/fusion thing, with vocals on most tracks, including Ani Lennox, Kassa Overall, and Wyclef Jean. Mixed feelings about this, even within a piece like "Hero Stomp," boldly over the top. B

Angel Bat Dawid: Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1 Doxology (2021, International Anthem): Angel Elmore, from Chicago, third album plays clarinet and, well, everything here, "vocalz" included. Cover illustration goes back to slavery, and is disturbing. Same for the songs, as disquieting as they are striking. B+(**)

Indigo De Souza: Any Shape You Take (2021, Saddle Creek): Alt/indie band from Asheville, NC, and/or the lead singer, also plays guitar and keyboards and wrote the songs (10, with 2 co-credits). B+(*)

Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers: Set Me Free (2021, Louisiana Red Hot): Accordion player Dwayne Rubin, carrying on the family trade of his father Alton Rubin, better known as Rockin' Dopsie. Band has been rolling since 1999, with 10 or so albums. No idea how this one stacks up against them, but it'd be hard to top as a party record. B+(***)

Wendy Eisenberg: Bloodletting (2019 [2021], Out of Your Head): Guitarist, from Boston, dozen albums since 2017. This one is solo, a suite played through twice, once on banjo, again on guitar. B+(*) [dl]

R.A.P. Ferreira: The Light Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures (2021, Ruby Yacht): Initials stand for Rory Allen Philip, rapper from Wisconsin, formerly did business as Milo, third album under this (real) name. (Short one, 11 songs, 28:37.) B+(***)

Sierra Ferrell: Long Time Coming (2021, Rounder): Country singer-songwriter from West Virginia, based in Nashville, third album, big step up in labels. A bit of jazz in the bluegrass. A-

Ben LaMar Gay: Open Arms to Open Us (2021, International Anthem): From Chicago, sings, plays cornet, many other instruments. B+(*)

Ghost Rhythms: Spectral Music (2021, Cuneiform): French group, experimental rock-qua-jazz, half-dozen albums since 2007. Rhythm is relentless but wears thin. Noise helps, but too little, too late. B- [dl]

Gordon Grdina's Square Peg: Klotski (2021, Attaboygirl): Canadian guitar/oud player, has several groups, this the second album with this quartet: Mat Maneri (viola), Shahzad Ismaily (bass/moog), and Christian Lillinger (drums). Original pieces, rich harmony of strings over free rhythm. B+(***) [cd]

Gordon Grdina: Pendulum (2021, Attaboygirl): Solo guitar and oud, usual limits but he is one of the best anywhere. B+(**)

Jeff Hamilton Trio: Merry & Bright (2021, Capri): Drummer-led piano trio, with Tamir Hendelman and Jon Hamar, slant the usual tunes a bit toward the hip and/or secular ("The Little Drummer Boy," "Santa Baby"), sometimes so tastefully you can forget that crass commercialism extends even into the jazz world. B [cd]

Miho Hazama: Imaginary Visions (2021, Edition): Japanese composer and big band arranger/conductor, studied in New York, has positions with New York Jazzharmonic and Danish Radio Big Band -- the latter plays here. B+(**)

HTRK: Rhinestones (2021, N&J Blueberries): Australian duo, Jonnine Standish (vocals) and Nigel Yang (guitar and drum machine), originally Hate Rock Trio (with bassist Sean Steward, d. 2010). Sounds to me like I imagined "slowcore" might be, before Low spoiled the notion. B+(***) [bc]

Jon Irabagon: Bird With Streams (2020 [2021], Irabbagast): Tenor saxophonist, recorded this collection of Charlie Parker tunes solo in a secluded canyon in South Dakota, one of those pandemic lockdown projects that never would have been done otherwise. B

The Klezmatics: Letters to Afar (2013 [2021], Chant): Long-running New York klezmer group. Ambient-to-ominous soundtrack to Peter Forgacs' film. B+(*)

Mick Kolassa: Uncle Mick's Christmas Album (2021, Endless Blues): Blues singer-songwriter from Michigan, tenth album, wrote 2 (of 9) songs this time, the covers ranging from Mariah Carey to "Beale Street Christmas Jam." Original lyric: "and now our kisses don't need mistletoe." B [cd]

Mon Laferte: Seis (2021, Universal Music Mexico): Singer-songwriter from Chile, fairly big star, name shortened from Norma Monserrat Bustamente Laferte, moved to Mexico City in 2007, sang in a heavy metal band there. Sixth album (aside from her 2003 debut as Monserrat Bustamente), draws on regional Mexican styles. I like the fast ones, and even more so the over-the-top "La Mujer." A-

Lukah: Why Look Up, God's in the Mirror (2021, Fxck Rxp Rxcxrds): Rapper, from Memphis, third album. Comes from a harsh world, yet still finds inspiration. "God put me here to be something great" . . . like this, I guess. A- [bc]

Magdalena Bay: Mercurial World (2021, Luminelle): Synth-pop duo from Miami, singer-songwriter Mica Tennenbaum and producer Matthew Lewin, first album after 3 EPs and 2 mixtapes. Dance beats initially reminded me of Chic. While they increasingly became distinct, they didn't lose anything. Could turn out to be better. A- [bc]

Christian McBride & Inside Straight: Live at the Village Vanguard (2014 [2021], Mack Avenue): Mainstream bassist, albums since 1994, a couple (2009-13) with this quintet -- Steve Wilson (sax), Christian Sands (piano), Warren Wolf (vibes), Carl Allen (drums) -- a couple more live from this venue. B+(**)

Mexstep: Vivir (2021, Mexstep Music): Rapper from San Antonio, moniker shortened from Mexican Stepgrandfather, released an album in 2018 (Resistir) I was very taken with, this only slightly less so. Mostly works in English, but the beat seems to pick up a bit when he switches to Spanish. B+(***) [bc]

Samuel Mösching: Ethereal Kinks (2021 [2022], Bronzeville Music): Guitarist, probably from Switzerland ("Univerity of Lucerne"), based in US since 2013, also plays bass, drums, and synths, with a couple guest spots. All originals, title has nothing to do with the UK band ("without kinks life would be flat"). B [cd] [2022-02-18]

Navy Blue: Navy's Reprise (2021, Freedom Sounds): Rapper Sage Elsesser, third album. B+(***)

Adam O'Farrill: Visions of Your Other (2021, Biophilia): Trumpet player, son of Arturo, sidework mostly on the avant side of NYC postbop, second album, pianoless quartet with Xavier Del Castillo on tenor sax, Walter Stinson on bass, and brother Zack O'Farrill on drums. Impressive work all around. A-

Pino Palladino and Blake Mills: Notes Wtih Attachments (2021, Impulse): Welsh bass guitar player, has done a lot of session work, almost all with rock musicians starting with Jools Holland in 1981 (better known names include Eric Clapton, Elton John, John Mayer, and D'Angelo). First album with his name listed first. Mills has a shorter but similar resume, plays many instruments but mostly guitar. B+(*)

Barre Phillips/John Butcher/Ståle Liavik Solberg: We Met - and Then (2018-19 [2021], Relative Pitch): Bass, saxophones, drums. Recorded on two dates, note how the bass leads. B+(**)

Robert Plant/Alison Krauss: Raise the Roof (2021, Rounder): I can't say as I followed his career after Led Zeppelin, but he released an album every 2-3 years 1982-93, slowed down after that, but his 2007 collaboration with bluegrass star Krauss got my attention, even if it didn't leave much of an impression. After a long break, here's a second album together, also produced by T-Bone Burnett, with side-credits for David Hidalgo, Bill Frisell, Buddy Miller, and Marc Ribot. One original credited to Plant-Burnett, the others folk covers from both UK and US. Seems like paltry returns for all the talent employed. B+(*)

RP Boo: Established! (2021, Planet Mu): Chicago footwork producer Kavain Space. Dance beats, exhortations, couldn't be more straightforward. B+(**)

Allison Russell: Outside Child (2021, Fantasy): Singer-songwriter from Montreal, absent father from Grenada, mother put her into foster care then got her back, step-father sexually abused her (subject of first song here), first album under her own name, after group efforts with Po' Girl, Birds of Chicago, and Our Native Daughters. Hard to get a grip on, but haunting and revealing and redeeming, somewhere between folk and soul, with bits of gospel, blues, jazz, and French. A-

Jared Schonig: Two Takes Vol. 1: Quintet (2021, Anzic): Drummer, member of the Wee Trio, debut, released same day as Vol. 2: Big Band. Eight songs on both albums, this one padded out with an "Intro" and three "Drum Interludes." With Marquis Hill (trumpet), Godwin Louis (alto sax), Luis Perdomo (piano), and Matt Clohesy (bass). B+(**) [bc]

Jared Schonig: Two Takes Vol. 2: Big Band (2021, Anzic): New York big band, loaded with solo talent, playing the hell out of the same eight songs from Vol. 1: Quintet. B+(***) [bc]

Shad: TAO (2021, Secret City): Canadian rapper Shadrach Kabango, born in Kenya, parents from Rwanda, grew up in Ontario, seventh album since 2005. Conscious lyrics, knows a lot and cares a lot, but sometimes the music veers off on pop tangents that seem surreal and/or psychedelic. B+(***)

Esperanza Spalding: Songwrights Apothecary Lab (2021, Concord): Started as a jazz bassist, found a crossover niche as a singer, eighth album since 2005. Twelve numbered pieces each called "Formwela." Purportedly "designed to address specific emotions and stresses," I can't attest to the "healing power of music" here. But it does strike me as overly tricky. B

Kaidi Tatham: An Insight to All Minds (2021, First Word): British multi-instrumentalist (no credits here, but keyboards, drums, bass synth, flute, vocals elsewhere), half-dozen albums since 2008. Picked this off a jazz list, but will file under electronica with a side of hip-hop. B+(**)

Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet: Fools for Yule (2021, Housekat): Singers Ginny Carr Goldberg, Robert McBride, Holly Shockey, and Lane Stowe, only their fifth album since Half-Past Swing in 1999 (Goldberg, née Carr, and McBride were original members). Starts tolerably with "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," and does manage to swing through "Winter Wonderland," but sinks like a rock with with a truly awful "Silent Night." C [cd]

The War on Drugs: I Don't Live Here Anymore (2021, Atlantic): Indie rock band from Philadelphia, fifth album since 2008, commercial breakthrough was their third, in 2014. Adam Granduciel sings, writes, and co-produces. Nice sound, not a lot of substance. B

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Oscar Peterson: A Time for Love: The Oscar Peterson Quartet - Live in Helsinki, 1987 (1987 [2021], Mack Avenue): Piano, as sumptuous as ever, the trio (Dave Young and Martin Drew) joined by guitarist Joe Pass. B+(***)

Marcos Resende: Marcos Resende & Index (1976 [2021], Far Out): Brazilian keyboard player, previously unreleased debut album, wrote 5 (of 6) tracks, bassist Rubão Sabino the other. With bass, drums, and tenor/soprano sax/flute (Oberdan Magalhães). B+(**)

Roswell Rudd & Duck Baker: Live (2002-04 [2021], Dot Time): Trombone and guitar duo. Nice pairing. B+(***)

Roseanna Vitro: Listen Here (1982 [2021], Skyline): Standards singer, originally from Arkansas, 15 records, my favorite her 1997 Catchin' Some Rays (Ray Charles). This was her first, originally released 1984, cover cites Kenny Barron, Buster Williams, Ben Riley, and Arnett Cobb (3 tracks). B+(**)

Old music:

None.

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Chamber 4: Dawn to Dusk (JACC)

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