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Blog Entries [520 - 529]

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Starting this early (Friday), hoping to avoid the last-minute crunch. Not really news, but CNN's Democratic presidential debates got a lot of attention from the punditocracy this week. As usual, I didn't watch in real time (although my wife did, so I overheard some), but caught the "highlights" later (among the comics, Colbert was most informative). Let's group the links here, rather than clutter up the main section:

• David Axelrod: Elizabeth Warren is running a brilliant campaign.

• Zack Beauchamp:

  • 4 winners and 3 losers from the second night of the July Democratic debates: With German Lopez, Dylan Matthews, and Andrew Prokop. Winners: Joe Biden ("Well, this one's complicated"); Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders ("weren't there, but they loomed large anyway"); Cory Booker; single-payer activists. Losers: Kamala Harris; CNN, again; the DNC.

  • 3 winners and 4 losers from the first night of the July Democratic debates: With German Lopez, PR Lockhart, Dylan Matthews, and Ella Nilsen. Winners: Elizabeth Warren; John Delaney; the Republican Party ("several of the major issues were framed by the moderators in terms Republicans would love"). Losers: the policy needs of black voters; CNN; Beto O'Rourke.

  • Marianne Williamson isn't funny. She's scary. Picks on her views on depression and illness, which are not exactly tangential to either her career as a "self-help guru" or her political aspirations. As for funny, my take so far (and I know or care nothing about her career) is that she does a nice job of filling a niche in the Democratic Party that no one even imagined before: a soft focus on morals and emotions, like Ben Carson among Republicans. That role is unimagined because most Democrats try hard to be rational and grounded in reality, but sometimes she seems to be onto something at a primal, instinctive leve. Of course, much of what she says is, as Beauchamp puts it, "extremely vague and hard to parse, but managed to at times banal and at other times deeply weird."

• Ryan Bort: Jake Tapper and CNN totally botched the health care discussion.

• Alexia Fernández Campbell:

  • What Biden doesn't get about immigration.

  • Democrats aren't going to win working-class voters this way, says labor union president: "Democrats have to speak about how they are going to take the shitty jobs that exist in this economy and make them good jobs." Isn't that usually just a matter of making them pay better? When Robert Reich was auditioning to become Clinton's Secretary of Labor, he came up with the rationalization that it didn't matter if American factories shut down, because unemployed workers could always be retrained to become high-paid "symbol manipulators." Ever since then, the only answer neoliberal Democrats had to declining working wages and standards was to offer more education (and debt). But no matter how much money we plow into education (and I don't doubt that we should spend a lot more than we've been doing), we'll still have shitty jobs we'll need people to do. But we can decide whether we respect and value the people who do those jobs enough to accord them a decent wage and fair and equal rights -- a status we used to call "middle class." Interview with Mary Kay Henry.

• John Cassidy:

  • Where do Trump and the Democrats stand as the Summer recess arrives?

  • The battle over Barack Obama's legacy at the Democratic debates.

• Tim Dickinson: Can Joe Biden sell 'no we can't'? "The triumph of the progressives on night one of the Detroit debates portends trouble for the former vice president."

• FiveThirtyEight:

  • The second Democratic debate in 5 charts.

  • What went down on night two of the second Democratic debate.

  • What went down on night one of the Second Democratic debate.

  • Nate Silver: Where I think the candidates stand after the second debate.

• John F Harris: Democrats are veering left. It might just work. Cites Stanley Greenberg, who wrote a book about how Reagan "captured many working class Democrats who believed their party's liberalism was out of step with their lives. But now he "believes that the urgency voters feel for shaking up the status quo means there's less risk for candidates and the party in going too far than in not going far enough." For a contrary point, Harris cites Rahm Emanuel, whose fear and loathing of the left is even greater than his readiness to sell out Democratic voters. Greenberg has a book coming out in September: R.I.P. G.O.P.: How the New America is Dooming the Republicans.

• Umair Irfan: 2020 Democrats are getting more confrontational with the fossil fuel industry.

• Sarah Jones:

  • Joe Biden is the reason Obama's legacy is on trial.

  • How do you host a debate in Detroit without asking about labor rights?

• John Judis: The Democrats need to get their act together.

• Ed Kilgore:

  • Gravel '20 is done.

  • Why you can't ignore Marianne Williamson: "Mock her all you want, but Marianne Williamson speaks to people horrified by Trump who aren't satisfied with policy papers."

  • Trump outperformed his popularity in 2016. That might not happen in 2020. As I mentioned somewhere else here, many voters saw Trump as a solution to a very tangible problem in Hilary Clinton. Maybe they hated whatever it was they thought she stood for (and there was grounds for that from the right and also from the left), or maybe they just didn't want to subject themselves to four years of pompous clichés, inane backbiting, and petty pseudo-scandals blown way out of proportion. Maybe they even recognized the unfairness of the vitriol, but still, the only way to make it go away was to vote her down. But since 2016, he's dominated public consciousness, becoming the source of our public embarrassment to a much grosser extent than she ever was or could be. There will, of course, be a block of people that loves him no matter what, and another that despises him, but in between there's a slice that can break one way or another. If in 2016 they broke for Trump because they wanted to flip off the status quo and avoid its scandals, those exact same rationales suggest they'll break against him in 2020. That's probably not enough to seal his fate. I can imagine at least one other slice breaking the opposite way: people who support the status quo, even as it's been warped by Trump's malign rule. Moreover, I expect Trump will have a lot more money, and a much more professional campaign behind him this time, in lockstep with a pretty unified Republican Party. But still, the tables have turned on those last-minute impulse voters.

• Jen Kirby: Pete Buttigieg says he'd withdraw troops from Afghanistan in his first year.

• Eric Levitz:

  • Here's who won (and lost) the second Democratic debate, night two: In rank order: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang, Julian Castro, Michael Bennet, Jay Inslee, Bill de Blasio, Kamala Harris.

  • Here's who won (and lost) the second Democratic debate, night one: In rank order: Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson, Pete Buttigieg, Steve Bullock, Amy Klobuchar, John Delaney, Tim Ryan, Beto O'Rourke, John Hickenlooper.

  • What Andrew Yang gets wrong (and right) about robots.

• German Lopez:

  • Democrats have been discussing the same ideas on guns for 25 years. It's time to change that. Also: Michael Luo: The mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton should spur Democrats to propose big ideas on gun violence.

  • The Democratic debates neglected one of America's biggest public health crises: "The opioid epidemic hardly came up at all." I'd argue that's because it is a mere side-effect of a cluster of more central issues, like our failure to guarantee everyone's right to quality health care, and also the general malaise in much of the economy. Also, it's boring, aside from proposals like "executing drug traffickers or building a wall" that are stupid and/or cruel. But if you do want something on opioids, see: Sally Satel: The truth about painkiller addiction.

  • Joe Biden's long record supporting the war on drugs and mass incarceration, explained.

  • Kamala Harris's controversial record on criminal justice, explained.

• Robert Mackey:

  • Protesters target Joe Biden on deportation and Bill de Blasio on Eric Garner during Democratic debate.

  • Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders dominate Democratic debate set up to ambush them.

• Josh Marshall: Obama looms over the primary in invisible ways.

• Dylan Matthews: The presidential debates wasted too much time talking about stuff only Congress can do: "The president has a lot of power -- so why wouldn't the candidates talk about it?"

• Ella Nilsen: Jay Inslee points to Democrats' real problem: Mitch McConnell: "Even if the Democrats win the Senate, the filibuster stands in the way of their big plans."

• Anna North: Joe Biden's 1981 views on child care haven't aged well. Gillibrand called him out on it.

• Charles P Pierce:

  • Joe Biden is the product of a Democratic Party that was terrified of Ronald Reagan. I think this is the key point to understand about Biden, and why his campaign is intrinsically compromised. It's not so much that he believes in conservative maxims as that his instinct, which served him fairly well for decades, is to surrender ground to Republicans.

  • Debating the Obama presidency instead of the current one seems politically suicidal: "And yet, it's honest and justified. Just ask Julian Castro."

• Andrew Prokop:

  • What Biden meant to say in his bungled debate closing statement. This is the guy who "won" the debate? The longer he stays in the race, the busier the "what Biden meant to say" industry is going to be.

  • The Democratic debate's incoherent discussion about who could best beat Trump. Notable quote, from Warren against Delaney: "I don't understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for."

• Max Read: Is Andrew Yang the doomer candidate?

• Frank Rich: The Democratic debates were built to fail.

• Rolling Stone:

  • Winners and losers on night 2 of the second Democratic debates. Winners: Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jay Inslee, Andrew Yang. Losers: Michael Bennet, Bill de Blasio, Tulsi Gabbard. Treading water: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro.

  • Winners and losers on night 1 of the second Democratic debates: Winners: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Marianne Williamson ("go ahead, laugh"), Steve Bullock. Losers: John Delaney, Hickenlooper, Beto O'Rourke, Amy Klobuchar. Treading water: Pete Buttigieg, Tim Ryan.

• Aaron Rupar: "Your question is a Republican talking point": CNN frames debate questions around right-wing concerns: "Republicans weren't onstage during the Democratic debate -- but were living rent-free inside moderators' heads."

• Dylan Scott: The messy health care discussion at the second Democratic debate, explained.

• Emily Stewart:

  • #KamalaHarrisDestroyed debate signals how much we still don't understand about social media manipulation.

  • Bill de Blasio's new plan to "tax the hell" out of rich people, explained.

  • Why Bill de Blasio is so hated, explained.

• Benjamin Wallace-Wells: At the Democratic debate, Joe Biden defends the party's past.

• Alex Ward: The 2 veterans on the Democratic debate stage made a big promise about Afghanistan: That would be Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Buttigieg, who want out.

• Lawrence S Wittner: The Democratic debates need more questions about nuclear war.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • The weird controversy over Democrats "criticizing Obama" at this week's debate, explained.

  • Democrats are skipping the most important health care debate: "should this even be the priority?"

    Personally, I think the Medicare-for-all people are 100 percent correct. The current American health care system is bad and wasteful, and replacing it with something like the Canadian system would be a good idea. But the policy world is full of good ideas, and not every good idea can be your top priority. Prioritizing health reform has not, in the past, been an extraordinarily successful strategy for new presidents.

    I agree with the first line here, and would add that any presidential candidate who disagrees is not just wrong (in all their arguments and rationalizations) but a coward to boot. On the other hand, if I was in charge and didn't have the votes, I'd write up a good single-payer bill and hold it in reserve, while trying to pass a bunch of less ambitious reforms to the ACA framework. If the reforms are thwarted, either by politics or by the courts, you can always fall back on the single-payer bill, and that case would become more compelling. Meanwhile, there is a lot that can be done, and not just by throwing more money at the blood-sucking insurance companies. The long-term answer is not just single-payer (cutting the for-profit insurance companies out of the system) but reducing the profit motive in the provider system. (You'll never wring all the profit-seeking out of the system, but non-profit hospitals were a lot more cost-effective than HCA is.) One thing that could be done would be to build up government-supported non-profits that could compete against the profit-seeking companies. (The "public option" under ACA is one example, but non-profit options wouldn't have to be directly under government bureaucracy.) One might, for instance, change bankruptcy law to allow failed hospitals and service providers to be reorganized with public support and employee control. Another idea I've been kicking around would be to offer a bare-bones universal insurance (e.g., through the Medicare provider network) that would cover an initially small set of emergencies and illnesses. This would make private insurance supplemental (rather than primary), reducing its cost while allowing it to fit more customized needs. (You can see how this works with Medicare supplemental plans. Medicare at present does most of the heavy lifting, but still leaves a lot of deductible nonsense that makes supplemental insurance attractive. That could change if Medicare-for-All improved a lot, but that's going to be a hard battle to fight -- especially all at once.)

  • 3 winners and 4 losers from the Democrats' two-night debate extravaganza: Winners: Cory Booker (Yglesias thinks "neoliberal shill" is a compliment); Joe Biden; the Great Winnowing. Losers: knowing what powers the president has; comprehension of what is in these health care plans; all these housing plans; policy criticism of Donald Trump.

  • America deserves a debate between Joe Biden and his main progressive critics: "Elizabeth Warren versus John Delaney is not the drama we've been craving."

  • Elizabeth Warren's vision for changing America's trade policy, explained.

Lots of non-campaign news this week, but Donald Trump's flagrant racism caught the most attention, climaxing with two mass shootings which, despite pro forma denials, appear as the proof in the pudding.

Checked my Facebook feed shortly before filing this, and was rather surprised to find as many/maybe more pro-gun memes than anti, not that the former make any sense. One, for instance, links to a piece titled "Every Mass Shooting Shares 1 Thing in Common, NOT Guns": I didn't follow, but the picture shows a pile of pills. I doubt that, but even if lots of mass shooters popped pills, by definition every single one used a gun. All of those were forwarded by acknowledged friends. (Of course, I do also have anti-gun friends. They may even be in the majority, but lose out in this comparison because they tend to post their own thoughts instead of just propagating someone else's propaganda.)

Some links on this and other stories:

• Tim Alberta: 'Mother is not going to like this': The 48 hours that almost brought down Trump: "The exclusive story of how Trump survived the Access Hollywood tape." An excerpt from the book, American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump. Ends with this memorable debate exchange:

  Donald Trump: If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. Because there have never been so many lies, so much deception.

  Hilary Clinton: Everything he just said was absolutely false. It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.

  Donald Trump: Because you'd be in jail.

  Trump later claimed "that debate won me the election." It was a lucky punch, but it landed because more people wanted to see her fail than so feared Trump they were willing to live with her constantly in their minds for the next four (or eight) years. It was not a moment American voters would be proud of.

• AP: Police: Rookie Texas officer shoots at dog, kills woman.

• David Atkins:

  • Trump still refuses to condemn violent white supremacy.

  • We have a gun problem, and we have a white supremacist terrorism problem.

  • Republicans won't go back to "normal" after Trump.

• Andrew J Bacevich:

  • An alternative to US world dominance.

  • In the Trump era, Americans can't agree on the past, much less the future.

  • America's other original sin: "We have never reckoned with the bloody US takeover of the Philippines, our first bite at empire's apple."

• Dean Baker:

  • Employment is high -- but job growth is slowing down.

  • Trump's fixation on intellectual property rights serves the rich.

  • The financial industry preys on 401(k) fees. It doesn't have to be this way. "Without change, we can expect a serious decline in retiree living standards."

  • Replace patent monopolies with direct public funding for drug research.

  • Under Trump, manufacturing job growth slows to a trickle.

  • Donald Trump's capricious tariffs open the door to corruption.

• Peter Beinart: The real reason so many Republicans love Israel? Their own white supremacy. Related: Jonathan Ofir: Racism is at the center of Israeli settler-colonialist venture: a review of Ronit Lentin's book, Traces of Racial Exception: Racializing Israeli Settler Colonialism. Ofir also wrote this update on changing alignments in Israeli politics: Israeli pols merge parties, and the right-wing seems stronger than ever.

• Phyllis Bennis: What the House anti-BDS resolution reveals about the Palestine solidarity movement. Related: Omar Barghouti: Why Americans should support BDS.

• Jared Bernstein: We can't fund the progressive agenda by taxing the 1% alone: "The tricky politics of taxing the 1%, the middle class, and everyone in between." Basic point here is well taken. To do everything we'd like to see the government do requires that tax revenues be increased. While current tax rates leave a lot of leeway for increasing taxes on the very rich, that's not necessarily enough -- especially moving forward, especially if we do other things to diminish inequality. It may also be easier to increase a range of taxes by a small amount than it would be to increase one tax (income) by a lot. For instance, the easiest way to fund the sort of basic health insurance I outline elsewhere here would be to tack it onto the payroll tax that already funds Medicare, even though that's the most regressive tax we use these days. It would also be good to implement a small VAT (basically, a national sales tax), which is also regressive but could be scaled up to raise significant revenue as needed. One fact worth recalling is that not every tax has to be progressive -- you can compensate with more sharply progressive tax rates on incomes and estates, which is all you really need to bring the 1% back into mainstream America. Democrats need to be wary of falling for Republican talking points, which is what they're doing when they deny any tax increases on the middle class. They need to convince people that the returns on their taxes will be worthwhile -- which is basically what FDR did when he designed the payroll tax to fund Social Security.

• Max Blumenthal: Behind the guise of adversarial journalism, CNN's Jake Tapper is taking America to war.

• Barbara Boland: Unqualified UN Ambassador is the perfect weak link: "Don't be surprised if Kelly Craft's lack of experience is exactly what Bolton and Pompeo wanted for their war cabinet."

• Bryce Covert: Right-wing troika: "The Republican Party's 50-state strategy." Review of Alexander Hertel-Fernandez's book, State Capture: How Conservative Activists, Big Businesses, and Wealthy Donors Reshaped the American States -- and the Nation.

• Chas Danner:

  • Everything we know about the Dayton mass shooting: Nine dead, 16 injured, shooter a "young white man" with an AR-15-style assault rifle.

  • Everything we know about the El Paso Walmart massacre: Twenty dead, 26 injured, shooter "a 21-year-old white male gunman" with an AK-47-style assault rifle.

• Jesse Eisinger: How Trump's political appointees overruled tougher settlements with big banks.

• Henry Farrell: Don't ask how to pay for climate change. Ask who.

• Tara Golshan: Rep. Will Hurd's retirement reflects GOP's biggest electoral struggle in the House: Trump.

• Benjamin Hart: Trump seems thrilled that someone broke into Elijah Cummings's house.

• Sheldon Himelfarb: The next election will require a new kind of vigilance.

  The 2020 race has now begun in earnest, with the Democrats having their first primary debates last month [June]. Lurking in the background is something that once seemed inconceivable in modern-day America: the threat of election-related violence.

  As the Southern Poverty Law Center said earlier this year in an annual report, there has been a rise in domestic terrorism, hate crimes, and street violence. It's no surprise, then, that on June 26, Reddit -- the fifth-most trafficked website in the U.S. -- announced it was "quarantining" a popular message board with 750,000 followers because of active discussions involving violence against political figures. . . .

  Perhaps the biggest harbinger of election violence is the proliferation of disinformation, rumors, and hate speech. All of which are spreading further and with greater velocity than at arguably any other moment in American history.

• Rachel Hodes: What 'abolish ICE' really means: "It's about asking whether we need an immigration system that terrorizes the least dangerous people in this country." Related: Emily Ryo: How ICE enforcement has changed under the Trump administration.

• Eric Holthaus: Greenland is melting away before our eyes.

• Umair Irfan:

  • Russian cities are choking under smoke from massive Siberian wildfires.

  • Air travel is a huge contributor to climate change. A new global movement wants you to be ashamed to fly.

• b>Ellen Knickmeyer/Brady McCombs: Opponent of nation's public lands is picked to oversee them.

• Markos Kounalakis: Donald Trump's dangerous empathy deficit.

• Paul Krugman:

  • Trump's trade quagmire (wonkish).

  • Why was Trumponomics a flop? "Neither tax cuts nor tariffs are working."

    But why has Trumponomics failed to deliver much besides trillion-dollar budget deficits? The answer is that both the tax cuts and the trade war were based on false views about how the world works.

    Republican faith in the magic of tax cuts -- and, correspondingly, belief that tax increases will doom the economy -- is the ultimate policy zombie, a view that should have been killed by evidence decades ago but keeps shambling along, eating G.O.P. brains.

    The record is actually awesomely consistent. Bill Clinton's tax hike didn't cause a depression, George W. Bush's tax cuts didn't deliver a boom, Jerry Brown's California tax increase wasn't "economic suicide," Sam Brownback's Kansas tax-cut "experiment" (his term) was a failure.

  • A racist stuck in the past: "In Trump's mind, it's still 1989." Krugman picked 1989 because "that was the year he demanded bringing back the death penalty in response to the case of the Central Park Five," but for most of us that was just one year in a long continuum of viciousness (racist and otherwise).

• Bess Levin: As deficit explodes, GOP demands emergency tax cut for the rich: "Twenty senators have urged the Treasury to give the wealthy another tax cut via executive order."

• Gideon Levy: What Israel's demolition of 70 Palestinian homes was really about.

• Dahlia Lithwick: It's never "too soon" to talk about preventing mass shootings. It's always too late.

• Martin Longman:

  • How to campaign when nothing is possible. I suppose if I was a do-nothing "moderate" I'd take some comfort from this, realizing that even such a committed and principled radical as Bernie Sanders would preserve more status quo than another four years of Trump.

    If the Republicans maintain their majority in the Senate, the new Democratic president will not be enacting one iota of their top shelf legislative agenda. There will be nothing major on health care or college loans or immigration or climate change. Even judges will be only confirmed in the most belated and begrudging manner, and only if they've never said anything on the record that conservatives find irritating. All legislative progress that can be made will come as the result of leverage over must-pass bills, and the leverage will only be truly significant so long as the Democrats retain control of the House of Representatives. But navigating government shutdowns and threats of national default in order to attach a few things to appropriations bills is not going to turn many of a candidate's campaign promises into reality. . . .

    Yet, even if the Democrats win the trifecta and eliminate the legislative filibuster, they'll still have huge problems passing legislation. Even assuming that Nancy Pelosi can push the president's agenda through her chamber (and this is doubtful for some of the policies the candidates are pushing), there are senators (like Michael Bennet of Colorado, for example) on the record opposing much of the progressive candidates' agenda. . . .

    I absolutely understand that people are hungry for change. People are sick to death of Congress and want to break this gridlock. But it's a problem that is beyond the power of any candidate or any rhetoric to fix.

    On the other hand, while a left-committed candidate like Sanders or Warren might not get much more accomplished than mediocrities like Biden, Klobuchar, or Bennet, they would try, and be seen as trying, and their frustation and dedication would sustain the Party's slow drift to the left. And that would generate more creative discussion of real problems -- the solution to which is only to be found further left.

  • Business leaders flock to Trump for protections against socialism. Cites his previous piece, What if big business falls in completely with Trumpism?

• Annie Lowrey:

  • The Supreme Court is bad for your health: "Its decision to let states opt out of the Medicaid expansion turned out to have lethal consequences." Or, more pointedly, "did Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts kill almost 16,000 people?"

  • Conservatives are wrong about what's driving immigration: "It's jobs and social networks that bring immigrants to America -- not government benefits."

  • What Acosta has done other than let Epstein off the hook: "Trump said the [now-ex] secretary of labor is doing a 'fantastic job.' Is that right?"

• Andrew Marantz: The El Paso shooting and the virality of evil.

  The national conversation will now turn, as it should, to gun control, to mental illness, and to the President's practice of exacerbating racial tensions, which has been one of his avocations for decades and now appears to be his central reëlection strategy. But there's also a more specific question: what can be done about the fact that so many of these terrorists -- in Pittsburgh, in Poway, in Christchurch, in El Paso -- seem to find inspiration in the same online spaces? Each killer, in the moment, may have acted alone, but they all appear to have been zealous converts to the same ideology -- a paranoid snarl of raw anger, radical nationalism, unhinged nihilism, and fears of "white genocide" that is still referred to as "fringe," although it's creeping precariously close to the mainstream.

• Hilary Matfess: The progressive case for free trade. Related: Daniel Block: Free trade for liberals. This piece focuses more on European problems, and vainly posits that an alliance with American liberals would help "protect democracy, fight inequality, and save the environment." Lots of problems here, starting with the fact that US trade policy -- even under Democratic presidents -- has always been the province of business interests, and while those interests may like to tout "democracy" as a propaganda riff, fighting inequality and saving the environment never really was their thing. Moreover, any "Atlantic Alliance" is at present bound to reek of those nations' colonial/imperial pasts. On the other hand, other alliances have always been possible: internationalism was the hallmark of the labor movement at least since 1848, and could be again. But it will take some kind of political revolution before the US and Europe can see trade as a tool for promoting the welfare of all people.

• Anna North: The movement to decriminalize sex work, explained.

• Richard Parker: When hate came to El Paso.

• Charles P Pierce:

  • Trump's Cincinnati rally had some ripe bits of Presidential* insanity.

  • The President* is determined to staff the whole government with sycophants. Makes me wonder, is "psychophants" a word? Should it be?

  • Russia is full of environmental time bombs. So is Detroit.: "The United States has no room to gloat here."

• Elaina Plott: 'We're all tired of being called racists'. I'm getting tired of having to call them racists, too. Maybe they should do a better job of keeping their racism to themselves?

• Daniel Politi:

  • Trump characterizes mass shootings as a "mental illness problem": That's not likely to be much of a defense against people to point to Trump as at least partially responsible for the problem.

  • Beto O'Rourke: Trump is "racist" whose words lead to violence like El Paso shooting.

  • Gun violence in 2019: There have been 251 mass shootings in the US in 216 days.

• Nicholas Powers: When Trump calls people "filth," he's laying the groundwork for genocide.

• Andrew Prokop: From condemning "white terrorism" to condemning video games: Republican responses to El Paso shooting.

• Jennifer Rubin: There is no excuse for supporting this president. Looks like the Washington Post is piling on; e.g. EJ Dionne Jr: On guns and white nationalism, one side is right and one is wrong; Max Boot: Trump is leading our country to destruction. Needless to say, Trump's holding up his end of the feud. See: Jonathan Chait: Trump directs government to punish Washington Post owner.

• Philip Rucker: 'How do you stop these people?': Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric looms over El Paso massacre. Also: Ayal Feinberg/Regina Branton/Valerie Martinez-Ebers: Counties that hosted a 2016 Trump rally saw a 226 percent increase in hate crimes. Coincidence?

• Aaron Rupar:

  • At Cincinnati rally, Trump turns Baltimore violence victims into political pawns: "Explicitly demeaning blue cities and states is now a feature of Trump's campaign speeches."

  • The Gilroy, California, shooting highlights a big hole in Trump's logic about gun violence.

• Adam Serwer: White nationalism's deep American roots: "A long-overdue excavation of the book that Hitler called his "bible," and the man who wrote it." That would be Madison Grant, author of the 1916 book The Passing of the Great Race.

• Raja Shehadeh: The use and abuse of international law in the occupied territories: Review of Noura Erakat's book, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine.

• Matt Shuham: Kobach used private border wall's email list to fundraise for Senate campaign: "This email could run afoul of campaign finance laws."

• Richard Silverstein: Trump donor, Elliott Broidy, paid Dennis Ross $10,000 to publish pro-Saudi op-ed in The Hill.

• Matt Simon: The bizarre, peaty science of Arctic wildfires.

• Danny Sjursen: US troops are back in Saudi Arabia -- this will end badly.

• Jordan Smith: As Trump fans the flames of anti-abortion rhetoric, Kansas offers a cautionary tale.

• Yves Smith: Hospitals squeal over Trump proposal to disclose insurance company discounts.

• Felicia Sonmez/Paul Kane: Republicans struggle to respond in wake of El Paso, Dayton shootings.

• Matt Taibbi: The rise and fall of superhero Robert Mueller.

• Nick Turse: Violence has spiked in Africa since the military founded AFRICOM, Pentagon study finds.

• Alex Ward:

  • John Ratcliffe, Trump's pick for top intel post, withdraws amid scrutiny over exaggerated bio: Well, that didn't take long. Some more on Ratcliffe, for the historical file:

    • Trevor Aaronson: Trump's pick for top intelligence job bragged of experience as terror prosecutor -- but he doesn't have any.

    • Erin Banco/Asawin Suebsaeng: Whistleblower allegations surfaced just before DNI pick John Ratcliffe withdrew.

    • Will Sommer: Trump intel pick John Ratcliffe started theory of FBI anti-Trump 'secret society'.

    • Michael Warren: With Ratcliffe, another Trump nominee withdraws with a damaged reputation.

  • US and Taliban may strike a deal allowing American troops to come home from Afghanistan. Also:

    • Dan Lamothe/John Hudson/Pamela Constable: US preparing to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan in initial deal with Taliban.

  • The US just withdrew from an important nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Don't panic -- yet. Related:

    • Matt Korda: In memoriam: The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty dies at 32.

    • David E Sanger/Edward Wong: US ends Cold War missile treaty, with aim of countering China.

  • Trump announces tariffs on nearly all Chinese goods starting in September.

• Will Wilkinson: Conservatives are hiding their 'loathing' behind our flag: "The molten core of right-wing nationalism is the furious denial of America's unalterably multiracial, multicultural national character."

• Robin Wright: The rhetoric and reality of Donald Trump's racism.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • Today's budget deal proves once again Republicans never cared about the deficit. Nothing really new here: I still recall when Nixon declared himself a Keynesian. With their tax giveaways, Reagan, Bush, and Trump didn't even have to admit as much. They merely understood that the rules are different when the Republicans are in power or in opposition. That's only hypocrisy if you pretend there's a general principle involved.

    The critical thing, however, is that if not for hypocritical Republican opposition, we could have been running these higher deficits in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. And if we had done that, the economy could have recovered faster from the Great Recession, the unemployment rate could have fallen more rapidly, and hundreds of billions of dollars of national income that is now irretrievably lost could have been earned.

  • The Federal Reserve's interest rate cut, explained.

  • America's dual housing crisis, and what Democrats plan to do about it, explained: "A crisis of low incomes and a parallel crisis of tight supply."

  • Trump is approving an anti-competitive merger that will cost you money: "But he seems to have made money off the deal personally." The merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, currently the 3rd and 4th largest mobile phone networks.

• Li Zhou: The new bipartisan Senate bill aimed at making Big Pharma lower drug prices, explained.

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, July 29, 2019

For all of this month's reviews, see Streamnotes (July, 2019).

Music: current count 31831 [31798] rated (+35), 257 [259] unrated (-2).

Got a good start last week, even while I delayed posting Music Week, then lost most of three days with company and cooking, before partially recovering while I wrote up Weekend Roundup. The reason for last week's delayed posting was that I was tied up in one of my favorite wastes of time: compiling several dozens of mid-year ("so far") best-of lists. I've scoured through 66 lists, where each mention counts as one point regardless of rank (most lists are unranked, and many are are short compared to EOY lists, so this scheme is just easier to build the EOY list aggregate on top of. I've also included letter grades for Robert Christgau and myself (although only so far for records mentioned on other lists), using { A = 5, A- = 4, B+/*** = 3, ** = 2, * = 1 }. This introduces a slight skew, but it's diminished as I've added more lists. And since I'm actually more interested in using this as a tool to guide my own listening than as some sort of value-free social science research, I've included a few lists from friends and allies, including at least one I scraped off the unlinkable Facebook. (I suppose it might be possible to link to it, but common decency suggests otherwise.)

One thing I found odd is that I literally didn't find a single jazz list. Maybe I'll write one up later this week. The other thing I'm tempted to do is to add in points for AOTY 80+ ratings. For a few years I actually collected those ratings, but gave it up 2-3 years ago as too much work. On the other hand, some record of those ratings would round out the picture.

Without further ado, here are the top 30 records (so far), with point counts in braces and my grades in brackets:

1. Billy Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? (Darkroom/Interscope) {43} [A-]
2. Lizzo: Cuz I Love You (Nice Life/Atlantic) {40} [A-]
3. Tyler the Creator: Igor (Columbia) {38} [**]
4. Vampire Weekend: Father of the Bride (Columbia) {38} [**]
5. Sharon Van Etten: Remind Me Tomorrow (Jagjaguwar) {38} [*]
6. Solange: When I Get Home (Saint/Columbia) {37} [*]
7. Ariana Grande: Thank U Next (Republic) {33} [**]
8. Big Thief: UFOF (4AD) {32} [A-]
9. Little Simz: Grey Area (Age 101) {32} [A-]
10. James Blake: Assume Form (Polydor) {25} [B-]
11. Carly Rae Jepsen: Dedicated (604/School Boy/Interscope) {25} [***]
12. Jenny Lewis: On the Line (Warner Bros) {24} [*]
13. Charly Bliss: Young Enough (Barsuk) {23} [A-]
14. Jamila Woods: Legacy! Legacy! (Jagjaguwar) {23} [A-]
15. Stella Donnelly: Beware of the Dogs (Secretly Canadian) {22} [***]
16. Slowthai: Nothing Great About Britain (Method) {22} [***]
17. Weyes Blood: Titanic Rising (Sub Pop) {22} [B-]
18. Dave: Psychodrama (Neighbourhood) {20} [A-]
19. Flying Lotus: Flamagra (Warp) {20} [**]
20. Fontaines DC: Dogrel (Partisan) {19} [***]
21. Megan Thee Stallion: Fever (300 Entertainment) {19} [***]
22. Anderson .Paak: Ventura (Aftermath/12 Tone Music) {19} [***]
23. Better Oblivion Community Center (Dead Oceans) {18} [*]
24. Denzel Curry: Zuu (Loma Vista) {18} [**]
25. The National: I Am Easy to Find (4AD) {18} [**]
26. Maggie Rogers: Heard It in a Past Life (Capitol) {17} [**]
27. Billy Woods & Kenny Segal: Hiding Places (Blackwoodz Studioz) {17} [***]
28. Nilufer Yanya: Miss Universe (ATO) {17} [A-]
29. Rico Nasty/Kenny Beats: Anger Management (Sugar Trap) {16} [**]
30. Kevin Abstract: Arizona Baby (Question Everything/RCA) {14} [**]
31. Julia Jacklin: Crushing (Polyvinyl) {14} [B]

Cutoff just above {13}: PUP, Quelle Chris, Toro Y Moi; {12}: Malibu Ken, Khalid, Bassekou Kouyate; {11}: 2 Chainz, Chemical Brothers, The Comet Is Coming, Aldous Harding, Priests, Todd Snider. Highest ranked records I haven't heard: {10}: Holly Herndon: Proto, Jessica Pratt: Quiet Signs; {8}: Deerhunter: Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?; {6}: Baroness, Gary Clark Jr., Flume, Foals, Cate Le Bon, Mark Ronson, Yola. I didn't bother with metal lists, so only noted 35 records as such, 0 heard by me. The overall list collected 745 titles (only 64 jazz, 50 heard by me).

I can't draw many conclusions from this data. The point scheme tends to keep any record from breaking out, with the top nine records (down to Little Simz but not James Blake) on most of the same lists. My guess is that if I had consistent ranking information Tyler, Vampire Weekend, and/or Solange would advanced a bit (also Weyes Blood, which topped two lists). Indeed, without the RC/TH grade points, Tyler would have come in first, with 36 points, vs. Eilish (34), Vampire Weekend/Van Etten (33), Lizzo (32), Grande (28), Blake (25), Big Thief/Little Simz (24).

I will probably add a few more lists as I find them. For instance, I have two specialized lists at Noisey open in tabs now (33 Essential Albums You Probably Missed So Far in 2009 and The 37 Best Ambient Albums of 2019 So Far) but held them back in case I found a more general list there. I may also, as noted, come up with a way to factor some grading data into the list.

Most of the non-jazz albums I've listened to in the last two weeks were suggested by these lists. They haven't been especially reliable, but have generated a couple surprise finds (e.g., Christina Barbieri and Queen Key last week). But two of this week's top records came on CDs from a friendly publicist. I dragged my feet on the Bill Evans and Wes Montgomery label best-ofs, thinking I'd prefer to hear the original albums they were selected from. Finally broke down and graded them last week, then found some of the missing records (badly misfiled by Napster). We're still missing the latest releases -- Evans in England and Montgomery's Back on Indiana Avenue: The Carroll DeCamp Recordings. Turns out that the compilations do a good job of picking hilights from the series, and help round out a view of the artists beyond their masterworks (still Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Incredible Jazz Guitar).

I wanted to write a few words about DownBeat's Critics Poll results, but don't have the time (or possibly the stomach) for that right now. I missed the official deadline to vote, but was able to submit a ballot, which evidently was counted (my name is in the voter list, and they sent me a T-shirt). On the other hand, the disconnect between my votes and the charts is almost complete. Their HOF picks were especially paltry: I can sort of understand Nina Simone, who could be a great singer on occasion, but released a lot of bad-to-worse albums; but the Veterans Committee picks of Scott LaFaro and Joe Williams are hard to imagine. I might be OK with Williams if Jimmy Rushing was in, but even then he wouldn't be an obvious pick. LaFaro died at 25, having played with Bill Evans for two years, and with Ornette Coleman for considerably less. I've been touched by some of his work, but I have no idea how to compare his tiny discography against that of many other bassists not in the DBHOF. (On the other hand, the similarly short-lived Jimmy Blanton is in, as are such obvious contemporaries as Oscar Pettiford, Paul Chambers, Milt Hinton, Ray Brown, Ron Carter, and his predecessor with Coleman, Charlie Haden.)

Forthcoming week relatively open. Hope to get some work done on the Christgau website.

New records reviewed this week:

James Blake: Assume Form (2019, Polydor): British singer-songwriter, started in electronica but never offered much in the way of beats -- at any rate I've never understood his appeal. Comes and goes here. B-

Whit Dickey Tao Quartets: Peace Planet/Box of Light (2018 [2019], AUM Fidelity, 2CD): Drummer, has a long association with Matthew Shipp, including a stint in David S. Ware's famous Quartet. Two quartets, one disc each: the first with Rob Brown (alto sax), Shipp (piano), and William Parker (bass); the other with Brown, Steve Swell (trombone), and Michael Bisio (bass). Noticed last year that multi-disc releases fare well in EOY polls, which may explain why they seem to be becoming the rule, leaving me with the problem of deciding whether to grade the stronger or weaker disc. Swell is impressive enough here, but Brown doesn't do much working around him. On the other hand, Brown is terrific on the first, probably because Shipp sets him up so well. B+(***)

Julia Jacklin: Crushing (2019, Polyvinyl): Australian singer-songwriter, second album. B

Judy and the Jerks: Music for Donuts EP (2019, Thrilling Living, EP): "Over the past half-decade Hattiesburg, MS has become a perhaps unlikely center of the international punk scene." Inspired by the Circle Jerks ("kin in not just name alone"). This group has even less song sense, trying 6 times, giving up after 7:54. C+ [bc]

Aubrey Logan: Your Mom's Favorite Songs (2019, Resonance, EP): Carole King, Aretha Franklin, lesser knowns, sung with more panache than the cover/title implies. Just barely old enough to have spared us Your Granny's Favorite Songs. Six tracks, 23:15. B+(*)

Charlie Marie: Charlie Marie (2019, self-released, EP): Nashville singer-songwriter, originally from Rhode Island, second five-cut eponymous EP separated by a live LP from a B&B in Charleston, SC. Full band, impressive sound and voice. B+(**) [bc]

The Mauskovic Dance Band: The Mauskovic Dance Band (2019, Soundway): Dutch group, principally Nic Mauskovic, first album after several EPs, a mix of "no-wave dance punk, Afro-Caribbean rhythms and space disco." B+(**)

MC Frontalot: Net Split, or the Fathomless Heartbreak of Online Itself: Damian Hess, day job web designer, started rapping about the Internet in 1999, leading to his 2005 debug album, Nerdcore Rising. Seventh album. Haven't followed his arc, but his love affair with tech isn't turning out the way he expected. B+(**)

Nots: 3 (2019, Goner): Memphis punk trio -- Natalie Hoffmann (vocals/guitar), Charlotte Watson (drums), Meredith Jones (bass) -- minus the keyboards from their debut. Third album, strong and catchy riffs, tone seems a bit off. B+(**)

Nubiyan Twist: Jungle Run (2019, Strut): British group, 12 pieces, groove pieces, hit and (mostly) miss. B-

Karen O & Danger Mouse: Lux Prima (2019, BMG): Orzolek, born in Korea, father Polish, grew up in New Jersey, singer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, second solo album. Producer pulls consistently interesting music together. B+(**)

Old Man Saxon: Goldman Sax (2019, Saxon Kincy, EP): Rapper, know very little about him, based in Los Angeles (or Denver, according to Bandcamp page). Third EP (7 tracks, 21:02). B+(**)

William Parker/In Order to Survive: Live/Shapeshifter (2017 [2019], AUM Fidelity, 2CD): Quartet, named for the bassist's 1995 album with Rob Brown (alto sax) and Cooper-Moore (piano), recorded several albums in late 1990s with Susie Ibarra on drums. Parker went with Hamid Drake on drums for his post-2000 pianoless quartets (with Lewis Barnes on trumpet and Brown on alto sax). He kept Drake when he reconvened IOTS in 2012, and in 2016 recorded a 2-CD album to showcase the two quartets (Meditation/Resurrection). The star has always been Cooper-Moore, who remains as distinctive as ever. A-

Joel Ross: KingMaker (2019, Blue Note): Vibraphone player, first album, major label but no one I've heard of in the band (Immanuel Wilkins on alto sax, plus piano-bass-drums), aside from guest vocalist Gretchen Parlato (one track, just enough for radio). Strikes me as rather conventional (more Milt Jackson or Joe Locke than Stefon Harris). B+(*)

Mavis Staples: Live in London (2018 [2019], Anti-): Selected from two nights, including a birthday wish, reprises songs from her neighborhood even if I don't particularly recognize them as hers (Curtis Mayfield, Little Milton). B+(**)

Wreckless Eric: Transience (2019, Southern Domestic): Eric Goulden, British, part of the Stiff Records stable as pub rock gave way to punk and new wave, probably the main reason I habitually misspelled "reckless" for decades, tried various other aliases until he found himself in Nashville and married Amy Rigby. Not nearly her equal, but plods along agreeably on his own. B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Bill Evans: Smile With Your Heart: The Best of Bill Evans on Resonance (1968-69 [2019], Resonance): Selected from four recent (since 2012) caches of previously unreleleased trio tapes, with Eddie Gomez on bass and either Marty Morell or Jack DeJohnette on drums. Consistently fine work, well selected (as far as I can tell). A- [cd]

Jazz Piano Panorama: The Best of Piano Jazz on Resonance (1968-2011 [2019], Resonance): Label sampler, a mix of new mainstream releases and older archival material (Jaki Byard, Bill Evans, Tommy Flanagan, Gene Harris), closing with Marian Petrescu doing about as note-perfect an Oscar Peterson as you could ever hope for. B+(*) [cd]

Wes Montgomery: Wes's Best: The Best of Wes Montgomery on Resonance (1956-66 [2019], Resonance): Nice selection from five previous sets of archival material. Guessing at dates, since In the Beginning starts in 1949, but the guitarist's career doesn't really pick up steam until 1956-58 -- his breakthrough was 1960's Incredible Jazz Guitar, and through Smokin' at the Half Note in 1965 he redefined jazz guitar so successfully that even today most American jazz guitarists seem to be in his thrall. As with Charlie Parker, I've long been a skeptic, but those bookends are too brilliant to be denied, and this more scattered selection comes close enough. A- [cd]

Sing a Song of Jazz: The Best of Vocal Jazz on Resonance (1956-2018 [2019], Resonance): Sampler, label best known for archival tapes although they've released a few new artists, especially standards singers. The latter are in the majority here, the most impressive Aubrey Logan's new take on "A Natural Woman," mixed in with older fare from Sarah Vaughan, Shirley Horn, and Debbie Andrews (credited, justly so, to Wes Montgomery). B [cd]

Neil Young + Stray Gators: Tuscaloosa (1973 [2019], Reprise): Another archival tape in what promises to be an endless series, recorded early on the tour that produced the live album Time Fades Away, this is the first one I've heard that feels totally superfluous. The great songs are greater elsewhere, and the rest, well, who cares? B-

Old music:

The Legendary Bill Evans Trio: The 1960 Birdland Sessions (1960 [2005], Fresh Sound): Radio shots, from four dates, sound leaving something to be desired, narration excessive. The piano trio, with Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums, would peak a year later with Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard, and end with LaFaro's tragic death a few weeks later. Not the pianist's best work, but worth focusing on LaFaro. B+(***)

Bill Evans: Some Other Time: The Lost Session From the Black Forests (1968 [2016], Resonance, 2CD): Trio with Eddie Gomez (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums), recorded at MPS in Villingen, Germany, previously unreleased. B+(***)

Bill Evans: Another Time: The Hilversum Concert (1968 [2017], Resonance): Piano trio, with Eddie Gomez (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums), recorded at Netherlands Radio Union in Hilversum, Netherlands. B+(***)

Franco, Josky, Matalanza Du T.P. OK Jazz: A Paris 1983 Missile (1983 [1996], Sonodisc): One of Joe Yanosik's favorites from his deep dive into Le Grand Maitre's oeuvre. Pure guitar paradise. A [dl]

Wynton Kelly Trio/Wes Montgomery: Smokin' in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966 [2017], Resonance): With Ron McClure on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums, only the bassist changed from the group that recorded the famous Smokin' at the Half Note (which Pat Metheny credits as the greatest guitar album ever) less than a year prior. This only hits that level in the last three cuts, leaving me a bit unsure of the first two-thirds. B+(***)

Wes Montgomery: In the Beginning (1949-58 [2016], Resonance, 2CD): The label picked up a trove of unreleased Montgomery recordings in 2012, and have gradually been making them available. Two chunks here originally appeared in 2014 on vinyl, attributed to Wes Montgomery & the Montgomery-Johnson Quintet, with brothers Buddy (piano) and Monk (bass) plus two Johnsons: Alonzo "Pookie" (tenor sax) and Robert "Sonny" (drums). Aside from a 1955 set, not clear when most of the tracks were recorded, but they cover years when the guitarist was 24-33, before his first (1958) album. Mixed bag, including a couple of vocals. B+(**)

Wes Montgomery: Fingerpickin' (1957-58 [1996], Pacific Jazz): Reissues the album The Montgomery Brothers and 5 Others along with the title track and three more from a later date in Los Angeles. Four cuts add Pookie Johnson on tenor sax and a 19-year-old trumpeter named Freddie Hubbard. Wes is developing his style, but the focus seems to be on Buddy Montgomery's vibes. B+(**)

Wes Montgomery: Far Wes (1958-59 [1996], Pacific Jazz): Compiles two more Montgomery Brothers albums, most with Harold Land (tenor sax) and Tony Bazley (drums): Montgomeryland, and Wes, Buddy and Monk Montgomery. B+(*)

Wes Montgomery: One Night in Indy (1959 [2016], Resonance): The guitarist on the verge of fame, playing for the home town folks, backed by pianist Eddie Higgins' trio (Walter Perkins on drums, "bassist unknown"). Starts with a 9:14 "Give Me the Simple Life" -- my favorite piece from the new best-of, and moves on through "Prelude to a Kiss" and four shorter pieces. Higgins impressed me as much as the guitarist. A-

Kristi Stassinopoulou/Stathis Kalyviotis: NYN (2016, Riverboat): Greek duo, have worked together since 1989, mostly on local labels (aside from a previous Riverboat album in 2012), seemingly rooted in folk but sped up and filled out. B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Moy Eng/Wayne Wallace: The Blue Hour (Patois)
• Pearring Sound: Nothing but Time (self-released): October 4
• Fabrizio Sciacca Quartet: Gettin' It There (self-released): September 1

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Lots of links below -- probably more than usual, although as always I feel like I'm leaving a lot of stuff untouched. Some topics I only decided late in the game to break out (Boris Johnson under Mackey, impeachment under Reich, Iran under Simon/Stevenson) could have picked up more links had I acted earlier and more consciously. I meant to write more on Mueller under Alksne when I first found the piece, but by the time I got to it I had scattered Mueller links all over the page.

Some scattered links this week:

• Cynthia Alksne: No knight on a white horse: "House Democrats have spent the last two years waiting for someone else to solve the Trump conundrum."

• Josh Barro: The T-Mobile/Sprint merger remedy makes no sense.

• David Barsamian: Noam Chomsky: Life expectancy in the US is declining for a reason.

• Zack Beauchamp:

  • 5 losers and 0 winners from Robert Mueller's testimony to the House of Representatives: "Yes, it really was that bad." The list of losers: Robert Mueller, the House of Representatives, impeachment, President Trump, the Mueller report.

  • Mueller said Trump could be indicted once he leaves office.

• Russell Berman: Robert Mueller kept his promise:

  Democrats can't say Robert Mueller didn't warn them.

  For months, the former special counsel told them in every way he could -- in private negotiations, in his sole public statement on his investigation, through letters from the Justice Department -- that he did not want to testify before Congress, and that if he did, his appearance would be a dud.

  Today, Mueller fully delivered on that promise.

• Alexia Fernández Campbell: Puerto Ricans pushed out a sitting governor for the first time in history: "The massive protests worked." Related: Zeeshan Aleem: Puerto Rico's week of massive protests, explained.

• Leticia Casado/Ernesto Londono: Under Brazil's far right leader, Amazon protections slashed and forests fall. Also: Alexander Zaitchik: Rainforest on fire: "On the front lines of Bolsonaro's war on the Amazon, Brazil's forest communities fight against climate catastrophe." For a comment, see David Wallace-Wells: Could one man single-handedly ruin the planet?

• John Cassidy:

  • Why the Mueller hearings were so alarming.

  • Donald Trump and the GOP confirm their fiscal conservatism was a sham.

• Jonathan Chait:

  • Why Trump spent his summer vacation sending racist tweets: "His entire adult life is devoted to associating nonwhites with crime, filth, and disorder.":

    It does not occur to Trump that the patriotic requirements of his office require representing the whole of it. It is not merely that Trump is unfit for his job. He refuses, almost literally. to be president of the United States.

  • Trump tries to think up crime by Obama, comes up with 'wrote book'.

• Zak Cheney-Rice:

  • Profiling doesn't bother conservatives unless it targets white people. Well, you are what you are, and it isn't hard to imagine how an offense (like profiling) might affect people like yourself. Harder to see how it affects people unlike yourself. And conservatives, almost by definition, are people who believe it's ok to treat other people poorly, especially people unlike themselves. Note quote from Trump: "You know, in Israel, they profile. They've done an unbelievable job -- as good as you can do."

  • The death penalty is already a farce. William Barr's plan might make it torturous. Related: Winnie Wong: The Trump Administration's death penalty cult.

• Gareth Cook: The economist who would fix the American dream: "No one has done more to dispel the myth of social mobility than Raj Chetty. But he has a plan to make equality of opportunity a reality."

• Adam Federman: How science got trampled in the rush to drill in the Arctic. Related: William deBuys: The 'drill, baby, drill' crowd wants access to this arctic reserve.

• Crystal Marie Fleming: The composure and civility of "the Squad" against Trump's attacks.

• Kathy Gilsinan: Dan Coats spoke truth to Trump. Now he's out. Oh? Now? Gilsinan also wrote Don't expect Mark Esper to contain Trump (you know, the new Secretary of Defense), and The impossible job of speaking truth to Trump. Coats' replacement is John Ratcliffe, a Texas Congressman in the press last week for his attacks on Robert Mueller.

• James Gleick: Moon fever: On the Apollo 11 moon landing, 50 years ago.

• Danny Goldberg: Goodbye to free-thought icon and merry prankster Paul Krassner.

• Tara Golshan:

  • The House just passed a budget deal, taking a key step toward averting a massive fiscal crisis.

  • Joe Biden has questions about Medicare-for-all. We answered them.

  • The surprising thing about older voters: they're moving more to the left.

  • Study: the US could have averted about 15,600 deaths if every state expanded Medicaid.

• David A Graham:

  • Forget the theater criticism -- Mueller's conclusions are the real news.

  • The overhyped feud between Nancy Pelosi and AOC.

• Ali Harb: How Iranian MEK went from US terror list to halls of Congress.

• William D Hartung: Trump's Saudi arms vetoes, deconstructed.

• Nathan Heller: Was the automotive era a terrible mistake?

• Edward Hellmore: 'Unprecedented': more than 100 Arctic wildfires burn in worst ever season: "Huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia and Alaska are producing plumes of smoke that can be seen from space."

• Umair Irfan: 108 degrees in Paris: Europe is shattering heat records this week.

• Sarah Jones: An other person has died after rationing insulin. Jones had previously warned (Jan. 31, 2019): Rising insulin costs are a life-or-death political crisis. I've been rather taken aback by these stories. My first wife had diabetes. I never remembered any particular problem with insulin expense, but she died over 30 years ago, so I've been out of touch. Best explanation I've found for recent insulin pricing is here: 8 reasons why insulin is so outrageously expensive. The big one here is patents, which is the public's way of saying: rape me, pillage, take it all. There's no good reason why governments should create or even allow patents. Take them away, and the problems with biologics and biosimilars will become purely technical -- real, but much more manageable. And if private industry cannot find the motivation to bring the price of insulin back to a reasonable level, governments could finance non-profit manufacturers aiming at the lowest possible cost. Moreover, the cost savings go way beyond direct costs. Failure to properly regulate blood sugar levels leads to all kinds of further expense -- my wife being an especially dramatic example of what all can go horribly wrong.

• Ben Judah: The millennial left is tired of waiting: "Saikat Chakrabarti, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff, is working to build a generational movement."

• Peter Kafka: Facebook will pay the US government a $5 billion fine for privacy failures -- but it won't have to change the way it does business.

• Ed Kilgore:

  • Is 'doing the right thing' worth increasing the risk of a second Trump term? More rationalization against trying to impeach Trump.

  • Trump's hate offensive could turn off white working-class women.

• Catherine Kim: The Trump administration is bringing back federal executions.

• Natalie Kitroeff/David Gelles/Jack Nicas: The root of Boeing's 737 Max crisis: A regulator relaxes its oversight.

• Ezra Klein:

  • The case for a universal basic income, open borders, and a 15-hour workweek: Interview with Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia for Realists.

  • How "Medicare Extra" gets to universal coverage without single-payer: Didn't make much sense of this in a quick read. I'm skeptical that you can actually achieve universal coverage while requiring so much paperwork, and using a means-tested sliding scale that guarantees pinch points. Or I suppose you could pitch this as system that defaults to single-payer but allows people to opt out to select inferior private insurance -- with the added costs of public subsidies to the private insurance companies (if not direct, then at least by allowing them to piggyback on universal negotiated pricing). But then you have to ask yourself: why go through this charade of pretending that private for-profit insurance companies can compete meaningfully against a non-profit single-payer service.

• Lucas Koerner/Ricardo Vaz: Western media losing enthusiasm for failing coup in Venezuela.

• Paul Krugman: Trump's secret foreign aid program: "He's giving away billions to overseas investors."

• Amanda Cohen Leiter: Justice John Paul Stevens and the slow evolution of the law.

• Christopher Leonard: How an oil theft investigation laid the groundwork for the Koch playbook: "In the late 1980s, Charles Koch faced a federa probe, rallied all of his resources to fight it off and came away with lessons that would guide the Kochs for decades." Leonard has a book coming out Aug. 13: Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America.

• Daniel Lippman: 'It's a disaster over there': Commerce reaches new heights of dysfunction: "Under Secretary Wilbur Ross, the department is chaotic and adrift." Related: Matt Stieb: Wilbur Ross is falling asleep in Commerce Department meetings.

• Martin Longman:

  • By cutting food stamps, Trump will starve kids.

  • The Democrats can't cede Facebook to Trump again.

• Robert Mackey: Donald Trump praises Boris Johnson, who once called him "unfit to hold the office of President of the United States". Also on Johnson:

  • The Guardian: The next prime minister will be Boris Johnson. What now? Our panel responds.

  • TJ Coles: The tragic inevitability of Boris Johnson PM.

  • John Feffer: Boris Johnson and the new battle of Britain.

• Chase Madar: Ilhan Omar's anti-semitism is becoming a load-bearing myth for American politics.

• Madeline Marshall: How Trump took over America's courts.

• Jonathan Martin/Maggie Haberman: Trump relies on populist language, but he mostly sides with corporate interests: Trenchant reporting from the New York Times.

• Jane Mayer: The case of Al Franken.

• Middle East Eye: Israel destroys Palestinian homes in biggest demolition push since 1967. Also: Michelle Nichols: US blocks UN rebuke of Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes.

• Alec MacGillis: Jared Kushner's other real estate empire in Baltimore. Related: Beatrice Dupuy: Jared Kushner's family company faces more than 170 Baltimore violations.

• George Monbiot: From Trump to Johnson, nationalists are on the rise -- backed by billionaire oligarchs.

• Anna North: Al Franken needs to stop comparing his resignation to death.

• Ilhan Omar: It is not enough to condemn Trump's racism.

• Andrew Prokop:

  • The Democratic divide over impeaching Trump, explained.

  • Mueller's testimony, and what it means for President Trump, explained.

• Robert Reich: The real reason we need to impeach Trump immediately: Actually, he offers close to a dozen, but they're just examples of a more fundamental contempt Trump holds for law and order:

  Every child in America is supposed to learn about the Constitution's basic principles of separation of powers, and checks and balances.

  But these days, every child and every adult in America is learning from Donald Trump that these principles are bunk.

  More impeachment talk:

  • Shaun King: Racism is an impeachable offense.

  • Charles P Pierce: Impeachment is not an exercise in futility; also: This is an impeach by any other name.

• David Roberts: Ohio just passed the worst energy bill of the 21st century: "A corrupt bailout for dinosaur power plants that screws renewable energy in the process." Also: Ryan Grim/Akela Lacy: Ohio Republicans balked at a nuclear bailout, so the industry elected new Republicans -- and walked away with $1.1 billion.

• Jacob Rosenberg: "Love it or leave it" has a racist history. A lot of America's language does. I've always heard "love it or leave it" as "be complacent, or get banished," because you're not entitled to your own opinions, or in any way to criticize your government, and if you dissent, you're not entitled to keep living your life where you grew up. Racism is one of many things that we weren't allowed to question (and the "back to Africa" movement was largely a concession to this dictate), but there are a great many more things that triggered this demand -- in my time, most memorably, America's imperialist war against Vietnam.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Devin Nunes's behavior during the Mueller hearing was bizarre -- unless you watch Fox News.

  • It took the Trump campaign 2 minutes to lie about Mueller's testimony.

  • Trump now: Criticizing America is unpatriotic. Trump then: America "is going to HELL."

• David E Sanger/Catie Edmondson: Russia targeted election systems in all 50 states, report finds: I don't doubt Russian machinations, nor excuse them with the fact that the US routinely and methodically attempts to interfere and influence elections in Russia and damn near everywhere else. But one should bear in mind that Republicans are much more active underminers of democracy. And that the common interest that Russia and Republicans share is their dedication to oligarchy.

• Kori Schake: The bill for America First is coming due: "Two of America's closest treaty allies have announced military efforts explicitly designed to exclude the US." As Trump's foreign policy becomes more arbitrary and erratic, it's inevitable that other countries will go their own way -- in this case, UK and Australia, reverting to their basest imperialist roots. Not a good sign, although anything that reduces the American bootprint on the world's neck can't be all bad. Schake directs a UK security think tank, IISS, and her recent pieces offer various hints at how Trump's vacuous foreign policy is perturbing America's former clients. For example, see: A Middle East peace plan built in un-American principles, and Worse than Obama's red-line moment: taunting Trump for not bombing Iran ("Trump has now shown himself just as willing as President Obama to make empty threats that damage American credibility").

• Eric B Schnurer: Facebook doesn't just need to be broken up. It needs to be broken into. "To create real competition, let other social networks operate on the architecture Mark Zuckerberg built." I haven't digested this yet, but my general response to proposals to attack web service monopolies is to provide public funding to stand up open source alternatives. This subject is worth a much deeper discussion.

• Adam Serwer:

  • The press has adopted Trump's reality-show standards: "The reaction to the special counsel's testimony shows how deeply the president has conditioned the media to treat political events like reality television."

  • What Americans do now will define us forever: "If multiracial democracy cannot be defended in America, it will not be defended elsewhere.".

  • Trump tells America what kind of nationalist he is: "In a series of tweets attacking four Democratic congresswomen, the president reiterated his belief that only white people can truly be American."

  • Trump lied to the Supreme court, and four justices don't care.

• Steven Simon/Jonathan Stevenson: Iran: The case against war. More recent pieces on Iran:

  • Patrick Cockburn: Brexit, Britain and the permanent crisis in the Gulf.

  • Juan Cole: How Bolton tricked clueless UK Conservatives into confrontation with Tehran.

  • Jason Ditz: US poised to send 500 troops to Saudi Arabia amid Iran tensions.

  • Fred Kaplan: Sleepwalking into war with Iran.

  • Tony Karon: Iran is gambling that Trump is afraid of war.

• Danny Sjursen: Could Donald Trump end the Afghan War?

• Maggie Stevens/Derek Willis: How conservative operatives steered millions in PAC donations to themselves.

• Emily Stewart: Elizabeth Warren sees "serious warning signs" of an economic crash. Warren's piece: The coming economic crash and how to stop it. Another important Warren piece: End Wall Street's stranglehold on our economy. Yves Smith writes about this latter piece: Elizabeth Warren seeks to cut private equity down to size.

• Matt Taibbi:

  • The Iowa circus: "Clown Car II: The Democrats. God help us." He wrote a great campaign book once, but it wasn't his 2016 effort (Insane Clown President: Dispatches From the 2016 Circus -- it was his 2004-based Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches From the Dumb Season). But clearly he's just running on auto-pilot now, not even considering whether to revamp his circus metaphors -- it's like he's forgotten that there's a distinction between a sequel and a parody.

  • Banks sued for LIBOR collusion -- again!.

  • The myth of Robert Mueller, exploded.

• Siva Vaidhyanathan:

  • Why conservatives allege big tech is muzzling them.

    [Sen. Ted] Cruz knows that conservatives need Facebook and Google and that they benefit greatly from the algorithmic amplification that occurs in both systems. Trump's 2020 campaign manager is Brad Parscale, who ran digital operations for the president's successful 2016 campaign. Parscale declared that his mastery of Facebook for advertising, amplifying pro-Trump videos and memes, and fundraising won the 2016 election.

    Scholarship supports this conclusion. As the sociologist Jen Schradie demonstrates in great detail in her new book, The Revolution That Wasn't: How Digital Activism Favors Conservatives, Facebook and Google work better for top-down, well-funded, disciplined, directed movements. Those adjectives tend to describe conservative groups more than liberal or leftist groups in the United States. In our current media ecosystem, right-wing sources of news and propaganda spread much further and faster than liberal or neutral sources do, according to a rigorous quantitative study of communication-network patterns by Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, and Hal Roberts at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Internet platforms are demonstrably not silencing conservative ideas. If anything, the opposite is true.

  • Billion-dollar fines can't stop Google and Facebook. That's peanuts for them.

• Anya van Wagtendonk:

  • Trump launches another racist attack on a lawmaker of color: Elijah Cummings, and his "rodent infested mess" of a district.

  • A controversial deal between US and Guatemala could reshape the asylum process.

  • In a victory for Trump, the Supreme Court frees up $2.5 billion for the border wall.

• Katrina vanden Heuvel: The transpartisan revolt against America's endless wars.

• Alex Ward:

  • Trump says Daniel Coats, director of national intelligence, to step down.

  • Navy SEAL platoon sent home from Iraq over rape allegation and drinking while deployed: "SEAL scandals are piling up."

  • Senate confirms Army Gen. Mark Milley as new Joint Chiefs chair.

  • Mueller explained why he didn't push to interview Trump: "Trump would've fought a subpoena, and that would've taken too long.".

  • Trump says he could wipe Afghanistan off face of the earth in 10 days: "Trump said he doesn't want millions to die, but mused about wiping out Afghanistan, a country we are supposedly trying to help."

  • Iran says it arrested 17 people spying for the CIA. The US says it's fake news.

• Peter Wehner: George Will changes his mind -- but stays true to his convictions: Proving his convictions were always the problem with him. While it's tempting to admire people who are so consistently dedicated to wrong principles that they occasionally stand up against more opportunistic evils, they're ultimately not that useful, and never reliable. This turns into a puff-piece interview, not unlike Wehner's previous David Brooks's journey toward faith. Wehner's own mission is to rescue evangelical Christianity ffrom the shame of association with Donald Trump. That's a decent and noble endeavor, but misses the problem in favor of a bogus solution.

• Kelly Weill: MAGA bomber's lawyers blame Trump, Sean Hannity for his radicalization. Related, from Oct. 27, 2018: Rick Wilson: Of course Donald Trump inspired Cesar Sayoc's alleged terrorism.

• Philip Weiss: Ilhan Omar's case for foreign influence is more convincing than Mueller's.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • New GDP data confirms Trump's tax cuts aren't working. Seems to me they're doing exactly what they were intended to: help the rich get even richer, and weaken the government by piling up debt, which they can later use as a cudgel against spending by a future Democratic government. Sure, tax cut propagandists trotted out a few macroeconomic rationalizations, but they were such obvious horseshit at the time that their thorough debunking here offers no surprise and scant comfort. Or, as Eric Levitz reviews the same issue: The Trump tax cuts worked (as a scam):

    In the Trump era, Republicans have become masters of rationalizing the indefensible. But even they couldn't defend running up the deficit (and clamping down social spending) to boost corporate profits at a time when such profits were already high. Thus, they insisted that the president's tax cuts would neither increase the deficit nor benefit the wealthy much at all. . . .

    There was little empirical evidence to support this argument when Republicans were making it two years ago. There is even less today. In May, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) found no sign that the Trump tax cuts made any discernible contribution to growth, wages, or business investment. Corporations did not plow their windfalls into exceptionally productive and innovative ventures. Instead, they mostly threw their handouts onto the giant pile of cash they were already sitting on, and/or returned it to their (predominantly rich) shareholders. . . .

    If you take Republicans at their word -- and assume that they earnestly believed they could massively increase business investment by slashing corporate rates -- then the Trump tax cuts have been a miserable failure.

    If, however, you assume that the party's goal was always to prioritize the bottomless avarice of its megadonors over the pressing needs of the American people -- without paying a huge political price -- then the president's signature legislation has worked like a charm.

  • Democrats should run on the popular progressive ideas, not the unpopular ones.

  • Mueller's testimony matters even if he doesn't say anything new.

  • Al Franken did the right thing by resigning.

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Music: current count 31798 [31749] rated (+49), 259 [262] unrated (-3).

I had a lot of stuff I wanted to write about this week, but never found the time, and it doesn't look like that'll change over the next several days. Therefore, let's just dump this out, and try again next week.

New records reviewed this week:

100 Gecs: 1000 Gecs (2019, Dog Show): Dylan Brady and Laura Les (aka osno1), electropop so cartoonish I've seen it classified as bubblegum bass. Annoying to start, eventually found some kind of groove. B

Jay Anderson: Deepscape (2018 [2019], SteepleChase): Bassist, has appeared on close to 250 albums since breaking in with Woody Herman in 1978, and has led a few. Opens and closes solo, the tracks in beween with Billy Drewes (bass clarinet/alto/soprano sax), Kirk Knuffke (cornet), and Matt Wilson (drums), sometimes adding harmonium (Frank Kimbrough) and/or percussion (Rogerio Boccato). B+(**)

Caterina Barbieri: Ecstatic Computation (2019, Editions Mego): Italian composer, based in Berlin, "working in the fields of analog and digital synthesis and minimalism." Fourth album. All synth, rooted in minimalism but building something more out of such basics. A-

Michael Bisio/Kirk Knuffke/Fred Lonberg-Holm: Requiem for a New York Slice (2018 [2019], Iluso): Bass/cornet/cello, the strings on the scratchy side. Dedicated to the late Mike Panico (1965-2018), a founder of Relative Pitch Records. B+(*) [bc]

Black Midi: Schlagenheim (2019, Rough Trade): British experimental rock band; two guitars, bass and drums; three credited vocalists, but the main guy is pretty distinctive; first album after some singles. Most similar band I recognize is Pere Ubu, but I don't instantly love them. Still, not a comparison I make lightly. B+(**)

Blood Orange: Angel's Pulse (2019, Domino): British r&b singer Dev Hynes, started as Lightspeed Champion, fourth album under this moniker. Mix of soft soul with edgier moments. B+(**)

Daniel Carter/Tobias Wilner/Djibril Toure/Federico Ughi: New York United (2016 [2019], 577): Best known for his work with William Parker, Carter plays a range of horns -- alto sax, tenor sax, flute, and trumpet -- against Wilner's jazztronica (electronics, synths, beats), backed with bass and drums. B+(***)

Cheekface: Therapy Island (2019, New Professor Music): Los Angeles band, Greg Katz the singer-guitarist, backed by bass and drums. Reminds me somewhat of the Dead Milkmen. Not as funny, but not for lack of trying. B+(**)

Stef Chura: Midnight (2019, Saddle Creek): Singer-songwriter from Michigan, second album, doesn't neglect the guitar. B+(*)

Flying Lotus: Flamagra (2019, Warp): LA producer, filmmaker, more of the latter but better known for his records and his work with other artists (e.g., Thundercat, Kamasi Washington). I've usually found his records too scattered, and this 26-cut, 66:57 mess certainly is. Still, lots of good bits in the mix. B+(**)

Future: Future Hndrxx: The Wizrd (2019, Epic/Freebandz): Rapper Nayvadius Wilburn, from Atlanta, did an album Hndrxx in 2017 and refers back here. Not as clear as I'd like, but runs long and steady. B+(**)

Hilliard Greene: Spirituals (2019, Unseen Rain): Bassist, long stretch as Jimmy Scott's music director, member of the group the Jazz Expressions, has recorded on several notable free jazz records (like Billy Bang's Da Bang). Had a solo album in 2003, again here, a deep roots exploration. Some voice, just enough to identify "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray." B+(*)

Augie Haas: Dream a Little Dream (2019, Playtime Music): Trumpet player, from Wisconsin, based in New York, has a couple previous records, plays and sings standards here, the songbook expanded to inlude doo-wop ("Earth Angel," "Stay") and soft rock ("Love Me Tender," "Stand by Me," "Blackbird"). Backed by Carmen Staaf (piano/organ), bass, drums, and a lot of strings. Not a great singer, but you'll probably find yourself blotting him out by singing along. B+(**) [cd]

Rich Halley: Terra Incognita (2018 [2019], Pine Eagle): Tenor saxophonist, from Oregon, cover pictures are all rugged high desert, but he trekked to Brooklyn to record this, with Matthew Shipp's regular piano trio (Michael Bisio and Newman Taylor Baker). Shipp has played with a lot of avant saxophonists. He seems more content than usual to lay back and fill in. Halley opens fierce, the group chemistry only really developing with the long off-speed closer, appropriately titled "The Journey." A- [cd]

Aldous Harding: Designer (2019, 4AD): Singer-songwriter from New Zealand, third album. Easy listening, but not without its beguiling passages. B

Randy Houser: Magnolia (2019, Stoney Creek): Country singer-songwriter from Mississippi, fifth album. Big gestures, deep emotions, strong voice. B+(**)

Jelena Jovovic: Heartbeat (2018 [2019], self-released): Jazz singer-songwriter from Serbia, moved to South Africa, later Austria. First album, wrote lyrics to several jazz melodies, music and lyrics to the rest. Only picks up a bit toward the end. B- [cd]

Juice Wrld: Death Race for Love (2019, Interscope): Los Angeles rapper Jarad Higgins, second album. Key lyric: "I don't want anyone to think I'm an asshole." Still, the whine wore me out. B-

Steve Lacy: Apollo XXI (2019, 3Qtr): No relation to the late saxophonist. This one (Steve Thomas Lacy-Moya) hails from Compton, sings alt-r&b, plays guitar and bass. Best known from the Internet, but released an EP (Steve Lacy's Demo) in 2017, now this debut album. Some funk, some glitz, nice beats. B+(*)

Lady Lykez: Muhammad Ali EP (2019, Hyperdub, EP): MC from North London, title track a remix with Lioness rapping and Scratchclart producing, who returns for two more rapid-fire bits. D'Lux produced the change of pace. Four cuts, 13:43. B+(*) [bc]

Alex Lahey: The Best of Luck Club (2019, Dead Oceans): Budding power pop star, from Australia, likes her guitar riffs but drops back to keyboards for the slower ones. Second album. Good advice: "Don't Be So Hard on Yourself." B+(**)

Lil Nas X: 7 (2019, Columbia, EP): Atlanta rapper Montero Lamar Hill, leads off with a remix of his breakout single, "Old Town Road," with Billy Ray Cyrus adding to the country twang. Six more songs plus the original single, total 18:44. B+(*)

Maluma: 11:11 (2019, Sony Music Latin): Colombian pop star, fourth album, noticed him on Madonna's latest, and she returns the favor here ("Soltera"). That's the only song I can follow, so I'm mostly going by sound: beats good, strings less. B+(**)

Mannequin Pussy: Patience (2019, Epitaph): Punk group from Philadelphia, principally singer-guitarist Marisa Dabice. Third album, assuming you count short ones (this one packs 10 cuts into 25:37). B+(**)

Rico Nasty/Kenny Beats: Anger Management (2019, Sugar Trap, EP): Rapper Maria-Cecilia Simone Kelly and producer Kenneth Blume, nine hard and fast tracks, 18:40. Much anger, barely managed. B+(**)

Jai Paul: Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) (2013 [2019], XL): British songwriter/producer, of Indian descent, had a couple singles and was working on an eponymous album when a set of his demos were leaked, to some acclaim and the artist's horror. He litigated to get the leaks suppressed, shelved the project, and has scarcely been heard from since. This is the first official release of the leaked material, with most pieces labelled "(unfinished)." Most definitely, but flashes here and there do match the fuss. B+(**)

PUP: Morbid Stuff (Rise): Canadian band, name an acronym for Pathetic Use of Potential, Stefan Babcock the singer, backed by guitar-bass-drums. Third album, advertised as punk, but don't really hear it. Not that they don't rock. B

Queen Key: Eat My Pussy (Again) (2019, Machine Entertainment Group): Chicago rapper Ke'Asha McClure, first album (following last year's Eat My Pussy EP), reminds one of CupcakKe -- her more "mature" work as opposed to her salacious debut Cum Cake, but then Key is a year older, and judging from her forced rhymes and slack beats not as talented. Still, she remains fearless and defiant in a world where trust is hard to come by, and takes her pleasure where she can. A-

Resavoir: Resavoir (2015-19 [2019], International Anthem): Chicago project, written, arranged, and produced by Will Miller (trumpet, keyboards, sampler). A vast orchestra, flows nice, sometimes lovely, spoken word helps, choral voices less. B [bc]

Maggie Rogers: Heard It in a Past Life (2019, Capitol): Singer-songwriter, first album, has won some prizes. I could see her developing into some kind of pop star, but may be too adult too early. B+(**)

ShitKid: [Detention] (2019, PNKSLM): Swedish punk auteur Åsa Söderqvist, morphing into a band with the addition of bassist Lina Ericsson, the fleshed out sound revealing itself as old-fashioned rock and roll. Short album by most standards (8 cuts, 23:54), but long by theirs. B+(*)

Skepta: Ignorance Is Bliss (2019, Boy Better Know): British grime MC, Joseph Adenuga Jr., called his first (2007) album Greatest Hits without having any. Scored a breakthrough last time, and is pretty steady here. B+(**)

Sote: Parallel Persia (2019, Diagonal): Ata Ebtekar, Iranian, born in Germany, based in California, handful of records, this a mix of Iranian acoustic instruments (santoor, tar, tombak) and electronics, fast and frenzied, maybe even cartoonish. B+(*) [bc]

Emily A. Sprague: Water Memory (2017, self-released): Electronica composer, from the Catskills but based in Los Angeles. Ambient, sheets of synthy sound, simple and eloquent. B+(*)

Emily A. Sprague: Mount Vision (2019, self-released): Similar, less watery, more engaging. B+(**)

Supa Bwe: Just Say Thank You (2019, Freddy Got Magic/Empire, EP): Chicago rapper Frederick Burton, "Bwe" reportedly pronounced "boy/boo/buoy," second solo project, 7 cuts, 20:06, has something to say about entropy. B+(*)

Kate Tempest: The Book of Traps and Lessons (2019, Republic): British poet, spoken word artist, seems to have lost the beat from her breakthrough 2014 album (Everybody Down), making her less of a rapper, more of a preacher (or maybe just a scold). B+(*)

Yves Theiler Trio: We (2018 [2019], Intakt): Swiss pianist, second trio album with Luca Sisera (bass) and Lukas Mantel (drums). All originals, most strong on rhythm. B+(**)

Turning Jewels Into Water: Map of Absences (2019, FPE): Percussion duo, a mix of Val Jeanty (from Haiti, aka Val-Inc) and Ravish Momin (from India, has done some jazz records I admire, with or without his group Tarana). Scattered voices and electronics flesh out the intensive beats. B+(***)

Turning Jewels Into Water: Which Way Is Home? (2018, FPE, EP): Introduced the duo last year, with five cuts, 21:01. Same intensity, maybe a bit more abstract. B+(**) [bc]

Faye Webster: Atlanta Millionaires Club (2019, Secretly Canadian): Singer-songwriter, based in Atlanta, various sources slot her in folk or country (note the pedal steel), but her slight voice and melodies don't fit there, any more than the token rap makes her trap. B

The Yawpers: Human Question (2019, Bloodshot): Denver band, Americana as deep as their Whitman-honoring name, can be astute, can be catchy, can push their luck a bit too hard. B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Johnny Shines: The Blues Came Falling Down: Live 1973 (1973 [2019], Omnivore): Bluesman, originally from Memphis, inspired by a chance meeting with Robert Johnson, moved to Chicago in 1941, cut a few records in 1946-52 but didn't really get on track until the late 1960s. Recorded this intimate solo set in St. Louis. B+(**)

Grade (or other) changes:

Rodrigo Amado/Chris Corsano: No Place to Fall (2014 [2019], Astral Spirits): Tenor sax and drums duo, improv pieces in a Lisbon studio. The drummer likes to kick up a racket, so this runs hard and fast. Back in June I tentatively reviewed this based on 2/5 Bandcamp cuts. Later got the CD, which burns bright the entire 48:53. [Was B+(**)] A- [cd]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Ezra Weiss Big Band: We Limit Not the Truth of God (OA2): August 16
• Mark Wingfield & Gary Husband: Tor & Vale (Moonjune)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, July 22, 2019

We spent much of the past week arguing not about whether Donald Trump is a racist -- some might prefer not to discuss it, but hardly anyone doubts or denies such an abundantly settled fact. A week ago we faced what struck me as an artificially inflated schism between Party leaders like Nancy Pelosi and the more determined reformers in "the squad," but that division vanished instantly thanks to their common enemy -- Trump, for starters, and the racism he and his party so naturally indulge in. Pelosi may be jealous of the squad's popularity with the Democratic base, and she may be overly concerned with her reputation as a Washington power broker. But the fact is that since the 2018 election, the right-wing media has been most obsessed with raising alarms over the squad. Given that context, Trump's tweets strike me less as recurring racist bluster (to which he's certainly prone) than as confirmation that the Republicans' campaign strategy for 2020 will be to try to turn every local election into a referendum on Ilhan Omar. Pelosi knows that better than anyone, because Republicans have tried for years to make her the public face of Democratic-Socialist-Liberal dread.

Most important piece below is Matthew Yglesias's Trump's racism is part of his larger con. I didn't quote from it, but could have quoted the entire piece. Just read it.

Some scattered links this week:

• Zeeshan Aleem:

  • Trump met a lot of refugees and seemed to learn about their crises for the very first time. By the way, the refugees he met were pretty carefully selected (by Sam Brownback?) to appeal to administration prejudices ("Rohingya in Myanmar, Uighurs in China, and Yazidis in Iraq").

  • Puerto Rico's week of massive protests, explained.

• Andrew J Bacevich: The decline of our nation's generals: "Once powerful titans of policy, today no one knows who they are. Given all the mistakes they've made, is it any wonder?"

• Peter Baker, et al.: Trump employs an old tactic: using race for gain.

• Emily Bazelon: Justice John Paul Stevens had some things to say before he died: Actually, a review of his book, The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years. Stevens died last week, at 99.

• Zack Beauchamp:

  • "Send her back" is where racism and authoritarianism meet: "The viciousness isn't an accident. It's what Trumpism is really about."

  • Trump and the dead end of conservative nationalism. I've scanned through this twice and have no idea what the concept is, probably because conservatism and nationalism these days have little to offer other than bitter and vindictive reactions against whatever they find offensive. Trying to define either as a coherent ideology is hopeless. Merging them both into a synthetic (much less unifying) movement is even more ridiculous. Related:

    • Park MacDougald: What the hell is 'national conservatism' anyway?

    • Jacob Heilbrunn: National conservatism: retrofitting Trump's GOP with a veneer of ideas.

    • Eric Levitz: National conservatives want cultural dominance not 'social cohesion'.

    • Osita Nwanevu: Conservatism nationalism is Trumpism for intellectuals.

• Peter Beinart: By Republican standards, almost nothing is racist.

• Jared Bernstein: What economists have gotten wrong for decades: "Four economic ideas disproven by reality." This starts with the so-called "natural rate of unemployment" ("NAIRU" to its fans):

  The natural rate of unemployment that AOC questioned is one such idea (more on that below). There are three others worth singling out:

  • that globalization is a win-win proposition for all, an idea that has deservedly taken a battering in recent years;
  • that federal budget deficits "crowd out" private investments; and
  • that the minimum wage will only have negative effects on jobs and workers.

  Economists and policymakers have gotten these ideas wrong for decades, at great cost to the public. Especially hard hit have been the most economically vulnerable, and these mistakes can certainly be blamed for the rise of inequality. It's time we moved on from them.

  By the way, not every economist bought into these ideas, even in their heyday. George P. Brockway (1915-2001) was especially critical of NAIRU (see his short collection Economics Can Be Bad for Your Health as well as his masterpiece, The End of Economic Man). John Quiggin wrote about much of this in Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us (2010). By the way, when Joe Biden became Vice President, he picked Bernstein as his economic adviser. I'm not a Biden fan, but that was a smart and gutsy pick at a time when Obama was hiring economists like Larry Summers. Back in 2008, before his appointment, Bernstein wrote an insightful book called Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries).

• Jamelle Bouie: The joy of hatred: "Trump and 'his people' reach deep into the violent history of public spectacle in America."

• Aleia Fernández Campbell: The House just passed a $15 minimum wage. It would be the first increase in a decade.

• John Cassidy: There is nothing strategic about Trump's racism.

• Jonathan Chait:

  • Welcome to the post-post-corruption era of the Republican Party. Takes a detour from its original subject -- Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta's temporary and more permanent replacements (the former a Jack Abramoff associate, the latter Antonin Scalia's son, Eugene) -- to review the Party's checkered history both for and against corruption.

    Conservatism never fails, Rick Perlstein archly observed at the time; it is only failed. . . . It is almost impossible to overstate how much weight conservatives placed on corruption as their diagnosis of failure. This conviction led straight to their Obama-era posture as a "reformed" party of pure fiscal conservatism. . . . Pizzella may not lead the agency for long, and by Trump-era standards, of course, his offenses barely register as scandals at all. The Trump administration is shot through with corruption, from petty grifts like Cabinet members abusing their expense accounts to legislation written by and for lobbyists. The president himself is taking payoffs from corporate lobbyists and foreign governments through his Washington hotel and other properties.

    The party's whole post-Bush backlash against corruption and deficit spending, and the notion that those values are antithetical to conservatism, has been forgotten. ("Nobody is a fiscal conservative anymore," Rush Limbaugh casually declared. "All this talk about concern for the deficit and the budget has been bogus for as long as it's been around.") Having fulfilled its use by giving Republicans a reason to absolve their ideology of any role in Bush's failure, they discarded it.

  • Republicans baffled why Trump keeps saying racist things.

• Jane Coaston: The Trump racism spin cycle.

• Jelani Cobb: Donald Trump's idea of selective citizenship.

• Chas Danner: Trump shows yet again that he can't even pretend to reject racism.

• Tom Engelhardt: Planet of the surreal: Turning 75 in the Age of Trump.

• Eric Foner: The Supreme Court is in danger of again becoming 'the grave of liberty'.

• Masha Gessen:

  • The weaponization of national belonging, from Nazi Germany to Trump.

    By turning unspoken assumptions into hateful rally chants, Trump is not merely destroying the norms of political speech but weaponizing them. He is cashing in on the easy trick of saying out loud what others barely dare to think. But his supporters are also enforcing the prohibition on his opponents' taking part in the conversation -- as when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was reprimanded for calling Trump's speech "racist" on the House floor. Trump has initiated a radical renegotiation of belonging in this country and then monopolized it. This is what happens first: a political force seizes the power to define themselves as insiders and certain others as intruders. This is done in the name of protection of the motherland, which the newly marginalized are said to hate. Everything else follows.

  • Trump, Pelosi, and the Squad are fighting over who belongs in government.

• Susan B Glasser: "I'm winning": Donald Trump's calculated racism.

• Michelle Goldberg:

  • Defenders of a racist president use Jews as human shields: "Trump's bigoted attack on four congresswomen of color has nothing to do with fighting anti-Semitism."

  • Please, Pelosi, fight Trump, not the Squad.

• Tara Golshan: Mark Sanford is willing to run against Trump for president if people start talking about the debt.

• Emily Holden: Trump drilling leases could create more climate pollution than EU does in a year.

• Caroline Houck: Mark Esper, President Trump's pick for defense secretary, explained: Key point: "former top lobbyist from Raytheon."

• Ed Kilgore:

  • Trump's racism is pushing away the voters he needs in 2020. I don't really buy this. Past history shows that Trump's economic beneficiaries (almost exclusively stock and business owners) care very little about his race messaging. On the other hand, people who have no economic stake in his policies but support him for cultural reasons need reinforcement, which comes not so much because they identify with racism as that they fear and loathe the sort of people who get offended over such. That's in a nutshell why his support figures have increased (marginally, for sure) as nearly every Democrat/Independent has been blasting him.

  • Susan Collins's approval rating dives as reelection contest approaches.

• Catherine Kim: New polling indicates Republicans actually like Trump more following racist tweet controversy.

• Jen Kirby:

  • Trump says US Navy destroyed Iranian drone.

  • Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to be the UK's next prime minister, explained. Related: James Butler: Boris Johnson is how Britain ends.

• Paul Krugman:

  • Deficit Man and the 2020 election. Contrasts Deficit Man with Tariff Man, both Trump attempting to lead the economy, and argues that so far the economic stimulus caused by running high deficits has limited the damage caused by Trump's tariffs. Overall prognosis for the Trump economy is "meh."

  • Racism comes out of the closet: "The dog whistle days are apparently over." Well, that's what happens when you elect the dog.

  • Trump and the merchants of detention: "Every betrayal seems to profit the president and his friends."

  • Trump is losing his trade wars.

• Eric Levitz:

  • Moderate Democrats warn that AOC is distracting from their nonexistent message.

  • 15 ways President Trump has hurt the American worker: Old piece (Sept. 4, 2018), linked from article above, but worth recalling. Of course, a current piece could easily be expanded to 30 ways.

• PR Lockhart: The racism in Trump's attacks should be impossible to deny.

• German Lopez: Cory Booker's latest criminal justice reform bill takes aim at life imprisonment.

• Ella Nilsen: House votes to hold AG Barr and Commerce Secretary Ross in contempt of Congress over census citizenship question.

• Anna North: How 4 congresswomen came to be called "the Squad".

• Jeremy W Peters/Annie Karni/Maggie Haberman: Trump sets the 2020 tone: like 2016, only this time 'the Squad' is here.

• Charles P Pierce:

  • The EPA's new 'no surprise' policy protects everything except the environment.

  • This was a fascist rally down to its bones.

  • The unholy trinity of voter suppression is having a no good, very bad week: Kris Kobach, J Christian Adams, Hans von Spakovsky.

• Andrew Prokop:

  • Michael Cohen documents unsealed as Trump hush money investigation concludes.

  • Jeffrey Epstein's connections to Donald rump and Bill Clinton, explained.

• Jonah Raskin: Paul Krassner, 1932-2019: American satirist. I should note that I started reading The Realist shortly after I dropped out of high school, so Krassner played an outsized role in my discovery that there are other ways of understanding the world than had been drilled into my tiny brain by the official guardians of virtue.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • "Incredible patriots" is the new "very fine people": Trump defends racist chants.

  • "Send her back!": Trump's attacks on Ilhan Omar -- and the response to them -- represent a new low.

  • Trump claims he tried to quell "send her back!" chants. The video says otherwise.

  • It wasn't just Ilhan Omar -- Trump disparaged 8 women during his speech in North Carolina.

  • "What's your ethnicity?": Kellyanne Conway's defense of Trump's racism isn't helping.

  • Trump's threat to investigate Google isn't based on evidence. It's based on Fox News.

  • Trump says he's not concerned about being racist because "many people agree" with him.

• Jeffrey D Sachs: America's economic blockades and international law: I'm not sure who Sachs thinks has been calling Trump an isolationist, but at least he rejects that label. What's different about Trump isn't the degree the US engages with other countries but the terms of alliance and intervention. From FDR through Obama, the US has generally tried to find agreement on areas of mutual interest, often trading economic help for joint security. Trump's intent is to put American (by which he often means his personal) interests first, reducing everyone else to paying tribute for some degree of privilege within the US-directed world order. If it seems like little has changed under Trump, that's mostly because the US position at the top of the informal world order has, at least since WWII, been rooted in the relative size and wealth of the American economy (although these days it has largely transformed itself into global financial networks, which nation states have little effective power to regulate). Where his predecessors preferred to build alliances based on mutual interest, all Trump sees is the power to extract profit. In the past, NATO was presented as a trade: member countries would open themselves up to global capitalism, and in turn would receive security guarantees. (Indeed, the "carrot" of capital investment was probably more decisive to expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe than fears of Russian aggression.) On the other hand, Trump views NATO as a protection racket, and wants to do what any gangster/boss would do: raise the tribute. As an authoritarian, Trump much prefers his sticks to carrots, much as he'd rather be feared than befriended (not that he minds having friends, as long as they are properly submissive). Short of risking his bloated military, the most powerful stick he has at his disposal is the economic blockade (sanctions), which he's employed more aggressively than ever before (e.g., North Korea, Iran, Venezuela). So far, nothing disastrous (for the US, anyway) has come of this. None of the targeted countries have submitted, but few (if any) nominal allies have yet decided to buck US authority and circumvent the sanctions, so Trump appears to be in control. However, you have to wonder how long China, Europe, Russia, India, Japan, etc., will continue to kowtow to a thin-skinned, thankless bully like Trump.

• William Saletan: Is Trump a racist or a narcissist? Here's a puzzle even Saletan can solve: "He's both." But aren't those just facets of an even broader and deeper sociopathy?

• Theodore Schleifer: A plan to fix inequality would target CEOs who make 100 times more than their employees: CEO pay has been a useful metric for measuring inequality for several decades now, but the most one can hope for by narrowly targeting it is to muddy the metric. CEO's represent a small sliver of the very rich, and as such a small sliver of the money that a more general program could tax. I think it's long been clear that the main reason boards have moved so strongly to increase CEO pay has been the desire to make CEO's act more like owners and less like managers: to focus more on short-term profitability, while allowing more risks to long-term stability.

• Emily Stewart: Elizabeth Warren's latest Wall Street enemy: private equity.

• Matt Taibbi: CNN's debate lottery draw is a new low in campaign media: "If you cover elections like reality shows, you will get reality stars as leaders."

• Robin Wright: Iran's eye-for-an-eye strategy in the Gulf.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • The controversy over Bernie Sanders's low-paid field staffers, explained.

  • Trump's racism is part of his larger con.

  • Trump's racist tirades against "the Squad," explained.

  • The controversy over whether the media should call Trump's tweets "racist," explained.

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, July 15, 2019

Music: current count 31749 [31726] rated (+23), 262 [262] unrated (+0).

Slow getting this out, with Monday wiped out by a house emergency (water heater broke down). Had a nagging sore throat much of the week, but right now mostly feel exhausted. Relatively mild summer so far, but looks like triple digits coming soon and probably persisting. Next couple weeks will probably be worse.

Rated count cut off Sunday evening, but I've added unpacking since then, so the numbers are a little out of whack.

Second straight week with an unusually low rated count (24 last week). Again, spent some time on the Resonance anthologies without writing any reviews, and also found a higher-than-usual split of A- records, plus high B+ that merited extra plays. Most of the finds this week come from Chris Monsen's Jazz favorites list, plus a few more from Phil Overeem's Halfway to Listville. The easiest one was John McPhee's Nation Time: I skipped over it when I was catching up with Corbett vs. Dempsey's Bandcamp a few weeks back, as I had already given Corbett's 2000 reissue a full A, and hadn't noticed the extra cuts. No reason to repurchase if you have the Atavistic release, but the bonuses are just that.

Had a minor role in helping Joe Yanosik publish his magnum opus A Consumer Guide to FRANCO. I have a Guests section on my website, which I've used a few times but never really tried to promote. I've long thought that a better solution would be to set up guest areas on my Hullworks website, perhaps as sub-domains, which could be spun off should the guests decide to pony up for a domain name. I'm in a position where I can host those as well. I also considered hanging Joe's piece at Terminal Zone -- long my pet idea for a music-themed website (named for the zine Don Malcolm and I published back in 1977). In the end, I went with the path that involved the least thought and work.

When Joe first mentioned his Franco project to me, I glanced at Napster's Franco offerings, and spent a week digging around. My own (much more limited) set of Franco grades are here. You can also look up what Robert Christgau has written.

I might as well mention two projects that I've started but haven't gotten very far on. I've started to add recent reviews to the two large book manuscript files I have on jazz. Rather slow work, but I've added 99 pages up to January, 2019, pushing the 20th century jazz guide over 800, and the 21st over 1700. Files are backed up online, in ODT format.

I've also started collecting mid-year lists, as I did last year. This uses the EOY list aggregate format, and most likely will eventually evolve into a full EOY list aggregate later this year. Only have four lists compiled so far (about a third of those collected on AOTY). I'm surprised there aren't more, but haven't really looked yet. The current aggregate is way too sparse to draw any real conclusions from. One issue here is that I'm only awarding 1 point for each list mention. (Two reasons: one is that so far many of the lists are unranked; the other is that it makes it easier to clean up with I replace the midway lists with EOY lists.) The other point I should note here is that I'm factoring in my graces (A: 5, A-: 4, ***: 3, **: 2, *: 1), which currently results in quite a bit of skew. E.g., 6 of the top 8 records now are ones I've graded A- (Billy Eilish, Lizzo, Charly Bliss, Big Thief, Little Simz, Jamila Woods), and the other two (Carly Rae Jepsen and Vampire Weekend) were *** and ** respectively. Expect my picks to slip as I add further lists, while records I like less will make inroads (Solange is the surest shot; maybe also Tyler the Creator, Sharon Van Etten, Jenny Lewis). Record that I haven't heard with the most list mentions so far: Flying Lotus' Flamagra.

New records reviewed this week:

Maria Faust/Tim Dahl/Weasel Walter: Farm Fresh (2019, Gotta Let It Out): Alto saxophonist, from Estonia, based in Denmark, several albums since 2014, this trio gets a buzz from Dahl's electric bass, running through 10 pieces in 37:43. B+(***)

Fire! Orchestra: Arrival (2019, Rune Grammofon): Started as a trio with Mats Gustafsson (baritone sax), John Bethling (bass), and Andreas Werlin (drums), then grew massive, up to 28 members, now down to 14: two vocalists (Mariam Wallentin, who wrote most of the lyrics, and Sofia Jernberg), a string quartet, trumpet, four reeds (arranged by Per Texas Johansson), and keyboards. Starts easy, swells to staggering, slows back down to some kind of lament. I'm baffled by it all, aside from a dirge with familiar lyrics, "At Last I Am Free." B

Alex Fournier: Triio (3028 [2019], Furniture Music): Bassist, from Toronto, second album, calls this his "flagship project," actually started as a quartet and has since grown to six, with alto sax (Bea Labikova), trombone (Aidan Sibley), guitar, piano, and drums. Starts with piano trio, the horns sneaking in and expanding the sound into a very sophisticated postbop harmony. B+(***)

Lafayette Gilchrist: Dark Matter (2016 [2019], self-released): Pianist, first noted in David Murray's Black Saint Quartet, haven't heard much from him since his stretch with Hyena ended in 2008. Solo here, strong on rhythm, which is usually what works for me. B+(***) [cd]

GoldLink: Diaspora (2019, Squaaash Club/RCA): Rapper (or more often singer) D'Anthony Carlos, second album, major groove at least half the way through. B+(***)

Bjørn Marius Hegge: Ideas (2019, Particular): Norwegian bassist. Title may extend to the fine print: "for Axel Dörner, Rudi Mahall, Hans Hulbaekmo and Håvard Wiik" -- no credits, but that's presumably the band here (trumpet, bass clarinet, drums, piano). A-

Megan Thee Stallion: Fever (2019, 300 Entertainment): Rapper Megan Pete, from Houston. First mixtape, after two EPs and a few singles. Trap beats, splashy, cover looks like it's rising out of 1970s blaxploitation movie, hot and steamy. B+(***)

Nature Work: Nature Work (2018 [2019], Sunnyside): Freewheeling quartet, Jason Stein (bass clarinet) and Greg Ward (alto sax) up front, Eric Revis on bass and Jim Black on drums. Impressive at full speed, loses me a bit when they slow down, but that doesn't happen often. A-

Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity: To Whom Who Buys a Record (2019, Odin): Norwegian drummer, third album with this trio, featuring André Roligheten (sax/bass clarinet) with Petter Eldh (double bass). All three contributed pieces, with Nilsen having a hand in most. Slows a bit toward the end, without losing interest. A-

Pere Ubu: The Long Goodbye (2019, Cherry Red): Great post-punk band from Ohio, not sure how much beyond vocalist David Thomas remains, but they can still do weird and murky, even if the rust squeaks here and there. [CD comes with a second, live disc, I haven't heard.] B+(**)

Santana: Africa Speaks (2019, Concord): Guitarist Carlos Santana in group form, eponymous first album appeared in 1969, still kicking 50 years later (dozens of personnel changes along the way, but the early-'70s core group reunited in 2013 (Neal Schon, Gregg Rolie, Michael Carabello, Michael Shrieve). They were a big thing in their heyday, a group I never listened to after growing sick of Abraxas at a party that had nothing else to offer. So while he/they recorded 14 albums through 1979, I'm a bit surprised to find a steady stream of albums since (by decade: 7, 4, 2, 5). back for 50th anniversary with loud drums, bubbling percussion, wailing vocals, and great gobs of trademark guitar. B

Bruce Springsteen: Springsteen on Broadway (2018, Columbia, 2CD): Mostly solo, acoustic guitar, sixteen signature songs with a lot of talk along the way, probably derived from his well-regarded autobiography -- could just as well be reviewed as an audiobook, albeit with exaggerated gestures. I've never been much of a fan, but I have to respect (maybe even admire) what he's made of his life. B+(**)

Bruce Springsteen: Western Stars (2019, Columbia): Turns his eyes to the vast open spaces of the old west, then fills them up with loping melodies and swelling string arrangements. Some of the latter aren't so bad, and some are. Stories too, none amusing enough to get me to notice. B-

Zhenya Strigalev/Federico Dannemann: The Change (2018 [2019], Rainy Days): Saxophone and guitar, with Luques Curtis (double bass) and Obed Calvaire (drums) keeping them on track. Mostly a fusion grind, the guitarist more impressive but the richer tones of the sax no doubt help. Strigalev sings one song, which only Robert Wyatt could get away with. B+(*) [cd]

Gebhard Ullmann Basement Research: Impromptus and Other Short Works (2018 [2019], WhyPlayJazz): Leader plays tenor sax and bass clarinet, recorded the album Basement Research in 1993, and has kept the name for low-pitched groups ever since. This 25th anniversary project has Julian Argüelles on baritone sax, Steve Swell on trombone, Pascal Niggenkemper on double bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums. B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Dexter Gordon: At the Subway Club 1973 (1965-73 [2019], Elemental Music, 2CD): Five long cuts, 95:57, as advertised, recorded on tour at Subway Jazz-Club in Cologne, the tenor saxophonist backed by Irv Rochlin (piano), Henk Haverhoek (bass), and Tony Inzalaco (drums), plus four extra cuts from earlier European tours, different personnel, none previously released. B+(**)

Clifford Jordan Quartet: Glass Bead Games (1973 [1974], Strata East; [2019], Pure Pleasure): Actually, two quartets led by the tenor saxophonist, both with Billy Higgins on drums, piano/bass duties split between Stanley Cowell/Bill Lee and Cedar Walton/Sam Jones. Piano equally impressive, leader makes it all seem so natural. A-

Eero Koivistoinen: The Front Is Breaking (1976, Love; [2017], Svart): Finnish saxophonist (tenor/soprano/sopranino), liked to play free over funk-fusion grooves. Starts impressive, but not so much when he lays out. B+(*)

Joe McPhee: Nation Time (1970 [2018], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Second album, plays tenor sax and trumpet, with Mike Kull (piano/electric piano), Tyrone Crabb (bass/electric bass/trumpet), and percussion (Ernest Bostic and Bruce Thompson). Original release was on CjRecord in 1971, the 18:30 title cut on one side, two more (22:12) on the other, as was the 2000 Atavistic Unheard Music Series reissue in 2000. This reissue adds three extra cuts, for a total of 65:00. The original album was one of the greatest artifacts of its era, a feat of radical boogaloo, the beat (especially on "Shakey Jake") just regular enough to drive us to ecstasy. The extras aren't as monumental, but hold up pretty well. A [bc]

Harry Mosco: Peace & Harmony (1979 [2019], Isle of Jura): Nigerian singer-guitarist, last name Agada, member of the Funkees, used the alias Mr. Funkees for his first solo album (Country Boy), that name also appearing on cover here. Opens with disco, gets funky, goes reggae for the title cut, dubs out, returns to the dance floor. Not what you'd call an original thinker. B+(*)

Woody Shaw Quintet: Basel 1980 (1980-81 [2019], Elemental Music, 2CD): Previously unreleased live set from Switzerland, with Carter Jefferson (tenor/soprano sax), Larry Willis (piano), Stafford James (bass), and Victor Lewis (drums), plus one later track (10:44) with just trumpet, piano (Mulgrew Miller), and drums (Tony Reedus). Pretty spectacular. A-

Sonic Youth: Battery Park, NYC, July 4th 2008 (2008 [2019], Matador): Live shot, a year before their last album (The Eternal), two years after Rather Ripped, both solid entries in their 25-year run, although I can't say as I remember much from either. I do recall their sound, compressed and sharpened here. Blew me away at first, then faded into the ether. B+(***)

Bruce Springsteen: The Live Series: Songs of the Road (1977-2013 [2018], Columbia): The first of three wide-ranging live compilations, released as digital downloads, loosely organized by theme. These are the car/road songs, with 8 (of 15) from 1977-80, from "Thunder Road" to "Cadillac Ranch." B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• John Bacon/Michael McNeill/Danny Ziemann: Refractions (Jazz Dimensions): August 1
• Mike Holober/The Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Hiding Out (Zoho): August 9
• From Wolves to Whales: Strandwal (Aerophonic): August 26
• Dave Rempis/Joshua Abrams/Avreeayl Ra + Jim Baker: Apsis (Aerophonic): August 26

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Fairly large (7.3) earthquake in Halmahera, Indonesia today. It's in a fairly isolated corner of the nation, an island with about 450,000 people, north of Ceram and midway between the outstretched peninsulas of New Guinea and Sulawesi. Probably not much news on this, unlike last week's similar-sized earthquakes near Ridgecrest, California.

On the other hand, quite a bit of news attention to Hurricane Barry, slowly moving today through north Louisiana and into Arkansas, dumping a lot of rain over already flooded terrain. Two things worth noting here. One is that this is still very early in the season (nominally June 1 to November 30). For a record fifth year in a row, the first named storm (Andrea) appeared before the season officially started. June was quiet, but it's still very rare to have hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico in July. Odder still, where most hurricanes start as low pressure zones over West Africa, then pick up strength crossing the width of the subtropical Atlantic Ocean, this one started in Tennessee, then curved in a clockwise motion through Georgia and Florida before intensifying over the Gulf. I've never seen a storm follow that trajectory, or for that matter one that spent so little time over water developing to hurricane level. Granted, it only briefly achieved level 1 strength, but that doesn't bode well for later storms that traverse much more of the still warming Gulf (currently 86°F). [PS: The Wikipedia page suggests several similar hurricanes, but the only one that comes close is 1940 Louisiana hurricane, which formed in early August off the coast of Georgia, crossed Florida and covered a much longer stretch of the Gulf before making landfall in southwest Louisiana. It is regarded as "the wettest tropical cyclone in state history," with a peak rainfall of 37.5 inches. Barry is forecast to produce up to 25 inches of rain. Actual rain so far appears to be much less -- see Barry downgraded to a depression but still brings risk of flooding from Louisiana to Arkansas. This article also notes that the average date for first hurricane of season is August 10, and that this is the first July hurricane in continental US since Arthur in 2014, and only the 4th in Louisiana history according to records going back to 1851.]

Some scattered links this week:

• William Astore: The riptide of American militarism.

• Aaron Blake: Donald Trump's origin story suffers another severe blow:

  The new report by Kranish also recalls perhaps the biggest revelation undercutting Trump's self-published origin story: how he became wealthy in the first place. While Trump has claimed he got only a $1 million loan to start out with, the Times detailed how the younger Trump "received at least $413 million in today's dollars from his father's real estate empire, much of it through tax dodges in the 1990s." The paper said these tax dodges included "instances of outright fraud."

  And when it comes to Trump's education, he has apparently gone to great lengths to obscure the record and seems to have tapped powerful connections in the process, as The Post's Marc Fisher detailed in March. The New York Military Academy, which Trump attended before college, moved its Trump files to a more secure location amid pressure from wealthy Trump allies. Around the same time that was revealed, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who flipped on Trump and pleaded guilty to several crimes, released a 2015 letter he wrote threatening Fordham University with legal action if Trump's records were released.

  The combined picture is one of a president who may not have been able to attend Penn or assemble anywhere close to such a fortune without familial connections.

• Jonathan Blitzer: Trump is poised to sign a radical agreement to send future asylum seekers to Guatemala.

• Frank Bruni: Joe Biden, Closet Republican: "He's the liberal Bob Dole, the looser Mitt Romney, the supposedly safe bet who's owed a shot." I'm not a Biden fan, but this is pretty unfair. For starters, it vastly understates how despicable the vast majority of Republican politicians have become -- ironically, a trait that Biden and Bruni seem to share. Biden has been a reasonably successful politician during the 40-year Reagan-Bush-Trump era, at least in part because he's often been willing to bend with the wind. That bending may have helped lend credence to the Republicans, and that's reason enough to doubt him as a candidate. Still, there's a big gap between Democrats like Biden and supposedly respectable Republicans like Dole and Romney. Bruni's not doing us any favors by papering over that chasm.

• Cristina Cabrera: Trump launches racist attack against 'progressive Democrat congresswomen'. Related: Peter Wade: Of course, Fox News delighted in Trump's racist tweet. The question Fox raised on the screen was "DEMOCRATS DIVIDED?" Actually, the reaction there was pretty united: it speaks volumes that the one thing every Democratic politician in America agrees on is that Trump is a racist, and that it's fair game to put it that explicitly.

• Jonathan Chait: President Trump says only Trump supporters deserve free speech.

• Ryan Devereaux: Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost was a member of secret Facebook group.

• Brian Feldman: FTC fines Facebook $5 billion over Cambridge Analytica scandal.

• Ryan Gallagher: How US tech giants are helping to build China's surveillance state. Same deal here: Middle East dictators buy spy tech from company linked to IBM and Google.

• Masha Gessen:

  • Donald Trump's "inoffensive" war on reality.

  • Mike Pompeo's faith-based attempt to narrowly redefine human rights.

• Tara Golshan:

  • Progressives just got a major win against Trump on Iran. Can they hold on to it?

  • Elizabeth Warren's immigration proposal goes much further than a pathway to citizenship.

• David A Graham: The best way to get fired by Trump: "The president's new strategy for getting rid of scandal-tainted aides: Quickly accept their resignations, but heap praise on them as they leave."

• Ryan Grim: Amy McGrath is challenging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. She's everything wrong with the Democratic Party. Yeah, but if I was misfortunate enough to be represented by McConnell, I'd cheerfully vote for her anyway. Note that she wound up correcting her faux pas on the Kavanaugh question.

• Neil Irwin: The Fed's new message: The economy can get a lot better for workers: "A rejection of what had been a consensus view of the relationship between the jobless rate and inflation."

• Ed Kilgore:

  • The case for Biden's 'electability' fades under scrutiny.

  • Trump caves on census citizenship question, but hints at broader fight ahead.

  • House votes to require congressional approval for war with Iran.

• Jen Kirby:

  • The UK ambassador to the US has resigned. Here's why it's a big deal. Follow up to Trump tweets "we will no longer deal" with UK ambassador after leaked cables. Richard Wolffe notes: Trump's spat with the UK reveals the bottomless depths of his insecurities.

  • Joe Biden wants to restore the pre-Trump world order.

  • Prosecutors are investigating whether GOP donor Elliott Broidy used Trump ties to profit.

• Michael Klare: It's always the oil: The missing three-letter word in the Iran crisis.

• Ezra Klein: What Donald Trump got right, and Justin Amash got wrong, about conservatives: "Conservatism is an identity more than an ideology, and Trump knows it."

• Carolyn Kormann: The case for declaring a national climate emergency.

  While Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez's calls for a climate-emergency declaration are not solving any problems, they are providing the language that needs to dominate the national conversation. And that matters. The United Nations recently warned that climate disasters are happening at the rate of one per week. This past June was the hottest on record. At the end of the month, a freak storm buried Guadalajara, Mexico, in hail, and on Thursday morning news outlets reported that freak hailstorms in Greece killed seven people. A month's worth of rain fell on Washington, D.C., in an hour on Monday (while Trump completely ignored the climate crisis in his speech on the environment), then more flash floods drowned New Orleans, which is now preparing for a tropical storm that could dump another twenty inches of rain and test the city's levees. The warming that happens over the next few decades could kill all of the world's coral reefs, lead to even more severe storms and wildfires, and set off the sorts of tipping points that most concern scientists -- specifically, the irreversible dissolution of the Greenland ice sheet, where, in June, a heatwave set off melting across half of its surface.

• Josh Kovensky: Rudy Giuliani, Joe Lieberman team up for Albania MEK conference.

• Eric Levitz: Why the GOP might learn to love putting price controls on drugs.

• German Lopez: How to dramatically reduce gun violence in American cities: Based on a new book by Thomas Abt: Bleeding Out.

• Robert Mackey:

  • Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden condemn Israeli Occupation, as young American Jews urge Democrats to press Isarel. Seems like this is significant, but note that Buttigieg went on to cite Ariel Sharon as saying the occupation must end.

  • Give Elizabeth Warren a break -- even Ariel Sharon said the Israeli Occupation had to end.

  • Trump takes the bait, lashing out at UK Ambassador whose private notes were leaked.

• Dylan Matthews: AOC's policy adviser makes the case for abolishing billionaires: Interview with Dan Riffle.

• Joan McCarter: How Trump swallowed the GOP whole and exposed Paul Ryan's craven moral failings. Refers to a forthcoming book by Tim Alberta: American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump. For more, see:

  • Josh Dawsey: New book details how Republican leaders learned to stop worrying and love Trump.

  • John Nichols: The Republicans who made Trump possible cannot remove the badge of shame.

  • Jennifer Szalai: 'American Carnage' shows how war between Republicans led to their peace with Trump. Ryan looms large in the book, so Trump's already singled him out for opprobrium.

  • Christian Vasquez: Trump: Republicans like Paul Ryan are 'weak, ineffective & stupid.'

  • Jonathan Chait: Trump: Paul Ryan was bribed to call me stupid.

• Rani Molla: Conservatives pretending to be suppressed by social media dominated social media.

• Suzanne Moore: Of course Boris Johnson wants a royal yacht. He's the king of fake-it-till-you-make-it.

• Dina Nayeri: Why they fear Ilhan Omar: "Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson don't think she's dangerous. They hate that she's full of potential."

• Anna North: Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta has no good answer for cushy Jeffrey Epstein plea deal. Acosta wound up resigning, after Trump swore, "I'm with him". For more, see:

  • Jane Coaston/Anna North: Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who is friends with Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, explained.

  • Annie Karni/Maggie Haberman: Jeffrey Epstein was a 'terrific guy,' Donald Trump once said. Now he's 'not a fan.'

  • Michelle Goldberg: Acosta resigned. The Caligula administration lives on.

• Amanda Petrusich: Going home with Wendell Berry: Interview. Sample quote I should save and maybe use some time: "Every generation is a bridge between something that's past, and something that's coming."

• Charles P Pierce: Nancy Pelosi's leadership now constitutes a constant dereliction of duty. Pierce is the kind of pundit I'd expect to go to the mat defending Party leadership like Pelosi, so I'm impressed first of all that he snapped, second that he snapped this direction. What this shows is that AOC and her "gang of four" have struck a chord that extends even to middling Democrats. Maybe that's because they're scoring points while Pelosi, Schumer, Hoyer, et al. look like mere bystanders. Another non-radical suddenly soured on Pelosi: Andrew Sullivan: Hey, Nancy Pelosi: Please stop coddling Donald Trump.

• Gareth Porter: Lies about Iran killing US troops in Iraq are a ploy to justify war.

• Andrew Prokop: Trump's census citizenship question fiasco, explained. Related: Michael Wines: The long history of the US government asking Americans whether they are citizens.

• Gabriela Resto-Montero:

  • Mayors and protesters remain defiant ahead of ICE raids: "You're going to have to come through us."

  • Mike Pence visits a crowded immigrant detention center: "This is tough stuff." More on this: Nicole Lafond: In 'tough' visit, Pence uses crisis he helped create to push immigration overhaul.

• David Roberts: Coal left Appalachia devastated. Now it's doing the same to Wyoming.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Trump's latest press conference was a master class in gaslighting.

  • Trump's social media summit was a circus. Its aftermath was even worse.

  • Trump's latest morning of tweets was off the rails, even by his standards.

  • One day encapsulated everything that's wrong with Fox News.

• Matt Shuham: House report shines light on multiple infants under one separated from parents.

• Tierney Sneed: How Trump doubled down on the crazy claim he's immune from oversight.

• Paul Sonne/Karoun Demirjian/Missy Ryan: Sexual assault allegations complicate confirmation of Trump's nominee for military's No. 2 officer: Air Force Gen. John E Hyten, commander of US Strategic Command, nominated to be vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

• Matt Taibbi: Ross Perot had the last laugh. The business mogul and third-party presidential candidates (1992/1996) died last week, at 89.

• Alex Thompson: Elizabeth Warren shuns conventional wisdom for a new kind of campaign: Key sentence: "She's largely rejecting DC's consultant class."

• Marc Tracy: As the world heats up, the climate for news is changing, too.

• Alex Ward:

  • "Trump is quite easy to buy off": how Trump is putting American foreign policy up for sale: "Want to understand Trump's foreign policy? Just follow the money."

  • Biden releases video blasting "the Trump Doctrine" of foreign policy. Defines "five core elements of what Biden calls 'The Trump Doctrine'":

    1. Embrace dictators
    2. Threaten war
    3. Rip up international agreements
    4. Launch trade wars
    5. Embarrass the US

    Lots of problems here, starting with the assertion that what Trump's doing is coherent and consistent enough to imply a "doctrine" (especially when no such thing has been stated). He's pretty selective about which dictators he "embraces," favoring those who align with his worldview, especially those who cater to his personal finances. And while he has no personal interest in democracy, international law, and/or concern for human rights, he's willing to slander his enemies (and only his enemies) for their shortcomings there. Similarly, his treatment of international treaties and trade agreements is unprincipled, riding almost exclusively on his personal (and partisan) economic interest. He's a committed bully, and feels that by virtue of its wealth and power America is entitled to threaten and cajole the little countries around, but he has yet to act as recklessly as his rhetoric suggests. Of course, he's a huge embarrassment. But aside from being somewhat less of an embarrassment, one wonders what Biden would do differently. US foreign policy has been remarkably consistent across parties, both in the Cold War and post-Cold War eras, as if presidents don't actually have many real options. In his long career, Biden has very dependably gone along with whatever the prevailing "wisdom" dictated, so there's little reason to think he won't continue to serve the same interests US foreign policy has long followed.

  • The US has a risky new plan to protect oil tankers from Iranian attacks.

• New leak claims Trump scrapped Iran nuclear deal 'to spite Obama'.

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, July 8, 2019

Music: current count 31726 [31702] rated (+24), 262 [260] unrated (+2).

Rated count down this week. Maybe I didn't focus well while Laura was in Boston, but it's also likely that coming up with a relative bounty of A- records had an effect: they always take more time. Also, I didn't take any dives into old music (the VSOP Quintet shows up in Napster's featured new jazz list, but with digital reissues I usually just cite the original release label/date -- and it wasn't good enough to inspire me to check out their other albums).

This is my first Music Week since Robert Christgau posted his final Noisey Expert Witness column, so it's fitting that I looked a little harder than usual for recent non-jazz. In this I was helped by Phil Overeem's halfway through 2019 list (Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, Peter Perrett, Billy Woods & Kenny Segal, Abdullah Ibrahim), and by Facebook comments from Dan Weiss (DaBaby, Open Mike Eagle, Gibbs again -- he's also big on Denzel Curry's Zuu, which I previously had at B+(**)). Most of the others were picked up by scrounging for new music on Napster.

The most controversial of these is probably Madonna's Madame X. Metacritic average is 70. Rob Sheffield wrote a 3-star pan at Rolling Stone, although it reads better than the rating. Spencer Kornhaber takes offense in The paradox of Madonna's gun-control music video. Took me a lot of plays before I recognized that the number of songs I was pleased to recognize exceeded the number of fingers I had available for counting. I have more doubts about the Peter Perrett album, but I gave How the West Was Won an A-, and this one hit the same pleasure spots. Makes me wonder if I underrated Special View (the 1979 Only Ones album), where I remembered his voice from.

I'll also note that I've given Wes's Best: The Best of Wes Montgomery on Resonance 3-4 plays with increasing pleasure. I'd like to review the albums it was selected from before doing the compilation, but the release schedule hasn't made that possible. Haven't played the Bill Evans compilation yet, but same considerations apply there. I've been wanting to hear those records ever since they came out, but probably wouldn't have bothered with the compilations had they not appeared in the mail. Also got a note in email today asking whether I've downloaded recent AUM Fidelity releases. I've looked for them on Napster, but didn't notice the email invites. I'll eventually dig them out, but if you want my attention, best way is still to send a CD.

There will be a new XgauSez out by Tuesday morning. I'm hope to get this post wrapped up before I take a good look at it, and I've been hobbled by Weekend Roundup running into overtime. Also in my input queue is a lengthy and quite extraordinary "Consumer Guide to Franco" that Joe Yanosik compiled and asked if I would publish. Expect that later this week.

New records reviewed this week:

75 Dollar Bill: I Was Real (2019, Thin Wrist): Guitar-drums duo, Che Chen and Rick Brown, the former studied Mauritanian music with Jheich Ould Chighaly, perhaps why their most obvious (indeed, the practically only) connection seems to be with Saharan blues/rock. No vocals on this third album. The 16:55 title cut, fourth in, is where my interest kicks in. B+(***)

JD Allen: Barracoon (2019, Savant): Tenor saxophonist, has a distinctive sound and built his reputation by in a series of powerhouse trio albums. This is another, a return to form with a new set of bandmates, Ian Kenselaar (bass) and Nic Cacioppo (drums). Title inspired by a Zora Neale Hurston book. Originals, but closes with a touching "When You Wish Upon a Star." A-

Gretje Angell: In Any Key (2018 [2019], Grevlinto): Standards singer, born in Akron, based on Los Angeles, father and grandfather both jazz drummers. First album, voice reminds you of Brazilian singers even before she got to "Berimbau" and "One Note Samba." Backed by guitarist Dori Amarillo -- some cuts just him, others with bass, drums, and/or percussion. B+(**) [cd]

Blind Lemon Jazz: After Hours: New Pages in the American Songbook (2019, Ofeh): "Featuring the songs of James Byfield," who usually does business as Blind Lemon Pledge. He is a guitarist, "roots songwriter," sings some but mostly turns his songs over to Marisa Malvino. She brings some blues grit. B+(*) [cd]

DaBaby: Blank Blank (2018, South Coast Music Group, EP): Rapper Jonathan Kirk, born in Cleveland, grwe up in North Carolina, released his first mixtape in 2017, this number nine. Short pieces, packing 10 cuts into 23:57. Reminds me of Young Thug -- he started later, but is a year older. B+(***)

DaBaby: Baby on Baby (2019, South Coast music Group): First studio album after a bunch of mixtapes, songs remain compact and sharp, taking 13 to push the album up to 31:36, scoring a hit single with "Suge" but can't say as it stands out much. B+(**)

Open Mike Eagle: The New Negroes: Season 1 Soundtrack (2019, Comedy Central, EP): Cover adds "With Baron Vaughan & Open Mike Eagle" -- the former the comedian host for the series, with the rapper some kind of sidekick, his role unclear on these nine short cuts (21:56), eight featuring other rappers (Danny Brown, MF DOom, Phonte, Lizzo, etc.). B+(*)

Freddie Gibbs & Madlib: Bandana (2019, Keel Cool/RCA): Rapper, from Gary, Indiana, second album (plus four mixtapes) with the producer (Otis Jackson), the combo sometimes known as MadGibbs. Lyrics are striking, carried along by the sweeping production. A-

Jesca Hoop: Stonechild (2019, Memphis Industries): Singer-songwriter, eighth album, leans back toward folk this time, not as attractive as her pop move on Memories Are Now. B+(*)

Abdullah Ibrahim: The Balance (2019, Gearbox): South African pianist, cut his first album for Duke Ellington in 1963, is 84 now. His solo pieces are steady here, but the group pieces really come to life, especially "Jabula" -- for some reason, Napster regards that the album title, but other sources read as above. B+(***)

Mike LeDonne: Partners in Time (2019, Savant): Pianist here, although he's played organ more often in the past. Names on the front cover in slightly smaller type, probably because they're more famous than he is: Christian McBride, Lewis Nash. Lively, support is impeccable. B+(**)

Madonna: Madame X (2019, Interscope): She's moved from London to Lisbon, picked up a few new beats, plus Colombian featured Maluma, although that was the sort of timely move she's been making for ages now (single: "Medellin"). As her life in exile puts America ever more distant in the rear-view mirror, her politics grow both snarkier and more empathetic, with the solution a path of personal growth that only she seems to be able to pull off. Still, good for her. [NB: Listened to "Deluxe Edition," two extra songs, pretty good ones.] A-

Buddy & Julie Miller: Breakdown on 20th Ave. South (2019, New West): Husband-and-wife singer-songwriters, have recorded together off and on since 1995, also separately but they're usually better together. B+(**)

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real: Turn Off the News (Build a Garden) (2019, Fantasy): Willie Nelson's son, via his fourth wife, has run this country-rock band since 2009. Fifth album (plus two backing Neil Young). B+(*)

Willie Nelson: Ride Me Back Home (2019, Legacy): Still prolific at 86, a batch of originals (mostly co-credited to producer Buddy Cannon), almost as many covers (two from Guy Clark, one from Billy Joel). Reportedly the final chapter in Nelson's "Mortality Trilogy," but less focused on age and death than the previous entries. No dope songs either. Could be the new normal. A-

Peter Perrett: Humanworld (2019, Domino): Former leader of the Only Ones, possessing one of the most memorable voices of the late 1970s punk invasion. Struggled long after the group broke up, only to make an improbably great comeback album in 2017 (How the West Was Won). This is a fitting sequel, if anything more fleshed out, more powerful. A-

Mette Rasmussen/Julien Desprez: The Hatch (2016 [2019], Dark Tree): Alto sax and electric guitar. Can, on occasion, irritate with too much noise, or nod off with too little, but impressive when walking that fine line. B+(**) [cd]

Rebekah Victoria: Songs of the Decades (2018 [2019], Patois): Standards singer, has a previous album with a group called Jazzkwest ("the jazz band for all occasions!"), works with trombonist Wayne Wallace and his many friends here. Idea here is to pick one song from each decade of the 20th century, although she slips a couple more in. "These Boots Are Made for Walking" (1966) fits most uneasily, then leads into "It's Too Late" (1971). The later songs, from Split Enz and Toni Braxton, are less iconic. B+(*)

Billy Woods & Kenny Segal: Hiding Places (2019, Blackwoodz Studioz): New York rapper and Los Angeles producer, the former with a dozen-plus albums since 2002 (including groups like Armand Hammer). Something of a slog, although much of it is worth the effort. B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Stan Getz: Getz at the Gate: The Stan Getz Quartet Live at the Village Gate Nov. 26 1961 (1961 [2019], Verve, 2CD): Tenor sax great, returns to US after three years in Denmark, a year before his crossover Brazilian moves made him a star. Hype sheet calls this "transitional," but it sounds little changed from his 1955-57 West Coast Sessions, his rhythm as sure, his tone every bit as cool. Pianist Steve Kuhn has some standout moments. John Neves (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums) fill out the quartet. A-

Sourakata Koité: En Holland (1984 [2019], Awesome Tapes From Africa): Kora master, a Malinké from Senegal, sings some, moved to Paris in 1978, cut this in the Netherlands with Joseph Nganga (percussion, background vocals) and S.E.G. Cissé (more percussion). Too amiable for awesome. B+(**) [bc]

Asnakech Worku: Asnakech (1975 [2018], Awesome Tapes From Africa): Actress, dancer, musician, "cultural icon" -- her work was previously featured in Éthiopiques, Vol. 16: The Lady With the Krar (as Asnaqètch Wèrqu), which overlaps this album recorded with Hailu Mergia on organ and Temare Haregu on drums. Her instrument was the ancient krar ("a lyre, or harp, with 6 strings attached to a cloth-wrapped wooden crossbar, the sound emits from a resonator bowl covered with animal skin"). B+(**) [bc]

Old music:

The V.S.O.P. Quintet: Five Stars (1979, CBS/Sony): Basically, the late-sixties Miles Davis quintet (Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams) with Freddie Hubbard filling in for Davis, who moved on a decade earlier -- the others straggling to cash in on the fusion Davis created. Initially a live band to tour Japan, they release four live albums plus this studio effort. Four pieces, one each from everyone but Carter. None distinguished. B

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Rodrigo Amado/Chris Corsano: No Place to Fall (Astral Spirits)
• Peter Eldridge/Kenny Werner: Somewhere (Rosebud Music)
• Augie Haas: Dream a Little Dream (Playtime Music): August 30
• Rich Halley: Terra Incognita (Pine Eagle): August 9
• Jelena Jovovic: Heartbeat (self-released)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, July 7, 2019

Donald Trump's big July 4 "celebration" was the week's big non-event, so naturally garnered plenty of press attention. We'll collect the links here, to try to keep the silliness of the event from infecting everything else:

• Jonathan Freedland: Donald Trump wants to be a dictator. It's not enough just to laugh at him.

• Masha Gessen: Donald Trump's "inoffensive" war on reality.

• Philip Kennicott: Forget the tanks. Trump's violation of the Lincoln Memorial is the real offense.

• Osita Nwanevu: Cutouts of J.F.K., Jr., tanks, and adulation at Trump's "Salute to America".

• Adam K Raymond: What you missed at Trump's July 4th spectacular.

• Aaron Rupar: Trump's "Salute to America" speech wasn't as bad as some feared. But it was still weird. "Trump avoided politics, but his over-the-top glorification of the military felt more Moscow than Washington, DC."

Some scattered links this week:

• Ben Armbruster: The Trump administration is trying to make war with Iran inevitable: "We should view Iran's recent posturing for what it is: retaliation to the Trump administration's unnecessary and deliberate provocation." Related: Phyllis Bennis: If war breaks out with Iran, it won't be an accident.

• Dean Baker: Why aren't Democrats talking about ending patent-financed drug research? Good question, especially since "free market drugs are a really big deal." One point I'd stress more is that public funding of drug research is not only more efficient, and much more transparent, but that it would also demolish borders which impose artificial costs. Free market drugs would spread out research investment, allowing all to benefit.

• Julian Borger: Nuclear weapons: experts alarmed by new Pentagon 'war-fighting' doctrine.

• Alexia Fernández Campbell:

  • The latest jobs report is great news for Wall Street. Not so much for workers.

  • Reminder: Trump doesn't need to keep migrants in detention camps: "The administration has better options to enforce immigration and asylum laws."

  • A $15 federal minimum wage won't cost American jobs, new study says.

• Jonathan Chait:

  • How Hitler's rise to power explains why Republicans accept Donald Trump. Back when GW Bush was president and still popular, I bought a copy of Richard J Evans' The Coming of the Third Reich, figuring it might be interesting to compare the machinations of the Bush-Cheney regime to the ascent of the Nazi party in Germany. I never got around to reading that book, but that same question arose again with Trump, and this time I did some reading: Benjamin Carter Hett's The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic, James Q Whitman's Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law, and Jason Stanley's How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. The unstated assumption here is that similarities between now and early stages of Hitler's arc to disaster predict the path we will follow if we don't change direction. Given how bad things turned out, it's hard to be shocked by each unfolding step. But Chait makes a key point (leaving out the parentheticals):

    All this is to say that German conservatives did not see Hitler as Hitler -- they saw Hitler as Trump. And the reasons they devised to overcome their qualms and accept him as the head of the government would ring familiar to followers of the 2016 campaign. They believed the responsibility of governing would tame Hitler, and that his beliefs were amorphous and could be shaped by advisers once in office. They respected his populist appeal and believed it could serve their own ends. Their myopic concern with specifics of their policy agenda overcame their general sense of unease. Think of the supply-siders supporting Trump in the hope he can enact major tax cuts, or the social conservatives enthused about his list of potential judges, and you'll have a picture of the thought process.

  • Today in 'Donald Trump's campaign is a garbage fire'.

  • Sorry, Obama: Donald Trump is a populist, and you're not: Sorry, Chait, Trump isn't a populist either, even according to either of your dubious definitions:

    1. "The ideological definition of populist means traditionalist on social issues and interventionist on economic policy -- the opposite of libertarianism, in other words."
    2. "Populism can also be defined as a certain kind of political style. Populists believe the government has been captured by evil and/or corrupt interests, and that it can be recaptured by a unified effort by the people (or, at least, their people)."

    I've long identified with populism (see the little blurb top left: "An occasional blog about populist politics and popular music"), most likely because the political movement it refers to was most identified with the people and place I came from (three generations of Kansas farmers before my father got his job in a Wichita airplane factory). Chait's definitions are wrong for that particular movement, and do little to capture the populist impulse as it has periodically erupted in various situations since then. The essential demand of populism is that power serve the people. It's easy enough to show that liberal technocrats like Obama at best give lip service to real democracy, but reactionary demagogues like Trump veer even farther from the principle. They only appear "populist" to elitist pundits who regard the masses as nothing more than a seething horde of prejudices. The more general historical term for such demagoguery is fascism.

• Michelle Chen: AOC's Green New Deal is just the start. Next let's make it global.

• Jelani Cobb: The Supreme Court just legitimized a cornerstone element of voter suppression.

• Tom Engelhardt: War With . . . ?: "We're not the good guys: why is American aggression missing in action?"

  So here's the strange thing, on a planet on which, in 2017, U.S. Special Operations forces deployed to 149 countries, or approximately 75% of all nations; on which the U.S. has perhaps 800 military garrisons outside its own territory; on which the U.S. Navy patrols most of its oceans and seas; on which U.S. unmanned aerial drones conduct assassination strikes across a surprising range of countries; and on which the U.S. has been fighting wars, as well as more minor conflicts, for years on end from Afghanistan to Libya, Syria to Yemen, Iraq to Niger in a century in which it chose to launch full-scale invasions of two countries (Afghanistan and Iraq), is it truly reasonable never to identify the U.S. as an "aggressor" anywhere?

  One should add that there are two major forms of aggression that aren't even being counted here: cyberwarfare and economic warfare in the form of sanctions.

• Garrett Epps: Where John Roberts is taking the court.

• Jeannie Suk Gersen: The Supreme Court is one vote away from changing how the U.S. is governed.

• Jeet Heer: Democrats don't need David Brooks: Response to Brooks' Dems, please don't drive me away.

• Umair Irfan: Restoring forests may be one of our most powerful weapons in fighting climate change: "Adding 2.2 billion acres of tree cover would capture two-thirds of man-made carbon emissions, a new study found." But we're still cutting down more trees than we plant -- especially in Brazil. See Alexander Zaitchick: Rainforest on fire.

• Jake Johnson:

  • 'We are in a climate emergency, America': Anchorage hits 90 degrees for the first time in recorded history. Meanwhile, France records all-time highest temperature of 45.9C (i.e., 114.6F).

  • After British commandos seize oil tanker, Iran accuses UK of committing 'maritime piracy' on behalf of US.

• Fred Kaplan: Bolton of Mongolia: "The national security adviser's banishment during Trump's big diplomatic weekend suggests his days may be numbered."

• Jen Kirby: Sudan's military and civilian opposition have reached a power-sharing deal.

• Gary Leupp: Thoughts on the impromptu Kim-Trump summit: Regarding the US media: "One doesn't hear common sense: that this was a rational friendly gesture towards a country that Trump has rationally decided not to attack." Related: Christine Ahn: It's time to formally end the Korean War.

• Eric Levitz: Trump's Fed nominee pledges to serve as a partisan hack: Judy Shelton, who established her credentials as a partisan back in 2010 when she lobbied for raising Fed interest rates when unemployment topped 10 percent, but insists that we should lower them now that unemployment rates are at a record low. The difference, of course, is the party affiliation of the president.

• Robert Lipsyte: How the worst values of sports are taking over America:

  A half-century ago, the sporting Cassandras predicted that the worst values and sensibilities of our increasingly corrupted civic society would eventually affect our sacred games: football would become a gladiatorial meat market, basketball a model of racism, college sports a paradigm of commercialization, and Olympic sports like swimming and gymnastics a hotbed of sexual predators.

  Mission accomplished!

  The Cassandras then forecast an even more perverse reversal: our games, now profaned, would further corrupt our civic life; winning would not be enough without domination; cheating would be justified as gamesmanship; extreme fandom would become violent tribalism; team loyalty would displace moral courage; and obedience to the coach would supplant democracy.

  Okay, I think it's time for a round of applause for those seers. Let's hear it for Team Trump!

• PR Lockhart: The Alabama woman indicted after a miscarriage will not be prosecuted.

• Robert Mackey: Stephanie Grisham, new White House Press Secretary, has already been caught lying.

• Dylan Matthews: 3 reasons the American Revolution was a mistake: This questions some of my longest and most deeply held beliefs, but for the record:

  1. Abolution would have come faster without independence.
  2. Independence was bad for Native Americans.
  3. America would have a better system of government if we'd stuck with Britain.

• Yascha Mounk: The more you watch, the more you vote populist: Another entry in the "television rots your brain" sweepstakes, using Italy and Silvio Berlusconi as the example.

• Ella Nilsen: Republicans dominate state legislatures. That decides political power in America.

• Anna North: The legal battle over the Trump administration's "domestic gag rule," explained.

• Kelsey Piper: George Soros and Charles Koch team up for a common cause: an end to "endless war": "The controversial billionaire philanthropists are launching a new anti-interventionist think tank": The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, named for John Quincy Adams ("who said in an 1821 speech that America 'goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy'").

• Robert Reich: There is no 'right' v 'left': it is Trump and the oligarchs against the rest: Actually, that's the very definition of right v left. Such naivete Makes me doubt Reich his own title for the otherwise reasonable Avbolish the Billionaires!

• Aaron Rupar: The viral video of Ivanka Trump at the G20 perfectly captures the problem with nepotism.

• Raja Shehadeh: State of exception: Review of Noura Erakat: Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine, asking "what role has local and international law played in the Occupied Territories?"

• Emily Stewart: Did Justin Amash leave the GOP, or did the GOP leave him? The only Republican member of Congress willing to consider impeachment spared the Party the embarrassment of his presence, writing an op-ed announcing his exit from the party. Trump cheered him on:

  Great news for the Republican Party as one of the dumbest & most disloyal men in Congress is "quitting" the Party.

  Related: Bianca Quilantan: Justin Amash: GOP was broken even before Trump's presidency.

• Nicholas Thompson: Tim Wu explains why he thinks Facebook should be broken up. I will add that buying competitors to put them out of business has been a very business practice for quite a while now. The startup I worked for from the late 1980s (Contex Graphic Systems) was eventually sold off to a competitor (Barco), which shut it down within a year. Other antitrust matters: Steven Overly/Margaret Harding McGill: Google's onetime hired gun could now be its antitrust nightmare.

• Anya van Wagtendonk: Two earthquakes shook southern California this week. More could come, but predicting them isn't easy.

• David Wallace-Wells:

  • The uninhabitable Earth: "Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak -- sooner than you think."

  • The man who coined the term 'global warming' on the worst-case scenario for Planet Earth: Interview with Wallace Smith Broecker.

  • 'The models are too conservative': Paleontologist Peter Ward on what past mass extinctions can teach us about climate change today.

• Alex Ward:

  • Biden believes NATO will cease to exist in Trump's second term. That's a bit far-fetched. And Biden thinks this is a reason to vote for him instead of Trump?

  • Violent protests erupt in Israel over police shooting of unarmed Ethiopian teen.

  • Trump calls Afghanistan "the Harvard of terrorists," says he'll leave intel assets there.

  • Why Iran just violated part of the 2015 nuclear deal.

  • The one big benefit to Trump's diplomacy with Kim Jong Un: "Minimizing the chance of war is nothing to scoff at."

• Peter Wehner: The deepening crisis in evangelical Christianity: "Support for Trump comes at a high cost for Christian witness." Wehner has been described as "an outspoken Republican and Christian critic of the Trump presidency." But the article is less interesting for what he fears Trump idolatry is doing to evangelical Christianity that for its description of how deranged Trump's evangelical fans have become. Wehner has a recent book: The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump.

• Philip Weiss: Biden often praises Israeli racists -- but don't expect Kamala Harris to call him out.

• Brett Wilkins: A brief history of US concentration camps.

• Thomas Wright: Trump couldn't ignore the contradictions of his foreign poicy any longer: "The president moves to straighten out his own foreign policy -- and leaves his hawkish national security adviser on the sidelines."

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • Democratic candidates' school integration plans, explained: "Bernie Sanders and Julián Castro have one, Kamala Harris doesn't really."

  • Democrats are learning the wrong lesson from Donald Trump: He ran as a moderate -- and it worked." A moderate, that is, only compared to his fellow Republican candidates, who weren't moderate by any measure. Moreover, since his election, he has regularly surrendered his promises to Republican orthodoxy, except in cases like immigration where he is the lunatic fringe. But Yglesias didn't write this piece to change our perception of Trump. He wrote it to disparage those Democrats who see Trump's extremism as reason to driving the Democratic platform further to the left.

• Gary Younge: Britain is run by a self-serving clique. That's why it's in crisis.

• Matthew Zeitlin:

  • The racial roots of Trump's anti-trade agenda: "The Trump campaign's trade policy can't be disentangled from its rhetoric on race and immigration."

  • There's a huge debate over how the very poorest are doing. There's no debate about whether food stamps help them.

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, July 1, 2019

Music: current count 31702 [31671] rated (+31), 260 [264] unrated (-4).

Noisey has evidently decided to drop Robert Christgau's Expert Witness column, the last one running on Friday. Christgau tweeted:

I do this for money as well as love. So just in case this is the last Expert Witness not just at Noisey, which I'm sad to announce it is, but anywhere, it sticks to albums I'm way late on and albums I wanted to be sure to weigh in on. Enjoy. Consume, even.

Obviously, I should make it a priority to round up these latest Consumer Guide reviews and stuff them into the database. Christgau's first Consumer Guide column was published July 10, 1969, so he's ten days short of fifty years. The whole list is here.

Twice before, Michael Tatum responded to lapses in Christgau's review schedule, first by debuting then relaunching his A Downloader's Diary column. As it happens, he had a new column, his 50th, ready to roll last week when he read Christgau's news, and revised his introduction. (Christgau started the parenthetical numbering scheme, but gave it up after reaching 52 in 1975. I also used it for my Recycled Goods columns.)

I managed to check out a few of Tatum's picks this week, but had previously given A- grades to Big Thief, Coathangers, Control Top, Dave, Billie Eilish, Little Simz, and Jamila Woods -- also a B+(***) to Stella Donnelly, B+(**) to Vampire Weekend. I haven't, however, checked any of his Trash picks.

Streamnotes appeared last week, so this starts a new month.

Don't have anything more to add -- at least anything fit to print. Bad day for me.

New records reviewed this week:

Ilia Belorukov/Gabriel Ferrandini: Disquiet (2017 [2019], Clean Feed): Russian alto saxophonist, never noticed him before but Discogs credits him with 55 albums since 2007. Teams up here with the Portuguese drummer (RED Trio and much more). Choppy, somewhat muted. B+(**)

Lewis Capaldi: Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (2019, Capitol): Singer-songwriter from Scotland, young, first album, processed as pop with his voice stretched toward soul. Topped charts in UK and Ireland. Impressive so far, but could turn annoying. B+(*)

Charly Bliss: Young Enough (2019, Barsuk): Power pop group, Eva Hendricks sings, second album, seems like they got the tone right, all the hooks buttoned up tight. A-

Sylvie Courvoisier/Mark Feldman: Time Gone Out (2018 [2019], Intakt): Piano-violin duo, several previous records together ("almost 20 years"). B+(*)

Caroline Davis: Alula (2017 [2019], New Amsterdam): Alto saxophonist, handful of albums. With Matt Mitchell on synths, Greg Saunier on drums, bits of voice. Some stretches impress, some make me wonder, strikes me as overly fancy. B+(*)

Whit Dickey/Kirk Knuffke: Drone Dream (2017 [2019], NoBusiness): Drums and trumpet duo, the drummer probably more steeped in free jazz but Knuffke can swing that way when the occasion calls for it. B+(***) [cdr]

Sharman Duran: Questioning Reality (2019, self-released): Singer-songwriter, plays keyboards, from San Francisco, third album, rhythm section marks this as jazz, and Melecio Magdaluyo's sax/reeds drives the point home. Puts her politics up front, asking "who put them in charge?" B+(**) [cd]

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Be Known: Ancient/Future/Music (2019, Spiritmuse): Drummer Kahil El'Zabar's long-running group, debuted in 1981 with Three Gentlemen From Chikago, sixteenth album, only their second since 35th Anniversary Project in 2009. The leader is the only constant, with several long-time members falling by the wayside, replaced here by Corey Wilkes (trumpet), Alex Harding (baritone sax), and Ian Maksin (cello). El'Zabar sings, chants, incants, an heir of Sun Ra, more of this world than out of it. B+(***)

Damon Locks/Black Monument Ensemble: Where Future Unfolds (2019, International Anthem): Chicago-based "sound & visual artists," credited with "electronics, bells, voice" on his first album here, with a "15-piece" ensemble, but only credits three other musicians -- Angel Bat Dawid (clarinets), and two percussionists (remaining credits for singers and dancers). Pulls samples from "Civil Rights era" speeches but feels more contemporary, proof that the struggle for civil rights is ongoing. B+(*) [bc]

Jan Maksimovic/Dimitrij Golovanov: Thousand Seconds of Our Life (2018 [2019], NoBusiness): Duo, soprano sax and piano, both Lithuanians -- probably a point of pride for the label, which has been an invaluable refuge for avant-jazz artists all around the world (including Japan). Relatively quiet, one could say intimate. B+(***) [cd]

Jenna McLean: Brighter Day (2018 [2019], Moddl): Standards singer from Colorado, first album, wrote the title cut and lyrics to a Wayne Shorter tune and some vocalese on "Lover Man." Scats some, takes a nice turn on a Joni Mitchell song. B+(*) [cd]

Gabriele Mitelli/Rob Mazurek: Star Splitter (2019, Clean Feed): Mazurek, from Chicago, has been recording since the 1990s, playing trumpet, dabbling in electronics and astronomy (one of his projects is Exploding Star Orchestra), so it's tempting to take him as the mentor if not leader here, but the younger Italian has the same tool kit -- his credits here: "cornet, soprano sax, alto flugelhorn, electronics, objects, voice"; Mazurek plays "piccolo trumpet, electronics, objects voice." No shortage of spaciness here, and it does tend to break up. B+(*)

Monopiece/Jaap Blonk: Monopiece + Jaap Blonk (2019, Shhpuma): West Coast group, despite name a trio -- Nathan Corder (electronics), Matt Robidoux (guitar), Timothy Russell (percussion) -- first album, with the Dutch vocalist as wild card. Scattered chaos, odd noise. B

Angelika Niescier/Christopher Tordini/Gerald Cleaver: New York Trio Feat. Jonathan Finlayson (2018 [2019], Intakt): German alto saxophonist, bassist and drummer from New York, also the featured trumpet player. Starts with a strong piece called "The Surge." B+(***)

Evan Parker/Paul G. Smyth: Calenture and Light Leaks (2015 [2019], Weekertoft): Tenor sax-piano duo, the latter from Dublin, Ireland, with scattered records since 2003. Expected sound, deliberately paced. B+(**) [bc]

Evan Parker & Kinetics: Chiasm (2018 [2019], Clean Feed): Tenor sax, backed by a Danish piano trio (Jacob Anderskov, Adam Pultz Melbye, and Anders Vestergaard), from two sets recorded two days apart, first in Copenhagen, second in London. LP length (38:13), fine form for the leader, also impressed by the piano. A-

Caroline Spence: Mint Condition (2019, Rounder): Singer-songwriter from Virginia, settled in Nashville, fourth album, first not self-released. Lyrics tend toward the literary, but her voice softens the edges, and the melodies suffice. Took me a while. A-

Aki Takase: Hokusai: Piano Solo (2018 [2019], Intakt): All originals, solo except for two pieces -- one with Alexander von Schlippenbach also on piano, the closer with a Yoko Tawada reading. B+(**)

AJ Tracey: AJ Tracey (2019, self-released): British rapper, debut album after four years of singles, EPs (5), and mixtapes (2, released as Looney). Grime beats, a little slack. B+(**)

Gianluigi Trovesi/Gianni Coscia: La Misteriosa Musica Della Regina Loana (2019, ECM): Duets, piccolo/alto clarinet and accordion, the pair has at least four albums together, with Trovesi's discography (much on alto sax) dating back to 1978. The title is a play on a novel by the late Umberto Eco (1932-2016), a friend and fan of the duo. B+(**)

G. Calvin Weston/The Phoenix Orchestra: Dust and Ash (2019, 577): Drummer, played in Ornette Coleman's Prime Time in the late 1970s, released an album in 1988 with James Blood Ulmer and Jamaaladeen Tacuma, a couple other items. First name Grant, sometimes spelled out, often dropped. Group includes electric guitar, bass, keyb, some strings, and the odd vocal by Kayle Brecher. B+(*)

Wschód: Wschód (2017 [2019], Clean Feed): Portuguese pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro (RED Trio) picked up this trio in Wroclaw, Poland, with Zbigniew Kozera (bass) and Kuba Suchar (drums). Builds to a strong simmer. B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Chance the Rapper: 10 Day (2011 [2019], self-released): Chicago rapper Chancelor Bennett, one of the decade's best, released this debut mixtape in 2012, only 18 when he recorded it, yet bursting with wit, charm, and hooks. A-

Detail: Day Two (1982 [2019], NoBusiness): Group founded in 1982 by South African bassist Johnny Dyani, saxophonist Frode Gjerstad, and drummer John Stevens, initially with a keyboardist not present here -- a set recorded just ten days after the tracks on their debut album, First Detail. They recorded several albums up to Dyani's death in 1986, and regrouped for Last Detail in 1994-95 (with Kent Carter on bass). B+(**) [cd]

Kang Tae Hwan/Midori Takada: An Eternal Moment (1995 [2019], NoBusiness): Alto sax and percussion duets, part of Japan's free jazz scene, little known in the west except for frequent flyers like Satoko Fujii. Tends to move slow, at times feeling more like a bass-percussion group, but no less interesting for that. B+(***) [cd]

Sunny Murray/Bob Dickie/Robert Andreano: Homework (1994 [2019], NoBusiness): Drums, bass, guitar, although there's an asterisk indicating that at some point Dickie switched to bass clarinet and Andreano to bass. Initially released in 1997 in a run of 22 copies. Main interest is the drummer, not least when the others drop out. B+(**) [cd]

Horace Tapscott With the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and the Great Voice of UGMAA: Why Don't You Listen? Live at LACMA 1998 (1998 [2019], Dark Tree): Los Angeles pianist and community organizer, first albums in late 1960s were phenomenal, much since then is relegated to private sessions although The Dark Tree (1989) is a Penguin Guide crown album, and two late releases on Arabesque caught my ear. Died in 1999, so this is even later, and too much of a sing-along to give you a good sense of his piano (although the opening instrumental piece, the title of his 1995 Arabesque album, is phenomenal). Still, only the choir at the end starts to wear my patience. A- [cd]

David Wertman Sun Ensemble: Earthly Delights (1978 [2019], BBE): Bassist (1952-2013), self-taught, played in New York's late-1970s loft scene, second album -- jumped out at me because I remember the cover, but somehow missed listing it. With Greg Wall (baritone sax), David Swerdlove (soprano/alto sax), John Sprague Jr (flute/percussion), John Zieman (synth), and Jay Conway (drums). What's recently been referred to as spiritual jazz, often remarkable, as rooted in Ayler and Shepp as in hippie mysticism. B+(***) [bc]

Old music:

Peter Kowald/Kent Kessler/Fred Lonberg-Holm: Flats Fixed (1998 [2014], Corbett vs. Dempsey): German bassist (1944-2002), one of few who could keep your interest in a solo album, visits Chicago and picks up two sympathetic players. Kessler was bassist in Vandermark 5, and cellist Lonberg-Holm would join that group in 2006. B+(***) [bc]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Ola Onabulé: Point Less (Rugged Ram): August 30
• Mette Rasmussen/Julien Desprez: The Hatch (Dark Tree)
• Horace Tapscott With the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and the Great Voice of UGMAA: Why Don't You Listen? Live at LACMA 1998 (Dark Tree)

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