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Sunday, September 30, 2012Weekend RoundupSome scattered links I squirreled away during the previous week:
Links for further study:
Thursday, September 27, 2012Book RoundupOnce again, it's been way too long since the last batch of new book notes -- July 21 -- and how far behind I've dropped is only beginning to sink in as I've spent the last few days searching around. Forty follow, all politics and history: many important, a few dangerous (or at least despicable). There's at least as many left in the file -- admittedly, some stubs -- plus I expect to find more the more I look. That could result in a follow-up next week or in a month or two. Donald L Barlett/James B Steele: The Betrayal of the American Dream (2012, PublicAffairs): Journalists, wrote their first book on this subject back in 1992 (America: What Went Wrong?), then followed it up in 1996 (America: Who Stole the Dream?), and nothing's happened since then to take their subject away. They tend to lead with an onslaught of facts, so expect that. I used to be wary of Middle Class/American Dream arguments, partly because the implicit narrative behind them is one of aspiring to be ever richer. However, the new story line is one of struggling to avoid poverty, nipping at your heels, meaner than ever. Michael Bar-Zohar/Nissim Mishal: Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service (2012, Ecco): One of a rash of recent books on the world's best-publicized spy force, boasting of their great works, not just abductions and assassinations (although there have been plenty of those). Others include: Gordon Thomas: Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad (784 pp.; , sixth ed., paperback, 2012, St. Martin's Griffin); Dan Raviv/Yossi Melman: Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars (paperback, 2012, Levant Books); Ephraim Lapid/Amos Gilboa, eds.: Israel's Silent Defender: An Inside Look at Sixty Years of Israeli Intelligence (2012, Gefen). For a somewhat more balanced view, see Daniel Byman: A High Price: The Triumphs & Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism (2011, Oxford University Press). The Bush Institute: The 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs (2012, Crown Business): After eight years as president with virtually no net growth once they blew away the housing bubble, Bush's advisers think they've finally figured out how to grow the economy. GW wrote the forward. The book proper claims five Nobel economists, starting with Robert Lucas -- probably the most completely discredited man in the profession -- and ending with Myron Scholes, the genius behind Long Term Capital Management (long since defunct). James Carville/Stan Greenberg: It's the Middle Class, Stupid! (2012, Blue Rider Press): Note: comma omitted on front cover, suggesting several alternative parsings. Professional political hacks, i.e., people who somehow get paid for getting it all wrong. I've never liked Obama's middle class fetishism, but that's probably his idea of defensible ground, along with all the other God and patriotic gore he peddles. If Carville has any redeeming merit, it's that he's often crass, and once in a blue moon right. Michael J Casey: The Unfair Trade: How Our Broken Global Financial System Destroys the Middle Class (2012, Crown Business): Australian reporter, takes an international view of the crisis. Not sure how well the "middle class" angle ties in here, although the drive of the financial elites to skim an ever greater slice of the profit and the race to the bottomn of the labor market are certain to take their toll on anyone in between. Steve Coll: Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (2012, Penguin Press): A corporate biography from the Exxon Valdez disaster to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, with plenty of bumps along the road. [link] Gail Collins: As Texas Goes . . . : How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda (2012, Liveright): Political reporter, raised in Ohio, groomed in Connecticut, tramps around Texas in search of what stinks, which turns out to be pretty much everything, except perhaps the people's sense of humor. Previously wrote When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present (2009, Little Brown); before that America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines (2003, William Morrow), and Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celegbrity, and American Politics (1998, William Morrow), and most recently a biography of William Henry Harrison (in a Times Books series -- looks like she drew the short straw). Edward Conard: Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You've Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong (2012, Portfolio): Romney's buddy at Bain Capital, takes pseudo-contrarian stands mostly to argue that he (and Romney) should be making even more money, that inequality is a great thing, and that if you don't believe him you're just a sore loser, an envious shithead. David Crist: The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran (2012, Penguin Press): Latest news charges Iran with launching denial-of-service cyberattacks against New York banks. Wonder where they got that idea? Google "stuxnet": a computer virus the US developed and Israel used against Iran. Cyberattacks are effectively acts of war, even though they have yet to escalate to guns and rockets. There is much to complain about the Iranian government, but the 30-year conflict Crist writes about was born of ineptness at how badly the US reacted to the ouster of a Shah originally installed by the CIA but who had mutated into an embarrassment -- a wound that the US has continued to ineptly pick at, mostly hubris but aggravated once Israel decided to make Iran their public enemy number one. Today we seem closer than ever to war -- arguably with the cyberattacks, assassinations of Iranian scientists, support for the MEK terrorists, and above all sanctions meant to cripple Iran's economy, the US is already committed to war by one means or another. Christopher de Bellaigue: Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a Tragic Anglo-American Coup (2012, Harper): Background on the man who may have been the best hope ever for a democratic, peaceful Iran, except that he objected to Britain's fraudulent control of Iranian oil -- a 19th-century grant of the long-defunct Qajjar dynasty -- so the British pressured the US to orchestrate a coup in 1953. EJ Dionne Jr: Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent (2012, Bloomsbury): Liberal-leaning political journalist, gives more credit to conservatives than they deserve, but that doesn't necessarily lead to the sort of confused centrism that is the norm of the socalled liberal media. Seems likely that Dionne will make the point that sometimes people back conservatives for good reasons -- although most clearly what they get are ignorant brutes set on destroying what's left of civilization. John Dower: Ways of Forgetting, Ways of Remembering: Japan in the Modern World (2012, New Press): Wrote two important books on Japan (War Without Mercy and Embracing Defeat, then took his eye off his niche when the Bush people tried to claim Japan as a model for how well they'd do rebuilding Iraq, but here he returns to his chosen field. Looks like this carries the first two books forward in history as both countries made mental and cultural adjustments that allowed them to work together (even if not on equal terms). Dinesh D'Souza: Obama's America: Unmaking the American Dream (2012, Regnery): Having previously discerned Obama's inner Mau-Mau (Newt Gingrich: "the most profound insight I have read in the last six years"), right-wing America's favorite adopted con man further discovers that Obama "wants a smaller America, a poorer America, an America unable to exert its will, an America happy to be one power among many, an America in decline so that other nations might rise -- all in the name of global fairness." Of course, as a matter of principle, the right's against anything that smacks of fairness, but four years into Obama's presidency, that's the best case they can make? I should probably do a full post on the latest round of Obama hate literature, but it's so uninspired and empty. Some examples: Deneen Borelli: Backlash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation; Ann Coulter: Mugged: Racial Demagoguery From the Seventies to Obama; Bruce Herschensohn: Obama's Globe: A President's Abandonment of US Allies Around the World; Hugh Hewitt: The Brief Against Obama: The Rise, Fall & Epic Fail of the Hope & Change Presidency; Paul Kengor: The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mentor; Aaron Klein: Fool Me Twice: Obama's Shocking Plans for the Next Four Years Exposed; Edward Klein: The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House; Stanley Kurtz: Spreading the Wealth: How Obama Is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities; David Limbaugh: The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama's War on the Republic; Richard Miniter: Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him; Kate Obenshain: Divider-in-Chief: The Fraud of Hope and Change; Katie Pavlich: Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and the Shameless Cover-Up; Michael Savage: Trickle Down Tyranny: Crushing Obama's Dream of the Socialist States of America; Phyllis Schlafly: No Higher Power: Obama's War on Religious Freedom. Peter Edelman: So Rich, So Poor: Why's It's So Hard to End Poverty in America (2012, New Press): Could it be because once Nixon appointed Donald Rumsfeld to head up Equal Opportunity nobody cared and nobody tried? Edelman worked for Robert Kennedy in the 1960s, much later for Bill Clinton in the 1990s before resigning when Clinton signed the 1996 "welfare reform" bill -- Clinton's own term for it, as I recall, was "a sack of shit." Kurt Eichenwald: 500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars (2012, Touchstone): Focuses on 18 months, a little over 500 days, from 9/11/2011 to the invasion of Iraq, following Bush and company through their tortured logic leading to tortured prisoners, countering terror with "shock and awe" -- as someone must have said, "the mother of all terrors." Digs up some juicy quotes, my favorite so far Chirac's "Does anyone know what he was talking about?" Charles H Ferguson: Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America (2012, Crown Business): Director of the Oscar-winning film Inside Job -- in his acceptance speech Ferguson pointed out that three years into the depression no one has gone to jail for the financial manipulations that nearly bankrupt the country, so the point here seems to be to name names and lay out the case for the prosecution. Norman G Finkelstein: Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance With Israel Is Coming to an End (2012, paperback, OR Books): Hard to guess how this will play out as political prophecy, but it certainly is the case that there has been a steady erosion of Jewish-American support for Israel as the David-Goliath table has turned, as Israel's has become more right-wing anti-democratic, as Israel's political leaders become ever more contemptuous of human rights and the desire for peace -- in short, as Americans learn more about what actually goes on under the aegis of The Jewish State. At the very least, Finkelstein can be counted on to help understand the history. Finkelstein also has another short (100 pp) book, What Gandhi Says: About Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage (paperback, 2012, OR Books). Richard L Hasen: The Voting Wars: From Florida 2000 to the Next Election Meltdown (2012, Yale University Press): Book came out in August, but would be much longer if author had waited until after November to assess the rash of voter ID laws Republicans put in place after winning so many 2010 elections. Say what you will about Obama, the economy, health care reform, and the Tea Party, the difference between 2008 and 2010 came down to a massive drop in voting, from 116 to 83 million: the more people the Republicans can keep away from the polls, the better their chances. Don't know whether Hasen spells this out or not, but "gaming the system" is no less than an attack on the fundamentals of democracy. Christopher Hayes: Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy (2012, Crown): The idea that anyone could rise in America commensurate with their talent, effort, and achievement, is passé. America is an oligarchy, not a meritocracy, and Hayes at least has finally figured that out. Lots of reasons are possible here: the simplest is that in a declining economy -- the measure of which is median wages and wealth, and both in real terms have declined for more than 30 years -- the elites have fewer job slots available, and the rich want them for their own idiot offspring. By the way, it wasn't Obama and Clinton who decided to tank the country -- they were poster boys for the meritocratic impulse, or would have been if their politics were more right-wing; it was the business elites who thought they were maligned in the 1970s and who thought they were brilliant in the 1980s who pushed their short-term self-serving game way past its limits and luck. Chris Hedges/Joe Sacco: Days of Destruction Days of Revolt (2012, Nation Books): Pine Ridge, SD; Camden, NJ; southern WV; Imoakalee, FL; Occupy Wall Street. Hedges reports, and rails; Sacco illustrates (although he has a book in his own right called Journalism). Tom Holland: In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire (2012, Doubleday): Wrote two books of ancient history, one on Rome (Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic) and one on the Middle East (Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West), and now has two more even more complementary, The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West, which runs from Otto to the Crusades, so this adds to the back story, the rise of Islam. When I read Forge, I was struck by the nastiness of his take on Islam, which doesn't bode well here. Seth G Jones: Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of Al Qa'ida Since 9/11 (2012, WW Norton): RAND analyst, wrote a useful book on Afghanistan (In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan), but lately has turned into a full-time apologist for the US occupation of Afghanistan. If this book is honest, one thing you will see is how little the US military contributed to the "hunt" -- even granting that the Bin Laden kill was their action. Still, you won't find Jones questioning the whole mission, or how the US earned Al-Qaeda's enmity in the first place. Yaakov Katz/Yoaz Hendel: Israel Vs. Iran: The Shadow War (2012, Potomac Books): Documents Israel's ongoing activities to wage war against Iran -- assassinations, computer viruses, sanctions, political subversion -- as well as various Israeli wars against supposed Iranian fronts like Syria, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, finding them all inadequate, favoring a full-out attack. For more pro-war propaganda, see Robert D. Blackwill/Elliot Abrams, et al., Iran: The Nuclear Challenge (paperback, 2012, Council on Foreign Relations Press). Paul Krugman: End This Depression Now! (2012, WW Norton): A basic, straightforward guide to what is wrong with the economy today, and what can (and should) be done about it. Analysis is basic macroeconomics from Keynes to Minsky to Bernanke (who used to know something about this before he became the bankers' tool). Doesn't put as much emphasis on the role of inequality as I would, but does at least recognize that the recovery is stalled mostly by political design, and can prove that. Also lots on the Euro, which is a different problem, also political. Mike Lofgren: The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted (2012, Viking): Some sort of Washington insider, which may be why he's stuck in the trap of blaming both parties, when the main thing wrong with the Democrats is that they let Republicans play them for suckers -- a problem exacerbated by the middle-of-the-roaders who keep legitimizing the right, but it's deeper than that: in a system where success depends on chasing money, the Democrats who are most successful are most easily estranged from their constituents. In that, the main difference between the parties isn't their common ideology, but how they shape that message to be palatable by their voters. No idea whether Lofgren gets this, but at least he's started to notice that the collateral damage is getting close to home. Keith Lowe: Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II (2012, St Martin's Press): Focuses on the turmoil Europe suffered after the defeat of the Third Reich -- the massive destruction, the displaced people, the more/less punitive (or sometimes just inept) occupations (especially the Soviets in eastern Europe), the struggles between partisans and collaborators, etc. Quite a few books have started to focus on this, perhaps because way too many policy people had such a rosy view of occupation going into Iraq in 2003. James Mann: The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power (2012, Viking): Wrote a book about the Bush administration which was less inside story than useful background (Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet). This suggests less coherence, which is likely true, especially as one tries to fathom the depths of the military-security state and how intractable it seems -- not that it helps that Obama doesn't have a coherent view in the first place. Thomas E Mann/Norman J Ornstein: It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism (2012, Basic Books): The US Constitution predates the development of political parties, assuming that a delicate balance of powers would lead reasonable men to compromise. This system has failed several times, notably over the issue of slavery leading to the 1861-65 Civil War, and is failing again, as the Republicans have combined a winner-takes-all view of tactics with an ideology that argues that anything government does is likely to be bad so there is no downside to obstructing a government led by their enemies. Previously wrote The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (2006; paperback, 2008, Oxford University Press). David Maraniss: Barack Obama: The Story (2012, Simon & Schuster): Big bio (672 pp.) that doesn't get very far: he leaves off with Obama still in his 20s, leaving plenty of room for future volumes, a project I've seen likened to Robert A Caro's still-unfinished LBJ series, expecting him to spend most of his career digging up trivia about Obama and his family. Miko Peled: The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine (2012, Just World Books): Memoir, touching on his father's complicated role in Israel's wars and postwar politics, and on his niece, the victim of a suicide bomber, but mostly on the country he grew up in. Paul Preston: The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain (2012, WW Norton): Less well known than the early Inquisition launched in 1492 to rid Spain of its Jews and Muslims, but actually linearly connected, the rubric under which Franco executed tens of thousands from 1936 to 1945, a period when he was allied with Nazi Germany. Preston previously wrote, The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge (2nd ed, paperback, 2007, WW Norton). Seth Rosenfeld: Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power (2012, Farrar Straus and Giroux): Another big book (752 pp.), but the author managed to get hold of 250,000 pages of FBI files on student radicals from Berkeley's Free Speech Movement into the 1970s. J. Edgar Hoover got his first taste of power in the Palmer Raids of 1919, so he rarely missed an opportunity to sniff out subversives -- an obsession with thought control you'd think un-American. One story uncovered is how close Hoover was to Reagan, who built at least one leg of his career on bashing students. Seems like an important book. Michael J Sandel: What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (2012, Farrar Straus and Giroux): Philosopher, previously wrote Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? (2009), poses various questions about what should or should not be up for sale. If he can find anything, the notion that markets have limits is significant. Kay Lehman Schlozman/Sidney Verba/Henry E Brady: The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Policy (2012, Princeton University Press): Argues that "American democracy is marred by deeply ingrained and persistent class-based political inequality," and backs that up with enough statistics to choke a horse (728 pp). True, of course, as is the intuition that democracy depends on an effort to effect and affirm equality even if it isn't strictly factual. This isn't impossible, or even terribly difficult: for most of US history the notions that we were created equal, that we stand equal before the law, that we should enjoy equal opportunities, that the government is subject to the will of the people, etc., has been ensconced in patriotic myth -- anything else would be un-American. Robert Skidelsky/Edward Skidelsky: How Much Is Enough? Money and the Good Life (2012, Other Press): Pivotal question, one that should provide against all sorts of other obsessions, including working yourself to death. It should help that Robert Skidelsky is the biographer of John Maynard Keynes, who thought even more about the good life than he did about the pursuit of money. Joseph E Stiglitz: The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future (2012, WW Norton): The top 1 percent of Americans control 40 percent of the nation's wealth, which makes that wealth unavailable for remedying the real problems we face. Let's go a bit further and say that that much inequality is itself a problem, which I hope Stiglitz manages to demonstrate. Nor is the problem just numbers, as Stiglitz's Mismeasuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesn't Add Up shows. Charles Townshend: Desert Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopotamia (2011, Harvard University Press): The original Gulf War, 1914-24, when Britain drove the Ottomans out of Iraq and found their colonial intentions quite unwelcome and imperial cronies unwelcome -- "a cautionary tale for makers of national policy." Nick Turse/Tom Engelhardt: Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare 2001-2050 (paperback, 2012, CreateSpace): What it says, although maybe not the first. See also: Medea Benjamin: Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control (paperback, 2012, OR Books). There is also a small shelf full of drone techie books, like Bill Yenne: Birds of Prey: Predators, Reapers and America's Newest UAVs in Combat (paperback, 2010, Specialty), and Matt J Martin: Predator: The Remote-Control Air War Over Iraq and Afghanistan: A Pilot's Story (paperback, 2010, Zenith Press). Patrick Tyler: Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite Who Run the Country -- and Why They Can't Make Peace (2012, Farrar Straus and Giroux): Nearly everyone in Israel (women as well as men, but not Palestinians, and not some Ultra-Orthodox) is drafted into the military, most remaining in the reserves until they're 49 -- a degree of militarization unknown anywhere else in the world. The military in turn becomes a stepping stone toward career success, especially in politics but also in business. The net effect is to drive Israel ever more to the right politically, into a bind where the greatest threat to the system that so many key people benefited from is peace. So this in itself is a big part of why there is no peace in the region. Richard Wolff: Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism (paperback, 2012, City Lights): Economic professor, doesn't like the way things have been going, "in conversation with David Barsamian," so he likely keeps it basic and to the point. In 2009, Wolff wrote Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It. Previously mentioned books (book pages noted where available), new in paperback: James Carroll: Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignored Our Modern World (2011; paperback, 2012, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt): The city in history and myth, from Abraham through the Assyrians and Romans and Crusaders to Arafat and Olmert, a sad tale -- an object lesson in fetishism, don't you think? [link] Thomas Frank: Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right (2012, Metropolitan Books; paperback, 2012, Picador): Disgraced by reality -- the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the inept government response Katrina, the revolt against Bush's "mandate" to gut social security, the collapse of the entire Western economy followed by trillions of dollars of bailouts -- the right bounced back by embracing fantasy, and cowed the media (much wholly owned by the right anyway) to go along and pump up the "tea party" effort. [link] Richard Wilkinson/Kate Pickett: The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger (2009; paperback, 2011, Bloomsbury Press): Important book on how greater inequality is bad for your health, as well as general well being. [link] Expert CommentsChristgau gave Pink's The Truth About Love a full A. I disclosed:
Monday, September 24, 2012Music Week/Jazz ProspectingMusic: Current count 20485 [20454] rated (+31), 646 [658] unrated (-12). Nothing special to add about this week. Remarkably ordinary, at least as far as music is concerned: in addition to depleting some of the jazz backlog, finding lots of better-than-average albums, October's Recycled Goods draft stands at 33 albums, Rhapsody Streamnotes at 8, both slowly growing. Unpacking looked anemic until I added in today's haul (not in the stats above) -- now it's close to par, about 50 per month, or 600 per year, close to what I usually get, even though a couple publicists seem to think I've died. Also wrote a bit on the Terminal Zone web plan. Would be interested in any comments, wish lists, and/or technical advice -- especially if you have any experience building Mediawiki sites. Thus far all I've been able to do is install it, after which it sits blankly, possibly realizing that I have no clue what to do next. Josh Berman & His Gang: There Now (2011 [2012], Delmark): Cornet player, based in Chicago, third album, His Gang an octet, with five horns -- Berman, Jeb Bishop (trombone), Guilhermo Gregorio (clarinet), Jason Stein (bass clarinet), and Keefe Jackson (tenor sax) -- vibes (Jason Adasiewicz), bass (Joshua Abrams), and drums (Frank Rosaly). The horns (even the clarinets) have a lot of firepower, often glorious, sometimes fracturing or skidding, while the vibes do a nice job of following the crowd. B+(***) George Cables: My Muse (2012, High Note): Pianist, b. 1944, worked his way through Art Blakey's boot camp, recorded frequently (and magnificently) with Art Pepper (1979-82), has 30-some albums since 1975, a mainstream stylist of exceptional touch and taste, which makes it all the harder to pick among his many trios, like this one with Essiet Essiet and Victor Lewis. I'm especially touched by his "My Old Flame." B+(***) Ed Cherry: It's All Good (2012, Posi-Tone): Guitarist, b. 1954, played with Dizzy Gillespie 1978-92, also with Henry Threadgill's Very Very Circus group; cut three albums 1993-2001, with this his fourth. Organ trio, with Pat Bianchi and Byron Landham. Tasty, but rather light. B+(*) Anat Cohen: Claroscuro (2011 [2012], Anzic): Israeli reed player, based in New York, leads with her clarinet here but also plays tenor and soprano sax. Mostly quartet, with Jason Lindner on piano, Joe Martin on bass, and Daniel Freedman on drums. About half Brazilian tunes, with Paquito D'Rivera guesting on four. Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon joins in on two, and sings "La Vie en Rose." Closes with Abdullah Ibrahim's "The Wedding." B+(***) Denise Donatelli: Soul Shadows (2012, Savant): Singer, fourth album, not sure I'd call these standards except for "All or Nothing at All," but she's fine when the songs and arrangements are up to it. Geoffrey Keezer plays musical director and piano. He likes extra percussion, just a touch of horns and strings, the latter icky. "Another Day" is the odd song out, or in. B Joe Fiedler's Big Sackbut (2011 [2012], YSL): Trombone player, b. 1965, sixth album since 1998, including a tribute to Albert Mangelsdorff, and an A-listed album last year (Sacred Chrome Orb). This is a trombone quartet, or close -- Ryan Keberle and Josh Roseman also play trombone, but Marcus Rojas plays tuba. Not the first to try something like this (cf. Ray Anderson's Slide Ride), but the tuba gives this some extra bounce, and the bones take the hint. B+(***) Gato Libre: Forever (2011 [2012], Libra): Fifth album for this group led by Japanese trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, who writes all the pieces, with Satoko Fujii playing accordion, Kazuhiko Tsumura guitar, and Norikatsu Koreyasu bass. Not much action out of the accordion this time -- when they recorded live in Europe Fujii seemed to tap right in to the folk-dance tradition -- so interesting as this is it never really takes off. B+(*) Uli Geissendoerfer: Colors (2011 [2012], Black Coffee Music): Pianist, b. Munich, Germany; two previous albums. This "world jazz quintet" is mostly a vehicle for singer Pascale Elia, who is engaging enough -- I even find myself enjoying her take on "Norwegian Wood," normally one of those kiss-of-death jazz album songs. B The Harris Group: Choices (2011 [2012], self-released): Lots of competing users for this name, but this looks to be a Chicago group led by guitarist Ric Harris, with bass, drums, and vibes, plus Chris Greene guesting on soprano sax (two cuts). As groove music -- or should we say soul jazz? -- bass/vibes offers a refreshing contrast to the usual Hammond, lighter and faster than the norm. B+(*) Mark Masters Ensemble: Ellington Saxophone Encounters (2012, Capri): Big band arranger, b. 1957, started on trumpet, cut records for Sea Breeze in the 1980s, founded American Jazz Institute in 1997. This adds to his tribute projects (Jimmy Knepper, Clifford Brown, Porgy and Bess, Dewey Redman: five saxophonists -- Gary Smulyan, Pete Christlieb, Gene Cipriano, Gary Foster, and Don Shelton -- have a go at Ellington's sax legends, with no one quite reminiscent of Johnny Hodges or Ben Webster, not that that's a fair complaint. B+(**) Donny McCaslin: Casting for Gravity (2012, Greenleaf Music): Tenor saxophonist, technically among his generation's greats, often known to explode and run away with other people's records, but his own records more often than not leave me cold -- exception, 2008's Recommended Tools, especially with the fancy postbop layering. The backing here is relatively straightforward, with Jason Lindner favoring electric keybs over piano, Tim Lefebvre on electric bass, and producer David Binney slipping in some further synth -- all of which mean the sax is constantly front and center. B+(***) Hendrik Meurkens/Gabriel Espinosa: Celebrando (2012, Zoho): Meurkens was born in Germany, Dutch parents, gravitated to Brazilian music early (his 1989 album was called Samba Importado), initially playing vibes but switching to harmonica. Espinosa is from Mexico, has a similar fascination with Brazil (his first album was called From Yucatan to Rio), plays bass and sings (five songs), composed four songs here (as did Meurkens; piaist Misha Tsiganov contributed two more). Anat Cohen (clarinet, tenor sax) and Antonio Sanchez got their names on the front cover and pics on the back. It's a mess. C+ Art Pepper: Unreleased Art Pepper Vol. VII: Sankei Hall, Osaka, Japan (1980 [2012], Widow's Taste, 2CD): I've probably lost my credibility here, given that this makes six straight Pepper authorized bootlegs I've given this same grade to -- they cheaped out on Vol. VI and only sent a sampler, so that's the hole in the list, but even with excess talk, thin sound, and a set list I've heard several times before, I can't go lower. For one thing, he's got George Cables on board -- the pianist he used on most of his studio recordings, but has been absent thus far on the boots. But also he's at a personal peak, which for him means more or less midway between jail and death. Simplest way to describe him is that he refracted up every modernist impulse from Parker to Coltrane to Coleman, but (excepting Johnny Hodges, of course) he also maintained the sweetest alto sax tone of all. A- Bobby Sanabria Big Band: Multiverse (2011 [2012], Jazzheads): Drummer, b. 1957 in the Bronx, folks Puerto Rican; studied at Berklee, and perhaps more importantly with Mario Bauza, who gets a toast here. Started with small groups, moving up to a big band with 2007's Big Band Urban Folktales, and he pretty much owns that niche now. Picks up momentum, ending with a La Bruja rap that starts with history and plunges into the future. B+(***) Elliott Sharp's Terraplane: Sky Road Songs (2012, Enja): Guitarist, b. 1951, has a huge discography including 17 solo albums, a bunch of string quartets and orchestral pieces, and now seven albums with Terraplane, his blues group. He dedicates this one to the late Hubert Sumlin, including a sample. Songs are new, some written by Joe Mardin, who appears on nearly every song with one odd credit or another. Eric Mingus and Tracie Morris sing, Alex Harding and Curtis Fowlkes blow, Dave Hofstra and Don McKenzie keep the beat straight. B+(*) Wadada Leo Smith & Louis Moholo-Moholo: Ancestors (2011 [2012], TUM): Duets, trumpet and drums, not that either should need introduction, Smith coming out of the AACM, Moholo (not sure why he expanded his name) from South Africa's legendary Blue Notes. Cut in Finland, a little spare but both players continually rise to the occasion, providing a lot to focus on. A- Natsuki Tamura/Satoko Fujii: Muku (2011 [2012], Libra): Married couple, longtime collaborators, reduce their focus to trumpet and piano duets; should be intimate, but their styles clash and the instruments tend to separate out, a thrill when Fujii breaks out knocking chords every which way. B+(**) Leon Foster Thomas: Brand New Mischief (2012, self-released): Plays steel pan, b. 1981, has a previous record. Group here includes Allen C. Paul on piano, plus bass and drums. The steel pan is similar enough in tone to the piano that this starts off like an upbeat piano trio before the pan tones emerge clearly. Nice trick. B+(*) Ryan Truesdell: Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans (2012, ArtistShare): Of course, this is much more enticing as Gil Evans' unfinished work, on his 100th birthday no less, than it would be attributed to unknown arranger Truesdell, and I've seen reviews that go whole hog and file the record under Evans' name. It stands up nicely, if not all that consistently, on its own, the huge orchestra -- 32 instrumentalists plus three vocalists slotted with one song each -- is full of players who don't need to hide in a crowd. Aside from the solos, I found myself tracking the vibes (Joe Locke), a little sparkle on top of all the lushness. B+(***) Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
Thursday, September 20, 2012Expert CommentsSharpsm taunted me:
I wrote:
Milo Miles responded:
Wednesday, September 19, 2012Expert CommentsTried to post this:
From Joe Yanosik:
DowdI understand that Jeffrey Goldberg and others have attacked an op-ed by Maureen Dowd for being anti-semitic. The offending line seems to have been the title, Neocons Slither Back. To understand how anti-semitic this title is, you first have to realize, as Goldberg put it, that in using "slither" "she is peddling an old stereotype, that gentile leaders are dolts unable to resist the machinations and manipulations of clever and snake-like Jews." You also have to assume that neocons are Jewish, a mental process that involves blotting out such infamous figures as Dick Cheney, John Bolton, and Fouad Ajami, although I suppose she (or Goldberg) could be arguing that those neocon gentiles (as well as their followers, like G.W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney) are really manipulated dolts. I picked up the Goldberg quote from Dylan Byers at Politico, who provides many more uselessly out-of-context quotes, like Daniel Halper calling "it" (whatever it is) "outrageous," and Jonathan Tobin describing something as "particularly creepy." Byers quotes Max Fisher as saying, "[The] weirdest part of the anti-semitic tropes on the Dowd column is how lazy they are," without explaining what tropes those were, or why they were "on" the column and not "in" it -- I'd parse this as meaning Goldberg et al. were the lazy ones. Parsing itself is fairly critical here. As someone who's had his titles mangled by everyone from editors to typesetters, I try to say what I mean at least once in the article. Dowd uses the word "slither" only once in the article, when she quotes Paul Wolfowitz, "slimily asserting that President Obama should not be allowed to 'slither through' without a clear position on Libya." But here the imputed serpent isn't Jewish (or neocon, or Republican); rather, it sounds at least vaguely racist, but then that's easy to do when the object of one's scorn happens to be black (or for that matter Jewish). In many cases the writer is just trying to spritz up a bit of language, and it's best not to read too much in it. That's certainly the case with Dowd, whose piece often appears to be written in a private language. For instance, her first line threw me: "Paul Ryan has not sautéed in foreign policy in his years on Capitol Hill." It took some delving into Wiktionary to come up with any plausible deciphering of this line, but it turns out that the French verb sauter has a slang usage "to bang, jump, have sex with." Still, if what you wanted to say was that Ryan was a virgin in foreign policy, wouldn't it have been much clearer to say, "Ryan was a foreign policy virgin"? (Personally, I'd rather say, "Ryan has never fucked with foreign policy, and therefore has never fucked it up.") And Dowd does more spritzing to even more dumbfounding effect: Romney foreign policy adviser (or, as Dowd puts it, "neocon puppet master") Dan Senor was "secunded to manage the running mate [Ryan]" -- presumably she means "seconded" (temporarily assigned). She refers to Romney and Ryan as "both jejeune about the world"; most likely "jejune" (naive, simplistic, lacking matter, devoid of substance). She also refers to Romney as "Mittens," but not consistently enough to make a style or attitude out of it; more like a brain fart. I don't normally read Dowd, so this column mostly served as a reminder why. Still, she did come up with one remarkable quote from Ryan:
As I recall, "moral clarity" was a favorite G.W. Bush term, which is to say the guy who's response toward peacemaking in Israel-Palestine was, "Sometimes a show of force by one side can really clarify things." The decade prior to that was the only period where the US took a role in attempting to bridge the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and and Bush squandered that by endorsing Sharon's show of force. After Bush, Obama made a pathetic gesture at returning to America's pre-Bush role as an "honest broker" in favor of peace, an effort Ryan decries as "indifference bordering on contempt" because it presumes that Israel would benefit from peace, even though Netanyahu wants no such thing. But in terms of moral clarity, the bit about Syria and Libya is even more confused. Many of those "dissidents" in Syria Ryan wants to help are Islamists, as were the "dissidents" the US helped in Libya (who in turn attacked the Benghazi consulate there). Indeed, the US has a long history (at least back to the Afghan mujahideen in 1979) of supporting Islamists who ultimately turn on us, a track record that would give anyone knowledgable and sane pause. Obviously, that excludes Ryan and Romney (who may well not know better), and their neocon advisers like Senor (who probably does but doesn't care, so committed are they to perpetuating US conflicts in the region). MJ Rosenberg, on Dan Senor:
Some relevant links in Dowd's defense (along with Rosenberg above):
Tuesday, September 18, 2012Rhapsody Streamnotes (September 2012)Pick up text here. Expert CommentsBrad Sroka's 1992-2012 poll results released (top 100, minimum 2 votes, ties add up to 119): 1. The Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs 235 (21) 2. Kanye West, Late Registration 232 (19) 3. Bob Dylan, "Love and Theft" 228 (20) 4. DJ Shadow, Endtroducing..... 202 (14) 5. Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out 172 (17) 6. Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville 166 (14) 7. Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road 157 (14) 8. M.I.A., Kala 151 (15) 9. Wussy, Funeral Dress 146 (15) 10. PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea 127 (12) 11. Luna, Penthouse 119 (12) Tricky, Maxinquaye 119 (12) 13. The Wrens, The Meadowlands 118 (11) 14. Kanye West, The College Dropout 115 (11) 15. Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP 98 (11) 16. Iris DeMent, My Life 94 (7) 17. Pavement, Wowee Zowee 91 (7) 18. PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love 85 (10) 19. Yo La Tengo, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One 85 (9) 20. Robyn, Body Talk 83 (9) 21. Mekons, OOOH! 77 (7) 22. Orchestra Baobab, Specialist in All Styles 74 (8) 23. Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers 74 (6) Wussy, Strawberry 74 (6) 25. Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York 73 (8) 26. Pet Shop Boys, Very 72 (7) 27. Moby, Play 70 (5) 28. Drive-By Truckers, Brighter Than Creation's Dark 68 (7) 29. OutKast, Stankonia 66 (8) 30. Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 66 (5) Nirvana, In Utero 66 (5) 32. Brian Wilson, Smile 65 (6) 33. Ghostface Killah, Fishscale 62 (6) 34. Pavement, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain 59 (6) 35. Sleater-Kinney, One Beat 56 (4) 36. Sleater-Kinney, The Hot Rock 55 (4) 37. Pavement, Brighten the Corners 53 (6) 38. Wussy, Left for Dead 53 (5) 39. Sonic Youth, A Thousand Leaves 52 (5) 40. Bob Dylan, Modern Times 50 (5) 41. Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar 49 (5) 42. Frank Ocean, nostalgia, ULTRA. 48 (5) 43. Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) 47 (6) 44. Fugees, The Score 45 (6) 45. Brad Paisley, American Saturday Night 45 (4) 46. Old 97's, Satellite Rides 44 (5) 47. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible 44 (4) 48. Sleater-Kinney, Call the Doctor 44 (3) 49. The Roots, How I Got Over 43 (5) 50. Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Spinning Around the Sun 43 (4) 51. Rilo Kiley, More Adventurous 42 (4) 52. Amy Rigby, Diary of a Mod Housewife 41 (5) 53. Billy Bragg & Wilco, Mermaid Avenue 40 (5) 54. Sonny Rollins, This Is What I Do 40 (4) 55. Gogol Bordello, Super Taranta! 40 (3) 56. New York Dolls, One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This 39 (5) 57. Belle and Sebastian, If You're Feeling Sinister 39 (4) 58. TV on the Radio, Dear Science 38 (4) 59. Cornershop, When I Was Born for the 7th Time 38 (3) Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea 38 (3) 61. Drive-By Truckers, Decoration Day 37 (5) 62. Leonard Cohen, Live in London 37 (4) Liz Phair, Whitechocolatespaceegg 37 (4) 64. PJ Harvey, Rid of Me 36 (5) 65. Tune-Yards, w h o k i l l 36 (3) 66. Archers of Loaf, Icky Mettle 35 (4) Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3 35 (4) 68. Freedy Johnston, Can You Fly 34 (3) The White Stripes, White Blood Cells 34 (3) 70. De La Soul, Buhloone Mindstate 33 (3) 71. James Carter, Chasin' the Gypsy 32 (4) The Notorious B.I.G., Ready to Die 32 (4) 73. Todd Snider, The Devil You Know 32 (3) 74. The Go-Betweens, The Friends of Rachel Worth 31 (2) 75. Buck 65, Talkin' Honky Blues 30 (3) Drive-By Truckers, Southern Rock Opera 30 (3) 77. Tom Zé, Danc-Eh-Sa 30 (2) 78. Latin Playboys, Latin Playboys 29 (4) 79. The Avalanches, Since I Left You 28 (3) D'Angelo, Voodoo 28 (3) Girl Talk, All Day 28 (3) The Libertines, Up the Bracket 28 (3) The Strokes, Is This It 28 (3) 84. Arcade Fire, Funeral 28 (2) 85. Sonic Youth, Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star 27 (3) Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend 27 (3) Wussy, Wussy 27 (3) 88. Sleater-Kinney, All Hands on the Bad One 27 (2) 89. Todd Snider, East Nashville Skyline 26 (3) 90. Amy Rigby, Little Fugitive 25 (3) David Murray, Shakill's Warrior 25 (3) Le Tigre, Le Tigre 25 (3) Sleater-Kinney, The Woods 25 (3) 94. Bob Dylan, Live 1966 25 (2) 95. Gogol Bordello, Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike! 24 (3) 96. Hole, Live Through This 23 (3) 97. The Notorious B.I.G., Life After Death 20 (3) 98. Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball 20 (2) The Coup, Pick a Bigger Weapon 20 (2) Das Racist, Relax 20 (2) DJ Shadow, The Private Press 20 (2) Dramarama, Hi-Fi Sci-Fi 20 (2) Girl Talk, Feed the Animals 20 (2) Imperial Teen, On 20 (2) Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III 20 (2) Loudon Wainwright III, High Wide and Handsome 20 (2) Lucinda Williams, Sweet Old World 20 (2) Madvillain, Madvillainy 20 (2) Manu Chao, Proxima Estacion: Esperanza 20 (2) Modest Mouse, The Moon and Antarctica 20 (2) The Mountain Goats, Tallahassee 20 (2) Mzwakhe Mbuli, Resistance is Defence 20 (2) OutKast, Aquemini 20 (2) Serengeti, Dennehy: Light, Camera, Action 20 (2) Todd Snider, The Storyteller 20 (2) Wussy, Funeral Dress II 20 (2) Youssou N'Dour, Egypt 20 (2) Youssou N'Dour Nothing's in Vain 20 (2) My post:
Christgau wrote:
Individual lists (dropping out everything that scored top 100 (actually, 119, see above); number is number of lines; I've added list numbers and removed points so everything is semi-standardized, then sorted the records from most to least lines): Alexander Nevermind (16): 1. The Verve: Urban Hymns 2. The Verve: A Storm In Heaven 3. The Verve: A Northern Soul 4. The Verve: No Come Down (B-Sides and Outtakes) 5. The Verve: E.P. 8. New Radicals: Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too 10. Primal Scream: Echo Dek 11. Boards of Canada: Music Has the Right to Children 12. Massive Attack: Mezzanine 13. Ride: Going Blank Again 14. Portishead: Dummy 15. Dan the Automator: Deltron 3030 16. Spiritualized: Lazer Guided Melodies 17. The Chemical Brothers: Dig Your Own Hole 19. Morcheeba: Big Calm 20. Global Communication: 76:14 Cam Patterson (9): 2. Lyrics Born: Later That Day . . . 3. The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin 4. Tribalistas 5. Robert Forster: Live in New York City 9/15/2008 7. DJ Shadow: Diminishing Returns Party Pack 8. Marisa Monte: Rose And Charcoal 11. Caetano Veloso: Omaggio A Federico E Guilietta 13. Drive-By Truckers: Southern Rock Opera live Salt Lake City 2/18-2/19/2002 20. Guided by Voices- Bee Thousand Christopher Monsen (9): 1. Charles Gayle/William Parker/Rashied Ali: Touchin' on Trane 2. William Parker In Order to Survive: Peach Orchard 3. Adam Lane Full Throttle Orchestra: Ashcan Rantings 4. Darius Jones Trio: Man'ish Boy (a Raw & Beautiful Thing) 6. Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Shamokin' 7. Ken Vandermark Barrage Double Trio: Utility Hitter 8. 8 Bold Souls: Sideshow 16. Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped 18. Archers of Loaf: Vee Vee FM Lo (9): 2. The Beach Boys: The Smile Sessions [LP] 4. A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders 8. The xx: xx 9. Fugazi: The Argument 10. The Moldy Peaches: The Moldy Peaches 14. GZA/Genius: Liquid Swords 16. Yo La Tengo: Painful 19. Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven! 20. Burial: Untrue Matt Rice (8): 9. Beck: Odelay 12. The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America 13. Sufjan Stevens: Illinois 14. Dizzee Rascal: Boy in Da Corner 17. Low: Trust 18. Beck: Mellow Gold 19. Spoon: Kill the Moonlight 20. Avi Buffalo: Avi Buffalo Tom Hull (8): 1. Lily Allen: It's Not Me, It's You 5. Sonic Liberation Front: Ashé a Go-Go 11. Sonic Youth: Dirty 13. The Roches: A Dove 14. Bruno Mars: Doo-Wops and Hooligans 15. Billy Bang: Vietnam: The Aftermath 16. Nelly: Country Grammar 18. NERD: In Search of . . . Edgar Sargent (7): 5. Thelonious Monk w/John Coltrane: At Carnegie Hall 7. Nas: Illmatic 8. Drive-By Truckers: Dirty South 12. Liz Phair: Liz Phair 14. Howard Fishman Quartet: Do What I Want 18. Black Keys: Rubber Factory 20. Jerry Garcia and David Grisman: Shady Grove Joe Lunday (7): 7. Ghostface Killah: Iron Man 14. Sebadoh: Bakesale 15. GZA: Liquid Swords 17. Yo La Tengo: Summer Sun 18. Spoon: Kill the Moonlight 19. A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders 20. The Dismemberment Plan: Emergency and I Kenny Mostern (7): 6. Sugar: Copper Blue 9. Los Lobos: Colossal Head 10. Dessa: A Badly Broken Code 15. Digable Planets: Blowout Comb 18. John Langford & Skull Orchard: Old Devils 19. Wild Flag: Wild Flag 20. Bruce Springsteen: Magic Nicky (7): 3. Withered Hand: Good News 6. Sonic Youth: NYC Ghosts & Flowers 9. Jens Lekman: Argument with Myself 10. Radiohead: OK Computer 12. Anti-Flag: Terror State 15. Pavement: Terror Twilight 18. Frank Ocean: Channel Orange Paul Hayden (7): 7. REM: Automatic for the People 8. Radiohead: The Bends 10. Neko Case: The Tigers Have Spoken 11. Ass Ponys: Electric Rock Music 15. The Rooks: A Wishing Well 17. Sugar: Copper Blue 19. Old 97s: Fight Songs Richard Cobeen (7): 6. Loudon Wainwright III: Older Than My Old Man Now 12. Rubén González: Introducing . . . Rubén González 13. The Coup: Party Music 15. M People: Elegant Slumming 17. Macy Gray: The Sellout 19. Lyrics Born: Later That Day 20. Cachao: Master Sessions Volume 1 Jason Gubbels (6): 2. Common: Like Water For Chocolate 4. Digable Planets: Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) 14. Pavement: Slanted and Enchanted 15. Sonic Youth, Sonic Nurse 16. Tom Waits, Mule Variations 20. Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out Liam Smith (6): 1. New Order: Get Ready 4. Jinx Lennon: Know Your Station Gouger Nation!! 13. Tiger: We Are Puppets 16. Soul Coughing: Ruby Vroom 17. Archers of Loaf: Vee Vee 19. James Carter: The Real Quietstorm Semi Mike (ShadyShack) (6): 10. Johnny Cash: American IV 13. Soundgarden: Superunknown 14. Guided By Voices: Bee Thousand 15. Jay-Z: Vol. 3...Life and Times of S. Carter 16. Sugar: File Under Easy Listening 19. Tom Waits: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards Seraphina Cobeen (6): 11. Imperial Teen: Seasick 15. Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor 16. Lily Allen: Alright, Still 17. Madonna: Music 18. Beyoncé: B-Day 19. White Stripes: Elephant sharpsm (6): 9. Big Boi: Sir Luscious Leftfoot: The Return of Chico Dusty 13. Robbie Fulks: 50 vc. Doberman 14. ICP Orchestra: Jubilee Varia 16. Ted Nash: Sidewalk Meeting 17. Toni Tone Tony: House of Music 20. Alexander von Schlippenbach: Monk's Casino Bradley Sroka (5): 7. Frederic Rzewski: Rzewski Plays Rzewski, Piano Works 1975-1999 10. David S. Ware: Go See the World 13. Miranda Lambert: Revolution 16. Kronos Quartet w/Aki Takahashi/Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet 18. The Jaki Byard Quartet w/Joe Farrell, The Last From Lennie's Tom Walker (5): 2. James Carter: The Real Quietstorm 3. Tom Zé: Jogos de Amar 9. VA: The Rough Guide to the Music of the Sahara 15. Randy Newman: Randy Newman's Faust 17. John Prine: In Spite of Ourselves Chris Hurst (4): 7. The Coup: Steal This Album 10. Hamell on Trial: Ed's Not Dead - Hamell Comes Alive 15. Four Tet: Rounds 19. The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike decherre (4): 11. Go-Betweens: Oceans Apart 13. Fountains of Wayne: Traffic & Weather 19. Tricky: Blowback 20. Prince Paul: Presents a Prince Among Thieves Greg Morton (4): 2. Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Americana 8. Julieta Venegas: Limon y Sal 12. Nirvana: Muddy Banks of the Wishkah 16. Bobby Pinson: Songs For Somebody Joey Daniewicz (4): 12. Green Day: Dookie 13. The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America 14. Pavement: Slanted & Enchanted 19. Jay-Z: The Black Album JY48NY (4): 1. Miles Davis: The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions 2. Sonic Youth: Murray Street 6. Plastic People of the Universe: 1997 9. Thelonius Monk Quartet with John Coltrane: At Carnegie Hall Rodney Taylor (4): 3. Viktor Vaughn (MF Doom): Vaudeville Villian 9. P.M. Dawn: The Bliss Album 11. Spring Heel Jack: The Sweetness of Water 17. Tom Zé: Jogos de Armar bradluen (3): 9. Taylor Swift: Fearless 12. Johnny Cash: American IV: The Man Comes Around 20. Sonic Youth: Dirty Marcus2010 (3): 7. Miranda Lambert: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 10. Raphael Saadiq: The Way I See It 14. Mos Def: The Ecstatic John Smallwood (2): 19. Rilo Kiley: Under the Blacklight 20. The Coup: Steal This Album Dan W. (Rock/Pop/Hip Hop/World list: 1): 5. Sonic Youth: Washing Machine He also provided a separate Jazz list: 1. David Murray: Long Goodbye: A Tribute to Don Pullen 2. Dewey Redman/Cecil Taylor/Elvin Jones: Momentum Space 3. Jason Moran: Modernistic 4. Ornette Coleman & Prime Time: Tone Dialing 5. Alexander von Schlippenbach: Monk's Casino 6. Vandermark 5: Alchemia 7. Mahanthappa/Lehman: Dual Identity 8. William Parker: Raining on the Moon 9. Cecil Taylor: Willisau Concert 10. Paul Motian Trio: Sound of Love (@VV '95) 11. Matthew Shipp: Harmony & Abyss 12. John Zorn: Bar Kokhba, Vol. 11, 50th Anniversary Concerts 13. David S. Ware Quartet: Live in the World 14. Adam Lane Full Throttle Orchestra: Ashcan Rantings 15. Tim Berne: The Shell Game 16. Jewels & Binoculars: Ships on the Tattooed Sails 17. Fred Hersch: In Amsterdam: Live at the Bimhuis 18. Wayne Shorter: Footprints Live! 19. Vijay Iyer: Reimagining Frapton (all he listed: 1): 11. Caetano Veloso: Omaggio A Federico E Guilietta JeffC77 (1): 12. Randy Newman: Harps and Angels He also listed "also rans": Sonic Youth, Rather Ripped; Miranda Lambert, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend; Arto Lindsay, Mundo Civilizado; Old 97s, Fight Songs; Tom Waits, Mule Variations. Matt Bernier (1): 16. The Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder After here, unsorted ballots that came in late: jreamteam (8): posted but not submitted, so not counted: 6. Archers of Loaf: Vee Vee 7. The Dismemberment Plan: Emergency & I 10. Taylor Swift: Fearless 12. Pavement: Slanted and Enchanted 14. Los Campesinos!: Hold On Now, Youngster 16. Hayes Carll: Touble In Mind 19. The Moldy Peaches 20. Miranda Lambert - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 5 Mark Rosen (8): 2. Sebadoh: Bakesale 6. Stars: Set Yourself on Fire 8. Blonde Redhead: Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons 10. Old 97s: Too Far to Care 12. Los Lobos: Kiko 14. Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind 16. Belle and Sebastian: The Boy with the Arab Strap 18. Jens Lekman: Oh You're So Silent Jens 19. New Pornographers: Electric Version Tigster326 (5): 4. Music in My Head 11. David S. Ware: Go See the World 12. William Parker: I Plan to Stay a Believer 19. John Prine: In Spite of Ourselves 20. FAB Trio: History of Jazz in Reverse Ioannis Sotirchos (didn't count last one: 8): 1. Miles Davis: The Complete On the Corner Sessions 2. Led Zeppelin (DVD) 3. Sunn O))): Black One 5. Burzum: FIlosofem 8. Jay-Z: Reasonable Doubt 11. Monster Magnet: Powertrip 16. Neil Young: Sleeps With Angels 19. Kid Rock: Devil Without a Cause 20. White Stripes discography (all five albums) Other records below the line that no one has claimed a vote for: Ali Farka Toure: Niafunke Allo Darlin': Allo Darlin' Baseball Project: Vol. 1 Be Your Own Pet: Get Awkward Belle and Sebastian: Lazy Line Painter Jane Belle and Sebastian: The Boy With the Arab Strap Big Bang: Big Bang 2 Björk: Homogenic Blonde Redhead: Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons Blood Brothers: Burn, Piano Island, Burn Blur: Parklife Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind Burzum: Filosofem Capsule: Stereo Worxxx FAB Trio: History of Jazz in Reverse Fountains of Wayne: Utopia Parkway Holy Modal Rounders: Too Much Fun Jay-Z: Reasonable Doubt Jens Lekman: Night Falls Over Kortedala Jens Lekman: Oh You're So Silent Jens Kid Rock: Devil Without a Cause King Sunny Ade: Best of the Classic Years Kronos Quartet/Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet Lady Gaga: The Fame Monster LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin (DVD) Los Lobos: Colossal Head Los Lobos: Kiko Miles Davis: The Complete On the Corner Sessions Monster Magnet: Powertrip Mountain Goats: We Shall All Be Healed Mr. Lif: I Phantom Neil Young: Sleeps With Angels New Pornographers: Electric Version Nicki Minaj: Pink Friday Old 97's: Too Far to Care Pulp: Different Class Saint Etienne: So Tough Stars: Set Yourself on Fire Stereolab: Emperor Tomato Ketchup Streets: A Grand Don't Come for Free Sunn O))): Black One Tabu Ley Rochereau: Voice of Lightness VA: Music in My Head William Parker: I Plan to Stay a Believer Yo La Tengo: Electr-O-Pura Monday, September 17, 2012Expert CommentsPosted to facebook, in response to something Alice Powell said about American exceptionalism:
Music Week/Jazz ProspectingMusic: Current count 20454 [20416] rated (+38), 658 [664] unrated (-6). Somewhat short Jazz Prospecting this week, but more than the usual number of albums at or near the top. Rated count is robust because I've started using Rhapsody again. The monthly Rhapsody Streamnotes post has gradually slipped from first to second or third week in the month, mostly because I prefer to run it after A Downloader's Diary, and Tatum ran late for several months, finally skipping August. I had given some thought to skipping September, but after this past week I feel I have enough material to post something tomorrow. Last month Streamnotes appeared on the 17th. Tomorrow will be the 18th, so that's a month. It will probably wind up being the shortest of the year -- draft file currently has 28 entries, enough to chew on. (March had 36; every other month this year topped 50, with 87 back in January trying to mop up 2011.) Tim Carey: Room 114 (2011 [2012], self-released): Bassist, teaches in Seattle. First album, mostly guitar, piano, bass, drums -- a second drummer is credited on five tracks. All originals, intricately woven together. B+(*) Hugo Carvalhais: Particula (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): Portuguese bassist, second album -- I usually don't bother crediting headliners as composer, even though they often make a point of it on their websites, on the theory that virtually everyone makes that claim, but often with bassists the compositions are the main point. Describes Gabriel Pinto (piano, organ, synth) and Mário Costa (drums) as "regular band mates," adding Emile Parisien (soprano sax) and Dominique Pifarély (violin) for this date. Gives him a lot of options to play off against each other, or occasionally pile up. B+(***) Ricardo Fassi: Sitting in a Song (2009 [2012], Alice): Pianist, b. 1955 in Italy, has more than a dozen albums since 1986, mostly on Splasc(H). Calls this group New York Pocket Orchestra, and it's well stocked with stars: Alex Sipiagin (trumpet), Dave Binney (alto sax), Gary Smulyan (baritone sax), Essiet Essiet (bass), and Antonio Sanchez (drums). First cut ("Random Sequencer") delivers everything the band promises, but the postbop moves lose interest over the long haul. B+(*) The Fish: Moon Fish (2010 [2012], Clean Feed): French trio: Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto sax), Benjamin Duboc (bass), Edward Perraud (drums). They have at least one previous album together; Guionnet has maybe a dozen since 1998 but it's hard to sort them out (e.g., first two were duos with Eric Cordier, credits listed in different orders). Three long improv pieces, the sax grasping for traction and chewing up the room. B+(**) Hairy Bones: Snakelust (to Kenji Nakagami) (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): Second group album, various typographic problems on the packaging -- they've decided they don't like to space out the group name, and prefer "e" to umlaut in the saxophonist's name, but for history's sake we'll straighten those quirks out. Of course, a mere moment's attention will satisfy you that the saxophonist is Peter Brötzmann, even when he's playing clarinet in what he may well think of as New Age mode. Toshinori Kondo, who worked with Brötzmann back in the Die Like a Dog quartet, adds mischief with trumpet and electronics. Zu electric bassist Massimo Pupillo smoothes things out, and Paal Nilssen-Love is the drummer. One 53-minute blast, but it moves up and down and around enough they could call it a suite if they had such pretensions. They don't. A- Fred Hersch Trio: Alive at the Vanguard (2012, Palmetto, 2CD): Pianist, has more than three dozen records since 1984, went solo for last year's Alone at the Vanguard, returns with a trio (John Hébert on bass and Eric McPherson on drums) and stretches out. Half originals, half standards, half of those from jazz icons (Parker, Monk, Rollins, Coleman). The rhythm section fleshes out the music, but he doesn't push them very hard. B+(**) Johnny Hodges: Yeah . . . About That (2012, Veritas): Trumpet player, originally from Oklahoma City, started playing cruise lines in 1991, lives in Kissimee, FL -- you expecting maybe someone else? Looks like his first album, also credited with rhythm programming, and aside for a couple of guest spots that's about it. Scrawny, but not without a certain charm. B Keith Jarrett: Sleeper: Tokyo, April 16, 1979 (1979 [2012], ECM, 2CD): Live double, featuring Jarrett's European Quartet: Jan Garbarek (saxes, flute), Palle Danielsson (bass), Jon Christensen (drums) -- their surnames staggered on the front cover, but only the leader's on the spine. All Jarrett pieces, only the encore clocking in under 10 minutes, "Oasis" stretching to 28. Interesting to hear Garbarek struggling with Coltrane's ghost -- much more rugged than I recall even from his early work -- and, of course, the piano is dense and divisive. B+(***) Sam Kulik: Escape From Society (2012, Hot Cup): Trombonist, from western Massachusetts, studied at Oberlin, wound up in New York. Second album, "inspired by the song-poem phenomenon of the '70s and '80s, in which everyday people would respond to magazine ads seeking lyricists": twelve lyricists are credited here, Kulik the only repeater, David Greenberger the only other name I recognize. Band is quartet, crediting Kulik with vocals, brass, guitar; others with bass/keys, drums, and tenor sax. At first sounds almost like country music, matter-of-fact until the quotidinary gets too ordinary and the brass starts to peek through. Then Kulik switches horses on the last two cuts, one group moving toward free jazz, the other avant-industrial, or as the title puts it, "Infinite Shit." B+(*) Fred Lonberg-Holm's Fast Citizens: Gather (2011 [2012], Delmark): Chicago group, sextet, with three horns -- Aram Shelton (alto sax, clarinet), Keefe Jackson (tenor sax, bass clarinet), Josh Berman (cornet) -- plus Lonberg-Holm on cello (and tenor guitar), Anton Hatwich (bass), and Frank Rosaly (drums), with everyone doubling up on trumpet or cornet somewhere. Third group album, but the leaders have rotated depending on who came in with the songs -- the other two are filed under Shelton and Jackson. The cellist has released some squelchy electronics albums, and appeared in the Vandermark 5, but he's never had this kind of front line, and he makes quite a lot out of it. A- The Odd Trio: Birth of the Minotaur (2012, self-released): Brian Smith (guitar, vox), Marc Gilley (saxophones), Todd Mueller (drums), a lineup we've seen a few times lately, notably on last year's Inzinzac album: guitar can rival sax as a lead instrument, as well as add chordal harmony, especially when you're doing something rockish (or should I say punkish?), often the case here. B+(**) Sam Rivers/Dave Holland/Barry Altschul: Reunion: Live in New York (2007 [2012], Pi, 2CD): Rivers died in 2011, so the only way to get more is to scrounge for it. This first effort uncovers two fully improvised sets with bass and drums, backing Rivers on tenor sax, soprano sax, flute, and piano. The tenor, of course, is his main instrument, and I'd be happy if that's all there was, but the flute is engaging, and the piano is a revelation. The bass is more of a reminder: we've listened to Holland as leader and composer so long one forgets just how vital he was during his avant-garde phase, but here it all comes back. A- Josh Rosen/Stan Strickland: Instinct (2012, Ziggle Zaggle Music): Duets. Rosen plays piano, teaches at Berklee, has a previous album as 3 Play +. Strickland plays various flutes, bass clarinet, soprano sax, and sings -- he has a vocal jazz album from 2005, and also teaches at Berklee. A little thin on both sides. B- Florian Weber: Biosphere (2011 [2012], Enja): Pianist, b. 1977 in Germany, classical ed gives him a chamber jazz rep; released a trio in 2006 called Minsarah, used that group name for his 2010 follow-up. This is a quartet with Lionel Loueke (guitar), Thomas Morgan (bass), and Dan Weiss (drums, tabla). A lot of flutter and shuffle, all tucked in, at least until the end when they slow down and consolidate, rather touchingly. B+(**) Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
Added grades for remembered LPs from way back when:
Saturday, September 15, 2012Weekend RoundupSome scattered links I squirreled away during the previous week:
Links for further study:
Friday, September 14, 2012Greed and DebtThere's a very succinct description of how private equity works in Matt Taibbi's Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital:
Under the debt load, with new management planted by Bain who knew nothing about the toy business but knew enough to rubber stamp Bain's dividend, KB went bankrupt. That may have been disappointing to Bain -- the longer KB survived, the more its owners could bleed it -- but Bain's investors and owners had already made a handsome return on the deal. And deals are what private equity is all about, one deal after another, each one a windfall. Back during the S&L crisis someone pointed out that the best way to rob a bank was to own one. Turns out that's true for any business. But it used to happen less frequently. Several reasons come to mind, the most obvious being that business owners have fewer scruples now than they used to. The most corrosive idea behind this shift is the notion that the sole responsibility of business owners is to maximize profits, especially given that we can only truly measure profits in the short-term. This has always been a latent idea among business owners and (especially) financiers, but for most of our history has been limited both by law and by custom. For instance, family-owned companies have good reason to take a longer-term view of a business that will be handed down through the generations. Even the case of a broadly held corporation is likely to have a mix of short- and long-term-oriented investors, and need to balance those interests off. On the other hand, when a company is taken over through a LBO, the ownership is narrowed drastically, and the debt overhang all but forces the owners to focus on the short-term. Other trends add in. When owners live in the same locale as the plant, they are less likely to harm the community. Replace them with outside owners and those scruples go away. When owners are expert in their industry, they are more likely to strike a balance between short- and long-term needs, because they see their whole careers developing within a single industry which has few options should they blow up. Replace them with finance people and those considerations vanish: to a financier, all companies look the same, and there are always more companies around the corner. (Financiers, after all, don't build companies; they buy them -- and usually with other people's money.) A unionized work force also limits the management's options, so the loss of union protection has made it easier for companies to be looted and plundered. Then there is the law: most of us still believe that business owners are still subject to law, that they are prohibited from criminal activity (significantly including fraud), but the overall trend had been toward less regulation, toward less effective enforcement, and toward less exposure to torts: the result is that business owners need have fewer scruples about their compliance with the law. (Possibly the best example of this was the Citibank-Travelers merger, at the time blatantly illegal, but rather than prosecuting the Clinton administration arranged to change the law, making the merger retrospectively legal.) The result of all these trends is that we are now plagued by a new breed of businessman: one that's only in it for the money, and willing to take the money from anywhere it's available, using any methods he can get away with. The particular scheme that Romney practiced at Bain is especially odious because even in cases where the extra debt and looting don't kill the business, everyone related to the business (workers, customers, neighbors) except for the owners is much poorer as a result, while only a handful of already rich investors get richer. But they're just the worst of the worst. The whole financial sector has more than doubled in the last thirty years as the business of business has shifted from making products and providing services to making deals with huge payouts to the dealmakers, those profits to be squeezed out of everyone else. Thursday, September 13, 2012Two StrikesOn September 10, a US airstrike in Yemen killed seven people, including Saeed al-Shihri, alleged to be "al-Qaida's No. 2 leader in Yemen." This follows numerous other US airstrikes in Yemen, including one that killed US-born Anwar al-Awlaki. On September 11, a demonstration at the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, turned violent, and the US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was killed. Most likely the demonstration was incidental, providing cover for an independent attack force (see the Quilliam report, which describes a video released by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri with a call "to avenge the death of Abu Yaya al-Libi, al-Qaeda's second in command killed a few months ago"). The US responded by sending a small detachment of Marines to Libya -- not enough for an occupation, but quacks like one, and will be taken as such by those so inclined. What this shows is that after eight years of Bush and nearly four of Obama virtually nothing has changed. The US still throws its weight around the Arab world, siding with tyrants it finds conveniently corrupt, helping them kill and imprison their own people, getting trapped in blood feuds, and blamed for the dearth of progress that keeps these nations poor. Sensible persons back away from tactics that don't work; US politicians stumble forward, convinced that losing credibility would be far worse than throwing away lives and treasure. Oil gets blamed for this, and indeed there are lots of things one can pin on the oil companies, but they prefer to work quietly, and were doing nicely in places like Saudi Arabia until external politics got in their way. The rub there is Israel, ever more a warrior state, which has spent the last four years goading Obama into a pointless and potentially tragic showdown with Iran. That may seem nothing more than good sport for Israel, much like their dabblings in US domestic politics, like smacking down uppity presidents with congressional resolutions and radio flak. For Israel, hostilities are a win-win proposition: either they kick ass, or they burnish up their victimhood cult, renewing their claim to the moral high ground. (And while they whine about their losses, they're never so severe they disturb the warrior ethos.) On the other hand, for the US war is lose-lose: like Todd Snider's bully, what kicking ass winds up meaning is you got to do it again tomorrow, and again and again and again, all the while exposing your inner wretchedness. Israel, behind its Iron Wall, can fancy that it's better to be feared than liked, but the US needs good will to do business, so with every misstep risks losing it all. That's why the two days both wind up in the loss column. In the wake of the embassy incident, Obama promised to bring the killers "to justice": the first thing that flashed through my mind was Pershing chasing all over Mexico after Pancho Villa, nothing but a wild goose chase. But even nominal success most often rings hollow, as Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden have proven. (Ultimately, both happened after killing more people than the evildoers had themselves, making one wonder what a higher power should do with Bush and Obama.) Meanwhile, Romney accused Obama of "apologizing for America" when the State Department tried to disclaim and disown the video that triggered (or served as the pretext for) the demonstrations. Presumably, Romney thought that Obama should have stood up for gross slander of a religion with one trillion followers -- presuming that Romney was thinking, as he's likely to disavow the video himself by week's end. Still, even if he walks back the particulars, you've seen his basic instinct: to plunge headlong, chin up, into every conflict that comes his way, as if, like Israel, he's convinced that every fight is win-win. That last point is the secret behind the Neocons' slavish idolatry of Israel: envy. They want to fight, and they want to win. They want to thumb their noses at the world, and have the world cower before them. They see that on a small scale with Israel, and even there they don't actually see very well, but they're convinced that if only our leaders had the vision and the guts we could scale Israel's formula up and leave the world awestruck. Romney, of course, is as committed to Neoconnery as McCain and Bush -- see John Judis: never apologize, never negotiate, never think, just act. After all, you're America: always right, invincible (except when led by cowards like Obama, Clinton, and Carter). Update: Minor edit above, changing "Israeli movie" to "video." Initial reports were that the demonstrations were against a movie produced by a California-based Israeli named Sam Bacile. WarInContext has a post that suggests that it was in fact produced by an Egyptian Christian living in California. As I understand it, the title is Innocence of Muslims, and at present it is only distributed as a 14-minute excerpt on YouTube, so it is not clear to me whether words like "film" and "movie" are appropriate. These details don't have any real bearing on the argument above. The video may be a convenient pretext for a demonstration, but the real issue is US interference in the region, including support for regimes that do real violence to people, especially Israel's occupation. Speaking of which, I see now that Obama has dispatched several Navy ships to the Libyan coast, and has started flying drones over Libyan air space "to search for the perpetrators of the attack" -- once again the instinct of US leaders is to make it all worse. Romney, clueless as ever, argued: "It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks." What he means is that the government should stand up in solidarity with every bigot identified as American because failure to do so could be construed as "apologizing for America," and the World's Greatest Nation should never apologize for anything. Further Update (Sept. 15): Two items from Washington Monthly's Lunch Buffet:
It's easy to see how such great minds can get confused. The nominal purpose of America's "Oil Wars" -- the long string of US operations in the Middle East (and Afghanistan) since Carter declared the oil in and around the Persian Gulf a "national interest" in 1979 -- has always been to help our good Muslims against those bad Muslims (the definitions sometimes changing, e.g., in Afghanistan), so the US has always had to be careful not to make offense against Islam. But it's always been easier to sell those wars to the American people with a dollop of racial and religious bigotry -- you could even call it "Crusader zeal" -- and as the wars have unfolded, most of what you actually see is Americans killing Muslims, the "good" inevitably mixed in with the "bad" -- and this results in a polarization that undermines the original premise. For someone like Bachmann, the enemy winds up being all of Islam. Romney is more of a neocon, so he has to keep the notion that we're helping "good Muslims" in play, even though he doesn't always remember that before he speaks. Wednesday, September 12, 2012A Downloader's Diary Guide to the SmithsPick up text here. Monday, September 10, 2012Music Week/Jazz ProspectingMusic: Current count 20416 [20383] rated (+33), 664 [676] unrated (-12). Ratings count looks healthy enough, but nearly all of that was inertia from Recycled Goods: still have a big shelf unit of unplayed records, and they're much easier to deal with than new jazz: I must have played the Konitz album five times before I could write something about it, and I had trouble with Feinberg last night and Cantrall today. (Most of what follows was actually written some weeks back.) Shouldn't have so much trouble with the new Hairybones, which is assaulting the speakers as I type. Not sure how I feel at the moment -- I suppose we can count that as an improvement, given how bad I've felt for the last six weeks. I don't think there will be a Rhapsody Streamnotes this month, or if there is one it will be pretty short (draft file only has 4 records so far). A Downloader's Diary and Recycled Goods also lost a month this summer -- unintended, but it's been like that. Joe Alterman: Give Me the Simple Life (2011 [2012], Miles High): Pianist, originally from Atlanta, moved to New York in 2007 to study at NYU. Second album, mostly piano trio with James Cammack on bass and Herlin Riley on drums, joined on four cuts by the redoubtable tenor saxophonist, Houston Person. Wrote 2 (of 12) tracks, with "Georgia on My Mind" the only cover I was sure of. Nice, spry piano, and of course the guest is superb. B+(**) Angles 8: By Way of Deception: Live in Ljubljana (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): Swedish alto saxophonist Martin Küchen's big group, expanded from six to eight this time -- Eirik Hegdal (baritone sax, soprano sax) and Alexander Zethson (piano) are the adds, although he's also swapped trumpeters (Goran Kajfes replaces Magnus Broo). The piano pays dividends, and Mattias Ståhl's vibes glitter throughout, but the horns are rich, vibrant, triumphant. A- Bill Cantrall & Axiom: Live at the Kitano (2010 [2012], Up Swing): Trombone player, from and based in New York, studied at Northwestern and Queen's College. One previous album, Axiom, named his band -- basically a hard bop quintet with trombone instead of trumpet -- after it: Stacy Dillard (tenor/soprano sax), Rick Germanson (piano), Gerald Cannon (bass), Darrell Green (drums), plus he picks up Mike DiRubbo (alto sax) and Freddie Hendrix (trumpet, comes as a surprise) for a 23:57 expansion of "Axiom." B+(***) Michael Feinberg: The Elvin Jones Project (2012, Sunnyside): Bassist, b. 1987, second album, takes the Coltrane Quartet as his starting point, starting and ending with Elvin Jones compositions, covering Coltrane, Steve Grossman, Frank Foster, and Jimmy Van Heusen ("Nancy With the Laughing Face") in between, with one Feinberg original. Group is overloaded with talent: George Garzone, Tim Hagans, Leo Genovese, Billy Hart, plus guitar (Alex Wintz) on two tracks. Lots of superb runs, and the drummer has fun. B+(**) Lee Konitz/Bill Frisell/Gary Peacock/Joey Baron: Enfants Terribles (2011 [2012], Half Note): The drummer, at 56, is the youngest here, so "enfants" as much of a joke as "terribles." The eldest is the alto saxophonist, at 85 -- presumably he's the guy at the end who can't remember his bandmates names, although you'll recognize them. I kept listening for Konitz, and hearing Frisell, playing Konitz-like twists on the standards repertoire. Not that the alto sax isn't present. He just works a around the lines, letting the band for this "Live at the Blue Note" disc support him. B+(***) Igor Lumpert Trio: Innertextures Live (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): Tenor saxophonist, b. 1975 in the future Slovenia, studied in Austria, spent some time in Munich playing for a group that won a "Best Jazz Group of Germany" award, wound up in New York. With Chris Tordini on bass (presumably "Christhopher" is a typo) and Nasheet Waits on drums. All originals, smart free jazz, shies away from excessive drama and volume. B+(**) Pat Martino: Alone Together With Bobby Rose (1977-78 [2012], High Note): Pre-aneurism, previously unreleased, Rose adds a second guitar but is more rhythm accompaniment than duet partner. B+(*) Michael McNeill Trio: Passageways (2010 [2012], self-released): Pianist, b. 1982, based in Buffalo, first album, a trio with Ken Filiano (bass) and Phil Haynes (drums). I often despair of my inability to sort out the vast wave of piano trios that come my way, but sometimes I'm caught by surprise -- just rarely by someone I've never heard of before. First clue here is the bassist, who never plays on uninteresting albums. Filiano kicks off the 20:34 opener -- that length another sign that something is up here -- but when the pianist takes over he darts in and out, never settling for something ordinary. The other four pieces range 5:48-9:58. A- Platform 1: Takes Off (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): New Ken Vandermark group, with Magnus Broo (trumpet), Steve Swell (trombone), Joe Williamson (bass), and Michael Vatcher (drums). All but the drummer contribute songs -- Vandermark's two dedicated to label head Pedro Costa and Roswell Rudd, good news for the trombonist, who has the hot hand here. When the horns are flaring, as impressive as any band working, including Vandermark's previous Five. Don't quite get the dead spaces, though. B+(***) Trespass Trio [Martin Küchen/Per Zanussi/Raymond Strid]: Bruder Beda (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): Like Angles, Exploding Customer, Sound of Mucus, another Martin Küchen group, a trio with Küchen on alto sax, Per Zanussi on double bass, and Raymond Strid on drums. Second group album. Slowly, cautiously navigates the free jazz shoals, at once daring and moderate. B+(***) Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
Miscellaneous notes:
Expert CommentsFrom SG Headphones, 50 Albums That Built Prog Rock (not a numbered list, so I'm transcribing lines left-to-right, top-to-bottom, which works out close to chronological; my grades added in brackets):
Turns out I only have 14 of the 50 graded (28%), which doesn't make me much of a genre expert. Those I have graded are all over the place, the median not very high: A+ (2), A (2), B+ (3), B (6), C+ (1), C- (1), D+ (1). Also note that the better records are front-loaded. I actually had an avowed interested in prog back in the 1970s: even so, I only have 30.7% of the pre-1980 albums (12/39), not much difference; back a bit further, only 33.3% of pre-1975 (11/33). Saturday, September 08, 2012Expert CommentsDidn't plan on voting in Bradley Sroka's 1992-2012 poll, but it seems to still be open, so might as well see if I can come up with a top-twenty list. Pretty arbitrary: some things I'm inclined to root for have risen a bit, some more conventional choices slip a bit, some A+ records fall below mere A's. The squeeze into the top twenty was particularly arduous; the break at 100 even more arbitrary, but at least by that point I had run out of records that simply had to be listed.
Friday, September 07, 2012Expert CommentsMilo Miles:
[Changed presumed typo "despite" to "despise."] I know of at least one publicist who only uses Alexis ratings to decide which music critics to serve. Wednesday, September 05, 2012Expert CommentsRecycled Goods came out yesterday. Got some nice feedback on Facebook and in personal mail, but nobody noticed at EW until Jason Gubbels piped up:
Shortly later, he added:
His comment is up to four thumb bombs now, vs. 16 up. Allen B. responded:
Cam Patterson:
Peterike164 posted a comment including a Springsteen quote which, he says, "means something very real to you, or it's just silly romantic bombast."
I wondered at first whether this was a reference back to the "Jungleland" thread, but I've never been much good with lyrics, and they play a fairly minor view in how I react to records. But I looked this up; turns out it comes from "Promised Land," a song on Darkness on the Edge of Town, a record I have very low regard for (basically, it's Born to Run redux, except without anything very good on it). Peterike164 goes on:
Some of this is right, and some of it is off base. True that people from different times and/or different classes or other significant experiences relate to any given music variously. But the Springsteen lyric doesn't only break down to "real" or "silly romantic bombast": for me, it posits a character that I might recognize but wouldn't like (and Springsteen's first-person doesn't help my view of him here). But music also breaks out of those boxes, and much of it can be stretched many ways. Tuesday, September 04, 2012Recycled Goods (100): September 2012New Recycled Goods: pick up text here. Total review count: 3407 (2992 + 415). Expert CommentsSomeone mentioned Bruce Springsteen's "Jungleland" and I popped:
LazyOldSon (Peter G.) responded:
Tatum pointed out that my current grade for Born to Run is B+ (Darkness on the Edge of Town is the B-, although I would have guessed lower). I added:
Alan Baker responded:
Checking next day, I had 14 thumbs up, 3 down. Baker had 5 up, 28 down. Baker went on to pick a fight with Milo Miles over Layla. When asked to put up or shut up, he retreated. Of course, he's right that I could have been wrong about Born to Run, but citing only one more data point, Dark Side of the Moon, to prove "there's nothing between your ears from which the music flows" isn't much of a case. Interestingly, Christgau is often attacked on similar judgment disagreements, and his pan of Dark Side of the Moon is by far the most often cited. In both cases I think we were swayed by a combination of antihype -- Dark Side of the Moon was a huge bestseller, on the charts for over 10 years; Born to Run didn't sell that well, but was huge, and the print hype was even more extensive, including the Time cover -- and the fact that the records veered uncomfortably close to personal pet peeves. (His was anti-prog, anti-Europe, and anti-FM; I hated the dramatized mythmongering of "Jungleland," not to mention how it reminded me of West Side Story; on the other hand, I was heavily invested in pub rock, which came from the same impulse as, and was competitive with, Springsteen's neoclassicism -- an insight I only came to much later.) As for Christgau's take on Springsteen, see his piece on the rock critic establishment, which was his principled way of navigating through the hype. Christgau later wrote more favorably of Pink Floyd, especially Wish You Were Here, and he wrote a nice Riffs piece on a concert following Animals which I saw with him. My grades on those albums (and The Wall) are a notch above his, much as my Springsteen grades are commonly (but not always) a notch below his. I'd credit him with planting the idea in my head that helped me reevaluate Springsteen more favorably. (I doubt that I had any influence the other way, but he did assign the long Pink Floyd piece I wrote for the Voice in 1977; much later I wrote the Rolling Stone Album Guide entry on Pink Floyd, here.) Next day, but it belongs in this thread: Chris Drumm:
I'll add that his fans were even touchier back in the day, before he had it made. Monday, September 03, 2012Music Week/No Jazz ProspectingMusic: Current count 20383 [20337] rated (+46), 676 [706] unrated (-30). Didn't do any Jazz Prospecting this week. Still feeling bad, but I've actually been more productive, as you'll see tomorrow when I post the 100th edition of Recycled Goods. I've pretty much given up on trying to track current reissues -- cf. the metacritic file for a fairly exhaustive list, in most cases either stuff I'm not interested in or items I can't get hold of -- and instead decided to dive into my own sagging shelf of unplayed/unrated CDs. Most of these were picked up during store closeouts while I was still buying not indiscriminately but liberally, before I resumed writing about music, which is to say c. 2002. Still adding stuff to it, but last count was 82 records. Like I said, tomorrow. Should have some jazz next week. Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
Miscellaneous notes:
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