Monday, March 26, 2018

Music Week

Music: current count 29517 [29490] rated (+27), 367 [378] unrated (-11).

Tough week for me, although next week should be even rougher -- certainly harder to get anything done: memorial service for my sister is Saturday, March 31, and various family and friends will be arriving from Wednesday on. I'm going to try to wrap up Streamnotes early so I won't have to deal with it late in the week. In any case, it will be one of my shortest in many months, probably years. Also the grade curve seems to have slipped severely: A-list currently just two long each for new and old music, with a roughly even break. Possible, I suppose, that my personal malaise is dragging down my grade curve. Also possible I'm just not finding good tips. I will say that I gave Christgau's grade A jazz pick (Mast) four plays before I gave up on it. And I didn't find last year's Monk vault tape, Les Laisions Dangereuses 1960 any better. As for the Ornette Coleman twofer, the two Impulse albums it collects are the only official Colemans I still haven't heard.

By the way, Ram Lama Hull has set up a website for Kathy Hull, including a gallery of some of her artwork. A memorial service will be held for her at 1:00 PM at First UU, 7202 E. 21st St. N., Wichita, KS 67206.

New records rated this week:

  • Heather Bennett: Lazy Afternoon (2018, Summit): [r]: B
  • Chris Dave: Chris Dave and the Drumhedz (2018, Blue Note): [r]: B
  • Caroline Davis: Heart Tonic (2018, Sunnyside): [r]: B+(**)
  • Dogwood: Hecate's Hounds (2018, Nusica.org): [r]: B+(**)
  • Bill Frisell: Music IS (2017 [2018], Okeh): [r]: B+(**)
  • Gwenno: Le Kov (2018, Heavenly): [r]: B+(**)
  • The Heavyweights Brass Band: This City (2018, Lulaworld): [cd]: B+(***)
  • MAST: Thelonious Sphere Monk (2018, World Galaxy): [r]: B+(***)
  • Adam Nussbaum: The Lead Belly Project (2018, Sunnyside): [r]: B+(**)
  • Aruán Ortiz Trio: Live in Zürich (2016 [2018], Intakt): [cd]: B+(***)
  • Bobby Previte: Rhapsody (2017 [2018], RareNoise): [cdr]: B
  • Steve Reich: Pulse/Quartet (2018, Nonesuch): [r]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

  • Kang Tae Hwan: Live at Café Amores (1995 [2018], NoBusiness): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Bill Warfield Big Band: For Lew (1990-2014 [2018], Planet Arts): [cd]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

  • The Barry Altschul Quartet: For Stu (1979 [1981], Soul Note): [r]: B+(**)
  • The Barry Altschul Quartet: Irina (1983, Soul Note): [r]: B+(***)
  • The Barry Altschul Quartet/Quintet: That's Nice (1985 [1986], Soul Note): [r]: B+(*)
  • Paul Bley/John Surman/Bill Frisell/Paul Motian: The Paul Bley Quartet (1987 [1988], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
  • John Surman: Such Winters of Memory (1982 [1983], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
  • John Surman: Withholding Pattern (1984 [1985], ECM): [r]: B+(*)
  • John Surman: Private City (1987 [1988], ECM): [r]: B+(*)
  • John Surman Quartet: Stranger Than Fiction (1993 [1994], ECM): [r]: B+(***)
  • John Surman: A Biography of the Rev. Absalom Dawe (1994 [1995], ECM): [r]: B+(***)
  • John Surman/Jack DeJohnette: Invisible Nature (2000 [2002], ECM): [r]: A-
  • John Surman: Free and Equal (2001 [2003], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
  • John Surman/Howard Moody: Rain on the Window (2006 [2008], ECM): [r]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Roger Kellaway Trio: New Jazz Standards Vol. 3 (Summit)
  • Otherworld Ensemble: Live at Malmitalo (Edgetone): April 3
  • Rent Romus' Life's Blood Ensemble: Rogue Star (Edgetone): April 3

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