Monday, May 28, 2018

Music Week

Music: current count 29759 [29733] rated (+26), 344 [351] unrated (-7).

Rated count down a bit. I spent most of Monday and Tuesday cooking a fairly large Indian dinner to mark my late sister's birthday, so I took the time to enjoy old favorites. After that, I made a small dent in my CD queue, which had partly been impoverished by my picking out the most promising titles earlier this month. Still, I expected good things from François Carrier's latest -- largely delivered, although I detected a bit of unsteadiness compared to recent efforts -- and a 3-CD William Parker collection. The latter samples Parker's 1991-93 Song Cycle (with Ellen Christie and Lisa Sokolov), adds some later vocal pieces, and throws in two discs of new recordings. I find most of them hard to take -- an aversion to opera, art song, and avant warble I've long held.

I also sought out some recent Clean Feed releases -- long my favorite label but less so since they stopped servicing me. I also found a few recent HighNote/Savant releases on Napster -- back catalog isn't there yet, but one hopes -- and took a look at Chicago pianist Matt Piet's Bandcamp pages (but didn't bite on the 3-hour Live in Chicago). Also checked out Robert Christgau's latest picks (Frankie Cosmos and Speed Ortiz; I had already played his HMs), and Prefuse 73 (a friend was curious). Still, none of those struck me as A- records: Carrier came closest, and Piet impressed me as someone worth keeping an ear open for.

Expect a Streamnotes compilation by the end of the month. I currently have 19 new A/A- releases (plus one new compilation), which is actually well above average for a month. The 2018 A-list only totals 40 so far, so nearly half of them have come in May. Ignoring January (usually just previous year catch-up) that comes to 10/month, or 120/year. That's actually a bit down from 2017, which totals 144 new A-list records (including 5 added since the Jan. 31, 2018 freeze date).

I have 320 new records rated so far this year, so an average of 80/month, projected to 960 for the year. For 2017 the current total is 1177 (42 added since freeze date), so I'm down a bit this year. No real surprise given how the year has gone. The May Streamnotes draft file currently has 128 new records (including compilations), well above my average this (or practically any) year.

Not much unpacking this week, but after reports that Cuneiform had closed down back in January, I was very pleasantly surprised to see two new Thumbscrew (Mary Halvorson) records show up in my mail box.

New records rated this week:

  • Bill Anschell: Shifting Standards (2017 [2018], Origin): [cd]: B+(***)
  • Tiffany Austin: Unbroken (2018, Con Alma): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Andrea Brachfeld: If Not Now, When? (2017 [2018], Jazzheads): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Jonas Cambin Trio: We Must Mustn't We (2018, Clean Feed): [r]: B+(***)
  • François Carrier/Michel Lambert/Rafal Mazur: Beyond Dimensions (2016 [2018], FMR): [cd]: B+(***)
  • Dan Cavanaugh/Dave Hagedorn: 20 Years (2017 [2018], UT Arlington): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Freddy Cole: My Mood Is You (2018, HighNote): [r]: B+(***)
  • Frankie Cosmos: Vessel (2018, Sub Pop): [r]: B+(***)
  • Dead Composers Club [Noah Preminger/Rob Garcia]: Chopin Project (2017 [2018], Connection Works): [cd]: B
  • Kat Edmonson: Old Fashioned Gal (2018, MRI): [r]: B+(*)
  • Danny Green Trio Plus Strings: One Day It Will (2017 [2018], OA2): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Tyler Higgins: Blue Mood (2016 [2018], Shhpuma): [r]: B+(*)
  • Amos Hoffman/Noam Lemish: Pardes (2017 [2018], self-released): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Azar Lawrence: Elementals (2018, HighNote): [r]: B+(**)
  • Mike LeDonne and the Groover Quartet: From the Heart (2018, Savant): [r]: B+(*)
  • Ben Markley Quartet: Basic Economy (2017 [2018], OA2): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Deanne Matley: Because I Loved (2018, self-released): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Jeremy Pelt: Noir En Rouge: Live in Paris (2018, HighNote): [r]: B+(**)
  • Matt Piet: The Bitter Angles of Our Nurture (2017, self-released): [bc]: B(**)
  • Matt Piet/Paul Giallorenzo: Wood, Wire, and Steel (self-released): [bc]: B+(**)
  • Matt Piet & Tim Daisy: Stroke One; Strike Two (self-released): [bc]: B+(***)
  • Matt Piet/Raoul van der Welde/Frank Rosaly: Out of Step: Live in Amsterdam (2017, self-released): [bc]: B+(***)
  • Prefuse 73: Sacrifices (2018, Lex): [r]: B
  • Speedy Ortiz: Twerp Verse (2018, Carpark): [r]: B+(*)
  • WoodWired: In the Loop (2017 [2018], UT Arlington): [cd]: B+(**)

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

  • William Parker: Voices Fall From the Sky (1993-2018, AUM Fidelity, 3CD): [cd]: B

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Gene Jackson Trio NuYorx: Power of Love (Whirlwind)
  • Jure Pukl: Doubtless (Whirlwind)
  • Ratatet: Heroes, Saints and Clowns (Ridgeway): June 22
  • Thumbscrew: Ours (Cuneiform): June 8
  • Thumbscrew: Theirs (Cuneiform): June 8

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