Tom Hull: 3304-Music-Week.html

Supposedly on the mend, although the left eye feels a bit worse than it did a week ago, or maybe I just expected better, so I'm more troubled by the twitches and flashes. I have discontinued the 7-day eye drops, leaving me with just the prednislone. Still a couple weeks before I see the doctor again. Until then, no schedule for the right eye.

It's hard to say that anything personal is back to normal in what is evidently an extremely abnormal period in American history. I'm not back to following the political world in any detail, but I have signed up for a Bluesky account, where I am following 25 and have 33 followers. I salted my following list by looking at Robert Christgau's, which gave me a couple of political sources and more friends and music critic colleagues. My wife's list yielded some more of both, but she's only following 31, with 23 followers (but pretty inactive with just 2 posts).

For whatever it's worth, my current list of political oracles is: Ryan Cooper, David A. Graham, Doug Henwood, Kevin M. Kruse, Scott Lemieux, Adam Serwer, Astra Taylor, and NonZero. There's a good chance that I would add any of the people I currently follow on X if I ran across their handles (especially if you let me know who you are; I've searched for a couple, but thus far to little avail).

For my own part, I've made 22 posts to Bluesky, which includes 18 original posts, 2 self-replies, and 2 more replies, so I'd like to think there is some value in following me there. Since setting up my account there on Feb. 13, I've made 8 posts on X, and 2 replies. My current thinking is that I'll continue to post blog announcements and make occasional replies on X, but will make a bit more effort on Bluesky. In particular, I've started posting notices when I come up with A/A- grades, as opposed to making you wait for Music Week. I may at some point extend this to a few lower-graded albums, but this week the pick hits have been coming so fast I haven't been tempted.

Of course, I don't mean to discourage you from following me on X: I have 625 followers there, but my last five posts have view counts in the 76-88 range (with 1-3 likes per post, and 1 total reply), so that number doesn't seem to mean much. I do find that even when I use their algorithmic "For You" feed, most of what I find there is still useful. It's only when I wander into the replies lane that I see any indication that it's become a cess pool of rage and inchoate thought. For instance, at the moment, I'm seeing in my "For You" feed: Nathan J Robinson, Eric Levitz, Rick Perlstein, Keith Gessen, Yanis Varoufakis, Samuel Moyn, Ian Millhiser, Kate Willett, Jeremy Scahill, and a half-dozen names I don't recognize but welcome. (I cut the list short at Max Blumenthal and Jeet Heer, who are less reliable but sometimes interesting.)

The big advantage I see Bluesky having over X is readers can follow links instead of having to separately google titles. My first idea there was to use it to recommend thoughtful articles, as I have done for years in Speaking of Which. I did a couple of those, and expect I will do more, but I haven't read much worth reporting after the first two. (Probably my oversight, as bad times tend to write themselves.) So much of what I know I pick up from X and Bluesky. And while I'm nowhere near reviving weekly political reviews, I've written Daily Log bits in my notebook every day from March 5 through yesterday. Nothing terribly important there, but I am thinking about a few things.

The one "normal" thing I did last week was listen to a lot of music. I'm not really done with 2024 yet, but I found it easier to pick 2025 CDs out of the promo queue than look for 2024 stragglers, so just went with it until I accidentally played a couple that aren't out yet. After I caught up, I finally opened my mail, and fell way back behind again. So the 2025 list is finally real, even though I haven't frozen the 2024 list yet. (Maybe next week. I figure I'm best off kicking this post out first.)

Also advancing, but not absolutely finished, is the 2024 EOY Aggregate list. Main thing I did last week was to add a bunch of Uproxx Music Critics Poll voters, which pushed the Metafile Legend list up to 610 sources. My first pass was to just pick out all of the names I had counted in previous years, but then I decided to explore a bit, so I picked out a few albums that struck me as underrated, then checked the voter list for each, and added some (or all) of them. Main thing I wanted to do was to nudge the totals toward more hip-hop. The biggest list I focused on was Doechii's 10th place Alligator Bites Never Heal -- only a B+(***) album for me, so not a big favorite of mine, but I thought it might reveal a little more underground interest than Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, the Creator (both same grade for me) -- which for now at least pushed the album from 7th to 4th place (behind Charli XCX, Lamar, and Beyoncé, passing MJ Lenderman, The Cure, and Waxahatchee). I also did a bit with Sabrina Carpenter (still in 13th, but -4 now vs. -27 last week).

I just checked, and see I'm no longer blocked from Facebook (but had to jump through some hoops to login). I'm still upset, and not likely to be posting anything there in the near future, but it was nice to see some updates from true friends. I logged in from a different machine than the one I'm writing on, which should also cut down on my activity.

I've made next to no progress on my planning documents. It's hard to develop any enthusiasm for attempting much of anything. Which may be a good thing if all you're interested in is music reviews, because that seems to be the path of least effort.

PS [03-12]: I was pleased to see that my number of Bluesky followers increased from 33 to 56 the day after I posted this. I haven't posted anything new there since the notice, but I figure if I add a postscript, I can post the notice again. I can also post a notice to my answer to a question about my embarrassingly paltry reading of fiction. Good question, and I'm likely to jump on anything that gives me a chance to write a bit of memoir -- which is arguably what I should be doing, instead of fretting about social media followers.

No new A- records yet this week, although I have a couple high B+ albums (Rodney Whitaker, Jim Snidero). While those albums don't quite do it for me, they are almost certain to strike a chord with some of my readers. Some of my favorite records from the 1970s were Christgau B+ grades: two in particular he sent me promos of, perhaps suspecting I would fall for them (Overcoats, by John Hiatt; Hirth From Earth, by Hirth Martinez; I wasn't quick enough to write about them in the Voice, but I did write about them in Terminal Zone, and I reviewed Martinez's second album in The Voice). My high B+ albums from 2024 include a bunch that topped other critics' lists, like: Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Doechii, MJ Lenderman, Adrian Lenker, and Tyler the Creator -- before rechecks and upgrades also: Charli XCX, Waxahatchee, Sabrina Carpenter, and Vampire Weekend. Among the top 20 in my EOY Aggregate, my only initial A- reviews were for Billie Eilish, Kim Gordon, and Patricia Brennan, followed down to 50 by Hurray for the Riff Raff, Beth Gibbons, Charles Lloyd, Jamie XX, Amyl and the Sniffers, and Kali Uchis.

One reason I haven't generated much news this week is that we went a couple friends' house for dinner after posting Monday, then I served a small dinner for another couple on Tuesday. Both led to long, fraught political discussions, as both couples are more activist-inclined than we are (especially me). I remain convinced that much of what Trump is doing is simple gaslighting, meant to drive his opponents crazy fighting against impractical, untenable proposal flares. However, with Trump it's hard to tell what is real and what is not, since both agendas are heavy on stupid and/or insane. It's going to be a long four years. And maybe not yet now, but November 2026 will be a key date to try to limit the damage by flipping Congress (and gaining more traction in state and local races). Until then it's important to expose what they are doing, and to highlight the bad faith, shoddy thinking, and blatant corruption they're operating with.

No pics on the Tuesday dinner, which was a pretty minimal effort, with no extra shopping. The main dish was leftover brisket, delicata squash, and sweet potatoes, which I had initially cooked Sunday. I had very little available to complement it, but made mustard slaw from a small head of cabbage, and sliced some carrots for tzimmes (braised in lemon juice -- recipe called for orange -- with extra spices and golden raisins. For dessert I made black & white cookies, and served them with ice cream. Aside from the slaw, those were all first-attempt dishes, and came out very nice. (Well, the brisket was a little weird: I bought one of those packages already prepared for making corned beef, without realizing how much salt was already in the marinade, so first pass came out like corned beef with a surreal amount of salt and spice -- not something my wife was inclined to complain about, but I'm usually pretty good at pushing the seasonings up to a level just shy of too much, and this time I overshot. I soaked and drained the leftovers, which brought the salt back within normal range.)

I might as well note here that Christgau's March Consumer Guide appeared today, and it's mostly stuff I wasn't aware of. The exceptions were three albums I played once (or maybe twice) and filed as various shades of B+: Marshall Allen's New Dawn, GloRilla's Glorious and Mdou Moctar's Funeral for Justice. I should circle back around, but will note that I've rated four previous Moctar albums at A-, whereas Christgau has only previously reviewed one Moctar album (at ***). Also I had GloRilla's other 2024 album (er, mixtape, Ehhthang Ehhthang) at B+(***), a notch above Glorious, but I couldn't swear either way.

As for Allen, my footnote is that he recorded two other albums shortly before his 100th birthday, and both of those made my 2024 A-list: Deep Space, by John Blum Quartet Featuring Marshall Allen, and Lights on a Satellite, by Sun Ra Arkestra [Under the Direction of Marshall Allen]. So I count myself as a fan, but I wasn't all that impressed by New Dawn. Still, I'm pleased he was.

I'll get to more of those records next week. I was aware that the Charly Bliss record existed, and thought about playing it on a couple occasions, but forgot how much I liked their second album. Towa Bird was on three EOY lists, but too low to catch my attention. Aside from Allen, the 2025 releases were all news to me. FACS seems to be related to a 2009-16 group I liked, Disappears -- check out Pre Language (2012).

Ambrose Akinmusire: Honey From a Winter Stone (2023 [2025], Nonesuch): Trumpet player, from Oakland, debut 2008, landed on Blue Note in 2011 and quickly emerged as a top-rated player, his fame further extended by a guest spots with Kendrick Lamar. Second album since his move to Nonesuch, ambitious in his use of strings and vocals (notably Kokayi's freestyles). B+(**) [sp]

Steve Allee Big Band: Naptown Sound (2024 [2025], Jazzville): Pianist, released his first album in 1979, not a lot since then (aside from his The Bob and Tom Show work). I know him mostly through trios, but he co-led a big band in the late 1990s, and is back with another one here. Or maybe the same one? Sounds very run of the mill. B [cd] [03-15]

Marshall Allen: Red Dawn (2024 [2025], Mexican Summer): Alto saxophonist, joined Sun Ra's Arkestra in 1958, has led the ghost band since 1995, started work on this shortly after his 100th birthday, also playing kora and EWI, leading a large band with a string section and guest vocalist Neneh Cherry. I'm seeing hype for this as his "debut" album, although I have eight previous albums under his name in my database, not all co-credited to Sun Ra Arkestra. B+(*) [sp]

Russ Anixter's Hippie Big Band: What Is? (2024 [2025], self-released): Arranger and conductor, started playing bass in a Grateful Dead tribute band, leads a scraggly commune of 11 musicians -- 3 reeds, 4 brass (including French horn), vibes/xylo/congas, guitar, bass, drums -- through what will pass for hippie standards, including "Dixie Chicken," "Free Man in Paris" (segueing into "Freedom Jazz Dance"), "She Said She Said," "Saint Stephen" (paired with what I recognize as the theme music to Treme), "Uncle John's Band" (which slides into some James Bond movie music), "Into the Mystic," "Whipping Post," "What Is Hip?" This music is less recent than the Berlin, Porter, and Arlen show tunes were in the 1950s when they became jazz staples, so why not have fun with them now? Note guest spots for Stephen Bernstein and Oz Noy. A- [cd]

Barry Can't Swim: When Will We Land? (2023, Ninja Tune): Scottish electronica producer Joshua Mainnie, first album after several EPs (starting 2021). Half is really terrific. Made the Mercury Prize short list. B+(***) [sp]

Tim Berne/Tom Rainey/Gregg Belisle-Chi: Yikes Too (2024 [2025], Screwgun/Out of Your Head, 2CD): Alto sax, drums, and guitar trio, one studio album from April, following a live set a month earlier in Seattle. Some fine stretches here, but slips and slides a bit. Slight edge to the live disc (which I accidentally played first). B+(***) [cd]

Benjamin Booker: Lower (2025, Fire Next Time/Thirty Tigers): Singer-songwriter from New Orleans, third album since 2014, defies categorization. B+(**) [sp]

Alan Chaubert: Just the Three of Us: Me, the Trumpet and the Piano (2021-23 [2025], Pacific Coast Jazz): Swiss trumpet/piano player (video shows him playing left-hand piano while fingering the trumpet with his right), studied at Berklee, recorded this trio -- seems to be his first album -- in NJ, backed with bass (Belden Bullock) and drums (Jon Di Fiore), playing jazz standards, where Monk and Evans figure prominently. B+(**) [cd]

Chlöe: Trouble in Paradise (2024, Parkwood/Columbia): Last name Bailey, started at 11 in the sister duo Chloe x Halle (two albums 2018-20), second solo album. [sp]

Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet: Situation (2024 [2025], PlayOn): Third group album, leaders play flute/sax and guitar, filling out the group with harp, pedal steel, bass, and vibes, so let's call this "chamber jazz," and file it away. B [cd]

Liz Cole: I Want to Be Happy (2024 [2025], self-released): Standards singer, from Los Angeles, first album, doesn't spoil indelible standards nor redeem Brazilian pieces (although faster beats slower), wrote a bit of lyric to an Errol Garner composition, ends with Tom Waits. B [cd]

Sylvie Courvoisier/Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (2024 [2025], Pyroclastic): Swiss pianist, albums since 1997, this a duo with the famous guitarist. Engages slowly, but pays off in the end. A- [cd] [03-14]

Ermelinda Cuellar: Under a Lavender Sky (2024 [2025], self-released): "Texan-Peruvian" vocalist (Houston-based, of Peruvian descent, sings mostly in Spanish), wrote a couple songs, covers more -- including "Poinciana," "Song for My Father," and some Jobim -- quite ably. B+(*) [cd]

Deepstaria Enigmatica: The Eternal Now Is the Heart of a New Tomorrow (2022 [2025], ESP-Disk): Quintet from Memphis named for a rare deep-sea jellyfish, listing Chad Fowler (sax), David Collins (guitar), Alex Greene (keyboards), Khari Wynn (bass, credited as Misterioso Africano), and Jon Scott Harrison (drums). I found another group that latched onto the same name, with somewhat similar cosmic speculation (If Life on Earth Is to Abscise Than I Have Forever Been Quantized), but this one adds a bit of Memphis boogie to the free jazz fusion. A- [cd]

Jorrit Dijkstra: PorchBone (2023 [2024], Driff): Dutch alto saxophonist, based in Boston, debut 1992, was a leader in the Steve Lacy tribute band Whammies, seems to mean this title as a group name (per Discogs; Bandcamp credit is Jorrit Dijkstra's PorchBone). Only group album, preceded by Porch Trio -- with Nate McBride (acoustic/electric bass) and Eric Rosenthal (drums) -- joined here by a trombone trio (Jeb Bishop, Michael Prentky, Bill Lowe). B+(***) [bc]

Kenyon Dixon: The R&B You Love (2023, self-released): R&B singer-songwriter from Watts, seems to have been lurking in the background at least since 2015, although Discogs doesn't have most of what's in Wikipedia, and even Google doesn't shed much light on the shift from this 17-track, 44:24 digital album to two evidently related EPs released in 2024. B+(**) [sp]

Doseone/Steel Tipped Dove: All Portrait, No Chorus (2025, Backwoodz Studioz): Rapper Adam Drucker, from Idaho, got some notice recently for an album with Buck 65, but has a long history with Anticon (Buck 65's first label). Steel Tipped Dove is producer Joseph Fusaro, who has close to 20 albums since 2014. B+(**) [sp]

Paul Dunmall: Red Hot Ice (2024, Discus): British avant-saxophonist, has over 200 albums since 1986, impossible for me to keep up with, but often worth the efforth. He plays tenor and C soprano here, in a nonet -- with trumpet, trombone, baritone sax, guitar, two keyboardists, bass, and drums -- plus a few more for handclaps and electronics. B+(**) [sp]

Paul Dunmall/Kevin Figes: Duos (2022 [2024], Discus): Saxophone duets, both also playing a range of clarinets and flutes. Figes, also British, has many fewer albums as leader, but has side credits back to 1994. Interesting within its limits. B+(*) [sp]

Joe Elefante: Joe Elefante's Wheel of Dharma (2024 [2025], self-released): Pianist, Discogs only has a couple side-credits, Google thinks he's a singer, website shows five albums, including a big band and The Elefante Family Just in Time for Christmas. This is basically a hard bop album, with trumpet (Freddie Hendrix), sax (Erena Terakubo), bass, and drums. B+(*) [cd]

Ensemble C: Every Journey (2024 [2025], Adhyâropa): British pianist Claire Cope, second album, features vocalist Brigitte Beraha, the group expanded from 7 to 11 members. While there is much to be impressed with here, I find myself enjoying very little of it. [PS: Cites Maria Schneider, Pat Metheny, and "Michael Brecker's Grammy-winning 2004 Quindectet album" as inspirations.] B [cd]

Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (2024 [2025], Libra): Japanese pianist, tons of albums since 1995, this a sextet with two violins, viola, bass, and drums (also some electronics from the violist), which lands it near the heavy end of the scale. B+(***) [cd]

Daniel Garbin: Rising (2023 [2025], 6x20): Guitarist, also plays sitar, from Romania, teaches at CUNY (Queensborough Community College), website has sections on mathematics and photography as well as music, seems to be his first album, originals (some co-written by Simona Pop), groove pieces I was perhaps too readily inclined to dismiss. B+(*) [cd]

LP Giobbi: Garcia (Remixed) (2024, Round): Jerry Garcia remixes, Discogs gives him co-credit, some vocals I could or should recognize, revived with hopping new rhythm tracks. B+(**) [bc]

Philip Glass: Philip Glass Solo (2021 [2024], Orange Mountain Music): Major minimalist composer, b. 1937, range includes soundtracks and operas, some relatively popular. This is solo piano, as was his 1989 Solo Piano. Very nice. B+(***) [sp]

Keiji Haino/Natsuki Tamura: What Happened There? (2024 [2025], Libra): Guitar and trumpet duo, the former gets top billing, possibly for raw vocal power, and possibly for pushing this over the edge, and scraping it bloody in the process. Most often I shy away from records this harsh, but here I'm convinced. Probably helped that it's just one 35:43 piece, so not only didn't wear out its welcome, but got a couple extra plays. A- [cd]

Jon Irabagon: Server Farm (2023 [2025], Irabbagast): Saxophonist (tenor and sopranino here), got big here, leading a 10-piece group with only one member -- Levy Lorenzo (kulintang, laptop, electronics, vibraphone) -- not previously well-known to me. Big and bold, although I don't care for the vocal. B+(***) [cd]

Rodney Jordan: Memphis Blue (2020 [2025], Baxter Music): Bassist, one previous album in my database, side credits from 1999, especially with Marcus Roberts and René Marie. Quintet with trumpet (Melvin Jones), sax (Mark Sterbank), piano (Louis Hervieaux), and drums (Quentin E. Baxter), mostly blues, a mix of jazz tunes (Gigi Gryce, Mulgrew Miller, "Autumn Leaves") and originals (last one is called "The Art of Blakey"). B+(***) [cd]

Laura Jurd & Paul Dunmall: Fanfares & Freedom (2023 [2024], Discus): Trumpet player, best known for her group Dinosaur, and long-established avant saxophonist, both British, leading a nonet through a piece commissioned by the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. B+(***) [sp]

Karl Latham: Living Standards II (2024 [2025], Dropzone Jazz): Jazz and rock drummer, side credits back to 1988, album title refers back to a 2016 album (which Discogs probably has the label wrong on), a guitar-bass-drums trio covering rock tunes like "Day Tripper," "Low Rider," "White Rabbit," and "White Room." Same concept here, the group expanded to include keyboards, extra percussion, and vibes ("special guest" Wolfgang Lackerschmid -- much of Latham's jazz discography is on his albums). The songs strike me as more obscure, but I've never paid much attention to Stephen Stills or Adrian Belew (of course, I do still recognize the Doors, Led Zeppelin, and Steppenwolf). B+(*) [cd]

Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner: The Music of Anthony Braxton (2024 [2025], Pi): While I've rated 69 Braxton albums -- looking at the list suggests I still have a lot of work to do -- I've never gotten a good sense of him as a composer, while having no doubts as to his chops, especially on his marvelous standards albums. On the other hand, several of his students have made superb albums from his compositions, and Lehman's own work, both as alto saxophonist and composer, over the last 20+ years has few peers. He wrote two pieces here, to go with five Braxtons and one Monk, and added the tenor saxophonist to his trio with Matt Brewer (bass) and Damon Reid (drums). A- [cd]

John Mailander's Forecast: Let the World In (2024 [2025], self-released): Nashville-based fiddle/mandolin player, seems to have started in bluegrass (Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, Bruce Hornsby) but "moved beyond." Group name from a 2019 album, reused in 2021. Stringed instruments, drums, some sax, one vocal, feels rural but nothing that yells hoedown. B+(**) [cdr]

Michi: Dirty Talk (2025, Stones Throw): Pop/r&b singer from Los Angeles, first album. B+(*) [sp]

Jackson Potter: Small Things (2024 [2025], Shifting Paradigm): Guitarist, from Minnesota, debug album in 2021 seems to have vanished, new one is a quintet with dueling horns -- Alex Ridout (trumpet) and Troy Roberts (tenor sax) -- plus bass and drums, with voice and extra alto sax (Jaleel Shaw) on one track. B+(**) [cd]

Noah Preminger: Ballades (2024 [2025], Chill Tone): Tenor saxophonist, from Brooklyn, debut 2011, hype sheet suggests a connection to John Coltrane's 1963 Ballads, but unclear what that is, beyond the piano-bass-drums backing, and the slow, gorgeous crawl through a different set of songs. B+(***) [cd]

Redman: Muddy Waters Too (2024, Gilla House): Rapper Reginald Noble, from New Jersey, debut 1992 went gold, as did next four albums through 2001 (or six with collaborations, including one with Method Man). Fifth album since (including another with Method Man), this first since 2015 runs 32 songs, 81 minutes. B+(**) [sp]

Rick Roe: Tribute: The Music of Gregg Hill (2024 [2025], Cold Plunge): Pianist, has albums from 1994 and 2005, both Monk-themed, has side credits on a couple other tribute albums to Hill, a composer based in Michigan with no real discogrpahy of his own, but nearing a dozen tribute albums of late. Trio with Robert Hurst (bass) and Nate Winn (drums). B+(**) [cd]

Gina Saputo: Daydream (2024 [2025], GSJQ Productions): Standards singer, based in Los Angeles, several albums since 2003, backed by piano/bass/drums, with guest horns on several tracks. Opens with "You're No Good," but everything else is more standard (give or take a Monk). B+(**) [cd] [04-18]

Mark Scott III: Soft Light (2024 [2025], Miller Three Publishing): Guitarist, studied at UNT, based in Austin, first album, trio backed by bass (Ben Triesch) and drums (Mike Gordon). Has a light, steady touch. B+(**) [cd]

Sentient Beings: Truth Is Not the Enemy (2024, Discus): Quartet, album title from a 2023 album originally filed under John Butcher, replaced here by John O'Gallagher (alto sax), joining Faith Brackenbury (violin/viola), John Pope (bass), and Tony Bianco (drums). B+(***) [sp]

Stress Eater: Everybody Eats! (2024, Silver Age): Czarface spinoff, from 7L & Esoteric with Kool Keith in lieu of Inspectah Deck, longtime denizens of a comic/cosmic underground, this time with a focus on food. A- [sp]

Omar Thomas Large Ensemble: Griot Songs (2024 [2025], Omar Thomas Music, 2CD): Composer/arranger, Brooklyn born, parents Guyanese, studied at NEC, Maria Schneider protégé, third album (none I can find on Discogs, although they have one credit from 2013). My eyes can't decipher the print I have, so I'll just let this one run. Big for sure, or is grandiose the word? B+(*) [cd]

Warmdüscher: Too Cold to Hold (2024, Strap Originals): British post-punk group, name is German for "warm showerer" ("a derogatory term referring to somebody who is perceived as a wimp, or as not tough enough for life"), fifth album since 2015. B+(*) {sp]

Simón Willson: Bet: Live at Ornithology (2024 [2025], Endectomorph Music): Bassist from Chile, based in New York, side-credits since 2016, second album as leader, quartet with Neta Raanan (tenor sax), Evan Main (piano), and Kayvon Gordon (drums), recorded live. Raanan got some Debut notice in the 2024 FDJCP, and gets pushed even harder here. B+(***) [cd]

Paul Dunmall/Paul Rogers/Tony Orrell: That's My Life (1989 [2023], 577): British saxophonist, plays soprano here, Discogs credits him with 201 albums since 1986 (325 credits), so this is a fairly early set, a live tape from Albert Inn in Bristol, backed by bass and drums. I've only sampled him lightly (18 albums, 4 A-), so don't have much sense of how consistent he is, but this one sizzles all the way. A- [sp]

The Laws of William Bonney Saxophone Quartet: 1993-2007 (1993-2007 [2023], Acheulian Handwave): Saxophone quartet of Jeffrey Morgan (alto), Martin Speicher (sopranino/alto), Stefan Keune (sopranino/tenor), and Joachim Zoepf (soprano/baritone) -- each with fairly substantial discograpies (Morgan's possibly longest, but least known to me; Zoepf was in Kölner Saxophon Mafia, long on my shopping list but never found). Eleven tracks from four dates, no group records released. (Their namesake was better known as Billy the Kid, 1859-81). B+(***) [sp]

Jorrit Dijkstra/François Houle/Karlis Silins/Kenton Loewen: Coastlines: Music of Steve Lacy, Volume I - Quartets (2022 [2023], Afterday): The alto saxophonist previously recorded three volumes of Lacy tunes in the Whammies, returns here with a Canadian clarinetist who also has a long history with Lacy, who recruited the bassist and drummer (mostly associated with Gordon Grdina, but like Houle based in Vancouver). B+(***) [bc]

Jorrit Dijkstra/François Houle: Coastlines: Music of Steve Lacy: Volume II - Duos (2022 [2023], Afterday): Same idea, but loses a critical step without the rhythm section. B+(*) [bc]

Kölner Saxophon Mafia: Die Saxuelle Befreiung (1984, Jazz Haus Musik): German saxophone sextet (at least at this point), founded 1981, so a few years after World Saxophone Quartet (1977) and ROVA (also 1977). First studio album, after 1982's Live. They seem less focused on harmonics, and more on the intricacies of composition and flow, although results are mixed. B+(**) [sp]

Kölner Saxophon Mafia: Unerhört - Stadtklänge (1984 [1985], Jazz Haus Musik): Third album, the second side a 4-part suite. More ambitious, but also more refined. B+(***) [sp]

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