Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Rhapsody Streamnotes (May 2012)

Pick up text here.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Music Week/Jazz Prospecting

Music: Current count 19915 [19880] rated (+35), 754 [761] unrated (-7). The delays in pulling Michael Tatum's excellent "A Downloader's Diary" together this month have stretched out the usual top-of-the-month posts. My Rhapsody Streamnotes should run tomorrow, completing the set. Thanks to the delays, there is more than usual on tap -- as opposed to my fears two weeks ago when I only found 16 notes stashed away in my draft file. Jazz Prospecting is if anything up a bit this week, partly because I'm feeling sated on non-jazz -- or at least I'm running low on enthusiasm and/or curiosity for the low-hanging new releases that Rhapsody offers.

One thing I've noticed me doing more than usual: getting to the end of a record and going blank for a summation line at the end of the note. More than usual, I'm just letting the grade talk in these cases. If I'm unsure of the grade I'll usually replay the record, but if I'm satisfied with the grade it's usually not worth my while to replay a record just to pick up a probably trivial line. (In Jazz CG I would make the extra effort, but I figure this is mostly triage.) I do, by the way, have a bulging shelf of records waiting for Jazz CG. Don't know what else to say about that right now.

David Boswell: Windows (2012, My Quiet Moon): Guitarist. Born in San Francisco; played in a rock band called Metro Jets; does session work in LA. Fourth album since 2004. Plays synth guitar as well as more conventional ones, backed by piano-bass-drums, dense with no rough edges, brightened up by John Fumo's trumpet near the end. B-

Amit Friedman Sextet: Sunrise (2010 [2012], Origin): Israeli saxophonist, google him and you get lots of cheesecake pics of a buxom Israeli model with the same name. Debut album, recorded in Israel, mostly a bright and jaunty sextet with oud or guitar, piano, extra percussion, but the cuts with extra strings can dampen the mood. B+(*)

Tord Gustavsen Quartet: The Well (2011 [2012], ECM): Norwegian pianist, b. 1970, not clear how many albums -- e.g., I had his 1999 collaboration with singer Siri Gjaere under his name but it looks like hers came first; five, since 2002, all on ECM, is my best reckoning. This one has Tore Brunborg (tenor sax), Mats Eilertsen (bass), and Jarle Vespestad (drums). B+(***) [advance]

Pamela Hines Trio with April Hall: Lucky's Boy (2011, Spice Rack): Hines is a pianist, her trio adding John Lockwood on bass and Les Harris, Jr. on drums. She has seven records since 1998, and sole credit for the nine songs here. The songs have lyrics, sung by Hall, who has three albums of her own (scoring the previous Hall Sings Hines for Hall). Hard to put a finger on this, a bit dry, perhaps. B

Florian Hoefner Group: Songs Without Words (2011 [2012], OA2): Pianist, from Germany (I think), first album (as far as I can tell, although his label page says, "His performances are featured on seven CD releases"), a quartet with Mike Ruby (tenor and soprano sax), Sam Anning (bass), and Peter Kronreif (drums), recorded in New York. All originals, mainstream postbop, sax has some blues feel, all very nicely done. B+(***)

Philippe Baden Powell: Adventure Music Piano Masters Series: Vol 2 (2008 [2012], Adventure Music): Son of the legendary Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell, plays piano, solo on his second album here -- series began with Benjamin Taubkin in 2010. B

Anne Mette Iversen: Poetry of Earth (2011 [2012], Bju'ecords): Bassist, b. 1972 in Denmark, moved to New York to study at New School and settled in. Fourth album, 91:25 straddling two discs; wrote all the music for various poems (Svende Grøn, A.E. Housman, John Keats, Henrik Ibsen, Thomas Hardy, Lene Poulsen) sung by Maria Neckam and Christine Skou. The music has a chamber feel, with Dan Tepfer on piano and John Ellis on reeds. I haven't spent nearly enough time with this, and probably won't: not my thing, but remarkable nonetheless. B+(***)

Jonas Kullhammar/Torbjörn Zetterberg/Espen Aalberg: Basement Sessions Vol. 1 (2012, Clean Feed): Tenor/baritone sax, bass, drums, respectively; the leader b. 1978 in Sweden, runs the Moserobie label (which extends well beyond his own work), has at least eight albums since 2000 (Plays Loud for the People is one promising title), plus an 8-CD box called The Half Naked Truth: 1998-2008. First I've heard by him and I'm duly impressed, first by tone and natural feel which line him up as a worthy follower of saxophonists like Arne Domnerus and Bernt Rosengren -- a bit more avant, but that's what we used to call progress. B+(***)

Steve Lacy: Estilhaços: Live in Lisbon (1972 [2012], Clean Feed): Still waiting for the avalanche of previously unissued recordings promised after the soprano sax legend's death in 2004, and eager to look at every piece that does appear to see how it fits into the puzzle. This one has been released before, first on LP in 1972, then on CD in 1996, both on obscure Portuguese labels. Lacy's quintet has rarely raised such a ruckus, and while much of it is hard to take, it does give you a sense of the thrill of freedom. I doubt that this had any role in triggering the revolution that freed Portugal two years later, but if Salazar had heard it I don't doubt that it would have scared the bejesus out of him -- in which case I'd have to grade it much higher. B+(*)

Sinikka Langeland Group: The Land That Is Not (2010 [2011], ECM): Norwegian folk singer, plays kantele (bears a general likeness to a zither or autoharp), sings with great authority. Has at least seven albums since 1994, this being the second on ECM. The group itself is made up of accomplished jazz musicians. The hornwork of Arve Henriksen and Trygve Seim isn't central but is notable when it occurs; same for the rhythm section of Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari. B+(**) [advance]

Joel Miller: Swim (2011 [2012], Origin): Saxophonist (tenor and soprano), b. in Sackville, New Brunswick; studied at McGill in Montreal. Sixth album since 1998. Covers one piece by Miles Davis and Gil Evans, and wrote the other ten. Quartet includes Geoff Keezer on piano, Fraser Hollins on bass, Greg Ritchie on drums. Upbeat, rich sax tone, lush even. B+(**)

Aruán Ortiz Quartet: Orbiting (2011 [2012], Fresh Sound New Talent): Pianist, b. 1973 in Cuba, moved to US in 2003, has four albums since 2004. Four originals, four covers (Hermeto Pascoal, Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, "Alone Together"). Gives them all a delicate, thoughtful reading, supplemented by David Gilmore on guitar, Rashaan Carter on bass, Eric McPherson on drums. B+(**)

Kate Reid: The Love I'm In (2011, self-released): Singer, plays piano (but also employs Otmoro Ruiz on three cuts), based in Los Angeles, second album: standards, starting with "Just Squeeze Me," includes a long and touching "I Loves You Porgy," a slow and smoldering obligatory Jobim ("Portrait in Black and White"). Striking voice, holds your focus even when she goes real slow (but there's a bit too much of that). Doesn't make much use of the band beyond piano -- Ernie Watts is on the roster but scarcely noticeable. B+(**)

Alan Rosenthal: Just Sayin' (2011 [2012], self-released): Pianist, from New York. First album as far as I can tell, a trio with Cameron Brown (bass) and Steve Johns (drums). Wrote 8 of 9 songs, one dedicated to Mal Waldron; the cover is "Red, Red Robin." B+(*)

Amanda Ruzza: This Is What Happened (2009 [2012], Pimenta): Electric bassist, born in São Paulo, Brazil, Chilean mother, Italian father, speaks all those languages plus English. First album, recorded in Brooklyn. Starts with fuzzy funk and electric piano and Brazilian percussion, later adding some sax bits by Dave Binney. I wouldn't call it smooth jazz, but doesn't push very hard. B

Elliott Sharp Trio: Aggregat (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): Seventh album by Sharp (or, as he bills himself here, "E#") that I've heard, all since 2004, which must get me up into the 6-8% range -- let's see: Wikipedia lists 99 albums not counting ones he produced or played as a sideman on, with the earliest album a solo from 1979, but that 99 does include a couple of "collaborative groups" I have filed elsewhere (John Zorn: Downtown Lullaby, Satoko Fujii: In the Tank, Tomas Ulrich: TECK String Quartet); drop them and I'm back at 7 of 90, almost 7.8%. Point is he's someone I know of but have hardly met. For instance, I never knew he sax (tenor and soprano) before, but he does here on nearly half of the album, and he makes much of his efforts, like a slower and more rugged Evan Parker. The rest of the time he plays guitar, where he is faster and develops a harmonic overhang that gives his figures a rich shimmer. With Brad Jones on bass and Ches Smith on drums. A-

Andrew Swift: Swift Kick (2011 [2012], D Clef): Drummer, from Australia, based in New York. First album. Has 17 people on album, mostly recognized names -- Ryan Kisor, Wycliffe Gordon, Eric Alexander, Sharel Cassity, Yotam Silberstein are a few -- but aside from George Cables (piano) and Dwayne Burno (bass) most are only a couple cuts each. Moves along at a nice pace, lots of postbop texture, a bit too much kitchen sink but consistently enjoyable. B+(*)

Rafael Toral/Davu Seru: Live in Minneapolis (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): B. 1967 in Lisbon, Portugal, Toral works with a variety of amplifiers and oscillators, in other words electronics. Has at least 15 albums since 1994. This was done live with a drummer (Seru), has the feel of improv. Fooled me a couple times into wondering who was playing sax. B+(**)

Andrea Veneziani: Oltreoceano (2011 [2012], self-released): Bassist, from Italy, based in New York. First album, a piano trio with Kenny Werner expertly filling the hot seat, and Ross Pederson on drums. Veneziani wrote 4 pieces, filling the album out with three brief "Free Episode" group improvs and covers from Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Bill Evans. B+(**)

Tom Wetmore: The Desired Effect (2011 [2012], Crosstown): Pianist (electric here), based in New York, first album, with alto sax (Jaleel Shaw or Eric Neveloff), two guitars, bass, and drums -- a group he calls (not on the album cover) the Tom Wetmore Electric Experiment. Describes his style as combining "the advanced harmony and rhythm of jazz and classical with the visceral groove of funk and other popular music." That's evident but has yet to develop into something particularly interesting. B

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• J.D. Allen Trio: The Matador and the Bull (Savant)
• Bruce Barth: Three Things of Beauty (Savant)
• Cactus Truck: Brand New for China! (Public Eyesore)
• Isaac Darche: Boom-Bap!tism (Bju'ecords)
• Christian Escoudé Plays Brassens: Au Bois de Mon Coeur (Sunnyside): June 19
• Matt Garrison: Blood Songs (D Clef)
• Diego Schissi Quinteto: Tongos (Sunnyside): June 19
• Jeremy Siskind: Finger-Songwriter (Bju'ecords)
• Wadada Leo Smith: Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, 4CD)
• Miguel Zenón & Laurent Coq: Rayuela (Sunnyside)

Sunday, May 13, 2012

A Downloader's Diary (20): May 2012

Insert text from here.

This is the 20th installment, (almost) monthly since August 2010, totalling 521 albums. All columns are indexed and archived here. You can follow A Downloader's Diary on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Bernardo Sassetti (1970-2012)

I did a piece for the Village Voice some years back on record labels, and one of the questions I asked all of my contacts was what was their best-selling record. Clean Feed's Pedro Costa's answer was pianist Bernardo Sassetti. The label tended to go for visiting avant-gardists, whereas he was more in the mainstream, with a touch and sensitivty comparable to Brad Mehldau, and a semipopular sense akin to Esbjörn Svensson. I had read about him in the Penguin Guide before I got on Clean Feed's mailing list, and he was evidently a big deal in Portugal, but few over here had any idea who he was. When I got to his Ascent in 2005, I wrote a tentative Jazz Prospecting note projecting it as a high B+, but by the time I wrote it up it had become a grade A pick hit. His subsequent records were less thrilling, partly because he gravitated more and more toward soundtrack work, which he was remarkably adept at.

I use the past tense because Costa sent out some email a day or two ago informing us that Sassetti had died. He was 41, born in 1970. I gather that he had an accident, falling off a cliff while attempting to take a photo. (You may recall that Svensson also died accidentally at 44, during a scuba diving session.) Sassetti (even more so than Svensson) was one of the most remarkable jazz pianists of his generation. I thought I'd note the occasion by pulling out some of the reviews I wrote, and supplementing them with other records that I had missed (using Rhapsody, noted [R] below). That's what follows:

Bernardo Sassetti: Nocturno (2002, Clean Feed): A trio set, shows the pianist's remarkable touch that elevates even the softest and slowest ballads, nicely framed by Carlos Barretto (bass) and Alexandre Frazão (drums), sometimes teasing him into something more adventurous -- "Monkais" finds Sassetti comping behind the drum solo. A- [R]

Bernardo Sassetti: Indigo (2002-03 [2004], Clean Feed): Solo piano outing, several covers, including two from Monk. He patiently works his way through the paces, his touch luminous as always. B+(***) [R]

Bernardo Sassetti Trio²: :Ascent (2005, Clean Feed): The superscript implies a piano trio raised to a higher power, but here Sassetti uses cello and vibes to lower the energy -- the vibes add mere ghost harmonics to his piano, the cello a sweeter, more wistful bass. Some of this was written for soundtracks, which explains its pensive moods, and why the pieces that pick up volume and speed never threaten to fly loose. This music fits into no known jazz tradition. More like Eno's Another Green World -- unplugged. A

Bernardo Sassetti: Unreal: Sidewalk Cartoon (2005-06 [2007], Clean Feed): Soundtrack work, with Quarteto Saxolinia (sax quartet), Cromelque Quinteto (clarinet, flute, oboe, bassoon, French horn), a battery of percussionists (directed by Miguel Bernat), and various "guests" (flute, alto/soprano sax, tuba, double bass, drums) -- at least he stays clear of strings. Intriguing music, tasteful, but often submerges into the background. B+(**)

Bernardo Sassetti: Dúvida (1964) (2007, Trem Azul): A soundtrack to a Portuguese presentation based on John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, mostly rippling little piano figures with a background of string fuzz. Very minimal, but grows and grows on you. B+(**) [R]

Will Holshouser Trio + Bernardo Sassetti: Palace Ghosts and Drunken Hymns (2008 [2009], Clean Feed): Accordion player, his trio includes bassist David Phillips and trumpeter Ron Horton, sparkling througout. The pianist blends in, making a less distinct impression. B+(**)

Bernardo Sassetti: Un Amor de Perdição (2009, Trem Azul): Very little info here: presumably another soundtrack, many short pieces for string orchestra that flow together elegantly. B+(*) [R]

Bernardo Sassetti Trio: Motion (2009 [2010], Clean Feed): Another piano trio, calm and focused, spare but ornately pretty, a combination that works out to serene. B+(***)

Not even sure what all I'm missing: his first album (some debate even as to what it's called), a recent record with Fado legend Carlos do Carmo, various side credits, most likely more soundtracks.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Expert Comments

First off, three posts by Ryan Maffei on Billy Joel (not an important subject but an important effort, worth preserving somewhere):

There's been so much wondrous discourse on this blog recently that it's been simultaneously edifying and exhilarating to simply sit back and soak it up. But if you'll indulge and forgive me for three easily skipoverable posts, I've prepared a few paragraphs for this here occasion (May 9th). EW is still my favorite all-purpose rock thought bulletin board, and hopefully the following qualifies.

Fifteen wild years ago (was it just yesterday?), I tumbled headfirst into the wicked world of any-old-way-you-choose-it by way of a soft-rock waltz from 1973 that sounded at first like it was sung by a woman, at least to my prepubescent ears. But by the très-pro climax of that first killer bridge, I knew something special was happening, and for the next 13 used CDs (my dad was no penny pincher but he knew I didn't mind) William Martin Joel taught me the art of aesthetic appreciation via pop designed to enchant every indiscriminate rube and their mother. On the occasion of his 63rd b'day, I offer a recent reassessment, in the form of a fan-man's CG:

Piano Man (1973) -- C
As narrative balladry goes, "Piano Man" is nothing special, but the point is how undeniably that melody sells its literary inadequacies. And the slow, repetitive, magnificent "Captain Jack" occupies a bourgeois-punk writing niche Joel was built to handle cleverly, and at which he'd get much cannier. But the rest is immature and unimaginative, with a moment of well-intentioned folk undercut by straight-faced kitsch ("Traveling Prayer") and a moment of ingratiating kitsch undercut by unsarcastic pomposity ("The Ballad of Billy the Kid," whose last verse is unintentional hilarity at its cutest). Not so adept and less self-aware.

Streetlife Serenade (1974) -- B-
The lyrics get smarter and more incisive even as the melodies are somewhat muted, but even if there's no "Piano Man" or "Captain Jack" those melodies are more adventurous than most of the last record. I don't know what "Streetlife Serenader" means or if "Los Angelenos" is insightful, but both are strange, punkish and full of panache. Except for the nastily fantastic "The Great Suburban Showdown," there's a deficiency of the craft Joel would soon excel at -- the other good ones are short or repetitious or lyrically lacking. But only three songs suck, and the silly instrumentals spotlight keyboards that never aren't fun.

Turnstiles (1976) -- A-
At last his vision coheres, and for seven eighths of an excellent LP the sole nags are his sincerity and his precociousness, and then only when the music isn't rousing enough to help you ignore it. His overeager, underinformed statements are no less mature or apropos than any punk rocker's, and his melodies no less riveting within the confines of his chosen genre, which seeks to return to basics further back (and a little less enlightened) than the rocky roots the punks perverted. Accept that Joel saw his soul in Beatle-bred pretensions and you'll soon admire his own; he has all the energetic tunefulness such stuff needs.

The Stranger (1977) -- A
Phil Ramone solves Billy's production problem, and instantaneously illuminates the most intuitive and inventive mercenary craftsman of a decade's worth of committed contenders. One standard-on-arrival after another effervescently explodes into your earphones like a string of gem-filled firecrackers, each track both fastidiously precise and wickedly alive even if the Latin and gospel codas waver. It's as if Paul deigned to think as hard as John, set his sights on the open Elton market and hired Becker and Fagen to punch up his vision. More fun and less dumb than the hacks with whom he's been historically confined.

52nd Street (1978) -- B+
Though bits of the hits here stand out -- the endearingly pointless lapse into an accent on the fun, tough "Big Shot"; the veddy Beatles backup on the sanded-down "My Life" -- they're more prosaic than the last one's, trapped beneath a homogenizing sheen Billy's pizzazz pierces too infrequently. Even as "Honesty" tends bathetic and "Zanzibar" ponderous, the melodies are characteristically crystalline, but the too, too perfect preparation is the problem; the real triumphs are the snappily sexist "Stiletto" and the ebullient "Half a Mile Away," invigorating deep cuts the airwave-aimed production wasn't designed to emphasize.

Glass Houses (1980) -- A-
Who says conformist formalists can't feign punk? Billy did just that throughout The Stranger, the album that signified the moment he gained total security over his negligibly hedged talents, which informed its vigor. Here, the radio obligations that dulled 52nd Street erode less edge, but the hard stuff is still slicker than necessary. Yet it's also quite exciting, and only suffers for its pose when the pose is the point (as on the opener). Meanwhile, the soft stuff ranges from killer McCartney to solid Wings, and when he tries to imitate Elvis Costello he tries "Alison," after which "Sleeping With the Television On" beats Elvis Costello.

Songs in the Attic (1981) -- B+
Billy sounds worst when he sounds embalmed, so his live record is live indeed, tangible traces of shows that were probably a hell of a time bleeding blissfully through the cracks of a band just shy of too tight. But he sounds his best in the studio trappings that highlight the contours of his craft. Ergo, while all the songs from the first three albums are fleshed-out, full of life and appealingly familiar (effecting the "that one!" "that one!" excitement of concerts and their documents), they hit the same ceiling the Turnstiles tracks do -- each spotlights the irrepressible enthusiasm of a melodic magician and palpable non-genius.

The Nylon Curtain (1982) -- A
Joel was never your average hitmaker -- intermittently ignorant yet never unintelligent, consciously pop-conventional yet never merely in it for the money -- but this record's left-field weirdness has no canonical antecedent. The proselytic passion fueling "Allentown" and "Goodnight Saigon," meaner and brainier than Bruce's and no worse for craft, is powered by music that dodges cliché by uniting broken-glass fragments of radio tropes in beguiling, bizarre ways. The other vocals and lyrics are beautifully cracked and perfectly felt, and he uses his synths and strings in unerring service of gorgeously unnerving bad-dream atmospherics.

An Innocent Man (1983) -- A-
Joel's most consistent pleasure-platter is his first intentional radio concession, a gesture the perpetually smarmy have a hard time dealing with perfect grace. And yet the grace is there -- Joel's studious knack for structure and hook fly out of every cranny of the faux-soul he intends on exuberantly effortless singles like "The Longest Time," "Tell Her About It," "Keeping the Faith" and the gently cheeky "Uptown Girl." The lesser tunes do bear a slight parodic hollowness -- Joel is more adroit at sendups than he is at actual evocations, and the 80s component of its built-in nostalgia isn't always welcome. But everything swings.

Cold Spring Harbor (1983) -- B
The 1971 abortion with the grainy/hairy cover art, formerly an unwitting Chipmunks spinoff, repurposed as capitalization on a career that was on the verge of another creative hiccup, unless you count the sales of Greatest Hits Vols. I & II as an active achievement. In many ways it's constitutionally repulsive, half an hour of syrupy banality with nary a good lyric, lightly dusted with hackneyed, tasteless little updates. But it's actually difficult to detest. The melodies and vocals are lovely even absent any real rock 'n' roll; little Billy had been bathing in those Beatles LPs, and "Everybody Loves You Now" kicks like an overgrown foal.

The Bridge (1986) -- B+
After avoiding the sale of organic 70s slick for synthetic 80s slick through the first five years of the new decade, Joel dove headfirst into current trends for two shitty songs he appended as penalty tracks to his first hits package. The Bridge sees him going full whore -- opening with a Sting imitation and showcasing Ray Charles and Cyndi Lauper, the record reeks of Reaganomics. No longer young enough for any boyish awkwardnesses, he throws himself into the role of square pro with confident conviction. Several terrific songs exist under the dated sonics, but the anonymous gloss lends every one an unfortunate aftertaste.

Storm Front (1989) -- B+
Not being a great lyricist or anything else that invites timeless respect dogged Joel into his first dinosaur years; a pop ho 'til the end, he had no choice but to adapt to a shifting set of trends, and by '89 the fit was unbecoming. The production, straddling 80s techno and 90s arena, is the most vulgar on any of his records, and at 40 his voice has lowered into an energetic but overwrought bellow. Under the haze of corn and commerce, the writing is recognizably and worthily wonderful; the sound adds harsh insult to the few injuries he stumbles into, but the songs endure, and conclude with what may be his finest one.

River of Dreams (1993) -- B+
Twenty wild years after his true debut, Joel sidles fluidly into one more chart-raping model with a vitality that (apparently) hasn't dulled an inch. Though flawless anonymity is still the sound he ends up with (the expectation-departures of his early 80s LPs are but a faded memory by now), it's a lot less cluttered than the last two albums, and there's generous punch behind stronger songs like the delicious "The Great Wall of China." The failures of inspiration are among his most generic, but he dives into every cheesy choice with such muscle it's hard not to get caught up in every shamelessly soulless little melodic construct.

Fantasies and Delusions (2001) -- C+
Though I'm not as ill-versed re: classical music as you might think (it was my first pre-Billy Joel love), I'm not sure how to properly assess this. It sounds a lot like iffy Chopin (and probably a lot of others, albeit none too obscure or post-Romantic) distilled into a military polonaise of consciously obvious tricks -- Joel writes opuses like he writes pop. And like his pop, this is a friendly soundtrack for any endeavor, except (this is crucial) driving; not all classical is for simply sitting and attending, but it's obvious he intended for this to be. Another, even crucial-er difference: it doesn't exactly stick with you when it isn't on anymore.

Jason Gubbels commented on my Recycled Goods column:

In case anybody here missed it, Tom Hull put down for posterity a wonderful appreciation and career overview of young Norwegian jazz bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and if a Norwegian jazz bassist doesn't sound like your sort of thing, well, hang on a second. As Tom notes, Flaten has put up 62 albums on Bandcamp for free streaming (and purchase, of course), adding

They not only give you a detailed picture of his art, they provide a remarkable cross-section of what's happened in the Norwegian jazz scene over the last two decades -- folk jazz, jazztronica, punk jazz, and avant projects ranging from a Jimmy Giuffre tribute project to sheer noise.

Here's the direct link to Tom's reviews of these records, only a few of which I've listened to yet. I've been anxious to track down more of Flaten's work since coming across his duo recording with Joe McPhee earlier this year, Brooklyn DNA. This is absolutely the guide I was hoping for.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Bit Decay

The blog suffered some sort of mishap today: basically a configuration file vanished and had to be rehacked by hand. I haven't yet restored it to its former glory, but thought for now I should post a notice. I will return to it as I get time and inspiration.

Update: Disabled a couple of event plugins that were mucking with the stored HTML code, and reset the theme to my personal standard, so now it looks like we're pretty much back. Added an "HTML Nugget" block to the top left -- something I've been meaning to do for a long time, although I still expect I'll have to tweak the wording. Should be a general description for the website. The main thing driving this isn't clarity. It's that facebook likes to grab the first bunch of words it reads when you link to something on the site, and hitherto all it's come up with was a laundry list of links.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Expert Comments

Main pick was Death Grips' The Money Store. First review was so short that the second review's album cover came out indented.

I must admit that I don't understand the "d/b/a" clauses under Death Grips: ok, backwards?, what? Unsolicited editing advice (feels strange to put the shoe on that foot): change the second to "a/k/a" and the third to "well" with commas and drop the hyphens, which (thanks to MSN's invisible sabotage) always cause me problems anyway.

Noticed the formatting problem and figured it would be fixed by the time I got up, but I see not, and most likely understand why. I fix this sort of thing by adding a style="clear: left" attribute to the paragraph tag, but MSN wouldn't let you do anything like that -- indeed, that would enable all sorts of mischief.

By the way, the Death Grips album is one I had already panned in an as yet unpublished Streamnotes. Gave it another spin today, admired a number of things about it, but a little over midway got so annoyed with it I shut it down and let my review (plus a parenthetical) stand.

Christgau responded:

As a quick Google search just confirmed--top hit--d/b/a means doing business as. I know not everyone knows that right off the bat, but, well, that's how I do business. In the first two cases d/b/a follows the name by which the individual in question was previously known to the public, while the name after the d/b/a is the name he assumes for the purposes of this commercial venture; the third is my idea of a joke, which I continue to find kinda funny myself. Jesus, it's a "blog." Aren't I allowed to indulge myself occasionally for my decreased pay? Isn't that supposed to be how "blogs" work?

My riposte:

I know what d/b/a means; even done it a few times myself. I wouldn't even have a problem leaving out the slashes, as I often do (but more often for "aka"). I just tend to assume that the real name comes before "doing business as" and the alias assumed for business purposes comes after, so I was surprised that someone named MC Ride would change his name to Stefan Burnett when he made a rap record. Odds are the two names were swapped. Indeed, the Wikipedia page lists "Stefan Burnett aka MC Ride"; same for "Andy Morin aka Flatlander." Seems to me that "a/k/a" can bed transitive, but if I was still in grade school trying to diagram "X d/b/a Y" I'd recognize "doing business" as a verb and look for subject and object. Admittedly, never got better than a B back then. As for making a joke, sure, by all means. This is an album that could use some.

Christgau, again:

Stefan Burnett is what it says on the physical; maybe MC Ride is his hip-hop name as opposed to his rock name, who knows. Likewise Flatlander is a name that only Googles in connection with Death Grips even though Zach Hill & Andy Morin are listed as co-producers in that order on the physical. My wording stands.

Monday, May 07, 2012

Music Week/Jazz Prospecting

Music: Current count 19880 [19845] rated (+35), 761 [765] unrated (-4). Published Recycled Goods mid-week, after frantically struggling to finish the big section on Norwegian avant-bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. Got no feedback on that, but I was happy that I could do it, and it certainly helped me to appreciate the range of Flaten's artistry. A Downloader's Diary is trickling in. Still no idea when it will run, but odds are this week sometime. Rhapsody Streamnotes will follow: I managed to puff it up from a lowly 16 records a week ago to 41 as of today, and will add more while I have more time. Managed to do an update to Robert Christgau's website. Renewed the domain name for Terminal Zone, so that's still in the works, even if I only have such a trivial accomplishment to point to.

Jazz Prospecting continues to limp along. Had an interesting day Saturday when an extended series of sax quartet records clicked -- some are below, and some in the Streamnotes file since that's where I'm putting the new jazz I don't get but managed to sneak a listen to. Very little to unpack this week, but I don't have Monday's mail yet -- some weeks I grab that before I post, some weeks not.

Gene Ess: A Thousand Summers (2011 [2012], SIMP): Guitarist, born in Tokyo, grew up in Okinawa, studied at George Mason University. Fourth album since 2003, all standards, features Nicki Parrott singing (but not playing bass; that's Thomson Kneeland), plus piano and drums. I've always found Parrott's vocals charming, no less so here, and the guitar breaks are eminently tasteful. B+(**)

Joel Harrison 7: Search (2010 [2012], Sunnyside): Guitarist, has a dozen albums since 1996. Has long had an interest in picking over rock pieces, exemplified by Gregg Allman's "Whipping Post" here. Has lately explored extending his guitar sound with a few more string instruments -- violin (Christian Howes), cello (Dana Leong), and bass (Stephan Crump) here, all superb jazz musicians -- and that's rarely if ever worked so well as on the first two-thirds here. Also helping: Donny McCaslin (tenor sax), Gary Versace (piano, organ), and Clarence Penn (drums). The dull spot comes from Olivier Messaien. B+(**) [advance]

Masabumi Kikuchi Trio: Sunrise (2009 [2012], ECM): Pianist, b. 1939 in Japan. AMG comments on his "vast discography," but only lists 14 albums under his name, starting in 1980. A fan called Poomaniac has more details, going back to 1963, with his first album as a sole leader in 1970, preceded by a Hino-Kikuchi Quintet joint in 1968. His early work manages to rope in nearly all of the names you're likely to have heard of from the 1960s jazz scene in Japan: Toshiko Akiyoshi, Sadao Watanabe, Terumasa Hino. In the 1970s he started working with Gary Peacock, and in the 1990s he led a trio called Tethered Moon with Peacock and (who else?) Paul Motian -- the only fragment of his discography I'm familiar with. This is his first on ECM, again a trio, with Thomas Morgan on bass and, again, Motian on drums -- you can construct a pretty impressive hall of fame just from pianists who Motian has played with. As usual, his presence here looks like zen-like disengagement, allowing the piano to emerge with remarkable clarity. B+(***)

Steve Kuhn Trio: Wisteria (2011 [2012], ECM): Pianist, dates back to the early 1960s -- did an album in 1963 with the intriguing title, Country and Western Sound of Jazz Pianos -- has consistently done fine work although I've never heard anything (even from his Sheila Jordan co-led group) that really blew me away. Trio, with longtime collaborator Steve Swallow and the always superb Joey Baron. Near the top of his game. B+(***)

Daunik Lazro/Jean-François Pauvros/Roger Turner: Curare (2010 [2012], NoBusiness): Three guys I had never heard of (well, Pauvros somewhat), but should look into. Lazro is a French saxophonist (baritone and alto here); AMG lists ten albums 1980-2000, nothing since, but Discogs has at least five more. Pauvros plays guitar, Turner drums. Both have been around since the late 1970, far enough off the beaten path that AMG files both under Avant-Garde. Most impressive when they get rowdy, but I'm hearing much more sax than guitar, but the quiet spots don't quite cohere. Probably should turn it up. B+(**)

Mockuno NuClear: Drop It (2011 [2012], NoBusiness): Sax-piano-drums trio, more or less Lithuanian: Liudas Mockunas, Dmitrij Golovanov, and Marjius Aleksa. Mockunas, b. 1976, has at least three previous albums. Mostly avant stretch, but sometimes they get a groove going and that's where they raise it up a level. B+(***)

Miles Okazaki: Figurations (2011 [2012], Sunnyside): Guitarist, third album, does his own graphic design (which is almost worth the price of admission), wrote all eight pieces here. The guitar lines are tense and spring open to drive this quartet, but your ears will chase after alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, at the top of his game. With Thomas Morgan on bass and Dan Weiss on drums. A-

Nate Radley: The Big Eyes (2011 [2012], Fresh Sound New Talent): Guitarist, based in Brooklyn, first album after a dozen or more side credits since 2004. With Loren Stillman on alto sax, plus Fender Rhodes, bass, and drums. Wrote all the pieces. Strong flow with lean postbop lines; some further developed by Stillman, engaging as usual. B+(**)

The Ben Riley Quartet: Grown Folks Music (2010 [2012], Sunnyside): Cover adds "featuring Wayne Escoffery," and shows the tenor saxophonist standing next to the veteran drummer, the others (Ray Drummond on bass, Avi Rothbard or Freddie Bryant on guitar) off-camera. Riley, with only two other albums under hisown name, started out c. 1960 with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin, but is best known from Thelonious Monk's 1960s quartet, which continued post-Monk as Sphere. Two Monk tunes here, plus five other standards. Mature stuff, confident, relaxed, the guitar just flows, the sax rides along, occasionally dropping in some wit but mostly sounding supreme. A-

Jerome Sabbagh: Plugged In (2011 [2012], Bee Jazz): Tenor saxophonist, b. 1973 in France, based in New York, four previous albums starting with North in 2004. Cover here says "featuring Jozef Doumoulin" -- Belgian electric keyboardist who half of the pieces here (7 of 14; the rest by Sabbagh). With Patrice Blanchard on electric bass and Rudy Royston on drums. Not sure that the electricity makes a difference, but the sax is eloquent, towering even. B+(**) [advance]

Tom Tallitsch: Heads or Tails (2011 [2012], Posi-Tone): Saxophonist, doesn't specify but he's pictured with a tenor, b. 1974, based in New York. Fourth album, a quartet with organ (Jared Gold), guitar (Dave Allen), and drums (Mark Ferber). All originals, except for the Neil Young cover at the end ("Don't Let It Bring You Down"). Grooveful, tasty guitar runs, sax doesn't push any boundaries but there's plenty of meat to it. B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Raoul Björkenheim/Anders Nilsson/Gerald Cleaver: Kalabalik (DMG/ARC)
• Rich Halley 4: Back From Beyond (Pine Eagle)
• Human Spirit: Dialogue: Live at the Earshot Jazz Festival (Origin)
• Michael Sahl & Eric Salzman: Civilization and Its Discontents (1978, Labor)
• Christian Scott: Christian aTunde Adjuah (Concord, 2CD): advance, July 31
• Jesse Stacken: Bagatelles for Trio (Fresh Sound New Talent): advance, June 12
• Rich Thompson Trio: Generations (Origin)

Sunday, May 06, 2012

Expert Comments

Christgau website announcement:

I did an update to robertchristgau.com today. All Expert Witness reviews to date are (should be) in the database. You can use get_ylist.php to get the 2012 releases, get_dlist.php to get a range by review date, etc. Changelog.php has details on the update. (All these are relative to root.) Only one old piece, but I did finish retyping Carola's Paris Review story. There's also an updated intro to Carola's corner. Please look around and let me know what I screwed up and what could be improved.

We've been wondering why artist pages, in particular, rank so poorly in Google. If anyone has insight into that, I'd like to hear from you.

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Expert Comments

Something I kicked out, off topic:

Way off topic, but something on reviews and writing.

Trying to sort out Ted Nash's latest (on Rhapsody, with virtually no credit or recording info online), I ran across this "review" -- reads more like fan mail, and some of the worst critical prose I've ever read:

In "The Creep" you have obviated an exigent agenda which saps the energy of the unknown, subduing it and giving it life so that it becomes a vitally living thing that's brought into the bright and revealing light of creativity with your overwhelmingly capacious imagination. Yes, indeed you have an imagination that has no quadrilateral boundaries, so that you are affected not only from the bowels of your saxophone but by the movement of your obedient pen as well -- each bearing earmarks of your motivational heart, the creative basis of everything of any consequence.

The writer was Benny Golson, a pretty great tenor saxophonist and one of the few major 1950s jazz musicians still left. I need to play the record again, in part to see if I can figure out why Paul de Barros thinks it has anything to do with Ornette Coleman, but it's the third straight mainstream sax album I've played today that seems likely to end up on my A-list. They should send me records like this.

Back on topic: from what I read Adam Yauch suffered from the same thing that killed my sister-in-law earlier this year. Real bad way to go.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Recycled Goods (97): May 2012

New Recycled Goods: pick up text here. Total review count: 3254.

Expert Comments

After notice that one commenter's father had died, a number of witnesses offered autobiographical snippets about how their own interests in music developed from their parents. Robert Christgau offered this:

I don't think of myself as coming from abnormally musical or artistic family the way Carola did, but reading these accounts maybe that's not true. Born 1916 and 1917, both parents played a little piano, as did my very church-oriented Aunt Mildred and to a small extent my showbiz-loving maternal grandfather, a major figure in my life. I had a great-aunt who liked to sing at parties too. To me all this stuff seems pretty normal, but maybe it's kind of a lot--curious to know what people think. (I wouldn't study piano because I hated to practice, which among other things cut into my reading.) Insofar as whether my mother or my dad influenced my tastes, I really feel as if it was mutual. I grew up with parents who actively enjoyed music without being obsessed with it. But when they went out on a rare date, maybe for my mom's birthday, and saw South Pacific, that was big. There was a nice radio-phonograph and a modest collection of 78s, maybe 20 or 30, mostly big band, although my mom loved Sinatra. But soon they bought the South Pacific album, which was still a physical album with a bunch of 78s in it. I played the hell out of it. Eventually Grandpa took me to see it himself.

Could quote many more of these: most are touching, personal, interesting. Mine goes like this:

My parents had no interest in music, although my mother (1913-2000) eventually became a big George Jones fan and especially enjoyed country-gospel. I think the only time my father (1923-2000) showed any awareness of music was one time he quoted Little Jimmy Dickens -- he did, at least, have a sense of humor. They talked about dancing before I was born, and my mother recalled seeing Tommy Dorsey once, but that was about it. They bought a piano and arranged lessons for my little sister when she was five, but it never occurred to them that boys might take an interest in music. We did have a toy that would play 45s, and a short stack of mostly novelty records. In my teens I bought a stereo, but didn't have more than a couple dozen LPs by the time I was 20. After moving to St. Louis a few friends helped open my ears, and Don Malcolm got me to start writing, but nearly everything I've learned about music comes from reading and lots of exploration. Took off, of course, when Christgau saw some of my early stuff and invited me to write for the Voice, and again when Tatum got me to write Recycled Goods.

By the way, new RG up today. Lots of Norwegian jazz.

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Fraud and Its Opposite

Found in the Wichita Eagle's Opinion Line section Saturday:

Some voters may be lukewarm to Mitt Romney for various reasons. But he is pro-American, honest, loves his country, and values liberty and the principles and ideals that have made this country great. He's the exact opposite of our current president.

Leaving honesty aside for the moment, I can't seem how anyone can think that Obama is in any way opposite to this kind of superficial patriotism: he's opposed to the country he is president of? he hates the country that elected him president? he despises the liberty that allowed him to be elected? he doubts the greatness of the country he leads? he rejects the "principles and ideals" sanctimoniously claimed throughout America's history? If nothing else, for any of that to be true would require an astonishing lack of ego unprecedented in the history of American politics.

Nothing Obama says suggests that any of these things are remotely true. Indeed, his success is largely due to his skill at turning his story into something that flatters most Americans into thinking that this is indeed a great nation based on noble principles and ideals. To argue that Obama is the opposite of all he actually says demands that he be utterly disingenuous and deceitful -- a tough order for someone to practice all his life. And even if he had once believed, as Rev. Wright put it, that God should damn America, having become president, why should he prefer to be the agent of damnation when he could just as well work for redemption? Nearly everyone wants to see himself as just and righteous. Why shouldn't Obama?

It doesn't take much reflection to see that people who suspect Obama of such perfidy are deeply suspicious of their own sins and/or the sins of their ancestors. Their America has been scrubbed clean, rid of embarrassments like natives and slaves, of lower orders who challenge the justice of the rich and successful. They may fear that Obama, as a black, might seek redress for slavery and segregation, or as a near-foreigner -- what with his Kenyan father, Indonesian experience, his growing up in Hawaii -- that he seeks to undermine American imperialism. More likely, they fear that he's a ordinary Democrat, out to tax and regulate the rich and redistribute their success to the undeserving poor and (formerly) middle classes. Not that they can articulate that fear in those very terms: after all, in America too many of the rabble still can vote, as Obama's election proved.

Again putting honesty aside for the moment, there's no reason to doubt that Romney, as much as Obama, adheres to that same litany of patriotic virtues. Indeed, it's hard to find a politician short of Lyndon Larouche who wouldn't pass that test. The problem is that Romney's America is a much smaller country than Obama's: it is whiter, and richer; it owns more property, and does less work. When Romney goes to a NASCAR race, his "friends" are team owners. Obama probably spends as much of his day circulating among the rich and powerful, but at least he can see that there is a bigger America out there. When he looked at Tayvon Martin, a teenager slain by a vigilante in Florida, he could imagine having a son who would look like that. Safe to say that's one thought that never crossed Romney's mind.

That's a real difference, and it may be enough of one to explain how Manichaeans like the Opinion Line writer might exaggerate such a difference into an argument that Romney and Obama are opposites. But while real and significant, the difference I see still looks rather marginal. Obama, for instance, talks a lot about the phantom middle class but hardly ever mentions the poor -- officially, 15%, or about 46 million Americans.[1] His economic policies have restored corporate profits and stock prices to pre-recession levels, but have scarcely affected unemployment levels, while real wages (therefore consumer demand) have continued to atrophy.

Of course, much of the poor results can be blamed on Republican obstruction in Congress and policies at the state and local levels, but could one reason Obama has been so ineffective be that he doesn't identify with the losers in the current politico-economic system? After all, he isn't one of them, and his very success has served to insulate him from them. He differs from Romney in that he wasn't born to the rich class, and in that his everyday work has rarely depended on the brutal skills of profit maximization -- as Romney's work at Bain did -- and that as a Democrat his political success depends on the votes of the less-than-rich -- but the latter only happens once each election cycle. And given the Republicans these days the only other choice they have is to stay home -- which was pretty much the story of the 2010 debacle, not that Obama cared much.

Much more one can say about patriotism: mostly how easily it can be manipulated in support of war. The two World Wars were cases in point, and while the first one now looks like farce -- the silly attempts to salvage sauerkraut by renaming it wouldn't be equalled until Bush's minions de-Frenchified their Freedom Fries -- but the second became a serious effort at nation-building. One thing the Democrats learned from total mobilization was that it undercut the greed that had marked American capitalism and led to a much more equitable society, based on shared sacrifice and responsibility and a sense of fairness that cut across class lines. Of course, when the war against the Axis ended, the class war returned with a fury, but the Democrats had learned a poisonous lesson: that Truman's Fair Deal could most easily be secured through patriotic embrace of war.

Unfortunately, the war Truman and his liberal followers agreed to was the cold war against communism, which is to say the struggle of capital to subdue labor, or more simply of the rich to dominate the poor. That, at last, was a war the Republicans could happily endorse, as it undermined the unions and eroded the limited social democracy Roosevelt (and later Johnson) had introduced, replacing the genuine shared national unity of WWII with the symbolism of military might and the trappings of flag and religion and the cult of global capitalism.

Much more can be written about this, but suffice it to say that for Democratic politicians patriotism is a seductive trap: one that allows them to feel solidarity with a much more inclusive group of American citizens without challenging any of the totems of the cult, thereby giving their opponents free shots to beat them down. Indeed, Obama's solution is to have become fiercer and more cruelly efficient than Bush ever was.[2]

As for honesty, it's easy to find both sides deficient. Clearly, the opinion writer has grossly mischaracterized Obama, but then Romney himself, and virtually every other Republican candidate, has repeatedly made claims about Obama that have no basis in fact. Obama's deceptions are much more subtle: where they seem to have no scruples as to how far they'll go in slandering him, he goes way out of his way to flatter them, to vouch for their integrity, and to legitimize their crackpot ideas. But what he loses in the process is any chance to get to the truth about what needs to be done to move toward a more just and equitable (and peaceable) society.

[1] See Sabrina Tavernse: Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on 'Lost Decade':

Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year [2010], the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing figures on it.

And in new signs of distress among the middle class, median household incomes fell last year to levels last seen in 1996.

Economists pointed to a telling statistic: It was the first time since the Great Depression that median household income, adjusted for inflation, had not risen over such a long period, said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard.

"This is truly a lost decade," Mr. Katz said. "We think of America as a place where every generation is doing better, but we're looking at a period when the median family is in worse shape than it was in the late 1990s."

The bureau's findings were worse than many economists expected, and brought into sharp relief the toll the past decade -- including the painful declines of the financial crisis and recession -- had taken on Americans at the middle and lower parts of the income ladder. It is also fresh evidence that the disappointing economic recovery has done nothing for the country's poorest citizens.

[2] A good example is how Obama has played up the anniversary of his hit squad against Osama Bin Laden, a singular accomplishment that Bush not only missed but mocked. See Tom Engelhardt: A Global-Profiling President for a longar list of examples; also, less critically, Peter L. Bergen: Warrior in Chief.

Liberals helped to elect Barack Obama in part because of his opposition to the Iraq war, and probably don't celebrate all of the president's many military accomplishments. But they are sizable.

Mr. Obama decimated Al Qaeda's leadership. He overthrew the Libyan dictator. He ramped up drone attacks in Pakistan, waged effective covert wars in Yemen and Somalia and authorized a threefold increase in the number of American troops in Afghanistan. He became the first president to authorize the assassination of a United States citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and played an operational role in Al Qaeda, and was killed in an American drone strike in Yemen. And, of course, Mr. Obama ordered and oversaw the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Ironically, the president used the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech as an occasion to articulate his philosophy of war. He made it very clear that his opposition to the Iraq war didn't mean that he embraced pacifism -- not at all.

"I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people," the president told the Nobel committee -- and the world. "For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince Al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history, the imperfections of man, and the limits of reason."

So this is what Obama really meant when during the campaign he said that he wanted to change how we think about war. Evidently he sees war as endemic to the human condition, and as essential to forging unity behind his presidency. In a way we're fortunate that the Republicans have so little grasp of reality, otherwise Obama would be tarnished with their endorsement. It's hard to overstate how much it feels like Obama's presidency has merely become the extension of Bush's.

Throwaway paragraph:

It's often said that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, but other things work as well: religion, family, anything that the public is unwilling or uneager to question. The Democrats lost a Senate election in Massachusetts a couple years ago because their candidate disrespected the Red Sox.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Music Week/Jazz Prospecting

Music: Current count 19845 [19806] rated (+39), 765 [762] unrated (+3). Was trying to work on another post Monday -- actually something left over from the weekend -- so I figured for once I'd slip the usual Monday post, but in the end I got neither done. But I also needed to get a couple records out of the way before Recycled Goods runs later this week, and the extra day helped with that. Right now, my plans (or should I say hopes?) are to get Saturday's political post out tomorrow, the Recycled Goods on Thursday, Downloader's Diary shortly after that, and Rhapsody Streamnotes shortly thereafter. The latter is currently very thin, something I've worked on very little the last 2-3 weeks, so I'd like to catch up there. On the other hand, the jazz backlog grew last week, so I'm probably screwed either way. Also have to write something on Steve Coll's big ExxonMobil book. My proposal to review Paul Krugman's new book was ignored, but I'm anxious to get to it as well. Plus new books on inequality by James Galbraith and Timothy Noah. And I got my own book to write. Maybe I should stop thrashing so much on music?

Ballister: Mechanisms (2010 [2012], Clean Feed): Sax trio, with Dave Rempis (alto, tenor, baritone), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello, electronics), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums). Second group album after the limited edition String. Three long cuts, free-wheeling improv with a lot of squawk, its cacophony largely redeemed by the very high energy level, its interest mostly in the electronics the cellist uses to extend his range and amplify his contribution. B+(**)

Pat Battstone and Richard Poole: Mystic Nights (2011, Bat's Tones Music): More commonly Patrick Battstone, pianist, b. 1954, studied with Joanne Brackeen, day job as a rocket scientist at Draper Labs. Second album with vibraphonist Poole; can't find much else they've done. Just the two of them, piano/vibes. Does a nice job of hitting its intended mark. B+(*)

Maureen Choi: Quartet (2011, self-released): Violinist, studied at Michigan State and Berklee, based in Detroit. Probably her first album, with Rick Roe (piano), Rodney Whitaker (bass), and Sean Dobbins (drums). Standards, starting with "Caravan," ending with "Donna Lee"; mostly set up by the piano, with violin sketching out the melody. B+(*)

Todd Clouser's A Love Electric: 20th Century Folk Selections (2012, Royal Potato Family): Guitarist, b. 1981, from Minneapolis, studied at Berklee, based in Los Cabos, Mexico. Called his last album A Love Electric, now promoting that title to group name, and promising three group records this year. The folk tunes here include pieces by Buddy Holly, Neil Young ("The Needle and the Damage Done," Nirvana, Velvet Underground ("Heroin"), Beastie Boys, Pearl Jam, Malvina Reynolds, and trad. Loopy, silky guitar, Fender Rhodes, some trumpet and/or trombone, Cyro Baptista on percussion. B+(**)

Jimmy Earl: Jimmy Earl (1995 [2012], Severn): Bass guitarist, b. 1957 in Boston, studied at Berklee, has two 1995-99 albums (newly reissued), many more side credits (AMG shows 90 lines). Musicians come and go here, although the keybs and drums are pretty interchangeable, the latter compatible with the programmed drums on several tracks. Not many horns (one trumpet track, two soprano sax). He's trying to keep it light, more jazztronica than funk, and often succeeds. B+(*)

Jimmy Earl: Stratosphere (1998 [2012], Severn): Presumably named for the thin oxygen and general chill, more hospitalable to the computers that seem to have taken over -- at some point subtlety risks turning into noodling. B

Wayne Escoffery: The Only Son of One (2011 [2012], Sunnyside): Tenor saxophonist (plays soprano on the last cut), b. 1975 in London, UK; moved to New Haven, CT when he was 11; studied under Jackie McLean; eighth record since 2001. Mainstream player, has always had a lot of flashy technique, is developing a sensitive, nuanced ballad tone, much evident here. With Orrin Evans on Fender Rhodes and piano, and Adam Holzman on keyboards -- the latter meant to suffice for strings, and just as well given how much worse a phallanx of strings could be. B+(***)

Lisa Hilton: American Impressions (2012, Ruby Slippers): Pianist, born "in a small town on California's central coast," studied at UCLA, based in Los Angeles, has 16 albums since 1997. Don't know if she's related to Paris. Her early albums (covers anyway) suggested light cocktail jazz -- one was actually titled Cocktails at Eight, others Feeling Good and My Favorite Things (with her draped over the piano, like Michelle Pfeiffer), but she's gotten more, um, serious, composing 10 pieces here (of 12, the others from Ellington and Mitchell), and has recruited a very serious band: J.D. Allen (tenor sax), Larry Grenadier (bass), and Nasheet Waits (drums). Maybe too serious: Allen, in particular, is severely underused, mostly providing color around the piano figures, which tend toward deep rumbling. America's getting to be an unsettling place. B+(*)

Joe McPhee/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Brooklyn DNA (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): McPhee's credit here reads, "pocket trumpet, soprano and alto saxophones," which may be why this duo with the Norwegian bassist doesn't hold up as robustly has their 2010 duo, Blue Chicago Blues (Not Two), where McPhee played tenor sax. Starts off with the catchy "Crossing the Bridge" -- a reference to Sonny Rollins, part of that Brooklyn DNA -- and gives Flaten ample opportunities to fiddle. B+(***)

Anders Nilsson: Night Guitar (2012, Soundatone): Guitarist, b. 1974 in Sweden, moved to New York in 2000. Has a fusion group called Aorta and various side projects and credits, rarely playing on an album where you don't find yourself perking up and wondering who that guitar player is. This one is solo, so you know, and like most solo albums this is a bit slower than usual; also more carefully rounded into coherent pieces, less explosive as such. B+(**)

Aruán Ortiz/The Camerata Urbana Ensemble: Santiarican Blues Suite (2011 [2012], Sunnyside): Pianist, from Cuba, came to US in 2003. Third album, commissioned by the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, performed by an ensemble with three violins, viola, cello, two basses, two pianos (Katya Mihailova in addition to Ortiz), flute, percussion, and some voice in one spot. Too classical for my taste, but the clave broke the ice, and the strings have an airy elegance that may proove appealing. B+(*)

RED Trio + Nate Wooley: Stem (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): Piano trio from Portugal: Rodrigo Pinheiro (piano), Hernâni Faustino (bass), Gabriel Ferrandini (drums, percussion; he was born in Monterey, CA, his father a Portuguese from Mozambique, his mother Brazilian). Their eponymous 2010 release was one of the best piano trios I've heard lately. They carry on here, crisp and crinkly, adding the trumpet player, who takes more of focus but doesn't do much with it. B+(**)

The Duke Robillard Jazz Trio: Wobble Walkin' (2011 [2012], Blue Duchess): Guitarist, b. 1948, co-founded Roomful of Blues, later played with the Fabulous Thunderbirds; started to edge into jazz on his 1997 Duke Robillard Plays Jazz and has continued to step that way. This trio includes Brad Hallen on acoustic bass and Mark Teixeira on drums. Four Robillard originals, nine covers -- standards like "All of Me" and r&b like "Hi-Heel Sneakers" -- done with a light guitar sheen that sounds more like Herb Ellis than Robillard. One vocal: guest Mickey Freeman on "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You." B+(*)

Mary Stallings: Don't Look Back (2011 [2012], High Note): Singer, in her 70s now; cut a record with Cal Tjader in 1961 then dropped out of site until Concord rediscovered her in c. 1990, when they were really good at that sort of thing, and she's produced ten albums since -- 2005's Remember Love is still my favorite. A dilligent, precise interpreter of the Carmen McRae school, she offers readings of a dozen standards here, as simply as possible, with Eric Reed on piano, sometimes Reuben Rogers on bass and Carl Allen on drums. B+(***)

The Thing with Barry Guy: Metal! (2011 [2012], NoBusiness): Released only as a 2-LP, edition limited to 600 copies; I'm working off a CDR. The Thing is a noisy Norwegian avant trio: Mats Gustafsson (saxes), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums). They have ten albums since 2000 (plus a 3-CD box), several with guests including Ken Vandermark (who uses each of them in various groups) and Jim O'Rourke (ex-Sonic Youth). This one adds the venerable English avant-garde bassist Barry Guy, who no doubt adds something but it can be hard to sort out just what anyway (short of headphones: Guy's got the right channel). When he's not tearing up the joint, Gustaffson groans monophonically, giving the others something to play off of. B+(**) [advance]

The Jens Wendelboe Big Band: Fresh Heat (2008 [2012], Rosa): Trombonist, from Norway, has at least a dozen albums since 1982, mostly big band (or Big Crazy Energy Band, as he put it); seems to have moved toward US lately, working with Westchester Jazz Orchestra and Blood Sweat & Tears. Conventional big band line up, only with piano and bass plugged in, and Deb Lyons singing. B

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Peter Appleyard and the Jazz Giants: The Lost Sessions 1974 (Linus)
• Ralph Bowen: Total Eclipse (Posi-Tone)
• Georg Breinschmid: Fire (Preiser)
• Chris Cortez: Aunt Nasty (Blue Bamboo Music)
• Rick Davies: Salsa Norteña (Emlyn)
• Luis Durra: The Best of All Possible Worlds (Lot 50)
• Orrin Evans: The Flip Script (Posi-Tone)
• The Harris Group: Choices (self-released)
• Frank Lowe: The Loweski (1973, ESP-Disk)
• Manner Effect: Abundance (self-released)
• Christina Morrison: I Love (Baronesa)
• Ben Powell: New Street (self-released)
• Jane Scheckter: Easy to Remember (self-released)
• Heiner Stadler: Brains on Fire (1973, P&C Labor, 2CD)
• Marzette Watts: Marzette Watts and Company (1966, ESP-Disk)
• Frank Wright Quartet: Blues for Albert Ayler (1974, ESP-Disk)

Purchases:

• Loudon Wainwright III: Older Than My Old Man Now (2nd Story Sound)

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Expert Comments

Something from left field:

Thought I'd throw this track out and see what you think -- http://goo.gl/di2XQ -- something I'm working on for Recycled Goods. Motorpsycho is a very prolific Norwegian rock band. This is the first I've heard of them, and while I initially suspected metal it now seems likely they're closer to Hawkwind than to Motorhead. (Group was named for the Russ Meyer film.) The Source is saxophonist Trygve Seim. I know him mostly from ECM albums, but seems to have had a wilder and woolier adolescence. Deathprod (Helge Sten) throws in some cheesy electronics. Album runs out of gas before the end, but they were onto something here.

Cam Patterson replied:

Even if the album isn't all there, it's something new under the sun. Reminds me just a little of a Swedish band from a completely different era (the 60s) that Tom hipped us to, Parson Sound, whose lone CD is already going for collector's prices even though it was released only a few years ago. Zoltar's Revenge has it if you want to check it out: http://goo.gl/XJ9rZ

Also, names like The Source and Deathprod remind of of Metalocalypse. Have we not talked about this cartoon here yet? Each episode is a ten minute bite of hilarity, condescension, and reverence toward that weirdest and most fastidious corner of the rock culture haunted house. All three of the seasons so far are available on DVD, and I understand a new season is on the way. It's even better than "The Blizzard of Ozz"!

Milo Miles, on Motorpsycho:

I missed how these guys came up, but I have around 14 albums by them. Saw a performance at Terrastock 5 and that was all it took.

Chris Monsen:

Re: Motorpsycho. They're kind of a big deal over here (i.e. Norway) in so many ways -- much of it extra-musical -- that it would take several posts to cover it all. They've evolved from a psychedelic post-grunge band into something else entirely, a group that frequently dabbles in jazz-ish territory, as well as guitar pop, psychedelia and hard rock (they've covered The Who's "Young Man Blues" close to every single time I've seen them, my "first" being some time around 1996.)

At their best, these elements come together as a singular unit of sound that has been unlike much in modern rock -- groovy and hard yet buoyant -- and can only be described as "that Motorpsycho sound". I tend to prefer their poppier sides, and so Blissard from 1996 is my personal fave (11 times "Teen Age Riot" would be a bit unfair to them, and somewhat contradicts the first sentence in this paragraph, but the analogy has stuck with me ever since I first heard it.), while their consensus classic has been Timothy's Monster, a double album from 1994 which saw them stretch in all kinds of directions.

They are also very outspoken about record collecting and about their influences, and at their least impressive, these influences shine through too clearly. It doesn't help much that I've never been big on prog rock (with notable exceptions, of course), that their fave Sun Ra album is Space is the Place while it is among my least fave of his, and that I find that the kind of 70s West Coast rock they tried to copy on three albums in the mid 2000s isn't worth paying much attention to in the first place.

They've hit something approaching old form on their last few albums, though, and they've always been a great live band.

They're very nice guys, too.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Krugman Charts

I haven't had much time to post, or even surf, this week, but I do want to point out two remarkable charts from Paul Krugman's blog.

First, under Cameron's Remarkable Achievement, shows that the austerity program of Britain's Tory/Liberal government has managed to drag the recovery into a ditch, making this recession worse in the UK than the Great Depression was:

Of course, Britain in the 1930s was home not just of Keynesianism but of John Maynard Keynes himself. I dare say no current economist will make a comparable mark without a fundamental change in politics, since the whole mantra of austerity is little more than ideological cover for an upper class which would rather wreck the economy than lose even a tad of their relative advantage.

The second one is from American Austerity, which tracks public employment under the first terms of Clinton and Bush -- you may recall, Clinton inherited a recession in 1992, and Bush had one develop as the stock market deleveraged from the dot-com boom and 9/11 happened -- and Obama, who inherited a grossly larger recession. Obama, with a fairly large stimulus program, should have far exceeded either of them, but in fact he's had the rug pulled out from under his administration with massive cuts, mostly at the state and local level:

Krugman explains:

That spike early on is Census hiring; once that was past, the Obama years shaped up as an era of huge cuts in public employment compared with previous experience. If public employment had grown the way it did under Bush, we'd have 1.3 million more government workers, and probably an unemployment rate of 7 percent or less.

Krugman's been beating on the austerity fad all week, especially in his column: Death of a Fairy Tale, but also in blog pieces like The New Voodoo (another chart there, plotting austerity vs. change in GDP and showing that it consistently reduces growth, often winding up on the negative side), and The Secret of Our Non-success (another chart on how government expenditures, exclusive of transfers, have plumetted), and It's All So Confusing, including this quote from Dean Baker:

Of course there can be economists who are opposed to the idea that stimulus can work as an article of religious faith. Economic theory also predicts that for a large enough sum of money there will be economists who will say that the stimulus did not work regardless of what they actually believe to be true.

And next week he'll have a book out to reiterate all of this, and remind us he's been right all along. Which he has been.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Expert Comments

Nate Smith pointed out a discrepancy in my Downbeat Poll file. I responded:

Thanks to sharpsm for the correction, as well as the plug. The Uri Caine record slipped my mind, as did Jimmy Owens' Monk Project (IPO) -- a very nice rehash for all you Monk fans (give or take "'Round Midnight"). Uri Caine is one of the very top pianists of his generation, so I try to keep up with when I can. But I haven't gotten any Winter & Winter releases in the last 3-4 years, so that means occasionally grabbing something on Rhapsody. I still have a pretty severe gag reflex when it comes to classical music, and Caine tests that about every third release. So my graded list is pretty mixed, but when he's on he's really dazzling.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Downbeat Critics Poll Notes

This is the second year I've voted in Downbeat's Critics Poll. As I went through their electronic ballot, I tried to take notes below. In most cases this consists of going through their suggestions and noting anyone who seems plausible, then going through my own previous notes and database and adding anyone who seems equally deserving. Then I pick three, and sometimes try to justify that pick. Or all to often I gripe about the category, the suggested ballot, the sometimes odd decisions about who to list in the "Rising Star" section. The ballot process inevitably takes more than a day, and can get quite painful. I hear they give voters a T-shirt for their trouble, but they didn't send me one last year.

To see the rest of my notes, go here.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Music Week/Jazz Prospecting

Music: Current count 19806 [19772] rated (+34), 762 [763] unrated (-1). A fairly normal week, with about half of the newly rated records down in Jazz Prospecting below, the other half stashed away for Recycled Goods and Rhapsody Streamnotes in early May. Perhaps inspired by last week's massive bookkeeping clean up, I started off by picking well-aged items from the queue -- six 2011 releases, none remotely close to breaking into last year's list. I still have 40 2011 releases pending, so I'll try to keep knocking them down, but they sure don't look promising.

Clipper Anderson: The Road Home (2010-11 [2012], Origin): Bassist, originally from Montana, first album, leads a piano trio with Darin Clendenin on piano and Mark Ivester on drums. Wrote 6 of 11 pieces, the covers including two from Bill Evans. Mixed bag. The pianist most likely would be happy to play Evans all night, but there's also a piece where the bass actually leads, and another (less successful) where guest vocalist Gretta Matassa scats out front. Anderson croons one too, a lullaby, sort of. B-

Lynne Arriale: Solo (2011 [2012], Motéma): Pianist, b. 1957 in Milwaukee, 14-15 albums since 1993, pretty sure this isn't her first solo outing. Half originals, two Monks plus standards from Lerner & Lowe, Cole Porter, Billy Joel -- she nearly always drops in something from the rock era. B+(*)

Chris Brubeck's Triple Play: Live at Arthur Zankel Music Center (2011 [2012], Blue Forest): Dave Brubeck's son, plays trombone, bass, piano, sings. Triple Play adds Joel Brown (guitar) and Peter Madcat Ruth (harmonica, ukulele, hi-hat, jaw harp), both with more vocals. Cut live with special guests Dave Brubeck (piano) and Frank Brown (clarinet). Song list is evenly split between Brubeck standards and old blues ("Rollin' & Tumblin," "Phonograph Blues," "Black and Blue," "St. Louis Blues," "Brother Can You Spare a Dime"), so you find these stretches of fancy time-shifting piano in between the harmonica blues. Seems at odd with itself, but Chris Brubeck compounds the conundrum with a "5/4 boogie woogie" called "Mighty Mrs. Hippy" with a long intro to explain the pun, and that segues into a harmonica-led "Blue Rondo a la Turk." B+(***)

Mindy Canter: Fluteus Maximus: One Session, One Take (2011, Mindela Music): "16 songs were recorded live, in a small, one room studio in northern California. All songs were done in one take including Hammond B3 (dubbed in same session)." Canter, who has a few previous albums, plays flute and keyboards, backed with guitar, bass, and drums. All covers, from "16 Tons" and "Happy Trails" to "Watermelon Man" and "Do It Again" -- oh, and "Mercy Mercy Mercy." Light pop funk on the first half; then Denny Geyer starts singing, proving he's not Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Tennessee Ernie Ford (nor Merle Travis). B-

Andy Clausen: The Wishbone Suite (2011 [2012], Table and Chairs): Trombonist, from Seattle, website says he's 19, has been a bandleader since 14, won a "Gerald Wilson Award for Jazz Composition" in 2009, graduated high school in 2010, studied at Juilliard that fall, returned to Seattle to cut this in 2011. Group is a quintet, with Ivan Arteaga (clarinet), Gus Carns (piano), Aaron Otheim (accordion & piano), and Chris Icasiano (drums & glockenspiel). Interesting combination of instruments, mostly soft sounds, reminds me a bit of Claudia Quintet, maybe a bit more baroque. Not what you'd expect from a trombonist, let alone a teenager. B+(**)

Romain Collin: The Calling (2012, Palmetto): Pianist, b. 1979 in France, won a Monk prize, studied at Berklee, based in New York, second album. Mostly piano trio (Luques Curtis and Kendrick Scott), with extra guitar on three tracks, plus overly sweet cello on two of those. Has a distinctive rhythmic sense, making this lean and dense, except when it isn't. B+(*)

Jared Gold: Goldenchild (2010 [2012], Posi-Tone): Organ player, based in New York; fifth album since 2009, a trio with Ed Cherry on guitar and Quincy Davis on drums. About half originals, covers starting with "A Change Is Gonna Come" and winding up with "When It's Sleepy Time Down South." Light touch, intricately weaved with the guitar for mild mannered funk. B+(*)

Jim Holman: Explosion! (2009-11 [2012], Delmark): Pianist, from Chicago, first album, a very upbeat affair, even a whiff of boogie woogie in the piano. Gets even more uproarious on the four cuts with tenor saxophonist Frank Catalano from the 2011 session. Finishes with four earlier cuts, two with alto saxophonist Richie Cole. B+(**)

Kenny & Leah: All About Love (2011, K&L): Soderblom is their shared last name. Kenny plays tenor sax, has a real nice tone. Leah sings, mostly standards, plenty of love songs for that, including "Corcovado" for the obligatory Jobim; has a crisp edge to her voice. Fifth album together, big age difference but for now it seems to work. Five songs with a big string orch drag a bit, but the combo pieces move along. B+(*)

Jocelyn Medina: We Are Water (2011, self-released): Singer-songwriter, studied at Berklee and Manhattan School of Music, based in Brooklyn, second album. One cover here, from Hermeto Pascoal. Band, built around Kristjan Randalu on piano with Rodrigo Ursala on tenor sax and flute, has a real jazz feel, and she likes to scat -- is more convincing then than with her lyrics. B-

Eivind Opsvik: Overseas IV (2011 [2012], Loyal Label): Bassist, from Norway, moved to New York in 1998; has average 5-6 side credits since about 2006. Describes Overseas as a band name, this being their fourth album. Group includes Tony Malaby (tenor sax, a frequent collaborator), Brandon Seabrook (guitar), Jacob Sachs (harpsichord, farfisa, piano), and Kenny Wollesen (drums, tympani, vibes). Rather rockish, but in using repeated rhythmic signatures and in indulging in complexly layered noise -- Seabrook's guitar leads more than the sax -- but the harpsichord offers an ironic nod to chamber music, as does the organ to church music. A-

Mark O'Toole: The Crooner (2011, self-released): Crooner, like he says, more Bennett than Sinatra, based in Las Vegas, where there is a market for this sort of thing. Songs are classic. Arrangements way past their expiry date. You may find yourself hating this and still feel compelled to sing along. You may even improve on it. C+

John Raymond: Strength & Song (2011 [2012], Strength & Song): Trumpet player, based in New York, first album, produced by Jon Faddis, with Gilad Hekselman on guitar, Javier Santiago on piano and Fender Rhodes, plus bass and drums -- pianist Gerald Clayton and alto saxophonist Tim Green get cover "featuring" credit for two songs each. Trumpet leads are strong and clear, and the guitarist does a notable job weaving in and out. B+(*)

Ro Sham Beaux: Ro Sham Beaux (2011 [2012], Red Piano): First album for Boston group: Zac Shaiman (saxes), Luke Marantz (keyb), Oliver Watkinson (bass), Jacob Cole (drums, glockenspiel). Don't know anything about the band or what they think they're up to. Wouldn't call this pop or fusion or experimental rock or much of anything else: name presumably means something else, but bounces around in my brain and comes out rambling shambles. B

Jim Van Slyke: The Sedaka Sessions (2011, LML Music): Singer, second album, does 15 Neil Sedaka songs, two duets with the auteur. Backed by piano trio, simple enough, the main question how to react to his voice, high-pitched, struck me as girly at first, but that may just have been "Love Will Keep Us Together." The later songs get more theatrical. B

Mark Weinstein: El Cumbanchero (2011, Jazzheads): Flute player, sixteen albums since 1996, nearly all of them Latin, at least since Algo Más in 2004. With Aruán Ortiz on piano, who also did the arrangements -- strings on most tracks. B+(*)

Dan Wilensky: Back in the Mix (2011 [2012], Speechless Productions): Tenor saxophonist, b. 1961 in Ann Arbor, MI; cut a record in 1997, and now three more since 2010. Mostly quartet with Mark Soskin (piano), Dean Johnson (bass), and Tony Moreno (drums), adding trumpeter Russ Johnson on four cuts. Nice, rich tone, shows off especially well on tunes like "Falling in Love With Love." B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• John Abercrombie Quartet: Within a Song (ECM): advance, July
• Arild Andersen: Celebration (ECM): advance, June
• Black Music Disaster (Thirsty Ear): advance, June 5
• Ablaye Cissoko/Volker Goetze: Amanké Dionti (Motéma)
• Florian Hoefner Group: Songs Without Words (OA2)
• Irène Jacob & Francis Jacob: Je Sais Nager (Sunnyside)
• Andy Jaffe: Manhattan Projections (Big Round)
• Jazz Soul Seven: Impressions of Curtis Mayfield (BFM Jazz)
• Steve Kuhn Trio: Wisteria (ECM)
• Jeremy Long: In Suspension (Innova)
• Hailey Niswanger: The Keeper (Calmit Productions)
• Sebastian Noelle: Koan (Fresh Sound New Talent)
• Gonzalo Rubalcaba: XXI Century (5Pasion, 2CD): May 29
• Louis Sclavis Atlas Trio: Sources (ECM): advance, June
• Tessa Souter: Beyond the Blue (Motéma)
• John Surman: Saltash Bells (ECM): advance, June
• Ben Tyree: Thoughtform Variations (self-released): June 26
• Matt Ulery: By a Little Light (Greenleaf Music, 2CD)
• Manuel Valera: New Cuban Express (Mayo)
• Florian Wittenberg: Artefacts: Solo Electronics (GEMA)
• John Yao: In the Now (Innova)

Miscellaneous notes:

• John Prine: The Singing Mailman Delivers (1970 [2011], Oh Boy, 2CD): Prehistory and trivia, the sort of thing that might get tacked onto a 2-CD "deluxe" reissue of his 1971 debut John Prine, except that Prine owns the tapes and decided to release them himself. In 1970, Prine was working as a mailman during the week and playing weekend nights at the Fifth Peg in Chicago. In August, he recorded solo demos of 11 songs -- the first disc here. The second is the tape of a live performance, backed by bass guitar, with 12 of his songs (mostly repeats) plus a Hank Williams medley. Some songs were works in progress -- "Sam Stone" was still titled "Great Society Conflict Veteran's Blues" -- but there's little here that didn't get sharper on the studio album [still grade A]. B+(***)

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Weekend Roundup

Some scattered links I squirreled away during the previous week:

• Henry Farrell: Happy Krauthammer Day:

  It's that time of the year again -- it's been five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months plus five months since Charles Krauthammer told us

  Hans Blix had five months to find weapons. He found nothing. We've had five weeks. Come back to me in five months. If we haven't found any, we will have a credibility problem.

  I'll confess that I was a bit disappointed last week, when Charles Krauthammer didn't make the cut for Atrios' shortlist for Wanker of the Decade (he did get a nod-in-his-direction though; Fred Hiatt's nod was intended to honor the Washington Post's editorial page as a whole). But having reflected a bit, I think this was the right call. To be a really first rate wanker, you have to be at least partially oblivious to what you are. I've always had the sense that Krauthammer knows exactly what he is -- nasty and thoroughly mendacious. Not a wanker then, but rather worse than a wanker. He's whatever it is that Karl Rove is (when rugose and squamous entities drag out their tortured forms from under rocks, to caper and desport themselves beneath the gibbous moon, they console themselves at least they're not working for American Crossroads).

  By the way, next year will be the tenth anniversary. Still writing for the Washington Post, still syndicated, still on the talk shows.

• Ed Kilgore: Journey to the Center of Ted Nugent's Mind:

  In a nugget from last weekend's National Rifle Association annual meeting, Ted Nugent offered this warning:

  "If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year," Nugent said, according to a video posted on YouTube by the NRA. "If you can't go home and get everybody in your lives to clean house in this vile, evil America hated administration, I don't even know what you're made out of."

  Don't know if this means we need to put Ted on suicide watch come November 7 if things don't turn out his way, or just let the police know he's threatening to do a crime so he can get himself incarcerated. But it's a fine reflection of the wingnut mind at its deepest that he seems to think us godless socialists care enough about his ravings to persecute him.

  TPM reports that the NRA has scrubbed Nugent's video from its website, after Romney distanced himself from it. TPM also reports that Bishop of Peoria Compares Obama and Contraception Mandates to Hitler and Stalin. There are plenty of sane reasons one might be unhappy with Obama, but his opponents keep resorting to insane ones -- suggesting they may be insane themselves.

• Paul Krugman: The Drywall Chronicles:

  So Mitt Romney gave a speech at a closed Ohio drywall factory, which he tried to use as a symbol of Obama's economic failure. The symbolism was perfect -- not as an illustration of Obama's failure, but as an illustration of just how stupid Romney thinks we are.

  Even regular reporters noticed that the factory in question closed under, yes, George W. Bush -- a fact Romney failed to mention, although his campaign scrambled to cover for him afterwards.

  What I didn't see mentioned was the point that this was a drywall factory -- that is, a supplier of a product largely used in home construction. It's one thing to say that Obama should have revived the economy as a whole; it's another to say that he should have brought back the housing bubble!

  Krugman also provides a chart comparing job losses during the first 3 years + 3 months of the Bush and Obama administrations:

  

  If you bother doing the math, you'll also notice that Bush's job losses were cushioned by growth in public sector jobs, whereas Obama's total was made much worse by public sector job cuts. Bush started out with a much milder recession, and his main remedies were tax cuts for the superrich and the fiscal stimulus of big post-9/11 military deficits, which, uh, didn't work very well. (From 2004-07 the economy under Bush did grow, but almost exclusively from the unsustainable housing bubble.) Krugman brings this up because Romney's proposed solutions are pretty much the same as Bush's: tax cuts for the rich, and more wars.

  I'm beginning to think that Obama's big mistake wasn't that his stimulus package was too small (although it was) but that he didn't end the Bush tax cuts as soon as he entered office (perhaps keeping some of the bottom end cuts, but not necessarily the "middle class" ones he wanted to keep). Had he done so, he wouldn't have been nearly as vulnerable to complaints about his deficits -- they would pretty much vanish when the economy picked up -- which would have given him more leeway to spend in constructive fashion, or at least more resolve to fight back against debilitating cuts.

• John Quiggin: The Coming Boom in Inherited Wealth: Inequality is up, even more so -- 93% of additional income in the US in 2010 went to the top 1% -- but some argue that "those at the top were more likely to earn than inherit their riches." Depends on what you mean by "earn" but Quiggin adds:

  The fact that currently wealthy Americans have not, in general, inherited their wealth follows logically from the fact that, in their parents' generation, there weren't comparable accumulations of wealth to be bequeathed. More generally, starting from the position of relatively (to earlier periods and to the current one) equal income and wealth that prevailed between about 1950 and 1980, growing inequality of income must precede growing inequality of wealth, since wealth is simply the cumulative excess of income over consumption (and US high-income earners have not been notable for restraint as regards consumption).

  So, given highly unequal incomes, and social immobility, we can expect inheritance to play a much bigger role in explaining inequality for the generations now entering adulthood than for the current recipients of high incomes. That will include direct transfers of wealth as well as the effects of increasingly unequal access to education, early job opportunities and home ownership.

  One more thing to emphasize is that over the last few decades, the right-wing movement was almost exclusively financed by people who were born to wealth -- the Kochs, Olins, Richard Mellon Scaife, the Coors, and so forth. Same for major figures in the movement, from Bill Buckley to Bill Kristol, and for that matter G.W. Bush. Aside from the Kochs, most of these figures are far from the top of the list, but their politics starts from their aristocratic sense of entitlement. Back in the more equitable 1950s, before greed became something to brag about, it seemed more likely that at least some of the fortunates might redirect themselves to public service -- the Kennedys, even the occasional Rockefeller and Harriman. Less so now, as the concentration of wealth occurs alongside a diminished sense of social responsibility.

• Adele Stan: Koch Coughs Up Another $Mil for Pro-Walker Group: The group is called The Republican Governors Association, which has bought up $3 million worth of advertising to defend the recalled Wisconsin governor. One reason this caught my eye is that Koch Industries got a nice headline in the Wichita Eagle last week for their generous donation to help out with tornado recovery in south Wichita: they donated $100,000. Koch's headquarters are in Wichita, but they're on the north side of town and weren't affected by the tornado.

Expert Comments

Someone complained about this year being a bit slack so far:

As for how 2012 is shaping up, here's one metric: by April 22, 2011, Christgau had identified 15 A- or better 2011 releases (17 by end of April). This year, the number is 22 2012 releases (at least by my records, which count Oka! as 2011). Probably more EPs this year, and definitely more free downloads.

If 2011 still seems like a bigger year, that's probably because more of those 16 are big names -- Paul Simon, TV on the Radio, Tune-Yards, Drive-By Truckers, Yuck. Less of that this year, so far anyway.

Can't check the numbers, but my impression is that my metacritic file rankings are down this year: only 10 records so far with 20+ favorable reviews, topping out at 30 (Cloud Nothings). PJ Harvey was way above that last year. But I only count 4 good records in the current top 10 (haven't heard Spiritualized yet, but I'm not counting on it), and it wasn't any better last year, so maybe that's not a good metric.

I have 27 A- or better records on my current list (11 jazz). Not sure how that compares with this time last year, but it's roughly on track.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Book Roundup

Another batch of 40 more/less new books. Last one came out on February 9, and as it turns out I almost have enough piled up for an immediate follow-up, so I mostly went with the most promising political, economic, and historical efforts. Next time, especially if it's sooner rather than later, will be more scattered.

Andrew J Bacevich, ed: The Short American Century: A Postmortem (2012, Harvard University Press): Collection with eight other contributors, including Walter LaFeber -- one of the first to document this century of hubris and folly.

Dean Baker: The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive (paperback, 2011, Center for Economic and Policy Reserach): Short (168 pp.), defines "loser liberalism" as policies that "want to tax the winners to help the losers," and argues that progressives would be better off working "to structure markets so that they don't redistribute income upward." Seems like the right idea to me.

Peter Beinart: The Crisis of Zionism (2012, Times Books): Liberal hawk, in fact made a big stink about the point, insisting that only liberals can "win the war on terror" -- a thesis that held up fairly well during the Bush reign but hasn't fared so well under Obama. Also a big-time Israel-lover, eager to defend Zionism even though its record is even more tattered than that of the liberal hawks, but again with a proviso -- something about how the occupation is destroying the soul of Zionism. Even goes so far as to argue for boycotting products from Israel's West Bank settlements, which has made him public enemy number one to the other big-time Israel lovers: the ones who really dig the Chosen People's dominance over the natives -- makes them feel that Old Testament virility.

Josh Bivens: Failure by Design: The Story Behind America's Broken Economy (2011, Cornell University Press): I doubt that America's economy was designed in any meaningful sense, but comparing it to a design -- which is to say determining whether it serves any purpose, and what -- should be good for some insight into its dysfunction.

Otis Brawley/Paul Goldberg: How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America (2012, St Martin's Press): An oncologist, practices in a hospital in Atlanta that is the last resort for patients without means, which is largely why he goes in for evidence-based medicine and doesn't go in for kickbacks. Turns out that some of the most lucrative cancer treatments in America do little good and/or much harm, and he's got cases.

David Brock/Ari Rabin-Havt/Media Matters for America: The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network Into a Propaganda Machine (paperback, 2012, Anchor): Probably the single most important factor in America since Obama was elected has been the existence of a full-time, full-press propaganda force dedicated to tearing him down. No other president has had to face such a persistent and unscrupulous foe -- well, Clinton, maybe, but that was during Fox's infancy, where these methods were first hatched but far from perfected. Evidently much of this comes from Brock's website, which exercises the proper level of due dilligence, so you and I don't have to.

Chuck Collins: 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality Is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It (paperback, 2012, Bennett-Koehler): Short (144 pp) book by the director of IPS's Program on Inequality and the Common Good, and he has other activist credentials. The fact of growing inequality should be beyond any doubt at this point. The bigger problem is explaining why it is such a problem, in large part because instead of there being one large reason, there are so many small ones.

Steven A Cook: The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square (2011, Oxford University Press): Survey of Egypt's history post-Nasser, made all the more timely by the revolt against Mubarak's sclerotic rule. Was looking for a book like this back when the revolution was unfolding, but such books always show up late. Cook previously wrote: Ruling but Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey (paperback, 2007, Johns Hopkins Press).

David Corn: Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party (2012, William Morrow): Starts with the 2010 elections and tries to turn that sow's ear into a silk purse (repealing Don't Ask/Don't Tell, passing New START, caving in on the Bush tax cuts, killing Bin Laden, etc.). A piece of political history, no doubt, but inspirational?

Douglas Dowd: Inequality and the Global Economic Crisis (paperback, 2009, Pluto Press): Another book on the consequences of inequality, making some of the connections to financial collapse that the new James Galbraith book (Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis) makes. I could append this there, as I do sometimes, but everything written on this topic is important.

Mary L Dudziak: War-Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences (2012, Oxford University Press): Looks at how we've traditionally thought of times at war, and why such concepts have become so confused as the US has warlike conflicts without any sort of formal nation-wide mobilization.

Russ Feingold: While America Sleeps: A Wake-Up Call for the Post-9/11 Era (2012, Crown): There are several books the former senator could have written now that he has the time, including one on the sordid influence of money in elections -- a big part of why he was turned out. This one appears to focus on how the Senate responded to 9/11: how little they knew, how they were handled by Bush's warmongers, how little they cared about the consequences of their (in-)actions. I doubt that he goes as far as he should, but he was one of the few people who didn't get totally swept up in the hysteria, so at least he should stake out that much.

James K Galbraith: Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis (2012, Oxford University Press): His last book, The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should To (2008) is my pick for the best political book of the last decade. This look to go deeper into the inequality chasm growth that preceded what he calls the Great Financial Crisis, and tries to show how one caused the other. I think that's right, and will move this to the top of my must-read list.

Joshua S Goldstein: Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide (2011, Dutton): I think the thesis is basically right, although I'm less certain about the effectiveness of international peacekeeping forces than I am about the general sense that war is a losing proposition, inimical to everything we aspire to in life today.

Arthur Goldwag: The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right (2012, Pantheon): Blurb talks more about the old hate -- "hysteria about the Illuminati," McCarthyism, Henry Ford's anti-semitism -- which leaves us short of understanding what's new about the new hate. No doubt there are plenty of examples, but why it resonates is more important. Only by skimming the surface can you treat Henry Ford as a populist.

Jonathan Haidt: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012, Pantheon): Heard a line recently that sums up politics these days: "either you're preaching to the choir, or talking to a wall." This psychologist thinks he knows why, something having to do with our tendency to react emotionally with our "moral taste buds" while only seeking post hoc reinforcement from reason. For an example of how people find what they want, an Amazon reader wrote: "This book is a fun read for conservatives because it pokes more holes in liberalism than it does in conservatism."

John Horgan: The End of War (2012, McSweeney's): Science writer, argues that war is not intrinsic to human nature nor inevitable, and that we are in fact trending towards ending war. I think one way to look at this is to look at the rationales that are used to advocate and serve in war: they've changed markedly over the last few centuries. One might point out that the US used to have a War Department that rarely went to war, but now that we've renamed it the Department of Defense it's always involved in one shootout or another, so this is a thorny subject, correct I think, but a habit hard to break.

Van Jones: Rebuild the Dream (2012, Nation Books): Obama's "green jobs" czar for a few days in 2009 until Obama left him high and dry, lynched on Rush Limbaugh's tree. He's back now, with an organization he named his book for, like the eery shadow of a campaign theme Obama used in 2008 and is unlikely to bring up ever again. Pitch: "America is still the best idea in the world. The American middle class is still her greatest invention. Rebuild the Dream is dedicated to the proposition that -- with the right strategy -- both can be preserved and strengthened for generations to come."

Michael T Klare: The Race for What's Left: The Global Scramble for the World's Last Resources (2012, Metropolitan Books): The next logical evolution of his argument after Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict, Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum and Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Politics of Energy. I've long thought that the conflict part of the equation is overrated, in part because it is impossible to see any national public interest in what the US does to support capitalists (with virtually no distinction between US and foreign), in part because the US military posture is so counterproductive.

Robert Jay Lifton: Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir (2011, Free Press): A psychiatrist, b. 1926, studied brainwashing during the Korean War, went on to study survivors of Hiroshima and of several incidents of genocide, writing a number of remarkable books along the way: e.g., Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima (1968); Revolutionary Immortality: Mao Tse-Tung and the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1968); Home From the War: Vietnam Veterans -- Neither Victims nor Executioners (1973); The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide (1986); Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism (2000); Superpower Syndrome: America's Apocalyptic Confrontation With the World (2003). He didn't do a full book on Abu Ghraib, but did weigh in on the subject, so I expect there's some of that here.

Michael Lind: Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States (2012, Harper): Big subject, 592 pp. is likely to require much conceptualizing while still compressing the subject. Lind has usually nipped around the corners, sometimes usefully, sometimes not (I can't see ever forgiving his defense of the Vietnam War). [April 17]

Marc Lynch: The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East (2012, Public Affairs): After a rash of quickies last year, the books on the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and throughout the Arab world are starting to appear in earnest. Could try for a list, but they're still a bit scattered. Lynch has a longstanding understanding of the region, plus has some contacts with US diplomatic sources (given more play in the blurb than I suspect they're worth).

Tracie McMillan: The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table (2012, Scribner): Author worked in the fields of California, at Walmart in the produce isle, and in the kitchen at Applebee's, and got a sense of how we treat food these days, and as such how we treat ourselves.

Chris Mooney: The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Don't Believe in Science (2012, Wiley): A delicious title, but I doubt he can deliver the goods, and not just because brains don't seem to be the operative organ governing Republicans. By all accounts, his first book (The Republican War on Science) was spot on, but he's gotten sloppier as he's gotten more aggravated.

Cullen Murphy: God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World (2012, Houghton Mifflin): Murphy dates the Inquisition as an official process to 1231 and tracks it for nearly 700 years, but also points out that many more recent processes share its essential features -- McCarthyism is one that occurs to me, and the burgeoning US security state continues in its wake. Murphy is a "big picture" historian, as shown by his previous book, Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America.

John Nichols: Uprising: How Wisconsin Reneweed the Politics of Protest From Madison to Wall Street (paperback, 2012, Nation Books): The American people did something monumentally stupid in November 2010, allowing a fanatic cadre of Republicans to take over the House of Representatives in Washington and to sweep nearly all of the state houses in the upper midwest. When the consequences of this lapse of sanity became obvious, the people of Wisconsin were first and foremost in standing up to right. This sketches out what happened there, in Ohio, and on to Occupy Wall Street: instant history, in case you weren't paying enough attention. Also see: Erica Sagrans, ed: We Are Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Uprising in the Words of the Activists, Writers, and Everyday Wisconsinites Who Made It Happen (paperback, 2011, Tasora Books); Mari Jo Buhle/Paul Buhle, eds: It Started in Wisconsin: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Labor Protest in America (paperback, 2012, Verso, with an intro by Nichols); Dennis Weidemann: Cut From Plain Cloth: The 2011 Wisconsin Workers Protests (2011, Manitenahk Books); Michael D Yates: Wisconsin Uprising: Labor Fights Back (paperback, 2012, Monthly Review Press).

Elaine Pagels: Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation (2012, Viking): The history of the odd book at the end of the Bible. The main points strike me as familiar, but it's helpful to spell them out at length -- to show how the historical specifics are reflected as hysterical prophecy. Pagels has written a lot on early Christianity, e.g., The Gnostic Gospels. One intriguing title: The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics.

Bill Press: The Obama Hate Machine: The Lies, Distortions, and Personal Attacks on the President -- and Who Is Behind Them (2012, Thomas Dunne): The key is the last clause: I don't see much point in rehearsing all the nonsense unless you can tie it all down to sources, especially ones that certainly must know better.

Ahmed Rashid: Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan and Afghanistan (2012, Viking): Wrote the standard book on the pre-2001 Taliban (Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia) and a major book on how the US war in Afghanistan has destabilized the region (Descent Into Chaos: The US and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia). More specifically on Pakistan, which as the US finally backs out is likely to remain as the main legacy of the near-sighted, myopic mess. Also new: Stephen P Cohen, et al: The Future of Pakistan (paperback, 2012, Brookings Institution Press).

Noam Scheiber: The Escape Artists: How Obama's Team Fumbled the Recovery (2012, Simon & Schuster): Reportedly some kind of inside story, like Ron Suskind's 2011 Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President, so much of it must be redundant other than carrying the story a bit further -- the lack of subsequent good news making the "fumbling" all the more pointed. Suskind's title was clever, but this one is nonsense.

Anthony Shadid: House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East (2012, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt): American journalist, has covered the Middle East remarkably for many years -- cf. his book on the US invasion of Iraq, Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War -- before dying early this year in Syria. A memoir of rebuilding his family's ancestral home in Lebanon, thinking about the world around it.

Robert J Shiller: Finance and the Good Society (2012, Princeton University Press): Major economist, especially authoritative on bubbles and their consequences -- he was, I think, the first guy to smell out the housing bubble, but he had the advantage of having written Irrational Exuberance about the high-tech stock bubble, and also co-authored a book on behavioral economics called Animal Spirits. More big questions here.

David K Shipler: Rights at Risk: The Limits of Liberty in Modern America (2012, Knopf): Quick sequel to his 2011 book, The Rights of the People: How Our Search for Safety Invades Our Liberties. Has written big books in the past, and obviously felt like saying more here.

Jeffrey St Clair/Joshua Frank, eds: Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (paperback, 2012, AK Press): With so much room to snipe at Obama from the left, I'm disappointed that no one has really hit the mark. (I've read Tariq Ali, who rung up Bush like nobody's business; also Roger Hodge, Robert Kuttner, Tom Engelhardt, and Chris Hedges, but not Glenn Greenwald, at least in book form.) But this seems like a particularly cheap way to do it, not just by assembling pieces from such principled critics but by adopting that whole hope/illusion nonsense.

David C Unger: The Emergency State: America's Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs (2012, Penguin Press): For 60+ years now, the US has responded to every lapse and chink in its defense by building more defense, and by deploying it ever more aggressively around the world. The result has been a self-sustaining avalanche of failures for which we have but one answer: more, the inevitable answer given the stress on absolute security.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel: The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama (paperback, 2012, Nation Books): A collection of columns, blog posts, whatever, swept up over several years regardless of relevance.

Tim Weiner: Enemies: A History of the FBI (2012, Random House): Previously wrote Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, a useful book that could be more critical. The FBI should be more straightforward, but probably isn't. The first clue is that their preoccupation seems to be not criminals but "enemies."

Gary Weiss: Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul (2012, St Martin's Press): Looks into Rand's web of influence since her death in 1982 -- most obviously Alan Greenspan and various Tea Party crackpots. Not sure if Weiss is a believer or a critic, but you'd have to have an exaggerated sense of Rand's importance to bother exploring this matter.

Jeffrey A Winters: Oligarchy (paperback, 2011, Cambridge University Press): An enduring concept -- case studies include ancient Athens and Rome, medieval Venice and Sienna, and, of course, the modern US.

Matthew Yglesias: The Rent Is Too Damn High: What to Do About It, and Why It Matters More Than You Think (e-book, 2012, Simon & Schuster): Short essay (about 70 pp?) on urban planning, argues that rent control and zoning restrictions lead to high rents and high costs of living in dense cities. I've largely stopped reading his blog, in part because I zone out when he writes about these specific topics (and especially parking). I might care more if I lived in one of those cities, or if he got into the large picture of how rentier interests have corrupted public policy.

Some forthcoming books I'm looking forward to:

• Michael J Sandel: What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (2012, Farrar Straus and Giroux): [April 24]
• Paul Krugman: End This Depression Now! (2012, WW Norton): [April 30]
• Steve Coll: Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (2012, Penguin Press): [May 1]
• Gail Collins: As Texas Goes . . . : How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda (2012, Liveright): [June 4]

Previously mentioned books (book pages noted where available), new in paperback:

Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010; paperback, 2012, Free Press): Now that racial discrimination has been formally banned, why is it that "more African Americans are under correctional control today . . . than were enslaved in 1850"? Why does the US (you know, "the land of the free") hold more of its people in prison than any other country in the world?

Adam Hochschild: To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 (2011; paperback, 2012, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt): Focuses on England during the first World War, especially on those who opposed the folly of that war, in contrast to those who promoted and luxuriated in it.

Bethany McLean/Joe Nocera: All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis (2010; paperback, 2011, Portfolio Trade): One of the best-regarded of the scads of books on the financial meltdown of 2008, which political stupidity has compounded into the greatest depression of our lives.

Bill Moyers: Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues (2011; paperback, 2012, New Press): Interview transcripts, most with interesting people, get to many interesting questions. I've found that the interview format often offers an exceptionally focused yet friendly introduction to a person.

Jason K Stearns: Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa (2011; paperback, 2012, Public Affairs): I doubt that as many as one in five Americans who are aware of the Rwanda genocide have any idea that the subsequent war in neighboring Congo has wound up killing many more people. One of the few major books on the subject. Another is Gerard Prunier: Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe (2008; paperback, 2011, Oxford University Press).

Trying to scratch up the paperbacks, which I was very short in, I've picked up a bunch more books, so the next installment should be sooner rather than later. It would be easier if one could just look for books in a bookstore, but that's becoming impossible. (I think books account for less than 40% of the floor space in our last remaining Barnes & Noble.)

Mar 2001