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Friday, August 1, 2025

Loose Tabs

I've spent roughly a week pulling this together. It's nowhere near as comprehensive as it should be, but part of that is that I'm rowing against a flood of mostly disturbing news. My idea is that I'll go ahead and post this on August 1, then write some kind of Executive Summary for a Notes on Everyday Life post in the coming week. While I'm pulling that together, I'll add a few links here, plus some more subject head writing. I'll also do the Table of Contents then. Big thing is to move on, which means putting this up sooner rather than later. I'll add change bars to mark whatever I add.

As it turns out, I'm not going to have a lot of time next week anyway. We'll have visitors, and that will take a fair amount of time and attention. It will probably result in the shortest Music Week in quite some time. Also next week is the primary election in Kansas. The big issue to be decided here is an Amendment on how State Supreme Court Justices are selected in Kansas. Republicans are upset because the State Supreme Court has ruled that abortion rights are protected by the Kansas State Constitution, so cannot be simply outlawed by the state's very gerrymandered veto-proof legislative majority. A couple years ago, they tried to pass another amendment to outlaw abortion. That measures was voted down 58.8% to 41.2%. Now they're trying this back door route. We'll also have open Democratic primaries for Governor, Senator, and the House, each with multiple capable candidates. They've been hard to come by in past years, so there is some small reason to hope for this fall.

This is an occasional collection of newsworthy links and comments, much less systematic than what I attempted in my late Speaking of Which posts. The new name comes from my extensive use of browser tabs. When I get around to cleaning up, I often find tabs opened to old articles I might want to comment on and/or refer back to. So these posts are mostly housecleaning, but may also serve as a very limited but persistent record of what 20+ years ago I started calling "the end of the American empire" and nowadays feels more like "the end of civilization." I collect these bits in a draft file, and flush them out when periodically (12 times from April-December 2025, not much more often in 2026). My previous one appeared 48 days ago, on June 14. The exceptional delay this time has much to do with my work on the Mid-Year 2026 Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll.

By the way, I've been trying to write some more in-depth pieces on major issues (and/or personal peccadillos), using Substack as an email agent. I call this series Notes on Everyday Life. Here's a list of recent ones, plus a couple of oldies I've pinned because they still seem relevant here, in LIFO order:

  • [07-29]: Famous Death Dwarves: Lindsey Graham is finally laid to rest. This was based on the section below.

  • [06-26]: Arafat and Abbas on Violence: Reflections from Tomorrow Is Yesterday.

  • [06-22]: After Iran: A funny thing happened on the way to the apocalypse.

  • [05-29]: But Reality Is Unscripted: Disturbing thoughts on Trump.

  • [05-05]: The Real Road to Serfdom: Tim Wu explains how monopoly power leads to fascism.

  • [05-02]: Lookback: Iraq 2003: Why does the Iran war story sound familiar? (with allowances for tragedy repeating as farce)?

  • [04-27]: Explaining Inflation: AI treats us like 5-year-olds. They leave out a few things.

  • [04-05]: Iran War: The Big Question: How does it end? Or does it end at all?

  • [04-03]: Iran War: The Three Questions: Why is this happening?

  • [03-13]: Days of Infamy: "Franklin Roosevelt knew how to sell a war." Donald Trump doesn't. He only knows how to start one.

  • [2025-10-21]: Making Peace in Gaza and Beyond: "Looking beyond the Trump points toward a peace we can all live with."

  • [2025-10-17]: Gaza War Peace Plan: "Twenty Trump points, for better or worse."

  • [2025-08-10]: Four Stories: My first post, which sets out the basic ideas behind my effort, and takes its title from a very wrong-headed Vox piece that offered some teachable moments. One sample quote I buried in parentheses:

    There is no problem that Trump is the solution to. But his slogan, "Trump will fix it," suggests that some people thought we had problems he could fix. I think Trump's slogan was very effective, especially as Harris made little or no effort to show how very ridiculous the boast was.

I also have a Notes feed there. While I've done very little with it so far, it occurs to me that I might be able to use it to publish Loose Tabs items and Music Week reviews as I write them, instead of having to wait for a long compilation post.

Table of Contents:

New Stories

Sometimes stuff happens, and it dominates the news/opinion cycle for a few days or possibly several weeks. We might as well lead with it, because it's where attention is most concentrated. But eventually these stories will fold into the broader, more persistent themes of the following sections, or vanish altogether.

The World Cup:

  • Graham Peebles [07-09]: Poisoning the World Cup: The American Way: "The football has been brilliant, because football is brilliant. But the 2026 World Cup — hosted across the US, Canada, and Mexico — mainly in America — is the most corrupt, polluted tournament in the tournament's 96-year history."

Lindsey Graham: The Senator (R-SC) died on July 11, age 71. While I have many unpleasant memories of the man who probably ranks as the most persistent war hawk in my lifetime (a span that includes Arthur Vandenberg, John Stennis, Henry Jackson, and Graham's amigos John McCain and Joe Lieberman), one that sticks in my mind occurred back when he was an obscure junior member of the House (1995-2003). I pretty clearly remember him talking about the need for Republicans to lock up the judiciary and other centers of power whenever they have the chance, to stay in power even when elections turn against them. (Admittedly, it isn't easy to fact check this rare instance of blurting out the usually unspoken part about subverting democracy.) While his passion for provoking armed conflict was his defining trait, he was an inveterate schemer, a political animal with no respect whatsoever for democracy, or for the people it's meant to serve.

  • Kelley Beaucar Vlahos [07-12]: Lindsey Graham, last great Cold War warrior, dead at 71: "The senator was an inspiration to those who believed military power was essential to making the world 'right.' Others thought he lost his 'America First' perspective in Ukraine and Israel." I think the "Cold War warrior" concept misses the point. While he was old enough to have formed his hawkish beliefs before the Soviet Union dissolved, the Cold War was always constrained by a sense of limits. Graham, on the other hand, fully embraced the post-Cold War euphoria, relishing America's singular superpower (aka hyperpower) moment, believing that the mere threat of "shock and awe" would cower enemies into surrender and submission. That doctrine almost immediately failed in Somalia (where it is still failing 35 years later). It failed in Afghanistan. It failed in Iraq. No nation embraced it more fully than Israel, and they've been locked in a hopeless forever war against everyone (even their own people) ever since. Most people know by now that Graham never met a war he didn't want to escalate. What's less commented on, perhaps because it's even more ridiculous, is his inability to ever see a downside in the wars he promoted. They've failed time and time again, not only to achieve their stated goals but by causing enormous collateral damage that has only generated more chaos and resistance. But his only answer to such failure was to double down on violence. He not only worshipped power. He was locked inside its web, unable to see or imagine anything else. But perhaps worst of all was how glib and giddy his delusions made him. I don't know why Al Smith was called "the happy warrior," but he couldn't have been a tenth as deserving of that title as Graham.

  • Benjy Sarlin [7-12]: Lindsey Graham sacrificed his reputation to Donald Trump. He got plenty in return. "His career explains why so many Republicans made peace with Trump — and what he gave up to do it." The assumption, which isn't unreasonable, is that Trump will be soon regarded as a disgrace, even to Republicans. But one could also ask the question, what did Trump sacrifice to gain the toadying allegiance of Republicans like Graham? (And Rubio, Cruz, Vance, dozens more, among them the most reactionary reprobates in American politics.) In 2016, Trump had the smarts to run against Republican orthodoxy on war, trade, corruption ("the swamp"), and social security. But after he got elected, he turned everything over to regular right-wing Republicans, reducing himself to nothing more than an inept front man.

  • The New Voice of Ukraine:

    • [07-13]: Inside Lindsey Graham's relentless last days spent fighting for Ukraine and sanctions: On July 9, Graham traveled to Ukraine (flew out of Turkiye, took a train from Poland, "a journey that lasted 10 hours"). He met with Zelensky.

      That same day, the senator and his colleagues announced they reached an agreement with the Trump administration to advance the revised version of the Russia sanctions bill.

      In Kyiv, Graham told reporters that the deal had been struck just 30 minutes earlier.

      According to Representative Michael McCaul, keeping Trump engaged in supporting Ukraine was largely Graham's doing.

      Graham returned to the US, where he died on July 11.

    • [07-28]: Witkoff, Kushner could visit Kyiv within weeks.

    • [07-28]: Iran, Ukraine ease tensions over Caspian sea attack: "Ukrainian and Iranian foreign ministers, Andrii Sybiha and Abbas Araghchi, spoke on July 28 to calm things down after Ukraine attacked an Iranian cargo vessel in the Caspian Sea on July 26."

  • Jeet Heer [07-13]: Lindsey Graham chose evil: "Conspiracy theorists liked to say that Graham's Trump sycophancy was a result of blackmail. But the truth is worse: He stuck with Trump to keep the US war machine going."

  • Michael Tomasky [07-13]: Lindsey Graham's legacy? It's about one thing, and it isn't good: "He alone had the moral authority within the Republican Party to try to stop Donald Trump, especially after January 6. He chose not to. That's what we must remember today." It's mind-boggling to think that Graham had any morality, much less moral authority. (I don't have any more respect for McCain, but at least he had an act he appeared to believe in.) And for the record, the one Republican who could have stopped Trump after Jan. 6 was McConnell, who could have gotten Trump banned from running again by declaring him invalid under the 14th Amendment (with or without convicting him on impeachment charges). But by then hyperpartisanship had so rotted his brain he couldn't conceive of crossing Trump.

  • Chas Danner [07-13]: Was Lindsey Graham an opportunist, operator, failure, or disgrace? Probably all of the above. None of those are words a normal person would welcome in a eulogy, although Graham himself might have opted for the first two.

  • Jeffrey St Clair [07-13]: Graham Crackers: The words of a professional warmonger. Lots of Graham quotes here, not a lot of context. He contradicts himself so often some quotes may appear reasonable, but rest assured that in its proper context everything he said was meant to be evil. Like this one, which can hardly be interpreted any other way: "When this [Iran] regime goes down, we are going to have a new Middle East, and we are going to make a ton of money." I doubt that Graham was ever in the war business that much for the money, so most likely this quote was intended for an audience of the one who was [Trump]. But it sums up nicely what Graham saw as his Faustian bargain: he gets his war in exchange for his soul, which was never worth much in the first place. Still, odds are that in the end Trump will just pocket the money, leaving the old Middle East much as it was, but poorer.

  • Nathan J Robinson [07-13]: Why mourn Lindsey Graham and not his victims? "The late Republican senator was constantly lobbying for the killing of others. Why should anyone weep for a man who didn't care about inflicting death around the world?"

  • Elie Mystal [07-14]: Lindsey Graham's defense of Brett Kavanaugh told us everything: "The senator's infamous cry of rage spoke not only to his cruelty but also to his larger role in changing the court." Well, not everything, but enough.

  • Jamelle Bouie [07-15]: Lindsey Graham knew better. Better than what? Trump? Maybe, but other explanations are at least as plausible. Graham, like most politicians, had an intuitive sense of what one could and could not say and do. He also has a fevered desire to get out front whenever he could. Consequently, when Trump said or did things that plainly violated Graham's expected code, he was quick to criticize, only to find himself flat-footed, as Trump got away with things Graham thought impossible. That Graham moved so readily into the camp of Trump sycophants should be taken not as hypocrisy but as evidence that his earlier critiques of Trump were merely tactical, soon recognized as mistakes and corrected. Same for JD Vance.

  • Peter Baker [07-28]: At Graham's funeral, a glimpse into power in Trump's Washington: "The political evolution of Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator, both captivated and confused many of his old friends but reflected the changing order in the nation's capital."A report from the funeral, which doesn't come close to capturing how very surreal it must have been. Imagine if all the old Nazis could have shown up for Eichmann's funeral.

  • Brett Wilkins [07-28]: 'Lindsey liked war': Trump laughs off Graham's giddiness over Iran onslaught: "He's never seen a war that he didn't like." And Trump finds that charming?

  • Al Jazeera [07-28]: Lindsey Graham 'almost cried' tears of joy over war on Iran, footage shows: "Excerpts from a planned documentary show the hawkish senator claiming credit for persuading Donald Trump to attack Iran."

  • Noah Robertson [07-29]: Inside the deal to clinch Lindsey Graham's 'sanctions bill from hell': "The late senator pushed for a bipartisan financial bill that could curb Russia's main source of income."

Trump's Nuclear Proliferation Deal With Saudi Arabia: Trump announced signing this agreement on July 22. It immediately met flack from multiple quarters, including from Israel, which led to Trump insisting that Saudi Arabia sign an Abraham Accords deal. I have half a dozen categories below I could have slipped this into, but it straddles several, and is worth considering on its own. My own theory is that, having relaunched his bombing of Iran, Trump was desperate to keep Saudi Arabia support — a big deal, given that it and the other Persian Gulf states are by far the most vulnerable to Iranian counterattack. On the other hand, if the purpose of the Iran war was to stop nuclear proliferation in the region, providing Saudi Arabia with the same technology isn't a good look.

  • Trita Parsi [07-22]: The US-Saudi nuclear deal makes no sense: "How will Washington get Tehran to accept intrusive inspections beyond the JCPOA when Saudi is offered enrichment with no IAEA inspections?" The sense I can make of it is that Trump was desperate to keep Saudi Arabia aligned against Iran, but asked what it would take to keep the Saudis in line? Nuclear power has long been a Saudi goal, and long frustrated by Israel, so the agreement is above all a test of Trump's independence from Israel. That it involved granting to Saudi Arabia terms that Trump went to war to deny to Iran is the sort of irony Washington is no longer capable of understanding.

  • Kenneth Roth [07-23]: Why would Trump agree to the Saudi nuclear deal?: "The agreement offers the Saudis the same options Trump has sworn Iran will never have."

    Why would Trump agree to such a deal? Money seems to have played a big part. The deal could provide tens of billions of dollars to the US nuclear industry if it were to sell reactors to the Saudis. Suddenly the principle that Trump said was worth fighting for can be jettisoned for the right price.

  • Zack Beauchamp [07-23]: Did Trump just kill his own nuclear deal? "The US inked a deal with the Saudis. A day later, Trump walked it back."

  • Mitchell Plitnick [07-25]: The farce of Trump's nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia: "The White House announced an agreement to supply nuclear material to Saudi Arabia, and then killed its own deal by linking it to normalization with Israel under Israeli pressure. But even if the deal fails, it will significantly impact Gulf politics."

Major Threads

War on Iran: Trump's war was suspended on June 17, when he signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which among other things promised to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while further negotiations took place for a formal peace agreement. A disagreement over protocol for shipping emerged in early July, where the US attempted to guide ships through the Strait without notifying Iran. Iran objected, and on July 6-7, opened fire on transgressing ships. On July 7-8, Trump declared the truce over, and resumed bombing of Iran, reigniting the war. Iran responded by closing the Strait, and by retaliating against US bases in the region.

  • Stephen Semler [06-22]: Iran War: Most unpopular US war in history. This was even before Trump restarted the war.

  • Andrew Cockburn [06-23]: No more Mr. Nice Iranian Guy — we killed him: "Why he never closed the Straits." "Ever since I got my hands on a secret study conducted by an Operational Intelligence Cell attached to U.S. Army headquarters in Baghdad in 2007, I've been reporting that assassinating enemy leadership figures is an entirely counterproductive exercise."

  • Robert Malley/Stephen Wertheim [06-23]: Trump's Iran debacle could be a gift for America: Since Trump resumed the war, the optimism herein has turned to dust.

  • Trita Parsi:

    • [07-01]: Why Iran believes Israel will attack again before October: "The recent Israeli-Lebanese agreement and Hezbollah's unreported role in the previous war is leading Tehran to this conclusion."

    • [07-06]: Israel belongs in the new Saudi-Iranian order: "An anti-Abraham Accords is taking shape. That would be a big mistake." This refers to something called the Better Order Project, which is basically a "two-state solution" reboot. As such, it is a non-starter for any plausible Israeli governing coalition, even with the enticement of participating in an economic zone with Saudi Arabia and Iran.

    • [07-08]: How the US-Iran fight in the Strait of Hormuz can be resolved before it blows up the MOU.

    • [07-13]: A new US-Iran war would end where the last one did: "The fundamentals won't change: Iran can threaten Hormuz, the United States can punish Iran, and neither can secure its objectives through force."

    • [07-16]: "Israel's impunity has ensured that peace is no longer part of Israel's survival strategy." "Western-provided impunity has made the Israelis believe that they can live securely without suing for peace and without ending the illegal occupation of Palestine."

    • [07-18]: Yesterday's US-Iran escalation is a mere prelude to what is likely to come

    • [07-28]: Is Zelensky trying to merge the Iran and Ukraine wars? ". . . and why Israel would benefit from intertwining these two wars." He explains the Israel angle thusly:

      This dynamic would also appeal to Israel. First, it would give the Iran war another lease on life. Second, it would internationalize the conflict further by drawing European governments into the Iran theater through their deep commitments to Ukraine. And third, perhaps most significantly, it would transform the political narrative. Defeating Iran would no longer be presented as a necessity to defend Israel, but rather, to defend Ukraine.

      Given the levels of elite and public support Ukraine enjoys — after all, it was the victim of an illegal invasion — such a framing is far more politically digestible than centering the war on Israel, given Israel's plummeting standing in the West due to its genocide in Gaza and critical role in starting the illegal war with Iran.

      Parsi turned this blog post into an article:

    • [07-28]: Zelensky's dangerous gambit to merge the Iran and Ukraine Wars: "Of course this would also appeal to Israel, prolonging the Middle East war and potentially drawing European governments into the theater, too." I've heard mixed reports about Trump's support for Zelensky: his arms pipeline has more/less shifted to Europe, which isn't capable of the same largesse as Biden provided, but also is less likely to saddle him with crappy weapons like the Abrams tanks. Zelensky's resolve to fight on has been bucked up by European support, while Putin's resolve builds on Trump's indifference to the war. So one can see how Zelensky's move tries to break this stalemate, but the key to getting Trump support isn't alignment with Israel: it's pushing Putin to align with Iran. At present, Iran is hard pressed to manufacture all their own missiles and drones. But Russia may have surplus manufacturing, and could provide Iran with weapons systems (like anti-aircraft, longer-range missiles, aircraft even) that could make a difference. Also, while Zelensky may fancy that the way to Trump's heart is through Israel, he's ignoring a lot of moral baggage that come with aligning with Israel. He's already been reckless in provoking Russia, repeatedly crossing so-called "red lines," which Putin has been reluctant to do anything about. But at some point, some Europeans are going to doubt the wisdom of following him into what might quickly become a World War. Especially if it involves supporting Israeli genocide.

  • Mitchell Plitnick [07-11]: The US war of choice against Iran has now become the War of Hormuz: "American goals in the war on Iran were unclear from the start, driven by Donald Trump's personal ambitions and the fantasies of pro-Israel neoconservatives. Now, however, there is a clear agenda: to prevent Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz."

  • Rosemary Kelanic [07-21]: The Houthi blockade puts Trump in a serious bind: "The Iran-aligned group wants to halt shipping to and from Saudi Arabia, undermining a Strait of Hormuz alternative."

  • Chas Danner:

  • Elfadil Ibrahim

  • Qamar Cheema/Mir Ahmad Muritza [07-24]: Aiming at the Gulf, Iran shoots itself in the foot: "Tehran's attacks on its Arab neighbors have increased their reliance on the US rather than reducing it." I've long thought that Iran's best chance to force Trump to negotiate is to put pressure on the Gulf States (including Saudi Arabia), who really have the most to lose in an all-out war. Unlike Israel, they are within easy range of Iranian missiles and drones. Unlike the US bases, they are poorly defended and vulnerable to attack. Plus they have lots of money, which plays into Trump's motivations. But it's tricky to figure out the optimal amount of pressure. I think it's certainly the case that Iran has attacked much less than they could have. Some moderation makes sense: after the war, they will be neighbors, with mutual interests and concerns. But the harder Trump attacks, the more tempting it will be to strike back where US allies are most vulnerable.

  • Benjamin Hart [07-28]: Trump has only humiliating options left in Iran: Interview with Danny Citrinowicz, a 25-year veteran of Israel's intelligence groups, now a "senior researcher in the Iran and Shi'ite Axis Program at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies."

  • Spencer Ackerman [07-29]: A regional war, with options to expand: "And without any reason for Iran to trust in negotiations, this is a one-way elevator until US capitulation."

Israel:

  • Ramzy Baroud [06-22]: When the Iran War is over: The West Bank may be Netanyahu's next front: It already is, and has long been, but he'll have even more pent-up ire to vent somewhere.

  • Jason Ditz [06-22]: Israeli troops raid southwest Syria villages, interrogate shepherds, detain farm worker: Well, if they can't have their war in Iran and Lebanon, they'll just move on to Syria. For Israel, there will always be another war to fight, enemy to vanquish, and maybe even land to occupy.

  • Qassam Muaddi:

  • Paul R Pillar [07-21]: With Trump distracted by Iran, Netanyahu is squeezing Gaza: "The US administration needs to use its leverage to get Israel to follow through on the ceasefire agreement." I've long thought that Netanyahu's efforts to sick Trump on Iran were meant more to distract him from following up on the Gaza Peace Plan than to address any real or imagined Iranian threat, but I don't know that he really needed the distraction. After the hostages were exchanged, I seriously doubt that Trump cares what Israel does to Gaza and the West Bank, or even to Lebanon — maybe at the end of the rainbow he'd like to get another golf resort, but he has much shorter-term grifts to play. Trump's definition of "peace" is he doesn't have to field questions about war. Thanks to a very complacent media, that's not likely to happen (unlike with the hostage story).

  • Razi Nabulse [07-24]: How Israel's crackdown on Palestinian citizens of Israel created the crime epidemic now ravaging their communities: "Nearly every day, a Palestinian citizen of Israel is killed by gang violence within Israel. The crisis has been years in the making, but its roots trace back to Israel's war on Palestinian political activity."

  • Yakov M Rubin [07-24]: Israel in Crisis: A treat from within: Writes about the Haredim, a large group of "ultra-orthodox" Jews in Israel who are mostly anti-Zionist, noted especially for their refusal to serve in the IDF, which is to say as part of Israel's permanent war machine. Rabkin's book, What Is Modern Israel?, looks interesting (possibly dated, having come out in 2016).

  • Aurélie Daher [07-30]: Trump's Lebanon fantasy is running smack into reality: "Officials in Beirut know that any agreement with Israel would be dead on arrival at home." On June 26, official delegations from Israel and Lebanon "signed a framework agreement with great fanfare in Washington." The problem is that Hezbollah wasn't a party to the agreement, and no one else has the power to disarm them. Or for that matter, to stop Israel from continuing to devastate and occupy Lebanon.

    The systematic, large-scale destruction of the country's south and the massive killings of civilians did not produce Israel's desired results. Tel Aviv had ideally hoped for a polarization of Lebanese society that would lead to a civil war, in which Shiites would come under fire from their compatriots — or, at the very least, for a majority of Lebanese to condemn and permanently exclude Hezbollah from governance.

    The Israeli army's brutal campaign had the opposite effect, adding fuel to Hezbollah's fire rather than extinguishing it. In practice, the Israeli army has re-legitimized the Lebanese organization's narrative that it has a special (if self-assigned) mission to defend the territory against the enemy to the south.

    This represents an extraordinary failure for the pro-Israel position on the issue.

Israel-American-World Relations: I used to try to separate out Israel-related pieces into several bins. The Iran war has its own news section. The Israel section above pertains to security operations in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, and Lebanon, as well as internal Israeli political affairs. This one deals with America's relationship to Israel, and possibly with the world's.

  • Shaul Magid [06-14]: "Reactionary renewal": "Judaism," the "Jews," and a note on peoplehood: "Is Jewish renewal abandoning the left, and if so, why?" An interesting piece, not of much political import but it does bring to light a strain of thought within Judaism (Renewal, which I'm aware of only because my father-in-law was a student of Mordecai Kaplan) against the backdrop of Israel's incessant demands for fidelity.

  • James North:

  • Philip Weiss:

    • [06-21]: My generation still can't discuss Palestine, but thankfully we no longer control the debate: "My generation of Jews entered Harvard in the 1970s as outsiders and left as the establishment that built support for Israel. Today, attitudes have shifted completely, yet my group still can't discuss Palestine. Fortunately, no one is waiting for us."

    • [07-12]: Palestine and the role of the activist intellectual: Interview with Bruce Robbins, author of Who's Allowed to Protest, on "the new McCarthyism on campus targeting those who support justice for Palestine."

    • [07-23]: Nicholas Lemann's aggrieved article on Jews and progressives reveals a blindness to the evil of Zionism: "In a widely read New York Times article, Nicholas Lemann claims anti-Zionism in the progressive world marginalizes Jews. Yet his failure to even mention Palestinians reveals his ignorance of Zionism's role in driving the crisis he seeks to confront." Lemann's article is: [07-06] A profound question haunting Jews today. He does admit "the return to power of Benjamin Netanyahu, at the head of a far-right coalition, in 2022 was a devastating blow, compounded by his government's failure to prevent the Oct. 7 attack and its conduct of the wars that followed." But that's about it. I sympathize with the emotional attachment that many American Jews feel toward Israel. What I don't get is the blindness that ignores how self-centered, power-mad, and supremacist Israel has become, and how far that ethic has strayed from the one that has allowed Jews in America to largely free themselves from centuries of Euro-American prejudice. By the way, Lemann's article led me to:

      • Ari D Berman [07-01]: What Zionism has always meant: Or what actually-existing Zionism has almost never meant. The Ahad Ha'am quote is misleading — he was a critic of the idea of a Jewish state, not an idealizer — while the "similar" quote from Ben-Gurion is just misdirection: "saying that Israel's ultimate successes would be determined 'not by its riches or military power nor by its technical skills but by its moral worth and human values.'" Israel's leaders have amassed so much power that it's incredible they should persist in blaming their own moral failures on enemies they have allowed no other option to. Berman's conclusion:

        [Zionism] was a means of allowing Jews to live to their greatest potential, unfettered by the restrictive, often brutal, experiences of living in foreign lands. Zionism is thus an answer to a 3,800-year-old yearning, not only a response to a modern crisis.

        Seen through the lens of its history and ultimate purpose, Zionism becomes a framework for constructive dialogue and renewed inspiration. From its biblical beginnings until today, Zionism has carried one of humanity's most enduring ideas: that a people, rooted in its values and returned to its homeland, can build a society that honors faith, dignity, responsibility and hope.

        This reminds me of Gandhi when asked, "what do you think of western civilization?": "I think it would be a good idea." I don't mind much if today's Israelis look back to their Zionist (and/or Biblical, but don't confuse them) history to find support for better values — as Americans, we have a lot of practice at elevating higher principles from the deeply flawed individuals who founded the nation — but such efforts need to be accompanied by practice. Nations can change. There are Israelis who want this change, but they have thus far had little political impact. And that's at least partly because apologists like Berman try so hard to pretend that Israel isn't the repressive, racist powerhouse it has so plainly become.

  • Yonatan Touval [06-24]: US support is Israel's true weakness. In 1979, Jimmy Carter solved Israel's real security problem by brokering a peace deal with Egypt. This included a commitment of substantial aid to both Israel and Egypt. In Israel's case, this aid has been used to finance a long series of wars that did little if anything to enhance security, and much to convince the world that Israel is a rogue nation with no interest in peace and even less in justice. For a while, the US acted as a brake on Israeli excesses, but after Clinton's Camp David fiasco and Bush coming to power, Israel increasingly took advantage of the American blank check, and American presidents, especially Trump and Biden and Trump again, turned into mere supplicants. The result is that Israel has become abhorrent to the sensibilities not just around the world but even in the US, where there is a growing movement to finally cut the subsidies and complicity. It's unclear when this will actually happen — the Trump administration is not exactly known for its sensitivity to polling shifts, but the direction seems clear.

    • The end of Israel's American dependency will be painful. Dependencies tend to end that way. But the tragedy would not lie in the loss of indulgence. It would lie in losing it and learning nothing from the loss. If America is now withdrawing the certainty of unconditional rescue, that may be the last gift it can give. What follows will test not Israel's might, which is not in doubt, but whether it can learn the discipline that sovereignty demands.

  • [07-31]: Netanyahu's meeting with Trump was not nearly as successful as he claims: "Benjamin Netanyahu gushed about his White House meeting with Donald Trump this week, but the meeting was most notable for what went unsaid about Iran."

  • Mitchell Plitnick

  • Connor Echols [07-08]: Inside the growing religious revolt against Christian Zionism: "Faith groups battled over Israel Tuesday during a marathon day of lobbying on Capitol Hill."

  • Andrew Prokop [07-16]: When Israel lost Democratic voters, in 3 charts.

  • Omer Bartov [07-21]: I'm a scholar of genocide. We're entering a terrifying new era.

  • Michael Arria:

  • Hillel Schenker [07-28]: Signs of cautious hope on the Israeli left: "One interesting development on the left is the new joint Jewish-Arab 'Place for All of Us' party, founded by leaders of Standing Together."

Ukraine, Other Hot Spots, and World Politics:

  • Jennifer Kavanagh [06-16]: Trump is blowing his chance to make peace in Ukraine: "A serious attempt to end the war means shifting focus from territory, making realistic promises, and bringing all parties to the table."

  • Alina Khamatdinova/Matthew Blackburn [07-23]: The West's plan to pressure Putin has a glaring flaw: "Hopes that a Ukrainian deep strike campaign will force a ceasefire are based on a misunderstanding of Russian politics."

  • Stavroula Pabst:

    • [07-27]: As war drags on, Ukraine's population is collapsing: "As the war in Ukraine trudges through its fifth year, deaths there now outnumber births at a nearly four-to-one ratio."

      The new population figures come as fewer Ukrainians are demonstrating a desire to fight. Earlier this month, anti-conscription protests rocked the western city of Lviv. Ukraine also has about two million draft-dodgers and about 200,000 military deserters, according to the country's former defense minister.

      In line with polling it conducted last year, Gallup found last month that Ukrainians' support for continued fighting remains low. Only 24% of respondents told Gallup that Ukraine should keep fighting until it wins the war. In contrast, 66% wanted a negotiated solution to end it as soon as possible.

      About 52 million people lived in Ukraine in 1991. Back in May, Denys Uliutin, Ukraine's Minister of Social Policy, said the country now only has about 22 to 25 million residents.

    • [07-29]: Ukraine's 'turned tide' doesn't comport 'with basic military reality': "Cajoled by Zelensky, Western media is dangerously upselling — again — Kyiv's ability to win."

  • Caitlin Dewey [07-28]: Why Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average: "The wildfires sweeping France and Spain this week are the largest blazes either country has faced in modern history."

  • Connor Echols [07-28]: Zelensky's big idea for Trump: Ukraine is the Israel of Europe: "The Ukrainian president is emphasizing the close ties between Iran and Russia as he seeks greater US support."

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed in Washington with a bang Tuesday, just days after Ukraine carried out a missile strike against an Iranian cargo ship in the Caspian Sea.

    The attack appears to be part of Zelensky's effort to win over President Donald Trump, who has long had a tense relationship with the Ukrainian leader. The pitch is simple: Ukraine is the kind of partner who will take action when others won't.

    As George Beebe of the Quincy Institute put it, Zelensky's goal is to "convince President Trump that Ukraine will be an Israel-type partner for the United States in Eastern Europe, where it can serve to counter Russian aggression, contain Russian expansionism, and protect Europe and NATO." Beyond that, Kyiv is hoping to show Trump that it is "even more valuable than America's NATO allies," which the president has repeatedly criticized for being insufficiently supportive of his war with Iran.

Trump's War Department: I set this section up to deal with Trump's threats of war. We're obviously beyond that now, so see the section on Iran for more on that.

  • Ben Freeman [05-29]: Congress quietly moves to integrate US and Israeli militaries: "In the first step towards shifting aid further into the shadows, the House's 2027 NDAA would all but fuse the two countries' armed forces together."

  • Stabroula Pabst [06-25]: Trump's $88 billion Iran war request is stuffed with pork: "The proposal includes hundreds of millions for elevator and memorial repairs — and lawmakers aren't buying it."

  • Charles A Kupchan [07-02]: America does not know its own mind: "Internationalist are once more doing battle with America Firsters, cleaving the body politic between two incompatible approaches to global affairs." The previous time was the 1930s, when "America First" was a slogan of anti-interventionists (including fascist sympathizers), who were ridiculed as "isolationists" by advocates of extending America's increasingly global economic power into world politics. Of course, it was (and is) more complicated than that, and then and now much effort has been made to confuse the issues. I'm not finding much clarity in this thumbnail sketch of US history. Part of Responsible Statecraft's America 250 deep dive into American history, arguing about the past to score points about the present.

  • Medea Benjamin [07-10]: Eight contradictions behind NATO's Summit of "Love": Member nations have long had different views on NATO, as have people within those nations, and the result is not just confusion but an ingrained habit of stasis. For most of its history, the US was happy with that. Russia wasn't really a threat beyond its Warsaw Pact satellites, the US wasn't terribly demanding, NATO's existence allowed Europe to pretend at keeping a military while keeping it impotent (France and UK were partially exempt as long as they had colonies to suppress). This only got messy when the US went on the warpath, starting with Iraq/Kuwait in 1990, and accelerated with the War on Terror, where Washington expected them to fall in line. NATO increasingly became a US-dominated arms cartel aligned with Israel's militarism, US foreign policy was redirected to promoting arms sales, which meant provoking potential threats in Russia and China (where the Cold War playbook still resonated). What Europe (and Canada) got from this new regime was hard to quantify, but it's mostly been negative. Any reasonable analysis would move them to negotiate deals with Russia, China, Iran, etc., and cut the Americans loose. But their longstanding habit of humoring the Americans has held steady — so far, at least.

  • Joseph Solis-Mullen [07-23]: How Washington's interventions fuel Somalia's cycle of chaos.

  • Blaise Malley [07-24]: What a US war with Cuba would really look like: "Experts say every military option carries its own strategic, political, and humanitarian risks."

  • Dana Frank [07-29]: Trump's favorite drug trafficker returns triumphantly to Honduras: "Juan Orlando Hernandez came home with a skip in his step after receiving a pardon despite moving 400 tons of cocaine."

  • Jeet Heer [07-31]: Trump's Caribbean killing spree is a feckless, criminal failure: "Blowing up innocent fishermen hasn't curbed the drug trade."

Trump vs. Law:

Trump's Administration: Trump can't remake America in his own image (i.e., destroy the country, culture, and civilization) just by himself. He needs help, and having largely purged the government of civil servants and replaced them with his own minions, this is what they are doing (whether he's paying attention or not):

  • Aparna Soni [07-19]: 2.6 million lost health insurance after ACA subsidies expired. That has real consequences. "Many people switched to cheaper, higher-deductible plans, but average premium payments still rose 58% and deductibles climbed 37%, or more than US$1,000 per person. By February 2026, only 83% of people who selected a marketplace plan had paid their premiums and kept their coverage, down from 91% the previous year."

  • Dylan Scott [07-23]: So is the lettuce bad or not? "Can we trust anything the Trump administration says on cyclospora?" Nope.

  • Tony Romm/Brad Plumer [07-24]: Trump administration admits canceling grants to states that did not vote for him: "Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states 'based solely' on whether they backed Trump in the 2024 election."

  • Caitlin Dewey [07-27]: The worst year for measles in a generation: "Measures is back in part because we stopped fearing it." Also . . . Trump.

  • Emily Badger/Alicia Parlapiano [07-27]: Congress budgeted billions for big transit projects. Trump isn't spending it.

  • Brad Plumer [07-29]: Trump administration is repurposing federal land for AI data centers: "In the latest example, the Energy Department will convert a shuttered Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility into a data center campus and gas plants."

  • Thom Walsh [07-29]: The Big Beautiful Bill's market-based health care delusion: "The Rural Health Transformation program asks states to build market-style reforms in places where health care markets often do not exist." It is fair to say that the program is not only designed to fail, it is designed to fail irreplaceably:

    But the program is not simply a grant program. It is leverage. States are being asked to manage the consequences of reduced federal health care financing through plans that must satisfy federal expectations. If a state does not use the funds in accordance with its approved application, the federal government can withhold, reduce, or recover funds. The statute also bars administrative or judicial review of those decisions.

    That matters because the program is built partly around the familiar vocabulary of health care reform: choice, competition, technology, transparency, partnerships, right-sizing, and value-based care. Those ideas are not inherently wrong. The problem is that access-sustaining money is being used to push market-style policy in places where the market case for that policy is often weakest.

Donald Trump:

Politics: Pieces on US elections (recent and future) and, more generally, intra-party politicking. Party-specific pieces in following sections.

  • Ed Kilgore: Lots of pieces that could be sorted under other categories, but many become obsoleted almost as fast as they land.

    • [06-20]: Trump's new GOP midterm strategy is pure chaos: "He thinks Republicans should stop fixating on voters' concerns about prices and focus on his phony voter-fraud panic."

    • [06-23]: Tucker Carlson and MTG choose irrelevance over GOP: "These high-profile apostates may claim they represent many unhappy MAGA folk. But the fact is they're leading no one and going nowhere fast." For now, sure, but could there be a longer-term positioning angle?

    • [06-26]: JD Vance identifies with Nixon, which says a lot: "The veep compared himself to the former president, painting him as another bad boy who overcame his snooty detractors and achieved supreme power."

    • [07-07]: Why 'Medicare for All' is back on the Democrats' agenda: "Exploding health-care costs and a New Wave of progressive-candidates are reviving calls for single-payer health." It will be on the agenda until it is implemented, because anything less is bound to fail. The best one could hope for ACA was to delay the inevitable: it solved a few problems, and ameliorated some more, but at a high cost, as it also attempted to keep all industry business interests fat and happy. But rather than welcome what was actually a big victory for business, Republicans did everything they could to sabotage the law, which only accelerated its failure.

    • [07-10]: How Trump's polling lies fuel his election denial: "Trump conditions his supporters to believe his election fables by regularly making delusional claims about his popularity." And vice versa.

    • [07-15]: MAGA won't stand for limits on ICE brutality: "Efforts to rein in ICE tactics and poorly targeted mass deportations have been met with a backlash from Trump's base." As Adam Serwer put it, The Cruelty Is the Point.

    • [07-16]: Trump drags America deep down the rabbit hole: "In a White House address Trump spouted wild election conspiracy theories. Damage to the midterms could be profound."

    • [07-20]: GOP's midterm message: Democrats stink more than we do! "With Trump unwilling to defend his own record, Republicans must struggle to make the election comparative and smear the opposition as extremist." The thing is, this tactic has been backfiring. Indeed, it arguably backfired for the Democrats in recent elections, even though there is a good case that the Republicans are far more extremist than any Democrats. When Republicans attack Democrats as "socialist" or worse, the reaction is increasingly divided between "huh?" and "cool!" The charge only resonates for people who already hated Democrats.

    • [07-22]: Polls show even MAGA has soured on Trump's Iran War: "The Iran war has always been unpopular, and as the conflict drags on, public opinion is looking more and more dismal for the president."

    • [07-22]: John Fetterman's party-switch calculus: "The erratic Pennsylvania Democrat is flirting with a party flip. If the midterms produce a narrow Senate majority, he could have massive leverage."

    • [07-26]: Democrats need to postpone their civil war.

    • [07-27]: Will Trump make January 3 another January 6? "Reversing a 2026 midterms defeat wouldn't be easy, but the president is laying the groundwork."

    • [07-28]: Democrats poised to overreact to Michigan and Wisconsin primaries: Both races seem to be cases where the Democratic money people are in panic because their preferred candidates simply don't have the appeal of their challengers. The problem is that they're not coming up with good candidates to campaign for their do-nothing agenda.

  • Robert Kuttner [07-28]: Yes, Trump will attempt a coup: "If we are vigilant, he won't pull it off."

Other Republicans:

  • Rick Perlstein [06-28]: Ronald Reagan to JD Vance: minimizing Watergate is a Republican tradition: "On the American right, there is an unbroken lineage of Watergate propaganda going back to the 70s from today." There was a brief period starting in the 1990s — I date from Clinton's shameful eulogy of Nixon — when liberals loved the irony of touting Nixon as a liberal icon. That went hand-in-hand with the tendency to view the Republican turn to the right as starting with Reagan in 1980. That turn was deeply embedded in the Nixon years, even if he let some laws pass that later conservatives decried (like Clean Air, and OSHA), and put Harry Blackmun on the Supreme Court. But Nixon also installed Rehnquist, which started the erosion of civil rights. (Also note that he turned the Office of Economic Equality over to Donald Rumsfeld's deliberate incompetence, so that the Great Society programs would end in failure.) Nixon also largely invented the "culture war" manipulations Reagan and others would later advance. But only with the advent of Trump has it become clear that Nixon's main contribution to the Republican right has been to justify presidential criminality, both against domestic and foreign "enemies." Unfortunately, the backlash against Watergate was limited to domestic affairs; his more serious foreign policy crimes, like the murder of Allende, were never addressed, partly because they weren't new with Nixon.

    • Lauren Gambino [06-25]: JD Vance says Nixon's Watergate scandal would be '12-hour news story' today. This says more about Vance, who was 12 year short of being born when Watergate broke, than anything else. He doesn't know the story (especially about how the cover-up overshadowed the crime, but also the whole panoply of "dirty tricks" Nixon was also hoping to cover up), and he has even less understanding of how people, including the media, viewed political crime back then. What's less clear is how much media have changed: certainly Republican-aligned media have cozied up to Trump's crazed criminality, so they can be counted on to deny and dismiss any charges. But it's not like Nixon didn't have allies hoping to bury Watergate. It couldn't be buried due to the way that it slowly leaked out, as every attempt at cover up backfired.

    • David A Graham [07-21]: JD Vance isn't a fool. Why does he act like one? "Every politician does some pandering, but few do it as clumsily, or with such evident disdain for their own supporters, as the vice president."

    • Thomas B Edsall [07-28]: Who does JD Vance think he is?

  • Bess Levin [07-15]: Ken Griffin, GOP megadonor and Rubio fan, goes all in on midterms: "The billionaire Citadel founder is said to be focusing on Senate races in hopes of shaping the party beyond Trump." He was the 5th biggest political donor in 2024, and "has contributed some $40 million to midterm races," which "could easily double by November." Susan Collins (R-ME), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and the Republican nominated to succeed Joni Ernst (R-IA) are major beneficiaries.

  • Ariana Aspuru/Sean Rameswaram [06-29]: How the rich got stingy: "The ultra-wealthy used to build libraries and public parks. Those days are over." Interview with Bella DeVaan, director of the Charity Reform Initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies.

  • Elisabeth Zerofsky [07-28]: What the crackup of the Heritage Foundation says about the post-Trump right: "The bastion of American conservatism best known for Project 2025 has been consumed by an ideological — and generational — civil war."

  • Virginia Heffernan [07-31]: Don't be fooled: America hates these toxic right-wing gasbags: "Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, and Erika Kirk get lots of attention. But America hates them. And increasingly, they hate each other." Hate, after all, is their stock-in-trade.

Democrats: Had I written this in real time, I probably would have expressed my dismay and revulsion over how prominent Democrats as well as the usual media vultures piled on to wreck the Graham Platner campaign in Maine, and especially over those ostensible Democrats who had promised to vote for Collins. I was never much of a Platner fan, nor am I overly enamored of his "working class charisma," and I know nothing (and care little) about the disputed facts. It's quite possible that my own kneejerk reaction isn't all that different from the way Trump fans responded to libelous charges against their hero. But we don't need to go into that any further. Platner has withdrawn. Maine Democrats have a new candidate. No need to rehash this again.

  • Kate Yoder [06-16]: The climate myth Democrats can't quit: Climate change seems to have slipped to the bottom (24 out of 25) of issues that voters identify as "very important to their vote," which is being taken as an indication that it's not worth talking about.

    The idea that talking about climate change is a liability for Democrats has become conventional wisdom. Last year, the Democrat-aligned think tank Searchlight Institute issued the advice "Don't say climate change." A recent op-ed in The New York Times concluded, "When it comes to climate change, for now, it might be better to say nothing at all." An early draft of the Democratic National Committee's autopsy report of the 2024 election, released under pressure in May, posited that messages about climate change and shifting to green energy "created anxiety among workers in traditional industries worried about job losses."

    This question deserves a much deeper answer, but all I can offer here is a paragraph. First, we have to get realistic: about the real dimensions of the threat; about how difficult it is to prevent the conditions from getting worse; and about what government needs to do to for disaster recovery. From this you can make at least two clear points: one is that Republicans are bad at disaster recovery, for lots of reasons (denial of causes, unwillingness to help anyone who isn't one of their chosen people, corruption in what they do spend); another is that climate disasters are driving up insurance rates, eventually to levels no one can afford (government needs to be able to provide insurance, starting with people who can't afford it, but also to make people who used to be able to afford it more comfortable). Neither of these things attacks people for driving SUVs or eating meat, nor do they try to shame people for setting thermostats wrong. But sure, once you start to rebuild trust, you can suggest sensible changes to reduce carbon footprint, etc. And you can justify investing money in changes that will eventually pay for itself in managing insurance costs. I suspect that the problem isn't denialism, although Republicans have campaigned on that. Most people believe the science. But they don't want to take personal responsibility for it, nor should they given the role that companies and government (like the military) play in making it worse. And they're not impressed by the solutions Democrats have been pushing so far, which are mostly just subsidies to alt energy companies and tax breaks for buying electric cars. That's a deep problem with the political system, which only supports proposals that make interest groups money.

  • Bhaskar Sunkara [07-02]: Jonathan Chait doesn't understand the socialists he's attacking: This seems to be the new definition of an academic squabble: not only is Chait's Atlantic essay behind a paywall, so is Sunkara's Jacobin rebuke. All we get is this: "Jonathan Chait thinks the Democratic Socialists of America has become the thing founders like Michael Harrington built it to oppose. He has the history totally wrong. The thread from Harrington's DSA to this one isn't hard to find."

  • Kevin Kruse [07-08]: Punching Left: Ed Kilgore refers to this as the "Democrats' civil war." Basically, there is one faction which has controlled the upper ranks of the Democratic Party since the Reagan-Bush era, largely by tapping into big business money (mostly in tech and finance). They saw this shift as both necessary, given the decline of unions as a force for political mobilization, and as an opportunity, given the Republicans' embrace of reactionary "culture war" issues. Indeed, by the time you get to Trump, their main pitch is that they're the only safeguard against fascism. But they found that they couldn't get the rich to support them unless they attacked anyone who challenged the rich and powerful, which is to say the left. This wasn't new. This happened way back with Truman and his "loyalty oaths." It happened when LBJ wrecked his Great Society to fight a pointless, hopeless war in Vietnam. And it's still a reflex for the Democrats who still raise money and direct campaigns, even though their candidates have lost much of their credibility. The problem is that their campaign pitches don't win, not least because their solutions don't work. And also because they keep embracing wars that make a mockery of their supposed commitment to peace and justice. It's no surprise that the people cited below who want to purge the Democratic Party of its left see support for Israel as their litmus test issue. (The link is to Shapiro, but Fetterman has been even more adamant.)

    Over the last month, there's been a flurry of panic from self-styled moderates and centrists in the Democratic Party about the success of a few socialist candidates in party primaries.

    Some of this grumbling has simply been the self-interested reaction of inert incumbents who are (rightly) worried that these political upstarts might be coming for their own jobs in Congress. But other prominent figures in the party have also gone out of their way to trash these leftists and assert that they have no place in the party's coalition. Rather than working alongside the left, these misguided moderates seem to believe the Democratic Party needs to distance themselves from them and denounce them.

    Today, professional concern troll David Brooks confirmed that this is a horrible idea by embracing it in a piece for The Atlantic titled Democrats Became Great By Fighting the Left.

    • As Kruse points out, at least from the New Deal forward, the left has been the leading force behind Democratic rises. I'd go further and make three more bold claims: the left has better solutions for most of the problems that trouble us today; that left arguments are potentially more effective than pitches for "moderation"; and that left overshoot is almost structurally impossible, so there is no reason to panic about power shifting left. We're a long, long ways from stopping the rich from getting richer, and even farther from making the rich poor. Few on the left even want that: we'd rather have poor people more secure, while reducing the power differences; some degree of inequality may be inevitable, but at some point the value of further leveling up may cease to matter.

  • Howard Dean [07-16]: Democrats' key to winning the midterms: "The party's healthcare affordability agenda could lower prices and put the Senate in play." One thing I've never forgiven Obama for was getting rid of Dean as DNC chairman, after Dean had engineered the Democrats' majority in Congress in 2006, and Obama's own election in 2008. Obama's pick may have helped him get reëlected in 2012, but by then Congress was lost, and stayed that way.

  • David Freedlander [07-20]: Like it or not, Kamala Harris is the front-runner: That means quite simply there is no front-runner. It's silly to even talk about the prospect. She lost to Trump. There is no excuse for that. And while she "comes in with 99 percent name ID," much of that ID isn't favorable, and virtually none of it was built by campaigning against any other Democrat.

  • Steven Greenhouse [07-22]: Democrats need to hammer Trump on his unprecedented corruption: "To win in this year's midterm elections, the party must highlight that Trump has made huge financial gains while millions struggle to make ends meet." While Trump embodies many character faults in the American people, this level of corruption should still be a major turn off. He cites Hungary as a similar example:

    Democrats should repeatedly hammer Trump for his greed, corruption and conflicts of interest the same way that Hungary's opposition repeatedly attacked Viktor Orbán for his immense corruption — a strategy that caused Orbán's popularity to plummet and caused Hungarian voters to oust their country's authoritarian leader last April. Peter Magyar, Orbán's challenger, defeated Orban by focusing on three issues the Democrats would be smart to focus on: the cost of living, the lack of economic opportunities, and the fact that their country's leader and his family grew ever richer even as many people grew poorer.

  • Andrew Prokop:

    • [06-24]: Why urban Democrats love socialists now: "Democratic socialists are winning in New York — and in other cities." I suggest everyone go back and read Thomas Geoghegan's primer on European (especially German) models for social democracy, Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life. For sure, socialism is better for the poor than no socialism, but where the value of robust rights and generous public services really pays off is with the middle class. Socialism makes it possible for people with middle incomes to get a good education, to get health care when they need it, to bounce back from loss of a job, to give their children opportunities, to plan for retirement, and to avoid the pitfalls of sudden bankruptcy that haunt many Americans today. Highly educated, somewhat better than median income people, especially in large and expensive cities, may benefit even more. Moreover, they're likely to have traveled and seen that it's possible to have functioning government that treats people fairly and generously.

    • [07-30]: How "abundance" lost the Democratic war of ideas: "Moderates hoped 'Abundance' could be the party's new vision. It hasn't worked out." First I've heard of that, but centrists probably spoiled the concept by adopting it too fervently. I still haven't looked at the Klein & Thompson book, but probably will at some point. Klein makes some bad calls, but he's a pretty smart guy, and I'd expect him to have some good ideas. (Thompson I'm not so sure about, so let's forget him for the rest of this comment.) Also, I think Klein's intent was to convince the left to add yimbyism to their repertoire, and not as a substitute for everything else — which was the tack took by the centrists, who were looking to rekindle their love affair with the rich by adopting some kind of supply-side, trickle down economic agenda. And beyond that, they saw it as another cudgel for punching down the left. Of course, some on the left took their bait, and took it out on Klein. Mamdani, on the other hand, took what he liked, and ignored the rest — which seems like the right way to handle things. After all, the left does want things like more affordable housing, and has no affinity for zoning rules and anti-development hassle that derails development that would be worthwhile.

  • Bill Scher:

    • [07-28]: The DSA platform would destroy American democracy: "The socialist group's vision of a federal government without three equal branches providing checks and balances would facilitate the whims of a would-be authoritarian. Sound familiar?" Not really. The "checks and balances" system has been more effective at preventing popular reforms than it has been at preventing authoritarianism. The Republican-packed Supreme Court has pretty consistently backed Trump's authoritarian power grabs. Maybe not as consistently as Trump wanted, but the right has won some pretty serious arbitrary victories there, like ending abortion rights, allowing unlimited campaign spending corruption, and much more. What protects democracy is the right to vote, which is also under attack from Trump. It's certainly not the electoral college, the manifestly unrepresentative Senate, the gerrymandered House, the unelected war machine, or the highly politicized federal courts system.

      That much said, I'm in no position to defend DSA. I'm not a member. I'm not involved with them in any way. I've never read their platform, nor do I want to. My views are generically leftist (I believe that equality is the foundation of justice), democratic (I believe that government should serve all people, so should be responsive to all of their needs), and liberal (I believe that individuals should be as free as possible within the constraints of mutual respect and cooperation). The "socialism" label carries some historical baggage that I fear is unhelpful (as does "communism" and "anarchism"), but I recognize people who adopt such labels as fundamental allies, even if we may quarrel over details (as I also do with other leftists, democrats and/or liberals).

      Still, if the best charge Scher can make against DSA is that they want to write a new constitution which would abolish the Senate, that's a pretty weak complaint. The Founders certainly didn't regard their Constitution as permanent or sanctified. They allowed for amendments, and indeed for a new constitutional convention. The latter hasn't happened, because we've always found it easier to work with the old document than to open up a blank piece of paper. In recent years, the people pushing for a constitutional convention have been on the right, not on the left. Give this political threat, I've basically taken a defensive posture, and given no consideration to proposals to restructure government. On the other hand, if DSA wants to dream, I can only say, "good for them." Back when I was in my teens, before I settled on any real position in politics, I was fascinated by the various utopian thinkers, so it's fair to say I've always loved a good thought-experiment.

      Scher has long been the most dutiful of centrist DNC pundits, so it's pretty clear who he's carrying water for. His argument is pure distraction: DSA has many more immediate goals and plans before they get around to abolishing the Senate (which, however good in theory, can only happen after they win the Senate, by which point it will no longer be an obstacle). However, his argument takes a weird turn when he looks for a case where a "democratic socialist" case advocating "unrestrained majority rule" without constitutional checks and balances, and comes up with David Ben-Gurion. He was a nationalist first and foremost: his commitment to "socialism" was limited to "Hebrew Labor," a repudiation of the fundamental leftist notion that all are equal; and his view of "democracy" was as a bag of favors he could use to shore up his power bases and general legitimacy. There is much more that can be said about Israel's example, but one thing odd here is that one of the main complaints centrist pundits have about DSA is their opposition to Israel's wars on equality, human rights, and democracy.

    • [07-31]: How left will Democrats go in 2028? That depends on 2026: "Democratic voters, long partial to candidates who show a capacity for bipartisan compromise over ideological purity, may be changing." That statement is probably wrong on every point, except perhaps "may be changing." Democratic voters supported Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden against Bernie Sanders not because they wanted compromises with Republicans but because they feared unbridled Republican control, and thought that the better-financed "moderates" would be better positioned to protect them. They failed, in part because all this talk about seeking bipartisan compromises made Democrats look weak and wobbly, while raising the expectations that Republicans could be moderate. Also, there's no evidence that anyone on the left wing of the Democratic Party is hung up on ideological purity. As for "changing," Scher runs through a lot of polling data, of which the most surprising is:

      According to annual Gallup polling sampled from 1994 to 2025, the share of Democrats who identify as "liberal" — as opposed to "moderate" or "conservative" — sits at a record high of 59 percent, up from 25 percent during Bill Clinton's first term.

      The label poison seems to be wearing off, as it is also for "socialist" and all the other red-baiting epithets. Scher makes more hay with polling on how many Democrats are willing to compromise, but much of that can be explained by poll construction. Let me put it this way: if I was president, and had a Democratic majority in Congress, I would still profess my willingness to cooperate with Republicans on bipartisan solutions to any problem they were willing to engage with seriously. Any time you can reach a consensus, that's better than eeking out a narrow partisan win. But how often are Republicans willing to help solve a problem? Damn near never. Clinton once described his welfare reform bill as a fundamentally good bill "wrapped up in a sack of shit." At least since Clinton became president, the only times Republicans have been willing to work out compromise deals is if they wound up making Democrats look bad, mostly by alienating their base. (NAFTA was the first big example of this. ACA was an example of months of bipartisan negotiation compromising a bill that should have passed with 80% margins, only to be 100% of Republicans oppose it, they turn it into a political cudgel.) One shouldn't be surprised that Democrats are getting sick and tired of their politicians selling them short in a pretense of bipartisanship that only seems to ratchet right. It doesn't take ideological rigor to see that candidates with left principles are more likely to see through these centrist ruses and hold out for principled solutions.

  • David Atkins [07-31]: The case for the DNC's Ken Martin. Really: I don't have any insight or opinion here. As far as I've been able to tell, the only DNC chair who did any good was Howard Dean, and Obama put an end to that. Since then, it's been a tool of the money-grubbing "centrists," and as such dead weight on efforts to elect Democrats across all 50 states. I don't know whether Martin is a change or more of the same. I will say that having to assume $20 million of Kamala Harris campaign debt isn't a good look.

The Economy (and Economists):

  • Ha-Joon Chang [06-12]: The end of the old economic order is an opening for the left: Interview. Another subscriber's only thing. (My wife subscribes, but no, I don't have the password.)

  • John Herrman [06-29]: AI inflation is screwing with the rest of the economy: "Rising prices for computers, phones, game consoles, appliances, and cars are just the beginning."

  • Brad DeLong:

    • [06-30]: Is Kevin Warsh as bad a central banker as he seems? Perhaps . . . : "Standing on one's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination is no way to create a stable standard of value."

    • [06-27]: The centuries of Eric Hobsbawm, and:

    • [07-02]: The centuries of Eric Hobsbawm II: "Hobsbawm's Long Nineteenth Century — in which his unshakeable bedrock foundational commitment to Marxist teleology is both his superpower & his Akhilleus's heel." First piece is based on an Enzo Traverso review of a book by Emile Chabal. Untangling this gets messy, not least because DeLong wants to draw a line between Hobsbawm's 1789-1875 books and his later 1875-1991 volumes, praising the former, and condemning the latter, mostly for unfashionable politics, which are blamed for excessive gloom. DeLong sees his own book as the antidote, a choice that doesn't seem like much of an improvement: by limiting himself to "actually existing socialism" DeLong loses the critiques offered by all the other possible socialisms, which only serves to lock in actually existing capitalism. Still, I like this bit by DeLong:

      In Hobsbawms telling, 1848 fails as a social revolution. However, it succeeds in killing the old order: thereafter, rulers know that they must reckon with capitalism, mass politics, and national movements, and that if anything is going to stay the same, everything must change.

      I thought Hobsbawm was far too sketchy and far too glib about 1848, especially given that between the two books, I read Christopher Clark's 896-page Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World: 1848-1849. While the loss of detail may matter little, DeLong's two sentences are closer to the point than Hobsbawm's "nothing changed." What changed was the side the bourgeoisie aligned with. While they could proclaim equal creation and universal rights back in 1776 and 1789 without considering the possibility that their slaves and workers (and wives and children) might consider claim to such rights, by 1848, their world had changed, even if they weren't totally aware of it. They restarted their revolt against aristocracy, but quickly found they had more in common with the aristocracy than with the masses (something Marx anticipated in The Communist Manifesto, which is directed not against the aristocracy but instead against the bourgeoisie — this may be why Hobsbawm showed so little respect for the 1848 revolutionaries).

  • Paul Krugman:

    • [07-14]: Suddenly, Hormuz is less crucial than it was: "Why? Because the real energy crunch is coming from the Russia/Ukraine war." He points out, and has the charts, that pump prices have risen far above crude barrel prices, and that they came down less during the brief opening of the Strait. How much of that has to do with Russia isn't clear, but when Ukraine attacks Russia's "energy infrastructure," they're aiming at refineries, not production wells. While closing the Strait was certain to raise oil and gas prices, I've always been skeptical that the increased costs would spell economic disaster for the rest of the world. While demand for many individuals is sticky — it isn't easy to switch to more fuel-efficient transportation, or to cut your commute — there is some slack in the system to absorb shocks. (Krugman gives several examples.)

    • [07-24]: Quagmire of the vanities: "Why the world economy is still at risk from the Iran debacle." Following up on the previous post, he points out that the "crack spread" (the difference between the price of crude oil and the price of refined products like gasoline and diesel) "has exploded, from around $25 a barrel before the war to more than $65 now."

      Trump's gratuitous war on Iran has turned into a remarkable quagmire — remarkable because the only thing keeping the war going is Trump's vanity. He effectively lost the war in the first few days, when it became apparent that Iran's hardline regime had survived the initial decapitation strike and that the U.S. military couldn't keep the Strait of Hormuz open. But Trump is psychologically incapable of admitting failure. So the war goes on, weakening America by the day, as he searches for some way to spin his abject defeat as a victory.

Technology (Including AI):

  • Caitlin Dewey [07-22]: The AI that went rogue: "The models broke out of a controlled digital environment in an "unprecedented" show of AI risk."

  • Eric Levitz [07-30]: AI could end up too cheap to control: "Think anarchy, not oligarchy." He's talking about Chinese AI models, which are nearly as powerful and currently much cheaper than American models. Competition should drive software prices down to near-zero. AI I'm not so sure about, but I do believe that American AI companies will never make profits that justify their current valuation.

  • Kate Clark/Sam Schechner [08-01]: The race to build an American alternative to cheap AI from China: "Silicon Valley startups are setting up open models, with some operating on shoestring budgets because of limited interest from VCs."

The Environment:

Media:

  • Scott Carney [07-29]: The real reason that Substack is collapsing: "The subscription model has maxed out." Quotes Taylor Lorenz as saying, "I wish I could turn off the ability of anyone to 'follow' me. Because what good are followers when follower growth seems correlated with losing paid subs??" The author shows a graph of his total subscribers growing (+1.8%) while paid subscribers are dropping (−11.6%). He also notes that "on a good day my brain can only keep up with about 5 newsletters. Meanwhile my wallet is skeptical of the value of even paying for that number." I probably subscribe to a dozen (my two paid subscriptions were comped; I don't pay for anything else, but my wife pays for but I can't access; I very rarely pay for anything, but sometimes I can pick up on her subscriptions).

  • Margaret Sullivan [07-30]: No TV experience? At CBS News, that's no problem: "The conservative columnist Ross Douthat is the network's latest perplexing hire — but the move is in line with the new leadership."

Regular Columnists

Sometimes an interesting columnist writes often enough that it makes sense to collect their work in one place, rather than scatter it about.

Dean Baker: Look for links here. They are all worth reading.

  • [07-08]: The Sanders-Trump plan for an AI sovereign wealth fund: Don't buy it: "An AI sovereign wealth fund would concentrate political power, reinforce the AI bubble, and divert attention from more effective industrial and corporate tax policies." I'm not sure what Sanders' position on this is, but I doubt it's the same as Trump's. I can imagine developing a sovreign wealth fund system that could be beneficial, but the main point wouldn't be to piggyback on bubble riding (which is what investment in AI would be at this point) but to direct investment to businesses that need more support, including for countervailing power reasons like stimulating more competitiveness. Baker makes another pitch for his "serious corporate income tax: non-voting shares in lieu of taxes." Two questions here: I don't see how the government gets its in-lieu-of-taxes from stock buybacks; and while I can see the logic of the government not voting in corporate management, I'd like to see more employee ownership, with customers also having a voting stake, so why not give the voting shares to them?

  • [07-14]: Social Security is a problem of income distribution, not demographics: "Social Security's long-term financing shortfall is driven primarily by decades of rising income inequality and slower wage growth, not an aging population or overly generous benefits."

  • [07-15]: Blocking the Paramount-Warner merger: Keeping the Trumpers from owning everything: "The Paramount-Warner merger threatens media competition, increases political control over major news outlets, and underscores the need for alternative public funding of journalism."

  • [07-16]: The NY Times reports on China: A teachable moment: "The New York Times exaggerates the weakness of China's economy by misrepresenting GDP growth, misunderstanding deflation, and overlooking the country's longer-term economic transition."

  • [07-18]: Exporters are still not eating the Trump tariffs: They are taxes on us: "New import price data reinforce that Trump's tariffs function as taxes paid by American importers and consumers, not by foreign countries." This is mostly a point on Trump's misunderstanding, which is fair enough. Still, the point of tariffs is to disadvantage foreign products, which happens regardless of who pays the tax. What's less clear is who benefits? In theory, when foreign products become more expensive, domestic equivalents become more competitive, but nothing stops them from simply becoming more expensive, raising profits. The classic theory is that tariffs help protect developing industries, which as they grow may become competitive enough to no longer need tariff protection. This doesn't seem to enter into Trump's calculations at all.

  • [07-22]: Government-granted monopolies in health care create need for prices controls: "High health care costs are largely driven by government-granted patent monopolies on drugs and medical devices, making price controls a response to existing market intervention rather than a source of it." I'd rather get rid of patents altogether, but this is one of the least things one can do to make a difference in limiting the abuse.

  • [07-23]: Trump and Hegseth are demanding big bucks for their wars: "Trump's proposed military budget would increase defense spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, far exceeding the cost of many domestic programs that have faced intense political opposition."

  • [07-29]: Trump wildfires: The arsonist complains about the smoke: "Trump's threat to tariff Canada over wildfire smoke ignores his own role in promoting fossil fuels, worsening climate change, and raising costs for US consumers."

Jeffrey St Clair:

  • [06-26]: Roaming Charges: Call the shrink. Per Woodward and Bernstein, Nixon's last days in the White House were spent "having drunken conversations with the portraits of FDR, Jefferson and Lincoln." Unlike Nixon, "Donald Trump posts his insane rants online for all to see, nearly every night, and without the aid of alcohol to set him off, just his own disintegrating mind and no one bats an eye anymore. Last week, he compared himself to Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Alexander the Great, claiming he was more powerful than all of them, and was 'by far the most powerful person that has ever walked the planet,' because of his 'global reach.'"

    + AI-linked securities now account for a record 45% of the S&P 500, according to Yahoo Finance.

    + Ayn Rand acolyte Alan Greenspan, dead at 100, may have inflicted more human misery than any other American in the post-World War II era . . .

    + Speaking of housing costs, there are 25 million American adults living with their parents, a new record.

    + $2.5 billion: the total amount of taxpayer money the Trump administration has paid out (so far) to cancel offshore wind projects.

    + Sen. Roger Marshall: "53 Republican senators, you're gonna find 53 opinions. We're very strong-willed, typically top of our class type of folks. So we've got opinions. And the hope is, the debate within us, we take 2+2 and turn it into 8." Turning 2+2 into 8 is how the Pentagon ended up with a $1.2 trillion-dollar budget and still couldn't defeat Iran (total defense budget $20 billion) . . .

  • [07-03]: Priapic ambitions: Notes on George Washington.

  • [07-10]: Roaming Charges: The American mirror: Opens with another ICE story, this about them killing Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. Farther down, he has a chart on "wealth per adult in USD": the US is number 2 in average wealth, but didn't make the top 20 in median wealth. (Switzerland dropped from 1 to 8; Luxembourg rose from 3 to 1; Belgium rose from 11 to 2; Singapore fell off the chart from 6; Denmark rose from 7 to 5.) More bullet points:

    + The Telegraph on the AI bubble: "The overvaluation of US stocks has now surpassed the level that brought the stock market crashing down in 1929. At a rating more than double that of their British and European counterparts, and the highest since the peak of the dotcom bubble, US equities are in for a hairy decade."

    + Trump made $2 billion on his crypto swindle and more than a million of his investors lost $3.8 billion . . .

    + Measles had largely been eliminated from the US. Trump and RFK, Jr. have brought the disease back, with a vengeance, as cases reach a near record high . . .

    + NYTimes Pitchbot: "Graham Platner's history of sexual assault proves he does not belong in the US Senate. He belongs on the Supreme Court." by Susan Collins.

  • [07-17]: Roaming Charges: When farce repeats itself: Starts with a Jean Beaudrillard quote, one-upping Marx. Then details another ICE killing, this one in Maine, Joan Guerrero, who was "shot and killed by ICE officer David Brouillette, a recent recruit with a history of domestic violence who was, in the words of one relative, 'extremely mentally ill.'" Also: "ICE has shot at least 17 people while they were inside their vehicles."

  • [07-22]: Transmitting the news from Neptune: Carl Estabrook's embrace of the life force.

  • [07-24]: Sound Grammar: When Hendrix hit home.

  • [07-29]: Sound Grammar: The best jazz records of 2026, so far: Among other things, describes my site as "essential reading for music fans."

    Music therefore can reach us without conditions, without expectations or contrived limits. It seeps through the boundaries of accepted discourse and hits us in the gut and the head and heart at the same time. And can only dispute the message if you play the sax, which has rarely, if ever, been an instrument of fascism. Jazz has other advantages in times of autocracy. It can express radical, even revolutionary, ideas and sentiments without falling under the censor's lash. Bill Orcutt's Music in Continuous Time may well be a call for sedition against the regime, but good luck to Todd Blanche proving it or even understanding it.

TomDispatch: Editor Tom Engelhardt has retired, which ironically gives him more time for writing, although his stock-in-trade remains rants about Trump which all lead back to global warming. Meanwhile, former intern Nick Turse has taken over, while remaining The Intercept's primary critic of American militarism.

Miscellaneous Pieces

The following articles are more/less in order published, although some authors have collected pieces, and some entries have related articles underneath.

Sara Herschander [07-09]: What that wobbling New York office tower reveals about America's housing crisis: The US is finally turning empty offices into homes. But it isn't always easy.

Paul Starr [07-22]: Proportional representation gets a new look: "Supreme Court decisions and unrestrained partisan gerrymandering are focusing attention on a fundamental election reform. But one version is more feasible than the others." This "fringe" idea is common around the world. It encourages the development of multiple political parties, which compete for leverage, then try to form coalitions once the votes are counted. It's a pretty good idea, but I've proposed a version that is, I think, better: I call this representative democracy. The idea here is that everybody (or almost everybody) gets their own representative. The country can still be divided up into districts, although they don't have to be equal sized. Each district would elect at least two representatives, and each of them would proxy for how many votes they received. Thus, for instance, in my district in and around Wichita, Ron Estes would be entitled to cast 198,465 votes (or 0.65 vote), but Esau Freeman would also get a ticket to Washington, where he could cast 106,632 votes (or 0.35 vote). Thus the 35% of the electorate who aren't in the least represented by Estes would still have representation. Elections would move from winner-take-all to minor adjustments. Gerrymandering would be pointless. The advantages of raising huge amounts of money would diminish, and with it all of the attendant corruption. Of course, this could be more complicated with third parties, independents, write-ins. I could see making allowances for people who didn't vote to sign up for a representative after the election, or for people who did vote to transfer their proxy. Of course, there is no chance of anything like this being implemented as long as the Republicans think they benefit from the current undemocratic system of corruption. But were that system to turn against them, representative democracy could be a lifeline, to at least stay in the game.

Emily Topping [07-22]: You should get th own your media, not rent it forever: "From Playstation games to ebooks and family photos, corporations are replacing ownership with temporary access. But we don't have to accept that." File this under "Enshittification." Leasing games go back a long ways, and come back whenver some company sees an angle to maximize profits that way. (Renting vs. owning houses is another example.) But the thing about media that's different is that the marginal costs of additional copies are so near to zero that everyone could have a permanent right to access. And, as someone who's spent most of his disposable income on print and music and has, thereby, ammassed a ridiculous amount of clutter, that sound much better to me (and, no doubt, even better for you). Of course, short of my imagined world, there are lots of reforms that can be implemented. A good first start would be to get rid of patents. Ensure a right to repair. Demand that products that are no longer maintained become part of the public domain, so that others can maintain them. Expand rights to share and copy. One more I'd like to throw out there: no clickthrough license can be enforced unless the provider can prove that the customer had adequate legal representation before clicking.

Books:

  • Zack Beauchamp [07-04]: The late historian who rekindled my hope for America's future: "Gordon Wood's argument for the 'radicalism' of the Revolution reveals something profound — and hopeful — about America." Wood has long been my "go to" historian for the period from 1875-1925, as he always seemed to have a view that was both generous and precise of very different people in a very different time. In short, he made sense to me, but I also appreciated that his view of the radicalism of the American Revolution fit in nicely with my view of its essential virtues.

  • Daniel Felsenthal [07-31]: The Jewish radicals who wanted equality for all: "In her history of the Jewish Labor Bund, Molly Crabapple tells the story of workers who opposed prejudice, tyranny, and nationalism." Which, among other things, means Zionism. The name of the book is Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund.

  • Joseph Heath [06-12]: Harari vs. Henrich: "What science actually says about human evolution." Contrasts two books on human evolutionary theory: Yuval Noah Harari: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, and Joseph Henrich: The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter. The two books differ in how they order evolution. For Harari, it goes: 1. intelligence, 2. language, 3. cooperation, 4. culture. For Henrich, the opposite: culture, cooperation, language, intelligence. This may be explained by an ambiguity in the word "culture." While we commonly think of it as the constellation of arts produced by intelligence/etc., another meaning is the nutrient soup in the petri dish in which bacteria grow. That is at least logically previous to whatever else can develop. On the other hand, how can you tell you have intelligence unless you can manifest it somehow (like in language, or art)? Putting language before cooperation also seems backward, as the utility of language depends on interaction with others.

  • Katherine Kelaidis [07-06]: How historians took over liberal punditry: "The hottest resistance talking heads during the Trump 2.0 are academics. What happened?": The author names: Jill Lepore, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Joanne B Freeman, Kevin M Kruse, Heather Cox Richardson, and Timothy Snyder. Author focuses, rather critically, on the latter two — not my favorite examples, although I don't read any of them regularly (or Ben-Ghiat and Freeman at all). That overlooks numerous other academics, most prominently economists like Paul Krugman and Adam Tooze (who could just as well be considered a historian).

    • Charlotte E Rosen [2025-01-20]: The end of resistance history: Cited above, deals with many of the same people, more critically on Richardson, reminding me how she became a prominent fan of Biden's foreign policy, even when it ran off the rails with Ukraine and Israel. (Snyder is another one, a Russophobe and Ukraine hawk. His area is the "bloodlands" between Germany and Russia.)

    • Osita Nwanevu [07-03]: Who owns the Declaration of Independence? "The founding document has been fought over since it was written. Today, we can let Trump claim it, or we can take up its battle cry to 'alter or to abolish' what's destroying our country." A prime example of arguing over history to make current political points. I've long been sympathetic to the view that it is a radical document based on high ideals that still have some way to go to be implemented for all. For a detailed reading, see Danielle Allen: Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality.

  • Allen Lowe [05-17]: Melvin Gibbs' How Black Music Took Over the World: Book review. Noted because Lowe complained about the reactions he provoked, and I figured I should check it out. But I still haven't.

  • Michael Shorris [07-21]: What's so scary about the Frankfurt School? "In The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy, AJA Woods looks at how the Frankfurt scholars became the latest bogeymen for the contemporary right." I had never heard of Lyn Marcus, but Lyndon LaRouche, sure, what a nitwit! And then you get to William S Lind, and eventually Ted Cruz and Andrew Breitbart. Critical theory is difficult enough without having to extricate it from people who understand nothing and intend to keep it that way.

  • JD Vance: Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith:

Obituaries: I had been using the New York Times, but they're giving me aggravation these days, so I'll switch over to Wikipedia (July, also June), which is probably better anyway. Roughly speaking, since my last report on May 12:

  • [05-20]: Cleve Moler, 86, American mathematician and computer programmer, developed the LINPACK and EISPACK math libraries, and MATLAB, a software package that helped non-programmers solve complex math problems.

  • [06-05]: James Bradley, 72, American historian. I read two of his books: The Imperial Cruise: The Secret History of Empire and War (2009); The China Mirage: The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia (2015). His earlier Flags of Our Fathers (2000) was the basis for Clint Eastwood's movie about the legacy that followed the taking of Iwo Jima in WWII. [NYT]

  • [06-12]: David Hockney, 88, English painter. [NYT]

  • [06-15]: Abdullah Ibrahim, 91, South African pianist. [NYT]

  • [06-22]: Clive Davis, 94, record producer and executive. [NYT]

  • [06-22]: Alan Greenspan, 100, long-time Fed Chair. [NYT]

  • [07-05]: Mike Wallace, 83, historian, best known for his three-volume history of New York City, starting with Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (co-authored with Edwin G Burrows; he was the sole author on the other two volumes). In the 1970s, he was involved in the Radical History Forum, and Radical History Review. I have a memory of him writing about Mexico. I'm not finding much to substantiate that, but he was married to Mexican author Carmen Boullosa, and they co-wrote A Narco History: How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the "Mexican Drug War" (2016). [NYT]

  • [07-11]: Lindsey Graham, 71, American politician and war criminal. See his section above.

  • [07-13]: Pat Oliphant, 90, Australian-born American political cartoonist.

  • [07-15]: Plas Johnson, 94, American saxophonist. [NYT]

  • [07-19]: Richard Heinberg, 75, journalist and ecologist, wrote extensively on fossil fuels (especially oil depletion) and climate change. I've read a bunch of his books, including The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies (2003); Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines (2007); and Blackout: Coal, Climate, and the Last Energy Crisis (2009) — seems like there must be more, but the only one I readily found on my shelves is The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century's Sustainability Crises (2010). The idea of "peak oil" attracted a lot of interest c. 2000, but faded later in the decade as secondary production (aka "fracking") took off, especially in the US. With that, US production finally increased beyond the 1969 peak, which lulled people back into a sense of complacency — although by then, the worry was less about running out than about turning all we had into greenhouse gases. Actually, the advent of widespread fracking proved that the era of really cheap fossil fuels was over, and that oil and gas would only become more expensive to produce.

  • [07-20]: John C Dvorak, 80, tech writer. I read him regularly, especially in the 1980s personal computer magazines.

  • [07-20]: James Woolsey, 84, Clinton's first CIA Director, possibly his worst appointment ever (no mean feat). Especially prominent in his suport for Bush's invasion of Iraq. I recall a description of how Clinton appointed him: he was just a name the staff proposed; Clinton met with him once, 15 minutes top, and was satisfied. It was not a job he cared about, let alone realized would undermine his presidency. Now we should understand that his biggest mistake was his failure to radically curtail the military and CIA/NSA/etc., which metastasized under his benign neglect. That started with Colin Powell backing him down into "don't ask; don't tell," which turned a reasonable proposal into license for unprecedented enforcement. He should have fired Powell, like Truman did MacArthur. Instead, he kept promoting machine cogs like Woolsey (and his oily replacement, George Tenet), until the "vulcans" were calling the shots, and he was just rubber-stamping them — especially when he saw that bombing Iraq was a good political diversion from impeachment. [NYT]

  • [07-28]: Raoul Vaneigem, 92, Belgian author of The Revolution of Everyday Life, a major tract associated with the Situationist International (best known for Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle).

Some other names I recognize:

Tweets: I've usually used this section for highlighting clever responses and/or interesting ideas.

  • Kurt Andersen [08-01]: Picture is a Trump-posted meme which poses two pictures of Trump, one from his military academy days, and one current with an admiring glance of his youth, and the caption: "Same Guy. Even more energy now!"

    The ultimate malignant narcissist posting a perfectly unwitting self-parody of his malignant narcissism.

Current count: 299 links, 18965 words (23765 total)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Friday, July 31, 2026

Music Week

July archive (finished).

Music: Current count 46366 [46332] rated (+34), 11 [14] unrated (-3).

Advance Music Week appeared here on Substack. It is also archived here.) Hopefully I'll get the album covers right before sending it out. (I did.)

We're a week past the publication of the Mid-Year Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll. I expected to have more to say about it at this point, but as is so often the case, exhaustion has left me distraught and distracted, looking elsewhere. I did start a slight facelift to the top-level website, but checked it in with just enough to cover the mid-year poll, and haven't gotten back to it. I think it works better for landscape screens, but probably not for phones (which I gather is what most people use for web browsing these days, although I almost never do). I know there's "responsive website" code for figuring that out. I just have to dig it up. I'm thinking of adding album covers for the landscape version. People seem to need graphics to look at a web page these days. Go figure.

I also need to move the Francis Davis obit notice into its own file. I also want to create new top-level files for charts that span the multiple polls. I have some cheat sheets I've compiled that I use for stats when I'm writing essays. There's no reason that information shouldn't be easily available. It hasn't happened because polls go in boom-and-bust cycles. During the voting period, it's all we can do to keep up. After voting ends and the essays are sweated through, we're busted and don't feel like doing any more.

One solution I've thought a bit about is to raise some money and hire someone to work on the poll more/less full time. I don't know whether that's even possible. One idea I had was to create a Substack, where the revenues would go to hiring a manager. We could then give voters free subscriptions for their troubles. (DownBeat continues to get lots of voters who won't give us the time of day, even though it takes at least ten times as long to fill out their ridiculous 50+ category forms. But they give voters a free subscription, and a promo T-shirt, or I guess it's a cap this year. I don't know that it makes a difference, but perhaps it does.) Or maybe there's some foundation money available somewhere. Or a "go fund me." I have no idea how that sort of thing works. There isn't a huge audience for the poll, but I'm pretty sure there is an appreciative one.

For my part, I'm pretty good at doing things on the cheap, and I like not having to cater to the whims of those with money. So I'm not the right person to attempt anything like that. And while I'm happy to help, at my age I'm not likely to be able to keep doing this sort of thing much longer. I'm fairly committed to running the poll again in the fall, but not beyond that. The question is how can the poll be organized this fall so it can continue in the future. Because the need is there, and most likely always will be.

As it is, I've spent most of the week trying to catch up after ignoring Loose Tabs for over six weeks — the longest gap since I gave up on doing the weekly Speaking of Which. My draft at present is up to 15,729 words (264 links). I am hopeful I can finally publish it over the weekend. It's already provided raw material for my Lindsey Graham post (Famous Death Dwarves). Very little reaction to that, leaving me with questions about the experiment. It probably would have had more impact had I taken my links/comments and restructured them as a straight essay.[*] I could also have expanded on where I see his legacy going. For now, the Ukraine war hawks are riding high on his dead horse.

More non-jazz this week than jazz, for the first time in quite a while. There are still many records from the poll that I haven't heard — I have a list I've been ticking off, which has shrunk from 295 to 242 albums (roughly from 50% of the poll picks to 40%) — but finding the ones that look most interesting is getting hard. While I still get a fair number of promos, I depend on Spotify and full albums on Bandcamp to make up the slack. I only rarely follow up on download offers — there must be some system that other people use to manage them, but I've never figured one out — and I rarely ask for CDs or downloads. Besides, I've neglected non-jazz over the last couple months. In particular, I've hardly looked at any mid-year lists this year (and I'm not tracking metacritic grades, so I've lost that major source of information).

I don't get many questions, but I tried to answer one today. Probably not very satisfactorily, but it's impossible to review everything, or anything remotely close, so one has to pick and choose, based on what seems promising, and what doesn't. I could have added that these days (thanks to streaming) I continue to check out virtually every record Christgau writes up, even the male alt/indie rockers I have little hope of actually liking. I was pretty solidly into rock and soul from the 1960s through the 1980s, diversifying only a bit into roots and jazz in the 1970s (before returning seriously in the 1990s), but not getting to hip-hop until late (like, Run-DMC, so I guess mid-1980s, not that late). So there's always a chance. But sorry, not a lot of patience these days.

[*] I'm in the market for some AI tools. Supposedly one thing they're good at is summarizing articles, which makes me wonder how good one might be at taking notes and forming them into a proper outline. Not quite the same thing, but related, at least if they evince some understanding. Could I, for instance, take everything I've blogged over 25 years and feed it to one, and have it spit out some kind of coherent piece on North Korea? It wouldn't even have to be right. Once I have something, I can fix it. The big problem is getting from very scattered notes to something I can work with.

I've been reading a series of books on AI, and am currently about one-third done with the fourth. The books are shown under "Recent Reading" to the left. I think the order is well-considered:

  1. Cory Doctorow: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence — Before It's Too Late (2026, MCD)
  2. Arvind Narayanan/Sayash Kapoor: AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference (2024, Princeton University Press)
  3. Joanna Stern: I Am Not a Robot: My Year of Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything (2026, Harper)
  4. Robert Wright: The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning (2026, Simon & Schuster)

Doctorow emphasizes the business issues, expecting the bubble to burst, while warning that the key issue is who controls whom. AI Snake Oil admits that AI has many practical uses, but disparages "predictive AI." Stern is a tech-testing journalist, with access to lots of the latest gadgets and models, so helps break the big concept of AI down to its practical (and impractical) constituents. I hate Wright's title, and his general fascination with cosmic evolution, but I started reading his newsletter due to his good sense on foreign policy, and I've followed his interest in AI for several years now. More generally, I agree with is focus on the need for cooperation in political matters — to which point, I've read his 1999 book Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, which has the same God baggage, but isn't fatally undermined by it. I'm about a third of the way through The God Test, and it is the most troublesome of the four books, but I still have hope. For one thing, it is the only one that looks beyond the current state of the art to try to figure where it's going, how it will impact us, and what we might most constructively do about it. At that point, I suspect we'll be in substantial agreement. If AI can be abused by nefarious characters (including governments), and it almost certainly can, we need a kinder, more generous, more cooperative, more trustworthy politics and economy (something Wright might be tempted to call a religion).

I've read several other books, like Ronald Kneusel's How AI Works: From Sorcery to Science, and Matteo Pasquinelli's The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence. I've also found that AI figures in other recent books I've read, like Daron Acemoglu/Simon Johnson's Power and Progress: Our Thousand Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, and John Cassidy's Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI. In the wings, I have a book from the library, Artificial Intelligence for Dummies: All-in-One, which runs some 716 pages. I expect it to be superficial, and tied to specific programs, few of which I will ever use, but I hope it might be worth thumbing through for ideas on how to use whatever tools I do try out.

New records reviewed this week:

A-F-R-O & Motion Plus: Frequencies (2026, Fro Thizzle Productions): Rapper James Dean Santiago-Gutierrez, handful of albums since 2016, acronym for All Flows Reach Out, with producer William Sterns, heavy on the turntablism. B+(***) [sp]

Akhavelli: Moorthodox Psyence (2026, Below System): London-based producer, first album as such, but also known as Yvng Face, billed as "instrumental" but his collages have lots of hip-hop vocal samples. Vibe strikes me as Public Enemy, but the artist is probably thinking more of Tupac Shakur. B+(***) [bc]

Ishmael Ali: Burn the Plastic, Sell the Copper (2023-25 [2026], Amalgam): Cellist, from Chicago, touted as his debut album but Discogs credits him with ten since 2020. Also credited with voice, electronics, and compositions, with Ed Wilkerson Jr. (tenor sax/alto clarinet), Corey Wilkes (trumpet), Jim Baker (piano, ARP), Brianna Tong (voice), and Bill Harris (drums). Voice a plus, for once. B+(***) [bc]

Laurie Anderson With Sexmob: Let X = X (2023 [2026], Nonesuch): Performance artist, combines very brainy spoken word with her violin and minimalist synths to produce a series of brilliant albums, starting with 1982's Big Science, with 1985's United States Live (a 5-LP box) and 1989's Strange Angels most remarkable. Live album, with 23 songs in 94 minutes, based by a jazz quintet organized by Steven Bernstein and Briggan Krauss (brass) in 1998, with Doug Wieselman (clarinet/guitar), Tony Scherr (bass), and Kenny Wollesen (drums). They don't replace, let alone eliminate, the synths and violin, but they add warmth, and occasionally some rhythmic flex. I suspect that Bernstein is the musical hero here, not for his trumpet but for his arranging skills. One surprise is they dropped in a vocal from the ghost of Lou Reed (they were married from 2008 to his death in 2013). But even more than the music, I'm struck by the philosophy, so much needed for our times: the last lines are "there are so many sad things in the world, and if you pretend they're not there, you're an idiot. The point is, that it is very, very important not to become sad yourself. And more than that, he said, 'You know, you need to remember that the reason we're here, the actual reason that we're here is to have a really, really, really good time.'" A [sp]

Nia Archives: Emotional Junglist (2026, Hijinxx/Island): British jungle/electronica producer Dehaney Nia Lishahn Hunt, I had her filed as such based on her early EPs, but this is a songs album, and she's a singer-songwriter, even if her beats are exceptionally deft. A− [sp]

Charli XCX: Music, Fashion, Film (2026, Atlantic): British pop star, eighth album, produced by A.G. Cook and Finn Keane, who co-wrote the 11 tracks (a tight 30:05, with the vinyl shorter, dropping a David Cronenberg vocal sample, and a "B-Sides Edition" extra CD available which only adds 5:45). B+(***) [sp]

Christopher Dammann: Dead Words (2025 [2026], Shifting Paradigm): Bassist, has a previous album (Sextet), Chicago group with trumpet (James Davis), strich (Jon Irabagon), piano (Jim Baker), and drums (Mike Reed), some electronics. Boisterous freebop. B+(***) [sp]

Eliane Elias: Ao Vivo (2023 [2026], Candid): Brazilian pianist, early albums (from 1983) were instrumental, started singing at some point — certainly by 1998's superb Sings Jobim — and that's become a regular dimension of her act. Live album, from a performance at SFJAZZ, with Leandro Pellegrino (guitar), Marc Johnson (bass), and Rafael Barata (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Andy Emler/Claude Tchamitchian/Eric Echampard: There Is Another Way (2025 [2026], La Buisonne): French pianist, albums back to 1982, in a trio with bass and drums, his regular group at least since 2003. B+(**) [bc]

Jimmy Farace: Big Shoulders, Big Sounds (2026, Shifting Paradigm): Baritone saxophonist, from Chicago, second album, trio with Clark Sommers (bass) and Dana Hall (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Kelly Green: Eat Your Greens! (2026, Green Soul): Pianist-singer, (19) at Discogs, has a couple previous albums. Mostly covers, with just bass and drums on one track, combinations of horns on the rest — most often Scott Robinson (tenor sax), with Wallace Roney Jr. (trumpet), Wycliffe Gordon (trombone), Steve Wilson (alto sax), and Elijah J. Thomas (flutes), most successfully on oldies like "When You're Smilin'" and "Solitude." B+(**) [cd] [08-28]

Elias Haslanger: Legacy (2025 [2026], Bandstand Presents): Tenor saxophonist, based in Austin, debut 1994, takes a look back here, although I'm not really sure to what — bebop, I suppose. With Mike Sailors (trumpet), backed by piano, bass, and drums. B+(*) [sp]

Illit: Mamihlapinatapai (2026, Belift Lab, EP): K-pop girl group, fourth EP, 5 songs, 13:16. B+(*) [sp]

Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves: Bury Deep My Heart (2026, Carrier): Country singer-songwriter Jeff Snyder, sneaking up on a career that started in 2011 with an EP, then an album in 2018. Second album. His country + EDM concept has settled in clearly on the country side, with fiddle and pedal steel more convincing than George Jones covers. Still, there's something synthetic here I don't quite buy, although I'm not opposed to pop art in principle. B+(***) [cd]

David Maranha/Rodrigo Amado: Desolation Row (2025 [2026], Comets Coming): Organ and tenor sax duo, second album together. I've never looked into Maranha's other work, which includes close to 20 albums back to 1994, as well as the experimental drone group Osso Exótico (9 albums 1990-2010). Here he fills out the background, for some pretty major tenor saxophone. A− [bc]

Rico Nasty: RX (2026, Sugar Trap, EP): Rapper Maria-Cecilia Kelly, four albums 2018-25, 9 songs but only 20:41 B+(**) [sp]

Jenny Reynolds: Willow & Stone (2026, self-released): Singer-songwriter from New England, based in Austin, where she won a poll as "Best New Local Act" in 2005. Fourth album, as far as I can tell (2002, 2008, 2020, 2026). Strong songwriter, but not much sticks. B+(**) [sp]

Tom Ricci: Happening in Buenos Aires: Live at Borges 1975 (2023 [2026], self-released): Standards singer, from Argentina, based in California, fifth album (can't find him on Discogs), "Borges 1975" is "a popular cultural space, jazz club, bar, and bookstore" in Buenos Aires. Plays guitar. Opens with very nice takes on "Mood Indigo" and "Night and Day," slips into Spanish (or Portuguese) for three songs in the middle (including a Jobim and "Besame Mucho"), followed by a touching reading of "What a Beautiful World." B+(**) [cd]

David G Smith: Hero Street (2026, Hey Dave): Folkie singer-songwriter, from Iowa, seven previous albums on his website, only one album I can find on Discogs. B+(***) [sp]

Clark Sommers: WaBaSH (2025 [2026], Calligram): Bassist, from Chicago, has a stimulating postbop group with two saxophonists (John Wojciechowski and Geof Bradfield) and drums (Dana Hall). B+(***) [cd] [08-07]

Swamp Dogg: Swamp Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife (2026, S-Curve): Jerry Williams, started as a mainstream soul producer for Atlantic in the 1960s, adopted this persona for one of the singularly great albums of 1970, and has been hit-and-miss ever since. But at 83 he's hitting as consistently as ever. Possibly his best since Total Destruction to Your Mind. Sure, the subject matter reminds me more of the later 1970s albums when his relationships went sour, but age has given him insights into the big picture, while he still has the chops to arrange and sing. A [sp]

The Westerlies: Have You Heard? The Music of Bill Frisell, Vol. 1 (2020-24 [2026], Westerlies): Brass quartet, formed in 2011 by Riley Mulherkar (trumpet) and Andy Clausen (trombone), here with seconds Chloe Rowlands (trumpet) and Addison Maye-Saxon (trombone). Over a dozen albums since their first on The Music of Wayne Horvitz. This one compiles eight Frisell compositions from eight separate dates, evidence that they've been thinking about his music for a long time. B+(**) [sp]

Earl "Guitar" Williams: The Soul King of Bessemer, AL (2025 [2026], Music Maker): Blues guitarist-singer, b. 1952, can't find him on Discogs but another source says this is his fourth solo album. B+(**) [sp]

Otomo Yoshihide/Kei Matsumaru: Shutsumin (2024 [2026], Trost): Japanese guitarist and turntablist, many albums since 1988, including some recordings as far back as 1975. I was looking for his rendition of Out to Lunch, but instead found this duo with saxophone. Way too discordant for my taste, which I only coped with by turning it way down (at which point, sure, it had some merit). B— [bc]

Tucker Zimmerman: Dream Me a Dream (2026, Big Potato): Singer-songwriter, recorded the modestly titled Ten Songs back in 1969, more albums up to 1983, big gap to 2003-05, got going again in 2021. Died with his wife in a house fire in 2026, leaving this final album. Others have complained about "musical drop-off," but I'm finding this very charming. B+(***) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Charles Lloyd: Sangam & Friends (2009 [2026], Blue Note): Tenor saxophonist, plays some flute, recorded an album in 2004 called Sangam with Zakir Hussain (tabla) and Eric Harland (drums), regrouping the trio in Mumbai in 2009, along with additional players, with vocals by Vijay Prakash. Hussain died in 2024, so this appears as a tribute. B+(***) [sp]

Shūdan Sokai: Live at Hachioji Alone (1976 [2026], Aguirre): Japanese free jazz quartet, recorded this one album, group name translates as "mass evacuation. Group is led by Yoriyuki Harada (piano) and Kazutoki Umezu (alto/baritone sax), back from a spell in New York exploring the jazz loft scene, with Junji Mori (alto sax) and Takashi Kikuchi (drums). Umezu went on to have the more notable career, but the pianist's Cecil Taylor moves are most impressive here. And when they switch gears, that's doubly impressive. A− [sp]

Sun Ra Arkestra: Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Live at the Bluebird Cafe, Bloomington, Indiana (1977 [2026], Strut): De trop: 26 songs, 141 minutes, fills up 2 CDs, 3 LPs, giving you a wide view of their entire schtick, some of which is wonderful, more may have been fun at the time (where the element of surprise is always in the air), some of which just wears on your nerves. B+(*) [sp]

Old music:

Plas Johnson: This Must Be the Plas! (1959, Capitol): Tenor saxophonist (1931-2026), a couple dozen albums and lots of side-credits from 1956, best known for his work with Henry Mancini. Second album, strong sax over an easy listening groove, with vibes, guitar, piano/organ, bass, and drums. B+(**) [sp]

Plas Johnson: Bop Me Daddy (1956, Tampa, EP): Tenor saxophonist, playing eight songs (21:33), backed by piano, bass, and drums. Nothing exciting, but Johnson has a rich tone with a solid blues grounding. [Reissued 2014 on CD along with a second Tampa album, Drum Stuff, from 1957.] B+(*) [sp]

Plas Johnson/Red Holloway: Keep That Groove Going (2001, Milestone): Two tenor saxophonists, Holloway (1927-2012) mostly played with blues musicians in the 1950s, moving into soul jazz in the 1960s, especially with Jack McDuff. This one — with Gene Ludwig (organ), Melvin Sparks (guitar), and Kenny Washington (drums) — gives the leaders each a standard for a solo feature, plus seven more songs: two originals each, more from Coleman Hawkins, Arnett Cobb, and ending with "Dream a Little Dream of Me." B+(**) [sp]

Mary Lee Kortes: Will Anybody Know That I Was Here? The Songs of Beulah Rowley (2016 [2023], Lakeside Lounge): Story goes that Rowley was a Michigan singer-songwriter who died tragically in the 1930s, leaving a locked box of songs that Kortes eventually discovered, inspiring her to a career that thus far includes five 1996-2006 albums as Mary Lee's Corvette, plus this Hal Wilner-produced album, along with supporting prose, including a biography of Rowley. This doesn't sound antique, but I suppose the themes are timeless. The music production is very tasteful. A− [sp]

Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves: A Love on My Mind (2008, Carrier, EP): "Debut album from electro-country pioneer Owen Lake," actually Jeff Snyder, just six songs (17:27), opens with a duet with Anna Stirr on "Just Someone I Used to Know." That establishes some country cred, which the electro doesn't do much with. B+(*) [bc]

Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves: the Best of Your Lies (2018, Carrier): First album, a decade after first (and only) EP, draws on "1960s country, 1980s dream pop, and electronic dance music" for, well, it's hard to say. The country covers offer some interesting grounding. B+(**) [bc]

Dana Maragos: Unimaginable Things (2024, self-released): Singer-songwriter from Chicago, has a short album from 2020 (8 songs, 27:57), not much more here (8 songs, 28:49). Appealing, straightforward songs. B+(***) [sp]

Dana Maragos: October (2020, self-released): First album, short (8 songs, 27:57), every bit as solid. B+(***) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Mike Jones: Mike Jones With Strings (Capri) [08-21]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Friday, July 24, 2026

Music Week

July archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46332 [46299] rated (+33), 14 [10] unrated (+4).

Advance Music Week appeared here on Substack. (Thank you for subscribing. It means a lot to me.) It is also archived here.) A couple of oddities in the advance this week: I included Maya De Vitry's All My Faith from a few weeks back. It's release date is today, and it's an A− country album that deserves recognition, something it didn't really get when I jumped the gun. My intention was to omit it here, but nothing's stopping me from giving it a second exposure. Also, I didn't bother with the Miles Davis review in the advance, figuring that it was an automatic for music that's already rated A− (or higher) at least three times before, but I wound up adding the album cover there to balance out their gallery display. Hopefully, anyone confused there will read this here.

I wrote on this yesterday, but it's been such a large investment of my life that I feel entitled to mention it at the start of every post for the next month or so: Arts Fuse has published The Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll at Mid-Year. While that link is a good place to start, the place to go for everything is my archive website. And by everything, I mean totals charts down to one vote, every voter's complete ballot, links that tell you who voted for each album, the original drafts of the essays (including bullet lists of notes where I try to look beyond the music to find other subtle influences, and a lot of technical detail on the rules and how they are applied. There's also an "In Memoriam" piece that's nearly up-to-date. And when it occurred to me that I hadn't said very much about the music, I pulled together a collection of my reviews on every charted album I've heard. (This also reveals how many I haven't heard, a fairly substantial number — although I keep working to whittle it down, as this week's albums demonstrate.)

While I'm nominally done with the Mid-Year Poll, freeing myself from constant thought about it going to take some time. I feel some obligation to promote it, although my skills in that regard are negligible. I also feel like I've left a lot undone. (Although I do feel like I came closer this time than in the last Annual Poll. I was hoping to elicit comments then, but while I can complain about lack of response, I also dropped the ball. That's why, this Mid-Year, I decided to write everything on my own — although I did have some exceptional proofreading/editing help.)

More should be done on the website, including adding more notes and reviews, but the much bigger question is what happens to the website, and to the poll in the fall. I'll write more about that as the fall approaches. For now, I really need to do some kind of redesign on the poll website, even if it's just reprioritizing the current data (especially upgrading the link to the 2026 Mid-Year, which is currently microscopic at the bottom of the page).

Of course, it's also tempting to work on things I've been neglecting, such as Loose Tabs: I haven't posted one since June 14, and haven't collected much in the meantime (although I do have a couple dozen tabs to revisit). And I'd love to do a Book Roundup, which is even more daunting given that the last one came out on May 23, 2025 (14 months ago). I also hope to post some other pieces here, including one on the DownBeat Critics Poll. (I was going to do one after voting. The results are out now, but I haven't looked at them yet — partly because I decided it would be best not to get distracted while I was trying to wrap up our own poll. I was also going to do one catching up with 2025 EOY lists, which is really feeling old now. I have a couple of more everyday-life-ish items that I started writing but never got back to. And I was going to do one from the Hussein Agha/Robert Malley book, which I just had to return to the library.)

New records reviewed this week:

Yazz Ahmed: Shinrin-Yoku (2026, Night Time Stories, EP): British trumpet player, father from Bahrain, four albums since 2011, also several EPs, this one with four songs, 24:36. She's one of several London jazz musicians who, like Miles Davis, seem capable of crossover without compromise, but she's never quite hit the mark yet. B+(**) [sp]

Bob Bert: Beach Bongo Bloodbath (2026, Bar/None): Name shortened from Bertelli, father played pro football after winning a Heisman Trophy in 1943, first drummer for Sonic Youth (1982-85), played in Pussy Galore after that, later Chrome Cranks, Lydia Lunch Retrovirus, other bands. First album under his own name, 14 songs, 25:58, some originals, some covers (Richard Hell, Jonathan Richman, Lou Reed, John Lydon). The covers are extra interesting, not least for the drums. A− [sp]

Dave Burrell & David Liebman: Reservoir (2026, Bespoke Jazz): Pianist, b. 1940, records start in 1969, in a duo with the saxophonist, playing soprano. B+(**) [sp]

Jonas Cambien/Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard/Dag Erik Knedal Andersen: The Ear Behind the Airport (2025 [2026], Motvind): Belgian pianist, based in Norway, with bass and drums. I'm most impressed by the percussion here. B+(***) [bc]

The Paul Carlon Trio: Between Us Three (2024-25 [2026], TRRcollective): Tenor saxophonist, has several albums since 2006, credits include Grupo Los Santos and Schapiro 17; trio with bassist Alex "Apolo" Ayala and percussionist Wilson "Chembo" Corniel (congas, güiro, guataca, chemboro). I reckon this could count as Latin Jazz: the rhythms sure do, and the sax adds a single, uncluttered voice, a simplicity I admire. A− [sp]

John Clayton: The Two-o Duo Project (2026, ArtistShare): Bassist, brother of saxophonist Jeff Clayton, they've recorded 8 albums as the Clayton Brothers (1991-2015), as many more as Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, also father of pianist Gerald Clayton, who plays as this "duo-centered studio project grew organically into select trio performances." The third "duo" partner here is singer René Marie. I quickly lost track of who plays what with whom, and wasted a lot of time trying to look such basic info up. Part of that problem is that they all flow together so seamlessly. B+(**) [sp]

Maya De Vitry: All My Faith (2026, Mad Maker Studios): Folkie singer-songwriter based in Nashville, four previous albums since 2019. Sound reminded me first of Joy of Cooking, then Joni Mitchell (but warmer). That may be enough for now. I'll take the faith on faith. A− [cd]

Fathers: Fathers (2026, Blue Note): New collective — Kenny Beats (producer), Kiefer (keyboards), CARRTOONS (bass), Nate Smith (drums) — pitch is "to explode existing notions of what jazz is by fearlessly taking the music in new directions." Which is what? Something in the gap between instrumental hip-hop and disco, I guess. Eight pieces, 27:16. Voice on the finale doesn't help. B [sp]

Flöjter: Brest Blow (2025 [2026], Utech/Gigantonium): Improv duo of Mats Gustafsson (flute, slide flute, spilåpipa, harmonica, live electronics, organ, so he left the heavy artillery at home) and Delphine Joussein (flute, electronics). Two tracks, 32:09. B+(**) [bc]

Flöjter: Paris Blow (2025 [2026], Utech/Gigantonium): Same deal, recorded the day before, only more so: 4 tracks, 50:24. B+(***) [bc]

Carlos Henríquez: Monk Con Clave (2026, self-released): Bassist, from New York City, fifth album since 2015 (including the similar title Dizzy Con Clave), started with Tito Puente in 1999 but main gig since 2004 has been the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, which provides much of the fire power for this big band album, with some vocals. B+(**) [sp]

Marquis Hill: (Beautifulism) Sweet Surrender (2026, Black Unlimited): Trumpet player, from Chicago, debut 2011, impressive sax solo early on (Immanuel Wilkins), but also a lot of vocals, including rap. Has been billed as an EP, with a demo and a remix pushing this out to 10 songs, 34:20. B [cd]

Julia Hülsmann Octet: While I Was Away (2023 [2026], ECM): German pianist, albums since 2000, ninth (or tenth) album on ECM, first octet, but that's counting three vocalists, leaving you with a piano-bass-drums trio (with Eva Kruse and Eva Klesse) plus violin and cello. Five songs by Hülsmann with borrowed lyrics (mostly poets), two songs (plus one lyric) by singer Live Maria Roggen, three others including an Ani DiFranco cover. B+(**) [sp]

Hannah Marks: Feed the Fire (2025 [2026], Endectomorph Music): Bassist, second album (first was on Out of Your Head), quartet with Nathan Reising (alto sax), Lex Korten (piano), and Steven Crammer (drums), produced by Jason Moran. Originals and selected jazz covers, including Dewey Redman and Geri Allen. Impressive. B+(***) [sp]

Pedrito Martínez/Antonio Sánchez/Michael League: Elipsis (2026, GroundUP Music): Cuban percussionist (conga/bata), moved to New York in 1998, also sings, with the Mexican drummer and a "genre-busting" bassist (founder of Bokanté, Forq, and Snarky Puppy), and others, one presumes. The percussion impresses, the vocals seem frantic, and the bassist brings doom and gloom, for better or worse. B+(**) [sp]

Orchestre National De Jazz: With Carla (2025 [2026], ONJ): French big band + strings, created 1986 by the Ministry of Culture, has had 12 directors and released 33 albums. This one seems to be led by Sylvaine Hélary (flute), mostly playing music by the late Carla Bley. B+(**) [bc]

Ivo Perelman/Elliot Sharp/Cyro Baptista: Triacontagon (2024 [2026], Defkaz): Tenor sax, 8-string electric guitar, percussion/vocals. At some point, one has heard so many Perelman albums that one starts to take the superb sax play for granted, and look to the others for differentiation. From the first note, this album stands out, with its metallic sinews and odd klangs. A− [bc]

Susana Santos Silva/Vasco Trilla: Mushin (2024 [2026], Defkaz): Trumpet and percussion duo, from Portugal and Spain. B+(*) [bc]

Elias Stemeseder/Thomas Morgan: Io Pur Respiro (2024 [2026], Squama): Austrian pianist, increasingly active since 2013, in a duo with the bassist. Starts with a madrigal, adding two 1930s standards and two originals to span "400 years of melodic evolution." B+(***) [sp]

Steve Swallow: Winter Songs (2024 [2026], ECM): Bassist, has played electric since the early 1970s, long associated with Carla Bley, 83 when this was recorded. With Mike Rodriguez (trumpet), Chris Cheek (tenor sax), Steve Cardenas (guitar), Gil Goldstein (piano), and Adam Nussbaum (drums). Original pieces, modestly numbered, elegantly played. B+(***) [sp]

Micah Thomas: Lucid (2026, Birdwatcher): Pianist, several albums since 2020, plays in Immanuel Wilkins Quartet. A notable here with Wilkins (alto sax), Kalia Vandever (trombone), Thomas Morgan (bass), and Lesley Mok (drums), but they are very careful to hew to the composer's vision. B+(**) [sp]

Ben Wolfe: Any Time After Now (2025 [2026], Resident Arts): Bassist, a dozen albums since 1998, mostly mainstream labels, side credits start with Harry Connick Jr., Diana Krall, and Wynton Marsalis. Quintet draws on two rising stars — Joel Ross (vibes) and Sullivan Fortner (piano) — adding tenor sax (Chris Lewis) and drums (Aaron Kimmel). B+(*) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

John Butcher: Away, I Was (2008-25 [2026], Relative Pitch): British avant-saxophonist, prolific since 1985, offers a widely scattered collection of solo tenor and soprano pieces. B+(**) [sp]

Miles Davis: Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings (1956 [2026], Craft): As I've long owned the 8-CD Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings, I wasn't in a rush to check out Craft's year-by-year series, which started in 2024 with Miles '54: The Prestige Recordings, added Miles '55, and ends here. They skipped the scattered early 1951-53 stuff, so the three annuals add up to 7-CD, but 1954 was when Davis started to get his shit together, and in 1956 he got his much touted "first great quintet" together, with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. It was also the year he signed with Columbia, owing Prestige four last albums. Those four were cut in two sessions, one on May 11, the other on October 26, and Prestige released them slowly to compete with the new Columbias. The first was Workin' With the Miles Davis Quintet, the rest replacing the verb with Steamin', Relaxin', and Cookin'. Despite the throwaway intent, they are among the major hard bop albums of the 1950s, and did as much as the more ambitious Columbias to establish the Quintet's legacy (at least until Kind of Blue made "modes" a by-word in 1959). Those are prefaced here by a March 16 session with Sonny Rollins that contributed three songs to Collector's Items. A− [sp]

Miles Davis: Miles '55: The Prestige Recordings (1955 [2026], Craft): Prestige was famous in the 1950s for just rolling the tape and knocking out product. Sonny Rollins was so great he did his best work there, but nearly everyone else got much better when they went elsewhere: Coltrane and McLean were prime examples, but Monk and Davis also count. B+(**) [sp]

Ellery Eskelin: Setting the Standard (1988 [2026], Prime Source): Tenor saxophonist, originally from Wichita, first album, a trio with Drew Gress (bass) and Phil Haynes (drums), released 1989 on Cadence Jazz, seven standards, remastered with two extra tracks added. Sometimes I talk about the major wave of tenor saxophonists that emerged in the 1990s. I've never really thought of him in that regard, possibly because he never appeared on major or mainstream labels, but on this evidence he could have squared off against any of them. B+(***) [bc]

Medeski Martin & Wood: Tonic (1999 [2026], Blue Note): Fusion band popular in the 1990s (albums 1992-2014), with John Medeski (keyboards: piano to start, electronic later, mostly organ), Billy Martin (drums/percussion), and Chris Wood (bass: mostly acoustic, some electric). Wood moved on to a folk-rock group called the Wood Brothers, with Oliver Wood on guitar. By the time they broke up, Martin and Medeski were doing other projects on the side: Martin released a series of solo percussion albums with occasional extras; Medeski played on a wide variety of sessions. This was their first live album, reissued as part of Blue Note's Tone Poet series. B+(**) [sp]

Big John Patton: Got a Good Thing Goin' (1966 [2026], Blue Note): Organ player (1935-2002), recorded for Blue Note 1963-69, a couple more scattered albums into the 1990s. This one features Grant Green (guitar), who co-wrote the first side originals, with Smokey Robinson, Sam Cooke, and Duke Pearson tapped for the back side. With drums and congas. B+(**) [sp]

Hans Reichel: Dalbergia Retusa (1973-88 [2026], Black Truffle): German guitarist (1949-2011), debut on FMP 1973, also designed typefaces, and invented instruments, most famously the daxophone, but much of his guitar work involved some degree of preparation, modification and/or invention. This collects 2-LP worth of solo pieces. He gets a panoply of remarkable sounds. A− [bc]

Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy: Play Monk, Ellington & Strayhorn: Live at Yoshi's 1994 (1994 [2026], Elemental Music): Piano and soprano sax duets, nearly 2 hours worth. They've played together at least since 1972, mostly in duos. Moreover, Lacy's 1958 debut started with "Day Dream" and included Monk's "Work" and Ellington's "Rockin' in Rhythm." B+(***) [sp]

Old music:

Ellery Eskelin/Sylvie Courvoisier: Every So Often (2008 [2020], Prime Source): Tenor sax and piano duets, well known figures, recorded in a studio in Brooklyn. B+(**) [bc]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Nicki Adams and Michael Eaton Featuring Francisco Mela: Arrival (J-man) [09-10]
  • Barcelona Art Orchestra & Miguel Zenón: Expressions: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (Miel Music) [06-26]
  • Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe: After the Storm (Libra) [08-07]
  • Oliver-Smith Incomparables: Stomp Your Stuff (Turtle Bay) [08-28]
  • Sarah Pillow: Wanderer (Buckyball) [10-05]
  • Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band: Treasury Volume 3 (Turtle Bay) [06-05]
  • Miguel Zenón & Luis Perdomo: El Arte Del Bolero Vol. 3 (Miel Music) [08-28]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Saturday, July 18, 2026

Music Week

July archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46299 [46249] rated (+50), 10 [15] unrated (-5).

Advance Music Week appeared here on Substack. (Thank you for subscribing. It means a lot to me.) It is also archived here.) Once again, I slipped up and sent the email out before I pasted the album covers in. I need some kind of checklist process.

I failed to get my essays done, so the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Mid-Year Poll will have to wait until next week. I've heard complaints about why don't you just post the results already? Sorry. They're tabulated, and if you're anxious just ask me. But the essay is my one chance to write the first draft of history, and I have things I want to say. And no, I'm not going to wait until I say everything I have to say. I expect to write more about the poll later. And I'd like to encourage you all to send in any questions or comments. While I have my own ideas about what's important, I'm open to discussing any aspect of the poll, or what it tries to cover, or even what it fails to cover.

Lots of records below. I'm still very much focused on jazz. As I've noted, before I started counting, I had only heard of about half of the 600 albums that received votes this half-year. Not easy to figure out how many of those 600 albums I had heard before I started counting, but I'm up to 420 rated 2026 jazz releases in my tracking file.

Lots of stuff I've neglected over the last six weeks. First up will probably be to start (yes, I mean start) compiling a Loose Tabs. Hopefully not much has happened, and what has happened isn't too aggravating, but I suspect not. Taking a break tomorrow to cook for friends. That I'm looking forward to.

New records reviewed this week:

Ricky Alexander: Ragology (2025 [2026], Turtle Bay): Clarinet player, third album since 2018 (plus one with singer Sweet Megg), "takes an emphatic dive into the roots of ragtime and tangentially related genres that morphed into jazz." Conal Fowkes plays piano, along with banjo, bass, and drums. B+(***) [sp]

Zoh Amba: Eyes Full (2026, Matador): B. 2000, made a big splash in 2022-23 with a flurry of astonishing free jazz saxophone albums, reinvents herself as a guitar-playing, Dylanesque singer-songwriter, but lower-fi and occasionally dissolving into some kind of detuned Sonic Youth postpunk. Not a direction I'd like to encourage, but fairly unique even if the signposts are easily recognized. A− [sp]

Florian Arbenz Feat. Bill Frisell/Greg Osby: Quiet Lights (2026, Hammer/Conversation Lab): Swiss drummer, started in the trio Vein, started remotely piecing together his "Conversations" during the pandemic, originally by passing tapes back and forth. This started with the drummer's soundscapes, but was recorded in a studio session without overdubs. B+(***) [sp]

Ran Blake & Dominique Eade: Roots & Byways (2023 [2026], Sunnyside): Pianist, debut 1965, won a MacArthur in 1988 (along with Max Roach, the first jazz musicians so honored), many records, I haven't done the math but roughly speaking they fall into three fairly equal bins: solos, trios, and duos with singers (starting with Jeanne Lee in 1966). (Although as with all generalizations, there are exceptions: my favorite of his albums is a piano duo with Clare Ritter, Eclipse Orange, and I very rarely fall for piano duos.) Eade has 9 albums since 1990, this her 3rd with Blake. She is one of those soprano divas I rarely react well to, but Blake brings out the best in her. B+(***) [cd]

Cheer-Accident: Your Smile / The Song Is Over (2026, Cuneiform): Prog rock group, founded 1981 by Thymme Jones, released their first album in 1986, hype sheet says this is their 27th without specifying when, but it is packaged (at least with my download) with two 2022-23 live shows, offered separately on Bandcamp. This hardly seemed worth the trouble until "The Blue Lie," a 9:37 hard groove piece, marred by unnecessary vocals. B [dl]

Cheer-Accident: CheerAx Basement, Chicago 4/2/22 // Reggie's Chicago 9/26/23 (2022-23 [2026], Cuneiform): Two live sets, available separate or bundled with the new album, the first expanding the septet to nine with an extra singer and drummer. It's not unfathomable that they would have a cult following, but this is an awful lot of not so very much. [PS: I left this hanging overnight, then finished it the next morning. When I was fresher, I found myself more amused and less annoyed, so nudged the grade up a bit, while doubling down on my summary line.] B+(*) [dl]

Alexander Claffy: Alive in Philadelphia Vol. 1: At Chris' Jazz Cafe (2025 [2026], Cellar): Bassist, has several albums since 2016, more side credits, mostly mainstream. Leads a veteran quintet with two saxophonists — Seamus Blake (tenor) and Jaleel Shaw (alto) — piano (Kevin Hays) and drums (Bill Stewart). Strong set, especially for Blake. B+(**) [sp]

Mike Clark: Kuon Ganjo (Time Without Beginning) (2025 [2026], Wide Hive): Drummer, made his mark in the 1970s with Herbie Hancock, and has been central to all the later Headhunters revivals. Returns here with a funk-oriented hard bop group: Eddie Henderson (trumpet), Craig Handy (sax), Patrice Rushen (piano/rhodes), Esiet Okon Essiet (bass). My wife thought this sounded familiar, and indeed half of the pieces are, with the others close enough. B+(**) [cd] [08-07]

Paul Cosentino's Boilermaker Jazz Band: Everything Is Jumpin' (2025, self-released): Clarinet player, leader of a trad jazz group with over a dozen albums back to 1995 (most just under the band name). This one is subtitled "Plays the Artie Shaw Songbook," so mostly hits from 1937-39, with vocals by Erin Keckan. B+(**) [sp]

Dominique Cravic Et Les Primitifs Du Futur: Les Crimes Du Musette (2026, Buda Musique): French guitarist, fondly remembered for two albums Sunnyside released in 2006-08 (World Musette and Tribal Musette, the former dating back to 1999). The booklet (scanned on Discogs) includes two pages of credits, and a gallery of 77 pics, which presumably map to the credits. French chanson, many singers, most offhand as is the fairly minimal music, booklet has notes on the 27 songs but no recording dates, cover art by R. Crumb. B+(***) [sp]

Marilyn Crispell/Anders Jormin: Memento (2025 [2026], ECM): Brilliant pianist, emerged in the 1980s in Anthony Braxton's quartet and on her own outstanding albums. Landed on ECM in 1997 with an Annette Peacock tribute I didn't think much of at the time, probably because I suspected the label of trying to tame her and tone her down, although 2003's The Storyteller and 2008's One Dark Night I Left My Silent House overcame my misgivings. Approaching 80, these are mild, measured duets with bass. Probably too mild. B+(*) [sp]

Caroline Davis: Fallows (2025 [2026], Ropeadope): Alto saxophonist, born in Singapore (parents British and Swedish), moved to Atlanta when she was 6, then to Texas. Eighth album since 2012, solo over electronics (something called the Organelle, which looks to be an open source patch processor and/or sampler). John Surman has done similar things, but never pushed the electronics this far. A- [bc]

Adam De Lucia: The Man Who Would Be King (2025 [2026], self-released): Guitarist, seems to be his first album, but talks about his "path to jazz fusion" starting in 1995 with "a decade of one-on-one study." His compositions, although some feature Oz Noy on guitar, most with Henry Hey (keyboards), Tim Lefebvre (electric bass), and Jordan Perlson (drums), some with sax (Donny McCaslin or Michael Ghegan), vocals (Ghegan and Chrissi Poland), one track with string quartet. One problem is that fusion often sounds heavy, even when the metal is flimsy. Then there's the problem of trying to do much. Maybe he should have aimed a bit lower, like Prince. B [cd] [08-07]

E'DU & Judgitzu: Nuku (2026, Nyege Nyege Tapes): E'DU is a traditional voudou ensemble from Togo. Judgitzu is French producer Julien Hairon. This appears to based on a 2023 recording of the group, a dense thicket of percussion and chant, with a veneer of electronics. [PS: Bandcamp only makes offers the 31:24 remix track, "Edu & Judgitzu," and that's all I've heard; the 29:55 second track, "Edu," appears to be the original, unheard 2023 track. The label usually presents all tracks, so this case is unusual.] B+(**) [bc]

Maria Grand: Both Sides (2026, Lilaila): Swiss saxophonist (tenor/soprano), sings some, half-dozen albums since 2017; first side with bass-drums-percussion; second side with piano (Angelica Sanchez), voice (Jasmine Wilson), and alto sax on two tracks (Immanuel Wilkins). The spoken word is interesting. B+(***) [bc]

Miho Hazama: Frames (2025 [2026], Edition): Japanese composer/conductor, based in New York, tenth album since 2012, has been leaning on European big bands since 2018, here with the Danish Radio Big Band (who Discogs gives a co-credit to, but Bandcamp doesn't). She's very good at this, and they're good enough, but I don't feel like figuring out exactly how much. B+(**) [sp]

Gerry Hemingway: Live at Bau 4 (2025 [2026], Hat Hut): Drummer, part of Anthony Braxton's famous 1980s Quartet, also of the long-running BassDrumBone trio, with several dozen albums on his own. This one features Izumi Kimura (piano) and Frank Gratkowski (clarinet/bass clarinet/alto sax/alto flute), who turn in exemplary solos, and Christian Weber (bass). A− [cd]

House of the Black Gardenia: Mazurka in Jazz (2026, HOTGB): Trad jazz nonet, led by bassist Neil Hopper and vocalist Elise Rana Hopper, second album after a 2020 debut. Mostly original songs, which shifts them from nostalgia act to some kind of cabaret sophistication. A− [sp]

I Compani: Basta! 7-Tet [The Last Concerts 2025] (2025 [2026], I Compani): Dutch group, led by saxophonist Bo van de Graaf, founded in 1985, decided to call it quits after a series of "last concerts" in December 2025. Throughout their career, they've mostly recorded film music, in the circus style that seems peculiar to the Dutch avant-garde (cf. ICP Orchestra and Willem Breuker Kollektief) and is often deliriously wonderful. Core group here includes no household names, so I'll just list instruments: oboe/english horn/duduk, violin, bandoneon, piano/keyboards, bass, drums. A companion volume squeezed another 18 friends onto the stage, and both CDs are reportedly available as Basta! The Last Concerts 2025, but they are split up for streaming, and further information is hard to come by. [NB: Last song glitched out, which I'll assume is Spotify's fault.] B+(**) [sp]

I Compani: Basta! Extended [The Last Concerts 2025] (2025 [2026], I Compani): The Dutch group's farewell concert at Bimhuis in Amsterdam, the Septet-minus-drummer joined by 9 friends (including a replacement drummer) to start, 3 more briefly on the second track, then another 6 for tracks 8-9 (of 13). The vocalists add an element of cabaret to the circus. B+(***) [sp]

Randy Ingram: Sound Within: A Celebration of Bill Evans (2025 [2026], Chill Tone): Pianist from Alaska, eighth album since 2009, trio "featuring" Rufus Reid (bass) and Joe LaBarbera (drums), both with direct links to Evans, adds two originals to two Evans songs, and a batch of standards common to all, done with the care and touch Evans was famous for. B+(***) [cd]

Mike Khoury: For Hind Rajab (2025 [2026], Relative Pitch): Violinist, based in Detroit, has a couple dozen albums since 2001, found this when I was looking for a forthcoming album with Jason Kao Hwang and two drummers. This is solo, a sound that often gets on my nerves, but nonetheless a tour de force. Hind Rajab was a five-year-old girl in Gaza, killed in the genocide, but unlike most anonymous victims remembered for her recorded calls desperately pleading for help after her family was killed by an Israeli tank (see the Oscar-nominated film, The Voice of Hind Rajab). I'm reminded of The Diary of Anne Frank as one more instance where focus on an individual helps dissolve the mass dehumanization that allowed such mass slaughter to happen. A- [sp]

Andrew Kim: Lineage (2025 [2026], Origin): Trombonist, studied at Michigan State, and draws heavily on their faculty and alumni for his debut album: Sharel Cassity (alto/tenor sax, flute), Xavier Davis (piano), Rodney Whitaker (bass), Ulysses Owens Jr. (drums), with Michael Dease producing and playing baritone sax on two tracks, and Randy Napoleon playing some very tasty guitar on two more. Five originals, two more from the band, new arrangements of JJ Johnson and Curtis Fuller. Perhaps tries to do a bit too much. B+(***) [cd] [07-24]

Kiri Ra!: Nen (2026, We Jazz): Finnish trio, second album, all three play piano, keyboards, balafon, and other instruments — Linda Fredriksson also plays sax and flutes. No recording dates, but "it took 10 years to combine the right pieces for the album." Intricate and slightly exotic music closer to ambient than to jazz, which doesn't mean it isn't. B+(**) [sp]

Knats: A Great Day in Newcastle (2026, Gearbox): "Geordie jazz" group from Newcastle, started by Stan Woodward (electric bass) and Kind David-Ike Elechi (drums), expanded to a quintet for their first album — trumper (Ferg Kilsby), tenor sax, keyboards — expanded much more here, with extra horns, strings, vocals, and Geordie Greep (from Black Midi) on guitar. Seems like another case of the "great" overwhelming the "good." B [sp]

Elan Mehler: Renee Said (2025 [2026], Newvelle): Pianist, based in Brooklyn, eleven albums since 2007, most of his Discogs credits are for producing records on Newvelle, which he co-founded. Originals plus one song each by Paul Motian and Frank Kimbrough. With Scott Robinson (tenor sax), Loren Stillman (alto sax), Ben Monder (guitar), Tony Scherr (drums), and either or both drummers (Francisco Mela and Matt Wilson). B+(**) [sp]

Sei Miguel: Viva! (O Carro De Fogo De Sei Miguel) (2023 [2026], Clean Feed): Portuguese trumpet player (1961-2025), first album 1988. This offers two improv sets (54:56 + 52:24) of an octet with trombone, alto sax, electric guitar, electric bass, organ, drums, and extra percussion, nicely spaced out with plenty of food for thought. This is being billed as the label's final new release, after 25 distinguished years. (A quick check reveals I have 639 of their records in my database: 6 A, 70 A-.) They will be missed, but the music will continue. B+(***) [sp]

Nils Petter Molvær: Be Quiet (2026, Edition): Norwegian trumpet player, a major player in the development of jazztronica in the 1990s, first in Masquelero and then in a series of albums for ECM and Thirsty Ear. This dispenses with the beats, offering a series of ambient duos (one trio), most with electronics or exotica, but also piano (John Paul Jones), cello (Anja Lechner), percussion (Marilyn Mazur), voice (Imogen Heap). Quiet as advertised, which I don't find very engaging. B [sp]

Nolatet: Somethin' to Relax With (2025 [2026], Royal Potato Family): New Orleans quartet, third album since 2016, names on cover: Brian Haas (piano), Mike Dillon (vibes/percussion), Johnny Vidacovich (drums), and James Singleton (bass). Closer to MJQ than anything I associate with New Orleans. B+(*) [sp]

Onilu: Jakuta's Dance (2025 [2026], 577): Group name is Yoruba for drummers, was used as title in 2025 for an album attributed to Joe Chambers, Kevin Diehl, and Chad Taylor. I filed that one under the first-listed Chambers, but Diehl (ex Sonic Liberation Front) is the evident leader here, with Taylor out and two more percussionists added: Craig McIver and Daniel Villarreal. While all four know their way around a drum kit, Chambers' first credit is for vibraphone, and McIver's is for marimba. Diehl favors bata drums, and Villarreal adds conga and cajon to all of the above. B+(***) [dl]

Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/William Parker/Bobby Kapp: Synesthesia (2024 [2026], Defkaz): Avant-saxophonist from Brazil, has hundreds of albums since 1989, many with the pianist, quite a few with the bassist. The drummer's discography is down around 30 credits, but it goes way back to 1967, and includes separate duo albums with Perelman and Shipp, as well as two previous quartet albums. B+(***) [sp]

Brooks Prumo Orchestra: Good Bait (2025 [2026], self-released): Austin-based guitarist, third group album, a 13-piece big band plus singer Alice Spencer, wants you to dance. B+(**) [sp]

Olivia Rodrigo: You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love (2026, Geffen): Pop star, was groomed from a very young age, with vocal, acting, and piano lessons, which got her on screen by 7, and into Disney roles in her teens. Her platinum (6X) debut album in 2021 was one of the year's best, and her sophomore effort topped my 2023 list (if only 3X). First couple songs sound great, but the "girl so in love" side is certain to beat out the "you seem pretty sad" side. But I'm less concerned with the narrative these days than with the sound. So while the hooks get subtler, they're still pretty satisfying. A− [sp]

Armand Sangalang: Waypoints (2025 [2026], Calligram): Tenor saxophonist from Chicago, second album, quartet with Dave Miller (guitar), Ethan Philion (bass), and Devin Drobka (drums). Mostly originals, but takes a swing at "Body & Soul" that could earn a spot if Gary Giddins ever updated his list. B+(***) [cd] [08-07]

Helen Sung Big Band: Oracles (2024 [2026], Sunnyside): Pianist, from Houston, parents from China, 10th album since 2003, first big band venture, conventional plus extra percussion. Note songs dedicated to Clark Terry, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Jimmy Heath. Also a section called "Pianism" that name-checks Barry Harris, Kenny Barron, and Herbie Hancock. B+(*) [sp]

Tyler "Twerk" Thomson: Plays in Bands (2026, self-released): New Orleans bassist, "young" by one account, no dates given but earliest side credit I can find, either under Tyler or Twerk, is 2013, but album cover is in the style of the old Bunk Johnson anthologies, and the music dates back a century (more or less). Five tracks with Thomson's Starting 7, followed by five with Charlie Halloran's Quality 6 and 4 with Tommy Mack's Band. Nothing spectacular, but exactly what this classic music should sound like. A− [bc]

Tierra Whack: Whack's Museum (2026, Interscope): Rapper, from Philadelphia, went viral with a 15-songs-in-15-minutes video, Whack World (2018). New mixtape is slightly less economical (12 songs, 27:07), slightly less striking. B+(***) [sp]

Håvard Wiik/Antonio Borghini/Tim Daisy: One Brief Cure (2025 [2026], Relay): Norwegian pianist, side credits since 1996, especially with Atomic, gained some note in Chicago at least in Ken Vandermark groups, notably Free Fall (named for the Jimmy Giuffre trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow). With the Italian bassist and Chicago drummer (ex-Vandermark Five), both with previous Wiik duos. B+(***) [bc]

Wrens: Live @ Nublu (2025 [2026], Out of Your Head): Quartet, fronted by rapper Ryan Easter (also trumpet), mostly dense electronics from Elias Stemeseder and Lester St. Louis (also cello), with Jason Nazary (drums), following up a very interesting debut album (Half of What You See) with a rather rough improv live set. B+(***) [os]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers: Jazz Messengers '70 (1970 [2026], Good Time): The drummer's definitive hard bop group left Blue Note after 1964, and his stars split as well. Blakey's label work petered out, but he kept touring, and had a knack for finding young talent. This live album was released in Japan in 1970. The group: Bill Hardman (trumpet), Carlos Garnett (tenor sax), Joanne Brackeen (piano), and Jon Arnet (bass). They're mostly playing his hits — starts with "Moanin'" and "Blues March," ends with "A Night in Tunisia" — with only one new piece (by Garnett, the most interesting thing here). B+(**) [sp]

Art Blakey & the New Jazz Messengers: Buttercorn Lady (1966 [2026], Elemental Music): Another live set, released at the time on Limelight (a Mercury subsidiary). This particular group featured Chuck Mangione (trumpet, also wrote 3 of 6 songs), with Frank Mitchell (tenor sax), Keith Jarrett (piano), and Reggie Johnson (bass). Mangione started in the Jazz Brothers (aka Mangione Brothers) in the early 1960s, and went on to commercial success in the 1970s, leaving this as his only album with Blakey. While he is central here, Mitchell, Jarrett, and Blakey himself leave stronger impressions. B+(*) [sp]

Dollar Brand/Don Cherry/Carlos Ward: The Third World-Underground (1972 [2026], Wewantsounds): South African pianist, soon changed his name to Abdullah Ibrahim, debut album in 1963 "presented by Duke Ellington," soon became known for his integration of township jive with jazz, up to his death in 2026. With trumpet and alto sax (and everyone tapped for vocals and percussion), recorded live in Copenhagen, and released (until now) only in Japan. Strong ideas, somewhat harshly achieved. B+(**) [sp]

Mick Goodrick/Fred Hersch: Feebles, Fables and Ferns (1988 [2026], ECM): Guitar and piano duo. Goodrick (1945-2022) recorded his excellent debut album, In Pas(s)ing, for ECM in 1979; he worked with Gary Burton, Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette, and others, recording a few more albums, but mostly teaching. This was Hersch's session, previously unreleased. B+(**) [sp]

Thelonious Monk: Live in Paris, 1967: Volume One (1967 [2026], Rhythm-a-Ning): Estate-authorized bootleg, the Nov. 3 concert was released on France's Concert in 1988 (as Thelonious Monk Nonet: Live in Paris, 1967), running 68:49, then remastered and reissued in 2002 by Thelonious Records. This version, aimed at vinyl junkies, is trimmed to an introduction and four songs, 38:33, with a second volume promised. The original order opened with Monk's Quartet (Charlie Rouse on tenor sax, Larry Gales on bass, and Ben Riley on drums), then added horns, starting with Ray Copeland (trumpet), then saxophonists Phil Woods (alto) and Johnny Griffin (tenor), Jimmy Cleveland (trombone), and finally Clark Terry (trumpet). This version moves the nonet tunes to Side A, the smaller groups to Side B. I have reservations about the business proposition, but Terry's solo reminds me that his previous encounter with Monk on In Orbit (1958) was one of his best albums. B+(**) [sp]

Jimmy Scott: Falling in Love Is Wonderful (1963 [2026], Tangerine): Jazz singer (1925-2014), originally "Little" due to his diminutive stature and high voice, recorded singles early, three albums for Savoy 1955-60, then this album for Ray Charles, which has been long out of print. His voice takes some getting used to, but he picks great songs, and puts his mark on them. Bigger problem for me is the string arrangements, which I've always gagged on. B+(*) [sp]

Sun Ra: East Two + 7 (1972-73 [2026], Cosmic Myth): Two previously unreleased sessions, named for the first track ("East Two") plus extra tracks (5 for the LP, 7 for the CD; the difference is extra live tracks from 1984-85). B+(**) [sp]

McCoy Tyner: Extensions (1970 [2026], Blue Note): Pianist (1938-2020), from Philadelphia, played briefly in the Jazztet (with Benny Golson and Art Farmer) before joining John Coltrane's legendary quartet (1961-65). Started recording his own albums in 1962, and went on to have a major solo career, notably with Blue Note (1966-70, although this one was held back to 1973). This sounds like it popped out of a Coltrane time capsule, spacey and spiritual but not burdened by the ambitions and delirium of Trane's last years. With two saxophonists (Gary Bartz on alto, Wayne Shorter on tenor/soprano), Ron Carter on bass, Elvin Jones on drums, and Alice Coltrane on harp. A- [sp]

McCoy Tyner: Asante (1970 [2026], Blue Note): Another leftover from Tyner's Blue Note period, released in 1974, makes more explicit the pianist's interest in Africa, with Andrew White (alto sax), Ted Dunbar (guitar), Buster Williams (bass), Billy Hart (drums/African percussion), Mtume (congas), and vocals on the first two tracks (Songhai, aka Sandra Smith). The 1998 CD reissue added three tracks from an earlier session, with Gary Bartz and Hubert Laws, that had appeared on Cosmos, a 1976 2-LP that also picked up two earlier sessions. (Cosmos was part of "The Blue Note Re-Issue Series," an attractive series I bought several of at the time, as they looked like useful intros to major artists. Most, like the Tyner, were actually previously unreleased sessions. I didn't buy the Tyner, but I did pick up sets by Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, and most importantly Herbie Nichols.) The new Tone Poet vinyl reverts to the original four tracks, but streaming includes the extras. The extra tracks don't add much (well, Bartz, and more good piano). I suspect that LP consumers will heavily favor the first side (the one with the vocals, which delight in the groove). B+(**) [sp]

McCoy Tyner: The Seeker: Live at Umbria Jazz Festival (1993 [2026], Red): Previously unreleased live album, a quartet with Bobby Hutcherson (vibes), Avery Sharpe (bass), and Aaron Scott (drums), a few months before Tyner and Hutcherson recorded their duo album, Manhattan Moods. Their careers intersected as far back as 1966 (on Hutcherson's Stick-Up!) and 1968 (on Time for Tyner). But the rhythm section really helps here. A- [sp]

Old music:

House of the Black Gardenia: The New Lowdown (2020, HOTGB): I didn't notice this above, but this is a British group, from Newcastle. First album. Singer Elise Rana hadn't yet taken bassist-arranger Neil Hopper's name. Hopper also plays sousaphone and washboard. I'm not seeing song credits, but I'm pretty sure the one about sexting is new. B+(***) [bc]

L'Afrique Danse No. 1 (1965-68 [1969], African): French label, started compiling albums of Congolese hits with this volume, extending this numbered series at least to No. 11, although there are other titles, and other labels, including Sonodisc (which picked up the catalog in 1980). This is mostly O.K. Jazz (Franco) and Ensemble Conga Succès (Jean Bokolo). I didn't feel up to tracking down the singles, but Google says 1965-68, despite "some sources citing an initial 1966 pressing" (e.g., Discogs). Nor do I know how much of this duplicates the piles of Franco I already have. But Bokelo (d. 1995) may warrant further research. And chances are that the rest of the series are worth hearing — after No. 3, they move to feature artists (Rochereau on No. 4, Docteur Nico on No. 5, Franco on No. 6, and Bokelo on No. 7. A− [sp]

Twerk Thomson: Plays Unpopular Songs (2017, Twerk-O-Phonic): New Orleans bassist, seems to be his first album, various groups credited as Twerk Thomson Trio, Twerk's Dance Band, Twerk Thomson's 5, and Twerk & Maria (Dixon, trumpet and vocals, with Thomson on tenor guitar). Designed to sound as ancient as possible ("recorded live with one microphone into a Presto K8 lathe, cut directly to acetate discs at 78rpm, and edited only for volume"). I'm no fan of the sound, but the last set, in particiular, does sound like ancient lost treasure. B+(**) [bc]

McCoy Tyner: Expansions (1968 [1969], Blue Note): Album before Extensions, with Woody Shaw (trumpet) joining saxophonists Gary Bartz (alto) and Wayne Shorter (tenor), Ron Carter moving over to cello, with Herbie Lewis (bass) and Freddie Waits (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Limited Sampling: Records I played parts of, but not enough to grade: -- means no interest, - not bad but not a prospect, + some chance, ++ likely prospect.

Art Ensemble of Chicago: People in Sorrow (1969 [2026], Play Loud!): Early album (first one listed by Discogs, but a 5-CD box of 1967-68 recordings was later issued on Nessa), recorded in France (where they cranked out 14 albums in 23 months) and released by Pathé Marconi there. Just snippets available. ++ [bc] (4 snippets, 8:14)

Art Ensemble of Chicago: Les Stances à Sophie (1970 [2023], Play Loud!): Recorded toward the end of their Paris stay, a bit of soundtrack with Fontella Bass vocals. ++ [bc] (8 snippets, 5:01)

Jason Moran: Plays Duke Ellington (2026, Yes): Pianist, became a star during his 1998-2014 run at Blue Note, won the Jazz Critics Poll and a MacArthur in 2010, slipped back into obscurity after he retreated to his own label (although his 2023 album, From the Dancehall to the Battlefield, got consideable attention). + [bc] (7/12)

I tried combining the separate I Compani reviews above into one for Substack. I didn't figure my reservations about the 7-Tet grade sufficed to bring the Extended grade down. More likely, with multiple plays either or both could rise. But we're not there yet.

I Compani: Basta! The Last Concerts 2025 (2025 [2026], I Compani): Dutch group, led by saxophonist Bo van de Graaf, founded in 1985, decided to call it quits after a series of "last concerts" in December, 2025. Throughout their career, they've mostly recorded film music, in the circus style that seems peculiar to the Dutch avant-garde (cf. ICP Orchestra and Willem Breuker Kollektief) and is often deliriously wonderful. My understanding is that packages 2 CDs, which are available on streaming as separate albums. One is their core 7-Tet. The other is "Extended," where an additional friends or hangers-on drop in for a song or two or more. The latter includes more vocalists, who add a cabaret air. Of the digitals, I prefer the latter, but I wasn't able to give either nearly enough time. Maybe if the CDs exist, and could somehow be obtained? B+(***) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Gerry Hemingway: Live at Bau 4 (Hat Hut) [04-24]

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Thursday, July 9, 2026

Music Week

July archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46249 [46219] rated (+30), 15 [16] unrated (-1).

An advance Notes on Everyday Life version of this Music Week was published on July 9 as Music Week (7:2), and is archived here. This two-step process has given me more flexibility in scheduling, as well as a bit more discipline in editing. The advance version typically has the pick hits (all five of this week's A− albums) and more substantial reviews (like Russell and Salvant). This post, on the other hand, gives you the full week's context. Often I get to the end of a record and don't feel like I have anything interesting to say, so I just jot down a grade and move on. The advance trims that sort of thing out, while focusing on good tips, and other interesting items.

I finished counting ballots for the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Mid-Year Poll. We wound up with 127 ballots, which is +14 from last year — a margin provided by 14 first-time voters. It always seems to me that the hardest part of the job is vetting new voters and chasing down old ones, so that part is done.

The other hardest part of the job is writing the essays, something I've spun my wheels on for a couple days now. The problem there is getting started: deciding what to explain, what to focus on, what to leave out. I've done this twice before, so one idea is to look at what I've written before. In 2024, I wrote Diversity Brings Riches, which started with my listmaking habits, then noted the lack of jazz albums appearing in that year's numerous mid-year best-of lists. I noted that "this is one problem with the world I could actually do something about," given that I had website tools, a mailing list, and a willing publisher. The rest of the essay flows out of the charts, and concludes with the voter list. All I had left to do was to stress how diverse and all-encompassing the lists were.

In 2025, I shifted the focus slightly to the community of jazz critics who contributed to the poll. I called this piece Sharing What We Know at Mid-Year. One thing I might note here is that while Steve Lehman won the Mid-Year poll, the Annual Poll was won by Mid-Year runner-up Mary Halvorson. That suggests one of many possible avenues of research. Trying to keep on track while facing so many possible detours is going to be a challenge.

I also needed to address the issue of Francis Davis dying in April, including the inevitable question of "who the hell am I to be running his poll?" I wound up writing this:

Today's mid-year jazz poll covers the same ground in the same way, but feels different. Last year we were building something new. This year we're keeping something old going, struggling to hold back the rot, the stench, the assaults of a new barbarism. I'm sorry for bringing politics into this. I don't believe that there is anything inherently political in art, except when politics turns fascist and attempts to exterminate critical thought: that's when creativity itself turns into a struggle to survive. And that's where we're heading, and to a large extent already are. Listening to jazz may not give you quite the sense of solidarity as going to a demonstration does, but it sets you apart, gets you thinking, gives you something to care about — things fascism cannot abide. (And while I was pretty critical of the utility of "fascist" as a label last year, no other word adequately conveys the dead weight and despair of our increasingly oppressive political system.)

Again, personal motivations and the state of the world are weighing heavily on my mind. I ended last year's poll with serious doubts that I would ever do another. But after fraught months of winter and spring, when Bill Marx asked me if I was planning on doing a mid-year poll, I found myself saying yes. Again, I had the tools and skills. I also had the time, as some things had cleared up, while other projects hadn't yet been started. And after doing an increasingly despairing series of Loose Tabs reports, I felt like taking a break from a world gone mad (especially as it would see me through whatever Trump had in mind for July 4). So here we are. Even with my typical procrastination, it shouldn't take more than a week to wrap this up.

After that, I have projects I'm itching to get to. We'll look into them later.

New records reviewed this week:

Josh Berman Trio: Everybody Else's Life Too (2025 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Chicago cornet player, credits start in 2002, include groups with Keefe Jackson, Ken Vandermark, Mike Reed, Jason Adasiewicz, many more. Trio with Jason Roebke (bass) and Chris Corsano (drums). B+(***) [bc]

Seamus Blake: The Electrifying Seamus Blake Plays the Music of Eddie Harris: EH! (2025 [2026], Cellar): Tenor saxophonist, born in London, raised in Vancouver, has lived all over (Discogs says New York; Bandcamp page puts him in Cologne), has worked steadily since 1991 (Discogs credits him on 211 albums). This opens with Dawn Pemberton singing "Compared to What?" — backed by Sam Yahel (organ/keyboards), Tim Lefebvre (electric bass), and Corey Fonville (drums). This makes for agreeable funk, but the sax seems shortchanged. B+(*) [sp]

Henriette Eilertsen Trio: Moder (2024 [2026], Motvind): Norwegian flute player, side credits since 2011 and several albums, trio with Joel Ring (cello/electronics) and drums (Øystein Aarnes Vik), with pianist Jon Balke on a couple of cuts. B+(***) [sp]

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Exit) Knarr: Fly (2025 [2026], Sauajazz): Norwegian bassist, scores, probably hundreds of album since the early 1990s, several with this group since 2021: two saxophonists (Amalie Dahl and Karl Hjalmar Nyberg), piano (Marta Warelis), guitar (Jonathan F. Horne), and drums (Olaf Olsen). B+(***) [bc]

Hayeminol: Ingen Vår I År (2026, Tarmkylling): Norwegian punk band, but that doesn't sound like the real label, so Discogs also offers psychedelic rock and art rock. Quartet, everyone sings, the two songwriters play 10 + 21 instruments. Reminds me of the Flaming Lips, only in a language I can't understand, for better or worse. B [sp]

Colin Heshmat: Elastic Groove (2026, HMC): Pianist, first album, quartet with trumpet (Ryo Sasaki), bass (Yuma Takagi), and drums (Ben Cuness), eight originals plus three covers (includine Kenny Dorham and Herbie Hancock). Not especially a groove album. That's just one of many elements subsumed in their postbop. B+(*) [cd] [07-23]

Jana Horn: Jana Horn (2026, No Quarter): Singer-songwriter, born in Texas, based in Austin, but has no discernible country airs; started with an interest in Christian screamo, but teaches and writes fiction, and over three albums has settled into a very spare confessional style, playing guitar and synth, with minimal bits of piano, clarinet, and flute. B+(**) [sp]

It Was Her Idea: Daughter of War (2025 [2026], PNL): Quartet with singer (sometime cougher) Juliana Venter, backed by piano (Oscar Grönberg), bass (Ole Mortan Vågan), and drums (Paal Nilssen-Love), although I'm more impressed by the piano. B+(*) [sp]

Kirk Knuffke: Brother (2026, SteepleChase): Cornet player, "one of modern jazz's most skilled navigators of the divide between freedom and swing," presents a trio with Charlie Burnham (violin) and Thommy Andersson (bass), mostly keyed to Yusef Lateef. B+(***) [sp]

Nicolas Leirtrø's Action Now!: Entrance (2025 [2026], Sauajazz): Norwegian bassist, side credits since 2016, just emerging as a leader. Quartet with Mats Gustafsson (saxophones/flute), Kit Downes (organ), and Veslemøy Narvesen (drums), playing the leader's music, which mostly keeps Gustafsson safe from blowing our brains out, although it also saddles him with a flute section I didn't get into — not nearly as much as the loud section at the end. B+(***) [bc]

Camila Nebbia & Chris Corsano: Six or Seven Ways Towards Becoming Undone (2025 [2026], Relative Pitch): Tenor sax and drums duo, the former from Argentina but has been tearing up Europe since 2020. B+(***) [sp]

Bob Nell & Michael Bisio Trios: We Are Here (2025 [2026], Origin): Pianist, Discogs only lists 9 appearances, starting in 1979, and most with the bassist, who has logged 128 album credits, so while he's hardly a household name, he is much the more famous musician. Plural as they switch drummers, starting with Adam Greenberg, then Austin Belluscio. Originals by Nell. Nice as these things go. B+(**) [cd] [07-24]

OM: Südpol (2024 [2026], Intakt): Avant-fusion group from Switzerland, active 1972-82 with Urs Leimbruber (sax), Christy Doran (guitar), Bobby Burri (bass), and Fredy Studer (drums), have regrouped on anniversary occasions since then, until Studer died in 2022, and is replaced here by two drummers, Gerry Hemingway and Tony Buck. B+(**) [sp]

Rebecca Rafla: Fundamentally Unfinished (2024-25 [2026*], Rebecca Raffla Music): Jazz singer-songwriter, also plays flute, offers six originals, including the first five, with four standards, one a taste of Brazil to get the rhythm flowing. Steve Allee plays piano, along with horns and strings. The standards get better, especially with "What a Difference a Day Makes" the closer. [*] "first servicing to the press," after a 2025 self-release. B [cd]

Catherine Russell: Live at Jazz at Lincoln Center (2024 [2026], Dot Time): Jazz singer, got a late start at 50 with her 2006 debut, but her famous father was older still when she was born (that's swing bandleader Luis Russell, 1902-63, who after 1930 ceded top billing to his star, Louis Armstrong), although her less famous mother, Carline Ray (1925-2013, a singer who played guitar and bass) must have had a more direct influence. She's impressed every time out, but rarely moved this far into the old songs, with a seven-piece swing band — including Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet), John Allred (trombone), Evan Arntzen (tenor sax/clarinet), and Matt\ Munisteri (guitar), plus a tap dancer on four tracks. B+(***) [sp]

Cécile McLorin Salvant: With Every Breath I Take (2025 [2026], Nonesuch): Jazz singer, born in Miami, father Haitian, mother French, moved to France at 18, studied classical voice (and Sarah Vaughan), eighth album since 2013, moving into the top echelon of jazz artists — with the MacArthur "genius grant" to prove it, as if winning the vocal section of our poll every year she had an album out wasn't testimony enough. Still, I've never been much of a fan. I admit that she has exceptional technical command (as did Vaughan), but I've never much enjoyed her albums (aside from the odd song or two). And this one, hyped as her first with an orchestra (Metropole Orkest, with big band master Darcy James Argue co-producing), seemed pretty unlikely to appeal. Then I found myself tempted, by "Send in the Clowns" (of all things), followed by "Barbara Song" (I'm always up for Weill, and she has impressed me there before). But after that, nothing really meshes — not even the French song, or her masterful navigation of the notoriously tricky "Lush Life." Why is hard to pin down, or maybe doing so just doesn't seem worth the effort. B+(*) [sp]

Sweet Megg: Massive Negroni (2026, self-released): Retro standards singer Meaghan Farrell, has a dozen albums since 2017. Less swing and more slow ballads than I expected, but "Where or Win" sticks with you. B+(**) [sp]

Kalia Vandever: Mana (2026, International Anthem): Trombonist, sings some, fifth album since 2019, second solo album, with "spare piano" and other electronic effects. Title Hawaiian. Vibe ambient. Short (7 songs, 27:06). B+(*) [sp]

April Varner: Ella (2025 [2026], Cellar): Standards singer, based in New York, masters degree from Mahnattan School of Music, 2023 winner of "the International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition," second album (or fourth if you count two volumes of Winter Songs). The notes insist on how original her approaches are to the material, how she "never imitates her long-time idol," instead striving to "capture the spirit of Ella" with "her own creative imagination." Still, her voice is dead on, and her professional help — notably pianist-arranger Emmet Cohen and drummer-producer Ulysses Owens Jr. — know how to work a sure-fire formula, which is great songs swung hard with a more than capable singer. [PS: Alternate parsing of title: Ella by April Varner.] B+(***) [sp]

Karsten Vogel: Late Night Ballads (2026, Storyville): Danish alto saxophonist, b. 1943, credits since the 1960s, albums since 1976. Seven standards and an original, played slow, backed by piano-bass-drums.B+(*) [sp]

Hein Westgaard & Matt Maneri: Chamber (2024 [2025], Gotta Let It Out): Guitar and viola duo. Guitarist has a few albums, including one from 2023 I liked. Maneri has many records since 1994, picking up his father Joe Maneri's microtonal practices. "Chamber jazz" is a loose term borrowed from classical, where the defining feature is an intimate and intricate group of soft instruments: mostly strings, almost never drums, wind instruments only on their best behavior. Maneri's viola fits the mold, but usually sounds too classical for me. But the guitarist plays around the edges, keeping it interesting, even adding a bit of rhythm. A- [cd]

Jack Wright and Ben Bennett: Tourne (2026, self-released): Sax and drums duo, the former from Pittsburgh, with dozens of albums since 1983; the latter from Philadelphia, with several albums together since 2011. Three tracks (35:12). That's a good length for this sort of prickly free jazz, which I find instantly appealing as long as it doesn't run too long, or too loud. Reminds me that I've long appreciated Wright, even if I rarely remember his name. A- [bc]

Your Brother's Keeper & Gary Bartz: Where Rivers Meet (2023 [2026], Brownswood): British group, first album under this name but most were members of Maisha, which backed the veteran alto saxophonist (b. 1940) on his 2020 Night Dreamer Direct-to-Disc Sessions. This has a nice spiritual dimension. B+(***) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Carla Bley: Joyful Noise (Live in Hamburg 1984) (1984 [2026], Moosicus): Pianist (1938-2023), exceptionally famous as a composer and arranger, was a founder of the Jazz Composers Orchestra Association, whose initial project was her ambitious opera, Escalator Over the Hill. Large (10-piece) group, with four brass, two saxes, piano (Ted Saunders), organ (Bley), electric bass and drums. Title is taken from a song, but is also a philosophy of life. A- [sp]

Marion Brown: Awofofora (1976 [2026], Aguirre): Alto saxophonist (1931-2010), recorded his debut for ESP-Disk in 1965, followed by albums on Impulse! and ECM, but by this time he was consigned to obscure labels (this on Discomate, a Japanese label). B+(***) [bc]

Satoko Fujii: Satoko Fujii's Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra (2014 [2026], Libra, 2CD): Japanese avant-pianist, very prolific since 1996, went on a big band kick around 2007, organizing a series of orchestras wherever she traveled (first three were New York, Nagoya, and Tokyo). Many more since, with five new tapes of various vintages promised this year, starting with this one from Bielefeld, Germany (Bunker Ulmenwall was a WWII-vintage air raid shelter; to be followed later this year by the Orchestras Kobe, Nagoya, Berlin, and Tokyo). Detailed with many remarkable passages, demanding close scrutiny. A- [cd] [07-10]

Wynton Marsalis & Vince Giordano: The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong (2012 [2026], Blue Engine): They pulled this old tape off the shelf to celebrate the centennary of Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven sessions, so the reference is to the cutting edge of 1920s jazz, not to the pop icon of later years. Giordano is a long-time trad jazz leader, playing bass sax and tuba here, while Marsalis shares trumpet duties with Jon-Erik Kellso. B+(**) [sp]

Mal Waldron & Sam Rivers: Live in Mestre Venezia 1984 (1984 [2025], Caligola): Piano and tenor sax duets. Around this time, Waldron was playing in duos with Steve Lacy and Marion Brown, so he has a well-honed sense of how to engage here. It's hard to imagine a more astute accompanist, and his solos never leave you wanting. Probably helps that they stick to standards, including "Scrapple From the Apple" and "Blue Monk." A- [bc]

The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong All Stars: A Gift to Pops (2021 [2026], Verve): A discographical nuisance, opens with a genuine Armstrong from 1964 (Sparks, NV), but after that it's just another anonymous tribute band. I originally filed under Wynton Marsalis, but it turns out that Nicholas Payton plays most of the trumpet, and also does most of the arranging, with Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, soprano sax, and some vocals; also Reginald Veal (bass), Herlin Riley (drums), and scattered others, including vocalists who don't make the slightest effort at the original. Consequently, some songs stray, to mixed effect. B+(*) [sp]

Old music:

Northwest Improvisers: Fanfares (2022 [2023], Entropy Stereo): Free jazz ensemble, founded in upstate Michigan in 1976 by Mike Gilmore (vibes) and Mike Johnston (bass), added drummer Nick Ashton in 1986, first album was 1994, recorded several albums backing Faruq Z. Bey, one with Dennis González. Gilmore is absent here, but they've added two saxophonists (Dominic Bierenga and Donovan Boxey) and strings (Mike Khoury on violin, Jack O'Brien on cello). Opens with a Don Cherry piece to set up the groove, then builds around it. B+(***) [bc]

April Varner: April (2023 [2024], Cellar): Jazz singer, first album, covers 11 songs with "April" in the title — wrote some, including improvised lyrics and some vocalese to Pat Metheny. Only "April in Paris" is well known, done simply here with just piano (Caelan Cardello) backing, after just bass (Reuben Rogers) on "April Blues." The other sources and treatments vary widely, but include nice spots for Russell Malone (guitar), Benny Benack (trumpet), and Dayna Stephens (tenor sax). [PS: Alternate parsing of title: April by April Varner.] B+(**) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Randy Ingram: Sound Within: A Celebration of Bill Evans (Chill Tone) [07-10]
  • Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves: Bury Deep My Heart (Carrier) [07-27]
  • Bill Scorzari: Sidereal Days (Day 2) (self-released) [09-25]
  • WDR Big Band: Jagged Edges & Elegant Lines: The Music of Ayn Inserto (Summit) [08-07]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Friday, July 3, 2026

Music Week

July archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46219 [46191] rated (+28), 16 [14] unrated (+2).

My advance was published on Notes on Everyday Life Music Week (7:1) (archived here). You can get it delivered to your inbox by subscribing.

As I noted there, most of my time continues to get sucked up in running the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Mid-Year Poll. Deadline is July 5. I've set myself the goal of publishing a week after counting to write up and publish the results. I hope to keep it fairly simple, and let the data speak for itself. Otherwise I'll just find fault with everything, and wind up in a horrible state. I've already worried much too much about how many ballots we can get. (The past two mid-year polls produced 90 and 113, vs. 159 and 177 from the previous year-end polls. Last year we were down to 168, so a slight decline from 113 is probable. With 90 ballots counted so far, it's hard to tell whether we're on track or not.)

One positive note is that I've sent out more invites than ever before. On the other hand, I have a longer list of people I'm aware of but don't have email addresses for. And there are many more unknowns who are most likely qualified enough. It's a big job to figure this out, and I never seem to have the time or energy to do it. The negative note is that a lot of regular voters have bowed out, mostly figuring they haven't listened to enough as yet. I've tried to stress that this is a cooperative project, improved by small incremental efforts by everyone. Still, it's a tough sell.

In case you're interested, the ballots are already available online, as well as lists of all albums that have received votes. The totals will appear when we publish the poll results at ArtsFuse, in mid-July.

However, other things have chew up large chunks of my time this week (hence, the much lower rated count). My brother-in-law, Mark Shepherd (73) died last week, and the funeral was on July 1. Mark has long been part of a community here that restores classic cars, and they effectively staged a show in the mortuary's parking lot, then a parade from there to the cemetery. Our niece and nephew from Washington drove down for the funeral, so I tried to entertain them, including a comfort food dinner. So scratch one day cooking, and two more visiting, during which I didn't listen to anything I had to write about. Guests are gone now, but things are only slowly getting back to normal. Although "normal" seems an odd word to use for anything these days.

Some quick notes on records below:

  • I almost never get promos aside from jazz, but De Vitry was a rare country album, and an excellent one. (Asher Brinson's Midnight Hurricane was another). However, I accidentally reviewed it several weeks in advance of release date. In the past, I tried holding back advance reviews, but it got to be too cumbersome, and nobody much seemed to care. But I held this review back from the advance because it's not yet available.
  • I revisited the Messthetics album because it has since gotten so much support that I questioned my negative reaction. Although I've bumped it up a bit, I'm not really doubting myself. I'm a bit clearer now, especially that the Fugazi rhythm section isn't the problem; it's just the guitarist.
  • I used to like Emperor X a lot, so I jumped at seeing a new album, then quickly found I really wasn't in the mood (possibly for anything rock). Since then I've seen numerous raves from critics I generally like (e.g., Dan Weiss ranks it 7 on his The 40 Best Albums of 2026 So Far; much on this list I should check out when I'm done with the jazz poll). A better-than-average candidate for an upgrade, although I wouldn't bet on it.
  • Sad Daddy is being promoted by a publicist whose junk mail always gets spam-trapped. I dug this message out for no good reason, then figured why not give the sound of Eureka Springs a try? Only later did I discover that Melissa Carper is part of the group: she has several good records, with Borned in Ya (2024) my pick hit.

My only plans for 4th of July is that some friends are coming over for leftovers. Plus whatever the poll reveals. I imagine we'll hear nonstop fireworks tomorrow evening. I've been hearing them on occasion most of today, but it seems to me that the volume is down considerably this year. Not sure whether folks are simply not in the mood to celebrate, or if incomes have become so precarious few people are willing to literally blow up their savings.

New records reviewed this week:

Julian Argüelles: Echo Fields (2026, Escapade): English saxophonist (tenor/soprano), albums since 1991, trio with Larry Grenadier (bass) and Jorge Rossy (drums). B+(**) [bc]

Barcelona Art Orchestra & Miguel Zenón: Expressions: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (2025 [2026], Miel Music): Barcelona-based group, has at least one previous album, led by Néstor Giménez (piano), Lluc Casares (tenor sax), Joan Vidal (drums), and Lluis Vidal (piano), each composing a section here, featuring the alto saxophonist. B+(*) [sp]

Patricia Brennan/Sylvie Courvoisier: Talamanti (2024 [2026], Antlia): Mallets player, from Mexico, based in New York, won our debut poll in 2018, finished 1st and 2nd overall with her last two albums, in a duo here with the Swiss pianist. Piano-vibes duos are rather common, partly due to similar tones, but also because the vibes focus the piano as a percussion instrument. You get a taste of that early here, but then the piano meanders into its own less-but-still-interesting space. B+(***) [sp]

Ron Carter & Yotam Silberstein: Duets (2026, Jojo): Bass and guitar duo: the 89-year-old bassist almost certainly holds some kind of record for most albums appeared on; while he's still best known for his 1960s work with Miles Davis, one could probably construct a whole CG from his duo work, and delight in doing so. (Pick hit would be Chemistry, his 2016 duo with Houston Person.) The guitarist has appeared regularly since 2008, with a soft tone and delicacy that I find pleasant but rarely give a second thought. But this brief set (2 originals, 7 standards, 34:02) raises pleasant to pleasure. A- [cd]

Maya De Vitry: All My Faith (2026, Mad Maker Studios): Folkie singer-songwriter based in Nashville, four previous albums since 2019. Sound reminded me first of Joy of Cooking, then Joni Mitchell (but warmer). That may be enough for now. I'll take the faith on faith. A- [cd] [07-24]

Duchess: A Marvelous Party (2025 [2026], Anzic): Vocal trio, fourth album (including one live) since 2015, all three with notable solo careers: Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner, Melissa Stylianou. Favors older songs with harmonies reminiscent of the Andrews Sisters, and swinging arrangements by Oded Lev-Ari. B+(**) [sp]

Emperor X: Unified Field (2026, Bar/None): Singer-songwriter Chad Metheny, albums since 1998, first one I really noticed was Western Teleport (2011). Several strong song on the way out. B+(**) [sp]

Nick Fraser: Areas (2026, Elastic): Canadian drummer, close to 100 credits since his 1997 debut album, has several albums with Tony Malaby (tenor sax) and Kris Davis (piano), who return here, along with John Kameel Farah (electronics). B+(*) [bc]

Hannah Gill: I Like the Sunrise (2026, Turtle Bay): Standards singer, several albums since 2023, backed by guitar-bass-drums, with Ricky Alexander (sax). B+(**) [bc]

Devin Gray/Andrea Parkins/Frank Gratkowski: Hz of Gold (2021 [2026], Rataplan): Drummer, fair number of albums and side-credits since 2006, in an improv trio with electronics/accordion/wurlitzer and saxes/flutes/clarinets. B+(*) [sp]

Alden Hellmuth: Tether (2026, Leiter): Alto saxophonist from Connecticut ("she grew up surrounded by the legacy of the great saxophonist Jackie McLean"), based in New York, second album, seems to be a quartet with two basses (Logan Kane and Miller Wrenn) and drums (Justin Brown), but also "additional instrumentation" (trumpet, piano, voice, guitar, sound design, lots of effects). B+(***) [sp]

The Joymakers: A Texas-Sized Band (2026, Turtle Bay): Austin-based ten-piece trad jazz outfit, named for a 1920s Texas band of the same name, led by arranger Colin Hancock, who also plays cornet, alto & baritone sax, mellophone, kazoo, and is one of several singers. B+(**) [sp]

Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra: & Avin Omar (2026, We Jazz, EP): Swedish trumpet player, leading a group that includes two saxophonists (one is Jonas Kullhammar), keyboards, guitar, bass, and drums, featuring the Kurdish-Swedish vocalist, leads off with a trad Kurdish piece ("Suleymanieh") that is pretty captivating. Three songs (23:38), the first of three planned EPs with vocalists. B+(***) [bc]

La La Lars: Lilla Lars (2026, Gothborgen, EP): Swedish drummer Lars Skoglund, has four albums as La La Lars since 2017, many side credits since 1998, trio here with Carl Bagge (piano) and Johan Berthling (bass), four songs (18:00). B+(*) [sp]

James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Omni (2025 [2026], Intakt): Tenor saxophonist, possibly the best and certainly the most accomplished of any near his age (42), has won two of our jazz polls, often splitting his vote among multiple projects. Sixth quartet album on this Swiss label, with Aruán Ortiz (piano), Brad Jones (bass), and Chad Taylor (drums). Still keeps you on edge. A- [sp]

Virginia MacDonald: In Search Of . . . (2024 [2026], Cellar): Canadian clarinetist, first album (although Discogs gives her a share of a Canadian Jazz Collective album), side credits especially with Michael Dease and Caity Gyorgy. Backed by piano (Geoffrey Keezer), bass, and drums, with voice on two tracks. B+(***) [cd]

Nduduzo Makhathini: The Myth We Choose (2026, Blue Note): South African pianist, various local labels from 2009, picked up by Blue Note in 2020, fourth album there. He has some credentials as a "traditional sangoma header," which may be context I cannot begin to fathom. Sounds sedated to me, with many vocals I can make no sense of. But the piano has grown on me a bit. B+(*) [sp]

Michael Marcus Quartet: Next Stop Down (2024 [2026], ESP-Disk'): Reeds player, albums since 1991 including the Cosmosamatics (with Sonny Simmons), plays tarogato, soprano and tenor sax here, with "featuring" credits for Rod Williams (piano), Ricky Rodriguez (bass), and Allan Mednard (drums). B+(***) [cd]

Tal Mashiach: Who's Around? (2026, Anzic): Guitarist-bassist, has a previous album as well as appearance in Anat Cohen's Quartetinho. Original pieces, musicians come and go, with only the drummer on most cuts. First impression is rather scattered. Unclear whether multiple plays might elevate that to eclectic. B [cd]

Chris Potter: Alive With Ghosts Today (2025 [2026], Edition): Tenor saxophonist, got an early start in 1994, impressive soloist, albums can be uneven. Original pieces here, inspired by John Brown's 1859 uprising, played by a septet featuring Bill Frisell (guitar), with clarinet, trombone, violin, bass, and drums. B+(*) [sp]

Sad Daddy: Ozark Shine (2026, Catfish Music/Free Dirt): Arkansas group, Bandcamp page says Eureka Springs, fifth album since 2010, multiple singers, four songwriters: Brian Martin (guitar), Melissa Carper (bass), Joe Sundell (banjo), and Rebecca Patek (fiddle) — Carper also has a solo career with several notable albums. B+(**) [sp]

Harry Skoler: Echoes (2026, Red Brick Hill): Clarinetist, debut 1995, not many albums since, this one a quartet featuring Bill Frisell (guitar), with bass (Dezron Douglas) and drums (Johnathan Blake). B+(**) [sp]

SML: Spontaneous Music Live (2025 [2026], International Anthem): Los Angeles-based jazz quintet, third album, two pieces (23:46 + 24:34), selected and mixed from a three-night stand (credit Bryce Gonzales, who mixed Jeff Parker's live EVA IVtet albums). Close-knit group, most also known for their solo efforts: Anna Butterss, Jeremiah Chiu, Josh Johnson, Booker Stardrum, Gregory Uhlmann. Groove is somewhat minimalist, but the differences matter. A- [sp]

Matthew Stevens: Matthew Stevens (2026, Candid): Canadian jazz guitarist, half-dozen albums since 2015, varying cast beyond bass and drums, with Josh Johnson (alto sax) on most tracks, including two vocals, and some Joel Ross vibes. Originals, with a Sonny Sharrock cover. B+(*) [sp]

Soojin Suh: Prism of Existence (2026, Endectomorph Music): Korean drummer, has several previous albums, this a trio with piano (Jaehun Kang) and bass (Hoo Kim), recorded over four sessions (but dates not given). B+(**) [sp]

Martin Wind: Stars (2025 [2026], Newvelle): German bassist, close to 30 albums since 1993, the title may well refer to the talent he lined up here: Kenny Barron (piano), Anat Cohen (clarinet), Matt Wilson (drums). A mix of originals and standards, with "The Stars Fell Down on Alabama" especially delectable. A- [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Either/Orchestra & Ethiopian Guests: Nalbandian L'Ethiopien/The Ethiopian [Éthiopiques 32] (2011 [2025], Buda Musique): Large band from Boston, founded by saxophonist Russ Gershon, released albums 1986-2010, website touts their "40th anniversary season," but this live tape, following up their 2004 Live in Addis [Éthiopiques 20], seems to be the only new release. B+(***) [sp]

Evan Parker/Paul Rogers/Louis Moholo: Tebugo (1992 [2025], Jazz in Britain): Live tape from the Vortex in London, tenor and soprano sax, bass, and drums. Takes a while to warm up, but delivers in the end. B+(***) [bc]

Old music:

None.

Grade (or other) changes:

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis: Deface the Currency (2026, Impulse!): Guitar-bass-drums trio had a couple albums (2018-19) before they joined up with the powerhouse tenor saxophonist. I filed the early albums under rock as the bassist (Joe Lally) and drummer (Brendan Canty) came from Fugazi, although guitarist Anthony Pirog had a fringe-jazz resume (two albums with Henry Kaiser, one a conduction of Terry Riley, a couple more I've heard but don't particularly recall). Time to move them into the jazz file, but I'm not all that pleased. The saxophonist makes a strong effort, but the guitarist rarely if ever matches him, nor is he very complementary. It's not quite accurate to say that the rhythm section rocks: they move freely, but their energy mostly expresses itself in speed and volume, which can come off as clunky. My disappointment was such that I probably overreacted at first. [was: B] B+(**) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Colin Heshmat: Elastic Groove (HMC) [07-23]
  • Andrew Kim: Lineage (Origin) [07-24]
  • Bob Nell & Michael Bisio Trios: We Are Here (Origin) [07-24]
  • Rebecca Rafla: Fundamentally Unfinished (Rebecca Raffla Music) [06-22]
  • Armand Sangalang: Waypoints (Calligram) [08-07]
  • Claudio Scolari Project: Lines of Now (Principal) [04-24]
  • Clark Sommers: WaBaSH (Calligram) [08-07]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Saturday, June 27, 2026

Music Week

June archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46191 [46138] rated (+53), 14 [9] unrated (+5).

I posted a preview of this Music Week to Notes on Everyday Life as Music Week (6:4) (also archived here). For this I selected nine reviews from below: 7 new releases (5 jazz) and 2 reissues. Actually, I made a couple of edits there but not here: I combined the two Immanuel Wilkins volumes below into a summary of the three-volume series (it isn't a set yet, but probably will be); I also added some of the Jan Klare (1000) old music album as a footnote to the KIND review. My hope is to make the Substack versions easier to read and deal with than full Music Week posts like this one, which contain (sometimes many) more albums, many with cryptic reviews. You can think of this (and the monthly Streamnotes as the reference copy, and the Substack posts as (slightly) more polished columns.

Until this week, I've prepared the advance posts before running my cutoff (the point when I calculate how many records I've rated, and move the index from a scratch file to the notebook, marking the boundary between one week and the next). This week I did the cutoff first, on Wednesday evening. In the past, I was running so late I wanted to skip the extra cutoff work. This time, I was bogged down with other writing I wanted to post via Substack before I could get to Music Week. But with 50+ reviews piled up, I figured I should go ahead with the cutoff, and get to the post(s) whenever. This one was mostly written on Friday, but still needed work, so has slipped into Saturday. One thing having the cutoff done did was to make it easier to decide what to pick out. It also saved me from being tempted to slip in later finds (which, with a big June 26 release day, already include new albums by James Brandon Lewis and SML).

I did manage to get two non-music pieces out on Substack this week:

  • After Iran: "A funny thing happened on the way to the apocalypse": where I talked about the "memorandum of understanding" between Trump and Iran, which I saw as a surprisingly solid framework for actual peace, which benefit all sides. (Sure, Israel doesn't think so, but that's because peace worries them more than war.) However, whether the potential of the framework will be realized will depend mostly on whether Trump actually wants peace bad enough to force Israel out of Lebanon. There are reasons to be skeptical: Trump's desire for peace is easily contradicted by his belief in and appetite for force; and Trump so far has been a pushover for Netanyahu, not least because they share some of the same financial backers, but also because his staff is chock full of people who if not simply on Israel's payroll have fully bought into the myths Israel has spread.

  • Arafat and Abbas on Violence: "Reflections from Tomorrow Is Yesterday," the recent book by Hussein Agha and Rob Malley. I mention several other recent books I have read on Israel (plus one old one), but my main point was to quote a section on Palestinian leaders, which I found remarkably insightful. Agha was part of the Fatah negotiating team during and after the Oslo process. Malley had a corresponding role while working for Clinton and Obama, and independently while Bush and Trump were in office. Both developed keen insights into the flaws of both sides. While many books have been written about failed negotiations, real insight into the Palestinian leaders and their worldviews has been hard to find. (One reason I like Richard Ben Cramer's 2004 book is that he makes a genuine effort to understand "why there is no Palestinian state.") I'm likely to write one or two more posts based on points made in the Agha-Malley book.

While I'm fairly happy with the reception given my Music Week posts on Substack, these two pieces, which I think make important points you're unlikely to encounter elsewhere, got virtually no reaction. A big part of the reason I went to Substack was that I wanted to get some statistical feedback on readership. One thing I've learned is that the music posts are getting about 70% views, vs. 50% for the non-music posts. I'm reminded of the Preston Sturges (or was it Woody Allen?) movie where he tries to tackle the world's major problems, and all people have to say is "get funny again."

While these posts have taken considerable time, much more has been sucked up in running the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Mid-Year Poll. With 8 days left to the July 5 deadline, I have 59 ballots counted, with a couple dozen more commitments to make the deadline, a similar number of declines — for reasons which range from no time or no interest, with a few stories of long illnesses (and I'm aware of one death: Mark Holston). I've tried to encourage some to send in whatever they can if they find as much as a stray thought, but I've let most of them go. I may do some more voter prospecting — I'm often surprised by the amount of quality of jazz writing when I find time to go searching — and I welcome further suggestions, but the response so far is generating a huge amount of album tips (366 so far, 153 not previously in my tracking files), with I'm sure much more to come.

As I explained last week, the ballots are already available online), as well as lists of all albums that have received votes. The totals will only appear when we publish the poll results at ArtsFuse, in mid-July. My ballot, filled out when voting opened, is here. I've refrained from updating it, even as a couple of new albums have come very close, although I'm inclined to add James Brandon Lewis & Lutosławski Quartet: These Are Soulful Days to the 5th Rara Avis slot. (See below: I'm counting it as a reissue, although most voters see it as a new album.)

I was surprised to hear that Mark Shepherd died last week. He grew up just around the corner from us, was in my brother's classes, so I've known him, and his family, going on 70 years. His sister married my brother, so he's been family for most of that time. Like his father, he worked at Boeing until he dropped, and like his father, he had better things to do with the rest of his life. For Art, it was fishing. For Mark, restoring classic cars. He's part of the reason Wichita has more of them than anywhere (except Havana).

One more note: I seem to be off X/Twitter now. Last time I looked at it, they declared "Happening now." They offered to let me "Continue with phone," "Continue with Google," "Continue with Apple," or "Email or username." When I tried the latter, they rejected my password, and didn't offer me any way to reset or recover. I've only been using it to announce blog posts, which I also do on Bluesky (where I post more, but not a lot more). Its usefulness has really come into doubt recently, although I could say the same about Bluesky (although Bluesky tries harder to illustrate links). A recent stats sheet from Substack showed I got 4 views from Bluesky and 8 from Twitter. If you want to get notified, best to subscribe to Notes on Everyday Life and/or use the RSS feed. [PS: X allowed a reset option today, so I'm back in. Not that I really want to be.]

New records reviewed this week:

Ben Allison/Steve Cardenas/Ted Nash: Triological (2026, Sunnyside): Bass, guitar, and tenor sax/clarinet trio, stylized on cover as "Allison, Cardenas & Nash," all three long-established and familiar (with at least four previous albums together), song credits split 4-3-3. Model referred to is Jimmy Giuffre's drummer-less trio, but with guitar instead of piano. I'm not sure I ever got the model, but such distinctions are pretty subtle. B+(**) [sp]

Thommy Andersson: Shimmering Blue (2026, SteepleChase): Swedish bassist, Discogs credits him with 14 releases since 2004, 98 total performance credits (many with Pierre Dørge). Drummerless trio with high and low brass: Kirk Knuffke (cornet and soprano trombone) and José Davila (trombone, tuba, euphonium, helicon, bass flute, didgeridoo). Nicely done, worth focusing on the bass. B+(***) [sp]

Ballister + Luke Stewart: Clocking the Wheel (2025 [2026], Aerophonic): Trio of Dave Rempis (4 saxophones), Fred Longerg-Holm (cello), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), 7th album since 2019, adds the bassist for this go around. Two pieces, 72:46, exactly the sort of hard hitting free jazz one expects by now. A- [cd] [07-10]

Sam Barsh/Mark Guiliana/Keyon Harold: Straight08 (2026, La Reserve): Keyboardist, from Chicago, based in Los Angeles, has a previous album from 2008, but 40+ side-credits, mostly jazz but the big names are in or near hip-hop (Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Macy Gray, Doja Cat, Logic, Anderson .Paak). With drums and trumpet, the latter often quite striking. B+(**) [sp]

Luciano Biondini/Michel Godard/Lucas Niggli: Fables of Time (2025 [2026], Intakt): Italian accordion player, many albums since 2000, including a previous (2011) trio with Godard (tuba, serpent, E-bass) and Niggli (drums). B+(*) [sp]

Nat Birchall Quartet: Path of Enlightenment (2025 [2026], Ancient Archive of Sound): British tenor saxophonist, first album 1999, bears the "spiritual jazz" label because few if any have worked longer or harder to sound like John Coltrane, but also to expand on his legacy. To that end, he's kept the classic quartet format, with piano (Adam Fairhall), bass (Michael Bardon), and drums (Paul Hession). B+(***) [bc]

Nat Birchall: Liberated Sounds (2025, Na Bi): Aside from Coltrane, his great influence was from the Jamaican saxophonists of the ska and rocksteady periods. He gets them right, too. B+(***) [bc]

Adam Brodsky: American Epitaph (2026, Permanent): Antifolk singer-songwriter, released four albums 1995-2002, came back from wherever he went to "throw sand in the gears of the fascist regime." Advises "don't break bread with your fascist former friends." ("Their brains are broken from the poison they're fed.") Like many of us, his ideals were set early, only to find a nation that has forsaken them. ("We were once the good guys but no more.") I'm more tolerant of, and probably more sympathetic to, lapses of political judgment that he is, but he's on the right side. A- [sp]

Betty Bryant: Nothin' Better to Do (2026, Bry-Mar Music): Jazz singer, plays piano, originally from Kansas City, where Jay McShann was a mentor, moved to Los Angeles in 1955, played clubs but didn't record much — Discogs lists an album in 1987, two in 1999 — until she started releasing her own albums in 2013. Her Lotta Livin' (in 2023, at 93) was terrific, and this (at 96) is also quite satisfying. Three songs by her and/or producer Robert Lyle (soprano/tenor sax, flute). Some guest spots, good for trumpet, not so good for strings. B+(***) [sp]

Chrome Hill & Dōjō: Free Rangers (2024 [2026], Clean Feed): Norwegian free jazz group, sixth album since 2008, down to three here — Asbjørn Lerheim (bass guitar, electric guitar), Roger Arntzen (double bass), and Atle Nymo (tenor sax, clarinet, bass clarinet), joined by a Japanese duo: Michiyo Yagi (electric 21-string koto) and Tamaya Honda (drums), with most also credited with electronics. B+(***) [bc]

Emmet Cohen: Universal Truth (2025 [2026], Mack Avenue): Pianist, close to a dozen albums since 2011, many designed to showcase old-timers (including 5 volumes of his Masters Legacy Series). Trio here with Joe Farnsworth (drums) and Yasushi Nakamura (bass), the latter spelled on three cuts by Ron Carter, with ample guest spots for Jeremy Pelt (trumpet), George Coleman (tenor sax), and Tivon Pennicott (tenor sax). B+(***) [sp]

Andrés Coll Cosmic Trio: Ride to Heaven (2026, XJAZZ Music): Mallets player from Ibiza, mostly marimba here, with Mateusz Smoczynski (violin) and Ramón López (drums/tabla). B+(**) [sp]

ContraPunctus [Mike McGinnis/Carmen Staaf/Gui Duvignau/Hamir Atwal]: ContraPunctus (2025 [2026]. Adhyâropa): Surnames on the cover, but group name is more than implied. Respectively: clarinet/bass clarinet/soprano sax, piano/fender rhodes, bass, drums. B+(***) [sp]

Lao Dan Chicago Quartet: Klotski (2024 [2026], Trost): Saxophonist from China (Dandong, near the border with North Korea), majored in bamboo flute, was featured in the Shenyang Conservatory of Music's youth orchestra, toured the US in 2018, has many albums since then, some trad Chinese, and some free jazz. He plays tenor sax, chinese flute, and suona here, with piano (Mabel Kwan) and a Chicago rhythm section of Joshua Abrams (bass) and Michael Zerang (drums). B+(***) [bc]

Jesse Davis Quartet: Reflections (2025 [2026], Cellar): Alto saxophonist, from New Orleans, was a student of Ellis Marsalis, early albums (1991-2000) on Concord, regular side credits since then but not a lot of albums under his own name. Quartet with Spike Wilner (piano), John Webber (bass), and (cover says "featuring") Lewis Nash (drums). Mainstream, but exceptionally vibrant, which could very well be the superb drummer hard at work, but you mostly hear it in the horn. A- [sp]

Thomas Dollbaum: Birds of Paradise (2023 [2026], Dear Life): Singer-songwriter from New Orleans with a rep as a poet, second album, a roots-rock affair aided sonically by MJ Lenderman, but Dollbaum probably needed no help with the story lines and words. I'm not much good at following such intricacies, but I hear echoes of John Prine and Neil Young, and that's pretty satisfying. A- [sp]

Neale Eckstein: Build Our Dreams (2026, self-released): Folkie singer-songwriter from Massachusetts, has been "chasing music his entire life" while working as a dentist, but set up his own studio, has recorded others, and has at least two albums of his own. B+(*) [sp]

Marty Ehrlich: Cartographies of Flight: Lines Set Afloat Towards Hope (2024 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Alto saxophonist, plays a lot of clarinet and some flute, grew up in St. Louis, where he started working with Julius Hemphill and Oliver Lake, moved to New York in 1978, albums from 1984. Sextet with Ron Horton (trumpet), Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon), Erik Friedlander (cello), Matt Pavolka (bass), and Satoshi Takeishi (drums), with poetry read by Erica Hunt. B+(***) [bc]

Fire-Toolz: Lavender Networks (2026, Warp): Electronica producer Angel Marcloid, based in Chicago, Discogs lists a dozen albums since 2016, some big gestures with quasi industrial klang and the occasional odd glitch. B+(*) [sp]

Vinny Golia Quintet: Angular Momentum (2025 [2026], Nine Winds): Plays all saxophones and clarinets, turns 80 this year. Quintet with Kris Tiner (trumpet), Cathlene Pineda (piano), Miller Wrenn (bass), and Clint Dodson (drums, vibes, waterphone). B+(***) [bc]

Golomb: The Beat Goes On (2025, No Quarter): Indie rock band from Colombus, Ohio, 3rd album per Discogs, more on Bandcamp, but looks like a label advance (2nd was a cassette, 1st barely had artwork), although they're still pretty lo-fi. B [sp]

Joy Harjo: Insomnia & Seven Steps to Grace (2026, Smithsonian Folkways): Singer-songwriter (b. 1951), from Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma, has over a dozen volumes of poetry, a play, several non-fiction volumes, eighth album since 1997 (including one as Poetic Justice). Some jazz touches, including a coda of "Goodbye Pork Pit Hat." B+(***) [sp]

Alexander Hawkins: No Nation but Imagination (2025 [2026], Intakt): English pianist, prolific since 2006, mostly free but fairly eclectic, opens with a synth solo, then the quintet kicks in, light tones and frothy rhythm: Rhodri Davies (harp), Nicole Mitchell (flute), Hamid Drake (drums), and Matthew Wright (turntables/live sampling). B+(**) [sp]

Jon Irabagon: Raw Dog (2025 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Always excited to find a new album by the MOPDTK saxophonist. Less excited to find out that it's solo, even more that it's bass saxophone, covering two compositions each from Anthony Braxton and Julius Hemphill. But it probably helps that the big horn handles slow, and is impervious to screeching (unlike, say, Braxton's For Alto, which some regard as a masterpiece but I couldn't stand). The results are neither "mind-blowing [nor] ear juddering," but the explorations of "Hemphill's deep blues feel and Braxton's erector set structures" are interesting. B+(**) [bc]

KIND: Count (2025, Umland): Group led by German alto saxophonist Jan Klare, dozen-plus albums since 1998, also plays bassoon, all original compositions, group a sextet with clarinet (Shabnam Parvaresh), trombone (Shannon Barnett), cello (Emily Wittbrodt), bass (David Helm), and percussion (Bruna Cabral). Superb postbop, as the ever-shifting harmonics revolve eccentrically around an ever-changing rhythmic drive. A- [bc]

March to August: Highway 75 (2026, Crisp): Husband-and-wife country duo from Fayetteville, Derrick (who sings) and Jodi Mears. Mostly drinking songs, especially if you count the not-drinking songs. B+(**) [sp]

Simon Moullier: Ceiba (2025 [2026], Simon Moullier Music): Vibraphonist, based in New York, sixth album, a quartet with Lex Korten (piano), Rick Rosato (bass), and JK Kim (drums), with guest percussion (Keita Ogawa) on two tracks. Original pieces. Sails right along. B+(***) [cd]

New England Jazz Collaborative: Tributaries (2025 [2026], ACP): An "artist-run nonprofit collective," ACP stands for Amherst College Press, which matches up featured composers with musicians for various programs. This first album features compositions from Jeremy Cohen, Matan Rubinstein, Darryl Harper, and Sam Spear, performed by a big band conducted by Ken Schaphorst, with some extra guitar from Eric Hofbauer, on their quite nice Latin turn. B+(**) [cd] [07-16]

Pascal Niggenkemper Ensemble Tuvalu: D'Une Rive à L'Autre (2024 [2026], Subran Musiques Aventureuses): German-French bassist, living in Brooklyn, 20 albums since 2008. This piece is inspired by the Pacific archipelago of Tuvalu, a land especially endangered by climate change. "The stage plot consists of sixteen sounding curtains which surround the audience, 8 musicians and a poet circling nine sounding islands at the very center which symbolise the South Sea archipel Tuvalu." The group splits into two quartets, of cornet/trumpet, clarinet, accordion, bass/cello, with voice parts all around, in however many languages they can muster. B+(**) [bc]

Nite Bjuti: Minwi (2023 [2026], Intakt): Trio of Candace Hoyes (vocals), Mimi Jones (bass, vocals), and Val Jeanty (drums, electronics), lyrics credited to Hoyes. Seems to be Hoyes' first album. Art song, deeply ensconced in dark atmospherics. B+(**) [sp]

Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble: The Kármán Line (2026, ATA): Leeds group, principally Chip Wickham (flutes) and Neil Innes (bass), with piano, bass, harp, drums/balafon, and percussion, plus some extra orchestra. Title refers to the hypothetical boundary between atmosphere and outer space. Some nice grooves at that distance. B+(***) [sp]

Mariam Rezaei/Sakina Abdou/Kobe Van Cauwenberghe: 1984 [I IX VIII IV]: The Forward Process (2025 [2026], Dropa Disc): Turntables, saxophones, guitars: I filed it under the latter, as he is principal composer. Most sources give group name as 1984, but cover offers four Roman numerals, in a 2x2 matrix, with the artist names above and the album title below, both in small print. B+(**) [bc]

Jeff Rupert Quartet: Sea Spell (2022 [2026], Rupe Media): Tenor saxophonist, mainstream, several albums back to 2009, including one as The Jazz Professors and another with Veronica Swift. Quartet with Richard Drexler (piano), Ben Kramer (bass), and Marty Morell (drums). Quite enjoyable easy listening. B+(**) [cd] [06-29]

Olaf Rupp: Berlin Eiskeller (2025-26 [2026], Scatter Archive): German guitarist, many albums since 1998, mostly in free jazz contexts, although he's largely escaped my attention. This one is solo. B+(**) [bc]

Serengeti: Symphony of Psalms (2026, CC King): Chicago rapper David Cohn, many albums since 2006, cover says "produced by Greg Saunier." B+(*) [sp]

Skerik: Skerik 061725 (2026, Loosegroove): Seattle-based saxophonist Eric Walton, has worked in many groups since the 1990s, including Garage A Trois, Critters Buggin, the Dead Kenny G's, and his Syncopated Taint Septet. This one is full-on ambient, like Eno's first ambient albums. Seems like a waste of a good saxophone to me, but on its own terms, this is nicely done. B+(**) [sp]

Colin Stetson/Greg Fox/Trevor Dunn: Nethering (2018 [2026], Envision): Saxophonist, plays a wide range of instruments but is best known for his bass saxophone, which he's employed in various projects, rock and classical as well as jazz. Improv here with drums and bass. B+(**) [sp]

Pat Thomas & XT: Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary) (2022 [2026], We Jazz): British avant-pianist, also electronics, along with the duo (XT) of Paul Abbott ("real and imaginary drums") and Seymour Wright ("actual and potential sax"; you may know him from [Ahmed]). The duo has 7 other albums, one with Thomas (a rendition of Cecil Taylor's Akisakila). Three long (36:02, 43:24, 50:05) live sets on the 2-CD, plus two more digital tracks (20:31 + 16:43). Way too much, but pretty awesome when they all his peak intensity. B+(**)

Udeigwe: Four Lemmas (2026, LU Factors): First name Lawrence, from Nigeria, moved to US in 2000, got a Ph.D. and is a professor of mathematics, also sings, several albums since 2007. B+(*) [sp]

Joe Webb: Neath Beat (2025 [2026], Edition): Pianist, grew up in Wales, based in London, Discogs seems to have this album filed under the wrong Joe Webb (should be 5). Has a couple previous albums, including a Mercury nomination for Hamstrings & Hurricanes (2025). Trio with Will Sach (bass) and Sam Jesson (drums). Beat matters. B+(**) [sp]

Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 2 (2025 [2026], Blue Note): Alto saxophonist, debut 2020 on a major label made him an instant star, big enough that his label decided to split up his live stand into three digital albums, rolling them out in monthly intervals. With Micah Thomas (piano), Ryoma Takenaga (bass), and Kweku Sumbry (drums), five tracks, 57:27. B+(**) [sp]

Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 3 (2025 [2026], Blue Note): Four more songs, 61 minutes. This one seems a bit more consistently upbeat, which is where their strengths lie. But the distinctions are marginal, and patience is wearing thin. Needless to say, they could have edited the three volumes down to a more compelling hour, but the cost-benefit analysis seems to have favored more product. B+(**) [sp]

Zen Zadravec: New Paradigm (2026, Marmite): Pianist, from Canada, has several albums, gets a big band feel from a smaller (but revolving) group here. B+(*) [cd] [06-26]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Johannes Bauer/Michael Griener/Olaf Rupp: Aufsturz (2007 [2026], Scatter Archive): German trombonist (1954-2016), younger brother of Conrad Bauer, an improv bash with drums and guitar. B+(***) [bc]

Pierre Favre Trio: Bird Food (1968 [2026], Songs): French drummer, b. 1937, first albums 1964-65 were jazzed-up classical music, much notable work followed, especially his duos with Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer. This recently unearthed tape appears to have been their first collaboration, a trio with George Mraz on bass, playing Ornette Coleman's title piece plus three by Schweizer (total: 29:56). B+(**) [sp]

James Brandon Lewis & Lutosławski Quartet: These Are Soulful Days (2021 [2026], TAO Forms): Tenor saxophonist, makes his entry into the sax-with-strings forum with a well-known Polish string quartet (dozen-plus albums since 2012, including jazz meets with Uri Caine and Kris Davis). This was originally released as a bonus CD with Lewis's poll-winning 2023 album, For Mahalia, With Love, so counts as a reissue here. A- [sp]

Tom Raworth & Peter Brötzmann: No Hard Feelings: For Steve Lacy (2005 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): British poet (1938-2017), only album in Discogs is a 1969 reading, plus this rara avis, where "John Corbett schemed to make a duo record" from a 2000 reading with accompaniment by Steve Lacy. However, Lacy died in 2004 before delivering, so Brötzmann filled in a year later, playing tarogato, clarinet, and alto sax, short fragments plus some longer solos. Includes bits of music box, credited to Raworth. To some extent, a simple shuffle of two separate things, but each helps with the other's limits. B+(***) [bc]

Dick Spottswood & Tompkins Square Present . . . 1925 Songs: Blues, Country, Jazz & More (1925 [2026], Tompkins Square): Genre distinctions that meant far less then than now — black and white were the concepts back then, distinctions that have since become blurred, as Allen Lowe showed in his American Pop (his 1998 release of a book with 9 CDs ranging from 1893-1946). This is comparable, sticking close to the crossroads of the genres, and avoiding big hits (like "Sweet Georgia Brown" and the Bessie Smith version of "St. Louis Blues"; I don't keep many song dates in my mind, but one I do recall from 1925 is "Cake Walking Babies From Home"). B+(***) [sp]

Louis Stewart: Joyce Notes (1982 [2026], Livia): Irish guitarist (1944-2016), recorded extensively from 1975 on, but I've only noticed him since this reissue series began. A six part suite composed for James Joyce's centenary, with narration and readings from Ulysses by Eamon Morrissey, and a fairly large group with two saxophones, flute, piano, bass, drums, and extra percussion. The music is delightful, and the words add a powerful dimension. A- [bc]

Sun Ra: Hidden Fire (1988 [2025], Strut): Live album, originally released as two volumes ("in tiny quantities with minimal packaging and cryptic artwork"), combined here (6 songs, 77 minutes). Group has some extra violins (Billy Bang for one), and vocals (Art Jenkins?), and spends much time way out on the fringe. B+(**) [sp]

Old music:

Jan Klare/Wilbert de Joode/Michael Vatcher/Bart Maris [1000]: Played (2008 [2009], Leo): Discogs regards "1000" as a group name, although they also credit the artist names, at the top of the cover, and they list several other albums by the same group (5 total, 2007-22). Alto sax, bass, drums, trumpet. B+(***) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • David Ambrosio/Donny McCaslin/Ingrid Jensen/Bruce Barth/Victor Lewis: Civil Disobedience: Blue Note in the Progressive Sixties (Blue Frog) [05-16]
  • Ran Blake & Dominique Eade: Roots & Byways (Sunnyside) [07-03]
  • Ron Carter & Yotam Silberstein: Duets (Jojo) [06-06]
  • Liz Cracchiolo: Just a Girl I'm a Woman (Pacific Coast Jazz) [09-18]
  • Kelly Green: Eat Your Greens! (Green Soul) [08-28]
  • Virginia MacDonald: In Search Of . . . (Cellar) [05-29]
  • Tal Mashiach: Who's Around? (Anzic) [06-26]
  • Simon Moullier: Ceiba (Simon Moullier Music) [04-24]
  • Tom Ricci: Happening in Buenos Aires: Live at Borges 1975 (self-released) [06-20]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Friday, June 19, 2026

Music Week

June archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46138 [46097] rated (+41), 9 [8] unrated (+1).

This week's advance copy went out to Notes on Everyday Life subscriber list Wednesday evening: Music Week (6:3) (also here). To get these delivered straight to your mail box, please subscribe.

I posted a very large Loose Tabs back on Saturday, June 14 (369 links, 26521 words). I've added a couple more items to the file, which are only appearing with this update. I haven't had time for any extensive revisions, let alone for starting work on next time around. More importantly, I haven't followed through on my intention to pull some excerpts out from the file, and rewrite them for posting on Notes on Everyday Life. I have a lot more to say, especially on the Iran/Lebanon war, but I'm having trouble keeping up, and wind up doing a lot of thrashing.

The main thing I want to say about Trump's "deal" is that the details, which seem mostly to be about money, don't really matter. The only things that really do matter are whether Trump is sincere about abandoning the war path, and is in sufficient control of his administration to stop Israel from sabotaging the deal. That he has been hurt politically by his decision to start bombing is way beyond doubt. That resuming the bombing would only hurt him more is also pretty obvious, although there are many consultants in Netanyahu's pocket who are arguing otherwise. Thus far the really worst case scenarios, which involve major destruction and possible upheaval in the Persian Gulf states, haven't really happened.

Of course, it will be really hard for Trump to control Israel. It will take discipline and clarity he has never yet demonstrated. For starters, Israel has developed a lot of deep-seated influence in Washington, including on his staff and in his cabinet — the very people he is powerless without. But also, Netanyahu is extremely persistent, as two-faced and under-handed as anyone in politics gets. He's shown, time and again, that he's willing to bend, but won't break, and will snap back first opportunity he gets.

It's also quite possible the Democrats will play this so badly he feels the need to resume the war to reassert his "tough guy" self-conception. It's easy enough to come up with a list of points showing that his deal is more generous to Iran than Obama's JCPOA deal was. But I'm more inclined to argue that both of those deals weren't generous enough. Instead of trying to hamstring Iran with technicalities (and "snap back" sanctions), merely to appease Israel's much publicized but insincere fears, Obama should have sought to normalize relations with Iran: ending the sanctions, assuring Iran that neither Israel nor the Gulf States would attack it, and seeking Iran's cooperation in resolving disputes around the region (e.g., Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, even Hamas — although Iran's influence with them was almost purely propaganda spin by Israel). By not even trying to end the conflict, Obama paved the way for Trump to withdraw from JCPOA and start his own disastrous war. Of course, the blame for that war lies squarely with Trump, but that's no excuse for Obama's failures, both viz. Iran and in failing to do anything meaningful about Israel's increasing marginalization and dehumanization of the Palestinians.

Sure, Obama's blind spot viz. Israel isn't much different from Biden's or Trump's. All three, like most American politicians, are totally in thrall to Israel's propaganda line — or at least were, until it started to become clear what kind of world Israel is building. The good and bad news here is that Israel doesn't need war with Iran to do what they really want to do, which is to drive the Palestinians away from their land claims. As I've noted many times, Israeli demonization of Iran has mostly served to manipulate the Americans (who still harbor grudges from 1979). Trump, on the other hand, doesn't need to see Iran as a threat, and he doesn't need to believe in "two-state" delusions. He's quite happy to support Israel's ethnic cleansing as long as it feeds into his graft. (Bribes are always much simpler/cleaner than ideology.) That may mean that Israel has to give up on their dreams of occupying and annexing Lebanon, but that's something Israel can save for later. (It was on Ben-Gurion's wish list from 1948, but you rarely heard much about it until 1982; after 2000, it faded again, until being revived last year following the "cease-fire" in Gaza. Give Israel a moment's peace, and they go looking for the next war.)

PS: I wrote the previous paragraphs yesterday. I have some further thoughts this morning, but I'll save them for a future Substack post, when I feel a bit less under the gun. As I explained in my April 5 The Big Questions post, the problem has always been one of Trump finding an off-ramp that was palatable to him politically. This one isn't ideal, but nothing with Trump is, or can be, because, well, he's stupid, and egomaniacal, and that's far from being his worst quality. So forget "do the right thing" as a guideline. That isn't even a concept with him. What he wants is to claim victory, and to avoid further punishment (politically, of course, but also anything that might diminish his graft). His victory claim is that he has stopped Iran from ever getting a nuclear bomb, and that the Strait of Hormuz will be open and toll-free. His concessions are to drop the sanctions (which are bad for business, and only serve to make Iran more anti-American), to promise not to bomb Iran again (which he can deliver on, because it was always a stupid thing to do), and to restrain Israel (from doing the same, which it could only do with American support, and from Lebanon, which will be a sticking point for Netanyahu and his coalition).

Israelis will scream bloody murder over having their wars curtailed, but that's a price they can well afford to pay — much as they did every time they removed their settlers from some untenable outpost (v. Sinai in 1979, Gaza in 2005). But what really matters to them is their "ethnic cleansing" in the occupied territories, and Trump has alrealdy proven to be their most reliable, and least squeamish, ally ever. Besides which, Netanyahu knows Israel can't afford to sustain those wars on their own, so Trump holds if not all the cards, the (pun inevitable) trump ones. Besides, while Ben-Gvir can exalt Israeli sovereignty and rail against American bullying, much of Netanyahu's political capital is based on the perception that he's a master manipulator of American politicians. So for him picking a fight with Trump is a lose-lose proposition. He has his own skin to save in elections that are fast approaching. Having failed to keep the Americans in the war, perhaps his best tactic is to claim his share of Trump's victory.

The other thing to bear in mind about the "deal" is that aside from the "nuclear issue," most of what matters is the money flowing from the Gulf states into Iran. Trump cannot politically afford to rebuild Iran, but the Gulf states cannot afford not to. Iran could collect tribute in tolls, but major development investment, free from American sanctions, has the same effect, looks better, and builds long-term ties.

The main reason I haven't had time to write up these thoughts, or much else on my mind, is the work it's taking to get the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Mid-Year 2026 Poll going. I sent the first round of ballots out last week. Voting so far is alarmingly light (19 ballots counted; less than a dozen more acks, many actually nacks). My worst fear is that the mail isn't getting delivered, and people who would vote aren't hearing about it, but there is very little I can do about that (beyond sending nag letters out, something I'm uncomfortable with, and likely to meet the same fate). I understand that most of the mid-year drop off is due to timing, uncertainty, doubt, and simply not having enough time to think about things this trivial. I've tried to emphasize that one shouldn't fret over getting this right: just take a couple minutes and jot down the titles of a few albums that you'd like your friends and readers to hear about. We'll table them up, and present them in a way that helps everyone get a better grasp on the year (so far) in recorded jazz.

So far, we're averaging about 9 new albums per ballot (the maximum, if a voter provides a full list of 10 new jazz albums and 5 rara avis, is 15). I'm already up to my ears in tips of records that I hadn't heard before, and most turn out to be very good. This is a bit part of the reason I have so many A- and B+(***) records this week (12 each). I'm still suppressing the totals on the website, but I've made it possible to see the ballots as they come in, as well as lists of all of the albums that have received votes. One thing I'm hoping for is that people will post links to their online ballots — my own ballot is here — and that this will stimulate some interest in the poll.

I should send out a second round of invitations soon, and maybe some reminders. I'm always worried about invitations and reminders getting caught up in spam traps, especially as there's virtually nothing I can do about it. It would help to stir up some chatter wherever potential voters hang out, but aside from mentioning it here and on my X/Bluesky feeds, I don't have many ideas. Last few years I worried about the poll falling apart under my stewartship. I did manage to push the vote total up in 2024, only to see it drop in 2025 (while DownBeat claimed their biggest poll ever, including dozens of names I had invited but didn't hear from; why anyone would slog through their 50 questions, which always takes me 6-8 hours, yet can't find time to write down a list of two of favorite albums, is beyond me — surely it's not just the T-shirt?).

Still, I find album lists much more interesting than trying to sort out a pecking order for pianists (too many great ones) or flautists (too few?). For me at least, albums are the units we search out. Everything else is just name-dropping. But I'm trying not to worry about turnout. Even if we only hit what I currently imagine as a minimal response (50-60 ballots), we are certain to generate lots of interesting information (at least for the few of us who try to follow such things). At 19, we already have.

One thing I haven't had time to do this year is to look at the other mid-year ("so far") polls that have been published (e.g.: Guardian; Hip-Hop Golden Age; NME; Rolling Stone; Saving Country Music; Shatter the Standards; Stereogum; Treble). For one thing, I'm not tracking them this year. (Whether I do an EOY aggregate remains to be seen, but I haven't started one, and it's a big piece of busy work I don't have time or energy to tackle.)

While most of the jazz albums below come from poll tips (although some, like Champian Fulton, caught my gaze while looking for something else), much of the non-jazz comes from Robert Christgau's June Consumer Guide. I was surprised to find only one album I had previously heard (Pony, which I had forgotten, so seemed like zero; more will appear next week).

New records reviewed this week:

Ambrose Akinmusire/Mary Halvorson: Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings (2025 [2026], Nonesuch): Two of the biggest names in jazz, the trumpet player with five top-five poll finishes so far, the guitarist with two outright wins, in a duo here after landing after landing on the same major label. Minor details prove their talents, in an intimate, low-key encounter that discourages hype. B+(***) [sp]

Lakecia Benjamin: We Dream (2026, Artwork): Alto saxophonist, half-dozen albums since 2012, has toured with r&b bands, has crossed over enough to get some Grammy attention, but sounds pretty solidly rooted in Coltrane here, with a side of hip-hop. B+(**) [sp]

Circular Arcs: Conventicle (2020 [2025], Castor & Pollux Music): Trio of Esteban Flores (guitar), John Rieder (bass), and Nathan Hubbard (drums); Hubbard has a substantial discography going back to 2002, but the others are relatively new. Fairly heavy noise-fusion, impressive as far as it goes. B+(***) [bc]

Cola: Cost of Living Adjustment (2026, Fire Talk): Post-punk guitar-bass-drums trio from Montreal, Tim Darcy the singer-songwriter, third album since 2022. Some fairly strong guitar. B+(*) [sp]

Corima: Hunab Ku (2026, Soleil Zeuhl): Los Angeles band "playing rock-fusion in the Zeuhl vein" — a term I had to look up, one originally applied to the French prog rock band Magma (which I recall from the 1970s; realizing that French wouldn't work for rock, and unwilling to switch to English, they invented a new lanaugage to sing in, Kobaïan); fourth album. Only one I recognize is saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, but others play violin, keys, bass, and drums/tabla/harmonium. Most are credited with vocals, but they're not very intrusive. B+(*) [bc]

Florence Dore: Hold the Spark (2026, Propeller): Singer-songwriter from Nashville, teaches American/Comparative Lit in North Carolina, recorded an album in 2001, another two decades later, and now a third. Christgau describes her as "writerly," then makes his point in quotes. I wouldn't have noticed, but approve in theory, and look forward to accidentally stumbling on similar evidence. But sounds pretty solid as is. A- [sp]

Dave Douglas: Transcend (2025 [2026], Greenleaf Music): Postbop trumpet player, emerged as a more adventurous rival to Wynton Marsalis in the 1990s, tremendous chops, has always recruited top young musicians for his groups, hasn't always pleased me with his compositions. Another quintet, with James Brandon Lewis on tenor sax, and an unconventional rhythm section: Rafiq Bhatia (guitar), Tomeka Reid (cello), and Ian Chang (drums). B+(***) [sp]

Olof Dreijer: Loud Bloom (2026, Dh2): Electronic music producer from Sweden, formerly half of the Knife (5 albums, 2001-13) with slbing Karin Dreijer. Second solo studio album. Deep synths, heavy beats, some vocal fluff. I find it very appealing, although at volume it may disturb the neighbors. A- [sp]

Champian Fulton: House Party (2025 [2026], Turtle Bay): Retro-standards singer, started with David Berger's big band in 2007, plays her own piano, with her "longtime trio" of Hide Tanaka (bass) and Fukushi Tainaka (drums), also saxophonists Klas Lindquist (alto) and Cory Weeds (tenor). She is superb, but the real treat here is the 10:58 sax joust on "Billie's Bounce," which for a moment had me wondering whether I was playing "The Chase." A- [sp]

Goal Weight [Maggie Cox & Jennifer Gersten]: Keep Telling Yourself That (2025 [2026], Relative Pitch): New York City duo, bass and violin. B+(***) [sp]

Phillip Golub: Partisan Ship (2025 [2026], Berthold): Pianist, from LA but based in NYC, several albums since 2020, plays various synths here (Flexichord, Behringer Neutron, Arturia Digital), with spots for Yuma Uesaka (clarinets, tenor sax, blass clariflute), Anna Webber (flute, tenor sax), David Leon (alto sax), Layale Chaker (violin), Elias Stemeseder (more synths), some bass and drums (or drum machine). B+(**) [bc]

Gregory Hutchinson: Kind of Now: The Pulse of Miles Davis (2026, Warner Music Arts): One of many projects revisiting Davis on his centennary, led by the drummer, with Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet) in the key role, accompanied by Ron Blake (tenor sax/bass clarinet), two guitarists (Emmanuel Michael and Jakob Bro), piano (Gerald Clayton), and bass (Joe Sanders), playing three originals and ten pieces from the songbook (4 by Davis, 4 by Wayne Shorter, one each for Tony Williams and Charlie Parker, with a Victor Feldman assist). B+(**) [sp]

Ernesto Jodos/Rocio Giménez López: Una Casa Con Dos Pianos (2026, Blue Art): Two pianists from Argentina. Jodos has over a dozen albums since 1997. López a shorter discography, since 2017. Nice. B+(**) [sp]

K.A.A.N.: Kaancepts (2025, D-Ace Beats): Rapper Brandon Perry, from Maryland, based in Los Angeles, acronym stands for Knowledge Above All Nonsense, Wikipedia lists 27 albums, 3 mixtapes, 13 EPs, and 61 singles since 2014, but Discogs only has 8 albums plus 13 other releases, and neither has this one, which evaded attention in part by dropping on December 25. I've heard one album, Subtle Meditation (an A- from 2018). Could be that this is a compilation tied into a video, but that too is unclear. What is obvious is that few have ever rapped faster, so he generates his own frenzied rhythm, leaving producer D-Ace Beats (who sometimes gets co-credit, but landed on my source as the label name) to steady the ship. A- [sp]

Lime Garden: Maybe Not Tonight (2026, So Young): British "wonk pop" band, second album, Chloe Howard the singer, plays guitar (as does Leila Deeley, with Tippi Morgan on bass and Annabel Whittle on drums). First songs are very catchy, and while they're not all that striking, they never let up. A- [sp]

Joe Lovano: Paramount Quartet (2025 [2026], ECM): Tenor saxophonist from Cleveland, emerged in the late 1980s working with Paul Motian and Bill Frisell in the 1980s, then John Scofield; dominated the 1990s with Blue Note albums like From the Soul. He has been steadily productive since then, but the albums have been hit and miss. New quartet here with Julian Lage (guitar), Asante Santi Debriano (bass), and Will Calhoun (drums). B+(***) [sp]

Ashley McBryde: Wild (2026, Warner Nashville): Country singer-songwriter, sixth album since 2018, only has writing credits on 6 (of 11) songs, with the most striking song Randall Clay's "Rattlesnake Preacher." But McBryde owns it, establishing her rustic deep south roots, a firm foundation to rock out on. A- [sp]

Aja Monet: The Color of Rain (2026, Drink Sum Wtr): Poet, performer, activist, from New York, based in Los Angeles, second album after four books. Promises "all rhythm and no algorithm." But she lays on some serious politics: "From Palisades to Palestine/ An actress compares the LA oceanfront to Gaza/ Never mentions the Rafah border/ The cutoff of two thousand aid trucks / Neglects to mention body bags, rubble, or the Israeli snipers aimed at children," and "nothing like disaster to shock a heart into beating" and "HEPA can't filter this coruption/ Maybe, maybe socialism is on its way." A- [sp]

Jason Moran/BlankFor.ms/Marcus Gilmore: Shards (2024 [2026], Red Hook): Pianist, from Houston, early albums on Blue Note (1999-2006) established him as a major figure. (After two more Blue Notes, his self-released albums since 2016 have gotten little publicity, although 2023's From the Dancehall to the Battlefield was something of an exception; I haven't heard his new Plays Ellington.) Second album with this trio, Tyler Gilmore on electronics, and (presumably not related) Marcus Gilmore on drums. I can't say the electronics made much of an impression, but the piano did. B+(***) [sp]

The New Pornographers: The Former Site Of (2026, Merge): Canadian indie rock band, 10th studio album since 2000, leader is Carl Newman, although other singer Neko Case is probably better known given her solo career (as A.C. Newman has three solo albums 2004-12; Dan Bejar, aka Destroyer, was a third singer-songwriter until recently). I liked Case before I heard them, but she's never been the point, and after a few disappointments, I decided they don't have any. Still, this is pleasant and occasionally catchy. B+(**) [sp]

Miles Okazaki: Boomtown (2025 [2026] Pi): Guitarist, a dozen-plus albums since 2006, including a "Complete Compositions of Thelonious Monk." Large group here with three saxophonists (Caroline Davis, Anna Webber, Jon Irabagon), two trombonists (Jacob Garchik and Kalia Vandever), piano (Matt Mitchell), drums (Dan Weiss), and two bassists (Chris Tordini and Hannah Marks). Most impressive at full strength. A- [cd] [06-26]

Ivo Perelman/Wadada Leo Smith: Duologues 5 (2026, Ibeji): Tenor sax and trumpet duo. Two masters, though not a lot of contrast or momentum. B+(***) [sp]

The Phoenix Trio: Tomorrow Is Today (2025 [2026], Giant Step Arts): Mark Turner (tenor sax), Joe Martin (bass), and Marcus Gilmore (drums), order from back cover, with front cover going Gilmore-Martin-Turner. Martin wrote 4 (of 6) songs, with one each for the others. Turner was part of the 1990s mainstream resurgence, which coincided with the revival of major labels like Blue Note and Verve, and to my mind at least was led by a dozen or more major tenor saxophonists. He's had ups and downs since then, but seems ideally situated with these younger players. A- [cd] [06-19]

Ragini Trio: 3 (2026, W.E.R.F.): Sax trio from Belgium, with Nathan Daems (tenor sax/effects), Marco Bordoscia (double bass/bass guitar), and Lander Gyselinck (drums). Fine print says the group name comes from "years of deep exploration into long-form ragas, South Indian Carnatic traditions, konnakkol, and Western jazz." And here I thought I was just a sucker for a well-formed, full-throated saxophone trio. A- [bc]

David Sanchez: Tambó (2025 [2026], Ropeadope): Tenor saxophonist, from Puerto Rico, made a big impression in the 1990s (peaking in 1998 with Obsesión), first album since 2019, half soaring over Latin percussion like the good olde days, half slacks off a bit to show his ballad skills. B+(***) [sp]

Omar Sosa/Joo Kraus/Diego Pinera: Vibe Factor (2026, Music Hub): Cuban pianist, left in the 1990s for Ecuador, eventually wound up in Spain. Many albums since 1996. Strangely very little info available on this album, but Kraus (from Germany) plays trumpet, and Pinera (from Uruguay) drums. Apt title. B+(**) [sp]

This Is Lorelei: Holo Boy (2025, Double Double Whammy): Singer-songwriter Nate Amos, who defers to vocalist Rachel Brown in their band Water From Your Eyes, serves up a second album solo (short at 26:53 but with 10 songs), which dropped shortly before his "Super Deluxe" expansion of the first one. B+(***) [sp]

Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band: Treasury Volume 3 (2026, Turtle Bay): Ragtime pianist, b. 1944, mentored by Eubie Blake 1969-83, but also studied with Roland Hanna, Dick Wellstood, and Jaki Byard; called his first band The Fungus Five Plus Two ("our music grows on you"), but best known for Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators (1969-81), and now for his Gotham City Band (since 1984). Old songs, recently recorded (I've been assured). The first two volumes are treasures indeed. This is, if anything, even more delightful. A- [sp]

Work Money Death: A Portal to Here (2026, ATA): British jazz group, name from tenor saxophonist Tony Burkill's 2017 debut album, fourth album under the group name, only Sam Hobbs (drums) remains from the orginal group, which now has Johnny Richards (piano), Neil Innes (bass), and Sam Bell (percussion), plus extras here and there. "Aim to produce longform, improvised pieces inspired by the work of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane." A fairly surefire formula (cf. Nate Birchall), which they deliver on. A- [bc]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Muriel Grossmann: Quartet (2008 [2026], Modernistas): Alto saxophonist, from Austria, one of her first albums, recorded in Ibiza, where she lives. With Radomir Milojkovic (guitar), David Marroquin (bass), and Marko Jelača. B+(***) [bc]

Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra: Vol. 1: Concert À Prades-Le-Lez (1974 [2026], Souffle Continu): Jazz group led by French pianist François Tusques (b. 1938), followed up his 1971 album Intercommunal Music by organizing this group, which in various guises recorded a half-dozen albums up to 1983. This one has two saxophonists (Jo Maka and Michel Marre), trombone (Adolphe Winkler), and percussion (Guem). Draws on sources "from New Orleans to Brittany to North Africa," and perhaps points south. B+(***) [bc]

Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra: Vol. 2: Concert À Prades-Le-Lez (1974 [2026], Souffle Continu): Continues for another four tracks, 38:44. B+(**) [bc]

Charlie Mariano/Sal Nistico: Barcelona Meeting (1989 [2026], Fresh Sound): Two saxophonists, alto and tenor, only together on three tracks, the rest quartet tracks, three led by Mariano, five by Nistico, all backed by Frank Strazzeri (piano), Isla Eckinger (bass), and Peer Wyboris (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Red Norvo: The Secret Session (1942 [2026], Dot Time): Mallets player (1908-99), started recording in 1933, filling up eight volumes in the Classics Chronological Series through 1951. This session, where he plays xylophone, was recorded in secret in late 1942, in defiance of the recording ban, just before the war would break up his band. Best known musicians here are Shorty Rogers (trumpet), Eddie Bert (trombone), and Aaron Sachs (clarinet/alto sax), backed by piano, bass, and drums. B+(**) [bc]

John Prine: Live at Old Town School of Folk (2010 [2026], Oh Boy): The new album I was looking for when I found his 1975 Other End set(s). Opens with "Spanish Pipedream," and the wear and tear on his voice — throat cancer did that, and could have done worse — is obvious. "The Oldest Baby in the World" suffers even worse, as the band that often picks him up lays back. The patter can be hard to pick up, although I recognized the "happy enchilada song" bit. B+(**) [bc]

John Taylor With Stan Sulzmann: Quintessence (1987 [2026], Jazz in Britain): English pianist (1942-2015), a major figure in British jazz, who worked with John Surman, Kenny Wheeler, and (in Azymuth) with Norma Winstone. Sulzmann (b. 1948) plays soprano sax here, backed by Rundfunkorchester Hannover des NDR. B+(*) [bc]

The Visitors [Earl & Carl Grubbs]: Motherland (1975 [2026], Craft): Saxophonist brothers, Earl Grubbs (d. 1989, tenor/soprano) and Carl Grubbs (1944-2024, alto), recorded four albums 1972-76; Carl had a few later albums on his own, plus work with Julius Hemphill and Odean Pope. Album cover lists their names right after the group name. Credit varied over time, with first album just The Visitors; the second (like this one) with names after group, the third with Earl & Carl Grubbs (The Visitors). With Jo Bonner (piano), John Lee (bass), and Victor Lewis (drums). Straddles free jazz and soul jazz. B+(**) [sp]

Old music:

Tony Burkill: Work Money Death (2017, ATA): British tenor saxophonist, first album, only one under his own name, but he has four more as Work Money Death. Quartet with Gerald Cooper (piano), Sam Hobbs (drums), and Pete Williams (percussion). He's got that Coltrane-Sanders thing going, which is pretty hard to screw up. B+(***) [sp]

Florence Dore: Perfect City (2001 [2002], Slewfoot): First album, didn't get to her second until 2022, but she wrote a couple books in the meantime — Novel Sounds: Southern Fiction in the Age of Rock and Roll, and The Ink in the Grooves: Conversations on Literature and Rock 'n' Roll. B+(**) [sp]

Florence Dore: Highways & Rocketships (2022, Propeller Sound): Second album, after a long break. Could be that the pandemic jolted her out of academia, or maybe marrying drummer Will Rigby (although the band credits are missing from Discogs, and merely hinted at on Bandcamp). B+(**) [sp]

John Prine: Live at the Other End Dec. 1975 (1975 [2021], Rhino/Atlantic): I vaguely recall email from the late singer-songwriter's label that they've come up with a new old live album, but I can't find the mail, or any evidence of it. But I did find this item, which has two hour-long sets from the very end of his Atlantic years: four 1971-75 albums, all strongly recommended. So few songs here I don't know and love. Presentation is singing over solo guitar, with Steve Goodman joining in for two songs, and intermittent patter. Probably unnecessary at the time, but works perfectly right now. A- [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week (incomplete):

  • Michael Marcus Quartet: Next Stop Down (ESP-Disk') [06-26]
  • New England Jazz Collaborative: Tributaries (ACP) [07-16]

 

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Loose Tabs

Unfortunately, I've dawdled much too long on this post, which puts me into a position where for better or worse I simply have to dump it out now. Sorry for the hit-and-miss nature of what follows. I've been preoccupied with music matters, including the Mid-Year 2026 Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll, which is almost certain to swallow up all of my remaining time and energy through roughly July 15. (Voting deadline is July 5. Then I have to write some sort of essay on the state of the art.)

It is possible that I will add bits and pieces to this after initial posting. Otherwise, I'll store away items for next time, whenever that may be. I'd like to carve out more short pieces to go into Notes on Everyday Life. Below you'll find an index of some political pieces I've written there. The three Iran War pieces and the two on Israel/Gaza are still relevant to understanding the chaos that has so cluttered up the news there. I projected a fourth Iran War piece, but we're presently stalemated in a war that is basically between Trump's id and ego, things that Iran seems powerless to affect. (Israel is another story.) A rational analyst would point out that Iran should be willing to forego its "nuclear program" (or "ambitions" or whatever you're calling it) in exchange for real, credible security, and complete freedom from sanctions. Also that they should be willing to end military aid to Hezbollah and other "proxies" in exchange for real, credible security for them. Also that they should be entitled to considerable reconstruction aid, which could be provided by accepting fairly modest tolls through the Strait of Hormuz. Also that the US and Iran should normalize relations, allow trade, investment, etc. And that Iran should be willing to normalize relations when Israel when/if Israel reaches a peaceful settlement of Palestinian grievances. Is that too much to ask? All I'm asking for is normalcy, which has been broken partly by Iran's anti-Americanism from 1979 (which, frankly, was hard earned), but mostly by America's post-1979 grudge, stoked by Israel's cynical opportunism.

I could blow that last paragraph up into an essay, but that's the gist of it, and pretty much everything else is ephemeral. Sure, Americans will complain about Iran's missiles and drones, but they're only a threat if underlying relations remain hostile. That's actually true of the nuclear program as well, but Israel and America are so used to using nuclear weapons for extortion they can easily forget that most people just see them as some kind of deterrent: one that works by recognition, not by use. Meanwhile, their undoubted ability to close the Strait of Hormuz is a pretty effective deterrent on its own, making the potential of nuclear weapons issue moot. Meanwhile, the US and Israel have effective nuclear deterrents of their own, so why should they worry?

The problem, as I've tried to explain before, is that Netanyahu regards peace as a political disaster — he's maintained his longest term ever by repeatedly escalating, a promise that is bound to collapse when Israelis see how little his wars have gained them — and perhaps worse, given that he's still dodging criminal charges. Trump faces similar perils in ending the war with only the flimsiest claims to victory, but his war is already so unpopular that he may be doomed anyway. On the other hand, his fixed term has 32 more months to run, so he may indeed simply not care.

There are, of course, many more stories below, plus much I simply haven't gotten to. Political primary season is heating up. Trump has been pretty successful so far in disciplining his own party, as well as in motivating support for Democrats. The net effect will be hard to ascertain until we start seeing them compete against each other.

This is an occasional collection of newsworthy links and comments, much less systematic than what I attempted in my late Speaking of Which posts. The new name comes from my extensive use of browser tabs. When I get around to cleaning up, I often find tabs opened to old articles I might want to comment on and/or refer back to. So these posts are mostly housecleaning, but may also serve as a very limited but persistent record of what 20+ years ago I started calling "the end of the American empire" and nowadays feels more like "the end of civilization." I collect these bits in a draft file, and flush them out when periodically (12 times from April-December 2025). My previous one appeared 33 days ago, on May 12. This one was initially posted on June 14. Any subsequent adds will be marked with change bars.

By the way, I've been trying to write some more in-depth pieces on major issues (and/or personal peccadillos), using Substack as an email agent. I call this series Notes on Everyday Life. Here's a list of recent ones, plus a couple of oldies I've pinned because they still seem relevant here, in LIFO order:

  • [05-29]: But Reality Is Unscripted: Disturbing thoughts on Trump.

  • [05-05]: The Real Road to Serfdom: Tim Wu explains how monopoly power leads to fascism.

  • [05-02]: Lookback: Iraq 2003: Why does the Iran war story sound familiar? (with allowances for tragedy repeating as farce)?

  • [04-27]: Explaining Inflation: AI treats us like 5-year-olds. They leave out a few things.

  • [04-05]: Iran War: The Big Question: How does it end? Or does it end at all?

  • [04-03]: Iran War: The Three Questions: Why is this happening?

  • [03-13]: Days of Infamy: "Franklin Roosevelt knew how to sell a war." Donald Trump doesn't. He only knows how to start one.

  • [2025-10-21]: Making Peace in Gaza and Beyond: "Looking beyond the Trump points toward a peace we can all live with."

  • [2025-10-17]: Gaza War Peace Plan: "Twenty Trump points, for better or worse."

  • [2025-08-10]: Four Stories: My first post, which sets out the basic ideas behind my effort, and takes its title from a very wrong-headed Vox piece that offered some teachable moments. One sample quote I buried in parentheses:

    There is no problem that Trump is the solution to. But his slogan, "Trump will fix it," suggests that some people thought we had problems he could fix. I think Trump's slogan was very effective, especially as Harris made little or no effort to show how very ridiculous the boast was.

I also have a Notes feed there. While I've done very little with it so far, it occurs to me that I might be able to use it to publish Loose Tabs items and Music Week reviews as I write them, instead of having to wait for a long compilation post.

Table of Contents:

Special bonus: Lyrics for Carsie Blanton's Everything Is Great!:

Everything is great
Everything is fine
Everything is getting better all of the time
Everybody knows that president's insane
Nobody wants to talk about what people do if their president's insane

It's the hottest summer in the history of man
For some reason yesterday we bombed Iran
Everybody knows we're starting world war three
But nobody wants to talk about what you should do if your government is starting WWIII

Everything is great
Everything is fine
Everything is getting better all of the time
Everybody knows that Luigi was right
But nobody wants to talk about what you should do when everybody knows that Luigi was right

They're shooting people lining up for bags of flour
You don't need the permission if you've got the power
Everybody knows that we're living in a death cult
Nobody wants to talk about what you should do if you're living in a death cult

That would be great
That would be fine
Light a little fire and drink a bottle of wine
Everybody needs a friend sometimes
We can sit around and talk about what we should do if the presidents insane and starting WWIII and we're living in a death cult and everybody knows that Luigi was right

And we can talk all night

New Stories

Sometimes stuff happens, and it dominates the news/opinion cycle for a few days or possibly several weeks. We might as well lead with it, because it's where attention is most concentrated. But eventually these stories will fold into the broader, more persistent themes of the following sections, or vanish altogether.

Last time: Cuba; Jerome Powell, David Warsh and the Fed; White House Correspondents' Dinner; Gerrymandering around voting rights; Spirit Airlines bites the dust.

David Warsh and the Fed: Trump's appointment to replace Jerome Powell has been confirmed, so he's now in charge. Powell remains on the board for now. Trump had tried to have Powell prosecuted to move him out before his term ended, and Powell's decision to hang on may relate to that. Otherwise, this basically confirms the pattern, where Republican presidents nominate new chairmen who are more reliable political food soldiers, while Democrats renominate Republicans to keep from spooking the financial markets, and those Republicans proceed to hold the economy hostage, so the Democrats wind up looking bad. Granted, some left-leaning economists wound up saying good things about renominating Powell and Bernanke, and also granted that some of the front-running Democrats (like Summers or Volcker) could have been worse.

  • Bess Levin [05-14]: Kevin Warsh now gets to prove he isn't Donald Trump's 'sock puppet': "How does the incoming Fed chair's background signal his approach to inflation, interest rates, and dealing with you know who?" As for who is Warsh?

    The incoming Fed chief is a former investment banker who served on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from January 2006 to March 2011, when he resigned in protest over the decision to buy $600 billion in Treasury securities as part of a goal of lowering long-term interest rates (more on that later!). Known during his time in Washington as the "Federal Reserve's chief liaison to Wall Street," Warsh later became a partner at billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller's family office and was named a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a visiting scholar at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Speaking of billionaires: Warsh is the son-in-law of billionaire Trump donor and Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., heir Ronald Lauder, through his marriage to Jane Lauder. The soon-to-be Fed chair himself is worth over $100 million, making him the richest Fed chief in the history of the central bank. (In comparison, Powell is worth a paltry $19.5 million.)

  • Mike Konczal [05-15]: The weirdness of Jay Powell's legacy: "I think [Jay Powell] did a good job. I think he'll be remembered well" but "his legacy will be a bit weird in the short term."

  • Matt Peterson [06-02]: Fed Chair Warsh makes first hires at central bank, including 'Project 2025' author: Paul Winfree, whose "contribution to the 'Project 2025' policy book set out potential reforms that go beyond Warsh's calls for 'regime change' at the Fed."

AI Goes to trial: Elon Musk (xAI) is suing Sam Altman (OpenAI) over who can be trusted with running the world through AI.

Trump and Putin Go to China: On May 13-15, Trump flew to Beijing for a state visit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The visit had been planned for April, but was postponed due to the Iran War.

  • Lyle J Goldstein [04-22]: War has significiantly altered major Trump meeting with Xi: "Rather than a clash, these titans are likely tempered by the Middle East war. The question, who now has the better advantage?"

  • Anatol Lieven [05-13]: Picking up on the vibes in Beijing before major Trump-Xi visit: "Insights from my trip two weeks ago: Beijing doesn't want to indulge Trump's actions in Iran, nor lead international condemnation or an 'Axis of Upheaval.'"

  • Joshua Keating [05-13]: Trump's China policy is nearly the exact opposite of what everyone expected: "As Trump heads to China, attention and resources are being shifted from Asia to yet another war in the Middle East." I think "from unconventional hawk to unexpected dove" is wrong on both counts. "Hawk" and "dove" are tactical ploys for him, not ideologies. I think you should look at Trump on two levels, and understand that he's not coherent enough to consistently link them. One is rhetoric: what he says is mostly independent of what he does, but it is highly variable according to who he's talking to. In America, for domestic political consumption, he's very hawkish about China, but when he's face to face with Xi, he's very dovish, deferential even. But action is something different. Trump, like any bully, understands that actions are situational as well: there are some people you can beat up, and some you can't. Often, he overestimates his power, and errs on the side of aggression, as he has done with Iran. But what can he actually do to China? He knows that simply talking a tough game will not work. He doesn't have the firepower to cower China, and he doesn't have the logistics to take the fight to them. He doesn't even have any good opportunities for skirmishes. If he tried to send the Navy into the South China Sea to secure some artificial islands, he's probably get routed. If he could provoke China into attacking Taiwan, he might be able to defend it, but nobody wants to test that. And if he tried to turn China into an active enemy, there's a lot more they could do to him than he could do to them. If China really hated us, they could arm Iran, like the US did Afghanistan and Ukraine. China could extend Iran a "nuclear umbrella," like the US offers to South Korea and Japan (and maybe Taiwan?). Trump thought he could act unilaterally on tariffs, but even there he's mostly had to back down. You could say he doesn't have the guts, but really he just doesn't have the cards.

  • Kate Lamb [05-14]: What is the Thucydides Trap and why did Xi Jinping mention it in his meeting with Donald Trump: I've heard the term, but couldn't give you a definition off the top of my head, partly because I've had very little interest in Greek and Roman precedents (I've been known to quip that every bad idea in western thought can be traced back to some fool Greek), partly because the "experts" who dwell on such things tend to be assholes (e.g., Victor Davis Hanson, Robert D Kaplan; by the way, there's a 2017 book by Graham Allison, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?, so it's easy to see how Xi might think that Americans recognize the term). Here's a definition: "A staple of foreign policy commentary, including by Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon, the Thucydides Trap refers to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the result is often war."

  • David Smith [05-14]: Trump delights in his deference to Xi, his strongman fantasy made flesh: There are those who might regard Trump's showering of Xi and China with flattery as demeaning for the frequently dubbed "most powerful person on earth" — or would, if a Democrat came even remotely close to such a display — but Trump seems to get a bye, perhaps in deference to his reputed mastery of multi-dimensional chess, or maybe just because we know him to be an inveterate liar? But I figure it's just a quirk: as someone who expects and thrives on flattery, Trump may figure it works on others, and it costs him little. It also conveys the feeling that nothing serious is at stake, and it's all meant to be quickly forgotten. Xi certainly understood that part, loading the brief two-day schedule — they must have spent as much time in the air as on the ground — with nothing more than pomp and circumstance. My only takeaway is the menu:

    The dinner was also notable for a menu that felt like fusion cuisine to appease Trump's unadventurous palate: lobster in tomato soup, crispy beef ribs, Beijing roast duck, stewed seasonal vegetables, slow-cooked salmon in mustard sauce, pan-fried pork bun and trumpet shell-shaped pastry, tiramisu and fruits and ice-cream.

  • Chas Danner [05-15]: Did Trump's China trip accomplish anything at all? "Here's what did and didn't happen, as far as anyone can tell." Not much, least of all for public consumption.

  • Amy Hawkins [05-15]: What was actually achieved at Trump and Xi's 'stalemate summit' in Beijing?

  • Michael D Swaine:

  • Robert Wright [05-15]: Trump's accidental triumph in Beijing. After taking some shots at "dean of Blob scribes" David Sanger, Wright takes Trump's modest posture in Beijing as good news (admitting, "I've always been a sucker for peaceful coexistence"):

    Imagine, for example, that the Iran War had gone according to plan: Trump oversees a Venezuela-esque display of military mastery, installs a puppet regime, starts exercising remote control over Iran's oil spigot, and waltzes into Beijing as king of the world. In that scenario, this summit might have had a different tenor, with Trump demanding more and demanding it loudly, creating the kind of friction he's so good at creating. And it's especially easy to imagine that kind of summit if — to add a second power-of-contingency thought experiment — some adviser had last year persuaded him to go easy on the tariffs and other forms of economic warfare, in which case Beijing wouldn't have been pushed to the point of chastening Trump by playing its rare-earth minerals card.

    But those are just thought experiments. In the real world, Trump came to Beijing a humbled man (OK, OK, a closer-to-humbled-than-usual man). What's more — and what makes me so emphasize the magnitude of this moment — the things that humbled him have implications that go well beyond US-China relations. True, his Middle Eastern demonstration of the limits of American military power has, on the one hand, implications for Taiwan (a fact that has no doubt crossed Xi's mind). But it also has implications — tectonic implications — for the Middle East itself. As the Beijing summit started, there were reports that Saudi Arabia has proposed a non-aggression pact between Iran and its Arab neighbors. That's the kind of thing you propose when you realize that your guardian superpower can't keep you safe — and it could turn out to be the kind of thing that foreshadows the eventual withdrawal of that superpower from the region.

  • The White House [05-17]: Fact Sheet: President Donald J Trump Secures Historic Deals with China, Delivering for American Workers, Farmers, and Industry: Not a place I've ever done looking for information, as this is just the official Trump administration spin. (So I was taken aback when I saw the pop-up asking or email addresses under the head "Welcome to the Golden Age!" So that's what this is?)

  • Pjotr Sauer/Amy Hawkins [05-20]: Same but different: how Xi and China welcomed Trump and Putin. "The choreography of the two welcomes appeared deliberately mirrored, designed to showcase Beijing's ability to host leaders from Washington and Moscow with equal grandeur."

  • Jake Werner [05-26]: An alternative view of what's next after the Trump-Xi summit: "Hawkish rhetoric from the national security establishment isn't grappling with the complex challenges posed by China's rise."

The Hantavirus Outbreak: For background, see MV Hondius hantavirus outbreak. The outbreak was confirmed on a Dutch cruise ship, which departed from southern Argentina on April 1 to visit Antarctica and several islands in the South Atlantic. The first passenger began showing symptoms on April 6, and died on April 11.

SpaceX IPO: The IPO happened on June 11, when SpaceX offered some stock (555.6 million shares), which it sold, raising $75 billion. As that implies the rest of the stock is worth as much per share, this gives the company a valuation of $1.77 trillion. As Elon Musk owns most of the reserved stock, that makes him, in theory at least, the world's first trillionaire.

  • Bess Levin [05-21]: SpaceX warns humans may suffer 'same fate as dinosaurs' in eye-popping IPO pitch: Elon Musk's space company filed to go public, which means they have to explain some things, like why "according to the filing, the company thinks it could pull in $28.5 trillion — yes, you read that right — in the future." Most of that ($26.5 trillion) is supposed to come from AI. (The "real GDP" of the US economy is currently $24.2 trillion.)

  • John Herrman [05-23]: The SpaceX IPO reveals what really happened to Twitter.

    As visible as X is in the outside world, though, and as integral as it is to Musk's public image, in SpaceX's 150-plus pages of corporate prospectus, it hardly shows up. And when it does, things don't look great.

    The numbers that are shared tell a story of decline, losses, and liability. Advertising revenue fell by nearly $600 million in 2023, bounced back a bit in 2024, and kept slipping again in 2025. As for the subscription business, the company has reached "approximately 6.3 million active paid subscribers" to X and around 1.9 million to versions of Grok (some X subscriptions come with expanded access to Grok). The company recorded a onetime, $3.75 billion impairment "primarily related . . . to the Twitter brand following its rebranding to X." The prospectus describes hundreds of millions of dollars of settlements stemming from Musk's massive, early, and chaotic cuts at the firm after he took over; looking forward, it suggests Musk's other businesses, including the profitable Starlink, face political risks from their connection with X, citing the company's 2024 free-speech battle with the Brazilian government.

    Then there are the numbers we don't get, ones a company might be inclined to share if they told a particularly good story.

  • Eleanor Davis-Diver [06-10]: Elon Musk is about to make saving for retirement even harder: "The upcoming SpaceX IPO will make investing in index funds for retirement worse, while Musk and friends rake in millions."

  • Freddy Brewster [06-12]: The SEC is radically loosening trading rules for SpaceX: "For the occasion, the SEC exempted Wall Street brokers from consumer protection rules — potentially jeopardizing the assets of investors, including 401(k)s and pensions, if markets are volatile."

  • Bess Levin:

  • Elizabeth Spiers [06-12]: What Elon Musk's trillion-dollar payday is costing the rest of us: "The tech mogul will leverage the initial public offering of SpaceX into more sociopathic wealth-hoarding."

  • Paul Krugman [06-12]: Elon Musk, human Ponzi scheme: "With Wall Street's help, you're about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX."

  • Brad Badertscher [06-13]: SpaceX IPO: Why insiders like Elon Musk are much likelier to cash in big than public buyers. Updated article, originally published on April 2.

  • Dean Baker [06-15]: The AI bubble monitor: Few things seem more intuitively obvious than that the SpaceX IPO is a massive fraud based on an incredible economic delusion, but just in case, Baker works through the numbers for you. One surprise for me is how consistently Tesla stock has been overvalued. Another question I have, is: if Musk expects the federal government to go bankrupt, who does he expect to buy SpaceX's inflated products?

The Trump Slush Fund: Trump's Department of [In]Justice, headed by his former personal attorney, signed off on a "settlement" to his $10 billion lawsuit over an independent contractor leaking Trump's tax returns while Trump was still president, agreeing to set up a $1.77 billion slush fund that Trump could use to "compensate victims of Biden's weaponized prosecutions" (e.g., of January 6 rioters), which also includes a promise to never again audit Trump, his family, or any of his businesses. This jumps to the head of a very long list of the most corrupt things anyone in the US government has ever done (mostly over other Trump examples). There's a fairly long quote under the Honig article below, detailing what Trump tried to do, in no uncertain terms.

  • Nia Prater:

    • [05-22]: Trump's weaponization slush fund is 'completely insane': Interview with former New Jersey attorney general Matt Platkin on "the legality of the controversial fund created by President Trump's IRS settlement." Platkin is representing 93 members of Congress in challenging this. At least one more lawsuit has been filed to block the "settlement." The legal grounds for doing this ("blatant self-dealing makes this matter a collusive suit") appear to be very shaky, which makes me doubt that they'll get away with it, but strange things are happening every day. One note here is that they "settled" just days before having to file briefs before a court that could very well have thrown the entire suit out. So there is an element of panic in how quickly this happened. But that it happened at all shows that Todd Blanche was mostly concerned with appeasing Trump, and that Trump was careless as to the optics of such blatant corruption.

    • [05-22]: Everyone trying to cash in on Trump's slush fund: Some names: Michael Cohen, George Santos, Mark and Patricia McCloskey ("the gun toters"), Enrique Tarrio ("seditionist Proud Boy"), Mike Lindell, Michael Caputo; and more generally, "members of the January 6 mob."

  • Kyle Cheney/Hassan Ali Kanu/Josh Gerstein [05-29]: Judge pauses Trump administration's 'anti-weaponization' fund: "The temporary order halts any payments from the controversial fund."

  • Elle Honig [06-01]: How a federal judge is blowing up Trump's slush fund: District Court Judge Kathleen Williams "is clearly furious — at getting played by the two Trump parties and at the slush fund itself." This is worth quoting at some length:

    The judge noted that the lawsuit involved the same party (Trump) on both sides and raised concerns about whether the case might be "collusive." Gee, Your Honor, you think? What tipped you off — Trump's public declaration upon filing the complaint, "I'm supposed to work out a settlement with myself"? . . .

    That dismissal cleared the way for the settlement, and mayhem ensued. Days later, the public learned that the bizarre deal included creation of a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" slush fund to be administered by five cronies chosen by Trump's sycophantic acting attorney general, Todd Blanche (plus a bonus free pass for Trump, his family, and his companies on any tax shenanigans they'd committed up to 2026). The designated taxpayer money would pay off violent January 6 rioters and pretty much anyone else deemed by Trump's DoJ to be a victim of an unfair political prosecution. The fund would remain operative, conveniently enough, until December 15, 2028, just as the Trump administration will be packing its bags. (Quick math: If we assume roughly 2,000 claimants — 1,600 January 6 defendants plus other assorted miscreants seeking to feed at the trough — the average payout from the fund would amount to . . . $888,000.)

    Pretty much everyone promptly and appropriately lost their minds at the sheer grift of it all. Even Senate Republicans turned on the boss and Blanche. For reference, this is largely the same group of politicians who voted not to convict Trump after January 6. They can conjure some way to justify almost anything — but not this. . . .

    But then, a breakthrough: A group of 35 former federal judges came up with an end run. The ex-jurists filed an amicus (friend of the court) motion gently informing Judge Williams that she might have screwed up by agreeing to dismiss the case to facilitate the settlement and laying out a legal roadmap to double back and reopen it. The judges weren't seeking to file or join a case as parties, so standing was no impediment; they merely offered friendly professional advice to a former colleague. The ex-judges explained to Judge Williams that, under somewhat obscure rules of law and procedure, if she finds she has been deceived by the parties and that the settlement was actually a "product of collusion," she can reopen the case and shut down the whole slush-fund mess borne of the settlement.

  • Ed Kilgore [06-01]: Trump abandons toxic 'anti-weaponization' slush fund.

  • Chas Danner [06-04]: Trump's anti-weaponization slush fund may yet live.

  • Nia Prater [06-12]: Trump will have to defy court order to pay January 6 rioters: Evidently, even after back-pedaling, he still thinks he can get away with it.

The World Cup:

  • Alex Shepherd

  • Mark Hertsgaard [06-11]: The hottest World Cup in history has arrived: "Science blames the scorching hot temperatures on global warming, but will sports reporters make the climate connection?"

  • Flynn Coleman [06-11]: The autocrat's game: "For nearly as long as the World Cup has existed, autocrats have tried to exploit it. Trump is no exception." Benito Mussolini got there first.

  • Frances Nguyen [06-11]: The world descends on an inhospitable World Cup: "As players and fans arrive in an unfriendly United States for the quadrennial soccer spectacle, civil society organizations are mounting an effort to keep visitors safe."

  • Adam Elder [06-14]: The hater's guide to the 2026 World Cup: "Price gouging, sweltering heat, and a healthy dose of Trump. What's not to love?" This is a pretty long, really overwhelming list, from "The whole war thing" and "(Un)welcome to America" all the way down to "The grift never ends," with occasional sniping at the soundtrack.

Major Threads

War on Iran: Just as I'm scrambling to try to post this compilation of over a month's news, I'm seeing headlines on the New York Times [06-14]:

Now, back to our previous notes:

  • Sudarasan Raghavan [05-12]: The art of the ceasefire: "How President Trump's approach to the war in Iran is turning endless conflict, interrupted by fleeting pauses, into the status quo." The title was foreordained, but also ridiculous, as with Trump there is no art, just poorly considered impulses.

    Historically, negotiating a ceasefire to end an international conflict of this magnitude would have involved months, even years, of talks led by skilled negotiators with large teams of experts, the help of credible mediators such as the United Nations, and armies of diplomats shuttling between the different sides to build trust. Peace proposals are usually negotiated behind closed doors; threats are seldom made publicly. With the Trump Administration, none of this appears to be happening. Ceasefires are not treated as avenues to solve political contradictions and pave the way to a lasting settlement, Bhamidipati said. Instead, they have been reduced to tools of conflict meant to speedily manage escalation, contain risk, limit spillover, and restore short-term stability — a version of kicking the can down the road. Ceasefires don't end wars; they only interrupt them. And, the longer they continue without a real political resolution, the higher the risks of even greater violence in the future.

    Historically, this almost never happens. Ceasefires have two uses: one is to limit the damage while a resolution is negotiated, which can happen if both parties seek peace, or are willing to settle for the status quo (as happened in Korea); the other is as a tactical pause in aggression (Israel agreed to two ceasefires during 1948-50, time when they used to rearm so they could launch new offensives). Trump has found himself in the position where he can't politically afford to make peace, but also can't afford to keep bombing at the levels so far, so a ceasefire is useful for him. It's also agreeable to Iran, which never wanted this war in the first place. Perhaps there is some art to Israel's bad faith ceasefires — there have been hundreds since 1950, nearly all violated by Israel on the slightest pretext (or none at all).

  • Muhammad Saad [05-13]: Why Gulf data centers became deliberate targets in Iran War: "Not only did the US make the placement and investment in these tech warehouses a 'loyalty test,' they then made the dual use for Washington's military."

  • Trita Parsi:

    • [05-16]: China's position on the Hormuz Strait: What 'open' really means: "Beijing is not going to put itself in a position where it loses access to Iranian oil, nor will it support a UN call for force."

    • [05-18]: Trump appears poised to restart the Iran war: "Tehran believes fresh attacks will come over the next two days. Feeling emboldened, leaders there are ready with new targets for retaliation." This is quickly becoming old news, as Trump has already canceled a wave of attacks planned for Tuesday, May 19, citing concerns of the Gulf States, and "improved negotiations."

    • [05-22]: Are we on the verge of a US-Iran deal? A blip of optimism, as China and regional nations have been active in mediating, and some Chinese ships have been passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

    • [05-23]: Warmongers in meltdown as Trump heralds Iran deal: [Same title also appeared on blog here.]

    • [05-26]: Iran to Israel: You hit Lebanon, and we'll hit the UAE. Trump's schizophrenia is making it very difficult for Iran to gauge when (if ever) he's being serious, but the real test is whether he can commit for (and discipline) Israel.

      For Tehran, tying Israel to the ceasefire is ultimately a test of America's willingness — and ability — to restrain its closest regional ally. If President Donald Trump either cannot or will not do so, then the value of any agreement with Washington comes sharply into question. A ceasefire that leaves Israel free to reignite hostilities at will — while the United States remains unable to prevent itself from being dragged back into conflict — offers little assurance of stability. Under such circumstances, the utility of a deal with Washington diminishes dramatically.

    • [06-01]: Why Trump may actually have told Netanyahu "everybody hates you!"

    • [06-03]: Iran moved to change the US-Iran equation yesterday: The US "disabled" a Botswana-flagged tanker. Rather than respond minimally, Iran countered with attacks against US targets in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, and UAE.

    • [06-13]: So they tried to deport me . . . "The Free Press reported that the State Department was preparing to deport me. But it appears the hit piece was designed to trigger a deportation." Of course, the people who planted this story are out to get Parsi not just because he opposes Trump and Netanyahu's war, but because he's one of the most knowledgeable people in America talking about the war.

    • [06-14]: With one strike, Netanyahu tries to kill two peace deals: "Netanyahu knew exactly what he was doing when he defied Trump's red line and struck Beirut this morning."

  • Mark Mazzetti/Julian E Barnes/Farnaz Fassihi/Ronen Bergman [05-19]: Early War Goal Was to Install Hard-Line Former President as Iran's Leader: "An Israeli strike designed to free Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from house arrest in Tehran, US officials said, was part of an effort to bring about regime change and put him in power." After spending the entirety of his term propagandizing that he was the incarnation of anti-US and anti-Israel evil.

  • Isaac Chotiner [05-25]: Why any plausible Iran deal is a humiliation for Trump: "Even as the US claims to be nearing an agreement to end the conflict, Tehran's ability to close the Strait of Hormuz and hold the global economy hostage has reinforced the power of regime hard-liners." Interview with Danny Citrinowicz, who is very explicit about the political peril Trump and Netanyahu have brought upon themselves, with their inability to budge Iran.

  • Miranda Jeyaretnam [05-26]: : Trump threatens to 'blow up' Oman over Strait of Hormuz. Oman has been "a strategic partner of the US for more than 50 years," but has tried to mediate the conflict with Iran, and has been offered a stake in Iranian tolls through the Strait of Hormuz (which at its narrowest is wholly within territorial waters of Iran and Oman, allowing some legal basis for a toll regime).

  • Luc Cohen [06-01]: 'We are in a war,' alleged Iran-backed militant exclaims in US court: Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an Iraqi who was captured and extradited from Turkey, charged with supporting Kata'ib Hezbollah, which the US has defined as a terrorist group.

    U.S. prosecutors say Kata'ib Hezbollah is directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

    They said Al-Saadi helped plan approximately 18 attacks in Europe in recent months, not all of which occurred, and in March and April plotted attacks in the United States, including against a New York synagogue.

    While Al-Saadi's individual role in all this isn't at all clear, pretty much everyone expected that when Trump & Netanyahu started their war with Iran, that individuals and groups sympathetic with Iran would strike back asymmetrically, with acts of terror, mostly against vulnerable symbolic targets. Such people are routinely reported in our press as directed by Iran, which serves two purposes: to deflect blame from those responsible for starting the war, and to reinforce our understanding of Iran as intractable enemies, willing to strike out at us in the most unprincipled of ways. Israel has long made a point of blaming Iran for all manner of resistance, as if Israel's own acts didn't generate resistance on their own. Since the war started (or should I say escalated?) reports of terrorist incidents have picked up, but Al-Saadi's is the first face to be associated with such resistance. I first heard about this on Fox News, where they were making a big deal about his arraignment. But it's less of a victory than evidence that the costs of war are mounting.

  • Blaise Malley [06-03]: Finally: House votes to end Trump's war with Iran: "Four Republicans join all Democrats to pass War Power Act resolution aimed at pulling US military from hostilities."

  • Tanya Goudsouzian/Ibrahim Al-Marashi [06-04]: Trump's art of the deal meets Iran's long memory of foreign exploitation: "Washington may view these talks as a standard business transaction, but history has taught Tehran that a compromise with the West is a trap."

  • Juan Cole [06-11]: If Trump deliberately hit reservoir in Iran, it was a war crime & endangers the whole Gulf.

Israel: Israel's Knesset voted to dissolve early, setting up new elections for October 27, 2026. After the instability of four elections between 2018-22, the current government was sworn in on December 29, 2022. The maximum time for a government after election is four years, so elections were previously scheduled to happen in November. By dissolving, Netanyahu has managed to move the election up before the US "midterm" elections in November. If Democrats win Congress in November, that might weaken the spell Netanyahu seems to have over Trump, and as such to encourage Israelis to elect a more flexible government leader. On the other hand, Netanyahu has managed to cling to power a long time after he started the mass destruction of Gaza, the increased plundering of the West Bank, and peripheral wars, especially in Lebanon and against Iran, with what is clearly the most extreme racist and chauvinist right-wing government in Israel's long history of such.

  • Jonathan Ofir:

  • Tareq S Hajjaj:

  • Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man [05-18]: The dangerous allure of a post-Netanyahu Israel: "Naftali Bennett and his emergent opposition in the upcoming election are just as hardline on security but they want you to think otherwise." A subhed here explains that "Netanyahu is not the problem," but Netanyahu is very much one problem, and that may be the only one Israelis can attempt to solve in the next election. I agree that the driving forces behind genocide in Gaza and pogroms in the West Bank have been Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who have become Netanyahu's essential coalition partners, and who have encouraged him to embrace a extreme religious (not just Kookist but Kahanist) vision of Israel's destiny. As I've said before, Netanyahu's one consistent political instinct is to never allow anyone to pass him on the right. Sure, that may be impossible viz. Ben Gvir, but Netanyahu's wars against Iran and Lebanon are very much matters of his own choosing, supported by his right-wing allies mostly because they provide cover for further "ethnic cleansing" in the West Bank. So while Bennett is unlikely to break with Israel's blob (the professional security state, which Moshe Dayan built in 1967 and every Israeli politician since has had no option but to serve), a break with the holy rollers is more feasible. While it won't solve the fundamental inequity of Israel's ethnocracy, it could take a bit of its sanctimonious arrogance off.

  • Shatha Hammad [05-21]: Israel has a master plan to relocate thousands of Palestinian Bedouins to a giant ghetto: "The 'Shami neighborhood project' will ethnically cleanse the Bedouin population of Jerusalem's eastern wilderness as part of Israel's plan to take total control over the strategic 'Greater Jerusalem' corridor, which would split the West Bank in two."

  • Qassam Muaddi:

  • Sari Bashi [05-21]: Israel's death penalty drive enters next stage with Oct. 7 military tribunal: "Lawmakers voted 93-0 to create a special court to try accused Palestinian perpetrators, designed to subvert due process and lead to mass executions." Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians, some deliberately, many more as collateral damage, and lately more or less indiscriminately, but since 1948 they have only executed one prisoner, Adolf Eichmann in 1962 (although others have died in custody). That is about to change with a new law and a special court ("designed to subordinate due process to speed and punishment") for Palestinians only.

    Judges will have broad discretion to alter standard procedural and evidentiary rules that normally apply in Israeli courts, including those allowing defendants to access and challenge investigative materials. Most hearings are to be conducted by video conference, without defendants physically present, and some may occur without even bothering to connect defendants remotely. The law also appears to permit collective or mass trials, where judges have discretion to hold proceedings behind closed doors or broadcast them on a dedicated website.

  • William I Robinson/M Gürsan Şenalp [05-24]: Pax Silica, the Gaza genocide, and the crisis of global capitalism: "Gaza was the first AI war of the 21st century, and if Global Trumpism succeeds, it will become a testing ground for its vision to dominate the future: Pax Silica, or the merger of the high-tech military-surveillance complex and transnational finance." I have to admit that I thought Pax Silica was a joke, until I saw the picture with the banner and flags. However, "Board of Genocide" is not an official title. That's Trump's more Orwellian "Board of Peace." But both seem to be part of a broader scheme which forces countries that want to do business with the US to also cozy up to Israel.

  • Shatha Yaish [05-27]: In first since Oslo, Israel seizing land for army base inside West Bank City: "The seizure order, near Jenin refugee camp, is the latest move aimed at expanding military and settler presence in the north of the occupied territories."

  • Juan Cole [05-29]: Netanyahu seeks 70% of Gaza in Israel's own Generalplan Ost.

  • Jared Hillel [06-02]: Why the plan to disarm Hamas is destined to fail: "The US and the Board of Peace are ignoring the lessons of past, successful peace settlement efforts." This compares Trump's Board of Peace with other settlements where third-party arbiters at least tried to be neutral:

    In Gaza, obliging both parties to uphold the ceasefire is where the Board of Peace has shown itself to be most biased.

    According to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the ceasefire began. Humanitarian groups say the delivery of aid, which is entirely controlled by Israel, has also been insufficient, leaving the population malnourished and exposed to a growing rodent infestation. Hamas has also been accused of ceasefire violations, having killed four Israeli soldiers.

    The Board of Peace has not treated these violations equally.

    I still maintain that Hamas could have been disbanded and effectively disarmed a month or two after Oct. 7, 2023, if only Israel had turned Gaza over to a UN-directed administration to implement independent self-rule in the territory. I wrote most extensively about this in my pieces about the Trump "Peace Plan" here and here, but the same ideas were expressed in my late 2023 blog posts, and the essential element of Israel quitting Gaza has been a persistent theme for many years. Israel has never wanted to run Gaza, and has repeatedly proven itself incapable of doing so peacefully. It hasn't done so for several reasons, some of which can be attributed to Palestinian leaders who have insisted that all Palestinians should wait for a common "national" solution. (Israelis care a great deal more about the West Bank, and are adamant about refusing return of the refugees from 1947-49. There should be room for negotiation there.[1])

  • Saliha Bayrak [06-05]: Israel tortured these activists. Now they're speaking out. "Multiple Gaza flotilla activists describe severe violence and psychological torment while in Israeli detention."

  • Hudda Mattar [06-10]: Israel is abducting ordinary Syrians and seizing their land in Quneitra: "In the Syrian governorate of Quneitra, Israel is seizing land, attacking and abducting residents, mauling them with army dogs, and spraying chemical agents over farmland. The Syrian government remains silent."

  • Alaa Serhal [06-14]: Civil records for hundreds of thousands of Lebanese could be wiped out by Israel's total war: "With whole towns leveled by Israel, a quarter million Lebanese people may have lost the proof of who they are and what they own."

[1] I've sketched out ways to do this before, and could well again, but in my experience, anything less than a full right of return gets rejected by "pro-Palestinians" (who can point to international law for support, as well as more general principles), while Israelis are not just as adamant but also have the power to enforce their views. I don't disagree with the pro-Palestinian view here, but I am much more bothered by the persistence of Israel as a racist and militarist state, constantly at war with its neighbors and its own people (and not just Palestinians, who they don't consider people at all; and I might also note, increasingly at war with diaspora Jews, who they may claim to represent but are increasingly an embarrassment, and perhaps even a liability, to).

Israel-American-World Relations: I used to try to separate out Israel-related pieces into several bins. The Iran war has its own news section. The Israel section above pertains to security operations in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, and Lebanon, as well as internal Israeli political affairs. This one deals with America's relationship to Israel, and possibly with the world's.

  • Rawan Abhari [04-04]: Stop asking if Israel has a right to exist: It's rhetorical trap, asking you to grant an innocuous premise, which is then taken to justify murder and mayhem by a state that only represents one "chosen" group of people. I would say that no state has a right to exist, but we should accept all states that are constituted by the consent of the governed. I'd also stipulate that all people have a right to equal citizenship in the state that governs them. Israel might arguably have met the first criteria from 1951, when those Palestinians who were not driven into exile were granted nominal political rights, to 1967, when Israel extended its land but denied political rights to the people of the newly occupied territories. After that, Israel ceased to be a legitimate state. Even in the 1951-67 period, the case is shaky.

  • Michael Arria: Also see his piece on the Democratic Party autopsy.

  • Nicholas Kristof [05-11]: The silence that meets the rape of Palestinians: This is a pretty major report, although it is far from the first allegation of sexual abuse in Israel's prisons. I'm also bothered by the repeated references to "the horrific abuse inflicted on Israeli women on Oct. 7," as if both-sidesing this mitigates it somehow. (Not an excuse, but Oct. 7 was one day of anarchy, whereas Israel's prisons are long-term arenas of control and power.)

  • Mitchell Plitnick:

    • [05-17]: As support for Israel declines in the US, the 'Special Relationship 2.0' is starting to take shape: "Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies in Congress have begun calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel, but this won't end the 'special relationship' between the two countries. In fact, recent signs suggest it may only deepen US military ties to Israel." I think they're just spitballing here, trying to figure out ways to interlock the militaries of the US and Israel in ways that look like we're giving Israel less, but which allow Israel to take even greater funds, and to exercise even greater levels of control and coordination with the US.

    • [05-23]: With signs of a possible Iran deal within reach, pressure is mounting on Trump to return to war: "Political and economic realities are pushing Donald Trump to pursue a deal with Iran, but he will need to resist mounting pressure, including from Israel, to return to all-out war."

    • [05-31]: Will Trump sideline Israel in order to make a deal with Iran? "Donald Trump reportedly has a deal on the table to suspend fighting and begin negotiations to end the Iran war and the resulting global economic crisis. But Israel and Iran hawks see it as a disaster and are working to undermine it. Who will win out?" Given that Netanyahu will sabotage any deal Trump might make, the only way Trump will ever get any sort of face-saving deal is by throttling Israel. That he needs a deal to save what little's left of his political carcass should be obvious even to him by now. But he's so vain and stupid he keeps falling for the temptation to hit them one more time, as if that will soften up Iran, and not simply look like a weak-minded, untrustworthy foe. Netanyahu's political life quite literally depends on keeping the war going. But who in Trump's circle sees this and has any idea how to handle it?

    • [06-12]: The time has come for Trump to choose between US and Israeli interests in the Iran war: "The US can end the Iran war, but only if it restrains Israel. Will Donald Trump muster the political will to end this disastrous war of choice?" For me the notion that the interests of the people of the US and Israel are even under consideration is ridiculous. What passes for interests here are the vanities and foibles of two politicians who have gone way out on a limb to start this war, with no chance to back down gracefully. Netanyahu has no interest in a solution, so he's always going to be an obstacle. That means that if/when Trump wants a deal, he's going to have to force it onto Netanyahu. That he has the power to do so seems likely. That he has the will and/or the skill seems pretty unlikely. But if the key for Iran is credible security, the only way Trump makes a deal is if he faces down and boxes up Netanyahu. So Plitnick is right, but there is little reason to be hopeful.

  • Yakov Hirsch [05-21]: How Jeffrey Goldberg weaponized Jewish trauma to pave the way for war with Iran: "Over the past two decades, no one has done more to shape US discourse on Israel than Jeffrey Goldberg. By relying on tropes of eternal Jewish victimhood, Goldberg declared Iran an existential threat to Jews and helped pave the way for war." There's a lot of detail here. Whether Goldberg is really exceptional in his service for Israel's propaganda line, or just so well positioned in American journalism he makes an obvious target (Thomas Friedman is another, and I'd hate to have to study enough to rate them, but Bret Stephens is probably more dogmatically vicious than either) is hard to say. I do find interesting that there is a whole section here on "Goldberg's campaign against Ha'aretz." Ha'aretz is one of the few papers in Israel that is willing to critically examine Israel's right-wing politics and psychology, and this can lead to doubts about the eternal rectitude of Israel's leadership — doubts which in any other country we would celebrate as proof of the viability of its democracy. Most liberals in America would point to Ha'aretz as an example of Israel's virtues. Only someone who's a slave to the official line would fret so.

    Hirsch cites a couple of his own articles:

  • Alex Schultz [05-21]: The man who explains Israel to John Fetterman: "How a little-known writer became one of the senator's closest friends." David Safier.

  • Moti Rieber [05-22]: And now for your fleeting moment of outrage: "For a few days, let's pretend that what Ben-Gvir did was somehow unique." Nope. "In fact, Ben-Gvir is the unrestrained id of Israeli — the walking talking personification [of] what the country has become."

  • Alice Speri [05-26]: Storied New York food co-op votes to boycott Israeli products after contentious campaign: The Park Slope Food Coop.

  • Ahmed Alqarout [05-28]: Trump wants the Palestinians to pay for the US occupation of Gaza: "Trump's Board of Peace is in financial crisis and wants to use funds taken from the Palestinian Authority to pay for Gaza's reconstruction. Palestinians would pay twice over: money stolen from the West Bank would be used to cement Gaza's occupation." In February, with announced $17B in pledges. So far only $1B has been delivered to the fund (no info on what they've actually spent rebuilding Gaza, but it's certainly less than Israel has bombed since then). But the shakedown continues. This never was anything but a criminal enterprise.

  • Josh Ruebner [05-29]: The time for a US arms embargo on Israel is now: "The US is starting talks on a new military aid deal for Israel as support for the country hits an all-time low. Israel's supporters are feeling the pressure and pushing for cosmetic changes, but don't fall for it. We need a full arms embargo now."

  • Michael Leonardi [05-29]: From Jabotinsky's Iron Wall to Gaza's graves: Zionism's Fascist alliances then and now.

  • David Masciotra [05-31]: Antisemitism — left, right, and growing: He concedes that "criticism of Israel and its conduct is fair game," while insisting that "conspiratorial delusions about Zionism are not." Yet somehow he manages to condemn everyone doing the former for the latter transgression. He especially takes offense at Hasan Piker (a name I've run across before, but who means nothing to me), and pulls quotes out of context from various Democratic politicians (like Ro Khanna, Brandon Johnson, and Graham Platner), trying to twist them into ominous spectres. As for the right, few specifics, just the occasional name drop (Hitler, of course, and Tucker Carlson — nine out of ten anti-semites love Israel, but one bad apple and you never hear the end of it). But the right doesn't worry him, despite the commanding power of Trump and Netanyahu, who are doing a bang-up job of making sure that millions of people who had no previous thoughts on the matter see Israelis and Americans as monsters.

    What does worry him is that "over 70 percent of Democrats believe the 'genocide' myth." It's a myth because Israel hasn't killed everyone yet (far from it, "if Israel imposed genocidal policies on Gaza even before the war, as many anti-Israel critics claim, the population of the Gaza Strip would not have grown 450 percent since 1967"). (Nice sleight of "many" there. I can't think of anyone who made such an argument before it became obvious in 2023, although there has long been much to criticize about Israel's treatment of Gaza, especially since 2006, when Israel removed its settlements, making it easier to inflict collective punishments like sonic booms — a practice they gave up on because, unlike shellings and "diets" it couldn't be contained within the prison walls they erected.)

    I grew up with no sense whatsoever of Jews until I started reading about the Holocaust and The Murderers Among Us in the 1960s. I later became aware that many people I admired on the left were Jewish. As an American, I regarded anti-semitism as an example of racism, a belief structure I rejected as soon as I became aware of it. The right readily embraced anti-semitism, racism, sexism, other forms of bigotry, because they started from a belief that some people are better than others, and that formed a natural hierarchy of society. The left, on the other hand, rejected hierarchy and inequality, so we naturally opposed the whole panoply of prejudices. While some individuals who moved to the left may have picked up some bad habits, the idea that those habits could come from the left struck me as nonsense. Still does.

    Aside from the sophistry and deliberate confusion, there are several things that really bother me about this and similar pieces: the assumption that anti-semitism is somehow different from, and more important than, any other form of discrimination; the notion that any trope associated with anti-semitism proves the whole case; the idea that bad thoughts by powerless people are equivalent to bad acts by people with the power; the belief that victimhood gives one (but not just anyone) license to victimize others. Those points are so obviously false I don't see any need to refute them. I'm just gobsmacked that anyone should have so little self-consciousness, or so much arrogance, to propagate them. Worse still, I don't see why they would.

    For instance, let's say I set forth the argument that in the aftermath of the Hamas revolt of Oct. 7, 2023, Israel embarked on a program that was tantamount to genocide. I lay out my evidence, as I've done elsewhere. So what do you, as a lover of Israel, do? You can try to gaslight me: make me doubt the evidence and/or the logic that moves from evidence to analysis, or you could concede facts and try to convince me that what I took to be genocide is actually justified. The latter strategy runs the risk that I may conclude that it's just you who justifies genocide, which makes you (in my mind, at least) complicit. If I had the power to do anything about it, I might even wish to use that power to stop you. More likely I would just argue back, but I don't have the power to fire people, or to expel students, as has happened on numerous occasions to people protesting Israeli genocide. If as an Israel lover, you had that power, you might well jump straight to that stage, skipping the denials, the faulty logic, and/or the gaslighting. Of course, there is a further risk to using that power, which is that it makes you look you're part of a conspiracy out to harm us. While I trust my fellow leftists to sort fact from fiction here, I wouldn't be surprised to find other people return your hate and contempt in kind. That's just what people on the right like to call "human nature."

    Or you might consider the alternative, which is to use whatever influence your love of Israel has gained you to get Israel to change its policies and stop killing people, stop taking captives, stop torturing them, stop denying them food and the necessities of life, stop discriminating against them, and start treating others with the respect and dignity you yourselves desire. If you succeed, you might wind up with an Israel that actually deserves your love, and one that the rest of us might learn to respect. If not, you have a decision to make, which is whether you're willing to identify with murderers, or break with Israel. It's really way too late to simply pretend that none of this is happening.

    The last question raised by the title is whether anti-semitism is "growing"? If you buy the argument that opposition to anything Israel does (like genocide) is anti-semitism, then sure, growing. But that's simply because most decent people have always opposed the atrocities and terrors that Israelis are committing: the growth is in the number of people becoming aware of what's happpening, and who is responsible for it. And when those people are told that opposition to Israel is anti-semitism, some will laugh, many will just focus on the real culprits, but some folks will buy the pitch, and say "why not?" This is something to deplore, but the solution is not to censor the news and stifle dissent. The solution is two-fold: stop the slaughter and wreckage, which the political powers in Israel and the US are responsible for, and are quite competent to do if they decide they should; and move politically to the left, where all people meant to be equal, and free to live their lives in peace and security.

    Since Piker came up:

    • Team Zeteo/Simone Zimmerman [06-11]: Hasan Piker refuses to soften the truth: 'I don't care about Zionists' feelings': "the much-discussed, much-maligned Twitch streamer responds to accusations of antisemitism and argues that the Democratic Party fears its own base." One of many interviews Zimmerman has hosted recently with critics of Israel, including Hannah Einbinder, Molly Crabapple, Tareq Baconi, and Yuli Novak (Executive Director of B'Tselem, who says "Israeli society has become completely genocidal"). Zimmerman was a founder of IfNotNow, a director of B'Tselem USA, and was featured in the documentary Israelism. Unfortunately, the episodes are paywalled (although I was able to watch the one with Piker).

  • Illy Pe'ery [06-04]: Israel's curriculum for 'influencing public consciousness': "A leaked Defense Ministry tender lays out the army's training program for manipulating public opinion in Israel and abroad."

  • Craig Mokhiber [06-11]: The US and Israeli campaign to liquidate the ICC is working. Countries of conscience must intervene. "The recent suspension of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan over allegations of sexual misconduct, despite a lack of evidence, shows the US, Israel, and their Western allies will stop at nothing to torpedo any effort to hold Israel accountable for genocide."

  • Current Affairs [06-11]: "I won't be inclusive of child killers": Norman Finkelstein on Israel's "genocidal society": Interview with the long-time Israel critic. I've read several of his books, including two specifically on Gaza, and found him to be a rigorous historian, as well as a sharp political critic. One book from 2005 (updated 2008) that seems especially prescient today is Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History. Even while meticulously documenting Israel's many assaults on Gaza, I doubt he had ever raised the "genocide" word before 2023. But then something snapped. Israelis used to talk about "crying and shooting," as if they had no choice, but now:

    You know what's new about the new Israel? They don't cry anymore. No, it's an interesting phenomenon. They've dropped the crying routine. Now they do it with relish, and they do it with glee, and they post it on social media. That's something new. I don't want to say — it's hard. Look, you're a bright young man. It's hard to say morally which is worse. Or to just do it gleefully and happily. But as a factual matter, it's something new. The Nazis didn't carry on like that. They did not. "We're supposed to see to this terrible burden that was imposed on us by history." The Israelis are in a class all their own. It has to be stressed.

    The problem is not a genocidal regime; that's not correct. The problem is not a genocidal state; that's not correct. The problem is a genocidal society. And that's a real problem.

    This makes me wonder to what extent the genocide was driven by and/or was throttled by Israel's elites — not so much the politicians like Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir, whose success depends on their ability to gauge the pulse of the public, as the careerists in the IDF, Shin Bet, etc., who actually implement, and have some leeway to direct, whatever the political strategy is. At this point we know quite a bit about the internal dynamics of the Nazi genocide, which were much more complex than the simplistic views that either Hitler alone or the entire German population were responsible (the latter claim comes from Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust). But we know very little about such dynamics in Israel. What we do have is lots of inflammatory statements from Israeli politicians and citizens expressing a desire for genocide, and clear evidence that the bombing and razing of Gaza has been extensive and systematic, although one might quibble that the focus has been less on the sheer numbers of killed (which was more clearly the Nazi metric, although even they made allowances for extracting slave labor) than on the general immiseration of the people, including much psychological trauma. From a legal standpoint, I have no doubt that adds up to genocide. But there is more going on here that we don't fully understand. Still, the uncertainty is far less than might give us doubts about the culpability of Israel's leaders, and the general popular consent of the majority of Israel's citizens.

Ukraine, Other Hot Spots, and World Politics:

  • Anatol Lieven

  • Gillen Tener Martin [05-26]: The French rejection: "Why Emmanuel Macron can't convince his voters to rearm." Granted, Trump cannot be trusted to protect Europe from its "enemies" — while Putin has been groomed to play the role, more voters seem worried about the refugees being churned up by the wars in the Middle East and the climate-fueled eco-disasters coming from points south and/or east, a threat that NATO has done more to promote than to stop. Key paragraph here:

    European nations' best hope for security without the United States is to bolster their militaries individually and forge a credible deterrent bloc collectively. To make that happen, leaders must build national consensus on defense spending; and despite his innumerable speeches on the subject, Macron has failed to convince his own voters. Among the most prominent of the 30 potential candidates clamoring to succeed him, some are skeptical not only of remilitarization but also of the EU and NATO.

    We should realize by now that deterrence only works against states that have no desire to attack in the first place, and that to the extent that it has any effect at all, it is to provoke attacks that are supposedly "defensive." US wars against Iraq and Iran were framed as necessary to stop those countries from developing nuclear weapons, even though the US already had a very credible deterrence against any aggressive use of those weapons. (For that matter, so did Israel, which may have initially developed nuclear weapons for deterrence, but now uses them for intimidation and "nuclear blackmail." Iran's "threat" wasn't that they would attack, but that by developing their own deterrence, Israel would be inhibited from attacking them.)

    I don't wish to excuse Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but that war should be seen as a local border issue to Russia, not as a plot to threaten let alone to conquer Europe. It is a war that can and should be resolved diplomatically, and that solution should be a first step toward a much broader disarmament in Europe. Russians should understand that the arms race of the 1950s was ultimately what bankrupted the Soviet system, and also that it was started deliberately by the US because Americans knew their economy could sustain such expenses much longer than the Soviets could. (Early on, rearmament also stimulated the American economy, and it helped produce some advances in science and technology. Europe would get some similar benefits if it were to increase defense spending from 2.0% to 3.5% of GDP, as this article recommends. But they, like America, would find most of the money to have been wasted, at a time when there are much better things they could invest in.)

  • Connor Echols [06-02]: Touting battlefield successes, Ukraine leans into peace talks: "President Zelensky and his entourage now say securing a deal within six months is 'realistic.'"

  • Andrés Arauz [06-12]: Bolivia's streets have erupted. Here's why. "Ordinary people are rising up against neoliberal orthodoxy." Wasn't Bolivia part of Latin America's big shift to the right over the last couple years? Looks like it's paying the price.

Trump's War Machine: I set this section up to deal with Trump's threats of war. We're obviously beyond that now, so see the section on Iran for more on that.

Trump Fights the Law:

Trump's Administration: Trump can't remake America in his own image (i.e., destroy the country, culture, and civilization) just by himself. He needs help, and having largely purged the government of civil servants and replaced them with his own minions, this is what they are doing (whether he's paying attention or not):

Donald Trump's Tremendous Content:

  • Margaret Hartmann:

  • Christian Paz [05-14]: A year of Trump is backfiring on the religious right: "Americans don't really want 'Christian nationalism.'" Many poll charts here, but I don't find them very enlightening. Most people have vague and contradictory ideas about the role of Christianity in public life. It makes a difference between asking whether politicians should look to Christian values for their personal behavior and whether politicians should use the state to force other people to follow their religious beliefs.

  • Chris Lehman [05-15]: The hypocrisy of Trump's 9-hour prayer festival: "The claim that the founders meant America to be a Christian nation isn't just bad history — it's a declaration of war by the religious right."

  • Sasha Abramsky [05-15]: Trump is rooting around in the public trough: "Trump's second term is unabashedly a project of self-enrichment and oligarchic rule."

  • Molly Jong-Fast/Michael Tomasky [05-21]: Donald Trump is finally cracking up for real: "His recent tirades confirmed what more than half of America now believes: The president is mentally unfit. How will we survive two and a half more years of this? And what's he got in store for us?" This reminds me that David Ogilvy used to say, "Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won't think you're going gaga." Or at least they won't be sure. It's really hard to tell with Trump, because different people have very different expectations about him, and apply very different criteria to what they see and hear. The four sections here:

    1. Age ("We Barely Talk About It")
    2. Dementia (Disinhibition and Digression)
    3. Arrogance (Too Much and Never Enough)
    4. Stupidity (Every Accusation Is a Confession)

    I don't have time to unpack this, but I'd say the arrogance is congenital, and the stupidity is a side-effect of never having to learn anything. That he thinks he's smart is farcical. But then he's usually been able to make farcical work for him. Most people try to debate like boxers, guarding your vulnerabilities, looking for the knock out punch. Trump debates like a wrestler. He's all over you, relentless, constantly breaking rules, until he wears you down. That's a different skill, one that people with any sort of intellectual discipline find maddening. Does that make him mad? I'd say so, but that's probably because I don't see any way that a person could function as president without analytical skills. He has a knack for giving you instinctive political takes, but he isn't capable of analyzing and solving problems. He's pure reaction. Add age to this, and certain things happen, pretty much to everyone. You slow down. You drop a word here and there. You doze off. How long you can function depends on what you're doing. Athletes lose their edge by age 40. Most people slow down in their 50s, and start forgetting things in their 60s. Even if you still seem competent at 80, it's a grind. But neither Biden nor Trump were ever very sharp, but they had different weaknesses, which were more glaring in Biden, because they were more normal in politicians, and because we were less inclined to excuse them as eccentricities. Trump's decline may seem less obvious, but he never was even remotely competent to be president. If you were aware of that, everything he says and does seems damning. If not, well, I don't know what to say.

  • Jonah Raskin [05-28]: Ivy Meeropol's cinematic celebration of E Jean Carroll. Meeropol has a previous documentary on former Trump mentor Roy Cohn, titled Bully, Coward, Victim. Carroll sued Trump for rape, and won $83.3 million in damages. He's having his [In]Justice Department investigate her now.

  • Chas Danner [05-29]: Trump's Great American State Fair is running out of acts: "When a colleague first shared the announced headliners for this summer's Great American State Fair concert series on the National Mall, my first thought was, Is that a joke? It wasn't, but now it sort of is."

  • Ryan Cooper [06-09]: Two simple steps toward de-MAGAfication: "A big reason why Trump II is so much worse than the first time is that the world's richest man bought Twitter and turned it into a fascist cesspit." I don't mean to dispute the "fascist cesspit" description, although my own limited but continuing use of X isn't that bad (for one thing, I use the "following" thread, and an ad blocker). Nor do I doubt that Musk has reaped a big windfall from his 2024 gamble on Trump. But the real difference between Trump I and II is that first time he was a fluke outsider saddled with a Republican establishment that didn't know what to do with him, not least because they found him unreliable, erratic, and embarrassing (although they still managed to get their tax breaks, deregulation, and military build up, so they weren't unhappy). Second time, they had a chance to plot, to come up with a plan ("Project 2025" was the best known, but just one of many schemes) on how to use him and the whole power of the presidency, a more politicized administration, and a largely rigged court system. Trump is still the weak link in this regime, unreliable, incoherent, sometimes just weird, and his personal projects are ridiculous diversions, but he mostly does what he's told, and even though he's sunk deep in the polls, he's probably doing better than any other front man could. (Obviously, the art of the shill has declined from Reagan through the Bushes, but Trump still makes the coarseness of the UFC end of the pop culture work for him. Fascists have to find their base wherever they can.

  • Kelli Wessinger/Noel King [06-10]: Will Trump ruin America's birthday? "Inside Trump's big plans to celebrate himself — and maybe America, too." Spoiler alert: he already has. Interview with Ben Smith.

  • Michael Calderone [06-10]: Pressuring The Wall Street Journal and other ways Team Trump went into Epstein damage control: This is mostly derived from a new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, specifically this excerpt:

  • Michael Tomasky [06-12]: The not-so-secret impulse behind Trump's vulgar, garish birthday party: "In the real world, a weak and insecure Donald Trump is being humiliated by Iran. Ah, but Sunday night, he'll be a manly man among manly men."

    It's sickening. Oh — and it's also, as we've come to expect with Trump, deeply corrupt. First of all, the cost of constructing the arena is around $60 million. Supposedly UFC is picking up that check, but with Trump, who really knows? We taxpayers will undoubtedly be on the hook for something. Meanwhile, the chief sponsor — surprise, surprise! — is Crypto.com. There are in addition figurines of some of the featured fighters. There's apparel — garish T-shirts running $40. Over at TrumpStore.com, somewhat to my surprise, I didn't see any merch specifically tied to the event, but you have to believe that Trump's short-fingered hand is dipping into some till or another here. A lawsuit filed by the group the Public Integrity Project to block the event from taking place (it's pending as I write) states that UFC set up a for-profit entity to manage this event, which is selling seating packages that cost up to $1.5 million — and that Trump previously bought $50,000 worth of stock in TKO, UFC's owner.

  • Donna Ferguson/Adam Gabbatt [06-13]: Workers remove Trump's name from Kennedy Center after court rulings: "In the dead of night, behind a screen, the president's name was purged from the facade of the Washington building."

    Cooper's program of "De-MAGAfication" still needs some work. Even if X is as bad as he says, I don't buy this: "I conclude that for the next president, the first, most straightforward, and arguably most important task is to destroy X." I'm slightly more sympathetic to "the next president could also target Musk himself." As Eddie Murphy's character in Trading Places put it, "it occurs to me that the best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people." One can have some fun with that, without (as Cooper does) comparing Musk to Pol Pot. Musk's wealth is exceptional, but as with all billionaires it's based on some poor political decisions and attitudes given power in the 1980s. It's going to take more than a wealth tax to reverse that, but lots of approaches are possible. What one needs first is the political support to change things.

    Cooper's second step is to add more seat to the Supreme Court. No doubt the Court, as presently constituted, is a problem, and that would be one way to work around it. But again the first step is to build up the sort of majority support that even this Court will have to listen to. FDR's "court-packing" scheme failed not because he couldn't raise political support for New Deal policies, but because after its initial tantrums the Court recognized that it shouldn't stay in the way of blocking democracy. (As some wag put it, this was "the switch in time that saved nine.") Perhaps this bunch of Federalist Society grooms will stand their ground, in which case expansion becomes an option of last resort. Or maybe a couple of them recognize when they're beat, while new justices arrive and shift the balance. Still, we need to focus on more than just a couple malefactors, like Musk and Roberts. I am increasingly of the view that the way to do this is not so much "De-MAGAfication" as in trying to capture the MAGA base, not by pandering to their prejudices, but by showing them who their real enemies are. The MAGA crowd has one thing going for them that conventional pro-business Democrats have struggled with: they really hate those globalist elites. (Minor point, but I'd change the "G" to Good, as Bill Moyers tried to talk LBJ into calling his programs The Good Society.

Politicking: New section, covering elections, gerrymandering, and other bipartisan mischief, with party-specific pieces to follow.

  • Ed Kilgore: Also see his piece on the Democratic Party autopsy.

    • [05-12]: The Supreme Court chose to upend the midterms: "The Callais decision should have been timed to be implemented next year. Apparently, the Court couldn't wait to blow up the Voting Rights Act."

    • [05-13]: What Republicans got out of their gerrymandering blitz. Louisiana and Alabama have eliminated one black-majority House district each, with Tennessee soon to follow. Mississippi, South Carolina, and Georgia may hold off until 2028. "Including the recent Florida GOP gerrymander and the Virginia Supreme Court decision overturning a voter-approved Democratic gerrymander, that means Republicans will roll into the midterms with 12 US House seats in their sights, all of which Democrats thought they would control as recently as two weeks ago."

    • [05-15]: When extreme polarization outlasts Trump, we know who to blame: "Samuel Alito's poisonous Callais opinion is moving the center stage in both parties' future plans."

    • [05-15]: Why the midterms battleground keeps shrinking: "The 2026 races will effectively end with the primaries in much of the country." That's because most districts are designed not to be competitive.

    • [05-20]: Trump gets revenge on Massie, but primary may haunt GOP: "The president took down several Republican foes in last night's primaries. But there was also good news for Democrats in November."

    • [05-20]: Trump's self-absorption spells midterms disaster for the GOP: "Forget policy goals or even boosting his party. The president wants his ballroom, his vengeance slush fund, and lots of payback."

    • [05-21]: Senate GOP turns on Trump, freezes ICE bill. Trump was hoping to push the bill through by June 1. Senate Majority Leader John Thune pulled the plug on that happening.

    • [05-23]: Trump is becoming the un-populist: "From the ballroom to Iran to blatant self-dealing, he's ignoring the will of the people — to his party's peril." Or to his party's delight, if you ask them. If the ultimate goal of Republicans is "own the libs," just look at all the ways he's winding them up. On the other hand, the most compact charge one can make against a complete scumbag (or any political foe) is that he lies, cheats, and steals. That he's a habitual liar has long been obvious, but the cheating (like his attempts to rig congressional seats and interfere with voting) and the stealing (like his $1.77 billion self-dealt slush fund) have grown too blatant to ignore.

    • [05-30]: Democrats suddenly have a real shot at flipping the Senate: "When the midterms cycle started, the Senate looked secure for the GOP. But after many lucky breaks for Democrats, it's now a toss-up."

    • [05-31]: Why Democrats shouldn't write off the South: "Post-Callais, Republicans are racing to lock in their power over the region. Democrats have a moral and political obligation to fight back."

    • [06-10]: Hegseth's faith purge creates a holy mess: "The Defense secretary drastically culled the Pentagon's list of recognized religions, triggering a backlash from Mormons and other faith groups." I don't care enough to go through the lists, but will note three venerable protestant churches that appear to have been dropped: Disciples of Christ (which most of my family attended), United Church of Christ (I have a very good friend who is a retired minister), and Unitarian Universalist (which my late sister belonged to). All three are major exceptions to the generalization that Hegseth seems to subscribe to: that to be a real Christian, you must also be a fascist.

  • David Dayen [06-11]: The threat of big insurance: "The industry is hugely lucreative, with endless sums of cash to influence lawmakers. A new report tracks 25 years of health insurance industry donations."

Other Republicans:

  • Christian Paz [05-11]: Marco Rubio is dreaming of a kinder, gentler MAGA: "Trump is floating Rubio as a potential successor. His vision sounds very different than JD Vance."

  • Ross Barkan [05-14]: Why Ben Shapiro's media empire is collapsing: "Not long ago, he was the king of conservative media. A lot has changed in 2026."

  • David Smith [05-16]: Can a Republican defy Donald Trump and survive? Kentucky voters will decide: "Congressman Thomas Massie, chastized by the US president as a 'lowlife', will soon face the ballot box — setting up a crucial test of Trump's political strength."

  • John Herrman [05-26]: Republicans are lost in the AI wilderness: "The Trump administration went all in on AI. Then the public started hating it." The Republicans' default stance seems to be that any angle to get rich is fine with them, even if it's fraudulent and/or predatory. On the other hand, aren't they as conservatives supposed to want to slow change down? Or at least to dispell some of the uncertainty about what AI will do, who it will do it to, and how it will make a very small number of people absurdly rich? Democrats aren't very sure what to do either. Especially the ones who feel like they should care about how AI impacts ordinary people.

Democrats:

  • On That 2024 Autopsy Report:

    • Ed Kilgore [05-21]: Autopsy report shows Democrats really are in disarray: So, "DNC chairman Ken Martin has released an extremely unfinished draft of the 'autopsy' report, and those who wanted this to happen are going to be very disappointed — or perhaps even horrified."

    • Noah Hurowitz [05-21]: DNC autopsy of 2024 loss doesn't mention Gaza or Israel at all: "As the DNC blamed the author for the report's shortcomings, a source who participated in the research said the author seemed to grasp that Gaza 'clearly' hurt Harris." One thing I want to stress here is that people don't have to understand the war, or feel like they "have a dog in the fight," or even care, to blame Biden and Harris for letting it go on so long.

    • Michael Arria [05-22]: It's the genocide, stupid: "The DNC finally released its long-awaited autopsy of Kamala Harris's failed presidential campaign, and it doesn't mention Gaza. The Democratic leadership's refusal to acknowledge the party's shift on Israel could spell another defeat in 2028." While I believe that most Americans do not support Israel's genocide in Gaza[*], and further believe that most of the Americans who continue to defend Israel is its wars since 2023 would change their mind if they had a better grasp of the facts, I've long believed that what cost Harris the election was not that crimes and great harm were inflicted on Palestinians, but that Biden and Harris had failed to end the two major wars, in Ukraine and in Gaza and around Israel, and worse still that they failed to show any concern that those wars should be ended. Sure, one may assert that Biden did not start those wars[**], and that he had kept American troops out of the wars, so that the human costs of those wars didn't fall on American citizens, but his massive supply of armaments for those wars kept the wars going, and made tidy profits for the US arms industries.

      The reasons why Americans hated these wars wasn't sympathy for the victims. Or that they had any scruples about contributing to the massacre of foreigners, especially those they had been assured were bad hombres who hated America. No, the reason was that the wars were messy and stupid, inconvenient and expensive, and that exposed the politicians responsible as reckless and incompetent. Biden certainly looked the part, and the more Harris said nothing meaningful the more she did too.[***] (While Trump, in 2024, reaped the benefits with his anti-war posse of RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, he's likely to find the shoe on the other foot this year.)

      [*] Whether it's still fair to call it that during the current quasi-ceasefire could be debated, but in intent and in effect from October 2023 until that time it was as clear cut a case of genocide as any since WWII. It is still a war crime of stupendous proportions, with myriad offenses against fundamental human rights. The main reason for referring to Israel's operations in Gaza as genocide is that there is a clear definition of genocide in international law, and that law specifies remedies to bring the perpetrators to justice. To some extent, this has been recognized by international courts, and indictments have been issued, but that has still not stopped the offenders in Israel. As the law notes, the speed or completeness of the genocide does not affect the finding, which is first based on intent (clearly stated by Netanyahu and members of his government, especially Smotrich and Ben-Gvir) and tangible acts to implement that intent (which the IDF has done on a massive scale). On the other hand, I want to stress that there are many ways states and their armed forces (and for that matter, especially in the West Bank, their civilian populations) can violate human rights, and these are no less objectionable if they don't quite add up to the legal definition of genocide.

      [**] I could also argue that both wars were the result of gross negligence on the part of Biden, although I would also insist that Biden's mistakes were built on top of comparable mistakes by his predecessors, going back as far as Clinton's bungling of the Oslo Accords and his expansion of NATO to threaten Russia, but Trump's failures to mediate a solution to Ukraine (which blew up in 2014, under Obama's watch) and to do anything to settle the Palestinians (it was his "Abraham Accords" that conceded to Israel the right to do whatever they wanted in Gaza and the West Bank) led directly to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the desperate Hamas revolt in Gaza.

      [***] As I recall, every time Harris was asked about Gaza, the first thing out of her mouth was that "Israel has the right to defend itself." What Israel called "defense" was indiscriminate slaughter combined with the systematic destruction of all of the infrastructure in Gaza necessary to sustain human life. "Self-defense" was Israel's license to kill, and everyone understood that. So no matter how much she lamented the death and destruction after her initial concession, and promised to work "night and day" for a cease-fire, we (and Israel's supporters, including Netanyahu) knew she would do nothing meaningful about it. At the time, I suggested that all she had to do was to move the self-defense sentence to the end, after she had expressed a bit of humanity and/or reason, and she would have come off sounding much better, even if the bottom line was the same. But she didn't dare do even that much, which left her supporters high and dry, and most others either irate or confused. Then, of course, she sent her most Zionist spokespeople to Michigan, to further piss off the decisive Arab vote. I wonder if that's in the autopsy? (Arria remembers: Liz Cheney and Rep. Ritchie Torres.)

  • Zack Beauchamp [05-13]: Are far-right politics just the new normal? "Liberals are preparing for a longer war with right-wing populists than they once expected." Reporting from something touted as "a recent conference for the international left, featuring people like former President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney," where speakers are still lamenting that the wonders of the Biden economy weren't appreciated by the unkempt masses. How can anyone still confuse these "liberal elites" with "the left"? Rather than just accepting the "populist right" as a permanent fixture, shouldn't we try to figure out how to redirect their anger against more appropriate targets (like the superrich)? While they have many ill-considered views, their basic sense that something is profoundly wrong, and someone in power must be held responsible for it, is something one can work with and build on. Makes a lot more sense than trying to tell people that their problems are just in their heads.

  • Errol Louis [05-13]: AOC's plan to win the midterms: "To prevail in November, House Democrats need to do more than oppose Trump." Focus on substantive issues, and don't let the media get you sidetracked with speculation about personal ambitions.

  • Bill Scher:

    • [05-22]: The Democratic Party is divided (but not how you think): "New polling shows not so much ideological division among Democrats but a lack of consensus about where the party should go." I think he means about who can be trusted to lead the party. He opens with photos of Rahm Emmanuel and Graham Platner. While Scher, perhaps the ultimate DNC Centrist pundit, loathes Platner, his case for Emmanuel stresses how "populist" Clinton's former chief wonk is trying to appear. While I have my own reservations about Platner (his case for ending the federal gasoline tax is plain wrong), unlike Emmanuel, he doesn't reek of board room/country club effeteness and corruption.

    • [05-27]: Janet Mills should unsuspend her US Senate campaign: The former Maine governor gave up after falling hopelessly behind in the polls, but as Scher points out, she's still on the ballot, so the small number of diehard Graham Platner haters (like Scher) still have all the options they need. And the points they want Mills to score against Platner will continue to be made by Republicans. Most of the time Scher is arguing for pragmatic choices, so why not here? Why waste her time and money trying to help Collins to another term?

      PS: Much more about Platner, both before and after the primary, where Platner won the Democratic nomination with 72% of the vote. I don't have time to organize a whole section, but here are a few links:

      • Perry Bacon [06-10]: Graham Platner is testing a new strategy to defeat Susan Collins: Interview with Billy Kobin (no transcript).

      • Dustin Guastella [06-13]: The attacks on Graham Platner didn't just fail — they may have backfired: "Graham Platner's primary victory in Maine says more about the unpopularity of the Democratic party elite than any race to date." I had similar thoughts before the election, when I commented on Tom Carson's admission that he would "vote for Collins in a heartbeat" against Platner:

        Maybe this is my redneck coming out, but the more slime I see from well-meaning liberals against Platner, the less I believe, and the less I care. Granted, that's a common reaction from Trump voters, but their problem was less their knee-jerk reaction against Harris-Biden-Clinton-Obama than their ridiculous blind spot around Trump. Democrats need candidates who can puncture that blind spot much more than they need goodies who suck up to the rich thinking they can turn their money into votes.

    • [05-29]: If you called for Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales to be expelled, then you should impeach Donald Trump: First, I never called for their expulsion, nor would I have. I'm still upset about the House's "exclusion" of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. as the elected representative of Harlem in New York City in 1969 (which, by the way, was later ruled unconstitutional). Maybe there should be a recall process, as some states enacted during the Progressive Era, which would give voters a chance to second-guess their choices, but the House itself should have no such powers. As for comparing the misdeeds of Trump vs. those of Swalwell and/or Gonzales, they precisely match, although Trump's exceeds the others by even more than their net worths. The problem with impeachment isn't the crimes, but the jurors. The only way Trump can be removed from office is if his own Party decides to cut his losses and do the thing (either impeachment or through the 25th amendment, which would have to be initiated by Trump's toady cabinet, and then ratified by Congress with the same 2/3 supermajority needed for Senate conviction, which makes it virtually impossible without Trump's consent). This isn't a very good system, but it is our system, and changing it would be even more difficult than using it. Republican Party unity is such that there is zero chance of impeaching Trump now, so it's a moot issue. If Democrats win the House in November, they could "impeach" Trump by minority vote, but they would have to win over at least one-third of the Senate Republicans to convict. It certainly isn't clear whether the two times Trump was "impeached" during/after his first term in any way hurt him in the 2020 or 2024 elections. While he is very unpopular now, Republicans still balked at convicting him after he instigated the January 6, 2021 siege of Congress. Democrats have no reason to think they can construct a case to convince them. Indeed, it seems like a waste of time to bother with a remedy that is certain to fail. So let's just stipulate that impeachment (or a cabinet-forced resignation) is an option for Republicans. When sufficient numbers of them decide to make it happen, they can expect Democrats to help them rid themselves of this pestilence, but until they do, the only thing Democrats can do is to make sure that people realize that it is Republicans who are keeping Trump's reign of (t)error operating. They should all pay the price next time the people get a chance to vote.

  • Harold Meyerson [06-08]: Encircling the royalists: "Democrats finally show up to the class war."

  • Greg Sargent [06-11]: Why is Trump tanking in MAGA country? These Dems found a good answer. "Some new research on working-class voters make it clear. They're furious at Trump — and they want a message from Democrats that pledges specific action." It's about time for Democrats to try to win over districts where plenty of people are upset at how things are being run. Cites this piece:

The Economy (and Economists):

  • Emmanuel Saez/Gabriel Zucman [05-26]: The case for California's billionaire wealth tax. The opening chart, of "the surging fortunes of California's ultrarich," which in constant dollars for the top 0.0002% of Californians, has risen from $22 billion in 1982 to $1.6 trillion in May 2026.

Technology (Including AI):

  • Eric Levitz

    • [05-21]: The hidden way dictatorships are shaping what AI tells you: "Authoritarian states may have accidentally brainwashed ChatGPT." And casually calling China and Russia "authoritarian" while exempting the US and Israel is what? AI only knows what it's been trained to know, and it only "thinks" in ways that are consistent with fidelity to its training materials. That could make it useful for propagating an establishment worldview, as much in the US as in China, as the rulers of each have no doubt already recognized. The difference may be the degree of control they exercise: in the US, that's usually been weak but certainly not neutral (e.g., consider how willingly major media went along with the Cold War and the War on Terror, where very distorted views of the world became ubiquitous and for the most part unquestioned).

    • [06-12]: Trump's strange flirtation with AI socialism, explained: "Uncle Sam and OpenAI may go in business together." Uh, whatever this is, it isn't socialism.

  • Ryan Cooper [06-10]: Tracking the flood of AI political spending: Not unlike the $245M the crypto industry spent in 2024, with Trump getting in on both ends, profiting mightily from his own crypto scams.

  • Jelinda Montes [06-12]: AI data centers are taking over. These Americans are fighting back: "Energy and water intensive AI projects are draining communities. The revolt is just getting started." I must admit a considerable degree of ignorance and/or skepticism about opposing AI data centers as a political agenda item. (I recently heard Astra Taylor on this, and know that Bernie Sanders is concerned. I'll add some more links below, but I really haven't thought this through.) I've long found it interesting why so many people intuitively fear some things and not others. Or perhaps, for complex issues like climate change and AI, they latch onto some aspects but not others. I don't quite get what they fear about AI, but what I fear is capitalism: specifically, that AI might make it so efficient its essential rotten core will become manifest, unfettered by practicality and ethics.

  • Kate Aronoff [06-12]: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wants us to think he's building a god: "He acts like he has special knowledge about how best to regulate his company. But he's a CEO like any CEO, and he wants what all CEOs want: to write his own rules."

Regular Columnists

Sometimes an interesting columnist writes often enough that it makes sense to collect their work in one place, rather than scatter it about.

Dean Baker: All his pieces are worth reading. But I didn't collect them regularly, as I have in the past, so I thought of skipping this section. But a couple stood out:

  • [05-20]: Reforming bankruptcy laws: Getting tough on private equity deadbeats: How private equity firms work should be well known by now. Josh Kosman laid out the basics in his 2010 book The Buyout of America: How Private Equity Is Destroying Jobs and Killing the American Economy, just before Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign gave us a case in point. Bankruptcy laws are important here, as that's where most of the companies bought by PE firms end up. Baker has some good ideas here, but I have one I like better: I feel that bankruptcy law should attempt to preserve businesses and jobs by giving them a fresh start, free of the encumbrances PE firms saddle them with. I would turn those companies over to their employees, and inject enough financing to get them up and running again. And sure, this means screwing the creditors. And if that makes banks less likely to finance perilous PE deals, so much the better.

  • [06-05]: Friday morning book review: Cancelling Billionaires: The Urgent Case for a Wealth Tax: The book, by two Canadians, is Linda McQuaig/Neil Brooks: Cancelling Billionaires Before They Cancel Us. (McQuaig, by the way, also has a 2019 book called The Sport & Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich Are Stealing Canada's Public Wealth.) I have mixed feelings about wealth taxes. For one thing, assessments are hard to pin down (e.g., the city thinks my house is worth 2.5 times what I paid for it; when we sold my late father-in-law's house, it went for less than a third of its assessment; if Elon Musk had to sell all of his stock, it would certainly go for much less than its current valuation). Worst case, you have to liquidate your property just to pay taxes on it. Much better to tax transactions, where the money is there. On the other hand, there are cases where wealth taxes do make sense, especially for estates (where the marginal rates can be quite high, because not dying isn't an option; you can, as we do, exempt a sizable chunk before taxes, and liquidate the rest, so you get an honest assessment of its value). I also think that foundations should be forced to liquidate some share of their equity each year, so they don't just become permanent tax shelters. But at present, in the US at least, I wouldn't mind a wealth tax on the super-rich. It's just that, like Baker, I'm more bothered by how they managed to get so rich in the first place:

    I prefer nailing the rich before they get their money, both because it is much more efficient than trying to pry it back after the fact, but also because it takes away the rich's shield, where they try to hide behind the free market. A government that funds research upfront and puts it all in the public domain is no less free market than a government that grants patent and copyright monopolies. Similarly, a government that taxes financial transactions, like every other item, is no less free market than one that makes a special exemption for the financial industry. And the market doesn't tell us how to structure bankruptcy laws.

  • [06-08]: Trump mistake #27,462: Chasing away immigrants doesn't help native born workers: I doubt he's actually counting, but as a guestimate this isn't obviously high or low. But the number is a distraction. I don't really buy the old saw that "few people born in this country want to work on farms picking lettuce or tomatoes or in meat-processing plants." Sure, they don't want to work lousy jobs for poor wages, but I doubt that immigrants want that either. They may be more willing to settle because they have few better options. What American workers need is more rights and leverage. Reducing competition from immigrants might give them a bit more leverage, but that doesn't translate quickly to rights. On the other hand, giving both native and immigrant workers more rights does. Maybe this results in some jobs becoming unaffordable, but if they really mattered, someone would find a way to make them attractive enough for workers.

  • [06-09]: Just say no to Bernie Sanders' AI sovereign wealth fund. I'm not sure whether Baker is being critical of sovereign wealth funds in general — they mostly exist in countries that have nationalized mineral wealth (mostly oil), allowing them to direct those revenues to other business ventures — but one focused on the AI bubble is certainly a bad idea. And not just because like all bubbles, this one will break. And not just because such a fund not only lose a lot of money, but will inevitably waste even more trying to save itself. But also because we're confusing the AI business with AI technology. Business develops technology not because it's good for people but to make money off of them. This predatory relationship may be tolerable if limited, but nothing about this generation of AI moguls suggests that they're into it for short of unlimited power and wealth.

  • [06-12]: The real abundance agenda: weakening patent and copyright monopolies: Sure, he's written this piece many times before, and will do so many times again. It's such an obvious and essential point that it's hard to understand why more people aren't doing the same. I keep meaning to write it up myself. I'd go so far as to say that there is no justification whatsoever for granting patents. Moreover, you could eliminate the entire system today, and innovation, development, and industry would carry on without a hitch. (Sure, it would be bad for patent lawyers, and possibly speculators, but we'd save so much money elsewhere we could easily retrain them to do useful work, or just pay them a generous amount not to bother us further.) The situation with copyrights is a bit messier, because we don't have a good alternative scheme to fund writers and other artists, but the present copyright system doesn't work very well either (yet lots of people still create things, for little reward). These systems are really just another form of tax farming. That's a horrible system, as all historical instances show. Baker is responding to this piece:

    • Dylan Gyauch-Lewis [06-12]: New documents detail nine-figure, Silicon Valley-funded abundance movement: I should probably dig my way more carefully through this, but the gist is fairly obvious: that the Klein-Thompson focus on Abundance works for rich Democratic donors much like the supply-side economics jargon did for Reagan Republicans: it offers a way for government to make rich people even richer, while claiming they're doing something for all of us. But this has been standard policy for Democrats at least back to Clinton: pursue reforms, but only ones that have substantial donor/business buy in. As such, they never tackle things like patent rents that make health care unaffordable. They're happy to invest money in "green energy" businesses, but not conservation.

Tom Carson:

  • [05-12]: Triomphe the insult comic's Arc de Trumpe. After being assured by "sandbox-loving Trumpies, that we're the lucky owners of the most powerful, most lethal, most all-around bitchenest military on the planet and/or in world history," he points out that "this coming August will mark the 81st anniversary of the last time we won a war." (Then misses the opportunity to quibble over whatever the hell we actually "won" in that war.)

    Maybe I'm a born Eeyore, but the Trump administration's Epsteiniran gamahuche strikes me as a poor candidate to liven up America's moldy victory laps with a new lap dance. And that, my friends, is why we need a Trumpian Arch of Triumph in Arlington, Va., to grandly fuck up the view from the Lincoln Memorial to the Lee-Custis mansion on the other bank of the Potomac. . . .

    One unpleasant truth that can't be avoided is that his plans for a gloriously Trumpified nation's capital resemble Albert Speer's designs at Hitler's behest for a gigantic, pastless new postwar Berlin to be known as Germania. Another, more reassuring truth is that Germania never got past the stage of being a big 3-D scale model that the addled Fuhrer spent increasing hours canoodling with as the war went phhht. . . .

    Yet in both cases, what porn connoisseurs call the money shot — destruction on a vast scale — will already have been accomplished. Berlin's hash got settled by American and British bombers and Red Army artillery and tanks in 1945; whatever happens next, the White House's East Wing is rubble for good. Don't bet against the same being true soon of the Kennedy Center, a building, concept, and Camelot talisman Trump hates so much that sticking his name on it provided only inadequate and temporary respite. You know, like a dog pissing on sumac to mark its own territory.

  • [05-18]: Trump and what army? "As Memorial Day looms, let's take stock of how POTUS values America's military." Having "grown up partly around military people in Berlin during the Cold War," etc., he has a soft spot for the military I've never shared, but I can count dozens of relatives and a few friends who have done their bit, some at great personal sacrifice, some merely gloating over the personal perks of the closest thing America has to socialism, I can suspend my own disdain for the military to allow those so inclined to show them some respect. Especially when that respect runs counter to Trump:

    Two particular features of Trump's reign that fascinate me. One is his hostility to American history. Guy's really got a grudge against it, wonder why. The other is his administration's truly extraordinary disdain for the United States military. You can't say it exceeds any prior administration's disdain only because no prior administration has gone anywhere near the lunacy of expressing disdain at all. . . .

    Trump's loathing of being seen with maimed combat veterans — they didn't make him look good, he complained, underlining who the only important guy in the visual was — makes George W. Bush like he missed his calling as a battlefield surgeon. His craving for a tank-crunchy military parade in D.C. disregarded how many — sadly, not all — of the U.S.A.'s wars have been fought against everything such images represent. His hatred of Black and female generals and trans enlisted troops spits in the face of the one government entity that, for all its sins, has been in the forefront of literally embodying social equality.

    There isn't space enough here to list all of Trump's military-bashing insults and smears, and keep in mind I'm writing this online. So let POTUS's ability to discern a competent and laudable Defense Secretary in Pete Hegseth, who believes war is a continuation of date rape by other means — a line I've used before, but screw it, it's an evergreen — stand for the rest.

Jeffrey St Clair:

  • [05-15]: Roaming Charges: Go down, Moses.

    + $109 billion: the amount Americans spent on lottery tickets in 2025, more than they shelled out on movies, concerts, books, and sporting events combined. It's the Crap Shoot Stage of Capitalism.[1]

    [1] I knew a guy whose email signature was something like: "Lottery, n. a tax on stupidity." I thought it was more like a tax on futile hope. They see it as the only chance they might get to make enough money to make a difference, and all it costs is something they'd probably lose anyway. Sure, the odds are awful. But so is the rest of their lot in life.

  • [05-22]: Roaming Charges: Peanuts from heaven.

  • [05-28]: A short history of the Iran War, so far. This is how it started:

    Trump began his war on Iran during talks to prevent it. He said it gave him the element of surprise. His missile strikes killed much of the Iranian leadership, including some of the Iranians his team thought might govern the country after the bombing ended. One of his missiles hit a girls' school, another hit the compound of Mahmood Ahmadinejad, one of the candidates Trump's people had in mind to run Iran after they killed Ayatollah Ali Khameni, the Iranian religious leader who, austere as he was, preferred negotiation over confrontation.

    Trump brushed off talk from some of his advisers that Iran would likely respond by shutting the Strait of Hormuz and attacking other Gulf States that had aided the US, either explicitly or covertly. His aides were right. He and Hegseth were wrong. Then Israel killed Iran's top negotiators. Suddenly, there was no one left to talk to. Trump claimed that the Iranian military was completely destroyed. Iran responded by downing US fighter jets, drones and surveillance planes. It struck US military bases, ships and a CIA station house.

    Trump claimed Iran had no leaders and its government was in a state of collapse. But the new regime quickly coalesced around Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, and took a more radical, uncompromising stance. Trump said the Kurds would invade Iran and arm Iranian dissidents. But the Kurds, burned one too many times by the US, declined. And after US and Israeli missiles hit neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, power plants and oil refineries, the Iranian resistance turned against the US.

    The Strait of Hormuz was shut down. The price of oil shot up and Trump's poll numbers sank. The global economy was sent into crisis. Trump asked the European nations he had refused to warn about his plans to go to war against Iran for help. They refused. Spain, Italy, France, Austria, and Switzerland went further. They either blocked or restricted the use of their airspace, landing rights or shared military bases for airstrikes on Iran.

    It gets worse from there, including:

    Unable to extort former US allies to bail him out or bomb the Iranians into submission, Trump began to manipulate the market, announcing fake cease-fire deals one week, threatening to make Iran glow the next. The market spasmed up and down and people with inside knowledge, including Trump, who made over 3000 trades, cashed in.

    Trump may not understand the first thing about war, but he knows how to run a graft. I'm not convinced that "Iran is now in a position to dictate the terms of any deal," but they're certainly in a position to reject any deal they find disagreeable, which means that Trump has to do something he's incapable of, negotiating.

  • [05-29]: Roaming Charges: Hail the unconquering hero! Title a twist on the Preston Sturges film. Starts with a reprise of his "Brief History," then moves on, finding Cory Booker even more hawkish than Trump.

    + Sam Altman: "We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter." This is why they don't care if (and in fact don't want) your kids to learn to read or write. They want to sell basic intelligence and the less you know, the more they can charge you for telling you something you should have learned in middle school.

    + Artificial intelligence is causing a net U.S. loss of 16,000 jobs per month, according to an analysis by Goldman Sachs.

    + The Trump administration is now targeting people who oppose AI and massive water hogging and power-hungry data centers under a new threat category dubbed "anti-tech violent extremism," many of whom, by all indications, are MAGA — along with the Pope, of course.

    + White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka says that the Trump administration is going to label American Leftists "terrorists" right alongside drug cartels. Will there be drone strikes? "We're gonna label terrorists as terrorists, whether it's cartels, whether it's jihadis, or whether it's sadly the le — the Americans who are left wing, who are radical, and because they subscribe to some anarchic, anti-fascist, or radically pro-transgender ideology."

    + Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei, dropping an inconvenient truth about the social and economic consequences of AI: "The signature of AI is that it's going to take us to a world where we have very high GDP growth, and potentially also very high unemployment and inequality."

  • [06-12]: Roaming Charges: Data my eyes:

    + Dante himself couldn't have found a better spot in Hell to deposit James Dolan, maybe the worst owner in all of professional sports (and that's really saying something), than to lock him in a box next to a farting, snoring, grunting Donald Trump as 24,000 Knicks fans jeer and boo them both, while watching his team lose to the young San Antonio Spurs, over and over again, night after night for all eternity . . .

    Trump: "Look at the basketball ratings. They're down to very, very low numbers. People are angry about it. They don't realize. They have enough politics with guys like me. They don't need more as they're driving down, going up for the shot. They don't need it. There was a nastiness about the NBA the way it was done, too, so I think the NBA's in trouble. I think it's in big trouble, bigger trouble than they understand, and frankly, ice hockey, which is doing very well, they didn't do that. They respected the mores. They respected what they're supposed to be doing."

    + As for who is really watching what . . .
    Stanley Cup NHL Finals (2026) viewership: 5.05 million (Game 3)
    NBA Finals (2026) viewership: 28.7 million (Game 4)

    + 39: the number of times Trump has said a deal is imminent to end the Iran war. Does President False Alarm continue to move the market?

    + This week, Israeli troops conducting raids in Hebron shot a seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, in the head while he was held in his mother's arms. . . . Israel has killed more Palestinian children in the last 3 years than Palestinians have killed Israelis of any kind over the last 80 years.

    + 97: Number of J6 rioters pardoned by Trump who have committed new crimes since J6. Recidivism is the hallmark of a true Trumper.

    + Trump on Graham Platner (or is he engaging in a rare episode of self-reflection?): "This guy's got a rap sheet, I've never seen anything like it. He's a low-level thug, and he's running to be senator . . . He's worse than any human being that's ever run for office, probably." [Worse than Trump? Worse than Aaron Burr? There must be some others on that level that are slipping my mind.]

    His "Booked Up" includes a link to Cory Doctorow, The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It's Too Late.

TomDispatch: Tom Engelhardt's newsletter has come to an end, with the world still badly in need of it. Reports are that Nick Turse, a former intern as memory serves, and recently The Intercept's top war reporter, will take over. No evidence of that yet.

  • William D Hartung [05-28]: Donald (disaster) Trump: "And the fight for a humane future."

  • Rebecca Gordon [05-31]: Endings and beginnings: "About that arc of the moral universe, sometimes it's more like a meandering sine wave."

  • Tom Engelhardt

    • [06-04]: A personal TomDispatch farewell (of sorts): The site's editor, after 24 years, is retiring. I've followed the site regularly almost since its inception. (As best I recall, my tip was just one step removed from Jonathan Schell, an early writer there.) I tried to get him interested in my writing a couple times, to no avail. The dissolution of the American empire has been both his and my great theme of the last 25 years, so I both appreciate all he has done, and think I could add a little bit more. One thing I probably would not do is always cycle back around to climate change. I don't doubt that it's happening, or that its effect will be huge, but I'd rather focus on other things, while treating it more as something that can be adapted to, although the opportunity costs of not working on it are huge.

    • [06-08]: War, what's it good for? "Absolutely nothing." He's moved on to a Substack.

    • [06-11]: Reading the Times: "(And not just the paper)."

    • [06-12]: 2025 wildfires were the costliest ever: why isn't that news?. Seems to be an alternate title to "Reading the Times."

Miscellaneous Pieces

The following articles are more/less in order published, although some authors have collected pieces, and some entries have related articles underneath.

[Washington University] Rebecca Dudley/Gloria Fall [05-06]: WashU's financial mismanagement is jeopardizing our education: Authors are PhD students at my almost alma mater. (I had a couple summer school courses that would have met my BA hours total, but some strange things happened, and I got shot down by an incomplete on a course that I wasn't allowed to finish. It's a weird story I should write up some time, including why I didn't much care about the degree I missed out on. But that was 1973. The bit I find most shocking here is the current $71,310 tuition. As I recall, it was about $6000 then, which I could only handle with scholarship and loans, which even then meant that most of my classmates were rich kids.) Another item here is their use of some software called Workday, which WashU "has spent over $265 million on." That in turn has led to "massive layoffs." Also re Washington University:

  • John K Wilson [06-09]: Academic authoritarianisn in a new attack on humanities scholars: "There is virtually no evidence offered in the report for its sweeping conclusions about the entirety of the humanities." I'll just add that the destruction at Washington University started back in the 1970s when I was a student there, and the administration decided to gut and dismantle what had been one of the nation's most eminent sociology departments.

[Vox] Sara Fischer [05-20]: Vox Media sells podcast biz, some publishing brands to James Murdoch's Lupa Systems: This includes the Vox and New York Magazine websites, which I often cite. Some other brands will remain independent, but none I recognize (maybe The Verge). Vox Media co-founder/CEO Jim Bankoff will join Lupa. James is one of Rupert Murdoch's sons, which raises some sort of alarm.

[Biden] Ben Terris [06-13]: Building back the Bidens: "The urgent, embarrassing, and occasionally convincing campaign to salvage their legacy." Sure, I could have filed this under "Democrats," but they've moved on, and so should we. Two things permanently destroyed his presidency. One was his indifference to ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Sure, that may largely be blamed on Anthony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, who most likely will never work in Washington again, but he was president, he could have done something, and he only made bad situations worse. The other, perhaps even more unforgivable, was losing to Trump, even disguised as Kamala Harris. There's a story here about Biden trying to scrape up change to build his presidential library in Wilmington, and how poorly he's doing compared to Obama's foundation, with its "behemoth center in Chicago, known as 'the Obamalisk.'" I seriously doubt that the legacies of Obama and Clinton are going to wind up looking much better than Biden's term, but at least they went out as "winners" (unfairly, I'd say, given that both lost their Congressional majorities after two years, and never recovered, leaving them six years to legislate nothing of note for their constituents, while helping their donors get rich, a favor amply returned through their foundations).

  • Nia Prater [05-28]: 5 revelations from Jill Biden's upcoming memoir: Four have to do with cognitive decline and the debate, so you can guess them. The fifth is "she says she left notes warning Biden about dealing with Netanyahu":

    According to the outlet, she left a note reading, "Net has to stop," referring to the world leader after an Israeli air strike killed seven aid workers. On other occasions, she left a message ahead of a planned conversation the president had with Netanyahu, telling her husband, "Be strong. Don't let BN use your goodness."

Books:

  • The Guardian [05-12]: The 100 greatest novels of all time: Click bait, which often for music and sometimes for movies I used as checklists, but I read so little fiction this will likely prove useless. Fwiw, I've read one (The Master and Margarita), started several others, have heard of (can tell you the authors of) most of them, and have seen a couple dozen in the form of movies or television series. One thing I have in common with my wife is that we both started then abandoned Anna Karenina, back in our teens, after a couple hundred pages. She's gone on to read the majority of the list. One novel I did read and liked so much I'm pretty sure it would hold up in this company is Thomas Pynchon's V. But I gave up on Gravity's Rainbow after 350 pages, and haven't attempted any of his later books.

  • Michael Eby [05-14]: Is antitrust enough?: "Tim Wu's Age of Extraction lays out an antitrust strategy for fighting platform capitalism. But does the challenge posed by Big Tech require a new playbook?" I've read Wu's book, and there is much more to his solution than just antitrust. Still, some business models are problems in themselves, a problem that making them more competitive and less extortionate doesn't help much.

Obituaries: I had been using the New York Times, but they're giving me aggravation these days, so I'll switch over to Wikipedia (May, also June), which is probably better anyway. Roughly speaking, since my last report on May 12:

  • [05-13]: Clarence Carter (90): American singer-songwriter ("Slip Away," "Patches," "Strokin'")

  • [05-18]: Sally Head (79): British trelevision producer (Cracker, Prime Suspect, Jeeves and Wooster).

  • [05-19]: Barney Frank (86): Member of Congress (D-MA, 1981-2013).

  • [05-20]: Ron Escheté (77): American jazz guitarist.

  • [05-21]: Kyle Busch (41): NASCAR driver.

  • [05-25]: Sonny Rollins (95): Saxophone colossus.

  • [06-03]: James Blood Ulmer (86): American jazz guitarist and singer.

  • [06-04]: Robert Coles (97): American child psychiatrist and author of many books, most famously his Children of Crisis series.

  • [06-04]: Marjane Satrapi (56): Iranian-French graphic novelist.

    • Phillip Maciak [06-08]: The singular power of Persepolis: "Marjane Satrapi's inimitable art encompassed revolution and war, education and ideology, repression and rebellion."

  • [06-06]: Bob Packwood (93): US Senator (R-OR), 1969-95. New York Times obituary is subtitled Senator forced to quit in sex scandal. I remember him more for taking an antiwar stand on Vietnam.

  • [06-06]: Lee Raymond (87), American oil executive, the guy who put Exxon and Mobil back together again. He's the main character in Steve Coll's Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (2012).

  • [06-07]: Gordon S. Wood (92): American historian, author of: The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787 (1969); The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992); Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic 1789-1815 (2010); and other important books.

    • David Waldstreicher [06-11]: How Gordon S. Wood shaped the idea of America: "The acclaimed historian, who died at the age of 92 this week, spent decades at the center of a debate about the founding of the United States." I've read quite a bit by Wood. I thought his first book was the definitive history of the writing of the constitution, while his later books were my principal sources for the founding generation and, with Empire of Liberty, the early years of the republic.

  • [06-11]: David Hockney (88): English painter.

  • [06-12]: Gene Shalit (100): American journalist, media critic and television personality.

Tweets: I've usually used this section for highlighting clever responses and/or interesting ideas.

  • David Everall [04-30]: Forwarded a post from Chalkie Davies, noting that "Lester Bangs died on this day 44 years ago," and including an obituary written by Robert Christgau (also available here).

  • Steven Hendricks [04-27]:

    Communication Con Job

    As a former corporate communications and government affairs executive, I've been watching Donald Trump answer questions with the media for more than 10 years now. The confidence, the certainty, and the way he controls media interviews. It's no wonder some people "think" that he's a skillful communicator.

    Every single time that Donald Trump is asked a question — any question — he runs the same exact seven 'deceitful' steps — the same exact order—without exception.

    This is not one's personality, not confidence nor is it charisma either. This is a deliberate repeatable "control the lie" formula — and here is the formula.

    1. KILL THE QUESTION (First thing every time — make the question itself the problem.) —"That's a stupid question." / "Fake news."
    2. KILL WHO ASKED IT (Destroy the source so the question has nowhere to stand.) —"Your ratings are terrible. Nobody watches your network."
    3. INSERT HIMSELF (Every topic. Every time. Without fail. It always lands here.) —"Nobody has ever done what I've done."
    4. SCALE IT TO THE BIGGEST CLAIM POSSIBLE (Not good. Not great. The greatest—ever— In history. Every single time.) — "More than any administration — by far." / "Nobody has ever had crowds like I've had in history, for any country."
    5. UNNAMED PEOPLE AGREE (Faceless. Countless. Unverifiable. Always there.) — "Smart people are saying it. Great people. A lot of people."
    6. VAGUE THREAT (Something bad will happen. Never specified. Always implied.) — "All hell will break out." / "They know it. Believe me."
    7. LOOP BACK TO HIMSELF (Different words. Same destination. Formula complete.) — "It's been an amazing period of time. Page after page of accomplishments."

    The question was never answered — the formula was just executed. Go back and watch any news clip, any interview, any topic, any reporter. Count the steps — they're all there.

    And this is the part that nobody wants to believe . . . A "control the lie" formula runs the same seven steps whether the topic is war, Epstein Files, or egg prices. Which means the response was never built for the question; it was built for you—the listener; to feel certain; to stop you from noticing that nothing was actually answered.

    And it worked — for years it has worked. It's why he lies with such confidence, with such arrogance, with such certainty — he's controlling the moment — and he's doing it without people noticing.

    Pull any news clip video, any interview transcript, any public statement and count the steps yourself. This isn't about politics. This is about controlling what you were never supposed to notice — and Donald Trump is a master it!

    MAGA Trumpublicans eat it up and they fall for Trump's "communication con job" — every single time! Unfortunately, so does a lot of other people!

  • Tom Carson: Picture of a guy who looks like Lindsey Graham in a "69 47" T-shirt."

  • Astra Taylor: She seems to have a new book coming out, combining forces with Naomi Klein, called "End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World." Book is scheduled for September release. Quote from Naomi Klein:

    Trapped in Bad Fiction

    Must the future be this corny? Are we really doomed to live inside the half-remembered childhood fantasies of overgrown teenage boys? To be cast as bit characters in a misunderstood book that Elon Musk or Peter Thiel may or may not have finished reading? Is it even possible to write about those hackneyed futures without becoming a cliché yourself?

    Over the past year, as Astra Taylor and I have immersed ourselves in what we call End Times Fascism, I have returned to these questions often. Whether it's Musk's dreams of space colonization, Sam Altman's prediction of an imminent machine-human merger, or Pete Hegseth's Armageddon complex, it often feels as if we are trapped inside very bad science fiction.

    Our book comes out in September and now that we are through the copyedit (and the fact check, and the legal review . . . ) I finally have a little space to engage in real time conversations about how apocalyptic stories about the end times are shaping the news cycle, from everyone accusing everyone else of being the Antichrist, to Donald Trump's obsessive drive to build a gilded ballroom over a fortressed bunker (which I think of as a sort of drydock Titanic).

    I love this new direction because it speaks directly to that uncanny feeling, shared by so many of us, of being caught in somebody else's kitschy version of the future — one we have all been warned against countless times. The cold blues recall several classic Isaac Asimov jackets, and the retro rocket ship brings the same scifi era to mind.

    Jim Stoddart, who designed the cover for Allen Lane, explains that the rocket's exodus "illustrates the most extreme metaphor of the super-rich believing they can escape the rest of humanity — whether fleeing to islands on the other side of the globe or rocketing off to Mars — while exacerbating devastation behind them." And, of course, the Earth on the cover is imperiled, "being metaphorically shrouded with poison intentions by the privileged few." But Stoddart points out, all is not lost: "the planet has not yet been entirely overwhelmed — and there lies the hope for the future."

    Astra and I firmly believe that to be the case, which is why we wrote the book and immersed ourselves in that poison since Trump re-entered the White House. A huge part of the reason why a dystopic future can feel inevitable is precisely because versions of that violent story have been told and retold so many times, riffing off the same template that appears in the Book of Revelation, which casts armageddon as a necessary stage on the way to a frictionless, lifeless heavenly utopia. Unfortunately, we have far less practice imagining versions of the future in which we come together to fight for all that is irreplaceable in the blessedly imperfect, friction-filled living world.

    And yet we are surrounded by examples of people doing just that, from parched communities coming together to resist AI data centres to the historic summit happening right now in Santa Marta, Colombia, where 60 governments have convened to chart a path away from fossil fuels, refusing to let the breakdown of climate negotiations at the United Nations be the last word in the fight against climate breakdown. With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran showing us all — yet again! — the enormous perils of fossil fuel dependence, the summit comes at a critical moment.

Current count: 371 links, 26617 words (32677 total)

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Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Music Week

June archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46097 [46048] rated (+49), 11 [20] unrated (-9).

A lot of stuff to cover this week. My preview, Music Week (6:2) came out on Tuesday, with 7 reviews, 4 of them A-, 6 new and 1 old music. It's also available on the website here. All of the Substack posts are there. After three weeks, I'm beginning to like this system. Among other things, it breaks the week's work up a bit, and moves it off Monday.

I did the cutoff on Wednesday, so picked up a couple more albums below, but I did it before I took a serious look at Robert Christgau's June Consumer Guide. I was surprised not to recognize any of the albums there. Hard to remember when that last happened. Turns out I had heard but forgotten Pony [B+(**)]. Also forgotten was a 2018 K.A.A.N. album (Subtle Meditation) which I had given an A- to. I was vaguely aware of new albums by Ashley McBryde and The New Pornographers, and I had logged EOY Aggregate points for This Is Lorelei (while only listening to the "deluxe edition" reissue of their debut). More on those records next week.

While the cutoff was on Wednesday, I didn't want to post this until I was in a better position to write about the Mid-Year Jazz Critics Poll. I had pretty much decided to do it in mid-May, but wasn't moved to commit until Bill Marx raised the question. It's a fairly straightforward proposition for me:

  1. Clone my previous poll website, and make a few edits to move from 2025 to 2026 Mid-Year (or 2025 Mid-Year to 2026 Mid-Year).
  2. Send invites out to my mailing list(s).
  3. Collect and count ballots, updating the website.
  4. Once everything is counted, write an essay, where most of the substance is in the totals tables.

Each of those is a fairly substantial piece of work, but it's work I've done many times before. I expected it to wipe out June and early July, but I've been procrastinating on my memoir, while drowning in things to critique politically/philosophically. But at least there is some demand for and interest in what I have to say about music, and that keeps drawing me back. I don't really want to do another EOY poll, but the stakes are much lower for the Mid-Year; it's clearly something I can do, and it's unlikely to get done otherwise. (Maybe someone else wants the EOY?)

I spent 5-6 days working on the website: more than was needed, but I did a pretty careful job of documenting each step, and then I did a pretty thorough rewrite of the Notes for Voters. It's unlikely anyone will read these pieces, but as an engineer, I use them to think through the various issues that will almost certainly crop up.

I finally updated the website last night, and announced the plan to my jpadmin mail list. I still had a couple of programming changes I wanted to do, and I got to them today:

  1. I wanted to be able to offer a permanent URL for individual critic's ballots. The old system was stable enough after voting was closed, but could break when new ballots were added.
  2. The reason the first point mattered is that I wanted to be able to give voters a URL they could later look up, recheck, and possibly link to so other could see, even before the end of voting. To do this, I also needed to exempt ballot viewing from my pre-publication lock code.

This turned out to be about as easy as I had expected: one new file, which mostly reused old code, and a half-dozen line edits. The totals tables are still locked up. It would have been easier to just unlock everything, but I didn't see much value in opening up the totals tables, and it could have been confusing if people saw someone only temporarily in the lead (as California's primary shows). But I think opening up the ballots will allow voters to check and publicize their own ballots, and will help voters find albums before it is too late. I'm also hopeful this will draw some more attention to the poll, which is usually a big deal for a few days after publication, then fades from attention.

The second stage has usually been my big problem area. I have a mailing list for voters (jazzpoll), which is easy to send to, but in the past has had delivery problems. It should be better now, but it's hard to be sure. So in the past, I've often had to send an extra round of invites out on a different (sending them out one-by-one using my personal account), which takes a huge amount of work. I'm hoping to avoid that this time. But the bigger problem is identifying everyone we should be sending invites to. I've never had time to do this properly, and probably won't this time either. Best I can do is to ask for recommendations, as I do in the invite and elsewhere.

Counting the ballots should be easier this year, as I've dropped the special categories that have added a lot of extra work and confusion to previous polls. Still, early on it can take as much as an hour per ballot, as I have to identify and verify each new album. In this, it helps that I keep a jazz tracking file (currently listing 311 jazz albums, but I expect it to more than double before the poll closes).

I hope to keep the essay simple and straightforward, with a top-50 table for new jazz albums, a top-25 (or so) for rara avis (reissue/historical), a list of voters, and a few side comments. Nothing I need to worry about before the time comes.

As for other matters, Loose Tabs is still pending. No chance I can really catch up with events, so the best thing is probably to just publish whatever I have this weekend, then start again. Any posts to Notes on Everyday Life are likely to be opportunistic. (I'm pleased to note an uptick in subscribers this week — a dividend from working on the poll.)

As for this week's albums, Phil Overeem's May list has been a primary source.

New records reviewed this week:

Marisa Anderson: The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music (2026, Thrill Jockey): American primitive guitarist, based in Portland, 11th album since 2006, including duos with Jim White, Torji Dashi, and William Tyler. Also plays pedal steel, accordion, and electric piano here, with guest violin/viola on two cuts. B+(**) [sp]

Chuck Bergeron: Bass & Face: Duets With Ten Premier Vocalists ([2026], Summit): Bassist, from New Orleans, Discogs credits him with three albums since 1995, 44 more side credits, including big bands and singers. The ten vocalists here are: Janis Siegel, Pete McGuinness, Roseanna Vitro, Kevin Mahogany, Sheila Jordan, George Rabbai, Lisanne Lyons, Deborah Silver, Kate Reid, and Nicole Yarling. Only recording date I can find is 2005 for Mahogany (d. 2017), but that is probably the only non-recent track. (Jordan died in 2025, but was 95 when her track was cut, so 2023-24.) A few cuts have extra guest musicians: Charles Pillow (sax), Phil Strange (piano), John Riley (drums). Some nice pieces here. B+(**) [cd]

Boards of Canada: Inferno (2026, Music 70/Warp): Scottish electronic duo (brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin), lived in Canada 1979-80, recorded first EP in 1995 and album in 1998 (their best known, Music Has a Right to Children). This is only their fifth, a long break after 2013 and 2005. B+(**) [sp]

Bop Alloy: Masters of the Artistry (2026, Bop Alloy): Hip-hop duo of Substantial (Virginia-based MC from Maryland) and Marcus D (producer/pianist from Seattle), third album since 2010, easy underground flow. Choice cut: "Last Song I'll Ever Write." A- [sp]

Alan Braufman: Anthem for Peace (2025 [2026], The Control Group/Valley of Search): Alto saxophonist, plays some flute, joined the New York avant scene in the early 1970s, his only real album appearing in 1975, then a long hiatus before 2019, when he started dusting off old tapes and recording new ones. Quartet here with Patricia Brennan (vibes), Luke Stewart (bass), and Chad Taylor (drums), with Ken Filiano and Michael Wimberly on one track. B+(**) [sp]

Columbia Icefield: A Silence Opens (2024-25 [2026], Out of Your Head): Trumpet player Nate Wooley, prolific since his 2005 debut, group named for his 2019 quartet album with Mary Halvorson (guitar), Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar), and Ryan Sawyer (drums). Second group album since then, with Ava Mendoza in Halvorson's place. Alcorn is credited on four tracks (the long ones, separated by five short bits, mostly Wooley but one assembles a choir), but the liner notes offer a hint that she may have finished her bits in spirit only. B+(**) [cd]

Michael Dease Big Band: Return Trajectory (2025 [2026], Origin): Trombonist, from Georgia, studied at Juilliard, teaches at Michigan State (where's he's been influenced by Gregg Hill, recording several albums of his compositions), debut 2007, has considerable big band experience going back to Illinois Jacquet in 2002. Six songs here: two originals, two by Hill (listed as executive producer), one from J.J. Johnson, and a delightful "Cherokee," all in 33:26. B+(**) [cd] [06-19]

Armen Donelian: Inquiry (2020-24 [2026], Sunnyside): Pianist, 15th album since 1981, started with solo piano then built it up over several years, adding Dominique Eade (voice), Ed Neumeister (trombone), Jay Anderson (bass), and Dennis Mackrel (drums). Originals plus "Somewhere," "Blue in Green," and something from Beethoven. My appreciation of art song remains pretty limited. B+(*) [cd]

Eddy Current Suppression Ring: In Light of Recent Events (2025 [2026], Suppression): Australian indie rock outfit, first album 2006, some earlier singles were collected into the superb So Many Things (2003-04 [2011]). B+(***) [bc]

Entropic Hop: The Quest for the Normal Is the Death of the Self (2025 [2026], ESP-Disk'): Group of Aron Namenwirth (guitar, voice, electronics), Ayumi Ishito (sax, electronics), and Kevin Shea (drums, voice, electronics), with special guest Sonic (voice, guiro), recorded in Brooklyn. Shea I recall from MOPDTK and Talibam!, and I've heard several of Ishito's albums on 577. Namenwirth has a couple albums I haven't heard [PS: below], but his guitar is key here, the foundation of their "post-human soundscape." Song titles start with "ChatGPT Grafted My Identity" and end with "Justice is no more than just ice," with scattered words, pondering much existential anguish along the way (a long one, 16 tracks, 76:47). B+(***) [cd]

Joel Futterman/William Parker: Transcendent Universe (2025 [2026], Burning Ambulance): Piano and bass duo, although I was thrown at first with a piercing sound that reminded me of saxophone (no such credit, but Futterman has played sax in the past). But as similar sounds evolved, I figured they must have been emanating from Parker's bass. But after a few minutes, this settles into what you might expect: a rhythmically adventurous pianist and a relentlessly inventive bassist. A- [bc]

Golems of the Red Planet: Surf Masada: The Compositions of John Zorn (2026, Heyday Again): Quartet from Akron — Harvey Gold (guitar/keyboards), Bob Ethington (drums/percussion), Mark Allender (bass/voices), and Matt Reese (cello); cover sticker identifies them as "members of Tin Huey, Pointless Orchestra, and Trial of Lucy" — play John Zorn compositions, with a bit of surf guitar overhang. B+(***) [bc]

Brad Goode Quintet: Live Your Dream: Live at the North Street Cabaret (2025 [2026], Origin): Trumpet player, from Chicago, 1988 debut was titled Shock of the New, has an interesting career I've never quite figured out, roughly filed under post-bop. Strong live set, with a rhythm section of Adrean Farrugia (piano), Jay Anderson (bass), and Adam Nussbaum (drums), plus a "featuring" role for tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts, who often sounds terrific. B+(***) [cd] [06-19]

Andy Haas: Messianic Time (2026, Resonant Music): Canadian saxophonist, based in New York, I first noticed him in a new wave rock band called Martha & the Muffins (1980), and later in the jazz trio Radio I-Ching. A new trio here with Brenda Rey (bass) and James Paul Nadien (drums), with effects, harmonica, and voice. This is fairly rough listening, demanding attention, as if trying to wake, or just remember, the dead (in this case, his late drummers Dee Pop and Michael Evans). [PS: Bandcamp version has 2 tracks not on CD (total 4 tracks, 50:01); CD had four tracks not on Bandcamp (6 tracks, 60:40). Title cut, curiously enough, is only on Bandcamp.] B+(**) [cd]

Jon Hamar: Música Callada (2025 [2026], Origin Classical): Bassist, has several jazz albums since 2007, a couple dozen side credits (especially with Jeff Hamilton). Duo with pianist Adrienne Fontenot, opening with a rendition of Frederic Mompou's 9-part title piece (15:36), followed by six shorter pieces (two originals, one by Hamilton, one by Ned Rorem, two by David P. Jones). B+(*) [cd] [06-19]

Aldous Harding: Train on the Island (2026, 4AD): Singer-songwriter from New Zealand, originally Hannah Topp, Harding was stepfather's name, plays piano and guitar, fifth album since 2014, John Parrish produced and mostly plays percussion, with H. Hawkline on guitar and keyboards. B+(**) [sp]

Wendell Harrison & Tribe: Tribute to Pharoah Sanders: Live at the Concert of Colors Detroit 2025 (2025 [2026], Org Music): Tenor saxophonist from Detroit, a founder of Tribe with Phil Ranelin in the early 1970s, which exemplified what I think of as the fusion of avant-jazz and black power to construct a community activist fusion music. Sanders and Archie Shepp were senior figures in that movement, as they already had international reputations. (AEC was another; Bayard Lancaster in Philadelphia, and Horace Tapscott in Los Angeles, were to follow.) No credits here, but a large group with vocals, doing several Sanders "hits." B+(***) [sp]

David Hillyard & the Rocksteady 7: Home for Dinner (2026, Org Music): Ska saxophonist based in New York, known for his work the the Slackers as well as this band, which has eight albums since 1999. Featuring percussionist Larry McDonald, with fairly prominent vibes. A mix of originals, standards, three Roland Alphonso tunes, with outliers from Kurt Weill and Jorge Ben. Two guest vocals. Pleasant enough, but Alphonso and Tommy McCook have nothing to fear. B [bc]

Ital Tek: Mind Abandon (2026, Planet Mu): British electronica producer Alan Myson, ninth album since 2008. B+(**) [bc]

JPEGMafia: Experimental Rap (2026, Peggy/AWAL): Rapper Barrington Hendricks, sixth studio album since 2016, more mixtapes 2009-15 (most as Devon Hendryx), 25 songs in 52:07, intense fast ones with jerky beats and post-metallic clang. I suppose I should be more impressed, but I'm not enjoying this much. B+(*) [sp]

Whitney Johnson/Lia Kohl/Macie Stewart: Body Sound (2025 [2026], International Anthem): String trio (viola, cello, violin), with voice and tape effects. The tone suggests drone, although the improvisation is typically more complex. B+(**) [bc]

Carolyn Lee Jones: Eklektika (2026, Catn'round Sound): Standards singer, sixth album (per notes; only one, a Christmas album from 2021, in Discogs). Cover also notes: "Jazz Retro Pop Bossa Nova," which I initially took to be a subtitle, but dropped that idea on finding this lacks even what I've come to call "the obligatory Jobim." Bio notes "she burst on to the jazz scene in 2008," and cites "her own groups": Fresh Vintage Jazz Ensemble, The Satin Dolls Band, and In Full Swing. Long list of redundant credits suggests this came from multiple sessions, which aren't dated. Some vintage standards, nicely done. [PS: She has one previous album in my database, The Performer from 2013, which I also liked.] B+(***) [cd]

KJADE: The Sound That Trees Make (2024, self-released): Rapper-singer Kendall Jade, based in Phoenix, first album, ten fractured pieces (22:11), teases for more. B+(**) [bc]

KJADE: On Everything I Love (2026, self-released): Second album, twelve pieces this time (20:52), not counting the 4:24 remix. B+(**) [bc]

Ava Mendoza: Alive Alone, Alive Together (2026, Burning Ambulance): Guitarist, based in Brooklyn, can play heavy rock as well as avant-jazz, sings/shouts some, could make it as the next Kim Gordon, but holds her own on four solo tracks here, and gets some help from Hamid Drake (drums) on four more. B+(***) [bc]

Mod Lang: Borrowed Time (2026, Just Add Water): Detroit power pop group, quartet with retro-sixties harmonies, hooks, and drums, but doesn't trigger any nostalgia for me, even for later bands in this vein like the Raspberries or the Pooh Sticks, let alone Big Star (a name-drop, but also a signature guitar quote). B+(**) [bc]

Namasenda: Limbo (2026, Year0001): Swedish-born dance-pop singer-songwriter Naomi Namasenda, parents from Uganda, first album after a mixtape and a remix album. B+(***) [bc]

Willie Nelson: Dream Chaser (2026, Legacy): Still cranking out new albums at 93, this his 79th studio effort, 10 songs in 30:50, 6 co-writes, most with producer Buddy Cannon, one with Bob Dylan. He still sounds terrific. B+(***) [sp]

Shane Parish: Autechre Guitar (2025 [2026], Palilalia): Guitarist, based in Athens GA, has recorded a good deal since 2015, including with Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet. The idea here is to play songs from the British electronica duo Autechre (15 studio albums 1993-2020) on solo acoustic guitar. I've heard three Autechre albums, which are neither for me, but I suspect I would find the electronics have more appeal than the guitar does. B [sp]

Jeff Parker ETA IVtet: Happy Today (2025 [2026], International Anthem/Nonesuch): Guitarist, born in Connecticut, studied at Berklee, moved to Chicago in 1991 where he established himself (in post-rock groups Tortoise and Isotope 217, as well as jazz groups like Chicago Underground and many other collaborations), before moving to Los Angeles in 2013. There this quartet took its name from "a Monday night residency from 2016-2023 at ETA Highland Park." With Josh Johnson (alto sax), Anna Butterss (bass), and Jay Bellerose (drums). Two 20+ minute pieces, as basic patterns iterate, mutate, and develop. A- [bc]

Ben Patterson: Stretch (2025 [2026], Origin): Trombonist, former Airmen of Note music director, fifth album since 2020, postbop with some groove and swing, backed by Shawn Purcell (guitar), Harry Appelman (keyboards), bass, and drums, with chops aplenty. B+(**) [cd] [06-19]

Kemuel Roig: Both Sides Now (2026, Life in Music): Cuban pianist, studied in Miami, side credits since 2015 with Arturo Sandoval, Ed Calle, Brian Lynch, and Aymee Nuviola. First album, a solo, mostly standards with a bonus second take of Jimmy Rowles' "The Peacocks." Not splashy, but very nicely done. B+(***) [cd]

Skullcap: Snakes of Albuquerque (2023 [2025], Cuneiform): "It might be easy to think of Skullcap as Janel & Anthony plus one": Leppin (cello) and Pirog (guitar), who have a previous record as such, plus Mike Kuhl (drums). B+(**) [dl]

The Sleeveens: National Anthem (2026, Goner): Rock band formed in 2022 in Nashville by Stefan Murphy (from Ireland, originally Stef + the Sleeveens). Second album. Seems pretty conventional to me, but give them credit for keeping the energy level up. B+(*) [bc]

Tyshawn Sorey: Members . . . Don't (2025 [2026], Pi, 2CD): Drummer, MacArthur genius, arranged four pieces by Stanley Cowell plus three more (Jymie Merritt, Gary Bartz, Max Roach/trad.), for a quintet that expands them masterfully to an average over 13 minutes, with Adam O'Farrill (trumpet), Mark Shim (tenor sax), Lex Korten (piano), and Tyrone Allen II (bass), with vocalist Fay Victor nailing the finale. A- [cd]

Gary Versace Trio: Three Track Mind (2024 [2026], Sunnyside): Pianist, has a large number of appearances since 1997, many on organ or accordion. Trio here with François Moutin (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums). This is quite nice. B+(**) [bc]

Victor Vieira-Branco's Bark Culture: The Giant Is Awkward (2025 [2026], Temperphantom): From Philadelphia, second group album, first claimed by the vibraphonist, who composed 4 (of 5) pieces, the other one by pianist Sam Yulsman, an addition here to John Moran (bass) and Joey Sullivan (drums). B+(**) [bc]

Weird Nightmare: Hoopla (2026, Sub Pop): Indie power pop band from Toronto led by Alex Edkins, formerly of Metz, which released five studio albums 2012-24 (overlapping the Weird Nightmare debut in 2022). First album blurb said, "if you're looking for a raw, sugary blast of distorted pop, look no further." That remains true, but how about a hits or two? B+(*) [sp]

White Denim: Wd13 (2026, Bella Union): Indie band from Austin, got some notice early on (2008-09), but they've kept at it, releasing another album most years since, the titles counted since 12 (most sources give this as 13, but I prefer to believe the cover). Slips and slides, with a bluesy feel that can escalate into funk (as in "adelicment"). "In the USA we are simple and free." Well, not so simple. B+(**) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Kaiso Power: Sound Revolution in Trinidad 1970-1980 (1970-80 [2026], Soundway): Some rare crate digging. B+(*) [bc]

Les Rallizes Dénudés: Disque 4: '76 Studio Et Live (1976 [2026], Temporal Drift): Japanese experimental rock group, formed in 1967 but didn't release anything until 1991, when they dropped three albums (including some old music: '67-'69 Studio Et Live and '77 Live). The overall sound, especially the guitar, was influenced by Velvet Underground, nicely stretched out to emphasize the atmospherics. A- [bc]

Old music:

Bop Alloy: Substantial and Marcus D Are Bop Alloy (2010, Elevation): Debut album, rapper Stan Robinson and producer Marcus Marino. Underground, nice flow to start. B+(**) [sp]

Bop Alloy: Another Day in the Life Of . . . (2014, Bop Alloy): Second proper album, aside from instrumental versions and remixes. B+(**) [sp]

Namasenda: Unlimited Ammo (2021, PC Music): Swedish dance-pop singer-songwriter, parents from Uganda, studied in US, signed to A.G. Cook's British EDM label for this first mixtape. B+(**) [sp]

Aron Namenwirth/Eric Plaks/Sean Conly/Jon Panikkar: Hurricane (2018 [2019], Culture of Waste): Brooklyn-based guitarist, first album, with piano, bass, and drums. Keeps you sharp. B+(***) [bc]

Aron Namenwirth/Zach Swanson/Joe Hertenstein: Gettin' Hot (2019 [2020], Culture of Waste): Guitar, bass, drums trio, recorded live (3 tracks, 30:00). [bc]

Weird Nightmare: Weird Nightmare (2022, Sub Pop): First album from Alex Edkins' Metz sugary distorted pop spin off. Plus is that the first song has minor hit potential. But the rest of the album is more determined in its Copper Blue hype. B+(*) [bc]

White Denim: Workout Holiday (2008, Full Time Hobby): Austin group, their new Wd13 testifies to aging gracefully, but reminded me that I had missed this first album, hard to find at the time (released in Europe after re-recording an EP with the same title plus some extras, then reissued for their American debut under a different title). The guitar/noise brinksmanship reminds me of a similar group from the time, No Age, whose title Weirdo Rippers would fit this as well. [Bandcamp page is for "(Deluxe Edition)" but its 5 extra tracks are listed but not available. This "first album" was released in EU, while there is a "first US album" called Exposion, which I hear is more or less the same or different — a distinction I find not cost-effective.] B+(***) [bc]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Mike Clark: Kuon Ganjo (Time Without Beginning) (Wide Hive) [08-07]
  • Satoko Fujii: Satoko Fujii's Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra (2014, Libra, 2CD) [07-10]
  • Hein Westgaard & Matt Maneri: Chamber (Gotta Let It Out) [2024-06-27]

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