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An occasional blog about populist politics and popular music, not necessarily at the same time. LinksLocal Links Social Media My Other Websites Music Politics Others Networking Music DatabaseArtist Search: Website SearchGoogle: Recent Reading
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Tuesday, July 8, 2025 Music Week
Music: Current count 44492 [44435] rated (+57), 18 [23] unrated (-5). Music Week got pushed out a day this week, extending an already bountiful list even more. The reason was that I needed Monday to work on my intro essay to the Mid-Year 2025 Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll. Voting shut down on July 4, with 113 ballots counted, yielding 437 distinct New Jazz Albums and 134 Rara Avis. About half of those albums weren't in my tracking file before polling, but are now. Nearly everything below comes from checking out albums that received votes. This has overwhelmed my ability to post links on Bluesky to newly discovered A-list albums. The idea there was to gin up interest in the coming Music Week, so there's little point in trying to catch up now. But I will note that had I heard it earlier, The Ancients would have made my ballot (published here last week). As a rule of thumb, I figure it takes an average of 3 weeks after filing a ballot to find another album that was good enough to make it -- and more like 3 days to find a contender, but this week shows how a poll can accelerate that process. I have, by the way, cobbled together a Best Jazz of 2025 file (jazz only, and only the A-list portions). The poll should be published at The Arts Fuse this week, at which point I'll unlock all the totals and ballots on my archival website. Already you can see the voter list and unranked lists of all the albums that received votes. I'm not perfectly happy with the state of the notes files on the website, but beating them into shape has been a very tiring task, and there's little evidence that people read them anyway. The other thing I would like to do is to set up some sort of framework for data analysis, but that too will likely have to wait. The poll seems to repeatedly go through a cycle of three phases: before voting starts, no real urgency to work on it; once voting starts, no time; and once it closes, no energy left. I tried to minimize wear and tear this time by cutting back on how much I needed to write at the end, I asked one of Arts Fuse's regular writers, Jon Garelick, to write the keynote essay, while I just write an introduction to the tables and voter list. While the website could still use more work, the essays are basically ready to go. I had some vague ideas about trying to publicize the poll, including a fairly open invite to let other people see the results in hopes they would write their own explorations. To date, nobody's taken me up on that offer. So, as exhaustion sets in, I'll probably wait until November before going into panic mode again. In the meantime, I have lots of other projects to work on. After I hit a minor milestone, I stopped working on the woodpile project. Not a lot more to do there: some final sorting, some cleaning, and construction of my recycling kiosk. If the heat isn't unbearable, that's probably a week. I also have parts to build a new computer for my wife. That's maybe an afternoon. But mostly I need to get back to my planning, especially for writing, but also website development. I'm leaning towards restarting the political book project. I'm sufficiently upset with the state of the world to bring some heat. The old outlines are all in the dustbin. The new one is what I call the "weird" book, because something weird happened in the 2024 election, and I think I can make sense of it now. The trick will be to write as much as I can as fast as I can, which means almost totally off the top of my head. It will be somewhat cryptic, and will need a subsequent fact-check phase, but I want to go all the way through the ultimate utopian/dystopian scenarios. It will mostly be about how I think, and how I think you should think. History offers evidence, but we need to bring mentality and psychology to the fore, because that's where the struggle actually is. If I can knock out 80-120 pages in 4-6 weeks, I have little doubt that it can be fleshed out into a respectable book. I may look for help then, or may struggle on my own. One difference this time is that I feel very little pressure to moderate my views to establish some sort of common front with pro-business Democrats. I can go back to my early radicalism, which offers the sharpest critique of all political parties. And if I can't write that much, it shows I lack the willpower and discipline, and might as well give up (again). I can always go back to writing bits about music and everyday life, to running polls, to hacking on websites, to entertaining occasional guests, and sorting out my stuff. Plenty to do on those accounts, and not exactly worthless or unpleasant, either. But before diving into that, I figure I should write up a little Loose Tabs, just to get back into the swing of things. How far out of it I've been is possibly shown by my finding an article called A Tale of Two BBBs and wondering what the Better Business Bureau has been up to lately. In books, note that I finally finished Greg Grandin's monumental America, América: A New History of the New World. The last couple chapters were so sharply critical of US policy in the region that my next book had to be Noam Chomsky's The Myth of American Idealism (co-written by Nathan J Robinson). I haven't ordered it yet, but the next logical choice would be John Cassidy's Capitalism and Its Critics: A History From the Industrial Revolution to AI. Zachary Carter has been recommending the book, and I'm curious about how wide-ranging the critiques are. Lately I've been taking a fairly narrow view of capitalism, as the system where owners of capital get all the profits, and thereby accrue extraordinary power. The alternative doesn't have to be a system of communal ownership. Basically, any scheme that distributes profits and/or prevents the conversion of profit to power counteracts the dangers inherent in capitalism. I can think of a dozen, at least, including ones that sustain nearly all of the benefits of personal freedom, independent firms, and open markets. New records reviewed this week: Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quintet: Sound Remains (2024 [2025], Whirlwind): Pakistani guitarist, grew up in Los Angeles, based in New York, albums from 1993, mostly plays electric fusion with Indo-Pak airs, but has two 2010-15 Acoustic Quartet albums with Bill Ware (vibes), Stephan Crump (bass), and Eric McPherson (drums), adding extra percussion (Hasan Bakr) here. B+(**) [sp] Alchemy Sound Project/Sumi Tonooka: Under the Surface (2024 [2025], ARC): Credit from spine. Front cover reads more like: Under the Surface: Alchemy Sound Project Performs the Music of Sumi Tonooka. Group is basically a composers collective, with a previous album from 2018, playing one or two pieces from each of their members: Erica Lindsay (tenor sax), Samantha Boshnack (trumpet), Salim Washington (tenor sax/bass clarinet/flute), David Arend (bass, replaced here by Gregg August), and Sumi Tonooka (piano) -- also on board here are Johnathan Blake (drums) and Michael Ventoso (trombone). Tonooka, from Philadelphia, has a distinguished but not very prolific career going back to the 1980s, well deserving of this showcase. B+(***) [cd] Arild Andersen: Landloper (2020 [2024], ECM): Norwegian bassist, one of the generation heavily influenced by George Russell in the early 1970s, has a major career. This is solo, with effect pedals but recorded live, supplementing his own pieces with standards, including "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," "Ghosts" (Ayler), and an Ornette Coleman/Charlie Haden medley ("Lonely Woman"/"Song for Che"). B+(**) [sp] Arashi With Takeo Moriyama: Tokuzo (2019 [2024], Trost): Free jazz trio of Akira Sakata (alto sax, clarinet some vocals), Johan Berthling (bass), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), fifth album since their namesake release in 2014, joined here by a second drummer, who has a long history with Sakata (both were b. 1945). Some powerful sax runs. B+(***) [sp] Omer Avital: New York Now & Then (2023 [2025], Zamzama): Bassist, originally from Israel, long based in Brooklyn, recorded this live with trumpet/flugelhorn, two saxes, trombone, piano, drums, and justly excited crowd noise. "IDKN" seems to be his song, but sounds a lot like Horace Silver to me. And there's much more like that. Also a Lucy Wijnands vocal. A- [sp] Sasha Berliner: Fantôme (2025, Outside In Music): Vibraphonist, from Los Angeles, debut album 2019, also credited here with synths, congas, and percussion, six tracks with Harish Raghavan (bass) and Jongkuk Kim (drums), plus keyboards (Taylor Eigsti or Lex Korten) and a couple horn spots. B+(**) [bc] Dee Dee Bridgewater + Bill Charlap: Elemental (2025, Mack Avenue): Née Denise Garrett, from Memphis, grew up in Flint, married trumpet player Cecil Bridgewater, recorded some scarcely remembered disco albums in the 1970s, remade herself as a jazz singer with 1989's Live in Paris -- the first of a string of Grammy-nominated albums (with wins for tributes to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday). First album since 2017, just her and the pianist for eight standards, kicking off with Ellington's "Beginning to See the Light," giving her a lot of opportunity to scat. The ballads don't, but she nails them too. A- [sp] Alan Broadbent: Threads of Time (2025, Savant): Pianist, from New Zealand, 78, started with a big band in 1979. I first really noticed him arranging strings for Charlie Haden, but he's a fluid pianist with a number of solo and trio albums. Info on this is scarce, but it's a sextet, with names on the cover: Sam Dillon (tenor sax), Scott Wendholt (trumpet), Eric Miller (trombone), Harvie S (bass), Lucas Ebeling (drums). Lush, of course. B+(**) [sp] Kevin Brunkhorst: After the Fire (2023 [2025], Calligram): Guitarist, UNT graduate, old enough to remember seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, has a previous Bicoastal Collective album with Paul Tynan. Postbop quintet with trumpet, sax, bass, and drums. B [cd] Nanna Carling: Melodies for Two (2024 [2025], The End): Swedish singer, also plays soprano sax, second album, part of a rather large family act that goes back to 2002, when she was 5 -- the one I'm familiar with is trombonist-singer Gunhild Carling, front and center on a 2004 album cover that also cites Max, Gerd, Ulf, Aina, and Hans, with Nanna still not listed on their 2023 album, only appearing on Idun Carling's 2024 album. Starts in the family's trad jazz vein, but loses a bit of swagger. B+(*) [sp] Joe Chambers/Kevin Diehl/Chad Taylor: Onilu (2023 [2025], Eremite): Percussion trio, each with a long list of credits, although Diehl (leader of Sonic Liberation Front) specializes in batá drums, and Chambers plays conga and idiophones and is well established on marimba/vibraphone, which Taylor also plays, as well as mbira and piano. Title is from Yoruba, which pins down the center of their map, extending everywhere. A- [dl] Chaos Magick: Through the Looking Glass (2024 [2025], Tzadik): Sixth album by a quartet formed in 2021 to play John Zorn compositions, consists of Matt Holenberg (guitar), Brian Marsella (Fender Rhodes), John Medeski (organ), and Kenny Grobowski (drums) -- Discogs credits the albums to non-player Zorn (common practice with him), but Tzadik credits group name. B+(*) [sp] Etienne Charles: Gullah Roots (2025, Culture Shock): Trumpet player, from Trinidad, teaches in Miami, ten albums since 2006, several with "Creole" in the title. Leads a sextet, with a large number of guests (mostly singers, not my favorite part). B+(**) [cd] Chris Cheek: Keepers of the Eastern Door (2024 [2025], Analog Tone Factory): Tenor saxophonist, from St. Louis, albums since 1997 as well as considerable side work. Also plays soprano here, with Bill Frisell (guitar), Tony Scherr (bass), and Rudy Royston (drums). B+(*) [sp] Chicago Edge Ensemble: Paradoxes in Freedom (2024 [2025], Lizard Breath): Fourth group album since 2017, led by Dan Phillips (guitar), with Jeb Bishop (trombone), Josh Berman (cornet), Krzysztof Pabian (bass), Avreeayl Ra and/or Steve Hunt (drums). B+(***) [bc] Laura Cocks: FATHM (2025, Relative Pitch/Out of Our Heads): Solo flute, not a promising proposition, but the concept is "space holding the possibility of everything and nothing, a breath that hasn't yet exhaled." Sort of, if you have the patience for that. B [sp] Coco Chatru Quartet: Limbokolia (2024 [2025], Trygger Music): Swedish quartet, second album, group named for a "legendary Swedish adventurer, inventor and actress," bassist Håkan Trygger seems to be the principal, with 5 (of 10) song credits, "design," and his name on the label, but the other members also contribute songs: Linus Kåse (alto sax), Charlie Malmberg (baritone sax), and Daniel Kåse (drums), ending on an Ellington. B+(***) [lp] Isaiah Collier/William Hooker/William Parker: The Ancients (2023 [2025], Eremite): Up-and-coming tenor saxophonist -- first appeared in Ernest Dawkins Young Masters Quartet (2016) -- along with relatively ancient wise men on drums and bass. Effectively a blowing session, but a really impressive one. This would have made my mid-year ballot as I gotten to it in time. A- [dl] Eight Dice Cloth: The Songs and Arrangements of Armand J. Piron (2024 [2025], self-released): New Orleans trad jazz band, released an EP in 2015 and three numbered albums since, and now this tribute to the little-recorded violinist and bandleader (1888-1943; Discogs shows a compilation of 1923-25 recordings, not much more as a performer but lots as writer and arranger). B+(***) [bc] Peter Evans/Petter Eldh: JazzFest (2023-24 [2025], More Is More, EP): Trumpet and bass, normally, but someone seems to be working some electronics in, perhaps in post-production. Short: 6 tracks, 21:02. B+(**) [sp] Freedom Art Quartet: First Dance (2025, self-released): Group founded in 1991 by Lloyd Haber (drums) and Omar Kabir (trumpet/flugelhorn/sea shells/didgeridoo), released an album in 2003 (with Abraham Burton and Jaribu Shahid), returns here with Alfredo Colon (alto sax) and Adam Lane (bass), playing eight Haber originals. Fast and furious freebop. A- [bc] Sinsuke Fujieda Group: Fukushima (2025, SoFa): Japanese tenor/soprano saxophonist, first Group album, side-credits back to 2003. Group includes piano, bass, drums, extra percussion, and violin. Starts out shades of Coltrane, replete with "spiritual jazz" hype, then gets even catchier. A- [sp] Champian Fulton & Klas Lindquist: At Home (2025, Turtle Bay): Piano-playing standards singer, has recorded quite a bit since 2004, in a duo with a Swedish clarinetist who has very compatible tastes and skills. B+(***) [sp] Renaud Garcia-Fons: Blue Maqam (2024, Sound Surveyor Music): French bassist, twenty-some albums since 1993. This one has vocals by Solea Garcia-Fons, with Jean-Luc Du Fraya (drums/percussion) and Stéphan Caracci (vibes/marimba). B+(**) [sp] Nicole Glover: Memories, Dreams, Reflections (2025, Savant): Tenor saxophonist, several albums since 2015, recently appeared in the supergroup Artemis. Cover offers more names: Tyrone Allen II (bass), Kayvon Gordon (drums), adding "with Lester St. Louis" (cello). B+(**) [sp] José Gobbo Trio: Confluence (2025, Calligram): Brazilian guitarist, based in Chicago area, With Max Beckman (bass) and Jay Ferguson (drums). B+(**) [cd] [07-11] Mats Gustafsson/Ken Vandermark/Tomeka Reid/Chad Taylor: Pivot (2024 [2025], Silkheart): Tenor sax joust, backed by cello and drums, the principal switching off to baritone, Bb and bass clarinets, and flutes. They met in the late 1990s, when Vandermark recorded with the Aaly Trio, and were part of the sax trio Sonore with Peter Brötzmann, who was not what you'd call a moderating influence, but even he slowed down with age -- or just got more crafty. I don't hear much from Vandermark these days -- he has a subscription service neatly tucked behind a paywall -- but he is certainly still one of the greats. B+(***) [bc] Hearts & Minds: Illuminescence (2023 [2025], Astral Spirits): Chicago trio with Jason Stein (bass clarinet), Paul Giallorenzo (keyboards), and Chad Taylor (drums), third album after a self-titled 2016 debut and a second album in 2018. B+(**) [bc] Arve Henriksen/Trygve Seim/Andmers Jormin/Markku Ounaskari: Arcanum (2023 [2025], ECM): Norwegian trumpet player, established since 2000, in a quartet with sax, bass, and drums, also name players. B+(*) [sp] Fred Hersch: The Surrounding Green (2024 [2025], ECM): Pianist, many albums since 1984, in his element here in a trio with Drew Gress (bass) and Joey Baron (drums). B+(**) [sp] History Dog: Root Systems (2024 [2025], Otherly Love): Brooklyn quartet of Shara Lunon (voice/electronics), Chris Williams (trumpet/electronics), Luke Stewart (bass/electronics), and Lesley Mok (drums/percussion). Interesting words-on-noise mix, with possible roots in Patti Smith and New York No Wave. B+(***) [sp] Chris Jonas: Backwardsupwardsky: Music From the Deserts (2022-23 [2025], Edgetone, 2-LP): Saxophonist, plays soprano and tenor, based in Santa Fe, Discogs lists a couple albums (first from 1999), but mostly group credits (back to 1991), including a saxophone quartet with Anthony Braxton and big bands led by Cecil Taylor and William Parker. Three sessions here: two trios with bass and drums, mixed in with a quartet recorded in Bologna with Luca Serrapiglio (baritone sax/contra alto clarinet). This latter session is exceptional, and mixed in as it is elevates the trio work, interesting in its own right. A- [lp] Kaze & Koichi Makigami: Shishiodoshi (2024 [2025], Circum/Libra): One of Satoko Fujii's groups, with two trumpets (Natsuki Tamura and Christian Pruvost) and drums (Peter Orins), joined here by the Japanese vocalist, who also plays shakuhachi and more trumpet. This can get seriously noisy, or fill in with scratchy minimalism and cartoonish voice -- far from sure bets with me, but for once I find it all delightful. A- [cd] Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys: Mutiny in the Parlor (2024 [2025], self-released): Trad jazz singer, recorded Come Into My Parlor in 1998, and found her band name, ten or so albums later. Formula is simple enough: "12 tunes from the 1920s and 1930s that will delight and soothe your soul!" That works for me. B+(***) [bc] Joachim Kühn: Échappée (2023 [2025], Intakt): German pianist, from Leipzig in the East, founding a trio in 1964, but moved to Hamburg in 1966 and started recording the next year. This one is solo, a double (13 songs, 96:13) drawn from five dates. B+(**) [sp] Jim Kweskin: Doing Things Right (2025, Jalopy): Folkie, founded his Jug Band in 1963, kicking off the careers of Geoff & Maria Muldaur. Sat out the '80s and '90s, but kicked up again around 2003. Cover legend here is: The Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue Presents: Doing Things Right with Jim Kweskin, featuring: Samoa Wilson, Cindy Cashdollar, Annie Linders, Racky Thomas, Matt Leavenworth. B+(***) [sp] Los Angeles Improvisation Ensemble: Insubordinate Lunar Transgressions (2021 [2025], Denouement): Despite taking a name representing a city of 3.8 million people (metro area 12.9 million), this is just four musicians: primarily Louis Stewart (piano), with Robert Hardt (woodwinds), Andrew Shulman (cello), and Michael Valerio (bass), which makes it a pretty typical chamber jazz outfit: the cello in particular gives it a classical feel, without triggering my usual aversion. B+(*) [cd] Chad McCullough/Gordon Spasovski/Kiril Tufekcievski/Viktor Filipovski: Transverse (2024 [2025], Calligram): Trumpet player, based in Chicago, ten or so albums since 2009, here with a piano-bass-drums trio he met by chance in Skopje, Macedonia, and kept in touch with. A very elegant little record. B+(***) [cd] [07-11] Tyreek McDole: Open Up Your Senses (2025, Artworks): Haitian-American jazz singer, won a prize named after Sarah Vaughan ("only the second male to do so in its 12-year-history"), first album. Runs the gamut here with touchstones from Joe Williams and Pharoah Sanders. B+(*) [sp] Ava Mendoza/Gabby Fluke-Mogul/Carolina Pérez: Mama Killa (2024-25 [2025], Burning Ambulance): Guitarist, strictly electric, brings hard rock volume into avant-jazz contexts, but that may be oversimplifying things: I've never really gotten into any of the half-dozen albums I've heard. This one also adds violin (they also perform as the duo AM/FM) and drums: the latter's background is in death metal bands (Hypoxia, Castrator). B+(**) [dl] Camila Nebbia/Dietrich Eichmann/John Hughes/Jeff Arnal: Chrononaux (2024, Generate): Tenor saxophonist from Argentina, impressive last couple years, with the German pianist (specifically credited with upright), bass, and drums, for one long improv (25:37) and another longer one (63:34). Both pieces are terrific. A- [bc] Joshua Redman: Words Fall Short (2025, Blue Note): A major label tenor saxophonist since 1993, probably more famous than his father -- Dewey Redman, remembered for key work with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett as well as Old and New Dreams and his own signature albums -- but this also slipped into the poll window with scarcely a ripple. Quartet with piano (Paul Cornish), bass (Philip Norris), and drums (Nazir Ebo), with one-track guest spots for Melissa Aldana (sax), Skylar Tang (trumpet), and Gabrielle Cavassa (vocals). This one is simply very nice, including (or perhaps especially) the closing vocal. B+(**) [sp] Claire Ritter: Songs of Lumière (2024 [2025], Zoning): Pianist, from North Carolina, record label name from Mary Lou Williams, has a dozen-plus albums since 1987, several collaborations with Ran Blake, claims over 300 compositions. Solo, originals sprinkled with a few distinctive standards. I'm not a big fan of the format, usually responding only to a lot of flash and/or a "left hand like God," neither of which apply here, but she keeps my interest throughout. A- [cd] Kathy Sanborn: Romance Language (2025, Pacific Coast Jazz): Jazz-identified singer-songwriter, previous albums from 2011 and 2017, favors languid ballads with Brazilian airs. B+(*) [cd] [07-11] The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (2024 [2025], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Useful abbreviation here TSORPM, first album, quartet of Gabriele Mitelli (piccolo trumpet/electronics/voice), Mette Rasmussen (alto sax), Mariam Rezael (turntables), and Lukas Koenig (drums/amplified cymbals/bass synth), from all over but recorded in Vienna. This can be tough going, but it's not like it was ever going to be easy to stand up to the monsters. B+(***) [bc] Something Blue: In the Beginning (2024 [2025], Posi-Tone): Mainstream label founded by Marc Free, released its first albums in 1995, has a long-established stable of players, occasionally formed into house band projects like this one, back for its third album with Art Hirahara (piano), Boris Kozlov (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums) returning from the first album; Alton Sencalar (trombone) and Willie Morris (tenor sax) from the second; and first appearances from Diego Rivera (tenor sax) and Langston Hughes II (alto sax). Title refers to the early days of the label. B+(*) [sp] Sons of Ra: Standard Deviation (2025, Free Electric Sound): Chicago prog/fusion group, unlikely to have much appeal to Sun Ra fans (which doesn't mean that they aren't), four EPs since 2016, this their first full album. Power trio with Erik Oldman (guitar/bass/synth), Keith Wakefield (bass guitar/tenor sax/synth), and Michael Rataj (drums). Some jazz composers in their repertoire (Coltrane, Carla Bley, Don Ellis), and take an interesting change-of-pace swing at "Nature Boy." B+(*) [sp] Tessa Souter: Shadows and Silence: The Erik Satie Project (2025, Noanara Music): English jazz singer, based in New York, sixth album since 2004, seems like I've also seen her name on critic bylines. I have very little to say about Satie, who remains inscrutable, as are her lyrics, but the ending with "Ne Me Quitte Pas" is a nice touch. Some notable musicians, too: Nadja Noordhuis (trumpet), Steve Wilson (soprano sax), Luis Perdomo (piano), Yasushi Nakamura (bass), and Billy Drummond (drums). B+(***) [sp] Larry Stabbins/Mark Sanders: Cup & Ring (2024 [2025], Discus Music): British alto saxophonist (also bass clarinet, flutes), b. 1949, not much as leader but Discogs lists 77 performance credits since 1971 (especially with Keith Tippett). Recent duo here, with drums. B+(**) [sp] Pat Thomas: The Bliss of Bliss (2024 [2025], Konnekt): British avant-pianist, started appearing in the early 1990s but has become very prolific of late, especially in groups he's given Arabic names to (like Ahmed and ISM). Solo free improv here, a title piece of 41:27 and two short bits. Bill James came up with the idea of "similarity scores" as a way of finding patterns among baseball careers with few if any true comparables. I'm not sure exactly how that concept would work with jazz musicians, but a rough fit would say that the most similar pianist to Thomas is Matthew Shipp, and vice versa. This is remarkable, my only reservation being my impatience with solo piano. B+(***) [bc] Triology Featuring Scott Hamilton: The Slow Road (2024 [2025], Cellar Music Group): Trio of Miles Black (piano), Bill Coon (guitar), and Jodi Proznick (bass), not the first group to settle on this name -- (4) in Discogs -- with a previous album from 2014, joined here by the "young fogey" tenor saxophonist, now 70. Nice but not much more. B+(**) [sp] Uroboro: As in an Unpicking of Time's Garment (2023 [2024], Discus Music): Group, one previous album, presumably English (but I'm finding too little to be sure), principally Keith Jafrate, who plays sax, opens with spoken word, and wrote all the pieces, while backed by keyboard (Matthew Bourne), guitar (Anton Hunter), bass (John Pope), and drums (Johnny Hunter), with a vocal from Sylvie Rose. A- [bc] Jeff Walton: Pack Animals (2023 [2025], Jules): Tenor saxophonist, quartet with Santiago Leibson (piano), Ed Heath (bass), and Chase Elodia (drums). B+(**) [cd] Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries: Frank Kimbrough: The Call (2010 [2025], Sunnyside): Pianist (1956-2020), was at the center of a very influential cluster of postbop musicians, mostly working with Matt Baltisaris at Palmetto. Recently discovered solo tape from that period, the sort of thing that those who knew and revered him will fall for completely. B+(**) [sp] Old music: Nanna Carling: That's a Plenty (2022, Solters): First album, plays alto as well as soprano sax, also clarinet, and just lets the trad jazz band rip on the title cut. That's a real strength. B+(**) [bc] Janet Klein: Come Into My Parlor (1998, Coeur De Jeanette): First album, plays ukulele and sings 26 "sweet, naughty and lovely tunes from the 1910's, 20's, and 30's," backed by John Reynolds (guitar) and Robert Loveless (mandolin, harmonica and accordion). B+(**) [sp] Klas Lindquist: The Song Is You (2015, Do Music): Swedish clarinetist, accompanies Champian Fulton on her latest album, strikingly enough I wanted to look into his back catalog. Also plays alto sax here, in a quartet with guitar (Erik Söderlind), bass (Svante Söderqvist), and drums (Jesper Kviberg). I'm not seeing song credits, but mostly swinging standards. B+(**) [sp] Klas Lindquist: Handle With Care (2024, Yellow Car): Fifth release as leader, some originals, more standards (including "Tea for wo," "Cry Me a River," "Stardust," "Cherokee," "Come Sunday"), just alto sax here, backed by piano, bass, and drums. B+(**) [sp] Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
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