Saturday, November 14, 2026

Music Week

November archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46845 [46826] rated (+19), 23 [25] unrated -2).

Advance Music Week appeared November 13 on Substack as Music Week (11:2). It is also archived here. My cutoff was done before the Substack post, but the introduction is revised/rewritten.

After slipping all the way to Sunday last week, I thought I should get this one out a bit earlier. That's one reason this week's rated count is only 19. Another is that a couple of the items below are large, so even if I only played them once, they took up a lot of time. The 2-CD Dave Rempis album got multiple plays, so it also took a big chunk of time. It's not my usual practice to review items several weeks ahead of their release date, but it's been in my queue for a long time, and I expected it to be very good.

I did a lot of work last week to get the website ready for the 21st Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll: the second without him. Problem is, it's a lot of work to keep it going. In 2025, I sent 287 ballots out on Nov. 16, with a deadline of Dec. 21, and results published on Arts Fuse on Jan. 12. I've kept the deadline date this year, but the roll-out is broken up into several steps, and the end as always depends on the writing.

In some sense the start was today: I sent out a notice to the voter list, affirming that the poll is happening, pointing to the website and my draft invitation there, and inviting voters to "jump the gun" and vote now. So far, one did.

The reason I'm doing a soft rollout this year is that I have a new email address, and I thought I should test it out first before running all the invites out. I'll mail invites out in two waves: the first is a quick blast to the established voter email list; the second will be a broader mailing, including critics we invited in the past but who didn't respond, plus possibly a few more.

I wanted to get a jump on prospecting for possible voters a few months ago, but never found the time. Now it's late and I'm still short of time. I'm looking for people who listen to a lot of new jazz — over a couple hundred albums per year — and who write about it somewhat regularly. (We also have a fair number of radio people, although no podcasters as far as I know.) If you know someone like that who you think should be voting (or are one), send me contact info and some pointers to relevant work.

While I'd like to firm up the invite list before sending out the second round of invites, I'll probably just pick a moment and send out what I have then. I can always send out more invites later. At the very least, I need to review the DownBeat polls, and see who's voting in their Critics Poll. I'll probably be miffed at people we've invited but who only voted there instead. I've worked hard to make it much easier to vote for us, but it still requires an email, instead of scanning through lists of a thousand nominees on website forms.

While the website is functional now, I need to go aback over the notes files, which never seem to be quite right — I doubt anyone reads them, but they help me keep my thinking straight. I still have lots of work to do on the older sections of the website, especially with some missing files early on. Indeed, a major redesign is warranted, but seems to always be just out of my grasp. I'm also going to build a proper Francis Davis website, but that is more of a long-term project, unlikely to get much attention until next year.

I'm still toying with the idea of adding a books category to the poll. Books are substantial, and important. I'd even let critics vote for their own. (Why not?) Several problems: I'd have to write some new software to track the votes; and I'd like to have someone else write up the results. I read books, but rarely on music. I'm not even sure I have anything to vote for, aside from Ed Hazell's Energy Center: A History of Studio Rivbea.

Next week will probably see an uptake in rated records. My first counted ballot has 2 new + 2 old albums I hadn't heard. That's likely to be about average for the 150+ ballots I expect. According to my tracking file, I've heard 701 jazz albums released so far this year (1053 total, so 352 non-jazz, close to a 2-to-1 ratio).

New records reviewed this week:

Samuel Blaser Quartet: Rosina (2024 [2026], Blaser Music): Swiss trombonist, several dozen albums since 2005, sixth attributed to his Quartet, currently Russ Lossing (piano), Masa Kamaguchi (bass), and Billy Mintz (drums). Nice as far as it goes. B+(**) [sp]

Peter Brendler: And Then, Nothing (2025 [2026], Lost Song): Bassist, leads a quartet with Jon Irabagon (tenor sax), Zach Lapidus (piano/synth), Mark Ferber (drums). Has a 2013 album with Abercrombie, and two 2014-16 albums on Posi-Tone (both with Rich Perry and Peter Evans). His pieces, aside from one by Lapidus, and a Jarrett, but the sax is front and center, and impressive. B+(***)

Greg Burk/Achille Succi/Silvia Bolognesi/Gerald Cleaver: Purple Blues: Celebrating the Music of Yusef Lateef (2025 [2026], Tonos): Piano/Fender Rhodes, bass clarinet, bass/n'goni, and drums; four songs by Lateef, three arranged by Burk, who wrote four more, plus had a piece of the joint improv, but it's really Succi who delivers. B+(***) [cd]

Willi Carlisle: The Universal Bubba (2026, Signature Sounds): Folkie singer-songwriter, Wikipedia says "Origin: Kansas" without getting more specific; a recent interview is titled "No One Wants to Die in Wichita," but otherwise doesn't mention my hometown [turns out to be a line from the title song], and refers to "my fellow Arkansan," implying he's still based near Fayetteville, where he earned an MFA in poetry. Sixth album since 2018, including one called Peculiar, Missouri. Sounds much more like country, with a strong rock-guitar base supporting detailed songs about life, but calling it "folk" may be taken as leaning left. Way too much here for me to sort it out after one play. But I'm pretty sure this is where it lands. A− [sp]

Sylvie Courvoisier: Amalthea (2025 [2026], Pyroclastic): Swiss pianist, based in New York, has a background in classical music, which she focused on early, with echoes in her many duo albums with violinist Mark Feldman. I was asked for my take on her "intersection of classical and jazz," and didn't have much of an answer: while the tone of Feldman's violin sometimes trips my anti-classical prejudice, I'm less likely to make that association with piano (unless someone goes full-bore Bach, or maybe Rachmaninoff; I was tempted to say Chopin, but I've heard dozens of jazz musicians play Chopin, and I've rarely complained). This is a quartet with vibes (Patricia Brennan), bass (Thomas Morgan), and drums (Dan Weiss). Three plays and I have very little to say about it, except that Brennan is for once not much of a presence, and that the pianist has developed some kind of fractal style, fascinating when you zoom in really close, but with no sense of where it's all meant to go. B+(**) [cd]

Sondre Ferstad: Pieces of Wood (2026, Dugnad): Norwegian chromatic harmonica and violin player, has a previous album, draws on folk themes for a piece that is designed to be performed with a woodworker on stage (credits include: Tore Reisch: knives, chisels and axes). Features Kirsti Huke (vocals), with Vegard Bjerkan (piano/pump organ), Håkon Aase (violin/viola), and Helge Andreas Norbakken (percussion). B+(*) [os]

Jon Irabagon: Winds (2026, Irrabagast): Two extended pieces: a woodwind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon) conducted by Rebekah Heller, "improvising with and around several of Jean Tinguely's Méta-Harmonie kinetic sound structures," and a saxophone quintet (Irabagon, Steve Wilson, John O'Gallagher, Seamus Blake, and Carl Maraghi) playing "Orbit," based on some of Anthony Braxton's work. Recording dates unclear, although the former may date from 2018. I don't see the appeal, especially of the former. B [bc]

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80: Na Dem (2026, Django Music): Youngest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, has kept the band name, and like his father, plays alto sax as well as singing. Albums from 2008. He also inherited his father's politics, which comes through clearly here — although less clear is what the guest adds to the "feat. Tom Morello" title track. A− [sp]

Max Light: Unlearning (2026, Chill Tone): Guitarist, has several albums since 2018, backed here by piano (Julian Shore), bass (Walter Stinson), and drums (Streven Crammer), with Caleb Wheeler Curtis credited on four tracks (2 soprano, 2 stritch). B+(**) [cd]

Kresten Osgood: Urias Ensemble (2025 [2026], ILK): Danish drummer, prolific since 1999, with an unconventional big band here (15 pieces, including tuba, violin, guitars, synth, 3 also singing). I am not much taken by the vocals, but the instrumentals are tantalizing. B+(**) [bc]

Dave Rempis/Joshua Abrams/Avreeal Ra + Jim Baker: The Walls of the Temple Are Made of Sound (2025 [2026], Aerophonic, 2CD): Leader apprenticed in the Vandermark 5, plays everything from soprano to baritone sax, and releases several superb albums every year. With bass/electronics, drums, and piano/electronics, on three pieces of 45:02, 24:13, and 48:02. The powerhouse segments you may take for granted by now, but there's much more lurking in the background. A− [cd] [11-27]

Linda Sikhakane: Linda (2026, Blue Note): South African saxophonist, mostly tenor, has several albums since 2017, this produced by Nduduzo Makhathini with piano, bass, drums, and guests, starting with singer Omagugu, some other singers, a rapper, a lot of Coltrane-ish spirit. B+(***) [sp]

Dan White: Dee Dub (2025 [2026], Side Hustle): Saxophonist, presumably (16) at Discogs, fair to call this his debut album, although his website points to a Sextet unit called Play, which exists as 11 YouTube videos (243 views), and he has several albums as Huntertones (since 2015). Album here features Charlie Hunter (guitar, not in Huntertones) and Scott Amendola (drums), and includes a vocal by Victoria Victoria among several guests. Has a nice, relaxed feel. B+(**) [cd]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

John Coltrane: The Tiberi Tapes (1960-64 [2026], Impulse, 3CD): Previously unreleased live tapes made by Frank Tiberi from various Philadelphia and New York appearances, mostly with his legendary quartet, although the first four tracks have Steve Davis on bass and Pete La Roca on drums, followed by Reggie Workman on bass, with Eric Dolphy on several tracks. A Preview of the Mythic Recordings was released in April, just 2 tracks (25:18). This one runs 4-LP or 3-CD. An even bigger limited edition box, with "more than 100 performances and nearly 26 hours of music," with everything stuffed into a USB drive, and a book by Lewis Porter, for $499.98, is scheduled for April 2, 2027. The sound is better than the worst of Charlie Parker's worst recordings, but you have to be really besotted by Parker to listen to Live at St. Nick's at all. B+(*) [sp]

Joëlle Léandre: Taxi (1982 [2026], Cien Fuegos): French free jazz bassist, a reissue of her first album, also known as Contrebassiste, solo bass with some voice. B+(**) [bc]

David Murray/Questlove/Ray Angry: Plumb Pie: The Complete Live at the Blue Note, NYC August 2024 (2024 [2026], CHUH Music): Trio, the saxophonist with two members of the Roots (drums, keyboards), recorded Plumb in 2022. A reader alerted me to this "digital only" release, which feels archival but is probably all new music. I balked at first due to the length: 6 full sets, 124 songs, 9 hours (Spotify says "about 7.5 hours" but I believe 9). But I had other pressing work to do, so the only question was whether I could listen to Murray as background for such length. Of course, I could. As for the others, I'm ready to move on after a couple minutes of Angry's solo noodling, but they're an adequate rhythm section, sort of a postmodern analog to soul jazz organ — a foundation Murray also built on for 1991's Shakill's Warrior (with organ-guitar-drums, but the organ player was Don Pullen). With Murray, every set has massive solos (often on bass clarinet). The question is how long can you wait in between? [PS: Their original Plumb album was recorded in 2022, with a 136-minute digital in 2023 more than enough to give you the idea, and a 4-LP box that came out later.] B+(***) [sp]

Old music:

Peter Brendler: Message in Motion (2015 [2016], Posi-Tone): Bassist, follow-up to his 2014 album with the same group — Rich Perry (sax), Peter Evans (bass), Vinnie Sperrazza (drums) — plus Ben Monder (guitar). It's most often the trumpet that impresses. B+(**) [sp]

Jon Irabagon/Peter Brendler: Two-Part Inventions (2024 [2025], Irrabagast): Tenor sax and bass duo, the core of Brendler's new quartet album, exploring standards written by jazz pianists. B+(**) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Randy Bernsen: Santa's Brew: A Christmas Jam, Vol. 2 (Jericho Jams) [11-06]
  • Jennifer Madsen: A Jennifer Madsen Christmas (Grand Central Artists) [11-06]
  • Michael Moss: Quantum Butterfly (Fourth Stream, 4CD): [2027-01-15]
  • Isabelle Olivier/Raphaël Olivier: Open (Rewound Echoes) [12-11]
  • The Ed Palermo Big Band: It's an Ed Palermo Christmas! God Bless Us Everyone! (Sky Cat) [11-13]
  • Vanessa Racci: Comfort & Joy (VRE) [11-06]

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