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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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Blog Entries [1160 - 1169]Monday, February 16, 2015 Music Week
Music: Current count 24527 [24491] rated (+36), 501 [500] unrated (+1). I shot most of my wad on Friday's Rhapsody Streamnotes, but since then I was pleasantly surprised by three straight jazz vocal albums: Denia Ridley's became an old friend over three plays; the late Maureen Budway caught my attention with a warm "White Cliffs of Dover," annoyed me with a song about fireworks and freedom, then redeemed real American music with a marvelous Gershwin medley; and young Katie Thiroux came up with a novel approach to singing standards while playing bass, helped by superb spots for guitar and sax. Never heard of any of these women before (although pianist David Budway does sound familiar -- let's see, I had his 2011 A New Kiss as a mid-B+, and he played behind Chris McNulty on a forgettable 2005 album). Was also pleasantly surprised by H2 Big Band's vocals, although a check of the credits reveals the name of René Marie, who's often on that level. Those are four albums I wouldn't have bothered searching out to stream, but I listened to them because publicists took the trouble to mail hard copies to me. More often, big bands and singers are the bane of my existence, so this just goes to show you never can tell. Still, two of those four albums will most likely be packed away to the basement, never to be played again. I have five of those cheap six-row 120-CD cases on top of a desk blocking a window, which were filled with Jazz CG albums several years ago. I've been going through them, packing everything B+(**) and below into baskets to carry to the basement -- effectively that opens up about half of those shelves, soon to be filled with higher-rated CDs currently in piles on the floor. The half that remained are all exceptionally good, often great albums, virtually none of which have been played since I reviewed them. I've always liked the idea of maintaining a library, but despair of ever finding time to use it. Same problem exists, to a greater or lesser extent (I'm not sure), with print. I probably have enough surplus to endow a small library. Wonder how one goes about doing that. By the way, while I only added a half dozen or so lists to the EOY Aggregate last week, but they managed to make two changes in the top ten: Caribou had run in 5th place ever since the near-beginning but slipped to 6th behind Flying Lotus a week ago; since then it shot back to 5th, even opening up more space (6 points) than Flying Lotus enjoys over 7th place Aphex Twin (3 points). The other big change is that Angel Olsen moved into 10th place, 3 points ahead of Beck (now tied for 11th with Spoon). Also worth noting that Taylor Swift has continued to climb, now in 15th place, as has D'Angelo, now in 20th. Can't say there will be no changes in the future -- actually waiting on one promised email, and I'll add Christgau's list if he ever parts with it (or I'll just pick it up in dribs and drabs, like Tune-Yards and TV on the Radio from last week's Expert Witness). By the way, Christgau's memoir, Going Into the City: Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man, will be released on February 24 (preorder links from Amazon and Barnes & Noble; and here's an excerpt just posted at Rolling Stone). I haven't heard anything about promoting it on the website yet, but I imagine I'll have to get busy on that. Carola Dibbell's novel The Only Ones comes out on March 10, and we've already done a lot more work on promoting it. New records rated this week:
Old records rated this week:
Grade changes:
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
Ask a question, or send a comment. Friday, February 13, 2015 Rhapsody Streamnotes (February 2015)Coincidentally, today's Expert Witness touts three records I don't much care for: Sleater-Kinney's No Cities to Love [*], Tune-Yards' Nikki Nack [**], and TV on the Radio's Seeds [B]. Could be I was overly abrupt in dismissing the latter -- I thought Dear Science and Nine Types of Light were pretty good, even though neither is a sort of record I look out for (or, I'm afraid, much remember). The other two are groups that appeal to me on principle but little else, and my reactions to both have been consistent throughout their catalogs. Nor is my disagreement just with Christgau (who has S-K graded at { A-, A, A, A, A-, A, A, A }, T-Y at { A, A, A- }; my S-K grades are { **, B+, B, B+, B+, B+, **, * }, T-Y { **, *, ** }). Starting with their Call the Doctor in 1996, Sleater-Kinney finished Pazz & Jop { 3, 4, 23, 10, 5, 4 }; Tune-Yards' debut came in 70th, and this year's album finished 29th, but their second album won the 2011 poll. (TV on the Radio's Dear Science won P&J in 2008, and this year's album came in 39th.) I don't think there are right or wrong answers in rating records, but I have generally found that consensus picks of knowledgeable, broadly focused critics almost always hold up well in the long run. I grew up with a strong skeptical streak, so I can give you many examples of artists I doubted at first before coming around. So I don't doubt that I have some sort of blind spots regarding these artists, but none of those grades (with the possible exception of Seeds) came lightly. On the other hand, there are lots of things going on in music that I can hear, and you'll find a fair number of them are below. About half of the records are 2015 releases, but thus far I haven't explored far beyond the jazz I get in the mail: the four 2015 A- records (counting the Red Garland vault discovery) are all jazz (three alto saxophonists), reviewed from CD. Everything else that looked promising fell short or flat: I certainly didn't expect B- records from Diana Krall or Matana Roberts, let alone a C from Bob Dylan. For that matter, B+(*) records came as letdowns from jazz musicians who have previously turned in A- work: Rez Abbasi, Lotte Anker, Steven Bernstein, Rudresh Mahanthappa. The new year is going to take some work, although I haven't explored much beyond familiar names. The 2014 releases, of course, mostly come from EOY lists -- though Pitbull turned out to be conspicuous in his absence (not a single mention in over 600 lists, nor did he show up in Billboard's Top 200). Added a couple more jazz and electronica albums to my own A-list, but didn't spend enough time with a couple hip-hop mixtapes (Blu, Cunninlynguists) to make the difference. Another dozen-plus high B+ grades strike me as having little chance of improvement -- more likely I even overrated a couple. Trying to keep an honest, consistent scale even though much of what's on it is incomparable (er, cannot appropriately be compared). These are short notes/reviews based on streaming records from Rhapsody. They are snap judgments based on one or two plays, accumulated since my last post along these lines, back on January 24. Past reviews and more information are available here (6034 records). New Releases (More or Less)
Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet [RAAQ]: Intents and Purposes (2014 [2015], Enja): Guitarist from Pakistan, plays acoustic (steel string, fretless and baritone) here, backed by vibes (Bill Ware), bass (Stephan Crump), and drums (Eric McPherson). Has a nice intricacy and intimacy to it, but a little short of juice. B+(*) Cyrille Aimée: It's a Good Day (2014, Mack Avenue): Standards singer, from France although everything here is in English (or generic scat) and she has or shares credits in four (of 13) cuts. Guitar-bass-drums backing leans toward Django Reinhardt. Can get a little cutesy. B+(*) Jovan Alexandre: Collective Consciousness (2014 [2015], Xippi): Tenor saxophonist, first album, quintet with both piano and guitar, no one I've heard of. Fast, boppish. Cites René McLean as his mentor. Time rolls on, even if the music doesn't much change. B+(**) Tony Allen: Film of Life (2014, Jazz Village): Drummer from Nigeria, long part of Fela Kuti's band, continues working the Afrobeat groove. Relatively new here are the electronics, adding some shimmer and chime to the drum-focus. Only one vocal piece slumps. B+(**) Lotte Anker/Fred Frith: Edge of the Light (2010 [2015], Intakt): Tenor sax an guitar duo, tempting to compare this to last year's duo between Frith and John Butcher, although this was actually recorded several years earlier. Frith is more prickly here, Anker more reticent, which makes the combo more tentative and erratic. B+(*) Ballister: Worse for the Wear (2014 [2015], Aerophonic): Free sax trio led by Dave Rempis, with Paal Nilssen-Love on drums and Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and electronics -- sometimes he manages a guitar-like sound -- instead of bass. The sax starts out with a menacing growl, and there are stretches when the it all seems to click. B+(***) [cd] Andrew Barker/Paul Dunmall/Tim Dahl: Luddite (2012 [2014], New Atlantis): Avant sax trio, Dunmall the saxophonist (of course -- Wikipedia lists 102 albums he led or co-led since 1986, 36 more side credits, and doesn't appear to be very up-to-date). Barker plays drums, Dahl bass. Sometimes this seems like the top of Dunmall's game, sometimes it gets a bit tedious. B+(**) Dave Bass: NYC Sessions (2012 [2015], Whaling City Sound): Pianist, in his 60s but only has a couple albums, does draw on some guest stars here: Karrin Allyson and Paulette McWilliams sing two songs each; Phil Woods plays alto sax on five tunes and penned a nice blurb; and the rhythm section -- Harvie S and Ignacio Berroa -- are always ready for a little Latin discursion (especially when Conrad Herwig and/or Enrique Hernandez drop in); or you can settle for some nice lounge piano. B+(*) [cd] Steven Bernstein/Paolo Fresu/Gianluca Petrella/Marcus Rojas: Brass Bang! (2014 [2015], Bonsaï Music): Brass quartet, two trumpets (or slide trumpet, flugelhorn, cornet, effects) plus trombone and tuba -- the middle players well known in Italy, Rojas a veteran of Dave Douglas' Brass Fantasy. B+(*) Big Lazy: Don't Cross Myrtle (2014, Tasankee): Guitar-bass-drums trio from New York, more likely to be filed as instrumental rock than as jazz, partly because leader Stephen Ulrich has a bent for surf guitar, partly because he wraps every song up into a neat package. Had three albums 2000-02; this is only their second album since. B+(***) Nat Birchall Quintet: Live in Larissa (2013 [2014], Sound Soul and Spirit): British tenor/soprano saxophonist, b. 1957 but discography seems to be relatively recent (six albums since 1999). For a long time it seems like everyone wanted to sound like Coltrane. Birchall not only does that, his band gets the background ambiance down pat, with stray percussion, fifth-member Corey Mwamba's vibes and bells, and Adam Fairhall's Tyner-esque piano. Lead cut is even called "John Coltrane," although "Divine Harmony," "Journey in Satchidananda," "World Without Form," or "Sacred Dimension" would suffice. I only worry about derivatives when they send me back to the original. A- Blu: Good to Be Home (2014, Nature Sounds, 2CD): Underground rapper, NoYork! is recommended, this could be as solid if I put the time into it, but that's a tall order given how merely functional the beats are. Still, gets stronger as he goes. B+(***) Boozoo Bajou: 4 (2014, Apollo): German electronica duo (Peter Heider, Florian Seyberth), first album in 2001 and while this may be their their fourth, that ignores various compilations and remix jobs. Generically downtempo, has an ethereal, ambient feel, lovely in itself, even more interesting when it picks up a beat. A- Wade Bowen: Wade Bowen (2014, Amp): Country singer/songwriter from Waco, Texas, half dozen albums since 2002, seems ambivalent about the Nashville sound, adopting what he needs to tour hard but doesn't reek like the formula stars. He offers "Honky Tonk Road" almost as an afterthought. B+(*) Buzzcocks: The Way (2014, 1-2-3-4 Go): A great group in its day but that was forty years ago. Now touted as "old school punk," their sole EOY list placement in Classic Rock Magazine. B Joey Calderazzo: Going Home (2014 [2015], Sunnyside): Pianist, longtime fixture in Branford Marsalis Quartet, mostly trio here but Marsalis looms as the fourth credit on the back cover and slams home a couple tunes. B+(**) Cherub: Year of the Caprese (2014, Columbia): Second album by Nashville-based electropop duo Jason Huber and Jordan Kelley. B+(*) Clark: Clark (2014, Warp): Brit techno producer Chris Clark, seventh album since 2001. Rather busy, cluttered, although for a moment "There's a Distance in You" threatens to make it work. B George Colligan & Theoretical Planets: Risky Notion (2014 [2015], Origin): A well known, rather important jazz pianist -- AMG lists 28 albums since 1996 -- plays drums here, mostly quartet with two slippery tenor saxes (Nicole Glover, Joe Manis) and bass, augmented with trumpet (Tony Glausi) on two tracks. B+(**) [cd] Cornershop: Hold On It's Easy (2015, Ample Play): Label calls this "the Easy Listening treatment." The object is an instrumental-only remake of their 1993 album, Hold On It Hurts played by the Elastic Big Band, which is to say with lots of brass. Just good enough it makes me want to play something else by them. Maybe even check out that first album. B Jamie Cullum: Interlude (2014 [2015], Blue Note): British jazz singer, big hype a decade ago and I've never cared for him, but this has some agreeable quirks -- a Randy Newman song that fits, a "Lovesick Blues" that's just odd enough, a Ray Charles that can't quite make the grade, a "Make Someone Happy" that can't fail. One misstep is a duo on "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," unless the point is to remind you that he's not as overbearing as Gregory Porter. B The Cunninlynguists: Strange Journey, Volume Three (2014, Bad Taste): Underground rap group out of Lexington KY. Wikimedia distinguishes between five studio albums and six mixtapes, listing this (and two previous Strange Journey volumes) among the latter. Consistency is a problem here, but at best they strike me as having perfect flow. B+(***) Disappears: Irreal (2015, Kranky): Postpunk band from Chicago, noted for short, sharp songs on their first few albums, but they've started to stretch them out: only two of the eight songs here run less than 5:15, the longest 7:11, using reps that increasingly remind one of Wire. B+(***) Akua Dixon: Akua Dixon (2014 [2015], Akua's Music): Cellist, b. 1948, was married to Steve Turre 1978-2012, has a few scattered credits (some as Akua Dixon-Turre) but as far as I can tell this is her first album. Several violinists, including Regina Carter, rotate through the lead slot, supported by cello, sometimes bass, only once drums. All covers, including "Haitian Fight Song," "Besame Mucho," "Poinciana," pieces from Cachao and Piazzolla, with a couple vocals -- Andromeda Turre on "Lush Life,", the leader on "It Never Entered My Mind." B+(***) [cd] Andrew Drury: The Drum (2014 [2015], Soup & Sound): Drummer, from Seattle, has a handful of records. This one has "acoustic solo improvised compositions recorded on a single floor form with a few additional objects (faucet escutcheon, bell, aluminum sheet)." Starts with a horrible screech, followed by lengthy exploration of feedback loops before you get any indication of percussion. The exploration of new (and decidedly unusual) sounds isn't without interest, but offers very little pleasure. B- [cd] Andrew Drury: Content Provider (2014 [2015], Soup & Sound): Group record, two saxophonists (Briggan Krauss on alto, Ingrid Laubrock on tenor), Brandon Seabrook on guitar, the leader on drums. Loud, discordant, ugly sax has always been an avant risk, but this is closer to the guitarist's avant-industrial klang -- his fans, and I know and respect some, may well be thrilled. B [cd] Bob Dylan: Shadows in the Night (2015, Columbia): Something I always found weird was that Frank Sinatra hosted the TV show that welcomed Elvis Presley back from the Army: part of it was the unseemly clash between Old Money and New Money, and part may have been the sudden realization that both were suddenly Has-Beens, but at least both had definitive voices. Dylan was just starting up, a brilliant songwriter with an unsettled, iffy voice. Fifty years later, his voice has firmed up enough he could probably do a more than passable album of Presley songs (i.e., of other people's songs that Presley made famous), but for some reason he decided to go straight to songs Sinatra did (and not really the top tier at that). He's simply not up to it. C Echoes of Swing [Colin T. Dawson/Chris Hopkins/Bernd Lhotzky/Oliver Mewes]: Blue Pepper (2013, ACT): German group -- trumpet (and three rather dry vocals), alto sax, piano, drums -- with several albums already, rooted in swing but not stuck there. B+(*) Emika: Klavirni (2015, Emika): Ema Jolly, born in Britain, based in Berlin, mother was Czech. Past records were electronica (dubstep, trip hop) but this is solo piano (evidently "klavirni" is Czech for "piano": a baker's dozen numbered pieces following three on a 2013 EP. Meditative, closer to classical than to jazz (or new age), although she does cheat a couple times. B+(*) Fantasma: Eye of the Sun (2014, Soundway, EP): South African group with rapper Spoek Mathambo mixing up "electronica, hip-hop, traditional Zulu maskandi music, shangaan electro, South African house, psych-rock and punk" -- at least that's the plan. Five cuts, 22:37. B+(*) Dom Flemons: Prospect Hill (2014, Fat Possum): Ex-banjo player and sometime singer in Carolina Chocolate Drops, styles himself as "The American Songster" -- prominent type above his name on the album cover and below his name on his website. The phrase was common among early 20th century black musicians later forced into the blues category. If Flemons isn't reproducing their work, he's synthesizing it authoritatively. B+(**) Chantale Gagné: The Left Side of the Moon (2014 [2015], self-relased): Pianist, from Quebec, third album, all (but one) original compositions. Mainstream postbop, but she picked out the perfect band, with Steve Wilson (alto and soprano sax, flute) floating and riffing, Peter Washington on bass, and Lewis Nash on drums. B+(***) [cd] Polly Gibbons: Many Faces of Love (2014 [2015], Resonance, CD+DVD): British standards singer, has a couple previous albums but this is touted as her US debut. Packaging is deluxe, with a DVD I doubt I'll ever bother with. Pianist Tamir Hendelman did the arrangements, Anthony Wilson plays guitar, Christian Howes dubbed in the strings. B+(*) Rhiannon Giddens: Tomorrow Is My Turn (2015, Nonesuch): Singer from Carolina Chocolate Drops goes solo, gets T-Bone Burnett to produce. While Burnett's bag is adapting Southern roots music for folks more inclined to shop MOR, Giddens got him to cast the net wide -- a bit too wide. B+(**) Aaron Goldberg: The Now (2009-14 [2015], Sunnyside): Pianist, eighth album since 1999, this a trio with Reuben Rogers on bass and Eric Harland on drums -- one of a large number of pianists who impress me with their skills without making me care much. Last cut was recorded later, with Kurt Rosenwinkel on guitar but initially struck me as flute. B+(*) [cd] Richie Goods & Nuclear Fusion: Three Rivers (2014 [2015], Richman): Electric bassist, based in Pittsburgh ("the youngest person ever inducted into the Pittsburgh Jazz Hall of Fame"), feints toward funk-fusion but not clear that's where he really wants to go. He slows down for three undistinguished singers, and reaches out to Chris Botti for a "feat." title. B [cd] Mary Halvorson: Reverse Blue (2014, Relative Pitch): Guitarist, leads a quartet trading leads with Chris Speed (tenor sax and clarinet), backed by Eivind Opsvik and Tomas Fujiwara. Halvorson has some radical moves, but Speed's clarinet tends to smooth them over, taking some of the danger away. B+(***) Alexander Hawkins: Song Singular (2012 [2014], Babel): British jazz pianist, a rising star, has done EST-like trio romps (including some organ) and worked with avant groups, and acquitted himself well in all contexts. First solo piano album, an inevitable rite of passage for such a sharp young player, with all the usual caveats. B+(*) The Hot Sardines: The Hot Sardines (2014, Decca): New York band led by a French singer known as Miz Elizabeth and Evan Palazzo on piano -- she also plays washboard, and they use a tap dancer for percussion, plus some horns. Old songs -- two by Fats Waller -- or throwbacks to same. One brilliant idea was to cut "Bei Mir Bist Do Schoen" with "Digga Digga Doo." Bette Midler, eat your heart out. A- Hypercolor: Hypercolor (2014 [2015], Tzadik): Guitarist Eyal Maoz, with James Ilgenfritz (bass) and Lukas Ligeti (drums), call this a "jazz-rock trio" -- meaning they like it hard, employing distorted rock tunings but nothing you'd mistake as fusion. As for the "Israeli melodies" and "African rhythms," that may just be a figment of their "Dadaist" fascination. B+(**) [cdr] Iceage: Plowing Into the Field of Love (2014, Matador): Danish rock group, sounded "young, smart, and very angry" (AMG) on their first album, but already they're getting older, confused, and prone to tantrums, but they're still not awful. B Ja, Panik: Libertatia (2014, Staatsakt): Berlin-based rock group, originally from Austria, fifth album, showed up on high on several German EOY lists (Musikexpress: 4, Intro: 5, Plattentests: 6, Zündfunk: 7) -- enough to pique my curiosity. Sound tends toward soft alt, a mix of guitar and keyb, their German relatively clear with occasional lines of English dropped in (two album titles are English, and "Libertatia" is a fictional state). B+(*) Wilko Johnson/Roger Daltrey: Going Back Home (2014, Chess): Johnson was leader of British pub rock band Dr. Feelgood, which was kind of a big deal over there in 1975-76 but fizzled in the US (where Columbia didn't bother releasing their first album). Back then Johnson left most of the vocals to Lee Brilleaux; here, facing cancer, he recruited a more famous singer for an album of basic rock and roll -- all but the Dylan by Johnson, some I recall from way back when. I'm not sure you can even call it revivalism any more. B+(***) Nick Jonas: Nick Jonas (2014, Island/Safehouse): Ex-teen pop star leading the Jonas Brothers, has had a couple side projects but this is meant to establish him as some kind of sex icon -- I suppose, but don't quite get it, as nothing really stands out. B Manu Katché: Live in Concert (2014 [2015], ACT): French drummer, parents from Cöte d'Ivoire, worked with Jan Garbarek who made all the difference on Katché's 2006 Neighbourhood. Tore Brunborg is the saxophonist here, a worthy substitute, his leads the bright spot. Also with Luca Aquino on trumpet and Jim Watson on piano/organ. B+(**) [cd] Justin Kauflin: Dedication (2014 [2015], Qwest/Jazz Village): Pianist, lost his eyesight at age 11. Second album, a mix of trio and quartet, the latter adding Matt Stevens on guitar, also one track with Etan Haziza on nylon guitar. Moves along very smartly. B+(**) [cd] Kenosha Kid: Inside Voices (2014 [2015], self-released): Guitarist Dan Nettles, from Athens GA, takes his name from a character in a Thomas Pynchon novel. Sextet, with trumpet and two saxes (Peter Van Huffel on alto), some kind of postbop -- but hell, played it four times today, and nothing proved memorable. B [cd] Ted Kooshian: Clowns Will Be Arriving (2014 [2015], Summit): Pianist, fourth album since 2004, for standards picks the TV themes to "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Get Smart," for originals writes tributes to various comic strip characters, plops a Napoleon Murphy Brock vocal into the middle of the album, "Christmas Day, My Favorite Day," and ends with "When You Wish Upon a Star." All rather amusing, although for me the hook is Jeff Lederer's saxophone. B+(***) [cd] Diana Krall: Wallflower (2014 [2015], Verve): Searching for new standards, she reprises soft rock ballads "from her youth" -- she was born in 1964, so "California Dreaming" was fast becoming an oldie, Dylan's title song was only known through Doug Sahm, and McCartney's she only heard in 2012. She's still a great singer, but the song selection leaves lots to be desired -- "Desperado" I could see but not a second Eagles song, let alone "I'm Not in Love" -- the string arrangements die on the vine, and the duet vocalists are wankers. Breaks a string of three straight A- records (not counting a Very Best Of that isn't). Deluxe edition includes a really lovely "In My Life." B- Oliver Lake/William Parker: To Roy (2014 [2015], Intakt): Dedicated to the late trumpet player Roy Campbell, who otherwise seems to have little to do with proceedings -- except, perhaps, for the somber tone. Or maybe that's just Parker's bass taking charge, a fair match for Lake's voluble alto sax. A- [cd] Jon Lundbom and Big Five Chord: Jeremiah (2014 [2015], Hot Cup): Guitarist, has a handful of albums with this quintet -- Jon Irabagon on soprano sax, Bryan Murray on tenor sax, Moppa Elliott on bass, and Sam Monaghan on drums -- expanded here with Justin Wood on alto sax and flute and Sam Kulik on trombone. Lundbom originals, aside from two pieces with Wiccan origins. Best when it frees up and the guitar chases all those horns around. B+(***) [cd] Machinedrum: Vapor City Archives (2014, Ninja Tune): "Left-field" electronica producer Travis Stewart, ten albums since 2001 (with this alias, one of several), this one either a sequel to or leftovers from 2013's Vapor City. B+(***) Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls (2014 [2015], ACT): One of the top alto saxophonists in the world today turns his attention to Charlie Parker, perhaps inevitably but he's determined not to sound like the imitators, and at least succeeds on that count. Eight tunes are credited as "based on" Parker standards, and they are feathered out with five improvs called "Bird Calls." The lineup is standard quintet, with Adam O'Farrill (trumpet), Matt Mitchell (piano), François Moutin (bass), and Rudy Royston (drums). The band has no trouble matching Parker's speed but much of this seems forced and regimented, short on what Parker called "dexterity." B+(*) [cdr] Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble: Mosaica (2014, MEII Enterprises): Subtitle (or hed): "Reimagines Popular Hebraic Melodies," the cover also plugging "Special Guest Vocalist Shira Lissek," a cantor featured on four tracks. B+(**) Charles McPherson: The Journey (2014 [2015], Capri): Alto saxophonist, back in the day a fairly shameless Charlie Parker imitator -- his first album was 1964's Be-Bop Revisited -- who developed into an exquisite ballad player (his Beautiful!, from 1975, spent a couple years in my bedtime rotation). Well into his 70s, this one is his most upbeat in many years, with Keith Oxman's tenor sax chasing him around, and Chip Stephens turning out his best Bud Powell licks. A- [cd] Meridian Brothers: Salvadora Robot (2014, Soundway): Colombian group, started in salsa but has evolved into something else -- sooner or later someone is bound to dub this psychedelia. Takes a while for the rhythms to kick in. B+(**) John Mills: Invisible Designs (2014 [2015], Fable): Saxophonist, plays all weights, based in Austin, not sure if this is his first record. Features vocalist Carmen Bradford, who winds her way through texts "rescued" from H.G. Wells, "imagined" from Henry James, "evolved" from Charles Darwin, "improvised" from O. Henry, "transformed" from Robert Louis Stevenson, "misconstrued" from Mark Twain, etc. So, art-rock, or jazz-operetta, or something else that seemed like a better idea on paper. B- [cd] Pharoahe Monch: P.T.S.D.: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (2014, W.A.R. Media): One-time underground rapper, goes heavy this time with tales of shock, awe, and horror. B+(**) Moody Good: Moody Good (2014, Owsla): Eddie Jeffreys, formerly of 16bit, prefers rappers to chanteuses, blips that sound like video games but juxtaposed with more bone-rattling bass, beats that don't necessarily go anywhere. B Gurf Morlix: Eatin' at Me (2015, Rootball): Folksy singer-songwriter, songs pretty easy going -- this time, anyhow. B+(**) Kassem Mosse: Workshop 19 (2014, Workshop): German (Gunnar Wendel) electronica, house (I'm told) though the dance beat doesn't overwhelm you -- comes and goes, with all sorts of sly and clever asides. A- Mr Twin Sister: Mr Twin Sister (2014, Twin Group/Infinite Best): Long Island electropop group, released a 2011 album as Twin Sister -- reportedly much bubblier, whereas this is, well, not much of anything. B- Mario Pavone: Street Songs (2013 [2014], Playscape): Bassist, has a long and notable catalog going back to 1982, leads a sextet: Dave Ballou (cornet/flugelhorn), Peter Madsen (piano), Adam Matlock (accordion), Carl Testa (a second bass), Steve Jones (drums). All originals, the accordion offering a Euro-folk feel but nothing else that basic. B+(**) Pitbull: Globalization (2014, Polo Grounds/RCA): Cuban-American rapper from Miami, Armando Pérez, got his break guest-rapping on early crunk albums (Lil Jon), developed that into a highly commercial "party rap" -- eight albums now. This is the first I've heard: he seems to be invisible to critics (this record is still missing from my 6500-line metacritic file), and the only time I've run into him was in ads hyping music awards shows he was emcee of. This is at once crass and corporate, each song crediting 4-10 writers, all but one with featured guests, a wide mix of producers (most frequently Dr. Luke, but never alone), but I got a charge out of it. Just can't imagine why they picked "Wild Wild Love" over "Fireball" as the lead single, or even "Celebrate" (which, needless to say, reminded me of Three Dog Night -- a band with similar virtues but from simpler, less jaded times). B+(**) Steve Reich: Radio Rewrite (2014, Nonesuch): Two things, although the match is fair enough: Jonny Greenwood performs Reich's 1987 composition "Electric Counterpoint" -- on guitar and bass, I gather -- and gets the minimalist vibe right. Second is Reich rewriting Radiohead, a messier proposition that meanders in ways Reich rarely allowed himself before. Can't say much more, as none of the few things I've liked by Radiohead have stuck with me. B+(***) Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee (2014 [2015], Constellation): Alto saxophonist from Chicago, part of a younger generation inspired by AACM. This is the third installment in her meditations on American history, keyed off a freed Louisiana slave aned Marie Therese Coincoin. I thought the two previous "chapters" were ambitious and messy, the oratorios breaking up the flow of the powerful music. Here, finally, the vocals bury the music, so much so I can't make sense of either. B- Samo Salamon Bassless Trio: Little River (2013 [2015], Sazas): Jazz guitarist, from Slovenia, has a dozen or so albums. Trio, with Paul McCandless on soprano sax, oboe, and bass clarinet, plus Roberto Dani on drums, recorded live on tour, some free, some ambient, both most notable when the guitar breaks out. B+(**) [cd] Irène Schweizer/Jürg Wickihalder: Spring (2014, Intakt): Umpteenth duo album for the great Swiss avant-pianist, this one with a Zurich-based saxophonist, mostly playing soprano, sometimes tenor. Originals from either/both, plus two Monks and "Just a Gigolo." Instruments don't mesh very well. B+(*) Marc Seales: American Songs Volume 3: Place & Time (2012 [2015], Origin): Pianist, based in Seattle, with Jeff Hamilton on guitar, Jeff Johnson or Dave Captein on bass, Gary Hobbs on drums. Four originals, four covers -- "Wichita Lineman," Stevie Wonder, two from Curtis Mayfield. B+(*) [cd] Derek Senn: The Technological Breakthrough (2014, self-released): Singer-songwriter with a guitar, mostly mild-mannered but he can raise the intensity, has some things to say but afterwards all I can recall is the line about popcorn causing diverticulitis. I figure that's my bad. B+(**) Ed Sheeran: X (2014, Atlantic): One of the bestselling albums of 2014 -- platinum in the US (21st on Billboard's year-end Top 200), 6X platinum in the artist's native UK (1st on Official Charts' Top 40), 9X in Ireland, 2X in Canada, 4X in Australia -- and got scant support from critics (123rd in my Aggregate count, 67 Metacritic, 0 P&J votes). As songster he sometimes reminds me of Paul Simon (not praise coming from me but perhaps a measure of respect), but having been born fifty years later, he grew up with an understanding of hip-hop which is as inorganic but invigorating as Simon's grasp of mbaqanga, and that adds up to a pretty listenable album, with a couple singles I wouldn't mind hearing rather frequently ("Sing" is one I jotted down). B+(**) Matthew Shipp Trio: Root of Things (2014, Relative Pitch): Piano trio, with Michael Bisio on bass and Whit Dickey on drums -- Shipp's regular partners on several albums now. Remains a distinctive pianist with one of the strongest left hands in the field, still for all the rumble and jive this never quite breaks out into something more. B+(***) Judy Silvano with Michael Abene: My Dance (2014 [2015], JSL): Jazz singer, close to a dozen albums since 1991, backed by Abene on piano and that's it. Puts a lot of pressure on the singer to fill up all the space, and she responds by shoveling a ton of scat. B- [cd] Sylvie Simmons: Sylvie (2014, Light in the Attic): Singer-songwriter, first album although she has a notable career as a writer, ranging from novels to rock crit (including biographies of Leonard Cohen and Serge Gainsbourg) -- originally from London, but mostly based in San Francisco. Weak voice, plays ukulele, songs feel frail but have some appeal. B+(*) Sleater-Kinney: No Cities to Love (2015, Sub Pop): Always seemed like a good band, just not one I ever wanted to listen to, my main complaint that the voices unnerved me like air raid sirens, but Tatum wrote me, swearing this is "so good, even you might really like it." And it's currently the top ranked 2015 record at Album of the Year (critic score 90/23 reviews; only one 2014 record topped that, Black Messiah at 93 but only 20 reviews) -- looks like they timed the reunion perfectly, especially on top of accolades for last year's big box. Still seem like a good band, and the vocals are much less irritating than in the past. But after two plays I've yet to find anything I feel like investing in. And I wouldn't be surprised if a backlash develops by EOY list time. B+(*) Jim Snidero: Main Street (2014 [2015], Savant): Mainstream alto saxophonist, twenty albums since 1987's Mixed Bag, fabulous tone, speed, dexterity -- only thing he needs is a rhythm section that keeps him at the top of his game. Like this one: Fabian Almazan (piano), Linda Oh (bass), Rudy Royston (drums). "The Streets of Laredo" closes strong. A- [cd] Harry Sokal Groove: Where Sparks Start to Fly (2013, Cracked Anegg): Austrian tenor saxophonist, long-time member of Vienna Art Orchestra, organizes his work around a half-dozen projects: this a organ trio with Raphael Wressing on the Hammond and Alex Deutsch on drums. Has some soul jazz affinities, but the main purpose of a groove is to lift off and soar (and honk a little). B+(***) Harry Sokal/Heiri Känzig/Martin Valihora: Depart Refire (2013 [2014], Intakt): Sokal (tenor sax) and Känzig (bass) have recorded as Depart for some time, but picked up a new drummer here, so Sokal thinks of this as a new project, but looks to me like a new title. More varied pace, shows Sokal's range off nicely, bass solos too. B+(***) Swamp Dogg: The White Man Made Me Do It (2014, SDEG): First new record in six years, offers a couple political songs that find racism persisting despite everything, and a couple of those '50s Coasters/Clovers covers he can knock out in the bathroom. B+(*) Jamie T: Carry On the Grudge (2014, Virgin): British singer-songwriter, Jamie Treays, has an interesting mix of pop hooks, rap-influenced cadences, some raw power and slow muscle. Second play got a lot meatier: "Peter" sounds like the Clash without principles, and "Zombie" better than that. B+(**) Aki Takase/Ayumi Paul: Hotel Zauberberg (2014 [2015], Intakt): Piano-violin duo, two Japanese-Germans, the pianist in her 60s, well established on the avant-garde and the principal composer here, drawing on Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg) for inspiration; the violinist several decades younger, more classical, sneaking in covers from Bach and Mozart. B+(***) [cd] Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra: Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything (2014, Constellation): Montreal group, dates back to 1999 but released first album as A Silver Mt. Zion, and the name went through several permutations before settling here in 2010. The synth washes give it a churchly aspect, and I'm not paying enough attention to tell whether that might grow wearing, but it makes for moderately intriguing background. B Vance Thompson's Five Plus Six: Such Sweet Thunder (2014 [2015], Shade Street): Big band, almost: three trumpets (including the leader) and two trombones ("Five") plus three reeds and piano-bass-drums ("Six"). B+(**) [cd] Paul Thorn: Too Blessed to Be Stressed (2014, Perpetual Obscurity): Country-ish singer-songwriter, born in Wisconsin but raised in Tupelo, eighth album since 1997. Bemoans the political system in "Mediocrity Is King" ("Republicans and Democrats are breaking my heart/I can't tell the sons of bitches apart"), but then later on he discloses that "old stray dogs and Jesus are all the friends I got." He's blessed in his ignorance, and luckier than some. B+(**) Meghan Trainor: Title (2015, Epic): Singer-songwriter, self-released three acoustic albums in her teens but having just turned 21 turned pop singer, with two hit singles last year ("All About the Bass," "Lips Keep Movin'") and her chart-topping albums has at least two more songs that catchy ("Dear Future Husband" and "Title"). B+(***) Gebhard Ullmann Basement Research: Hat and Shoes (2013 [2015], Between the Lines): Prolific avant saxophonist (tenor, bass clarinet), group name goes back to his 1995 album and passes through his 2007 New Basement Research, a fair description of a band rooted in the lower frequencies. Quintet: Julian Argüelles (baritone sax), Steve Swell (trombone), Pascal Niggenkemper (bass), Gerald Cleaver (drums). B+(***) [cd] Mark Wade Trio: Event Horizon (2014 [2015], self-released): Bassist-led piano trio, with Tim Harrison on piano and Scott Neumann on drums. Helps that the bass gets a little edge in the mix. B+(**) [cd] Joanna Wallfisch with Dan Tepfer: The Origin of Adjustable Things (2014 [2015], Sunnyside): British singer-songwriter (wrote 8 of 12 songs here, covering Tim Buckley, Radiohead, "Wild Is the Wind," "Never Let Me Go"), first album (I think), backed by Tepfer on piano for an intimate feel. B+(*) [cd] Chuck E. Weiss: Red Beans & Weiss (2014, Anti): "Roots rocker" on a label into that sort of thing, although I'm not sure that his infrequent albums since 1981 so qualify -- most likely the common thread is comedy, as in "Tupelo Joe ain't no schmo." B+(*) Wolff & Clark: Expedition 2 (2014 [2015], Random Act): Pianist Michael Wolff and drummer Mike Clark, with either Christian McBride or Daryl Johns on bass, five (of 12) cuts with Hailey Niswanger on sax, two of those with Wallace Roney on trumpet. Wolff has about 15 albums since 1993, and wrote four songs here (one co-credited to Clark), one called "Mulgrew." "Sunshine of Your Love" and "1999" are novel adds to the standards songbook, mostly on the jazz side here -- Gillespie, Heath, Coleman, two Monks, all delightful. B+(***) [cdr] Nate Wooley/Dave Rempis/Pascal Niggenkemper/Chris Corsano: From Wolves to Whales (2014 [2015], Aerophonic): Trumpet player Wooley shows up in a lot of avant groups and never seems to make much difference one way or the other. Nearly everything that sticks with you here comes out of Rempis' sax, and that's rather spread out. B+(**) XY Quartet: XY (2013 [2014], Nusica): Italian group, sometimes you see it billed as "Fazzini Fedrigo XY Quartet," suggesting that Nicola Fazzini (alto sax) and Alessandro Fedrigo (acoustic bass guitar) are leaders, with Saverio Tasca (vibes) and Luca Colussi (drums) something less. However, it's their percussion which keeps this group on edge, even while the sax is what captivates. A- Reissues, Compilations, Vault Discoveries
The Falcons: The Definitive Falcons Collection: The Complete Recordings (1956-63 [2014], History of Soul, 4CD): At least for someone of my generation, there's something deeply satisfying in listening to black vocal groups from the 1950s into the 1970s -- the quality summed up in the mid-1960s as "soul," I suppose. Over recent years labels like Numero Group have been competing to find little known regional soul groups, usually with middling results, but this Detroit group I had never heard of -- billed on the cover as "the world's first soul group" -- holds up remarkably well, way beyond their one chart single ("You're So Fine," #17 in 1959) or the brief (1960-63) tenure of their most famous member: Wilson Pickett. Not all great, of course, and the sound quality leaves something to be desired. Hat tip to Milo Miles for recommending this. A- [cd] Red Garland Trio: Swingin' on the Korner (1977 [2015], Elemental Music, 2CD): A bebop pianist, recorded tons 1955-58 when he was the center of Miles Davis' first great Quintet, leader of his own Trio, and especially on the side with the Quintet's saxophonist, one John Coltrane. He was so famous that when Art Pepper cut a record with them, it was simply titled Meets the Rhythm Section. Like most jazz musicians of his generation, Garland's discography tapers off after 1962, although he picked up a bit in 1977 recording for Pepper's label, Galaxy, then died in 1984. Still, I wouldn't have picked him as someone we need to unearth more music by, but while I wouldn't say these live trio sets reveal anything new, it's hard to exaggerate how delightful they are. With Philly Joe Jones from his early trio, and Leroy Vinnegar on bass (not Paul Chambers, but not a step down either). A- [cd] The Jazz Couriers [Tubby Hayes/Ronnie Scott]: England's Greatest Combo . . . The Message From Britain (1958-59 [2014], Fresh Sound): Two LPs on one CD, the first originally attributed to Scott over Hayes and titled England's Greatest Combo: The Couriers of Jazz, the latter credited to "The Jazz Couriers featuring Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott." The leaders were Britain's premier bebop saxophonists -- aside from Hayes moving over to vibes a couple cuts on each LP -- and that's where they shine. B+(**) Muwei Power: Sierra Leone in 1970s USA (1975-76 [2014], Soundway): Formed c. 1970, split up by 1979, the group's only recordings occurred on this US tour. Multi-voiced, a bit of highlife guitar and horns, lots of percussion. LP-length: 5 cuts, 30:46. B+(***) Bud Powell: Birdland 1953 (1953 [2014], ESP-Disk, 3CD): Live club tapes from a dozen 1953 sets scattered from February 7 to September 26 of 1953, mostly trios with various bassists (Oscar Pettiford, Franklin Skeetes, Charles Mingus, George Duvivier, Curley Russell) and drummers (Roy Haynes, Sonny Payne, Art Taylor), two cuts with Dizzy Gillespie, three with Charlie Parker (two of those add Candido). Not sure how many times this material has been reissued: 1993's Burning in U.S.A. 53-55 (Mythic Sound) has much of it, as does 2004's Birdland 1953: The Complete Trio Recordings (Fresh Sound's 2CD comes up about 33 minutes short of this set). The time frame spans the highly regarded Jazz at Massey Hall sets -- the middle sets are pretty comparable (I'm actually more impressed with Parker here). Strikes me as rather redundant to Powell's studio work. B+(***) Old Music
Cornershop: Hold On It Hurts (1993, Merge): First album, twenty-some years ago, two years before I noticed them on Woman's Gotta Have It,, four years before they released one of the very best records of the 1990s (When I Was Born for the Seventh Time). Turns out their pop emerged from a punk cocoon. Retrospectively you can hear them, and half the time their attitude sounds like a viable alternate path. B+(***) Natty Dominique: Natty Dominique's Creole Jazz Band (1953 [1994], American Music): Trumpet player from New Orleans, moved to Chicago in 1913, played regularly in Johnny Dodds' band. These seem to be the only recordings under his name, a septet with Baby Dodds on drums. A couple interview segments mixed in with the trad pieces. B+(**) Bunk Johnson: In San Francisco (1943-44 [1994], American Music): Regarded as one of New Orleans' top trumpet players way back in 1905-15, Johnson was rediscovered around 1939, fitted with a new set of dentures and finally recorded from 1942 up to his death in 1949. Fittingly convened in a museum, the announcer talks about "original jazz" (and "real jazz" and "true negro jazz") as if it were long-buried treasure. That half-hour is as much a showcase for pianist Bertha Gonsoulin, but Johnson shines after that. B+(*) Bunk Johnson: 1944 (1944 [1991], American Music): Old-time New Orleans jazzmen including George Lewis (clarinet) and Baby Dodds (drums), a septet, bring on the old-time polyphony around the old-time trumpet legend: familiar songs, done with such natural élan they feel less revived than timeless. A- Bunk Johnson: 1944 Second Masters (1944 [1992], American Music): Outtakes from the same sessions on 1944, with eight songs repeated, plus six new titles -- five with "Blues" in the title ("Clarinet Marmalade" is the other). So you might deem this redundant, but if it was, say, the second in a two-disc set, it wouldn't detract at all from the first -- if anything, the blues have more meat than the displaced rags. One thing is that this lacks the frenzy of so much trad jazz -- sounds easy and natural. B+(***) Bunk Johnson: 1944/45 (1944-45 [1994], American Music): Several more sessions with the New Orleans trumpeter's sextet, the instrumentals roughly on par with Johnson's more famous 1944 recordings, the vocals a bit more scattershot. B+(***) Bunk Johnson: Bunk's Brass Band and Dance Band 1945 (1945 [1992], American Music): Cover reads "Bunk's Brass Band & 1945 Sessions" but all discographic sources I've seen give the title as I did. Penguin Guide singles this one out for its "Core Collection" -- I see little reason to prefer this over 1944, but the series is very consistent. A- The George Lewis Band: With Elmer Talbert 1949/1950 (1949-50 [2007], American Music): The clarinetist more or less took over Bunk Johnson's mid-1940s band, rotating several New Orleans trumpet players, including Talbert (who died in 1950). Mixed bag, some pieces sounding very old, others more sprightly (especially when the clarinet pierces the sky). Several vocals, probably Talbert. B+(**) Herb Morand: 1949 (1949 [1994], American Music): Another New Orleans trumpet player (1905-52), best known as a member of Harlem Hamfats (their 1936-1938 compilation on EPM Blue is worth seeking out). One of the few sessions under his own name, he sings some, has Albert Burbank on clarinet, Andrew Morgan on tenor sax, Louis Nelson on trombone, Johnny St. Cyr on guitar, and the usual rhythm section. Rhapsody files this under George Lewis, but it's one of the few trad jazz records of the period Lewis didn't play on. B+(***) Wooden Joe Nicholas: Wooden Joe Nicholas (1945-49 [1992], American Music): Early New Orleans trumpet player, b. 1883, was well into his 60s when the Dixieland revival finally got him recorded. B+(**) Kid Ory: '44-'46 (1944-46 [1994], American Music): New Orleans' first great trombone player, b. 1886, led bands early on, moved to Los Angeles in 1919, recording in 1921, then to Chicago in 1925, joining Louis Armstrong for the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens. Various groups here, with the cover noting Mutt Carey, Albert Nicholas, Barney Bigard, and Leadbelly (two singalongs at the end). B+(***) Ed Sheeran: + (2011, Atlantic): Brit singer-songwriter, mild-mannered, soft-edged, easy on the ears, nothing I expect to remember tomorrow but nothing I mind right now. B Swamp Dogg: Cuffed, Collared & Tagged (1972 [2013], Fat Possum): Jerry Williams, one-time Atlantic producer, went his own way for one of the most erratic, idiosyncratic careers in soul music. One of his few albums with covers -- without credits the ones I'm sure of are "Sam Stone" and "Lady Madonna" (choices as strange as you might imagine, and while he doesn't own either, he sure leaves his mark on them). B+(*) Swamp Dogg: Gag a Maggot (1973 [2008], SDEG): Jerry Williams' fourth album, not as cosmic as Total Destruction to Your Mind (1970) but he's worked out his soul formula -- his cover of "Midnight Hour" is as protean as the hit -- and he's figured out some angles around the marital bind: when not "Choking to Death" he's into being a "Wife Sitter." And if "Mighty Mighty Dollar Bill" wasn't cosmic, at least it was prescient. A- Swamp Dogg: ??? Greatest Hits ??? (1976, Stone Dogg): Aside from remaking a 1973 single ("Buzzard Luck" and "Ebony and Jet"), everything here was new -- it's not like he actually had any hits to displace. Still, not everything is new to me: three cuts show up in his 1982 The Best of Swamp Dogg, one of those plus two more in his 1996 Best of 25 Years, and "I've Never Been to Africa" should have. B+(***) Swamp Dogg: The Best of Swamp Dogg: 13 Prime Weiners, Everything on It (1970-76 [1982], War Bride): Best-of originally came out in 1982, leans excessively on his two best albums (Totaly Destruction to Your Mind and Gag a Maggot), with filler from the 1976 pseudo-Greatest Hits album, so I prefer the longer, deeper, farther ranging 1995 CD, Best of 25 Years: F*** the Bomb, Stop the Drugs (which, by the way, shuts out the A+ debut, with only two repeats from here). A- Swamp Dogg: I'm Not Selling Out/I'm Buying In (1981, Takoma): Nothing terribly wrong here (unless you want to nitpick lyrics, always possible with Williams) but the songs go by easy without much of anything sticking out, which isn't what got your attention before. Well, maybe the one about apocalypse in California. B+(*) Swamp Dogg: I Called for a Rope and They Threw Me a Rock (1989, SDEG): His heartbreak song is called "Myocardial Infarction," maybe what he gets for starting off with "I'd Lie to You for Your Love." Actually, of two minds on just about everything, deciding "We Need a Revolution" but settling for "Let the Good Times Roll." B+(***) Revised GradesSometimes further listening leads me to change an initial grade, usually either because I move on to a real copy, or because someone else's review or list makes me want to check it again:
Cornershop: Woman's Gotta Have It (1995, Warner Brothers): More prophetic than I realized at the time, but still nearly as gnarly as their debut album. [was: B+] B+(***) Ask a question, or send a comment. Monday, February 9, 2015 Music Week
Music: Current count 24491 [24455] rated (+36), 500 [503] unrated (-3). Four of five A- records this week were 2004 releases -- three identified from the still unfinished year-end list aggregation, the fourth the last 2014 CD I had ungraded (got it after year-end from one of the musicians in Italy; worth noting that there is a lot of new jazz each year released in Italy and I normally get virtually none of it). Eleven of this week's new records are 2015 releases, but so far I've only found one new record (Charles McPherson's The Journey) and one vault job (Red Garland Trio's Swingin' on the Korner) satisfy the A- threshold. That works out to 5.5% (2/36), a mere 37% of my 2014 A-list ratio (176/1189). Too early to suggest the new year sucks, but partly small sample size and partly working mostly from my mail queue instead of seeking out well regarded albums. For instance I haven't heard any of the top 25 records rated so far by Album of the Year. (Well, I did start to stream Sleater-Kinney's top-rated No Cities to Love, but it crapped out before I heard enough to bother with. Still, not much on that list strikes me as promising -- maybe Lupe Fiasco, Belle & Sebastian, Disappears, but the critic scores are 77-73-72, so part of the problem may be a slow start.) I'm going through last year's checklist file and seeking out a few missing year-end lists -- recent adds include Earmilk, The Finest Kiss, I Listen So You Don't Have To, Music That Isn't Bad, My Kind of Country, The Needle Drop, and a bunch of Jazz Journalists Association lists (25). Only change toward the top of the list is that Caribou finally surrendered 5th place to Flying Lotus. Taylor Swift is now tied for 14th (with Mac DeMarco), Sturgill Simpson is up to 19th, and D'Angelo to 22nd -- those three records have been gaining all along. Jazz albums got a boost on the main list but I don't see any clear trends inside the genre, and they're still pretty far back: Wadada Leo Smith (100th), Steve Lehman (119th), Ambrose Akinmusire (137th), Mark Turner (148th -- tied with Lily Allen), Marc Ribot and Sonny Rollins (160th), and Bad Plus (168th). (Smith is only up from 106th, Lehman from 133rd, Akinmusire from 168th, Turner from 164th.) The total jazz list now includes 976 albums. The overall new albums list counts 4947 albums with one or more list mention. The actual data file has 5616 entries, plus 703 for reissues/compilations/etc. Good chance I'll post a Rhapsody Streamnotes by the end of the week. Draft file currently has 95 reviews. Recommended music link:
New records rated this week:
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
Old records rated this week:
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
Ask a question, or send a comment. Sunday, February 8, 2015 Weekend RoundupIf I was much younger and had ambitions in journalism, I'd go up to Topeka and hang out with Republican legislators, trying to draw them out on the logic behind a plethora of bills being bandied about. In some ways, it seems inconceivable that in an age of ubiquitous information technology we could ever forgo and forget knowledge and understanding on the level of the Dark Ages of medieval Europe, yet that's what is on display strive to build their utopian society upon near-absolute power at the state level. The big headlines, of course, still belong to the governor and his disastrously failed experiment in Lafferism -- see David Atkins: More Kansas Fallout: Brownback Doubles Down on His Failed Policies, or just take a look at Richard Crowson's editorial cartoon in the Eagle today:
Brownback, you may recall, created a huge deficit hole by pushing a major state income tax reduction (including complete exemption from income taxes for "small businessmen" like Charles Koch), at a time when the state was losing a lawsuit for unconstitutionally underfunding public schools. (Ironically, when the state legislature increased state funding before the 2014 elections, Brownback's ads touted that as proof of his support for education.) This year, Brownback's fix for the fiscal hole has been to propose increasing taxes on cigarettes, slashing school funding, and a variety of schemes to raid a long list of dedicated funds (like highway maintenance and pensions -- even some federal money related to Obamacare). In other words, the idea is to cover up a big hole with lots of little holes, each hoping to kick the problem a bit further into the future: cheat workers out of their pensions and they may not realize the effect for many years, until they retire; stop maintaining roads and it may be years before they're eaten up with potholes; cheap out on educating children and it may be decades before it fully dawns on employers how few people are prepared for work. And so on, as these decisions add up, as political interests forget that they could ever be solved, the future grows ever dimmer: dark ages ahead. Brownback's folly is the straightforward result of a right-wing propaganda coup that you can trace back to the 1970s, when a few disgruntled businessmen decided to wage a war of attrition against the very idea of government. What they objected to was the idea that a democratic government might work for the benefit of the vast majority of the people, as opposed to merely protecting the property and prerogatives of the rich. (Right-wingers never had a problem with authoritarian states they controlled; the state only became a problem when it might be used to reduce the influence and control of the rich.) Of course, they had good reason to fear that, because it had in fact been working that way for forty years, from the New Deal through the Great Society. The key point here is how successful they've been at characterizing government as a vicious cycle of "tax and spend" -- with the corrolary that tax money would have been spent more wisely by those who originally earned it than by the government bureaucrats who merely took it. A good example of this mindset appeared in a letter to the Eagle today (Delores Jennison: Let rich invest):
Most propaganda is dressed up more plausibly than this. By "robbing" she probably means taxing, since most real robbers don't feed anyone but themselves, and by "the idle" she most likely means "the disadvantaged" -- most of whom work harder at underpaid jobs than many rentiers (I'm much more familiar with the phrase "the idle rich" than any alternative). To figure out what "works" you need some criteria. For "feeding" you might think something like "reduce the number of people who are malnourished," in which case you can collect and test data. Food stamps is one government program that comes to mind, and by that standard it works very well. Even the sort of rationing that the US practiced during WWII "worked" by most conceivable criteria. Jennison's last sentence is even more problematical. Even if the rich invest wisely, absent taxation how is it that "we can all share" in their returns? The notion that we somehow all benefit by basking in the light reflected by the rich hard to imagine, let alone quantify. Even if some might draw inspiration and enjoy enough good fortune to become rich themselves, the numbers must surely be very limited. And how does one become rich? Very few such people do so by investing in the production of food or anything else broadly usable. It's not inconceivable that some entrepreneur might found a business and produce something that makes our lives better, but it's certainly not the rule. What's so odd about this mindset isn't that disgruntled businessmen -- the Kochs being prime examples both in the 1970s (my first encounter with them was typesetting Murray Rothbard books in the mid-1970s) and now -- would underwrite this sort of propaganda. After all, they've used it to make and sheltered billions of dollars, and capitalism is nothing if not a cult of self-interest. But it's pure hubris to insist that their greed is a blessing for everyone else -- a propaganda line that is the greatest con of the era. In the past, Republicans were more cynical about their shit. For instance, it's well established that increased government spending stimulates the economy -- and that the American economy depends on such stimulation. Republicans are dependable deficit scolds whenever a Democrat is president, but Reagan and the Bushes were happy to run huge deficits -- they just preferred to build them from tax cuts and war spending. However, it was only a matter of time before the rank and file started believing the GOP party line, and thanks largely to Thomas Frank, Kansas learned that lesson harder than most. Frank's What's the Matter With Kansas? made a big point about how the single-issue fringe groups Republicans depended on for votes rarely got any satisfaction: Republicans may campaign against abortion and for guns but in office all they seemed to do was to further line the pockets of the already rich. Of course, Brownback's income tax cuts (and, by the way, sales tax increases) and budget hole is mostly a sop to the rich, but the Kansas legislature has been dilligent about passing new anti-abortion and pro-gun legislation every year. There's a bill pending this year to allowed "concealed carry" without a permit or any training -- among other things that makes it much more difficult to apprehend gun-toting felons. That's just one example of this year's legislative fever. One proposal is to move non-partisan municipal elections and make them partisan -- the sponsor is worried that school teacher unions might take advantage of low turnout to dominate school boards, and there's always the risk that a closet Democrat might slip through a nonpartisan election. Another bill seeks to give police special rights to avoid prosecution for misdeeds. Another will let teachers be prosecuted for providing any "harmful information" to students (evidently, accurate information about sex counts). I've lost the links to these things, and the Eagle website isn't much help. Like I said, this would make a good journalism project. On the other hand, there's this -- Texas Republican wants fetuses to have lawyers and "a voice in court" -- so Kansas isn't the only place to observe this insanity. Also, some scattered links this week (briefly, because I'm running so late):
Also, a few links for further study:
Ask a question, or send a comment. Monday, February 2, 2015 Music Week
Music: Current count 24455 [24422] rated (+33), 503 [497] unrated (+6). The year-in-progress file for 2014 is now frozen, as of January 31. As of the same date, I've stopped adding things to the Best Jazz and Best Non-Jazz files. I'll continue to the 2014 file until December 31, 2015, with the late additions in green. (I've added four such records so far.) I've also stopped updating the Music Tracking 2014 file -- I actually stopped several weeks ago. It's job was to remind me of what's out there, and in that regard it's been supplanted by the 2014 EOY Aggregate. I'm not quite done with this file. Most of what I've done in the last week has been to add to the "comments" field. I've added all of Robert Christgau's grades (to date). I've added many ratings from Album of the Year (top 500) and Metacritic. I've found very few new lists to add in, but I did add a selection of P&J ballots, and I violated my neutrality principle there: I added in every ballot that included a vote for Nicki Minaj's The Pinkprint. That nearly doubled Minaj's votes (18 to 37) and bumped her from 221 to 113. Her voters were almost all names I had never heard of (more than half female), and I was curious what else they might like (not that Azealia Banks, now in 25th, came as a big surprise). Also helped move D'Angelo up to 22nd. Also Run the Jewels 2 finally opened up some breathing room over War on Drugs at the top of the list. One thing I still expect to do is to add my own A-list into the count. I'll add Christgau's Dean's List if/when it appears. If you have a list I don't have already (check here) let me know. But for all practical purposes the list is about done. I don't know whether it's been useful for anyone else, but I've found a lot of surprising new records through it. I figured my new jazz mail would continue to decline in the new year, but it picked up this week, including two new records from Intakt in Switzerland. (They haven't serviced me in 4-5 years, but their records are on Rhapsody, so I wrote up nine of them last year, including A- for Tom Rainey: Obbligato and Michael Griener: Squakk: Willisau & Berlin, plus four high HM for Harry Sokal, Aki Takase [twice], and Trio 3.) Also got an advance of the new Free Nelson Mandoomjazz -- first CD to come my way from that publicist since last year's record, which I was virtually the only one to have noticed. One fairly pointless exercise I did was to pick up all the Metacritic.com scores for every 2014 release they rated and add them into the comment section of the EOY Aggregate File. That came to 1241 titles, including 189 that had not yet appeared on a single EOY list (remarkably, more than half of the latter were already in my own M-file list, although chances are a good many originally came from Metacritic.com). The data would have been much more useful had the scores been accompanied by sample size. For instance, the top-rated records are:
As you can see, four of the top ten records were reviewed 30+ times, and those four finished 1-4-2-19 in Pazz & Jop (26-4-2-8 in my EOY aggregate; D'Angelo was hurt in the latter by late released date, Swans in the former because it's something of a cult item even though it managed to get widely reviewed). Of the other six, the highest in P&J was Hotelier in 116th place; Behemoth's P&J rank was 134th, but did a little better in the EOY aggregate (128th; Hotelier was 177th). Only one of the other four managed as much as a single P&J vote (Every Time I Die). Machine Head was tied for 253rd in the EOY Aggregate, and Every Time I Die for 341st. I Am the Avalanche didn't place on a single EOY list. Three of the top four above are metal albums. As I've noted before, metal is a sizable enough niche that some mainstream rock publications will hire a metal specialist, but not so big that mainstream critics feel any need to ever listen to the stuff (unlike pop, which alt/indie critics often hate, or hip-hop, which they sometimes like). A small sample size is a recipe for outliers, and that's what Metacritic.com's methodology delivers. (In practice, the sample sizes for jazz, country, and blues are too small to even register much at Metacritic.com.) The other three marginally reviewed albums are somewhere on the hard (or punk) end of rock. I Am the Avalanche's four reviewers were Rock Sound, Alternative Press, Absolute Punk, and Kerrang! Three of those four also reviewed Every Time I Die (out of 6 total); two also reviewed Machine Head (out of 5 total). I also looked at Album of the Year's Best Albums of 2014 list (well, just the first 500 albums so far). AOTY doesn't survey as many music review sources as Metacritic, but their list makes it easier to find out how many of their sources reviewed each album. (Their minimum is also higher at 5, vs. 4 for Metacritic.) For instance, the number of reviews for St. Vincent drops from 40 to 25; Run the Jewels 2 from 35 to 23, and Black Messiah from 30 to 20. I started to build up a chart that sorted records by how many AOTY reviews they got, and was surprised to find that the most reviewed album of 2014 was Warpaint's eponymous effort (with 27 reviews and an average score of 74, same as MC). Beyond it, the most reviews were 26 (FKA Twigs), 25 (Beck, St. Vincent), 24 (Aphex Twin, Flying Lotus, Stephen Malkmus, New Pornographers, Spoon, Swans, War on Drugs), and 23 (How to Dress Well, Liars, Perfume Genius, Run the Jewels). The top records beyond those 16 in my Aggregate are: 6. Caribou (21), 9. Sun Kil Moon (19), 10. Angel Olsen (13), Sharon Van Etten (21), 14. Mac DeMarco (18), 15. Taylor Swift (17), Todd Terje (19), 18. Future Islands (21), 19. Sturgill Simpson (7), and 20. Lana Del Rey (20). Warpaint wound up 51st on my list (90th in Pazz & Jop). The highest rated (my list) albums with Mc:74 or less (with AOTY review count in parens): 20. Lana Del Rey (20), 39. Alt-J (21), 40. Temples (16), 51. Warpaint (27), 57. Black Keys (17), 59. Jungle (16), 62. Jessie Ware (20), 66. Metronomy (18), 95. Banks (15; by the way, the only album on this list to finish beyond AOTY's top 500, with a 67 critic score). Aside from Warpaint, I'd say that each of those albums has a niche advantage (pop, prog, and psych for the top three), but the general rule is that the more reviews the higher a record places. New records rated this week:
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
Old records rated this week:
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
Ask a question, or send a comment. Saturday, January 31, 2015 Not the Dean's ListI've been waiting to add Robert Christgau's annual "Dean's List" to my EOY Aggregate file, assuming it would (as has been the case in recent years) be published by BN Review sometime after the Village Voice posted its Pazz & Jop poll results. (P&J has figured large in Christgau's annual summary articles, even after he stopped running the poll.) But it hasn't appeared yet (and I don't really know why, other than that the pace of his not-quite-monthly BN Review essays slowed last year, down from ten to five pieces in 2014). I do know why it hasn't been easy to construct a 2014 list of graded albums from Christgau's website: I have not done the work to stuff the new EW reviews into the database. One reason for that is that Medium insisted on a 90-day delay period so I couldn't post any reviews until they have aged three months. One way to handle that would be to write some additional code to check the age of CG reviews -- something I haven't had much time to do. Another is to only update reviews that have aged sufficiently, but there haven't been many of those until recently. I've finally started working on adding the new EW reviews, and decided the first step would be to collate a list of all the reviews/grades thus far. That's what the lists below do: they are sorted by release year, then grade, then alphabetically by artist, with various artists within each grade listed last, sorted within grade and year by title. Christgau is rather inconsistent about noting release date years, so in many cases I've had to look those up. (He's also inconsistent about non-label albums, especially mixtapes, but I've given up trying to rationalize those.) The first thing I did with the list was to add his grades to the EOY Aggregate, including an unranked point for everything A- or above. (His grades, like mine, are in the comment field.) 2014
That gives us 46 A-list albums already reviewed. In recent years, Dean's Lists settled into two levels: 2008-10 and 2013 ranged from 65 to 72, while 2011-12 wound up at 92-93. The drop-off from 2012 to 2013 came after MSN cancelled Expert Witness around September, so Christgau had less motivation to find the extra 20 albums that it would have taken to continue 2011-12 levels. Even so, the 2013 list includes 29 records that weren't reviewed in EW. (Eight of those 29 have subsequently been reviewed in the new Medium-based EW -- one of those, Arcade Fire, with a reduced grade.) Anyhow, it seems reasonable that when/if Christgau publishes a 2014 Dean's List, it will include another 20-25 thus far unreviewed 2014 albums, though probably not the 45-46 albums it would take to reach 2011-12 levels. 2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2006
2002
2000
Ask a question, or send a comment. Sunday, January 26, 2014 Music Week
Music: Current count 24422 [24392] rated (+30), 497 [493] unrated (+4). Closed the count out Sunday evening, trying to get a jump on posting this early, but various distractions today will make this as late in the day as usual. To save some time, I went ahead and rushed out Rhapsody Streamnotes without having tweeted everything. The tweet reviews are meant as advance news, so seemed like a waste of time to make up lost ground below. The records that lost out: Terri Clark, Peter Evans, Porter Robinson, Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako. I was listening to the three Soundway records as I wrapped up Streamnotes, so they're the first of next column's reviews. After that, I was just browsing around for something interesting to listen to, and noticed that Rhapsody has quite a few releases from the American Music label, which was established in the early 1940s to record the older, but then still living, generation of New Orleans jazz musicians. In the 1930s jazz moved from New Orleans-style groups -- usually five-to-seven members -- to swing, both in big bands and small groups (usually five or less), and in the 1940s jazz moved on to the more self-consciously virtuosic music known as bebop. Bucking this trend was a sudden revival of interest in traditional jazz, especially in San Francisco (with the Yerba Buena Jazz Band) and later in the '40s in England. The new trad jazz musicians were almost invariably white, but as with the folk-blues movement in the early 1960s, scholars and entrepreneurs went back to find what was left of New Orleans' early jazz musicians. The unrecorded Buddy Bolden, of course, was long gone, as was Freddie Keppard (1890-1933), who at least recorded a it in the mid-1920s. But Bunk Johnson (1879-1949) was justifiably ancient, older than King Oliver (1885-1939) let alone Louis Armstrong's slightly older peers, the late Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941) and Johnny Dodds (1892-1940), and the still active Kid Ory (1886-1973), Baby Dodds (1898-1959), and especially the trad-minded George Lewis (1900-68). The only thing I had heard by Johnson was Bunk and Lu, a compilation of sessions with Lu Watters (one of the West Coast revivalists), so the chance to hear the vastly superior sets on American Music is most welcome -- and not just as a respite from 2014. But speaking of 2014, the latest A-list finds turned out to be two very different fringe-country artists, Kelsey Waldon and Bob Wayne. There are undoubtedly more out there, but it's becoming less and less obvious where to look next. Sometime between now and the end of January I'll call it quits and freeze the year-end list. After last year's relatively early freeze date I added 69 records to the 2013 file. It certainly wouldn't be hard now to construct a list of 2014 releases I would like to have heard, but finding them and getting to them will be harder. And usually the pressures of the new year dim my interest in the old one. We'll see what happens this time. New records rated this week:
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
Old records rated this week:
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
Ask a question, or send a comment. Saturday, January 25, 2014 Weekend RoundupDon't have much to show here, but enough to run. I wasn't able to find anything very useful on renewed hostilities in eastern Ukraine: I gather the central ("pro-western") government broke the cease fire, and now they're complaining about civilian deaths caused by Russian rockets. This is one of four major wars from 2014 -- Israel, Iraq, and Syria -- that have been allowed to fester and grow by the inability and/or unwillingness of the US to engage in diplomacy, especially with Russia. That failure is rooted in the kneejerk US belief that foreign affairs is always a test of will where only force matters. In particular, the US has been seduced by the idea that all problems can be solved by killing "bad guys" -- a notion that's rife in American culture, that is the basic idea behind the drone warfare program, that excuses all manner of secret operations. That American Sniper beat out Selma both in the box office and Oscar nominations is par for the week. I skipped the "Israel Links" this week, not because I couldn't find them but because I didn't feel a need to bother. If you do feel the need, the first place to look is Mondoweiss. Some scattered links this week:
Also, a few links for further study:
Ask a question, or send a comment. Saturday, January 24, 2015 Rhapsody Streamnotes (January 2015)I was hoping this would be my last word on 2014, but perhaps because I'm once again planning on scaling back next year, I've been looking for more definitive closure to last one. Below you'll find review-notes on 140 records, all from 2014 but a few detours I couldn't help but follow. Neither my year-in-progress, my best jazz, my best non-jazz, nor my EOY list aggregate files are frozen yet, though I will commit to January 31 as the last possible day to do so. To limit this file -- the longest since November 30, 2013 -- I've already saved a handful of 2015 jazz releases for next time, and I'm resisting the temptation to add the three 2014 releases I've already written up today. I don't have time to sum up the many things I've gleaned about new recorded music in 2014. At present, the year-end file provides grades for 1146 albums (plus 7 late-appearing 2013 albums). That seems like a lot, but it's actually down from last year (1150 at freeze time; 1221 by end of 2014), even more so from my peak years in 2011 (1415) and 2010 (1301), although it's slightly more than any of the frozen file totals from 2004 (first year I topped 1000) through 2009). It's harder to compare this year's EOY Aggregate to previous year Metacritic files, but it's fair to say this year's approach has been more limited (e.g., 4922 new records this year, vs. 7868 in 2013, 6341 in 2012, or 5441 in 2011. Good chance this year's 525 EOY lists are also down, but hard to say by how much. Still, the one thing that is up this year is the size of the A-list: 147 new + 23 old (archival/reissue) records. Still, with late finds last year wound up very close (148 new + 21 old, so -1, although it was -11 back at freeze date). Previous year A-lists (post-freeze total in parens): 2012: 131+16 (24); 2011: 132+21 (15); 2010: 133+17 (16). Those A-lists are typically very close to 50% jazz. The non-jazz part of those lists is typically 15-20% shorter than Christgau's non-jazz Dean's Lists, so the notion that I'm an easy grader is probably unwarranted. (Unless you consider jazz easy?) These are short notes/reviews based on streaming records from Rhapsody. They are snap judgments based on one or two plays, accumulated since my last post along these lines, back on December 31. Past reviews and more information are available here (5918 records). New Releases (More or Less)
2NE1: Crush (2014, YG Entertainment): Korean pop group, four girls, real potential for dance pop -- the title cut indeed crushes it -- and I'd give their ballads an edge over the neo-soul norm, even when I don't understand a word. Rap some, too, and most songs sneak in a line or two of English, in case you're listening. B+(**) African Express: African Express Presents . . . Terry Riley's In C Mali (2014, Transgressive): Riley's minimalist classic dates from 1968. It has always been about repetitive rhythms, so the use of Mali's drums and percussive instruments seems like a natural, as do the voices for shading, the guitar, whatever. B+(***) Alt-J: This Is All Yours (2014, Canvasback/Atlantic): British neo-prog group, makes a kind of chamber pop that's beguiling and pretty -- in AMG's words, "both planetarium laser light show and art installation ready." B Grazyna Auguscik Orchestar: Inspired by Lutoslawski (2013 [2014], Fortune): Witold Lutoslawski (1913-94) was one of the better known classical composers and conductors of the late 20th century, especially in his native Poland -- not that that's something I know much about. I have no idea what's going on here, other than that the orchestra is named for leader/singer Grazyna Auguscik and splits into three sections: a string quartet, and two "trios" with four members each, with various additional singers emerging from the crowd. Not something I would normally like, and not bad for that. B+(*) [cd] Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires: Dereconstructed (2014, Sub Pop): A back-to-basics rock and roll band, a bit of southern twang -- perhaps they're aiming at Drive-By Truckers, but I'm finding them a little overamped and underarticulated. B Courtney Barnett: The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas (2012-13 [2014], Mom + Pop Music): Singer-songwriter from Australia gets a 12-cut, 56:20 LP out of two EPs (I've Got a Friend Called Emily Ferris and How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose). Doesn't have much of a country or a lo-fi rock accent. B+(*) Basement Jaxx: Junto (2014, Atlantic Jaxx): House (or something like that) duo, had big albums 1999-2001 and fairly steady product since then, certainly know how to keep a dance beat running. B+(**) Jon Batiste/Chad Smith/Bill Laswell: The Process (2014, MOD Technologies): Piano-drums-bass, respectively, although it's not that simple: all three are listed as producers, and while their search for the perfect groove is fundamental here, they shuffle in guests to mix things up: various vocalists including Killah Priest, plus Toshinori Kondo on trumpet and Peter Apfelbaum on reeds. B+(***) Gorka Benitez: Gasteiz (2012 [2014], Fresh Sound New Talent): Tenor saxophonist from Spain, has at least nine albums since 1999, the few I've heard always impressing me with his tone and poise. This is a trio, with Ben Monder on guitar and David Xirgu on drums, a sweet set up. Plays some flute too -- offset nicely against the guitar. B+(**) Beverly: Careers (2014, Kanine): Duo, another Frankie Rose project (Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls), this one with singer-guitarist Drew Citron (ex-Ava Luna). Lo-fi pop, the hard edges ground down but not forgotten. B+(*) Elvin Bishop: Can't Even Do Wrong Right (2014, Alligator): Had a great hit back in the 1970s, "Fooled Around and Fell in Love," when he was identified with the decade's southern rockers, but rather than fade away he signed with blues label Alligator 1988-2000, moved on to Blind Pig, and is now back home. And at 71 he's contemplating his own mortality . . . with the same stoned amusement he's brought to everything in life. B+(**) The Michael Blum Quartet: Initiation (2014, self-released): Guitarist, first album, backed by piano-bass-drums. Just one song of his own, but four from bassist Jim Stinnett, with the covers including a Jobim. Fitting, as he has a light touch and tone. B+(*) [cd] Lukasz Borowicki Trio: People, Cats & Obstacles (2014, Fortune): Guitarist, based in Denmark, seems to be his first album. Backed by double bass and drums, guitar is electric, pieces are attributed to the group except for a "bonus" solo. Wouldn't call it "raw" but it does flex some muscle. B+(**) [cd] Peter Brendler: Outside the Line (2014, Posi-Tone): Bassist, first album as the leader, a quartet with two horns -- Rich Perry on tenor sax and Peter Evans on trumpet -- plus drummer Vinnie Sperrazza. Fast ones are unbridled bebop. Slower ones more complex, sometimes sounding wrong but more plays may set me right. Plus first jazz cover I've heard of "Walk on the Wild Side" -- his motto? B+(***) Jonatha Brooke: My Mother Has 4 Noses (2014, Bad Dog): Singer-songwriter from Illinois; first I noticed of her was her 2008 album The Works where she started with Woody Guthrie lyrics -- possibly the best of nearly a half-dozen good-to-great albums like that. The songs were originally part of a one-woman play: a daughter's portrait of a mother descending into dementia. A- Bushwick Gospel Singers: Songs of Worship Vol. 2 (2014, The Church of Universal Knowing): Can't find any credits or history on this group, but even though Peter Stampfel swears he's not singing here (although daughter Zoë is) his vocal stamp is obvious, and the banjo and fiddle aren't far behind. Inspirational verse: "I will turn your water into wine/white bread into rye." Disclaimer: "and they'll know we ain't no Christians, because we love." B+(***) Caleb Caudle: Paint Another Layer on My Heart (2014, This Is American Music): Country singer-songwriter from North Carolina, has a fine ear and voice for ballads, a modest demeanor, and some pedal steel. B+(***) Billy Childs: Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro (2014, Masterworks): Pianist, close to a dozen albums since 1988, the first few on New Age label Windham Hill. Nyro was a singer-songwriter, both a pop and cult figure following her 1968 album Eli and the 13th Confession and its successor New York Tendaberry. I dug up those albums recently and graded them B and C+, stopping short of her 1970 album Christmas and the Beads of Sweat. I wouldn't have bothered with this either, but it's been popping up on EOY lists -- as Dan Bilawsky wrote in AAJ, "this one has Grammy written all over it." Well sure, in all the worst senses: Childs' piano is fortified with strings and rare guest horns (Wayne Shorter, Steve Wilson, Chris Potter, Chris Botti) and an array of vocal stars, starting with Renee Fleming and ending with Alison Kraus. Redeemed: Ledisi's "Stoned Soul Picnic." Actually, Kraus's song ("And When I Die") isn't bad either. B- Terri Clark: Some Songs (2014, Bare Track): Country singer from Canada, had a run on a Nashville major 1995-2005 but this modest effort -- ten songs, 32:30, generic title -- like her last two came out on a Canadian label. She has a piece of credit on half of those songs, but note that the Clark who wrote the two most memorable ones ("I Cheated on You" and "Bad Car") has first name Brandy. B+(**) Clipping: CLPPNG (2014, Sub Pop): LA hip-hop group: Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes. Fairly minimal beats, leaning toward industrial noise; the raps monotone, dare I say clipped? Could possibly grow on you. B+(**) Hollie Cook: Twice (2014, Mr. Bongo): British reggae singer, father was Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook, mother backed up Culture Club, joined the Slits when they reformed in 2006. Diminutive voice, rhythm track is small too without much dub, but that eventually seems like a statement. B+(*) Theo Croker: AfroPhysicist (2011 [2014], Okeh): Trumpet player, last heard on Arbors with In the Tradition -- he is, after all, the grandson of Doc Cheatham -- but this is a significant departure, and not toward anything in particular. Dee Dee Bridgewater produced and contributes three vocals (including "Moody's Mood for Love"). Guests include Stefon Harris and Roy Hargrove, and covers span Buddy Johnson and Stevie Wonder. I find it deliriously scattershot, but at least the trumpet stands out. B+(*) Richard Dawson: Nothing Important (2014, Weird World): British guitarist and (I guess) singer, not sure there's anything else here. Four pieces, the first instrumental (6:40), the next two over 16 minutes each: intense, distorted, their musicality hard to access but arguably there (somewhere). B Dej Loaf: Sell Sole (2014, World): Detroit rapper, a young woman -- the voice sounded more young than female at first, aside from the tendency to go deadpan. B+(*) DJ Quik: The Midnight Life (2014, Mad Science): David Martin Blake, discography goes back to 1991, but a "best of" his early discs still wasn't all that good. But lately he's picking up more bounce, and that helps. B+(*) Peter Evans Quintet: Destination: Void (2013 [2014], More Is More): Trumpet player, notably for Mostly Other People Do the Killing, backed by piano-bass-drums plus Sam Pluta's live electronics. Some major moments when the trumpet cuts loose, but I'm not sure what the other herky jerk is meant for. B+(*) First Aid Kit: Stay Gold (2014, Columbia): Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg initially suggested a quaintly folkish Americana, but as they've gotten bigger they've become ever more generically unrooted, prisoners of their harmonies. B The Flaming Lips: With a Little Help From My Fwends (2014, Warner Brothers): I doubt I've heard the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper in more than 20 years, but this remake brought every note and nuance back to my memory, then blew up most of them. Too gratuitously noisy, methinks, but I have to admire the advances modern chemistry has brought to psychedelia. B+(**) Fred Frith and John Butcher: The Natural Order (2009 [2014], Northern Spy): Guitarist Frith has a huge number of albums since his original 1974 Guitar Solos, straddling rock and jazz without fusing with either. Butcher is a tenor saxophonist, a pillar of England's free jazz underground, and a fitting match, drawing out remarkable sounds, even when most difficult. B+(**) Alex G: DSU (2014, Orchid Tapes, EP): Alex Giannascoli's first album, a singer-songwriter with his heart on his sleeve, rather emo but not without pop resonance. Ten songs, but rather short at 24:36. B+(*) Lee Gamble: Koch (2014, Pan, 2CD): British electronica producer, discography starts in 2006 but has a record called Diversions 1994-1996 so may be older. This is abstract and scattered, but leans toward techno. B+(*) Bunji Garlin: Differentology (2014, RCA/VP): Soca star, from Trinidad; has a rep for introducing harder, faster ragga beats, but what I'm hearing ranges all the way to over-the-top techno, at least on several remixes. Can get overbearing, but "Red Light District" gets the mix about right. B+(**) Herb Geller/Roberto Magris: An Evening With Herb Geller & the Roberto Magris Trio: Live in Europe 2009 (2009 [2014], JMood): The alto saxophonist was one of the major figures in the "west coast cool jazz" from the mid-1950s until his death in 2013 at 85. I don't know how late he played -- this is the latest I've found, but he's in very good form, and the piano trio provides perfectly sound support. B+(***) [cdr] GOAT: Commune (2014, Sub Pop): Swedish group, acronym stands for "Gathering Of All Tribes" although there is something to be said for u&lc also. Second album, following World Music, they promiscously cross borders without ever getting nailed down to any particular tribal identity, maybe because the whole world unites in amplifier distortion. A- Gold-Bears: Dalliance (2014, Slumberland): Atlanta "twee-punk" band, which I take to be punk without sharp edges, vocals buried under a steady guitar roil. B+(**) Tom Guarna: Rush (2014, BJU): Guitarist, has five previous albums for SteepleChase, a Danish label which has been especially devoted to American guitarists but which never answered my inquiries. Quintet, with Joel Frahm on soprano and tenor sax, Danny Grissett on piano, Orlando Fleming on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums -- a postbop set a little ripe for my ears. B Steve Gunn: Way Out Weather (2014, Paradise of Bachelors): Singer-songwriter, Rhapsody pegs him as "progressive folk" but there's more to him, even if it isn't all that evident here -- regarded as a guitar virtuoso; has studied Indian classical music, gnawa, and La Monte Young; has two more records out this year: one on Important (avant-garde), the other on RVNG Intl. (electronica). I didn't catch much of this until the closer, "Tommy's Congo." B+(*) Barry Guy New Orchestra: Amphi/Radio Rondo (2013 [2014], Intakt): The two title pieces, 26:35 and 29:34, played by a large free ensemble -- four reeds, trumpet-trombone-tuba, piano, the leader on bass, and two drummers, plus (first piece only) Maya Homburger on baroque violin. Many name players with a knack for controlled chaos. B+(*) The Heliocentrics & Melvin Van Peebles: The Last Transmission (2014, Now-Again): British group of Sun Ra devotees, tend to play a jazz-funk fusion but rather than develop that they've cut a niche by collaborating with weird old guys the world largely forgot about: Mulatu Astatke, Orlando Julius, Lloyd Miller, and now poet Melvin Van Peebles, whose spoken word gives this jazz-funk fusion reason to exist. B+(***) Arve Henriksen: The Nature of Connections (2014, Rune Grammofon): Norwegian trumpet player, prolific since 2000, leads a string-heavy sextet here -- two violins (doubling on Hardanger fiddle), cello, double bass, and drums. Chamber jazz, I guess, on the cool side. B Honeyblood: Honeyblood (2014, Fat Cat): Duo from Glasgow, Stina Marie Claire Tweeddale (guitar and vocals) and Shona McVicar (drums). Their roughness slots them as noise-pop, but the lyrics I noted were mostly clichés (e.g., "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger"). B The Hotelier: Home, Like Noplace Is There (2014, Tiny Engines): Punkish group from Massachusetts, seems to have higher ambitions (like, say, La Dispute) but they're hard to decipher: one allegedly political song takes the point-of-view of a dog, which isn't all that enlightening (but does let the singer dis bitches). B+(*) Jachna Tarwid Karch: Sundial (2013-14 [2014], Fortune): Trio from Poland: Wojciech Jachna (flugelhorn/trumpet), Grzegorz Tarwid (piano), Albert Karch (percussion). B+(*) Ali Jackson: Amalgamations (2013 [2014], Sunnyside): Drummer, has dropped the "Jr." that initially distinguished him from his bassist father. Side credits include work with Wynton Marsalis and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and he's brought some of them to play here. I haven't seen the breakdown, but I suspect that the 12 side credits rotate around -- especially the three bassists and four keyboard players. Maybe the horns too, but they're worth naming: Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), Vincent Gardner (trombone), Ted Nash (alto sax), JD Allen (tenor sax). Hard to get all this straight in a blindfold test. B+(**) Leela James: Fall for You (2014, J&T): Soul singer, fifth album including a tribute to Etta James (unrelated as far as I know). Neither retro nor nu, just at ease in the modern world. B+(***) Luke James: Luke James (2014, Island): R&B singer from New Orleans, dropped his surname Boyd. First album after a couple of mixtapes. Album takes its sweet time connecting, but his falsetto reach turns "I Want You" into a first-rate single. B+(**) Lucien Johnson/Alan Silva/Makoto Soto: Stinging Nettles (2006 [2014], Improvising Beings): Tenor sax-bass-drums trio, the leader from New Zealand -- seems to be his first album, but he was the main composer in a group called Shogun Orchestra (eponymous album 2012). Silva's well known in free jazz circles. I squinted through enough of the microprinted liner notes to find out that Soto is some sort of Don Cherry protégé. Basically what you want in this configuration: a high energy charge, but the saxophonist can also slow it down and keep your attention. A- [cd] Karen Jonas: Oklahoma Lottery (2014, self-released): Country-ish singer-songwriter from Virginia, first album, shows remarkable poise spinning out stories starting with "Suicide Sal," three years on the run and running out. B+(***) The Juan MacLean: In a Dream (2014, DFA): Actual name John MacLean. Beats are danceable, replete with a swash of disco, and the singers are equally functional. B+(***) Amira Kheir: Alsahraa (2014, Sterns): From Sudan, a woman singing in Arabic (I presume), backed with basic trans-Saharan simplicity (or is it aridness?): acoustic guitar, bass, percussion. B+(*) Khun Narin: Electric Phin Band (2014, Innovative Leisure): Thai group, doubt you could call this folk or pop, less sure about jazz -- no vocals, but also the beat is pretty regular. Central instrument is the phin (a 3-stringed lute), but it's run through various effects pedals so it sounds more like a guitar, and a picture shows three drummers plus a bass guitar. Four cuts, one as long as 19:28, all at racing tempos. B+(**) Kiasmos: Kiasmos (2014, Erased Tapes): Icelandic techno duo, Olafur Arnalds (who's relatively well known) and Janus Rasmussen (actually from the Faroe Islands). Music looped together, approaching ambient but not quite ready to drop the dance beat. B+(*) Nikola Kolodziejczyk Orchestra: Chord Nation (2011 [2014], Fortune): Very big band, conventional plus extra reeds and strings, with leader playing piano/wurlitzer, writing all five pieces. Recorded for radio, probably where the money for such extravagances lies. B+(**) Leszek Kulakowski Ensemble: Looking Ahead (2014, Fortune): Pianist, discography goes back at least to 1994, with a jazz orientation but close to classical -- Chopin for jazz trio and orchestra, string quartets, a "Piano Concerto," things that translate as "Cantabile in G Minor" and "In the Chamber Komeda Mood," etc. This is a sextet with trumpet and sax, also cello. Richly textured, a first-rate composer -- evidence, I think, that post-classical has moved on to jazz, even though not all jazz is post-classical. B+(**) The Lawrence Arms: Metropole (2014, Epitaph): Chicago post-punk group, first album in 1999, back with their sixth after a hiatus, older and wiser perhaps; can't say whether they've slowed down but they do have a knack for tunes, and they swear a lot. B+(**) Little Big Town: Pain Killer (2014, Capitol Nashville): Nashville vocal quartet, two guys (Phillip Sweet, Jimi Westbrook), two gals (Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman) -- been together since 2002, including a platinum record for 2012's Tornado, but sales are way off on this one. Could be the heavy but rote rock on most tracks, or that the love songs are a little, uh, yucky: "you're my pain killer/a little dose of you goes a long way" or "I want to taste her lips/yeah, cuz they taste like you." C+ Look Again to the Wind: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited (2014, Masterworks): Cash's 1964 Indian-themed album Bitter Tears without the magic voice but plenty of sincerity, performed by "various artists" -- long on David Rawlings, Gillian Welch, and Emmylou Harris, but highlighted by a very ragged Kris Kristofferson ("The Ballad of Ira Hayes" and Steve Earle ("Custer"). B+(**) Jan Lundgren: All By Myself (2014, Fresh Sound): Swedish pianist, has close to forty albums since the early 1990s. This, per the title, is solo, fourteen standards, pretty straight but beautifully done. Won Jazz Journal's critics poll, beating out Paul Bley. B+(**) Magnolia Acoustic Quartet: Cinderella (2012 [2014], Fortune): Second group album. Pianist Kuba Sokolowski wrote all the tunes (referring to Yoko Ono on one), so figure him the leader, with Szyman Nidzworski on tenor and soprano sax, Mateusz Dobosz on bass, and Patryk Dobosz on drums. B+(**) [cd] Microwaves: Regurgitant Phenomena (2014, New Atlantis): Noise rock/postpunk group from Pittsburgh, put this one out on vinyl so the 29:35 run time doesn't seem so EP-ish, especially with 11 cuts (two over 6 minutes, the rest much less). Vocals buried so deep I'm tempted to take this as instrumental. B Migos: Rich Ni**a Timeline (2014, Quality Control Music): Atlanta hip-hop trio, with an 80-minute mixtape, the three voices rotating in but mostly repeating each other. All covers I've seen show asterisks. The audio is not quite so circumspect. B+(*) Mindtroll: EP #4 (2014, self-released): Brooklyn band, popped up on top of a friendly P&J ballot unnoticed by anyone else. Three women and a guy who plays bass and sings backup, sounds much like but a little odder than the early B-52s. Four short songs, 8:36, three superb, the fourth ends with three question marks. Three previous EPs, plus a 24-cut album in 2013 with most songs well under two minutes. B+(***) [bc] Mindtroll: And That's Just Some of the Good Ones (2013, self-released): Twenty-four tracks, including three of the songs on EP #4 (times shorter on EP), ten under two minutes but they still add up to 53:11. Greatest fear with this band is that their sketchy, disjointed punk rants will prove tedious in the end -- they do, but every now and when a song (like "I'm in the CIA") comes along to reset your attention. B+(**) [bc] Myrczek & Tomaszewski: Love Revisited (2013 [2014], Fortune): That would be singer Wojciech Myrczek and pianist Pawel Tomaszewski. Most songs are all vintage American standards, sung in English in classic crooner style -- "Freedom Jazz Dance" and "All Blues" are exception (that prove they should follow the rule, not that you can really ever convince a jazz singer not show off the scat). B+(*) [cd] Tami Neilson: Dynamite! (2014, self-released): Country singer from New Zealand, has a couple previous records I should check out. Ten songs, short at 29:02, but they cover quite a range -- honky tonk, rockabilly, folkie duet, a paean to Texas, the title cut beyond category. A- [bc] Stevie Nicks: 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault (2014, Reprise): The vault songs date from 1969-95 demos, but the recordings are reportedly new, and I'm not enough of a fan to tell you whether the songs are familiar or obscure. B+(*) Charlie Parr: Hollandale (2014, Chaperone): Guitarist, based in Duluth MN; has a pile of records since 2003. No vocals (at least not here), looks like Alan Sparhawk is also credited with guitar. Only five tracks, but runs 42:08, deeply resonant. B+(*) PC Worship: Social Rust (2014, Northern Spy): Some kind of postrock band -- i.e., one that's exhausted its interest in the form but can't conceived of doing something else, possibly because they've fried their ears and couldn't hear themselves otherwise. B- Perfect Pussy: Say Yes to Love (2014, Captured Tracks): Noise band from Syracuse, originally assembled to play a band in a movie. Meredith Graves is the singer. Not what one would call musical, but that would be a different concept. B- Lee Scratch Perry: Back on the Controls (2011-13 [2014], Upsetter Music, 2CD): Those peculiarly complex devices on the cover are vacuum tubes, state-of-the-art in the 1950s but largely obsolete during the reggae producer's 1970s heyday, except in technological backwaters (which could include Jamaica). Presumably they signal his intent to go back to that vintage period, although time and age can't deal him the same hand. The result is heavy on the dub, and I mean real heavy, but he keeps it up for 92 minutes -- old groove with new layers of murk, the effect positively postmodern. A- Adam Pieronczyk Quartet: El Buscador (2008 [2010], Jazzwerkstatt): Polish saxophonist, tenor primarily (although he plays some soprano here and alto elsewhere), has a substantial discography since 1995. Quartet pairs him with trombonist Adrian Mears, backed by bassist Anthony Cox (named "special guest" on the cover), and drummer Krzysztof Dziedzic, who contributes a nice Latin accent. B+(***) Adam Pieronczyk Quartet: A-Trane Nights (2008-09 [2014], Fortune): Same group as on El Buscador, with bassist Anthony Cox evidently a regular. Drummer Dziedzic maintains his Latin tinge, and trombonist Mears takes more leads than the leader -- he's clearly on a roll here. Main gripe is that the documentation shows two discs but the promo only includes "cd 1." B+(***) [cdr] Adam Pieronczyk: The Planet of Eternal Life (2013 [2014], Jazzwerkstatt): Solo sax, soprano this time, easy enough on the ears especially when played this methodically. B+(**) Pinch & Mumdance: Pinch B2B Mumdance (2014, Tectonic): Two British dubstep/grime producers, Robert Ellis and Jack Adams, both with a history of duoing with others, push these beats deep enough under a shroud of mystery they might mean something. B+(***) Ariel Pink: Pom Pom (2014, 4AD): Disposed of his Haunted Graffiti band moniker, his lo-fi eclecticism turns out a fantastic range of upbeat kitsch, not without a shred of humor, but so stale it begs the question: why would anyone want to subject themselves to this? [PS: First record this year I failed to finish.] C- PRhyme: PRhyme (2014, Universal Music): Pronounced "prime": rapper Royce da 5'9", turntablist DJ Premier. the latter's beats razor sharp and squeaks dazzling, but as for Royce, admittedly he's an "aquired taste" -- "so acquire some taste," he advises, but you may just as well have to lose some. I couldn't help but notice that the first song was one of the most misogynist bitch rants I've heard in rap. Then there's money-grubbing and the don't-give-a-fuck ethos. Still, I can hear why this was HDX's record of the year, but I can also understand why no one else noticed. B+(**) Protomartyr: Under Color of Official Right (2014, Hardly Art): Detroit post-punk quartet, roughly similar to the Fall in terms of their melodic grind, although singer Joe Casey doesn't quite have Mark Smith's accent, or class analysis. B+(**) Eric Reed: Groovewise (2014, Smoke Sessions): Pianist, been on a Monk kick recently but wrote 8 (of 10) songs here, covering Clifford Jordan and Christian McBride. Quartet, with Seamus Blake on tenor sax, Ben Williams on bass, and Gregory Hutchinson on drums. Especially strong outing for Blake. B+(***) Porter Robinson: Worlds (2014, Astralwerks): Young EDM producer from North Carolina, barely in his 20 but his songs have a gawky juvenile aspect, cartoonish, maybe bubble gum. I found this annoying at first, then it started to sneak up on me. B Royal Blood: Royal Blood (2014, Warner Brothers): Brighton (UK) duo, drummer Ben Thatcher and bassist-singer Mike Kerr, first album, play blues-based hard rock, crunching chords, basically very ordinary -- beats outsmarting themselves. B Ruby: Waiting for Light (2014, Fireweed): Brit singer-songwriter Lesley Rankine, started in punk band Silverfish, released an album as Ruby in 1995, another in 2000, now this one. At first encounter what you'd call eclectic, although several songs ("Last Life," "Note to Self," "Barricades") are striking. B+(**) SBTRKT: Wonder Where We Land (2014, Young Turks): Second album for British dubstep producer Aaron Jerome, much less fun than the first. B Schizophonia: Cantorial Recordings Reimagined (2014, Blue Thread Music): Guitarist Yossi Fruchter (Pitom, Zion80) put this group together, with Brian Marsella on keyboards and Shanir Blumenkranz on bass. The idea is to take old cantorial music -- something I'm not much familiar with -- and recast it as modern day rock. Not sure that it really works on either count, although the guitarist's chops leave a strong impression. B+(*) [cd] John Schooley: The Man Who Rode the Mule Around the World (2014, Voodoo Rhythm): Artist's biography is notably "shrouded in half-truths and outright falsehood," no doubt including the ancient provenance of these recordings, which take old folk tunes -- the title tune comes from Charlie Poole -- and bury them in guitar reverb, crashing percussion, and more than a little Metal Machine Music. It's a concept, possibly brilliant, certainly wearing. B+(**) Reg Schwager: Delphinus (2014, Jazz From Rant): Canadian guitarist, leads a quartet with piano (Don Thompson), bass (Neil Swainson), and drums (Michel Lambert). Easy going, richly melodic, not really too lush, but pointed that direction. B+(**) [cd] Jacques Schwarz-Bart: Jazz Racine Haïti (2012 [2014], Motema Music): Tenor saxophonist, born in Guadeloupe but connected to Haiti, put this project together to go with a documentary film, featuring several singers (most notably Erol Josué), with Etienne Charles on trumpet and several percussionists. The vocals add solemn weight, but that's not exactly a plus. What is is the sparkling horn interplay. B+(*) Brian Settles Trio: Folk (2013, Engine Studios): Tenor saxophonist, based in DC, leads trio, free but poised, with bass (Corcoran Holt) and drums (Jeremy Carlstedt). A- [bc] Linda Sharrock: No Is No: Don't Fuck Around With Your Women (2014, Improvising Beings, 2CD): Born Linda Chambers, 1947, sang in church and gravitated toward avant jazz in the 1960s, marrying guitarist Sonny Sharrock in 1966, singing notably on the 1969 album Black Woman and their jointly credited 1975 album Paradise. She divorced him in 1978 and he died in 1994. She has recorded occasionally on her own since 1991, so her return here is a pleasant surprise. The band -- Itaru Oki (trumpet), Mario Rechtern (reeds), Eric Zinman (piano), Makoto Sato (bass), Yoram Rosilio (drums) -- offers a spirited reminder of the avant '60s. The vocals are less clear and coherent, but the title has a point. B+(***) [cd] Sonny Simmons & Moksha Samnyasin: Nomadic (2011 [2014], Svart): Remarkably active in his 80s, the alto saxophonist meets a French sitar-bass-drums trio here. They provide him with a bit of rhythmic exotica, and he turns it soulful and daring. B+(***) Skyzoo & Torae: The Barrel Brothers (2014, E1/Empire): Rap duo, both principals have albums on their own or with others. Solid album by any count. B+(**) Sly & Robbie: Dubrising (2014, Taxi): Bassist Sly Dunbar and drummer Robbie Shakespeare, the rhythm section behind a who's who of reggae stars in the 1970s and 1980s with dozens of their own albums from Present Taxi in 1981 on, passing through dub and dancehall along the way. I count this as their 16th album with "dub" in the title. Sorry to say, this is the first I've heard, but I can't imagine it's not one of the best. A- Sly & Robbie: Underwater Dub (2014, Groove Attack): The duo's other dub album this year, came out earlier, is much more basic, just repetitive beats with occasional accents and echoes; in the right hands, one hardly needs more. B+(***) Emilio Solla y La Inestable de Brooklyn: Second Half (2013 [2014], self-released): Pianist from Argentina, took me longer than it should have to locate this within nuevo tango -- Victor Prieto's accordion should have been the giveaway. The horn section is Brooklyn: Alex Norris (trumpet), Ryan Keberle (trombone), Tim Armacost and John Ellis (reeds), and Meg Okura's violin complements the accordion. B+(**) [cd] St. Paul & the Broken Bones: Half the City (2014, Single Lock): Classic sounding soul group, based in Alabama, led by singer Paul Janeway, who does a pretty impressive Otis Redding voice and reportedly has James Brown stage moves. Band's gimmick: they're white. That may have been worth a million bucks in Sam Phillips' day, but it's depreciated since then. (Hasn't it?) B+(*) Sylvan Esso: Sylvan Esso (2014, Partisan): First album from North Carolina duo: singer Amelia Meath and electronica producer Nick Sanborn. Both have country-ish backgrounds but scant evidence of that here. They come closer to trip hop, but don't seem to sense they are doomed. B+(*) Throttle Elevator Music: Area J (2013 [2014], Wide Hive): I'd rather call this "garage jazz" than fusion or even "postpunk jazz." Second group album. Gregory Howe is credited with "concept" and most of the songs, while Matt Montgomery plays bass-guitar-keybs and Mike Hughes drums, support for saxophonist Kamasi Washington to blow free and wild. B+(**) Tom Trio: Radical Moves (2013 [2014], Fortune): Trumpet player Tomasz Dabrowski, a name I've run across before, backed with bass (Nils Bo Davidsen) and drums (Anders Mogensen). B+(***) [cd] Trzy Dni Pozniej: Pokoj Jej Cieniom (2014, Fortune): A vocal trio backed by viola and electronics, all songs written and arranged by Joanna Piwowar-Antosiewicz, her voice supplemented by Marta Groffik-Perchel and Marta Piwowar. Not quite all in Polish (I presume), hints at classical choral music but doesn't trip my usual alarms on that score. B+(**) [cd] François Tusques/Mirtha Pozzi/Pablo Cueco: Le Fond de L'Air (2014, Improvising Beings): Piano trio (of sorts): no bass but Tusques plays piano and the others percussion. Or I suppose you could call it a percussion trio. B+(***) [cd] François Tusques/François Toullec/Eric Zinman: Laiser L'Exprit Divaguer (2014, Improvising Beings, 2CD): Two discs of piano duets, both featuring Tusques, the first with Toullec, the second with Zinman. The former is more challenging. The latter latter flows easily in eight numbered but unnamed pieces. B+(**) [cd] Viet Cong: Cassette (2014, Mexican Summer): Seven songs, 31:29, not sure I'd call that an EP. Alt/indie group from Calgary, remind me a tiny bit of Gang of Four (to cite another name from behind the Bamboo Curtain), but not a comparison they're ready for. B Mirel Wagner: When the Cellar Children See the Light of Day (2014, Sub Pop): Born in Ethiopia, was adopted as a baby and raised in Finland. Sings in English, voice reminds me a bit of Nina Simone, treading slow over bare guitar; not much, but calm, assured, striking. B+(**) Kelsey Waldon: The Gold Mine (2014, self-released): Singer-songwriter from Kentucky, cotton country rather than coal (let alone bluegrass), though she grew up with enough sense of class that the longest review I've found was on the World Socialist Web Site. Even without that she could probably get by on voice. A- Scott Walker + Sunn O))): Soused (2014, 4AD): Wikipedia reports that the band, named after an amplifier logo -- the parens represent sound waves -- has reportedly been synthesizing "drone, ambient, noise, extreme metal" for 15 years now. Unfair to judge from this, where they take a back seat to one of the world's most insufferable vocalists. The combination would be funny if only it were. C Warpaint: Warpaint (2014, Rough Trade): LA indie band, Emily Kokal is the main singer. Slow and moody, functions as dream pop. B Watsky: All You Can Do (2014, Steel Wool Media/Welk Music Group): Real last name, dropped George. Started in poetry slams, spoken word, although this has a nice musical flair -- especially on "The One," his piece on the problems of dating (something he doesn't seem to do much). Sample line: "my dick is pretty lonely/but my nuts still got each other." B+(**) Bob Wayne: Back to the Camper (2014, self-released): This is the real outlaw country, not just the attitude to "do everything I can until I die," but full of tales of crime that give me the willies. Too much heaven and (especially) hell, but he offers a disclaimer -- "not every song is true" -- in a name-dropping song worthy of certified outlaw David Allen Coe. And he does a Marty Robbins thing that goes way beyond the model. A- Anna Webber's Percussive Mechanics: Refraction (2014, Pirouet): Flute/saxophone player, promotes her 2013 album title to group name, a septet with clarinet, vibes or marimba, piano, bass, two drummers. Most interesting when the rhythm breaks up, especially when the sax comes out. B+(*) Whiskey Myers: Early Morning Shakes (2014, Wiggy Thump): Southern rock band, hails from Tyler TX to be more precise. Template is supposed to be Lynyrd Skynyrd, but reminds me more of Black Oak Arkansas -- although hippy raunch is harder to pull off when reality impinges and so many have trouble making ends meet. B+(*) White Lung: Deep Fantasy (2014, Domino): Postpunk/riot grrrl band from Vancouver BC, fronted by blonde singer Mish May. Ten songs, so short (22:05) this could be sloughed off as an EP. On the other hand, they're so packed they don't feel short -- just fast. B+(**) Betty Who: Take Me When You Go (2014, RCA): Pop singer, Jessica Newham, from Australia, first album after a couple EPs; cites Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus as "influences," and hits that level often enough, but has more trouble with the ballad. B+(*) Don Williams: Reflections (2014, Sugar Hill): I wouldn't call him a major country singer, but his easy-going style has been so consistent for so long, he's produced enough to make a near-essential compilation -- e.g., 2004's The Definitive Collection. Retired in 2004, but he returned in 2012 on Sugar Hill -- a fine retirement home, free from the Nashville grind and satisfied to keep the old time music flowing. Nothing to do here but pick ten songs and play them. Nothing he can't make look easy. B+(**) Hank Williams III: Ramblin' Man (1999-2010 [2014], Curb, EP): Third Hank III album Curb has released since Williams' contract ran out in 2010, so these are leftovers, capped at seven tracks (26:14), probably the bottom of the barrel. His voice bears uncanny resemblance to his grandfather's but if anything has grown richer and more nuanced. Still, it's wasted on "Okie From Muskogee," and slightly perverse on his metal numbers. B+(*) A Winged Victory for the Sullen: Atomos (2014, Kranky): Ambient music duo Duston O'Halloran and Adam Wiitzie, second album together, appealing and unthreatening. B+(**) Ksawery Wojcinski: The Soul (2013 [2014], Fortune): Polish bassist, also credited here with piano, guitar, percussion, and vocals -- i.e., everything. That helps explain why the album shifts feel so often, although the thick, dark bass leads seem most fundamental. Ends on a gorgeous note with a short gospel chorus of "Hold On Just a Little While Longer." B+(***) [cd] Matt Woods: With Love From Brushy Mountain (2014, Lonely Ones): Country singer, based in Knoxville -- I guess that doesn't even qualify as Nashville's low-rent district, but it's also a statement: "I'm drunk on the wrong side of heaven/in a town gone straight to hell." I could do with less anguish here, but he's got a voice and observant songs. "I've seen some things/but my favorite thing is looking in your eyes." B+(***) Waclaw Zimpel To Tu Orchestra: Nature Moves (2014, Fortune): Clarinetist, b. 1983, one of the more recognizable names in Polish jazz due to his frequent collaborations with Vandermark's circle. Nine-piece group, doubling up on bass and drums. The 28:44 opener, "Cycles," stretches a repeating piano figure into something hipnotically sublime, and the title suite adds new wrinkles to the formula. And when free jazz breaks out, Zimpel ties that energy into yet another pattern, raising his whole game to another level. A- [cd] Reissues, Compilations, Vault Discoveries
Angola Soundtrack: The Unique Sound of Luanda 1968-1976 (1968-76 [2010], Analog Africa): Southwest of Congo, a Portuguese colony until 1975, drained since the 16th century to the 1860s for the slave trade with Brazil, and from 1975-2002 battered by an intense civil war. Mostly pre-independence, these groove pieces are unique only in that they seem a bit washed out compared to the dominant Congo influence. B+(**) Angola Soundtrack 2: Hypnosis, Distorsions & Other Sonic Innovations 1969-1978 (1969-78 [2014], Analog Africa): Time frame advances but still overlaps with first volume but most likely most cuts are still pre-independence. Still, they're getting jumpier -- especially "Bazooka," by Carlo Lamartine & Águias Reals. CD comes with a 42-page booklet, so you're bound to learn something. B+(***) Arkansas at 78 RPM: Corn Dodgers & Hoss Hair Pullers (1928-37 [2014], Dust-to-Digital): "For the traveling recording men of the late 1920s, Arkansas offered enticing pickings." Twenty-six cuts, from as many string bands and singers, none I've ever heard of, although a few stand out above the hillbilly norm, and that scratch groove feels like roots to me. A- Keb Darge & Little Edith's Legendary Wild Rockers 3 (1957-66 [2013], BBE): Looking for last year's surf-oriented volume 4, I stumbled into this mostly-rockabilly comp and decided to hear it through. Mostly late-1950s, the post-1960 titles drifting surfward -- cf. the Shindigs' "Thunder Reef" and the Rebel Rousers' "The Peter Gunn Twist." Biggest name: Johnny Powers, fronting a band with Stan Getz. Pick hit: "Crawlin' (the Crawl)," by Untouchables. B+(***) Keb Darge & Little Edith's Legendary Wild Rockers (1958-64 [2011], BBE): Only two of four volumes in this series are on Rhapsody (2 and 4 are missing). Darge is a Scottish DJ who's assembled some two dozen compilation albums (Legendary Deep Funk and Real Funk for Real People are other series). As for Little Edith, I have no idea. Obscure singles, mostly 1958-60, not exactly rockabilly but spare and wild, often with a novelty angle -- "King Kong," "Oongawa," "The Goo Goo Muck," like that. B+(**) I'm Just Like You: Sly's Stone Flower 1969-70 (1969-70 [2014], Light in the Attic): Eighteen songs produced by Sly Stone as part of a record deal he got at the height of Sly & the Family Stone's popularity: artist credits are Little Sister (5), 6ix (6), Sly (4), Joe Hicks (3). All sound like loose knock-offs, so no hits but an uncommonly tight collection of little known funk. B+(***) Chubby Jackson Big Band: New York City 1949: Ooh, What an Outfit! (1949 [2014], Uptown, 2CD): Bassist, came up in big swing bands, notably Woody Herman's first and second herds, leading a 16-piece group at the Royal Roost, plus various odds and ends to fill up the second disc -- including a Gene Roland group where the saxophonists were named Cohn, Getz, Sims, and Mulligan, and a smaller Jackson group with Lou Levy, Terry Gibbs, and Conte Candoli. On their own, the bands play a breakneck swing-bop hybrid, each faster than the other. But there are lots of interruptions -- singers, Symphony Sid, stage patter, some interview -- not all unwelcome. B+(***) Bill Jennings: Architect of Soul Jazz: The Complete Early Recordings 1951-1957 (1951-57 [2014], Fresh Sound, 2CD): Guitarist, played with Louis Jordan in the 1940s, later cut soul jazz albums for Prestige (two wound up in one of those Legends of Acid Jazz comps). The completism gives you a mixed bag, with some honking sax (Leo Parker, Willis Jackson), pumping organ (Bill Doggett), scattered vocals (some by Jennings), but also duets with vibes that remain interesting despite their sparseness. B+(**) Les Ambassadeurs: Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako (1975-77 [2014], Sterns Africa, 2CD): Malian prince-turned griot Salif Keita's old group from its early days in Mali's capital city: Keita sings on the first disc and one song into the second, after which they used several singers. Later in 1977 the group moved to Abidjan and renamed themselves Les Ambassadeurs Internationales. A- Native North America, Vol. 1: Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966-1985 (1966-85 [2014], Light in the Attic, 2CD): Interesting concept, although I suspect this will rise or fall on whether the booklet makes you care. Otherwise, these Native Americans from the northern half of North America sound much like the ubiquitous non-natives all around them, shading from folk to country to rock without any hint of "old west" soundtrack. B+(*) The Sound of Siam Volume 2: Molam and Luk Thung From Northeast Thailand 1970-1982 (1970-82 [2014], Soundway): Volume 1's subtitle referred to "Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz and Molam," so the shift here seems to be to something a bit more mainstream, or a bit less strange to western ears. In that I guess they've succeeded. B+(*) Sun Ra and His Blue Universe Arkestra: Universe in Blue (1971-72 [2013], El Saturn): "When the Black Man Ruled This Land" is worth hearing, fodder for some Black Power-era mixtape. But the two long pieces up front show little more than what can go wrong when you live on the edge -- damn near everything. (Then they're great on the closer.) C+ Junior Wells: Southside Blues Jam (1969-70 [2014], Delmark): Guitarist Buddy Guy and pianist Otis Spann get small print on the cover, fully earned, with Earnest Johnson on bass and Fred Below on drums. Classic Chicago blues, stretched out a bit but even the restored closer only runs 7:14. B+(***) Wilco: What's Your 20? Essential Tracks 1994-2014 (1994-2014 [2014], Nonesuch, 2CD): One of the most eminent alt/indie rock groups of the last two decades, with eight studio albums, all but the debut selling 200,000 or more. I've graded six of those -- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot at A-, all but one of the rest B+ -- so I'm a bit surprised I don't recognize any of these 38 plainly tuneful tracks. With one pass, I hardly know them any better now, but they're so pleasant and satisfying, as consistent as these things get. A- X__X: X Sticky Fingers X (1978-80 [2014], Smog Veil): Punk band from Cleveland, also known as "X Blank X," released two singles during their short lifespan. Leader was John Morton, ex- and future-leader of the somewhat better known Electric Eels, although drummer Anton Fier would eventually become more famous. The singles were "No Non ¢s" (get it?) and "Your Full of Shit" -- neither all that memorable -- and the compilers are hard-pressed to stretch them out to 16 cuts. Still sounds better than you have any right to expect. B+(**) Old Music
Elvin Bishop: Raisin' Hell: Live! (1976 [1977], Capricorn): Live double LP culled from several shows back in Bishop's heyday, has his big hit ("Fooled Around and Fell in Love," sung by Mickey Thomas), his greatest blues romps, a cover of "Calling All Cows" and a Sam Cooke medley, backed by blaring horns. It's a cultural event, but that don't mean no one gets rowdy. A- The Kinks: Face to Face (1966 [2004], Sanctuary): Fourth UK album, following transitional singles "A Well Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" into a second stage in the group's sound -- more wryly English even if the label tried to paint them psychedelic. Amid fluff like the amusing "Holiday in Waikiki" only one song feels fully developed: "Sunny Afternoon." The reissue adds more substantial fare like "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" and "Dead End Street." B+(**) The Kinks: Something Else by the Kinks (1967 [2004], Sanctuary): The year the big British Invasions bands made their plunge into psychedelia, Ray Davies kept pace, although he preferred the shallower end of the pool, quainter, less risk, you know. B+(**) The Kinks: The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968, Sanctuary): An arty song cycle about the band's modest petit bourgeois ambitions, to protect and defend a culture most artists would rather subvert. Only the title song is catchy enough to make light of such homilies, although the filler holds up better than most. B+(***) The Kinks: Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (1970 [2004], Sanctuary): "Get Back in Line" is so misguided I'd suspect irony but Davies tends to get cutesy when ironic, which is what makes the two singles -- "Lola" and "Apeman" -- so winning. Ends with a typically smug paean to libertarianism. And wouldn't you know, there is no Part Two. B Tami Neilson: Red Dirt Angel (2008, self-released): First album for New Zealand's country princess. I don't see any credits, but don't recognize any covers either. Some of the album gets the big Nashville-style production, while a couple songs are tossed offhand -- "Missin' the Groom" is the funniest. And some aspiring Nashville star should look up "Same Old Devil." B+(**) [bc] Raiders of the Lost Dub (1981, Mango): Produced by Sly & Robbie and sometimes filed (e.g., by Rhapsody) under their names. The other candidate would be Black Uhuru, with 4 (of 10) songs, vs. one each for Burning Spear, Junior Delgado, Ijahman, Wailing Souls, the Paragons, and the Viceroys, although the common rhythm section and the dub effects tie the loose ends together. B+(**) Brian Settles and Central Station: Secret Handshake (2010 [2011], Engine Studios): Debut album, the tenor saxophonist leading a quintet but still the only horn -- the others play piano, bass, drums, and extra percussion. The latter is most distinctive, but the saxophone is most impressive. B+(**) [bc] Ask a question, or send a comment. Sunday, January 18, 2015 Music Week
Music: Current count 24392 [24347] rated (+45), 493 [503] unrated (-10). I thought I'd wrap up 2014 last week, freezing my year-end list and shelving my EOY aggregate, so I made a serious effort to cram in as much last-minute listening as possible. My freeze dates have typically fallen mid-to-late January (25th in 2009, 24th in 2010, 18th in 2011; 2012 was anomalous with January 1, and last year was January 9). I often wait for Pazz & Jop to post (usually later than this year's January 14). I have added the albums data to my file, and a couple dozen individual ballots. The main external event I'm waiting for now is Christgau's Dean's List: he's always based his annual summary on P&J data, and D'Angelo's surprise win -- which, by the way, he predicted several weeks ago -- gives him all the more to write about. (Also, his hiatus from posting CG reviews means he's likely to have more unreviewed records than usual on his list, and he often comes up with stuff no one else notices.) I wound up posting the previous paragraph as a stub on my usual Monday. Two days later all I'm wrapping up is this post. If you follow my Twitter feed, you've already seen most of what follows. The 2015 records are all things I've picked up in the mail, played when I feel like listening to something that doesn't tie me down to the computer. (Although I'll note that the Red Garland set already picked up a vote in the 2014 Jazz Critics Poll -- someone got excited and jumped the gun. It and the Charles McPherson records are my first A-list finds of 2015.) I haven't checked out any 2015 releases on Rhapsody yet -- not even the Sleater-Kinney album that friends say is so good it might even overcome my usual objections. Last two days I've still been adding to the EOY Aggregate. I have a checklist mostly derived from this link list and I'm somewhere in the R's, occasionally still picking up things of interest (e.g., the list from Potholes in My Blog). I also took the trouble of constructing a composite list from the individual staff top-tens at Reverb. I factored in a number of genre lists from Rolling Stone and Spin, and wrote quite a bit about them -- some last post and more I didn't bother posting but kept in the notebook. This will come to an end soon, but not quite yet. Plan is still to freeze the year-end lists when I run Rhapsody Streamnotes, most likely later this week. I'd like to end the EOY Aggregate at the same time, but I do want to include Christgau's Dean's List whenever that finally appears. Last thing I'll probably do is factor in my own A-list: I haven't done that yet because it's always changing and the Aggregate is basically a record of what other people think, but I'd like to recognize a few albums that no one else has noticed, and I suppose I do count for something. (By the way, Milo Miles's late lists added a couple of those: e.g., Free Nelson Mandoomjazz and Duduvudo.) By the way, the Aggregate remains very close and rather volatile. You may recall that War on Drugs jumped to an early lead, then lost it to FKA Twigs. Then a couple weeks ago, War on Drugs recovered the lead, only to lose it this week to Run the Jewels 2. Currently the top three points are 308-304-298, so they could well flip again. Fourth is St. Vincent at 279. Caribou is still in fifth at 200, but Flying Lotus has narrowed the gap at 196, Aphex Twin at 191, then a tie between Sun Kil Moon and Swans at 184. Swans had been in 6th recently, so I'm a bit surprised (and pleased) to see it slip. Also, Beck has slipped out of his longstanding hold on 10th place: at 163, now tied with Angel Olsen and trailing Sharon Van Etten. Taylor Swift continues to gain (now 18th), also Sturgill Simpson (22nd), Parquet Courts (26th), Azealia Banks (27th), Miranda Lambert (28th), and most of all, P&J winner D'Angelo (30th). I've never consciously played favorites here, but find it rather satisfying how neatly the standings are working out. Currently up to 487 lists with 4285 new records and 637 reissues/archives. By the way, I haven't talked much about the reissues list, mostly because the actual sample size hasn't been very high. The leader right now has accumulated a mere 23 points -- just enough to tie Lily Allen, Mica Levi, The Juan MacLean, Pharmakon, Thee Silver Memorial Orchestra, Mark Turner, and The Twilight Sad for 163rd on the new list. I would have picked Bob Dylan's The Basement Tapes Complete as a priori favorite, and it has a fairly solid lead (23-17) right now over John Coltrane's Offering: Live at Temple University. Beyond that some surprises (Native North America) and somethings that might have been expected (the latest Miles Davis bootleg). Also three Led Zeppelin "deluxe editions" in the top-20, but that was mostly due to the practice of counting each record when listmakers came up with entries like "Led Zeppelin reissues." I'll also note that among jazz records, Wadada Leo Smith's The Great Lakes Suites has pulled rather clearly ahead of Steve Lehman's Mise En Abime, 34-28 (111th to 138th). I'd say that the Jazz Critics Poll's results are more representative of jazz critical opinion, and Lehman beat Smith in a close race there. Third in the EOY aggregate is Mark Turner's Lathe of Heaven, which was the highest placing jazz album in Pazz & Jop this year, then fourth is Ambrose Akinmusire (second in P&J, followed by Lehman, Marc Ribot, and Bad Plus -- the latter 7th and 6th in my Aggregate). New records rated this week:
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
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Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
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