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Blog Entries [1170 - 1179]Friday, January 17, 2014 Country EOY Lists
Bits are cheap, so some folks at Rolling Stone scratched their heads and came up with a list, 40 Best Country Albums of 2014. It's one of those things you have to click through one album per page (and of course, the pages don't fit within a browser window so you have to scroll too). I did all that work as part of folding the data into my EOY Aggregate, but having written down the list, I thought I'd just save you the trouble and post it. (Of course, if you do click through you'll get the album covers and some reviews.) It's a decent list as these things go: I counted similar country lists from All Music Guide, Billboard, Baltimore City Paper, Exclaim, Huffpost Music Canada, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, PopMatters, Rhapsody, Something Else, The Telegraph, The Village Voice, and Wondering Sound. I think it's the deepest such list (Telegraph went to 37, and AMG is close to that) -- deeper even than the specialists. And quite properly it includes what's commonly called Americana, which is to say rock with a little country (or blues) seasoning as well as some more folkish sorts. For a little added value, I'll include my grades in brackets (where I have them, 60% of the time; stars are shades of B+):
Only record on the list I was serviced was Dolly Parton's -- not likely to happen again. Only one I bought was Miranda Lambert's, so everything else came my way via Rhapsody (or didn't, for Williams, McKenna, Brooks, Doug Paisley, Country Funk II, and several others I looked up. Some I didn't look up -- never before heard of Sundy Best, hadn't registered much about Niemann or Brice, and I've heard way too much Lady Antebellum already. I didn't exactly grow up with country music, but I grew up close enough I could relate. My folks watched a lot of Hee-Haw, and somehow I watched a lot of Porter Wagoner. My mother was a devoted fan of George Jones; my father was more into comics like Jimmy Dickens and Minnie Pearl. So when peers like Harold Karabell and George Lipsitz tried to steer me toward Gram Parsons and Merle Haggard, my resistance melted pretty quickly. George Jones even helped repair my schizophrenic relationship with my mother. In the 1990s I made a serious effort to catch up with every major figure in jazz, blues, and country. While that led to my Jazz Consumer Guide gig, there was also a brief period when I was getting 20-40 alt-country releases a year, and I'd usually find 3-5 very good records hardly anyone else noticed. That doesn't happen any more, but the experience gives me some hints to work from. Not sure how many country-folk-bluegrass-Americana records I heard last year -- probably close to 100. Enough to put together, well, not a top-40 list, but maybe a top 30 (dipping down into the high HMs, which if country is your thing isn't a bad idea). A first pass on such a list looks like this:
Scheinman may not be country enough for you, but that's where the social realism fits: the genre-cross -- she is one of the world's greatest jazz violinists -- seems to have thrown everyone. Langford, Hiatt, Tolchin, the Delines, and possibly others tend to be treated as alt-rock but they're close to the fuzzy line. My original sort also picked up The Baseball Project, Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas, and Hard Working Americans, but to get down to 30 I decided they were outside the lines. Common Ground is explicitly a blues album, but you tell me the difference. In previous years I've tried explicitly grouping blues and and gospel with the country albums: had I done that here, you'd pick up: Scratchin': The Wild Jimmy Spruill Story (1956-63); Leo Welch, Sabougla Voices; Bushwick Gospel Singers, Songs of Worship Vol. 2; Benjamin Booker; Sleepy John Estes, Live in Japan (1974); Danny Petroni, The Blue Project; John Nemeth, Memphis Grease. I also have 2-star HMs for (including blues): Elvin Bishop, Can't Even Do Wrong Right; Carlene Carter, Carter Girl; Rosanne Cash, The River & the Thread; Davina & the Vagabonds, Sunshine; Brigitte DeMeyer, Savannah Road; Justin Townes Earle, Single Mothers; Hurray for the Riff Raff, Small Town Heroes; EG Kight, A New Day; Link of Chain: A Songwriters' Tribute to Chris Smither; Lydia Loveless, Somewhere Else; Old Crow Medicine Show, Remedy; John Schooley, The Man Who Rode the Mule Around the World; Peter Stampfel, Better Than Expected; Randy Travis: Influence Vol. 2: The Man I Am; Look Again to the Wind: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited. At this level I'm not doing much more than random sampling. Next stop, perhaps, Rolling Stone's 40 Best Rap Albums of 2014. Probably about as solid. Much more problematic is likely to be RS's 20 Best Avant Albums of 2014, but then one person's avant is another's breakfast gruel. Ask a question, or send a comment. Sunday, January 12, 2014 Music Week
Music: Current count 24347 [24286] rated (+61), 503 [505] unrated (-2). It's been cold outside, and I've done very little but cram new lists into the EOY Aggregate File and listen to marginal list picks -- some well-regarded (and often awful), some quite rare (and occasionally wonderful). And this time they've really piled up: the 61 in the count above includes a couple corrections for bookkeeping omissions, but there are still 58 records listed below -- eight per day on average, with all the A- records getting at least two spins (although few of the ***-HMs got a shot to improve their lot -- the best prospects are Karen Jonas, Tom Trio, Matt Woods, and Wild Rockers 3). I will admit I saved a few minutes by hitting the reject on Ariel Pink -- graded it leniently as a hedge against missing something, although I hope you don't bother to call me on it. I did make it all the way through Scott Walker but playing them back-to-back was a big mistake. For the record, both are tours de force, conceptually brilliant and catchy in perverse ways -- I can see why some people love them, or at least find them amusing, but they perturb the universe in ways I find appalling. Not a lot of jazz in the list below, although I'm most of the way through the Polish Fortune (or ForTune or For Tune) albums -- surprisingly diverse for a label I had pegged as strictly avant. The Kinks was a diversion. Their albums are gradually coming out in bonus editions, and I had written up the first three a while back. I was looking for a new 2-CD compilation on Legacy, but found a 5-CD box and a 1-CD best-of instead, and didn't really feel like bothering with either, but I found five more 1966-71 albums -- four I could swear I once had on LP but only Muswell Hillbillies had been recorded in the database (B+). For some reason, Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the English Empire) (1969) isn't available (and it looks like only about half of it is on the 5-CD box). I lost interest in the group shortly after Kink Kronikles (1972), with only Everybody's in Showbiz (1972: B) and Low Budget (1979: B+) in the database. The EOY lists are still a work in progress, but one that should come to an end soon -- I'll add in Pazz & Jop when it appears later this week, Christgau's Dean's List whenever that appears, and maybe I'll drop in my own list (just to give Lily Allen a boost). Usually at this point the top ranks are stabilizing, even spreading out a bit, but a funny thing happened when I sorted the list a few days ago: War on Drugs (the early leader) edged back ahead of FKA Twigs for the top spot (the current margin is 272-268, with Run the Jewels a close third with 260, St. Vincent a solid fourth with 246). The other thing that's happened is that after Caribou, the 6-9 slots have tightened up and are pretty much dead even at 170-169-167-167 for Sun Kil Moon, Swans, Flying Lotus, and Aphex Twin. Beck is well back with 148 for 10th, and the next dozen or so albums have been pretty stable even though the deltas are pretty tight: 145 (Sharon Van Etten), 142 (Angel Olsen), 139 (Spoon), 130 (Future Islands), 125 (Todd Terje), 123 (Damon Albarn), 120 (Mac DeMarco), 116 (Perfume Genius), 109 (Taylor Swift), 103 (Lana Del Rey), 102 (Ty Segall), 97 (Jack White), 93 (Freddie Gibbs/Madlib). The only order change there was Del Rey passing Segall. Below that the list is a bit more dynamic, with a three-way tie at 88 between Parquet Courts, Real Estate, and Sturgill Simpson. Further down at 68, D'Angelo is still rising, most recently passing Scott Walker and Ariel Pink (two of the year's most horrible albums, by the way). I haven't been scoring lists, but one I was struck by was David O'Brien's at Atlanta Constitution Journal: his top-50 includes 13 of my A-list albums (D'Angelo, Spoon, Leonard Cohen, Big KRIT, Mary Gauthier, Dave & Phil Alvin, Ought, The Delines, Statik Selektah, Parquet Courts, Thurston Moore, Angaleena Presley, and Cloud Nothings -- make that 14 with Tami Neilson), plus 3 more in the HMs (Rodney Crowell, Miranda Lambert, Billy Joe Shaver). I also count 7 3-star B+ and 8 more 2-star -- that's where the median lies. He likes some records I don't (Swans, Sharon Van Etten, Beck, Jack White, YG), has a minor interest in metal (Mastodon and YOB in the HMs), doesn't show any jazz or electronica (not even Caribou), or any of the more narrowly Christgauvian cult items (absence of Wussy almost certainly means he hasn't heard them). One more announcement: I've added Francis Davis' annual list of jazz (and some other) musicians who passed away in 2014 to the Jazz Critics Poll website: Always Say Goodbye. Expect a Rhapsody Streamnotes later this week. I've started to play some 2015 jazz, but mostly I'm still trying to mop up late finds from 2014. 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 11, 2014 Weekend UpdateThe big news of the week was the massacre in the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, where ten journalists (mostly cartoonists) and two police were gunned down. This was followed by a shooting of a police officer at Montrouge, and an attempt to take hostages at a kosher supermarket at Porte de Vincennes, resulting in four more deaths (five counting the assailant). French officials hunted down and killed the two Charlie Hebdo shooters, but the story doesn't end there. Whereas mass shootings by non-Muslims in Europe and America (including one in Norway in 2011 that killed 77 people) are typically treated as "lone wolf" aberrations, any such violence committed by Muslims automatically triggers a chain reaction where all the usual reactors resume the positions they took after 9/11, mostly to escalate US, European, and Israeli violence against Muslims. The effect is much like watching a train wreck, where no matter how clear every detail seems, one is helpless to prevent or even affect the crash. The most immediate response has been a huge outpouring of racist rhetoric from Europe's right, especially from the strategically placed, shamelessly opportunistic Marine le Pen. And as rightists almost reflexively respond, this has already resulted in a number of attacks against mosques in France. Meanwhile, more respectable elites have tended to the propaganda campaign. In particular, Charlie Hebdo has become an icon of free speech, championed by people who spend billions of dollars every year to shape public discourse to advance their own agendas. Over the longer term they will use this attack as an excuse to launch -- actually, to continue -- many more of their own. Moreover, those attacks -- indeed, this week's mosque attacks -- will scarcely raise a ripple in the western press, or a twinge of conscience in the belligerent elites. Needless to say, this kneejerk reaction is insane. If, say, one suffers and barely survives a heart attack, the normal response is to take a look at your own life and see you can do better -- stop smoking, eat differently, exercise more, take a daily aspirin, whatever. It's not to go out and bomb Afghanistan, or burn down a convenient mosque. And this is not because you feel personally culpable for the heart attack. It's more because the only change you can make is to yourself. Yet terror attacks, which for nearly everyone are mere impersonal news, are never allowed to evoke a moment's self-examination. There's a complex psychology behind this, but it's ultimately because the elites (especially the right-wingers who predominate) have something to hide, and much to fear if this is ever discussed rationally. The attackers in Paris, for instance, identified themselves as affiliated with Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda was effectively invented in the 1980s when the United States recruited Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to raise an Islamist army ("the mujahideen") to sabotage the Soviets in Afghanistan. The US was arguably naive to do so, but American Cold Warriors had often (and successfully) used religion against "Godless Communism," and colonial powers had routinely recruited Islamic clerics to help control the masses -- in fact, the US used Iranian clerics to organize the mobs that helped overthrow Iran's democracy in 1953. So what could go wrong? (This was, after all, the Reagan administration, where naivete was little less than a worldview.) When recruited by the US, the Saudi monarchy and Pakistan's Islamist dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq built their Afghan war machine with the clerics they had in hand -- the fundamentalist Wahhabi and Deobandi sects, militantly orthodox especially in their excoriation of heretics (especially Shiites) and used to using their religious beliefs as a platform for war -- nor did they limit their scope to Afghanistan: since its founding, Pakistan has been obsessed with India, while Saudi Arabia was locked in a long struggle with secularizing, socialist, and nationalist forces throughout the Arab world. It was only a matter of time before the muhahideen turned their venom against their patrons, especially the infidel ones. Still, jihadism was never more than a sliver movement within Islam. If you read Gilles Kepel's definitive history of jihadism up to 2000 (Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam), you will see that before 9/11 the movement had largely burned itself out. In that context, 9/11 was a "hail Mary pass" -- an effort not to strike the enemy so much as to provoke a monster, which would then invade the Land of Islam and drive the faithful to take up arms. Thanks to the ignorance and ego of GW Bush, Bin Laden was successful in his provocation. His only disappointment was in how few Muslims rose to fight alongside him. But a small number did, joining the ranks of those caught up in local wars -- some like Iraq the result of US imperial adventures, others like Syria only slightly removed -- adding a religious fire to those conflicts. And very rarely, as in Paris last week, the blowback comes home. All this has been plainly obvious for many years, even as a succession of presidents (and both apologists and antagonists) have been oblivious to the consequences of their actions. And by consequences I don't mean the rare blowback event -- I mean the obviously direct consequences of aerial attacks and covert operations, of sanctions and propping up cruel dictators, of repeatedly proving to the world that US leaders have no respect for foreign lives, least of all Muslim ones. There are a great many reasons why the US should withdraw from such behaviors. Fear of reprisal (of blowback) is a relatively minor one, but even it isn't as silly as refusing to do the right thing, and insisting on repeating past mistakes, for fear of looking like you're giving in to terrorism. Elites like to brand terrorists as cowards, but the real cowardice is failing to do the right thing for fear of looking weak. Only by changing our ways will this problem ever go away. Some more links and comments follow (some on other topics):
Also, a few links for further study:
Miscellaneous tweets:
Ask a question, or send a comment. Monday, January 5, 2015 Music Week
Music: Current count 24286 [24247] rated (+39), 505 [509] unrated (-4). A bit out of sync here, having closed the count last night but adding two incoming discs today -- otherwise last week was pretty barren at the mailbox. Actually, I could have posted this early, but what's held me back was stuffing the EOY aggregate list -- now up to 310 lists, 3470 new records, 524 reissues/comps/vault jobs. I'm getting close to wrapping that up -- the last step is usually to fold in the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop album results, or Christgau's Dean's List, whichever comes last. I've picked up some more jazz lists, including the Jazz Critics Poll (down to 150), and I've also picked up a cluster of lists from the Christgau-focused Expert Witness group -- close to two dozen ballots to Odyshape's Expert Witness Pazz & Jop album poll (see below), plus some longer lists from that direction (including 150 albums from Jason Gubbels). The top twenty albums in Odyshape's poll, followed by their bump in my aggregate file:
The EW voters aren't the only factor here: Run the Jewels has been gaining ground steadily for several weeks, and D'Angelo has picked up speed after a very late start. Nor is their (or should I say our?) representation untoward: I expect that close to two dozen critics will vote in both Odyshape and Village Voice polls, so if they/we weren't counted here, that would introduce a skew there. Even so, it's likely that a dozen or more of this list of twenty will place higher in P&J than in my aggregate. There's probably a lot more interesting data that could be mined from the aggregate chart, but the one thing I want to point out here is that the top four have narrowed: the points are 236-223-213-205 (with Run the Jewels passing St. Vincent). Fifth place Caribou is down at 159, followed by 152, 144 (twice), 138, and 125. Usually at this point the top few slots are spreading out, so this is about as close a top bunch as you'll ever see. Recommended music links:
New records rated this week:
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
Old records rated this week:
Grade changes:
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
Ask a question, or send a comment. Wednesday, December 31, 2014 Rhapsody Streamnotes (December 2014, Part 2)This wraps up the year 2015. Last year I resolved to spend less time on music and more on writing my book projects, and I've pretty much been a complete failure on that. I did manage to cut some ties with music publicists, and my incoming mail is certainly down. But this year's grades list still lists 1045 records. Compared against previous years' "frozen" files -- i.e., copies saved off at roughly the end of the year -- that is the shortest since 2008 and second-shortest since 2005. Sure, the file is down about 100 lines compared to 2013, about 50 lines compared to 2012. Still, that represents a lot of records, and a lot of time. I've tried to do several things here: to clean out my own unplayed queue, to listen to the handful of good prospects that only came out in December, and to check out some of the more interesting things on other people's EOY lists. I've depended more and more on streaming services like Rhapsody to have any chance whatsoever to cover a broad range of more/less popular music. Aside from pretty much completely ignoring metal, I feel like I've done a fairly good job of that. Checking against this year's metacritic file (limited to EOY lists, I've heard 41 of the top 50 (and less impressively 71 of the top 100). Unheard thus far:
There are a few items on the unheard list that I looked for but didn't find (Swift, Segall, Plant, Shellac, Stott, Williams), but most are records I have little personal hope for -- judging from reviews and/or experience. I don't have time to sort through the data again, but in the past there has been virtually no correlation between list placement and my grades. One little spot check here: of 970 new records I have graded, 94 are B, for 9.6%; of the 71 top-100 records I've graded, 10 are B, for 14.0%; I have 44 B- grades (4.5% of all graded), including 6 in the top 100, for 8.4%. That suggests that bad records are if anything more likely to appear in the top 100. At the other end, I've rated 142 records A- or A this year -- probably an all-time record -- for 14.2% of my rated total. I have 10 of the top-100 at A- or A, an almost identical 14.0%. These numbers don't disprove the hypothesis that there's no correlation between quality (in my view) and list placement. The discrepancy on lower grades is probably because I'm more likely to listen to bad records on the list than off -- something that should be clear from the declining numbers of lesser grades on my list (94 B, 44 B-, 8 C+, 3 C -- a random sampling of available records should produce relatively constant numbers in each of those grades; although it could also be that I'm just not a very tough grader in that range). No resolutions for 2015, although it is likely that I will cut back on music reviews, and possibly much else. By the way, for another analysis of year-end list data, see Rob Mitchum: The Rock-Critic Hive Mind. He's able to draw out some basic points from a spreadsheet of 35 lists -- presumably you can download his spreadsheet and play with it (although personally I've never found spreadsheets to be all that useful; by the way, you can download my data files -- new albums, reissues/comps, legend -- and write some fairly trivial awk or perl or whatever to hack them into your favorite database or spreadsheet format). My own data is a good deal broader and deeper (his 35 lists refer to about 600 albums; my 200+ refer to about 3000 albums), although if you're only interested in the top of the lists that may not matter. I do get some slightly different results; e.g., a larger lead for FKA Twigs and much less suggestion of a UK-bias. I've written several comments along these lines already, but will recap a bit here. My prediction is that the Pazz & Jop winner will be Run the Jewels 2, followed by St. Vincent, FKA Twigs' LP1, and War on Drugs' Lost in the Dream -- although the order of those four is actually pretty uncertain. Aphex Twin's Syro and Flying Lotus' You're Dead are certain to finish top 10 and either could break into the top-four. D'Angelo's Black Messiah is a very late-breaking entrant (release date 10 days before P&J ballot deadline). It's a good record (see below), and has received a lot of very favorable review attention very quickly, so it's clearly Mitchum's "December surprise" -- combine that with relatively soft support for the big four and the example of Beyoncé's surprise 4th place finish last year and you get a lot of wishful thinking that Black Messiah might be the upset winner. I have to say there is little chance of that, although I'd put odds of a top-five finish at about 15% and a top-ten at about 40%. The other records with an outside chance of some sort of upset are Taylor Swift's 1989 and Miranda Lambert's Platinum -- the former (unheard by me) has broader support but maybe no stronger than Lana Del Rey, the latter more intense support among a smaller sample -- and P&J became more "female friendly" during Maura Johnston's reign (though I was never able to prove she stacked the voter list). Closer to home, Odyshape is running a poll for Robert Christgau's Expert Witness readers (ballot deadline midnight tonight). Overwhelming favorite there is Wussy's Attica!, which has a better than 50% chance of cracking P&J top-40 only because about a dozen critics overlap both polls. I ran a similar poll in 2002 and 2003, the former won by Sleater-Kinney (5th that year in P&J), the latter by Buck 65 (not in the P&J's top-40) -- so I have an idea how far Christgau's followers have diverged from the rest of criticdom. Still, usually in the past there have been a couple albums that bridged the gap -- Kanye West, Vampire Weekend, like that. This year I think the highest ranked (by my EOY list file, up to 150) albums that Christgau has graded A- or higher are:
That's not a lot of common ground -- offhand, looks like the least amount of convergence between Christgau's A-list and P&J top-40 ever (although it's probably too early to tell: Christgau got a late start with Expert Witness this year and has more A-list records not yet published). Some spreadsheet wizard should work out a formula for comparing the two sets of lists and plot them out over time. I suspect the long-term trend slope would be divergent, probably since the early 1980s, but I'll leave that task to someone else. What it looks like to me is that critics who are satisfied with many of the EOY consensus picks are just lazy: for every War on Drugs, FKA Twigs, Caribou, Beck, Sharon Van Etten, etc., it shouldn't be hard to find a matching group that is more obscure but every bit as worthy -- especially if you follow the fringes and turn over a thousand or so albums along the way. 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 11. Past reviews and more information are available here (5778 records). New Releases (More or Less)
Yemi Alade: King of Queens (2014, Effyzzie Music Group): Singer from Nigeria, won one of those talent shows in 2009 and landed a record contract, and now this long debut album. Mixed bag, some African grooves and choruses, but other parts try to fit snugly into the western neo-soul mold, including the occasional nod toward hip-hop. Worthy single: "Tangerine." B+(**) Melissa Aldana: Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio (2014, Concord Jazz): Young tenor saxophonist from Chile, leads a trio with Chilean bassist Pablo Menares and Cuban drummer Francisco Mela. B+(*) Alvvays: Alvvays (2014, Polyvinyl): Not the only band that's discovered the cute typographic trick of replacing "w" with "vv," but probably the best known one: an alt-rock group from Toronto which gets pop kudos for their female singer (Molly Rankin) and a good deal of jangle mixed in with the guitars. B+(*) Arca: Xen (2014, Mute): Alejandro Ghersi, from Venezuela, first LP after various EPs and mixes. Fairly glossy electronics, but that's just one facet of a fairly broad dramatic spectrum. B Banks: Goddess (2014, Harvest): Singer-songwriter Jillian Banks, from California. Album gets slotted as soul but she doesn't have that post-Aretha diva complex, just a preference for slow songs, which she keeps simple enough they have an interesting charm. B+(**) Battle Trance: Palace of Wind (2014, New Amsterdam): Sax quartet, just the four of them, with Travis Laplante the leader, plus Matthew Nelson, Jeremy Viner, and Patrick Breiner -- pretty sure they all play tenor, so this isn't an exercise in Hemphillian harmony. It's more like an attempt to amplify the distinctive sound of circular breathing into something deeply trance-like. B+(**) Rubén Blades: Tangos (2010 [2014], Sunnyside): Back in the 1980s he seemed like a good bet to take the world by storm -- he was even touted as a future president of his native Panama -- but his acting career settled into character parts, his Elektra contract gave way to Sony Discos, and when the elder George Bush deposed Panama's long-time dictator (former CIA stooge Manuel Noriega) Bush looked elsewhere for a new Quisling. So much later the phenom hangs on crooning classic tangos, backed by the City of Prague Symphony Orchestra. B Michael Blake: Tiddy Boom (2014, Sunnyside): Tenor saxophonist, joined the Lounge Lizards after their prime in 1991, started recording his own projects in 1997. Quartet with Frank Kimbrough (piano), Ben Allison (bass), and Rudy Royston (drums). Very much a sax player's album -- all original material includes titles like "Hawk's Last Rumba" and "Good Day for Pres." A- Mary J. Blige: The London Sessions (2014, Capitol): Twenty-some years after What's the 411?, I've never been much of a fan but have to admit she's developed into a seasoned pro, as consistent as anyone needs to be. And offhand I'd say this is a tad above her norm, not so much because the guest Brits help as she's pro enough to overcome them. B+(***) Dean Blunt: Black Metal (2014, Rough Trade): Roy Nnawuchi, from London, previously recorded as Hype Williams, moves from dance beats to darker and more dramatic gestures. B+(*) Fiorenzo Bodrato: Travelling Without Moving (2012 [2014], CMC): Italian bassist, from Turin, website shows five records but not this one. Spoken word vocals, including poems from Borges and Dryden, and something original by Ciro Buttari, impress like hip-hop, while the instrumental wind-down is rather sublime. B+(***) [cd] Benjamin Booker: Benjamin Booker (2014, ATO): Rookie singer-songwriter from Florida, gets classified as blues (no doubt) because he's black but he's such a straight-up rocker he cites Jack White as his main influence. Actually, fuzzier and crankier. B+(***) Patrick Breiner Double Double: Mileage (2013 [2014], Sulde): Tenor saxophonist, also appears as Vartan Mamigonian and plays in Battle Trance. Quartet with drums and two basses. Rough and scratchy, but sometimes the energy level lifts it up. B+(*) [bc] Peter Brötzmann/John Edwards/Steve Noble: Soul Food Available (2013 [2014], Clean Feed): Avant-sax trio, part of the label's "live in Ljubljana" concession, may seem like old hat given that Brötzmann has been bringing the same noise for nearly fifty years, but he's not as harsh as way back when, and the rhythm section is tuned in. B+(***) [cd] Malonie Carre: Forever (2014, self-released): Singer-songwriter, eight originals plus two jazz standards. B [cd] Charli XCX: Sucker (2014, Atlantic): Second album, big beat dance pop with postpunk sneer and swagger. The song that cinched it for me was "London Queen," where she comes to America because it's the only country big enough for her, even though she can't quite believe it. And no, it's not because I'm flattered by the portrait. It's the perfect flipside to "I'm So Bored With the USA." A- Jimmy Cobb: The Original Mob (2014, Smoke Sessions): Drummer, b. 1929, side credits start around 1956 with Dinah Washington, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis, and the list only grows from there. Hornless quartet, with guitarist Peter Bernstein taking most of the leads, pianist Brad Mehldau comping and knocking off his own impressive solos. B+(***) Leonard Cohen: Live in Dublin (2013 [2014], Columbia, 3CD): Recorded five years after his career-redefining Live in London, the bait here is more -- three discs instead of two, plus a DVD for those who feel they have to watch music. (I'm not one, but would probably check it out if I had a copy.) His intervening album was a good one but had little impact on the songbook. The pace may be a bit more subdued but it's basically the same concert -- he's in fairly good voice, his use of backup singers remains masterful, he runs a masterful band, and he's a most gracious impressario. I'd grade it higher if it weren't so redundant. A- J Cole: 2014 Forest Hills Drive (2014, RCA): Third album, title refers to address of Cole's childhood home in NC, lots of free association on where he came from and where he's going -- the beats quasi-underground, the stories real life, way too much N-word for my taste. I do approve of the lecture on copyright law (including the aside on Ferguson). B+(***) Ian William Craig: A Turn of Breath (2014, Recital): Trained as an opera singer, Craig builds fairly abstractpieces out of voice samples and tape loops. B+(*) D'Angelo and the Vanguard: Black Messiah (2014, RCA): Not what you'd call prolific -- a well-received debut album in 1995, a near-classic follow-up in 2000, and now this. Aside from an exhortation about "the Jesus of the Bible" the words melt into the fractured funk grooves, which could just as well do without them (though maybe the voices should stay). Oblique and mysterious. A- Jeff Davis: Dragon Father (2013 [2014], Fresh Sound New Talent): Drummer-led conventional postbop quintet, with Kirk Knuffke (cornet), Oscar Noriega (alto sax, clarinets), Russ Lossing (piano), and Eivind Opsvik (bass). All Davis originals, lead from the rear, but what really kicks the rhythm up is Lossing's frenetic comping -- he pretty much steals the show. B+(***) Duduvudu: The Gospel According to Dudu Pukwana (2009 [2014], Edgetone): Dudu Pukwana (1938-90) was an alto saxophonist from South Africa, played with Chris McGregor's integrated Blue Notes before and after exile. Straddling avant-jazz and South African folk/pop, he sometimes fell down on either side, but his 1973 album In the Townships (reissued on Earthworks in 1990) is the jazz take of township jive -- a great album and a longtime personal favorite. I'm having trouble sorting out the credits, and only the initial November 2009 date is given. As far as I can tell, there were at least three sessions (one in London and two in California) with little overlap and no clear idea who's driving the project -- the only names I recognize are Harry Beckett (the late trumpet player, from Trinidad but loosely associated with Pukwana), Pierre Dørge (guitarist-bandleader, a protege of Blue Notes bassist Johnny Dyani), and Wayne Wallace (Bay Area trombonist). Still, the music fits and flows, the waves of township jive larger than ever. A [cd] Donald Edwards: Evolution of an Influenced Mind (2013 [2014], Criss Cross): Drummer, second album after one in 1998, leads quintet with a voluble Walter Smith III on tenor sax, both guitar (David Gilmore) and piano (Orrin Evans), and Eric Revis on bass. B+(**) Chet Faker: Built on Glass (2014, Downtown): From Australia, singer-songwriter/electronica producer Nick Murphy (aka Atlas Murphy), pays tribute to Chet Baker's vocal style without in any significant way capturing it. Still, an improvement over Beck's latest, partly because it doesn't seem so pat. B+(**) Kevin Gates: By Any Means (2014, Bread Winners Association): Rapper from Baton Rouge, has been prolific lately with mixtapes that play like albums, albums like mixtapes, and a side of crime fiction named for Luca Brasi. This is his most official LP, as oblique as any. B+(**) Ghostface Killah: 36 Seasons (2014, Tommy Boy): A story teller, always a problem for me -- I don't follow these things well, and I'm not even a fan of the art, not sure I can tell a good one from a bad one. This one seems to pivot on "It's a Thin Line Between Love and Hate," where he finds the cost of mistreating his woman is her dumping him in a hospital bandaged from head to toe. That starts a stretch where the more pedestrian things I judge hip-hop on -- strong beats and sharp turns of phrase -- snap together. Then the Revelations return. B+(***) Brantley Gilbert: Just as I Am (2014, Valory): Like a gecko, determined to pump up his sound to make him look like a bigger Nashville star than he is. Live, you might be swept away with the energy without realizing how rote the riffing is. B- Sax Gordon: In the Wee Small Hours (2013 [2014], Delmark): Tenor saxophonist Gordon Beadle -- side credits go back to 1990 and are mostly with bluesmen (Champion Jack Dupree, Jimmy McCracklin, Smokin' Joe Kubek) -- backed with organ and drums. Goes more for ballads than honk this time, and doesn't have a world-class ballad tone -- back cover suggests Gene Ammons, Arnett Cobb, and Willis Jackson, and he falls way short, especially of the first two. Still, this hits my sweet spot. B+(**) [cd] Grouper: Ruins (2014, Kranky): Liz Harris used to use electronics to create her ambient murk, but this time strips down to one-note piano figures and whispered vocals -- at least until the 11:24 closer, a shimmering mirage. B+(**) Hard Working Americans: The First Waltz (2014, Melvin): As near as I can tell, the only real talent here is Todd Snider, so I suppose you can credit modesty (or even comradeship) for how he blends into the background -- all the more so on this live sequel to the group's eponymous debut album. B+(*) Hildegard Lernt Fliegen: The Fundamental Rhythm of Unpolished Brains (2013 [2014], Yellowbird): Swiss vocalist Andreas Schaerer's project, introduced with an eponymous 2007 album. The group, with three horns (primarily alto sax, baritone sax, and trombone, although all play other horns and recorders) and guests on banjo and bandoneon, forces lots of contortions, while Schaerer navigates them artfully. B+(*) [bc] Hiss Golden Messenger: Lateness of Dancers (2014, Merge): Singer-songwriter Michael Taylor, from North Carolina, starts singing much like Dylan but tones it down over the album. Pleasant enough, but didn't notice many words -- I assume they're unimportant, as I most often noticed Dylan's. B+(*) Sam Hunt: Montevalo (2014, MCA Nashville): Nashville rookie, writes at least a share of his songs, sounds like he's trying to sneak in behind Luke Bryan at the party, probably because he's not naughty (or dumb) enough to break down the door. Jotted two sample lines down: "I fell in love in the back of a cop car" (he likes bad girls); "I just want your ecstasy" (that's why he likes them). B I Love Makonnen: I Love Makonnen (2014, OVO Sound, EP): Makonnen Sheran, first impression is that he's Atlanta's answer to Das Racist with his offhand, loosely disjointed sound. Seven cuts, 28:28, with Drake guesting on a breakout single ("Tuesdays"). B+(*) ICP Orchestra: East of the Sun (2014, ICP): Initials stand for Instant Composer's Pool, a Dutch avant large band -- usually around ten pieces -- that dates back to 1967, led since its founding by pianist Misha Mengelberg, although I see that the piano credit here goes to Guus Janssen (Mengelberg, who is getting close to 80, has five composition credits here, to one each for Janssen, Ab Baars, and Michael Moore). Some very fine stretches here, especially the rousing "Moten Swing," but also more rough patches than I like -- even understanding their knack for turning chaos into beauty. B+(**) [dl] Anthony Jefferson: But Beautiful (2014, self-released): Standards singer, from New Orleans, has a rich and subtle voice that eases through troublesome songs like "Lush Life" and "Black Coffee," romps over "My Favorite Things," hits an eloquent note on "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans." B+(**) [cd] Paul Jones: Short History (2014, Blujazz): Tenor saxophonist, graduated from MSM and this seems to be his first album. Sextet, with an alto sax, both guitar and piano, bass and drums. Postbop, like they teach you, and livelier than you'd expect. B+(**) [cd] Jungle: Jungle (2014, XL): Sort of a British Earth Wind & Fire, if I may be excused to use stereotypes to plot out limits -- the falsettos less fluid, the beats a bit grimey, none of the expansive sweep of huge pop hits. Still, not a bad formula. B+(**) Oliver Lake Organ Quartet: What I Heard (2013 [2014], Passin' Thru): Alto saxophonist, with Freddie Hendrix on trumpet, Jared Gold on organ, and Chris Beck on drums. Lake is often terrific, and Gold shows promise in setting him up, but this slips up a bit. B+(**) Link of Chain: A Songwriters' Tribute to Chris Smither (2011 [2014], Signature Sounds): Smither is a singer-songwriter, folkie division, turning 70 this year, with a steady stream of albums since 1970, a large cache of songs that fuel this tribute. Unfortunate, the songs aren't all that memorable, nor are most of the songwriters. B+(**) Loscil: Sea Island (2014, Kranky): Scott Morgan, from Canada, has ten albums since 2001, this one (at least) mild ambient electronics, with perhaps a gentle sea breeze. B+(*) Colette Michaan: Incarnate/Encarna (2014, self-released): Flute player, has a couple previous albums. runs most of this over Latin beats (proven camouflage), sometimes blending in with Gregoire Maret's chromatic harmonica or Mireya Ramos' violin, offset from Reut Regev's trombone. B [cd] Nicki Minaj: The Pinkprint (2014, Young Money): In earlier emails about the near shutout of US hip-hop albums on EOY lists, the prospect of this album's late-season drop was held out as some sort of "great black hope" -- no doubt recalling the precedent Beyoncé set last year, finishing 4th in P&J after being released too late to make nearly any other poll. I don't expect that to happen here: sure, it's a better album than Beyoncé, but it's a bit of a letdown after the expansion of the last two studio albums, nor is it as safe a crossover. I'm tempted to dismiss it as padded, but most of her padding doubles as sex appeal -- a point the disjointed "Anaconda" drives home uproariously. A- Ludovic Morlot/Seattle Symphony Orchestra: John Luther Adams: Become Ocean (2013 [2014], Cantaloupe): One 42-minute piece, commissioned by the Orchestra and composed by Adams -- unrelated to the John Adams who composed Nixon in China. Minimalism even if not done with electronics, has a nice shiny texture, shimmering even. Won a Pulitzer Prize. B+(***) Paal Nilssen-Love/Terrie Ex: Hurgu! (2013, PNL): Guitar-drums duo, one half of Ken Vandermark's Lean Left group. Terrie took his name from his longtime Mekons-like rock group, the Ex, but he's dabbled in free jazz (or free noise) for years, and slices up four improvs here. The drummer has a ton of duos to his credit, largely because he's so adept at them. B+(**) [bc] Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit: Erta Ale (2014, PNL, 3CD): An eleven-piece group but not conventionally shaped: with only two reeds and three brass (cornet-trombone-tuba) the horns move independently, as does electric guitar and Lasse Marhaug's electronics, their options expanded by doubling up on bass and drums. Way too much to swallow in one sitting. B+(***) [bc] Objekt: Flatland (2014, Pan, 2CD): TJ Hertz, born in Tokyo and raised in the UK, gets a lot of drive out of his beats, with this never missing a step, at least until he tries ambient for a closer -- and that, too, is splashier than the norm. A- Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra: The Offense of the Drum (2013 [2014], Motéma Music): Cuban pianist, got his big band through the patronage of Lincoln Center -- may have helped that his father was a reknowned big band arranger -- and draws an impressive array of guests -- I prefer Chito Cajigas' inspired rant on Puerto Rican history to Antonio Lizana's sombre vocal, but even that grew on me. B+(**) Sonya Perkins: Dream a Little Dream (2014, self-released): Standards singer, third album, opens with "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and closes with "You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me"; nothing wrong with that, nor with the piano trio band, and Warren Vaché guest spots certainly help. B Noah Preminger: Background Music (2010 [2014], Fresh Sound New Talent): Tenor saxophonist, leading a trio backed by bass (Masa Kamaguchi) and drums (Rob Garcia) playing standards and not-yet standards -- Jarrett, two Colemans, title song comes from Warne Marsh, closer from Chris Cheek, but you also get Monk, "My Old Flame," "Moonlight in Vermont," "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)," and an original by the drummer. A- Quraishi: Mountain Melodies (2014, Evergreene Music): "Rubab Music of Afghanistan" -- first album in some time from the master -- relocated to US in 1982 -- whose previous album was titled Pure & True Rubab. Kind of like a sitar but poorer, although the simplicity grows on you. B+(**) Diane Roblin: Reconnect (2014, self-released): Pianist, from Buffalo but based in Toronto, clasically trained but described this group as "a funk-jazz band." Accurate for the most part but some breaks suggest something else. Saxophonist Jeff King is a plus. B+(*) [cd] Scurvy: Fracture (2010, Johnny Butler Jazz): New York avant-fusion group led by Johnny Butler (saxes, electronics) with trombone, guitar, bass, and drums. B+(*) [cdr] Shamir: Northtown (2014, Godmode, EP): Debut EP (5 cuts, 19:58) for a 20-year-old soul man. The lead single shows promise (with dividends for his post-EP single, "On the Regular"), while the closing ballad ("Lived and Died Alone") is touching in an unpolished way. B+(*) Sleaford Mods: Divide and Exit (2014, Harbinger Sound): British duo, Andrew Fearn is responsible for the punkish music, often just bass over drums, while Jason Williamson spews profanity occasionally laced with social criticism, often incisive, sometimes not ("it's all so fucking boring"). A- [bc] Sleaford Mods: Austerity Dogs (2013, Harbinger Sound): Last year's album, in the UK anyway: the first with Andrew Fearn providing the music, a more minimal punk mix until the guitar on "Bored to Be Wild"; lets Williamson free associate more, which is a plus. A- [bc] Chris Smither: Still in the Levee (2014, Signature Sounds, 2CD): Celebrating his own career -- 50 years as a performer -- the folksinger plunders his own songbook, remaking as many years of songs with whatever wisdom (and wear and tear) he's accumulated, which includes some friendly guest spots. B+(*) Michael Snow & Thollem McDonas: Two Piano Concert at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2014, Edgetone): As the title says, but complex verging on difficult. Snow goes way back (b. 1929 in Toronto), working with the avant-garde group CCMC from 1978 on, was involved with Albert Ayler even earlier (among other things, he designed album covers), and was enjoying "a retrospective exhibition of the artist's photographic works" at this time. McDonas is an avant-jazz pianist I've run across more often. B+(**) [cd] Jesse Stacken: Helleborus (2014, Fresh Sound New Talent): Pianist, always regarded him as a smart postbop guy but he tops that here by hiring tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby to front his quartet -- Malaby often does his best work on other people's albums, and on the upbeat pieces here he's really on a tear. Slower, he fades out and you start to hear the nuance in the piano. B+(***) Subtle Lip Can: Reflective Drime (2014, Drip Audio): Trio from Montreal: Joshua Zubot (violin), Bernard Falaise (guitar), Isaiah Ceccarelli (drums). Second album, an abstract turmoil of soft sounds, nothing jarring but definitely abrasive. B+(**) [cd] Joanne Tatham: Out of My Dreams (2014, Cafe Pacific): Standards singer, third album, favors Harry Nilsson, Bob Dorough, and Dave Frishberg over Berlin and Porter but does include a token Jobim. Gets professional help with Mark Winkler producing, pianist Tamir Henderson arranging, John Clayton on bass, Bob Sheppard on sax. B [cd] Ana Tijoux: Vengo (2014, Nacional): French-Chilean rapper, third album, presumably in Spanish (imagining I'd recognize more of it in French) so she gets by mostly on her rocksteady groove. Could very well be more to it. B+(**) Leon Vynehall: Music for the Uninvited (2014, 3024): English house producer, second album, calls this a "mini-LP" but it's long enough (7 cuts, 39:18), the beats becoming more engaging along the way. B+(*) Scott Wendholt & Adam Kolker Quartet: Andthem (2011 [2014], Fresh Sound New Talent): Trumpet and tenor sax, backed by Ugonna Okegwo on bass and Victor Lewis on drums. The trumpeter recorded for mainstream labels in the 1990s but hasn't been evident since then. All four contribute pieces, and they cover Monk and Parker -- the two horn split on "Green Chimneys" is impressive. B+(**) Reissues, Compilations, Vault Discoveries
Bring It On Home: Black America Sings Sam Cooke (1959-76 [2014], Ace): The liner notes -- by the way, the best I've seen in years -- note several previous "Black America Sings" discs: Dylan, Lennon & McCartney, Bachrach & David, Otis Redding. Those strike me as novelty concepts, but Cooke's murder -- Trayvon Martin wasn't the first young black man killed by a confused and stupid white person with a gun, ya know -- left a hole that the covers helped fill. So while Cooke's originals remain indelible, his legacy deserves something more -- like this. A- [cd] Chris Butler: Easy Life (1970 [2014], Future Fossil): Later went on to write witty pop songs for Akron new wave bands Tin Huey and The Waitresses, in 1970 Butler was one of the students at Kent State the National Guard didn't kill -- although the guy he sold his drums to was one of the dead. Butler had a rock band, and his juvenilia is pretty tuneful -- could be more ragged, and takes a turn in that direction after 13 seconds of gunfire. For an extra buck, you can get a second copy without the narration. But for me the history rings true: sure, I wasn't there, but I was then. A- [bc] Lewis: L'Amour (1983 [2014], Light in the Attic): Canadian singer-songwriter Randall Wulff cut two albums 1983-85. Obscure, quiet and haunting, but not much of a find. B Peru Bravo: Funk, Soul & Psych From Peru's Radical Decade (1968-74 [2014], Tiger's Milk): Obscure bands, more interested in putting their inevitable Peruvian twist on Anglo rock than in developing an indigenous pop music -- Jeriko's "Hey Joe" is the obvious example that you can hang most of the rest off of. B+(*) George Van Eps: Once in Awhile (1946-49 [2014], Delmark): A legendary jazz guitarist (1913-98), influenced by Eddie Lang, worked with Benny Goodman and Ray Noble in the 1930s, didn't record much until Concord picked him up in the 1980s his protégé Howard Alden started recording with him. These radio shots fill a gap, and also spotlight two forgotten musicians, boogie pianist Stanley Wrightsman and tenor saxophonist Eddie Miller -- especially fine here. B+(***) [cd] Old MusicPhil Driscoll: Drops of Praise (2006, Jordan/Koch): Initially a trumpet player, also sings and plays keyboards; b. 1947, has a couple dozen albums, AMG classifies him under Religious and New Age, but initially sounds like a soul man here, knocks off a competent funk track, reverts to form, then evolves. Hard to feel blue when you believe in "guaranteed salvation." B [cdr] The Gang Font: The Gang Font feat. Interloper (2007, Thirsty Ear): Part of Matthew Shipp's "Blue Series" from back when it was a genre-busting concern, a group with Husker Du bassist Greg Norton, Eric Fratzke (Happy Apple) on guitar, Dave King (Bad Plus) on drums, and Craig Taborn on electric keyboards. Who (or what) "Interloper" is isn't clear. B+(*) [cdr] Arthur Russell: The World of Arthur Russell (1980-88 [2004], Soul Jazz): Played cello but most importantly a disco producer, died obscure in 1992, and much of his material was released posthumously. This career summary comes with a 24-page booklet, but no one (to my knowledge) has bothered to post dates for half of these 11 pieces (two each attributed to Dinosaur L and Loose Joints, one each to Lola and Indian Ocean). The beats are effective, the vocals a bit on the wan side, which has its own peculiar attraction. B+(***) [cdr] Arthur Russell: World of Echo (1986 [2004], Audika): The only full-length album released by Russell before his death in 1992; also his most personal one, forsaking the dancefloor beats he made his living with for solo vocals and cello -- crude and slapdash at first, achieving a surprising musicality over the long run. B+(**) Carl Hancock Rux: Apothecary RX (2004, Giant Step): First distinguished as a poet, playwright, and novelist, Rux released a debut album in 1999, and followed it up with this. Hard to pigeonhole this: both lyrics and music are complex and surprising, but also not clear whether it's worth sorting it all out. B+(*) [cdr] 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:
The Green Seed: Drapetomania (2014, Communicating Vessels): [was A-] A Billy Joe Shaver: Long in the Tooth (2014, Lightning Rod): [was B+(**)] A- Wadada Leo Smith: The Great Lakes Suites (2012 [2014], TUM, 2CD): [was B+(***)] A- Wussy: Attica! (Shake It): [was A-] A Ask a question, or send a comment. Monday, December 29, 2014 Music Week
Music: Current count 24247 [24221] rated (+26), 509 [490] unrated (+19). Rated count off this week, partly because I replayed a fair number of 2014 releases around P&J ballot time, partly because I got stuck on re-evaluating Wadada Leo Smith's The Great Lakes Suites. To make a long story short, I concluded that the first disc is solid A-, but I still have some doubts about the second. I still prefer Smith's Red Hill (and still have Smith's The Stone (Akashic Meditation) well off the pace). The Great Lakes Suites came in a close second in NPR's Jazz Critics Poll. Aside from those dead spots, everything else I rated last week came from Rhapsody (or at least the computer). I did get a comeuppance for my excessive pride over exhausting my 2014 queue: two large packages from Europe (France and Poland) with obscure 2014 releases, plus a few more from domestic sources. With all the year-end polls done, I didn't feel any rushing need to catch up. Rather, I kept on collecting year-end list data, trying to pick at anything I could find that seemed promising. I totally screwed up on Twitter this past week. I may try to catch up a bit in the next few days, but more likely I'll just try to stuff what I can into a December 31 Rhapsody Streamnotes, then freeze the year-end file (and deep-freeze the 2013 list). Then we will enter 2015, and again try to scale back (somewhat). New records rated this week:
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
Grade changes:
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
Ask a question, or send a comment. Saturday, December 27, 2014 Pazz and Jop Ballot
I voted in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll yesterday. My ballot: Albums:
Songs:
The songs all came from album tracks, with eight of ten on my A-list, but only one redundant to the albums ballot. The songs are overwhelmingly from major labels -- a testament to today's big pop production machine -- whereas the albums are more scattered (three majors, seven independents). Four albums are jazz, but none of the singles. The albums were carefully considered from the 1004 albums (952 new, 52 comp/archival) released in 2014 that I listened to seriously enough to grade. The songs were picked out much more arbitrarily. Jasons Gross and Gubbels generously shared their year-end song lists, but even after sampling a few things off the top of each I doubt that I've heard 20% of either list (nearly all in the context of albums, but surprisingly few appeared on albums I've heard). I also checked out Spin's year-end list, but closed it after the top two came nowhere close. I suspect that more digging would find a lot of things I'd feel bad about leaving out, but the top half of the list is likely to remain pretty solid. The albums, of course, were much more rigorously considered. The only one on my ballot that's likely to get more than five votes is Wussy.[*] In my EOY list file, Attica! currently sits on line 347 with 6 points and only one mention so far on a top-ten list (5th on Greg Kot's Chicago Tribune list), but I know at least that many voters certain to vote for it. I was on the fence myself, slightly preferring Digital Primitives' Lipsomuch/Soul Searchin', also considering Parquet Courts' Sunbathing Animal and Old 97's Most Messed Up, and completely forgetting about the year's best compilation, Scratchin': The Wild Jimmy Spruill Story. I normally pay little attention to what other people are voting for, but it seems possible (if not exactly likely) that Wussy will sneak into the top-40, so I felt like doing that. On the other hand, Wussy is likely to flat out win Odyshape's 2014 EW Pazz & Jop poll, so there's less excuse voting for it there, let alone need or value. So I'm making one change to the ballot above for Odyshape, replacing Wussy with the Jimmy Spruill compilation. It was, after all, an oversight, buried by my bookkeeping system down in the reissues and vault music. Had I thought of it before casting my P&J ballot I probably would have included it there. I've long hated the top-ten cutoffs, which forcibly magnify marginal distinctions. No competent critic should be limited to ten highly recommended records in a year. When I ran a poll similar to Odyshape's in 2002-03, I tried to rectify this by allowing voters to extend their ballots: records from 11-20 got three points, 21-30 got two points, and anything past 30 was given one point. The long lists had little effect on the standings, but they added many more distinctive records to the totals. I wish Odyshape had adopted this embellishment, but they seem to regard P&J as some sort of holy grail. I've found about 130 A- or higher albums this year (plus another 200+ high B+ records, and that list -- not my top-10 -- is the real EOY list. I've split the full EOY list into jazz and non-jazz parts -- about 60% of the new albums I've listened to this year were jazz, and they were mostly heard on CD whereas the non-jazz were mostly streamed. I don't consider compartmentalizing jazz to be either natural or desirable, but the differences in sample size and methodology, my status as an expert in jazz and a rank amateur in nearly everything else (except classical, where I'm a committed ignoramus) justifies the split. [*] Kate Tempest's Mercury Prize-nominated album has some critical support, but thus far it's almost exclusively in Europe. She's tied for 56th place in my EOY count, finishing in the top 20 in 11 polls so far, but no higher than 8th. Steve Lehman won NPR's Jazz Critics Poll, but hardly anyone votes for jazz in P&J. Then there is Lily Allen's major label pop record, but it only has three mentions in EOY lists thus far, none higher than 46th. I expect it to do somewhat better in P&J, but a breakthrough doesn't look to be in the cards. The only other record with even one EOY list mention is Jenny Scheinman's, with just one on an unranked country genre list. Ask a question, or send a comment. Monday, December 22, 2014 Music Week
Music: Current count 24221 [24186] rated (+35), 490 [509] unrated (-19). With Rhapsody broken for most of the last two weeks (v. Saturday's Condemned to Hack post), I wiped out everything that was left in my 2014 queue, wrote up my first 2015 album, and started scrounging through the nether regions of the unplayed queue. The three records listed under "old music" below were actually advance copies from 2004-07, most likely unplayed because I was waiting for finals that never came. There is a good deal more like that -- probably between 50 and 100 records, some final copies (but those are more obviously by choice). I long prided myself on playing everything that came my way, but evidently there were limits -- while my 2014 "pending" list is currently (momentarily?) empty, and my 2013 was reduced to one slab of vinyl, some earlier lists show a dozen or more records as "pending." Also cleaned out the Christmas records (v. yesterday's Holiday Music Special). Chuck Powell wrote in afterwards to point out that I "missed the only good one": John Zorn's Dreamers Christmas. As I said, I wasn't actually searching for "good" Christmas music; I was just cleaning house. I did have a fleeting thought of using Rhapsody to check out some relatively current product, but didn't have the stomach for it. (Sample titles from Billboard: Pentatonix, That's Christmas to Me; Idina Menzel, Holiday Wishes; Michael Buble, Christmas; Darius Rucker, Home for the Holidays; Josh Groban, Noel; Kelly Clarkson, Wrapped in Red; Mannheim Steamroller, 30/40; Amazon also recommends: Ellen's The Only Holiday Album You'll Ever Need, Vol. 1 (note contradiction); Christmas at Downton Abbey; Dave Koz & Friends, The 25th of December; Christmas With Nashville (the TV series, a "limited collector's edition"); Motown Christmas; A Boston Pops Christmas.) I also thought about rumaging through my database for previous grades, but I don't have genres tagged so any sort of completism would have been impossibly tedious. Still, some samples:
That's about half of the albums I've rated with "Christmas" in the title -- not many but not nothing either; the only other one rising to low-B+ is John Brown's Merry Christmas, Baby (2007). Someday I might try to survey the "classics" I've missed -- James Brown, Dave Brubeck, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Vince Guaraldi, Spike Jones, Elvis Presley, John Prine, Mike Seeger, Frank Sinatra -- but I've seen that Ramsey Lewis album show up in an "all-time top five" list, and it's hard to convey just how awful it is. With all the computer problems I've been facing the last few weeks, I missed posting anything on the 9th Annual Jazz Critics Poll, which Francis Davis started at the Village Voice and most recently found a home for at NPR. A record 140 jazz critics voted this year. The key links:
When Rob Harvilla was involved, both at the Voice and during the poll's brief residency at Rhapsody, I was also asked to write up my own annotated ballot, but that hasn't happened with NPR. While my own ballot is here, a better place to look is my still-evolving file here. Part of the value is that the A-list goes much deeper than top-ten: currently I have 64 new jazz records on the list (plus 65 on the corresponding non-jazz list). But I also give you the complete context with lists of all the other records I didn't think were that good. When I do my EOY list counts, I don't stop at 10 because most of what interests me is further down on the lists -- and frankly, I trust critics with big lists to have done more homework (even if some of it looks suspiciously rote). But if I could ask one follow-up question of the voters, it would be: which of the top-50 (or top-100) albums have you not listened to? My answer:
Looking over this list, there are a couple items that seem like very strong A-list candidates (Moondoc finished high on the three ballots that named him, and they're all critics I tend to agree with; same for The Midwest School, plus I heard a cut on bandcamp that blew me away), plus a lot of no doubt quality records -- solid B+ fare with a chance of being better than that. Also occurs to me that I screwed up in several cases -- I must have received download links from Sunnyside and ECM that I failed to act on, and I let HighNote take me off their mailing list when I expected to write much less about jazz than I wound up doing. On the other hand, this rather underscores the point that the labels with good PR distribution are the ones that place in polls like this. They don't have to be big: Pi only released five albums this year, but they placed 1-6-14-33-54. On the other hand, major labels Universal (Verve/Blue Note/ECM) and Sony (Okeh/Masterworks) hogged 11 of the top 20 slots. (Warner's Nonesuch had two top-50 spots at 36 and 43.) And when obscure labels do place, that's often thanks to independent PR firms (e.g., Braithwaite & Katz helped the superb Finnish label TUM take 2nd, but they only placed Wadada Leo Smith, who finished 3rd and 17th the last two years; on the other hand, Smith's other record this year, on Rare Noise (Red Hill), wound up way down at 140th). I should probably note that this is probably the first year since the first poll in 2005 where my top pick was the poll's top pick. (The winner back then was Ornette Coleman's Sound Grammar -- not a squeaker or anyone's idea of an upset.) Still, I wouldn't read this as implying a convergence of critical opinion -- it's just an exceptional album that hit several different pleasure spots. My only other A-list album was the latest installment of Sonny Rollins' Roadshows -- now that's a consensus pick! Only one more A-list in the next ten (Vijay Iyer), two in the following ten (Thumbscrew and Eric Revis), and three more (Marty Ehrlich, James Brandon Lewis, Farmers by Nature) in the top fifty (making a total of eight). There are a few things we disagree over (I should probably recheck Akinmusire -- I was very surprised to see his record on Davis' ballot; my recall of what's wrong with Jason Moran's Fats Waller rehash is clearer, and I can see that Darius Jones' The Oversoul Manual is a love-or-hate matter), but most of the top-50 records are very respectable efforts -- not sure how much of that to pin on my bias towards sax over piano (lot of piano records on the list), but I'm inclined to think that I rate those records down a bit only because I've looked much further. My three A- records this week are all pop, all December releases with virtually no EOY list presence thus far. Charli XCX evidently had some advance publicity, popping up on six lists, including 5th place at Rolling Stone and 43rd at Spin. Nothing yet for highly touted D'Angelo (Metacritic score is 95 for 23 reviews -- their second highest rating this year for a new record, edged out by Machine Head's Bloodstone & Diamonds with only 5 reviews; metal albums often have ridiculously high scores because only metalheads can stand to review them) or for Nicki Minaj (Metacritic 71 for 22 reviews; NYT: "full of compromises and half-successes"). I found them all on Rhapsody, and connected almost instantly to Charli XCX. On the other hand, D'Angelo got a lot of spins and is still pretty marginal for me, although no doubt it is a very distinctive album. I continue to add lists into my aggregation as I find time (and lists). FKA Twigs maintains a small lead over War on Drugs, and there's little reason to think the former has much of a UK bias. I have to rate it a slight favorite to win P&J, but any of the top four would win -- FKA Twigs, War on Drugs, St. Vincent (3), and Run the Jewels (tied at 4 with Caribou although I'd count the latter out) -- with momentum and skew if anything favoring Run the Jewels. File has grown to 2195 records, but that's still way short of last year's 7867. The 157 polls is also well under half of last year's total (not that the number for 2013 is easy to count). The leader's current score is 148, vs. Kanye West's 356 last year. All of those totals will wind up less than last year because I've changed the methodology. Pazz & Jop ballot is due December 26, so more on that then. My guess is that about twenty voters there are heavily Christgau-influenced, which this year can be measured by votes for Wussy, Withered Hand, and Black Portland -- very little support for any of those albums elsewhere (current scores: Black Portland 8, Wussy 6, Withered Hand 5). I'll post another Rhapsody Streamnotes by the end of the month, but probably not next week. 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, December 21, 2014 Holiday Music SpecialMany years ago I read that Christmas music outsells jazz -- a factoid that helped harden a prejudice against the stuff into a grudge. There are objectively worse things about the music, like the compulsions retailers feel to play it nonstop during the four (or more) weeks of the "season," as if doing so triggers Pavlovian reflexes to spend. I get some quantity of it every year. Sometimes I review it and pack it away, but mostly it piles up, and I have way too much of that. So this year I'm making an effort to clear the decks. Hopefully this won't encourage anyone to send me more next year. Two ringers in the list below. Ezra Weiss' children's music doesn't have anything to do with Christmas, but was buried in the same pile, for similar reassons. However, Weiss' Before You Know It: Live in Portland made my A-list this year, so I figured I should give the older record a spin. The other is Eugene Marlow's Celebrations -- the only record below I can actually recommend. I was expecting a Jewish slant on the holidays, but the record didn't try to be ecumenical at all -- and was no doubt better for that. You can play it alongside Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah, but you can also play it any other time of year. Hanukkah here is mostly an excuse to throw a latke dinner -- which we did last week. The way I make them is:
I make my salmon and applesauce. For the salmon, take a nice filet with skin on, sprinkle both sides with kosher salt, put in a bag and refrigerate at least 12 hours. Rinse, pat dry, slice thin. I think it's three tablespoons of salt for two pounds of fish. For applesauce, I took three green delicious apples, peeled, quartered, and cored them, and put them in a saucepan. I added juice from half a lemon, plus a few drops of water. Covered the apples, and cooked until soft enough to mash easily with a fork. Then I added one tablespoon of brown sugar and one teaspoon of cinnamon. For Christmas Eve, I'll be cooking again, for what's left of my family here. Planning on what I call "Mom's Chinese" -- basically, the meal I made for her birthday shortly before she died: Szechuan fried chicken, dry-fried string beans, strange-flavor eggplant, fried rice, maybe some spare ribs braised in black bean sauce, something for dessert (probably date pudding). When I was growing up, Christmas was many things, but there was always lots of food, including various kinds of homemade candy. Big meals. Lots of people. Since she died, it's never been the same, and never will be. One thing for sure: we won't be playing Christmas music.
Eddie Allen: Jazzy Brass for the Holidays (2009, DBCD): Actually no name credit on the cover, but Allen is the leader and arranger, plays trumpet along with Cecil Bridgewater, and is backed by French horn, trombone, bass, and drums. Song selection so standard it could be a high school assignment. Not sure if stating the head then improvising off it works as jazz but it does break the holiday tedium. B- Chris Bauer: In a Yuletide Groove: Harmonica Jazz for the Holidays (2011, self-released): "Seydel harmonica artist," has two albums, the other Straight Ahead. Quintet with keybs, guitar, bass, and drums, plus a guest vocal from producer Rob Poparozzi. Standards, favors pop like "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" but works in "My Favorite Things" and "Ave Maria." The very definition of chintzy, but the harmonica is a versatile lead instrument. B- [cd] Alexis Cole: The Greatest Gift: Songs of the Season (2009, Motéma): A jazz singer with at least eight albums I've never heard, credits this "with family & friends" and throws in a plug for World Bicycle Relief. The friends include some names I've heard of (Don Braden, Alan Ferber, Jon Cowherd, Ike Sturm, Zach Brock). Climactic pop move: "Jesus is the best part of Christmas/365 days a year/Jesus is here." C+ [cd] Nathan Eklund: Craft Christmas (2011 [2012], OA2): Trumpet player, leads a basic keyboard-bass-drums quartet, song credits range from Trad. to Guaraldi with one original. The trumpet leads are eloquent, but the two vocals detract. B- [cd] Tobias Gebb Presents Trio West: Plays Holiday Songs, Vol. 2 (2009, Yummy House): Drummer-led piano trio, with Eldad Zvulun on piano and Meal Miner on bass. Short song list, but several tunes get two passes, with "We Three Kings" recast as a waltz, "Silent Night" and "Joy to the World" done in samba, and "O Tannenbaum" in funk and salsa variants. B [cd] Milt Hinton/Ralph Sutton/Gus Johnson/Jim Galloway: The Sackville All Star Christmas Record (1986 [2014], Sackville/Delmark): Bass, piano, drums, soprano sax, listed roughly in what I take to be the rank order of their fame, although Galloway -- the only one still alive -- is a first-rate trad jazz player. (Or maybe it's just left-to-right to caption the cover picture.) Standard fare, not as rowdy as you'd hope -- seductively subtle, even. B+(*) [cd] The Hot Club of San Francisco: Hot Club Cool Yule (2009, Azica): Group -- motto is "What Would Django Do?" -- has a dozen albums since 1993. Violin leads over the guitars, sometimes slipping into something pleasantly innocuous, but the guest vocals snap you back, even on the generic "Baby It's Cold Outside." B- [cd] Knoxville Jazz Orchestra: Christmas Time Is Here (2012, self-released): A full-fledged big band, arranged and conducted by Vance Thompson, also listed as fifth trumpet. More listenable than most, at least until they add the choir(s). B- [cd] Elisabeth Lohninger Band: Christmas in July (2011, JazzSick): Singer, has an appealing voice ready to swing and fluent in uncounted languages, backed by Axel and Walter Fischbacher (guitar and piano). Twelve songs from nearly as many countries, with a Mel Tormé tune from the US and "Stille Nacht" from Austria. B+(*) [cd] Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble: Celebrations (2010, MEII Enterprises): Subtitle "interprets festive melodies from the Hebraic songbook," so not our usual Xmas album, but it does start with "Chanukah, O Chanukah." Pianist Marlow is a New York Jew who specializes in Afro-Cuban/salsa/bossa nova and his group spreads out the ethnic polyculture, including the marvelous Michael Hashim on sax. Ends with a 6:37 lecture on philosophy that bears repeating. A- [cd] Ellis Marsalis: A New Orleans Christmas Carol (2011, ELM): A pianist from New Orleans, anyway, although not one particularly noted for the style. The patriarch of the Marsalis clan, his jazz career only emerging after his sons became famous, he decorates the usual tunes with marching drums, son Jason's vibes, and two singers I've already forgotten. B- [cd] Will Scruggs Jazz Fellowship: Song of Simeon: A Christmas Journey (2012, self-released): Scruggs, from Atlanta, plays tenor and soprano sax, called his first album Jazz Fellowship and kept that as his group name. He explains: "Using ancient canticles, hymns, and folk melodies, I chose eleven pieces to formulate a layered chronology that illustrates the profound, spiritual mystery of the radical biblical story of the birth of Christ." Sounds ambitious, and I enjoyed the absence of trad Xmas fare . . . until it got woven in. B [cd] Donna Singer with the Doug Richards Trio: Kiss Me Beneath the Mistletoe (2012, Emerald Baby): About half originals, mostly co-credited to husband Roy Singer (assume he's the uncredited duet partner on two songs), and I must admit I was touched by bassist Richards' song about leaving donuts for Santa Claus. The other half is split between spirituals and classic fluff like "Let It Snow" with something of a fetish for mistletoe. B [cd] The United States Air Force Band: Cool Yule (2009, self-released): Big band, plus strings, some extras like oboe, a female vocal trio called the "Andrews Sisters" (quotes included), and a male barbershop quartet called the "Crew Chiefs" (again, quotes obligatory). Makes you wonder if they hadn't faked the death of Glenn Miller and kept him working at some "dark site" all these years. I'm tempted to slag them on principle, but frankly they could keep this band running for decades for less than a single F-35, and it would be a better use of the money. Highlight: the cha-cha "Auld Lang Syne" (and yes, that's as good as they get). B [cd] Ezra Weiss: Alice in Wonderland: A Jazz Musical (2009, Northwest Childrens Theater and School): Been sitting on this, something I'd never expect to have any interest in, and still don't. But the story has a few touchstones I recognize -- mad hatters and decapitating queens and such -- and the music is not without interest. B [cd] Ask a question, or send a comment. Saturday, December 20, 2014 Condemned to HackAs I've mentioned several times recently, Rhapsody recently introduced a new website design. This depends on Adobe's execrable Flash product for streaming music -- I'm not sure that is new but this is the first time I noticed a dependency. I've been running Rhapsody reliably on Ubuntu Linux, on a system which is up-to-date (14.04 LTS). The new website initially worked on this machine, but when I did a routine Ubuntu update it broke, giving me an error message that I must have Flash installed and enabled, and a URL to Adobe to "Get Flash." I spent many hours trying to figure this out, and probably made things worse along the way. Long story short, I finally got it working tonight. Still, the results are troublesome. Let me explain. Flash (or Shockwave Flash) is proprietary (non-free) software developed and maintained by Adobe. It consists of an authoring product, which Adobe makes money on, and a player, which Adobe distributes without charge (but also without source code). Since only Adobe can compile the source code, they can choose which platforms they want to support. For a long time, they supported Linux, but in 2012 they decided to freeze Linux development at release 11.2. (They've since moved on to release 16.0 for Microsoft and Apple.) If you use Firefox go to Adobe's download website from a Linux machine, they offer you version 11.2.202.425 in various package formats. For Ubuntu you want "APT for Ubuntu 10.4+" -- Ubuntu, by the way, has since moved on to 14.04. When you click on the "Download" button, Firefox invokes the Ubuntu Software Manager to handle the package, which is identified as "adobe-flashplugin." As I understand it, the "adobe-flashplugin" package doesn't actually include the Flash Player binary. What happens is that when you install the installer, it goes out to get the program(s) to be installed -- a bit of indirection which keeps Adobe's "crown jewels" separate from the software depositories which are used to install Linux systems. One problem here is that "adobe-flashplugin" winds up installing a slightly earlier Flash Player version (11.2.202.359) than the one advertised. That is most likely Adobe's bug. What makes this worse is that Firefox has been configured to automatically disable old versions of plugins that are believed to have security risks, and the version installed is one of those. I don't know whether the real latest version (.425) would be acceptable to Firefox. I do know that when Firefox offers a link to "Update" the offending plugin, it steers you back to Adobe's website, which gives you the wrong version again. I also know that it takes some twiddling to reinstall Adobe's "adobe-flashplugin" since Ubuntu's Software Center thinks it's already installed and up-to-date (you have to remove it then re-install it). Finally, you have to tell Firefox to allow the website to use Flash despite the security risks. (Hopefully, this is website specific, so you're not opening up a security hole for other websites.) Now, all that's bad enough, but I had several other problems I had to figure out before I could get the above procedure to work. Linux people never have liked Flash -- even back when it was the only way to stream video and audio over the web, it was buggy, mysterious, and couldn't be fixed. So there have been many efforts to first emulate and eventually to supersede Flash. One hint I found was that Firefox was showing two Shockwave Flash plugins -- the 11.2.202.359 installed by Adobe (when I was expecting -.425), and another at 13.1.2.3 from some mysterious source. Firefox allows you to disable plugins but not to uninstall them, but I didn't get any different results from Rhapsody when I alternately disabled one or the other plugin. Finally, I took a look through the package list and uninstalled everything that looked like it had to do with Flash: namely, I removed flashplugin-installer, pepperflashplugin-nonfree and freshplayer-plugin, they verified that Firefox had no Flash plugins. Then I repeated the installation from Adobe, restarted Firefox, called up Rhapsody, and told Firefox to let me use the insecure Flash plugin. Finally, it worked. No sooner than I got Rhapsody working again, I ran into another nasty bug. I haven't had time to comment on Francis Davis' 9th Annual Jazz Critics Poll, lately sponsored by NPR, because I've been preoccupied working on my piece of the project, which you can find here. I managed to get all the ballots counted and cross-checked by 4AM Thursday morning -- the schedule was to go live sometime Thursday but NPR didn't actually get their end together until Friday morning. However, I spent all of my time looking at my private copy of the website, and didn't notice that when I uploaded the code things broke. What happened was that any string with accented characters -- artist names like Miguel Zenón (11th) or album titles like David Virelles' Mbókó (14th) -- simply vanished. So I had to figure this out, and fix it. Turns out that my working machine was running PHP 5.3 while the server is running PHP 5.4. One huge difference between the two is that in 5.4 the lords of PHP decided to make UTF-8 the default character set, replacing the default ISO-8859-1, which all of my data is encoded in. I've been a stickler about accents ever since college, when one of the jobs I had working on Paul Piccone's Telos was to go through the typeset galleys and use presstype to add the missing diacritical marks. When I later worked for typesetting equipment manufacturers, I specified the unified multilingual font package at Varityper, and I worked on a Japanese typesetter at Compugraphic. I later internationalized the prepress software package developed at Contex, and oversaw localization of the software for France. I saw aware of Unicode almost from the start, and I knew the guy at SCO who invented UTF-8. So in some sense I always understood that Unicode and its UTF-8 encoding would become the standard for character encoding, I found ISO-8859-1 sufficient for my own work, adopted it early, and have steadfastly stuck with it. That's caused me increasing aggravation the last few years. I use emacs to edit my files, and it's long worked very nicely with ISO-8859-1, but it switched allegiance to UTF-8 a few years back, and that's caused me all sorts of problems. In fact, when I discovered this problem, the first thing I suspected was that emacs had saved the files using UTF-8. I've also seen MySQL move from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8, but a simple configuration switch has allowed me to keep using ISO-8859-1 data for Robert Christgau's website. I spent hours looking for a similar configuration hack to keep PHP 5.4 from breaking not just the new code but lots of old code. While I found several candidates, I couldn't get any of them to work. Ultimately I fixed the problem by writing a wrapper for PHP's htmlentities() function, which when run under 5.4 would pass extra arguments to specify ISO-8859-1 encoding. That's not the limit of the changes, but it's the one function that I was using that was blowing up. I've since gone back and applied this fix to the totals and ballots from 2011-13. I still need to look at 2009-10, but they are undoubtedly broken too. Updates are always a tough decision: they interrupt your regular work and often break things. As I said above, I have one Ubuntu machine that is up-to-date (the one that Rhapsody broke on), and another that is way out of date (the one with PHP 5.3). I've been meaning to upgrade the latter for some time -- mostly because Firefox has bugs handling Javascript, and those result in my browser crashing a couple times a week. (Hopefully a newer version will work better.) On the other hand, upgrading is going to be arduous. (It involves hopping through several Ubuntu releases, and any one of those hops could leave me broken, so I first need to back up all of my data -- and in this case there's a lot of that.) They I'll have to deal with software changes like PHP 5.4 (actually, more like PHP 5.6). Then I'll have the problem that I'll be ahead of the target servers for my websites. (That may be the point when I finally have to migrate tomhull.com to a new server.) What was that line from The Godfather they liked to quote on The Sopranos? Something about trying to break out of the family business and go legit, then getting dragged back in. Looks like I'm still periodically condemned to hack. |
