Blog Entries [20 - 29]

Monday, July 21, 2025

Music Week

July archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 44557 [44524] rated (+33), 16 [16] unrated (-0).

I never really bought the idea of a Reagan Revolution. Although the long-term consequences of the 1980 election were profound, the immediate impact was fairly mild, in part because they still felt the need to disguise what they were doing, in part because the institutions that came out of the New Deal, WWII, and the postwar era up through Johnson and in some cases even Nixon were still pretty robust. Reagan himself remained a sunny tonic, personally much more popular than his policies, although I never even for a moment fell for him. My stock line about the 1980s was that the only growth industry in America was fraud. No surprise that the president himself was one huge, paper-thin charlatan, but he got away with it, mostly because the media and Democrats like Clinton and Obama wanted in on the graft.

On the other hand, the first six months of Trump's second coming does feel like revolution, especially if, like me, you've gotten past the old left sentiment that revolutions advance us toward more just societies. A more clinical view of revolution is that it's a time when the old order turns brittle and cracks, allowing some new parties a sudden rush to unconstrained power. I've been thinking about these issues for most of my life, and I think I have a distinctly different take on the moment. I came out of the 2024 election with the sense that something profoundly weird had just happened. At this point, I think we can start to clarify what that was, why it happened, what it means, and where it's likely to go.

I don't know that I can write all that up, but my plan is to give it a few weeks and see what comes out. Worst case I add it to all the other failed book outlines I've cranked out since the 1990s (or maybe the 1970s, when I had lots of book ideas, but definitely not the 1980s, when the only one was a threaded novel about what killed my wife). I have some ideas about how to put it together. But first, after my immersion in the Francis Davis Poll, I figured I should take a few days and knock out a Loose Tabs piece. I did, after all, have some scraps saved up, plus a good number of open tabs. That wound up taking up all of last week.

This week, I have this Music Week today, and some (probably pointless) medical tests tomorrow, but after that I intend to knuckle down, with several other tasks available for breaks. Some of this is leftover or continuing house work. I figure I should start doing some preliminary Poll work in September: reviewing voter lists, rebuilding the website. The only other thing I feel like mentioning here is that I've set up a Substack newsletter, which I'm calling Notes on Everyday Life -- a name that some friends used for an underground/new left tabloid circa 1972-74. I've held a domain name to that effect for some time now, perhaps hoping to reunite the band, but these days it seems to just be me. My idea now is to demolish the current WordPress blog on the website and replace it with some kind of Mediawiki, that I can use for a topic sort of my scattered writings. I don't know how soon that can happen -- unlikely in the next month or two, unless I can find some help -- but while I see it as eventually related to the newsletter, it's not a precondition.

The newsletter, at first anyway, will offer periodic reports on my projects and thinking. I hope to send my debut "hello world" post out by the end of the week, but I'm pleased to note that I already have two subscribers, so I can rest assured that someone will read whatever I come up with. As this is the first time I've actually mentioned it, perhaps some more of you will sign up by the time I roll out? To keep thing simple, I haven't set up a paid tier, nor am I likely to anytime soon now. I started a planning document, but it's way too messed up to share at this point. I will have one at some point, as I figure things out. Meanwhile, I'd welcome any questions and/or comments.

I will say that what I'm looking/hoping for with Substack is:

  1. A way to send push notices out on demand, without the personal hassle of having to manage my own email list.
  2. A more concrete sense of how many people are reading, both based on the mailing list and statistical tools
  3. More feedback through a comment forum, which again should require a fairly minor amount of my time to monitor.

Those are all points that I didn't see any other easy method of implementing on my own. They mostly address my insecurity as a writer, which goes to motivation. I'm not a fan of the basic Substack paradigm, which is: everyone go into your own room and mount a soapbox no one else will ever notice. If I had a grant (not as a content provider, but as an ISP) I'd design something very different. Still, I probably wasted a lot of time considering alternatives, which only started to differentiate once one had commercial ambitions.

One nice thing from Substack so far: I wrote a comment to Robert Christgau's Xgau Sez, and was surprised to get 9 likes and 1 thoughtful reply -- 2-3 times the best I do on X or Bluesky. The comment was about grading A+ records, and took a bit of research to prepare for.

The research led me to add (or revalue) grades in my database for several items I had missed. As both of our databases were constructed over many decades of listening, both have a fair number of obsolete editions -- long out-of-print and/or superseded by later editions, often with new names/covers (like the Motown set). I never bothered listing the Ray Charles set before, because it was so long gone, but I did have (and love) it -- it was basically my first real overview of his work (although I certainly knew singles from much earlier). However, one of the things you can do with our datasets is explore similarities and divergences, as I did in my notebook. Having the same albums in both facilitates that. I've gone out of my way to listen to most of his A-list albums. I have a list somewhere of items I still haven't heard, which must run well over 100, but the A+ subset is small, so I figured I should close out that gap. I drew a line, however, at doing cover graphics, in each case for its own reason, which you can probably guess.

First non-jazz A- records this week in quite a while, to some extend diminishing returns after all the jazz finds that surfaced in the Poll, but also because I needed a break. Four (of five) come from the June and July Consumer Guides, and they are all strong records by old-timers. The fifth (James McMurtry) could also have been, as Christgau has gone A- or higher on him 5 times since 2004. In this case, however, I got my tip from Christian Iszchak, who also pointed me to Hailey Whitters, Youssou N'Dour, and Little Simz.

I still expect to write up some notes on the DownBeat Critics Poll, but for reasons unknown I haven't gotten my hard copy of the magazine yet. I have found a link to the online edition, but figured I'd wait until I could see better. I mentioned this in yesterday's Loose Tabs (which also includes a couple other music-related sections). I inevitably find more items to add there, but haven't had time today to make more than a couple minor edits.

PS: I was playing Hailey Whitters' Corn Queen when I initially posted this. A few minutes later, I decided to bump the album up a notch, from B+(***) to A-. I think I caught all the tables, but didn't edit do a thorough edit, so things like the A-list count may be off. The Springsteen album was another late add, not reflected in the rated count, but included in the A-list count.

New records reviewed this week:

Michael Arbenz Meets Andy Sheppard: From Bach to Ellington: Live (2025, self-released): Swiss pianist, studied classical, twin brother of drummer Florian Arbenz, has a couple albums from back around 2001. His brother got real active during the Covid lockdown with various long-distance encounters, and he eventually got sucked into several of those, then spun out on his own, with an album on Ellington, and another called Classicism. Duo with a British saxophonist, perhaps best known for collaborations with Carla Bley (notes also mention Gil Evans and George Russell, which makes for a nice trifecta). B+(**) [bc]

Elia Aregger Trio: Live (2025, Unit): German guitarist, seems to be his/their first album, with Marius Summer (bass) and Alessandro Alarcon (drums). B+(*) [sp]

Willi Carlisle: Winged Victory (2025, Signature Sounds): Folk/country singer-songwriter, based in Arkansas, fifth album since 2018 (counting a recent self-released set of covers I should probably check out). Minor tidbit from his bio that looms surprisingly large here is that his father was a "polka musician." That's just one of many oddments I find amusing but can't quite make sense of. Possibly worth a revisit, but not yet. B+(***) [sp]

Dawn Clement/Buster Williams/Matt Wilson: Delight (2024 [2025], Origin): Pianist, sings some, several records since 2003, most recently in Esthesis Quartet, also played on Matt Wilson's Good Trouble. Great rhythm section here. B+(**) [cd]

Marco Colonna: Icarus Falling: To Mosab Abu Toha (2025, self-released): Saxophone trio, the leader, with a fairly long list of credits since 2011, on baritone, with Renato Ferreira (tenor) and Simone Alessandrini (soprano), the album dedicated to the Palestinian poet. B+(**) [bc]

Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. & the Wild Magnolias: Chip Off the Old Block (2025, Strong Place Music): As Mardi Gras Indians go, my top pick has always been the Meters-powered The Wild Tchoupitoulas (1976), but the Wild Magnolias, led by Bo Dollis (1944-2015), beat them to the punch in 1974, and they were fun too. Both groups still exist, the Tchoups lately led by Flagboy Giz, with the somewhat more prolific Magnolias backing Bo Jr. B+(*) [sp]

Lafayette Gilchrist & New Volcanoes: Move With Love (2025, Morphius): Pianist, based in Baltimore, first came to my attention with David Murray around 2004 but seems to have had albums as early as 1999. Has a previous live album with this group from 2011, and another in 2018 (billed as "EP," but the 5 tracks add up to 54:50). This was live, no date given, an octet with trumpet, trombone, tenor sax, guitar, bass guitar, drums, and percussion, plus two extra saxophones on 4 (of 6) tracks: the one that repeatedly caught my ear was Christian Hizon's trombone, amid much good-natured funk and revelry. B+(***) [cd] [07-25]

Kali Trio: The Playful Abstract (2022-23 [2025], Ronin Rhythm): Swiss trio of Raphael Lohrer (piano), Urs Müller (guitar), and Nicolas Stocker (drums), each with related electronics, third album, follows the rhythm-centric schema of producer Nik Bärtsch. B+(*) [sp]

Hélène Labarrière: Puzzle (2025, Jazzdor): French bassist, more than a dozen albums since 1988, this a quintet with Catherine Delaunay (clarinet), Robin Fincker (sax), Stéphane Bartelt (guitar), and Simon Goubert (drums). Some very powerful stretches here, but rough in spots. B+(**) [bc]

José Lencastre/Flak: Cloudy Skies (2025, Phonogram Unit): Portuguese duo, tenor sax and guitar, the latter aka João Pires de Campos -- the latter started in the rock band Rádio Macau in 1984, but since moved into jazz with String Theory and numerous collaborations. B+(**) [bc]

Adrianne Lenker: Live at Revolution Hall (2024 [2025], 4AD): Singer-songwriter, leader of Big Thief, has several albums on the side, 2024's Bright Future was widely touted as one of the year's best. I had a lot of difficulty with it, something I summed up as "hard to hear," meaning it took much more effort than it seemed to reward, while conceding there was something in it for those who stuck with it. That goes double for this live spinoff, "audio from 3 days of the 2024 Bright Future tour," an intimate live setting with all the ambiance (and audience), an unobtrusive band (maybe just piano and violin), some songs (if you can hear them, which for me is random enough to suspect there may be more if I bothered), running on through 43 tracks to 126 minutes, digital only (aside from limited edition double-cassette). B+(**) [sp]

Peter Lin/AAPI Jazz Collective: Identity (2024 [2025], OA2): Trombonist, born in Louisiana, traces his heritage back to Taiwan, AAPI stands for Asian-American and Pacific Islander, a quintet with Erena Terakubo (alto sax/flute), Mike Bond (piano), Daseul Kim (bass), and Wen-Ting Wu (drums), plus guest spots for Mỹ Tâhn Huynh (vocals, 3 tracks) and Brandon Choi (trumpet, 4 tracks). Nice swing feel, vocals included. B+(***) [cd]

Little Simz: Lotus (2025, Little Simz): British rapper Simbi Ajikawo, sixth album since 2015. Good reputation, and I've been impressed in the past, but seems like a lot of work to connect with this. What am I missing? B+(*) [sp]

David Lord: Forest Standards Vol. 4 (2022 [2024], BIG EGO): Guitarist, fourth album since 2018, with alto sax (Alex Sadnik), bass clarinet (Brian Walsh), bass (Billy Mohler), and drums (Chad Taylor). B+(*) [sp]

Emi Makabe: Echo (2025, Sunnyside): Japanese singer-songwriter, based in New York, second or third album, also plays shamisen and flute, filed under jazz but I'm not feeling it (even though I'm impressed with the credentials of the band, a trio of Vitor Gonçalves, Thomas Morgan, and Kenny Wollesen, with guest spots for Bill Frisell and Jason Moran). A bit of spoken word sounds promising. B [sp]

James McMurtry: The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy (2025, New West): Singer-songwriter from Texas, father a famous novelist, started recording his songs in 1989, may have always had a knack for storytelling but real breakthrough was in 2005 with Childish Things, and he's rarely disappointed since. This took a bit, but "Sons of the Second Sons" caught my attention -- not many other songs about primogeniture, but the word I noticed was "genocide" (as in "products of genocide" leading up to "in search of a Caesar"). A- [sp]

Youssou N'Dour: Éclairer Le Monde - Light the World (2025, self-released): Senegalese superstar, 41st album (by one count). B+(***) [sp]

Pat Petrillo: Contemporaneous (2024 [2025], Innervision): Drummer, has a previous Pat Petrillo Big Rhythm Band album (2022), gets more with less here. Ambition is: "a mashup of Snarky Puppy and the Brecker Brothers, jamming with Weather Report at Grover Washington Jr's backyard barbecue in Philly." When those are your terms, it's hard, and perhaps pointless, to quibble over whether you succeeded or not. B+(*) [cd]

Public Enemy: Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025 (2025, Enemy): I noticed that Chuck D had a new album out in May, and gave it a cursory spin, but wasn't aware of this one until it showed up in Christgau's Consumer Guide. The sound is definitely there, and they have lots to be angry about, so this seems right for the times. "God ain't on your side . . . this time!" A- [sp]

Stefan Schultze/Peter Ehwald/Tom Rainey: Public Radio (2024 [2025], Jazzwerkstatt): German pianist, several albums since 2011, one previous with this trio (tenor sax, drums), more group work with Ehwald. Front cover lists Ehwald first, but most other sources start with the pianist. B+(**) [sp]

Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band: Land of Hopes & Dreams (2025, Columbia): Live "EP" from a May 14, 2025 concert in Manchester [UK] (31:39, 4 songs + 2 "introductions"), rushed out for a moment of clarity, against the tide. I wince at the bit about "allies," and I feel less chauvinist and less righteous, but I can still join in saying: Amen. A- [sp]

Dlala Thukzin: 031 Studio Camp 2.0 (2025, Dlala): South African amapiano DJ, Discogs comes up short but Wikipedia lists eight albums since 2020, and this is the fifth in my file. B+(***) [sp]

Tropos: Switches (2024 [2025], Endectomorph Music): Brooklyn-based quartet, at least one previous album, all members contribute songs: Ledah Finck (violin), Yuma Uesaka (clarinet/bass clarinet), Phillip Golub (piano), Aaron Edgcomb (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Hailey Whitters: Corn Queen (2025, Big Loud/Pigasus): Country singer-songwriter from Iowa, fourth album since 2015, second to get some big label distribution. This is catchy, appealing, with solid songs and sound. A- [sp]

Sarah Wilson: Incandescence (2024 [2025], Brass Tonic): Trumpet player, "(12)" in Discogs, three previous albums (2006, 2010, 2021), sings some but not here, a postbop sextet with alto sax, trombone, guitar, bass, and drums. B+(*) [cd]

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts: Talkin to the Trees (2025, The Other Shoe/Reprise): After 3-4-5-? retreaded new albums in the last year, he surprises us with a really new one. Not that the music sounds very new, but the lyrics (or rants, if you prefer) are ripped from today's headlines (and some fine print). No doubt this belongs in his voluminous second tier, but three plays in and that seems good enough. A- [cd]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Manu Dibango: Dibango 82 (1982 [2025], We Want Sounds): Saxophonist from Cameroon (1933-2020), played in Paris with Joseph Kabasele before leading his own groups, scoring a big hit in 1972 with "Soul Makossa." Previously unissued session. B+(**) [bc]

John Lee Hooker: The Charcot Sessions (1969 [2024], Southern Echoes): Major blues guitarist-singer, d. 2001, sources divided on his birth (1912 or 1917), by which time he seemed even more ancient than he was -- a topic of a running joke in Robert Christgau's reviews. He did his major work starting with "Boogie Chillen" in 1948, and he just got deeper as he aged until he became such a monument he could build albums out of casual duets (e.g., The Best of Friends). These Paris sessions were previously released on obscure labels (America, Carson, Blue Moon; most on a 1970 French LP I Wanna Dance All Night), collected together here for 2-CD or 3-LP. Nothing spectacular, but consistent as ever. B+(***) [bc]

Grace Potter: Medicine (2008 [2025], Hollywood): Singer-songwriter from Vermont, solo debut 2002, also recorded as Grace Potter & the Nocturnals (2005-13), went unnoticed by me until her 2023 album Mother Road made my A-list. This one was recorded as a solo album in 2008 by T-Bone Burnett, but shelved, with 8 of 12 songs appearing on her 2010 Grace Potter & the Nocturnals album. Pretty solid album. B+(***) [sp]

Old music:

Billie Holiday: Ken Burns Jazz: The Definitive Billie Holiday (1936-58 [2000], Verve): I found this on Christgau's A+ list, and was surprised to find it not even in my database -- I thought I had all of the Ken Burns Jazz titles. If you want a single-disc career-spanning overview, this should do the job, but by the time this came out, I may not have seen the point. I was by then inclined to eschew mixing her early Columbias (1936-42) and late Verves (1952-58) -- both have their virtues, as distinct as early and late Elvis, but still as unbalanced -- while respecting but not loving much of her in-between Commodore and Decca sides, and flat out hating the terminal Lady in Satin. Straddling worked brilliantly for the Burns edition of Ella Fitzgerald, but I'm less happy with this one. [NB: Spotify skips 3 songs.] A- [sp]

KADEF: KADEF (2023, RR Gems): Acronym for: Karma, Agape, Discernment, Enactment, Freedom. Montreal group, suggested genre: Gnawa Jazz Krautrock, the former drawing on vocalist Zaid Qoulail, and possibly from various combinations of guembri, qraqeb, and/or oud, but I filed it in jazz under producer Devin Brahja Waldman (saxes, drums, electric bass), a familiar name from many other projects. B+(***) [sp]

Motown Classics: Gold (1960-72 [2005], Motown, 2CD): A Christgau A+: no need for me to recheck it, as it's just a repackage of 2000's Motown: The Classic Years, which I keep handy in my travel cases and replay frequently, only slightly favoring the first CD. Just barely tiptoes into the 1970s, where you can see signs of, uh, maturity: "Ball of Confusion," "War," "The Tears of a Clown," "What's Going On," "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." They (especially Stevie Wonder) weren't done, but it's a good dividing line. A+ [cd]

Grade (or other) changes:

Ray Charles: A 25th Anniversary in Show Business Salute to Ray Charles (1954-71 [1971], ABC): Not technically a grade change, as I never wrote down the previous grade: I have a section in the scratch file for LPs I used to have and think I remember well enough to assign a grade to. I rarely use it, especially as these days it's usually possible to recheck such an item using streaming. This one went out of print almost immediately. I bought a copy as a gift -- actually, I owed an apartment mate some money, and offered to pay it off over time in expertly-selected LPs, so I also enjoyed my purchases for a while. This was, at the time, canonical, with a superb selection both from Atlantic and from ABC, plus a few later cuts that were probably weaker but didn't spoil the deal. When CDs came around, the Atlantics got the full box treatment, while the Charles-owned ABC masters showed up in half-assed compilations -- my favorite was called Uh Huh: His Greatest Hits, named after his Pepsi commercial jingle (I don't recall whether it was included), but I have several more (often marred by his Beatles covers). This was an A+ for Christgau at the time, and that's how I remember it, but after all these years, I should hedge a bit. I've never gotten into building my own playlists, let alone burning them, but I could see doing that with Charles, and probably coming up with something much like this one. A [ex-lp]

Chuck D: Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio: Radio Armageddon (2025, Def Jam): Public Enemy majordomo retains his signature sound, which sounds as hard-edged as ever, but the impact is blunted by the radio concept, which chops and screws everything. That, at least, was my initial take. Play it more and find more. And while this isn't especially long (35:50), it's so jam-packed I doubt one could ever get to the bottom of it all. [was: B+(*)] A- [sp]

Louis Jordan: Five Guys Named Moe: Vol. 2 (1939-55 [1992], MCA): Another Christgau A+ item, I originally capped this at A in deference to its predecessor, simply The Best of Louis Jordan, which came out on 2-LP in 1975 and on CD in 1989, and still is my first call pick. But both volumes are in my travel cases, and this one never fails to delight me. [was: A] A+ [cd]

PinkPantheress: Fancy That (2025, Warner, EP): British pop singer-songwriter Victoria Walker, one album, second mixtape, just 20:28. Seemed slight, but sustains multiple replays, getting better without overwhelming. [was: B+(*)] B+(***) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quintet: Sound Remains (Whirlwind) [06-27]
  • David Bailis: Running Through My Mind (Create or Destroy) [08-15]
  • Ron Blake: Scratch Band (7Ten33 Productions) [08-09]
  • Hannah Delynn: Trust Fall (self-released) [09-09]
  • Mike Freeman Zonavibe: Circles in a Yellow Room (VOF) [07-24]
  • Steve Tintweiss and the Purple Why: Live in Tompkins Square Park 1987 (Inky Dot Media) [08-07]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Loose Tabs

This is an occasional collection of newsworthy links and comments, much less systematic than what I attempted in my late Speaking of Which posts. The new name comes from my extensive use of browser tabs. When I get around to cleaning up, I often find tabs opened to old articles I might want to comment on and/or refer back to. So these posts are mostly housecleaning, but may also serve as a very limited but persistent record of what 20+ years ago I started calling "the end of the American empire" and nowadays feels more like "the end of civilization." I collect these bits in a draft file, and flush them out when periodically. My previous one appeared 25 days ago, on June 26.

Some of what follows I've had sitting in the draft file a while. I figured that once I was done with the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll: Mid-Year 2025, the next thing I should do is shake out the accumulated Loose Tabs, plus make a quick tour to catch up with news I've mostly neglected for a month or more. I knew I couldn't get that done by Monday's Music Week, so I kicked it out until the window opened for next week's column. I initially set Friday as the date, but I had until Sunday. No surprise that I'm wrapping this up Sunday evening, knowing full well I could continue working on it indefinitely. But I figure it's good enough for now. We'll talk about next week in the next Music Week.

Internal index:

Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill": I cribbed this from a meme explaining "what's in Republicans' 'Big, Beautiful Bill'?" Reading columns left-to-right, top-down within:

  • More than $3.5T added to the national debt
  • Cuts to food support for veterans
  • $148B in lost wages and benefits for construction workers
  • Billionaires get massive tax breaks
  • Hundreds of thousands clean energy jobs lost
  • 16 million kids lose free school meals
  • Higher premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket expenses, even if not on Medicaid
  • Cuts tax credits for buying electric vehicles
  • Increases in gas prices
  • 16 million Americans lose health care
  • Nationwide increases in energy bills
  • The largest cut to Medicaid in history
  • $186B in cuts to SNAP food assistance
  • New student loan borrowers pay more
  • Billions for surveillance & deportation
  • Largest transfer of $$ from the poor to the rich in history

The bill has since been passed by Congress and signed by Trump, so is now the law of the land. Until it passed, it was essentially true that everything Trump's administration had done took the form of an executive power grab. Trump's ability to impose his will on Republicans in Congress was also evident here: the days of having to negotiate with nominal party leaders like Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan are long gone. The new law validates and extends many of Trump's power grabs. Meanwhile, the courts are bending over backwards to extend Trump's powers even more. Some more pieces follow here (and there'll probably be more scattered about):

  • Matt Sledge [05-28] Trump's big, beautiful handout to the AI industry: The bill "bans states from regulating AI while pumping billions into autonomous weapons."

  • Cameron Peters [07-02] Trump vs. after-school programs, briefly explained: "The Trump administration is withholding nearly $7 billion in education funding."

  • Umair Irfan [07-02] Trump's plan to replace clean energy with fossil fuels has some major problems: "The budget bill sabotages one of the biggest growth sectors of the US economy." There's also a map here of how "The Senate's bill would raise electricity prices in every state." As well as the usual trolling about how Trump is the future of clean energy development to China.

  • Andrew Prokop:

  • Russell Payne [07-02] "Special treatment": How Republicans bought Lisa Murkowski's vote.

  • Dylan Scott [07-03] Republicans now own America's broken health care system: "The $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts will be felt by Americans." I'll believe this one when I see it. Republicans have broken things to hurt many people's lives going at least as far back as Taft-Hartley in 1947, yet they rarely get blamed for anything, with even major debacles quickly forgotten.

  • Nicole Narea

  • Branko Marcetic [07-08] A Tale of Two BBBs: Trump's Big Beautiful Bill vs. Biden's Build Back Better. "It's hard not to conclude from all this that Trump and the GOP simply cared more about the policy agenda contained in their BBB than Biden and the Democrats did about theirs." I suspect that is largely because Republicans have learned that not delivering on their promises costs them credibility, while Democrats don't think they need credibility because even at their most inept they're still a better bargain than Republicans. Even when they went through the motions, as Clinton did in 1993-94 and Obama in 2009-10, they pulled their punches, passing weak measures that did little for their base (and in their trade deals actively undercut themselves). Then both lost Congress, and with it the expectation they could ever implement anything (even when they won second terms). Biden did a little better, but not much.

  • Eric Levitz:

    • [07-08]: The wrong lesson to take from Trump's gutting of Medicaid: "Did the president just blow up Democrats' model for fighting poverty?" This has to do with the debate between means-tested and universal rights. It's easier for Republicans to cut Medicaid because they think it only benefits poor people, who mostly aren't Republicans, so fuck them. On the other hand, if we had a universal right to health care, then we wouldn't need a cut-rate version just to apply to poor people. Medicaid was basically just a band-aid over a much larger wound, which the reductions will further expose. On the other hand, Republicans are ignoring two less obvious benefits of Medicaid: it saves lives of people who otherwise can't afford America's ridiculous profit-seeking system, as opposed to just letting them die, which could expose the injustice and moral bankruptcy of the system, and possibly undermine the social and economic order they are so enamored with; and it also provides a subsidy to the industry, without which they'd be driven to even greater levels of greed and extortion.

    • [07-16]: The lie at the heart of Trump's entire economic agenda: "The White House wants to send Medicaid recipients to the mines." Apt sub-heds here: "America is not desperate for more low-paying, arduous jobs"; "The administration's solutions to this problem are all whimsical fantasies"; "The high cost of post-truth policy."

  • Ryan Cooper/David Dayen [07-07] Ten Bizarre Things Hidden in Trump's Big Beautiful Bill: They suggest that "with the president asleep at the switch, all kinds of nutty provisions got snuck into the bill," but Trump's such a fan of nutty that even if he was unaware, they may have done it for his amusement. The list:

    1. Incentivizing SNAP Fraud
    2. The Mass Shooter Subsidy
    3. The Spaceport Sweetener
    4. No Tax on Oil Drillers
    5. Handouts for Chinese Steel Companies
    6. The Garden of Heroes [$40M to build big, beautiful statues]
    7. A Tax on Gambling Winnings
    8. Unlimited SALT [state and local tax deduction]
    9. Tax Breaks for Puerto Rican Rum
    10. More Chipmaker Subsidies?

  • Heather Digby Parton [07-09] How $178 billion is creating a police state: "A massive funding increase for ICE means more detention camps and more masked agents in the streets."

  • Dylan Scott [07-18] Your health insurance premiums could soon go up 15 percent -- or more: "The health care consequences of Trump's budget bill are already here."

  • David Dayen [07-18] Crypto Week Revealed the Dittohead Congress: "There are no 'hard-liners' in the Republican conference. And nobody interested in standing up for the institution of Congress either." Also on crypto:

    • Jacobin [06-13] The Crypto State: An interview with Ramaa Vasudevan: "The Trump White House has helped install the ticking time bomb that is cryptocurrency directly into our economy. When it blows up, the damage will be catastrophic."

Israel/Gaza/Iran/Trump: Another catch-all topic:

Current Affairs: Nearly everything here is worth looking at:

David Klion [02-27] Chris Hayes Wants Your Attention: "The Nation spoke with the journalist about one of the biggest problems in contemporary life -- attention and its commodification -- and his new book The Siren's Call." I picked this up, because I've started to read the book, although I'm not sure how much attention I want to give it. This reminds me a bit of James Gleick's Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything (2000), which starts out with a concept that seems to govern much of everything, but all the examples pale next to the concept, which is more fun to think about than to read about. Interesting here that the interview suggests that Hayes has already moved on. When Klion makes a comment about "the development of a mass intellectual culture after World War II" and finishes with "it feels like we've come in at the very end of that era," Hayes responds:

Part of that is a story about that growth plateauing. There was an idea that an ever-higher percentage of people were going to be four-year college grads, but it stopped at a certain level. That's the structural, sociological part of the story, but it's also technological—we're seeing a generational shift from typing out your texts to dictating them, which seems deranged to me. The move away from writing and reading is clearly happening, and it is more than a little unnerving.

That bit about "growth plateauing" could be his next book. There's already a big, fairly technical book on the subject -- Robert J Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The US Standard of Living Since the Civil War -- but no one has really written the book about what it really means. For one thing, the notion that Clinton took from Robert Reich that increasing inequality would be palatable as long as there was sufficient growth and upward mobility via education has clearly failed -- and not just because growth has plateaued, which for the US happened in the 1970s, but because there never was (and never would be) enough work for "symbolic manipulators" in this or any world.

  • Eric Levitz [06-24] Is the decline of reading poisoning our politics? "Your brain isn't what it used to be." I looked at this piece, decided not to bother with it, then remembered it while reading the Hayes quote, so thought I'd log it here. I'm sure there's a vast literature on crap like this [I mean: unguarded generalizations based on defective psychological modeling, not that there aren't other kinds of crap floating about] where the exceptions turn the norms to mush. This one tempts me because I read serious non-fiction books, and doing so helps make me smarter about things than many of the people I read are, so there's an element of flattery at work here. But then I read something like: "Garfinkle believes that this aversion to the rigors of abstract thought underlies the left's illiberal dogmatism, and the right's xenophobic populism." Actually, if you had any skills whatsoever at abstract thought, you'd realize that two things that aren't things can't possibly have anything underlying them. I mean QED, motherfucker!

Peter Beinart [04-03] Chuck Schumer Cannot Meet the Moment: "In his new book on antisemitism, the minority leader offers a vision of progress without popular struggle that profoundly underestimates the Trump threat." This covers the book very nicely, but is if anything too gentle to the politician. He is certainly right that it wasn't just the Holocaust that convinced Americans to discard antisemitism: the civil rights movement was pivotal, and not just because most Jews supported it, but because most of us came to see antisemitism and racism as aspects of the same fundamental wrong. Schumer's focus on "left antisemitism" is not just an unwarranted exaggeration but a logical fallacy. All leftists, by definition, oppose all forms of subordination, directed against all classes of people -- Jews, Palestinians, any and every other identity group you care to name. Moreover, the left has a one-size-fits-all solution: don't privilege any group over any other. The right, on the other hand, breeds all sorts of prejudice and discrimination, because once you start with the belief that some people should rule over others, it's inevitable you'll start applying labels -- it's also inevitable that the people the right attack will resist, with some replying in kind, and others gravitating toward the left.

Jews in the diaspora have tended to align with the left, because they seek a principled opposition to the prejudice that targets them, and they understand that defending other targeted groups helps build solidarity for their own cause. (Right-wingers, at least in the US, keep returning to antisemitism less due to old prejudices than to the understanding that equality for Jews, as for any other group, undermines their preferred hierarchy, and their political program. The present moment is even better for them, as they get some kind of dispensation from the antisemitism charge by embracing Israel, in all its prejudice, repression, and violence -- trademarks of the right.) Some American Jews, like Schumer, find this confusing, because they so identify as Jews that they feel obligated to defend right-wing power in Israel that they neither agree with nor fully understand, often by misrepresenting or flat-out denying what that power is plainly doing. And they're so desperate to defend their credulity they buy into this totally bogus argument about "left antisemitism." Note that I'm not saying that there aren't some people who oppose Israel's apartheid and genocide don't also hold antisemitic beliefs: just that any such people are not leftists, and that the answer to them is to join the left in demanding liberty and justice for all. Name-calling by Schumer not only doesn't help -- it betrays one's ignorance and/or duplicity. This is perhaps most clearly exposed in the Schumer quote: "My job is to keep the left pro-Israel." The layers of his ignorance and arrogance are just mind-boggling. But doesn't this also suggest that the first loyalty of the Democratic Party leader in the Senate is not to his voters, to his constituents, to his party, or even to his country, but to Israel? Perhaps that's part of the reason he's served his party so poorly?

One more point should be made here: Israel is not, and for that matter never has been, worried about stirring up antisemitic violence in the diaspora: their solution is for Jews to immigrate to Israel, which they maintain is their only safe haven. They've done this for many years, especially in Arab countries like Iraq and Yemen. So they have ready answers whenever they provoke blowback. Nor do they mind when their right-wing allies use moral outrage against Israel for their own purposes, such as clamping down on free speech in US universities. Worse case scenario: people blame "the Jews" for this assault on their freedom, which they use to market aliyah.

Also worth citing here:

  • Peter Beinart [06-06] The Era of Unconditional Support for Israel Is Ending: Here I was expecting that this would be about the increasing turn of American Jews against blind blank check support for Netanyahu, but it's really more about how Trump has reprioritized US foreign policy to line his own accounts. Nothing to get excited by: even if Trump starts to maneuver independently, he has no principles we can put any faith in, and the Arab princes he's so enamored with are among the world's most right-wing despots.

  • Peter Beinart [07-06] Democrats Need to Understand That Opinions on Israel Are Changing Fast.

  • Ezra Klein [07-20] Why American Jews No Longer Understand One Another. This tiptoes uneasily around the arguments, but at least acknowledges that for many American Jews, there are limits to their support for Israel, with an increasing share becoming quite critical. And that many of them oppose Netanyahu for the same reasons they oppose Trump.

Luke O'Neil [2019-04-09] What I've Learned From Collecting Stories of People Whose Loved Ones Were Transformed by Fox News: Old piece, but this dovetails with people I know. In particular, I had two cousins who were socioeconomic and cultural twins (both small town, one Arkansas, the other Idaho), but their views on politics and society diverged radically when one fell into the Fox lair, while the other got her news from sources like the BBC. This piece comes from a book, Welcome to Hell World: Dispatches From the American Dystopia. He also wrote a 2021 sequel, Lockdown in Hell World. Related here:

  • Sarah Jones [07-18] It's Okay to Go No Contact With Your MAGA Relatives. Sure, but is it necessary? In my experience it generally isn't, but I'm not easily offended, or offensive, and as someone who's social contacts are pretty limited in the first place, I don't feel like I need more trouble. On the other hand, I don't go looking for it either, so "no contact" can easily become the norm.

Yasha Levine [06-13] Bari Weiss: Toady Queen of Substack: "How a cynical operative married a California princess, sucked up power, and found fame and fortune and love. And how technology won't save us." I know very little about her other than that she's a major Israel hasbaraist, and that her "The Free Press" is the "bestselling" U.S. politics newsletter at Substack. Levine offers some numbers: one million free subscribers, "somewhere near" 150,000 paid subscribers, and a company valued at $100 million, partly due to investments of patrons like Marc Andreessen ("who also funds Substack") and David Sacks.

William Turton/Christopher Bing/Avi Asher-Schapiro [07-15] The IRS is building a vast system to share millions of taxpayers' data with ICE: "ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration's unprecedented plan to turn over IRS accounts." This is just one instance. Sorry for burying the lead, but for more on the big picture:

Viet Thanh Nguyen [06-16] Greater America Has Been Exporting Disunion for Decades: "So why are we still surprised when the tide of blood reaches our own shores? Some personal reflections on Marco Rubio and me -- and the roots of Trump's imperial ambitions." PS: I should take a closer look at Nguyen's older essays.

Timothy Noah [06-19] How the Billionaires Took Over: "Yes, Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. But the far bigger menace is the monstrous growth in wealth concentration over five decades that made a Trump presidency possible -- and maybe inevitable. Here's how we let it happen." Long piece, lots of history.

Anatol Lieven [06-20] The 17 Ukraine war peace terms the US must put before NATO: "Threats must be imposed if either side or both reject these demands. The time is now." I've followed Lieven closely from well before Putin's military invasion of Ukraine, and I've found him to be a generally reliable guide, but I'm scratching my head a bit here. Certainly, if they all agreed to these 17 terms, far be it from me to object. But about half of them seem to add unnecessary complications just to check off superfluous talking points. For instance, "7. Ukraine introduces guarantees for Russian linguistic and cultural rights into the constitution. Russia does the same for Ukrainians in Russia." Why should either nation have its sovereignty so restrained? Ukraine was so constrained as part of the Minsk Accords, which turned out to be a major sticking point for Ukrainian voters. Besides, how many Russian-speakers still remain in Ukrainian territory? And how many Ukrainians are still living in Russian-occupied territory?

The arms/NATO provisions also strike me as added complexity, especially on issues that should be addressed later. In the long run, I'm in favor of disbanding NATO, but that needs to be a separate, broader negotiation with Russia, not something ending the war in Ukraine depends on. I could expand on this, but not here, yet.

I wrote the above paragraph shortly after the article appeared. Since then a lot has changed viz. Ukraine, or has it?

  • Aaron Sobczak [07-11] Diplomacy Watch: Trump changes tune, music to Zelensky's ears: "The president's views on Putin shifted dramatically this week."

  • Cameron Peters [07-14] Trump's new Ukraine plan, briefly explained.

  • Ian Proud [07-14] Russia sanctions & new weapons, is Trump stuck in Groundhog Day? "The president who insisted that the Biden era policies did not work finds himself in a rerun of his own first term on Ukraine policy." Which, you might recall, didn't work either. Trump's whole approach to foreign policy was so incoherent no one ever did a real accounting of all the things he screwed up, and what the long-term costs have become -- or will, as some of them are still mounting. Granted, his predecessors did a lousy job, and Biden's analysis of what Trump did wrong was faulty and Biden's fixes were worse. Ukraine is a good example: the drive to expand NATO started in the 1990s under Clinton, but the real demonization of Putin kicked in under Obama, and became much more tangible with the 2014 coup in Ukraine, which led directly to the secession crises and civil war. Trump sat on that conflict for four years, doing nothing but pushing Democrats into a hot lather over his efforts to extort Ukraine to gather dirt on Biden. Biden then tilted so hard toward Ukraine that Putin invaded, leaving the present stalled war -- which Trump campaigned on a promise to "end in a day," something he not only hasn't done but hasn't made any progress at. Speaking of things Trump could have done but only made worse (with no recovery from Biden):

  • Jennifer Kavanagh [07-15] How Trump's 50-day deadline threat against Putin will backfire: "The 'art of the deal' will likely result in the opposite of its intended effect on the Russian president."

  • Stavroula Pabst [07-18] Diplomacy Watch: Will Europe pay for Trump's Ukraine aid? "The Europeans, via NATO, will reportedly pay for the deal."

Samuel Moyn [06-25] Why America Got a Warfare State, Not a Welfare State: "How FDR invented national security, and why Democrats need to move on from it." A review of Andrew Preston: Total Defense: The New Deal and the Invention of National Security.

Jack Hunter [06-26]: Don't read the funeral rites for MAGA restraint yet: "Influencers in the movement are choosing to turn ire on Israel's role and warning Trump off protracted, regime change quagmire." But Trump is the one with all the power in this relationship, and the chorus only matters when they stay in tune. Besides, it's not like Trump needs, or even wants, ideological cover. His brand is to shoot from the hip, to be unpredictable, to take US foreign policy wherever the money leads. Hunter, on the other hand, is desperately looking for any inkling that at least some of his conservative cohort are anti-war. This leads to a long string of articles like:

Elie Honig [06-27] The Supreme Court Just Gave the President More Power. The Court's ruling in Trump v. CASA severely limits the power of district courts to issue injunctions against Trump's executive power abuses. More Court stuff:

  • Ian Millhiser: He covers the Supreme Court for Vox, and I've always found his explanations to be quite enlightening. I used to cover nearly everything he wrote, but haven't cited much of late, as Vox became increasingly difficult. So we've got some catching up to do.

  • Cameron Peters [07-08] The Supreme Court's order letting Trump conduct mass federal layoffs, briefly explained. I want to add a few points here, that may seem too obvious to mention, but are important nonetheless: (1) if Biden, or any other Democrat, was firing people and impounding money to pursue narrow political vendettas and/or to impose partisan policies, it's very unlikely that the Republican majority on the court would be ruling in favor as they did with Trump; it's even unlikely that the Democratic-appointed minority would allow a Democratic executive doing the same. (2) No Democratic president -- not just a Biden or an Obama, but you could extend the list as far left as Sanders and Warren, would think to invoke such powers, so the Court is risking very little in allowing to a generic "president" powers that would only be claimed by a fascist would-be dictator. (3) When/if we ever have another Democratic president, the Court majority will scramble to shut down this and many other doors they've opened Trump can unilaterally impose his will on government. After all, the main reason for packing the Court was to prevent any future change that would weaken autocratic/plutocratic power. (4) Any future Democratic president will face increasing pressure from their own ranks to make comparably bold actions in search of whatever policy goals were embraced by the voters. Democrats have long been lambasted for failing to deliver on promises. Trump shows that they shouldn't let "norms" and even existing laws get in the way. The Courts won't like this, but contesting it will be political, and will expose the partisan nature of the current packed Court. Savvy Democratic politicians should be able to campaign on that. (Meanwhile, the not-so-savvy ones -- the ones we're so accustomedto deferring to -- should fade to the sidelines.)

    I think the point I'm getting at is this (and let's bring out the bold here): The more Trump succeeds at imposing his agenda, the more he hastens his demise, and the more radical the reconstruction will have to be. Of course, my statement is predicated on strong belief that what Trump wants to do will fail disastrously, even on his own terms. It might take a sizable essay to explain how and why, but suffice it here to say that the more I see, the more I'm convinced. My first draft of that line had "restoration" in lieu of "reconstruction," but when I started thinking of history, my second thought (after the obvious Hitler/Mussolini analogues) was the Confederate secession. We tend to overlook Jefferson Davis as a revolutionary political figure, because his government was immediately overwhelmed by the Civil War. I keep flashing back to a weird, thin book I read 50 years ago, by Emory M Thomas, called The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience (1971), which tries to run with the idea. I only remember a few points -- like how late in the war they ran so short of soldiers they considered freeing slaves to fight on their behalf -- but with Trump one could riff on this subject ad nauseum. But it's not like we need more reasons to oppose Trump -- like there's anyone who failed to see Trump as a fascist would wake up and say, "oh yeah, now I see the problem." The more interesting thing is what happened to the Union once they were freed of the dead weight of the slaveocracy. The Civil War has been interpreted as a Second American Revolution, with profound effects, even if Reconstruction itself was sabotaged early by Andrew Johnson, ended prematurely by Rutherford Hayes, and ultimately undone by Jim Crow -- all mistakes that won't be forgotten. I'll spare you my own riffing on this, but lots of interesting things flow from this thought.

  • Karen J Greenberg [07-08] Courts open door to Trump's terrifying "occupying force" fantasy: "Trump's authoritarian playbook just got court approval -- and it won't stop at California."

  • Austin Sarat [07-16] Rule of loyalists: Emil Bove would be the perfect Trumpian judge: "A reckless judicial nominee who would serve Trump's agenda instead of the rule of law."

Kelsey Piper [06-27]: A million kids won't live to kindergarten because of this disastrous decision: "The world's war on child death was going well. Then RFK Jr. came along."

Nick Turse:

Ed Kilgore [07-01] Do Democrats Need or Want a Centrist 'Project 2029'? First thing is they shouldn't call it that, and anyone who thinks otherwise should be disqualified immediately. Trump ran scared from Project 2025, for good reason -- and clearly now, not because he disagreed with it, but because he realized it was bad marketing. Other than that, my first reaction was that it might not be such a bad idea. I'd like to see centrists try to articulate their policies, instead of just pissing on anything coming from the left as unrealistic, unaffordable, etc. I've long thought that if they ever honestly looked at problems as something they'd be obligated to solve, they'd find viable not in the corporate think tanks and lobbies but on the left. Maybe they could repackage ideas like Medicare for All and Green New Deal to make them more palatable to their interest groups, but the core ideas are sound. If so, they have a chance to regain some of the credibility they've lost in repeatedly losing to Trump. And if not, someone can rise from the ranks and rally the left against these scumbags. (Some of whom, like Jake Sullivan, are irredeemable.) More on 2029:

  • Branko Marcetic [07-20] Democrats' Project 2029 Is Doubling Down on Failure: At first this looks like the sort of anticipatory putdown left critics are prone to, but it offers profiles of the project's movers and shakers, and they are indeed a sorry bunch: Andrei Cherny, Neera Tanden, Jake Sullivan, Ann-Marie Slaughter, Justin Wolfers, Jim Kessler. That's as far as he gets, finally noting: "All but three of Third Way's thirty-two serving trustees hail from the corporate world, with a heavy emphasis on finance."

Emily Pontecorvo [07-02] Trump Promised Deregulation. His New Law Would Regulate Energy to Death: "The foreign entities of concern rules in the One Big Beautiful Bill would place gigantic new burdens on developers." I didn't read past the "to continue reading, create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles" sign, but scrolling down suggests that there are more articles worth exploring, like:

  • Here's How Much Money Biden Actually Spent From the IRA
  • NRC Expected to 'Rubber Stamp' New Reactors
  • Noem Defends FEMA's Response to Texas Floods
  • The Pentagon's Rare Earths Deal Is Making Former Biden Officials Jealous
  • EPA Claims Congress Killed the Green Bank
  • How the Interconnection Queue Could Make Qualifying for Tax Cuts Next to Impossible
  • Trump Opened a Back Door to Kill Wind and Solar Tax Credits
  • The Only Weather Models That Nailed the Texas Floods Are on Trump's Chopping Block
  • The Permitting Crisis for Renewables

Eric Levitz [07-03] California just showed that a better Democratic Party is possible: "California Democrats finally stopped outsourcing their policy judgment to their favorite lobbies." Well, specifically, they passed a pair of housing bills: "One exempts almost all urban, multifamily housing developments from California's environmental review procedures. The second makes it easier for cities to change their zoning laws to allow for more homebuilding." This looks like a big victory for the Abundance crowd, where California had been a prime example of regulation-stifled housing shortages. (Newsom was explicit: "It really is about abundance." That's the kind of left critique that centrists can get behind, because it doesn't necessarily involve taking from the rich.) What this shows to me is that Democrats are open to change based on reasoned arguments that appeal to the greater good. Don't expect that to work with Republicans. But a big part of my argument for voting for Harris and all Democrats in 2024 was that they are people who we can talk to, and sometimes get to listen.*

[*] Except for Israel, as Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick explain in their book, Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. We're still working on that.

Abdallah Fayyad [07-03] Zohran Mamdani's not-so-radical agenda: "Despite the Democratic nominee for NYC mayor being labeled a communist, his agenda actually promises something more ideologically modest." I don't have a good sense of New York City these days, or follow its politics, so I've paid scant attention to Mamdani, even as lots of people I do follow are very besotted with him. But I know my left, so the first thing that struck me here was the implicit fear-mongering of assuming that a "Democratic socialist" -- or any other label you want to assign to someone who initially strikes me as a personable and very intelligent politician, including "communist" -- would run on a truly radical platform. That he won the primary in a city where Democrats are an overwhelming majority should be taken as proof that he presents himself as a reasonable, sensible guy, and that most of the people who have paid attention accept him as such. I can see how people who know next to nothing about New York might easily get confused, but they should just accept that they don't know, and leave it to the people who live there.

I know something of what I'm saying here. I lived in NYC in the late 1970s, when rents were manageable (sure, at first they seemed high after moving from Kansas, but wages -- I made my living as a typesetter, and wrote some on the side -- were better too), and I returned pretty regularly up through 2001 (I was there for 9/11). After that, not so much, and not at all in the last 10 years. My last couple visits were especially depressing, as rents had gone way up, and most of my favorite bookstore haunts had vanished. So I can see how some of Mamdani's proposals could resonate, even as they strike me as inadequate for real change. But that's always the problem for candidates who start out with a left critique but wind up spending all their energy just fighting the uphill battle against past failures and lingering corruptions. Left politicians are ultimately judged less on what they accomplish, than on the question of whether they can retain their reputation for care and honesty, even when they have little to show for it. So I respect them, first for running, perhaps for winning, and hopefully for surviving. But I also have some pity for what they're up against, at each step on the way. As such, I find it hard to get excited when they do succeed, as Mamdani has so far. One might hope that this shows that the people want what the left has to offer. But it may also just show that the people are so disgusted with the alternatives they're willing to try anything. After all, the guy Mamdani beat was Mario Cuomo, and do to some peculiarity of NYC politics he still has to beat him again. Then there's Eric Adams. Sure, in retrospect, Bernie Sanders' 2016 vote was inflated by the quality of his opposition. So, no doubt, is Mamdani's, but it's fun to watch, because he, like Sanders, is a rare politician who's fun to watch.

Ok, more Mamdani:

David Corn/Tim Murphy [07-03] Here are the Declaration of Independence's Grievances Against King George III. Many Apply to Trump.

Lydia DePillis/Christine Zhang [07-03]: How Health Care Remade the U.S. Economy. They lead with a chart showing that health care has become the single largest employment segment, with 13% of all workers, vs. 10% for retail, and 8% for manufacturing (down from a more than double that when Clinton was elected in 1992). The share of spending has grown even larger -- outpacing even housing, which is also growing -- in large part because profits are so exorbitant. They offer some other reasons, which are valid to a point, but profits are the driving force. None of this is news, unless you're one of those people who only believe what they read in the New York Times.

Andrew O'Hehir [07-06] Alligator Alcatraz: American history from the dark side: "Yeah, it's a concentration camp. It's also a meme, a troll and an especially ugly distillation of American history." It's significant enough that Trump has started building concentration camps, but even more important is the effort they're putting into marketing them. They not only think this is a good idea, they think it will be massively popular -- at least among the people they count on as their base.

Alligator Alcatraz, like nearly everything else about the second Trump regime, is a deliberate, overt mockery of the liberal narrative of progress. It's a manifestation of "owning the libs" in physical, tangible and almost literal form. (So far, MAGA's secret police have not specifically targeted the regime's domestic opponents, but the threats get more explicit every day.) Terrorizing, incarcerating and deporting immigrants is an important regime goal in its own terms, of course, but the real target of terrorism -- state terrorism included -- is always the broader public. Liberal outrage, to some significant degree, is the point, as are a mounting sense of powerlessness and increasing anxiety about the rule of law and the constitutional order.

  • Maureen Tkacik [07-17] Meet the Disaster Capitalists Behind Alligator Alcatraz: "Incompetent and militarized 'emergency response' is on track to be a trillion dollar industry by the end of Trump's second term." I've always thought that Naomi Klein's "Disaster Capitalism" was less a stage than a niche, but with Trump in power it's becoming a very lucrative one:

    The forecasters of such things predicted last winter that "emergency management" will be nearly a trillion-dollar sector of the economy by 2030. And that was before Trump declared eight new national emergencies during his first week in office, then went about variously nuking and systematically dismantling every federal agency equipped to respond to emergencies. Disaster capitalism's windfall could come a year or two early, so don't let this lesson escape you. Those who fail to procure a no-bid contract to build the next concentration camp may be condemned to live in it. Or as Crétier himself put it in 2020: "I see the world in a very predatorial way. You're either on the menu or you're looking in the menu."

Sarah Kendzior [07-07] Guns or Fireworks: "America is not its government and normal does not mean right." Celebrating the 4th of July in St. Charles, MO, with a "38 Special" ("fifty ride tickers for thirty-eight dollars"). The title is a guessing game played at the Riverfest ("full of fun, unsafe rides").

Maggie Haberman [07-09] Trump Treats Tariffs More as a Form of Power Than as a Trade Tool: "Instead of viewing tariffs as part of a broader trade policy, President Trump sees them as a valuable weapon he can wield on the world stage." I think this is an important insight, although one could push it a bit farther. Trump has no real trade policy. I don't think he can even conceive of one. He doesn't have a notion of national interests -- sure, he talks a lot about "nation," but that's really just himself: he assumes that the nation's happiness is a simple reflection of his own happiness. He understands power as a means for engorging himself, and that's all that really matters to him. Congress did something stupid way back when, in allowing presidents to arbitrary implement tariffs, sanctions, and such. They gave the office power, so now he has it and is using and abusing it, because that's all he is. I'm tempted to say that nobody imagined that could possibly happen, but that sounds just like something he'd say.

Zack Beauchamp [07-09] Liberalism's enemies are having second thoughts: "Why Trump 2.0 is giving some anti-liberals second thoughts." A rather scattered survey of various thinkers who have tried to critically distinguish their ideas from conventional liberalism, suggesting that there are anti-liberal currents both on the right and on the left. I'm not very conversant with these people, being only vaguely aware of Patrick Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed from the right and Samuel Moyn's Liberalism Against Itself to the left, and little else other than the Abundance Agenda (under "Where do we go from here?" where it is viewed as part of the liberal revival). These titles suggest that the problem with liberalism was never what it promised but simply what it delivered, most often because the desire for equality so often fizzled once one's own needs were met.

Charles R Davis [07-09] "This is going to be normal": Soldiers descend on US cities: "The raid on MacArthur Park did not lead to any arrests, but that wasn't the point."

Elizabeth Kolbert [07-10]: Flash floods and climate policy: "As the death toll climbs in Texas, the Trump Administration is actively undermining the nation's ability to predict -- and to deal with -- climate-related disasters." See St Clair (below) for more on this, as well as:

  • Umair Irfan [07-07] Why were the central Texas floods so deadly? "How missed flood warnings and infrastructure gaps cost so many live in central Texas."

  • Cheyenne McNeil [07-08] Cruz pushed for NOAA cuts days before Texas flooding: "The Senator was on vacation in Greece when fatal flooding hit Texas." In case you were expecting him in Cancun.

  • Noel King/Cameron Peters [07-18] Trump cut the National Weather Service. Did that impact Texas flood warnings? "What NWS and FEMA cuts could mean for future disasters, explained." Interview with CNN climate reporter Andrew Freedman. NWS cut 600 employees, including several in key positions in Texas, while FEMA cuts were described as "quite broad." Freedman doesn't seem to think that made much difference. I'd counter that it says much about what Trump considers important. One side effect of all the climate change denialism is that they also wind up pretending climate disasters won't happen, so they don't prepare for them, so they screw up when they do. Democrats may not be any better than Republicans at preventing climate change -- their efforts are mostly limited to subsidizing businesses offering "green" technology -- but by accepting the reality of climate change, and by believing that government has an important role in helping people, they put a much more serious effort into disaster recovery assistance. Clinton promoted FEMA to cabinet level. Bush buried it under DHS, where the focus was countering terrorism (and, extremely under Trump, immigration).

Zack Beauchamp [07-10] Trump quietly claimed a power even King George wasn't allowed to have: "A scary new revelation about Trump's effort to circumvent the TikTok ban."

Adam Clark Estes [07-10] Little videos are cooking our brains: "The future of the internet is a slop-filled infinite scroll. How do we reclaim our attention?" I don't deliberately look at TicToc or Instagram, which seem to be the main culprits here, but I've noticed the same thing with X and Bluesky (although I've found settings on the latter to do away with autoplay). I've certainly felt the sensation, as I would scroll through dozens of short videos, finding it hard to resist, with my will power increasingly sapped. I ordered the Chris Hayes book, The Siren's Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource, after one such session. We'll see if that helps . . . if I can focus enough to read it?

Zusha Ellinson [07-10]: The Rapid Rise of Killings by Police in Rural America: "A 17-year-old shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy on a New Mexico highway last summer was one in a growing number of cases." This is uncomforting reading, even though it seems so predictable.

Jeffrey St. Clair:

  • [07-18] Roaming Charges: Masked and Anonymous: Starts with a long list of ICE horrors, before moving on to climate horrors and other horrors. He offers this translation of Ezra Klein's Abundance: "Trickle-Down for Hipsters." Offers this quote from Astra Taylor:

    Supreme Court says the president can't abolish student debt, but he CAN abolish the Department of Education. This isn't hypocrisy. It's end times fascism—a fatalistic politics willing to torch the government and incinerate the future to maintain hierarchy and subvert democracy.

  • [07-11]: Roaming Charges: Heckuva Job, Puppy Slayer! I assume you get the reference. While nobody expects Republicans to prevent disasters, you'd think that they'd try to seem less incompetent when they do happen, as with no prevention efforts they inevitably do. This starts off with the Texas flood disaster, and covers it succinctly, before moving on to ICE, Israel, and other matters. Closes by repeating his Mid-Year Poll ballot, having written more about Francis Davis (and me) here:

  • [07-07] Sound Grammar: Francis Davis and the Best Jazz of 2025, So Far.

Chris Hedges [07-11] The Persecution of Francesca Albanese: She holds the post of UN Special Rapporteur, charged with investigating the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Having found the obvious, the Trump administration is moving to sanction her. It's not clear to me how they can do that, or what the practical effects might be, but the linkage pretty much cinches the case that Trump is complicit in the genocide.

Michael Brenes [07-11] What If the Political Pendulum Doesn't Swing Back? This revisits Arthur M Schlesinger Jr's 1986 book, The Cycles of American History. Noted because I've been thinking about cycles theory, pendulum moves (including what Bill James called the "plexiglass principle"), and such, although I don't have a lot of respect or interest in Schlesinger.

Dexter Filkins [07-14]: Is the US ready for the next war? Long article on how cool drones and AI are, by a veteran war reporter who lacked the empathy and/or moral fiber to follow Chris Hedges into questioning the whole world. Ukraine and Israel are prime examples, where new techniques for dealing death are being field-tested. The real question isn't how to fight the next war, but why? Filkins, as usual, is clueless.

Adam Gurri [07-14] Marc Andreessen Is a Traitor: "It is the tech oligarchs, not young radicals, who have turned against the system that made them."

Kiera Butler [07-14] Churches Can Now Endorse Candidates and Trump Couldn't Be Happier:

David Daley [07-16]: How Texas could help ensure a GOP House majority in 2026: When I first heard Trump pushing to further gerrymander House seats in Texas, I was surprised they had left any seats open. The current split is 25-12, with Democrats concentrated in the big cities, and everything else neatly carved up to favor Republicans. Turns out there are two districts along the Rio Grande that Democrats won by thin margins in 2024. Still, that depends on Trump consolidating his 2024 gains among Latinos, which isn't a strong bet.

Molly Jong-Fast [07-18]: Canceling Stephen Colbert Isn't Funny. Coming two weeks after [07-02] Paramount to Pay Trump $16 Million to Settle '60 Minutes' Lawsuit, this feels like the other shoe dropping. The lawsuit was utterly bogus, and any company with an ounce of faith in free speech would have fought it to the Supreme Court (or probably won much easier than that), but the settlement is a conveniently legal way to pay off a bribe, and cheap compared to the multi-billion dollar sale Paramount is seeking government approval on. (And Trump, of course, is back at it again: see Trump will sue the WSJ over publishing a "false, malicious, and defamatory" story about Trump and Epstein.) I'm not up on Colbert: I haven't watched his or any other late night talk show since the election. Before the election, I took some comfort in their regular beatdowns of Trump and his crew, and especially in the audience's appreciation, which made me feel less alone. However, with the loss I resented their inadequacy (as well as even more massive failures elsewhere in the media and in the Democratic political classes). But I suppose I was glad that they still existed, and hoped they would continue fighting the good fight -- maybe even getting a bit better at it. At this point, it's pretty clear that Trump's popularity will continue to wane as the disasters pile up. So his only real chance of surviving is to intimidate the opposition, to impose such fear and dread that no one will seriously challenge him. You'd think that would be inconceivable in America, but here you see companies like Paramount bowing and scraping. And as the WSJ suit progresses, how much faith do you have that someone like Rupert Murdoch will stand up to Trump? More:

Kaniela Ing [07-18] This Viral Speech Shows How We Win Back Rural America: "Voters aren't tuning out because they don't care. They're tuning out because they've been exhausted by fake choices, sold out by both parties, and tired of inauthenticity."

Chuck Eddy [07-18] A Load of Records Off My Back. Mixed feelings here, including some I simply don't want to think about. My only serious attempt to sell my music was in 1999 in New Jersey, when we were moving and the LPs seemed like a lot of dead weight -- not least because some flood water seeped into still-packed boxes in the basement, making me think that if I couldn't take better care, I didn't deserve to own such things. I did spend many hours salvaging what I could from the mess: cleaning pulp out of the grooves of vinyl, putting them in blank sleeves. I mostly kept old jazz that I thought I might want to refer back to. I probably saved more money in moving charges than I made selling them. We moved here in 1999, and since then I've never sold anything. I do think of disposing of much of what I have, but it's a lot of trouble for very little reward (and I don't just mean money). Chuck's story doesn't inspire me, but I suppose it's worth knowing that if he can do it, maybe there's hope for me.

Obituaries: Last time I did an obituary roll was May 14, so we have some catching up to do. This is quickly assembled, mostly from New York Times obituaries.

  • John Ganz [06-05] The Last True Fascist: "Michael Ledeen and the 'left-hand path' to American Fascism." I remember him as the right-wing ideologue of the poli sci department at Washington University, back in the early 1970s when I was a sociology student there. I never had any dealings with him, but friends who majored there loathed him (and vice versa, I'm sure). This was well before he became famous for putting bad ideas into worse practice. But while I always knew him as an ogre, this adds much more detail and nuance.

  • John Fordham [07-27] Louis Moholo-Moholo obituary: "Jazz drummer with the Blue Notes who brought enthralling new sounds from South Africa to the wider world in the 1960s."

  • Jannyu Scott [06-26] Bill Moyers, a Face of Public TV and Once a White House Voice, Dies at 91: One of the few people from the Johnson Administration to put Vietnam behind him and redeem himself with a long public service career. I have many memories of him, but the one that always seemed most telling was the story of how he tried to get Johnson to call his program "The Good Society" instead of "The Great Society." Like another politician who comes to mind, Johnson always wanted more, and never got it. (Mary Trump hit a similar note when she called her book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man.)

  • Linda Greenhouse [05-09] David H. Souter, Republican Justice Who Allied With Court's Liberal Wing, Dies at 85: "He left conservatives bitterly disappointed with his migration from right to left, leading to the cry of "no more Souters." Which is to say that he was the last of the Republicans to allow decency, good sense, and respect for law to guide him instead of right-wing ideology. He was GWH Bush's second appointment to the Court (after Clarence Thomas), a New Hampshire fellow promoted by John Sununu to replace William J. Brennan (an Eisenhower appointment, and one of the most honorable Justices in my memory). While Reagan's appointment of Scalia sailed through without a hitch, he leaned so hard to the right that the later appointments of Bork and Thomas turned into pitched political battles. Some Democrats feared the same from Souter, but I remember at the time two bits of evidence that suggested otherwise. One was that he showed great respect for Brennan, and solicited his advice. The other was a comment by a friend, Elizabeth Fink, that Souter might surprise us, because as a bachelor he had lived an unconventional lifestyle. She proved right, as she so often was. (Another Liz Fink story: Chuck Shumer used to like to walk up to people on the street and ask them "how am I doing?" He did that to Liz once, and she answered curtly: "you're evil.")

  • Alex Traub [06-02] Alasdair MacIntyre, Philosopher Who Saw a 'New Dark Ages,' Dies at 96: On him, also see Samuel McIlhagga: The Anti-Modern Marxism of Alasdair MacIntyre.

  • Ludwig vanTrikt (66): He was one of our long-time voters in the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll, from Philadelphia, worked in radio there and wrote for Cadence. Here are notes on Instagram and Echovita. I've corresponded with him a fair amount, and always found him warm and engaging. Mutual friends have described him as "a really good person," who generously "did what he had to do in whatever way he could."

  • Some more names I recognize: with New York Times obituaries. Connie Francis (singer, 87); David Gergen (political hack, 83); Michael Madsen (actor, 67); Jimmy Swaggart (preacher/con man, 90); Dave Parker (baseball, 74); Mick Ralphs (guitarist, 81); Lou Christie (singer, 82); Foday Musa Suso (kora player, 75); Sly Stone (bandleader, 82); Guy Klucevsek (accordion player, 78); Al Foster (drummer, 82); Loretta Swit (actress, 87); Bernard Kerik (crooked cop, 69); Tom Robbins (journalist, 76); Susan Brownmiller (feminist author, 90); Joe Louis Walker (blues singer-guitarist, 75); Johnny Rodriguez (country singer-guitarist, 73).

    Some more I didn't catch in the Times, but found in Wikipedia: Hal Galper (pianist, 87); Alan Bergman (songwriter, 99); Lalo Schifrin (composer, 93); Sven-Åke Johansson (drummer, 82); Brian Wilson (singer, 82); Robert Benton (film director, 92). Obviously, some names in the second list should have been caught in the first (Wilson, Benton). I also took a glance at Jazz Passings, noting a couple more names (like Aïyb Dieng and Brian Kellock), but mostly from earlier in the year.

No More Mister Nice Blog: This is becoming a regular feature. I may skip the occasional piece.

  • [07-10]: This former(?) right-wing extremist is a smarter Democrat than most of the Party's establishment: Joe Walsh, "who was an extremely conservative Republican member of Congress before he became a Never Trumper," interviewing Dean Phillips, who ran for president as a Democrat in 2024, but now says there's no room in the Democratic Party for both him and Mamdani.

    Moderate Democrats don't have to like Zohran Mamdani. But if they're certain he's bad for the party, they should simply say as little as possible about him. That way, they're not denigrating the party as a whole and they have more time to criticize Republicans -- y'know, the party they run against every election cycle? But Democrats apparently don't believe that criticizing only your opponents is good politics.

  • [07-11]: Republican vulnerabilities are obvious, but the Democratic Party doesn't seem to notice.

  • [07-12]: Live by the ooga-booga, die by the ooga-booga.

  • [07-13]: Oh, look, it's time for the downfall of Trumpism (again): He's being sarcastic. Surely he knows better than to take David French's word for unease among the Magadom, especially over a charge as ridiculous as pedophilia: the reason they love to attack liberals for that is because they like to see them squirm and recoil in disgust (or look defensive in denial), not because they care one whit about the issue. And if you do manage to prove that Trump is guilty, that's just one more feather in the badass plumage they love him for. But this piece eventually comes around: "Republicans don't really fight one another. They hate us too much to do that."

  • [07-14]: This is how Trump thinks he'll turn the page on Epstein? Looks like he's doing some "wag the dog" over Ukraine. He's turning so belligerent that Lindsey Graham is on board.

  • [07-16]: Establishment Democrats choose the least appealing option: There's a lot here on how many of the young male-oriented podcasts that turned toward Trump in 2024 are turning against him, but not toward the Democratic Party (although Sanders and Mamdani have been picking up support):

    The one political philosophy that doesn't appeal to young voters is mealy-mouthed left-centrism, but that's precisely what Democratic leaders seem to want to give us all. They don't even want the Democratic Party to be a big tent that includes progressives, even though progressives seem to have solved the problem -- winning back young voters -- that the party is paying consultants millions to solve.

    There's a fumbled sentence next to the end here. I think what he means is that the party mainstream is so afraid of losing billionaire donors that they've forgotten that elections are ultimately about winning more votes. The Harris campaign offered pretty conclusive proof that raising more money doesn't guarantee winning, especially when you lose all respect doing so.

Mid-Year Music Lists: I usually collect these under Music Week, but it's probably easier here.

Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll: Mid-Year 2025: I had hoped to see more press about our poll, and fear that once again I dropped the ball after struggling so just to get my piece published. I'll collect whatever relevant articles I find here. One sidelight: DownBeat published their 73rd Annual Critics Poll on the same day, competing with our claim to be the biggest critics poll anywhere. I don't mind. I'm not competitive in that way. I'm pleased to see many of our voters getting belated but much-deserved invites, and I suspect that they helped lift the margins of their major category winners this year, especially: Anthony Braxton (Hall of Fame); James Brandon Lewis (artist of the year); Mary Halvorson (group of the year); and Patricia Brennan (album of the year, our winner last year, Breaking Stretch; our Mid-Year winner, Steve Lehman's Plays the Music of Anthony Braxton came out after their disorienting April 1 dividing line, so not a fair comparison there). I'll have to look at their poll more closely, including the list of 251 voting critics, and write more on it later. I did, however, annotate my own ballot here.

Tweets:

  • Middle Age Riot: Picture of bleeding Trump with fist raised:

    FLASHBACK: One year ago, this was staged, I mean happened.

    sassymaster commented:

    you can't grow an ear back. What's the shooter's name? Why no 24 hour media coverage about the shooter. Maybe Jake Tapper will write a book with the answers.

    I threw in this lost-gestating comment:

    Isn't there an Agatha Christie book where the murderer shoots herself in the ear to deflect attention by pretending to be the target? The ear looks good: it bleeds profusely, and is scary close to the brain, but it's safer than anywhere else, so if you were going to fake a shooting, that's the way [to do it].

    I thought of that at the time -- we had just finished a massive Agatha Christie TV binge -- but discounted it only because I couldn't imagine how they thought they could keep such a scam secret. Of course, he wouldn't have had to shoot himself. Once he dropped to the ground, he could clamp a tiny explosive to the ear and detonate it. Killing the supporter behind him made it look more real, and killing the "shooter" on the distant roof brought the story to a sweet ending. The second "assassin" lurking at the golf course further sold the story, which couldn't have been better scripted to propel his "miraculous comeback." And his media critics are so conditioned to never believe conspiracy stories they never questioned it.

  • Laura Tillem [07-13]:

    Just watched the PBS Hannah Arendt documentary. Let me count the ways it is like now:

    1. The rise of Hitler so very much like Trump whipping up hatred against all kinds of people.
    2. The deliberate starvation of the Jews to the point of extermination like Israel's concentration camps in Gaza. As currently being described by Holocaust scholars.
    3. The rise of McCarthy and the searching out and turning in and persecuting dissent in the universities. Like Canary Mission et al.
    4. The lawlessness of Nixon just like Trump.

    Makes me sick.

The Intercept [07-19] No American Gulags. I gets tons of fundraising emails, and delete them nearly as fast as they come in. This looked like one, but is actually an action pitch -- something else I get lots of and quickly delete. If you want to sign up, the link will get you there. But I was struck by the text, which deserves a place here (their bold):

When unidentified people in masks jump out of unmarked vehicles, handcuff someone, take them to an undisclosed location, and detain them indefinitely, that's not law enforcement. It's kidnapping.

When the U.S. government then sends people it's kidnapped to a foreign country, the practice escalates to human trafficking.

ICE is creating a global pipeline of American-sponsored gulags in countries often notorious for violence and human rights violations.

People sent to these overseas prisons have no idea how long they'll remain incarcerated in a country that is not their home.

The U.S. Constitution is clear: Not only is every person entitled to due process in a court of law, but even those convicted of crimes must not endure cruel and unusual punishment.

More than 71 percent of current ICE detainees have no criminal conviction — and still ICE trafficked detainees to CECOT, the infamous Salvadoran torture prison where it's been said "the only way out is in a coffin."

There should be no such thing as an American gulag.

Current count: 276 links, 13502 words (17370 total)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, July 14, 2025

Music Week

July archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 44524 [44492] rated (+32), 16 [18] unrated (-2).

Last week's Music Week was delayed until Tuesday, as I was trying to wrap up my essay and a bunch of last-minute corrections for the Mid-Year 2025 Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll. So this week's report only covers six days, although it feels like much longer. I handed my essay with standings in on Wednesday, and Arts Fuse published it on Friday, with an improved title: Sharing What We Know at Mid-Year. Jon Garelick also wrote a complementary essay, Listomania! Confessions of a Bad Voter. I unlocked the website so you could see the complete results: New Jazz Albums (441); Rara Avis (134), and all of the voters/ballots.

Once the poll went up, my next job was to get the word out, and I kind of fumbled the ball there. I did post tweets on X and Bluesky. I even posted on Facebook, and shared that with two groups there. And I blasted off a letter to the voter email list. Arts Fuse also sent out their usual notices. But that's about it. I got a couple of letters back, but not many. And when I searched for acknowledgments, I found very little (but I collected notes on what I found; see link below).

At the time, I thought the most useful thing I could do would be to write up my own blog post. I didn't expect to write a lot, but I was feeling cramped by character count limits, and somewhat nauseated by the fleeting artifice I was seeing everywhere in social media. I wound up writing well into Saturday (although the initial Friday post date still stands). I started with my original essay title, Our Second Mid-Year Critics Poll, and started out with the table of essential links. What followed was less about the poll winners and also-rans than it was about the work behind it, and how I saw that work in the present world context.

By the time I finished, I was feeling exhausted, or at least weary. I find my writing increasingly lapsing into memoir -- a feeling I need to explain everything in terms of how it affected me personally, perhaps some kind of fear of losing oneself as you get old and increasingly irrelevant, or just because I'm more aware than ever of how far estranged I feel from the majority. But I do want to make one thing clear here: I'm not disappointed with the reception the poll has received. I'm pretty satisfied with what we've done. And I'm looking forward to doing it again this fall. But I might be a bit relieved that I don't have to keep plugging it right now.

No doubt part of this is because the feedback I have gotten makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity. For instance, this email, from one of our voters, popped up while I was writing the above:

Want to compliment you for an informative Mid Year Poll. Your commentary was insightful and the results exceptionally enlightening. But most importantly, I want to thank you for your dedication to this project. Trying to imagine the countless hours you spent on this makes my head swim.

I also got one letter in the questions queue from a reader in Toronto:

Really enjoy reading your blog and getting new lines of inquiry for jazz.

Can't get into the political side too much as it drives me to the brink of madness, how human beings can be so stupid, but, I guess we're wired that way, I suppose. Social norms just took a turn somewhere back in our forebears time and it just went downhill from there.

I always keep in mind that homo sapiens were always fighting for food, lodging, etc.

Can't escape our animal instincts, it seems.

Anyway, keep up the good work and keep the polls going.

I'm sure that, even though people might not acknowledge you or your work, it is doing some good.

The jazz part is kind of like triage, where you quickly sort through the bodies to pick out a few worth rescuing, even as you know you simply don't have the time or energy to give so many others anything approaching the respect they no doubt deserve. The political/philosophical questions interest me more: I've found myself favoring "philosophical" over "political" recently, because I'm more concerned with how people think, and less so about the distribution of power -- the limits of power might be something else, leading us back to philosophy. I'm not sure my ideas have achieved any real clarity yet, but it does occur to me that much common thinking is profoundly and/or pathetically atavistic, governed by concepts that once seemed valid but are no longer viable, and in some cases plainly ridiculous.

One example is the habit of gravitating toward the leader who shows the most self-confidence in a crisis (e.g., the 90% approval ratings of GW Bush after 9/11, even though he was obviously wrong in every conceivable aspect; I saw that at the time, so why did so few others?). One thing I've thought a great deal about lately is how much the world has changed in my lifetime (which gets us back to 1950), and in the several generations before me (my parents' grandfathers fought in the Civil War, against the Slave Power). At some point I radically reoriented my own thinking to break with theirs, and to take a fresh look at the changed world. Exploring that would be the point of delving deeper into my memories, as I seem to be doing. Along the way I've heard a lot of music, so that's necessarily part of the story, but only part.

When I did another search for jazz poll references today, I only came up with one more piece: Nate Chinen: Take Five: Midsummer Magic. He mentioned that DownBeat's Critics Poll[*] came out the same day as our poll, and admitted that he hadn't voted in either of them: "it has been a challenging season for work-life balance, and I simply got overwhelmed and missed the deadlines." Chinen's essay ends early with only one album under his "Take Five": perennial poll favorite Cécile McLorin Salvant's Oh Snap, which according to my notes isn't due for release until Sept. 19 -- far enough out that no one in our poll jumped the gun (although we did get votes for several August releases)[**]. Supposedly there's more for paid subscribers: we're entering into Substack here. Although he promises he's going to vote in our year-end poll, he wouldn't be the first jazz writer to take his thoughts and bottle them up out of sight and mind.

I don't mean to grouch. I figure everyone's entitled to their own business plan. I'll be unveiling one in the next week or two, although I'm not sure it qualifies as business. I signed up for a Substack account today, and did a bit of preliminary configuration, but haven't written much less published anything yet. The name is "Notes on Everyday Life": a few of us published a political rag named that back in St. Louis in the early 1970s. I registered a domain name like that a fair while back, but I never did much with it. I have some new ideas, where the domain name hosts a sprawling pile of writing about everything, and the Substack offers a view into the pile. The main value I see is:

  1. A system for push notifications.
  2. A fairly reliable email list that I don't have to host and/or maintain.
  3. A comment system that should be fairly safe and manageable.
  4. Some statistical measures of how much interest there is in my writing.

I'm fairly agnostic about the monetization features, which I haven't set up, and may quite possibly never try to use. I'm moving slowly through the various configuration options, trying to figure out what to use, and how to use it. I think it's still premature to publish the URL and solicit subscribers. When I'm ready, I'll announce it first through Bluesky, then here. One bit that I will share here and now is the "Publication short description" -- not really a plan, just something that popped into my head when asked:

Fifty-some years ago I discovered that the personal is political, and wrote about that under this name. Now I'm trying to make it personal again, or at least anti-political.

I'll leave you to ponder what that means. I do expect to write something on it within the week.

After two mammoth weeks for A-list jazz, this week came up pretty short. Perhaps diminishing returns, or flagging energy. Maybe it's time to play something other than jazz -- despite my essay's recommendation that jazz is what the world needs in these perilous times.

[*] I'm not finding a useful link, although Chinen offered this one, which gives you a cover scan featuring Anthony Braxton, who won their Hall of Fame category this year, and touting other winners, like our 2024 album of the year (Patricia Brennan, Breaking Stretch) and rara avis runner-up (Alice Coltrane, The Carnegie Hall Concert). The most interesting claim for me is "it's the largest & most comprehensive Critics Poll in Jazz History" -- largest has been our claim for several years (177 last year; last time I counted theirs was a couple years back, at something like 113, so when I saw Frank Alkyer bragging about the size of his poll, I was skeptical. But according to Chinen, 251 ballots were cast, which is indeed impressive. I'll be interested in seeing who all voted, and how many new names they pulled off of our lists. Also how the larger electorate shifts their various standings. Aside from Brennan and Coltrane, two other major category winners (James Brandon Lewis and Mary Halvorson) have always fared better in our poll than in theirs. I've voted in DownBeat's poll for many years now, and have usually taken copious notes when doing so (see mine for 2025).

By the way, let's also link to All About Jazz's Best Jazz Albums of 2025: All-Star Break Edition. This is also AAJ's second mid-year poll: their first was hastily thrown together after I sent out invites to ours, and this one is much larger, although still only 3 albums deep per voter. I don't know whether our poll spurred these others on, but I'd be happy if it did.

[**] Substack has a Twitter-like feed called Notes. I get notifications about it sometimes, and looked at it today to investigate some stupid overgeneralization. Scrolling down, I see now that Chinen's "Take Five" is a deal where he spots five tracks "you should hear." I probably got the same link he shared, but didn't bother with it because I only focus on whole albums (well, also some EPs, which I generally disparage). I also saw a note that Chinen's "The Gig" had broken into the top 20 music Substacks. I looked their leaderboard up, and see he's slipped back to 21. Most of the top-100 "Bestsellers in Music" are musicians, although Ted Gioia ("The Honest Broker") is number one. He's a jazz critic who also listens to a lot of classical and who has never met a year he couldn't generate a top-100 list for, but he's been MIA from our poll the last couple years, a phenomenon I've alluded to. Other critics I recognize on the list: Greil Marcus (17), Piotr Orlov (45), Eugene S. Robinson (59), Will Friedwald (60), Will Hermes (65), Burning Ambulance [Phil Freeman] (98), Nelson George (99). Orlov and Freeman are the only ones there who voted in our poll, although others have in the past. There are probably some pop/rock critics on the list that I skipped over -- Josh Terry (34) is one I had a hazy recollection of and verified. Robert Christgau didn't make the list, nor did any of the other music feeds I subscribe to.

Looking at the U.S. Politics leaderboard, I see a lot more names I recognize, some that would be interesting to sample, some that would be appalling. Several people I used to read regularly are perched high on the list: Matt Taibbi (9), Paul Krugman (10), Robert Reich (11), Matthew Yglesias (14) -- but they've effectively made themselves invisible (and possibly irrelevant?) by retreating into their private lairs. I shouldn't get too judgmental about something I may wind up doing myself. Farther down, I find some possibly interesting names, and click on a couple: Amy Siskind (100), Sarah Kendzior (55). Clicking mostly gets you a feed of Notes, which are mostly graphics-heavy plugs for articles, but those two were better than most. I even clicked on a Kendzior article, and was pleased to see this: "Thank you for reading! I would never paywall in times of peril. But if you'd like to keep this newsletter going, pease consider becoming a paid subscriber. That ensures every article remains open to everyone."

I made a preliminary pass at creating a Best Jazz Albums of 2025 list. I only pulled out the A/A- albums so far, leaving the B+(***) Honorable Mention section empty, as well as the Notes section, which lists records with lesser grades. But I did manage to collect all of the still unheard albums from the Mid-Year Poll into the Recommended but Unheard list: 166/441 new music albums (37.6%), 42/110 rara avis (38.1%; poll listed 134 albums, but 24 are new reissues of albums I've previously heard, so shouldn't count here). I had previously mention that half of the albums receiving votes were ones I hadn't previously heard of. That's not disproven here, as I've spent the last month whittling that list down as it's been growing.

New records reviewed this week:

Eric Alexander: Chicago to New York (2024 [2025], Cellar Music Group): Mainstream tenor saxophonist, well establish since 1995, also plays some soprano here, leading a quartet with Mike LeDonne (piano), Dennis Carroll (bass), and George Fludas (drums). Back in prime form. B+(***) [sp]

Andy Biskin/Peter Hess/Mike McGinniss/Sam Sadigursky: Reed Basket (2025, self-released): Clarinet quartet, everyone plays Bb and bass clarinet, but you also encounter Eb, alto, and contra-alto. Biskin has a few albums going back to 2000, including such deep Americana as a Stephen Foster set and Songs From the Alan Lomax Collection. Mostly vintage fare here, I think, but I was pleased to hear "A Walk on the Wild Side" in the mix. B+(**) [sp]

Ingi Bjarni: Hope (2023 [2025], Losen): Pianist from Iceland, last name Skúlason, several albums since 2019, this a quartet with guitar (Hilmar Jensson), bass (Anders Jormin), and drums (Magnús Trygvason Eliassen). B+(**) [sp]

Jane Ira Bloom: Songs in Space (2024 [2025], Outline): Soprano saxophonist, 20+ albums since 1980, this a quartet with Dominic Fallacaro (piano), Mark Helias (bass), and Bobby Previte (drums), playing original pieces plus two standards ("I Could Have Danced All Night," "My Foolish Heart"). B+(**) [sp]

Antonio Borghini & Banquet of Consequences: Resta Chi Va (2024 [2025], We Insist!): Italian bassist, debut album 2004, group name continues from his 2023 title. With Tobias Delius (tenor sax/clarinet), Pierre Borel (alto sax), Rieko Okuda (piano), Anil Eraslan (cello), and Steve Heather (drums). This is a good setting, especially for Delius. A- [sp]

Vilhelm Bromander Unfolding Orchestra: Jorden Vi Ärvde (2024 [2025], Thanatosis): Swedish bassist, many side credits since 2008, first album as leader 2016. I count 13 musicians here, only 2 brass but an all-star sax section (Martin Küchen, Alberto Pinton, Christer Bothén, Elin Forkelid), with Alex Zethson (piano) and Mattias Ståhl (vibraphone/marimba). Intimations of grandeur, not my favorite mode, but impressive nonetheless. B+(**) [bc]

Milena Casado: Reflection of Another Self (2025, Candid): Trumpet player from Spain, studied at Berklee, based in New York, first album, produced by Terri Lyne Carrington and Morgan Guerin, hype sheet drops some big guest names without pinning down details. Some soft fusion grooves, and scattered vocals. B+(*) [sp]

Theo Croker: Dream Manifest (2025, Dom Recs): Trumpet player, from Florida, sings some, appeared in 2006 and is closing in on a dozen albums, with his electric keyb grooves he's passed over into pop jazz with some redeeming funk. B+(*) [sp]

Theon Cross: Affirmations: Live at the Blue Note New York (2025, New Soil): British tuba player, started with credits in Sons of Kemet, Moses Boyd Exodus, SEED Ensemble, and has a couple albums as leader since 2019. No date or credits I can find for this, other than "featuring standout performances by Isaiah Collier, James Russell Sims, and Nikos Ziarkas." Hard to follow, but I always loved the put-put-put of a tuba, and the sax finally emerges toward the end. B+(**) [sp]

Angel Bat Dawid & Naima Nefertari: Journey to Nabta Playa (2025, Spiritmuse): Born in Atlanta, parents were missionaries, moved to Kenya when she was 7, eventually back to Chicago. Plays clarinet and piano, electronics, sings, fourth album since 2019. Nefertari ("aka Karlsson") seems to come from England, is credited with various keyboards, flutes, vibes (and other percussion), vocals, and harp. The drags on a lot, like it should at least be interesting, but can't keep attention. B [sp]

John Ellis: Heroes (2023 [2025], Blue Room Music): Saxophonist, albums since 1996, leads a quintet through eight originals: Michael Rodriguez (trumpet), Gary Versace (piano), Reuben Rogers (bass), and Kush Abadey (drums). Ends with a nice African-style piece. B+(**) [sp]

Elliot Galvin: The Ruin (2023 [2025], Gearbox): British pianist, several albums since 2012 as well as groups like Dinosaur and side-credits. Some trio with bass and drums, some with string quartet, some with both, with Shabaka Hutchings playing bamboo flute on one track, shakuhachi on another. B+(*) [sp]

John Hart: Love Is (2023 [2024], SteepleChase): Guitarist, more than a dozen albums since 1990, trio here with Kirk Knuffke (cornet) and Carlo DeRosa (bass). More fine work, espcially from Knuffke. B+(**) [sp]

Ryan Keberle & Collectiv Do Brasil: Choro Das Aguas (2023 [2025], Alternate Side): Trombonist, has some big band experience (notably with Maria Schneider and Pedro Giraudo), his own albums start in 2007 with several rotating projects, this his second with a Brazilian group: Felipe Seviera (keyboards), Felipe Brisola (bass), and Paulinho Vicente (drums). Eight songs from Ivan Lins, plus two originals. Good spotlight for his trombone. B+(***) [cd] [07-18]

Joe McPhee: I'm Just Sayin' (2025, Smalltown Supersound): Avant-sax legend since the late 1960s, 85 now, only credited with "voice and poetry" here, his accompaniment from Mats Gustafsson, credited with "baritone and bass sax, flutes, piano mate, piano harp, organ, fender rhodes and live electronics." B+(**) [sp]

Amina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind (2023 [2025], Red Hook): Pianist, has also played a fair amount of organ, originally from Arkansas, moved to Chicago in the 1960s, involved in AACM, moved on to New York, recording her first albums 1979-80, but not many. Still, she got a lot of attention for last year's duo with Wadada Leo Smith, and for this solo piano effort. B+(**) [sp]

Qasim Naqvi: Endling (2024 [2025], Erased Tapes): Pakistani drummer, based in New York, known for the trio Dawn of Midi, has several albums, including a recent trio with Wadada Leo Smith and Andrew Cyrille. This is something else, synthesizer with a centerpiece vocal from Moor Mother. B+(*) [sp]

Camila Nebbia: Rastro O Vacío (2025, Lilaila): Tenor saxophonist, from Argentina, based in Berlin, has been prolific lately. Solo here, 17 mostly short pieces (only 2 over 4:03, and only 2 more over 3:07), a little rough in spots but impressively bold. B+(**) [bc]

Gilbert Paeffgen Trio: Der Mann Auf Dem Trampolin (2024 [2025], Rabbit Hill): Swiss drummer, also plays hammered dulcimer (prominent here), has mostly trio albums since 1994, this one with Claude Meier (bass) and Fabian M. Mueller (piano). B+(***) [cd]

Evan Parker/Bill Nace: Branches (2024 [2025], Otoroku): A founding figure of the European avant-garde, plays soprano sax here, his distinctive style built largely out of circular breathing. Nace is from New Jersey, mostly a guitarist, active since 2008, plays "electric two-string tashiōgoto" here, generating a lot of harmonic fuzz that seems well matched to Parker's buzz. One 40:11 piece. B+(*) [bc]

Eric Scott Reed: Out Late (2025, Smoke Sessions): Mainstream pianist, learned in his father's church, joined Wynton Marsalis in the 1990s, has several dozen albums, this the first to use his middle name, a quintet with Nicholas Payton (trumpet), Eric Alexander (tenor sax), Peter Washington (bass), and Joe Farnsworth (drums). The saxophonist is most notable here. B+(**) [sp]

Toms Rudzinskis: Interception (2023 [2024], Jersika): Alto saxophonist, from Latvia, has a couple previous albums back to 2014. Quartet with piano, bass, and drums, plus a string quartet on the side. B+(***) [sp]

Aki Takase/Daniel Erdmann/Kazuhisa Uchihashi: Tanto (2022 [2025], Innocent): Trio of piano, tenor/soprano sax, and guitar/idiophone, recorded in Japan, although the pianist has long been based in Berlin, and has a half-dozen recent albums with Erdmann. B+(***) [bc]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Gato Barbieri: Standards Lost and Found 1 (1968 [2024], Red): Tenor saxophonist (1932-2016) from Argentina, moved to New York in the 1960s and produced an impressive series of free jazz albums for Flying Dutchman, followed by another powerful set Latin-tinged albums for Impulse! in the 1970s, but won a Grammy for the soundtrack to Last Tango in Paris and wound up recording pop-jazz fare for Herb Alpert. This is an early set, recorded after his first album, recorded in Italy with Franco D'Andrea (piano), Giovanni Tommaso (bass), and Pepito Pignatelli (drums), half of the eight "standards" from Miles Davis (3) or Herbie Hancock (1), 2 from the band (D'Andrea and Tommaso), plus "Lush Life" and "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise." B+(***) [bc]

Gato Barbieri: Standards Lost and Found 2 (1968 [2025], Red): Same group, probably same session ("Spring 1968"), eight more "standards": covers of Charlie Parker, Ahmad Jamal, two each from Monk and Ornette, plus two Barbieri originals. B+(***) [bc]

Blackbyrds: City Life (1973-74 [2025], Craft): Jazz-funk fusion group, released seven albums 1974-80, trumpet player Donald Byrd played on their first album, was listed as producer here, the band a quintet of keyboards (Kevin Toney), sax (Stephen Johnson), guitar (Orville Saunders), bass (Joe Hall), and drums (Keith Kilgo), with other musicians thanked but not properly credited. This was their first (of three) gold records, charted at 1 (jazz), 3 (r&b), and 16 overall. This seems pretty slight, but the extras include a version of "Rock Creek Park" long enough to win me over. B+(*) [sp]

Jaki Byard: Blues for Smoke (1960 [2025], Candid): Pianist (1922-99), first recorded album but wasn't released until 1971 in Japan, later (1988?) in US. Solo, original pieces, some sparkling. Went on to record some outstanding albums -- The Last From Lennie's (1965) is a favorite, but my sampling has been limited. B+(**) [sp]

Walter Davis Jr: A Being Such as You (1979 [2025], Red): Pianist (1932-90), worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Max Roach, and others; released an album, Davis Cup, on Blue Note in 1959, but nothing else until he started showing up on European and Japanese labels in 1978. He recorded two albums in Italy in quick succession, Blues Walk half trio, half added trumpet, then this set of solo piano. B+(*) [bc]

Dexter Gordon: Landslide (1961-62 [2025], Blue Note): Tenor sax great, made his mark on bebop with "The Chase" (1947), recorded major albums for Savoy in the 1950s, but really hit his stride in his 1961-65 run on Blue Note. This was cobbled together from three sessions in 1980, and is finally getting the fancy vinyl treatment. I'm streaming, and they sound like scraps, but they couldn't be anyone else's. B+(**) [sp]

Green Cosmos: Abendmusiken (1981-82 [2025], Frederiksberg): German group, recorded this one album, a quartet of Michael Boxberger (soprano/tenor sax), Benny Düring (piano), Ulrich Franke (bass), and Alfred Franke (drums/kalimba). Draws nicely on the spiritual dimension of Coltrane. B+(**) [sp]

Sun Ra: Uncharted Passages: New York Piano Soliloquies 1977-79 (1977-79 [2025], Modern Marmonic): Solo piano, nine tracks from July 1977 -- same studio and month as the solo album St. Louis Blues, but the only titles repeated here ("St. Louis Blues," "Honeysuckle Rose") are in longer versions -- plus four tracks (three standards) from a later date. Two vocals by June Tyson, which I regard as a plus. B+(**) [sp]

Sun Ra: On Jupiter (1979 [2025], Saturn/Strut): Originally released on El Saturn in 1979, credited to Sun Ra and His Arkestra, three tracks, with a live take of "UFO" added to the 2021 CD reissue. This keeps the live track, returns to the original artwork, and cuts the credit back down to just Sun Ra. B+(**) [sp]

Old music:

  • None

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • None

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Friday, July 11, 2025

Our Second Mid-Year Critics Poll

The Arts Fuse published our second mid-year jazz critics poll today. You can read all about it here:

I say "our" guardedly. The 2024 mid-year poll was originally my idea, although based on my experience in helping Francis Davis with his annual year-end poll, especially the last several years, as his health worsened. And while he didn't actually participate in it, he allowed my use of his name, mailing list, and website (which I had built from scratch years ago). So I could say "our" in the sense of "Francis and me," except that he died in April, so his contribution to our project has now become intangible. Still, he seemed pleased when I offered to keep his annual tradition going, in what is now our 20th year. But after his death, I only did so with the blessing and encouragement of his widow, Terry Gross, so now she, too, is a critical component of "we."

But there are larger circles of "we," without which my own efforts would be much poorer, or perhaps impossible. First there is the dozen or so volunteers so serve as my sounding board as I think my way through this fairly complex project, and who often provide invaluable help with specific tasks. Some are old personal friends, but most are voters who stepped up when I asked for help -- or in a couple cases, offered to help even before I asked, and one was a previously unknown reader who caught a mistake on the website and went on to give the whole thing a very thorough proofreading. (I am a notoriously lousy proofreader, so I really appreciate help on that score.) I won't name them all here, but Jon Garelick wrote the keynote essay, freeing me to just focus on the technical details. And William Marx finished the editing and presentation at The Arts Fuse, which gave us a professional look that I seem to be incapable of achieving.

The next larger circle of "we" is the 113 critics who voted in the poll. Without them, we would literally have had nothing to say. These are all remarkable people, who have spent countless hours searching out and listening to the deluge of new jazz, and to sharing their discoveries in print, radio, and/or digital media. It's been a pleasure and an honor to have gotten to know them, and to work with them. And that also includes dozens more who politely declined to send in their lists, mostly because they lacked time and/or felt uncomfortably unsure of their choices. (I sympathize, as a critic who's guessing so often he's gotten used to not letting uncertainty bother him.)

But "we" also extends to the hopefully much broader circle of readers, who find this and other polls interesting and useful in exploring and understanding the vast and dauntingly complex world of jazz and more or less related music. This poll is by some of us, but for all of us. Although I can't say as we ever talked about it -- Francis and I weren't exactly "pals" as one voter recently put it, so much of what we gleaned from one another was between the lines, for which now you only have my word -- but my initial take was that Francis started a poll of his friends mainly to drum up some content for his annual best-of piece, only to find to his delight that it opened doors to an ever-widening community of critics and fans.

And once he saw his creation, he deemed the poll a cause worth continuing, even at personal cost. After he left the Voice, he had no need to crank out year-end pieces. (Or perhaps I should say after the Voice left us. I also wrote for the Voice back then, and had gotten involved with the poll when their IT department scoffed at Francis's insistence on publishing complete ballots -- something they had done for Robert Christgau's much more commercially viable Pazz & Jop poll). But even in those early days the poll was finding a much broader and more demanding range of postmodern jazz than was featured in narrower (but supposedly more popular) publications like JazzTimes and DownBeat. JazzTimes ran a year-end poll of their own writers, and Francis took great interest in comparing their results to ours. Their poll skewed much more commercial than ours, even with most of their writers also voting in ours. Some of this may be ascribed to Francis vetting critics according to his own taste -- not that he didn't respect and entertain other viewpoints. (I'm probably less picky, or maybe just less discerning than he was, possibly because I'm less convinced of my own opinions, and maybe because I'm too aware of how idiosyncratic my views are to expect others to share them.)

One thing I thought about mentioning but didn't find a way to work it into my essay was how much I've missed not having Francis looking over my shoulder, overseeing the project, even batting down my crazy ideas, imparting an air of stability and dignity to the whole affair. I'm not normally inclined to defer to authority, but I held Francis in exceptionally high esteem, and wanted to please him, perhaps because I couldn't imagine actually impressing him. I especially wanted not to fail him, where an obvious metric would have been losing voters. No doubt many of my ideas annoyed him, but I rarely pressed a point, or let my frustrations sour the relationship. Over time, I got better at anticipating and internalizing his way of thinking. I'm still not smart enough to answer the question, "what would Francis think?" But I'm not totally clueless or careless either.

I had written some rock reviews in the mid-1970s, including 10-12 for Robert Christgau at the Village Voice. Some friends had egged me into sending him a sample of my samizdat, and he took me under his wing, as he did a number of bright young writers during the 1970s.[*] In some ways, Christgau was as imposing a figure even then as Davis was when I encountered him much later, but I noticed less at the time, or cared less: probably some mix of arrogance and naivete, not uncommon in one's mid-twenties but something one grows out of with age. We became friends, and remained in touch. He talked me into writing my first piece on jazz reissues in 1996, and several more pieces in the early 2000s. I talked him into letting me build him a website in 2001. I had written some Consumer Guide-style pieces back in the 1970s, and returned to the format for an oldies column I started writing for Michael Tatum in 2003, Recycled Goods. I knew nothing technical about music, so I always felt like an impostor as a jazz critic, but I knew a lot of history, I had a voracious appetite for new music, and by then I had heard enough of it to develop an ear for what was distinctive and interesting. I had pretty systematically explored many references, especially The Penguin Guide, but also the collected works of Gary Giddins and Francis Davis. So when Giddins left the Voice, I wasn't surprised that they would look to Davis to fill his shoes. (Davis had filled in when Giddins took a sabbatical, which was when I first encountered his work.) I was surprised when Christgau asked me to write a Jazz Consumer Guide, but jumped at the chance. I figured the idea was that with Davis doing the big, quality reviews, I could fill in with quantity. And with neither of us were based in New York, they could use freelancers to fill occasional live coverage. It worked pretty well until the Voice went to hell. They fired Christgau in 2006, but Rob Harvilla kept us working up to 2010, when he too split. After that it was effectively over.

By then, Francis needed me to make sure that the ballots would be published in full. He used to collect everything on his own, then dump the whole pile on me when it was done. I wound up spending more time checking his work than it would have taken me to count the ballots in the first place. Somewhere along the line, I managed to make myself indispensable, so every poll started with an email asking whether I would be available to help out, and making it seem like without me the poll would end. For reasons too embarrassing to explain here, I always was. Sometimes I would nominate a voter, or write a bit on the side, and he was usually open to that. But he was something of a control freak: not unreasoning, arbitrary, or cruel, but very much in charge. I could respect that. He was a great man, and I was pleased to be able to help him. Later, as his health failed, he needed more and more help, and eventually had to cede everything to me. But he had that commanding air about him, even as he became nearly helpless in the last poll, when I finally had effective control, and started inviting almost totally unvetted European critics just to mix things up (and make my numbers: I was proud of that record 177 in 2024). And he actually was pretty gracious, so perhaps my insecurity had gotten out of hand.

At some point along the way, one of our voters made a reference to "the Francis Davis poll," and I latched onto that idea. At first it seemed like a harmless bit of flattery, a way of keeping him engaged as he was slipping away. But he didn't object, and once thanked me for "turning him into a brand." But the name now feels like a legacy to maintain, as well as an inspiration to carry on. How long I can continue isn't clear. While Davis seemed like much the senior figure, I'm only four years younger than him. My present plan is to run a 20th Annual Poll in November, then we'll see.

I'd like to, in the meantime, significantly redesign the website. The present one, at least since 2016 or so, has been cobbled together by tacking each new year onto the end: I start with a copy of the previous year, then edit some dates, tweak the programs, and build up a new set of data files. The top level is just an index of polls. And the early years are just scattered files that originally appeared elsewhere, as they predate the software I wrote to generate the web pages. A better solution would be to consolidate the history at the top level: the bits that have changed over time can be documented as such, while the continuities only need to be written up once. I tried to write some of this up in 2022, in an essay I don't recall him as being very happy with. Since he can no longer correct me, it would be good to go back through his files to check what he was thinking: a big and no doubt fascinating project.

The second thing would be to consolidate the data in a database. This would allow us to construct queries that cross poll boundaries: for example, we could see how a critic voted from year to year, or how an artists' albums fared each year. Those are simple things I frequently wonder about, but only scratch the surface. The biggest problem here is dealing with the rule changes over time. I suspect we will also find errors made long ago, and will have to explain them one way or another. I don't have a detailed design here, but I do have a fairly good feel for the data, to help organize it in more useful form.

This is conceivably a large amount of work -- even if I don't seriously consider any of the "blue sky" notions that keep popping into my head, like community and resource development -- and I'm not sure I'm really up to it. I've always had a pretty solid work ethic (runs in my family) but I never developed the discipline to really see my ideas through, let alone to satisfy standards that have been diagnosed as perfectionist. Consequently, much of what I do is driven by my personal desire to help friends (also runs in my family), driven by their needs and limited by satisfaction -- which is probably why the Christgau and Davis websites are good enough to serve their purposes, but not nearly as good as they could (or should) be, and also why my own website (and for that matter much of my life) remains a rambling, incoherent mess.

It seems like one area where I always come up short is in getting the word out. When the essays were published on ArtsFuse, I put out my usual notices on X, Bluesky, and also one on Facebook (with further shares to two groups). I also sent mail to all of the voters (not that gmail necessarily delivered it all). I hoped people would take notice and spread the word. So when I later searched through Google, I was rather disappointed at how little I found:

I also have a few personal thanks in my inbox (4 in response to the group email, a few more elsewhere). I will likely find more in the days to come, but not much. Previous polls produced more feedback, but not a lot more. Nothing really does. Some of this is probably my fault: I don't make it especially easy to comment or to contact me. My engagement in social media is fairly minimal. Perhaps my style and airs put people off? Or maybe the world is just so saturated with demands for attention that everyone is turned off. The season may even have an effect.

I fairly regularly throw out questions on the off chance that someone might take an interest and answer, but they rarely do. At some point during my ruminations on the poll, I asked for tips on how to get noticed, and I did get one answer back on that. The suggestion was that we needed a logo, so the poll could be used as branding in the promotion of winning albums. And with this logo, we could get publicists to promote their winning albums, and thereby propagate the brand without having to pay for out own PR. I'm not dead set against this strategy. I'm on pretty good terms with quite a few publicists, and I usually try to keep them informed and interested (although I've been remiss so far in notifying them). And while I'd say I'm a "no logo" kind of guy (and not just because of the politics of this), I don't doubt that a little more graphic design would spruce up the website (and possibly seduce the aggregators into giving us a bit more presence). But I was thinking more in terms of trying to get more people (especially voters) to write up their own takes on the poll (or at least blast their own ballots out). That was part of the reason for inviting Jon Garelick to write his essay. (He's a regular Arts Fuse writer, so we already had leverage there.) I even toyed with the idea of offering interviews, which isn't really in my nature, but I know enough about the poll I could probably muddle through. Still, it's not too late to try again. After this post, I'll pivot back to publicity again.

But the logo idea got me thinking about the big difference between our poll and more famous others, ranging from small potatoes like the JJA Jazz Awards to big-time publicity rackets like the Grammys. It's not just the logo that we don't have. We also don't have trophies. Nor do we have dinners, where we can wear formal dress and hobnob with celebrities. Steve Lehman can brag about his win, but it's not going to get him a subway pass or a hot dog or much of anything else tangible. It's not even going to get him the chance to meet some of the critics who admire his work. And the further down the list you go, the less you have to brag about -- although in my book making the list at all is some kind of honor.

If someone approached me with some pro bono graphic design or publicity work, I'd seriously consider it, because I think the poll does good work, and more people should find out about it. But if someone offered to turn it into a spectacle, I'd probably just walk away in disgust. It's true that I've made a little bit of money off my work here, but that was never my reason, and I'm pretty sure that was never Francis's reason either. I've been fortunate in my later years is that I've been able to write and do what I want with virtually no regard to earning an income. That's a rare luxury in a world where there is actually very damn little correlation between the social worth of work and its remuneration. It's about as good a definition of freedom as you can find. So I don't see any point in sacrificing that just to toil in someone else's circus. I'd rather keep doing things that are actually interesting for their own sake, and helpful in a world where everyone is becoming enraged by the growing fear of forces trying to rip you off.

[*] If Trish Romano reads this, follow up your oral history of the Village Voice with one that focuses just on the music section in the 1970s. That was the golden decade for New York rock and roll, and especially for rock crit, and Christgau wouldn't have called himself "the dean of American rock critics" without sensing the centrality and importance of the moment. And delay risks running out of time. Christgau gave up the post of Music Editor early in the 1980s, which allowed him more time to work on his own writing, but the section languished -- or so it seemed to me, but having stopped writing and moved away from New York it could be that I wasn't paying attention, or had just passed the once ominous milestone of a 30th birthday.

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Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Music Week

July archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 44492 [44435] rated (+57), 18 [23] unrated (-5).

Music Week got pushed out a day this week, extending an already bountiful list even more. The reason was that I needed Monday to work on my intro essay to the Mid-Year 2025 Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll. Voting shut down on July 4, with 113 ballots counted, yielding 437 distinct New Jazz Albums and 134 Rara Avis. About half of those albums weren't in my tracking file before polling, but are now. Nearly everything below comes from checking out albums that received votes. This has overwhelmed my ability to post links on Bluesky to newly discovered A-list albums. The idea there was to gin up interest in the coming Music Week, so there's little point in trying to catch up now. But I will note that had I heard it earlier, The Ancients would have made my ballot (published here last week). As a rule of thumb, I figure it takes an average of 3 weeks after filing a ballot to find another album that was good enough to make it -- and more like 3 days to find a contender, but this week shows how a poll can accelerate that process. I have, by the way, cobbled together a Best Jazz of 2025 file (jazz only, and only the A-list portions).

The poll should be published at The Arts Fuse this week, at which point I'll unlock all the totals and ballots on my archival website. Already you can see the voter list and unranked lists of all the albums that received votes. I'm not perfectly happy with the state of the notes files on the website, but beating them into shape has been a very tiring task, and there's little evidence that people read them anyway. The other thing I would like to do is to set up some sort of framework for data analysis, but that too will likely have to wait. The poll seems to repeatedly go through a cycle of three phases: before voting starts, no real urgency to work on it; once voting starts, no time; and once it closes, no energy left.

I tried to minimize wear and tear this time by cutting back on how much I needed to write at the end, I asked one of Arts Fuse's regular writers, Jon Garelick, to write the keynote essay, while I just write an introduction to the tables and voter list. While the website could still use more work, the essays are basically ready to go.

I had some vague ideas about trying to publicize the poll, including a fairly open invite to let other people see the results in hopes they would write their own explorations. To date, nobody's taken me up on that offer. So, as exhaustion sets in, I'll probably wait until November before going into panic mode again.

In the meantime, I have lots of other projects to work on. After I hit a minor milestone, I stopped working on the woodpile project. Not a lot more to do there: some final sorting, some cleaning, and construction of my recycling kiosk. If the heat isn't unbearable, that's probably a week. I also have parts to build a new computer for my wife. That's maybe an afternoon. But mostly I need to get back to my planning, especially for writing, but also website development.

I'm leaning towards restarting the political book project. I'm sufficiently upset with the state of the world to bring some heat. The old outlines are all in the dustbin. The new one is what I call the "weird" book, because something weird happened in the 2024 election, and I think I can make sense of it now. The trick will be to write as much as I can as fast as I can, which means almost totally off the top of my head. It will be somewhat cryptic, and will need a subsequent fact-check phase, but I want to go all the way through the ultimate utopian/dystopian scenarios. It will mostly be about how I think, and how I think you should think. History offers evidence, but we need to bring mentality and psychology to the fore, because that's where the struggle actually is.

If I can knock out 80-120 pages in 4-6 weeks, I have little doubt that it can be fleshed out into a respectable book. I may look for help then, or may struggle on my own. One difference this time is that I feel very little pressure to moderate my views to establish some sort of common front with pro-business Democrats. I can go back to my early radicalism, which offers the sharpest critique of all political parties.

And if I can't write that much, it shows I lack the willpower and discipline, and might as well give up (again). I can always go back to writing bits about music and everyday life, to running polls, to hacking on websites, to entertaining occasional guests, and sorting out my stuff. Plenty to do on those accounts, and not exactly worthless or unpleasant, either.

But before diving into that, I figure I should write up a little Loose Tabs, just to get back into the swing of things. How far out of it I've been is possibly shown by my finding an article called A Tale of Two BBBs and wondering what the Better Business Bureau has been up to lately.

In books, note that I finally finished Greg Grandin's monumental America, América: A New History of the New World. The last couple chapters were so sharply critical of US policy in the region that my next book had to be Noam Chomsky's The Myth of American Idealism (co-written by Nathan J Robinson). I haven't ordered it yet, but the next logical choice would be John Cassidy's Capitalism and Its Critics: A History From the Industrial Revolution to AI. Zachary Carter has been recommending the book, and I'm curious about how wide-ranging the critiques are.

Lately I've been taking a fairly narrow view of capitalism, as the system where owners of capital get all the profits, and thereby accrue extraordinary power. The alternative doesn't have to be a system of communal ownership. Basically, any scheme that distributes profits and/or prevents the conversion of profit to power counteracts the dangers inherent in capitalism. I can think of a dozen, at least, including ones that sustain nearly all of the benefits of personal freedom, independent firms, and open markets.

New records reviewed this week:

Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quintet: Sound Remains (2024 [2025], Whirlwind): Pakistani guitarist, grew up in Los Angeles, based in New York, albums from 1993, mostly plays electric fusion with Indo-Pak airs, but has two 2010-15 Acoustic Quartet albums with Bill Ware (vibes), Stephan Crump (bass), and Eric McPherson (drums), adding extra percussion (Hasan Bakr) here. B+(**) [sp]

Alchemy Sound Project/Sumi Tonooka: Under the Surface (2024 [2025], ARC): Credit from spine. Front cover reads more like: Under the Surface: Alchemy Sound Project Performs the Music of Sumi Tonooka. Group is basically a composers collective, with a previous album from 2018, playing one or two pieces from each of their members: Erica Lindsay (tenor sax), Samantha Boshnack (trumpet), Salim Washington (tenor sax/bass clarinet/flute), David Arend (bass, replaced here by Gregg August), and Sumi Tonooka (piano) -- also on board here are Johnathan Blake (drums) and Michael Ventoso (trombone). Tonooka, from Philadelphia, has a distinguished but not very prolific career going back to the 1980s, well deserving of this showcase. B+(***) [cd]

Arild Andersen: Landloper (2020 [2024], ECM): Norwegian bassist, one of the generation heavily influenced by George Russell in the early 1970s, has a major career. This is solo, with effect pedals but recorded live, supplementing his own pieces with standards, including "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," "Ghosts" (Ayler), and an Ornette Coleman/Charlie Haden medley ("Lonely Woman"/"Song for Che"). B+(**) [sp]

Arashi With Takeo Moriyama: Tokuzo (2019 [2024], Trost): Free jazz trio of Akira Sakata (alto sax, clarinet some vocals), Johan Berthling (bass), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), fifth album since their namesake release in 2014, joined here by a second drummer, who has a long history with Sakata (both were b. 1945). Some powerful sax runs. B+(***) [sp]

Omer Avital: New York Now & Then (2023 [2025], Zamzama): Bassist, originally from Israel, long based in Brooklyn, recorded this live with trumpet/flugelhorn, two saxes, trombone, piano, drums, and justly excited crowd noise. "IDKN" seems to be his song, but sounds a lot like Horace Silver to me. And there's much more like that. Also a Lucy Wijnands vocal. A- [sp]

Sasha Berliner: Fantôme (2025, Outside In Music): Vibraphonist, from Los Angeles, debut album 2019, also credited here with synths, congas, and percussion, six tracks with Harish Raghavan (bass) and Jongkuk Kim (drums), plus keyboards (Taylor Eigsti or Lex Korten) and a couple horn spots. B+(**) [bc]

Dee Dee Bridgewater + Bill Charlap: Elemental (2025, Mack Avenue): Née Denise Garrett, from Memphis, grew up in Flint, married trumpet player Cecil Bridgewater, recorded some scarcely remembered disco albums in the 1970s, remade herself as a jazz singer with 1989's Live in Paris -- the first of a string of Grammy-nominated albums (with wins for tributes to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday). First album since 2017, just her and the pianist for eight standards, kicking off with Ellington's "Beginning to See the Light," giving her a lot of opportunity to scat. The ballads don't, but she nails them too. A- [sp]

Alan Broadbent: Threads of Time (2025, Savant): Pianist, from New Zealand, 78, started with a big band in 1979. I first really noticed him arranging strings for Charlie Haden, but he's a fluid pianist with a number of solo and trio albums. Info on this is scarce, but it's a sextet, with names on the cover: Sam Dillon (tenor sax), Scott Wendholt (trumpet), Eric Miller (trombone), Harvie S (bass), Lucas Ebeling (drums). Lush, of course. B+(**) [sp]

Kevin Brunkhorst: After the Fire (2023 [2025], Calligram): Guitarist, UNT graduate, old enough to remember seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, has a previous Bicoastal Collective album with Paul Tynan. Postbop quintet with trumpet, sax, bass, and drums. B [cd]

Nanna Carling: Melodies for Two (2024 [2025], The End): Swedish singer, also plays soprano sax, second album, part of a rather large family act that goes back to 2002, when she was 5 -- the one I'm familiar with is trombonist-singer Gunhild Carling, front and center on a 2004 album cover that also cites Max, Gerd, Ulf, Aina, and Hans, with Nanna still not listed on their 2023 album, only appearing on Idun Carling's 2024 album. Starts in the family's trad jazz vein, but loses a bit of swagger. B+(*) [sp]

Joe Chambers/Kevin Diehl/Chad Taylor: Onilu (2023 [2025], Eremite): Percussion trio, each with a long list of credits, although Diehl (leader of Sonic Liberation Front) specializes in batá drums, and Chambers plays conga and idiophones and is well established on marimba/vibraphone, which Taylor also plays, as well as mbira and piano. Title is from Yoruba, which pins down the center of their map, extending everywhere. A- [dl]

Chaos Magick: Through the Looking Glass (2024 [2025], Tzadik): Sixth album by a quartet formed in 2021 to play John Zorn compositions, consists of Matt Holenberg (guitar), Brian Marsella (Fender Rhodes), John Medeski (organ), and Kenny Grobowski (drums) -- Discogs credits the albums to non-player Zorn (common practice with him), but Tzadik credits group name. B+(*) [sp]

Etienne Charles: Gullah Roots (2025, Culture Shock): Trumpet player, from Trinidad, teaches in Miami, ten albums since 2006, several with "Creole" in the title. Leads a sextet, with a large number of guests (mostly singers, not my favorite part). B+(**) [cd]

Chris Cheek: Keepers of the Eastern Door (2024 [2025], Analog Tone Factory): Tenor saxophonist, from St. Louis, albums since 1997 as well as considerable side work. Also plays soprano here, with Bill Frisell (guitar), Tony Scherr (bass), and Rudy Royston (drums). B+(*) [sp]

Chicago Edge Ensemble: Paradoxes in Freedom (2024 [2025], Lizard Breath): Fourth group album since 2017, led by Dan Phillips (guitar), with Jeb Bishop (trombone), Josh Berman (cornet), Krzysztof Pabian (bass), Avreeayl Ra and/or Steve Hunt (drums). B+(***) [bc]

Laura Cocks: FATHM (2025, Relative Pitch/Out of Our Heads): Solo flute, not a promising proposition, but the concept is "space holding the possibility of everything and nothing, a breath that hasn't yet exhaled." Sort of, if you have the patience for that. B [sp]

Coco Chatru Quartet: Limbokolia (2024 [2025], Trygger Music): Swedish quartet, second album, group named for a "legendary Swedish adventurer, inventor and actress," bassist Håkan Trygger seems to be the principal, with 5 (of 10) song credits, "design," and his name on the label, but the other members also contribute songs: Linus Kåse (alto sax), Charlie Malmberg (baritone sax), and Daniel Kåse (drums), ending on an Ellington. B+(***) [lp]

Isaiah Collier/William Hooker/William Parker: The Ancients (2023 [2025], Eremite): Up-and-coming tenor saxophonist -- first appeared in Ernest Dawkins Young Masters Quartet (2016) -- along with relatively ancient wise men on drums and bass. Effectively a blowing session, but a really impressive one. This would have made my mid-year ballot as I gotten to it in time. A- [dl]

Eight Dice Cloth: The Songs and Arrangements of Armand J. Piron (2024 [2025], self-released): New Orleans trad jazz band, released an EP in 2015 and three numbered albums since, and now this tribute to the little-recorded violinist and bandleader (1888-1943; Discogs shows a compilation of 1923-25 recordings, not much more as a performer but lots as writer and arranger). B+(***) [bc]

Peter Evans/Petter Eldh: JazzFest (2023-24 [2025], More Is More, EP): Trumpet and bass, normally, but someone seems to be working some electronics in, perhaps in post-production. Short: 6 tracks, 21:02. B+(**) [sp]

Freedom Art Quartet: First Dance (2025, self-released): Group founded in 1991 by Lloyd Haber (drums) and Omar Kabir (trumpet/flugelhorn/sea shells/didgeridoo), released an album in 2003 (with Abraham Burton and Jaribu Shahid), returns here with Alfredo Colon (alto sax) and Adam Lane (bass), playing eight Haber originals. Fast and furious freebop. A- [bc]

Sinsuke Fujieda Group: Fukushima (2025, SoFa): Japanese tenor/soprano saxophonist, first Group album, side-credits back to 2003. Group includes piano, bass, drums, extra percussion, and violin. Starts out shades of Coltrane, replete with "spiritual jazz" hype, then gets even catchier. A- [sp]

Champian Fulton & Klas Lindquist: At Home (2025, Turtle Bay): Piano-playing standards singer, has recorded quite a bit since 2004, in a duo with a Swedish clarinetist who has very compatible tastes and skills. B+(***) [sp]

Renaud Garcia-Fons: Blue Maqam (2024, Sound Surveyor Music): French bassist, twenty-some albums since 1993. This one has vocals by Solea Garcia-Fons, with Jean-Luc Du Fraya (drums/percussion) and Stéphan Caracci (vibes/marimba). B+(**) [sp]

Nicole Glover: Memories, Dreams, Reflections (2025, Savant): Tenor saxophonist, several albums since 2015, recently appeared in the supergroup Artemis. Cover offers more names: Tyrone Allen II (bass), Kayvon Gordon (drums), adding "with Lester St. Louis" (cello). B+(**) [sp]

José Gobbo Trio: Confluence (2025, Calligram): Brazilian guitarist, based in Chicago area, With Max Beckman (bass) and Jay Ferguson (drums). B+(**) [cd] [07-11]

Mats Gustafsson/Ken Vandermark/Tomeka Reid/Chad Taylor: Pivot (2024 [2025], Silkheart): Tenor sax joust, backed by cello and drums, the principal switching off to baritone, Bb and bass clarinets, and flutes. They met in the late 1990s, when Vandermark recorded with the Aaly Trio, and were part of the sax trio Sonore with Peter Brötzmann, who was not what you'd call a moderating influence, but even he slowed down with age -- or just got more crafty. I don't hear much from Vandermark these days -- he has a subscription service neatly tucked behind a paywall -- but he is certainly still one of the greats. B+(***) [bc]

Hearts & Minds: Illuminescence (2023 [2025], Astral Spirits): Chicago trio with Jason Stein (bass clarinet), Paul Giallorenzo (keyboards), and Chad Taylor (drums), third album after a self-titled 2016 debut and a second album in 2018. B+(**) [bc]

Arve Henriksen/Trygve Seim/Andmers Jormin/Markku Ounaskari: Arcanum (2023 [2025], ECM): Norwegian trumpet player, established since 2000, in a quartet with sax, bass, and drums, also name players. B+(*) [sp]

Fred Hersch: The Surrounding Green (2024 [2025], ECM): Pianist, many albums since 1984, in his element here in a trio with Drew Gress (bass) and Joey Baron (drums). B+(**) [sp]

History Dog: Root Systems (2024 [2025], Otherly Love): Brooklyn quartet of Shara Lunon (voice/electronics), Chris Williams (trumpet/electronics), Luke Stewart (bass/electronics), and Lesley Mok (drums/percussion). Interesting words-on-noise mix, with possible roots in Patti Smith and New York No Wave. B+(***) [sp]

Chris Jonas: Backwardsupwardsky: Music From the Deserts (2022-23 [2025], Edgetone, 2-LP): Saxophonist, plays soprano and tenor, based in Santa Fe, Discogs lists a couple albums (first from 1999), but mostly group credits (back to 1991), including a saxophone quartet with Anthony Braxton and big bands led by Cecil Taylor and William Parker. Three sessions here: two trios with bass and drums, mixed in with a quartet recorded in Bologna with Luca Serrapiglio (baritone sax/contra alto clarinet). This latter session is exceptional, and mixed in as it is elevates the trio work, interesting in its own right. A- [lp]

Kaze & Koichi Makigami: Shishiodoshi (2024 [2025], Circum/Libra): One of Satoko Fujii's groups, with two trumpets (Natsuki Tamura and Christian Pruvost) and drums (Peter Orins), joined here by the Japanese vocalist, who also plays shakuhachi and more trumpet. This can get seriously noisy, or fill in with scratchy minimalism and cartoonish voice -- far from sure bets with me, but for once I find it all delightful. A- [cd]

Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys: Mutiny in the Parlor (2024 [2025], self-released): Trad jazz singer, recorded Come Into My Parlor in 1998, and found her band name, ten or so albums later. Formula is simple enough: "12 tunes from the 1920s and 1930s that will delight and soothe your soul!" That works for me. B+(***) [bc]

Joachim Kühn: Échappée (2023 [2025], Intakt): German pianist, from Leipzig in the East, founding a trio in 1964, but moved to Hamburg in 1966 and started recording the next year. This one is solo, a double (13 songs, 96:13) drawn from five dates. B+(**) [sp]

Jim Kweskin: Doing Things Right (2025, Jalopy): Folkie, founded his Jug Band in 1963, kicking off the careers of Geoff & Maria Muldaur. Sat out the '80s and '90s, but kicked up again around 2003. Cover legend here is: The Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue Presents: Doing Things Right with Jim Kweskin, featuring: Samoa Wilson, Cindy Cashdollar, Annie Linders, Racky Thomas, Matt Leavenworth. B+(***) [sp]

Los Angeles Improvisation Ensemble: Insubordinate Lunar Transgressions (2021 [2025], Denouement): Despite taking a name representing a city of 3.8 million people (metro area 12.9 million), this is just four musicians: primarily Louis Stewart (piano), with Robert Hardt (woodwinds), Andrew Shulman (cello), and Michael Valerio (bass), which makes it a pretty typical chamber jazz outfit: the cello in particular gives it a classical feel, without triggering my usual aversion. B+(*) [cd]

Chad McCullough/Gordon Spasovski/Kiril Tufekcievski/Viktor Filipovski: Transverse (2024 [2025], Calligram): Trumpet player, based in Chicago, ten or so albums since 2009, here with a piano-bass-drums trio he met by chance in Skopje, Macedonia, and kept in touch with. A very elegant little record. B+(***) [cd] [07-11]

Tyreek McDole: Open Up Your Senses (2025, Artworks): Haitian-American jazz singer, won a prize named after Sarah Vaughan ("only the second male to do so in its 12-year-history"), first album. Runs the gamut here with touchstones from Joe Williams and Pharoah Sanders. B+(*) [sp]

Ava Mendoza/Gabby Fluke-Mogul/Carolina Pérez: Mama Killa (2024-25 [2025], Burning Ambulance): Guitarist, strictly electric, brings hard rock volume into avant-jazz contexts, but that may be oversimplifying things: I've never really gotten into any of the half-dozen albums I've heard. This one also adds violin (they also perform as the duo AM/FM) and drums: the latter's background is in death metal bands (Hypoxia, Castrator). B+(**) [dl]

Camila Nebbia/Dietrich Eichmann/John Hughes/Jeff Arnal: Chrononaux (2024, Generate): Tenor saxophonist from Argentina, impressive last couple years, with the German pianist (specifically credited with upright), bass, and drums, for one long improv (25:37) and another longer one (63:34). Both pieces are terrific. A- [bc]

Joshua Redman: Words Fall Short (2025, Blue Note): A major label tenor saxophonist since 1993, probably more famous than his father -- Dewey Redman, remembered for key work with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett as well as Old and New Dreams and his own signature albums -- but this also slipped into the poll window with scarcely a ripple. Quartet with piano (Paul Cornish), bass (Philip Norris), and drums (Nazir Ebo), with one-track guest spots for Melissa Aldana (sax), Skylar Tang (trumpet), and Gabrielle Cavassa (vocals). This one is simply very nice, including (or perhaps especially) the closing vocal. B+(**) [sp]

Claire Ritter: Songs of Lumière (2024 [2025], Zoning): Pianist, from North Carolina, record label name from Mary Lou Williams, has a dozen-plus albums since 1987, several collaborations with Ran Blake, claims over 300 compositions. Solo, originals sprinkled with a few distinctive standards. I'm not a big fan of the format, usually responding only to a lot of flash and/or a "left hand like God," neither of which apply here, but she keeps my interest throughout. A- [cd]

Kathy Sanborn: Romance Language (2025, Pacific Coast Jazz): Jazz-identified singer-songwriter, previous albums from 2011 and 2017, favors languid ballads with Brazilian airs. B+(*) [cd] [07-11]

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (2024 [2025], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Useful abbreviation here TSORPM, first album, quartet of Gabriele Mitelli (piccolo trumpet/electronics/voice), Mette Rasmussen (alto sax), Mariam Rezael (turntables), and Lukas Koenig (drums/amplified cymbals/bass synth), from all over but recorded in Vienna. This can be tough going, but it's not like it was ever going to be easy to stand up to the monsters. B+(***) [bc]

Something Blue: In the Beginning (2024 [2025], Posi-Tone): Mainstream label founded by Marc Free, released its first albums in 1995, has a long-established stable of players, occasionally formed into house band projects like this one, back for its third album with Art Hirahara (piano), Boris Kozlov (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums) returning from the first album; Alton Sencalar (trombone) and Willie Morris (tenor sax) from the second; and first appearances from Diego Rivera (tenor sax) and Langston Hughes II (alto sax). Title refers to the early days of the label. B+(*) [sp]

Sons of Ra: Standard Deviation (2025, Free Electric Sound): Chicago prog/fusion group, unlikely to have much appeal to Sun Ra fans (which doesn't mean that they aren't), four EPs since 2016, this their first full album. Power trio with Erik Oldman (guitar/bass/synth), Keith Wakefield (bass guitar/tenor sax/synth), and Michael Rataj (drums). Some jazz composers in their repertoire (Coltrane, Carla Bley, Don Ellis), and take an interesting change-of-pace swing at "Nature Boy." B+(*) [sp]

Tessa Souter: Shadows and Silence: The Erik Satie Project (2025, Noanara Music): English jazz singer, based in New York, sixth album since 2004, seems like I've also seen her name on critic bylines. I have very little to say about Satie, who remains inscrutable, as are her lyrics, but the ending with "Ne Me Quitte Pas" is a nice touch. Some notable musicians, too: Nadja Noordhuis (trumpet), Steve Wilson (soprano sax), Luis Perdomo (piano), Yasushi Nakamura (bass), and Billy Drummond (drums). B+(***) [sp]

Larry Stabbins/Mark Sanders: Cup & Ring (2024 [2025], Discus Music): British alto saxophonist (also bass clarinet, flutes), b. 1949, not much as leader but Discogs lists 77 performance credits since 1971 (especially with Keith Tippett). Recent duo here, with drums. B+(**) [sp]

Pat Thomas: The Bliss of Bliss (2024 [2025], Konnekt): British avant-pianist, started appearing in the early 1990s but has become very prolific of late, especially in groups he's given Arabic names to (like Ahmed and ISM). Solo free improv here, a title piece of 41:27 and two short bits. Bill James came up with the idea of "similarity scores" as a way of finding patterns among baseball careers with few if any true comparables. I'm not sure exactly how that concept would work with jazz musicians, but a rough fit would say that the most similar pianist to Thomas is Matthew Shipp, and vice versa. This is remarkable, my only reservation being my impatience with solo piano. B+(***) [bc]

Triology Featuring Scott Hamilton: The Slow Road (2024 [2025], Cellar Music Group): Trio of Miles Black (piano), Bill Coon (guitar), and Jodi Proznick (bass), not the first group to settle on this name -- (4) in Discogs -- with a previous album from 2014, joined here by the "young fogey" tenor saxophonist, now 70. Nice but not much more. B+(**) [sp]

Uroboro: As in an Unpicking of Time's Garment (2023 [2024], Discus Music): Group, one previous album, presumably English (but I'm finding too little to be sure), principally Keith Jafrate, who plays sax, opens with spoken word, and wrote all the pieces, while backed by keyboard (Matthew Bourne), guitar (Anton Hunter), bass (John Pope), and drums (Johnny Hunter), with a vocal from Sylvie Rose. A- [bc]

Jeff Walton: Pack Animals (2023 [2025], Jules): Tenor saxophonist, quartet with Santiago Leibson (piano), Ed Heath (bass), and Chase Elodia (drums). B+(**) [cd]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Frank Kimbrough: The Call (2010 [2025], Sunnyside): Pianist (1956-2020), was at the center of a very influential cluster of postbop musicians, mostly working with Matt Baltisaris at Palmetto. Recently discovered solo tape from that period, the sort of thing that those who knew and revered him will fall for completely. B+(**) [sp]

Old music:

Nanna Carling: That's a Plenty (2022, Solters): First album, plays alto as well as soprano sax, also clarinet, and just lets the trad jazz band rip on the title cut. That's a real strength. B+(**) [bc]

Janet Klein: Come Into My Parlor (1998, Coeur De Jeanette): First album, plays ukulele and sings 26 "sweet, naughty and lovely tunes from the 1910's, 20's, and 30's," backed by John Reynolds (guitar) and Robert Loveless (mandolin, harmonica and accordion). B+(**) [sp]

Klas Lindquist: The Song Is You (2015, Do Music): Swedish clarinetist, accompanies Champian Fulton on her latest album, strikingly enough I wanted to look into his back catalog. Also plays alto sax here, in a quartet with guitar (Erik Söderlind), bass (Svante Söderqvist), and drums (Jesper Kviberg). I'm not seeing song credits, but mostly swinging standards. B+(**) [sp]

Klas Lindquist: Handle With Care (2024, Yellow Car): Fifth release as leader, some originals, more standards (including "Tea for wo," "Cry Me a River," "Stardust," "Cherokee," "Come Sunday"), just alto sax here, backed by piano, bass, and drums. B+(**) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Dawn Clement/Buster Williams/Matt Wilson: Delight (Origin) [07-18]
  • Roger Glenn: My Latin Heart (Patois) [08-22]
  • Kelly Green: Corner of My Dreams (La Reserve) [08-22]
  • Rico Jones: Bloodlines (Giant Step Arts) [07-25]
  • Peter Lin/AAPI Jazz Collective: Identity (OA2) [07-18]
  • Gilbert Paeffgen Trio: Der Mann Auf Dem Trampolin (Rabbit Hill) [05-24]
  • Pat Petrillo: Contemporaneous (Innervision) [07-11]
  • Premik Russell Tubbs/Margee Minier-Tubbs: Oneness-World (Margetoile) [08-01]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, June 30, 2025

Music Week

June archive (done).

Music: Current count 44435 [44388) rated (+47), 23 [24] unrated (-1).

This will be another premature post, put up early so I can get back to working on my major project at the moment, which is wrapping up the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll: Mid-Year 2025. Deadline is tomorrow, July 1. While one wants to appear hardass about deadlines, you probably know by now that I'm a big believer in counting every vote, so I've always welcomed a few late ballots. Moreover, I figure that, like normal Americans, ArtsFuse will be taking July 4 off to enjoy the holiday. As a fairly abnormal American, I'll probably be hunkered down, working, playing music, trying to drown out sounds of fireworks and gunfire I once enjoyed but now have grown to despise.

I did manage to steal a few moments to compile a Loose Tabs last week. I posted it on Friday, but kept adding things over the weekend, so the expanded version (12549 words) will appear at the same time as this post. I haven't really dumped everything I have into it: a couple things figuring I should write more on them later. I also didn't do an obituary trawl, but there have been quite a few worth noting since the last time I did a section (May 14), including Brian Wilson and Sly Stewart, and most recently, Louis Moholo-Moholo. One item of possible interest here is my list of mid-year music lists. I haven't had time to do an exhaustive list of such, but I have incorporated these lists into my metacritic file (which otherwise I've struggled to find time to keep current).

A week ago, I was impressed by how many albums our poll critics were voting for that I hadn't heard or in many cases hadn't even heard of. But as I rushed to check out the most promising -- at least those most readily accessible -- I found that most were indeed quite interesting, but few made my A- grade. That changed big time this week, with one album crashing my ballot list, and another that quite likely could if I could afford to give it another spin. (The former is by Rodrigo Amado; the latter is by another Portuguese group, Motian & More.) Still much more I haven't gotten to. I've been especially remiss on following up on download links, and I'm afraid I've also neglected two vinyl albums I was generously gifted. (They don't fit in the physical queue, and I play LPs so rarely it's rather inconvenient to even get to the turntable. I will at least get to them this week.)

What I can do for now is disclose my own ballot (which may at least inhibit me from fiddling with it further):

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

  1. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi)
  2. Archer, Sudden Dusk (Aerophonic)
  3. Rodrigo Amado & Chris Corsano, The Healing: Live at ZDB (European Echoes)
  4. Deepstaria Enigmatica, The Eternal Now Is the Heart of a New Tomorrow (ESP-Disk)
  5. Larry Ochs - Joe Morris - Charles Downs, Every Day → All the Way (ESP-Disk)
  6. James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-)
  7. Russ Anixter's Hippie Big Band, What Is? (self-released)
  8. Cosmic Ear, Traces (We Jazz)
  9. Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio, Dream a Dream (Libra)
  10. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

  1. James Moody, 80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note March 26, 2005 (Origin)
  2. Jimmy Lyons, Live From Studio Rivbea: 1974 & 1976 (NoBusiness)
  3. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (1977, Resonance)
  4. Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971 (The Village)
  5. Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley, Flashing Spirits (1988, Burning Ambulance)

At present, I have 69 ballots counted, plus another half-dozen or so in my inbox. My best guess is that we'll wind up somewhere in the 85-100 range. Last year's mid-year poll wound up with 90 ballots, far short of the 177 who voted in the year-end poll. While many critics keep running lists and/or can rattle one off the top of their heads -- which is something I try to encourage, possibly because I'm one of them -- others insist on preparation and review, so were unprepared for my late invite to a somewhat less solemn affair. Still, we already have accumulated a huge store of information on how the year is developing, and I think that anyone with the slightest concern to keep up with the state of the art will find much of interest here, both at the highly competitive tops of the charts and on the far fringes.

I will probably update this post later, or maybe offer a separate one on the poll. I've done minimal work to open up a new July Streamnotes archive, postponing the usual indexing. Other projects are worth talking about, but no time here.

New records reviewed this week:

Rodrigo Amado/Chris Corsano: The Healing: Live at ZDB (2016 [2025], European Echoes): Tenor sax and drums duo, the first of a promised series of archival tapes fallen by the wayside, but barely falls within our 10-year New Music window. Terrific straight out the gate. A- [bc] [08-01]

Benny Benack III: This Is the Life (2024 [2025], Bandstand Presents): Jazz singer, also plays trumpet, several albums since 2017, has one of those hipster styles (with a lot of scat) that I rarely enjoy (cf. Kurt Elling), but he makes it more fun than most. Live set, runs long, with Mathis Picard (piano), Russell Hall (bass), Joe Peri (drums), "with special guest" Benny Benack Jr. (tenor sax, presumably his father) noted on the cover. B+(***) [cd]

Antonia Bennett: Expressions (2025, self-released): Standards singer, daughter of Tony Bennett and actress Sandra Grant, has a couple of previous albums. Backed by a piano trio led by Christian Jacob. Caught my attention with an ebullient "Comes Love," followed by a song in French, and a jaunty "Right on Time." Several more bright spots here. B+(**) [cd]

Christer Bothén 3: L'Invisible (2024 [2025], Thanatosis): Swedish bass clarinetist, b. 1941, not a very large discography but established himself in the 1980s, and again since 2016 (notably in the new group Cosmic Ear). Also credited with "inside piano" here, in a trio with Kansas Zetterberg (bass) and Kjell Nordeson (drums), for two tracks (17:11 + 19:54). B+(***) [sp]

BROM: Чёрная голова [Black Head] (2023 [2025], Addicted Label): Russian free jazz group, Discogs lists 10 albums since 2008, longest term member Dmitriy Lapshin (bass), here with Ivan Bursov (tenor sax), Fesikl Mikensky (electronics), and Bogdan Ivlev (drums). B+(***) [sp]

Michael Buckley: Ebb and Flow (2025, Livia): Irish tenor saxophonist, has a trio album from 1998, at least one more, mainstream, nice tone, backed by piano-bass-drums. B+(**) [sp]

Terri Lyne Carrington & Christie Dashiell: We Insist 2025! (2025, Candid): Drummer, first album in 1981 was very impressive, but was followed by widely-spaced albums in 1989 and 2002 before more regular releases, which ranged enough to snag Grammys in 2012 and 2014 and top a DownBeat poll in 2020. Here she updates Max Roach's 1961 We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, with Dashiell the featured singer -- a role originally filled by Abbey Lincoln. Front cover also mentions as "featuring": Weedie Braimah (congas/djembe), Milena Casado (trumpet/electronics), Morgan Guerin (bass), Simon Moullier (vibes/marimba, Matthew Stevens (guitar); while the fine print mentions a few more names (mostly vocals), plus "special gueset" Julian Priester (trombone on one track). B+(***) [sp]

Daniel Carter/Ayumi Ishito: Endless Season (2023 [2025], 577): Saxophone duo (also trumpet, clarinet, flute, and piano for Carter), recorded this as an acoustic set, then Ishito dubbed in synth beats and effects. The latter are quite pleasing, although the straight duets hold up rather well. B+(***) [bc]

Anita Donndorff: Thirsty Soul (2022-24 [2025], Fresh Sound New Talent): Standards singer from Buenos Aires, debut album 2021, moved to New York, this draws on sessions before and after the move, includes one original, and lands on a Jobim. B+(***) [cd]

Drank [Ingrid Schmoliner/Alexander Kranabetter]: Breath in Definition (2023 [2025], Trost): Duo, prepared piano and trumpet/electronics, four tracks, with guest marimba on one, voice on another. B+(***) [bc]

Marty Ehrlich: Trio Exaltation: This Time (2024 [2025], Sunnyside): Alto saxophonist (tenor one track), has an impressive discography since the mid-1980s, tends to produce tricky postbop but returns to basic here, in what is basically a blowing session, backed only by bass (John Hébert) and drums (Nasheet Waits), not that anyone could ask for more. Group name goes back to a 2018 album. Album cover can be parsed multiple ways. A- [sp]

David Grollman/Andy Haas/Sabrina Salamone: SCRT (2025, self-released): Improv trio, drums, saxophone, violin, with some spoken word poetry written by the drummer's late wife, Rita Stein-Grollman. Beyond its own merits, the poetry provides some focus, which sharpens the surrounding music. A- [cd]

Noah Haidu: Standards III (2023 [2025], Sunnyside): Pianist, based in New York, third volume in a series recorded closely together, mostly trio with Gervis Myles (bass) and Charles Goold (drums), with some cuts substituting the more famous collaborators from the previous volumes: Buster Williams and Peter Washington (bass), Billy Hart and Lewis Nash (drums), with Steve Wilson (alto sax) on one track. Haidu also claims three songwriting credits, but they touch on standards (e.g., "Stevie W."). B+(***) [cd]

Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts (2024 [2025], Nonesuch): Guitarist, student of Anthony Braxton, started producing interesting records around 2004, got her first A- in my book with Dragon's Head in 2008, and has moved on to effective stardom in the postmodern jazz world, with a major label contract, a MacArthur "genius" grant, and a Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll win with Amaryllis (2022). This reconvenes her stellar Amaryllis Sextet, with Adam O'Farrill (trumpet), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Patricia Brennan (vibes), Nick Dunston (bass), and Tomas Fujiwara (drums), adding saxophonists Immanuel Wilkins (alto) and/or Brian Settles (tenor) for four tracks each (three in tandem). This is dazzling as long as you keep your attention focused to pick up the myriad ever-shifting details. But it's not so compelling that I notice much without thinking to focus. I'm not sure that's even a knock. It may just be my own personal limitation. By the way, she's also having a terrific yet in side-credits. A- [cd]

Hanging Hearts: Where's Your Head At (2023 [2025], Ropeadope): Chicago-based sax trio, leader Chris Weller plays tenor and bass saxophones, with Cole DeGenova (keys, synth, synth bass) and Quin Kirchner (drums). First album was Chris Weller's Hanging Hearts (2014). B+(*) [sp]

Sun-Mi Hong: Fourth Page: Meaning of a Nest (2025, Edition): Korean drummer, based in Amsterdam, first album was Page 1 (2017). Meticulously layered post-bop quintet with trumpet (Alistair Payne), tenor sax (Nicolò Ricci), piano (Chaerin Im), and bass (Alessandro Fongaro). B+(*) [sp]

Jason Kao Hwang: Myths of Origin (2022 [2025], True Sound): Violinst, born in US but also has a solid grounding in Chinese classical music, subtitle here is "for improvising String Orchestra and Drum Set," I'm counting: 10 [more] violins, 5 violas, 4 cellos, 3 guitars, 1 bassist (Ken Filiano), and one drummer (Andrew Drury). Live set from Vision Fest, every bit as glorious as you'd expect. A- [cd] [07-07]

Jane in Ether: Oneiric (2023 [2025], Confront): Trio of Miako Klein (recorders), Magda Mayas (piano), and Billana Vouitchkova (violin, voice). Effectively a drone album. B+(*) [bc]

Sven-Åke Johansson Quintet: Stumps (2022 [2025], Trost): Swedish drummer (1943-2025), played with many avant-jazz figures since 1972, especially Schlippenbach. An earlier version of this material was recorded at Au Topsi Pohl in 2021 and released in 2022, but these are previously unreleased, from a set at Haus der Berliner 6.11.2022. Quintet with Pierre Borel (alto sax), Axel Dörner (trumpet), Simon Sieger (piano), and Joel Grip (bass). The little figures that begin and end each piece seem awkward, but each develops into a 12-17 minute extravaganza. B+(***) [bc]

Stefan Keune/Sandy Ewen/Damon Smith: Two Felt-Tip Pens: Live at Moers (2023 [2025], Balance Point Acoustics): German saxophonist (sopranino/alto), fair number of albums since 2002, mostly free jazz contexts, this one with guitar and bass on edge. B+(***) [sp]

Maruja: Tír na nÓg (2025, Music for Nations, EP): Punk/jazz band from Manchester, or post-rock in the sense of heavy instrumental riffing in place of improv, EPs from 2017 with one LP, this 4 songs, 22:07, title from Gaelic refers to underworld, the jazz component coming from a saxophone, but I'm unclear on credits, or much of anything else. B+(**) [sp]

Roscoe Mitchell: Gratitude: One Head Four People (2024 [2025], Wide Hive): Art Ensemble of Chicago founder and mainstay, plays bass saxophone here, with guitar (Sandy Ewen), bass (Damon Smith), and drums (Weasel Walter). Rather sketchy. B+(*) [sp]

Motian & More: Gratitude (2022-23 [2025], Phonogram Unit): Portuguese quartet, bassist Hernâni Faustino seems to be the leader, with José Lencastre (tenor sax), Pedro Branco (bass), and João Sousa (drums), opens with "Misterioso" (Monk), followed by four Paul Motian pieces, with "Mandeville" a very choice cut, and that's just a warm up for the finale. A- [bc]

Eva Novoa: Novoa/Kamaguchi/Cleaver Trio Volume 2 (2020 [2025], 577): Spanish pianist, from Barcelona, debut 2012 on FSNT, trio with Masa Kamaguchi (bass) and Gerald Cleaver (drums), follows a 2023 release from the same session. B+(**) [bc]

Potsa Lotsa XL: Amoeba's Dance (2024 [2025], Trouble in the East): Band led by German saxophonist Silke Eberhard, originally a quartet of brass and reeds for an Eric Dolphy tribute (2009-10), later augmented beyond Plus to XL (a tentet here). Original pieces, interesting but tends to slip away. B+(**) [sp]

The Quantum Blues Quartet: Quantum Blues (2025, Ropeadope): New fusion group: tempted to say "supergroup," as everyone involved is long established in their own right: Tisziji Muñoz (guitar), Paul Shaffer (keyboards), Jamaaladeen Tacuma (bass), and Will Calhoun (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Resavoir & Matt Gold: Horizon (2025, International Anthem): Resavoir is basically Will Miller, wide range of side credits (like from Whitney to SZA), third album since 2019, mostly plays keyboards here, while Gold plays bass, guitar, and drums, with others coming and going, bits of vocals. B [sp]

Matthew Shipp: The Cosmic Piano (2024 [2025], Cantaloupe Music): One of the major pianists in jazz history, many albums since 1988, I've written a whole Consumer Guide about his work, which was a substantial task 20 years ago and would have to be more than doubled today. Along the way, he's recorded well over a dozen solo albums, with this the latest, and this is one more. I've never been a huge solo piano fan, but this is clearly pretty remarkable, in ways that make him instantly recognizable. A- [sp]

Mark Solborg: Tungemål: Confluencia (2025, ILK Music): Danish/Argentinian guitarist, side-credits from 2001, albums from 2007, quartet here with Susana Santos Silva (trumpet), Simon Toldam (keyboards), and Ingar Zach (percussion). A little slow. B+(*) [sp]

Kevin Sun: Lofi at Lowlands (2024 [2025], Endectomorph Music, EP): Tenor saxophonist, impressive debut in 2018, has a deep understanding of history and lore. Trio with Walter Stinson (bass) and Kayvon Gordon (drums), short at 23:13, but pulls nine fragments from six live sets, and experiments: this is "Sun's initial foray into the seemingly limitless possibilities of post-production, for the first in a projected series drawn from the same sources. B+(*) [sp]

Sun & Rain: Waterfall (2022 [2025], Out of Your Head): Quartet of Nathaniel Morgan (alto sax), Travis Laplante (tenor sax), Andrew Smiley (guitar), and Jason Nazary (drums). Morgan has a fairly long list of side-credits since 2012 (69 per Discogs), but nothing under his own name. Smiley started with the avant-noise group Little Women. The others I've run across more often. B+(**) [sp]

Transcendence: Music of Pat Metheny (2025, FMR): Trio of Bob Gluck (keyboards), Christopher Dean Sullivan (electric bass), and Karl Latham (drums), playing five pieces by Metheny plus one each from Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett. I've never been much of a fan of Metheny's more popular albums, although I've noticed that he occasionally strays toward the margins, with mixed but sometimes interesting results. Gluck, on the other hand, has written a book on Metheny's music, and comes up with some unexpected twists. B+(**) [cd]

Terry Waldo & the Gothim City Band: Treasury Volume 2 (2025, Turtle Bay): Ragtime pianist, learned from Eubie Blake, who said that Waldo reminds him of Fats Waller. He first recorded in 1969 with his Gutbucket Syncopators, and introduced his Gotham City Band in 1984. Unclear how old these recordings are, or for that matter who's playing what, but at 80 he appears to still be active. I like modern (and for that matter postmodern) jazz just fine, but for me "real jazz" will always be pre-bop, and this really hits that mark. A- [sp]

Wheelhouse: House and Home (2024 [2025], Aerophonic): Trio of Dave Rempis (saxophones), Jason Adasiewicz (vibes), and Nate McBride (bass). Sort of the avant-garde's version of a chamber jazz group. The saxophonist remain supreme in any setting. A- [cd] [07-22]

Brandon Woody: For the Love of It All (2025, Blue Note): Trumpet player, from Baltimore, first album but on a major label, with a band of similar unknowns (keyboards, bass, drums, one vocal). B+(**) [sp]

John Yao and His 17 Piece Instrument: Points in Time (2024 [2025], See Tao): New York-based, originally a trombonist, albums from 2004, here just a big band composer/arranger (with Mike Holober co-producing). B+(**) [cd] [07-11]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Anthony Braxton: B-X0 N0-47A (1969 [2025], BYG Actuel): Early album, 2nd in Discogs' list, 4th for Wikipedia (where the title is rendered as Anthony Braxton, the latest of many reissues deriving this title from the graph Braxton used to title his 2nd side composition. First side has two pieces by band mates Leo Smith (trumpet) and Leroy Jenkins (violin) -- all have long lists of miscellaneous instruments, including percussion, which is mostly Steve McCall. B+(**) [sp]

Marco Eneidi Quartet: Wheat Fields of Kleyehof (2004 [2025], Balance Point Acoustics): Alto saxophonist (1956-2016), born in Portland, was associated with William Parker in the late 1980s, later based in Vienna. Improv quintet with Darren Johnston (trumpet), John Finkbeiner (guitar), Damon Smith (bass), and Vijay Anderson (drums). B+(***) [bc]

Bill Evans: Further Ahead: Live in Finland 1964-1969 (1964-69 [2025], Elemental Music): Three trio sets: 1964 with Chuck Israels (bass) and Larry Bunker (drums); 1965 with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Alan Dawson, with Lee Konitz (alto sax) in for the last cut; and 1969 with Eddie Gomez and Marty Morell. B+(**) [sp]

Charles Kynard: Woga (1972 [2025], We Want Sounds): Soul jazz organ player from St. Louis (1933-79), recorded for Pacific Jazz and Prestige in the 1960s, with this the middle of three 1971-73 albums for Mainstream, with a larger group -- two each trumpets and trombones, electric guitar and bass, and drums -- arranged and conducted by Richard Fritz. B+(***) [sp]

David "Fathead" Newman/Ellis Marsalis/Cornell Dupree: Return to the Wide Open Spaces (1990 [2025], Amazing/Steady Boy): Reissue of a live album recorded in Fort Worth's Caravan of Dreams, the headliners (alto sax/flute, piano, guitar) joined by James Clay (tenor sax), Dennis Dotson (trumpet), Leroy Cooper (baritone sax), Chuck Rainey (bass), and George Rains (drums) -- all cited in smaller print on the cover. B+(**) [sp]

Kristen Noguès/John Surman: Diriaou (1998 [2025], Souffle Continu): Celtic harp player (1952-2007), French but sings in Breton, released an album in 1976, several more in the 1990s. This a duo with the English saxophonist, mostly playing bass clarinet. This is really lovely, a unique item. A- [bc]

Ray Russell Quartet: The Complete Spontaneous Event: Live 1967-1969 (1967-69 [2024], Jazz in Britain): British guitarist, b. 1947, so was pretty young when these six BBC radio sessions were recorded: 6 tracks were released in 2000, expanded here to 20 tracks, 133:33, the with Roy Fry (piano), Alan Rushton (drums), and either Dave Holland or Ron Mathewson on bass. This is closer to classic bebop guitar jazz than to the avant/fusion strains developing around John McLaughlin, but is remarkably cogent and flat out enjoyable. A- [bc]

Louis Stewart: I Thought About You (1977 [2025], Livia): Irish guitarist (1944-2016), enjoying a reissues boomlet, recorded this studio session with John Taylor (piano), who was also in Ronnie Scott's band, and two Americans who were touring with Cedar Walton at the time: Sam Jones (bass) and Billy Higgins (drums). B+(**) [bc]

Sun Ra: Nuits De La Fondation Maeght (1970 [2025], Strut): Set at an art museum, opened in 1964, in France near Nice, this title is shared by much reissued live albums by Albert Ayler and Cecil Taylor. Sun Ra's original came out in two volumes in 1971, finally expanded here to over 4 hours in what is surely the most definitive packaging ever. The usual mix of marvelous and corny, much too much to sort out. B+(***) [sp]

Sun Ra: Stray Voltage (1970s-80s [2025], Modern Harmonic): This is a sampler of "Ra's electronic peregrinations during the 1970s and '80s," with or (mostly) without Akrestra. Nothing I can find on exact recording dates, but the LP cover scans suggest some juicy technical details on the synths -- I'm guessing because I can't make out the words. B+(**) [sp]

Clifford Thornton: Ketchaoua (1969 [2025], BYG Actuel): Trumpet/cornet player (1936-89), started with Sun Ra in the early 1960s, then with Pharoah Sanders (1963-67). First album as leader (although some of his earlier work eventually panned out). Four tracks, starts as an octet (with Archie Shepp, Grachan Moncur III, Dave Burrell, and Sunny Murray), but the second side slims down, ending with just cornet and two bassists. B+(**) [sp]

Old music:

None.

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Antonia Bennett: Expressions (self-released) [06-13]
  • Kevin Brunkhorst: After the Fire (Calligram) [07-11]
  • Etienne Charles: Gullah Roots (Culture Shock) [06-30]
  • Lafayette Gilchrist & New Volcanoes: Move With Love (Morphius) [07-25]
  • José Gobbo Trio: Confluence (Calligram) [07-11]
  • Bonnie J Jensen: Rise (MGM Metropolitan Groove Merchants) [08-01]
  • Lili Maljic: The Nearness of You: In Loving Memory of Jim Rotondi (Pacific Coast Jazz) [09-12]
  • Chad McCullough/Gordon Spasovski/Kiril Tufekcievski/Viktor Filipovski: Transverse (Calligram) [07-11]
  • Sarah Wilson: Incandescence (Brass Tonic) [07-18]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Friday, June 27, 2025

Loose Tabs

This is an occasional collection of newsworthy links and comments, much less systematic than what I attempted in my late Speaking of Which posts. The new name comes from my extensive use of browser tabs. When I get around to cleaning up, I often find tabs opened to old articles I might want to comment on and/or refer back to. So these posts are mostly housecleaning, but may also serve as a very limited but persistent record of what 20+ years ago I started calling "the end of the American empire" and nowadays feels more like "the end of civilization." I collect these bits in a draft file, and flush them out when periodically. My previous one appeared 23 days ago, on June 4.

I've been busy working on the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll: Mid-Year 2025, which may seem a bit like "fiddling while Rome burns," but quite frankly, we'd all be much better off catching up with this year's still-remarkable parade of new jazz releases, including another bounty of dusted-off oldies, than we are helplessly watching Fox and CNN regale us with what little they can grasp of the world, and how little they -- let alone the actors and ideologues they report on -- understand of it. Jazz is, after all, music for people who take pleasure in thinking about what gives them pleasure, and often who are willing to expose themselves to the frontiers of human creativity. Politics is something nearly opposite: it hurts to even think about it, in large part because it's hard to recognize as human people who are so full of greed, petty hate, and lust for power, the class of people who promote themselves as others' expense, you know, the "newsmakers."

Note that the long comment on Ezra Klein and the long intro on Israel were written a couple weeks ago -- the latter after the bombing of Iran started, but I haven't tried to update it. Most of the tweets were collected as the popped up. (I could probably build whole posts out of them, but they'd be even more scattered than this forum is.) The music stuff has also been sitting around (but I should update the mid-year lists -- or more likely, I may keep adding to that section). Most of the rest of the comments are of recent vintage, even if the articles are a bit old. No doubt I'm missing some major stories. One I'm aware of is the New York mayoral primary, as a lot of my sources are thrilled by how well Mamdani has fared and/or afraid of what establishment Democrats may try to do to sabotage him. I'm going to go ahead and post whatever I have by bedtime, then return tomorrow to my jazz poll and whatever else I have need of working on.

PS: I posted this, incomplete and scattered as it is, end of Friday, figuring I should start Saturday off with a clean state, to get back to working on the Poll. But my mailbox was empty when I got up Saturday morning, and I noticed a couple typos to fix here. (They're not flagged with change marks, which only seem to work on whole blocks.) Then I found some more loose tabs, so added a couple of those. I'll add more in my spare time throughout the day, but there's clearly much more news that fits.

Posting the update on Monday, along with Music Week. I've been extremely swamped working on Poll stuff, so apologies for all I missed or merely glossed over.

Israel: I'm loathe to group articles, but there's too much here not to, especially given the rate at which it is piling up. I've been thinking about revolution lately. It's taken me a while because first I had to disabuse myself of the idea that revolutions are good things. That idea was deeply cemented in my brain because first I was taught that the American Revolution was a good thing, overthrowing monarchy and aristocracy to establish an independent self-governing democracy. Then the US Civil War was a second good revolution, as it ended slavery. Such events, as well as less violent upheavals like the New Deal and the movements of the 1960s made for progress towards equal rights and justice for all. Moreover, one could point to revolutions elsewhere that made for similar progress, although they often seemed somewhat messier than the American models. That progress seemed like an implacable tectonic force, driving both revolution and reform. And when you put more pressure on an object than it can resist, it either bends or breaks. So I came to see revolutions not as heroic acts of good intentions overcoming repression but as proof that the old order is hard and can only give way by shattering. France and Russia are the key examples: both absolute monarchies that could not reform, so had to be overturned. China, Vietnam, and Cuba were variations on that same theme. So was Iran, which was harder to see as any kind of shift toward the progressive left.

Meanwhile, leftists became more aware of the downsides of revolution, and wherever feasible more interested in reforms, reducing militancy to ritualized non-violent protest. On the other hand, while right-wingers also protest, they are more likely to escalate to violence, probably because right-wing regimes so readily resort to violence to maintain control. The result is that revolutions are more likely to come from the right these days than from the left. Which can be awkward for people who were brought up to see revolutions as progressive.

I'm bringing this up under Israel because Israel's far-right coalition government, going back to its formation before the Gaza uprising of Oct. 7, 2023, makes much more sense when viewed as a revolutionary force. The single defining feature of all revolutionary forces is independent of their ideologies, which are all over the map, but has to do with with simple discovery that people previously denied power now find themselves free to test their limits -- which leads them to act to excess, as long as their is no significant resistance.

This may seem surprising given that Netanyahu has been in power off-and-on since the late 1990s. While his sympathies have always been with the far-right fringe of Zionism, and he's consistently pushed the envelope of what's possible in Israel and the world, he has always before exhibited a degree of caution. But since Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, who were long identified not just as outsiders but as criminals, joined his coalition, they have effectively driven Israel's agenda: the genocide in Gaza, expropriation and terrorism in the West Bank, military adventurism in Lebanon and Syria, and not starting a war with Iran. Only a truly revolutionary government can go so far off the rails so fast and so carelessly.

Once you dispense with the assumption that revolutions have to be progressive, you'll find plenty of other examples, both left and right, some (like the French) oscillating between two poles, some generated from below (like the French or Russian), some from guerrilla wars (like Cuba and Afghanistan), some were simply gifted (like the Red Army's installation of Kim Il Sung, whose decision to invade the South was not directed by Moscow, nor effectively throttled), or more relevant here Hindenburg's appointment of Hitler as chancellor (the main difference between Hindenburg and Netanyahu is that the former died soon and was forgotten, whereas Netanyahu continues as the figurehead for a regime spinning out of control.

One might note that Israel has always been a revolutionary state (more or less). Ben-Gurion was more artful than Netanyahu, but he always wanted much more than he could get, and took every advantage to extend the limits of his power. Had he believed his own rhetoric in 1947 when he was campaigning for the UN partition plan, he would have legitimated his victory in 1950, but instead he still refused to negotiate borders, biding his time while building up the demographic, economic, and military strength to launch future wars (as happened in 1956, 1967, 1982, up to this very day. When his successor, Moshe Sharett, threatened peace, he seized power again and put Israel back on its war path. He was shrewd enough to caution against occupation in 1967, but as soon as war seemed to triumph, he got swept up in the excitement. Nothing stimulates the fanatic fervor of a revolutionary like seeing what you took to be limits melt away. Just look at Hitler after Munich, or Netanyahu after his American allies encouraged his long-dreamt-of program of extermination.

We should be clear that until 2023, Israel's "final solution" was just a dream -- not that it was never acted on (e.g., Deir Yassin), but most dreams, no matter how vile, are harmlessly forgotten. We can date it way back, easily through Ben-Gurion and Jabotinsky, perhaps to the foundings of Zionism with Herzl. And we know well that settler colonialism, even when one imagines and/or professes benign intentions, is conducive to genocide -- perhaps not inexorably, but we have enough of a sample to draw that conclusion. What allowed Israeli dreams to be turned into action was the realization that the restraints which had inhibited Israeli leaders in the past had lost all force, and could be ignored with no consequences.

  • Richard Silverstein [06-06] Shin Bet's Palestinian Proxies Are Gaza Gangsters: I've read a ton of books on Israel/Palestine, but two I never got to but always wished I had are Hillel Cohen's books on Israel's manipulation of Palestinian collaborators: Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948 (2008), and Good Arabs: The Israeli Security Agencies and the Israeli Arabs, 1948-1967. I imagine the series could continue up to the present day, and will whenever the relevant archives are opened. Given this history, that Israel should be organizing and even arming Palestinian gangs is hardly a surprise, but underscores more forcefully than ever the moral bankruptcy of the occupation. Another lesson that one should draw from this is the realization that if Israel wanted Palestinians to have a stable and docile government, they could easily find people to lead it, and deliver enough respect and dignity to keep those leaders democratically elected. That they don't so isn't due to the intransigent militance of the Palestinian masses, but to their conviction that they can win by grinding the Palestinians into dust.

  • Zack Beauchamp [06-13] The Israel-Iran war hinges on three big things: "It's impossible to know how this war will end. But here's how to make sense of it." Section heads: "What is Israel's objective?"; "Can Iran fight back?"; "How does Iran think about the bomb after this?" All of these points are fairly superficial: the first draws way too much on what Israel says, much of which is obviously misleading; the others ignore what Iran says, and especially the question of whether Iran wants to fight back, or even to fight in the first place. Like many critics, this piece attempts to approximate objectivity by hedging while remaining trapped in a profoundly distorted cloud of propaganda. (The word I first thought of was noosphere, but I settled for a plainer term, which puts more emphasis on its distinctly political construction. Beauchamp is not an apologist for Israel, but he is also not fully independent of a society that accepts the legitimacy of hasbara.) Beauchamp followed this piece with more:

    • Zack Beauchamp [06-22]: Three ways Trump's attack on Iran could spin out of control: "How does this war end?" Which, of course, misses the obvious point, which is that Israel doesn't want this (or any) war to end. They'd be happy to keep periodically "mowing the grass," as they did for well over a decade in Gaza, and if that ever blows back on them, they'd be happy to demolish the entire country (especially given that the prevailing winds for nuclear fallout are blowing away from Israel). The only practical limit on Israel's warmaking is financial: as long as the US is willing to foot the bills, and the American political system is effectively a wholly owned subsidiary of pro-Israeli donors, they're happy to fight on, oblivious to the consequences.

    • Zack Beauchamp [06-18] Trump doesn't have a foreign policy: "What he has instead is the promise of chaos." Instincts not reason, a blind faith that chaos will always break in your favor. He surrounds himself with people who tell him he's on a mission from God. And so far he's gotten away with pretty much everything, so doubt and worry are for losers.

    • Eric Levitz [06-23] 3 ways Americans could pay for Trump's war with Iran: "The conflict could take a toll in both blood and money." Section heads: "How Trump's war on Iran could impact the economy"; "Trump's attack has put American soldiers in harm's way"; "Trump may have made an Iranian nuclear weapon more likely." These are all pretty likely, and much more is remotely possible. Israeli/US aggression against Iran is a species of the Madman Theory, which can only work if the other side remains sane. (Indeed, that's true for all deterrence theories.) One problem here is that the more successful you are at decapitating responsible enemy leadership, the more likely you are to promote someone who's lost his marbles.

  • Chris Hedges [06-10] Genocide by Starvation. Also led me to:

  • Tony Karon [06-18] Tony Judt was right about Israel, wrong about the West. Bob Marley did warn us: "As long as we rely on the existing constellations of nation states, decolonization will remain a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained."

    So, all stakeholders need to understand that they're not dealing with the America they knew 30 or 20 or even 10 years ago. The crumbling edifice has entirely collapsed, and is unlikely to return. There will be no Pax Americana, because Washington no longer sees any incentive to taking that level of responsibility for anything. As the President sounds off like a cartoon gangster from an ancient Hollywood movie threatening to murder Iran's leader and to devastate its capital. The only sure bet here is that even if it did manage to topple Iran's regime, the U.S. of today has no interest in sticking around to manage the chaos that would follow. As Trump made clear in a recent speech in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. is done with "nation-building." (And as it has proven in Iraq and Afghanistan, its unmatched ability to destroy things is paralleled by epic failure to build anything of use to it on the ruins.

    The end of the article is also worth quoting here:

    Gramsci might have called it a morbid interregnum in which the old is dying but the new is unable to be born. But as the late, great Mike Davis wrote in what turned out to be his farewell missive, "Everyone is quoting Gramsci on the interregnum, but that assumes that something new will be or could be born. I doubt it. I think what we must diagnose instead is a ruling class brain tumour: a growing inability to achieve any coherent understanding of global change as a basis for defining common interests and formulating large-scale strategies . . . Unlike the high Cold War when politburos, parliaments, presidential cabinets and general staffs to some extent countervailed megalomania at the top, there are few safety switches between today's maximum leaders and Armageddon. Never has so much fused economic, mediatic and military power been put into so few hands."

    Which means humanity only has a future to the extent that it can take power from those destructive hands, and collectively chart a different course independent of the tumor-stricken ruling classes called out by Davis.

    By the way, my favorite line in the Davis piece comes early: "In a world where a thousand gilded oligarchs, billionaire sheikhs, and Silicon deities rule the human future, we should not be surprised to discover that greed breeds reptilian minds."

  • Ahmed Ahmed/Ibtisam Mahdi [06-20] 'The Hunger Games': Inside Israel's aid death traps for starving Gazans: "Near-daily massacres as food distribution sites have killed over 400 Palestinians in the past month alone."

  • Orly Noy [06-20] Why everything Israelis think they know about Iran is wrong: "For historian Lion Sternfeld, Israel's regime change fantasies ignore realities inside Iran and risk repeating historic mistakes."

  • Jamal Kanj [06-25] Ceasefire Not Peace: How Netanyahu and AIPAC Outsourced Israel's War to Trump? This article explains a lot about Israel's policy of sowing chaos throughout the Middle East, dating it to the 1982 Yinon Plan. That's one I was unfamiliar with, but it makes a lot of sense, and is consistent with a lot of otherwise bizarre behavior, like the practice of seemingly random bombings of Syria (and Lebanon and Iraq and now Iran) just meant to inflict terror. In 1979, after the Carter-brokered peace agreement with Egypt, Israel could have negotiated similar deals with Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, and come up with some kind of decent implementation of their promise of "autonomy" for the remaining Palestinians, but instead they lashed out at Lebanon and doubled down on repression and settlement in the occupied territories. I don't know whether the Yinon Plan was a blueprint or just a reflection of the mindset which Begin had brought to power, but which was latent in previous decades of Labor Zionism.

  • Vijay Prashad [06-25] Why the US Strikes on Iran Will Increase Nuclear Weapons Proliferation. This is pretty obvious, yet rarely seems to be factored into the war plans of the US and Israel, which invariably underestimate future risks. But there is little evidence that the US cares about nonproliferation anymore.

  • Rahman Bouzari [06-26] Against Israel's New Middle East Vision. Israel "issued an evacuation order for Tehran"?

  • Jeff Halper [06-24] Global Palestine: Israel, the Palestinians, the Middle East and the World After the American Attack on Iran.

  • Medea Benjamin/Nicolas JS Davies [06-25] How the US & Israel Used Rafael Grossi to Hijack the IAEA and Start a War on Iran. Grossi is Director General of the watchdog group that is supposed to monitor nuclear power and weapons programs around the world. This has a lot of detail on its operations and how the information they collect can be abused.

  • Richard Silverstein [06-23] Regime Change in Iran Will Not End Well.

  • Asa Winstanley [06-10] Illegal police raid on my home won't stop me covering Gaza: "The police broke the law when they ransacked my house. When will they stop harassing pro-Palestine journalists?" Winstanley is British, author of the book, Weaponising Anti-Semitism: H ow the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn (2023).

  • Branko Marcetic [06-18] Tulsi said Iran not building nukes. One senator after another ignored her: "seems like an odd thing to do unless you really want to go to war."

  • Tom Collina [06-08] Killing the Iran nuclear deal was one of Trump's biggest failures. It's not unusual for bad decisions to take years to mature into full-blown catastrophes. Not that he didn't produce enough immediate disasters, but the tragic costs of Trump's first term continue to emerge. Trump's surrender to Israel in scuttling the JCPOA, along with his let's-just-normalize-business-and-fuck-the-Palestinians Abraham Accords, as well as his signal that the US would always back Israel no questions asked, have lead directly to the current war and genocide. He bungled Ukraine and Afghanistan as bad, and probably North Korea too (although thus far Kim Jong Un has had the good sense not to embarrass him there). Back when Trump was first elected, I stressed that his presidency would result in four severe years of opportunity costs. The assumption there was that most of what he did wrong could later be reversed. That's proven difficult, and not just for lack of trying -- Biden not only didn't reverse Trump on Israel and Ukraine but made matters worse, and that's probably true, if less evident, for Afghanistan and North Korea as well. His second term is likely to be even more irreversible.

  • Jamal Abdi [06-29] How Biden Is to Blame for Israel and the US's 12-Day War Against Iran: "Biden's failure to reenter Obama's nuclear deal helped create the risk for a potentially catastrophic US war against Iran."

  • Jason Ditz [06-12] Israeli Minister Calls for Israeli Control Over Syria and Lebanon: So says Avichai Eliyahu, Heritage Minister and grandson of a former Sephardi Chief Rabbi, whose solution for Gaza is "they need to starve."

  • Jonah Shepp [06-21] 'Regime Change' Won't Liberate Iran: Not that anyone in Israel or the US cares a whit about liberating Iran. Nudging it from one orbit of misery to another, preferably lower one, is all they really care about.

  • Mitchell Plitnick [06-27]: What comes next following the US-Israeli war on Iran? Follows up on his previous article:

    • Mitchell Plitnick [06-13]: How Israel and the US manufactured a fake crisis with Iran that could lead to all-out war. I think he's right that nothing that happened has turned out very satisfactorily for any party. However, his reason for Israel starting the war needs a bit of elaboration: "The purpose of 'Iran nuclear issue' sham is and has always been to create a regime-change bloc in Washington and Brussells to force the Islanic Republic from power." "Regime change" in Iran isn't a realistic goal, but it holds out the false promise of an end to the war other than complete failure, which helps keep the Washington and Bussells blocs bound to, and subservient to, Israel.

  • Jeremy R Hammond [06-26] Lessons Unlearned from Israel's Bombing of Iraq's Osirak Reactor: "The claim that Israel's bombing of Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981 halted or set back Saddam Hussein's efforts to acquire a nuclear weapons capability is a popular myth."

  • Elfadil Ibrahim [06-24] Israeli-fueled fantasy to bring back Shah has absolutely no juice. That the author even considers the hypothetical gives this idea far more credit than it deserves.

  • Sanya Mansoor [06-27] Israeli soldiers killed at least 410 people at food aid sites in Gaza this month: "Israeli soldiers and officers have said they were ordered to shoot at unarmed civilians waiting for food in Gaza."

Yanis Varoufakis [05-06] In the EU nothing succeeds like gross failure: The astonishing case of Ursula von der Leyen. She is president of the European Union, elected for a second term, and recipient of some big deal prize, although she's mostly been in the news lately for her cheerleading of Israel's Gaza genocide.

Eric Alterman [05-08] The Coming Jewish Civil War Over Donald Trump: "Trump is offering American Jews a kind of devil's bargain: throw in with us against the antisemitic universities and campus rabble-rousers, but pay no attention as we dismantle the traditions and institutions that Jews value." This article has a lot of useful information, especially the first section which shows pretty clearly how Trump is still an anti-semite, and how his particular brand of anti-semitism is especially ominous for American Jews.

Gabrielle Gurley [05-20] Republicans Break the Weather: "The private sector can't match the value proposition of the National Weather Service, but companies work to entice Americans to pay up anyway. What happens if they can't?"

Phil Freeman [05-22] Why Do You Hate Jazz? Who, me? This is Freeman's monthly column, with his monthly batch of 10 jazz album reviews (5 I've heard, only one A- so far: Horace Tapscott), but his intro is a review of a book by Andrew Berish, Hating Jazz: A History of Its Disparagement, Mockery, and Other Forms of Abuse (2025, University of Chicago Press). Turns out that neither Berish nor Freeman hate jazz, and of course there are things one can learn from their chronicle of people who do. But I'm not exactly psyched to find out. It's a bit like trying to survey "unhappy families": there are so many, so different, and ultimately so pointless. I should, however, check out the other five albums Freeman likes.

Adam Tooze [05-23] Chartbook 387: What fires burned at Auschwitz? On the place of the Holocaust in uneven and combined development. This is a long and very technical piece, the main point being to argue against exaggerating the size and importance of the "death factories" in comparison to much larger logistical concerns of running the war. Toward the end of the article, Tooze also mentions the Manhattan Project: "In this sense the coincidence of the Final Solution and the Manhattan project is significant, not for their identity, but because of the juxtaposition of two such incongruous projects of modern killing." Among Tooze's many recent posts, a couple more that caught my eye:

  • [06-08] Chartbook 389: Europe's zombie armies. Or how to spend $3.1 trillion and have precious little to show for it. "European militaries are repeatedly out of their depths in facing the new world created by Russia attack on Ukraine." The American solution is to spend vast additional sums on warmaking systems -- "to increase their budgets to 3.5 percent of GDP, or even 5 percent" -- but what will they get for all that money? (I was tempted to say "bang for the buck," but bang is about all they'd get.) Relevant here:

  • [06-20] Chartbook 392: Incoming from outer space: The geo-military radicalism of Iran v. Israel 2025. "It takes a conscious effort to comprehend just how extraordinary this war is."

    I don't mean by that the politics of the Iran-Israel clash: the huge international effort to anathematize the idea of an Iranian nuke; or the conflation of Israel's utterly ruthless strategy of preemption and regional dominance with anodyne assertions of its right to self-defense. I mean the strangeness and novelty of the war itself, as a war.

    Tooze focuses on technical issues, the rockets and the distances and the extreme difficulty of intercepting ICBMs, and adds this on top of the vast expansion of drone warfare, which he associates with Ukraine/Russia but was largely developed by the US since 2001. This leaves aside the more political and philosophical points, like why did anyone think this high-tech warfare would work in the first place?

  • [06-22] Chartbook 393: Whither China? - World Economy Now, June 2025 Edition: ". . . or 'Quality into quantity': how to see China's historic development through the veil of macroeconomics." Nearly everything I read about China's economy reeks of preconception and self-absorption, often in support of a transparent political agenda. This one present a ton of information -- much more than I can deal with at the moment -- without the stench, perhaps because there is no stab at a conclusion: just the observation that self-identity as a "developing country" allows for an even brighter future. "Once you are 'advanced,' you are declining."

Barry S Edwards [05-29] Why Did Americans Elect a Felon Instead of a Prosecutor: I would have started with the observation that a great many Americans actually admire criminals. As someone whose childhood was rooted in the years when the Hays Office Code was still in effect, I tend to date this to the emergence of TV shows like It Takes a Thief (1968-70) and movies like The Dirty Dozen (1967), which showed how bad people could be employed to "do good" as defined by American political powers, but said powers' culpability for criminal malfeasance goes back deeper, becoming even more obvious during the Vietnam War. But Edwards starts with mass incarceration. While that could be cited as evidence that Americans are sticklers for rules, it also exposes how arbitrary and capricious the police state is, which erodes confidence in what they call justice. In that system, it is easy to see prosecutors as cruel political opportunists, and "criminals" as their victims -- even when they're as guilty as Trump.

Also at Washington Monthly:

Jared Abbott/Dustin Guastella [05-30] What Caused the Democrats' No-Show Problem in 2024? "New data sheds light on the policy preferences of nonvoting Democrats in the last election." They add "it may disappoint some progressives," but it looks to me like data we can work with. Unlike the cartoon progressives characterized here, I don't have any real complaints that Harris didn't run on sufficiently progressive policy stances. The big problem she (and many other Democrats) had was that voters didn't believe they would or could deliver on their promises. And a big part of that was because they cozied up to the rich and put such focus on raising money that voters often felt they were an afterthought, or maybe not even that.

Sarah Viren [06-06] A Professor Was Fired for Her Politics. Is That the Future of Academia? "Maura Finkelstein is one of many scholars discovering that the traditional protections of academic freedom are no longer holding."

Ezra Klein [06-08] The Problems Democrats Don't Like to See: The co-author of Abundance defends his book and its political program, mostly from critics on the left, who see it as warmed-over, trickle-down growth fetishism that pro-business centrist ("new") Democrats have been have been peddling as the only viable alternative to whatever it is that Republicans have been peddling since Reagan or Goldwater. Unfortunately, both of these ideologies are often critiqued, or just labeled, as "neoliberalism": indeed, they have much in common, most notably the view that private sector capitalism is the only true driving force in the economy, even as it requires increasing favors from the public, including tolerance of high degrees of inequality, corruption, and deceit; the main difference is in ethics, where Democrats tend to be liberal (which is more often hands-off than helping), and Republicans tend to be laissez-faire (which is to say none, or more specifically that any pursuit of money is to be honored), not that they aren't quite eager to impose constraints on others (sometimes as "morality," often just as power). I wish we could straighten this terminological muddle out, as the net effect is to make the "neoliberal" term unusable, and the themes indescribable. This extends to "neoconservative," which has no practical distinction from "neoliberal": they are simply Janus masks, where the former is used to look mean, and the latter to look kind.

Klein's article originally had a different title: The Abundance Agenda Has Its Own Theory of Power. By the way, that link is from a reddit thread. I've never paid any attention to reddit, but the link has a number of interesting and insightful comments, including this one:

I think Ezra is largely right that the populist left needs to: a) work off of an actual coherent vision of the world and b) understand the risks of simplifying policy to simplify politics

To which someone else adds:

It's unironically even simpler than this and makes it wild that the progressives have been unable to figure out Abundance. The entire book and thesis can be boiled down to "the party of big government needs to make government actually work."

That's it. That's the whole thing. The rest of it is presenting theories for different areas that need more or less regulation, for enabling policy to take shape, etc. But that's literally the entire bag. . . .

It's not about a platform for winning elections, it's about materially making peoples' lives better so that they trust you when you say you want to do things.

One thing I've repeatedly tried to stress is that there are major asymmetries between the two big political parties. One is that while both parties have to compete to win votes -- for better or worse, most effectively by impugning the other party -- only the Democrats actually have to deliver on their promises by governing effectively. Republicans have cynically peddled the line that government is the problem, so all they are promising is to hobble it (for which they have many easy tools, including tax cuts, deregulation, corruption, and incompetence). Needless to say, when Republican administrations succeed in their sabotage, Americans are likely to vote them out, but by then they've dug enough holes that Democrats can never quite build their way out, let along deliver tangible benefits, leaving Republicans set up for the next round of political demagoguery.

So I think we should welcome whatever help Klein & Thompson have to offer toward making Democratic government more competent and fruitful. However, before one can implement policy, one has to win elections, so it's no surprise that Democrats of all stripes will focus immediately on the book's political utility. That's why Klein is perplexed: that the Democrats he was most critical of -- "blue-state governors like Gavin Newsom and Kathy Hochul and top Obama and Biden administration officials" who actually had power they could work with but have little to show for their efforts -- have embraced the "Abundance agenda," while "some of my friends on the populist left" have raised objections. He then goes on to develop his "theory of power," contrasting his own "more classically liberal" credo against "the populist theory of power," under which "bad policy can be -- and often is -- justified as good politics." This part of his argument is somewhat less than coherent -- even if I gave up my reluctance to accept his redefinition of "populism" -- and unlikely to be useful anyway.[*]

In his conclusion, Klein says:

So I don't see any contradiction between "Abundance" and the goals of the left. I don't think achieving the goals of the modern left is even possible without the overhaul of the state that "Abundance" envisions.

I haven't read his book[**], so I can't point to specifics one way or the other, but I also don't see the contradiction: there certainly are goods and services that we could use more of, and that's even more true elsewhere in the world. And it would be good to produce them more efficiently, at lower cost, and/or higher quality, which is to say that we should work on better systems and policies. But while I don't doubt that there is room for growth on the supply side, the larger problem for most people is distribution: making sure that everyone's needs are met, which isn't happening under our current system of price-rationed scarcity. A more explicit identification with the left, including more emphasis on distribution, and acknowledgment of other important issues like precarity, debt, and peace, would have improved his points about building things and trust.

It also would have made his agenda harder to co-opt by Democratic politicians who are basically bought and paid for by rich donors, who seem to be little troubled by rare it is that most of their voters ever benefit from the crumbs left over from their corruption. As Robinson points out, "They insist that their agenda is not incompatible with social democracy and wealth redistribution. But it's clearly a different set of priorities." It's a set of priorities that cause no alarm to the donor class, and may even whet their appetite, and that's why their agenda has the appeal it has, and is drawing the criticism it deserves.[***]

[*] In Kansas, where Thomas Frank and I were born, populism was a decidedly left-wing movement, mostly rooted in debt-saddled free farmers (like my great-grandfather, not that I know anything about his politics). Frank defends this view in The People, No! A Brief History of Anti-Populism (2020). Also see his especially biting critique of the business/financial wing of the Democratic Party, Listen, Liberal! Or What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? (2016). It's easy to condemn liberals as elitist when they recoil so fervently against common folk, even if in theory they believe everyone should share in their blessings. As for theories of power, there are some that make sense. The largely forgotten Rooseveltian countervailing powers is one, with faint echoes in recent antitrust and pro-union work. Anarchists have a more negative theory of power -- negative both in the sense that power is intrinsically bad, and that in almost always generating resentment and blowback it is dysfunctional. As a child, I was exposed to the saying, "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," and I've found that to be true.

[**] I wouldn't rule out reading the book in the future, especially if I find myself in need of boning up on certain technical issues like housing and infrastructure development. I read Klein's Why We're Polarized (2020), and found it to be worthwhile, especially for citing and digesting a lot of technical political science literature. I certainly wouldn't read him to expose him as an idiot and/or crook, as Nathan J Robinson suggests in his review below. I also wouldn't read Matthew Yglesias's One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger (2020) for that reason, although I'd probably find even more evidence there.

[***] Aside from political agenda and policy mechanics -- various critiques on specific policies, especially their lack of concern for "intellectual property" rents, which is a major cost concern, a source of artificial scarcity -- there is a third strain of criticism, having to do with growth itself. There is good reason to acknowledge that sooner or later growth will have to slow and stabilize, or we will eventually fall victim to crashes. This was my initial reaction to "Abundance," and one I'd like to return to at some point, but while such crashes may hypothetically not be distant in the future, they could be much better managed if only people were more able to deal with immediately pressing political problems.

  • Nathan J Robinson [06-13] Abandon "Abundance": "The latest Democratic fad sidelines equality and justice in favor of a focus on cutting red tape. This is not the path forward." After having complained about the masochism of having to read the book -- even after he's repeatedly made sport of dissecting much more obvious right-wing dimwits -- at least he admits this much: "Some of what's in Abundance is both true and important." The question this raises is whether, from a practical political standpoint, it does more good to cite Abundance in support of the "true and important" bits, or to discredit Klein & Thompson for the parts they get wrong, or that they use disingenuously. Robinson focuses on the latter, but that's what you'd expect from a critic (or just a rigorous thinker). For instance, he points out their use of motte-and-bailey arguments, which allow common sense to be turned into exaggerated claims, which when challenged can retreat into common sense. (I mean, who doesn't hate red tape?) Supporters can then pick and choose among such claims. For example, "Klein might personally believe in wealth redistribution and unions, but he's offered a great program for billionaires who don't want us to talk about the predations of the health insurance industry or big corporations crushing union drives. Let's talk about zoning reform instead!" He also points out how the authors ingratiate themselves with Democratic royalists by misrepresenting critics on the left: especially, "they spend more pages criticizing Ralph Nader and the degrowth movement (both politically marginal) than they do explaining how corporate power stands in the way of, for example, a universal healthcare system."

  • Nathan J Robinson [2024-12-03] Matt Yglesias Is Confidently Wrong About Everything: "The Biden administration's favorite centrist pundit produces smug psuedo-analysis that cannot be considered serious thought. He ought to be permanently disregarded." Yglesias and Klein are bound together as co-founders of Vox, from which they both bounded for more lucrative pastures. Yglesias in particular has repeatedly been a pioneer in new ways to exploit the internet. I read a lot by him for a long time, finally losing interest when he left Vox for Bloomberg and Substack and made his bid for the Thomas Friedman market with his One Billion Americans -- which fits in here as a prototype for Abundance. Because this piece came out back in December (when I was avoiding any and all news sources), Robinson doesn't dwell on that connections, while dwelling on numerous other faux pas. (It's impossible for me to mention either Yglesias or Klein in my household without being reminded of their support for the Iraq War.) I also just discovered that Robinson wrote a review of One Billion People back on [2020-11-13]: Why Nationalism Is a Brain Disease.

By the way, Mamdani showed us how a leftist can take the Abundance arguments and build on them instead of just carping about their compromises and blind spots, see:

  • Plain English with Derek Thompson [06-23] NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani on Abundance, Socialism, and How to Change a Mind: An interview by the co-author of Abundance. Mamdani opens with a very precise and polished argument:

    As someone who is very passionate about public goods, about public service, I think that we on the left have to be equally passionate about public excellence. And one of the most compelling things that I think Abundance has brought into the larger conversation is how we can make government more effective, how we can actually deliver on the very ideas that we are so passionate about, and a recognition of the fact that any example of public inefficiency is an opportunity for the argument to be made against the very existence of the public sector.

    And so to truly make the case time and time again that local government has a role in providing that which is necessary to live a dignified life, you have to ensure that every example of government's attempt to do so is one that is actually successful. And I think that's what speaks to me about abundance. And I think that's the line in the speech that speaks of both who we're fighting for but also the fact that we're delivering on that fight. And it's one that is actually experienced each and every day by New Yorkers across the five boroughs.

  • Batul Hassan [06-23] Zohran Mamdani Is Proposing Green Abundance for the Many: Among other things, quotes Bernie Sanders, with his own framing: "The government must deliver an agenda of abundance that puts the 99 percent over the 1 percent."

  • Ross Barkan [03-26] Why 'Abundance' Isn't Enough: Looking for more of Sanders' thinking on Abundance, I found this, which posits Sanders as the better alternative. I don't see that one has to make the choice. But what should be clear is that inequality is the big picture problem, which cannot be ignored when dealing with smaller, more technical problems like "abundance."

Ben Rhodes [06-08] Corruption Has Flooded America. The Dams Are Breaking. I don't doubt that crypto represents yet another higher stage of corruption than ever before, but the dams broke long ago, most obviously in the "greed is good" 1980s, not that they ever held much water in the first place. "President Trump has more than doubled his personal wealth since starting his 2024 election campaign." But most of that is phony paper wealth, slathered onto his corpulence like flattery.

Henry Grabar [06-10] It's Robotaxi Summer. Buckle Up. "Waymo and Tesla offer competing -- and potentially bleak -- futures for self-driving cars in society."

Doug Henwood [06-13] We Have Always Lived in the Casino: "John Maynard Keynes warned that when real investment becomes the by-product of speculation, the result is often disaster. But it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins." I flagged this because it seems like an interesting article, but I can't read it because it's behind their paywall. Speaking of which, some more articles I clicked on but cannot read:

  • Adam Serwer [05-27] The New Dark Age: "The Trump administration has launched an attack on knowledge itself." Starts talking about "the warlords who sacked Rome," suggesting that they were less culpable than Trump for the benighted period that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire. Maybe, or maybe not. But having read Jane Jacobs' Dark Ages Ahead (2005), I'm inclined to view Trump and his minions less as instigators of a Dark Age than as an example.

  • Adam Serwer [06-08] Musk and Trump Still Agree on One Thing: "Whatever they may be fighting about, they are both committed to showering tax cuts on Americans who already have more than they need."

Jeffrey St Clair

    [06-13] Roaming Charges: From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Venice Beach: "It's becoming clearer and clearer every day that the South finally won the Civil War and the Insurrectionists won J6." Also: "The drones are coming home to roost." Also quotes Greg Grandin: "Only fools believed Trump is somehow antiwar. He's not a break with neocons but their evolution."

  • [06-27] Roaming Charges: After Midnight: "Trump mega-bombed a mountain in Iran and called it peace." St Clair doubts the effectiveness of the bombing. I don't have any particular stake in that argument. Anything that was damaged in the bombing, including the people who were killed or maimed, can be replaced easily enough. The physics and technology of nuclear weapons have been understood since the 1940s. At the end of WWII, the US rounded up all of Germany's atomic physicists and holed them up on a farm on rural England. They had spent years fiddling and fumbling in their efforts to build even a simple reactor, but what confused them was their uncertainty that it might work. Within two days of hearing about Hiroshima, they figured out a functional design. They couldn't build one. That took the Russians four more years, not because they had to figure out how it worked, but because the materials were hard to come by, and the processes complex. It took France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea even longer, but they all did it, and the timelines have more to do with motivation than with skill. A number of other nations, most obviously Germany and Japan, have demonstrated they have all the skills they need. It is, after all, easier to get a bomb to blow up than it is to keep a power plant from melting down. Iran, too, has amply demonstrated that they have the necessary skills, and for that matter the materiel. Netanyahu was probably right way back in the 1990s that Iran could produce atomic bombs from their program within 3-5 years, or 6-12 months, or whatever time frame he was projecting to panic his people and allies. That Iran never met his timelines is primarily because they didn't see the point of actually having nuclear weapons. Perhaps they were thinking that if Israel and America could see that they could, that would be enough of a deterrent to keep them from being attacked. Perhaps that thinking even worked until now. The big problem with the "madman theory" is that it assumes the other side will always be the sane one, without bothering to examine one's own sanity in contemplating such a contest. Iran's quite rational notion of deterrence failed because Netanyahu and Trump have not only called Iran's bluff, they've upped the ante, giving Iran the one necessity it was lacking: motivation. The gamble is that Iran will still realize that nuclear weapons are useless, a fool's game. They only seem to have value as a deterrent, but that no longer works against Netanyahu and Trump, who act like they're daring Iran in hopes of burying the entire country under mushroom clouds. After all, what's the point of nuclear superiority if you can't use it to extort your enemies and force them to submit to your will?

    Also linked here:

    Further down, St Clair spots a tweet by Stephen Miller:

    The commentary about NYC Democrats nominating an anarchist-socialist for Mayor omits one point: how unchecked migration fundamentally remade the NYC electorate. Democrats change politics by changing voters. That's how you turn a city that defined US dominance into what it is now.

    That's a fairly accurate description of New York City, but from the 1880s through 1910s, when borders really were open (albeit only for whites). The result was a long series of Irish-, Italian-, and Jewish-American mayors. And he's right that their descendents, mostly with Democratic mayors, led New York City to a dominant position in American finance and culture. They've also made it the richest and least affordable city in America, but even with all that wealth few New Yorkers see Republican nihilism as an attractive proposition.

Peter Shamshiri [06-16] The Politics of Eternal Distraction: "To some Democrats, everything Trump does is designed to distract you." It's taken Democrats an awful long time to realize that much of what Trump does is sheer distraction, so when they point that out, along comes someone to attack you for overstating your insight: after all, some of what Trump does is so plainly damaging that he needs this other crap to distract you from what he's really doing. I can't sort this out right now, but I'd caution against thinking that the "distractions" are the harmless parts: they often reveal what Trump is thinking, even where he doesn't have the capacity to deliver. That he even says he wants to do something profoundly stupid should make you suspicious of everything else, even if superficially plausible. But also you have to guard against getting carried away responding to every feint he throws your way. The word "distraction" can help in that regard, if immediately followed by redirecting back to something important.

Charlotte Klein [06-19] Are You a $300,000 Writer? "Inside The Atlantic's extremely expensive hiring spree." A certain amount of professional jealousy is inevitable with articles like this, and is indeed much of the interest. I mean, they could hire me for much less than any of these writers I've mostly never heard of, and I could write some genuinely interesting content -- mostly innovative engineering solutions to tricky political problems -- that won't read like everyone else's warmed-over punditry. On the other hand, I probably wouldn't want to write what they're so eager to pay for. I don't know who's footing the bills behind their current menu, but they're up to no good.

Scott Lemieux [06-19] Getting the war criminals back together: Quotes Elisabeth Bumiller seeking the sage advise of a washed up US General:

One person who sees little similarity between the run up to Iraq and now is David H. Petraeus, the general who commanded American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and led the 101st Airborne Division in the initial invasion in Baghdad. "This is clearly the potential run up to military action, but it's not the invasion of a country," he said on Wednesday.

Mr. Trump, he said, should deliver an ultimatum to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, and order him to agree to the complete dismantlement of his nuclear program or face "the complete destruction of your country and your regime and your people." If the supreme leader rejects the ultimatum, Mr. Petraeus said, "that improves our legitimacy and then reluctantly we blow them to smithereens."

Nobody's even talking about fixing Iran here. There's no warning that "if you break it, you own it." They just want to fuck it up, leave it bruised and bleeding in a ditch somewhere, washing their hands of the whole affair . . . unless they have to come back and do it again, which they probably will. Sheer nihilists, because that's the power they think they have.

Ryan Cooper [06-20] Climate Change Will Bankrupt the Country: "Climate-fueled disasters cost America almost a trillion dollars over the last year, far more than economists predicted." By "economists" he's referring to work by William Nordhaus, which he was critical of at the time and even more so now. The price tag will only continue to rise, and with it private insurance becomes increasingly untenable. While this will be bad for everyone, the ones with the most to lose are property owners and lenders, who will experience ever greater precarity, and no doubt will finally be driven to attempt to socialize their risks. This will be a huge political factor in coming years. The phrase "too big to fail" will haunt us. And while one may debate the merits of bailing out individual companies, the whole country poses a somewhat different problem: who's big enough to bail us all out?

Josh Dawsey/Rebecca Ballhaus [06-20] Stephen Miller's Fingerprints Are on Everything in Trump's Second Term: "The deputy chief of staff has played an outsize role in immigration -- and amassed more power than almost anyone else at the White House." Also on Miller:

Naomi Bethune [06-24] ICE Impersonators Proliferate Amid the Agency's Undercover Tactics: "Pretending to be an ICE agent to commit crimes is disturbingly easy."

David Klion [06-24] State of Exception: National Security Governance, Then and Now.

Carol Schaeffer [06-27] NATO Rolls Out the Red Carpet for Trump, the President Who Would Be King: "The NATO secretary general has one mission: Keep Trump happy. And to keep Trump happy, you sacrifice your difnity and treat him like a monarch." I haven't followed the recent NATO summit or anything else tied to the organization, like NATO's ringing endorsement of bombing Iran, or the recent pledges to radically increase military spending (see "#0523Tooze">Tooze above), but it appears that Europe's military elite have overcome their first-term jitters and Biden-interregnum relief with the realization that it isn't ideological for Trump: you just have to suck up and pay up. And that seems to be what's going on here. What isn't clear yet is whether their governments will go along with the charade. Being a general has been a pretty pointless job in Europe since 1948 -- or since the 1960s for those states still holding down their colonies -- but irrelevancy has led to some degree of autonomy, which seems to be at play here. And if all it takes to make Trump happy is to buy a lot of crap and scrape and bow (or curtly salute), that just feathers their nests. The risk, of course, is that some Madeleine Albright will come along and dare them to use their arms, starting wars that will inevitably turn sour, but for now, Trump is a bonanza.

  • Anatol Lieven [06-20] The 17 Ukraine war peace terms the US must put before NATO. I originally had the Schaeffer article hung under a mere mention of this piece, then rediscovered it and wrote a longer comment, so I moved this piece here. Meanwhile, I wrote something longer on this piece into the drafts file, figuring I'd return to it later. I still may, but seeing as how it's already in play, let me quote myself here:

    "Threats must be imposed if either side or both reject these demands. The time is now." I've followed Lieven closely from well before Putin's military invasion of Ukraine, and I've found him to be a generally reliable guide, but I'm scratching my head a bit here. Certainly, if they all agreed to these 17 terms, far be it from me to object. But about half of them seem to add unnecessary complications just to check off superfluous talking points. For instance, "7. Ukraine introduces guarantees for Russian linguistic and cultural rights into the constitution. Russia does the same for Ukrainians in Russia." Why should either nation have its sovereignty so restrained? The first part was part of the Minsk Accords, and turned out to be a major sticking point for Ukrainian voters. Besides, the ceasefire line effectively removes most Russian-speakers from Ukraine. And how many Ukrainians are still living in Russian-occupied territory? The arms/NATO provisions also strike me as added complexity, especially on issues that should be addressed later. In the long run, I'm in favor of disbanding NATO, but that needs to be a separate, broader negotation with Russia, not something that is partly tucked into ending the war in Ukraine. I could expand on this, but not here, yet.

Ukraine is now wrapped up in the larger question of NATO, where the question is increasingly whether Europe will continue to accept its subordinate role in the imposition of a regime of Israeli-American militarism. For now, those in power seem willing to play (and pay) along, but how long will such an attitude remain popular in supposed democracies?

No More Mister Nice Blog: This might as well become a regular feature. I've skipped over a few pieces, mostly about the NYC mayor race, which are also of interest:

  • [06-10]: Gosh, if only there were a way to test the premise that the LA protests are an "80-20 issue" favoring Republicans: "Hand-wringing Trump critics think America won't vote for a candidate who's linked to controversial protests, and they cling to this belief even though America just elected the guy who did January 6." He also offers some sound advice:

    Why can't Trump critics be advocates for their own side? Why must they echo right-wing critiques of the protest movement? Given the way most Americans consume news these days, I'm guessing that it might not register on many voters that the protestors are waving Mexican flags (and that they should see this as a moral outrage) until they start hearing about the flags from both sides. (Compare this to the war on "woke" language: I'm sure most voters have now heard the word "Latinx" far more often from centrist Democratic language police than they have from actual "woke" Democrats.)

    I'll say it again: If your critique of Democrats/liberals/progressives echoes right-wing critiques, shut up. You're just an extra megaphone for the right, which doesn't need any help getting its messages out. . . . So please stop the tone policing, and stick up for your side.

    My bold.

  • [06-11]: Trump came into office wishing a mf'er would: "Two commentators I respect . . . believe that Donald Trump is militarizing Los Angeles out of weakness. I don't think that's true."

  • [06-13]: Everyone knows that only Republicans are normal!: "They're engaging in totalitarian repression, obviously, but they claim they're freeing people." Exmaples of Republican "normalcy" follow.

    Republicans struggle with the idea that anyone could possibly want to live in a place where people are of very different ethnic backgrounds, speak different languages, and have different religious beliefs (or non-beliefs), just as they struggle with the idea that anyone could be unalterably gay or bi or pan or trans just because they aren't. They struggle with the idea that anyone would want to live in a city where you can do most of your errands in a fifteen-minute radius, because they're used to long drives whenever you have to run errands. Increasingly, they're selling the message that everyone wants a marriage consisting of a male breadwinner and a stay-at-home "tradwife" who gives birth to large numbers of children, after marrying young (and preferably as a virgin), and they can't believe anyone really wants a life that's different from that.

    It is true that Republicans have chosen to represent an imagined majority: a large bloc of people who can be characterized as "true Americans" and flattered as "patriots." They can be treated as a socially and economically cohesive bloc, with some sleight of hand added to line them up behind the true economic powers. This has always been true: it was built into the design of the Republican Party in the 1850s, when white, protestant free soil farmers and small-time business and labor actually formed something close to a majority of voters. That's baked into the initials GOP, which writers (including me) find irresistible because we tire of overly repeating words, especially "Republican." (It's effectively a proprietary pronoun. One of the many asymmetries of our warped politics is that Democrats don't have an equivalent pronoun or alias.) Republicans are skating on thin ice here: their "majority" is thinning out, haphazardly reinforced as various ethnic groups become honorary whites, and various sects are accepted as close enough to protestants (the new term is "Judeo-Christian," with "Abrahamic" in the wings, held back by the political opportunism of anti-Islam bigotry.) But the larger risk Republicans run is that they don't represent their voters at all well. They lie to them, they steal from them, they double-cross them whenever they see an opportunity to make a quick buck. On the other hand, Democrats are developing their own nascent myth of a majority built on diversity, equity, tolerance, mutual respect and aid, and solidarity.

  • [06-14]: Trump's muddled, on-and-off militarism won't split the GOP at all.

  • [06-18]: Jeb Bush was right about Trump and "chaos". Cites a piece by Jamelle Bouie ([06-18: Maybe Trump and Miller Don't Understand Americans as Well as They Think They Do), regarding Trump's polling slump.

  • [06-21]: Your right-wing neighbors still don't believe the Minnesota shoter was a conservative ideologue: I haven't yet cited any articles on the June 14 assassination of Democratic politicians in Minnesota, but the basic facts are available on Wikipedia (2025 shootings of Minnesota legislators), not for lack of interest or alarm but mostly a matter of timing. That right-wingers have worked overtime to twist the stories into unrecognizable shapes is unsurprising: if anything, it's standard operating procedure, and the examples are as telling as their penchant for gun-toting vigilantism. One of the most fundamental differences between right and left is that only the former believes that violence works, and will resort to it readily (and will lie about it afterwards, because that's even more part of their nature). Two earlier pieces on the shootings:

  • [06-22]: To your right-wing neighbors, this will be Trump's war only if it works. Cites a Joshua Keating article ([06-21]: This time, it's Trump's war) I had initially skipped over.

  • [06-23]: Will Democrats be too high-minded to respond to young people's war fears? I don't know what he means by "high-minded." What Democrats need to do is convey the view that any time Americans pull the trigger that represents a failure of American foreign policy, regardless of whether you hit the target or not. Of course, from 2021-25, Biden was the one demonstrating incompetence by not preventing war situations from developing and/or spreading. But why show Trump the slightest leniency when the voters cut them no slack?

  • [06-26]: In New York, I'm enjoying this billionaire freakout.

  • [06-28] The Supreme Court's Republicans know our side will never use the power they've potentially given us: The Supreme Court "ruled that lower-court judges can't protect even fundamental constitutional rights using nationwide injunctions."

    The Supreme Court's Republicans aren't worried that the shoe might be on the other foot someday because they know the shoe will never be on the other foot. This is why they're willing to give Donald Trump nearly unlimited power: they know that any Republican would use the power in ways they like and no Democrat would ever use it in ways they dislike. They're giving powerful weapons to Trump and future party-mates because they know the enemy -- Democrats -- will never use those weapons.

Tweets:

  • Alan MacLeod [06-05]: The most American leading ever: Kids could end up in foster care over lunch debt, Pennsylvania school district warns parents

  • Adam Serwer [06-08]: Don't let Trump and Musk's feud obscure their fundamental agreement: Both men and the party they own are committed to taking as much as possible from Americans who need help in order to give to those who have more than they could ever want. [link to his Atlantic article: Musk and Trump Still Agree on One Thing]

    For years, commentators have talked about how Trump reshaped the Republican Party in the populist mold. Indeed, Trumpism has seen Republicans abandon many of their publicly held commitments. The GOP says it champions fiscal discipline while growing the debt at every opportunity. It talks about individual merit while endorsing discrimination against groups based on gender, race, national origin, and sexual orientation. It blathers about free speech while using state power to engage in the most sweeping national-censorship campaign since the Red Scare. Republicans warn us about the "weaponization" of the legal system while seeking to prosecute critics for political crimes and deporting apparently innocent people to Gulags without a shred of due process. The GOP venerates Christianity while engaging in the kind of performative cruelty early Christians associated with paganism. It preaches family values while destroying families it refuses to recognize as such.

    Yet the one bridge that connects Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush to Donald Trump is slashing public services while showering tax cuts on the rich. This is the Republican Party's most sacred, fundamental value, the one it almost never betrays. Whatever else Trump and Musk may fight about, they are faithful to that.

  • Nathan J Robinson [06-09] goddamnit so many @curaffairs readers have requested a review of "Abundance" that now I'm having to write it. why do our readers want me to suffer[?]

    I commented: Why, compared to idiots you love writing about (like Peterson & Rufo), is Klein a sufferance? Maybe it takes more work to accept and build on what he offers than to trash it as not enough or some kind of sellout, but the idea that Dems need to build/deliver isn't wrong.

    When I clicked on post, I got a pop-up saying: "Want more people to see your comment? Subscribe." The days when social media companies were happy just to profit off our free content are obviously over. Now in their pay-to-play racket they view everyone as an advertiser, which will tend to reduce every comment to the credibility level of advertisements (i.e., none: advertising has been proudly post-truth for over a century, and indeed was born that way).

  • Richard D Wolff [06-09] US liberals also enabled Trump. They let the right enlist them against the left after 1945. As the GOP right-turned authoritarian, a unified liberal-left opposition would have been real and powerful, unlike today's liberal-vs-left split opposition.

  • Isi Breen [06-09]

    Has anyone written an article about how Abundance is a swan song for Obama's presidency? That it's less about doing anything new and more about getting back to the last time it seemed like the party had its shit together?

    Problem here is how can anyone still think that the Democrats had their shit together under Obama? He promised "change" and shrunk it down to virtually nothing. He lost Congress after two years, and never won it back, giving him an excuse to do even less than he was inclined to do. Even the articulateness he was famed for before he ran deserted him. (Or was it some kind of race to the bottom with the dumbing down of the American people?) I have dozens of examples, but one specific to "abundance agenda" is that Obama refused to pursue any stimulus projects that weren't "shovel-ready." (Reed Hundt, in A Crisis Wasted, has examples of things proposed but rejected because Obama and his locked-in advisors like Summers and Emmanuel wouldn't consider anything that smacked of long-term planning.)

  • Kate Wehwalt [06-13]:

    It's crazy how in 40 years the internet made everyone stupid and ruined the entire world

    Nah. It just made you more aware of how stupid people already were.

  • Kim, Bestie of Bunzy [06-19]

    Watching this man try to get rid of imaginary raccoons he thought were invading reminds me of what white people are currently trying to do [to] America to get rid [of] immigrants they think are invading

    This comes with a 0:43 video, where the captions read: "My dad had raccoons in his tree house. Nobody has been up there in years. He tried to get rid of them with a combination of . . . smoke bombs and firecrackers. Anxiously watching for fleeing raccoons . . . [the tree house catches fire and is destroyed]. No raccoons were seen or found." Much more of interest in Kim's feed. I didn't expect (i.e., couldn't have imagined) this one:

    Israeli Interior Minister Ben-Gvir accuses Mossad chief Barnea of starting a war: - Why did you provoke Iran! Barnea: - I didn't know Iran had such rocket capabilities!

    The head of Mossad "did not know"

    I've been imagining that Ben-Gvir was the architect of the war, and conjuring up rationales for him doing so. Netanyahu has been complaining about Iran's rockets ever since Israel pivoted against Iran after the 1990 Gulf War neutralized Iraq as Israel's chief bête noire (more like a boogeyman meant to frighten the US and make it subservient to Israel -- a card they've played many times, and which you still see working as US politicians clamor for war against Iran). What this suggests is not that they were unaware of Netanyahu's propaganda, but that neither Ben-Gvir nor Barnea believed Israel's own propaganda, which they both used for their own purposes. Long-range rocket attacks were a significant part of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, with Iraq using Soviet Scuds and Iran building their own (after exhausting their US-built rockets). Extending their range to reach Israel would have been easy, and didn't cross an obvious red line, like nuclear bombs would have. Still, to be a nuclear threat, as Netanyahu has long insisted Iran is, you both need warheads and some way to deliver them: Iranian rockets have always been an obvious part of the equation. (Same for North Korea, which has even larger rockets.) Israel has routinely blamed Iran for every rocket from Gaza, Lebanon, and/or Yemen, so claiming now that you didn't know Iran had "such rocket capabilities" is an admission that you thought the rockets from Gaza, etc., weren't serious threats. They were just propaganda foils.

  • Pessimistic Intellect, Optimistic Will: Includes graphic of a press release by Hakeen Jeffries ("Democratic Leader"). Second and third paragraphs are solid points, although I wouldn't say that the kind of diplomacy the US needs to engage in at the moment is "aggressive": how about "serious"? or "constructive"? or just something that suggests you're not insane? However, before he could allow himself any of that, first Jeffries had to recite his pledge of allegiance:

    Iran is a sworn enemy of the United States and can never be permitted to become a nuclear-capable power. Israel has a right to defend itself against escalating Iranian aggression and our commitment to Israel's security remains ironclad.

    Not only is none of this true, and as articulated is little short of psychotic. Still, the real problem with always putting this pledge first isn't that it suggests you cannot think clearly. It's warning other people that you cannot or will not do anything about Israel's behavior because you're not even in charge of you own thoughts let alone actions.

  • Matthew Yglesias [06-22]:

    Every president of my lifetime except Joe Biden actually started wars, but somehow he ended up getting lambasted from the right and the left for providing military supplies to allies as if that made him the greatest warhawk in American history.

    No one I'm aware of has tried to sort out a ranking of "greatest warhawks in American history," but even if one did, not being the "greatest" wouldn't be much of a compliment. Biden needed not just to not start new wars, but to end them. He not only didn't do the necessary diplomacy to end the wars in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza, what diplomacy he did do, combined with his unflinching supply of arms and money to support the war efforts, made it possible for the wars to extend and spread. (Ukraine is slightly different, in that sending arms there can be justified by the need to counter Russian aggression, but also in that there are clear opportunities for diplomatic resolution. Support for Israel, given their long history of aggression and domination, is impossible to justify.) And while you might credit Biden with ending the Afghanistan war, once again he failed to show any diplomatic skill or interest. His popularity sunk not because he ended the war, but due to the ineptness of his withdrawal. The only thing you can say for him is that he was painted into an untenable corner by predecessors, but it's hard to see where he even tried to right their wrongs.

  • Ian Boudreau [06-26] Responding to a tweet noting that "mamdani's win has made the ny times, the washington post, fox news, trump, third way, and the democratic establishment very mad" citing a Washington Post Editorial Board article: "Zohran Mamdani's victory is bad for New York and the Democratic Party: New York cannot take its greatness for granted. Mismanagement can ruin it."

    Wow, mismanagement of New York City - what a genuinely terrifying prospect! Siri who is the current mayor of New York City?

    I don't have the bandwidth to deal with what looks to Wichita like a remote mayoral primary, but is obviously big news for the media centers and for the electorally-oriented left. It's quite possible that left candidates are much better at articulating problems and proposing solutions than they are at administering and implementing, but couldn't that just as easily be due to the obstacles entrenched powers can throw into the way, including their cozy relationship with the establishment press? One thing for sure is that whatever management skills conservatives think they have aren't helped by the evils of their ideology.

    Jamelle Bouie adds: "i think i would take the hysteria over mamdani's ability to govern more seriously if half these people hasn't endorsed eric adams."

    Ryan Cooper quotes Paul Krugman: "centrist Democrats often urge leftier types to rally behind their nominees in general elections. I agree. Anyone claiming that there's no difference between the parties is a fool. But this deal has to be reciprocal."

  • Don Winslow [06-28]:

    16 million Americans are about to lose their health insurance because 77 million Americans voted for this shit.

Mid-Year Music Lists: I usually collect these under Music Week, but it's probably easier here.

Current count: 146 links, 12549 words (14967 total)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, June 23, 2025

Music Week

June archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 44388 [44357) rated (+31), 24 [27] unrated (-3).

I've got a ton of work to do today, and tomorrow, and probably well into the near future. Music Week is one part of that work, the one that's most tightly scheduled -- is supposed to be done each and every Monday -- but not as important as urgent work on the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll: Mid-Year 2025. I sent a batch of invitations out to my jazzpoll [at] hullworks.net list a week ago (back on June 13) offering July 1 as the deadline for submitting lists. I had meant to do list and website maintenance before the mailing, but things got out of hand, so I figured I should go ahead and send out what I had to the list I had (210 members), and catch up later. I'm still working on that. So what I figured I'd do here is to post a Music Week stub, so I can scratch that off my todo list today, and update it later, at which point (probably not today) I'll have more definitive news on the Poll, possibly other projects as well.

I'm omitting the reviews for now. They're all in the June archive. (The Bandcamp pages for my pick hits are also linked on my Bluesky feed.) It wouldn't be a lot of work to dig them out at this point, but their absence underscores that this is just a stub. On the other hand, I thought I could use this space to organize my thoughts on what I need to do today on the Poll. Otherwise I just have this cloud of thoughts clashing around in my brain -- which needless to say is already agitated over the beyond-insane Netanyahu-Trump attack on Iran, probably not the worst thing either has done but the most performatively pointless exercise in self-delusion . . . well, I can't think of a comparison.

But back to basics: Of those 200+ invites, I've received and counted 20 ballots so far. I'm not sure how that compares with past polls, but it doesn't give me a lot of confidence that the invites have been received much less taken seriously. I like this particular mail list because with it all I have to do is compose one message and hit "send" and it goes to everyone. But the list has been a massive headache in the past, because many email providers regard the messages as spam, so they get routed to rarely-checked spam folders and sometimes flat-out rejected. Moreover, it's impossible for me to monitor how much mail is delivered and read, which allows considerable operating room for my paranoia. I had some hope that this year would be better because the list is hosted on a new server and the vendor has a system for maintaining its reputation. But again, I have no metrics showing that is the case. (That is something I need to look into, but that will also be take a lot of time.)

I have an alternate method for sending out invites, which is to use the Thunderbird MailMerge utility to generate individualized emails, which I can then send out one-by-one -- a process which takes several very tedious hours. These messages are much more likely to be delivered. Given the large number of people who never got invites because I hadn't updated the list, I've reluctantly decided I have to do this again this week. I should also resend invitations to the initial list members who have not voted. The largest piece of work here was to figure out who's missing from the two lists. That much I largely got done yesterday -- leaving aside the question of whether invitations should be extended to new people (which is not something I'm terribly worried about). That leaves for today:

  1. I need to edit the standard long-form invitation to produce a short-form version. The short-form gets straight to the point, trying to be less intimidating, with less emphasis on the fine points of rules and points, and fewer links that can add to spam scores. The short-form will be the basis of today's mass mailing.

  2. I need to check a couple more website files, to make sure the information in them is consistent and coherent. At this point I'm not going to worry about the "-notes" files, which try to provide very detailed explanations of everything. I will still need to work on them after today. I also need to make a programming change to reflect the decision to sort totals on votes and tie-break with points, a reversal from past polls, but that can wait, as the totals aren't public yet. The key point here is that when someone receives an invitation, they need to be able to access the website for further information, including a reference copy of the invite. That's the point of the update.

  3. Next thing is to write an email message based on the short-form invite, and run it through MailMerge, which will generate and queue up about 300 messages. (Although the program can send the mail, my ISP will start rejecting messages if sent too quickly. There may be a delay mechanism, but it's unclear how to tune it. Plus there is an advantage to not sending everything automatically.) I can then go through the folder and delete messages to people who don't need them. I can also individually edit the messages, not that I want to. The sent messages can also be used as templates for later invites. I usually send 5-8 messages in series, then take a break for a minute or two before sending the next batch. It takes several hours to send 200 messages.

  4. Next I will compose and send a message to the jpadmin mail list, which consists of volunteers who have taken an interest in the Poll. I write to them whenever I do a website update and/or have significant news to share and/or want them to look at something. In this case, it will be the updated website, and the prospective voter list. I can send further invites based on their feedback, as well as my own further research.

  5. Finally, I will need to update this Music Week post. More then. Maybe I'll get around to mentioning other projects. Perhaps I'll even come up with my own ballot.

Update [06-24]: I've added the reviews, below. I managed to send the first batch of additional Poll invites (34 recent voters not on initial mail list) out Monday night. I got two ballots back Tuesday morning, plus a couple other notes. Second batch (50 people we've invited in the past but haven't voted) went out today, in dribs and drabs to avoid angering the mail gods. I've heard from one person (a gmail user) on the initial list who never got the original invite, so I should probably proceed with sending individual reminders to everyone on the initial list who hasn't voted. Unfortunately, there is no real way to identify list members who haven't actually seen their mail.

I'll send a notice to the email list after I post this and update the website -- either late tonight or first thing tomorrow. I've held back pending expected updates to the website, but just a week before deadline we need to start beating the drums to get the ballots in. Besides, work on the website can be a perpetual, neverending task, especially as I don't get enough feedback to get a good sense of what is adequate and what needs improvement. That leaves me forever going back over various pieces, finding little details that can use a little tweaking. Meanwhile, my many other projects have been on hold the last few days. I need to balance better. Hopefully the ballots wil l roll in without much further sweat or angst on my part.

Big project last week was sorting and storing the wood pile. To that end, I've built the new racks in the shed, and moved most of the wood out of the basement and the house, so it's in the target area, if not necessarily in its final resting place. So it's coming along, and will get a test in the next week or so, when I try to build my recycling kiosk. The bigger question is whether the extra space I opened up in the basement will finally allow me to sort the tools and hardware. If I can do that, I can reclaim even more space in the basement and garage.

Unfortunately, my most likely diversion for the next couple days will be to turn the Loose Tabs scratch file into a blog post. I have two major sections long written, and I probably have 20-30 tabs I need to wrap up and close. While I've avoided most news, my chance encounters of late have been very disturbing. But perhaps there's no way to avoid having to deal with that. I'm also almost 500 pages into Greg Grandin's monumental America, América: A New History of the New World, and can recommend it highly -- although I suspect that there's still a lot he glosses over and/or simply skips. I'm reminded of the contrast between the treatments of the 1848 revolutions between Hobsbawm and Christopher Clark: the latter wrote 896 pp on all of the various revolts and reactions, which Hobsbawm dispensed with in less than ten pages (split over two books, with 1848 as the dividing line) which basically boiled down to: some stuff happened, but it amount to anything. Grandin has a similar eye for focusing on significance.

New records reviewed this week:

Sophie Agnel/John Butcher: Rare (2024 [2025], Les Disques Victo): French pianist, released a solo album in 2000, a couple dozen albums since are nearly all shared with other free jazz figures, this the second I see with the British saxophonist. B+(**) [sp]

Sophie Agnel: Song (2022-24 [2025], Relative Pitch): Solo piano, seven songs simply numbered, 41:05 total. B+(*) [sp]

Yves Brouqui: Mean What You Say (2024 [2025], SteepleChase): French guitarist, has several albums since 2002, including a tribute to Horace Silver. This is a quartet with piano (Spike Wilner), bass, and drums, playing three originals, seven standards, including "Besame Mucho," "Caravan," and the title piece from Thad Jones. B+(**) [sp]

Gerald Clayton: Ones & Twos (2025, Blue Note): Pianist, debut 2009, father and uncle are famed as the Clayton Brothers as well as individually (John, Jeff). Title refers to two LP sides and a "turntablist concept" I neither understand nor can hear. Clayton also plays synths and organ, with trumpet (Marquis Hill), vibes (Joel Ross), flute (Elena Pinderhughes), drums (Kendrick Smith), and percussion/post-production by Kassa Overall. B [sp]

Michel Doneda/Lê Quan Ninh/Núria Andorrà: El Retorn De L'Escolta: A La Memòria De Marianne Brull (2023 [2024], Fundacja Słuchaj): French soprano saxophonist (also sopranino here), has a substantial discography going back to 1985, but little I have heard. One 53:32 piece with two percussionists. Brull (1935-2023) was a Swiss-born publisher of anti-Franco literature, who eventually wound up living in Barcelona. B [bc]

Signe Emmeluth/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Axel Filip: Hyperboreal Trio (2023 [2025], Relative Pitch): Alto sax, bass, drums trio. Distinctive tone, reminds me of Jackie McLean. B+(***) [bc]

Alon Farber Hagiga: Dreams | Dream (2024 [2025], Origin): Israeli saxophonist (soprano/alto/tenor), came to my attention in 2005 with a FSNT release as Hagiga Quintet but had previous albums back to 1996, and continues to use the band name for this sprightly quartet, backed with piano, bass, and drums. B+(**) [cd]

Paul Flaherty: A Willing Passenger (2021 [2025], Relative Pitch): Avant-saxophonist, discography starts in 1982, is fairly substantial by now but he remains a pretty obscure figure. Bandcamp page has a story about a revelatory 2005 duo set with drummer Chris Corsano as part of a protest against GW Bush's second inaugural, called "Noise Against Fascism." This one is solo, alto & tenor, which can be rough going and is unforgiving: as I was my grading of Braxton's legendary For Alto (a D: "perhaps the ugliest thing I've ever heard"). B+(*) [bc]

Danny Grissett: Travelogue (2025, Savant): Mainstream pianist, tenor so albums since 2006, frequent side work (especially with Tom Harrell and Jeremy Pelt). Trio with Vicente Archer (bass) and Bill Stewart (drums), playing his originals and a couple standards. B+(**) [sp]

Kneebody: Reach (2025, GroundUP Music): Jazz group founded by former Eastman students Adam Benjamin (keyboards), Shane Endsley (trumpet), and Ben Wendel (tenor sax), plus Nate Wood (drums, also bass after Kaveh Rastegar left in 2019; this is their first album without him), debut 2005. Not exactly what I would call fusion, but doesn't distinguish itself clearly. B [sp]

Littorina Saxophone Quartet: Leaking Pipes (2024 [2025], NoBusiness): Four saxophonist from the Baltic Sea region: Maria Faust (alto), Mikko Innanen (alto, soprano, baritone), Fredrik Ljungkvist (soprano, tenor), and Liudas Mockunas (sopranino, soprano, bass, lugging the latter on the cover pic). All contribute pieces, and they keep them sweet and succinct. B+(***) [cd]

K. Curtis Lyle/George Sams/Adi Du Dharma Joshua Weinstein/Damon Smith/Ra Kalaam Bob Moses/Henry Claude: 29 Birds You Never Heard (2022 [2024], Balance Point Acoustics): Spoken word by the poet, who has a previous album from 1971, two new ones in 2024, a book from 1975, not much more I can find, but he's been around, knows a lot, and has his way with words. Also with music here, backed by trumpet (Sams), bass (Weinstein & Smith), percussion (Moses & Claude). Reminds me of Conjure. A- [bc]

Joe Magnarelli: Concord (2024 [2025], SteepleChase): Mainstream trumpet player, started on Criss Cross in 1998, has close to 20 albums, lots of side credits where he frequents big bands (going back to Buddy Rich and Toshiko Akiyoshi, recently with Mike Holober and Dannyh D'Imperio). Quartet with Victor Gould (piano), Paul Sikivie (bass), and Rodney Green (drums), half originals, half standards. B+(**) [sp]

Mark Masters Ensemble: Dance, Eternal Spirits, Dance! (2024 [2025], Capri): Big band arranger/leader, debut was Early Start in 1984, features tenor saxophonist Billy Harper playing his own compositions -- they go back, at least to 1991. B+(***) [cd]

Mark Masters Ensemble: Sam Rivers 100 (2023 [2025], Capri): Big band tribute to Sam Rivers (1923-2011), playing his songs on his centennial birthday, with tenor saxophonist Billy Harper again prominent among the soloists. B+(***) [cd]

Camila Nebbia/Kit Downes/Andrew Lisle: Exhaust (2025, Relative Pitch): Tenor saxophonist from Argentina, has been prolific since 2015, joined here with piano and drums. B+(***) [bc]

Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio: Armageddon Flower (2024 [2025], TAO Forms): Avant-saxophonist from Brazil, based in New York, albums start around 1989, recording pace picked up considerably, probably 8-12 albums per year over the last decade. The pianist is his most frequent collaborator, stating with a duo in 1996, plus a trio that year adding William Parker. The string section here consists of Parker and Mat Maneri (viola), who also has duos and trios with Shipp and/or Parker going back to the late 1990s. A- [cd]

Andrew Rathbun: Lost in the Shadows (2025, SteepleChase): Canadian tenor saxophonist, based in Brooklyn but teaches in Kalamazoo, started on Fresh Sound New Talent in 1999, has been a regular here since 2006. Tenth album, a quartet with Nate Radley (guitar), Jay Anderson (bass), and Billy Drummond (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Felipe Salles: Camera Obscura (2024 [2025], Tapestry): Saxophonist (soprano/tenor plus various clarinets/flutes) from Brazil, teaches at UM Amherst, debut 2007. Original pieces, backed by piano (Nando Michelin), bass, drums, and string quartet. B+(**) [cd]

Frank Paul Schubert/Dieter Manderscheid/Martin Blume: Spindrift: Trio Studies (2022 [2025], Jazz Haus Musik): German saxophonist (alto/soprano), with bass and drums. Group has a 2020 album Spindrift, and it was a close judgment call whether to take "Spindrift" as the group name here, or as part of the title (the three artist names follow on a second line; I took the colon on the top line as a hint). B+(***) [sp]

Julian Shore Trio: Sub Rosa (2024 [2025], Chill Tone): Pianist, albums since 2009, trio with bass (Martin Nevin) and drums (Allan Mednard), playing originals plus a couple covers, including one from Brian Wilson. B+(**) [cd]

Ches Smith: Clone Row (2024 [2025], Otherly Love): Drummer, also vibes and electronics, roughly a dozen albums since 2006, last couple on this label have polled well, more side credits, many in interesting circles (Tim Berne, Marc Ribot, John Zorn). Quartet with two guitarists (Mary Halvorson and Liberty Ellman) plus bass (Nick Dunston). Some remarkable guitar herein, tricky rhythms, etc., so not sure what's holding me back. B+(***) [cd]

Ches Smith: The Self (2023 [2025], Tzadik): "One of the most versatile and in-demand percussionists in the Downtown scene" is a plausible boast. Solo, credit reads: drums, vibraphone, timpani, glockenspiel, chimes, tam-tam, percussion. B+(*) [sp]

Inés Velasco: A Flash of Cobalt Blue (2025, self-released): Composer, from Mexico, studied at Berklee, based in New York, first album, arranged for big band, with narration (title comes from a poem) by Jorge Esquinca and a vocal by Catey Esler. B+(*) [cd]

Dan Weiss Quartet: Unclassified Affections (2024 [2025], Pi): Drummer, composer, many side credits, has led albums since 2008, mostly postbop confections I didn't much care for -- although his 2024 album, Even Odds, proved the exception. He goes for interesting chemistry here, matching last year's poll-winning vibraphone player, Patricia Brennan, with former MOPDTK trumpet player Peter Evans and guitarist Miles Okazaki. B+(***) [cd]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Misha Mengelberg/Sabu Toyozumi: The Analects of Confucius (2000 [2025], NoBusiness): Piano and drums duo, recorded in Japan, on the latter's home turf. Coming in my playlist right after dazzling piano from Cecil Taylor and Irène Schweizer, this took a bit longer to sort out, but in the end he won me over. I suppose it's a bit like comparing Monk and Peterson (or maybe even Tatum), an analogy he would most likely find flattering. A- [cd]

Irène Schweizer/Rüdiger Carl/Johnny Dyani/Han Bennink: Irène's Hot Four (1981 [2025], Intakt): Swiss pianist (1941-2024), an astonishing player, especially in her duos with various free jazz drummers -- the ones with Bennink are among the best, but not alone. She started in the 1970s with Carl playing saxophones, clarinet, and accordion. A- [sp]

Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley: Flashing Spirits (1988 [2025], Burning Ambulance): "Pioneering avant-garde pianist" (1929-2018), holds the record for most 4-star albums in Penguin Guide, partly because they're so consistent they're hard to sort among, partly because at any given moment the one you're listening to is likely to sound uniquely brilliant. It's easy to pick 1988 as his peak, not least because he recorded so much in Berlin that year. Duo with drums, one of many that year but Oxley was the one he worked with most in later years, and good reasons for that. A- [bc]

Old music:

Kenny Burrell With Art Blakey: On View at the Five Spot Café (1959 [1960], Blue Note): Guitarist, made his debut in 1956, recorded intensively through the 1960s and regularly up to 2016, at which point he was 85. Live album here was expanded for its 1987 CD, and has just reappeared in a 2-CD/3-LP Complete Takes set, but this stream just covers the 1960 LP release. With Tina Brooks (tenor sax), Ben Tucker (bass), the featured drummer, and either Bobby Timmons or Roland Hanna on piano. B+(*) [sp]

K. Curtis Lyle: The Collected Poem/For Blind Lemon Jefferson (1971, Mbari): Poet, from Los Angeles, in 1966 a founding member of the Watts Writers Workshop, later moved to St. Louis, where he met Julius Hemphill, who accompanies him on this, the only album attributed to him before two new ones in 2024. (Turns out he has a few side credits on albums by Hemphill, Baikida Carroll, and Oliver Lake.) B+(**) [yt]

Grade (or other) changes:

Wolf Eyes X Anthony Braxton: Live at Pioneer Works, 26 October 2023 (2023 [2025], ESP-Disk): Edit to artist credit/title/recording date, reflecting some fine print I had missed. Original review is here. May deserve a revisit. Turns out this is not their only recording together. B+(*) [cd]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Jacob Garchik: Ye Olde 2: At the End of Time (Yestereve) [08-29]
  • The Haas Company Featuring Jerry Goodman: Thirteen (Psychiatric) [08-01]
  • Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts (Nonesuch) [06-13]
  • Jason Kao Hwang: Myths of Origin (True Sound) [07-07]
  • Kaze & Koichi Makigami: Shishiodoshi (Circum/Libra) [07-11]
  • Billy Lester Trio: High Standards (Ultra Sound) [09-12]
  • Los Angeles Improvisation Ensemble: Insubordinate Lunar Transgressions (Denouement) [03-26]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Music Week

June archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 44357 [44332) rated (+25), 27 [32] unrated (-5).

I made the cutover in reasonable time on Monday, but didn't get anything written until late, so this will be posted late. Big thing I've been doing is a fairly massive reorganization of what I refer to as the woodpile. We did a major renovation of the kitchen/dining area roughly 15 years ago, and it produced a lot of scrap wood that's been piled up in the basement ever since. Moreover, there is quite a bit of wood in the garage: one wall as a rack for stick lumber, and the opposite wall has a cage that I built that holds 4x8 sheets (plywood, MDF, underlayment, paneling, etc.), and there are lesser scraps of everything. As the woodworking tools are mostly in the garage, I wanted to move the wood from the basement to the garage and a nearby shed. That's involved building more storage for odd bits. I've averaged several hours a day on this for a couple weeks. Progress is slow, as everything gets harder the older one gets. But I'm hopeful of getting the wood sorted and moved by the end of the week. Next step beyond that will be building a kiosk that can be used as a staging area for recycling. Other storage projects are likely to follow, as well as a serious effort to sort the tools and hardware. And books and CDs, which are by far the largest categories.

Meanwhile, I've sent out a round of invitations to the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll: Mid-Year 2025. I'm still way behind on cleaning up the website, and perhaps more urgently on checking the mailing lists, which I suspect are missing a number of 2024 voters. I have three ballots counted so far, but another 10-12 sitting in my inbox. Deadline is June 30, so we still have a fair amount of time. I'm already finding new records I wasn't aware of. [PS: Trying to close this Tuesday evening, I have 10 ballots counted, with 2 more uncounted, and a similar number of promises, plus 2 notes from usually reliable voters regretting (or perhaps just thinking) they'll skip this round. Thus far we have votes for 106 albums (75 new, 31 old), 29 of which weren't previously in my tracking file, which previously stood at 502 jazz albums. The 2024 jazz tracking file wound up with 1572 albums.]

Two upgrades this week from Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide. I already had the Buck 65 and Willie Nelson albums at A-, and Tune-Yards at B+(*). I still have more work to do there (Arcade Fire, Ghost Wolves, Girl Scout, Justin Golden, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Bruce Springsteen). I've added the MY lists at AOTY into my Metacritic file, but haven't yet gone looking for more trouble. One list I'm aware of but haven't catalogued yet is the set from RiotRiot: Albums (30-11); Albums (10-1); and Songs.

I got rained out on Tuesday. We had a pretty severe storm blow through around 5 AM, which took down a lot of small limbs. The rain finally let up when I got up around 9, so after breakfast I opened the garage/shed up to work, but wound up spending a couple hours just picking up limbs, cuting them up, and packing them into the newly emptied trash can. I quit when I ran out of space, having not even started on the back yard. I broke for lunch, counted a few ballots, kept meaning to get back to it, until I heard thunder and had to pack everything back up. Still raining as I write this.

Tomorrow's going to be disrupted by a dentist appointment, and whatever I feel like doing after as opposed to coming home to work. I did manage to listen to some stuff today, kicking off with three straight A- albums under old music. They're not in Music Week yet, but are in the June archive if you care to go there (link up top). What I will do is refer you to the Loose Tabs draft file, which has two long sections, one on Israel as a revolutionary experience, another on the "abundance" political pitch.

So much shit is happening in the world these days that it's hard to just ignore it all, especially when it's so easy to see the delusions people in power are acting on. There is absolutely no sense to be made out of Israel's attack on Iran, nor is there any sense to be made out of Trump's willingness to take credit for starting the war. Netanyahu is effectively demanding that Iran finally fulfill his prophecy and build and use the nuclear weapons he claims he's trying to safeguard against. Still, the only realistic defense against nuclear war is peace, which is the one option Netanyahu is unwilling (or unable) to consider. Sure, it's possible that Iran will never take the bait, but who's going to admit that just proves how wrong Netanyahu has always been.

The real message that Israel is sending is their intention to do things so horrific that other nations will be so repulsed they may be driven to unthinkable measures just to stop them. The last time any nation has worked so hard to turn the world against them was Germany and Japan in starting WWII. (Even there, it is sobering to note that it wasn't genocide against Jews that motivated the UK, USSR, and USA to fight Germany and Japan, but direct attacks against their own imperialist interests.) It will be much harder for Israel to provoke devastating reaction this time, because most sensible people are wary of entering into war, especially to stop an arsenal of nuclear weapons. That seems to be part of their calculation for aggression.

When we look back at all this, we should realize that BDS was an opportunity to peacefully but firmly remind Israel that there must be limits to abusing the powers of a nation to inflict suffering on one's own people and others. It failed because Israel was able to organize corrupt support from the US and Europe, and in doing so, especially with "blank check" support from Trump and Biden, has only fed the arrogance of Israeli politicians, including some who were until recently regarded as criminals within Israel -- not a coincidence that America installed another escaped criminal as president.

PPS: Just as I was getting ready to post this late Tuesday evening, the internet went out, pushing this post into Wednesday. It stayed out all night, but was working by noon today. By then, I took a look at what I had written, and decided to add a few more words on Israel and Trump. One more point: both are convinced that the harder they get hit, the more their people will rally to their support -- a conceit that makes they especially reckless, especially given their inability to see that Iran's leaders understand that just as well. It was, after all, Hitler who turned Stalin and Churchill into heroes, erasing their long and lamentable histories of misrule.

New records reviewed this week:

Aya: Hexed! (2025, Hyperdub): British electronic music producer, last name Sinclair, second album under this name, released a previous one as Loft. Leans into metal toward the end. B [sp]

Hannah Cohen: Earthstar Mountain (2025, Bella Union/Congrats): Singer-songwriter from San Francisco, based in New York, fourth album since 2012. B+(*) [sp]

Michika Fukumori: Eternity (2023 [2025], Summit): Japanese pianist, moved to New York in 2000, fourth album since 2004, a trio with Steve Whipple (bass) and Adam Nussbaum (drums). Opens with seven originals, then stretches out with some covers (Kurt Weill, Fats Waller, a mashup of Chopin and Jobim, "Be My Love"). B+(***) [cd]

Ms. Ezra Furman: Goodbye Small Head (2025, Bella Union): Singer-songwriter, led band albums 2007-11, solo efforts since then, some seemed notable at the time although I can't say as I recall any of them. Too much of a mixed bag for me to try to sort out, but some interesting stuff if you care. (One track reminds me that Furman wrote a 33-1/3 book about Lou Reed's Transformer album.) B+(**) [sp]

Alexander Hawkins: Song Unconditional (2024 [2025], Intakt): British pianist, quite a few albums since 2008, this one solo. B+(**) [sp]

Izumi Kimura & Gerry Hemingway: How the Dust Falls (2025, Auricle): Japanese pianist, based in Ireland (which she's incorporated into past work), a second duo with the drummer -- they also have two trios with Barry Guy, all recommended. B+(***) [cd]

James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Abstraction Is Deliverance (2024 [2025], Intakt): Poll-winning tenor saxophonist, well-established quartet with Aruán Ortiz (piano), Brad Jones (bass), and Chad Taylor (drums) -- their fifth album. This starts out sounding like a hitherto unknown Coltrane masterpiece. It doesn't develop much beyond that level, but how much can anyone ask for? A- [sp]

Carol Liebowitz/Nick Lyons: The Inner Senses (2023 [2025], SteepleChase LookOut): Piano and alto sax duo, both very measured and precise. B+(***) [cd]

Lifeguard: Ripped and Torn (2025, Matador): Indie/postpunk band from Chicago, Asher Case the singer-bassist, second album. B [sp]

Ramon Lopez: 40 Springs in Paris (2024 [2025], RogueArt): Spanish drummer, moved to Paris in 1985, has dozens of co- and side-credits since 1992, including a solo album in 1998. This, again, is solo. B+(**) [cdr]

Momma: Welcome to My Blue Sky (2025, Lucky Number/Polyvinyl): Dream pop band, led by Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten (both guitars, vocals, "additional instrumentation"), fourth album since 2018. Pretty much what I imagine the new Garbage album will sound like. B+(**) [sp]

Greg Murphy: Snap Happy (2024 [2025], Whaling City Sound): Pianist, eighth album since 2004, mostly trio with Obasi Akoto (basses) and Steve Johns (drums), plus guitar (Mark Whitfield) on three tracks, and a vocal (Sy Smith) on one. B+(**) [cd]

Billy Nomates: Metalhorse (2025, Invada): English singer-songwriter Tor Maries, first album (2020) was clearly influenced by Sleaford Mods, third album here is much more easy-going. B+(**) [sp]

Ploy: It's Later Than You Think (2025, Dekmantel): British tech house producer Sam Smith, second album, other releases and mixes going back to 2016, hits a nice spot and sticks there. B+(**) [sp]

Scowl: Are We All Angels (2025, Dead Oceans): Postpunk band from Santa Cruz, Kat Moss is the singer, second album after a couple of EPs. This has some real heft. B+(***) [sp]

Sherelle: With a Vengeance (2025, Method 808): Last name Thomas, first album after several singles/EPs/DJ mixes. Experts tab this as a cross between footwork and jungle. I'm not one, but that sounds about right. One vocal piece shows some potential that could be extended, but the hard fast beats suffice. B+(***) [sp]

Bartees Strange: Horror (2025, 4AD): American singer-songwriter, grew up in Oklahoma, originally Bartees Cox Jr., third album. B+(*) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

African Jazz Invites O.K. Jazz (1961-70 [2025], Planet Ilunga): Vintage Congo soukous, designed for 4 LP sides, 28 tracks total, two batches credited to L'O.K. Jazz (Franco Luambo), one to L'African Jazz (Joseph Kabasele, aka Le Grande Kallé), the batch called "The African Jazz school - Style Fiesta 1961-1970" the only one with pieces that stretch beyond 3:00. B+(***) [bc]

Dave Burrell/Sam Woodyard: The Lost Session: Paris 1979 (1979 [2025], NoBusiness): Avant pianist, known on occasion to look back with delight, at the moment he was coming off an excellent Plays Ellington and Monk and a Lush Life I haven't heard, and would later go on to The Jelly Roll Joys. Here he's in a duo with Ellington's longtime drummer, whose name rarely shows up in sluglines. Mostly originals, some of which could be vintage rags, but they work in "Lush Life," "Sentimental Lady," and "Embraceable You." A- [cd]

Jimmy Lyons: Live From Studio Rivbea: 1974 & 1976 (1974-76 [2025], NoBusiness): Alto saxophonist (1931-86), best known for his work with Cecil Taylor, but his own albums are almost all worth checking out, and this one is crackling: two improv sets (27:52 and 26:10), the first with Karen Borca (bassoon), Hayes Burnett (bass), and Henry Letcher (drums), the second with Syd Smart (drums) and Burnett again. A- [cd]

Motoharu Yoshizawa/Kim Dae Hwan: Way of the Breeze (1993 [2025], NoBusiness): Japanese bassist (1931-98), credited here with "homemade electric vertical 5-strings bass," duo with Korean free jazz percussionist (1933-2003), who takes charge early with one of the most striking drum solos I've heard lately. Gets more complicated further on. A- [cd]

Old music:

Docteur Nico: Dieu De La Guitare (1954-70 [2018], Planet Ilunga): Famed Congolese guitarist Nicolas Kasanda (1939-85), started with Joseph Kabasele's L'African Jazz, split in 1963 with Rochereau to lead L'Orchestra African Fiesta. He left a couple hundred singles under variations of his nickname. B+(***) [bc]

Muriel Grossmann: Universal Code (2022 [2023], RR Gems): Saxophonist (soprano/alto/tenor), born in Paris, parents Austrian, based in Ibiza, heavily influenced by Coltrane's spiritual jazz tangent, a formula hard to resist. I missed this one, backed with guitar (Radomir Milojkovic), organ (Llorenç Barceló), drums (Uros Stamenkovic), and bass (Gina Schwarz, 3 of 9 tracks). B+(**) [bc]

Resilient Vessels: Live at the Cell (2020 [2021], RR Gems): Live set, from a residency organized by visual artist Josh Werner, who also plays bass here in a quartet with James Brandon Lewis (sax), Patrick Holmes (clarinet), and Ches Smith (drums). Pretty scintilating -- an element I missed in Lewis's new, but otherwise excellent, album. A- [bc]

Grade (or other) changes:

Robert Forster: Strawberries (2025, Tapete): Australian singer-songwriter, one of two in the Go-Betweens (1978-90), went solo after that, and seems to have excelled at recapturing the group's sound since Grant McClennan's death in 2006. This hits the spot more often than not. [was: B+(***)] A- [sp]

Lambrini Girls: Who Let the Dogs Out (2025, City Slang): British punk duo, started by others but here a duo of Phoebe Lunny (lead vocals/guitar) and Lilly Macieira-Bosgelmez (bass guitar/backing vocals), plus drums. First album after several singles and an EP I liked, 11 songs (29:25). This got enough hype I noticed it right away, but obviously didn't pay enough attention. Sound alone should have been good for a boost, even before deciphering the earned rage. [was: B+(*)] A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Alchemy Sound Project/Sumi Tonooka: Under the Surface (ARC) [06-27]
  • Ryan Keberle & Collectiv Do Brasil: Choro Das Aguas (Alternate Side) [07-18]
  • Wheelhouse: House and Home (Aerophonic) [07-22]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, June 9, 2025

Music Week

June archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 44332 [44300) rated (+32), 32 [23] unrated (+9).

I published a Loose Tabs on Wednesday, June 4. I've added an article index, which is useful if you want to link to a specific section. I've fixed a couple typos, edited a tiny bit, and added some more reviews of the Jake Tapper book, although nothing I find all that revealing. [PS: I added some more reviews/notes on 06-10.] If I did have to do the research, the question I'd want to find an answer to is how the people advising Biden fail to recognize that his persistent low polling after leaving Afghanistan -- which should have been a big plus after 20+ years of repeated failure -- was a problem that Biden simply wasn't articulate and/or empathetic enough to talk his way out of.

I've really avoided working up any new material since posting, so the current scratch file doesn't have much, and isn't likely to for a while. There is so much really dreadful crap going on that it's hard to know where to begin, and harder still to decide when to stop. I will say that overhearing some 10-15 minutes of Fox News spin on Trump's deployment of national guard to quell "riots" in California was enough to convince me that Trump is picking this fight because he believes it generates reactions that he believes will help him (and hurt Democrats) politically. And it's not really even immigration policy where he thinks he has the advantage. What turns him and his fans on is the action, underscored by the performative cruelty. It doesn't really matter how many people he deports -- Biden and Obama generally topped his counts -- but how people perceive his commitment and toughness.

Not much to say about music here. I got a lot of the records below from Phil Overeem's list, plus the latest batch of reviews by Dan Weiss, and what I've picked up from the first few mid-year lists that I've factored into my metacritic file:

New today and not counted yet: The Fader; Paste; Spin. Rolling Stone started off their list in typical form: "What a year it's been for great music -- as opposed to, say, everything else." But looking at my metacritic file, I'm not all that impressed: while my tastes rarely align with the critical consensus, the current top five strike me as exceptionally weak: FKA Twigs (*), Bon Iver (**), Japanese Breakfast (*), Horsegirl (**), Lady Gaga (***). Beyond that: Julien Baker & Torres (***), Mogwai (*), Black Country New Road (B), Lambrini Girls (*), Sharon Van Etten (*). Granted, I have five A- records between 14-20 (Lucy Dacus, The Delines, Craig Finn, Billy Woods, Jason Isbell). But my scale is skewed to favor records I like (also Robert Christgau and some of his close followers), and he has all but the thus-far-unreviewed Woods at A- or higher.

Speaking of mid-year polls, I'm thinking about running a jazz critics one, as I did in 2024. If so, I really should get invites out this week, with a June 30 deadline and an early-July publication date. Setting up the website should be easy enough, and firing off the mail list is easy if it works. (Last year it didn't work very well, but I have a new server this time, and supposedly it comes with a better reputation, although over-aggressive spam filters are still a risk.) One good reason for doing this would be to force me to do some prep work for the end-of-year poll.

Downside is that a lot of people who will vote in the annual poll aren't really up for a mid-year poll. But we got 90 ballots last year -- albeit only after a lot of laborious nagging -- and that produced some very useful information. And while I'm unimpressed with the non-jazz so far this year, this seems to be shaping up as a typically solid year for new jazz releases (although maybe not yet for rara avis). I haven't split my 2025 list into jazz and non-jazz yet, but I have a healthy 56 A/A- albums so far, which on first pass are evenly split 28-28.

I've been putting a fair amount of time into household tasks, which will continue for the foreseeable future. Big project this week has been to clean and reorganize the garage and shed, where along with much junk I have a lot of scrap lumber. I'm making slow but fairly steady progress, but it's taking a lot of time from my listening and writing, so things like the planning documents have been suffering.

PS: It's agreed that I'll run a Francis Davis Mid-Year Jazz Critics Poll. I'll set up a website for managing the poll in the next day or two. It should appear here, under the archive website. The minimal job there is to copy the old 2024 Mid-Year directory, delete the old albums/votes, and edit the rest of the files to reflect the year change, any rule changes, and whatever other notes seem helpful. The idea is that voters should be able to refer to the website to answer any questions about the poll, so I'm trying to make it as clean and clear as possible. A simple copy from last year is a start, but still leaves a lot more that should be done.

I have an admin maillist with a dozen or so people who volunteered to help out with last year's poll. Next thing on my todo list is to write them and get them engaged. I'm contemplating a couple of minor rule changes, which I will write up and request for feedback. There isn't a lot of easily distributable work to do -- the one big thing is qualifying and communicating with voters -- but it helps me to write up my ideas and plans, to have a sounding board and get advice, and to watch over how it all works, especially to catch errors before they get out of hand. If you would like to volunteer, please let me know. (Thus far it's only voters, so if you're not one, convince me. Also if you want to vote, convince me. And if you know of someone who hasn't been voting but wants to and should be included, also let me know.)

I also have two email lists for voters: one easy for me to use, but which has had poor deliverability in the past; the other is a lot more work, but is more effective. I'll write up an invite and send it to the former list by the end of the week. When I do that, I'll also post a note on the blog, and on my Bluesky and X accounts. Deadline for ballots will be June 30. I need to review the lists, and make sure they are complete and up to date (as best I can). I'll keep track of letters and ballots as they come in, and I'll probably send nag notes a couple days ahead of deadline to whoever I haven't heard from.

ArtsFuse will publish the results and an essay or two in early July. Complete results, including individual ballots, will be on the archive website, as usual.

New records reviewed this week:

Yugen Blakrok: The Illusion of Being (2025, IOT): South African rapper, third album since 2013. B+(***) [sp]

Car Seat Headrest: The Scholars (2025, Matador): Indie band from Virginia, principally singer-songwriter Will Toledo, 13th album since 2010 per Wikipedia (first 8 were DIY, so 5th album on Matador since 2015 is more like it, with one of those a dupe from early days). Billed as a "rock opera," running 70:32 (or 127:47 deluxe), so no surprise that that I'm not able to focus enough to follow or care, but this is pretty consistently listenable, and may merit more serious consideration. B+(**) [sp]

Central Cee: Can't Rush Greatness (2025, CC4L/Columbia): British rapper Oakley Caesar-Su, first studio album after a couple mixtapes. Can't just idle around either. B+(**) [sp]

Sarah Mary Chadwick: Take Me Out to a Bar/What Am I, Gatsby? (2025, Kill Rock Stars): Singer-songwriter from New Zealand, based in Melbourne, 11th album since 2012 (per Discogs), one noted by Christgau in 2021. This one barely, with slow speak over spare piano, barely registers . . . until "I'm Not Clinging to Life," where she fights back. Interesting character, but music not so much. B [sp]

The Convenience: Like Cartoon Vampires (2025, Winspear): Indie rock guitar/drums duo from New Orleans, Nick Corson and Duncan Troast, second album, moves along. B+(**) [sp]

Cosmic Ear: Traces (2025, We Jazz): New free jazz group, mostly well known Scandinavians remembering and revering Don Cherry: Christer Bothén (bass/contrabass clarinet, ngoni, piano); Mats Gustafsson (tenor sax, flutes, clarinets, electronics, organ, harmonica); Goran Kajfes (trumpets, electronics); Kansan Zetterberg (bass, ngoni); Juan Romero (percussion, berimbau, congas); with "special guest" Manane N Lemwo (kangnan). A- [sp]

Amalie Dahl: Breaking/Building Habits (2024 [2025], SauaJazz): Danish alto saxophonist, based in Oslo, has several albums with her group Dafnie, this a quartet with guitar (Viktor Bomstad), vibes (Viktoria Holde Søndergaard), and drums (Tore Ljøkelsøy). The percussion is especially striking here. A- [bc]

Dickson & Familiar: All the Light of Our Sphere (2024 [2025], Sounds Familiar): Glenn Dickson (clarinet) and Bob Familiar (synthesizer) create ambient music that is complex and radiant, and possibly a bit tiresome. B+(**) [cd]

DJ Shaun-D: From Bubbling to Dutch House (2025, Nyege Nyege Tapes): As best I can tell, a Dutch electronica producer, born in The Hague, father Dutch, mother "Caribbean," may have some records as Shaun D and/or DJ Shaun -- De Schuurman, whose 2024 Bubbling Forever has much the same appeal, cites him as an influence, so presumably he's a bit older. B+(***) [sp]

Rocio Giménez López/Franco Di Renzo/Luciano Ruggieri: La Forma Del Sueño (2023 [2025], Blue Art): Pianist, from Argentina, fifth album since 2017, with bass and drums, playing a selection of jazz classics from Rollins, Parker, Coleman, Coltrane, Peacock, Monk, and Ellington. B+(***) [sp]

K. Curtis Lyle/Jaap Blonk/Alex Cunningham/Damon Smith/Kevin Cheli: A Radio of the Body (2024, Balance Point Acoustics): Lyle is a poet, originally from Los Angeles, was a founder of the Watts Writers Workshop in 1966, moved to St. Louis and recorded an album in 1971 with Julius Hemphill, but that seems to be all until this and another 2024 album. Blonk is a well-known Dutch vocalist and electronics/sound artist, and the others play violin, bass, and drums. B+(***) [sp]

Madre Vaca: Yukon (2025, Madre Vaca): Originally a quartet from Jacksonville, sixth album, now styles itself as a collective, but still a quartet on this sixth album, with three founders -- Jarrett Carter (guitar), Jonah Pierre (keyboards), and Benjamin Shorstein (drums) -- joined by Thomas Milovac (bass), who wrote 3 (of 8 songs; Carter 3, Pierre 2). B+(***) [cd]

Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (2025, Dying Victims Productions): Hard rock/heavy metal band from Austin, second album, cover couldn't be anything else even if the most conspicuous metal is just calcium. Janiece Gonzalez is the singer, with two guitars, bass, and drums. B+(*) [bc]

Ela Minus: Día (2025, Domino): Singer-songwriter from Colombia, studied at Berklee, now based in Brooklyn, second album, electropop (more or less), the catchiest refrain going "I'd love to save you but you've got to save yourself." B+(**) [sp]

MonoNeon: You Had Your Chance - Bad Attitude (2025, Floki Studios): Bassist Dywane Eric Thomas Jr., from Memphis, more than a dozen albums since 2012, some experimental/jazz, but this one is a set of eight idiosyncratic funk tunes (29:30) -- imagine Swamp Dogg starting with Prince instead of Muscle Shoals. B+(*) [bc]

Joe Morris/Elliott Sharp: Realism (2023 [2025], ESP-Disk): Two guitarists, the former also credited with "effects," the latter with "electronics," both have been on the fringe since it was called "avant-garde" (hype sheet says since 1983 and 1979, respectively). This sums their life's work up admirably. A- [cd]

Mourning [A] BLKstar: Flowers for the Living (2025, Don Giovanni): Cleveland group, formed 2015 by RA Washington and LaRoya Kent, fifth album, has soul and gospel in its history, jazz and electronics in its toolkit. B+(**) [sp]

Nao: Jupiter (2025, Little Tokyo): English neo-soul singer-songwriter Neo Jessica Joshua, fourth album since 2016. Choice cut: "Happy People." B+(***) [sp]

The Onions: Return to Paradise (2025, Hitt): Pop/rock band from Columbia, Missouri, (3) in Discogs, second album after a 2015 debut, the kind of band that would cover "Wonderful Wonderful" as surfer or maybe bubblegum but owes more to Les Baxter than to Chuck Berry. C+ [bc]

Sverre Sæbo Quintet: If, However, You Have Not Lost Your Self Control (2025, SauaJazz): Norwegian bassist, has a couple side credits but this looks to be his first as leader. All original pieces, quintet with three horns -- Heidi Kvelvane (alto sax/clarinet), Aksel Røed (baritone/tenor sax/clarinet), Andreas H. Hatzikiriakidis (trumpet) -- and drums (Amund Nordstrøm). B+(**) [bc]

Samia: Bloodless (2025, Grand Jury): Indie pop singer-songwriter, full name adds Najimy Finnerty, after parents who are actors of some note. Third album. B+(***) [sp]

The Sharp Pins: Radio DDR (2025, K/Perennial Death): Young (20) singer-songwriter from Chicago, also records as Lifeguard Dwaal Troupe, and A Towering Raven; this, after a couple DIY releases, seems to be the jangle pop project. My first impulse was to reject it, but then I started hearing things -- derivative, perhaps, not enough to stick with, but there could be something here. B+(*) [sp]

Deborah Silver/The Count Basie Orchestra: Basie Rocks! (2025, Green Hill): The singer has a previous album from 2016 called The Gold Standards, which are indeed good ol' good 'uns. The ghost band is directed by Scotty Barnhart these days, but no names jump out at me, at least until I find Patience Higgins in the "additional musicians," but the featured musicians are well known, including George Coleman and Wycliffe Gordon. I also recognize the songs, which run (chronologically) from "A Hard Day's Night" to "Every Breath You Take," most swung mightily to little avail -- "Tainted Love," "Band on the Run," "Joy to the World," and "Fly Like an Eagle" are beyond help, and "Paint It Black" is worse. Only song where they came up with a revealing new take was "Life's Been Good." B [cd]

Um, Jennifer?: Um Comma Jennifer Question Mark (2025, Final Girl): New York-based indie rock duo, Fig and Eli, offer "love-drunk and hate-fueled hallucinations," but also "a whimsical view of transness." B+(**) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

The Bitter Ends: The Bitter Ends (2022 [2025], Trouble in River City): St. Louis garage rock band, although I'd pinpoint their origins in 1960s punk, still richer melodically than 1970s punk or 1980s hardcore because they listened to AM and knew a hook when they stole one, but were definitely heading toward a rowdier and noisier future, with no real sense of how postmodernism would relativize everything. Most of this would fit right into Nuggets. Originally self-released, so technically a reissue. A- [bc]

Mazinga: Chinese Democracy Manifest: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (2024 [2025], Rubber Wolf?): Punk band from Ann Arbor, Discogs credits them with one previous album (1999), some singles/EPs (1997-2000, 2008). Bandcamp has some more singles/EPs from 2012 and 2024, as well as a 1996-2008 compilation. This looks like another comp: I can source 5 (of 10 songs) to 2024 releases, leaving 5 more unaccounted for (total 26:11). B+(***) [sp]

Sweet Rebels: The Golden Era of Algerian Pop-Raï: The Ecstatic Electro Sound of Original Raï Cassettes 1986-1991 (1986-91 [2025], We Want Sounds): Algerian music, dates back to the 1920s but developed explosively in the 1980s, especially in Oran, before Islamic fundamentalism and civil war tore Algeria apart (1991-2002), driving many musicians abroad. I was first introduced to the music with Earthworks' 1988 compilation, Raï Rebels, which includes several of the artists here, in this compilation of eight rare cassettes that works just as well. B+(***) [bc]

Old music:

Amalie Dahl/Henrik Sandstad Dalen/Jomar Jeppsson Søvik: Fairytales for Daydreamers (2022 [2023], Nice Things): Danish alto saxophonist, based in Oslo, free jazz with bass and drums. A 43:41 piece called "Chapter I" and a 12:05 encore called "Chapter II." B+(*) [sp]

Amalie Dahl: Memories (2023, Sonic Transmissions): Alto saxophonist, first solo album, four tracks, 32:15. B+(*) [sp]

Amalie Dahl/Jomar Jeppsson Søvik/Henrik Sandstad Dalen: Live in Europe (2023 [2024], Nice Things): Two trio sets a week apart, one from Prague (March 3), the other Brussels (March 10). B+(**) [sp]

Andy Haas/David Grollman: Act of Love (2023, Resonant Music, EP): Saxophone and percussion duo, Grollman also credited with balloon and voice -- reading poems written by his late wife, Rita Stein-Grollman, who died early 2023 from "the cruelties of the [Early Onset] Alzheimer's Disease." Short (7 tracks, 17:34) and rather harrowing, or perhaps cathartic. B+(*) [bc]

Les Rallizes Denudés: Blind Baby Has It's Mothers Eyes ([2003], bootleg): Japanese experimental noise band, formed in 1967, active through 1988 and again from 1993-96, parts of their discography have appeared on Temporal Drift since 2021, including a live tape I've heard, Citta' '93, and evidently there is much more in the works: AOTY has a list of "86 Bootlegs (+7 unsorted dates/audience recordings), of which this item has been singled out by Phil Freeman for a AMG review (****), and which popped up on a Phil Overeem list, and is accessible on YouTube (full album, no track information or dates, 54:06). Presumably this was recorded somewhat earlier -- shortly before or after their hiatus is a fair guess. The historical uncertainty and lack of commercial packaging bothers me, as that's necessarily a part of my job reviewing, so I'm inclined to hedge. Also I'm not wild about the closing amplifier feedback, but for a long while, you could describe this as drawing a line from the Velvet Underground through Pulnoc and on toward oblivion, and that's interesting both as concept and revelation. B+(***) [yt]

Mazinga: Mazinga (1999, Reanimator): Ann Arbor punk group, first album after a couple singles/EPs, recorded less after 2000, with more singles/EPs in 2008, 2012, and 2024. Fifteen fast ones, 37:30, including a cover of "Mongoloid" (Devo), although I'm less happy that it's followed up with one called "That Yellow Bastard," but the closer ("No Rewards") helps. B+(*) [bc]

Deborah Silver: The Gold Standards (2016, Deborah Silver): Last heard fronting the Basie ghost orchestra in their romp through a batch of rock-era pop songs that will never become jazz standards, she presented the voice and phrasing of a capable standards singer, so I thought I'd check out this debut (and so far only other) album, where the standards are indeed golden -- "The Nearness of You," "Ain't Misbehavin'," "Slow Boat to China," "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," "I Could Write the Book," etc. Alan Broadbent plays piano and arranged for a big band that's short on brass but long on reeds. She's about as good as I expected, but still this comes up a bit short. B+(*) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Benny Benack III: This Is the Life (Bandstand Presents) [06-27]
  • Dave Burrell/Sam Woodyard: The Lost Session: Paris 1979 (NoBusiness) [05-02]
  • Ran Blake/Claire Ritter: Eclipse Orange (2019, Zoning)
  • Anita Donndorff: Thirsty Soul (Fresh Sound New Talent) [06-06]
  • Noah Haidu: Standards III (Sunnyside) [06-06]
  • Izumi Kimura & Gerry Hemingway: How the Dust Falls (Auricle) [05-20]
  • Litorina Saxophone Quartet: Leaking Pipes (NoBusiness) [05-16]
  • Jimmy Lyons: Live From Studio Rivbea: 1974 & 1976 (NoBusiness) [05-02]
  • Misha Mengelberg/Sabu Toyozumi: The Analects of Confucius (2000, NoBusiness) [05-02]
  • Claire Ritter: Songs of Lumière (Zoning) [01-01]
  • Jeff Walton: Pack Animals (none) [06-27]
  • John Yao and His 17 Piece Instrument: Points in Time (See Tao) [07-11]
  • Motoharu Yoshizawa/Kim Dae Hwan: Way of the Breeze (1993, NoBusiness) [05-02]

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