Music Week (9:3)

A few select reviews from week 3 of month 9 (September).

Much to complain about this week, but I'll save most of that for the blog version. I will note that the weather remains hot (close to 100°F) here in Wichita as we've passed mid-September. Also that we just got the clear from a "boil water alert," after a power failure and a double backup system failure. I've had a scratchy sore throat for a week now, with no indication of it either going away or developing into something "serious." I continue to struggle to get anything done, and that just gets more depressing.

One thing I really should get done is some sort of email fix. I pretty much know what I need to do, but that's easier said than done. Meanwhile, my hatred for Yahoo only grows. Mail is such an unpleasant chore these days that I'm preemptively deleting almost everything. One effect is that I'm not saving download codes/links — not that I was ever much good at following up on them.

The one tech thing I did manage to do was to register a domain name and set up a very primitive stub page for the Francis Davis website. I've been increasingly aggravated by GoDaddy's pricing, so I shopped around for a better deal, and came up with Porkbun. I'm not ready to publicize it yet, but it's a rare case of checking something off my "to do" list. Now I need to do some serious website design. (Hopefully, better than this.)

I've turned Brad Luen's "77 Favorite Albums of the Seventies" into a checklist, which I will use to overcome my ignorance: about one-third of his picks are albums I hadn't heard, so I started last week with two Brazilian albums (Cátia de França, Novos Bainos), and this week I've picked up a few more (Hannibal below, others in the full report). Some are real finds, others are interesting albums I'm probably not putting enough effort into.

I'll also add his 1950s and 1960s lists, but they're organized differently — by genre, unranked — and are much more conventional. (His 1950s jazz and rock/blues/country lists are almost canonical. His interests in world music, and we might as well include classical here, far exceed mine.) LPs only appeared around 1955, and were rarely more than singles-plus-filler until 1967. However, the music universe expanded enormously in the 1970s, making anyone's view necessarily smaller and more personally idiosyncratic. I know mine is.[1]

[1] As an exercise, I tried scraping the 1970s albums from my 1,000 Albums for a Long and Happy Life list. First cut yielded 209 albums, so it's fair to say I have a 1970s bias. Same search for other decades: 1960s: 145; 1980s: 150; 1990s: 128; 2000s 108; 2010s: 19 — list was originally compiled in 2008, although it's been updated a bit; 1950s: 128, but mostly later compilations. The search pattern looks for initial recording dates, so 1920s, long before there were any albums as such, produces a list of 30 comps. I plan on cleaning this 1970s file up a bit, then linking to it from Music Week.

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ALG Trio: Between the Vistula and the Hudson (2026, Aesthetiko): Gilad Atzmon (alto sax/clarinet), Piotr Lemanczyk (bass), and Adam Golicki (drums). The Vistula is the main river draining Poland, home of the rhythm section. Atzmon was born in Israel, left for Britain in 2002, and has continued to be vocal in his opposition to Israeli policies. I doubt that matters at all here, a trio where the lead is well-mannered but precisely focused. A−

BTS: Arirang (2026, Big Hit): K-pop boy group, 6th Korean-language studio album since 2014 (along with 4 Japanese albums), first since 2020, their hiatus occasioned by "military service." I file the few K-pop albums I hear under "Asian," but this is really a hip-hop group, with the crucial difference that it's hard to discern individuality, and not just because it's mostly in a language I don't understand (Korean). What's fascinating about watching their performances is the constant shuffling of focus, but that's much harder to hear. Still, the bits of English are hooks, which may be just enough. B+(**)

Todd DelGiudice: Mas Alto (2025-26 [2026], OA2): Alto saxophonist, second album as leader (first was 2011), some side credits, including with Jon Hamar (bass here; drums are split between Obed Calvaire and Jim White). Mostly original pieces (one by Hamar), but starts with Tristano, and includes a "Darn That Dream." I do enjoy a good sax workout. B+(***)

Grex: Auntie + Tebs (2026, Geomancy): Oakland group, with Karl Evangelista (guitar), Rei Scampavia (keyboard), and Robert Lopez (drums), the first two also voice and misc., produce some very noisy experimental rock with jazz moves, with several others helping out — names include Bobby Bradford (cornet) and Zoh Amba (sax). Title references Filipino reform politician Miriam Defensor Santiago and South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo. Radical ambitions, realized erratically. B+(**)
[Bandcamp]

Rich Halley 4: A Distant Land (2025 [2026], Pine Eagle): Tenor saxophonist, from Oregon, has recorded since 1984, but his pace picked up after he hit 65. His usual quartet, with trombone (Michael Vlatkovich), bass (Anadrew Jones), and drums (Carson Halley). Most are terrific, as are the sax leads here. But some stuttering in the flow gives me pause. B+(***)
[Bandcamp]

Roberto Magris: Live in Hollywood: Archival Recordings 2006 (2006 [2026], JMood): Italian pianist, released an album in 1990, but only found a home when he linked up with this Kansas City-based label, an event they're marking with five "20th anniversary limited editions." The earliest is this live set, with Tony Lakatos (tenor sax), Art Davis (bass), and Alonzo "Scooter" Powell (drums). They all sound terrific here, especially on standards like "St. James Infirmary." Ends with audio liner notes (interesting the first time, but rather long on repeat). The rest of the series showcases some fine piano, but it's the saxophonists who make the difference: Lakatos again on Broken Barriers, and Herb Geller on Come Lately. A−
[Bandcamp]

The 5.6.7.8's: Best Hits of the 5.6.7.8's (1989-2014 [2019], Time Bomb): Japanese garage rock outfit founded 1986, two sisters plus a third woman (on bass, since the early 1990s), first album was called Golden Hits of the 5.6.7.8's (1988), but Early Days Singles collection starts in 1989 (as does their singles discography at Discogs). Evidently, they're still working, with a new album (Run Run Run) out that I can't find, so I thought I'd try this one. Eclectic and trashy, in ways that could be camp but probably aren't. B+(**)

Hannibal and the Sunrise Orchestra: Hannibal (1975, MPS): Trumpet player Marvin Peterson (b. 1948), recorded a debut album under that name in 1969, played with Gil Evans in the early 1970s, became Hannibal here, later changing his last name, going as Hannibal Lokumbe, with regular albums through 1995, a couple more later. This is one of his most famed albums, with Michael Cochrane (piano, wrote one song), Diedre Murray (cello), Michael Carvin (drums/percussion), and Chris Hart (percussion). Trumpet is strong throughout, but the rhythm picks up on the second side, with some vocals on "The Voyage" and the 13:46 tribute to Malcolm X. A−