New Stuff News:
My freshman comp/pop music class engages in a Socratic seminar every month focused on a new release by an artist of reasonable significance. This month, they discussed Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell. Funny how different two classes of 18-to-20-year-old women can be. My first class was fascinated by the contradictions created in Del Rey’s work: soothing sounds concealing horror and danger, nostalgia presaging dystopia, “Is this a dream or is it wreckage?”, sexual assertiveness vs. sexual passivity. My second class just hated it: the songs are too long, repetition and filler create boredom, too few dynamics. My take, via Wilde: when the critics are in disagreement, it’s a sign the artist is in harmony with herself.
Nicole and I attended Columbia’s annual Dismal Niche Experimental Music Festival (October 3-6) and were blown away. Thursday night we witnessed Makaya McCraven’s shape-shifting jazz improv unit (left-hand pic), augmented by the mesmerizing young vibraphonist Joel Ross, Blacks’ Myths’ thundering and throbbing bassist Luke Stewart, and Jeff Parker of Tortoise fame. At times, I find McCraven’s recorded music sounding perilously close to chill-lounge fare, but witnessing him live, conducting master musicians in the moment, I became a believer. Locked into a groove, the group would fixate on a figure developed by one player, and McCraven would lead them into a new movement built around it–when, in the blink of an ear, they sidestepped into Latin land, I almost felt dizzy. On Saturday night, we came prepared for Mdou Moctar’s Tuareg guitar assault (right-hand pic), having deeply indulged in so-called desert blues for the better part of the last decade, but Moctar elevated beyond even that level. Conjuring Sharrock and Hendrix, sending crackling beams of electricity through his band’s Saharan dance grooves, and just LOSING IT on the final number, exploiting every inch of his axe’s strings from every angle he could reach them, he left more than a few of us younger folks (I’m 57) wondering if we’d ever heard the like. A Top Five concert for us, and great praise is due Columbian Matt Crook, the fulcrum beneath the fest ($50 for four nights plus workshops and assorted other fun stuff??? You’ve got to be kidding me!).
I have always liked Laurie Anderson at arm’s length (is that possible?). I have no problem with pretentiousness as long as its properly put in service, but I’ve often detected a light scent of bullshit hovering over her work. However, Heart of a Dog moved me, and her new readings from The Tibetan Book of the Dead are relatively free from self-consciousness and–honestly speaking–just what the doctor ordered for me (and perhaps you?) inna this ya time. Sometimes I think I can’t take another day of this furor and flapdoodle, but one listen to this record set my feet firmly on the ground. Not an easy thing for art to do right now.
Old Stuff News:
Leave it to me to be so far behind in my music study that the old seems new. True, American music is a deep, deep well, but–really–I should not just now be luxuriating in the music of Kay Starr, Peggy Lee, Bobby Troup, and (especially) Shirley Horn. I’ve been daily dipped in Will Friedwald’s The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums, in which the author explores in considerable depth 50-plus records one would think I’d (and likely you) would have already been familiar with. I’d tried to read one of Friedwald’s Sinatra books and found it too gushy, but I bought this one used for a pittance, and, skimming it and noticing the likes of Tiny Tim, Bobby Short, Steve & Eydie, and Robert Goulet in the table of contents, perversity overcame me and I just had to read it, and listen along. Not every one of Friedwald’s choices enraptured me, but Kay Starr (the white Dinah Washington!), Peggy Lee (no fucking joke), Barb Jungr (few better Dylan interpreters, and she actually fomented a mini-revolution), and Maxine Sullivan (didn’t she disco?) sent me straight to Discogs. Also: Carmen McRae’s ultra-rare Live at The Dug? A sheer A+ that I will be playing regularly til i croak. The chief discovery I made, though, was of an artist who didn’t even make the list of albums, but who was referred to peripherally in a few other artists’ entries: Shirley Horn. An early influence on Miles, a musical double-threat via vocals and 88s, almost obsessively proceeding at a very unhurried and hypnotic pace, and flawlessly choosing songs, she sounds to me like a MAJOR voice in jazz. Her early Embers and Ashes? Pour a drink and just let her flow over you.
On with the show…
My Album-Lover’s Honor Roll for 2019 (as of October 5, 2019)
(bolded items are new additions to the ongoing list)
- Little Simz: Grey Area
- Various Artists: A Day in the Life–Impressions of Pepper*
- Jamila Woods: Legacy! Legacy!
- Peter Perrett: Humanworld
- Rapsody: Eve
- Mexstep: Resistir
- Billie Eilish: WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
- Laurie Anderson, Tenzin Choegyal, Jesse Paris Smith: Songs from The Bardo
- Chance The Rapper: The Big Day
- Freddie Gibbs & Madlib: Bandana
- Royal Trux: White Stuff
- Yugen Blakrok: Anima Mysterium
- Mdou Moctar: Ilana (The Creator)
- Purple Mountains: Purple Mountains
- Pere Ubu: The Long Goodbye
- J Balvin & Bad Bunny: OASIS
- Sheer Mag: A Distant Call
- Billy Woods & Kenny Segal: Hiding Places
- Damon Locks / Black Monument Ensemble: Where Future Unfolds
- Raphael Saadiq: Jimmy Lee
- Young Thug: So Much Fun
- Kel Assouf: Black Tenere
- James Brandon Lewis: An Unruly Manifesto
- Teodross Avery: After the Rain–A Night for Coltrane
- Various Artists: Total Solidarity
- Lana Del Rey: Norman F***ing Rockwell
- Control Top: Covert Contracts
- Beyoncé: Homecoming
- The Comet is Coming: Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
- 2 Chainz: Rap or Go to the League
- Joel Ross: Kingmaker
- Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Tuba in Cuba
- Sote: Parallel Persia
- I Jahbar: Inna Duppy SKRS Soundclash
- Quelle Chris: Guns
- Heroes Are Gang Leaders: The Amiri Baraka Sessions
- DaBaby: KIRK
- Ben Lamar Gay: Confetti in the Sky Like Fireworks
- Tanya Tagaq: Toothsayer EP
- Abdullah Ibrahim: The Balance
- Senyawa: Sujud*
- Dave: PSYCHODRAMA
- Rocket 808: Rocket 808
- Various Artists: Weaponize Your Sound
- Maxo Kream: Brandon Banks
- BaianaSystem: O Furturo Nao Demora
- Aesop Rock & TOBACCO: Malibu Ken
- Lizzo: Cuz I Love You
- DaBaby: Baby on Baby
- DKV and Joe McPhee: The Fire Each Time
- Elza Soares: Planeta Fome
- Denzel Curry: Zuu
- Saul Williams: Encrypted & Vulnerable
- Young M.A.: Herstory in the Making
- Ken Vandermark: Momentum 4—Consequent Duos 2015-2019
- The New Orleans Dance Hall Quartet: Tricentennial Hall Dance 17. October
- Mario Pavone: Philosophy
- Alcorn/McPhee/Vandermark: Invitation to a Dream
- Joachim Kuhn: Melodic Ornette Coleman—Piano Works XIII
- Barrence Whitfield Soul Savage Arkestra: Songs from The Sun Ra Cosmos
- The Coathangers: The Devil You Know
- GoldLink: Diaspora
- Joe McPhee and Paal Nilssen-Love: Song for the Big Chief
- Megan Thee Stallion: Fever
- Lee Scratch Perry: Rainford
- G & D: Black Love & War
- Girl Band: The Talkies
- The Paranoid Style: A Goddamn Impossible Way of Life
- Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys: 30 Years Live
- Sleater-Kinney: The Center Won’t Hold
- JPEGMAFIA: All My Heroes Are Cornballs
- Resavoir: Resavoir
- Ras Kass: Soul on Ice 2
- Flying Lotus: Flamagra
- Angel-Ho: Death Becomes Her
- JD Allen: Barracoon
- Usted Saami: God is Not a Terrorist
- Youssou N’Dour: History
- Guitar Wolf: Love & Jett
- Tinariwen: Amadjar
- Cashmere Cat: Princess Catgirl
- Mannequin Pussy: Patience
- LPX: Junk of the Heart (EP)
- Chuck Cleaver: Send Aid
- Deerhunter: Death in Midsummer
- Various Artists: Typical Girls Three
- Various Artists: Travailler, C’est Trop Dur–The Lyrical Legacy of Caesar Vincent
- Nots: 3
- Josh Berman / Paul Lytton / Jason Roebke: Trio Correspondences
- Jacob Wick & Phil Sudderberg: Combinatory Pleasures
- Leyla McCalla: Capitalist Blues
- Tyshawn Sorey and Marilyn Crispell: The Adornment of Time
- Tropical Fuck Storm: Braindrops
- Santana: Africa Speaks
- Judy and The Jerks: Music for Donuts
- Tyler, The Creator: IGOR
- Fennesz: Agora
- Salif Keita: Un autre blanc
- Robert Forster: Inferno
- Harriet Tubman: The Terror End of Beauty
- Whit Dickey Tao Quartets: Peace Planet / Box of Light
- Blacks’ Myths: Blacks’ Myths II
- The Art Ensemble of Chicago: We Are On the Edge
- Ibibio Sound Machine: Doko Mien
- Solange: When I Get Home
- James Carter Organ Trio: Live from Newport Jazz
- Freddie Douggie: Live on Juneteenth
- Joe McPhee / John Butcher: At the Hill of James Magee
- Ahmad Jamal: Ballades
- Dump Him: Dykes to Watch Out For
- Branford Marsalis Quartet: The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul
- Helado Negro: This is How You Smile
- Little Brother: May the Lord Watch
- Blood Orange: Angel’s Pulse
- Lost Bayou Ramblers: Rodents of Unusual Size (Soundtrack to the Motion Picture)
- slowthai: Great About Britain
- Silkroad Assassins: State of Ruin
- Steve Lacy: Apollo XXI
- Mekons: Deserted
- Que Vola: Que Vola
- Kelsey Lu: Blood
- Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Miri
- Hama: Houmeissa
- Steve Earle: Guy
- Mdou Moctar: Blue Stage Session
- Ill Considered: 5
- Girls on Grass: Dirty Power
- Stella Donnelly: Beware of the Dogs
- Matthew Shipp Trio: Signature
- Shovels & Rope: By Blood
- Angel Bat Dawid: The Oracle
- Spiral Stairs: We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized
- Our Native Daughters: Songs of Our Native Daughters
- Rosie Flores: A Simple Case of The Blues
- Jenny Lewis: On the Line
*Technically, these are 2018 releases, but for now, I’m claiming their impact is being felt more strongly this year.
New Releases of Older Material
- Peter Laughner: Peter Laughner
- Eric Dolphy: Musical Prophet
- Burnt Sugar: 20th Anniversary Mixtapes—Groiddest Schizznits, Vols. 1-3
- Creedence Clearwater Revival: Live at Woodstock
- The Royals: Gish Abbai
- George Jones: United Artists Rarities
- Horace Tapscott and the Pan Afrikan Orchestra: Why Don’t You Listen–Live at Lacma, 1998
- Various Artists: Outro Tempo II–Electronic and Contemporary Music from Brazil 1984-1996
- Various Artists: All the Young Droogs–60 Juvenile Delinquent Wrecks
- Gregory Isaacs / Ossie All-Stars: Mr. Isaacs
- Various Artists: Jambu
- John Coltrane: Blue World
- James Booker: Live at Onkel PO’s, Carnegie Hall, Hamburg 1976
- Cornell Campbell: I Man a the Stall-A-Watt
- Various Artists: World Spirituality Classics 2—The Time for Peace is Now
- Tubby Hayes: Grits, Beans and Greens—The Lost Fontana Studio Sessions 1969
- Star Band de Dakar: Psicodelia Afro-Cubana de Senegal
- Big Stick: Some of the Best of Big Stick
- Primal Scream: Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll—The Singles
- Masayuki Takayanagi New Directions Unit: April is the Cruellest Month
- Various Artists: Rhapsody in Bronze
- Various Artists: Fania Goes Psychedelic
- Stan Getz: Getz at the Gate
- Sir Shina Peters and His Internation Stars: Sewele
- Sounds of Liberation: Sounds of Liberation
- Prince: Originals
- Various Artists: Nigeria 70–No Wahala, Highlife, Afro-Funk & Juju 1973-1987
- Lee Moses: How Much Longer Must I Wait? Singles & Rarities 1965-1972
- John Carter & Bobby Bradford Quartet: No U-Turn
- Various Artists: Siya Hamba! 1950’s South African Country and Small Town Sounds
- Johnny Shines: The Blues Came Falling Down–Live 1973
- Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band: Pedal Steal + Four Corners
- Neil Young & The Stray Gators: Tuscaloosa
- The Replacements: Dead Man’s Pop
- Abdallah Oumbadougou: Anou Malane
Living To Listen 