Random observations on the recent explosion of excellent recordings I always should expect but never do and grouse about the paucity of then look dim-witted as a result of my shitty memory:
- You may think I’m a little nuts by including so many box sets, but they really are that good and I have been listening to them. Is sitting around listening to box set really a pop thang? Should I even care? Somebody’s gotta do it.
- The Puerto Rican saxophonist Miguel Zenon is having a great year. He’s on two records here (Law Years and Path of Seven Colors) and his duet album of boleros with Luis Perdomo is stunning but I need to listen to it one more time.
- I have moved many items around, but I finally hooked right into AUM Grand Ensemble & Ensemble O’s interpretation of Julius Eastman’s Femenine. Eastman’s having a MUCH-deserved revisiting and several interpretations of this piece are out there, but none this hypnotic and beautiful.
- How much mileage does SAULT get out of mystique?
- I’ll have some of what Loretty’s having, please.
- I’m sorry, I just don’t fucking trust Lana Del Rey and I really despise Olivia Rodrigo’s single, but the sonics and words of the former’s album (I’m just blocking out her persona) and the rest of the latter’s songs (for the most part) have broken my resistance. For now.
- That Screamers excavation is the first new record I have surprised my wife Nicole with that we both instantly jumped up and down joyfully to. Myself, I’d really mostly only read about them in West Coast punk tomes, but after a 40-year-burial this item really explodes out of the vault.
- Is it fair to list Record Store Day releases on these lists? I admit I just lie in wait with my bobber floating in eBay Lake, and I assume anyone else can as well.
- If you’re needing a guitar-helping and moping ’cause you can locate one, I urge you to dip into the Moctar, Arby, and Young items in the Top 10. Seriously.
- SUPPORT FIRE IN LITTLE AFRICA’S PROJECT. It’s worthy.
BOLDED ITEMS ARE NEW TO THE LIST.
JuJu: Live at 131 Prince Street #
Julius Hemphill: The Boyé Multinational Crusade for Harmony
James Brandon Lewis: Jesup Wagon
Miguel Zenon: Law Years—The Music of Ornette Coleman
Khaira Arby: Khaira Arby in New York #
Fire in Little Africa: Fire in Little Africa
Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Down in the Rust Bucket #
AUM Grand Ensemble x Ensemble 0: Performs Julius Eastman’s Femenine
Screamers: Demo Hollywood 1977 #
Robert Finley: Sharecropper’s Son
Gimenez Lopez: Reunion en la granja
Various Artists: A Stranger I May Be—Savoy Gospel 1954-1966 #
Hamiet Blueitt: Bearer of the Holy Flame #
Byard Lancaster: My Pure Joy #
Dax Pierson: Nerve Bumps (A Queer Divine Satisfaction)
Chrissie Hynde: Standing in the Doorway—Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan
Charles Mingus: Mingus at Carnegie Hall #
Various Artists: Chicago / The Blues / Today, Volumes 1-3 #
Dry Cleaning: Sweet Princess (EP)
Sons of Kemet: Black to the Future
Brockhampton: Roadrunner—New Light, New Machine
Ches Smith and We All Break: Path of Seven Colors
Hasaan Ibn Ali: Metaphysics—The Lost Atlantic Album #
Genesis Owusu: Smiling with No Teeth
Marianne Faithfull (with Warren Ellis): She Walks in Beauty
Jaubi: Nafs at Peace (featuring Latamik and Tenderlonious)
Vincent Herring: Preaching to the Choir
Lukah: When the Black Hand Touches You
Angelique Kidjo: Mother Nature
ICP Orchestra & Nieuw Amsterdams Peil: 062 / De Hondemepper
Damon Locks / Black Monument Ensemble: NOW
Loretta Lynn: Still Woman Enough
Anthony Joseph: The Rich are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives
Jason Moran & Milford Graves: Live at Big Ears
Blue Gene Tyranny: Degrees of Freedom Found #
Various Artists: He’s Bad!—11 Bands Decimate the Beat of Bo Diddley
Various Artists: Wallahi Le Zein!
Wau Wau Collectif: Yaral Sa Doom
Yvette Janine Jackson: Freedom
Various Artists: Alan Lomax’s American Patchwork #
Peter Stampfel: Peter Stampfel’s 20th Century in 100 Songs
Backxwash: I Lie Here with My Rings and Dresses
Various Artists: Doomed & Stoned in Scotland
Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber: 20th Anniversary Mixtapes / Groiddest Schizznits, Volumes 1-3#
Various Artists: Allen Ginsberg’s The Fall of America–A 50th Anniversary Musical Tribute
Billy Nomates: Emergency Telephone (EP)
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: 11th Street, Sekondi
Various Artists: Rare.wavs, Volume 1
Nermin Niazi: Disco Se Aagay #
Julien Baker: Little Oblivions
Archie Shepp and Jason Moran: Let My People Go
Roisin Murphy: Crooked Machine
girl in red: if I could make it go quiet
Lana Del Rey: Chemtrails Over the Country Club
Robert Miranda’s Home Music Ensemble: Live at The Bing #
Vijay Iyer, Linda Han Oh, and Tyshawn Sorey: Uneasy
Tee Grizzley: Built for Whatever
Tony Allen (and friends): There is No End
Jinx Lennon: Liferafts for Latchicos
The Hold Steady: Open Door Policy
Elizabeth King & The Gospel Souls: Living in the Last Days
Shem Tube, Justo Osala, Enos Okola: Guitar Music of Western Kenya
Various Artists: Edo Funk Explosion, Volume 1 #
Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders: Promises
AFTERNOTE (is that a word?):
Top 10 Artists I’ve Been Listening to Over the Last 72 hours / A Nod to Will Friedwald
Carmen McRae (I’m pretty much always listening to–at the very least hearing in my head–Lady McRae)
Anita O’Day (I’m pretty much always listening to–at the very least hearing in my head–Lady O’Day)
Moody Marilyn Moore
Cliff “Ukelele Ike” Edwards
Herb Jeffries
Jackie Paris
Carol Sloane
Earl Coleman–LOTS of Earl Coleman
Al Hibbler
Jeanne Lee
STREAM ‘EM IF YOU GOT ‘EM….
Living To Listen 