The national dumpster fire is raging so hot that The Delines’ sobering but skillful portraits and tales (hit the link below) sound like Sly and The Family Stone’s Greatest Hits in comparison. I hope you all are getting out in the street or otherwise making your presence felt—if you’re hostile to the notion that there’s something to defeat out there, you’re come to wrong blog. You probably don’t like music anyway, and you’re certainly not likely to cotton to any of these new platters.

Developments? I’ve zeroed in on a new and very solid candidate for record of the year, at least so far: Tanya Tagaq’s angry and intense new record—she’s good at those, but to my ear this is her best. I once again exalt a splendid recording by one of Argentina’s finest pianists, Rocio Gimenez Lopez, who deserves many more huzzahs and is joined on the 88s by her husband (note album title). It’s an inspired and inspiring recording. If you’d asked me in 2025 if we needed yet another tribute to Duke Ellington, I might have said no, but Jason Moran’s shining and imaginative solo voyage would have made me eat my words. Quandaries: why aren’t more rock-oriented six-string worshippers on the Bill Orcutt train (maybe they are, and I’m just isolated)—a runaway train it is, trailing several creatively skronky recordings over the past few years—and why did Fugazi and Steve Albini agree to abandon the In On the Killtaker the latter “recorded”? If you need some peace, sound-healer Harlan Silverman has some stillness for you. Along with Mr. Moran, the Congolese act Kin’Gongolo Kiniata score a vibrant five asterisks with their debut album, which appears to be associated with a documentary I need to say. KINACT offers up the latest Nyege Nyege dance-racket. Buck 65 keeps passing the test. Finally, Cecil Taylor’s last performance, which includes a spoken scientific trip, has emerged.

Social music notes: a) Nicole and I not only got to witness the 86-year-old jazz groundbreaker Roscoe Mitchell play live, but we experienced him duet with his lab Shuggie, who kept the room in line (the show was arranged by the St. Louis non-profit Dissonant Works, which experimental art fans should keep an eye on); b) We also enjoyed bass player extraordinaire and frequent Bill Evans partner Eddie Gomez, 81 going on 30, lead his expert band through a set of standards and originals as part of Columbia’s annual We Always Swing series; and c) the truly exciting and informative Apple podcast Fela: Fear No Man made two road trips of ours go extremely quickly—check it out, even if you think you know all you need to know about Afrobeat’s Black President. We still have two episodes to go, during which I hope Tony Allen is at least mentioned.

New in March (click this for the Jan-Feb list) No asterisk = good / *** = very good / **** = great / ***** = really great

Buck 65: Do Not Bend (self-released) ****

The Delines: The Set-Up (decor) ****

E L U C I D & Sebb Bash: I Guess U Had To Be There (Backwoodz Studioz) ***

Fugazi: Albini Sessions (Dischord) ****

Sophie Gault: Unhinged (Torrez Music Group)

Ernesto Jodos / Rocio Gimenez Lopez: Una casa con dos pianos (Blue Art) ***

KINACT: Kinshasa in Action (Nyege Nyege Tapes)****

Kin’Gongolo Kiniata: Kiniata (Helico Music)*****

Jason Moran: Jason Moran Plays Duke Ellington (Yes Records) *****

Angelika Niescier: Chicago Tapes (Intakt) ****

OHYUNG: IOWA (self-released)

Bill Orcutt: Music in Continuous Motion (Palilalia) *****

Robyn: Sexistential (Konichiwa / Young)

Shabaka: Of the Earth (Shabaka Records) ***

Sideshow: Tigray Funk (10k & UA) ***

Harlan Silverman: Music for Stillness (Mississippi Records)

Tyshawn Sorey: Members…Don’t! (Pi Recordings) *** (out May 29)

Alister Spence: Always Ever (self-released) ****

Station Model Violence: Station Model Violence (Anti Fade)

Tanya Tagaq: Saputjii (Six Shooter) *****

Cecil Taylor New Unit: Words and Music—The Last Bandstand (Fundacja Słuchaj Records)

Various Artists: Born in the City of Tanta–Lower Egyptian Urban Folklore and Bedouin

Shaabi from Libya’s Bourini Records 1968-75 (Sublime Frequencies) ***

Weld Khadija ou L-Farqa L-Jilaliya:  Walad Haja Radio Annajah 718 راديو النجاح (Hive Mind)

2025: Too Cool for Me To Have Forgotten (or Missed)

Blanco teta: La Debacle de las Divas (Les Disques Bongo Joe)

kangding ray: SIRAT—Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Invada)

Vintage Albums I Deeply Enjoyed This Month

Kauro Abe: Winter 1972

Abdul Al-Hannan: The Third World

Polly Bradfield: Solo Violin Improvisations

Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble: Heliopolis

Arthur Doyle + 4: Alabama Feeling

Gang of Four: Another Day Another Dollar EP

G.L. Unit: Oran Gu Tang!

The Grateful Dead: Rockin’ The Rhein

Wardell Gray: Memorial (Volumes 1 & 2)

L7: Fast and Frightening

Ikue Mori: Painted Desert

Mount Everest Trio: Waves from Albert Ayler

Kasey Musgraves: Same Trailer, Different Park

Kasey Musgraves: Golden Hour

Kasey Musgraves: Deeper Well

Public Image Limited: Second Edition

Jimmy Rushing: Rushing Lullabies

Masahiko Sato Trio: Penetration

The Stanley Brothers: The King Years 1961-1965

Swamp Dogg: Total Destruction to the Mind

Swamp Dogg: Gag a Maggot

Charles Tyler: Eastern Man Alone

John Tchicai and Cadentia Nova Danca: Afrodisiaca

Sonny Boy Williamson: The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson

Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys: The Tiffany Transcriptions, Volume 3—Basin Street Blues

The Frank Wright Quartet: Church Number Nine

Hey! I Read, Too—and So Should You!

Martin Amis: Money

Dan Flores: Coyote America—A Natural and Supernatural History

Laurel Holliday: Children of the Troubles—Our Lives in the Crossfire of Northern Ireland

Yasunari Kawabata: Snow Country

Freya McClements & Joe Duffy: Children of the Troubles

John D. MacDonald: The Deep Blue Good-By

Toni Morrison: Beloved

Edna O’Brien: Lantern Slides—Stories

Elizabeth Strout: Olive Kitteridge

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