O Life, O Light–O Death, O Dark: Best Records of This Riven Year, January 1st to May 29th

Odds and Ends:

So long, rock and roller.

2. So long, wild chanteuse.

3. Keep on growin’ and goin’, Hillbilly Dalai Lama.

4. Look out, Brother Ayler.

5. Miranda Maestra.

Extra Credit: Match this TV theme song with the album below on which it appears.

New Music
(bolded items are new to the list):

75 Dollar Bill: Social Music at Troost, Volume 3–Other People’s Music (Black Editions Group)
Rosalia: MOTOMAMI (Columbia)
Tanya Tagaq: Tongues (Six Shooter)
Ricky Ford: The Wailing Sounds of Ricky Ford—Paul’s Scene (Whaling City Sounds)
Stro Elliot & James Brown: Black & Loud—James Brown Reimagined (Polydor)
Miranda Lambert: Palomino (Vanner)
Willie Nelson: A Beautiful Time (Sony)
Superchunk: Wild Loneliness (Merge)
Gonora Sounds: Hard Times Never Kill (Phantom Limb)
Wet Leg: Wet Leg (Domino)
Amber Mark:Three Dimensions Deep (PMR / Interscope)
Etran de L’Air: Agadez (Sahel Sounds)
Billy Woods: Aethiopes (Backwoodz Studios)
Morgan Wade: Reckless (Deluxe) (Ladylike)
Lady Wray: Piece of Me (Big Crown)
Bob Vylan: Bob Vylan Presents The Price of Life (Ghost Theatre)
Mark Lomax II: Prismatic Refractions, Volume I (self-released)
ensemble 0: Music Nuvulosa (Sub Rosa)
Anna von Hausswoolff: Live at Montreaux Jazz Festival (Southern Lord)
Various Artists: Lespri Ka—New Directions in Gwoka Music from Guadeloupe (Time Capsule Sounds)
Ches Smith: Interpret It Well (Pyroclastic)
Jinx Lennon: Pet Rent (Septic Tiger)
Freakons: Freakons (Fluff & Gravy)
Daniel Villareal: Panama ’77 (International Anthem)
Joy Guidry:Radical Acceptance (Whited Sepulchre)
Kehlani: blue water road (TSNMI/Atlantic)
Javon Jackson & Nikki Giovanni: The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni (Solid Jackson)
Oumou Sangare: Timbuktu (World Circuit Limited)
Kendrick Lamar: Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (pgLang/Top Dawg Entertainment/Aftermath/Interscope)
OGJB: Ode to O (TUM) (Note: Band name – O = Oliver Lake, G = Graham Haynes, J = Joe Fonda, B = Barry Altschul / Title – O = Ornette)
Andrew Cyrille, William Parker, and Enrico Rava: Two Blues for Cecil (TUM)
Luke Stewart’s Silt Trio: The Bottom (Cuneiform)
Tyler Mitchell: Dancing Shadows (featuring Marshall Allen) (Mahakala Music)
Nduduzo Makhathini: In the Spirit of Ntu (Universal)
Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few: Lift Every Voice (Division 81 Records)
Priscilla Block: Welcome to the Block Party (InDent)
Anitta: Versions of Me (Warner)
Carl Stone: Wat Dong Moon Lek (Unseen Worlds)
Mitski: Laurel Hell (Dead Oceans)
Immanuel Wilkins: The 7th Hand (Blue Note)
David Murray Brave New World Trio: Seriana Promethea (Intakt)
Fulu Miziki: Ngbaka (EP)
Leikeli47: Shape Up (Hardcover/RCA)
Hurray for The Riff Raff: Life on Earth (Nonesuch)
Rokia Koné and Jacknife Lee: Bamanan (3D Family)
Tomas Fujiwara: Triple Double (Firehouse 12)
Ibibio Sound Machine: Electricity (Merge)
Zoh Amba: O Life, O Light, Volume 1 (577 Records)
Kahil El’Zabar Quartet: A Time for Healing (Spirit Muse)
Pastor Champion: I Just Want to Be a Good Man (Luaka Bop)
Pusha T:It’s Almost Dry (G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam)
Elza Soares: Elza Ao Vivo No Municipal (Deck)
SAULT: AIR (Forever Living Originals)
Nilufer Yanya: Painless (ATO)
Satoko Fujii and Joe Fonda: Thread of Light (Fundacja Słuchaj)
Charli XCX: Crash (Atlantic)
Pete Malinverni:  On the Town—Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein (Planet Arts)
David Friend & Jerome Begin: Post- (New Amsterdam)
Dedicated Men of Zion: The Devil Don’t Like It (Bible & Tire)
Space Afrika: Honest Labour (Dais)
Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul: Topical Dancer (DeeWee)
Earl Sweatshirt: Sick! (Tan Cressida / Warner)
Belle & Sebastian: A Bit of Previous (Matador)
Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (4AD)
Tee Grizzley: Half Tee Half Beast (self-released)
Hoodoo Gurus: Chariot of The Gods (Big Time Photographic Recordings)
Natsuki Tamura: Summer Tree (Libra)
(D)ivo: Perelman, Berne, Malaby, Carter (Mahakala Music)
Spoon:Lucifer on the Sofa (Matador)
Manel Fortia: Despertar (Segell Microscopi/Altafonte)
Ray Wylie Hubbard: Co-Starring Too (Big Machine)
Keith Oxman: This One’s for Joey (Capri)
Marta Sanchez: SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) (Whirlwind)
Earthgang: Ghetto Gods (Dreamville/Interscope)
Mavis Staples & Levon Helm: Carry Me Home (Anti-)

Archival Digs:

Los Golden Boys: Cumbia de Juventud (Mississippi Records)
Albert Ayler: Revelations—The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings (Elemental)
Albert Ayler: La Cave Live 1966 (Ezz-Thetics)
Various Artists: Cumbia Sabrosa—Tropical Sound System Bangers From The Discos Fuentes Vaults 1961-1981 (Rocafort Records)
Son House: Forever on My Mind (Easy Eye Sound)
Lavender Country:Blackberry Rose and Other Songs & Sorrows (Don Giovanni)
Hermeto Pascoal: Hermeto (Far Out Recordings)
Sun Ra: Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab in Egypt (Strut)
Cecil Taylor:The Complete Legendary Live Return Concert at the Town Hall (Oblivion)
Norma Tanega: Studio and Demo Recordings, 1964-1971 (Anthology)
Irma Thomas: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 1976 (Good Time)
Afrika Negra: Antologia, Volume 1 (Bongo Joe)
Various Artists:Summer of Soul (Legacy)
Ann Peebles and the Hi Rhythm Section: Live in Memphis (Memphis International)
Neil Young: Carnegie Hall 1970 (Reprise)

“Interpret It Well: Life in All Its Rich Musical Variety”–Best Rekkids of 2022, January 1st-April 27)

Random bits?

Thank you, Christian, for Bob Vylan at the last minute. I needed that.
Ricky Ford? Who’s Ricky Ford? Well, I knew him best through his stellar tenor on Ran Blake’s The Short Life of Barbara Monk and Abdullah Ibrahim’s Water from an Ancient Well, both modern jazz classics. I remember trying some of his solo albums and thinking he was kind of like an Ellingtonian without Ellington. BUT…35-40 years later his new album sounds like something we will sadly never get again: a new Sonny Rollins album. That’s high praise, and he’s not that inventive, but you’ll hear what I mean: power, confidence and wisdom of tone, steaming momentum, ideas extended lyrically and imaginatively.
Wet Leg the album not as good as Wet Leg the singles machine, but still FUN. And I (and probably you) need that. One of my students liked their sense of camp, and I get that. I have film students in class, too, and they’re curious about those Wighters’ taste.
I am already feeling I’ve underrated percussionist Ches Smith’s new album Interpret It Well. It’s one of those rare albums that establish a mood and flow and sustains it from beginning to end. The whole is much more powerful than the sum of its parts, and the playing is stimulatingly precise and responsive.
I’m as atheist as can be (I neither have, recognize nor pursue a theology), but it’s been a good couple of years for new black gospel records in the traditional vein. Thanks, Hardin, for pushing Pastor Champion on me, and thanks, Bible & Tire / Fat Possum, for just sticking to that old mission. It’s liberation music, at heart, and I’m ’bout it.
When I heard the Mekons and Freakwater were doing a set of acoustic mining songs, I asked myself, “Do I really need that?” Mekons being involved, I had to dip a toe (or a lobe) in; I just prefer Mekons with DRUMS. Actually, the album’s rousing, moving, and not necessarily about mining, and I recommend it.
Is there such as thing as discorrhea? Sometimes I think about that when I think about Jinx Lennon (I’m not sure how many people think that much about Jinx Lennon, but he’s worth it). Maybe it’d be better to really hone and weed before he lets another one go. The thing is, though, Pet Rent rocks harder than any of the last few, and it’s hard to think of any artist who’s so alive and receptive in his immediate environment than Lennon. I’m currently reading Henry Miller’s Black Spring, and “Horseshit!” has popped up a few times in the first twenty pages as ol’ Hank instructs us on immediacy of living, but maybe Jinx achieves that. Maybe.
Speaking of horseshit, I’ve been alive and listening to records long enough to smell it, but, dammit, SAULT has my detector on the blink. And by blink I mean my detector blinks off and on. I am keenly aware their “mystery” is part of the attraction (or marketing); on the other hand, when I’m really leaning forward and undistracted, they seem to be so much of these times and their struggles, endless tragedies, and fleeting glow that I buy what they’re offering. And AIR? It’s a test. An early morning game of art-critical Texas Hold ‘Em.
As he always seems to be, Sun Ra makes new appearances on this update: first, represented more than ably by the soon-to-be-98 (you are reading that correctly) Arkestra glue-guy Marshall Allen on Tyler Mitchell’s outstanding Dancing Shadows, then on a Seventies archival dig working close to one his many homes (Egypt) with the talented Salah Ragab. Both recordings are outstanding.
I always make at least one Record Store Day purchase. I hate crowds, so I usually hit eBay first thing the next morning, but this year the proprietor of Dig It! Record Barn / Records to Go in Carterville (or is it Duenweg?), Missouri, established a tiny call line for people who could not make it–I’m about 250 miles away. If you answer the phone when there’s a lull in traffic through the stacks, you might get a chance; I was completing a three-mile stroll when the phone buzzed and I became the proud owner of Albert Ayler’s Revelations—The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings on Elemental Records. I’ve heard the original recordings, which were not complete and didn’t sound that swell, but had never owned them. This heavy item arrives Thursday, so truth be told, I have not listened to it yet. But I’ve got a hand in another Texas Hold ‘Em game….

New Music (bolded items are new to the list):

75 Dollar Bill: Social Music at Troost, Volume 3–Other People’s Music (Black Editions Group)
Rosalia: MOTOMAMI (Columbia)
Tanya Tagaq: Tongues (Six Shooter)
Ricky Ford: The Wailing Sounds of Ricky Ford—Paul’s Scene (Whaling City Sounds)
Stro Elliot & James Brown: Black & Loud—James Brown Reimagined (Polydor)
Superchunk: Wild Loneliness (Merge)
Gonora Sounds: Hard Times Never Kill (Phantom Limb)
Wet Leg: Wet Leg (Domino)
Amber Mark: Three Dimensions Deep (PMR / Interscope)
Etran de L’Air: Agadez (Sahel Sounds)
Billy Woods: Aethiopes (Backwoodz Studios)
Morgan Wade: Reckless (Deluxe) (Ladylike)
Lady Wray: Piece of Me (Big Crown)
Tyler Mitchell: Dancing Shadows (featuring Marshall Allen) (Mahakala Music)
Bob Vylan: Bob Vylan Presents The Price of Life (Ghost Theatre)
Mark Lomax II: Prismatic Refractions, Volume I (self-released)
ensemble 0: Music Nuvulosa (Sub Rosa)
Anna von Hausswoolff: Live at Montreaux Jazz Festival (Southern Lord)
Various Artists: Lespri Ka—New Directions in Gwoka Music from Guadeloupe (Time Capsule Sounds)
Ches Smith: Interpret It Well (Pyroclastic)
Jinx Lennon: Pet Rent (Septic Tiger)
Freakons: Freakons (Fluff & Gravy)
Joy Guidry: Radical Acceptance (Whited Sepulchre)
Javon Jackson & Nikki Giovanni: The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni (Solid Jackson)
OGJB: Ode to O (TUM) (Note: Band name – O = Oliver Lake, G = Graham Haynes, J = Joe Fonda, B = Barry Altschul / Title – O = Ornette)
Andrew Cyrille, William Parker, and Enrico Rava: Two Blues for Cecil (TUM)
Luke Stewart’s Silt Trio: The Bottom (Cuneiform)
Priscilla Block: Welcome to the Block Party (InDent)
Anitta: Versions of Me (Warner)
Mitski: Laurel Hell (Dead Oceans)
Immanuel Wilkins: The 7th Hand (Blue Note)
Fulu Miziki: Ngbaka (EP)
Hurray for The Riff Raff: Life on Earth (Nonesuch)
Rokia Koné and Jacknife Lee: Bamanan (3D Family)
Tomas Fujiwara: Triple Double (Firehouse 12)
Ibibio Sound Machine: Electricity (Merge)
Kahil El’Zabar Quartet: A Time for Healing (Spirit Muse)
Pastor Champion: I Just Want to Be a Good Man (Luaka Bop)
Pusha T: It’s Almost Dry (G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam)
SAULT: AIR (Forever Living Originals)
Nilufer Yanya: Painless (ATO)
Satoko Fujii and Joe Fonda: Thread of Light (Fundacja Słuchaj)
Charli XCX: Crash (Atlantic)
Pete Malinverni:  On the Town—Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein (Planet Arts)
David Friend & Jerome Begin: Post- (New Amsterdam)
Dedicated Men of Zion: The Devil Don’t Like It (Bible & Tire)
Space Afrika: Honest Labour (Dais)
Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul: Topical Dancer (DeeWee)
Earl Sweatshirt: Sick! (Tan Cressida / Warner)
Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (4AD)
Tee Grizzley: Half Tee Half Beast (self-relased)
Hoodoo Gurus: Chariot of The Gods (Big Time Photographic Recordings)
Natsuki Tamura: Summer Tree (Libra)
(D)ivo: Perelman, Berne, Malaby, Carter (Mahakala Music)
Spoon: Lucifer on the Sofa (Matador)
Manel Fortia: Despertar (Segell Microscopi/Altafonte)
Ray Wylie Hubbard: Co-Starring Too (Big Machine)
Keith Oxman: This One’s for Joey (Capri)
Marta Sanchez: SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) (Whirlwind)
Earthgang: Ghetto Gods (Dreamville/Interscope)

Archival Digs:

Albert Ayler: La Cave Live 1966 (Ezz-Thetics)

Albert Ayler: Revelations—The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings (Elemental)

Son House: Forever on My Mind (Easy Eye Sound)

Lavender Country: Blackberry Rose and Other Songs & Sorrows (Don Giovanni)

Hermeto Pascoal: Planetário da Gávea (Far Out Recordings)

Hermeto Pascoal: Hermeto (Far Out Recordings)

Sun Ra: Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab in Egypt (Strut)

Cecil Taylor: The Complete Legendary Live Return Concert at the Town Hall (Oblivion)

Afrika Negra: Antologia, Volume 1 (Bongo Joe)

Various Artists: Summer of Soul (Legacy)

Neil Young: Carnegie Hall 1970 (Reprise)

Music Nerve-U-Loss-A: Best New Records I’ve Heard, January 1st-April 3rd, 2022 (EDITED)

It has been a stressful month for me. I’ve been in the process of caring for my mom, who lives 227 miles away and whose health issues have resulted in her needing 24-7 attention, while trying to do my three part-time jobs competently (one of them is teaching a class called “Groundbreaking Women in U. S. Music: A History in 150 Albums”–I hope one day to tell you how it’s gone), one of which will not allow me to work virtually. Beyond that class, music’s definitely taken a back seat. I have a hard time being with Mom and having headphones in; it seems rude, even though she doesn’t need me every second, or minute, or hour necessarily. When I’m on the road, I’ve been NEEDING older stuff that I know can deliver succor and strength immediately. Also, I’ve been working on an unfamiliar computer, so it’s slowed me down. But, enough. Here’s what I’ve got. New additions to the list, as always, are bolded. Truly, nothing new really bedazzled me this month–except Rosalia. And ensemble 0. And…

75 Dollar Bill: Social Music at Troost, Volume 3–Other People’s Music (Black Editions Group)
Rosalia: MOTOMAMI (Columbia)
Tanya Tagaq: Tongues (Six Shooter)
Superchunk: Wild Loneliness (Merge)
Gonora Sounds: Hard Times Never Kill (The Vital Record)
Amber Mark: Three Dimensions Deep (PMR / Interscope)
Javon Jackson & Nikki Giovanni: The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni (Solid Jackson)
Etran de L’Air: Agadez (Sahel Sounds)
Morgan Wade: Reckless (Deluxe) (Ladylike)
Lady Wray: Piece of Me (Big Crown)
Mark Lomax II: Prismatic Refractions, Volume I (self-released)
Anna von Hausswoolff: Live at Montreaux Jazz Festival (Southern Lord)
Various Artists: Lespri Ka—New Directions in Gwoka Music from Guadeloupe (Time Capsule Sounds)
ensemble 0: Music Nuvulosa (Sub Rosa)
Joy Guidry: Radical Acceptance  (Whited Supulchre)
Spoon: Lucifer on the Sofa (Headz/Matador)
OGJB: Ode to O (TUM) (Note: Band name – O = Oliver Lake, G = Graham Haynes, J = Joe Fonda, B = Barry Altschul / Title – O = Ornette)
Andrew Cyrille, William Parker, and Enrico Rava: Two Blues for Cecil (TUM)
Luke Stewart’s Silt Trio: The Bottom (Cuneiform)
Priscilla Block: Welcome to the Block Party (Nercury Nashville/InDent)
Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul: Topical Dancer (DeeWee)
Immanuel Wilkins: The 7th Hand (Blue Note)
Earl Sweatshirt: Sick! (Tan Cressida / Warner)
Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (4AD)
Charli XCX: Crash (Atlantic)
Fulu Miziki: Ngbaka (EP) (Moshi Moshi)
Nilufer Yanya: Painless (ATO)
Black Country, New Roads: Ants from Up There (Ninja Tune)
Hurray for The Riff Raff: Life on Earth (Nonesuch)
Rokia Koné and Jacknife Lee: Bamanan (Real World)
Marta Sanchez: SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) (Whirlwind)
Tomas Fujiwara: Triple Double (Firehouse)
Earthgang: Ghetto Gods (Dreamville/Interscope)
Junglepussy: jp5000 (EP) (self-released)
Kahil El’Zabar Quartet: A Time for Healing (Spiritmuse)
Pete Malinverni:  On the Town—Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein (Planet Arts)
Chief Keef: 4Nem (Glo Gang / RBC)
The Weeknd: Dawn FM (XO / Republic)
Space Afrika: Honest Labour (Dais)
Natsuki Tamura: Summer Tree (Libra)

Archival Digs:
Cecil Taylor: The Complete Legendary Live Return Concert at the Town Hall (Oblivion)
Albert Ayler: La Cave Live 1966 (Ezz-Thetics)
Neil Young: Carnegie Hall 1970 (Reprise)
Various Artists: Summer of Soul (Legacy)
Lavender Country: Blackberry Rose and Other Songs & Sorrows (Don Giovanni)
Son House: Forever on My Mind (Easy Eye Sound
Hermeto Pascoal: Planetário da Gávea (Far Out)
Hermeto Pascoal: Hermeto

I Don’t Feel Tardy. I Don’t Feel Hardy. But I Feel That Wild Loneliness…. (January 1 – March 6, 2022)

Sorry I’m late; life is interfering. Not for the first time has a family (or other loved one’s) health crisis interrupted my much less important obsession with documenting my favorite records of the past days, weeks, months, and years–and with me, it seems, when it rains, it’s like a cow pissin’ off a cliff onto a flat rock. I’m truly multiply occupied (I am also teaching a brand-new class on groundbreaking women in this country’s music that is requiring regular and very exciting hard work), so I am behind in some ways. But I just turned 60, I feel like I’m 35 in a sea of stress, so it must be real love…and the music.

What I’m really waiting for are the new albums by Wet Leg (can the whole album be that good?) and Rosalia (the flamenco touches seem to be wafting away, but on the evidence of the singles, she remains a force). The former’s out soon; the latter will require enduring a multi-month tease.
I often check things out on a whim. Joy Guidry’s new album’s cover and title had me thinking a very interesting rap album–but it’s improvisational jazz, and good stuff at that.
Superchunk’s never been one of my top faves, but their classic What a Time to Be Alive dragged me kicking and screaming into a state of deep admiration and a practice of repeat plays. Their new record is almost a companion piece, but from a completely different and powerful emotional direction–I just listened to it for the first time today and, in the state I’m in, it killed me.
One of the world’s greatest rock and roll deejays, Whitney Shroyer, a longtime friend and advisor, implored me to sample Lady Wray, whom I’d not heard of (it happens–a lot). Though I like its predecessor a little better, from a singing, songwriting, and production standpoint, Piece of Me is a solid pleasure.
Did I tell ya to read Tanya Tagaq’s Split Tooth and check out her new album Tongues? Yes, I did. I was fucking serious. They go together, and they deliver.
It’s not every late winter that you can buy two classic creations by a known wizard reissued from those too-halycon-from-a-preservationist-perspective Seventies. This is one of them. They also call him Hermeto.
High on the “appreciation” scale but wavering on the “diggit” scale: the new offerings by Big Thief and Black Country, New Roads.
Lavender Country is a gay and politically smart-ass country outfit dating back to 1972. Their album in the archival digs category is only three years old, but it might as well have come out today. It is NOT simply a novelty; it’s well-played, wittily sung and written, and will cattle-prod you out of the corner of your ear.
I feel like I’m experiencing an explosion of sharp country music women coming from tantalizingly marginally differentiated viewpoints (JUST IN TIME FOR MY NEW CLASS). Priscilla Block’s the latest, and I’ll let you discover the viewpoint.
Gonora Sounds’ Hard Times Never Kill is a beautiful-sounding album from Zimbabwe.
I wish I had heard Adeem the Artist‘s Cast-Iron Pansexual (like about 20 other 2021 albums) when it came out. Great songs, one of which made me tear up, and he wished me a happy birthday on Twitter!
(Hidden track)(Whispered to avoid having things thrown at me, but…) I’ll say it: Spoon’s never really done it for me. I’ve learned never say never–but my first listen was at 5:15 this morning and it livelied me up. Could have been the Death Wish coffee pods my brother left at my mom’s house, though.

Newbies (new items are bolded):

75 Dollar Bill: Social Music at Troost, Volume 3–Other People’s Music (Black Editions Group) (left off my original post unaccountably!)

Tanya Tagaq: Tongues (Six Shooter)

Superchunk: Wild Loneliness

Gonora Sounds: Hard Times Never Kill

Amber Mark: Three Dimensions Deep (PMR / Interscope)

Javon Jackson & Nikki Giovanni: The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni (Solid Jackson)

Etran de L’Air: Agadez

Morgan Wade: Reckless (Deluxe) (Ladylike)

Lady Wray: Piece of Me

Mark Lomax II: Prismatic Refractions, Volume I

Anna von Hausswoolff: Live at Montreaux Jazz Festival (Southern Lord)

Various Artists: Lespri Ka—New Directions in Gwoka Music from Guadeloupe (Time Capsule Sounds)

Joy Guidry: Radical Acceptance

Spoon: Lucifer on the Sofa

OGJB: Ode to O (TUM) (Note: Band name – O = Oliver Lake, G = Graham Haynes, J = Joe Fonda, B = Barry Altschul / Title – O = Ornette)

Andrew Cyrille, William Parker, and Enrico Rava: Two Blues for Cecil (TUM)

Luke Stewart’s Silt Trio: The Bottom (Cuneiform)

Priscilla Block: Welcome to the Block Party

Immanuel Wilkins: The 7th Hand (Blue Note)

Earl Sweatshirt: Sick! (Tan Cressida / Warner)

Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You

Fulu Miziki: Ngbaka (EP)

Black Country, New Roads: Ants from Up There

Hurray for The Riff Raff: Life on Earth

Rokia Koné and Jacknife Lee: Bamanan

Marta Sanchez: SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum)

Tomas Fujiwara: Triple Double

Junglepussy: jp5000 (EP)

Kahil El’Zabar Quartet: A Time for Healing

Pete Malinverni:  On the Town—Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein (Planet Arts)

Chief Keef: 4Nem (Glo Gang / RBC)

The Weeknd: Dawn FM (XO / Republic)

Martin Wind: Air (Laika)

Space Afrika: Honest Labour

Natsuki Tamura: Summer Tree

Archival Digs:

Cecil Taylor: The Complete Legendary Live Return Concert at the Town Hall

Albert Ayler: La Cave Live 1966 (Ezz-Thetics)

Neil Young: Carnegie Hall 1970 (Reprise)

Various Artists: Summer of Soul

Lavender Country: Blackberry Rose and Other Songs & Sorrows

Hermeto Pascoal: Planetário da Gávea

Hermeto Pascoal: Hermeto (not out yet, but fuck it–it’s worth planning for!)

A 2022 Top Ten Already? All. Ready. I Got 17 + 2.

One thing I do like about striving to root out excellent albums in the first month of a new year is the search forces me out of my comfort zones. True: I’m seldom uncomfortable in any particular musical zone if I can dig deep enough to find the right stuff; I’m hesitant about anything too bourgeois, to be frank, but even such artifacts can provide thrills. I’ve also been aided by having found myself on a few jazz labels’ mailing lists, so some items below aren’t yet out (soon, soon), but I’ve sampled them enough to get a kick out of ’em. Will any of these stick to the list? That’s always the question when it comes to the early months–last January I opened with a couple of classical albums by artists just disruptive enough for me to be attracted to their work, and one made it (big time) and the other faded (though I still like it). But I guarantee those top three will still be riding high.

Odds and ends:

*Tagaq’s album is a companion to her very unique and blazing memoir, Split Tooth. Read that.

*I was previously unfamiliar with Mark’s work. Pitchfork dug it and the album cover gave me Miguel vibes. I really enjoyed it end to end, and there’s something that tears slightly in her voice at just the right times that engage me in her singing and songs even more deeply.

*Since Greg Tate passed, I’ve revisited a bit of his writing, but I’ve also been alerted to pieces I didn’t know about–particularly about master poet Nikki Giovanni’s recordings. Tate’s writing always costs me money because he turns me on to music and books about which I know nothing or little; I am confident, had he lived to hear it, he would have loved saxophonist Jackson’s gospel album with Giovanni. I’m an atheist and I’ve already played it thrive. Coming soon.

*I ONLY tried to the von Hausswoolff because the album cover looked like Gustave Dore’s work. THEN I find myself unable to turn it off.

*I was totally uninformed about old directions in music from Guadeloupe. Based on the new directions, I probably better change that condition.

*Pete Malinverni might not seem my (or your) jam, but I’ll be damned if the West Side Story remake didn’t bubble my blood for Bernstein, and Malinverni’s foray below injected itself right into my satisfaction of that desire.

*Valid questions both: Do I really need another live Ayler record? Do I really need another live Neil record? Yes and yes. Ayler’s set was played before a Cleveland audience, and perhaps it inspires him to take several unexpected turns in musical variation, space, and tone–at least to my ear, and I’m an Aylerian. Neil’s acoustic at Carnegie, but it’s the surprise inclusions in the set list as well as stellar performances that have me contemplating a vinyl purchase (if that’s even possible). OK, on with it…

*The 75 Dollar Bill is easily my favorite album of the year. I forgot all about it somehow because I had not added it to my reference folder–probably because I was distracted by playing it over and over. It’s a covers album. Y’know, the usual suspects: Ono, Partch, Oliveros, Neg-Fi, Ron Padgett. Plus some outsiders like Dylan, Toussaint, and the MC5. They do ’em up.

New (and Upcoming) Releases That I’ve Heard And Really Like (Kinda in order, especially the first three):

75 Dollar Bill: Social Music at Troost, Volume 3–Other People’s Music (Black Editions Group) (left off my original post unaccountably!)

Tanya Tagaq: Tongues (Six Shooter)

Amber Mark: Three Dimensions Deep (PMR / Interscope)

Javon Jackson & Nikki Giovanni: The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni (Solid Jackson)

Morgan Wade: Reckless (Deluxe) (Ladylike)

Mark Lomax II: Prismatic Refractions, Volume I

Anna von Hausswoolff: Live at Montreaux Jazz Festival (Southern Lord)

Various Artists: Lespri Ka—New Directions in Gwoka Music from Guadeloupe (Time Capsule Sounds)

OGJB: Ode to O (TUM) (Note: Band name – O = Oliver Lake, G = Graham Haynes, J = Joe Fonda, B = Barry Altschul / Title – O = Ornette)

The Weeknd: Dawn FM (XO / Republic)

Andrew Cyrille, William Parker, and Enrico Rava: Two Blues for Cecil (TUM)

Luke Stewart’s Silt Trio: The Bottom (Cuneiform)

Chief Keef: 4Nem (Glo Gang / RBC)

Immanuel Wilkins: The 7^th Hand (Blue Note)

Earl Sweatshirt: Sick! (Tan Cressida / Warner)

Pete Malinverni: On the Town—Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein (Planet Arts)

Martin Wind: Air (Laika)

Archival Digs:

Albert Ayler: La Cave Live 1966 (Ezz-Thetics)

Neil Young: Carnegie Hall 1970 (Reprise)

Living to Listen’s Top Albums of 2020, Part II (I refuse to admit we’re in a different calendar year–even today, which is the dawn of 2020, Part III)

Yes, I know it’s 2022, and this list is dedicated to the top spins of 2021. But it feels to me as if 2020 started on March 15 of that actual year (The Ides, you know) and has declared the turning of the last two annums invalid. Until I feel differently, I’m gonna keep believing it, though, like Joe Tex’s man in that Viet Nam foxhole, I believe we’re gonna make it.

If you follow this blog, you know the good records mount and mount until there seems to be no sane scaling of them. For your pleasure and convenience, I’ve topped them off to a mere 50 like I’m lookin’ for coal and to hell with the slag (the still-pleasurable slag). This time, my rubric is simple: How likely, really, am I to listen to these albums several times more while I continue trying, in my futile battle against the dustbin of time to save every flower, to keep up with the mounds of fresh sounds? You can always access the previous months’ lists for those a cast a cold eye upon, though December’s getting shafted in that regard. Also, I’ve voted in a couple of year-end polls and, as usual, I make no promises (to anyone who really cares) that these results will match up with those. One never drops the same needle on the same record twice.

The archival digs I’ve trimmed to 25. I know I had that massive, well-appointed, and long-overdue Marian Anderson box at #1 last month, and now it’s not on the list at all–I guess that was a) pretentious; b) the happy historian in me; and c) overambitious.

Goodbye, Greg Tate. Why’d you have to go? I hope there is enough of your uncollected passionate criticism to fill another bucket of buttermilk with (gad)flies. It’s hard to imagine not being able to keep reading your newest insights for the rest of my life. And one thing I really appreciate looking back on your work I’ve read (most of it) is how seldom you were an asshole…if ever. Your style seemed to exclude that as a choice.

Thanks to the kindness of Tom Hull, I was invited to vote in the Jazz Critics Poll. Should you be curious, here’s my ballot (scroll down to the O’s).

In a related development, I’m considering a move to Scandinavia….

Bolded titles are new to the list, and to be fair, most of the releases I dug in December are on the list.

No-Save* November: The Best Recordings Released in 2021 (So Far), Which I’ve Drained My Wallet For Despite Using Multiple Streaming Platforms

Odd-servations:

R. A. P. Ferreira (formerly known as Milo) is having one helluva year. If as a rap aficionado you’re insistent on the freshest, most ticklish, and slammingest beats, move along. But if you dig word-slinging and surprising associations, you best get hip.
Bible and Tire Company’s Sacred Soul of South Carolina is the perfect gospel pairing with Musicmakers Foundation’s contemporary rural blues comp Hanging Tree Guitars (from 2020). Strictly speaking, if you have one and love it, you must do right and get the other. And the “soul” in the title is no exaggeration.
You may be tired of historical theory stirred into your toons. I am not. Keep pouring, luvs. If you’re like me and enjoy critical beatdowns, Mexstep, The Brkn Record, and the irrepressible Irreversible Entanglements each have the musical cocktail for you. And yes, the music is piquant to listen to if you’re not about the science. It does help, though.
South Memphis’ Lukah is one of the most stentorian MCs I’ve heard in a good long while, plus he has two strong records out this year. The new one (bolded, below) is the pick; its politics, flow, and sense of place are astounding, and his sexual philosophy seems to have advanced.
Best news is likely in the archaeological section. This may be a strange list upon which to find Marian Anderson, but, truly, as Duke opined, there’s only two kinds of music, good and bad, and the woman brilliantly blazed a trail. That’s a 15-disc box with both historic and important unreleased recordings, plus brilliant photos and notes, but, um…less than $80*? Also, Bobo Jenkins was a rocking, charming, and eccentric DIY blues guitarist whose career stretched from the ’50s into the late ’70s; if that sounds like your meat and taters, it’s on Third Man and it might have been RSD only, but…c’mon–if you want it, you can track it down. And as far as historical monuments in the rowdier aspects of the modern musical life of Brother Europe go, you can’t beat Corbett vs. Dempsey’s look at the formative days of the masterful and mischievous Instant Composers Pool and Guerilla Records’ top-notch and long-overdue reissue of The Plastic People of the Universe’s truly revolutionary original bootleg.

Next month, I’m gonna get tough with this list, shave it down, get serious about their listenability and durability, and and arrange it into categories of A, A-, B+, and B–since we all have loved grades so much our whole lives. I know you cannot wait. And, yes, I’m very serious about that Wild Up record.

BOLDED ITEMS are new to the list.

Archaeological Digs

For Those I Love, A Burgeoning List Including Lots of Long-Playing Lyricism–Best Rekkids, January 1 – November 1

October Observations:

I recently managed to talk former Vice UK music maven and FANGIRLS author Hannah Ewens into Zooming once again with my students at Stephens College to chat about her book (their required reading for my freshman comp/pop music class) and other related bits. She was smart, warm, funny, and curious about my students, as usual. A few days after her visit, in a glum mood, I happened upon her IG and noticed she was vaunting a group called For Those I Love (it’s also the name of the group’s album), which she’d just seen. Only it ain’t a group, it’s an Irishman named David Balfe, and his album captures a desperation for solace, connection, and dancefloor expiation I (and probably you) know all too well. Hadn’t heard of him, played the slab, instantly cheered up.

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten is the bassist for Norwegian jazz powerhouse The Thing. Dude just waxed an album, (Exit) Knarr, that features an instrumental texture, rhythmic variation, and conceptual focus that–to my amateur ear–tops anything his group’s ever released (and I love ’em). I liked it so much after three listens that I was willing to pay a hefty shipping cost for the vinyl. Never underestimate a Scandi jazzer–never.

Chuck Eddy has long been one of the best (and most open) music writers on the planet. He, too, offers monthly recommendations of interesting new musical offerings, and his latest featured a bit o’ metal, courtesy of lead Crystal Viper Marta Gabriel, Monster Magnet, and Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre . Metal is usually not my jam, especially modern metal (the worst excuse for singing I have ever heard, quite often), but the records Chuck anointed with a nice score all three a) are “cover albums” of throwback metal; b) mostly shine light on VERY obscure older songs (Joecephus’ album, a Nazareth tribute, is the exception); c) head-bang balls-out in a trad manner; and d) are a blast. I may be overrating them on this list–as is my wont when I put a list up right after I’ve heard something enjoyable–but maybe I’m not. Time will tell, but my wife Nicole loved all three, too, and I have my Marta Gabriel poster on my office wall.

I’ve probably listed 10 albums over the past five years that my students had to force on me because I made the gas face in class when they mentioned the artists involved. One of this year’s candidates is Willow Smith. The student who verbally twisted my arm is probably the best writer, thinker, and talker I’ve ever taught, and she understood my balking but reminded me that anyone can make a stunning record. I tried Willow’s lately I FEEL EVERYTHING and I must admit it is…powerful and dynamic. Thanks, Jadyn.

Thurst. I really enjoyed the first album, liked then forgot the second, and find myself amusedly intrigued by the conceptual thrust (not a typo) of the songs here. The structures and instrumental attack don’t demonstrate much variety, but the songs tickle me in a snide and sloppy way, so I’m going with it.

The excavation of transitional-period ’65 Trane playing A Love Supreme live with Pharoah Sanders and an expanded quartet had me on tenterhooks for months. I have a refined taste for racket, so reports of the classic suite being somewhat defiled bothered me not a whit; I’d also heard the fidelity was not the best, but these days I often wonder if the young writers who report this have ever heard ’60s-’70s vinyl bootlegs. Alas, though, while I value it, it’s not quite the mind-blower most others have reported. The performance wasn’t planned, and you can definitely hear that; Pharoah ain’t quite full Pharoah yet–his tenor “warbling” works much better on Live at the Village Vanguard Again; Trane’s too level in the mix, to my ear, and Elvin seems to be the one you’re really hearing most of the time (could be much worse, but it’s not a drummer date). Historically, it’s major, but as an absorbing, potentially compelling repeat-listen work, not so much.

bktherula: DEFINITELY one to watch! And, of course, hear. Sound, rhythm, words–a pretty complete package, and becoming ever more impressive.

Snotty Nose Rez Kids: not sure why these Neechie MCs aren’t being more frequently lifted among us music nerds, because they’ve hardly stepped wrong up to and including their new record. Third Nations-representing with accuracy, humor, passion, wildness (kids everywhere are nuts), reverence for the past–whaddya want? Well, maybe the beats aren’t all that varied, maybe there aren’t enough hooks, but I suspect they’re operating on the cheap, and I advise you just lean into the words and the delivery.

JPEG Mafia and Pink Siifu have made their most accessible albums. That probably sucks for many; I personally welcome it, and honestly think the move better justifies their respective reps.

BOLDED ITEMS are new to the list.

Archaeological Digs

Golden Musical Days – I’d Like to Share Them with You: Superior Slabs, January Through September 2021

Dawn of Chromatica album

Observations and Coat-Pulls:

The Ebony Hillbillies are an all-black string band from NYC that plays traditional, original, and surprising cover material (like “Sexual Healing”). Their several previous releases are all spirited and enjoyable, but their most recent release (at #12 below) is their very best. It’s technically at 2020 release, but it came out in November, I’m a fan, and I just found out about it. In terms of performance and material, they’ve never been sharper–and they always have an edge.

I am not the biggest fan of big ol’ pop releases, but Mickey Guyton’s FINALLY-released debut album (at #16)–it’s technically contemporary country, but it transcends that label–moved the hell out of my wife and me last Saturday night. “Black Like Me” won me over last year when I first heard it on Joe Levy’s “Uprising” playlist on Spotify, but the songs are consistently strong from top to bottom, I love the emotional flexibility of Guyton’s singing, and anyone who can induce me to love a song about relaxing with wine’s got something going for her (I just hear about that a lot because I run with a mostly-female teacher crowd).

Look out when old sage Pete Stampfel and (relatively) young sage Jeffrey Lewis join forces! At #13, they fit new, topical, and fairly hilarious lyrics to old tunes–but not always the usual old tunes you’d associate with Stampfel. It’s not just a novelty; the whole’s possibly better than the sum of its parts.

Swedish drummer/percussionist/composer Florian Arbenz is on a serious roll this year. If you foster an attraction for percussion-focused jazz, you owe to yourself to test-drive both of his Conversation albums; if you’re not sure what it means to foster such an attraction, take a chance it’ll happen to you and try them anyway. (Several folks make multiple appearances on this list: Arbenz, Stampfel, legendary and prolific bassist William Parker, and the late, great modern classical composer Julius Eastman.)

I am an unabashed fan of Little Simz, and I’ve been on tenterhooks waiting for her follow-up to the still-sounding-amazing Grey Area. I’ve checked out the singles as they’ve come out, as well as an early video or two. I told myself not to overreact. Once Sometimes I Might Be Introverted came out (it’s at #11), I played it twice and whispered to myself, “I’m not that impressed.” Well…I am that impressed.

There’s some cool stuff on that new Dylan bootleg load…but not enough, and there’s enough back there for it to be enough. It’s also not as meh as some would think who aren’t already familiar with the highlights (many are, and that’s part of the problem with the load).

I arrived very late at an appreciation for electronic dance music, but, thanks to JLin’s Black Origami, I did arrive. I cannot keep up with it–frankly, I depend on Pitchfork, which is depending on it a bit–to keep me superficially informed, and one may have noticed it appearing more frequently on ye olde list. I like what I like, with absolutely no rubric to press down upon it, and maybe that’s a good thing. #s 35, 54, and 104, I salute you happily and mindlessly!

This is strange, but I would enjoy Kasey Musgraves’ current and previous albums joined as a kind of double-record concept album more than I enjoy them separately. That’s the kind of gestaltist I yam.

ZYDECO LIVES at #39, and I suspect it will always, alongside Keith, Willie, and cockroaches.

Happy listening!

BOLDED ITEMS are new to the list. #s indicate archival music.

Archaeological Digs

COOL WITH THIS!: Strongest Records of 2021 So Far, By My Lights

Observations:

*The great American music scholar, musician, and composer Allen Lowe, in league with his razor-sharp jazz unit East Axis, knocked out one of his best recordings ever, Cool With That, in the fall of 2020. Ill health proceeded to fall upon him, and though he appears to have survived it, more struggles lay ahead. This is the best free jazz disc yet released in ’21–pay Lowe back and check it out.

*Speaking of jazz players, composers, and freedom, William Parker’s career output is a challenge to explore fully, but do not miss his new release, Mayan Space Station, which features the exciting guitarist Ava Mendoza. Parker’s made a wide variety of records, but never one with six-string this cutting.

*Inexplicably–well, I have been under a lot of stress for many months, and thus distracted–I dropped the ball on Bob Dylan’s there-and-gone film Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan (early–the old fucker’s still got a hell of a sense of humor). I missed it, flat out. Also, instead of simply admiring the indefatigable energy of my longtime lamplight, I occasionally suspect him of, um, gambits; I’m not sure what exactly that means, but maybe “hustle” is a better word. My own gambit not to get my knickers in a twist over the production, however, proved stupid at least from the aural evidence. This morning I was able to access the commercially unavailable soundtrack (cheating, I list it below), and it kicks mountains of ass. Getting sidelined from constant touring’s cleared out his larynx, but more importantly, via neat new arrangements, subtly altered lyrics, and a lot of vim, he made several of his “old” tunes completely fresh–in fact, “To Be Alone With You” and “The Wicked Messenger” (at least) top the originals, and from his current mortal vantage point, “Forever Young” is forever young. BluRay, please?

*My wife Nicole and I helped crowdfund the Smithsonian’s rap project back in 2014, via Kickstarter. The nine-disc box finally arrived in stores this week; it was also our donors’ gift. Even though the tracks stop at 2014, it’s excellently selected and sequenced, it sounds incredible, the accompanying book and vintage photographs are stunning, and…well…it was about damn time. Among the minor quibbles: no DOOM.

*Alto saxophonist Tim Berne’s intense new tribute to Ornette Coleman’s work is the THIRD of the year to make the list, and they’re all so good it makes you miss Ornette even more deeply. PLEASE sample Miguel Zenon’s and Gimenez Lopez’s as well.

*I don’t know any one in person or in cyberspace who loves the British rapper Dave as much as I do. I suppose hardcore hip hop heads might malign his rhyming and flowing skills, or sniff at his beats, but he is the kind of storyteller we need right now, and from the beginning of his last record to the end of his new one I’ve never been bored. In a way, Florence Shaw of the band Dry Cleaning is his narrative sibling; she mostly talks, but it’s what she talks about, and the settings that surround the stories, that count.

*The Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri–COVID Central once already, and probably heading that way again right now. But HEY–if you’re starving for lounge rockabilly with an edge, slide on over to Sundazed Records and check out their latest excavation: the J Ann C Trio Live at Tan-Tar-A (the site of many Missouri public education retreats and worse). Fans of Wanda Jackson and The Skeletons/Morells should NOT miss it.

*I feel like I may have underrated Low Cut Connie’s “Quarantine Concert” covers comp on this list. They’re a group I admire more than I listen to, BUT…this record can open up your waterworks. Adam Weiner is indeed among the last of our eighty-eight-key rock and rollers, and he puts EVERYTHING into these performances. You can feel it in the choices, in his playing, and particularly in the singing–plus? The tough cookies he was referring to were–are, goddam it, we have to be all over again–us.

*The pandemic slowed most musicians, but some, like tenor saxophonist extraordinaire JD Allen, took the bull by the horns and just recorded alone. Allen’s record of solo performances is searing.

*If you’re reading this, you certainly know Bad Brains. Likely, you know Death (well, we all do, but I’m talking about the band). Probably, you don’t know Pure Hell (at least you don’t know the band by that name). Yep: there were at least THREE punk bands of color in the ’70s.

*I want to thank the longtime record gobbler and music sage Tom Hull for regularly linking me on his absolutely essential blog. He is a giant when it comes to keeping fanatics informed about the best of the wide range of music humans make, and he is quite a sharp political mind and cook as well. I am truly humbled he occasionally checks this spot out, and it’s perhaps out of embarrassment that I’ve started commenting more as well as thinking about and slapping down a damned list. Anyone can do that. (I DO listen to them all, though–just sayin’….LOL….)

*I totally love what Sweden’s Jobcentre Rejects label has been up to lately: digging up spunky but obscure Rust Belt metal from the early Eighties. Mistreater’s album is on the main list, and Axxe’s killer 45 is down on my teensie singles listing below. Thing is, there was no pomp in these bands; they existed solely to head-bang and lay down the bad-ass sound–the bad-ass non-technophilic sound, I should say.

BOLDED ITEMS are new to the list. #s indicate archival music.