Category: THE CURRENT LIST

April 2024: Music I Lived to Listen To

I will again try to comment meaningfully on each of the following alphabetically-ordered new release in single complete sentences. Two introductory notes, though:

  1. Later this year, Phil Freeman’s Cecil Taylor biography In the Brewing Luminous will be published. I’m reading a review copy, and I’m here to tell you it’s outstanding. First of all, this book was badly needed, given Taylor’s singular genius and influence; second of all, in well-documented form it gathers much info that’s out there in one place; third, it’s so comprehensive it’s alerted this passionate fan to recordings he’s never heard of; fourth–no surprise with Mr. Freeman–it advances some critical arguments very convincingly; and fifth, in a continuance from Freeman’s stellar electric Miles investigation, Running the Voodoo Down, the author excels–really excels–at describing a furious, sometimes byzantine music in very distinctive and accurate detail. That’s a trick I really envy; if I could do a fifth as good a job as Freeman, I’d be writing about jazz much more frequently. Check out Phil’s chock-full Burning Ambulance Substack to learn more.
  2. I’m not that much a fan of Light in the Attic’s new Lou Reed tribute The Power of the Heart–at all–but that damn Bobby Rush will be ninety-one in November, and if Sally truly can’t dance, he sure as hell can. He elides a few phrases in Reed’s lyric I bet he wasn’t wholly comfortable with, but he, as per usual for many, many years, sells the song. Hear it in the Spotify Playlist linked at the bottom!

April Top 15 New Platters:

Byron Asher’s Skrontch Music: Lord, when you send the rain (Sinking City)–Like Asher’s previous Skrontch Music album, the problems of New Orleans’ (and other places’) present send him backwards into the future, with spoken clips, traditional instrumentation, and post-modern feints and juxtapositions helping us get why.

Bruno Berle: No Reino Dos Afetos 2 (Psychic Hotline)–The Bandcamp description of this soothing singer’s project (the first volume is excellent, too) informs us that lo-fi, dub step, and other ingredients are utilized to help Berle break away from the Brazilian expected–but I also note that it notes the album’s “sun-soaked” and “sun-drenched” affect, so maybe that’s just historical gravity, not at all a bad thing.

Beyonce: Cowboy Carter (Parkwood Entertainment)–OK, so it’s not all that country (please dig out featured vet Linda Martell’s Color Me Country if you want that)–it’s just a really good Beyonce album, but, with much less pre-release hype and in-release bombast, I’d argue Mickey Guyton made a stronger statement with Remember Her Name in ’21 without riding a horse or wearing a cowboy hat (plus she turned whiskey into wine).

Buck 65, doseone, Jel: North American Adonis (Handsmade)–Rap earworm line of the year from this on-a-serious-verbal-roll Canadian MC is that he bets his CDs are gonna be “alive in a landfill”–that’s thinking ahead.

Cedric Burnside: Hill Country Love (Mascot / Provogue)–The North Mississippi Hill Country blues practitioners are getting whittled down something considerable, R. L.’s grandson’s has gamely tried keep the style alive with some gently modern tweaks, and he finally nails it here.

James Carter: UN (J.M.I. Recordings)–J.M.I.’s cutting analog jazz vinyl, and, while I have not heard them all (David Murray’s 2023 offerings, solo and with Plumb, were impressive), this is tops for them so far, causing one to wonder why it’s taken JC this long to wax an unaccompanied set…though I’m still waiting for his Earl Bostic tribute album.

Big Freedia & The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra: Live at the Orpheum Theater (Queen Diva)–A bounce orchestra’s taking it too far, you might think, but you SHOULD already know not to sell the Queen Diva short.

Miha Gantar: New York City (Clean Feed)–When I received a digital review copy of this 5-disc collection of new compositions and improvisations by the 26-year-old Slovenian pianist, I rolled my eyes but, as I have sworn to do with these “gifts,” gave it a shot–then found myself so mesmerized not only by the variable moods and configurations (strings, solo, drums only, collab with sax sensation Zoh Amba, etc.), but also by the distinctiveness of the six-count-’em-six pieces that I listened to the whole thing straight through and determined that it’s my favorite jazz release of the year.

Matt Lavelle and the 12 Houses: The Crop Circles Suite, Part 1 (Mahakala Music)–NYC clarinetist, trumpeter, composer and conductor Lavelle, long a very underrated player on the jazz scene, released this, (it looks like the first half of) his “life’s work,” on his 54th birthday: easily one of the genre’s most ambitious, successful and inspiring records of the young year.

Meshell Ndegeocello (and Friends): Red Hot & Ra – The Magic City (Red Hot Org)–You know you cannot resist the pull of the perennially underrated Ndegeocelleo, assisted by jazz compatriots Immanuel Wilkins and Darius Jones, putting a fresh spin on The Sun One–which the Red Hot Org label seems recently dedicated to doing, with a Kronos Quartet set in the offing.

Tomeka Reid Quartet: 3 + 3 (Cuneiform)–More and more predictably, when you put Reid and guitarist Mary Halvorson in the same room, sparks will fly along with those fingers, and aural magic will be the result, as it is here.

Ann Savoy: Another Heart (Smithsonian Folkways)–Surprise of the month: a passionate combo of covers (Springsteen, Sandy Denny, Kinks!) and originals sung and played by acclaimed Cajun historian and member of one of the style’s most acclaimed and hardest working families, a Top-Tenner to my ears (and…heart).

Reyna Tropical: Reyna Tropical (Psychic Hotline)–I swear I’ve run into one of these albums every month for a couple of years: a moody, sexy, lithely swinging, electronic trance-r&b–maybe in this case, yeah, trance–tropical–album that I can’t quit playing and beats monkey gland shots or whatever, which means I might need to dive into the artist’s considerable (for her age) back catalog.

Fay Victor: Life is Funny That Way—Herbie Nichols Sung (TAO Forms)–I’ll admit that, while an earlier 2024 group from Brazil did successfully sing Bill Evans, I thought star-crossed jazz pianist Nichols’ quirky compositions were too high a hurdle, but then I didn’t know diddley about Victor, whose scatting isn’t just experimental but vies with Carter, McRae, Ross, and Vaughan (stylistically, not really Ella, though) at their most daring; the band makes it over the bar as clearly.

Bob Vylan: Humble as the Sun (Ghost Theater)–A youngster for our times, though, compared to his last two records, this one seems almost autumnal, as if the pure revolutionary fire he regularly lights has prematurely aged him–but these times can do that, too.

April Top 10 Old Platters [Post-Record Store Day CD Meteor Shower (for me, every day is RSD)].

Alice Coltrane: The 1971 Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse!)–The latest entry in the Alice Coltrane revival is the rowdiest and maybe the best, thanks to horns shaking things up.

Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru: Souvenirs (Mississippi Records)–As they do a Professor Longhair platter, all homes that dig music need a record by the recently-departed, ghost-fingered Ethiopian pianist and nun, but this is her first recording with vocals, which I wasn’t completely certain hadn’t slowed down her already sauntering roll–but, upon two more listens, I was wrong again.

Grupo Irakere: Teatro Amadeo Roldan Recital (Mr. Bongo)–Cuban bands come no hotter than this one, and this is their long-unavailable debut recording (and it’s not just hot).

Rail Band: Rail Band (Mississippi Records)–Another debut recording by a legendary band, this one from Mali, this one too long-unavailable, and featuring not one but two legendary vocalists:  Salif Keita and Mory Kanté.

Sonny Rollins: Freedom Weaver–The 1959 European Tour Recordings (Resonance)–My good pal Chris Gray, referring to this album, wondered who could complain about “live Rollins ’59,” and. while I whole-heartedly agree, especially since Sonny’s working in a trio format, Sonny would soon hit the bridge to…woodshed; I promise you that if you’re ever this good at what you do that you think you’re not good enough, you might just need lysergic therapy. (Note: RSD 2024 choice now available on CD.)

Sun Ra: At the Showcase Live in Chicago 1976-1977 (Elemental Music)–Ra in Chicago, always a spot for top-of-the-line spaceworks, with the band orbiting. (Note: RSD 2024 choice now available on CD.)

Art Tatum: Jewels In the Treasure Box (Resonance)–Mainly, you need to know this Tatum is in trio mode, which naturally cuts into his usual carnival of pianistics but also allows guitarist Everett Barksdale and legendary bassist Slam Stewart to show their scintillating stuff. (Note: RSD 2024 choice now available on CD.)

Various Artists: Congo Funk! Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Analog Africa)–Key words: “Congo,” “Funk!” (exclamation point earned), “Sound Madness,” “Mighty”–and “Analog Africa; in other words, “Merde, putain, lâche-toi le cul et jam !” (Et j’adore de la confiture!)

Various Artists: New York City Hardcore: The Way It Is (Revelation Records)–I had not heard of any of these bands, but all the vocalists sound in some way like my best friend, former ranter, opera buff, free jazz buff, French-Canadian advocate, European football nut, and scientist Mark Pelletier, so it’s a win.

Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)–Both these now-underrated instrumentalists started out trad, in a way–pianist Waldron accompanying twilight-era Billie Holiday, soprano saxophonist Lacy playing New Orleans jazz–but ended up taking things just out enough to be trenchantly in, and they were master players, especially live, and here they are backed by two more flexible and pretty legendary rhythm controllers you heard about last week: bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille. (Note: RSD 2024 choice now available on CD–and it might be the pick of the litter.)

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST:

LABELS TO WATCH: Psychic Hotline (Durham, North Carolina), Sinking City (always—New Orleans), Mahakala Music (Little Rock, Arkansas)

March 2024: Music I Lived to Listen To

Tried to keep it to 10 per month. Failed. Not even sure I didn’t fail in NOT keeping it to 10 (having trouble keeping track of what I’ve liked). Have not listened to Beyonce’s yet (other than first two singles–I just have to let her ride for awhile until the dust settles and I can think); also, I am apparently invulnerable to Katie Crutchfield’s charms (based on the songs, she is my kind of person, but her singing does not do it for me–it is what it is). Decided to do a Quarterly Top 10 (coming soon in a separate post). Blessed problems, I suppose.

MARCH TOP 25 (in alphabetical order, even, and under the feared “one sentence” rule)

Florian Arbenz: Conversation #11 / #12 (Hammer) – All twelve of this versatile Swedish percussionist’s conversations with other excellent musicians/responsive listeners are worth your time, and he gave a nice gift to every fan who bought every one of them along the way.

Citric Du: Zen and the Arcade of Beating Your Ass (Feel It Records) – Maybe it’s the marginally witty referential cover art that’s the main attraction, but their sound is redolent of its source and their songs’ words belie the title.

Guy Davis: Be Ready When I Call You (Continental Record Services) – Supposedly, this both has already been released and is not going to be released until later in the year, but it’s all there on Apple Music, and Ossie and Ruby’s son has a distinctly inherited wiliness and world view.

Joan Diaz Trio (Introducing Silvia Perez): We Sing Bill Evans (Fresh Sound Records)– Bill Evans, played and sung, you ask, but yes it works, Brazil is part of the reason, and the young Perez is the rest.

Empress Of: For Your Consideration (Major Arcana / Giant) – I feel like there is a small mountain of dreamy, sensual, hurt, flowing electronic records like this sung by women who can reach me that I can potentially hoist to the deserted island I hope is available if I need it in November.

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit(Spiritmuse) – Kahil El’Zabar is on a three-album roll keepin’ that AACM thang alive, and of the three this strikes me as the deepest.

Amaro Freitas: Y’Y (Psychic Hotline) – A gorgeous, late-night or early morning piano record out of Brazil by a terrific young pianist—and his backing band (on some of the songs) is loaded: do the names Hamid Drake, Jeff Parker, Shabaka Hitchings, or Brandee Younger ring a bell?

The Fully Celebrated Orchestra: Sob Story (Relative Pitch) – Three lively jazz orchestra selections in three months—should I be worried?

Heems & Lapgan: Lafandar (Veena Sounds / Mass Appeal India) – Dude’s funny, smart, verbally ingenious, but he’s never stuck with me long, so maybe it’s Lapgan?

Jlin: Akoma (Planet Mu) – The first song of Jerilynn Patton’s I ever heard, I was like, “I’m ridin’ ‘til I die,” and ain’t a damn thing changed about that here (touches of marching band and home cookin’ are just right), a sentiment collaborators Bjork, The Kronos Quartet, and Philip Glass might well affirm.

Adrienne Lenker: Bright Future (4AD) – It’s kinda one-note, but she (I think Lenker considers her gender undefined, but research turns up this pronoun) strikes that note with deeply moving resonance.

Mannequin Pussy: I Got Heaven (Epitaph) – And she got Jesus right (t)here.

The Messthetics: The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis (Impulse) – My measuring sticks for jazz sax with electric band are prime OC Prime Time and James Carter’s Layin’ in the Cut, and I’ve kept waiting for this to really break loose through three plays, but as a JBL freak I’ll at least say this: it’s got dynamics and guitar feedback, the latter if which those other two didn’t, so like the Marvelettes, I’ll keep on holdin’ on….

Moor Mother: The Great Bail-Out (Anti-) – In these times she’s brave, bold, and boisterous, and the settings always put her across, which in this case are her most varied.

Kasey Musgraves: Deeper Well (Interscope / MCA Nashville) – Many are disappointed by this offering, but actual record critic Jon Pareles nailed what is working for me: a modesty that is very affecting and seems authentic, especially on the heels of her previous records (I would add too that she bares some hard-earned wisdom that’s winning).

Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Four Guitars Live (Palilalia) – My favorite new (see below) record of the year: what would seem like a difficult collaborative project sounds excitingly organic—kinda makes me wish Bob Quine were still alive to hear it.

Ivo Perelman/Chad Fowler/Reggie Workman/Andrew Cyrille: Embracing the Unknown (Mahakala Music) – Perelman can wail beyond the call of the average free jazz tirekicker’s patience, but in the company of a rhythm section of two octogenarian instrumental griots, he sounds more responsive, and when he doesn’t…you can just listen to the rhythm section (and by the way, Fowler’s having a great year behind this and another stunning record).

Pissed Jeans: Half Divorced (Sub Pop) – These dudes have never hit for me, and I’m a punk self-starter, but, as Lightnin’ Hopkins and others have sung, “Now…is a needed time,” and theirs is a rallying cry.

Sai Galaxy: Okere (Soundway EP) – Everybody disco, West African style!

Sheer Mag: Playing Favorites (Third Man) – Rock and roll in many of its infinite varieties, all on one record…and that’s a compliment.

_thesmoothcat & Wino Willy: Ready, Set (Sinking City) – A) I buy everything Sinking City, a crafty New Orleans label, puts out (jazz, brass band, Indian chants, old and new school rap), and have never been disappointed; and B) this dreamy beats ‘n’ rhyme set evokes WWOZ at 3 a.m.

That Mexican OT: Texas Technician (Manifest / Good Talk / Good Money Global / Capitol) – One funny hijo de puta!

D. Clinton Thompson: Donnie’s Mood (Borrowed Records) – From out of obscurity one of the world’s great rock and roll guitarists, squirreled away in Springfield, Missouri, as usual, delivers a mostly instrumental record that “Sleep Walk” fans need—and for Morells / Symptoms / Skeletons fans who’re too late feeling their age, he pens a typically wry and weather-beaten “Live Fast Die Young.”

Tierra Whack: World Wide Whack (Interscope) – This woman is no ordinary rap artist, and I know that’s no great revelation—it’s just that to proceed from a wholly successful and delightful 15-song, 15-minute debut to a psychological (and understandable) (and still occasionally delightful) depth-plumbing that surely has some fans concerned is some kind of whiplash.

Willis, Carper, Leigh: Wonder Women of Country (Bismeaux EP) – It’s too short, and maybe there’s a full-length to follow, but the songs are strong and these women have soul—country-soul.

Coming soon! Noah Haidu: Standards II (Sunnyside) – A bewitching trio album where the spells are cast not so much by the pianist, who is definitely no slouch, but by another octogenarian rhythm section: Billy Hart on drums and Buster Williams on bass.

OLD & MISCELLANEOUS STUFF

Irakere: Teatro Amadeo Roldan Recital (Mr. Bongo) – The reissue of the first studio recording by one of Cuba’s hottest bands—and that’s saying something—is a welcome surprise.

Love Child: Never Meant to Be (12XU) – Where the fuck was I when this band was putting out these songs, fired by that guitar, in the early Nineties?

Various Artists: Love Hides All Faults—Deep Gospel Soul Selected by Jumbo (Elusive Vinyl / Pyramid Records) – I have complained to my musico-amis frequently about reissue/excavation bloat—everything ever recorded doesn’t have to be brought to market—but this may well be the most powerful compilation of locally/regionally recorded black gospel I’ve ever heard, and, despite Goner Record’s bait-line of “guitar forward” in advertising it, the real highlights are the true depth of emotional vocal power in these humble offerings and the range of arrangements they employ—can an excavation be my favorite record of the year?

Mississippi Records Blues and Gospel Bargains – Mississippi Records out of Portland does many things right (like keeping Dead Moon records in print), but one of the coolest is offering terrific old blues and black gospel comps on their Bandcamp site for “name your price.”

Franco Luambo Mkaidi: Presents Les Editions Populaires (Planet Ilunga) – The name, and you should know it, is Franco, he played a guitar like he was fencing against a master, and he could lead a band to rhythmic ecstasy—oh yeah, and though he recorded little that wasn’t great, much of it is difficult to attain (hint hint).

January 2024: Music I Lived to Listen To (Plus Stuff)

Happy New Year! In the interesting of preserving my sanity–I hereby validate the fears of some of my handful of readers, upon scanning 200+-album lists, that I must be compromising my mental health–I am going to try to do something new with this blog in 2024. First, I’m not going to keep a running list; every month, I’m first going to list the 10-15 new records that grabbed me that month; then, I am going to gab about old stuff (not just reissues and archival digs) plus music-related experiences I had–yes, I don’t just lay on the couch surrounded by cats with my nose in a book and 10-12 albums queued up to play on or through my stereo. I do live. Sorry, as you might already have surmised–I’m really talking to myself. So here goes.

My Favorite 10 New Releases of the Month (alphabetically presented)

*Archival or Reissue

Acceleration Due to Gravity: Jonesville/ Advancing on a Wild Pitch: Disasters, Volume 2 (both featuring the writing and playing of Moppa Elliott—known for leading the oft-exciting and -interesting band Mostly Other People Do The Killing—and both on Hot Cup Records)

I’ve enjoyed several records by MOPDTK in the past, but didn’t dig in enough to know that Elliott led the band from behind his bass. The guy has definite ideas about how to name a band. Seriously speaking, these two records are very strong jazz, the former highlighting compositions by jazz great Sam Jones via a terrific nine-piece band that features the impressive young guitarist Ava Mendoza excelling in a more disciplined format than I’ve ever heard her in, the latter, also conceptual but moodier, made up of compositions representing preventable Pennsylvania disasters that will have me checking out Volume 1.

Friends & Neighbors: Circles (Clean Feed)

Straight out of Trondheim, Norway, this quintet contributes to my growing feeling that I straight-up love Scandinavian jazz. I’m sure there’s BAD Scandinavian jazz, but I’ve been engaged by almost every such record I’ve heard in the last few years. Unsurprisingly, given the band and album name, Ornette is close to this band’s heart, and you can hear it.

Satoko Fujii Trio: Jet Black/ Satoko Fujii and Kaze: Unwritten (both on Libra Records)

I knew nothing about the astoundingly prolific and consistently powerful Japanese pianist Fujii until I wound up on a mailing list and received a few review copies that sent me on a deep dive into her OVER 100 HUNDRED RELEASES and she shows no signs of slowing down. Whether working in a small or large combo, she composes and plays pieces that have very focused moods and complex structures, while allowing room for improvisations by her always high-quality supporting casts. I think of her work as stormy and meditative, and she works seemingly endless variations on producing that feeling. These two records are a great start for the beginner.

Ghetto Brothers: Power-Fuerza (Vampisoul)*

Vampisoul is a Spanish label I keep a close eye on because they often package very interesting vintage releases inexpensively. For example, they offer loads of ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s cumbia; I’ve pigged out on those without being disappointed. The label calls this one a “Latin funk classic,” but it’s also got some decent romantic songs. You might have to be a bit patient.

Enrique Heredia Trio (with Pere Soto and Xavi Castillo): Plays Herbie Nichols (Fresh Sound Jazz)

I know little about Heredia or the other members of his trio, but I instantly purchased this due to my love for the short-lived Nichols’ distinctive compositions (see also A. B. Spellman’s book Four Lives in the Be-Bop Business). I wasn’t sure how a guitar trio would navigate them, but just when you think Heredia is fading into that kind of picking you’ve never liked in this genre, he leans into some mild distortion and slurring to keep you upright. The trio works up a killer groove while staying true to Nicols’ originality.

Abdullah Ibrahim: 3 (Gearbox)

The South African pianistic master turns 90 this October and he sounds undimmed in this studio-and-live trio recording (double bass/cello + flute/piccolo!) featuring his own compositions plus a few by Monk, Ellington and others.

Anna Kiviniemi Trio: Eir (We Jazz)

If you do not follow Chris Monsen’s Substack and you—like me, as I just said—like Scandinavian jazz, please rectify that, as Mr. Monsen has a nigh-infallible ear. I picked up on his plug for this, and was surprised and delighted by its gentle, inventive eloquence. It’s a pretty good month for jazz trio records, if haven’t noticed and /or trust me.

Mark Masters and Adam Shroeder: CT! (Capri Records)

I’ll put it simply: this big band tribute to the work of the irrepressible trumpeter and fluegelhorn enthusiast Clark Terry for the occasion of his 100th birthday is smashing because it captures Terry’s uplifting energy. I’m not that much of a big band fan, but the ebullience of the group quickened my pulse, and Terry would definitely have approved. Masters arranges brilliantly and bari saxophonist leads the group.

Malcria: Fantasias Histericas(Iron Lung)

Had enough of me pluggin’ jazz? Well, ok then: how ‘bout some Mexican hardcore punk? Me, I needed it, and I bet Mexico does, too. I’ve yet to dive into translations, but they kick ass…and I think they’re on the side of the angels.

Montanera: A Flor de Piel (Western Vinyl)

I have developed a weakness for chanteuses embedded in atmospheric musical settings and seeming to sing in very specific chains like the sea. I don’t trust myself in my warm response to this Colombian with a master’s, but my students walked in to her music yesterday and were inspired to ask about it, so maybe I’m right. Isabelia Herrera makes a fascinating case for the album on Pitchfork that is beyond my means, and it feels right. The title apparently translate to “on edge” or “at skin level,” which adds a level of richness to listen for.

R.A.P. Ferreira & Fumitake Tamura: the First Fist to Make Contact When We Dap (Alpha Pup)

Trust Ferreira’s own words about the release, via the album’s Bandcamp site: “…this album more than any other i’ve made encapsulates my vision of rap music. it is free. it is international. it is beloved. it is sharp and silly. it presents one way and participates another. it flexes and is flexible. there is study and there is the mystical. slices and crumbs. it’s something my whole family listened to and enjoyed first.” And trust the words he spits that live up to that vision. He continues to honor the work of one of his guiding lights, Bob Kaufman.

Lou Reed: Hudson River Meditations (Light in the Attic)*

Frankly, my wife and I meditate. This music was created to support that, and it does. The opening track is ideally looped for focused awareness of just being; the bass throb of the second reminds you of your body. Well, that’s enough for now, but I can listen to it for pleasure and reading, too.

Sleater-Kinney: Little Rope (Loma Vista)

I have never been an S-K fanatic—I saw them live on the last Weiss tour and they rocked my ass, and I still dig and dig out Dig Me Out—and the last couple haven’t helped, but I really like this one. The writing’s excellent, the drums are fine…but there’s a new Rosanne Cash-like ache to Tucker’s vocals I hadn’t picked up before that keeps me locked in.

Kali Uchis: Orquideas (Geffen)

Uchis keeps getting better. She’s very assured here, her singing and the rhythms are very seductive, and…again…I have three obligations in this list alone…I need to check out the translations, but I love the sound of her singing in Spanish. Sound is enough.

Wildernauts: Wildernauts (Don Giovanni)

It’s a joy to hear Pete Stampfel’s voice further up the road to recovery—really, he’s there—and his fiddle joyfully scratching out not only some old ones but also (as far as I can tell) a new weird and funny one called “Peyote Blues.”

My Favorite Music Experiences, Late Discoveries and Dives Into Music I Already Have But Barely Have Time to Listen To (One-Sentence Limit!)

Musical Poker Night—at almost 62, I’ve lost several friends and sometimes feel isolated and lonely for buds, but, thanks to someone’s recommendation, I was invited to a kind of “Record Poker” night where we took turns playing stuff for each other, and, while I created a Carnival theme out of the 45s I brought, I got to hear some interesting noise records and some really quite fetching proto-dream-pop by Terry “Seasons in the Sun” Jacks’ sister!

Danny Brown—Everything I’ve ever heard by him I’ve liked, but due, I think, to the avalanche of stuff that rumbles into my ears, I’d never “taken his CDs to the truck” for a very close listen: Be Real 2.0 with much better range in subject matter and mood, plus it’s got to be hard to pull off autumnal rap.

Chet Baker book leads to Twardzik and Freeman—I finally cracked and read James Gavin’s painful Chet Baker bio Deep in a Dream, in which the facts reveal Baker able to make Jerry Lee Lewis seem like David Gates, but at least I was moved to check out the pianistics of the doomed Dick Twardzik (whom Baker may have left to die when he was overdosing) and the not-doomed Russ Freeman (check out Richard Meltzer’s interview with him in A Whore Just Like the Rest).

Hannah Ewens and Fans—I am just a really big fan of UK Rolling Stone editor and FANGIRLS author Hannah Ewens—I have an “intellectual” rock and roll crush on her, I think—and chose to teach that book to my current group of college freshman, unaware that it would perfectly dovetail into Taylor Swift ruining football and prove Ewens’ wisdom.

Birmingham Influence—Did you know how wide Birmingham, Alabama’s influence was on nearly the whole of pre-WWII jazz (plus post- if you count Sun Ra and Basie’s rebound), because if you didn’t, please read Burgin Mathews’ Magic City, which one of my remaining great buds (almost all of whom live miles upon miles away) gave me for Christmas.

Cuticles!!!—Why the hell didn’t I know (too late for the lists) that one of the best rock and roll albums of 2023 is funny as hell and came out of New Zealand—someone shoulda told me, and thankfully Isaac Davila did, albeit this month?

Embarrassment Documentary + Toons—I was an Embarrassment fan back in their days, but hadn’t listened to them in awhile, and I bet neither have you; should you want to change that, please watch the documentary We Were Famous Once, Don’t You Remember, one of the best-ever made on an ‘80s indie band, this one from WICHITA, not LAWRENCE!!!

Joni Mitchell Carnegie Hall Thrills—I have very mixed feelings about these big boxes repackaging a ton of stuff we already have, but by god, this concert wedged into the Asylum Years set makes my short hairs stand up for most of its duration, and I prefer her backed by a band.

IT ENDS HERE: My Favorite Albums of 2023

As DJ Heraclitus said, you can’t listen to the same record twice. I was lucky to simply listen to each of these records once (I at least did that), and many of them changed with me when (if?) I came back to them. Anohni’s, though, held my top spot for most of the year and finished there: it’s not a fun record, but this ain’t a fun planet, and I don’t live in a fun state (Missouri), and her album title rings too true around here and so many other places in the world. It’s a reminder to keep fighting, keep living, and keep loving–as well as to knock people off that bridge–and it documents an artist whose singing and writing has grown considerably over the years (the commitment was always there). I might have been influenced by her appearance in two 2023 books on Lou Reed, which caused me to re-examine her early work as well as the Berlin DVD. Anyway, the untamed Niafunke guitarist Bounaly made a strong run at her top spot, even took it for a spell, but that was pure rush instead of a finely honed artistic statement of the times, so…I ended up sticking to my guns. Support trans human beings and fight the heartless to the end.

It was a stunning year for jazz, of all challenging and/or beautiful stripes, and (across genres, too) women continue to make their mark (see next ‘graf). Canto, Chimaera, and Beyond Dragons were among the Top 10 jazz records of the year by anyone, period. The indefatigable Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii (as usual) delivered multiple engaging albums of her own as well as participating in those of others (see the list–they all made it unless I missed one). Make it a 2024 project to investigate her if you’ve yet to.

Jamila Woods took Joni Mitchell to the southside of Chicago. Gina Birch still wears her Docs and plays her bass loud. boygenius are girlgenius. Jessie Ware made us feel good when Roisin Murphy made us feel bad or at best confused. Romy delivered a gorgeous, same-sex-heartbroke (please excuse my awkwardness), late-night electronic telegram. Transformative, liberating lightning hit Corinne Bailey Rae. Big Freedia grew bigger. Kari Faux, Sexxy Red, and–on a different level–K. Michelle handled their shit on the urban streets of the midwest and midsouth. And…oh yeah…Olivia (though could she not have totally rocked OUT on SNL?).

It’s easy to dismiss old soul-blues dudes. I beg of you, LISTEN: 90-year-old Bobby Rush waxed a record that isn’t just good for a nonagenarian–he can still sing, pick, blow, and parse the times with players a quarter of his age–and relative greenhorn Robert Finley handed in a hard-assed, funny, and deep record that Dan Auerbach endowed with just the right touch, do not fear.

Last, this year was the first time I actually witnessed a Top-Tenner play in person. The Columbia Experimental Music Festival went out with a bang, bringing in the titanic tenor of James Brandon Lewis, whose 2-CD For Mahalia / These are Soulful Days (the latter one of the greatest jazz-horn-with-strings performance ever recorded) was the peak of his relatively brief career. We got to see him play with one of his favorite drummers, Chad Taylor, and they ’bout blew the top off of the First Baptist Church of Columbia, Missouri. Speaking of the CEMF, the ending of which has at least temporarily crippled our music scene, its founder Matt Crook somehow found a way to bring the Ukrainian pianist and inventor of continuous music, Lubomyr Melnyk, to town for a solo piano performance in our historic Methodist church downtown. Melnyk debuted a piece called “The Sacred Thousand” at the concert; it had not yet been recorded in the studio. The Bandcamp site for the recently released version says it best: The piece is “[d]edicated to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who held out against the enormous Russian army for several weeks in the Azov Steel Plant of Mariupol…. it is a spiritual journey into the soul of man… into the Beautiful Depths of our spiritual strength.”

Thank all of you who have visited this blog and worried that I hadn’t bathed in weeks in order to keep up. I have indeed listened to most of these albums at least twice and I vouch for their ability to move you. IF you’re receptive. Happy hollerdays and may 2024 not crush us.

My Final 2023 List

–If an album makes the list, it sounds and feels to me like the equivalent of a Pitchfork 7.5 or better, an All Music 3 ½ stars or better, or an Xgauvian **Honorable Mention or better.
–At this point, one can assume that my Top 20-50 sound to me the equivalent of an A-, but I’m a teacher in my other incarnation, so watch me for grade inflation. It cannot be assumed safely, though, that my Top 10 are all straight A’s.
–After the first 50, my “rankings” are a bit loose—though I’ve been toning them up to represent comparative quality to the degree my sanity is not threatened; similarly, the entirety of my “Excavations and Reissues” I rank pretty loosely other than the Top 10 (in this “final” case).

Items in bold are new to the list I posted at the end of the previous month. I just added a few today—and I’m done.

  1. Anohni: My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross (Secretly Canadian)
  2. Bounaly: Dimanche a Bamako (Sahel Sounds)
  3. James Brandon Lewis: For Mahalia (with Love) (AUM Fidelity 2-CD version)
  4. Jessie Ware: That! Feels Good! (Universal)
  5. Lubomyr Melnyk: The Sacred Thousand (Jersika Records)
  6. Gina Burch: I Play My Bass Loud (Third Man)
  7. boygenius: the record (Interscope)
  8. Robert Finley: Black Bayou (Easy Eye)
  9. Romy: Midair (Young)
  10. Jamila Woods: Water Made Us (Jagjaguwar)
  11. Sylvie Couvousier: Chimaera (Intakt)
  12. Noname: Sundial (AWAL Recordings America)
  13. Buck 65: Punk Rock B-Boy (self-released)
  14. The Mark Lomax II Trio: Tapestry (CFG Multimedia)
  15. Miguel Zenon & Luis Perdomo: El Arte del Bolero, Volume 2 (ArcArtists)
  16. Wild Up: Julius Eastman, Volume 3—If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? (New Amsterdam)
  17. 100 gecs: 10,000 gecs (Dog Show/Atlantic)
  18. Corinna Bailey Rae: Black Rainbows (Black Rainbows)
  19. Zach Bryan: Zach Bryan (Belting Bronco)
  20. Armand Hammer: We Buy Diabetes Test Strips (Backwoodz Studios)
  21. Big Freedia: Central City (Queen Diva)
  22. Buck 65: Super Dope (self-released)
  23. Ohad Talmor: Back to the Land (Intakt)
  24. The Fugs: Dancing in the Universe (Fugs Records)
  25. Olivia Rodrigo: Guts (Geffen)
  26. Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes Records)
  27. Hamell on Trial: Bring the Kids (Saustex)
  28. billy woods & Kenny Segal: Maps (Backwoodz Studios)
  29. Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra: Family (We Jazz)
  30. Aesop Rock: Integrated Tech Solutions (Rhymesayers)
  31. Mark Turner: Live at the Village Vanguard (Giant Step Arts)
  32. Assiko Golden Band de Grand Yoff: Magg Tekki (Mississippi Records)
  33. Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Spirit Gatherer—A Tribute to Don Cherry (Spiritmuse)
  34. Wadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations (Kabell)
  35. Meshell Ndegeocello: The Omnichord Real Book (Blue Note)
  36. Adriana Calcanhotto: Errante (BMG)
  37. Tyler Mitchell Octet: Sun Ra’s Journey featuring Marshall Allen (Cellar Live)
  38. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah & Chief Adjuah: Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning (Ropeadope)
  39. National Information Society: Since Time is Gravity (Eremite)
  40. Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra: In the Dark (ESP-Disk)
  41. Liv.e: Girl in The Half Pearl (Real Life / AWAL)
  42. Angelika Niescier, Tomeka Reid, and Savannah Harris: Beyond Dragons (Intakt)
  43. Jelly Roll: Whitsitt Chapel (Stoney Creek)
  44. Fire! Orchestra: Echoes (Rune Grammofon)
  45. Filipe Catto: Belezas Sao Coisis Acesas por Dentro (Joia Moderna)
  46. Dropkick Murphys: Okemah Rising (Dummy Luck Music)
  47. Susan Alcorn: Canto (Relative Pitch)
  48. DJ Maphorisa & Tman Xpress: Chukela (New Money Gang)
  49. Jason Adasiewicz: Roscoe Village—The Music of Roscoe Mitchell (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
  50. K. Michelle: I’m the Problem (No Color No Sound)
  51. Janelle Monae: The Age of Pleasure (Bad Boy)
  52. Joe McPhee and Bill Orcutt: A Mouth at Both Ends (ISSUE)
  53. Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter Five—In the garden (Constellation)
  54. Kari Faux: REAL BITCHES DON’T DIE (drunk sum wtr records)
  55. Brandy Clark: Brandy Clark (Warner)
  56. Ashley McBryde: The Devil I Know (Warner Nashville)
  57. Sexxy Red: Hood Hottest Princess (Open Shift)
  58. Poli & The Gwo Ka Masters: Abri Cyclonique (Real World)
  59. Bobby Rush: All My Love for You (Deep Rush / Thirty Tigers)
  60. Irreversible Entanglements: Protect Your Light (Impulse! / Verve)
  61. Jaimie Branch: Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) (International Anthem)
  62. Yaeji: With a Hammer (XL Recordings)
  63. Bettye LaVette: LaVette! (Jay-Vee)
  64. London Brew: London Brew (Concord)
  65. William Hooker: Flesh & Bones (Org Music)
  66. Tyshawn Sorey: Continuing (Pi Recordings)
  67. J.D. Allen: This (Savant)
  68. Ryoko Ono & Satoko Fujii: Hakuro (label unknown)
  69. Rodrigo Campos: Pagode Novo (YB Music)
  70. Kali Uchis: Red Moon in Venus (Geffen)
  71. Kelela: Raven (Warp)
  72. Isach Skeidsvoll: Dance to Summon (Ultraani Records)
  73. Killer Mike: Michael (Loma Vista)
  74. Emil Amos: Zone Black (Drag City)
  75. Marina Sena: Vicio Inerente (Sony)
  76. Young Fathers: Heavy Heavy (Ninja Tune)
  77. Maria Jose Llergo: Ultrabella (Sony)
  78. David Mirarchi: Ink Folly, Orchid Gleam (Unbroken Sounds) 
  79. Superless: Superless (Oyvind Jazzforum)
  80. Algiers: Shook (Matador)
  81. Buselli – Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: The Gennett Suite (Patois Records)
  82. Lewis Capaldi: Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent (Vertigo Berline)
  83. Low Cut Connie: Art Dealers (Contender)
  84. Tyvek: Overground (Gingko)
  85. corook: serious person (part 1) (Atlantic)
  86. Ice Cold Bishop: Generational Curse (Ice Cold Entertainment)
  87. Allen Lowe and The Constant Sorrow Orchestra: America—The Rough Cut (ESP-Disk)
  88. Tri-County Liquidators: cut my teeth (Hitt Rex)
  89. ensemble 0: Jojoni (Crammed Discs)
  90. JLin: Perspective (Planet Mu)
  91. Henry Threadgill: The Other One (Pi)
  92. Zoh Amba & Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt: The Flower School (Palilalia)
  93. Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids: Afro-Futuristic Dreams (Strut)
  94. Amanda Shires & Bobbie Nelson: Loving You (ATO)
  95. aja monet: when the poems do what they do (drink sum wtr)
  96. Dlala Thukzin: Permanent Music 3 (Dlala Records EP)
  97. Knoel Scott (featuring Marshall Allen): Celestial (Night Dreamer)
  98. Steve Lehman & Orchestre National de Jazz: Ex Machina (Pi)
  99. Emmet Cohen & Houston Person: Houston Person—Masters Legacy Series, Volume 5 (Bandstand Presents)
  100. Peso Pluma: GENESIS (Double P)
  101. Chappell Roan: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (KRA)
  102. Elijah Shiffer: Star Jelly (self-released)
  103. Grupo Frontera: El Comienzo (Grupo Frontera)
  104. Ember: August in March (Imani)
  105. Kevin Sun: The Depths of Memory (Endectomorph Music)
  106. Florian Arbenz: Conversation #10—Inland (Hammer)
  107. Withered Hand: How to Love (Reveal)
  108. Lafayette Gilchrist: Undaunted (Morphius)
  109. Taj Mahal: Savoy (Cheraw S.C.)
  110. Haviah Mighty: Crying Crystals (Mighty Gang)
  111. Willie Nelson: I Don’t Know a Thing About Love—The Songs of Harlan Howard (Legacy)
  112. Morgan Wade: Psychopath (Ladylike)
  113. Shabazz Palaces: Robed in Rareness (Sub Pop)
  114. Parannoul: After the Magic (Poclanos/Top Shelf)
  115. Felo Le Tee & Mellow & Sleazy: The Ill Wise Men (New Money Gang)
  116. The Necks: Travel (Northern Spy)
  117. Lori McKenna: 1988 (CN Records / Thirty Tigers)
  118. Tyler Keith & The Apostles: Hell to Pay (Black & Wyatt)
  119. KAYTRAMINE: KAYTRAMIUNE, Amine, & KAYTRANADA (CLBN)
  120. Various Artists: Red Hot & Ra—Nuclear War (Red Hot Org)
  121. Rome Streetz: Wasn’t Built in a Day (Big Ghost)
  122. Hein Westgaard Trio: First as Farce (Nice Things)
  123. The Urban Art Ensemble: “Ho’opomopono” (CFG Multimedia 16-minute single)
  124. Itamar Borochov: Arba (Greenleaf)
  125. Rodrigo Amado / The Bridge: Beyond the Margins (Trost)
  126. ANTiINDSTRY: Numinous Interference (Muteant Sounds)
  127. Islandman (featuring Okay Temiz and Muhlis Berberoglu: Direct-to-Disc Sessions (Night Dreamer)
  128. Edward Simon: Femeninas (ArtistShare)
  129. Trio San (featuring Satoko Fujii and Taiko Saito): Hibiki (Jazzdor)
  130. Kill Bill—The Rapper: Fullmetal Kaiju (EXO)
  131. Speaker Music: Techxodus (Planet Mu)
  132. Andy Fairweather Low: Flang Dang (The Last Music Company)
  133. ARO40: On the Blink (Aerophonic Records)
  134. Bob Vylan: Bob Vylan Presents the Price of Life (Ghost Theatre)
  135. Bombino: Sahel (Partisan)
  136. Son Rompe Pera: Chimborazo (AYA Records)
  137. Rough Image: Rough Image (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  138. Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place (Pyroclastic)
  139. Victoria Monet: Jaguar II (Lovett Music)
  140. Homeboy Sandman: I Can’t Sell These Either (self-released)
  141. Havard Wiik & Tim Daisy: Slight Return (Relay)
  142. Various Artists: Red Hot & Ra—SOLAR Sun Ra in Brasil (Red Hot Org)
  143. Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra: Lightning Dreamers (International Anthem)
  144. Kaze & Ikue Mori: Crustal Movement (Circum/Libra)
  145. DJ Black Low: Impumelelo (Awesome Tapes from Africa)
  146. Belle and Sebastian: Late Developers  (Matador)
  147. Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide: Perpetual Motion (Ayler Records)
  148. feeble little horse: Girl with Fish (Saddle Creek)
  149. Rocket 88: House of Jackpots (12XU)
  150. L’Rain: I Killed Your Dog (Mexican Summer)
  151. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ: Destiny (Spells on the Telly)
  152. Nasty Facts: Drive My Car (Left for Dead)
  153. Taiko Saito: Tears of a Cloud (Trouble in the East)
  154. JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown: Scaring the Hoes (self-released)
  155. Rodrigo Campos & Romulo Froes: Elefante (YB Music)
  156. Kalia Vandever: We Fell in Turn (AKP Recordings)
  157. Water from Your Eyes: Everyone’s Crushed (Matador)
  158. Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind)
  159. Amaarae: Fountain Baby (Golden Angel/Interscope)
  160. Blondshell: Blondshell (Partisan)
  161. Satoko Fujii: Torrent (Libra Records)
  162. Javon Jackson: “With Peter Bradley”—Soundtrack and Original Score (Solid Jackson)
  163. Doja Cat: Scarlet (Kemosabe)
  164. Tianna Esperanza: Terror (BMG)
  165. YMA & Jadsa: Zelena (Matraca)
  166. Palehound: Eye on the Bat (Polyvinyl)
  167. J Hus: Beautiful and Brutal Yard (Black Butter)
  168. Das Kondensat: Anderen Planeten (Why Play Jazz)
  169. Iris DeMent: Workin’ On a World (FlariElla)
  170. David Murray, Questlove, and Ray Angry: Plumb (J.M.I.)
  171. Tyler Childers: Rustin’ in the Rain (Hickman Holler)
  172. Baaba Maal: Being (Atelier Live/Marathon Artists)
  173. Ed Sanders: The Sanders – Olufsen Poetry and Classical Music Project (Olufsen)
  174. Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom (Columbia)
  175. City Girls: Raw (Quality Control/Motown)
  176. Grrrl Gang: Spunky (Kill Rock Stars)
  177. Lana Del Rey: Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Polydor)
  178. Teenage Jesus and The Jean Teasers: I Love You (Triple J Unearthed)
  179. Caroline Davis: Alula—Captivity (Ropeadope)
  180. Kiko El Crazy: Pila’e Teteo (Rimas)
  181. Romulo Froes & Tiago Rosas: Na Goela (YB Music)
  182. Florian Arbenz: Conversation #9—Targeted (Hammer Recordings)
  183. James Brandon Lewis: Eye of I (Anti-)
  184. Sofia Kourtesis: Madres (Ninja Tune)
  185. DJ Manny: Hypnotized (Planet Mu)
  186. Josephus and The George Jonestown Massacre: Call Me Animal—A Tribute to the MC5 (Saustex)
  187. Joanna Sternberg: I’ve Got Me (Fat Possum)
  188. Tracey Nelson: Life Don’t Miss Nobody (BMG)
  189. Etran De L’Air: Live in Seattle (EP) (Sahel Sounds)
  190. Ricardo Dias Gomes: Muito Sol (Hive Mind)
  191. Ice Spice: Like…? (10K Projects / Capitol Records EP)
  192. otay:onii: Dream Hacker (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  193. Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe: The Rite of Spring—Spectre d’un songe (Pyroclastic)
  194. Money for Guns: All the Darkness That’s in Your Head (CD Baby)
  195. Nourished by Time: Erotic Probiotic 2 (Scenic Route)
  196. Walter Daniels: “From Death to Texas” / “Seems Like a Dream” (Spacecase Records 45)
  197. Nakimbembe Embaire Group: Nakimbembe Embaire Group (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
  198. Shirley Collins: Archangel Hill (Domino)
  199. Karol G: Manana Sera Bonito (Universal Music Latino)
  200. Tinashe: BB/ANG3L (Nice Life)
  201. Hollie Cook: Happy Hour in Dub (Merge)
  202. Andrew Cyrille: Music Delivery / Percussion (Intakt)
  203. Kate Gentile: b i o m e i.i (Obliquity)
  204. Yves Tumor: Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp)
  205. Dan Ex Machina: Ex’s Sexts (self-released)
  206. Open Mike Eagle: another triumph of ghetto engineering (AutoReverse)
  207. Yonic South: Devo Challenge Cup (Wild Honey)
  208. Rudy Royston: Day (Greenleaf Music)
  209. Chien Chien Lu: Built in System—Live in New York (Giant Step Arts)
  210. Pangaea: Changing Channels (Hessle Audio)
  211. Lewsberg: Out and About (Lewsberg / 12XU)
  212. Basher: Doubles (Sinking City)
  213. That Mexican OT: Lonestar Luchador (Good Talk)
  214. Daniel Villarreal: Lados B (International Anthem)
  215. Staples Jr. Singers: Tell Heaven (EP) (Luaka Bop) Note: the vinyl gets you more great minutes of testifying.
  216. Brandee Younger: Brand New Life (Impulse!)
  217. Babe, Terror: Teghnojoyg (self-released)
  218. Heinali: Kyiv Eternal (Injazero)
  219. Vinny Golia Quartet: No Refunds (Unbroken Sounds)
  220. Kresten Osgood / Bob Moses / Tisziji Munoz: Spiritual Drum Kingship (Gotta Let It Out)
  221. The Art Ensemble of Chicago: From Paris to Paris (Rogue Art)
  222. Clarence “Bluesman” Davis: Shake It For Me (Music Maker Foundation)
  223. The War and The Treaty: Lover’s Game (Mercury Nashville)
  224. Mendoza Hoff Revels: Echolocation (AUM Fidelity)
  225. Aroof Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad, Ismaily: Love in Exile (Verve)
  226. Asher Gamedze: Turbulence and Pulse (International Anthem)
  227. Normal Nada the Krakmaxter: Tribal Progressive Heavy Metal (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
  228. Natural Child: Be M’Guest (Natural Child Music)
  229. Tanya Tucker: Sweet Western Sound (Fantasy)
  230. Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group: Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group (Mississippi Records)
  231. David Dove & Joe McPhee: Where’s the Wine? (C.I.A. Records)
  232. Various Artists: 10 (Music from Memory)
  233. Nellie McKay: Hey Guys, Watch This (Hungry Mouse)
  234. Everything But the Girl: Fuse (Buzzin’ Fly)
  235. Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double: March On (self-released)

Excavations and Reissues

  1. Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens: Music Inferno—The Indestructible Beat Tour 1988-89 (Umsakazo Records)
  2. Kashmere Stage Band: Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974 (Now-Again)
  3. The Replacements: Tim—Let It Bleed Edition (Rhino)
  4. Various Artists: Piconema–East African Hits On The Colombian Coast (Rocafort Records)
  5. Les Rallizes Denudes: Citta ’93 (Temporal Drift)
  6. Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached (New Land Records)
  7. The Jazz Doctors: Intensive Care & Prescriptions Filled 1983-84 (Cadillac Records)
  8. Walter Bishop, Jr.: Bish at the Bank—Live in Baltimore (Cellar Live)
  9. Various Artists: Yebo! Rare Mzansi Party Beats from Apartheid’s Dying Years (BBE)
  10. Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: 60 Years (The Village)
  11. Os Tincoas: Canto Coral Afrobrasiliero (Sanzala Cultural)
  12. Various Artists: Ecuatoriana (Analog Africa)
  13. Leon Keita: Leon Keita (Analog Africa)
  14. Hiroshi Yoshimura: Surround (Temporal Drift)
  15. Balka Sound: Balka Sound (Strut)
  16. Sonic Youth: Live in Brooklyn (Silver Current)
  17. John Coltrane: Evenings at The Village Gate (Impulse!)
  18. Various Artists: Playing for The Man at The Door (Smithsonian Folkways)
  19. Les Rallizes Denudes: BAUS ’93 (Temporal Drift)
  20. Gabe Baltazar: Birdology (Fresh Sounds)
  21. Hiatus Kaiyote: Choose Your Weapon (Flying Buddha / Sony Masterworks)
  22. Dream Dolphin: Gaia—Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996 – 2003) (Music from Memory)
  23. Various Artists: The Soul of Congo – Treasures of the Ngoma label (1948​-​1963) (Planet Ilunga)
  24. Sonny Stitt: Boppin’ in Baltimore—Live at the Left Bank (Jazz Detective)
  25. Ihsan Al-Munzer: Belly Dance (BBE)
  26. Dredd Foole & The Din: See God 1985-1986 (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
  27. Johnny Griffin: Live at Ronnie Scott’s, 1964 (Gearbox)
  28. Nina Simone: You’ve Got to Learn (Verve)
  29. William S. Burroughs: Nothing Here But the Recordings (Dais Records)
  30. Eddie & Ernie: Time Waits for No One (Mississippi Records)
  31. Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 1 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  32. Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 2 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  33. The Southern University Jazz Ensemble: Goes to Africa with Love (Now-Again)
  34. Roy Campbell / William Parker / Zan Matsuura: Visitation of the Spirits—The Pyramind Trio Live, 1985 (No Business)
  35. Sonny Rollins: Live at Finlandia Hall, Helsinki 1972 (Svart)
  36. Various Artists: The Best of Revelation Records 1959-1962 (NarroWay)
  37. Shizuka: Heavenly Persona (Black Editions)
  38. Jacqueline Humbert & David Rosenboom: Daytime Viewing (Unseen Worlds)
  39. Dorothy Carter: Waillee Waillee (Palo Alto Records)
  40. Various Artists: Blacklips Bar—Androgyns and Deviants / Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels 1992-1995 (Anthology Recordings)
  41. Wes Montgomery: Maximum Swing (Resonance)
  42. Various Artists: Con Piano, Sublime—Early Recordings from the Caribbean 1907-1921 (Magnificent Sounds)
  43. Various Artists: Space Echo—The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Revealed! (Analog Africa)
  44. Ibrahim Hesnawi: The Father of Libyan Reggae (Habibi Funk)
  45. RP Boo: Legacy Volume 2 (Planet Mu)
  46. Les Raillizes Denudes: ’77 Live (Temporal Drift)
  47. Alon Nechushtan: For Those Who Cross the Seas (ESP-Disk)
  48. Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Shirley Scott: Cookin’ With Jaws and The Queen (Craft)
  49. Professor James Benson: The Gow-Dow Experience (Jazzman Records)
  50. Little Bob and The Lollipops: Nobody But You (Mississippi Records)

Integrated List Solutions: 2023’s Best Discs With a Month to Go

RIP Shane MacGowan.

PREJUDICES:

  1. I don’t trust critics’ positive evaluations of art when they’re mostly grounded in politics (of one sort or another). Yet I am frequently guilty of it here.
  2. Related: For much of my life I have thought women were clearly the superior of the two traditionally recognized genders. My wife has helped me sustain that viewpoint; the last seven years of public mad, toxic explosions has convinced me we are equally flawed. Just sayin’: if the upper reaches of my list are dominated by women, it’s not because I’m still guided by romantic notions.
  3. I love jazz right now more than any other major genre. Within that larger genre, I find experimental and free jazz more interesting than its other subgenres. It engages my mind and skin more regularly than other kinds of music. That said, it’s really hard to rank such records. I could spend another hour rearranging my favorite experimental and free jazz records, and I’d change that arrangement again this afternoon. In addition, it’s been a GREAT (and scintillatingly varied) year for those.
  4. Few country records are on my list. I’m not resistant to that genre; I just insist on distinctly unique singing (it’s a tradition) and interesting lyrics. I was weaned on George, Merle, Willie, Dolly, Lorretty, and Tammy–what can I say?
  5. As a writer, I “come out of” punk, garage rock, and rock when it rolled–my first writing “gigs” were with punk zines. Over the last decade, a group of friends on Facebook have given me a great crash course (if a crash course can last a decade) in busting out of that particular popular/semipopular music pen, though I still like galloping around in it. It could be, as a result, that I am too eager to enthuse about intriguing poptimistic sounds. Also, some eyebrows might jump at the exclusion from the list of a certain mega-phenomenon in light of that admission. I still struggle with blandness, even impressively mounted and executed blandness. Oh, and about my punk-pen-past: if the band Dredd Foole & the Din is unfamiliar to you, change that (see “Excavations and “Reissues”).
  6. I like music made by melanated people more than the pale offerings. I don’t think about it beforehand–it just turns out that way. Sue me.

TRUNCATED OBSERVATIONS–PAIRINGS!:

–So-called “desert blues”? Folks, if you don’t know about it or have never gotten on the train, it’s not too late to hop on, and your first stop should be Bounaly’s glowing-orange-hot wailing guitar record Dimanche a Bamako. All hail the Sahel Sounds label. Next stop: Bombino’s Sahel.

–Prolific rappers? From Canada? Yep–it’s old news. BUT…Buck 65’s placed two releases in my Top 25 records of the year, and I had to think and listen awhile before I moved one of those out of the Top 10. Crisp beats, consistently engaging words, and a confident flow. I want to pose a question to aficionados: Buck 65 or Homeboy Sandman, if you could only take one of these fecund MCs’ oeuvres to a desert island?

–Brazilian music: I forgot a prejudice! I start out leaning forward when I put on a new Brazilian record, especially if it’s been touted by Rod Taylor of the Brazil Beat blog. And this year my Top 40 (so far) contains two great and VERY DIFFERENT–yet uniquely Brazilian–releases: Adriana Calcanhotto’s addictive samba-with-Waitsian-rhythmic-flecks Errante and Filipe Catto’s dark-toned tribute to the departed tropicalia legend Gal Costa, Belezas Sao Coisis Acesas por Dentro. Note 1: Catto’s album and Anohni’s still-chart-topping My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross is a terrific pairing as well.

The Updated List

–If an album makes the list, it sounds and feels to me like the equivalent of a Pitchfork 7.5 or better, an All Music 3 ½ stars or better, or an Xgauvian **Honorable Mention or better.
–It can be assumed that my Top 30-40 sound to me the equivalent of an A-, but I’m a teacher in my other incarnation so watch me for grade inflation. It cannot be assumed safely, though, that my Top 10 are all straight A’s.
–After the first 50, my “rankings” are a bit loose; similarly, the entirety of my “Excavations and Reissues” I rank pretty loosely other than the Top 3. Also, I usually jigger the rankings every month upon reflection.
–Items in bold are new to the list I posted at the end of the previous month.

Note 2: I’ve repeatedly pored over this month’s list and rearranged it, after some re-listening and simple reflection. My Top 50 is approaching as much permanence as I’m capable of, though Bounaly’s record so thoroughly kicked my ass last night it may take the top spot. We also have four weeks to go….

  1. Anohni: My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross (Secretly Canadian)
  2. Bounaly: Dimanche a Bamako (Sahel Sounds)
  3. Gina Birch: I Play My Bass Loud (Third Man)
  4. James Brandon Lewis: For Mahalia (with Love) (AUM Fidelity 2-CD version)
  5. boygenius: the record (Interscope)
  6. Buck 65: Punk Rock B-Boy (self-released)
  7. Olivia Rodrigo: Guts (Geffen)
  8. Jamila Woods: Water Made Us (Jagjaguwar)
  9. Romy: Midair (Young)
  10. Noname: Sundial (AWAL Recordings America)
  11. Jessie Ware: That! Feels Good! (Universal)
  12. Robert Finley: Black Bayou (Easy Eye)
  13. The Mark Lomax II Trio: Tapestry (CFG Multimedia)
  14. billy woods & Kenny Segal: Maps (Backwoodz Studios)
  15. Miguel Zenon & Luis Perdomo: El Arte del Bolero, Volume 2 (ArcArtists)
  16. Wild Up: Julius Eastman, Volume 3—If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? (New Amsterdam)
  17. 100 gecs: 10,000 gecs (Dog Show/Atlantic)
  18. Corinna Bailey Rae: Black Rainbows (Black Rainbows)
  19. Adriana Calcanhotto: Errante (BMG)
  20. Big Freedia: Central City (Queen Diva)
  21. Buck 65: Super Dope (self-released)
  22. Ohad Talmor: Back to the Land (Intakt)
  23. Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra: Family (We Jazz)
  24. Aesop Rock: Integrated Tech Solutions (Rhymesayers)
  25. Mark Turner: Live at the Village Vanguard (Giant Step Arts)
  26. Assiko Golden Band de Grand Yoff: Magg Tekki (Mississippi Records)
  27. Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Spirit Gatherer—A Tribute to Don Cherry (Spiritmuse)
  28. Wadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations (Kabell)
  29. Tyler Mitchell Octet: Sun Ra’s Journey featuring Marshall Allen (Cellar Live)
  30. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah & Chief Adjuah: Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning (Ropeadope)
  31. National Information Society: Since Time is Gravity (Eremite)
  32. Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra: In the Dark (ESP-Disk)
  33. Armand Hammer: We Buy Diabetes Test Strips (Backwoodz Studios)
  34. Hamell on Trial: Bring the Kids (Saustex)
  35. Liv.e: Girl in The Half Pearl (Real Life / AWAL)
  36. Jelly Roll: Whitsitt Chapel (Stoney Creek)
  37. Fire! Orchestra: Echoes (Rune Grammofon)
  38. Filipe Catto: Belezas Sao Coisis Acesas por Dentro (Joia Moderna)
  39. Dropkick Murphys: Okemah Rising (Dummy Luck Music)
  40. Ashley McBryde: The Devil I Know (Warner Nashville)
  41. Kari Faux: REAL BITCHES DON’T DIE (drunk sum wtr records)
  42. Jason Adasiewicz: Roscoe Village—The Music of Roscoe Mitchell (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
  43. William Hooker: Flesh & Bones (Org Music)
  44. Tyshawn Sorey: Continuing (Pi Recordings)
  45. Yaeji: With a Hammer (XL Recordings)
  46. Bettye LaVette: LaVette! (Jay-Vee)
  47. Brandy Clark: Brandy Clark (Warner)
  48. Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes Records)
  49. Janelle Monae: The Age of Pleasure (Bad Boy)
  50. Zach Bryan: Zach Bryan (Belting Bronco)
  51. London Brew: London Brew (Concord)
  52. J.D. Allen: This (Savant)
  53. Ryoko Ono & Satoko Fujii: Hakuro (label unknown)
  54. Rodrigo Campos: Pagode Novo (YB Music)
  55. Kali Uchis: Red Moon in Venus (Geffen)
  56. Bobby Rush: All My Love for You (Deep Rush / Thirty Tigers)
  57. Kelela: Raven (Warp)
  58. Les Raillizes Denudes: Citta’ ’93 (Temporal Drift)
  59. Isach Skeidsvoll: Dance to Summon (Ultraani Records)
  60. Killer Mike: Michael (Loma Vista)
  61. Emil Amos: Zone Black (Drag City)
  62. Marina Sena: Vicio Inerente (Sony)
  63. Shabazz Palaces: Robed in Rareness (Sub Pop)
  64. Young Fathers: Heavy Heavy (Ninja Tune)
  65. Maria Jose Llergo: Ultrabella (Sony)
  66. Irreversible Entanglements: Protect Your Light (Impulse! / Verve)
  67. Jaimie Branch: Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) (International Anthem)
  68. David Mirarchi: Ink Folly, Orchid Gleam (Unbroken Sounds) 
  69. Superless: Superless (Oyvind Jazzforum)
  70. Algiers: Shook (Matador)
  71. Buselli – Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: The Gennett Suite (Patois Records)
  72. Lewis Capaldi: Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent (Vertigo Berline)
  73. Tyvek: Overground (Gingko)
  74. corook: serious person (part 1) (Atlantic)
  75. Ice Cold Bishop: Generational Curse (Ice Cold Entertainment)
  76. Allen Lowe and The Constant Sorrow Orchestra: America—The Rough Cut (ESP-Disk)
  77. Tri-County Liquidators: cut my teeth (Hitt Rex)
  78. ensemble 0: Jojoni (Crammed Discs)
  79. JLin: Perspective (Planet Mu)
  80. Sexxy Red: Hood Hottest Princess (Open Shift)
  81. Henry Threadgill: The Other One (Pi)
  82. Zoh Amba & Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt: The Flower School (Palilalia)
  83. Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids: Afro-Futuristic Dreams (Strut)
  84. Amanda Shires & Bobbie Nelson: Loving You (ATO)
  85. aja monet: when the poems do what they do (drink sum wtr)
  86. Knoel Scott (featuring Marshall Allen): Celestial (Night Dreamer)
  87. Steve Lehman & Orchestre National de Jazz: Ex Machina (Pi)
  88. Emmet Cohen & Houston Person: Houston Person—Masters Legacy Series, Volume 5 (Bandstand Presents)
  89. Peso Pluma: GENESIS (Double P)
  90. Chappell Roan: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (KRA)
  91. Elijah Shiffer: Star Jelly (self-released)
  92. Grupo Frontera: El Comienzo (Grupo Frontera)
  93. Ember: August in March (Imani)
  94. Kevin Sun: The Depths of Memory (Endectomorph Music)
  95. Florian Arbenz: Conversation #10—Inland (Hammer)
  96. Withered Hand: How to Love (Reveal)
  97. Lafayette Gilchrist: Undaunted (Morphius)
  98. Meshell Ndegeocello: The Omnichord Real Book (Blue Note)
  99. The Fugs: Dancing in the Universe (Fugs Records)
  100. Taj Mahal: Savoy (Cheraw S.C.)
  101. Haviah Mighty: Crying Crystals (Mighty Gang)
  102. Willie Nelson: I Don’t Know a Thing About Love—The Songs of Harlan Howard (Legacy)
  103. Morgan Wade: Psychopath (Ladylike)
  104. Parannoul: After the Magic (Poclanos/Top Shelf)
  105. Felo Le Tee & Mellow & Sleazy: The Ill Wise Men (New Money Gang)
  106. The Necks: Travel (Northern Spy)
  107. Lori McKenna: 1988 (CN Records / Thirty Tigers)
  108. Tyler Keith & The Apostles: Hell to Pay (Black & Wyatt)
  109. KAYTRAMINE: KAYTRAMIUNE, Amine, & KAYTRANADA (CLBN)
  110. Rome Streetz: Wasn’t Built in a Day (Big Ghost)
  111. Hein Westgaard Trio: First as Farce (Nice Things)
  112. The Urban Art Ensemble: “Ho’opomopono” (CFG Multimedia 16-minute single)
  113. Itamar Borochov: Arba (Greenleaf)
  114. Rodrigo Amado / The Bridge: Beyond the Margins (Trost)
  115. ANTiINDSTRY: Numinous Interference (Muteant Sounds)
  116. Islandman (featuring Okay Temiz and Muhlis Berberoglu: Direct-to-Disc Sessions (Night Dreamer)
  117. Edward Simon: Femeninas (ArtistShare)
  118. Trio San (featuring Satoko Fujii and Taiko Saito): Hibiki (Jazzdor)
  119. Susan Alcorn: Canto (Relative Pitch)
  120. Kill Bill—The Rapper: Fullmetal Kaiju (EXO)
  121. Speaker Music: Techxodus (Planet Mu)
  122. Andy Fairweather Low: Flang Dang (The Last Music Company)
  123. ARO40: On the Blink (Aerophonic Records)
  124. Money for Guns: All the Darkness That’s in Your Head (CD Baby)
  125. Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter Five—In the garden (Constellation)
  126. Bombino: Sahel (Partisan)
  127. Rough Image: Rough Image (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  128. Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place (Pyroclastic)
  129. Victoria Monet: Jaguar II (Lovett Music)
  130. Homeboy Sandman: I Can’t Sell These Either (self-released)
  131. Havard Wiik & Tim Daisy: Slight Return (Relay)
  132. Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra: LightningDreamers (International Anthem)
  133. Kaze & Ikue Mori: Crustal Movement (Circum/Libra)
  134. DJ Black Low: Impumelelo (Awesome Tapes from Africa)
  135. Belle and Sebastian: Late Developers  (Matador)
  136. Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide: Perpetual Motion (Ayler Records)
  137. feeble little horse: Girl with Fish (Saddle Creek)
  138. Rocket 88: House of Jackpots (12XU)
  139. L’Rain: I Killed Your Dog (Mexican Summer)
  140. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ: Destiny (Spells on the Telly)
  141. Nasty Facts: Drive My Car (Left for Dead)
  142. Taiko Saito: Tears of a Cloud (Trouble in the East)
  143. JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown: Scaring the Hoes (self-released)
  144. Kalia Vandever: We Fell in Turn (AKP Recordings)
  145. Water from Your Eyes: Everyone’s Crushed (Matador)
  146. Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind)
  147. Amaarae: Fountain Baby (Golden Angel/Interscope)
  148. Blondshell: Blondshell (Partisan)
  149. Satoko Fujii: Torrent (Libra Records)
  150. Javon Jackson: “With Peter Bradley”—Soundtrack and Original Score (Solid Jackson)
  151. Doja Cat: Scarlet (Kemosabe)
  152. Tianna Esperanza: Terror (BMG)
  153. YMA & Jadsa: Zelena (Matraca)
  154. Palehound: Eye on the Bat (Polyvinyl)
  155. J Hus: Beautiful and Brutal Yard (Black Butter)
  156. Das Kondensat: Anderen Planeten (Why Play Jazz)
  157. Iris DeMent: Workin’ On a World (FlariElla)
  158. David Murray, Questlove, and Ray Angry: Plumb (J.M.I.)
  159. Tyler Childers: Rustin’ in the Rain (Hickman Holler)
  160. Baaba Maal: Being (Atelier Live/Marathon Artists)
  161. Ed Sanders: The Sanders – Olufsen Poetry and Classical Music Project (Olufsen)
  162. Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom (Columbia)
  163. City Girls: Raw (Quality Control/Motown)
  164. Grrrl Gang: Spunky (Kill Rock Stars)
  165. Lana Del Rey: Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Polydor)
  166. Teenage Jesus and The Jean Teasers: I Love You (Triple J Unearthed)
  167. Caroline Davis: Alula—Captivity (Ropeadope)
  168. Kiko El Crazy: Pila’e Teteo (Rimas)
  169. Romulo Froes & Tiago Rosas: Na Goela (YB Music)
  170. Florian Arbenz: Conversation #9—Targeted (Hammer Recordings)
  171. James Brandon Lewis: Eye of I (Anti-)
  172. Sofia Kourtesis: Madres (Ninja Tune)
  173. DJ Manny: Hypnotized (Planet Mu)
  174. Josephus and The George Jonestown Massacre: Call Me Animal—A Tribute to the MC5 (Saustex)
  175. Joanna Sternberg: I’ve Got Me (Fat Possum)
  176. Tracey Nelson: Life Don’t Miss Nobody (BMG)
  177. Etran De L’Air: Live in Seattle (EP) (Sahel Sounds)
  178. Everything But the Girl: Fuse (Buzzin’ Fly)
  179. Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double: March On (self-released)
  180. Ice Spice: Like…? (10K Projects / Capitol Records EP)
  181. otay:onii: Dream Hacker (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  182. Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe: The Rite of Spring—Spectre d’un songe (Pyroclastic)
  183. Nourished by Time: Erotic Probiotic 2 (Scenic Route)
  184. Walter Daniels: “From Death to Texas” / “Seems Like a Dream” (Spacecase Records 45)
  185. Nakimbembe Embaire Group: Nakimbembe Embaire Group (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
  186. Shirley Collins: Archangel Hill (Domino)
  187. Karol G: Manana Sera Bonito (Universal Music Latino)
  188. Tinashe: BB/ANG3L (Nice Life)
  189. Hollie Cook: Happy Hour in Dub (Merge)
  190. Andrew Cyrille: Music Delivery / Percussion (Intakt)
  191. Kate Gentile: b i o m e i.i (Obliquity)
  192. Yves Tumor: Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp)
  193. Dan Ex Machina: Ex’s Sexts (self-released)
  194. Open Mike Eagle: another triumph of ghetto engineering (AutoReverse)
  195. Yonic South: Devo Challenge Cup (Wild Honey)
  196. Rudy Royston: Day (Greenleaf Music)
  197. Chien Chien Lu: Built in System—Live in New York (Giant Step Arts)
  198. Pangaea: Changing Channels (Hessle Audio)
  199. Lewsberg: Out and About (Lewsberg / 12XU)
  200. Basher: Doubles (Sinking City)
  201. That Mexican OT: Lonestar Luchador (Good Talk)
  202. Daniel Villarreal: Lados B (International Anthem)
  203. Staples Jr. Singers: Tell Heaven (EP) (Luaka Bop) Note: the vinyl gets you more great minutes of testifying.
  204. Brandee Younger: Brand New Life (Impulse!)
  205. Babe, Terror: Teghnojoyg (self-released)
  206. Heinali: Kyiv Eternal (Injazero)
  207. Vinny Golia Quartet: No Refunds (Unbroken Sounds)
  208. Kresten Osgood / Bob Moses / Tisziji Munoz: Spiritual Drum Kingship (Gotta Let It Out)
  209. The Art Ensemble of Chicago: From Paris to Paris (Rogue Art)
  210. Clarence “Bluesman” Davis: Shake It ForMe (Music Maker Foundation)
  211. The War and The Treaty: Lover’s Game (Mercury Nashville)
  212. Aroof Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad, Ismaily: Love in Exile (Verve)
  213. Asher Gamedze: Turbulence and Pulse (International Anthem)
  214. Normal Nada the Krakmaxter: Tribal Progressive Heavy Metal (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
  215. Natural Child: Be M’Guest (Natural Child Music)
  216. Tanya Tucker: Sweet Western Sound (Fantasy)

Excavations and Reissues

  1. Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens: Music Inferno—The Indestructible Beat Tour 1988-89 (Umsakazo Records)
  2. Kashmere Stage Band: Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974 (Now-Again)
  3. The Replacements: Tim—Let It Bleed Edition (Rhino)
  4. Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached (New Land Records)
  5. Walter Bishop, Jr.: Bish at the Bank—Live in Baltimore (Cellar Live)
  6. Various Artists: Yebo! Rare Mzansi Party Beats from Apartheid’s Dying Years (BBE)
  7. Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: 60 Years (The Village)
  8. Os Tincoas: Canto Coral Afrobrasiliero (Sanzala Cultural)
  9. Various Artists: Ecuatoriana (Analog Africa)
  10. Leon Keita: Leon Keita (Analog Africa)
  11. Hiroshi Yoshimura: Surround (Temporal Drift)
  12. Balka Sound: Balka Sound (Strut)
  13. Sonic Youth: Live in Brooklyn (Silver Current)
  14. John Coltrane: Evenings at The Village Gate (Impulse!)
  15. Various Artists: Playing for The Man at The Door (Smithsonian Folkways)
  16. Gabe Baltazar: Birdology (Fresh Sounds)
  17. Hiatus Kaiyote: Choose Your Weapon (Flying Buddha / Sony Masterworks)
  18. Dream Dolphin: Gaia—Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996 – 2003) (Music from Memory)
  19. Various Artists: The Soul of Congo – Treasures of the Ngoma label (1948​-​1963) (Planet Ilunga)
  20. Sonny Stitt: Boppin’ in Baltimore—Live at the Left Bank (Jazz Detective)
  21. Ihsan Al-Munzer: Belly Dance (BBE)
  22. Dredd Foole & The Din: See God 1985-1986 (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
  23. Johnny Griffin: Live at Ronnie Scott’s, 1964 (Gearbox)
  24. Nina Simone: You’ve Got to Learn (Verve)
  25. William S. Burroughs: Nothing Here But the Recordings (Dais Records)
  26. Eddie & Ernie: Time Waits for No One (Mississippi Records)
  27. Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 1 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  28. Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 2 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  29. The Southern University Jazz Ensemble: Goes to Africa with Love (Now-Again)
  30. Roy Campbell / William Parker / Zan Matsuura: Visitation of the Spirits—The Pyramind Trio Live, 1985 (No Business)
  31. Sonny Rollins: Live at Finlandia Hall, Helsinki 1972 (Svart)
  32. Various Artists: The Best of Revelation Records 1959-1962 (NarroWay)
  33. Shizuka: Heavenly Persona (Black Editions)
  34. Jacqueline Humbert & David Rosenboom: Daytime Viewing (Unseen Worlds)
  35. Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind Stripped Naked (Columbia)
  36. Various Artists: Blacklips Bar—Androgyns and Deviants / Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels 1992-1995 (Anthology Recordings)
  37. Wes Montgomery: Maximum Swing (Resonance)
  38. Various Artists: Con Piano, Sublime—Early Recordings from the Caribbean 1907-1921 (Magnificent Sounds)
  39. Various Artists: Space Echo—The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Revealed! (Analog Africa)
  40. Ibrahim Hesnawi: The Father of Libyan Reggae (Habibi Funk)
  41. RP Boo: Legacy Volume 2 (Planet Mu)
  42. Les Raillizes Denudes: ’77 Live (Temporal Drift)
  43. Alon Nechushtan: For Those Who Cross the Seas (ESP-Disk)
  44. Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Shirley Scott: Cookin’ With Jaws and The Queen (Craft)
  45. Professor James Benson: The Gow-Dow Experience (Jazzman Records)
  46. Little Bob and The Lollipops: Nobody But You (Mississippi Records)

Happy Hour in Excelsior Springs: Not Feeling Tardy Delivering My Favorite Records of 2023, January 1 – September 1

Comin’ atcha from one of Al Capone’s old haunts! Nicole’s gettin’ a CBD massage in this haunted hotel’s famous spa, we got kicked out of the pool for some reserved loud wedding strutting, and I’m sippin’ Blue Moons to the tune of my $100 worth of Bandcamp Friday investments. School’s in for me, so with three freshman comp classes and tutoring, I haven’t even been able to read–man, when that happens, I’m like Antaeus without his feet on the ground. BUT…I made it, smellin’ like chlorine and all.

Suite Sweets:

*In 2009, at 75, Bobby Rush played a show at the school I taught at, to an audience composed mostly of our black students, their parents, and even grandparents. Though it fell into my lap, I still had to do some legwork; in the end, it’s one of my Top 3 greatest experiences as an educator. AT 89, Rush just delivered his best album since Live at Ground Zero and Folkfunk (if anyone’s keeping track)–a team-up with Willie awaits, and I am not joking. Their people need to think about it.

*I was starting to think Noname was too good to wax rap records, and that’s a statement of respect. I am glad to see her back in the game, elegant, concise, and powerful.

*The year’s most gorgeous jazz album might be Miguel Zenon’s second record of boleros.

*St. Louis’ best rock and roll band (Americana, if you prefer) is Money for Guns. They just released their very best record, so if you still recognize those two genres, you might wanna sniff it out. I must admit that their co-lead singer and songwriter substitute-taught at my school over a decade ago when he was a Frustrated Bachelor, but as sharp as he was, I figured he’d be teaching at this point. He wisely keep his shoulder to the musical wheel.*

*Those of you that are free jazz fans might still be processing all those Zoh Amba records from 2022. Her new one with Orcutt on guitar might be THE ONE you need if she hasn’t hooked you yet.

*I’ve been lucky enough to see Sonic Youth live at their peak (I’m calling that the Goo tour) and in their admirable, um, dotage (2002, maybe?). The new live-in-Brooklyn document is a lovely gift to us, and does it open with some painful honesty.

*Ember. Who the funk are they? Well, they just released the most fascinatingly responsive jazz record of the year. I need to do more research, but I played it out of obligation and ended up hypnotized.

*Steve Pick, my man! Thank you for pointing me to That Mexican OT. If you miss fun and outrageous rap, and maybe like Mexican wrestling, please don’t hesitate. Unless it’s to helmet-polish for a bit.

*It might set you back some, but The Village’s six-decade overview of the great Horace Tapscott’s musical world of Watts is well worth it. He is the most underrated figure in jazz history (mostly because he chose to devote his efforts to local musical work rather than pursuit of fame), and his accomplishment has never been better documented than on the Pan Afrikan Peoples Orchestra set.

*I am standing firm on my feeling that Anohni’s My Back was a Bridge for You to Cross is the most powerful (and therefore best) record of the year. I’ve been told the vibrato is too much (tell that to the ghost of Sarah Vaughan) and that the quality tails (I think it simply shifts in kind of quality), but it still haunts me, and I know I am not alone.

BONUS TIP: If you happen to love balls-out drums (especially drums)-and-guit Devotion-like wailing…check out Spiritual Drum Kingship. Sometimes you just need your ass kicked by surging plugged-in improv.

(Bolded items are new to the list)

  1. Anohni: My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross (Secretly Canadian)
  2. Gina Burch: I Play My Bass Loud (Third Man)
  3. 100 gecs: 10,000 gecs (Dog Show/Atlantic)
  4. boygenius:the record (Interscope)
  5. Bettye LaVette: LaVette! (Jay-Vee)
  6. Buck 65: Super Dope (self-released?)
  7. Jessie Ware: That! Feels Good! (Universal)
  8. Noname: Sundial (AWAL Recordings America)
  9. billy woods & Kenny Segal: Maps (Backwoodz Studios)
  10. Liv.e: Girl in The Half Pearl (Real Life / AWAL)
  11. Kelela: Raven (Warp)
  12. Big Freedia: Central City (Queen Diva)
  13. National Information Society: Since Time is Gravity (Eremite)
  14. Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra: In the Dark (ESP-Disk)
  15. Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Spirit Gatherer—A Tribute to Don Cherry (Spiritmuse)
  16. Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes Records)
  17. London Brew: London Brew (Concord)
  18. Fire! Orchestra: Echoes (Rune Grammofon)
  19. Wadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations (Kabell)
  20. The Mark Lomax II Trio: Tapestry (CFG Multimedia)
  21. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah & Chief Adjuah: Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning (Ropeadope)
  22. Janelle Monae: The Age of Pleasure (Bad Boy)
  23. Dropkick Murphys: Okemah Rising (Dummy Luck Music)
  24. Isach Skeidsvoll: Dance to Summon (Ultraani Records)
  25. Miguel Zenon & Luis Perdomo: El Arte del Bolero, Volume 2 (ArcArtists)
  26. Wild Up: Julius Eastman, Volume 3—If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? (New Amsterdam)
  27. Parannoul: After the Magic (Poclanos/Top Shelf)
  28. Yaeji: With a Hammer (XL Recordings)
  29. The Urban Art Ensemble: “Ho’opomopono” (CFG Multimedia 16-minute single)
  30. Felo Le Tee & Mellow & Sleazy: The Ill Wise Men (New Money Gang)
  31. Brandy Clark: Brandy Clark (Warner)
  32. Rodrigo Campos: Pagode Novo (YB Music)
  33. The Necks: Travel (Northern Spy)
  34. Kali Uchis: Red Moon in Venus (Geffen)
  35. Bobby Rush: All My Love for You (Deep Rush / Thirty Tigers)
  36. Marina Sena: Vicio Inerente (Sony)
  37. Young Fathers: Heavy Heavy (Ninja Tune)
  38. Willie Nelson: I Don’t Know a Thing About Love—The Songs of Harlan Howard (Legacy)
  39. Peso Pluma: GENESIS (Double P)
  40. Ice Cold Bishop: Generational Curse (Ice Cold Entertainment)
  41. Allen Lowe and The Constant Sorrow Orchestra: America—The Rough Cut (ESP-Disk)
  42. Tyshawn Sorey:Continuing (Pi Recordings)
  43. Nourished by Time: Erotic Probiotic 2 (Scenic Route)
  44. Walter Daniels: “From Death to Texas” / “Seems Like a Dream” (Spacecase Records 45)
  45. Tyler Keith & The Apostles: Hell to Pay (Black & Wyatt)
  46. Algiers: Shook (Matador)
  47. KAYTRAMINE: KAYTRAMIUNE, Amine, & KAYTRANADA (CLBN)
  48. Withered Hand: How to Love (Reveal)
  49. Lori McKenna: 1988 (CN Records / Thirty Tigers)
  50. ensemble 0: Jojoni(Crammed Discs)
  51. Henry Threadgill: The Other One(Pi)
  52. Kari Faux: REAL BITCHES DON’T DIE (drunk sum wtr records)
  53. Zoh Amba & Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt: The Flower School (Palilalia)
  54. Lewis Capaldi: Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent (Vertigo Berline)
  55. aja monet: when the poems do what they do (drink sum wtr)
  56. Knoel Scott (featuring Marshall Allen): Celestial (Night Dreamer)
  57. Ember: August in March (Imani)
  58. Meshell Ndegeocello: The Omnichord Real Book (Blue Note)
  59. Taj Mahal: Savoy (Cheraw S.C.)
  60. corook: serious person (part 1) (Atlantic)
  61. Haviah Mighty: Crying Crystals (Mighty Gang)
  62. Rome Streetz: Wasn’t Built in a Day (Big Ghost)
  63. Jaimie Branch: Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) (International Anthem)
  64. Kiko El Crazy: Pila’e Teteo (Rimas)
  65. Islandman (featuring Okay Temiz and Muhlis Berberoglu: Direct-to-Disc Sessions (Night Dreamer)
  66. Edward Simon: Femeninas (ArtistShare)
  67. Kill Bill—The Rapper: Fullmetal Kaiju (EXO)
  68. Money for Guns: All the Darkness That’s in Your Head (CD Baby)
  69. Rough Image: Rough Image (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  70. Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place (Pyroclastic)
  71. Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra: LightningDreamers (International Anthem)
  72. Kaze & Ikue Mori: Crustal Movement (Circum/Libra)
  73. DJ Black Low: Impumelelo (Awesome Tapes from Africa)
  74. Belle and Sebastian: Late Developers  (Matador)
  75. Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide: Perpetual Motion (Ayler Records)
  76. feeble little horse: Girl with Fish (Saddle Creek)
  77. Rocket 88: House of Jackpots (12XU)
  78. Taiko Saito: Tears of a Cloud (Trouble in the East)
  79. JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown: Scaring the Hoes (self-released)
  80. Water from Your Eyes: Everyone’s Crushed (Matador)
  81. Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind)
  82. Amaarae: Fountain Baby (Golden Angel/Interscope)
  83. Blondshell: Blondshell (Partisan)
  84. Satoko Fujii: Torrent (Libra Records)
  85. Javon Jackson: “With Peter Bradley”—Soundtrack and Original Score (Solid Jackson)
  86. YMA & Jadsa: Zelena (Matraca)
  87. Palehound: Eye on the Bat (Polyvinyl)
  88. J Hus: Beautiful and Brutal Yard (Black Butter)
  89. Das Kondensat: Anderen Planeten (Why Play Jazz)
  90. Iris DeMent: Workin’ On a World (FlariElla)
  91. David Mirarchi: Ink Folly, Orchid Gleam(Unbroken Sounds) (coming soon….)
  92. Baaba Maal: Being (Atelier Live/Marathon Artists)
  93. Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom (Columbia)
  94. Lana Del Rey: Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Polydor)
  95. Romulo Froes & Tiago Rosas: Na Goela (YB Music)
  96. Buselli – Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: The Gennett Suite (Patois Records)
  97. Florian Arbenz: Conversation #9—Targeted (Hammer Recordings)
  98. James Brandon Lewis: Eye of I (Anti-)
  99. Sexyy Red: Hood Hottest Princess (Open Shift)
  100. Joanna Sternberg: I’ve Got Me (Fat Possum)
  101. Tracey Nelson: Life Don’t Miss Nobody (BMG)
  102. Etran De L’Air: Live in Seattle (EP) (Sahel Sounds)
  103. Everything But the Girl: Fuse (Buzzin’ Fly)
  104. Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double: March On (self-released EP—coming in March)
  105. Ice Spice: Like…? (10K Projects / Capitol Records EP)
  106. otay:onii: Dream Hacker (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  107. Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe: The Rite of Spring—Spectre d’un songe (Pyroclastic)
  108. Itamar Borochov: Arba (Greenleaf)
  109. Nakimbembe Embaire Group: Nakimbembe Embaire Group (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
  110. Shirley Collins: Archangel Hill (Domino)
  111. Karol G: Manana Sera Bonito (Universal Music Latino)
  112. Hollie Cook: Happy Hour in Dub (Merge)
  113. Andrew Cyrille: Music Delivery / Percussion (Intakt)
  114. Kate Gentile: b i o m e i.i (Obliquity)
  115. Yves Tumor: Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp)
  116. Open Mike Eagle: another triumph of ghetto engineering (AutoReverse)
  117. Yonic South: Devo Challenge Cup (Wild Honey)
  118. Rudy Royston: Day (Greenleaf Music)
  119. Basher: Doubles (Sinking City)
  120. That Mexican OT: Lonestar Luchador (Good Talk)
  121. Staples Jr. Singers: Tell Heaven (EP) (Luaka Bop) Note: the vinyl gets you more great minutes of testifying.
  122. Brandee Younger: Brand New Life (Impulse!)
  123. Babe, Terror: Teghnojoyg
  124. Heinali: Kyiv Eternal (Injazero)
  125. Tri-County Liquidators: “Flies” / “Weep Then Whisper” / “Bitter” (self-released)
  126. Vinny Golia Quartet: No Refunds (Unbroken Sounds)
  127. Kresten Osgood / Bob Moses / Tisziji Munoz: Spiritual Drum Kingship (Gotta Let It Out)
  128. The Art Ensemble of Chicago: From Paris to Paris (Rogue Art)
  129. Clarence “Bluesman” Davis: Shake It For Me (Music Maker Foundation)
  130. The War and The Treaty: Lover’s Game (Mercury Nashville)
  131. Aroof Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad, Ismaily: Love in Exile (Verve)
  132. Asher Gamedze: Turbulence and Pulse (International Anthem)
  133. Normal Nada the Krakmaxter: Tribal Progressive Heavy Metal (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
  134. Natural Child: Be M’Guest (Natural Child Music)
  135. Tanya Tucker: Sweet Western Sound (Fantasy)

Excavations and Reissues

  1. Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens: Music Inferno—The Indestructible Beat Tour 1988-89 (Umsakazo Records)
  2. Kashmere Stage Band: Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974 (Now-Again)
  3. Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached (New Land Records)
  4. Walter Bishop, Jr.: Bish at the Bank—Live in Baltimore (Cellar Live)
  5. Various Artists: Yebo! Rare Mzansi Party Beats from Apartheid’s Dying Years (BBE)
  6. Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: 60 Years (The Village)
  7. Nina Simone: You’ve Got to Learn (Verve)
  8. William S. Burroughs: Nothing Here But the Recordings (Dais Records)
  9. Balka Sound: Balka Sound (Strut)
  10. Sonic Youth: Live in Brooklyn (Silver Current)
  11. John Coltrane: Evenings at The Village Gate (Impulse!)
  12. Various Artists: Playing for The Man at The Door (Smithsonian Folkways)
  13. Hiatus Kaiyote: Choose Your Weapon (Flying Buddha / Sony Masterworks)
  14. Dream Dolphin: Gaia—Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996 – 2003) (Music from Memory)
  15. Eddie & Ernie: Time Waits for No One (Mississippi Records)
  16. Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 1 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  17. Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 2 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  18. The Southern University Jazz Ensemble: Goes to Africa with Love (Now-Again)
  19. Sonny Rollins: Live at Finlandia Hall, Helsinki 1972 (Svart)
  20. Various Artists: The Best of Revelation Records 1959-1962 (NarroWay)
  21. Shizuka: Heavenly Persona (Black Editions)
  22. Jacqueline Humbert & David Rosenboom: Daytime Viewing (Unseen Worlds)
  23. Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind Stripped Naked (Columbia)
  24. Various Artists: Blacklips Bar—Androgyns and Deviants / Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels 1992-1995 (Anthology Recordings)
  25. Various Artists: Ecuatoriana (Analog Africa)
  26. RP Boo: Legacy Volume 2 (Planet Mu)
  27. Les Raillizes Denudes: ’77 Live (Temporal Drift)
  28. Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Shirley Scott: Cookin’ With Jaws and The Queen (Craft)
  29. Professor James Benson:The Gow-Dow Experience (Jazzman Records)
  30. Little Bob and The Lollipops: Nobody But You (Mississippi Records)

THIS STUFF! FEELS GOOD!: 110 Truly Interesting Records We’ve Received So Far in ’23 (not bad!)

Hi! I hope summer is off to as dazzling a musical start for you as it has for me! Not only have the records come marching in, but I am teaching a very enjoyable asynchronous class for Stephens College that’s built around Susan Rogers‘ and Ogi Ogas‘ This Is What It Sounds Like (you yourselves might well love not only the book but its fun associated website), which take a look at why our brains push us toward certain kinds of music and not others. My students are doing excellent work: I will send an essay by one of them up very soon, in which the author will enter the current Lewis Capaldi fuck-him/marry-him/kill-him scrum in enthusiastic form. They have to construct, explain, and interpret their unique listening profiles (see the book) for their final project, and I’m definitely looking forward to that.

Nut Notes:

*Boy howdy, that boygenius album has subtle and often barbed charms. Is it just me, or has the counterattack begun?

*It’s quite a boast, but Buck 65 wins this month’s “Truth in Title Advertising” award by a hair over…

*…JESSIE WARE, who got extra points for punctuation and makes me feel young again–seriously. For the record, I am currently 61, and can someone put her and Roisin Murphy on a US tour so I can go dance deliriously and live deliciously?

*The Dropkick Murphys dropped their second (?) album of (literally) unsung Woody Guthrie songs last month–how’d I miss the first, which came out LAST YEAR (it just came in the mail yesterday)? While I was blasting it on Memorial Day, Nicole remarked, “Does his stuff stay relevant or what?” She’s an Okie, so she might be biased–but she’s also correct.

*Wild Up released their third record interpreting the amazing minimalist (but not exactly) work of Julius Eastman. This one is a bit more in your face, which is partly the particular Eastman compositions they chose to work with, but I bet they’ve spent some time with Eight Songs for a Mad King, where he makes one particular unforgettable vocal appearance.

*Nourished by Time…that is one eccentric but impressive r&b album. I was lazy sampling it and assumed from the cover it was going to be a rap album–I know next to nothing about this act–but it sure as hell is not.

*Little Rock, Arkansas’ Kari Faux has a special title message for you that she backs up on her new record.

*Simply put, you’re gonna want that Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens record at the top of the “old stuff” list. I can’t believe it looking back, but I saw a show on that tour–I should have been too ignant to know–and it.is.theshit.

*You think harp and jazz is a twain that never should meet? Brandee Younger does not agree, nor did Dorothy Ashby, whose very convincing soon-come 5-LP reconsideration by New Land Younger contributes notes for.

*”If you’re doing business with a religious son of a bitch, get it in writing!” It is SO nice to hear William S. Burroughs‘ inimitable and often prophetic voice coming from my speakers again, via Dais Records’ sharply assembled compilation of 1960s recordings. (That italicized quote isn’t on the record–look for Uncommon Quotes, if it’s still available–but many other worthy utterances are.)

*MARK LOMAX II never makes a foolish move.

*Brazil in the house…always. Check out #27 and #31 for sure.

*Kate Gentile‘s new free/experimental/jazz record is like walking blindfolded through a wind-blown percussion forest in the middle of the night.

*I have a feeling that The Gennett Suite, in which the artists “elasticize” the sound of the original classic recordings released on that label (think Bix), may meet with some jazz argumentation. I stand with Buselli and Walarab–the originals are strong enough to be stretched. They shine in this new light.

*Many (of the few) readers of the blog probably already know that Lux Interior and Ivy Rorshach of The Cramps were ace 45 collectors. I’m a BIG fan of theirs, but even I was not aware that Righteous Records is more deeply mining their collection, getting past that legendary stuff (“Love Me,” “I Can’t Hardly Stand It,” “The Strangeness in Me,’ “Bop Pills”–I can go on) and finding even more pretty worthy curiosities. Don’t miss the latest at the very end of the list, and it’s just the latest volume.

(Bolded items are new to the list)

  1. Gina Burch: I Play My Bass Loud (Third Man)
  2. 100 gecs: 10,000 gecs (Dog Show/Atlantic)
  3. boygenius: the record (Interscope)
  4. Buck 65: Super Dope (self-released?)
  5. Jessie Ware: That! Feels Good! (Universal)
  6. billy woods & Kenny Segal: Maps (Backwoodz Studios)
  7. Liv.e: Girl in The Half Pearl (Real Life / AWAL)
  8. Kelela: Raven (Warp)
  9. National Information Society: Since Time is Gravity (Eremite)
  10. Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra: In the Dark (ESP-Disk)
  11. Rodrigo Campos: Pagode Novo(YB Music)
  12. Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Spirit Gatherer—A Tribute to Don Cherry (Spiritmuse)
  13. Yaeji: With a Hammer (XL Recordings)
  14. Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes Records)
  15. London Brew: London Brew (Concord)
  16. Fire! Orchestra: Echoes (Rune Grammofon)
  17. Wadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations (Kabell)
  18. The Mark Lomax II Trio: Tapestry (CFG Multimedia)
  19. Dropkick Murphys: Okemah Rising (Dummy Luck Music)
  20. Islandman (featuring Okay Temiz and Muhlis Berberoglu: Direct-to-Disc Sessions (Night Dreamer)
  21. Parannoul: After the Magic (Poclanos/Top Shelf)
  22. Belle and Sebastian: Late Developers (Matador)
  23. Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide: Perpetual Motion (Ayler Records)
  24. The Urban Art Ensemble: “Ho’opomopono” (CFG Multimedia 16-minute single)
  25. The Necks: Travel (Northern Spy)
  26. Kali Uchis: Red Moon in Venus (Geffen)
  27. Marina Sena: Vicio Inerente (Sony)
  28. Wild Up: Julius Eastman, Volume 3—If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? (New Amsterdam)
  29. Willie Nelson: I Don’t Know a Thing About Love—The Songs of Harlan Howard (Legacy)
  30. Allen Lowe and The Constant Sorrow Orchestra: America—The Rough Cut (ESP-Disk)
  31. Edward Simon: Femeninas (ArtistShare)
  32. Tyshawn Sorey: Continuing (Pi Recordings)
  33. Nourished by Time: Erotic Probiotic 2 (Scenic Route)
  34. Walter Daniels: “From Death to Texas” / “Seems Like a Dream” (Spacecase Records 45)
  35. Tyler Keith & The Apostles: Hell to Pay (Black & Wyatt)
  36. Algiers: Shook (Matador)
  37. KAYTRAMINE: KAYTRAMIUNE, Amine, & KAYTRANADA (CLBN)
  38. Withered Hand: How to Love (Reveal)
  39. ensemble 0: Jojoni (Crammed Discs)
  40. Henry Threadgill: The Other One (Pi)
  41. Kari Faux: REAL BITCHES DON’T DIE (drunk sum wtr records)
  42. Kiko El Crazy: Pila’e Teteo (Rimas)
  43. Kill Bill—The Rapper: Fullmetal Kaiju (EXO)
  44. Lewis Capaldi: Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent (Vertigo Berline)
  45. Rough Image: Rough Image (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  46. Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place (Pyroclastic)
  47. Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra: Lightning Dreamers (International Anthem)
  48. Kaze & Ikue Mori: Crustal Movement (Circum/Libra)
  49. DJ Black Low: Impumelelo (Awesome Tapes from Africa)
  50. Rocket 88: House of Jackpots (12XU)
  51. Taiko Saito: Tears of a Cloud (Trouble in the East)
  52. JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown: Scaring the Hoes (self-released)
  53. Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind)
  54. Mat Muntz: Phantom Islands (Orenda)
  55. Satoko Fujii: Torrent (Libra Records)
  56. Javon Jackson: “With Peter Bradley”—Soundtrack and Original Score (Solid Jackson)
  57. Das Kondensat: Anderen Planeten(Why Play Jazz)
  58. Iris DeMent: Workin’ On a World (FlariElla)
  59. David Mirarchi: Ink Folly, Orchid Gleam (Unbroken Sounds) (coming soon….)
  60. Baaba Maal: Being (Atelier Live/Marathon Artists)
  61. Romulo Froes & Tiago Rosas: Na Goela (YB Music)
  62. Buselli – Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: The Gennett Suite (Patois Records)
  63. Florian Arbenz: Conversation #9—Targeted (Hammer Recordings)
  64. James Brandon Lewis: Eye of I (Anti-)
  65. Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double: March On (self-released EP—coming in March)
  66. Ice Spice: Like…?(10K Projects / Capitol Records EP)
  67. otay:onii: Dream Hacker (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  68. Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe: The Rite of Spring—Spectre d’un songe (Pyroclastic)
  69. Nakimbembe Embaire Group: Nakimbembe Embaire Group (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
  70. Karol G: Manana Sera Bonito (Universal Music Latino)
  71. Andrew Cyrille: Music Delivery / Percussion (Intakt)
  72. Kate Gentile: b i o m e i.i (Obliquity)
  73. Yves Tumor:Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp)
  74. Lonnie Holley: Oh Me Oh My (Jagjaguwar)
  75. Lana Del Rey: Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Polydor)
  76. Yonic South: Devo Challenge Cup (Wild Honey)
  77. Rudy Royston: Day (Greenleaf Music)
  78. Lankum: False Lankum (Rough Trade)
  79. Staples Jr. Singers: Tell Heaven (EP) (Luaka Bop) Note: the vinyl gets you more great minutes of testifying.
  80. Brandee Younger: Brand New Life (Impulse!)
  81. Heinali: Kyiv Eternal (Injazero)
  82. Tri-County Liquidators: “Flies” / “Weep Then Whisper” / “Bitter” (self-released)
  83. Vinny Golia Quartet: No Refunds (Unbroken Sounds)
  84. Black Country, New Road: Live at Bush Hall (Ninja Tune)
  85. The Art Ensemble of Chicago: From Paris to Paris (Rogue Art)
  86. Clarence “Bluesman” Davis: Shake It For Me (Music Maker Foundation)
  87. Aroof Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad, Ismaily: Love in Exile (Verve)
  88. Asher Gamedze: Turbulence and Pulse (International Anthem)
  89. Angel Bat Dawid: Requiem for Jazz (International Anthem)
  90. Kara Jackson: Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? (September Recordings)
  91. Billy Valentine: Billy Valentine and The Universal Truth (Flying Dutchman)

Excavations and Reissues

(Note: These are not in order of my love for them–still sorting that out.)

  1. Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens: Music Inferno—The Indestructible Beat Tour 1988-89 (Umsakazo Records)
  2. Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached (New Land Records)
  3. Walter Bishop, Jr.: Bish at the Bank—Live in Baltimore (Cellar Live)
  4. William S. Burroughs: Nothing Here But the Recordings (Dais Records)
  5. Balka Sound: Balka Sound(Strut)
  6. Hiatus Kaiyote: Choose Your Weapon (Flying Buddha / Sony Masterworks)
  7. Dream Dolphin: Gaia—Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996​-​2003) (Music from Memory)
  8. Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 1 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  9. Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 2 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
  10. Shizuka: Heavenly Persona (Black Editions)
  11. Jacqueline Humbert & David Rosenboom: Daytime Viewing (Unseen Worlds)
  12. Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind Stripped Naked (Columbia)
  13. Various Artists: Blacklips Bar—Androgyns and Deviants / Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels 1992-1995 (Anthology Recordings)
  14. RP Boo: Legacy Volume 2 (Planet Mu)
  15. Les Raillizes Denudes: ’77 Live (Temporal Drift)
  16. Luther Thomas: 11th Street Fire Suite (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
  17. Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Shirley Scott: Cookin’ With Jaws and The Queen(Craft)
  18. Professor James Benson: The Gow-Dow Experience (Jazzman Records)
  19. Various Artists: Strontium 90, Shrimps & Gumbo—Lux & Ivy Dig Motorcycle Boots & Mutants (Righteous Records)

Gooba Gooba Gooba Gooba, Goodbye: So Long to Huey Piano Smith, last of the New Orleans Professors, and (at long last) a 2023 Top 10.

The great New Orleans piano “professor” Huey Piano Smith–one the last living architects of rock and roll–passed on February 13. Between that date and his first recorded music in 1952 is almost the same span as the distance between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War II. Smith had not played in public for quite a long time, and his catalog is not too deep, but the best of what he did wax is timeless, spirit-liberating, deliriously anarchic rock and roll. Whenever Nicole and I have thrown house parties, regardless of the nature and tastes of the guests, we’ve always included his classic with the Clowns, “Don’t You Just Know It” (anyone who attended one particular party we threw will remember me swinging between two rooms by the door jamb yelling the P-Funk-prophesying “Gooba gooba gooba” refrain), and few documentaries have begun so sublimely as Les Blank’s Always for Pleasure: ships arriving at New Orleans docks to the sound of “Sea Cruise.” I watch that film every Mardi Gras (often forcing it on whatever class I’m teaching, along with King Cake), and the coming celebration will be no exception. I urge you, if you are not familiar with Smith’s music with the Clowns, a group that included at various times some great musicians you probably know, to stream the above album then hit Discogs (your best bet).

Also–and, looking back over my posts from the last few years, I realize I ALWAYS do this–I finally have a Top 10 list of excellent new albums for 2023, though it took me until mid-February to compile one. This portends nothing; I have no doubt my December list will sprawl. I need to cease whining. Here ’tis–kind of a motley crew, but they pack a punch:

  1. Belle and Sebastian: Late Developers (Matador)
  2. Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind)
  3. Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide: Perpetual Motion (Ayler Records)
  4. Parannoul: After the Magic (Poclanos/Top Shelf)
  5. Kelela: Raven (Warp)
  6. Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes Records)
  7. Tyler Keith & The Apostles: Hell to Pay (Black & Wyatt)
  8. Yonic South: Devo Challenge Cup (Wild Honey)
  9. Staples Jr. Singers: Tell Heaven (EP) (Luaka Bop) Note: the vinyl gets you more great minutes of testifying.
  10. Mat Muntz: Phantom Islands (Orenda)

I’m a day late for Valentine’s Day, which was sort of the occasion for its release (but also not really, since Dr. Mark Lomax’s compositions are always created with the listener’s spiritual sustenance in mind), but this 16-minute “single” by The Urban Art Ensemble, titled “Ho’oponopono,” is a true gift. The song title translates to the name of a traditional Hawaiian “practice of reconciliation and forgiveness.”

Here’s a peek at the trailer for a related production by Dr. Lomax and friends:

Five I Missed That Woulda Made The 2022 List: New Discoveries from the Year That Was (+ a 2023 Addendum)

I don’t need to tell you that you can’t listen to everything. In my darkest moments, the thought that if I chose to step off the edge of the world I might miss a fantastic record has brightened my corner; my (and maybe your ambition) to hear it all is doomed to thwartation, but it never keeps me from trying. I didn’t know about these five records until late last month, but they certainly would have made my 2022 Top 40. Thank the stars or whatever for other blogging rekkid obsessives!

Santigold: Spirituals (Little Jerk Records) — During her early years she was a favorite of favorite students of mine, and thus she was a favorite of mine. I’d largely forgotten about her until I was tipped off about this moving, grooving, and consistent record that, despite the title, begins with this track:

Moonchild Sanelly: Phases (Transgressive Records) — 2022 was a great year for South African dance music, and I stayed well-informed, so don’t ask me why I just know learned about this act. Sanelisiwe Twisha began her career, according to Wikipedia, in “sex entertainment,” and she ain’t shy, for sure, but when I read (not on Wikipedia, though it’s there, but two days ago from a source I already can’t remember) that she called her music “future ghetto punk,” I was all in. Clicked to sample it and was dancing and bouncing around the house. I am 61 and have vestibular neuritis, so that’s saying something. Would’ve been in my Top 20, methinks. I think I’ll send a copy to the the Missouri state capitol of creeps.

Various Artists: Ghost Riders (Efficient Space) — Talk about “other blogging rekkid obsessives”: I am not alone in being grateful for Chuck Eddy‘s existence. He’ll try anything, which is a compliment, and he recommended this Australian collection of strangely moving, eerie, and funny songs from what one Bandcamp user called “garage nobodies” early enough for me to get it onto my 2022 list. I didn’t get it in the mail until late December, then it sat on a stack waiting for me, then in early January I finally dug in. Aside from those other adjectives I used above, it’s also…naively ethereal and lovably camp. Special prizes are a non-country sequel to “Ode to Billie Joe” and a seemingly ill-advised cover of The Beatles’ “Here, There, & Everywhere,” probably my favorite McCartney-sung tune of theirs, that The Common People (heh heh) not only survive but excel on. Thanks, Chuck!

Mary Halvorson: Belladonna and Amaryllis (Nonesuch Records) — A) For some reason I back away from any artist no matter how much I enjoy their work when they release two records at once (except for Ka). B) I have usually been disappointed by “with strings” albums by artists I’m not totally nuts about (Belladona is such). C) I didn’t have time for this project. I’m just being honest. Plus Mary with strings did not appeal to me, despite the fact I dearly dig her even if it were just for this clip that I always show my women’s college students. BUT the strings album is quite beautiful especially because (not in spite) of plectoral soundwave warping, and I discovered too late that the Halvorson-influenced vibraphonist Patricia Brennan, whose 2022 record More Touch is mesmerizing, plays with and around Halvorson on it. So…fuck me, live and learn!

Mary J. Blige: Good Morning, Gorgeous (300 Entertainment Records) — One of the records my wife and I courted to was What’s The 411? I happen to think her team-up with Method Man, “All I Need”, is ETERNAL. I’ve liked everything I’ve heard by her, and enjoyed her in the film Mudbound. I recently taught the mother of her road band’s guitarist (Ma is three days older than me!), who told me many stories and showed me cool pics. I have no reason not to keep up with Mary, but I don’t. Too bad, because I think I love this record more than others who also do–there’s something about the production (by 17 different individuals? but it coheres!) that fits her like a silk glove. Now, I need to play it for Lady O.

BONUS 2022 ALBUM I ALSO FORGOT BUT I SHOULD HAVE PUT AT THE TOP:

Alaide Costa: O Que Meus Calos Dizem Sobre Mim (Tres Selos) — Truly one of the most gorgeous and richly detailed recordings of last year. It’s bossa nova of the highest order sung by the 87-year-old Costa couched in imaginative settings created by the Brazilian production team of Marcus Preto, Emicida, and Pupillo. Thanks to the intrepid Rod Taylor at Brazil Beat, my connection to the country that seems to create a wider and more consistent variety of interesting music than any I’m aware of. I would love a vinyl copy of this but it’ll be a pretty penny. Yesterday was pay day, so maybe I’ll jump. Check this out:

NOW, if you’ve read this far, last post I was moping about being driven half-insane by listing records month by month, year by year–it feels like a competition, governed by the law of diminishing returns, that inhibits my actual full enjoyment of music. Maybe I was in a bad mood–or maybe that post and this post are the emerging answer (now I need to quit Goodreads). Anyhow, here are two records from this year I inexplicably left off that post! I think I was trying not to lean to jazzward, but fuck it–this is good stuff, Maynards!

Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind) — Saxophonist Benjamin’s previous album was a tribute to John and Alice Coltrane that held up very well. In between that and this, she was involved in a car wreck that literally busted her chops. She’s rehabbed that problem–and how. This is a blazing set of original compositions augmented by some very notable guest appearances (Angela Davis? Sonia Sanchez? Wayne Shorter? Georgia Anne Muldrow? Patrice Rushen (my favorite of those names to see the light), and I’m not sure they’d have appeared if they hadn’t recognized the power of Benjamin’s playing and writing. Strongly recommended to Trane fans, but she’s got a sound all her own–and style. Dig:

Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes Records) — Moran’s last tribute, to Fats Waller on his last album for Blue Note, didn’t move me, and as a deep-down Wallerite that was deeply disappointing. This tribute (in Moran’s words, “a meditation on”) to the magnificent and hugely important bandleader and 369th Division Harlem Hellfighter and bandleader, the ill-fated James Reese Europe, is something else entirely. It is going to take a minute for me to fully unpack this varied, exciting, educational, and RICH record, but my sense is it will be in many Jazz Top 10s in December. It mixes takes on Reese’s tunes (and others they played), Moran’s compositions, and even a perfect contribution by none other than Pauline Oliveros, and makes a unified statement about someone most of us don’t know or at least know little about. Here’s a good original starting place: Europe’s “Memphis Blues.”

What To Do?

For several years this has been the spot where I have created gradually expanding lists of my favorite new albums and archival releases that turned my crank for each calendar year. It’s been quite fun most of the time, and recently got me on a few lists to receive review copies, many of which are actually pretty damn good. Thing is, doing so seems to encourage me to have to keep up with everything I hear about that sounds cool. That motivation, plus my natural curiosity and fear that I might miss something, inflates this seemingly fun project into a major pain in the ass too frequently and causes something that I really don’t think is healthy: I spend so much time cramming stuff in my earhole that I spend far less time listening to music I have loved for years. I’m freshly into my sixties, and I am not sure I want to keep doing it. Face it: when you keep hearing “Watching the Wheels” in your head and feeling upbraided by poor ol’ doomed John, you might wanna shift down. Also, so many of my talented, sharp-eared and big-hearted friends–many via the kind graces of Substack–are already doing the work; when you take their work together and add in the indefatigable Tom Hull–and these people do a lot of writing–I have to question what need have you/they of me. Seriously. I ain’t fishin’ for compliments. I mean, I know all that this has been and what it hasn’t.

So…I have some ideas. Obviously, if I only wrote about a few records I liked each month–wrote about them, much more fun than listing–regardless of vintage, I’d solve two problems: 1) I could watch the wheels more frequently, and 2) I’d have time and be motivated to listen to time-tested favorites. I could supplement that new practice by scribbling a bit about how music has manifested itself in my private and professional life, which it always does in interesting ways every month. I could write about ONE new record and ONE old one that really knocked me for a loop–and, again, give the reader a peek into music’s impacts on my domains (I think I actually have more than two, if I get out of the private – professional split and subdivide them. I could just look back into the history of this blog–some readers may not have noticed I’ve done several different things with it over the years–and pick up where I left off with something that was working when real life knocked me off the tracks for a bit.

I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, jeez, at least 10 new records have been rattling my bones by the end of January since I’ve been posting lists. I really can’t say that right now, but I can say this:

Tyler Keith’s seldom if ever disappointed me, going back to the earliest days of his I know, when he co-led The Neckbones, a Southern-fried Voidoids in more than a few ways. Keith wrestles with sin and salvation as regularly but more explicitly than Jerry Lee, he’s a reminder to listeners that much of the best rock and roll–and that’s what Hell to Pay is, even if a violin sneaks in–has come from the working class, and he’s got a way of conjuring desperation that always feels like the United States to me. His first new record in awhile, Hell to Pay, on Black and Wyatt Records, shows his commitment to those values has waned not a whit, and that his musical attack coheres with his excellent dark ‘n’ pulpy ‘n’ sweaty Southern noir novel The Mark of Cain, published last year. I highly recommend both vinyl and book, the latter his first.

Japanese pianist and bandleader extraordinaire Fujii released her 100th album as a leader or co-leader in 27 years (Hyaku: One Hundred Dreams–check it out), sending me on a backwards binge through her catalog that’s yet to hit an impasse. Fujii can do it all scintillatingly: lead big bands and ensembles, duet with all manner of instruments (with other pianists, with violin, and here, with electric guitarist Yoshihide), play like petals falling and landing or a rockslide rattling down to the road. She’s been a “Where have I been?” artist for this listener, and I suspect I’ll spend the year continuing to get caught up. On Ayler Records, and that should tell you something about her intensity.

Am I the only one who mourns the death of the hard-copy music guide? (It sure put the damper on my bathroom reading.) Moping the other day, I was thumbing through an old Penguin Guide to Jazz–I always loved them because they covered European jazz very well and very reliably–and came upon this 1974 **** record I’d overlooked. I then hit Discogs, found a decently-priced copy, and there weren’t many, then waited for Mr.Postman. I’ve played it 4-5 times since then (a few months ago); the band was a cooperative that notably included Sun Ra vet Ahmed Abdullah on trumpet and a young William Parker on bass. At many points on the record they sound like the Arkestra as if led by Ayler: almost magically structured, but intense–intensely martial. I can’t get enough of it; it’s out of print, so if you want to sample it…well, you knows what to do (RIP Barrett Strong). On No Business Records, and good luck. And here’s your luck–whaddya know?