Tag: Best Records of 2024

Not Quite Apocalypse, Yet: OCTOBER ’24–Best Stuff I Heard

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The post title is all I’m saying about the obvious.

If you haven’t had a chance to do so through other portals, you should check out the rock and roll high school story I’d never gotten around to writing since it happened on March 30, 2005: the Hood-Cooley-Isbell Drive-By Truckers playing an unplugged concert at the high school where I was working (I’d only asked their people if one of those guys could talk to our rock and roll club). I have a Substack on top of this (why?), and there you will find Part 1 and Part 2 of the tale. You’ll get a kick out of it, I think.

This seemed a sluggish month for music (I was personally and professionally too busy to be sluggish myself), but then it came on at the tail end. In fact, it’s still coming on as I type this and try to catch up with some last-second drops.

Yep–still trying (and only succeeding via ridiculously adhered clauses) to write one-sentence reviews. I’ve got multiple jobs, people! And I like to read and play with cats when I’m home!

Note: Speaking of work, my popular music-infused Stephens College freshman composition class is reading the great music writer Ann Powers’ alternate history of American pop, Good Booty (please read it and her new and intriguing Joni Mitchell bio Traveling Traveling Traveling yourself), and I talked Ann into an interview for my students’ edification. If you’re interested in hearing it–she ranges widely and always eloquently–click this link (it was a Zoom interview, and since my students could not participate due to the class’ on-line asynchronous nature, I had to record it for them).

OCTOBER 2024 NEW RECORDINGS I HEARD (alphabetically ordered)

BOLDED = Damn good!

Amy & The Sniffers: Cartoon Darkness (Rough Trade) – The Internet seems to be underwhelmed by this record, but I respect punk pizzazz, and this has it–along with humor, shit-smearing, joy, and self-effacement.

The Belair Lip Bombs: Lush Life (Third Man) – For some reason (maybe it’s that I’ve never seen Johnny Depp and Jack White in the same photo), I don’t trust Third Man, but I read “power pop” in one review, and…yeah, maybe.

Church Chords: elvis, he was Schlager (Otherly Love) – Dark horse indie-rock / experimental AOTY candidate, from a label to keep your eye on, featuring wry vocals and sweet-memory-tickling musical stylings fired by these guitarists: Jeff Parker, Nels Cline, and Brandon Seabrook, the latter of whom often drags Dock Boggs into the 21st century.

Day Dream: Duke & Strays (Corner Store Jazz) – Last post I bemoaned my late discovery of the master drummer Phil Haynes, so, though I asked myself if I needed to hear another Ellington/Strayhorn tribute with predictable song choices, I tried it, and its sideways and intriguing interpretations, performed live, dazzled me–very much due to Haynes’ playing.

EELS: Being Dead (Bayonet) – Listened to out of obligation, repeat-played out of fixation, this “joyous and unexpected trip helmed by two true-blue freak bitch besties holed up in a lil’ house in the heart of Austin, Texas” (see Bandcamp) proves indie rock is far from dead.

Flagboy Giz and The Wild Tchoupitoulas: Live from the French Quarter Fest (Injun Money) – I will always investigate Mardi Gras Indians action, I’m thrilled to hear these chants “bounce”d, I’m glad Flagboy’s name is pronounced with a hard “g”…now, if someone will tell me where to get a hard copy (downloads are hard enough to find).

Joe Fonda: Eyes on the Horizon (Long Song) – Master jazz bassist (Fonda) and indefatigable pianist (Satoko Fujii) pay tribute to eminence grise of free improv trumpet, Wadada Leo Smith–who’s on trumpet.

Phillip Golub: Abiding Memory (Endectomorph) – Alternating lightly dancing drum rhythms with moments of composed tension that don’t disrupt the album’s flow, Golub’s writing does justice to the title.

Mickey Guyton: House on Fire (Capitol Records Nashville) – Of course it would have been hard for Guyton to top Remember My Name, which featured about a decade’s worth of songwriting, and there’s always the sophomore slump to consider, but honestly, though it doesn’t have the occasional quiet bite of its predecessor, this one satisfies–pleasurable artistic solidity.

Rich Halley 4: Dusk and Dawn (Pine Eagle) – A time-tested quartet led by a Julius Hemphill-inspired, very underheard saxophonist is worth your time–the expressive balance achieved by the group and the sensitive production make this a treat for the mind’s ear.

High Vis: Guided Tour (Dais) – Sadly, I’d not heard of this London group, because I’m always hunting for living punk rock, and, though I need to listen backwards through their work, along with Amyl & The Sniffers (see above) this album made me really happy and really amped.

Judas Priest: Invisible Shield (Deluxe Edition) (Sony) – This truly enjoyable and deeply admirable album’s inclusion is dedicated to my late brother-from-another-mother Mike Rayhill (The Jimbobs, The Luvhandles, The Balls), who would have loved it (and, to be clear, I do, too–thanks, Chuck Eddy).

Messiah in Glytch: Geisha in the Machine (FPE EP) – I had heard nothing about this explosive, confrontational, complex little record, but the MC’s handle and the album title intrigued me, and FPE takes chances on challenging artists–and MIG is one: highly recommended to hip hop heads needing some socio-political bars, boom-bap, and in-your-face flow.

more ease & kaho matsui: computer & recording works for girls (Full Spectrum) – I dig that title, and it’s more delightful–and calming–than the title portends.

Mount Eerie: Night Palace (self-released) – I’ll be honest: I signed up for the Bandcamp listening party for this album yesterday, had not closely listened to Phil Elverum since he traced his family tragedy on A Crow Looked at Me, and was prepping for an interview (see above) while participating in said party…but the many musical moments and lyrical snatches that caught me up short make this sound like a Top-Tenner

PYPY: Sacred Times (Goner) – I shall quote my best friend of 45 years, my former bandmate, my first and best tutor in punk rock, and former webmaster of The Rawk and current overseer of the Facebook group of the same name, Mark Anthony: “This is kicking my ass today! Stuck somewhere between Pylon and Romeo Void with a healthy dose of skronk and early 80’s techno?”

Walter Smith III: three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not (Blue Note) – A first-class mainstream jazz session by saxophonist Smith, aided and abetted by the always thoughtful, fluent, and interesting Jason Moran on piano.

Tyler, The Creator: CHROMAKOPIA (Columbia) – I have half-followed Tyler since his Odd Fellows days, but at some point–often several points–during each release, he’s put me off–until this one, another record with punk pizzazz (both instrumental and verbal) that doesn’t even need its excellent guest spots to be really good and that drew this comment from my former student, DC resident, and Creator adept Erin Datcher: “He’s wearing the mask on the cover to signal that he’s telling the truth this time.”

2024-RELEASED EXCAVATIONS OF OLD BUSINESS

Arthur Blythe Quartet: Live! From Rivbea Studios, Volume 2 (No Business) – Black Arthur blowing in a loft on fire.

Andrew Hill Sextet Plus 10: A Beautiful Day Revisited (Palmetto) – This very welcome reissue from the fearsome pianist and composer originally earned its title, and now does even more, thanks to Palmetto’s touch.

Charlie Parker: Bird in Kansas City (Verve) – With a few of one foot’s toes in the past and the other’s whole stepping into the future, and thanks to guitarist Efferge Ware’s chopping, Freddie Green-influenced guitar on the closing tracks, Parker is captured here sounding like a 1939 Basie escapee–as fully Kansas City-bred as he ever sounded.

Phil Ranelin & Wendell Harrison: Tribe 2000 (Org Music) – As good a place as any to catch up with an excellent and often-steaming Detroit jazz duo–and scene.

Various Artists: Even the Forest Hums—Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996 (Light in the Attic) – Beyond keeping the people of Ukraine on your mind, this wide-ranging and surprisingly pop-sounding compilation (LITA advertises it as “folk, rock, jazz, and electronic”) invites you into the country’s music, both pre- and post-Soviet collapse.

Apples of My Ear (in Stereo) , 75% of the Way Through This Year of Our Horde

After several years of just keeping cumulative, priority-ordered lists of my favorite new and excavated recordings here, and feeling guilty that I usually wasn’t writing (or saying) much, I decided in January to take a new approach, which I’ve enjoyed–but it’s been hell on my long-term memory. I feel I’m sure to have left something I loved out of the lists below, even after arduously scrolling through past posts. Maybe I’ll go back to listing in 2025 if I haven’t flexed my passport. On the positive side, I’ve abjured the priority ordering in favor of alphabetical, since I’d begun to suspect my Top 10s and 20s of the past had become somewhat calcified by June or July; saving the priority ordering for the end of the year forces me to have to re-evaluate records a little more carefully. On the other hand, who but I really cares?

Thusly, firstly:

MY 30 VERY FAVORITE NEW RECORDS FROM 2024 SO FAR

(Alphabetical…BUT * = Potential Top 10er; $ = Vying for #1)

  1. Acceleration Due to Gravity: Jonesville (Hot Cup)
  2. Adeem The Artist: ANNIVERSARY (Thirty Tigers /Four Quarters) 
  3. Big Freedia & The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra: Live at the Orpheum Theater (Queen Diva)
  4. Alan Braufman: Infinite Love Tears (The Control Group / Valley of Search)
  5. Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic) 
  6. Buck 65, doseone, Jel: North American Adonis (Handsmade)
  7. Ingebrigt Haker Flaten & (Exit) Knarr: Breezy (Sonic Transmissions)*
  8. Fox Green: Light Over Darkness (self-released)
  9. Amaro Freitas: Y’Y (Psychic Hotline)
  10. Satoko Fujii Trio: Jet Black (Libra)
  11.  Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Past is Still Alive (Nonesuch)*$
  12.  Jlin: Akoma (Planet Mu)*
  13.  Darius Jones: Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)*
  14.  Ka: The Thief Next to Jesus (self-released)*
  15.  El Khat: Mute (Glitterbeat)
  16.  Corb Lund: El Viejo (New West)*$
  17.  Mdou Moctar: Funeral for Justice (Matador)
  18.  Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Four Guitars Live (Palilalia)*
  19.  QOW Trio: The Hold Up (Ubuntu)
  20.  Ren: Sick Boi (renmakesmusic.com) 
  21.  Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (Milan) 
  22.  SAULT: Acts of Faith (self-released)
  23.  Ann Savoy: Another Heart (Smithsonian Folkways)
  24.  Brandon Seabrook: Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic)*
  25.  Patrick Shiroishi: Glass House (Otherly Love)
  26.  Snotty Nose Rez Kids: Red Future (Savage Mob)
  27.  Swamp Dogg: Blackgrass—From West Virginia to 125th Street (Oh Boy! Records)*
  28.  Takkak Takkak: Takkak Takkak (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
  29.  Fay Victor:  Life is Funny That Way—Herbie Nichols Sung (TAO Forms)
  30.  X: Smoke & Fiction (Fat Possum)

…and secondly:

MY TOP 15 VERY FAVORITE EXCAVATED OR REISSUED RECORDS 

(I always list these alphabetically anyway, but * = my faves and $ = tops)

  1. Christer Bothen Featuring Bolon Beta: Trancedance—40th Anniversary Edition (Black Truffle reissue)*
  2. Alice Coltrane: The 1971 Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse!) (Goner Records reissue)
  3. Cosmic Psychos: Go the Hack (Goner Records reissue)
  4. Creation Rebel: High Above Harlesden 1978-2023 (On-U Sound) 
  5. Charles Gayle / Milford Graves / William Parker: WEBO (Black Editions)
  6. Phil Haynes: 4 Horns or What?—The Complete American Recordings (Corner Store Jazz)*
  7. Love Child: Never Meant to Be (12XU) 
  8. Franco Luambo Mkaidi: Presents Les Editions Populaires (Planet Ilunga) 
  9. Sonny Rollins: Freedom Weaver–The 1959 European Tour Recordings (Resonance)*$
  10.  Juma Sultan’s Aboriginal Music Society: Father of Origin (Eremite)
  11. Sun Ra: Excelsior Mill (Sundazed)*
  12. Unholy Modal Rounders: Unholier Than Thou 7/7/77 (Don Giovanni)*$
  13. Various Artists: Congo Funk! Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Analog Africa)
  14. Various Artists: Love Hides All Faults—Deep Gospel Soul Selected by Jumbo (Elusive Vinyl / Pyramid Records)*
  15. Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)

AUGUST 24: 15 New Records That Reached Me

August was a great musical month for us, but new records had little to do with it. Chappell Roan really blew up–deservedly so, but too late for the 2024 list since her record came out in ’23–and I found out her parents were students at Parkview High School in Springfield, Missouri, when I was teaching there. In fact, I was her dad’s student council sponsor, though I don’t remember him very well. We have played that 2023 record a lot and can’t wait for the next one. We also snagged tickets to several concerts scheduled for Columbia’s fabled “We Always Swing!” Jazz Series–check out the schedule, which might be the best in the series’ long history and which was shrewdly enriched by incorporating the sharp ear and skills of Dismal Niche‘s Matt Crook. Also, I discovered a St. Louis jazz series I didn’t know about–it’s only in its 66th year!–and bought tickets to the on-a-serious-roll AACM vet Kahil El’Zabar’s show as well as Nicole Mitchell’s (the best album of her long career is listed below). I’ve built an asynchronous composition class for freshmen around Ann Powers’ alternate American pop history Good Booty here at Stephens College, student writing is just coming in, and it looks promising. Finally, I substitute-taught for a friend at Hickman High School, my old stomping grounds, and he allowed me to construct my own lesson to fit his objectives: we reviewed aspects and “non-negotiables” of poetry by examining the question, “Can song lyrics be poetry with the music and vocals excised?” Students vehemently agreed as we listened to a few songs; I’m usually on the other side of the fence there. I also snuck in a lesson about blackface minstrelsy; Missouri officialdom ain’t so fond of any kind of black history, but Hickman has always been a mental cut above the state it occupies.

OK, my favorites, with my commentary continuing to be limited to single–and I hope simple–sentences (* indicate older recordings brought back to the present in some way):

Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic) – Brennan threads strands of strange vibraphone magic through all of her very impressive compositions, and this album may be her best yet.

Melissa Carper: Borned in Ya (Mae Music / Thirty Tigers) – First full album by a member of the Wonder Women of Country Music (Carper, Kelly Willis, and Brennen Leigh) since their outstanding EP appeared earlier this year, and it’s a legit doozy, mixing witty originals with soulful covers of standards that aren’t actually country.

Dead Moon: Dead Ahead (Mississippi Records)* – I very seriously ride or die with Dead Moon, the last of the great garage bands; Mississippi Records has been dedicated to keeping all their work in print, and this was their final record, which I’d call autumnal except the Coles would return a decade later with the more explosive band Pierced Arrows.

Phil Haynes: 4 Horns or What?—The Complete American Recordings (Corner Store Jazz)* – I hadn’t heard of Haynes, received a physical copy of this three-CD rerelease + live show, ignored it, then played it out of obligation–only to have my doors blown off by the power of Haynes’ drumming and writing and his employment of some amazing horns (specifically Ellery Eskelin and John Tchicai on saxophones).

Ka: The Thief Next to Jesus (self-released) – The Brownsville, NY, rapper carefully–and lyrically–examines the minefield of Christianity many of us, but specifically Black Americans, are trying to negotiate in these difficult times on perhaps the finest of his many intriguing albums.

Shelby Lynne: Consequences of the Crown (Monument) – She sounds slightly bruised but very much unbowed, as well as justifies folks’ occasional comparisons between her and Dusty Springfield.

Nicole Mitchell and Ballake Sissoko: Bamako * Chicago Sound System (FPE) – I admire Mitchell so much as a thinker and conceptualist and player, but none of her previous albums have stuck with me permanently until now–Sissoko’s kora contributions are the glue that grounds her flute.

Meshell Ndegeocello: No More Water—The Gospel of James Baldwin (Blue Note) The second quietly powerful tribute Meshell’s assayed in ’24–the first honoring Sun Ra–comes at, as Lightnin’ Hopkins and others have sung, a “needed time.”

OKSE: OKSE (BackwoodzStudioz) – As with Superposition (see below), I am at the beck and call of the sharp-eared Norwegian music writer Christopher Monsen–I have even tried to coin the term “Monsen Bucks” to designate how reliably I shed dollars when he raves–who was the first to hip me to this Danish/Swedish/Haitian/American rap-jazz combo that lured none other than Billy Woods onto their fascinating disc.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (Milan) – I am not a classical music buff, but this is one of the saddest records I have ever heard, and I mean that as a high compliment.

Juma Sultan’s Aboriginal Music Society: Father of Origin (Eremite)* – As with Dead Moon/Pierced Arrows, I ride or die with any record featuring participants in St. Louis’ Black Arts Group; the leader’s on bass, hand drums, and other stuff, but to hear Julius Hemphill, Bobo Shaw, Philip Wilson, and Abdul Wadud on a set of 1969-1970 recordings is a treat.

Moses Sumney: Sophcore (self-released EP) – When I first heard Sumney a few years back, I figured him for a kind of innovator–of depressive r&b or something like that–but the words didn’t hold me like the music and his vocals, and they definitely do here.

Superposition: II (We Jazz) – Another Chris Monsen whisper-in-my-ear, this Finnish group is the latest Scandinavian jazz unit to make me seriously consider traveling to the region and exploring the clubs.

Cecily Wilborn: Kuntry Gurl Playlist (self-released) – This very solid album is not as raw as the title seems to imply, but it’s very high-quality country music with rhythm and blues flavor, Ms. Wilborn can sing and write fetchingly, and I’m intrigued that, though she claims West Memphis, she mentions zydeco and trail rides.

Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand: Willson Williams (One Little Independent Records) – I knew nothing about Kathryn Williams and, for some reason, despite enjoying Dan Wilson’s /Withered Hand’s previous work, thought another contributor might water his very unique yearning, spiritual thing down–but damned if this doesn’t catch me up just as short, and movingly.

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)