This was a tough month. I was finishing up teaching and getting ready to start up again, very fatigued; trying to organize scholarship awards in memory of a too-soon-departed friend; playing Cecil Taylor albums every day very loudly (Nicole hadn’t finished teaching yet, so I was home alone with six cats and the stereo turned to 11), thanks to Phil Freeman’s outstanding upcoming biography In the Brewing Luminous (read my pal Ken Shimamoto’s outstanding review here); experiencing unusual trouble really getting into new albums (I can hear my current Conservatory students and my lovable provocateur Kevin Bozelka whispering, “Get into singles, get lit, and sing some karaoke, Phil!”); and…also being more than a bit depressed about the state of the country and this world, my mom having to be in an assisted living facility, and already having 62 trips around the sun under my belt while, with Sandy Denny on heavy rotation, wondering in vain who really knows where that time has gone. I couldn’t even imagine getting this done.

BUT the indefatigable Adeem the Artist–why could I not muster the energy to go see them when they were playing a little club here, after all they’ve done for humanity in just three albums?–Mdou Moctar‘s defiant guitar and words, and a wonderfully weird Sun Ra excavation jolted me into action. I hope you all are not having the same struggles. But I bet you are having some of them.

(I would also like to thank, along with the above artists, my current students in an alleged “rock and roll” class at Stephens College for delighting me with their work and commentary–enjoy their “Top 5 Album” lists below.)

These records made me happy in May.

Adeem The Artist: ANNIVERSARY (Thirty Tigers /Four Quarters) From the personal to the public, this pansexual writer continues to vividly capture the complications and cruelties that are us–they could stand to work on the melodies, though, but I’ll settle.

Les Amazones d’Afrique: Musow Dance (Real World). Jumpin’, jubilant, empowering, even if I’m not an African woman and I don’t understand the words–and I love the synths and 808s!

Anitta: Funk Generation (Republic / Universal) This Brazilian temptress is edging toward “force of nature” status, and I think the label may have misspelled the first word of the album title.

Bloodest Saxophone featuring Crystal Thomas: Extreme Heat (Continental Record Services) I am charmed by this jubilant 25-years-together-and countin’ Japanese jump blues outfit, and Ms. Thomas, while not exactly Ruth Brown or Etta Jones–those are high bars–gives it her boisterous all.

Creation Rebel: High Above Harlesden 1978-2023 (On-U Sound) I am pretty new to the Creation Rebel experience–I knew not of their Prince Far I and Adrian Sherwood connections–but the inexpensiveness and cover photo, plus a reggae jones that I can never quite dampen, pushed me forward with the following result: I’ve listened to the entire six-disc box three times and, thanks to some pit-stops in space and other non-Caribbean locations, they hold one’s attention.

Billie Eilish: HIT ME HARD & SOFT (Dark Room / Interscope) I listened to it and heard a remarkable stylistic tour de force for one so young (including a very welcome opening-up of her voice and one of the most vivid, longing, and funny oral sex songs I’ve ever heard); many others listened and heard a scattershot record, so…whom do you trust more, me or the many?

Ibibio Sound Machine: Pull the Rope (Merge) 2017’s Uyai lifted me so much I still have a poster of Eno Williams up in my office, but she and they have struggled to match that one since, though this comes awfully damn close.

Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, and Tyshawn Sorey: Compassion (ECM) A bracingly calming (is that a possible state of being?) set by three relatively young masters–I can simply listen to Sorey and be entranced–and maybe that’s what they mean by “compassion”: couldn’t we all stand to be braced by calm?

Matt Wilson’s Good Trouble: Matt Wilson’s Good Trouble (Palmetto) I received a review copy of this and, for some reason, the cover photo (which is fine) left me in a mood of obligation when I slid it into the CD changer, but I found it exciting: a) John Lewis’ title concept we still need to be reminded to mind; b) Wilson’s one helluva a drummer; c) the saxophonists–Jeff Lederer and Tia Fuller–are on fire; and d) they cover Prime Time Ornette (“Feet Music”!) with panache.

Joe McPhee (with Ken Vandermark): Musings of a Bahamanian Son (Catalytic Sound) Anyone who’s followed my blog for long knows I ride or die with this 84-year-old multi-instrumentalist, imaginative noise-maker, and cultural envoy from Poughkeepsie–but damned if I expected he’d release a terrific album of original poetry (with some honking assists by long-time buddy Ken Vandermark) that any young gun will have trouble topping this year.

Mdou Moctar: Funeral for Justice (Matador) I have been to many concerts in my life, and heard some amazing guitar players–including Sonic Youth’s at their absolute peak–but the 10+-minute wildfire I saw Moctar start in a little cafe in Columbia, Missouri, in 2019 tops them all, and this AOTY candidate’s his first one that gets within spitting distance of that (oh, and the translations are worth reading, as the album title has probably already tipped you).

Rapsody: Please Don’t Cry (We Each Other / Jamla Records) I’ve actually been longing for a new Rapsody record for awhile, as perhaps many of you have, and, for the patient–it’s a bit of an epic–the wait’s been worth it, especially because one of the best rappers alive tempers her wrenching reportage of her mental health struggles with a very combative spirit.

Sun Ra: Excelsior Mill (Sundazed / Modern Harmonic) The Sun One, in a perfect sound-image of the Phantom of the Opera, playing “the biggest pipe organ in the South” at Atlanta’s title club with just a bit of percussional help from the Arkestra–if you think that over 40 minutes of that would have to be a bit much, you’re just wrong, as it is an astonishing aural trip–complete with wry quotes, Ellingtonian choo-choo noises, phantasmagoria, and (of course space) travel–that was by far my favorite trip of any kind in May.

Sun Ra: Pink Elephants on Parade (Modern Harmonic) Most readers who know the work of Sun Ra and His Arkestra also know they would occasionally knock out a Disney cover, and, while this could actually benefit from a little more weirdness, it’s fun for the whole family, unlike most Arkestra records.

Students in Stephens College’s outstanding Conservatory are taking an asynchronous online course with me that’s stubbornly titled “Rock and Roll History” by the school. It’s actually built around Berklee neuroscience professors Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas’ book This is What It Sounds Like, which examines what brain science tells us about our connections to music, most fascinatingly through establishing a listening profile that asks the reader to truly examine their attractions. The neat thing–to me, anyway–is that students bring their own musical passions to the course and don’t have to endure me cramming “historically significant works” down their throats. To try to keep a toe in the titular pool, every week they are required to ask me a question about “rock and roll history”–and I ask them one. I often go to great lengths to answer their questions (it’s actually the lecture section of the course) and they (wisely) go to lesser lengths to answer mine.

Last week, I asked them to assess Billie Eilish’s new album (their takes resemble very closely the current critical division on that subject), plus post their Top 5 albums. When I ask students about their jams, I’m consistently amazed, considering how much music I listen to and how widely I range to do so, how little I really know about. For your pleasure, here are their lists (for their amusement, I bolded the relatively few albums they’ve chosen that I’ve actually heard). Mine (at least at the time of my posting them) are at the end–they change daily, if not hourly.

Student 1

(I am only naming the students if I have their permission, and I’m still waiting for some of those.)

A Letter To My Younger Self – Quinn XCII

Inside – Bo Burnham

Death of a Bachelor – Panic! at the Disco

Off to the Races – Jukebox the Ghost

The Greatest Showman – Various Artists

Student 2

Cowboy Carter – Beyonce

GUTS – Olivia Rodrigo

Emails I can’t send – Sabrina Carpenter

The Rise and Fall Of a Midwestern Princess – Chappell Roan

IGOR – Tyler, The Creator

Student 3

Obviously – Lake Street Dive

SOUR – Olivia Rodrigo

Emails I Can’t Send – Sabrina Carpenter

Oh the Places You’ll Go – Doechii

Stick Season – Noah Kahan

Student 4

The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology – Taylor Swift

Songs I Wrote in My Bedroom – Anson Seabra

cemeteries and socials – Paris Paloma

Now That I’ve Been Honest – Maddie Zahm

EPIC: The Underworld Saga – Jorge Rivera-Herrans

Student 5

Shrek the Musical

Hadestown

The Lightning Thief

Come from Away

Something Rotten!

Student 6

evermore – Taylor Swift

Muna – Muna

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess – Chappell Roan

the record – boygenius

The Tortured Poets Department – Taylor Swift

Claire McLewin

Build a Problem – Dodie

Demidevil – Ashnikko

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? – Billie Eilish

Typical of Me EP – Laufey

Midwest Kids Can Make It Big – Lauren Sanderson

Student 8

Misadventures – Pierce the Veil

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess – Chappell Roan

How to Be a Human Being – Glass Animals

After Laughter – Paramore

SOUR – Olivia Rodrigo

Sawyer Nevins

Julie Is Her Name – Julie London

Latin ala Lee – Peggy Lee

Tragic Kingdom – No Doubt

Under the Pink – Tori Amos

Les Demoiselles de Rochefort – Michel Legrand

Student 10

ORQUÍDEAS – Kali Uchis

Gemini Rights – Steve Lacy

Willow – Willow

Volcano – Jungle

Portals – Melanie Martinez

Student 11

Montero – Lil Nas X

Call Me By Your Name Soundtrack – Sufjan Stevens and Various Artists

Something To Give Each Other – Troye Sivan

Night Work – Scissor Sisters

I Disagree – Poppy

Student 12

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? – Billie Elilish

RAZZMATAZZ – I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

American Boys – Don McLean

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess – Chappell Roan

Now, Not Yet – Half•Alive

Izzy Porzillo

AAAH!BA – Brian David Gilbert

SCREAMING IN THE MIRROR – Sunday Cruise

Big Man Says Slappydoo – GUPPY

LOUDMOUTH – VIAL

Am I Pretty? – Sunday Cruise

Makenzie Schutter

Impera – Ghost

The Connect: Déjà vu – Monsta x

How to: Friend, Love, Freefall – Rainbow Kitten Surprise

Who Am I? – Palewaves

Inside – Bo Burnham

Kaley Sikora

Next to Normal – Tom Kitt & Brian Yorkey

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY – Taylor Swift

Happier Than Ever – Billie Eilish

Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 – Dave Malloy

Love Me Forever – Pinkshift

Paige “Blue” Trew

When the World Stopped Moving: The Live EP – Lizzie McAlpine

Prelude to Ecstasy – The Last Dinner Party

Sunset Season: EP – Conan Gray

Through the Tides – Fish in a Birdcage

Waterfall – Fish in a Birdcage

Student 17

Into The Woods – 2022 Broadway Cast Recording

Faith In the Future (Deluxe) – Louis Tomlinson

The Comeback – Zac Brown Band

Portraits – Birdy

Kid Krow – Conan Gray

Student 18

Where Owls Know My Name – Rivers of Nihil

The Violent Sleep of Reason – Meshuggah

Masego – Masego

It Is What It Is – Thundercat

Remember That You Will Die – Polyphia

My Lists (of course I had to make two)!

My five favorite albums when I was 19:

The Clash: London Calling

Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited

Public Image Limited: Second Edition

Gang of Four: Entertainment

John Coltrane Quartet: A Love Supreme

My five favorite albums at 62 (these change from day to day–I have thousands of them):

Professor Longhair: Crawfish Fiesta

Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys: The Tiffany Transcriptions, Volume 3–Basin Street Blues

Carmen McRae: As Time Goes By-Alone-Live at the Dug

Joni Mitchell: Blue

Tie: The Velvet Underground: 1969 Live / The Flying Burrito Brothers: The Gilded Palace of Sin