In From the Storm: My Favorite Records from ’25, January 1st to August 1st

1.90.3-MZ3QFTV76J3TIOVOFV34APR5CE.0.1-2

I fell behind in June but revved up to as close to the front of the line as can be expected, I suppose. I still have much business swirling around my head—every time I’ve dealt with the last piece of post-mortem paperwork, something new arrives in the mail, and there’s always grief—so I’m not going to say much other than what a rush of recorded matter has there been into this deity-forsaken world, and I’m thankful.

I have provided album cover images to stimulate you (above) and links in the items’ titles to lead you to purchase (please buy musicians’ music—please?). Later, I will add an updated Spitify playlist with a track a piece from everything on the list if you want to have a…song tasting. If an item is bolded, it is new to the list; if an item is italicized, it is a newly released record that contains older music (there are a few late-’24 entries that might have flown under your radar); if an item is asterisked, it’s very good up to the everlovin’ shit, depending on the number of *s; if an item you think is dandy isn’t on the list, I might not have caught up to it yet (or it didn’t move me, so it got real gone for a change). A truckload of new thangs have been loosed as I hunt and peck this morning; I’m just gonna have to wait until September 1st for the best of those. I hope you find something that can distract you beatifically (but temporarily) from the destruction at large. And…try the Red Hot Org EP that mixes the Kronos Quartet, Dylan’s most surrealistic protest song, and Terry Riley. It ain’t a spinach ice cream cone—it’s brilliant, and necessary.

AND OH YEAH! Do not overlook two shining 5-asterisk discs: jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson’s most mesmerizing recording in a career of them (special assistance from Patricia Brennan) and Irish folk giant Christy Moore’s powerful take on the troubles nouveux in his country (and the world).

MY LIST OF RECENT AURAL PLEASURE – SAMPLER PLAYLIST BELOW
BOLD = New to the List
ASTERISKED* = Damn good! to Holy SHIT! (one day, I will organize them)
ITALICIZED: Excavations from the Past / Reissues

Aesop Rock: Black Hole Superette (Rhymesayers) ****
Zoh Amba: Sun (Smalltown Supersound) ****
Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta: Mapambazuko (Nyege Nyege Tapes) *****
Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons: Live in Philadelphia, Volume 1 (Otherly Love Records) ****
The Ancients: The Ancients (Eremite) ***
Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures (Psychic Hotline)
Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note) ****

Backxwash: Only Dust Remains (Ugly Hag) ****
Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment)****
Julien Baker & Torres: Send a Prayer My Way (Matador) ****
Gina Birch: Trouble (Third Man)
The Bitter Ends: The Bitter Ends (Trouble in River City)
Black Milk & Fat Ray: Food from the Gods (Computer Ugly / Fat Beats)
Blacks’ Myths Meets Pat Thomas: The Mythstory School (self-released) ***
Yugen Blakrok: The Illusion Of Being (I.O.T. Records) ***
Booker T & The Plasmic Bleeds: Ode To BC/LY… And Eye Know BO…. da Prez (Mahakala Music)
Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)
Johnny Bragg: Let Me Dream On (Org Music) ***
Brother Ali & Ant: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music)
Buck 65: Keep Moving (self-released)
Peter Brotzmann: The Quartet (Otoroku)****
Master Wilburn Burchette: Master Wilburn Burchette’s Psychic Meditation Music (Numero Group)***

Joe Chambers, Kevin Diehl, Chad Taylor: Onilu (Eremite) ****
Tyler Childers: Snipe Hunter (RCA / Hickman Holler)
Christer Bothén 3: L’Invisible (thanatosis)****
clipping: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop)
Clipse: Let God Sort ‘Em Out (Roc Nation)***
Common and Pete Rock: The Auditorium, Volume 1 (Casa Loma)
Cosmic Ear: TRACES (We Jazz) *****
Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)
Chuck D: Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio—Radio Armageddon (Soundspeak)

Christopher Dammann Sextet: Christopher Dammann Sextet (Out of Your Head)Deepstaria Enigmatica: The Eternal Now Is the Heart of a New Tomorrow (ESP-Disk)
The Delines: Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom (Jealous Butcher) ****
DJ Dadaman & Moscow Dollar: Ka Gaza (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
DJ Haram: Beside Myself (Hyperdub)
DJ Shaun-D: From Bubbling to Dutch House (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. & The Wild Magnolias: Chip Off The Old Block (Strong Place)
Doseone & Height Keech: Wood Teeth (Hands Made EP) ****
doseone & Steel Tipped Dove: All Portrait, No Chorus (BackwoodzStudios) ****

Silke Eberhard Trio: Being-A-Ning (Intakt)
Eddy Current Suppression Ring: Shapes and Forms (Cool Death EP)***
Marty Ehrlich Trio Exaltation: This Time (Sunnyside) ***
Electric Satie: Gymnopedia ’99 (In Sheep’s Clothing)****
Marco Eneidi Quintet: Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (Balance Point Acoustics / Botticelli) ****
Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)

Fieldwork: Thereupon (Pi Records)
Craig Finn: Always Been (Tamaric / Thirty Tigers) ***
FKA twigs: Eusexua (Young Recordings Limited)
Robert Forster: Strawberries (Tapete) ****
Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)
Satoko Fujii Trio: Dream a Dream (Libra) ****
Satoko Fuji / This is It!: Message (Libra)

Galactic and Irma Thomas: Audience with the Queen (Tchoup-Zilla)
Girl Scout: Headache (self-released EP)

Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura: what happened there? (Libra)
Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts (Nonesuch)*****
Hamell on Trial: Harp (for Harry) (Saustex)
Heat On: Heat On (Cuneiform)
The Hemphill Stringtet: Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head Records)
Patterson Hood: Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams (ATO) ***
William Hooker: Jubilation (Org Music) *****
William Hooker: A Time Within: Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 (The Control Group / Valley of Search) ***

Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador)
HHY & The Kampala Unit: Turbo Meltdown (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ****
Hüsker Dü: Jan.30, First Ave., Part 1 (Numero EP) ****

Mikko Innanen and Ingebrigt Häker Flaten: Live in Espoo (Sonic Transmissions)
Michael Gregory Jackson: Frequency Equilibrium Koan (moved-by-sound)

Jeong – Bisio Duo (featuring Joe McPhee): Morning Bells Whistle Bright (ESP-Disk) ****
Rico Jones: Bloodlines (Giant Step Arts)
Anthony Joseph: Rowing Up the River to Get Our Names Back (Heavenly Sweetness) ****
JPEG Mafia: I Lay Down My Life for You (Director’s Cut) (self-released) *****

Karol G: Tropicoqueta (Bichota) ****

Kelela: In the Blue Light (Warp) ***

KINGDOM MOLOGI: Kembo (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ***
Kronos Quartet + The Hard Rain Collective: Hard Rain (Red Hot Org EP)

Lady Gaga: Mayhem (Interscope)
Lambrini Girls: Who Let The Dogs Out (City Slang US) *****
Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings) *****
José Lencastre: Inner Voices (Burning Ambulance)***
Jinx Lennon: The Hate Agents Leer at the Last Agents of Hope (Septic Tiger) ***
James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)
James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Abstraction is Deliverance (Intakt) ***
Jeffrey Lewis: The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis (Don Giovanni)
Little Simz: Lotus (AWAL) ***
LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)
Rocio Gimenez Lopez: La Forma Del Sueno (Blue Art) ****
K. Curtis Lyle, Jaap Blonk, Damon Smith, Alex Cunningham: A Radio of the Body

Jako Maron: Mahavelouz (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ****
Mazinga: Chinese Democracy Manifest—Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Rubber Wolf)
Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released)***
The Mekons: Horror (Fire) ***
Ava Mendoza/Gabby Fluke-Mogul/Carolina Perez: Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance) ***
M(h)aol: Something Soft (Merge) ***
Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)
Billy Mohler: The Eternal (Contagious)
Moonchild Sanelly: Full Moon (self-released)
MonoNeon: You Had Your Chance…Bad Attitude! (Color Red) ****
Christy Moore: A Terrible Beauty (Claddagh) *****
Jason Moran/Trondheim Jazz Orchestra/Ole Morten Vågan: Go To Your North (Yes Records)
Matthew Muneses and Riza Printup: Pag-Ibko, Volume 1 (Irabbagast Records)
David Murray Quartet: The Birdsong Project Presents Birdly Serenade (Verve)
Amina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) ****

Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bahas: Totality (Drag City)
Louis Nevins: The Fumes (Cavetone Records)
NOBRO: Set Your Pussy Free (Dine Alone) ***

Isabelle Olivier: Impressions (Rewound Echoes)
The Onions: Return to Paradise (Hitt Records)
Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Hauslive 4 (Palilalia) ***
Organic Pulse Ensemble: Ad Hoc (Ultraaani Records) *****
Aruan Ortiz: Creole Renaissance (Intakt)

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra Led by Horace Tapscott: Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971 (The Village) ***
Ivo Perelmamn and Matthew Shipp: Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
Pitch, Rhythm, and Consciousness: Sextet (Reva Records)
Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba: NOW! (Project financed by a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage “Młoda Polska” & Katowice City of Music UNESCO)
Public Enemy: Black Sky Over The Projects—Apartment 2025 (self-released) ***

Les Rallizes Denudes: Blind Baby Has Its Mother’s Eyes (Life Goes On)
R.A.P. Ferreira: Outstanding Understanding (Ruby Yacht)
Adam Rudolph, Dave Liebman, Billy Hart: Beingness (Meta)
Bobby Rush and Kenny Wayne Shepherd: Young Fashioned Ways (Deep Rush / RAM Records) ***

Sverre Sæbo Quintet: If, However, You Have Not Lost Your Self Control (SauaJazz)
SAULT: 10 (Sault Global) ***
Serengeti: mixtape 2 (serengetiraps / self-released)
Serengeti: Palookaville (serengetiraps / self-released)
The Sex Pistols: Live in the U.S.A. South East Music Hall, Atlanta, January 5th, 1978 (UME)
The Sharp Pins: Radio DDR (K / Perennial Death) ****
Matthew Shipp: The Cosmic Piano (Canteloupe Records) ****
Anthony “Big A” Sherrod: Torchbearer of the Clarksdale Sound (Music Makers Recordings EP)
Slick Rick: Victory (Mass Appeal)
Luke Stewart / Silt Remembrance Ensemble: The Order (Cuneiform) ***
Ray Suhy / Lewis Porter Quartet: What Happens Next (Sunnyside) ***
SUMAC and Moor Mother: The Film (Thrill Jockey)
Sun Ra: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght 5 August 1970 (Strut) ***
John Surman:Flashpoint and Undercurrents (Cuneiform Records) ***

Masahiko Tagashi: Session in Paris, Volume 1—Song of the Soil (with Don Cherry and Charlie Haden) (We Want Sounds)
Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’: Room on the Porch (Concord Jazz)
Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’: Room on the Porch for Everyone (UMG EP)
Cecil Taylor / Tony Oxley: Flashing Spirits (Burning Ambulance)
Ebo Taylor, Adrain Younge, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad: Jazz Is Dead 22 (Jazz is Dead)
Three-Layer Cake: “sounds the color of grounds” (Otherly Love)
Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions) ****
The Tubs: Cotton Crown (self-released)***

Kali Uchis: Sincerely (Capitol) ***
Akira Umeda & Metal Preyers: Clube de Mariposa Mórbida (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
The Untamed Youth: Git Up and Go (Hi-Tide / Nu-Tone)

Various Artists: African Jazz Invites O.K. Jazz (Planet Ilunga) ***
Various Artists: A Tribute to the King of Zydeco (Valcourt)
Various Artists: Democracy Forward (Bitter Southerner)
Various Artists: Prisoners’ Day Compilation (Majazz Project / Palestinian Sound Archive) ***
Various Artists: Roots Rocking Zimbabwe– The Modern Sound of Harare’ Townships 1975-1980 (Analog Africa) ****
Various Artists: Sweet Rebels—The Golden Era of Algerian Pop-Rai (We Want Sounds) ***
Vibration Black Finger: Everybody Cryin’ Mercy (Enid)

The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville)
Wet Leg: moisturizer (Domino)
Alfred White: The Definitive Alfred White (Music Makers Recordings)
Wheelhouse: House and Home (Aerophonic)
Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)
billy woods: GOLLIWOG (x) (Backwoodz Studios)
Wu-Tang Clan: Black Samson, The Bastard (All Maf / 36 Chambers)

Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media)
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Flora (Temporal Drift) ***
Brandee Younger: Gadabout Season (Impulse) ***
The Young Mothers: Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions)****

SAMPLE THIS SHIT AND PUT IT ON SHUFFLE! We are not alone in the musical cosmos!

Death Don’t Have No Mercy: In Lieu of My Monthly List, Would You Care for My Mid-Year Francis Davis Memorial Jazz Critics Ballot?

My mother, Mary Jane Overeem, passed away from dementia in her assisted living facility early in the morning of Wednesday, June 18, 2025. I am sure it was a coincidence, but she left in the midst of 15-minute wind, lightning, thunder, and pouring rain storm that seemed to harness the furiousness of the battle between her physical determination to keep living and her spiritual will to be released–after months of begging to be. It was exceedingly difficult to witness. I had hoped to be there at her side when she finally passed, but I had to sleep. She might have been waiting for me to pass all the way out so she could slip away alone.

Once during her final four torturous days, the topic of music arose. One of her best friends in the community was an English octogenarian named Rita who happened to come by and check on her. My mom had mentioned to Rita that I kinda-sorta liked music, so she casually offered to tell me the story of her having seen the 1965 edition of The Rolling Stones in Coventry when she was 20. I have a very soft spot for the Jones-era Stones, so I was all ears—especially when she groused, “I was on the front row, and I tried to grab Mick’s balls but a cop grabbed me before I could get ‘em. I almost had his balls—I would have been on the cover of The Daily Mirror, you know?” I was doubled over, crying with laughter. She went on to mention that she’d only seen Gene Vincent three times (!!!) and Eddie Cochran once (!!!!). I will always treasure that pop-by, and when Rita rolled up to express her condolences after the funeral this past Sunday, I wanted to tell her, “I wish I could grab death by the balls,” but I settled for giving her a big hug, wetting her shoulder with tears, and whispering, “Sweet Gene Vincent.”

All of that is to say that I was not able to attend to a June new music inventory, though I will also say that passionate new records by the Irish folk legend Christy Moore, the fiery and spirited saxophone sprite Zoh Amba, and a heap of very inspired rock and rollers and zydeco masters paying tribute to Clifton Chenier will be crowned with four or five stars when I catch up, maybe this week or next.

What I can do is share the ballot I submitted to the Francis Davis Memorial Mid-Year Jazz Critics Poll, topped, naturally, by an album that came out in November of 2024 (that’s within the rules, since it barely had time to be distributed; also, see the video above). It’s a great year for jazz, and especially for piano records, four of which made my Top 10.

Enjoy yourself, and keep livin’….

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (ranked)

Organic Pulse Ensemble: Ad Hoc (Ultraaani Records)

Cosmic Ear: TRACES (We Jazz)

Matthew Shipp: The Cosmic Piano (Cantaloupe Music)

William Hooker: Jubilation (Org Music)

Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings)

Amina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind (Red Hook Records)

Zoh Amba: Sun (Smalltown Supersound)

Blacks’ Myths Meets Pat Thomas: The Mythstory School (self-released)

Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions)

Rocio Gimenez Lopez: La Forma Del Sueno (Blue Art)

RARA AVIS

(ranked—these are older recordings come to the light of day)

Marco Eneidi Quartet: Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (Balance Point Acoustics)

William Hooker: A Time Within—Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 (The Control Group / Valley of Search)

Sun Ra and His Inter-Galactic Research Arkestra: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght 3^rd August 1970 (Strut)

Masahiko Tagashi: Session in Paris, Volume 1—Song of the Soil (with Don Cherry and Charlie Haden) (We Want Sounds)

Michael Gregory Jackson: Frequency Equilibrium Koan (moved-by-sound)

Fetching Recordings from January 2025–For Month 1, Not Too Skimpy!

I am restless. As a teacher, I cannot teach the same lesson twice the same way (nor should anyone, but maybe I’m wrong). Last year, I tried to write more about the albums I loved on this blog but ended up very unsatisfied, plus it was a pain when it came to assembling a complete year-end list. So…I think this year, I’ll go back to my cumulative listing and let y’all follow the links and divine from those whether the records are worthy of your time…unless you just trust me. I wouldn’t. I am going to stick with closing with a Spotify playlist sampler, though I hate Spotify and, since I receive some review copies, songs from those might not yet be available–especially on this one.

New Releases:

Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta: Mapambazuko (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment)

Booker T* & The Plasmic Bleeds: Ode To BC/LY… And Eye Know BO…. da Prez (Mahakala Music)

Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)

doseone & Steel Tipped Dove: All Portrait, No Chorus (BackwoodzStudios)

Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)

Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)*

Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura: what happened there? (Libra)

LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)

Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)

Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba (see below): NOW! (Project financed by a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage “Młoda Polska” & Katowice City of Music UNESCO) Note: release date = November 29, 2024

Serengeti: Palookaville (serengetiraps / self-released) Note: release date = December 25, 2024

Omar Thomas: Griot Songs (Omar Thomas Music)

Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records) @

Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media)

@Features Neta Raanan, a terrific young saxophonist whose debut last year was SHARP.

*Fujii can’t stop, won’t stop–first album out of considerably over 100 (!!) with a string section.

*A terrific free jazz tenor last heard from about 40+ years ago who’s resurfaced.

Old Stuff I Happily Listened To:

Zoh Amba: Every album she’s released and appeared on. We saw her play live and it was a chicken-skin experience! Blazing and dynamically moody free jazz plus surprise acoustic guitar versions of new songs that both rended and expanded one’s heart. Check out the way she finishes out Myriam Gendron’s track on the playlist below!

Bob Dylan’s folk stuff: I was subbing the other day shortly after A Complete Unknown was released and I’d seen it—it sent be back to my favorites of his early period, especially the first album (what writer recently said he was electric from the first, because the electricity was in the way he sang those songs?) and “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” which I’ve always loved and repeat played to the point it was worming my ear all day)—and I casually sidled up to a table of 10^th grade “advanced placement” dudes. Me: “Hey, have you guys heard of Bob Dylan?” Them (in tandem): “He’s dead, right?” I have some issues with the movie but it was entertaining and has a reason for being.

Culture and Burning Spear in the schools: Sometimes if I’m subbing for an old English-teaching comrade, they’ll let me write my own lesson and teach. A recent job was for a guy who teaches classical ideas and world religions and his students are currently studying Judaism; he asked if I could talk about Rastafarian reggae’s connections with Judaism and play some examples. They didn’t know dick about Rastafarianism or reggae, so it was a good call. We studied The Melodians’ “Rivers of Babylon,” sections of Culture’s Two Sevens Clash and aspects of Burning Spear’s Marcus Garvey. I also pushed Safiya Sinclair’s memoir of wrasslin’ to liberate herself from the clutches of her Rasta dad, How to Say Babylon. I’ve listened to reggae every day since.

Sinead O’Connor: Nicole and I watched the SNL Music special ?Love put together (apparently he was ordered by Lorne to exclude any evidence of The Replacements’ TRANSCENDENT appearance, the petty bastard) and got chills revisiting Sinead’s appearance. Listened to her all of the next day (yesterday, as it were) and kept getting chills, though I found myself wondering how much more she could have accomplished without the after-effects of the backlash (as Al Franken said, “She was kind of right,” though I’d say “She was right.”).

Black Female Gospel Warriors All Day on January 20^th. Folks? Put the whole of the armour on.

No!vember ’24: A Spare Commentary on the Best New (and Newly Discovered) Music I Heard

I’ve got a cold Huey Piano Smith could write another song about, my new block-style teaching assignment is intense (but I like it), and I’ve been traveling throughout the month, so I’m scrambling to get this out on the first. You don’t want to hear me yammer anyway, even if I got to witness both Hailu Mergia and Nicole Mitchell live since last time. Thus:

Albums below in bold font strike me as possible Top Tenners in their respective categories.

NEW WORKS I DUG (in alphabetical order)

Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few: The World is on Fire (Division 81)—Collier and band are in a serious Trane mode, and the media clips make it sound like the record was made in 2020–but isn’t it really still, and might it possibly eternally stay, 2020?
Jazz Sabbath: The 1968 Tapes (Blacklake)—Yes: early Sabbath jazzed impressively and with a wry sense of humor.
Kenneth Jimenez: Sonnet to Silence (We Jazz)—It’s a musical sonnet to silence, not of silence, and bassist Jimenez’s quartet’s noise is splendid.
Ava Mendoza: The Circular Train (Palilalia)—Is this a Year of the Guitar?
Kendrick Lamar: GNX (pgLang/Interscope)—Sounds great to me, I guess because the music I’m loving most is his cadences and the production is brightly…defiant.
Oaagaada: Music of Ogaadaa (We Jazz)—Finnish free quartet augmented by shruti box and log drum and generating serious energy that’s just contained enough for a dabbler.
Kelly Lee Owens: Dreamstate (dh2)—My friend Kevin suggested this to somebody else when I was in a low mood, I stole the suggestion, and quickly added her to (a bit lesser light, but not by much) Jessie Ware as a mood shifter.
Jeff Parker ETA IVtet: The Way Out of Easy (International Anthem)—Is this a Year of the Guitar?
Paper Jays: Paper Jays (ESP-Disk)—Rhode Island instro-combo combines the spaciness of very early Meat Puppets with the weird, itchy vibe of Penguin Café and a touch of…the Middle East?
Pascal & Baya Rays: Sonic Joy (Ultraani)—Freaky and fun Finnish funk.
claire rousay: The Bloody Lady (Viernulvier)—Ambient master writes a mysterious score for Viktor Kubal’s 1980 film The Bloody Lady doesn’t require you to watch the film to be hypnotized.
Various Artists: TRANSA (Red Hot Org)—Eight “chapters,” 46 songs, a dazzling array of performers (Larraji, Tweedy, Julien Baker, Sumney + ANOHNI, JLin + Moor Mother), consistent quality, surprising musical coherence, and good reason to worry made it easy for me to listen to this beginning to end.
Wussy: Cincinnati Ohio (Shake It)—I really like the lyrics, I’m not too sure about the music, and I can’t hear Lisa well enough.
Charli xcx: Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat (Atlantic)—This irresistibly trashy brat dragged me kicking and screaming and grinning ear to ear through this version.
Dwight Yoakam: Brighter Days (Via/Thirty Tigers)—Dude really cannot make a bad album (always reminds me of Tom Petty that way) and this one (despite a very corny and terrible song and thanks to my favorite-ever cover of “Keep On the Sunny Side”) is no exception: sings great, surrounds himself with a crack band, and writes solidly—and, weirdly, often BRIGHTLY.
Tucker Zimmerman: Dance of Love (4AD)—I was telling a friend the other day that, for a reason I can’t pin down that has to do with the way things are, I am tired of Americana even when it’s good…but I have a feeling I’m (and possibly you’re) gonna need this one, knocked out by a resurfaced legend who has his finger on the pulse o’things, Big Thief behind him, and his arms around a few friends.

EXCELLENT EXCAVATIONS

Black Artists Group: For Peace & Liberty, in Paris, December 1972 (We Want Sound)—Too few recordings are available from a St. Louis, Missouri, gang of players who would later help fire up the NYC loft jazz movement, and this has never before been released.
Emily Remler: Cookin’ at Queens (Resonance)—This short-lived, Wes Montgomery-influenced guitarist had already raised the eyebrows of her fellow players and was poised for bigger things when she stepped on a narcotic rainbow; she is flying on these live recordings.
B. B. King: B. B. King in France (Elemental)—The most famous of the several “King”s of the blues is in exceptional form on this unearthed ‘70s set.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Live in France—The 1966 Limoges Concert (Elemental)—Her guitar is shorter on beautifully ugly noise than on other available live recordings, but otherwise, 51 and just seven years from passing on, she’s all the way on.
Various Artists: Super Disco Pirata—De Tepito Para El Mundo 1965-1980 (Analog Africa)—Don’t we all need even more cumbia (and related contagious rhythms) in our lives right now?

Check the shit out aurally–though I wish I had a better option than Squatify.

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)

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

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

JUNE 2024–Halfway There: 10 Newish Albums I Lived to Listen To + My 10 Favorite Jazz Albums of 2024 So Far + Encounters with Old Reggae

I really don’t have much to write this month. My mind feels paralyzed; at least my ears are working. Also, I am behind due to being distracted by non-new musical explorations, as you will see. Thus, I am just going to make three lists (this will help me get to THIS faster, too–I need it and I hope it’s great, but I can’t really listen to it until I’m done here).

The 20 Best Albums Released in 2024 That I First Heard This Month (in alphabetical order, but * = really kicking my butt)

Arooj Aftab: Night Reign (Verve)

*Christer Bothen Featuring Bolon Beta: Trancedance—40^th Anniversary Edition (Black Truffle reissue)

*Alan Braufman: Infinite Love Tears (The Control Group / Valley of Search)

Jonas Cambien: Macu Conu (Clean Feed)

Charli xcx: BRAT (Atlantic)

*Cosmic Psychos: Go the Hack (Goner Records reissue)

Janel [Leppin] and Anthony [Pirog]: New Moon in the Evil Age (Cuneiform) (The “Janel disc” rools, although they are both on all of it.) (Wait, I said I wasn’t writing.)

*Kronos Quartet: Outer Spaceways Incorporated (Red Hot Org)

*Corb Lund: El Viejo (New West)

*Willie Nelson: The Border (Sony Music)

*Nestor: Teenage Rebel (Napalm Records/Handels GmbH) (I would have hated this in my 20s, in its way its allegiance to the laws of 1980s hard rock–passionate allegiance!–is stunning.) (I’m writing!)

Ngwaka Son Systeme: Iboto Ngenge (Eck Echo Records)

Hermeto Pascoal & Grupo: Pra voce, Ilza (Rocinante Records)

Sexyy Red: In Sexyy We Trust (Rebel/gamma)

Sisso & Maiko: Singeli & Maiko (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

*Swamp Dogg: Blackgrass—From West Virginia to 125^th Street (Oh Boy! Records) (I’ve LONG been a fan but this is by far his best record in many moons.)

Rapsody: Please Don’t Cry (We Each Other, Inc. / Jamla Records / Rock Nation Records) (jeeze lou-eeze, even the label/s is/are lonnnng!)

Staples Jr. Singers: Searching (Luaka Bop)

Esy Tadesse: Ahadu (FPE Records)

*Tri-County Liquidators: Shining Through (Hitt Records / Big Cartel EP) (Columbia, MO, locals’ follow-up to an impressive debut shines)

My Top 10 Favorite Jazz Albums of 2024 (In order of preference)

Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Four Guitars Live (Palilalia)

Miha Gantar: New York City (Clean Feed)

Amaro Freitas: Y’Y (Psychic Hotline)

Satoko Fujii Trio: Jet Black (Libra)

QOW Trio: The Hold Up (Ubuntu)

Fay Victor: Life is Funny That Way—Herbie Nichols Sung (TAO Forms)

Acceleration Due to Gravity: Jonesville (Hot Cup)

Alan Braufman: Infinite Love Tears (The Control Group / Valley of Search)

Kronos Quartet: Outer Spaceways Incorporated (Red Hot Org)

James Carter: UN (JMI Recordings)

5 Stellar Jazz Excavations from 2024 (in order of preference):

Sonny Rollins: Freedom Weaver–The 1959 European Tour Recordings (Resonance)

Sun Ra: Excelsior Mill (Sundazed / Modern Harmonic)

Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)

Art Tatum: Jewels in the Treasure Box—The 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club Recordings (Resonance)

Christer Bothen Featuring Bolon Beta: Trancedance—40^th Anniversary Edition (Black Truffle)

OLD REGGAE ALBUMS I’D NEVER HEARD BEFORE WERE MY JUNE SALVATION!

It was all triggered when I rather randomly chose to read Alex Wheatle‘s memoir, Sufferah. Wheatle’s childhood experiences inspired one of the best episodes of Steve McQueen’s limited series Small Axe, all of which I thoroughly loved. Reggae songs were extremely important to Wheatle’s survival as a youth, and he mentioned so many I didn’t know (and I’m pretty well-informed) that I made a playlist as I read (which I accidentally deleted yesterday!). Unsurprisingly, the best of those songs led me to research the albums from which they came via two excellent out-of-print reggae guides, one by Lloyd Bradley, the other by Randall Grass, both acknowledged genre adepts. While researching those, I bumped into non-Wheatle-related records I’d somehow missed. That resulting research led me willy-nilly to Discogs, where–oh hell, I’ll just take a picture. This is the life of a music fanatic folks!

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:

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.
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)

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

RIP Shane MacGowan.

PREJUDICES:

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.
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.
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.
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?
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”).
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….

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

Excavations and Reissues

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

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

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

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

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

Musical Gumbo Circa ’21: Best Mach II Pandemic Platters So Far

Plenty of cool new sounds to explore! I had to replace a few platters that just hadn’t stuck to my ears’ ribs and whittle off a few more waning wekkids to leave it at a HOT 100. Also, it finally occurred to me that the list’s expanded enough to break off the new releases of old stuff into their own list (see below). Buy some of this music instead of just streaming it, ok?

100 FRESH FOR 2021

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