Behold–a rather tentative list of 30 pretty damn decent releases from the 2019th year of our lord (is that right? asks the history-challenged heathen). I would not say that, so far, our musical high priests have laid a cornucopial spread before our weary, hungry, hopeful selves; I would say, however, that plenty of interesting stuff is at your fingertips. The following are in rough order of how much enjoyment I’ve gained from and willing repetition I’ve applied to each long-player. Certain of my regular prejudices are in play: Joe McPhee is a genius and a saint to me, musically and personally, and in his 79th year (50 or so of them as a devoted free-playing jazz multi-instrumentalist and happy noise-maker) he shows no signs of slowing down or having passed his sell-by date–I love all three of his new records, including all six discs of his “Nation Time!”-keyed live collaboration with DKV (that’s Hamid Drake, Ken Kessler, and Ken Vandermark); I come alive at the sound of a Tuareg guitar, no matter how familiar or how augmented by Western intrusion; I am certain Yugen Blakrok needs more recognition and I will bend over backwards to see that, at least within my very circumscribed social range, she gets it; I have a very soft spot for the hoarier artist. But I’d almost argue that those strong prejudices, built from high expectations, might just make me more likely than most to recognize why records therein don’t really cut it. Almost.
Also, I am being very strict about releases being from 2019. If I am not, I will get my wrists slapped.
If anything really obvious is missing (Sharon Van Etten, Future, Gary Clark, Jr.) it might well be assumed that I am immune to its spells.
Finally, I am including new releases of material recorded in bygone days (rather than listing those separately) because pickings are just that slim. So far. [Ex Hex, Mekons, Jamila Woods, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Royal Trux (Royal Trux?), Quelle Chris, hell, ol’ dead Marvin Gaye each have one in tha chamba for future firing.]
After the list is a YouTube playlist where you can test-drive some of the stuff if it’s unfamiliar to you.
Harriet Tubman: The Terror End of Beauty
DKV and Joe McPhee: The Fire Each Time
Yugen Blakrok: Anima Mysterium
Heroes are Gang Leaders: The Amiri Baraka Sessions
Various Artists: All the Young Droogs–60 Juvenile Delinquent Wrecks
Various Artists: Travailler, C’est Trop Dure–The Lyrical Legacy of Caesar Vincent
Que Vola: Que Vola
Kel Assouf: Black Tenere
Aesop Rock & TOBACCO: Malibu Ken
Sir Shina Peters and His Internation Stars: Sewele
Eric Dolphy: Musical Prophet
Usted Saami: God is Not a Terrorist
Joe McPhee / John Butcher: At the Hill of James Magee
Greg Ward and Rogue Parade: Stomping Off from Greenwood
Matthew Shipp Trio: Signature
Angel Bat Dawid: The Oracle
Better Oblivion Community Center: Better Oblivion Community Center
Alfredo Rodriguez and Pedrito Martinez: Duologue
Bad Bunny: X 100PRE
The Clifford Thornton Memorial Quartet (featuring Joe McPhee): Sweet Oranges
Our Native Daughters: Songs of Our Native Daughters
The Specials: Encore
A note on the playlist: two-three full albums are included (one of them a three-disker) because single tracks were not available, so you may want to be prepared to click past them after an initial taste. Or you may not…
Nicole and I took a tiny road trip to Fulton (a frequent getaway for us), mainly to eat some exquisite gumbo and po’ boys at Fontenot’s, but also to take a chance on the Oscar-nominated Green Book. I’m just being honest–we don’t go to many mainstream movies these days, and not because we’re high-toned snobs. We’re both tired of simple explanations in these complicated times, and so many of the films that hit the multiplexes have precisely that to offer. Perhaps not explanations, exactly; more accurately, they’re hawking simple, comforting reflections of who we are. Our lives are too short for those. HOWEVER, I’d only heard of Don Shirley in passing (Nicole not at all), we both love pretty much everything we have seen Mahershala Ali do, and good ol’ Viggo is pretty reliable, so we thought, “How bad can it be?” Our answer was not that bad.
We’d purposely not done much research into either Shirley or the movie. Stuff does slip in over one’s transom: I was aware of some critical disagreement over the handling of racial issues, but often that’s a sign of something good, and I knew Shirley’s family wasn’t happy about the facts–but, um, it’s a movie. Well, that’s what I said to myself, but I ended up being a little bothered myself. Thoughts:
The lead performances were pretty great (though I did not get the impression Ali was a supporting actor–that designation tells me much). The aloofness and self-possession Ali brings to the role of Shirley ensures we do not see him as a monolithic black man, and Mortenson infuses Tony Lip with a childlike spontaneity–it’s only after witnessing him win a hot dog-eating contest with about 10 seconds of preparation that we can buy him taking a job driving Shirley after having just put two Negro-besmirched drinking glasses in the trash. I did feel, however, that at about the 3/4ths mark, both actors let their grip slip on their control over their respective characters and turn them into something broader–a sign of a fledgling dramatic director at the helm, perhaps.
I was also was a shade disappointed by how quickly the film scurried past the revelation that Shirley was possibly gay or bisexual. Really, no conversations about that? No mixed feelings? Maybe Shirley’s only too happy to put that back in its container, and Tony’s only too happy to not have to talk about it (think about his early letters home to his wife). But I do like how we are provided enough insight into Shirley’s intense loneliness by that point to understand why he would risk same-sex-intimacy-while-black in the Deep South. Fortunately, he has white muscle to rescue him (over and over again).
Finally, I was a bit curious about the depiction of the Macon, Georgia, police department as being racially integrated in 1961, and about Shirley being able to magically play Little Richard-styled piano with feelingat a moment’s notice. Did the Celtics ever barnstorm as far south as Birmingham? I just read two books by and about people who’d know and would have recalled it in their writing, but I don’t remember them doing so. But, hello, these films don’t have to be completely factual!!! Still….
However, taking it for what it was–a mainstream film about an inspirational professional relationship between a black man and a white man, portrayed by two excellent actors–we ultimately felt it was not a waste of time. It’s good stuff for right now, assuming the people who need to see it actually do see it (and do they ever?). For both Nicole and me, it piqued our interest enough to listen to Shirley’s Orpheus in theUnderworld–humorously referenced in the film–on the way home (the YouTube copy’s been ripped from forest-fire vinyl, but it’s not impossible to track down on CD–I know, I did) and enjoy it thoroughly.
In other news, my favorite rap album of 2019 was released Friday: South African MC Yugen Blakrok’s Anima Mysterium. Her debut release, Return of the Astro-Goth, and her appearance on the Kendrick Lamar’s Black Panther companion were both very promising, and this modestly makes good on that promise. Blakrok parses African history, mythology and iconography (of Africa and elsewhere), and the cosmos to offer a critique of our present and a forecast of our future. Needless to say from that claim (if it isn’t just gobbledy-gook), she’d be categorized as an abstract rapper, and, until she finds catchier and thunkier beats and varies her cadence more regularly, that’s going to be a fair assessment. But her adeptness with meter, figurative language, and rhyme is special; you can’t hear it by staring at these words from Mysterium‘s “Carbon Form,” but check back to the video track after you’ve let these sink in:
Cosmic breath, I’m air element, find strength in the mental The thought behind the rhyme’s consequential The flow’s decked in space boots, leaping over lunar tombs Write lyrics in runes and play the Muse Inspire Fate to paint predestination’s landscapes For the awakened, imaginations are stargates Whistle, I’m listening – Pilgrim of the House of the Wind, I’m the emissary Hearing voices in the breeze observing airy commentary Asleep in howling deserts with thorn trees in bloom Until the spell breaks, I’m wolf to the full moon And wild as the monsoon, glassy eyes like crushed minerals The pattern’s troublesome – planet’s crying rivers of literals Wooden tears flaking into fragments and splintering Buried in the earth where dark secrets lie whispering That the end has not yet come to the place where dreams rest at I look at self, facing the mirror, nothing’s reflected Black stone carbon, I’m stardust Bizarre, trust – quiet, part-mime invade the mind like archons My jargon’s a headache to decipher, never idle The heavy burden’s only light work to bright disciples And I’m sky bound, messenger like Malachi Cardinal offspring of Capricorn and Gemini Born from a sandstorm, whirlwinds in my burning eyes Slayed a beast with seven tongues, electrifying So I vibrate in coded synergy, linguistics my Achilles heel Wade in stellar waters deep, a mystic whistling in the reeds That cosmic breath, that air element that finds strength in the mental Make all doubts of the mind inconsequential
As much as she does limit herself with a favorite cadence, there is a cool, defiant, but almost deadpan quality to her delivery that I find spookily addictive. For those in search of a new and unique voice in hip hop, I strongly suggest that, should the above samplings agree with you, you indulge in and support her art.
Of late, I have been deeply enjoying David Blight’s massive biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. One extremely powerful achievement of Blight’s is intensifying our understanding of the degree with which Biblical stories informed Douglass’ abolitionist and natural rights philosophies. In a development pretty typical of the way I zing and zoing from lit to music, I found myself drawn unavoidably to The Stanley Brothers’ King and Starday recordings, where the bluegrass legends tap, better than in any other period of their recording career, the Bible and Christianity in general as sources for extremely moving, often frighteningly intense performances. I am not a Christian at all, nor will I ever be, but the political and personal power of gospel anecdotes warms my blood and stimulates my brain on a regular basis. It’s a testament to the consistent excellence of these recordings (roughly ’58-’61) that they broke Brazilian pop’s seven-day grip on my attention.
The students of my freshman comp / pop music class formally opened up their final unit with informal presentations on their research subjects. Not that this will thrill any readers, but here’s the research project they’re undertaking:
English 107 Pop Music Research Project: Specification
Objectives:
Form a clear and specific argument about a performer’s or group’s musical work after sampling it broadly and deeply.
Support the argument with both specific evidence (lyrics, descriptions of musical passages, etc.) and expert commentary gathered through research.
Reflect on the connections you made with the performer’s or group’s work, referring specifically to your past thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
Execute a cleanly-formatted MLA research paper that elaborates your argument, presents your evidence in organized fashion, and shares your reflections.
For your final exam, present (through audio only) two of your performer’s songs that demonstrate your research and reflections, setting up each song with guided questions for the class, commenting knowledgeably after each song, and taking two questions (15 minutes minimum).
Restrictions
The performer must identify / have identified as a woman; if a group is chosen, it must be led (or artistically dominated) by a performer who identifies (or performers who identify) as a woman. The performer needs not be currently living, nor does the group need to be active.
The bulk of the performer’s or group’s work must have been produced prior to January 2001.
All genres of work are allowed, as well as any nationality from which the performer or group might have sprung. It is suggested that you select a performer or group from a genre of which you have some working knowledge.
Your argument must be about the work, not about the performer or group as human beings.
You are required to use your preferred streaming/listening methods to listen to at least three non-compilation albums, and at least one compilation. Each album must contribute a work that is MLA-cited in the text of your paper; each album should be listed among your paper’s Works Cited.
Sources must qualify as expert commentary. You will have to research the writers who provide it to determine that. Also, this project requires that you look into at least one book—and you may need to look into more than one.
Suggestions for Arguments
Arguments may focus on themes or preoccupations that are explored by the artist or group in their songs.
Arguments may focus on the artist’s or performer’s style, as it is represented through writing, singing, playing, or arranging. Be conscious of the fact that writing about singing, playing, or arranging may well require specific musical vocabulary and a heightened attempt at description.
Arguments may focus on artists’ or performers’ achievements in the context of their field. Be conscious of the fact that, to make such an argument, one must know the context.
Arguments may focus on constructed personae that artists or groups create through their work.
Arguments may focus on the artistic growth of an artist or group over time.
Arguments may focus on a combination of any of the above, though it is essential that there be a common thread that runs through the entirety of the combination.
No argument may focus on anything not represented by Numbers 1-6.
Additional Specifications for Essays and Final Exam Presentations
Minimum 1,700 words / maximum 2,500 words.
Suggested structure: intro + argument –> background (only essentials) –> presentation of evidence (multiple paragraphs) –> personal reflection –> conclusion (reiteration of argument + statement of performer’s / group’s importance) –> works cited.
Sources: four articles (via databases, trustworthy Internet sources, and periodicals), one book, three regular-issue albums, one compilation album (MINIMUM). Each source should be cited in the text and listed appropriately among the works cited.
Point distribution for essays (detailed scoring guide to follow): grammar and mechanics (10 points); structure (10); argument and evidence (25); personal reflection (20); formatting (10) = 75 total points.
Point distribution for final exam presentation (must be accompanied by a PowerPoint or visual aide): clarity (argument, pre-song guided questions, post-song debrief, evidence) (25 points); speaking attributes (volume, modulation, diction) (12 points); Q & A (3 points).
Scored Components for Entire Project:
Proposal (subject + working thesis) 10
Introductory presentation 25
Sentence-form outline 15
Essay rough draft (must be submitted through Canvas) 20
Essay final draft (must be submitted through Canvas) 75
Presentation (final exam) 40
Total 185
NOTE: The instructor reserves the right to refuse any request to explore certain performers or groups, but will provide a reason for such refusals. The instructor will also happily provide suggestions regarding performers or groups, or simply assign one to a student upon request (the advantage of the latter option is that you will be assigned a subject that provides a bounty of writing and thinking opportunities).
Now even you hate me, right? Seriously, though, I have been striving to find the right research project to both fit my course design and more easefully transition them into higher-level research demands they’re sure to encounter during their remaining years at Stephens. If I can admit to being excited about a research project, I have high hopes for the reflective aspect of the essay. My aim is that the integration of a section composed of personal insights and a slightly less formal voice with cause the construction and grading of the projects to be less grueling. We shall see. I need to, but don’t want to, write a model.
So: to the presentations. The purposes of these were to introduce the class to the range of subjects under review and give me an idea of not only how much preliminary research students had already done but also how committed and enthusiastic they were about the work. In ten minutes or less, students were required to introduce us to their artists through three important facts and their own initial responses to the artists’ work, focus us with a guiding question about, then play an official video (if available) of, one of the artist’s best works, then lead us in a quick discussion of possible answers to the guiding questions. As usual, I started with a model presentation on Yugen Blackrok (big surprise if you’ve been keeping score) that fell a bit flat (“She doesn’t have beats!”), but at least I snuck in some learning on apartheid and Afro-Futurism. Half the class then presented, as follows:
Guiding Question: “Can you figure out the metaphors used in this song?”
Answer: “That verse isn’t really about deep-sea diving, is it?”
Guiding Question (not a good one): “So, what’s good about the song and what’s not?”
Answer: “Ewwwwwwwwwww. I can’t stand the way she sings. I had to plug my ears.” Another student rushing to the rescue: “I LOVE HER SINGING! She’s so exciting and rebellious!” (Yay.)
Guiding Question (a stellar one): Does Ms. Blige sing with a chest voice or a head voice?
Answer: A little of both–mostly chest, but her head’s in there, too.
Guiding Question (again, good!): Pay close attention to the childhood images in the video, contrasted with Dolly’s adult self, and be ready to talk about that.
Answer: None given to that question, but several new questions posed (“Is she dead?”)
Guiding Question: How would you describe her singing style?
Answer: “Her voice sounds messed up!” Teacher counters with: I hear a core of yearning and loneliness to her singing that fits nicely with the video content.”
We’ll see how Thursday goes, but I must admit, their choice of research topics should make for interesting research and enjoyable reading. Should.
You can’t listen to everything. That’s one of the great struggles of my life. When people say, “There’s no really good music these days,” you know they don’t get out much–there’s actually never been more great music available than there is now, nor have there been so many ways to get at it. The difficulty is not just finding it all in a torrent, but making time to listen to it. It’s. Just. Not. Possible.
All of this is just to express my sheepishness in having just gotten to Mary Gauthier and The Songwriting with Soldiers Project‘s Rifles and Rosary Beads, easily one of the most emotionally powerful new albums that lie at your fingertips. If trying to reckon with the cost of our adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq is one of your regular intellectual and spiritual practices, you need to advance directly to this record, which will contribute meaningfully to that reckoning. The Songwriting with Soldiers Project joins established songwriters like Gauthier with combat veterans and their families, and gives them the space and opportunity to collaborate on songs that communicate the latter’s experiences. I have nothing to say to further commend this resultant album that comes within thousands of miles of these lyrics from “Stronger Together”:
They say no man’s left behind but that ain’t true They hate it that they need us but they do They lose their fingers lose their limbs We try to love them together again They say no man’s left behind but that ain’t true
They’re hurt in paces that the eye can’t see I miss the man my husband used to be The military breaks their hearts We’re there when they fall apart They’re hurt in paces that the eye can’t see
Stronger together, Sisters forever
EOD* wives don’t sit by the phone No news is good news back at home Their mission ready at their best We take care of all the rest EOD wives don’t sit by the phone
*Explosive Ordnance Disposal specialist
If that and the above-embedded video don’t work, try this:
Note that line “They genuflect on Sundays / And yet, they’d send us back.”
I am not the biggest fan of folk music (that is not really what this is), but I am also not a big fan of these wars, and the devil’s bargain our soldiers have been thrust into. If I hadn’t been actively firming myself up, I’d have wept at some point in each song instead of during three.
Essential listening. This is not to be swept into the cyberbin of time with the other music we couldn’t reach.
Short-shrift Division:
The long shadow of Rifles and Rosary Beads nearly wiped out my other listening during the day, but I cannot get enough of Johannesburg’s Yugen Blakrok. Her album Return of the Astro-Goth, from 2013, has got me in its grip, and apparently she’s got another in the chute. Dig this video from that album:
Also, I take it you knew she’s on Mr. Lamar’s Black Panther companion, batting third on this track and hitting a triple?
“You’re dead to me”: quite the opposite, young lady!
Once again, no narrative with which to surround these immersions–but I predict, based on the quality of these first-time listens, that narratives may be forthcoming.
South African rapper Yugen Blakrok is one of the few really interesting things about the Kendrick Lamar-curated Black Panther companion. I took a deeper dive into her 2013 debut, and one of the best things I can say about it is her mind-spray and fluid, fluent flow is gonna require I take an even deeper dive. She’s definitely got a seat in the Afro-Futurist spaceship; her rapping sounds to me like incantations; and she’s got a knack for joining abstractions with physical being–check this chunk from “Secrets of the Path,” one of many highlights:
What kinda ism is this?
We’re like light thru a prism before the schism is killed
In the prison of sleep…I keep rhyming through bars, lucid dreaming
Heard that love’s brighter from the outside, believe it
This morning when life woke up, I dove back down into slumber
Cuz in-between realities, there’s glitches when I stutter
Sleep-talking formula with in-breath
Exhale solutions, scientist in me is inbred
My language traps the tongue – caught in diction mazes lost for days – in hazy blazes
While fiery words transcend these mortal planes
My verbal play’s like smoke signals, home of the braves
And wild style thoughts can spray when the clouds spell riverclay
Psycho-analyst type in-between-the-lines reader
Deciphering codes beneath the eyelids as a dreamer
Diving deeper into abstract, non-conformity
My realest self’s created thru celestial artistry
Musically, Return of the Astro-Goth is just fine, though a bit of a static ground. This woman’s going to be much, much bigger, I think.
Saxophonist Evan Parker, almost 74, drummer Paul Lytton, freshly 71, and bassist Barry Guy, about to turn 71 himself, have long been friends, and for almost four decades a performing trio—the cream of British jazz improvisation. One thing I’ve noticed about the very best free performances is that it’s virtually impossible to determine the age of the performers. That idea is in play here: the reflexes, imagination, and ears of these men, surely aided by–yes–the profound familiarity of years, could be those of iconoclastic twenty-somethings looking took cut some old farts’ heads. ‘Cept these are the old farts, who long ago discovered a secret of life. As Parker says in the notes: “”Collective free improvisation is the utopian state arrived at in that other ‘little life,’ as the late John Stevens called the mental space of music making that happens when musicians of a like mind (birds of a feather) play freely together.” Like-minded. Yeah.
As I’ve mentioned a few times in previous posts, I’m subscribing to Joyful Noise Recordings’ “White Label Series,” in which established independent artists choose and curate overlooked albums from the very recent past for monthly vinyl release. March’s entry is one I’ve eagerly awaited; in fact, my motivation to subscribe to the project was largely due to sui generis rap MC Serengeti‘s involvement. I’ve long been a fan of the shape-shifting story-teller from Chicago, though much of his work is so gnomic, muted, depressive, and minimalistic that it not only demands sound-canceling headphone attention but can also, even then, defy parsing. The reason I mention that is Foreign & Domestic’s 2007 release, Your Mountain vs. My Iceberg, Serengeti’s “White Label” choice, shares those qualities. Is there such a subgenre as electro-twee? My first listen here tempts me to coin it. But I will be going back in when time permits.
Short-shrift Division:
Fans of Norman Whitfield, early Seventies protest-soul, and the Palmieri Brothers who haven’t heard this record need to change that fact. A landmark of post-assassination American pop that’s gotten too little attention–hell, I didn’t hear about it until a few years ago, and this stuff’s my meat and taters. With Eddie on piano and “theoretical arrangements,” Charlie on fascinating organ, luminaries like Pretty Purdie, Cornell Dupree, and Bruce Fowler in the musical mix, and the unsung Jimmy Norman on vocals. A taste:
Living To Listen 