May 2024

Posted on May 3, 2024 by Rick Anderson

CLASSICAL

Federico Mompou; Antonio de Cabezón; Antonio Soler
Music of Silence (digital only)
Xiaowen Shang
Linn (dist. Naxos)
CKD728

This release, by the jaw-droppingly talented pianist Xiaowen Shang, is the latest installment in the Royal Academy of Music’s Bicentenary Series. As befits the retrospective nature of the series, Shang’s recording looks back over several centuries of Spanish keyboard music, from Antonio Cabezón (1510-1566) to Antonio Soler (1729-1783) to Federico Mompou (1893-1987). Instead of playing the works in chronological order, she intersperses sections and movements from different periods throughout the program, moving (for example) from a movement from Mompou’s Música callada to one of Cabezón’s variations on “La Dama le demanda” and then to a section from one of Soler’s keyboard sonatas. As she hops nimbly from period to period and composer to composer, she demonstrates through her playing both what unites these works and what makes each unique, and by so doing creates a unified but not homogenous whole. A brilliant album, recommended to all libraries supporting a keyboard curriculum.

Frank La Rocca
Requiem for the Forgotten; Messe des malades (world premiere recording)
Benedict XVI Choir & Orchestra / Richard Sparks
Cappella (dist. Naxos)
CR430

Contemporary liturgical music presents something of a quandary for the composer: your colleagues expect modernism, but your listeners are looking for uplift, or at least something that fosters spiritual contemplation. The Current Moment demands political relevance, but church music demands timelessness. How to thread that needle? Frank La Rocca does this beautifully: no one listening to his music would doubt that it was written in the 21st century, but at no point is the music either ostentatiously technical or distractingly dissonant. In his use of harmony (along with his gorgeous voice leading) he makes full use of the chromatic spectrum but maintains a warm sense of tonality; the music is dense and rich but always bows to the lyrical messages of charity and devotion. Orchestral forces are used both sparingly and tastefully on the Requiem Mass; the singing by the Benedict XVI Choir is consistently outstanding. For all library collections.

Franz Xaver Mozart
The Two Piano Concertos
Andriy Dragan; Musikkollegium Winterthur / Bogdan Božović
Claves
50-3070

Following on from his 2021 recording of keyboard variations by the same composer, the brilliant pianist Andriy Dragan here returns to the work of Franz Xaver Mozart and presents the latter’s two piano concertos, both written shortly after the turn of the 19th century and both steeped in high classicism but also clearly informed by the emerging Romantic style. Franz Xaver was the youngest of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s sons, and was inevitably doomed to be overshadowed by his father’s prodigious achievements — but his own work should not be overlooked. The younger Mozart’s grasp of essential forms and techniques never constrains his creativity, and there is a joy in his writing that belies the pressure and frustration he experienced in attempting to make his own name as a musician. (Hints of depression can be found in the texts he chose for various cycles of lieder.) Dragan has spoken movingly of his love for Fran Xaver’s work, and his affection and affinity for these pieces is clearly evident in his playing here. Highly recommended.

Marc’Antonio Ingegneri
Vol. 4: Missa Gustate et vedete; Motets (world premiere recording)
Choir of Girton College, Cambridge; The Western Wyndes / Jeremy West
Toccata Classics (dist. Naxos)
TOCC 0716

I’ve been following this ongoing series of recordings with both interest and pleasure. Though little-known today (everything on this disc is a world-premiere recording), Marc’Antonio Ingegneri can fairly claim to have been one of the architects of the glorious sound of 17th-century Venice. He is remembered today primarily as the teacher of Claudio Monteverdi; however, these recordings demonstrate that he was also a supremely gifted composer himself. While the Mass and motets performed on this album don’t tend to scale the heights of grandeur associated with Monteverdi and his colleagues, you can clearly hear the seeds of that later style in his choral writing; the music is intensely emotional and at times elaborately complex. The Marian antiphons and Easter motets on this program reflect both the demands of Roman Catholic liturgy and the stylistic ferment of the times. The Choir of Girton College delivers these works with appropriate fervor and admirable accuracy.

Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard
Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release)
Quatuor Bozzini
Important
No cat. no.

I can’t promise that you’ll enjoy this piece, exactly, but I can promise that you’ll find it interesting — and if your library supports coursework in composition and orchestration, it will be especially valuable. Niels Lyhne Løkkgaard’s one-movement work Colliding Bubbles is written for string quartet, where the string players also play harmonicas — the score requires each musician to play both instruments simultaneously. It’s not a Cagean joke, nor is the resulting sound in any way chaotic; however, the sound is both texturally thin and intense, and there’s not much in the way of dynamic variation. What you hear are woven threads of pitches dense with high harmonics, moving slowly together and apart. This is probably a piece that is much more enjoyable to experience live, where you can see what the performers are doing — but even just as a recording, it will offer great opportunities to discuss contemporary compositional technique with students.

JAZZ

Chet Baker & Jack Sheldon
In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album
Jazz Detective
DDJD-016

In the late 1960s, trumpeter/singer Chet Baker was not in a great place. Years of drug addiction and the loss of his teeth during a drug transaction that turned violent had left him essentially unable to play. But in the early 1970s he made a comeback, which is commonly reckoned as beginning with his 1973 live album with Lee Konitz. But as it turns out, in 1972 he had also recorded a full album with his fellow trumpeter/singer Jack Sheldon. The sextet date (featuring guitarist Jack Marshall, pianist Dave Frishberg, bassist Joe Mondragon and drummer Nick Ceroli) was recorded in the studio by Marshall, who unfortunately passed away of a heart attack while he was shopping it around to record labels. The tapes then languished in his family’s archives for 50 years before being unearthed and prepared for this release. The program is wonderful: the contrast between Sheldon’s exuberant, extroverted singing and playing style and Baker’s much cooler, straight-toned approach is very fun, but the best thing about this album is the way it shows how fully Baker had returned to form by this point: his voice is as strong and clear as it ever was, and his playing is very good (if not quite at a 1950s level). This is an essential document for any library’s jazz collection.

Sonny Rollins
Freedom Weaver: The 1959 European Tour Recordings (3 discs)
Resonance
HCD-2065

While Sonny Rollins remains not only the foremost living exponent of bebop and the only surviving member of its first generation of practitioners, he has never been satisfied working within the strict parameters of that style — or of any style, really. While he has hewn generally to a straight-ahead mode, he’s never been afraid to experiment with either form or format. Consider, for example, these recordings from his 1959 European tour, during which he brought with him only a bassist and a drummer (the bassist was Henry Grimes throughout; at various times the drummers were Pete La Roca, Kenny Clarke, or Joe Harris). The material was standards and Rollins originals, but the chordless ensemble ensured that the music sounded highly unusual; Rollins’ solos are often untethered and wild — not in a skronky, harmolodic way, but like a bird just let loose from its cage. In Aix-en-Provence he plays “Woody ‘n’ You” for nearly sixteen minutes and “Lady Bird” for nearly nineteen; other performances are more typical in length, but no less innovative in style. The recorded sound is startlingly good throughout.

Behn Gillece
Stick Together
Posi-tone
PR8256

Vibraphonist Behn Gillece is one of my favorite members of the Posi-Tone Records crew, a forward-thinking but always straight-ahead player and composer, and a great bandleader. His seventh album on this label as a leader finds him leading an all-star quartet that includes pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Boris Koslov, and drummer Rudy Royston on a program consisting almost entirely of his own compositions. There’s fast-and-furious bebop (“Four of a Kind”), subtly Latin balladry (“Changing My Day”), soulful funk (“Get on It!”), slightly outside experimentation (“In the Huddle”), and much more, with absolutely no filler. As a leader, Gillece is not only authoritative but also generous, giving his sidemen plenty of space in which to work — which every one of them deserves. A brilliant outing from perhaps the finest living exponent of straight-ahead jazz vibes.

Allison Burik
Realm
Self-released
No cat. no.

The music on Allison Burik’s new solo album reflects the artist’s fascination with “women and non-binary characters throughout folktales, lore, and real-world history.” Burik plays saxophone and sings, and the elements of sax and voice are central throughout this odd and eerily beautiful set of compositions. At times the vibe is identifiably jazz-adjacent — on “Birka 581,” for example, there is a steady rhythm and the alto sax part draws on jazz phrasing and tonality. But “Solstice III (The Promise)” is sort of a free-form pop song (an all-too-brief one), and other pieces create a much more abstract and sometimes almost ambient mood. But Burik’s particular talent for drawing structured beauty out of abstraction and improvisation is a constant thread, and the album hangs together magnificently as a unified musical statement. 

Owen Broder
Hodges Front and Center, Vol. 2 (vinyl & digital only)
Outside In Music
OIM 2402

I raved in these pages about the first installment in this series, on which saxophonist and composer Owen Broder reflects musically on the influence of legendary alto player Johnny Hodges on Broder’s own development as a player and a writer. The first volume focused as much on tunes associated with Hodges (especially during his time in Duke Ellington’s orchestra) as on his own compositions, but Hodges the writer is more thoroughly represented on this second volume. As before, Broder and his quintet play with a contemporary sensibility but also with deep respect for the tradition Hodges represents. You can hear Broder’s love for Hodge’s melodic approach in his every solo, and in particular his veneration of Hodge’s approach to development. Listen carefully to “Wabash Blues” and “Big Smack,” and you’ll realize that what you’re actually hearing is a master class. Highly recommended to all jazz collections.

FOLK/COUNTRY

Emily Nenni
Drive & Cry
New West (dist. Redeye)
NW6575

Emily Nenni is a bit of a puzzle to me. Her voice is clear and bell-like, but there’s a strong whiff of the barroom in every note she sings. She sounds completely relaxed, but her voice cuts through the mix without any obvious effort. (In fairness, the mixing by Matt Ross-Spang probably deserves some of the credit for that.) Stylistically, she’s coming from the heart of honky-tonk country — but none of her songs sounds clichéd or trite (even when there’s a harmonica in the arrangement). Take “Lay of the Land” as an example: the introductory bars leave you expecting something in the vein of Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” — but when the song proper starts, it’s very different; still a swaying Texas waltz, sure, but with an unexpected melody and a slightly idiosyncratic arrangement. “I Don’t Have to Like You” verges on… well… funk (while never sounding like anything other than a country song). So I don’t know. You figure it out. You’ll enjoy the process.

The Georgia Sea Island Singers et al.
The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
SFW CD 40258

During the Civil Rights era, the Georgia Sea Island Singers gained a strong following in the urban folk music scene by bringing traditional songs from the Gullah Geechee community to young city audiences on the mainland. This concert, recorded (with remarkably high-quality sound) in 1965, finds the group alongside legendary bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell and cane fife player Ed Young; Alan Lomax was the emcee. The gospel songs they share are sometimes faintly familiar, but more often from a repertoire that was developed and reformulated over time within a small community on an island in the ocean — the result being music that is often thrilling and sometimes eerie to the point of hair-raising. You may think you know the song “Let My Children Go,” but it’s almost certainly not this one; and if you expect to hear clear echoes of “Bold Riley” in “Goodbye My Riley-O,” you’ll probably be mistaken. The stomping, the shouting, and the raw, astringent harmonies are never less than captivating. For all library collections.

Skeeter Davis & NRBQ
She Sings, They Play (expanded reissue)
Omnivore
OVLP-546

On paper, this may not seem like an obvious match: country-music legend Skeeter Davis with Terry Adams and the New Rhythm & Blues Quartet. But Adams had been a fan of Davis since his early childhood, so when he saw her performing at an amusement center in Massachusetts they struck up a friendship that eventually resulted in them recording these sessions together in 1981. The music is absolutely and utterly delightful. Stylistically, the songs range all over the place, from a fantastic version of Adams’ “I Want You Bad” (which some CDHL readers may think of as a Long Ryders song) to hardcore honky-tonk arrangements of “You Don’t Know What You Got ‘Til You Lose It” and “Everybody Wants a Cowboy” (featuring the legendary Buddy Emmons on steel) and a startlingly fantastic rendition of “Someday My Prince Will Come.” Long out of print and now reissued with six bonus tracks, this brilliant album should find a home in every library collection.

ROCK/POP

Brynn Andre
Honeymoon (digital only)
Self-released
No cat. no.

This appears to be the third full-length album from Minnesota singer-songwriter Brynn Andre, following two albums released in 2011 and a slow string of singles and EPs in the years since. On Honeymoon the sound tilts back and forth between indie pop (“Fertile Ground,” “Canyon Heart”) and a sort of gentle synth pop (“Good Time”) with occasional excursions into rather experimental electro production (“Reliable Man”). Andre has a gorgeous, plainspoken voice and a real way with a subtle hook — there’s nothing here to make you pump your fist in the air, but plenty of choruses you’ll sing along with in the car. Honestly, “Trailblazing” (“I don’t want to live unless it’s Technicolor”) makes me think about what U2 might sound like if its members were all women. Highly recommended.

Jessie Baylin
Strawberry Wind (deluxe edition)
Blonde Rat/New West (dist. Redeye)
NW 6418

I don’t generally review children’s music in CDHL, and didn’t realize I was making an exception in this case until I read the press materials. One of the reasons I tend to steer clear of children’s music is that I find so much of it condescending and annoying — so the fact that most listeners might not recognize these songs as being intended for children is (in my view) a big point in its favor. As for the music itself: Baylin’s songs (and Richard Swift’s production) are anachronistic: there are moments when you’d swear you’re listening to an album from 1962. It’s also highly idiosyncratic: note, for example, the deeply weird “la-la-las” and Sonny-and-Cher-style drums on “Dream Catcher”; at the same time, note the Tin Pan Alley vibe of “Same Old Tune” and note that Katy Perry would kill for the melismatic passages on the title track. Personally, I would kill for the guitar tone on “Magic of Your Mind.” I hope Baylin’s young son enjoys this album as much as I did.

Maria Chiara Argiró
Closer
Innovative Leisure (dist. Redeye)
IL2118

This lovely but compact album (it comes in at under 30 minutes) is the fourth from the Italian-born, London-based Maria Chiara Argiro, a singer, composer, and keyboardist who operates in a musical world composed of familiar elements that combine in utterly unique ways. For example, the keyboard hook on “Light” strongly evokes Kate Bush. “Time,” on the other hand, hints at jungle in its gentle double-time rimshots and juddering sub bass, but also suggests 1970s Laurel Canyon pop in the vocal harmonies. On most tracks, the vocals are quite abstract: notice how they’re chopped up and used almost like percussion samples behind her more conventional singing on both “Koala” and “Sun,” and used as a sort of sonic watercolor wash on “Closer.” Elsewhere, the housey thump of “Floating” is nicely leavened by a thoughtful and plaintive trumpet solo. There’s not a single weak track on this odd and deeply beautiful album.

Survival Guide
deathdreams
Double Helix
DHR-235235-0014

Emily Whitehurst’s primary musical background is in postpunk (in her guise as Agent M, she was the frontperson for Tsunami Bomb; since then she’s also led The Action Plan), but her solo work as Survival Guide finds her exploring a different dimension of contemporary pop music: I’d characterize it as punk-tinged dream synthpop. The arpeggiated keyboards and gauzy mix on “Lady Neptune”; the study beats and heavily reverbed vocals on “wordswordswords”; the fist-in-the-air chorus on “Fight Me”; the borderline-industrial beats on the album-opening “Bad Little Seed” — this kind of sonic variety is the hallmark of someone who doesn’t care much about arbitrary genre boundaries, and may her tribe increase. Also, she has a great voice — and there are some really solid hooks buried in those layers of sound (if you’re listening in the car, good luck staying under the speed limit during the chorus to “Don’t Feel Bad”).

WORLD/ETHNIC

Tarek Abdallah & Adel Shams El Din
Ousoul
Buda Musique (dist. MVD)
860381

Joined on this, their second album, by violinist Christian Fromentin, oud player and singer Tarek Abdallah and percussionist Adel Shams El Din embark on an exploration of the maqâm tradition in five melodic modes: nahawand, higazkar, rast, bayyati and sikah. The duo employed a variety of extended rhythmic patterns to create a set of five suites, each of which explores the modal melodies and the rhythmic patterns through controlled improvisation; the bulk of the music is played by only oud and percussion, but Fromentin’s occasional contributions bring a welcome third dimension to the sound as well, and the final track features Abdallah’s unaccompanied singing. All of the playing is excellent, and there are moments when improvisation and rhythmic precision are balanced so perfectly that the result is simply thrilling.

Lee “Scratch” Perry
The Megawatt Box Set of Lee “Scratch” Perry (3 discs)
Megawatt (dist. MVD)
MEGW 0362

In the later decades of his life, the legendary reggae producer Lee “Scratch” Perry — whose Black Ark recording studio had produced some of the most era- and genre-defining recordings of the roots reggae era — was invited to join a wide variety of producers who created backing tracks for him and asked him to intone his typically disjointed and weird pronouncements atop them. As one might expect, many of these projects resulted in unlistenable nonsense. But some were more successful. In the latter category are three albums organized and produced by John Saxon: The End of the American Dream (2007), Scratch Came, Scratch Saw, Scratch Conquered (2008), and Revelation (2010). The instrumental backing tracks he created are stylistically varied: more electro-funk oriented on American Dream, and more dancehall reggae on Scratch Conquered and Revelation (both of which feature contributions from George Clinton and Keith Richards). There are low points here, of course — for example, on “An Eye for an Eye” Perry pronounces “On Jah solid rock I stand” while a woman moans sexually in the background, a juxtaposition both tasteless and puzzling. But being inscrutable was Perry’s brand for most of this life; on these albums, at least, his odd pronouncements are tethered to some seriously compelling music.

Piper Street Sound
Black Eyed Peace (EP; vinyl & digital only)
Piper Street Sound
No cat. no.

Piper Street Sound
Black Eyed Dub (EP; vinyl & digital only)
Piper Street Sound
No cat. no.

A few years ago, in the middle of the COVID pandemic, Atlanta-bassed reggae producer Matt Mansfield (doing business as Piper Street Sound) released a modest but delightful EP of four instrumental tracks titled Black Eyed Peace. It prominently featured guitarist Andy Bassford, along with a fine horn section and several other sidemen. Now comes something even better: a set of dub versions based on those original tunes, each by different remix artist: the great bassist Victor Rice gives the title track a subtle but searching new vibe, with the bass granted a new prominence; Mad Professor brings his trademarked digital-roots vibe to “A Shadow in August,” recasting the track in a more dramatic way (as is his well-established wont); Naram puts the horn section in a deep bed of reverb and echo on his remix of “Icemilk”; and Mansfield himself contributes a VIP of “Stonesteady” that harks back to the glory days of King Tubby. The vinyl version includes both releases, with the original tracks on the A side and the dub versions on the B. Very, very nice.

Torulf
Ristningar I Ginnungagap (digital only)
Grimfrost
4648

Torulf is “a Nordic tribal artist from Sweden,” whose “compositions are manifestations of his own outer voyages and inner experiences.” What do those compositions sound like? Honestly, not like what you’d probably expect. Each track on Ristningar I Ginnungagap is a massive soundscape from which various elements emerge out of the dark: pounding but distant drums, ancient fiddles, synthesizers, and Torulf’s voice, which is heavily treated with echo and reverb and seems to come booming at you from the back of a very deep cave. He sings in a combination of Swedish and Old Norse, and his songs convey a heady mix of joy, defiance, pride, and foreboding. I’m sure he’s telling stories of some kind, but my Old Norse being pretty rusty I’m only getting a sense of mood. Still, that mood is quite compelling, as is the music itself.

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April 2024

Posted on April 1, 2024 by Rick Anderson

CLASSICAL

Franz Schubert
Extemporize
Shuann Chai
Cobra
0091

I’m always excited to hear a new performance of Schubert on the fortepiano, because Schubert’s music is such a great test case for the arguments in favor of historical-instrument recordings. It’s always seemed to me that if you hear a modern piano being pushed to its expressive limits in a performance of Schubert, chances are good that the performer is playing in a mannered or exaggerated way. Not so for the fortepiano, which has a more limited dynamic range and a very different timbre and tonality; when a Schubert performer takes the fortepiano to its limits, she is illustrating what Schubert was up against in the early 19th century, and demonstrating how he managed those limits. None of this is to say that the fortepiano is the only “right” instrument for Schubert, just that it’s an instrument that can bring a particular kind of insight to his music. Of course, none of this works unless the right person is playing — and Shuann Chai is exactly the right person. She plays this program of eight impromptus (opp. 90 and 142) with obvious joy, and also with powerful stylistic insight.

Various Composers
Invocazioni Mariane
Andreas Scholl; Accademia Bizantina / Alessandro Tampieri
Naïve
V 5474

Not too long ago I was asking myself “Hey, I haven’t heard anything from Andreas Scholl lately,” which made me sad — I think he’s possibly the most exciting countertenor of his generation. Then this disc arrived, much to my delight. It showcases a program of Neapolitan music from the 18th century, featuring composers both famous (Pergolesi, Vivaldi) and much less so (Pasquale Anfossi, Leonardo Vinci). The unifying theme here is the anguish of Mary incident to Christ’s crucifixion, and there is a mix of instrumental music (an overture by Nicola Porpora, a violin concerto by Vivaldi), oratorio extracts from Leonardo Vinci, and a culminating performance of Vivaldi’s electrifying setting of the “Stabat Mater” text. The playing by Alessandro Tampieri and the Accademia Bizantina is magnificent, and sumptuously recorded — but holy cow, Scholl is absolutely at the peak of his powers here. His voice achieves that truly elusive sweet spot for countertenors: it’s rich and weighty like a good contralto, but when deployed at the top of his range it turns as light and agile as a bird. Strongly recommended to all libraries.

George de la Hèle
Missa Praeter rerum seriem & Works by Manchicourt, Payen & Rogier
El León de Oro / Peter Phillips; Marco Antonio García de Paz
Hyperion (dist. Integral)
CDA68439

I have not been able to stop listening to this album since I received a promotional download a few weeks ago. The concept behind it is an exploration of the work of several Franco-Flemish composers who were hired in the late 16th century by King Philip II of Spain and subsequently worked in his Capella Flamenca (built for this purpose) providing sacred music to meet his exacting standards. The centerpiece of this album is a parody Mass by the obscure composer George de la Hèle, in its first complete recording. Based on a motet by Josquin des Prez, this setting adapts the unusual rhythmic gestures and voice distribution found in the original motet to create something truly unique and beautiful in its beauty and solemnity. Motets by Philippe Rogier, Pierre de Manchicourt, and (probably) the little-known Nicolas Payen round out a lustrous but somber program. As always, the singing by the mixed-voice El León de Oro choir is luminous.

Various Composers
The King’s Playlist
Ensemble Molière
Linn (dist. Naxos)
CKD738

The title may seem a bit cutesy, but it’s actually quite apt: the music on this program, which includes chamber works by the likes of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Michel-Richard Delalande, Jean de Cambefort, and Marin Marais, was written (as the liner notes indicate) “to accompany Louis XIV, the Sun King, in his daily life.” Just as you or I might go about our daily duties with music playing through earbuds, French royalty in the baroque era had court musicians to provide a soundtrack to both private relaxation and public ceremonies. Here the five-piece Ensemble Molière provides a lovely selection of concert suites and opera and ballet overtures, all played with the lightness and elegance that royal tastes of the time demanded; I can’t say enough about the group’s tone and blend, and even if some of the works here are relatively familiar (Marais’ Pièces en trio, the overture from Charpentier’s Les Art Florissants, etc.) there are also a couple of delightful surprises — and the program as a whole hangs together beautifully.

Various Composers
Heretical Angels: Rituals of Medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dialogos; Kantaduri / Katarina Livljanić; Joško Ćaleta
Arcana (dist. Naxos)
A560

This is a weird, eerie, and really quite wonderful collection of music that was inspired by “mystical inscriptions on ancient Bosnian tombstones.” Having been inspired by these inscriptions, Katarina Livljanić, director of the Dialogos ensemble, conducted research into Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian manuscript archives in which she found “remnants of pagan beliefs… often infused into the Christian context.” A particularly fruitful source turned out to be the 15th-century Miscellany of Radoslav, a collection from which several of the works featured on this album were taken. Some of the music itself is reconstructed from these sources, and some is interpolated from folk traditions or seems to have been created specifically for this project. What does the music sound like? Unsurprisingly, it’s spare and dark, sometimes featuring solo voices, sometimes folk instruments, and sometimes multiple voices in astringent harmony. There will be elements here that sound familiar to those immersed in Eastern Orthodox liturgical music and to those who have spent time with Eastern European folksong, but I promise this album overall will sound like nothing you’ve heard before.

JAZZ

Noah Haidu
Standards II
Sunnyside
SSC 1739

Put the word “standards” in the title of your jazz album and you have a better-than-average chance of inducing me to listen — especially if it’s your second standards album after a beautifully successful first installment. And that brings us, of course, to pianist Noah Haidu and his all-star trio (bassist Buster Williams, drummer Billy Hart). The program opens with an arrhythmic, apparently mostly improvised rendition of “Over the Rainbow” that most listeners will have to strain to recognize until the last few minutes (it’s over ten minutes long), and then segues into an exquisitely tender and searching performance of “Someone to Watch Over Me.” “Up Jumped Spring” starts out in an arrangement much like that of “Over the Rainbow,” but then lapses into a gently swinging waltz; “Days of Wine and Roses” swings powerfully but restrainedly. Overall, this is a truly special album that should find a welcome home in any library’s jazz collection.

Yosef Gutman Levitt
The World and Its People
Soul Song
No cat. no.

For a couple of years now I’ve been following the work of bassist/composer Yosef Gutman Levitt, whose recent projects have involved collaborating with musicians from various regions and also creating new arrangements of traditional Hasidic melodies. His latest is recognizable as a Levitt project, but also sounds very different from his previous work. At certain moments it sounds like contemporary classical music, and at others it flirts with jazziness — but then there are tracks (like “Nigun Tzemach Tzedek”) that strongly evoke 1980s New Acoustic Music. The latter can be explained by the influence of The Goat Rodeo Sessions, a newgrass project that had such an impact on Levitt that he recruited its producer, Richard King, to mix The World and Its People. The result is a deeply sweet and slightly melancholy set of tunes, underneath which a radiant joy shines warmly through. A passing or casual listener might hear the light textures and often-pentatonic melodies and dismiss this as New Age music. That would be a big mistake. There is a depth and a beauty to these compositions and these performances that rewards close and careful listening.

Mostly Other People Do the Killing
Disasters Vol. 1 (vinyl & digital only)
Hot Cup
201

Advancing on a Wild Pitch
Disasters Vol. 2 (vinyl & digital only)
Hot Cup
231

The adorably named Mostly Other People Do the Killing is a puckish avant-jazz ensemble led by bassist/composer Moppa Elliott. Over the years the group, in various configurations, has made some of the most challenging but also most charming and interesting albums in contemporary jazz, and this pair of new releases on Elliott’s Hot Cup label is no exception. As their titles suggest, both are concept albums. Disasters Vol. 1 finds a piano-trio version of MODtK performing a set of Elliott originals united around the idea of natural and man-made disasters that have taken place over the years in various Pennsylvania towns. The tunes are written in a pretty straightforward way, but in performance are subjected to various improvised interventions that sometimes radically undermine their structure. Disasters Vol. 2 is performed by an Elliott-led quintet operating under the name Advancing on a Wild Pitch. For this album the unifying concept remains the same, but the vibe is very different: the quintet configuration and the group’s playing style are very conventional and explicitly evoke the classic cool and hard-bop combos of the late 1950s and early 1960s. If you didn’t know the theme was disasters, you’d think you were just listening to an exceptionally fine straight-ahead jazz album. Both are strongly recommended to libraries supporting jazz curricula.

Sam Wilson
Wintertides
Self-released
No cat. no.

This is one of those discs that I keep cuing up while I’m doing my work, and then hitting <play> again as soon as it ends. It’s a highly unusual jazz album, and one that departs from most jazz conventions in significant ways, but that never seems to get old in the listening. Guitarist/composer Wilson composed and performed this music while dealing with some significant personal challenges and in the middle of the COVID pandemic; working with bassist Geordie Hart and drummer Jen Yakamovich, Wilson based her tunes on ideas generated by long walks on Galliano Island, just off of Canada’s west coast. The music doesn’t follow (at least not obviously) the standard head-solos-outchorus format of conventional jazz structure, and the performances feel paradoxically both carefully composed and freely improvised. I don’t know how to explain that; it’s worth listening carefully just to try to figure out how she does it. The playing is quiet and gentle throughout, but also emotionally searching. I found myself thinking of both Bill Frisell and Pat Metheny at their best — though Wilson’s tone is very different from theirs, very much her own. Highly recommended to all libraries.

FOLK/COUNTRY

Chatham County Line
Hiyo
Yep Roc (dist. Redeye)
YEP-3090

The stylistic innovation at the heart of Chatham County Line’s sound is no longer really groundbreaking — they’ve been doing this for 20 years now. But sonically, it’s still comes as something of a surprise: the expansive song structure of “Right on Time”; the anthemic but nearly arrhythmic “Lone Ranger”; what I’m pretty sure is a synthesizer on “Magic.” Dare we call it… prog-grass? Obviously, it doesn’t really matter much whether there’s a good term for their sound — what matters is that Chatham County Line’s sound is thrilling, and that the band achieves that thrillingness by drawing deeply on the country and bluegrass verities and then applying them however the heck they want. Not since the Mavericks has a country-adjacent band so gleefully transgressed musical boundaries, and bless them for that. And then they give us a dreamy, impressionistic Hank Cochran cover. Heh.

Wynn Stewart
The Bakersfield Pioneer: Complete Releases 1954-1962 (compilation; 2 discs)
Acrobat (dist. MVD)
ADDCD3497

He may not be as famous as Buck Owens or, heaven knows, Merle Haggard (or Dwight Yoakam for that matter), but Wynn Stewart was arguably every bit as important as any of them to the development of the Bakersfield Sound. And definitely more important than Yoakam, who’s a genius, but more of a Bakersfield Sound exponent than an architect. This generous collection comprises most of the singles and album tracks Stewart released during a twelve-year period between the mid-1950s and early 1960s, and for those who (like me) knew his name but not much of his work, it’s a revelation. Stewart may not have had a backing band led by Don Rich, but it must be said that he was a better singer than Buck Owens — his voice is prettier, with less exaggerated twang and just a bit more chesty richness; honestly, if Owens and Jim Reeves had had a baby, it would probably have sung like Wynn Stewart. And the songs themselves are sweet and cheesy in just the right ways, with that great mid-century production sound.

Driftwood
December Last Call
Self-released
No cat. no.

It’s a little bit annoying for me when a band bills itself as “Americana,” because that tells me I’m going to have a hard time deciding whether its release belongs in the FOLK/COUNTRY or the ROCK/POP section. Prominent fiddles and/or steel guitars can help me make that decision; so can significantly distorted guitars. But it’s often a bit of a coin toss. Driftwood is one example of the latter: there’s no question about the band’s deep roots in country and electro-folk, but it’s also true that the organ-driven “Every Which Way but Loose” evokes Tom Petty more than John Prine, and that “Just a Kid” comes across a bit like an Eagles outtake. I mean both of those observations in an entirely positive way. “Up All Night Blues,” on the other hand, with its 12/8 sway, has a vibe a bit like a sea shanty crossed with a country love song, while “Here at Last” is a slow honky-tonk stomp that (in a rational world) would be on every country station’s playlist. Great album overall.

ROCK/POP

Bas Jan
Back to the Swamp
Fire
FIRECD713

Both the album title and the cover art might lead you to expect some messy, humid, Southern Louisiana boogie rock. But no — in fact, the latest from Bas Jan could hardly be further from that aesthetic. For one thing, this all-woman quartet hails from London; for another, they’re named after a Dutch conceptual artist who disappeared mysteriously at sea in the mid-1970s. So there’s that. With all of that information, you might have a better idea of what to expect: odd, experimental, but weirdly accessible post-punk art-rock. There’s a violin (my promo copy came with no liner notes, so I’m not sure whether it’s a bandmember or a guest), as well as sturdy beats, understated (but attractive) sing-speaking from bandleader Serafina Steer, and song titles like “Margaret Calvert Drives Out” and “Credit Card.” Longtime adepts of post-punk art-rock will hear echoes of Delta 5, the Raincoats, and even (if you listen carefully) Gang of Four. Dubwise atmospherics sneak in from time to time (check the title track) and the drums are sometimes a bit funky, but the music is generally low-key and almost contemplative.

Jlin
Akoma
Planet Mu (dist. Redeye)
ZIQ460

Jlin is one of those artists working in the shadowy borderlands between dance music and contemporary classical — borderlands that may be shadowy, but that at least exist now. (For a long time there wasn’t anything there at all.) While Jlin’s music continues to reflect her background in the footwork scene and often brings in elements of hip hop, dubstep, and trap, on Akoma you’ll find her collaborating with the Kronos Quartet (on the marvelous “Sodalite”) and with Björk (on the album-opening “Borealis”). Elsewhere, “Summon” sounds like an outtake from an orchestral horror-movie soundtrack, “Eye Am” brings a strong Muslimgauze vibe, and “Open Canvas” is a galloping house-derived entry with an off-kilter 6/8 interlude that feels like dubstep on speed. This is an outstanding record that would sound equally confusing in the club and in the concert hall. More power to her.

Adrian Sutherland
Precious Diamonds
Midnight Shine Music
No cat. no.

On his second solo album, Canadian singer-songwriter Adrian Sutherland pays explicit homage to his indigenous heritage, writing two songs entirely in the Cree language. The lyrics on his English-language songs also address issues specific to the social and political struggles of his people. In musical terms, his style is pretty much meat-and-potatoes roots rock — but roots-rock of the highest caliber, with bittersweet chord progressions, powerful hooks, and anthemic sing-along choruses. Sutherland’s singing is also well worth noting: his voice is rich and sweet, his intonation perfect, his delivery emotional but not strident. I keep looking for highlight tracks to mention, but every song is great; you could maybe start with the 1950s-flavored “Feeling of Love,” but “Notawe,” the album’s lead-off track, is actually probably the best point of entry. Highly recommended to all libraries.

Amanda Grace
Give Me Away (digital only)
Self-released
No cat. no.

This album was my introduction to the fine Minnesota singer-songwriter Amanda Grace, whose music draws on a variety of old- and new-school American influences and whose voice is an unalloyed joy. Her primary style is a sort of roots/Americana hybrid, but it’s not self-consciously old-timey; “Wouldn’t Be You” has a stomping, Tom Waits-style bluesiness, but is really more of a modern torch song that replaces smoldering sexuality with defiance; “Love Yourself” is a quiet piano ballad with a therapeutic lyrical orientation; “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” is a slow and shimmering take on the classic Frankie Valli hit (and may be the album’s only cover, though since the promo came with no liner notes I can’t be sure). But for me the highlight is “The Last Ones,” a tender but powerful anthem of encouragement and uplift. This is a wonderful album and is strongly recommended to all libraries.

Nabihah Iqbal
Dreamer
Ninja Tune
ZENCD288

I somehow slept on this album when it was released last year — what brought it belatedly to my attention was the announcement of a digital-only remix EP that just came out last month. So, first things first: Dreamer is a fantastic avant-dream-pop excursion, on which a sort of New-Order-meets-Cocteau-Twins synthpop style (note in particular the wonderful “This World Couldn’t See Us”) rubs up against house-derived dance tracks (“Sunflower,” “Sky River”), glistening acoustic folk-pop (“Lilac Twilight”), and shoegaze-y ambience (“A Tender Victory”). Sometimes she sings lyrics in a conventional style, but often her voice is mixed so far to the back that you can’t tell whether she’s singing words or just syllables — meaning that much of this music is functionally instrumental. All of it, however, is simply stunning. Iqbal’s particular skill is for taking familiar musical elements and combining them in ways you might never have anticipated, and putting them to work in delivering subtly but powerfully engaging songs. The remixes are a bit of a mixed bag, as remix collections always are, but all are worth hearing.

WORLD/ETHNIC

Farah Kaddour
Badā (vinyl & digital only)
Asadun Alay
AAR2

The buzuq is an Arabic stringed instrument closely related to the Greek bouzouki, the Turkish saz, and other members of the long-necked lute family used in various musical traditions of the Middle East and Mediterranean. Farah Kaddour is a Beirut-based instrumentalist, musicologist and educator, and she has a distinguished history playing in bands as disparate in style as Sanam (unclassifiable Middle Eastern folk-rock-industrial) and Mustafa Said’s Asīl Ensemble (contemporary classical Arabian). But on Badā she steps out as a soloist, accompanied minimally on two tracks by percussionist Ali El Hout. Most of the music here is improvised; some is precomposed, and one is a traditional tune given her own unique interpretation. Her virtuosity is obvious but not ostentatious; the modes and rhythms will sound familiar to anyone who has experience with music from this region, but there’s something very distinctive about her sound — her attack, her phrasing, her uses of repetition and variation are all uniquely her own, and every track is fascinating and intense.

Creation Rebel
High Above Harlesden: 1978-2023 (compilation; 5 discs)
On-U Sound (dist. Redeye)
ONUCD159

In 1978, the young Adrian Sherwood was in the process of transitioning from a record distributor to a record producer. He established the Hitrun label and organized a studio band that included percussionist Bono Iyabinghi Noah (who would go on to make gorgeously idiosyncratic records as African Head Charge), bassist Lizard Logan, and drummer Style Scott (soon to team up with Errol “Flabba” Holt to form the Roots Radics and, later, the bass/drums foundation of Dub Syndicate), and others. Under the name Creation Rebel, this loosely-configured ensemble would not only create brilliant backing tracks for such singers and deejays as Prince Far I and Bim Sherman, but would also become one of the UK’s most creative and innovative purveyors of instrumental dub reggae. This is the core of the band’s approach on such seminal releases as Starship Africa (basically a dub concept album) and Rebel Vibrations. Rhythms first featured on these albums would reappear later as backing tracks for a variety of vocal tunes and as the foundation of other dubwise excursions on the On-U Sound label. This box set, which also features the band’s outstanding 2023 return, Hostile Environment, is a bit short on bonus material to benefit longstanding fans, but is still a priceless document of a deeply important thread in the rich tapestry of reggae history.

Glass Beams
Mahal (EP; vinyl & digital only)
Ninja Tune
ZENDNLS667

This Melbourne-based trio cultivates an air of mystery by revealing little information about its members and by performing while wearing chain-mail-like masks. Their music is largely instrumental (voices emerge from time to time, but are generally used to convey melody or texture rather than lyrics), and it blends a standard guitar-bass-drums format with electronic treatments while also blending Eastern and Western melodies and rhythms. The group’s sparse output — this is their second EP, and comes three years after their first release, also an EP — belies its popularity; it regularly sells out venues in both the UK and the US. Listening to Mahal, you can see why. The music is hypnotically repetitive but never boring; melodies are repeated and varied, but never spun out into self-indulgently extended solos designed to impress the guitarists in the audience while boring everyone else. Textures are delicate but sturdy, intricate but never dense. Mahal is a completely unique and delightful listening experience.

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March 2024

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Rick Anderson

CLASSICAL

Franz Schubert
Schubert
Anja Linder; Laurent Korea; Julie Sévilla-Fraysse
Naïve (dist. Naxos)
V 8208

The backstory behind this album is so interesting it’s tempting to lose sight of the music itself: shortly after winning a prestigious international chamber music competition, harpist Anja Linder was involved in a serious accident that left her partially paralyzed and unable to to use harp pedals in a conventional way. The invention of a computer-assisted electro-pneumatic harp allowed her to return to professional performance. And one of the fruits of these efforts is this heart-stoppingly beautiful program of chamber works by Franz Schubert, including the famous “Arpeggione” sonata and the equally beloved slow movement from his second piano trio. Playing her own adaptations of two of the works on the program, she is joined by violinist Laurent Korea and cellist Julie Sévilla-Fraysse, and their performances are stunning. There are a few moments when I wish the harp were a bit more forward in the mix, but that’s the closest thing I have to a complaint about this outstanding album.

Various Composers
Sacred Treasures of Venice
The London Oratory Schola Cantorum / Charles Cole
Hyperion (dist. Integral)
CDA68427

The title Sacred Treasures of Venice might lead you to expect big, grandiose polychoral works with lush instrumental accompaniment along the lines of those by Monteverdi and the various Gabrielis who made St. Mark’s Basilica a major center of European religious music in the 16th century. And indeed, both Monteverdi and the Gabrielis are represented on this program, along with lesser lights like Claudio Merulo and Giacomo Finetti. But the music, performed by the men and boys of the London Oratory Schola Cantorum, is more subdued than one might anticipate: no brass, no organ, just a cappella motets sung with restrained power, admirable blend, and very fine intonation. This is the third in the choir’s Sacred Treasures series, and is a very welcome addition to the catalog.

MC Maguire
Dystophilia
Neuma
190

In equal parts thrilling and exhausting, these two works by MC Maguire don’t exactly blur the lines between art music and pop music — instead, they throw elements of pop and classical music onto a huge pile and them set them aflame. On Yummy World, Maguire takes Justin Bieber’s hit song “Yummy” and incorporates elements of it into a madcap musical pastiche that also involves orchestral passages, jazz rhythms, unidentifiable samples, and breakbeats. Imagine someone making a smoothie out of virtually every musical gesture made in the past 100 years — now imagine being thrown into the blender with it. That’s what Yummy World sounds like. Another Lucid Dream takes a conceptually similar approach with quite different results. Blending 17th-century classical music, heavy metal, and “Lucid Dream” by the late rapper Juice Wrld, Lucid Dream is less frantic than Yummy World but every bit as dense and complex. If Edgard Varèse had had access to a sampler and an effectively limitless amount of digital cultural content, he likely would have made music like this.

Matthew Locke
Consorts Flat and Sharp
Phantasm
Linn (dist. Naxos)
CKD737

Phantasm is one of the world-leading viol consorts and has been for almost 30 years now. This is their second recording dedicated to the music of the great English court composer Matthew Locke, whose consorts are known for their oddity in terms of melody, harmony, and even tempo. Three of the suites presented here are “flat” consorts (i.e., written in flat keys — though one of them is actually written in sharp keys, mutating from A major to A minor) written in honor of Locke’s cousin; the other five are grouped under the heading “The Little Consort.” His prose writings reveal a man very much at odds with his time, who freely expressed contempt for any contemporaries whose approach to music differed from his, and it’s possible that the idiosyncrasies of his style are a reflection of that feeling — but for most listeners, that won’t be what comes through. Instead it will be the grace and invention of his writing and the superb playing by Phantasm.

Gabriel Olafs
Lullabies for Piano and Cello (digital only)
Gabriel Olafs; Steiney Sigurðardóttir
Decca
5562113

The title says it all: this program consists of a mix of original pieces and traditional lullabies reimagined (and to some degree recomposed) and arranged for piano and cello. The music is, of course, gentle and quiet, but don’t let yourself be so lulled by its gentleness and quietude that you fail to appreciate its subtle artistry (including tastefully wielded multitracking). Olafs is the pianist here and he’s joined by cellist Steiney Sigurðardóttir, who gave birth shortly before the recording sessions — bringing a particular warmth and tenderness to her playing. Traditional Icelandic melodies play an important role here, and Olafs has said that they not only bring him back to his own childhood but also carry echoes of Icelandic culture going back over a millennium. The album is deeply lovely and also nicely functional — though since it clocks in at less than half an hour of music, your child had better fall asleep fast.

JAZZ

Lynne Arriale Trio
Being Human
Challenge (dist. Naxos)
CR73572

Being Human is the remarkable pianist/composer Lynne Arriale’s 17th album as a leader, and her hard-won experience is on full display here. It’s a rare jazz artist who can pull off a concept album (especially one on which the concept is the variety of human emotions) without lapsing into mawkishness or self-indulgence; Arriale does it by never losing sight of structure or swing, and never taking six minutes to say something musically that can be said in under three. As a result, virtually every track is a highlight: the Calypso-flavored “Joy”; the melodically and harmonically knotty “Curiosity”; the simple and tender “Love,” which is reprised at the end of the program as a choral piece (with wordless “vocals” synthesized using a Yamaha Clavinova). Any library supporting a jazz curriculum should seriously consider acquiring this album for its pedagogical potential as well as its purely musical qualities.

David Friesen
This Light Has No Darkness
Origin
82888

Jazz albums with explicitly religious themes are not unheard of, but they’re not typical either. And yet last month I recommended a solo album by a jazz guitarist who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and whose music served as an expression of her faith, and this month I find myself recommending a new album from the venerable bassist/composer David Friesen, whose music in this case is also written in an attitude of explicit Christian devotion. To make it even more interesting, it’s written for a combination of jazz trio and chamber orchestra — and the orchestra has been created using sampling software (for the interesting and heartbreaking story behind that decision, see the liner notes). How’s the music? It’s beautiful, and explores better than most jazz/classical fusion projects a very fruitful borderland between the two genres. Listen closely and you can tell the orchestra isn’t real, but that somehow only makes the 12-movement work all the more uniquely lovely.

The Soul Jazz Rebels
ICONIQ
Black Stamp Music
No cat. no.

The third album from this French quartet finds them continuing to engage soul-jazz tradition in a manner less rebellious than straightforwardly, joyfully celebratory. Though the program consists entirely of original compositions, it would fit comfortably in any collection that includes 1960s recordings by the likes of Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff: Hammond organ is at the center of the group’s sound (and therefore there’s no bass player, the organist playing that role with pedals), and saxophone is added to expand the normal soul-jazz trio format. Also expansive is the group’s stylistic palette, which draws on rhythms from Central Africa and Mauritius as well as American jazz vibes. What’s constant, though, is the sense of joy that pervades every track, from the sweetly bouncy “Ambalaba” to the swinging and headlong “Train fou.” This is one of my favorite jazz albums of the year so far, and is strongly recommended to all library collections.

Christian Fabian Trio
Hip to the Skip
Spice Rack
SR-101-68

And while we’re talking about funky soul jazz that prominently features the Hammond B3, let’s consider this release from the Christian Fabian Trio, a bass-led combo that also includes keyboardist Matt King and drummer Jason Marsalis. These guys range all over the place for source material, from hard bop classics like “Moanin'” to fusion classics like Joe Zawinul’s “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” with some traditional New Orleans material and originals thrown in for good measure. Speaking of New Orleans, you hear it constantly in Marsalis’ slippery syncopations, but there are all kinds of other funk flavors in the mix as well. As someone who has gone on the record more than once saying that an awful lot of what calls itself “funky” jazz seems to be played by people with only the vaguest understanding of funkiness, take it from me: this is one of the funkiest albums you’ll hear this year, in jazz or any other genre. Highly recommended.

Chris Rottmayer
Being
Shifting Paradigm
SP197

This album was my introduction to the work of pianist/composer Chris Rottmayer, and it really knocked me out. Interestingly, the all-original program was created as the result of his intensive study of the playing of Mulgrew Miller during the latter’s time with the Woody Shaw Quintet. Rottmayer transcribed Miller’s recorded parts and consciously drew on the musical language of Miller and Shaw when he was writing and arranging these tunes. Leading a quartet that includes trumpeter/flügelhorn player Russ Johnson, drummer Matt Enders, and the ageless and legendary bassist Rufus Reid, Rottmayer delivers sprightly hard bop workouts (“Châtelet,” “Rue des Lombards”), sensitive ballads (“Pigalle,” “Autumn Evening”) and more, all with a marvelous blend of delicacy and strength, and all of it with a mighty sense of swing. If you’re noticing a predominance of Paris-related track titles, that’s on purpose; half of Rottmayer’s compositions here are ruminations on and musical depictions of various places in that famously jazz-friendly city.

FOLK/COUNTRY

Lynn Miles
Tumbleweedyworld
True North
TND802

Singer/songwriter Lynn Miles has had a long and distinguished career, writing more than 900 songs and releasing 15 albums. At age 65 her voice remains impressively powerful, and of course her writing chops just keep getting stronger and stronger: “All Bitter Never Sweet” is straight-up bluegrass, with Scruggs-style banjo and resonator slide guitar — but much of this material reflects a long immersion in many folk and folk-adjacent styles, including country blues (which you hear especially on “Moody”), cowboy-flavored acoustic country (“Night Owl,” “Hwy 105” with its subtle clawhammer banjo), and quiet neo-folk (“Gold in the Middle,” “Johnny Without June”). There’s a warmth and confidence to her delivery than can come only from hard-won experience, and this album should find a welcome home in any library with a collecting interest in folk, country, and singer-songwriter releases.

The International Treasures
Together, We Are the International Treasures
The Supper Club Collective
No cat. no.

I approached this one with caution. The wry title, and the fact that the first song on the program is titled “Egg Suckin’ Dog,” led me to expect slightly painful humor. But gratefully, that opening track (an old Jack Clement song, as it turns out) lasted less than a minute, and then things got good. The International Treasures are a duo consisting of Doyle Turner and Ted Hajansiewicz, both of them celebrated songwriters and solo artists with solid reputations on the American midwest circuit. I was interested to see that on this duo album, they don’t specify which songs were written by whom, noting only that “most songs (were) written by Doyle Turner and/or Ted Hajnasiewicz” — which suggests a refreshing modesty on both parts. The songs themselves are great, generally country-informed but not country-defined, sung gently and often in tight harmony. Highlights include the simmering “Gimme Some More” (which also comes close to rocking out, on the chorus) and a soulful, organ-driven number titled “Nice to Know Ya.”

Tim Easton
Find Your Way
Black Mesa
BMR078

The title track of Tim Easton’s latest, Find Your Way, opens the album with a sweet but slightly eerie ambience that recalls The Band’s Robbie Robertson’s collaborations with producer Daniel Lanois. But then comes “Everything You’re Afraid Of,” a straightforward acoustic folk-rocker, and then a swaying 6/8 number called “Here for You,” complete with banjo and mandolin. By this point you might be starting to notice a lyrical theme of encouragement and supportiveness, verging on the therapeutic (sample couplet: “You don’t have to have shame for the games you played/Let’s take all that pain and rage and useless hatred away”). That tendency continues through some traditionally-configured country blues (“Bangin’ Drum [Inside My Mind]”) and a honky-tonk tune that Hank Williams would have appreciated (“Arkansas Twisted Heart”), but there is also a bitterly funny kiss-off (“Dishwasher’s Blues”) and a desperate take-me-back song (“What Will It Take?”). The through-line for all of these songs is Easton’s sharp way with a lyrical observation, not to mention his ability to startle you with a great hook. Recommended.

ROCK/POP

Trevor Horn
Echoes Ancient & Modern
Universal Music Group
486 0613

Trevor Horn was one of the most celebrated and successful producers of the 1980s, having made hit singles and albums with the likes of ABC, Grace Jones, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood (after playing bass with the groundbreaking Buggles). On this release he recruits singers to perform radically new arrangements of hit songs by other artists from that period, resulting in such neck-snapping incongruities as a swooping orchestral setting of Jones’ disco hit “Slave to the Rhythm” and a thumping techno version of Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” featuring Marc Almond. Elsewhere, Jack Lukeman brings a decidedly Nick Cave vibe to his performance of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”; Toyah Wilcox and Robert Fripp turn “Relax (Don’t Do It)” into a lush synth pop reverie… you get the idea. Every track may not be equally brilliant, but there are some startlingly gorgeous moments here — and of course the production is consistently outstanding.

Vivabeat
Party in the War Zone (expanded reissue)
Rubellan Remasters
RUBY52CD

While we’re looking back to the ’80s, libraries should definitely take note of this significant reissue. Vivabeat have the distinction of being the first American band signed to the British Charisma label (after being discovered by Peter Gabriel in the late 1970s). Their techno-pop sound is most definitely of its era — the yelpy vocals, the cheesy organ, the herky-jerk rhythms — but their debut album is valuable not only as a period document but also as a very fun listening experience. And this beautifully remastered version expands the original ten-song program with an additional ten tracks of bonus material including previously unreleased songs. Consider the fact that these guys toured in support of bands as stylistically disparate as R.E.M, the Thompson Twins, and Gang of Four, and you know you’re going to be hearing something pretty unusual.

Richard Thompson Band
Historic Classic Concert: Live in Nottingham 1986 (2 discs)
The Store for Music
SFMCD570

I’m a longstanding fan of legendary guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson, and have loved his work at every stage of his (very long and ongoing) career, but I’m not sure he ever led a band better than the one he took on the road in 1985 and 1986 in support of Across a Crowded Room. There have been several live albums released based on performances from those tours, and this one, recorded at Rock City in Nottingham in November of 1986, is definitely among the best. The package is shamefully lacking in musician credits, but he obviously has Clive Gregson and Christine Collister singing backup, and that’s almost certainly Rory McFarlane on bass; sadly, I don’t think I hear his frequent collaborator John Kirkpatrick on accordion. (You can hear the latter on another live recording from this same venue during the same month; apparently Thompson played a multi-night stand there.) The sound is generally very good and the live mix is outstanding — and Thompson’s guitar playing is absolutely fearsome, particularly on “Tear Stained Letter,” a traditional showcase for his soloing.

Steve Drizos
I Love You Now Leave Me Alone
Cavity Search
CSR175

The second solo album from producer and multi-instrumentalist Steve Drizos finds him moving away from the one-man-band approach of Axiom and instead bringing together some like-minded musicians (including his keyboardist wife, Jenny Conlee, of the Decemberists) to put together a very fine set of rock and power-pop tunes. Drizos is most commonly found behind the drum set, but for this album he ceded the drum stool to Joe Mengis (of Eels) and stuck to rhythm guitar and synthesizer, as well as lead vocals. The songs are fantastic: carefully crafted, but with an unassuming meat-and-potatoes feel that nicely complements his pleasant, workmanlike vocals. You’ll hear elements of jangle pop (“Kick into Touch,” “Troubled Heart”), heartland rock (the acoustic-guitar-driven “Shadow Life”), and even atmospheric arena rock (“Beautiful Nothing”), but what unite everything are the open-hearted intimacy of Drizos’ lyrics and his admirable way with a melodic hook. Highly recommended to all libraries.

Acrelid
Illegal Rave Tapes Selektion: 1999-2012 (vinyl & digital only)
Dance Data
DDR003

John Lee Richardson, a.k.a. Acrelid, has been an enthusiastic denizen of the UK rave scene since its inception in the 1990s. And since that time he’s kept an extensive archive of his own musical tinkerings, tracks heavily influenced not only by the jungle, drum’n’bass, and acid techno sounds of the era, but also by the field and sound-demo recordings broadcast much earlier in the 20th century via the BBC Radiophonic Workshop program. On this curated compilation of tracks from those archives (also available as a complete collection), we hear the sound of a young artist besotted by the frenetic energy of early jungle (“Vebus,” the ragga-inflected “Scapegoat”), glitch funk (“Geiger Counter”), and metaphysical experimentation (“It’s Not a Matter of Belief”). You’ll hear strong echoes of Meat Beat Manifesto and Spring Heel Jack on much of this material, but over the course of the album’s 15 tracks you also hear a very distinctive musical personality emerging.

WORLD/ETHNIC

Ramzi Aburedwan & Dal’Ouna Ensemble
Oyoun al Kalam (digital-only reissue)
Riverboat
TUGDD1139

The Dal’Ouna Ensemble was formed in 2000 by Franco-Palestinian composer and multi-instrumentalist Ramzi Aburedwan, and Oyoun al Kalam was the group’s first of four albums originally released between 2007 and 2012. This reissue marks the first time it’s been available digitally. Aburedwan’s primary instrument is the bouzouk (a long-necked lute closely related to the Greek bouzouki and the Egyptian saz), but he also plays viola on this recording, and is joined by various percussionists, oud and accordion players, and the brilliant singers Oday Al-Khatib and Noura Mahti, whose richly emotive but crystal-clear vocals weave sinuously through the all-acoustic mix while clarinet (I think; the promo came with no liner notes), percussion, oud, and accordion all shift in and out of complex unison melodic lines and rich harmonies. This is a lovely and fascinating album.

Gordon Grdina’s The Marrow with Fathieh Honari
Gordon Grdina’s The Marrow with Fathieh Honari
Attaboy Girl
ABG-8

Guitarist/composer Gordon Grdina is, in addition to a boundary-pushing jazz artist, a master of the oud and an adept of traditional Arabic music. He has combined those elements on previous albums, but on this one he focuses tightly on Persian musical traditions, featuring the haunting, keening vocals of Fathieh Honari alongside her son Hamin (percussion), bassist Mark Helias, and legendary downtown cellist Hank Roberts (whom some readers will recognize as a frequent past collaborator with Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Tim Berne, and others). The material on this album is a mix of Grdina’s original compositions and songs from the Persian folk and pop repertoires, including settings of poems by Rumi. Although the rhythms and scales will sound exotic to many Western ears, this music is actually much more immediately accessible than some of Grdina’s more jazz-oriented work, and offers a valuable window into a musical tradition that is generally underrepresented in the US. For all libraries.

Various Artists
Redman International: We Run Things (2 discs)
VP/17 North Parade
VPCD4247

I’ve been a passionate reggae fan for over 40 years now, and I confess that even I had never heard of producer Hugh “Redman” James and his Redman International label — a label, which, based on the evidence of this two-disc retrospective, was an absolute hotbed of A-list talent during the early days of digital dancehall music. Honestly, everyone is here: Gregory Isaacs (“Chisholm Avenue”), Little John (“Rub A Dub One”), Sugar Minott (“Them a Wolf”), Pinchers (“Blinking Something”), and of course the leading light of lovers dancehall, Sanchez (“Old Friend,” “Lady in Red”). James was a fine producer, and his computer rhythms are nicely rendered and (for the most part) beautifully mastered here. Even if there are several unfortunate examples of singers performing songs over rhythms whose chord changes don’t match those of the song in question, that’s such a common problem during this period of reggae history that it would seem churlish to criticize it too much in this case. This is a highly valuable document of an important era of reggae history.

Otava Yo
Loud & Clear
ARC Music (dist. Naxos)
EUCD2971

In my experience, Russian Orthodox religious music is very dark and intense, and much Eastern European folk music is fiery and modal and intense, so I was prepared for something very different from the generally quite gentle and lyrical music on offer here from Russian folk ensemble Otava Yo. To be clear, I’m not saying there’s no intensity in this music: the vinegary fiddles and full-throated male singing on “Ah, the Woods” has plenty of energy, and “Tongue Twisters” has the vibe of a full-on hoedown, albeit one that prominently features bagpipes (and a crypto-reggae beat). But “A Gusli Tune” is pure sweetness and lyricism, and the blend of ancient and modern instruments on “It’s the Last Day” creates a rich musical texture that nicely bridges the gap not just between old and new, but also between Eastern and Western folk traditions. For any library with a collecting interest in European folk music.

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February 2024

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Rick Anderson

CLASSICAL

Julius Eastman
Femenine
Talea Ensemble; Harlem Chamber Players
Kairos (dist. MVD)
0015116KAI

Written in 1974, when Julius Eastman was on the music faculty of SUNY Buffalo and performing as a founding member of the S.E.M. Ensemble, Femenine is a fascinating long-form work that blends strict composition with improvisation, and draws heavily on first-generation minimalist technique while also defining a unique style of its own. It’s also part of a cluster of early-1970s pieces in which he dealt explicitly with issues of Black and queer identity, challenging currently-received assumptions about both. With Femenine, however, the explicit challenge is limited to the work’s title; the music itself carries no obvious sociopolitical content. As realized in this arrangement by the Talea Ensemble and the Harlem Chamber Players, the work is reminiscent of compositions by Steve Reich in its highly limited harmonic development and its dense elaboration of a single melodic motif through textural and rhythmic variation, but Eastman’s unique musical personality ensures that this would never be mistaken for a Reich piece. The performance and the recorded sound are both brilliant.

William Byrd
Sacred Works (2 discs)
The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys / Jeremy Filsell; Gerre Hancock
Signum Classics (dist. Naxos)
SIGCD776

One of the first things that will strike you about this very fine (and generous) selection of sacred choral music by the great English composer William Byrd will be the production style: the choir is recorded in a large church space, and the sound is resoundingly, unapologetically churchy: the listener hears the whole space, and gets a sense of distance from the choir — without any appreciable loss of detail. The program itself is also remarkable: it consists of a reconstructed Catholic Mass for the feast of Corpus Christi alongside a 1981 recording of an earlier version of this choir performing Byrd’s Anglican Great Service — illustrating the political reality that shaped and constrained Byrd’s compositional output throughout his career as both a devout Roman Catholic and a court composer to the the head of the Church of England. The music, of course, is consistently glorious — Byrd is one of two or three obvious candidate’s for the title of England’s Greatest Composer — and so is the singing. This is a magnificent release all around and should find a home in any library with a collecting interest in Renaissance music.

Various Composers
The Golden Hour
Lucile Boulanger; Simon Pierre; Olivier Fortin
Alpha Classics (dist. Naxos)
ALPHA 1059

This program of six French trio sonatas from the Regency period showcases the works of composers most readers will recognize (Jean-Marie Leclair, Joseph Boudin de Boismortier) as well as some by a couple of less familiar, though by no means obscure, names (Louis-Antoine Dornel, François Francoeur). The unifying theme of this album is the documentation of a highly important moment in the development of French music, with the viola da gamba in decline, the violin growing in popularity, and the resolution (after a long period of conflict) between purist French style and the increasingly beloved Italian approach. Some of these were originally written for two violins and continuo, but are arranged here for violin, viol, and harpsichord; one was originally intended for solo violin. All of the works represented are examples of an approach that would come to be called “les goûts réunis,” a phrase coined by François Couperin to signify a reconciliation of the conflict between different national styles of composition. This is both a lovely and an instructive recording.

Jürg Frey
Continuité, fragilité, résonance
Quatuor Bozzini; Konus Quartett
elsewhere
026

Jürg Frey
Les Signes passagers
Keiko Shichijo
elsewhere
029

The chamber music of Jürg Frey is both quiet and unsettling. Describing his long one-movement work, the aptly titled Continuité, fragilité, résonance, Frey writes: “the new piece will work with sound movements and stillness, but always develop these phenomena out of silence and lead them back into silence, thus creating its own acoustic reality of concentration and deepening.” One could argue that all musical phenomena develop “out of silence,” but in the case of Frey’s music this is psychologically as well as literally true. This piece in particular, written for an octet consisting of string and saxophone quartets, begins with near-silence and gradually swells to a sort of high mezzopiano, with extended instrumental lines layering and overlapping each other to create chords that are sometimes gently sad and that occasionally bristle with a quiet foreboding. Les Signes passagers, on the other hand, is written for solo fortepiano and consists of seven relatively brief movements. This music is very quiet as well, but here Frey is exploring the sonic world of an instrument known for its limited dynamic and timbral palette; instead of pushing its boundaries, he keeps things low-key — but there’s plenty of complexity in the delicacy of his compositions.

Luigi Boccherini
String Quintets
Karski Quartet; Raphaël Feye
Evil Penguin
EPRC0057

Writing in 1784, the great music historian Charles Burney said of Luigi Boccherini’s quintets: “There is, perhaps, no instrumental music as ingenious, elegant, and pleasing as [these works], in which, invention, grace, modulation, and good taste, conspire to render them, when well executed, a treat for the most refined hearers and critical judges of musical composition.” To say this at a time when Mozart and Haydn were both mature and highly productive composers of chamber music is pretty bold — but after listening to this account of four of his works for two violins, viola, and two cellos, it’s kind of hard to disagree. Making it even more attractive to library collections is the fact that this release marks the world-premiere recording of Boccherini’s quintet in C major (Op. 46/3 G361), a work with a slightly startling Sturm und Drang-y vibe in the minuet movement. But there are plenty of smaller surprises throughout the program, and everything on this album is a delight. The playing and the production quality are both outstanding. Strongly recommended to all libraries.

JAZZ

Bob Brookmeyer
The Classic Albums Collection (4 discs)
Elightenment (dist. MVD)
EN4CD9225

I can’t get enough of these Enlightenment sets, which allow me to catch up on classic albums by jazz artists that are represented only sporadically (if at all) in my collection. The latest delight in this category is this four-disc CD set that includes eight albums led by the great valve trombonist and pianist Bob Brookmeyer, all of them originally issued between 1958 and 1962. These recordings find him leading conventional big bands and small combos, but also working in unusual configurations — notably, on The Ivory Hunters, in a two-piano configuration alongside Bill Evans. The package also includes straightforward cool jazz, downright orchestral big-band extravaganzas, Latin excursions, and a whole album of small-combo blues numbers. Fellow musicians include Ron Carter, Stan Getz, Mel Lewis, Paul Motian, and many other A-list players. Brookmeyer himself is both breathtakingly virtuosic and exquisitely tasteful throughout. Any library that doesn’t already own all of these albums on CD should seriously consider picking up this set.

Kristen R. Bromley
Muagsician: Solo Jazz Guitar
Self-released
KRBM23001

Jazz guitarist and pedagogue Kristen Bromley has released a number of fine solo and small-combo albums, as well as five books on jazz theory and guitar technique. Her latest is a generous program of solo guitar arrangements (and a handful of guitar-vocal tunes) of jazz standards and original compositions, most of the latter on religious themes. Playing a custom Benedetto guitar, she explores a variety of tones and styles from a bluesy and straight-ahead rendition of “Summertime” to a harmonically inventive take on the German hymn tune “Lasst uns erfreuen” (known to many Protestant churchgoers as “All Creatures of Our God and King”). Along the way are sometimes tender, sometimes heartily swinging renditions of standards like “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and “All the Things You Are” alongside impressive and beautiful originals that reflect her deep faith. This is an unusual and very lovely effort from an outstanding guitarist.

Adam Schroeder & Mark Masters
CT!: Adam Schroeder & Mark Masters Celebrate Clark Terry
Capri
74170-2

The names at the top of the masthead for this album should bring a smile to any contemporary jazz lover’s face: veteran baritone sax player and bandleader Adam Schroeder, brilliant arranger Mark Masters, and, of course, the late Clark Terry — not only a masterful bop and hard bop player and composer, but also an innovator in the use of the fluegelhorn in jazz. For this celebration of Terry’s music, Schroeder leads a big band that includes such eminent players as saxophonist Bob Sheppard and legendary drummer Peter Erskine. Unsurprisingly, the arrangements are spectacular: idiomatic, swinging, elegantly detailed. Equally unsurprisingly, the compositions are a treat, and include such favorites as “Serenade to a Bus Seat,” “In Orbit,” and a lovely arrangement of “Perdido Line” (written on the chord changes of the beloved bebop standard “Perdido”). The production quality is worth noting here as well — the band’s sound is warm, rich, and beautifully detailed. For all jazz collections.

Dave Brubeck Quartet
Live from the Northwest, 1959
Brubeck Editions
BECD2310001

A few months before releasing their iconic Time Out album, the Dave Brubeck Quartet played a series of dates at the Multnomah Hotel and at Clark College, both in Portland, Oregon. Accompanying them was sound engineer Wally Heider, who had his Ampex 350-2 tape recorder, and who managed to capture both concerts in fantastic clarity and sonic warmth. The luxuriousness of the sound quality is matched by the group’s playing: this was the band at the peak of its form, bandleaders Dave Brubeck and saxophonist Paul Desmond supported by the brilliant rhythm section of bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello. It’s hard to imagine an ensemble that better exemplified the paradoxical requirements of jazz: looseness and tightness. On (just to take one example), the Brubeck composition “Two Part Contention,” the band swings joyfully but with audible ease, Morello laying back with quiet, gentle syncopations while Desmond solos with metronomic precision. This whole album is an utter delight, and my only regret is that we don’t have a record of more than an hour’s worth of the performances.

Bill Anschell
Improbable Solutions
Origin
82886

If you ask me, the “improbable solution” at which keyboardist/composer Bill Anschell arrived in creating this album had to do with creating a program that draws equally on the straight-ahead jazz verities and on forward-thinking experimentation without sacrificing one for the other. Very few are able to strike that balance, and his achievement here is significant. Compare, for example, the rockish and melodically angular “Is This Thing Even On?” with the more conventionally jazzy “Nimbus,” and then compare both of them with the lovely “Hidden Nobility,” which blends the two approaches perfectly. Anschell has been on the jazz scene for 40 years, but his previous albums as a leader have all been acoustic affairs — this one finds him striking out in fruitful new electronic directions, and is highly recommended to all jazz collections.

FOLK/COUNTRY

The Resonant Rogues
The Resonant Rogues
Sassafras Sounds
No cat. no.

The fourth album from this band, the core of which is the singing/songwriting duo of multi-instrumentalist Sparrow and guitarist Keith Josiah Smith, finds them continuing to develop their unique blend of old-time, Cajun, and old-school Nashville sounds. You’ll hear swampy two-step (“93,500 Miles”), gentle honky-tonk (“Tell the Mailman,” “Reset My Heart”), a celebration of the Blue Ridge Mountains (“Ridgelines”), an incongruously vivacious minor-key lament (“Misery Is My Company”), and many more explorations of traditional Southern musical byways. Fine songwriting, fine singing, good production quality — what more could you ask for from indie Americana artists? Recommended.

Scott Zosel
Saturday’s Child (digital only)
Self-released
No cat. no.

“Inspired by the bold poetry of Emily Dickinson and the psychedelic country of Gram Parsons,” his Bandcamp site says, and you may think that sounds like an amazing combination or good reason to stay away — but take it from me, those influences blend with mellifluous grace in the music of singer-songwriter Scott Zosel. He crafts melodies and chord progressions that grab and don’t let go — notice in particular the first change on “Brewster’s Red Hotel,” which is about as perfect a moment as you can expect from a songwriter. The overall sound is solid but atmospheric at the same time; the songs seem simultaneously to march forward resolutely and to float just above the ground. Highlights include “Rock in a Place,” The Day My Beauty Died,” and the gorgeous “Return to Me.”

Steeleye Span
Live at the Bottom Line, 1974
Omnivore
OVCD-531

When bassist Ashley Hutchings and singer Sandy Dennis left Fairport Convention in 1970, each went their separate way — Denny to a solo career (cut tragically short by her early death), and Hutchings to the founding of Steeleye Span, which did what he had hoped Fairport would do: focus much more tightly on adaptations of traditional English music. But by 1974, when this performance at New York’s famous Bottom Line club was recorded, the band had begun moving in a more rockish direction and Hutchings had departed. Nevertheless, this album is a complete delight; the twin vocals of Tim Hart and Maddy Prior are beautifully matched, and as rockish as the performances sometimes get, there’s no question that this is a band deeply committed to sharing the joy of traditional folk music. Songs range from the very familiar (“John Barleycorn,” “Summer Is a Comin’ in”) to the quite obscure (“In Peascod Time,” “Little Sir Hugh”), and there’s a nice mix of vocal and instrumental numbers. The recorded sound is surprisingly good. Highly recommended to all folk and pop collections.

ROCK/POP

Steve Roach
Structures from Silence (reissue; 3 discs)
Projekt (dist. MVD)
416

In 1984, when Structures from Silence was first released, the line separating ambient from New Age music was a bit fuzzier than it is today, after 40 intervening years of genre fragmentation, proliferation, and redefinition. The sequentially swelling chords of the album’s three extended tracks — soft, billowing, and comforting — could easily have been taken at the time for hippie Muzak, purely functional music for blissing out. But if you listen carefully, there’s a lot more going on than that. Some of these chords are indeed simple and straightforward — and then others are complex, chromatic, and even spiky beneath the soft surface. Long stretches of contemplative gentleness are suddenly (if subtly) interrupted by rumblings of foreboding, a mood that is subsequently relieved. For this 40th-anniversary reissue, the package is augmented by two bonus discs that were originally released with an earlier reissue in 2013; these have been newly remastered for this version.

bvdub
Asleep in Ultramarine
Dronarivm
DR-91

The projects of Brock Van Wey (a.k.a. bvdub), on the other hand, are unlikely ever to be mistaken for New Age music. His latest, a single 79-minute track, is an expression of what he calls (perhaps with his tongue somewhat in cheek) “a life of consuming madness continuing its guise as grand artistic vision.” Where much ambient music defines huge and echoing sonic spaces, Asleep in Ultramarine is dense and can feel almost claustrophobic at times: its various elements, which include shuddering sub bass passages, eerie vocal samples, and radically treated chords, all crowd together into a single dark and unsettling mass of sound. This is ambient music for a very different kind of ambience than most listeners would expect — and it’s also a master class in sound sculpture.

The Green Kingdom
Ether Hymns
Dronarivm
DR-90

Another release from the outstanding Dronarivm label is the latest from composer/producer Michael Cottone, doing business as The Green Kingdom. This one is much gentler and more inviting than the bvdub album, but no less carefully crafted or artful. Here there are occasional appearances of recognizable instruments (mainly guitar) and even a regular rhythm or two — though nothing that could reasonably be called a “beat,” let alone a “groove.” The point is to explore “the manner in which the sounds and patterns that form a piece of music are brought into existence from nothingness” and the ways that they “evolve over time and drift off like clouds on the wind.” Most of this music is ephemeral in that way — the way clouds are ephemeral, appearing solid and real but constantly shifting and eventually disappearing. The music is gorgeous.

Aria Rostami & Daniel Blomquist
Midbreath (digital & cassette only)
Self-released
1108

Dedicated to the memory of the late film composer and synth pop artist Ryuichi Sakamoto, this brief album (released only in digital format and as an elaborately packaged, limited-edition cassette — only two copies of which are still available as of this writing) conveys a deep sense of sadness and loss. Central to the music’s sound is a minimally played piano, but around the piano are draped garlands of surface noise, glitch, arctic winds, and occasional haunting voices recorded as if from an echoing distance. Those familiar with the work of Aria Rostami will know pretty much what to expect — his music is minimal and spacious, but also tends to pack a surprising emotional punch. That’s definitely the case with this one. The available formats make it a somewhat awkward prospect for library acquisition, but librarians with an interest in ambient and minimal music may want to acquire their own copies.

Eraldo Bernocchi & Hoshiko Yamane
Sabi
Denovali
DEN383

Those who follow film music may recognize the name of Eraldo Bernocchi, though many more than that have heard his work presented anonymously in advertisements and multimedia projects, or in conjunction with artists like Harold Budd, DJ Olive, and dark-ambient legend Mick Harris. On Sabi he’s collaborated with Tangerine Dream violinist Hoshiko Yamane to create a series of electroacoustic meditations on the Japanese concept of sabi, a word that denotes beauty in impermanence or decay. A blend of mournfulness and hope characterizes the dark and lovely music on this album, music that sometimes pulses gently but more often floats and then falls apart in shreds. The violin is sometimes recognizable as such, and sometimes not, but every track is genuinely lovely.

WORLD/ETHNIC

Nadah El Shazly
Les Damnés ne pleurent pas (digital & vinyl only)
Asadun Alay
No cat. no.

Alternately spooky, forbidding, and blissfully delicate, this score was written to accompany Fyzal Boulifa’s film Les Damnés ne pleurent pas (“the damned don’t cry”). Singer-composer Nahad El Shazly made extensive use of improvisation while creating the score, drawing on the talents of violinist Nicolas Royer-Artuso, bassist Jonah Fortune, and harpist Sarah Pagé; the latter’s harp is recorded both acoustically and with the use of subtle electronic modulations and distortions. All of the music is eerily beautiful, but the real highlight moments are when El Shazly herself is singing — her voice is a crystalline wonder, and the melodies she has written are quietly ravishing. Libraries that collect film music should take a particular interest in this release.

Bob Marley & the Wailers
Catch a Fire (reissue; 3 discs)
Tuff Gong/Island
5565983

Fifty years ago, Catch a Fire was released — it was Bob Marley & the Wailers’ first record for Island, and is widely considered to be the album that brought reggae music to serious international attention for the first time. Listening to it today, it’s easy to see why: the program is heavy with genre-defining classics, including “Concrete Jungle,” “Stir It Up,” and “Slave Driver.” (There are also a couple of moments of irrelevant silliness, notably including the slightly embarrassing “Kinky Reggae.”) This was the period during which the Wailers included Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer as well as Bob Marley, and they were magnificent together. This deluxe reissue includes two bonus discs — one documenting a live performance at London’s Paris Theatre in 1973 (complete with a British MC making charmingly clueless comments between songs), and the other, even better, featuring extended disco mix versions, alternate mixes, and a handful of additional live tracks. Strongly recommended to all libraries.

Rootz Radicals
Together As One (vinyl & digital only)
Self-released
RRTA1

Germany continues to put Jamaica to shame as a producer of top-notch contemporary roots reggae. The long-awaited debut album from Rootz Radicals demonstrates that you don’t have to hail from sunny Caribbean climes to deliver convincing roots, dancehall, and rock steady grooves — tracks like “Mango Juice” and the conscious anthem “Education Free” (featuring guest singer Queen Omega) draw deeply on reggae tradition, while the band’s collaboration with celebrated reggae deejay Gentleman shows them to be adept in a more up-to-date, hip-hop-inflected mode as well. Other highlights include the tight-as-a-drum “Kinky Paradise” and a charming cover of Rod Stewart’s 1970s schlock classic “Maggie May,” which benefits mightily from its recasting here as a one-drop anthem on which the interaction between spare drums and chugging Hammond organ is particularly effective. For all library collections.



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January 2024

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Rick Anderson

CLASSICAL

Sebastian Claren
Gagokbounce: One by One
Kairos (dist. MVD)
022015KAI

Drawing on musical material from the Korean gagok tradition, and setting texts written by Korean-American novelist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, German composer Sebastian Claren has created something quite unique here: a song cycle that functions as a single, 76-minute work and that fully synthesizes European and traditional Korean musical techniques. To most Western ears, the result will sound entirely Asian — the distinctive vocal techniques, instrumental textures, and melodic patterns of gagok music are preserved even as they’re manipulated according to a process of montage and repetition, and the singing is all in Korean. But interestingly, the sung text was originally written in English, and the performance is based on a conventionally-notated Western score (a fascinating extract of which is provided in the liner notes). Although this music may sound intensely foreign to American and European ears, its beauty will not be difficult for most of those ears to discern, and as a rare example of truly successful East-West classical fusion this disc should find a home in most academic libraries’ classical collections.

Veljo Tormis
Reminiscientiae
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir; Talinn Chamber Orchestra / Tõnu Kaljuste
ECM
2793

Here’s another album of contemporary European classical music that draws deeply on regional traditional music for its source material — though in this case, the source material comes from Eastern Europe. “I do not use folk song. Folk song uses me,” said the late Veljo Tormis, and the works recorded here bear out that attitude. Imagine a somewhat less joyful Zoltán Kodály, or a less aggressively modernist Béla Bartók, and then migrate that sound out of the Transdanubian and Carpathian Mountains and into the Baltic wetlands of Estonia and you’ll get a sense of the flavor of these choral and orchestral works. Centered on an orchestral suite titled Reminiscientiae made up of sections with seasonal names, the program also includes several works for various combinations of choirs, vocal soloists, and orchestra. Herding Calls – Childhood Memories closes the album on a note that reminded me most of Kodály, thematically if not exactly stylistically. The whole program is fascinating and quite beautiful.

Pēteris Vasks; W.A. Mozart; Arvo Pärt
Sonic Alchemy
YuEun Kim; Mina Gajić; Coleman Itzkoff
Sono Luminus (dist. Naxos)
DSL-92261

The unifying theme on this highly disparate program of chamber music new and old is “a new perspective on how we perceive time.” Bringing together works by Mozart, Pēteris Vasks, and Arvo Pärt, the trio of YuEun Kim (violin), Mina Gajić (piano) and Coleman Itzkoff (cello) have created a listening experience during which the sense of time does indeed often feel suspended; Vasks’ floating Balta Ainava is followed by Pärt’s oft-recorded Fratres and then by a Mozart fantasia; then comes a Pärt arrangement of an adagio section from a Mozart piano sonata, then another Mozart fantasia. The program winds up with another Vasks piece and then Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel, surely one of that composer’s most exquisitely quiet pieces. The playing is brilliant but modest throughout, and the musicians very effectively convey the album’s overall theme of suspended time.

Georg Philipp Telemann
12 Fantasias for Viola Solo (2 discs)
Michał Bryła
Prelude Classics
PCL2300601

Violist Michał Bryła took on a significant task in his creation of a new edition of Telemann’s fantasias for viola da gamba: translate them for his instrument while remaining true to the nature and flavor of the original versions. The viola sounds very different from the gamba, of course, and the modern steel-strung viola even more so. But one of the convenient things about baroque music is that so much of it was written with the expectation that it might be played by just about any instrument, so Bryła’s approach is actually quite idiomatic in that sense — and more importantly, his playing is simply outstanding. Throughout these twelve fantasias there are moments of gentle, lyrical beauty as well as passages of technically demanding implied counterpoint (always a major challenge with a solo instrument), and not only does he make all of it sound easy he also breathes a unique sense of joy into the music. Any library supporting a strings pedagogy would be well advised to pick this one up. (The two discs carry the same program, one on a conventional CD and the other on a “luxury audiophile” super audio disc encoded in 24-carat gold.)

Various Composers
Baroque
Miloš; Arcangelo / Jonathan Cohen
Sony Classical
1958822942

I confess that it took me a little while to warm up to this recording, for reasons both musical and extramusical. On the extramusical side, guitarist Miloš Karadaglić’s use of only his first name as a stage name strikes me as precious and affected; on the musical side, the modern nylon-stringed classical guitar, with its muted timbre, struck me as a poor fit for the transcriptions of works by Scarlatti and Vivaldi that opened the program. But then he won me over with his solo arrangement of a section from Rameau’s Les Boréades, and held onto me during his take on the minuet section from Handel’s harpsichord suite no. 1. What I generally found was that when the guitar was playing without accompaniment, the results were entrancing; when it was fronting a chamber orchestra, it was a bit lost in the mix. Your mileage may vary, of course, and in any case this disc is certainly valuable to library collections as an illustration of transcription and orchestration principles.

JAZZ

Les McCann
Never a Dull Moment!: Live from Coast to Coast 1966-1967 (3 discs)
Resonance
HCD-2066

If you recognize Les McCann’s name, it’s most likely in connection with the hit anti-Vietnam song “Compared to What” (the first track on Roberta Flack’s 1969 debut album) or for his jazz-funk-soul fusion work in the early 1970s as both a keyboardist and a singer. But before that, he was a pretty straight-ahead jazz player and composer — though he definitely had a distinctive sound and approach, one informed as much by his formative years in gospel music as by the bop, cool, and hard bop sounds that were prevalent as he was coming up. The three discs in this package contain trio performances from 1966 and 1967: three sets at Seattle’s Penthouse club and one at New York’s legendary Village Vanguard. The Penthouse recordings were made for broadcast on KING-FM, and the Vanguard performances were recorded on a two-track recorder and kept ever since in a private archive. None has been commercially released before, and all sound great. What struck me, listening through these sets, was McCann’s sweet and tender touch on the ballads — his uptempo playing is fantastic, and it’s on those tunes that you really hear that gospel influence (not to mention a chordal fulsomeness that brings to mind Erroll Garner). But on the ballads he’s introspective, inventive, and gentle in a truly unique way. Highly recommended to all libraries.

Omri Mor; Josef Gutmann Levitt
Melodies of Light
Soul Song
No cat. no.

This is a first for me — recommending three releases by the same artist within the same year. (In fact, technically within the same season.) But bassist Yosef Gutman Levitt’s recent string of recordings with a variety of collaborators has just been such an unmitigated success that I feel like I need to bring all of them to your attention. The latest is a byproduct of Soul Song (recommended in the September issue), a project featuring the great guitarist Lionel Loueke, pianist Omri More, and drummer Ofri Nehemya. When the sessions were finished they had a free day of studio time left, and so Mor, Gutman-Levitt, and Nehemya pulled in cellist Yoel Nir and percussionist Joca Perpignan and put together a set of largely improvised pieces — not that you’d know that from listening, given how carefully structured much of this music seems (check out, for example, the rhythmically knotty “Flight”). If you loved the earlier releases on this label involving Mor and Gutmann-Levitt, you’ll love this one too.

Trio Grande
Urban Myth
Whirlwind Recordings
WR4814

While my general preference for straight-ahead, swinging jazz is by now well established here, I’d like to let the record show that I’m also always open to hearing weirder stuff as long as it’s relatively organized and lyrical. And that brings us to the new album by Trio Grande, which consists of saxophonist Will Vinson, drummer/bassist Nate Wood, and — the real draw for me — the brilliant guitarist Gilad Hekselman, an adventurous and experimental player who has always held my attention in every project where I’ve encountered him. The music here covers a wide spectrum of styles, from the busy and somewhat rockish title track that opens the program to the bluesy “A Gift” that ends it. In between those tunes, the group sways from odd-metered funk (“Ministry of Love”) to odd-metered neo-bop (the Roy Hargrove composition “Strasbourg St. Denis”) to a pop cover (Nik Kershaw’s “Dancing Girls”). It’s all a blast.

Diego Rivera et al.
Blue Moods: Swing & Soul
Posi-Tone
PR8252

This is the second installment in the Blue Moods series, instituted last year by the Posi-Tone label. Each volume features the work of one composer; last year’s Blue Moods: Myth & Wisdom was a tribute to Charles Mingus, and this one focuses on tunes by Duke Pearson, hard bop pioneer and mainstay of the early Blue Note label. This time out the quartet consists of saxophonist Diego Rivera, pianist Art Hirahara (alternating with Jon Davis on a few tracks), bassist Boris Koslov, and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza, and the mood ranges from quiet and contemplative (“Gaslight,” the loping “Is That So?”) to rollicking (“Big Bertha”) and soulful (“Sweet Honey Bee”). Anyone who has followed this label’s output and the work of its stars (particularly Hirahara and Koslov) knows what to expect: grooves that are tight but not suffocating, relaxed but not sloppy, and always swinging. Highly recommended.

Silvan Joray
Updraft
Ubuntu Misic
UBU0144

This is an absolutely lovely trio album led by Swiss guitarist Silvan Joray — his second as a leader. It’s a great combination of straight-ahead and somewhat more experimental fare: for example, “Morning Breeze” and “Evening Breeze” are both freely improvised, though that fact may not be immediately obvious to the casual listener. Other compositions tend to swing powerfully (note in particular the bustling “Subterfuge” and the strutting “Kurtish”) or combine traditional structures with more experimental approaches — for example, the gentle Latin bump of Cole Porter’s “At Long Last Love,” on which Joray uses some very cool extended guitar techniques. It’s rare to hear a jazz combo that is simultaneously so sonically forward-thinking and so deeply rooted in the verities. For all jazz collections.

FOLK/COUNTRY

Martin Zellar
Head West
Owen Lee Recordings
OLR 3939

When this CD arrived in my mailbox, I looked at it and thought “Wait, don’t I know Martin Zellar’s name from a long time ago?”. I looked him up on Discogs and sure enough — when I was just starting out as a reviewer I received a promo of his debut album on Rykodisc. He and I were both 30 years younger then, and you can hear the years of experience paying off on his new album, which features both guitar and production by his son Wilson, engineering by his son Owen, photography by his wife Carolyn, and percussion by his young daughter Clementine. The warmth and intimacy of those relationships is reflected in the sound: Zellar’s songs are careful and thoughtful, beautifully produced, and steeped in country tradition but also shaped by the Mexican landscape in which he and his family live. There’s a terrific consistency to the program that makes highlights a bit hard to call out, though the album-closing “Forty Years Along” is among the best contemporary country songs I’ve ever heard. Strongly recommended to all libraries.

Skarlett Woods
Letters to the West (digital only)
Cedar Woods
No cat. no.

Scarlett Woods’ second album reflects both her Minnesota upbringing and her years of traveling around the West, working tough jobs and living frugally (at times without running water). As one might expect, the sound on her self-produced (with Kevin Bowe) album is aurally spare but rich with emotion; some tracks, like “Overture” and “Somewhere Between Stanley & Lotus,” are quiet instrumentals that are carefully crafted but avoid self-indulgent displays of virtuosity; others, like “Portland, OR” and “Minnesota Farm Girl,” are full-band numbers that rock out in a rootsy way, or soulful but restrained folk-pop numbers like “Me, I, Me, Me.” Woods’ voice is a joy throughout, and her multi-instrumental facility is as impressive as her songwriting chops. For all libraries.

Dori Freeman
Do You Recall
Blue Hens Music
No cat. no.

I’m always excited when a new Dori Freeman album crosses the transom. Her impeccable voice, her warm way with a melody, her tendency to use Teddy Thompson as a producer — all of these things endeared her to me years ago. On this, her fourth release, Thompson has stepped back from the mixing desk to make room for Freeman’s husband, drummer Nicholas Falk, who does an admirable job. (Thompson stayed on to add harmony vocals on one track.) Do You Recall was actually recorded in Freeman and Falk’s home studio in their Galax, Virginia backyard, and it continues her ongoing project of embracing and celebrating her Blue Ridge upbringing while also interrogating it and reflecting on her travels as a musician and her experiences as a wife and mom. “Good Enough” finds Freeman expanding into jangle-pop and “Why Do I Do This to Myself” is full-on roots rock — but elsewhere, she delivers the contemporary but acoustic-based mountain music we’ve come to expect. And that voice, that voice.

ROCK/POP

Joe Flip
Home Sweet Home
Loud Folk
NFR4395

If you’re in the mood for meat-and-potatoes blues and barroom boogie, then Joe Flip is here for you. Playing homemade electric guitars made from oil cans and singing in an attractive, plainspoken voice, Flip delivers original songs that sound like they could have been written at any time between the 1930s and the 1970s. “Mississippi Country Road” brings to mind Lightnin’ Hopkins; “Toxic” finds him working alongside the golden-voiced Swan Rose; “Jimi Swing” unsurprisingly invokes the spirit of Jimi Hendrix, maybe filtered just a little bit through the intercession of Stevie Ray Vaughn. The album offers a nice mix of vocal and instrumental tunes, all of them characterized by a joyful party vibe and plenty of greasy virtuosity. Recommended to all libraries that collect pop, rock and roots music.

Michael A. Muller
Lower River Reworks (reissue; digital only)
Deutsche Grammophon
No cat. no.

Roger Eno
the skies, they shift like chords
Deutsche Grammophon
486 502-2

Remixing the works of classical composers and jazz artists (usually in some kind of EDM mode) has been a favorite record label project for decades now. This reissue of Lower River Reworks — itself originally a companion release to composer Michael A. Muller’s Lower River — is somewhat different in that the artists and producers charged with remixing (and in some cases reconceiving) the compositions have done so in a decidedly non-dance-oriented style; in keeping with the meditative environmental themes of the original pieces, artists including Marcus Fischer, Elan Green, and Saariselka have created new ambient soundscapes that pay tribute to the original music as much as they depart from them. Roger Eno’s new album, on the other hand, is very different even though it’s similarly meditative. These quiet pieces are centered on the piano, but include tracks written for various combinations of acoustic, electric, and electronic instruments as well. The press materials characterize them as “musical watercolors,” which is a good way of describing this music: it’s minimalist, but not so much in harmonic material as in tempo and rate of change. This is not music for impatient people; to enjoy it, you have to allow yourself to luxuriate in the sound and not worry too much about where it’s taking you. Both albums are excellent.

Islet
Soft Fascination
Fire
FIRECD674

“We wanted to do something that was less pretty than the last record,” says bassist/vocalist Emma Daman Thomas — and not having heard their last record, I’m now pretty curious about it, because I think this one is quite pretty. Not cloyingly so: “River Body” is engagingly weird in both sonics and structure, and “Sherry” draws on so many disparate stylistic elements that it ends up creating a sort of crazy quilt of sounds and pulling out of the welter an entirely new conception of pop music (that said, am I the only one who hears the Slits in that “aye-aye-aye-aye” refrain?), while “Lemons” is wild and messy and cool. But weirdness can often be pretty, as Islet demonstrates throughout, notably on the atmospheric “Flailing” and the quietly lovely “Sleepwalker in a Fog.” Islet’s music is a great example of how pop songs can be challenging and attractive all at once.

Leslie Keffer
Veiled Matter
No Part of It
No cat. no.

For a notably less whimsical — well, let’s be candid here: less fun — take on experimentalism, consider the latest from Leslie Keffer. Her background is in noise music, and she’s spent time as a member of both Laundry Room Squelchers and Indian Jewelry and has collaborated with the likes of Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, Rodger Stella, and others. But on Veiled Matter, her sound is not so much noisy as richly evocative and both pan-ethnic and pan-temporal. For example: on both “In Tongues” and “Silicify” she seems to be singing wordlessly (though it may be in a language I don’t recognize), and her vocal style is distinctly Balkan; at the same time, the music is framed by what sounds like a Casiotone rhythm track that brings to mind Muslimgauze. “Faces,” on the other hand, blends drones with rather assaultive drilling sounds while “Energetic Code” flirts pretty explicitly with electro-funk. Imagine if Dead Can Dance and Z’ev got together and had a baby — musically, that’s what much of this album sounds like. Maybe not tons of fun, but frequently engaging and definitely worth a listen.

WORLD/ETHNIC

Various Artists
Lost in Tajikistan
Riverboat (dist. Redeye)
TUGCD1138

For me, Tajikistan is one of those Central Asian countries the name of which I’ve heard many times during my life, but about which I could tell you absolutely nothing if asked. So this collection of recordings made around 2008 by British multi-instrumentalist Lu Edmonds in the capital city of Dushanbe offers a fascinating window on musical traditions that are woefully underrepresented in the Western marketplace. Edmonds set up a makeshift recording studio in a local museum (packing in as many musicians as possible to combat that winter’s severe cold) and brought in traditional ensembles like Mizrob, Samander, and Samo; each performs multiple tracks on this program, as does solo artist Davlat Nazar, and there are appearances by Sulton Nazar and Shanbe. What does the music sound like? Well, there are definitely strong hints of Arabic folk music here (note in particular the swaying “Yorma Na Didam” by Mizrob) and some of the percussion sounds quite South Asian — but the knotty rhythms remind me a lot of Bulgarian folk music. Overall this is a unique listening experience, and this album should find a home in any library with a collecting interest in non-Western music.

The Loving Paupers
Ladders (digital & vinyl only)
Easy Star
ES1108V

This is the second full-length album from Washington, DC’s Loving Paupers, a band charmingly named after one of Gregory Isaacs’ character-defining songs. It’s produced, brilliantly, by the great bassist Victor Rice, a former mainstay of New York’s third-wave ska scene. His approach is to give the band a warm, spacious, lean-but-dubby sound, one that perfectly complements songs that pair the old-school reggae verities with a gentle soulfulness, mainly thanks to the subtle grace of singer Kelly Di Filippo. Highlights include the laconic “Mr Selector” (“Hey Mr Selector, why won’t you just play my song/You keep spinning nonsense and all of the vibes are wrong”); the dub-inflected “Flying My Friends,” with its quiet nod to King Jammys-style digital roots; and a head-nodding one-drop anthem titled “Still Today.” Di Filippo sings quietly but with real power, and the band’s grooves maintain that perfect balance of suppleness and tightness. Here’s hoping for a dub companion, like the one they released after their first album Lines (though not on CD, boo).

Kumara
Kumara
Self-released
No cat. no.

“Once upon a time, an African musician, a classical musician, and a New York session musician got together to see what would happen.” That’s the origin story of Kumara, a trio consisting of guitarist Sean Harkness, multi-instrumentalist Samite Mulondo, and violinist Shem Guibbory, who play a unique sort of world-fusion music. And if the term “world-fusion” makes you feel a bit itchy, perhaps thinking back to some bad club experiences in the 1980s (I’m looking at you, Kaoma), I encourage you to give this album a try. Notice, on “Conversation in C Minor,” how Harkness’s use of a baritone guitar allows him to approximate real funk basslines alongside his chordal accompaniments (while Guibbory’s violin keens gently in the background and Mulondo sings sweetly); notice also, on “Trois Espirits [sic]”, the lovely juxtaposition of alto flute, violin, and guitar-as-percussion-instrument, and the rippling neo-minimalism of “Waxed Kalimba.” This is gorgeous music that draws on a broad palette of cultures without ever condescending to any of them.

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December 2023

Posted on December 4, 2023 by Rick Anderson

CLASSICAL

Various Composers
Philharmonica
Le Consort
Alpha (dist. Naxos)
1011

The three composers featured on this delightful program reflect the sound of chamber music in London in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Interestingly, the three composers represent three separate tiers of fame, from the very well known (Henry Purcell) to the relatively unknown (Neapolitan transplant Nicola Matteis) to the downright obscure (“Mrs Philharmonica,” whose identity is a mystery and whose works are presented here in world-premiere recordings). The unifying format of these pieces is the trio sonata, though there are plenty of structural digressions, from Matteis’ puckish “Diverse bizarre sopra la vecchia sarabande o our ciaccona” to Purcell’s brief “Two in One upon a Ground.” Apart from opening a valuable window on the history of a major musical center of the period, this disc also offer the chance to hear a truly remarkable young period-instrument ensemble at the height of its powers.

Arvo Pärt
Tractus
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir; Tallinn Chamber Orchestra / Tōnu Kaljuste
ECM
2800

Arvo Pärt
Essential Choral Works (compilation; 4 discs)
Various Ensembles / Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi (dist. Integral)
HMX 29004087.90

I realize I’ve been recommending a lot of Arvo Pärt recently, but don’t blame me — there’s been a bumper crop of new and important releases. On the “new” side we have Tractus, featuring the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir performing a program of less-frequently recorded works, several of them in new versions. Selections include the Greater Antiphons, Cantique des degrés, L’Abbé Agathon, and a new arrangement of Pärt’s Vater Unser setting for choir, strings, and piano. This ensemble has always had a particular affinity for Pärt’s work, and Manfred Eicher’s production creates the perfect spaciousness and ambient color. The conductor Paul Hillier is also a longstanding collaborator with Pärt and has produced multiple standard-setting recordings of his work over the years. The Essential Choral Works box brings together most (though oddly not all) of the material from four recordings made by choirs under the direction of Paul Hillier between 1996 and 2010: I Am the True Vine, De Profundis (minus the Magnificat setting from the original release, perhaps because the same work is performed elsewhere on the set), Da Pacem, and Creator Spiritus. Hillier’s interpretations of Pärt’s music have been justly praised over the years, and if your library doesn’t already hold the original releases collected in this box this is an excellent opportunity to snap them up at a discount — the performances are consistently excellent and the music itself, of course, is quietly stunning.

Saverio Mercadante
Quartets for Flute and Strings
Mario Carlotta; Mario Hossen; Marta Ptulska; Attilia Kiyoko Cernitori
Dynamic (dist. Naxos)
DYN-CDS8006

To the degree that Saverio Mercadante is remembered at all these days, it’s primarily as a composer of operas — though even in that realm he remains almost completely eclipsed by the fame of his contemporaries Gioacchino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti. As this fine recording demonstrates, though, he was also a gifted flutist and composer for that instrument; his concertos gained some increased attention during the 20th century, but his chamber music has remained in obscurity. This disc features three quartets for flute and strings, all apparently written between 1814 and 1820 and all seeming to have been written for the flutist Pasquale Buongiorno, whose skills Mercadante greatly admired. The pieces reflect the influence of Domenico Cimarosa and Giovanni Paisiello, though they are more technically demanding and look forward more explicitly to the developing Romantic style. The group plays beautifully on modern instruments; it would also be interesting to hear these pieces on period instruments. Hopefully this world-premiere recording will stimulate more interest in Mercadante’s chamber music.

Giovanni Battista Casali
Sacred Music from Eighteenth-century Rome
Costanzi Consort / Peter Leech
Toccata Classics (dist Naxos)
TOCC 0429

It may seem odd today to think of mid-to-late-18th-century Rome as a musically stagnant city, but this seems to have been the consensus of music critics and historians for some time. But recent research is adding more texture and complexity to that picture, and these world-premiere recordings of sacred a cappella works by the underappreciated composer Giovanni Battista Casali demonstrate the need for ongoing research into what is increasingly emerging as a fertile musical scene. With this recording, the listener is offered the twin thrill of hearing music that has likely not been performed at all (let alone recorded) for hundreds of years, and of experiencing the richness and invention of a composer whose vocal works reflect not only his technical skill (Casali’s pupils included André Grétry and Pietro Terziani) but also his brilliance as a writer for unaccompanied choir — a format that was quickly falling out of fashion. These motets and liturgical works are simultaneously fresh and backward-looking, and are brilliantly sung by the Costanzi Consort.

Eugène Godecharle
Sei Quartetti per Harpa, Violino, Viola e Basso, Op. IV
Société Lunaire
Ramée (dist. Naxos)
RAM2207

If the musical scene in Rome was languishing at least to some degree in the latter half of the 18th century, the same can’t be said of Paris and Brussels, where (among other exciting musical developments) there was a burst of interest in the pedal harp for both home and concert use. The Belge composer Eugène Godecharle was appointed director of music at the church of Saint Géry in 1776, and in addition to composing quite a bit of church music he also left behind some very fine chamber music featuring the harp. These six quartets for harp (or harpsichord) with strings are completely charming, and in addition to illustrating the capabilities of the relatively new, chromatically adaptable pedal harp, also display Godecharle’s skill as a composer of small-ensemble works. Société Lunaire play beautifully on period instruments and are very well recorded. Recommended to all library music collections.

JAZZ

Jennifer Wharton’s Bonegasm
Grit & Grace
Sunnyside
SSC1709

As its name would (colorfully) suggest, Jennifer Wharton’s band is centered on the sound of the trombone. She leads the group and plays bass trombone, and the front line includes three other trombone players and no other brass or reeds. So the sound is unique. So also is Wharton’s approach to arranging — she manages the challenge of writing colorful charts for identical instruments brilliantly, creating a lush and rich sound palette without sacrificing rhythmic nimbleness or, frankly, wit and humor. I’m especially impressed by the way her arrangements shift back and forth from big, juicy brass-choir passages to sturdily swinging sections, from classic big-band to innovative modern jazz flavors. It’s rare to find a jazz musician with this kind of quadruple-threat capability: as a player, a composer, and arranger, and a bandleader, Wharton is in a class of her own. For all jazz collections.

Cal Tjader
Catch the Groove: Live at the Penthouse 1963-1967 (2 discs)
Jazz Detective/Deep Digs Music Group
DDJD-012

Like a bloodhound or a truffle-hunting pig, producer Zev Feldman seems to have been gifted by nature with the ability to sniff out musical treasures from the most unlikely places. In this case, not only are the recordings themselves being released commercially for the first time, but they also shed much-deserved light on an underrated musician, the great jazz vibraphonist Carl Tjader. These four discs capture six sets that Tjader played, accompanied by a shifting quartet of musicians, at Seattle’s Penthouse club in the mid-1960s. They were recorded originally for airplay, and the sound is surprisingly good — which probably has as much to do with the restoration work of Sheldon Zaharko as the quality of the sources. As for the playing: honestly, it’s amazing. Tjader was not only technically adept (and I think most people underestimate the skill required to play the vibes) but also an improviser of great intelligence and warmth — he was known for being a sweet and kind person, and you can hear that in his playing. He died far too young, of a heart attack at age 56, and left us too little music. Feldman deserves all of our gratitude for unearthing these gems from Tjader’s recording history.

Simon Moullier Trio
Inception
Fresh Sound New Talent
FSNT 661

Here’s another outstanding album from a great vibraphonist, this one a young player who is still very active on the scene. Simon Moullier’s approach is based on the idea of importing the language of horn players to the vibes — though interestingly, for this standards album he’s chosen to replicate the piano-trio format (playing alongside bassist Luca Allemanno and drummer Jonkuk Kim). This means that what he’s really doing is filling the roles of both pianist and horn player, and he does so with stunning skill and fluency. While all the tunes here are standards, they’re not all equally familiar: for every “You Must Believe in Spring” and “Lush Life” there’s a “Peggy’s Blue Skylight” (Charles Mingus) or an “Ecaroh” (Horace Silver). And there’s actually one original composition, “RC,” but since the title stands for “Rhythm changes” it pretty much counts as a standard. This is brisk, exciting, virtuosic music that thrills without ever losing sight of fundamental musicality, and the album should find a home in any library’s jazz collection.

Mareike Wiening
Reveal
Greenleaf Music
GRE-CD-1106

Drummer/composer Mareike Wiening’s third album as a leader finds her continuing to dance gracefully on the line that separates modernistic and straight-ahead jazz. Note, for example, the opening track, “Time for Priorities”: it opens with what sounds like a section of free group improv, complete with skronky distorted guitar, before launching into a spiky but powerfully swinging head. (Notice also how seamlessly Wiening’s drum part shifts from the free section into the head, hardly changing at all until the B part.) Something similar happens with “Choral Anthem,” though on this track structure and chaos seem to be in more of a constant negotiation; the title track is a much more traditional hard-bop burner, while her take on Ciprian Porumbescu’s sweet and tender “Balada” combines what sound like carefully composed guitar and piano parts with plenty of space for solos. Wiening has said that when she writes music “drums are usually the last thing (she’s) thinking about,” which, quite frankly, is the sign of a mature and thoughtful composer — qualities well in evidence throughout this fine album.

Cory Weeds
Home Cookin’
Cellar Music (dist. MVD)
CMR120522

I don’t usually like to admit it when I listen to an album based on the cover art, but in this case I’ll confess that I was drawn by the explicitly 1950s-style cover design and typography, which suggested to me that I could expect cool, swinging straight-ahead jazz of the kind I love so well. And sure enough, that’s what I got: leading his celebrated Little Big Band, tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds delivers a program consisting of two old-school originals and five standards by the likes of Horace Silver, Tad Jones, and Bernice Petkere. His big band isn’t really that “little” (it includes eleven players), but it’s compact enough to be nimble and tight, and the arrangements by Bill Coon and musical director Jill Townsend are perfectly suited to the group’s strengths: the shout choruses are big and joyful, the horn parts behind the solo sections are tasteful and fun, the soloists are obviously having a wonderful time. You will, too.

FOLK/COUNTRY

Meredith Lane
Greyhound (digital only)
Self-released
No cat. no.

She bills herself as an “alt rock and folk artist,” which is pretty intriguing. On the evidence of her first solo album, it’s hard to fault that description: while you can certainly hear echoes of outlaw country and Nashville singer-songwriter introversion, Lane’s aggro guitars and Jake Bibb’s pounding drums bring a definite punkiness to songs like “Ironies” and “Bitter” — but on the other hand, “Greyhound” comes on like early-1980s Fleetwood Mac (except with a steel guitar) while “Uncertain Sundays” wouldn’t sound out of place on a Replacements album. Then there’s “Gas Station Baby,” which is what all modern country music really ought to sound like. And Lane’s voice is a gritty, golden-hued joy. Here’s hoping for more from this impressive young artist, and the sooner the better.

Catrin Finch & Aoife Ní Bhriain
Double You
Bendigedig (dist. Naxos)
BENDI11

Both harpist Catrin Finch and violinist Aoife Ní Bhriain have the distinction of being accomplished classical and folk musicians, and on their debut album as a duo you can hear them drawing deeply on both traditions. The program suggests a concept album of a sort: each track is an original composition with a single-word title beginning with the letter “W” (“Whispers,” “Woven,” “Waggle,” etc.). And the music itself ranges far and wide: “Why” opens with a dreamy, free-rhythm section before sliding into a liltingly lovely traditional-sounding tune; “Wonder,” with its repeated scalar and arpeggiated passages, put me in mind of Philip Glass; “Wings” is an ambient excursion that floats and drifts with aimless beauty. None of this music is what one might expect of a Celtic harp-and-fiddle duo; all of it is wonderful.

Mr. Greg & Cass McCombs
Mr. Greg & Cass McCombs Sing and Play New Folk Songs for Children
Smithsonian Folkways
SFW45087

Alba Careta & Henrio
Udolç
Microscopi
No cat. no.

I don’t normally review children’s music, but I’m making two exceptions here because each of these albums is so unusual and so attractive, each in a radically different way. Mr. Greg and indie-rock star Cass McCombs have produced an album of “folk” songs that span many different musical styles, some of them a bit more rockish than one might expect of folk music but all of them warm and fun and tuneful. (And most will also prove helpful in engendering appropriately progressive political viewpoints in your kids, if that’s your jam: “Requiem for Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” “Wave a Flag for Harvey Milk,” “Things That Go in the Recycling Bin,” etc.). The new album from jazz singer/trumpeter Alba Careta and singer/songwriter/producer Henrio is very different, and yet oddly similar. It’s a collection of songs from the oral traditions of the Catalonian region, all gathered from research performed by students of Cassà de Selva during the 2021-22 academic year. All are lullabies, though not all sound like they would be; the arrangements are gentle and quiet but not always slow or lulling, and some of the music accompanies spoken-word interludes by poet Enric Casasses. Henrio most often sings solo, but there are also passages of sweet harmony with Careta. This is a highly unusual and truly beautiful album.

ROCK/POP

Canblaster
GENESIS (digital only)
Animal63
No cat. no.

Longstanding pillar of the French electronic music scene, Cédric Steffens (a.k.a. Canblaster) got his start writing music for video games and DJing at techno, house, and UK garage gigs before becoming a founding member of the Club Cheval quartet and releasing EPs on various underground labels. GENESIS is the result of several years spent holing up in his home studio with a bunch of modular synthesizers. The music that came out of that period of retrenchment is, gratefully, more rooted in garage and breakbeat hardcore than in house or techno: the synth sounds are predictably squidgy and archaic, but the beats are bouncy, funky, and sometimes frenetic — and Steffens’ use of vocal samples is tasteful and abstract. Highly recommended to pop collections.

New Order
Substance (reissue; 4 discs)
Factory
Facd 200

One of the most fascinating evolutions in the history of pop music was that of Joy Division into New Order. Joy Division had created a revolution in post-punk sound, quickly morphing from a scrappy punk band into a sui generis harbinger of sonic doom that helped create the template for Goth and shoegaze. When singer/lyricist Ian Curtis took his own life on the eve of their first American tour, the group emerged from its collective grief with another entirely new sound: a chilly but high-energy technopop that created yet another template for yet another musical movement. Substance is a best-of collection originally released in 1987; now it’s back in multiple formats and versions, all of them radically expanding the content of the original collection with remixes and live tracks. Most library collections will probably be well served by the two-disc CD version, but this four-disc set is magnificent and can be confidently recommended as well.

NRBQ
Tiddlywinks (reissue)
Omnivore
OVCD-500

Originally issued in 1980, this was NRBQ’s eighth album, and it finds them in amazing form. Apart from the hit “Me and the Boys” (which, I’m embarrassed to admit, I actually thought was a Bonnie Raitt original), it includes their rollicking take on the classic novelty song “Music Goes Round and Round,” bassist Joey Spampinato’s tender “Beverly,” and the rollicking R&B workout “Want You to Feel Good Too” (remember that the band name stands for “New Rhythm & Blues Quintet”), as well as several bonus tracks. Good humor has always been a hallmark of the NRBQ approach, but on this album you can easily detect the seriousness below their good-time veneer: these guys were — and still are — consummate professionals, in all the best senses of that word. Exquisitely structured songs, hooky melodies, and wide-ranging musical influences are what NRBQ have always been all about. May they never stop.

Daily Worker
My Heavens (digital only)
Self-released
No cat. no.

Normally, for purposes of this blog, I characterize as a “new release” anything that came out within the past two years. This album by Austin-based one-man band Daily Worker falls outside even that generous timeframe, but I’m making an exception because it came recently across my transom and it’s just so dang tasty. Cotton Mather guitarist Harold Whit Williams has been recording on his own under the (brilliant) name Daily Worker for some years now, and I’ve loved everything I’ve heard. He jumps nimbly back and forth over the line that separates jangle pop (“Temporal World”) from power pop (“Buried Alive”), and does it with grace, good humor, and a razor-sharp sense of melody. Interestingly, in light of the review just above this one, the opening bars of “Flown Away” sound like a direct lift from New Order, though none of the rest of the song does; “Rock Roll Fadeaway” is a charmingly curmudgeonly reflection on the current state of pop music. Brilliant all around.

Matmos
Return to Archive
Smithsonian Folkways
SFW40261

Let’s close out this month’s Rock/Pop section with some genuine weirdness. In addition to its well known and justly celebrated deep catalog of folk albums, the Folkways label also includes an extensive collection of recordings made by scientists, sound engineers, and field recordists who sought to document non-musical noises from the natural and human environments. On Return to Archive, the electronic music duo Matmos was given access to all of those recordings and emerged with a bunch of samples from which they’ve created a sprawling set of wild soundscapes, beats, and pitches: “Mud Dauber Wasp,” for example, is a frenetic dance track built out of sounds made by the titular creature; “Injection Basic Sound” is based on a sample of a sound engineer’s explanatory monologue; “Lend Me Your Ears” is an odd, eerie, and hard to describe (though it would make a great soundtrack to a Halloween party). The whole album is genuinely fascinating, though not exactly “fun.”

WORLD/ETHNIC

Bob Marley and the Wailers
Catch a Fire (reissue; 3 discs)
Island
5565983

It would be hard to overstate the impact that Catch a Fire, the fifth studio album by Bob Marley and the Wailers, exerted on the development of both reggae music and pop music more generally. Accordingly, it has been issued and reissued in literally hundreds of versions and formats (check out the Discogs page if you don’t believe me). This new extra-deluxe issue, available both as three vinyl LPs and as three CDs, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the album’s original release. The first disc is the original program; the second documents a contemporaneous live set from the Paris Theater in London (charmingly, if a little annoyingly, narrated between songs by a clueless-sounding MC); the third gathers instrumental and extended versions of some of the original recordings along with a handful of additional live tracks. Not having listened to this album in quite a while, I was struck anew by how powerful it is: songs like “Concrete Jungle,” Peter Tosh’s bitter “400 Years,” and the magnificent “Stir It Up” have lost none of their impact over the half-century since their original release. Recommended to all libraries.

Soom T
The Louder the Better
Renegade Masters/X-Ray Production
XRPCD2305

Last year I called Soom T’s album Good one of the best reggae releases I’d heard all year. And I have to say the same thing about this year’s The Louder the Better. No longer just a deejay, Soom T has fully embraced her singing voice — not always a wise move for a chatter, but in her case the shift is inspired. The songs on this album are straight-up modern roots reggae, some of it more organic and analog-based and some of it in more of a digital vein, but what unites everything is the directness and sincerity of Soom T’s musical and spiritual vision. Her Christian beliefs are even more up-front and unapologetic than they were on Good, and so is her social critique, which does not necessarily hew to the political norm: note in particular “Free the Man” (about imprisoned politician Schaeffer Cox) and “Hail to the Watchman.” A female Indo-Glaswegian Christian with heterodox social/political views, Soom T is a welcome example of diversity across multiple dimensions, and her new album is seriously banging.

Dub Syndicate
Fear of a Green Planet (25th Anniversary Expanded Edition)
Echo Beach
EB200

It’s hard to believe that this album was first issued 25 years ago — I still think of it as one of Dub Syndicate’s “newer” releases. Of course, I’m getting pretty old myself. Anyway, Fear of a Green Planet was another mighty entry in the ongoing series of projects by the bass-and-drums duo of Errol “Flabba” Holt and Lincoln “Style” Scott, in collaboration with producer Adrian Sherwood (though it was issued on Scott’s own Lion & Roots label rather than on Sherwood’s On-U Sound imprint). The sound is nothing surprising: everything is built on the elephantine rockers beats that have been Style and Flabba’s hallmark since their early days in the Roots Radics, with dubwise elaborations by Sherwood and significant contributions from guitarist/vocalist Skip McDonald and a handful of other guests. But surprising or not, the grooves are absolutely delicious — and the six bonus tracks on this extended reissue make the new version of this album all the more attractive. Highly recommended.

Samory I
Strength (digital & vinyl only)
Easy Star
ESCD128

The debut solo album by Samory I (not counting his 2017 collaboration with Rory “Stonelove” Gilligan) is a fine example of what roots reggae sounds like in the 21st century: digitally clean, influenced (but not overwhelmed) by hip hop, and enriched by up-to-the-minute production techniques and stylistic elements from all over: listen to the rich bass sound and the subtle Spanish guitar on “Blood in the Streets,” for example, not to mention the harmonically dense but lightweight backing vocals on “Continent” and the funky reggae/R&B rhythms that underlie “Ocean of Love” and “Stormy Nights.” Note also the powerful three-way combination track “Wrath,” featuring both Kabaka Pyramid and legendary Bobo Dread firebrand Capleton. Samory I is still early in his career, and this album hints at genuine greatness to come.

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November 2023

Posted on November 6, 2023 by Rick Anderson

CLASSICAL

Ferdinand Ries
Clarinet Trio & Sonatas
Vlad Weverbergh; Jadranka Gasparovic; Vasily Ilisavsky
Brilliant Classics (dist. Naxos)
BRI 96903

Ferdinand Ries
Flute Quartets Vol. 3
Ardinghello Ensemble
CPO (dist. Naxos)
555378-2

Famously associated with Beethoven (as both student and secretary), Ferdinand Ries spent a rather tumultuous career shuttling unwillingly between Bonn, Vienna, Frankfurt, and London, tossed back and forth by the vicissitudes of war and politics. Despite all the disruption, he managed to produce a prodigious catalog of both chamber and large-scale works including three operas and two oratorios. These two recordings focus on his chamber music. The Brilliant Classics disc looks like a reissue (the recordings were made in 2006), but I can find no evidence that it’s been released prior to this, so library collections are not likely to hold an earlier version. Clarinetist Vlad Weverbergh delivers heartfelt performances of two sonatas and a trio with piano and cello (on modern instruments), demonstrating clearly both Ries’ stylistic debt to his mentor and his own ability to take that influence and expand on it in deeply personal ways. The third volume in the Ardinghello Ensemble’s series of recordings of Reis’ flute quartets has a bit of a different flavor, mainly due to the different tonal character of the flute — but also to the somewhat more high-classical style of the melodies. While no background information about this recording was provided with the review e-copy, from what I can determine it appears that the Ardinghellos’ string players use modern violins, while flutist Karl Kaiser (a veteran member of the Camerata Köln) plays a period flute; that combination yields a lovely blend of depth and lightness to their sound.

Alvin Lucier
One Arm Bandits
Important
IMPREC514

It would be a mistake to regard Alvin Lucier’s compositions as examples of “conceptual music.” While they are often built on a particular musical concept, the concept itself is always about the nature of sound and pitch. (For example, his most famous work, I Am Sitting in a Room, is based on the concept of reverberation, and examines the cumulative effect of ambient reverberation on multiple generations of a single recording.) With One Arm Bandits, Lucier is exploring the limits of unison in the context of the cello. In each section of the piece (one section for each string on the cello), four cellists play the same open string for about 15 minutes, following instructions that tell them how much pressure to apply to the string at different points in the performance. Variations in bow pressure yield microtonal variations in pitch and even subtler variations in timbre. The changes are hard to detect, of course, which is part of the point: in order to appreciate what Lucier is doing, you need to listen really hard. This piece takes the concept of “minimal music” to a new level.

Henry Purcell
Fantazias
John Holloway Ensemble
ECM
2249

Casual classical-music listeners might be surprised to know the degree to which improvisation plays a role in baroque music. It’s particularly important in the context of the fantasia (a.k.a phantasy, fantazia, fancy, fantasy, etc.), a musical form that requires players not only to improvise according to a predetermined musical idea, but often to do so in counterpoint. The fantasias of Henry Purcell carried on the tradition of English fantasia composing that had been inaugurated earlier in the 17th century by William Byrd, John Coperario and, especially, William Lawes. For this recording of Purcell’s three- and four-part fantasias, the John Holloway Ensemble uses one violin, two violas, and a cello, creating a somewhat different sound from that of the viols that one usually hears performing this repertoire. The playing is excellent, and this recording should be of interest to any library supporting instruction in baroque music. (For pedagogical purposes, I’d recommend including it in the collection alongside Hesperion XX’s account on seven viols.)

Francisco Guerrero
Ecce sacerdos magnus
The Brabant Ensemble / Stephen Rice
Hyperion (dist. Integral)
CDA68404

Yup, it’s another recording from the Brabant Ensemble — and another thoroughly predictable recommendation from me. Of all the Oxbridge groups, I think the Brabants are at the top of the pile when it comes to intonation, tone, and pure creamy richness of sound. (Stile Antico are right up there too — and perhaps not coincidentally, the two groups share several members.) The group’s latest recording centers on the Missa Ecce sacerdotus magnus (“Behold, the great priest”) of Francisco Guerrero — one of the three greatest composers of the Spanish Renaissance, though not one of the most recorded. Not only is this disc a magnificently beautiful listening experience, it is also the world-premiere recording of both the Mass and the eight motets and one Magnificat setting that accompany it. No library with a collecting interest in early music can afford to pass this one up.

Arvo Pärt
Odes of Repentance
Cappella Romana / Alexander Lingas
Cappella (dist. Naxos)
CR428

What is presented here as the Odes of Repentance is a program of choral works by Arvo Pärt that are selected and arranged as a “service (or office) of supplication.” Selections from Triodion, Kanon Pokajanen, Zwei slawische Psalmen, and The Woman with the Alabaster Box are arranged to follow the order of an Orthodox Service of Supplication, in which the congregation expresses penitence and celebrates forgiveness and reconciliation. Cappella Romana’s usual focus on medieval (and earlier) music has been a good preparation for performing the works of this beloved contemporary composer; Pärt’s spare, sometimes almost severe style draws explicitly on elements of medieval sacred music, and on the Orthodox rite in particular. This recording was made in a space that frames Cappella Romana’s voices perfectly for this music: the acoustic is open and spacious but oddly dry at the same time.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
The Württemberg Sonatas (2 discs)
Keith Jarrett
ECM
2790/91

Though made in 1994, Keith Jarrett’s recording on modern piano of C.P.E. Bach’s six “Württemberg” keyboard sonatas is now being released for the first time, almost 20 years later. The pieces were written for Bach’s student the Duke of Württemberg in 1742 and 1743, and mark an important stylistic transition point between the baroque and classical styles. When played on the harpsichord (as they almost invariably are), they of course sound more or less baroque — but the combination of the darker and more flexible sound of the modern piano and Jarrett’s own personal playing style bring out the incipient classicism of these lovely pieces. To be clear, Jarrett’s performances are perfectly idiomatic, and he’s obviously being careful not to bring an alien pianism to the music — but you can tell it’s Jarrett, in all the best ways. Among other things, his sense of line and sensitivity to the interaction of contrapuntal voices are everywhere apparent, and the album is a pure delight.

JAZZ

Adam Birnbaum
Preludes
Chelsea Music Festival
No cat. no.

Although I fully recognize that jazz-classical fusion is a field filled with musical landmines, through which only a few select talents are able to make their way without disaster, the music of J. S. Bach offers a relatively safe path. In my view, there are two reasons for this. The first is Bach’s unparalleled (among the baroque masters) gift for melody; the second is that his rhythms are generally so square and solid that you can swing them with powerful effect. Among those who have successfully adapted Bach’s music to the jazz idiom, pianist Adam Birnbaum is on the top tier. This collection of trio arrangements draws on the first half of Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier, pulling out twelve preludes while leaving the fugues alone. Unlike some other jazz players who have made similar forays into Bach’s keyboard music, Birnbaum isn’t content just to set the music to a swing beat; his arrangements are complex and varied, and bring a whole new dimension of musicality to the original melodies. (Note, in particular, the Latin setting of the E minor prelude.) For all libraries supporting keyboard and/or jazz pedagogy.

Madd for Tadd
Central Swing & Our Delight (2 discs)
Self-released
No cat. no.

This is really two albums in a single package: the first disc consists of charts that celebrated composer Tadd Dameron wrote in 1940 for the Kansas band Harlan Leonard and His Rockets (with the addition of a 1949 tune, the ballad “Heaven’s Doors Are Open Wide”); the second disc is a program of other Dameron tunes from the 1940s, many of which became favorites of bebop players like John Coltrane and Blue Mitchell. In fact, it’s as a composer for small bop ensembles that Dameron gained his greatest fame, and I bet you didn’t know that he wrote “Soultrane” and “Mating Call,” did you? (OK, maybe you did, but I didn’t.) This project reflects a decades-long interest in Dameron’s music on bandleader Kent Engelhardt’s part; many of these arrangements are his own transcriptions from old recordings. The playing by the whole band is superb, but those arrangements are the real star here. Strongly recommended to all jazz collections.

Natraj
Ragamala Paintings Alive! (digital only)
Big Round (dist. Parma)
BR8983

I had to listen to this one before I could decide whether it belonged in Jazz or World/Ethnic. Natraj is a quintet led by soprano saxophonist Phil Scarff, that also includes violinist Rohan Gregory, bassist Mike Rivard, drummer Bertram Lehmann, and percussionist Jerry Leake. (Vocalist Jayshree Bala Rajamani makes a guest appearance as well.) The music is billed as “contemporary jazz with influences from India and Africa,” and that’s just what it is: not really Indo-jazz fusion, but modern jazz that draws on raga melodies and African rhythms and explores them in a jazz style. The album is programmatically organized around a multimedia work centered on ragamala paintings, miniature artworks that were created in India several hundred years ago to illustrate the nature of various ragas. The liner notes provide a helpful guide to the paintings that helps put the music in context. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and completely unique jazz recording.

Anakronos
Citadel of Song: Ballate from Boccaccio’s Decameron (2 discs)
Heresy (dist. Redeye)
028

And while we’re at it, let’s also talk about a new album that offers a fusion of jazz and medieval European music. The ten songs on this album from the delightfully odd Anakronos ensemble are taken from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, a 14th-century song cycle that depicts the vicissitudes of romantic love in the context of the fear and anxiety that gripped Europe during the Black Plague. Led by singer/composer Caitríona O’Leary, the ensemble arranges these tunes for electric guitar, percussion, saxophones, clarinets, and voice, weaving beautiful and sometimes trance-inducing tapestries of melody and subtle rhythm; there were moments when I would have sworn the clarinet was a Persian ney; there are moments when the saxophone and guitar lock together to create what sounds like Middle eastern bebop. No label other than Heresy is doing anything remotely like this, and I recommend their whole catalog to all adventurous library collections.

Art Hirahara
Echo Canyon
Posi-Tone
PR8250

One of the great things about the Posi-Tone label is the presence of pianist/composer Art Hirahara on so many of its releases — and when he steps out as a leader, it’s even more exciting. His latest is a gorgeous and impressionistic program of new material as well as tunes that he and bassist Boris Koslov had written for earlier projects, most of them substantially reworked. Hirahara’s style harks back to the glory days of Bill Evans: big, juicy chords and nimble rhythmic shifts through which sweet and intelligent melodies make their sinuous way. New material includes a hymn-like tribute to Tyre Nichols, a young Black man killed by police earlier this year, and a complex bebop tune that Hirahara wrote for Koslov titled “The More Things Change.” Throughout the program, drummer Rudy Royston provides his typical subtle and tasteful rhythmic underpinnings. Brilliant.

FOLK/COUNTRY

Kristen Grainger & True North
Fear of Falling Stars
Self-released
No cat. no.

Traditional bluegrass music is typified by fast, hard-edged, virtuosic picking and intense singing. It’s always been a very male genre — no matter how high the voices, the sound has usually been aggressively macho. Unsurprisingly, in recent decades new voices and new sounds have emerged in response, and a growing number of them have been women’s voices singing in a very different style. While the music made by Kristen Grainger and her band True North is not exactly bluegrass, it’s closely bluegrass-adjacent — but it’s also different in very significant ways. Grainger’s voice is clear but gentle; her bandmates contribute harmonies that are tight but silky. The songs draw on bluegrass tradition (note in particular the high-lonesome harmonies on “Memories and Moments”) but take its elements in entirely new directions without ever seeming aggressively experimental. Highly recommended.

Piskey Led
Piskey Led (digital only)
Self-released
No cat. no.

For most people, the term “Celtic music” means Irish (and maybe also Scottish) tunes and songs. But the Celts, and their musical traditions, are distributed much more broadly than that: Celtic music is found in Wales, Cornwall, western France, and (oddly) even northwestern Spain. Piskey Led is a Cardiff-based band that specializes in tunes from Cornwall, Ireland, and northern England, reflecting the bandmembers’ own regional origins. Songs and tunes are a variety of original compositions and traditional numbers gathered from 19th-century tune- and songbooks, including disaster ballads, an ode to a long-defunct train line, and celebrations of traditional industries like mining and fishing. The playing is pretty straight-ahead, though the group’s arrangement of “Ashton Famine” reminded me, startlingly, more than a little of Henry Cow. Great playing and great singing all around, and a repertoire that will probably be underrepresented in most library collections.

Tim Easton
Special 20 (reissue)
Black Mesa
BMR072-02

This was the second album made in Nashville by the then-recent transplant Tim Easton. It was 1998, and working with producers Brad Jones and Robin Eaton at Alex the Great Recording, he made a record that drew on outlaw country, greasy roots rock, and singer-songwriter folk – but with an emphasis on “outlaw.” His voice is plainspoken and declamatory; the guitars are ragged and rich with distortion; the tempos are, for the most part, syrupy slow. “Help Me Find My Space Girl” nods obliquely to Byrds-era jangle pop, and “Sweet Violet” is a gentle ballad complete with psychedelic flourishes in the chorus, but for the most part these songs are serrated and aggro, in all the best ways. Recommended to all libraries. (Black Mesa is simultaneously releasing a second Tim Easton album from the same period, titled Not Cool.)

ROCK/POP

Jon Hassell
Further Fictions (reissue; 2 discs)
Ndeya (dist. Redeye)
NDEYA10CD

In 1990, experimental trumpeter Jon Hassell released City: Works of Fiction, on which he continued his exploration of the “fourth world” sound he had pioneered during the previous decade, incorporating rhythmic elements from Africa and the South Pacific along with eerily harmonized processed trumpet melodies and funky basslines. A three-disc expanded reissue was released in 2014 on the All Saints label, adding a second disc that documented his live band’s work leading up to that release, and a third that radically remixed and reconceptualized the material from the album. That reissue is now long out of print, and this two-disc set brings much (though sadly and inexplicably not all) of the music from the second and third discs back to market in a lovely hardbound book package. If your library already owns the original expanded edition there’s no need to grab this version – but if not, this reissue is a great opportunity to bring on board some of the most oddly lovely music of Hassell’s long career.

Rooney
Rooney (reissue; vinyl & digital only)
Real Gone Music
RGM-1591

In 2003, Rooney released their first of three albums, which went on to sell half a million copies and has been reissued about a hundred times – but never, until now, on vinyl. (Sadly it’s out of print on CD, but used copies are easy to find.) This album made enough of an impression on Johnny Ramone that he invited the band to contribute to the Ramones tribute album We’re a Happy Family. Twenty years later, the music still stands up well, and doesn’t even really sound dated: the stroppy guitars and handclaps on “Blueside,” the smirking romantic self-laceration and fruity chord progression on “I’m a Terrible Person,” the anthemic “Daisy Duke” – all of this stuff is pretty much timeless, and the hooks never stop. And now if you want it in vinyl, here it is.

VEiiLA
Sentimental Craving for Beauty
Projekt (dist. MVD)
413

“Disguised as relaxing downtempo music, VEiiLA leans towards Schopenhauerien pessimism where one does not conquer the pain; verily submission to pain is the only answer to a world that is made of suffering.” Okay! This is probably the first time I’ve typed the phrase “Schopenhauerian pessimism” into a CD HotList review, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. And the press materials do not mislead: the music of VeiiLA draws on the Russian duo’s experience as exiles from a country they can no longer support. More from the press materials: “As modern Russian dissidents they taste the bitter liquor of disappointment blended with a healthy dose of morbid, soul-crushing realization: the world is in fact as ugly as it gets.” Fortunately for you, the listener, this realization results in some genuinely compelling dark and downtempo electro-pop music with hints of trip hop, jungle, and techno weaving through the mix. Imagine a more Slavic Dead Can Dance, or a more depressed and ‘luded-out early Ministry, with much better vocals. That’s a compliment, I promise.

Palm Skin Productions
A Swarm in July (digital only)
Tru Thoughts (dist. Redeye)
TRU447D

A Swarm in July by Simon Richmond (a.k.a. Palm Skin Productions) is billed as a “concept record,” but to be honest it’s not 100% clear what the concept is. The press materials offer lots of resonant phraseology, but not much conceptual coherence: “A proverb. A phrase. A saying. A Say-ing – the performances of that which has been said. A maxim. A truism. True-ism – the ideology or the myth of truth? Whose truth?…” — you get the idea. But that’s okay, because the music is compelling, from the bustling post-bass of “We Stand Divided” through the unsettled ambience of “Himself and the Devil” right through “The Sword Will Die” with its market-stall cowbells and jazzy piano chords and “I Say Not As I” with its spoken-word samples of playwright Harold Pinter and its elephantine beat. The album closes with a touching tribute to Richmond’s recently deceased father titled “Far from the Tree,” a sort of broken-beat meditation that is both funky and gentle. Recommended.

Pere Ubu
Elitism for the People 1975-1978 (reissue; 4 discs)
Fire
FIRECD406

Pere Ubu’s early catalog has been reissued multiple times over the decades since the band burst on the scene in the mid-1970’s defining a template for art-punk that would be adopted and adapted by others for years to come. Most of those earlier reissues are now long out of print; the latest iteration is a pair of handsome book-bound four-disc sets from the Fire Records label. The first, Elitism for the People, includes The Modern Dance and Dub Housing (Ubu’s first two albums) along with a disc of single releases fans will recognize as forming the core of the Terminal Tower collection, along with an extract from a cassette recording of a 1977 gig at Max’s Kansas City (oddly, the disc includes only six songs from that recording; the full version is available digitally at Ubu’s Bandcamp page). This music is essential; if your library doesn’t already hold these albums, take advantage of this fine new issue. (Equally essential is Architecture of Language, a similarly-configured set that includes The Art of Walking, New Picnic Time, and Song of the Bailing Man along with various rarities and outtakes.)

WORLD/ETHNIC

Lee “Scratch” Perry
Destiny (digital & vinyl only)
Delicious Vinyl/Island
No cat. no.

Discerning reggae fans have learned to be leery of Lee “Scratch” Perry albums from late in his career: too many have been musically underwhelming collaborations that reeked of opportunism, chances for young producers to hitch a ride on Perry’s spaceship for their own purposes rather than engage in genuine musical collaboration. But there have been encouraging exceptions, and this project with producer Bob Riddim, completed during the last year of Perry’s life, is one such. The backing tracks are deep and heavy and strike a lovely balance between the old-school verities and a forward-looking production style. Perry’s vocal contributions mine his usual topics with his usual inscrutable sincerity, and guest vocalists like Kabaka Pyramid and Evie Pukupoo bring an added layer of lyricism and melodic interest. This is the most satisfying Lee Perry album since his collaborations with Adrian Sherwood.

Bards of Skaði
Glysisvallur: Musick from the frozen Atlantis
Nordvis Produktion
No cat. no.

Fränder
Fränder II
Nordic Notes
No cat. no.

Here are two very different examples of heavy Nordic music. Though their album cover might lead you to expect some kind of metal, Bards of Skaði actually work in an orchestral, sometimes cinematic style. The sonic spaces are huge, with far-off whistles, warm strings, and fingerpicked guitars creating an evocative soundscape that will have you dreaming of fjords and green mountains and mythic warriors. Bards of Skaði’s music is heavy the way trees are heavy and fields are redolent after a rainstorm. Fränder does something quite different: their approach could be described as “heavy folk.” The instruments are acoustic, the tunes and songs are original but very traditional-sounding — however, their style is rockish, with anthemic choruses and aggressive drums. Tight harmonies and giddy dance rhythms add an element of nimbleness to the heavyosity, creating a completely unique musical experience.

Creation Rebel
Hostile Environment
On-U Sound
ONUCD160

It’s been 40 years since we last heard from the mighty Creation Rebel, charter members of the On-U Sound recording stable and, alongside label head and producer Adrian Sherwood, key architects of that label’s unique sound. The band’s core is guitarist “Crucial” Tony, drummer Charlie “Eskimo” Fox, and percussionist Mr. Magoo, but on this new album they’re joined by a panoply of guests including legendary speed-rapper Daddy Freddy, neo-dub producer Gaudi, and saxophonist Dean Fraser. Their sound is as rich and dark and dubwise as ever, and as an added bonus they’ve dug up some archival recordings of the late Prince Far I, who appears posthumously on two tracks. This is a hugely welcome return from one of the UK’s finest roots reggae ensembles.

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October 2023

Posted on October 2, 2023 by Rick Anderson

CLASSICAL

Johann Sebastian Bach
Partitas
Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble / Trevor Pinnock
Linn (dist. Naxos)
CKD 730

Trevor Pinnock has recorded Bach’s keyboard partitas before, but this album represents something very different: a “re-imagining” of the pieces for chamber orchestra. (Pinnock has previously led a similar project that addressed Bach’s Goldberg Variations in the same way, though with a different arranger.) Composer Thomas Oehler was approached to create orchestral realizations of Partitas nos. 1, 2, and 5, with the Corrente section of Partita no. 6 as well; he also contributed an original piece, the pensive Brook of Light as an appendix to the program. The distribution of contrapuntal lines across multiple wind and string parts — not to mention the use of modern instruments — creates a completely different sonic experience from what one has when the music is played on the keyboard (especially the harpsichord), and while this may not turn out to be everyone’s favorite account of these familiar works, there’s no questioning the skill and taste that Oehler and Pinnock have brought to bear, or the restrained virtuosity of the musicians. Any library supporting a curriculum in orchestration should be especially interested in this recording.

Paolo Aretino
Sabbato Sancto: Lamentationes et Responsoria
Odhecaton / Paolo Da Col
Arcana (dist. Naxos)
A551

This absolutely stunning disc represents the world-premiere recording of a lost work by a nearly forgotten composer. Paolo Aretino (born Paolo Antonio Del Bivi) was a prolific composer but one who rarely left his home in the Tuscan city of Arezzo. His setting of the Passion of St. John is still occasionally performed, but none of his other works have been recorded until now. These lamentations and responsories for Holy Saturday — one of the most important days in the Christian liturgical calendar — reflect the deep sorrow and uncertainty felt by Jesus’ disciples on the day after his crucifixion and before his resurrection. Scored for male voices all singing between the tenor and low bass registers, the music is as dark and introspective as you’d expect, and it’s also deeply moving; the mood varies hardly at all, but the melodic and harmonic ideas consistently hold the listener’s interest. There’s a slight edge to the singing of the Odhecaton ensemble, a sharpness at the peripheries of their sound that occasionally hints at an almost Eastern Orthodox sonority. I cannot recommend this disc strongly enough.

Ludwig Daser
Missa Pater noster & Other Works
Cinquecento
Hyperion (dist. Integral)
CDA68414

Here’s another wonderful recording by an all-male ensemble of works by a neglected 16th-century composer — this one from the court of Munich. Ludwig Daser’s predecessor (Ludwig Senfl) and successor (Orlande de Lassus) have both gotten lots of attention in the years since their activity at Munich, while Daser has remained surprisingly obscure. This disc brings to light Daser’s unusual Missa Pater noster, several motets, and a selection of Protestant chorales, indicating Daser’s wide stylistic range. The centerpiece Mass is an obscure work even for Daser, and currently exists only in a single copy; it extensively incorporates Gregorian chant and uses plainchant melodies in addition to the Pater noster melody as a basis for the polyphonic settings of the different sections. As always, the five-voice Cinquecento ensemble brings a rich and sonorous tone to its performances, a sounds that in this case is deepened further by the addition of several more singers. For all early music collections.

Various Composers
The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969-1972 (vinyl & digital only)
The state51 Conspiracy
CONNACOL001

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, India’s National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad was the site of that country’s first electronic music studio, which was founded with help from the legendary New York composer David Tudor. This compilation is drawn from 27 reels of archival tape dating from that period, and is released to coincide with the publication of a book about this remarkable chapter in India’s musical history. It features works by composers previously unheard of outside the small regional avant-garde scene: Gita Sarabhi, I.S. Mother, Atal Desai, S.C. Sharma and Jinraj Joshipura. The music itself is, as one would expect, very much of its time: lots of bleepy analog synthesizer sounds, but also some pieces that seem to draw on field recordings or seek to mimic natural sounds (note in particular Mathur’s My Birds). All of it is fascinating, and a very fun listen as well as a window on a musical milieu previously undocumented in the West.

Scott Scholz
Whip Sigils
No Part of It
No cat. no.

Some CD HotList readers may actually know Scott Scholz — he directs the music library for Lincoln City Libraries in Lincoln, Nebraska, and is a radio and podcast host among other endeavors. He’s also a gifted guitarist and composer, and was prompted to produce this project during the COVID lockdowns. The pandemic led him to investigate musical responses to similar situations in the past, which in turn led him to dive into European and Middle Eastern early music and learn how to transcribe neumatic notation; he learned to play the oud and the saz, and eventually created a series of compositions that incorporate all of these elements and more. On these seven tracks, he layers instruments, what sound like vocal samples, and various other elements, creating pieces that at times explicitly invoke Medieval European and Arabic music but also incorporate elements of skronk, avant-rock, and minimalism to create a musical whole that is simultaneously familiar and alien — it’s sometimes deeply contemplative and sometimes aggressively noisy, but always interesting and often fun.

Carl Philipp Stamitz
Six Trios
L’Apothéose
Linn (dist. Naxos)
CKD684

I’ve always known Stamitz primarily as a composer of magnificent concertos and chamber music for the clarinet, but obviously there’s much more to his oeuvre than that. For example, take this exquisitely lovely set of trios for flute and violin (or two violins), and continuo, which he published while on a two-year sojourn in London. The pieces reflect the popularity of the galant style in late-18th-century Europe, an aesthetic that favored accessibility and naturalness of melody and relative simplicity of arrangement — however, these trios are notable for the degree to which Stamitz was able to work creatively, sometimes even surprisingly, within that stylistic boundary. The playing, on period instruments, by L’Apothéose — especially that of flutist Laura Quesada — is an absolute joy throughout, and the recorded sound is both rich and intimate. Highly recommended to all classical collections.

JAZZ

Chien Chien Lu
Built in System (Live from New York) (digital only)
Giant Step Arts
GSA 020

This is vibraphonist/composer Chien Chien Lu’s second album as a leader, and it acts as a showcase for the talents of someone who sounds like she’s been on the scene for decades. Also featuring trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, bassist Richie Goods, and drummer Allan Mednard, the album consists entirely of original compositions, through which you can hear her background in classical percussion (note in particular the harmonically knotty “Boulanger’s Variation”) as well as the influence of Chinese folk music (“Hsiu Chin,” “Full Moonlight”). The “built in system” referenced in the title is Lu’s personal philosophy concerning fate, travel, and cultural heritage, all themes that emerge in the music in various ways (including in the titles). The pieces tend to be long and somewhat discursive, giving Lu and her sidemen plenty of space to stretch out. This is quite a special album from a unique talent.

Gregory Lewis
Organ Monk Going Home
Sunnyside
SSC 1662

Thelonious Monk was both a highly influential and a very prolific composer (as well as a notoriously idiosyncratic pianist). But relatively few of his compositions are recorded regularly, partly because so much of what he wrote was just so very odd. The casual jazz fan could be forgiven for being familiar with little more than “‘Round Midnight” and “Epistrophy.” But Monk is much beloved of jazz players, and organist Gregory Lewis is among Monk’s greatest fans. The fifth volume in his Organ Monk series finds him, alongside guitarist Kevin McNeal and drummer Nasheet Waits, delving into some of the more obscure corners of Monk’s book, pulling up less familiar material like “Who Knows,” “Two Timer,” and “Brake’s Sake.” (There’s also a lovely original ballad by Lewis.) He and his crew play with gusto, and at times an almost manic energy, but the groove is always solid and often — as one would expect with this configuration — funky.

Ted Piltzecker
Vibes on a Breath
OA2
OA2 22216

The latest recording by vibraphonist Ted Piltzecker as a leader is also his first outing with a larger ensemble. This septet includes trumpeter Brad Goode and tenor saxophonist/bass clarinetist John Gunther (who gets a lot of featured time in these arrangements), and the group operates nimbly in the space between a medium-sized combo and a small jazz orchestra. The program is filled with fun and sometimes slightly odd choices: for example, opening with two quiet numbers, the first of them a slow, torchy arrangement of “If I Only Had a Brain” and the second a take on “Nature Boy” that opens with drifting impressionism and then evolves into a midtempo lope. The energy level picks up with Piltzecker’s original “Roaring Fork Closure,” a strutting hard-bop workout with a subtle and highly effective horn chart. Elsewhere there’s a great arrangement of the enigmatic Lee Konitz composition “Subconscious Lee” (note the unison lines played by the vibes and the bass clarinet) as well as contemplative performances of Keith Jarrett’s “In Your Quiet Place” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “New Orleans.” Strongly recommended to all jazz collections.

Jon Menges
Spirit of 3, Spirit of 4
Menges Music
No cat. no.

The latest release from trumpeter/composer Jon Menges is an all-original program presented in two formats: the first six tunes are played by a trio (with guitarist Pete McCann and bassist Evan Gregor), while the second set of six tracks is performed by a quartet (with saxophonist Nathan Childers, bassist Joe Fitzgerald, and drummer Robert Weiss). Menges’ compositions tend toward the quiet and gentle, even when they swing solidly, as they usually do: “Mina Buta” departs from the general vibe with a swaying Latin beat, and the lovely “The Spirit Within” is a strutting medium-tempo swinger, as is the beautifully arranged “Somethin’.” To my ear the ballad “Angelynne” is just a bit too meandering, but overall this is a hugely enjoyable album — a master class in modern straight-ahead jazz.

Mathieu Soucy
Recollecting
Inner Bop
No cat. no.

Guitarist Mathieu Soucy characterizes his music as “bebop with a French accent,” and if you’re not exactly sure what that’s supposed to mean, join the club — it certainly does not mean bebop with a Gypsy flavor or an accordion. Nor does it mean jazz that partakes of a leisurely, flâneur vibe: this is hard-swinging, sprightly, and frankly serious-sounding old-school jazz. Not to say that it isn’t joyful, by any means: listen to Soucy’s solo on “Blues for Barry” and there’s really no doubt that he’s having the time of his life. But his compositions are complex (the album opening “Lennie’s Changes” is aptly titled, and “Mike’s Mudrá” has even more of that academic Tristano vibe) and the playing is virtuosic, and his quartet both supports and pushes him. Guest vocalist Caity Gyorgy brings an old-school cool to two tracks, and Soucy’s take on the Thelonious Monk composition “Reflections” is a particular highlight. Highly recommended.

FOLK/COUNTRY

High Fidelity
Music in My Soul
Rebel
REB-CD-1879

Bluegrass gospel is a uniquely exciting and exhilarating musical subgenre, and most bluegrass groups incorporate gospel music as one element of their repertoire. There have been some notable exceptions: Doyle Lawson’s bands have often been very heavily focused on gospel music, and Ralph Stanley spent more time than most on religious material as well. High Fidelity is a Nashville-based quintet that has always included gospel songs on their albums, but decided to go whole hog this time: Music in My Soul is an all-gospel program that includes both classic and original songs, all of them delivered with admirable commitment and unquestionable virtuosity. Highlights include the a cappella “I’m a Pilgrim” and fiddler Corrina Rose Logston Stephens’ original “The Mighty Name of Jesus,” but there’s really not a weak track here. 

Viv & Riley
Imaginary People
Free Dirt (dist. Redeye)
DIRT-CD-0113

I’m kind of a sucker for husband-and-wife duos, partly because I’m just kind of a romantic and partly because I think husband-and-wife duos tend to make really amazing music together — even when their relationship isn’t particularly happy. (Heck, sometimes an unhappy relationship makes the music even better: I’m looking at you, Richard and Linda Thompson.) Now, in the case of Viv & Riley, the music seems to come from a very real place of deep love, commitment, and a willingness to negotiate conflict. Not to get too therapy-ish, but songs like “Is It All Over” and “Flashing Lights” sound to me like documents of commitment (“The General,” on the other hand, mines a darker seam). And “Suave Island” sounds an awful lot like a paean to domestic contentment, unless I’m misunderstanding the couplet “Dryers broke but we’re still fine/Hanging clothes out on the line.” This is a gentle and thoroughly lovely album.

Mary Beth Carty
Crossing the Causeway
Self-released
MBC002

Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Mary Beth Carty comes from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, a region noted for its production of world-class folk musicians. In addition to excellent original compositions, Carty has an impressive repertoire of French Canadian, Irish, and Scottish tunes and songs, which she sings in English, French, and Gaelic. She’s one of those rarest of things: a virtuoso musician who never calls attention to her virtuosity, instead arranging and performing the selected tunes and songs in ways that make you say “What a lovely tune” rather than “Wow, listen to that technique.” And every song and tune on this program is a solid winner: the sad ones are sweet, the rollicking ones are gentle, the happy ones are heartwarming. Strongly recommended to all libraries.

ROCK/POP

The Pretty Flowers
A Company Sleeve
Double Helix
DHR 235235-0013

What, you may well ask, is the difference between “indie rock” and “indie pop”? One answer is “guitars,” but that’s not a good answer because most indie pop involves guitars. A better answer might be “big, noisy, messy-sounding guitars.” And this brings us to The Pretty Flowers, whose new album is an absolute riot of big, noisy, messy-sounding guitars. It’s also a riot of messaging around the theme of “pushing back against meaningless authority” – which might lead one reasonably to ask “So how is this not a punk album?”. And I’d say the answer is “hooks.” Because no matter how noisy the guitars get, the vocal harmonies and the earworm melodies manage to cut through very effectively. This is a perfect album for a long commute home after a crappy day at work with a terrible boss. (Not that I’ve ever had a day like that myself.)

Cesare vs. Disorder
Antidote (vinyl & digital? only)
Serialism
SERLP002

Cesare vs. Disorder appears to be one person only: Italian-Polish producer Cesare Marchese. I’m guessing that his pseudonym reflects the goal of fighting against musical entropy, because the overriding impression I get from his unique brand of dance music is one of tidiness. Don’t get me wrong — his music swings and percolates and is wonderfully funky. But it also feels disciplined and careful, in all the best ways. Highlight tracks here include the UK garage-derived “South East” and “Brixton ’98,” the thumping (but not overbearing) house workout “B Urself,” and the absolutely irresistible “Jupiter’s Rain.” But everything here is worth both listening and dancing too. (There’s supposed to be a digital version available with a bunch of additional tracks, but danged if I can find it online. My promo copy includes those additional tracks, and I can attest that they’re worth seeking out.)

Rhys Chatham; David Fenech
Tomorrowstartstonight
Klanggalerie (dist. MVD)
GG435

This is one of those unusual albums that could have gone equally easily into either the Classical or the Rock/Pop category. On the one hand, it’s clearly art music; on the other, it’s made largely with electric guitars. The complete lack of liner notes makes it a bit difficult to say more than that with any confidence, but the sounds definitely sound like they come from electric guitars, and we know that Chatham himself is a prolific guitarist, as is his collaborator David Fenech. As for the music itself: it’s gorgeous, in a very minimal way. This is minimal music of what I call the “wind chimes” variety, in that a small number of pitches repeat in constantly shifting patterns, without anything that sounds like deliberate harmonic movement. The three long tracks that make up this album seem all to incorporate variously processed and distorted guitars, with perhaps a few other source materials (is that a real rooster crowing?), and the music floats and shimmers and sometimes unsettles.

Mae Simpson
Chandelier & Bloom
Self-released
No cat. no.

Mae Simpson’s songwriting and singing both draw on a variety of influences, yet manage to create from them a powerful and coherent style all her own. Yes, you’ll hear more than a hint of Janis Joplin in her delivery on the funky “Sally,” and there’s a cowpunk edge to the stomping “Why,” and a strong Latin/Caribbean flavor to the swaying, strutting “California-Carolina.” But Simpson’s sound is more than the sum of those elements – it’s a vibe all her own, one that comes not only from her graceful piledriver of a voice and her unique songwriting, but also from the strong and supple grooves that her band creates. This appears to be her first full-length album, and it’s frankly pretty amazing.

Electronic
Get the Message: The Best of Electronic (2 discs; expanded reissue)
Parlophone/Warner
No cat. no.

Originally issued in 2006 as a 15-track single-disc compilation, Getting Away with It is a retrospective of 1990s singles by Electronic, a band headed by the duo of Bernard Sumner (Joy Division, New Order) and Johnny Marr (The Smiths). For both of them, Electronic was a pressure-release valve, a chance to get away from the bands that had defined them and taken over their lives and to make music that they felt like making. Not having listened to these songs in a long while, I was struck when hearing them again by the fact that this music is much more organic-sounding than that of New Order, and much more electronic-sounding than that of The Smiths (especially when Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant is contributing vocals). Maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise. But the other thing that startled me was how much more gentle and mainstream most of the songs sounded than I had remembered. This reissue adds a second disc of deeper cuts and remixes.

Lee Gamble
Models
Hyperdub (dist. Redeye)
CD-HDB-065

“Extracting haunted fragments of synthetic corrupted chatter and indecipherable non-words to sculpt dreamy pop simulacrums,” read the press materials, “Gamble takes the concept of pop producer to its logical extreme.” Now, one may disagree with what it really means in practice to take “the concept of pop producer to its logical extreme,” but the first part of that sentence is a pretty good characterization of the music on Lee Gamble’s latest album. On “She’s Not” he channels Cocteau Twins through a gauzy electro filter; on “Phantom Limb” he turns what sounds like a bass line played on a cello and uses it to create the harmonic scaffolding for wispy clouds of melody; “Blurring” takes a burbling percussion part that evokes early-80s Peter Gabriel and envelopes it in floating chords that appear and disappear according to an odd pattern. There is rhythm on this record but nothing that could be called a “groove” — nevertheless, it’s consistently compelling.

WORLD/ETHNIC

Gregory Isaacs
Red Rose for Gregory (reissue)
Greensleeves
GREWCD118

Gregory Isaacs
Rebirth of the Cool Ruler
VP
VPGSCD7064

The late Gregory Isaacs was a triple-threat reggae artist: a label owner, a fine roots-and-culture singer, and one of the architects (and arguably the greatest exponent) of the “lovers rock” style. His success in the latter role was made possible in part by his ability to portray himself simultaneously as an impecunious and heartbroken “loving pauper” and as a prolifically successful ladies’ man. The 1988 recording Red Rose for Gregory, made with the great dancehall producer Gussie Clarke, stands with Isaacs’ 1982 album Night Nurse as perhaps his most compelling work in that vein; this new Greensleeves reissue is of a later CD version that preserves the original tracklist but expands the content by presenting several of the songs in extended showcase mixes — and by adding an extended mix of “Mind You Dis” for good measure. Rebirth of the Cool Ruler is a tribute album, one that takes some late-80s recordings Isaacs made for producer King Jammy and adds newly recorded guest vocals from a variety of singers and toasters (Shaggy, Chaka Demus, Alborosie, Bounty Killer, etc.) to create “combination” tracks on which Isaacs’ original vocals alternate with the singing or chatting of the guest performer. The result is enjoyable and will be welcomed by Isaacs’ many fans.

Aga Khan Master Musicians
Nowruz
Smithsonian Folkways
SFW CD 40597

The Aga Khan Master Musicians are an international ensemble consisting of instrumentalists from Central Asia, China, the Middle East, and North Africa. While skeptical listeners might note that there is little that stylistically unites the musical traditions of (for example) China and North Africa, and might therefore suspect this project of being more of an exercise in feel-good multiculturalism than in musical coherence, I urge open-mindedness in this case. For example, check out the way Wu Man’s pipa creates a colorful blend with composer Feras Charestan’s qanun on the lovely “Awdeh,” or the way viola d’amore player Jasser Haj Youssef draws on both the traditional Arabic maqam structure and on Bach’s solo violin sonatas while improvising on “Cadence.” This excellent album actually turns out to be a perfect example of how to do musical multiculturalism right.

Male Choir ‘Ukraina’
Orthodox Hymns of Ukraine (reissue)
Alto (dist. Alliance)
ALC 1478

Although this one could easily have gone in the Classical section, I’m putting it in World/Ethnic because of the strong ethnic/regional focus. This disc is not just a program of Orthodox hymnody, but also a gesture of resistance; although it was originally issued in 1989, long before the current Russian aggression towards Ukraine, it is being reissued now along with a clear statement of intent and of opposition to the Russian patriarchate (“All composers here were born in Ukraine”). So how’s the music? Glorious, with that particular intensity of delivery and density of harmony that typifies sacred music in the Orthodox tradition. Featured composers include Dmytry Bortniansky, Artemy Vedel, and Mykola Lysenko.

Prince Far I
Under Heavy Manners (expanded reissue)
VP/17 North Parade
VPCD4218

Michael Williams, a.k.a. Prince Far I, was a unique talent among reggae “deejays” (a term used in that context to mean what we would call “rappers” or “MCs” in America). He used his deep and stentorian voice to deliver consistent messages of religious and cultural exhortation, never indulging in “slackness” (i.e. sexually explicit or violent lyrics) and rarely if ever “riding the rhythm” the way his contemporaries did: instead of fitting the rhythm of his delivery to the accompanying music, he often simply used the music as a backdrop to his carefully prepared messages. Heavy Manners was originally issued in 1977, when he was operating at the peak of his powers, and includes such timeless tracks as “Deck of Cards,” “You I Love and Not Another,” the delightful “Big Fight,” and of course the powerful title track. Six years later Prince Far I had joined the ever-growing ranks of talented musicians killed during Jamaica’s perennial spasms of senseless violence. This significantly expanded reissue adds alternative mixes and dub versions.

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September 2023

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Rick Anderson

CLASSICAL

John Cage
Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano (1946-’48)
Agnese Toniutti
Neuma
172

For those who find John Cage’s work too conceptual (e.g. 4’33”) or too aleatory (e.g. Freeman Etudes, Etudes Australes, etc.), the Sonatas and Interludes offer a window into the mind of Cage as a conventional composer. Of course, we use the word “conventional” in a fairly broad sense here: what it means in this case is that the music is notated and is based on a consistent musical conception (in this case, elements of classical Indian structures). But the music will still sound like nothing else you’ve ever heard, because Cage was a resolutely weird composer and because it’s written for prepared piano — an instrument into which various objects have been inserted in order to alter the sounds produced when the strings are struck. At times it sounds like gamelan; at others it sounds like toy piano or celeste; at others it sounds like unpitched percussion. Cage’s puckish humor and breadth of musical imagination are fully and delightfully in evidence throughout these pieces, and Agnese Toniutti plays them with sensitivity and relish.

Filipe de Magalhães
Masses Veni Domine & Vere Dominus est
Cupertinos / Luís Toscano
Hyperion (dist. Integral)
CDA68403

When it comes to Renaissance choral music, the Franco-Flemish masters, the Venetians, and the Tudors tend to kind of hog the spotlight. The Spaniards get a look in as well — but their contemporaries on the west coast of the Iberian peninsula are often overlooked. None more so than the great Portuguese composer Filipe de Magalhães, who (sing along with me now; you know the words) was enormously acclaimed and influential in his time but is largely forgotten today. This stunningly beautiful release by the Cupertinos ensemble should help to remedy that. These are world-premiere recordings of de Magalhães’ parody Masses on the motets “Veni Domine” and “Vere Dominus est,” and the compositions are amazingly delicate and sweet; even by the high standards of his time and place, this is unusually uplifting music, made even more so by the sensitive and pitch-perfect singing of the Cupertinos. Strongly recommended to all classical collections.

António Pereira da Costa
Concerti Grossi
Ensemble Bonne Corde / Diana Vinagre
Ramée (dist. Naxos)
RAM 2104

Another forgotten Portuguese composer is finally getting something like his due this year, with this recording of António Pereira da Costa’s only surviving collection of works: a set of twelve concerti grossi. We know that da Costa was born around 1697 (thanks to an engraved portrait included in the published version of his concerti), but beyond that almost nothing is known of his life or career. Even these pieces have only survived in a mangled format — the printing so filled with errors (and missing parts) that it was necessary for the Ensemble Bonne Corde’s keyboardist, Fernando Miguel Jalôto, to substantially reconstruct it, a task made particularly difficult by the composer’s rather idiosyncratic style. But few listeners will disagree with me that the effort was worth it. This disc contains only six of the twelve concerti; here’s hoping a second volume will be forthcoming.

Johann Sebastian Bach
Infinite Bach (3 discs)
Maya Beiser
Islandia Music
IMR012

Johann Sebastian Bach
J.S. Bach – Tranquillity
Jonathan Phillips
Divine Art
ddx 21102

The titles of these two recent Bach recordings might both lead you to expect some kind of minimalist — or maybe even New Age — approach to the music. But that’s not what’s happening in either case. With Infinite Bach, a recording of the six cello suites, acclaimed cellist Maya Beiser (who has often taken something of a maverick approach to her repertoire) is not doing anything radical with the music; instead, she’s done something unusual with the recording technique and production. Recording in her converted barn, she experimented with the different resonances and acoustics available to her in its spaces, using multiple microphones; then the recordings were mixed in an immersive binaural format, creating a unique sound even when played back on conventional speakers. As always, the playing itself is exquisite. Jonathan Phillips’ solo piano recording is more straightforward: it’s a warmly produced and intimate-sounding collection of selections from Bach’s keyboard compositions including assorted preludes and fugues, sections and movements from the Goldberg Variations and various concertos, arrangements of cantata extracts, etc. All are selected with the purpose of helping “anyone hoping to gain an overriding sense of stillness, calm, contemplation and reverence.” Phillips makes no sacrifices of rigor in his interpretations, which are both emotionally rich and stylistically thoughtful — but he has successfully selected a program that gently feeds the soul.

Ludwig van Beethoven; Anton Webern; Johann Sebastian Bach
Prism V
Danish String Quartet
ECM
485 8469

For the past eight years, the Danish String Quartet has undertaken a project they call Prism: a series of recordings each of which opens with a Bach prelude or fugue, then proceeds to a Beethoven quartet, and then finishes with a piece by a later composer that illustrates how Beethoven acts as a “prism” in music history, taking preexisting ideas and transforming them into new ones that influence later musicians in turn. The fifth and final volume in this series opens with an arrangements of Bach’s chorale prelude Vor deiner Thron tret ich hiermit, which is followed by Beethoven’s 16th string quartet, which is then followed in turn by Webern’s 1905 single-movement string quartet (written while he was a student of Arnold Schoenberg, but well before his compositional vocabulary had turned fully serial). The program ends with a Bach fugue. As always, the Danish String Quartet’s sound is simply luminous, and their grace and coordination as an ensemble breathtaking.

Various Composers
Around Baermann
Maryse Legault; Gili Loftus
Leaf Music
LM265

As its title suggests, this disc offers a program that looks at composers working “around Baermann” — i.e., at around the same time as the great clarinetist and composer Heinrich Baermann. The time was the turn of the 19th century, when the new Romantic style was providing particularly fertile ground for compositions featuring the clarinet, and composers featured here include Carl Maria von Weber (whose variations from an opera theme open the program), Felix Mendelssohn, and of course Baermann himself. (A sonatina for clarinet and piano by the underrecognized clarinetist and composer Caroline Schleicher-Krähmer is included as a bonus digital download.) Maryse Legault plays a copy of an early clarinet and Gili Loftus plays the fortepiano here, giving an added dimension of period-appropriateness to these delightful performances.

JAZZ

Kris Davis’ Diatom Ribbons
Live at the Village Vanguard (2 discs)
Pyroclastic
PR 28/29

On this two-disc live recording, pianist/composer Kris Davis reconvenes the core of the ensemble from her celebrated 2019 album Diatom Ribbons, and the makeup of the live version of this group tells you something about her intentions: legendary drummer Terri Lynne Carrington, bassist Trevor Dunn, turntablist DJ Val Jeanty, and guitarist Julian Lage. This lineup is custom-designed for experimentation and innovation, and the music doesn’t disappoint. From the improvisatory but stomping rendition of Ronald Shannon Jackson’s “Alice in the Congo” to their (second) take on Wayne Shorter’s sweet and swinging “Dolores,” Davis leads her team on a merry voyage of musical creation and discovery. The program focuses on her original compositions, though, and they’re a blast: “Nine Hats” is a fun avant-garde excursion, “VW” has a distinct Second Viennese School vibe (I mean that in a good way), and the three-part “Bird Suite” is charming in both concept and execution. For all adventurous jazz collections.

Doug MacDonald Trio
Edwin Alley (digital only)
DMAC Music
DM24

The prolific guitarist Doug MacDonald is back with another sharp and swinging trio set. The program consists entirely of originals (except for the closer, a lovely rendition of the standard “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To”), several of which, in time-honored fashion, are written on existing chord changes: for example, “Tuned Out” is based on the chord progression to “Tune Up,” while “Eyow” is written on the changes to “What Is This Thing Called Love.” MacDonald’s tone and style are swinging and straight-ahead throughout, and he is expertly supported by bassist Mike Flick and drummer Kendall Kay. I note in particular the pleasingly full and up-front bass sound on this album; in jazz production, the bass is all too frequently both too dry and buried in the mix, and the rich bass presence here creates a warm and colorful balance to the ensemble sound. Recommended.

Will Bernard & Beth Custer
SKY
Dreck-to-Disk
DTD005

This is a remarkable album from guitarist Will Bernard and clarinetist/singer Beth Custer. Well, maybe not so remarkable if you consider the duo members’ respective résumés: Custer is a film and dance composer as well as a conventional jazz musician, and has worked in trip hop and “fourth world” styles as well. Bernard is an alumnus of T.J. Kirk and of Multi Kulti and has worked as a sideman to artists as diverse as Dr. John, Tom Waits, and Ben Sidran. So what does their duo project sound like? Surprisingly quiet, introspective, and intimate. You’ll hear hints of the blues, of Erik Satie, of gospel and folk, and any number of other elements — and you’ll also hear improvisation that is never self-indulgent and experimentation that is never willfully abstruse. It’s rare to hear a recording that is simultaneously so unique and so immediately inviting. Highly recommended to all libraries.

Techno Cats
The Music of Gregg Hill
Cold Plunge
No cat. no.

The thread that binds the five musicians on this session and the composer Gregg Hill is a connection with Michigan State University and the East Lansing jazz scene — one that is perhaps surprisingly fecund given the town’s size. Hill has long been associated with that scene as a producer and composer, and this celebration of his music is a pure pleasure. The quintet is co-led by bass trombonist Chris Glassman and guitarist Nathan Borton, and also features pianist Xavier Davis, bassist Javier Enrique, and drummer Michael J. Reed. Their vibe is happy and swinging, their ensemble sound pleasingly smooth without being off-cuttingly slick. And the compositions truly are worthy of celebration: highlights include the brisk “Elden’s Bop” and the confidently loping midtempo waltz “Never Forget,” but there are no weak tracks here.

Darrell Grant’s MJ New
Our Mr. Jackson
Lair Hill
LHR 007

Pianist Darrell Grant’s combo has its roots in a 2013 invitation from the Portland Jazz Festival to organize a tribute to the Modern Jazz Quartet. But the group gelled so nicely that it has continued work together ever since — until, in 2021, the untimely death of its drummer, Carlton Jackson. (The “Our” in the title distinguishes him from MJQ charter member Milt Jackson, whose standard “Bag’s Groove” opens the program.) Our Mr. Jackson commemorates both Jackson and the MJQ by exploring commonalities between jazz and classical music — both in terms of repertoire (this program incorporates pieces by both Bach and Schubert) and in terms of delivering the pieces as genuine concert music. That’s not to say that it doesn’t swing — it swings hard (note especially Grant’s own wonderful composition “A Viennese Affair”). But, as with the MJQ’s music, undergirding the fun is always a sense of respect for the deep seriousness of this music. This is a sad and brilliant album.

FOLK/COUNTRY

Chris Murphy
The Road and the Stars (compilation; digital only)
Teahouse
No cat. no.

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Chris Murphy has been purveying his unique blend of Celtic-American-Bluegrass-Folk-Rock-Jazz-Blues for years now, playing original tunes that sound like they’re 100 years old and singing songs that hark back to Tin Pan Alley, 1960s folk pop, country blues, and any number of points in between. This disc brings together tracks from five of his previous releases, one of them a live recording, but the program hangs together very well as a unified musical statement. Highlights include “Kitchen Girl” — which should not be confused with the traditional Irish session tune, and interestingly enough features drummer DJ Bonebrake of X — the bitter “Vernon Tool and Die,” and the instrumental “High Country” (not to be confused with the traditional Québec tune “Pays de Haut”). Murphy’s playing and singing are both beautiful but admirably plainspoken and unfussy.

Deke Dickerson and the Whippersnappers
Honky Tonkin’ Rhythm
Major Label
MLCD-009

For several decades now, hotshot guitarist and brilliant singer Deke Dickerson has been purveying old-school rockabilly and honky-tonk country music both as a solo artist and alongside bands like the Bo-Keys, the Ecco-Fonics, the Trashmen, and even Los Straitjackets. His first full-length release since the pandemic finds him alongside the Whippersnappers, reprising a couple of songs from their earlier EP and adding an album’s worth of new songs in a variety of styles: the tongue-in-cheek classic country of “Bucket of Blood,” the Hank Williams-flavored lover’s croon of “Sugar Coated Baby,” the slightly lewd and relentlessly chugging “Here Kitty Kitty” (with its graceful Merle Travis-style guitar picking), etc. As always, Dickerson is audibly having the time of his life, and his joyful enthusiasm is as infectious as his picking is technically impressive.

Teddy Thompson
My Love of Country
Self-released
No cat. no.

Listening to Teddy Thompson’s latest, I can’t help but be reminded of Elvis Costello’s 1981 album Almost Blue. As Costello had, Thompson has signaled his love of country music on previous releases (this isn’t even his first dedicated primarily to country music), but like Almost Blue this is something more than a nod to Nashville: like Thompson’s 2007 Up Front and Down Low, it’s a collection of country standards performed in a manner deeply informed by that music’s 1960’s classical style. A big difference between the two albums: unlike Costello, Thompson has a lovely voice — and this means that he’s able to do real justice to songs like the Patsy Cline hit “I Fall to Pieces” (delivered here at a brisk honky-tonk lope rather than Cline’s torchy slow tempo) and Buck Owens’ “Crying Time.” My only complaint? According to the press materials, Thompson and his producer “assembled a list of twenty titles, then whittled it down to eleven” — resulting in a 28-minute-long program. C’mon, guys. That may be a fully authentic album length for a ’60s-style country project, but why be stingy when the songs and the performances are this good?

Chris Pierce
Let All Who Will (digital only)
Calabama Recordings
No cat. no.

Los Angeles singer-songwriter Chris Pierce performs with one foot in protest-fueled folk music and the other in soulful, greasy R&B. It’s a potent combination on his latest album, which features soully Hammond organs, growling slide guitars, and tons of sharp and sometimes bitter social commentary on matters as serious as murderous race riots (“Tulsa Town”), civil rights history (“Sidney Poitier”), and — I’m pretty sure — climate change (“Batten Down the Hatches”). Of course, it takes more than powerful lyrical content to make songs great, and Pierce offers those things as well: grittily beautiful singing, subtle but strong melodic hooks, great arrangements. And then, when you least expect it? You get a Cars cover. Wow.

ROCK/POP

Jessy Lanza
Love Hallucination
Hyperdub (dist. Redeye)
HDBCD0063

Whenever something comes out from the aptly named Hyperdub label, I’m immediately intrigued: what new twist on dark dance music will this one represent? In the case of the new album from singer/songwriter/producer Jessy Lanza, the answer is “all kinds.” From the concise house workout of the album-opening “Don’t Leave Me Now” through the stutter-step UK garage of “Midnight Ontario” and the slightly disorienting disco dub of “Big Pink Rose,” Lanza sneaks all kinds of unexpected elements into music that might sound on the surface like uncomplicated dance pop. Her voice is deceptively girlish and light — listen carefully and you’ll hear some jagged edges that you might not have expected. But there are also enough hooks here for the album to work just fine on that uncomplicated dance-pop level. Recommended to all libraries.

Sobs
Air Guitar
Topshelf
TSR252

Described by the label as “a thirty-minute trip for the post-Internet consumer,” the sophomore release from this Singapore-based trio is an indiepop tour de force. The juxtaposition of Celine Autumn’s sweet, silky voice and the alternately clean and distorted guitars and other backing instruments by Jared Lim and Raphael Ong is wave-your-hands-in-the-air thrilling. They can go from anthemic (“Lucked Out”) to intimate (“Dealbreaker”) on a dime. On the title track and the hair-raisingly catchy “World Implode” the hooks come a mile a minute, and when they get a little bit edgy (consider the jungle-inflected “Friday Night”) it’s even better. And I’ll tell you what, the Dollyrots would kill to have written “Friday Night” — at least the first part before the breakbeat freakout. Recommended to all libraries that serve patrons who like to have fun.

Various Artists
Where Were You?: Independent Music from Leeds 1978-1989 (3 discs)
Cherry Red (dist. MVD)
CRCDBOX149

Maybe not quite as consistently fun but definitely more historically significant is this new box set from the mighty Cherry Red label, which continues to document various independent music scenes from the US and the UK with well curated and lovingly documented collections. This one is for anyone who thought the Leeds postpunk scene began and ended with Gang of Four, Delta 5 and the Mekons. All three of those bands are represented here, of course, but some of the finest moments come from groups that most Americans (and probably quite a few Brits) will never have heard of: Bridewell Taxis, say, or the psychobilly Pink Peg Slax. There are also oddities from more familiar names: those who know Script Politti only as purveyors of vaguely Situationist candy-coated synth pop will be startled by the aptly-titled early track “Messthetics,” while Sisters of Mercy’s “Temple of Love” offers a scrappy, tense hint of the dark and rich Gothicism to come. Like all of these Cherry Red collections, this one is filled with fun surprises and useful information — and is therefore perfect for library collections.

Dwight Twilley
The Tulsa Years, Volume 1: 1999-2016 (reissue)
Paramour (dist. MVD)
MVD12679A

This is the first installment in what will be a two-volume reissue project. Some years ago there was a 40-song, two-CD set that documented Dwight Twilley’s career following the destruction of his California home in the Northridge earthquake and his subsequent relocation to Tulsa, Oklahoma. There he recorded six albums of original material, a couple of covers albums (including one focused on Beatles songs), a live album, a Christmas album, and a collection of previously unreleased material. The original set drew on much of this material, and then went out of print, and is now being reissued for the first time on vinyl but also as two separate CDs. For fans the releases are a treasure trove, and for newcomers it can function as an explanation as to why Twilley is known as the Father of Power Pop. For obvious reasons, it’s also a strong candidate for library collections.

Marshall Crenshaw
Marshall Crenshaw (expanded reissue)
Yep Roc (dist. Redeye)
YEP-3027X

And while we’re talking about great pop reissues, let’s consider this expanded rerelease of Marshall Crenshaw’s magnificent eponymous debut album. Originally issued in 1982, Marshall Crenshaw signaled the arrival of one of the most skillful songwriters of a generation. His bespectacled visage and knack for earworm hooks got him compared regularly to Buddy Holly (whom he actually portrayed in the 1987 Richie Valens biopic La Bamba), but the comparison is too confining: Crenshaw’s lyrical themes are sharper and more thoughtful, and his melodic gift is, if anything, more developed than Holly’s was (though in fairness, Holly died too young to develop his talent fully). I would defy anyone to listen to “Someday, Someway” without smiling, or to “Cynical Girl” without smirking. And as great as his songwriting chops are, his voice is almost as good – as is his knack for arranging. Even if your library already holds this album, consider the reissue for its generous helping of bonus tracks.

WORLD/ETHNIC

Madhuvanti Pal
The Holy Mother: Madhuvanti Pal Plays the Rudra Veena (vinyl & digital only)
Sublime Frequencies
SF122

The rudra veena is not the most well known of north India’s classical instruments. Taxonomically classified as a stick zither, it consists of a long fretted neck fitted with melody and drone strings and two resonating gourds. Traditionally it is played only by men, and this album represents a historic moment because it is the first recording of rudra veena played by a woman – and in this case a woman who is not only a virtuoso player of the instrument but also a teacher and instrument builder. The program includes two dhrupads, melodies intended for devotional singing, and traditionally accompanied by this instrument. In keeping with that stylistic tradition, the rudra veena has a relatively deep pitch and long sustain; the drone strings are much higher, and create a sparkling sonic matrix for the darker and more subdued melody. Pal’s playing is as impressive as one would expect, and this album is not only a very enjoyable listen but also an important addition to any library collection with a focus on Indian classical music.

Various Artists
More Fire!
Reggae Roast
MOCCD14324

As conscious roots reggae has lost favor in its native Jamaica (displaced over the years by increasingly harsh and digital dancehall and bashment styles), it has gained popularity among pockets of the West Indian diaspora — notably in Germany, France, and especially England, where multigenerational Jamaican communities have lived for decades. One of the best and most consistent purveyors of modern roots reggae is the London-based Reggae Roast label and sound system. The collective’s latest release is something of an all-star revue, featuring such legendary singers as Earl 16, Johnny Clarke, and Horace Andy alongside major young talents like Horseman, Gappy Ranks, and the remarkable Soom T. On More Fire!, the material itself consists largely of familiar songs (“Crazy Baldhead,” “Guiding Star,” etc.) and classic rhythms delivered in a style that combines up-to-the-minute production quality with old-school bass pressure and a humid, smoky Jamaican vibe. Hands down, this is the best reggae release of summer 2023.

Yosef Gutman Levitt
Soul Song
Soul Song
No cat. no.

If the name Yosef Gutman Levitt is ringing a bell with you, the faithful CD HotList reader, it’s because just last month I recommended Tsuf Harim, his gorgeous collaboration with guitarist Tal Yahalom. Now the bassist/composer is back with another, equally beautiful collaboration — this time with guitarist Lionel Loueke, Levitt’s former Berklee School of Music classmate and longtime friend. Together with pianist Omri Mor and drummer Ofri Nehemya, they’ve crafted a stunning program of tunes that draw on both Jewish and African themes and flavors: Levitt’s original “Chai Elul” is a Middle Eastern melody given a calypso-esque arrangement; note also the astringent Ashkenazi modality of “Myriad,” one of several nigunim (traditional Hasidic melodies) explored on this album. The nigun “Kave El Hashem” is given two treatments, the first gently funky and the second darker and smokier — and listen to how Omri Mor’s piano imitates a kora on “Desert Song.” Throughout the album, the music is emotionally immediate and spiritually evocative. This album is a deeply special listening experience.

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August 2023

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Rick Anderson

CLASSICAL

Michel Pignolet de Monteclair
Concerts pour la flûte traversière avec la basse chiffrée (2 discs)
The Opus Project
Navona (dist. Naxos)
NV 6533

After there was Lully but before there was Rameau, there was Montéclair — a musician best known in his day as a pedagogue but today celebrated as both a pioneer of composition for the transverse flute as a solo instruments and one of the finest French composers of the early 18th century. The four “concerts” presented on these two discs are not concertos, but more like suites, each composed of ten to fifteen brief pieces. Sometimes the component movements are presented as dances (gigues, menuets, etc.) but Montéclair uses other unifying themes as well: the first concert is an assortment of tunes designed to represent different regions and cities of France and Italy; the fourth concert conveys a variety of moods, emotions, and mythological figures. All of this makes the music simultaneously familiar and unusual, and the playing by The Opus Project conveys the kaleidoscopic variety of these pieces with joy and vigor. Highly recommended to all libraries.

Steve Reich
Music for 18 Musicians
Colin Currie Group; Synergy Vocals
Colin Currie (dist. Integral)
CCR0006

When I was 17 years old, I bought a used LP copy of Steve Reich’s original ECM recording of Music for 18 Musicians, and I never listened to music the same way again. It was my first introduction to the first-generation minimalist school of composers that also includes Philip Glass, Terry Riley, and La Monte Young, and it led me into a whole new world of contemporary classical music. 40 years later I still listen to this piece with the same wonder and excitement I did then: the hypnotic pulse offset by phase-shifting rhythms; the melodies that seem to emerge out of nowhere and then gradually transform themselves before fading out again; the reed instruments playing in such tight patterns that they almost sound like a synthesizer — the music is both intellectually engaging and emotionally ravishing. And there’s no one who plays Reich more compellingly right now than percussionist Colin Currie and his ensemble. There are lots of great recordings of this work out there, but this is the one I’d most strongly recommend at the moment.

Lei Liang
Six Seasons
Mivos Quartet
New World
80840-2

If you’re looking for some contemporary classical music that is on the more challenging, abrasive (literally) side, look no further. Lei Liang’s Six Seasons, written for “any number of improvising musicians and pre-recorded sounds,” is here performed by the Mivos Quartet and consists of six movements (plus a coda) of creaks, scratches, squalls, clicks, rumbles, crunches, echoes, and cries. The pre-recorded sounds were recorded by hydrophones placed 300 meters below the surface of the Chukchi Sea, north of Alaska, and include noises made by sea ice, marine mammals, and other elements of the underwater environment over the course of a year. The string players’ improvised accompaniment is not always easily distinguishable from the recorded sounds (particularly on the lovely but eerie “Season 4: Migration”) but is sometimes harshly abrasive, bordering on assaultive; interestingly, the movement subtitled “Sunrise” grows gradually to an almost unlistenable cacophony, while the movement subtitled “Cacophony” is delicate and beautiful. It’s a fascinating work overall.

Eugène Walckiers
String Quintets no. 2 & 4
Fabergé-quintett
ES-DUR (dist. MVD)
ES 2084

A student of Anton Reicha and a famous flutist in his day, Eugène Walckiers is primarily remembered today for his chamber compositions for that instrument, which represent much of his early output. But later in life he turned in a more concentrated way toward larger-scale chamber music for other instruments, and these two string quintets show his maturity as a composer and his simultaneous love of both tradition and innovative style: both pieces are built on a foundation of classical sonata structure, but their unusually long initial movements point to a willingness to tweak convention. In terms of melodic and harmonic content, both pieces reflect the flowering of the Romantic style that was by this point fully ascendant in his adopted home of Paris, and the Fabergé-quintett deliver these works (on modern instruments) with all the energy and emotional investment one could ask for.

Jacob Obrecht
Missa Maria zart
Cappella Pratensis / Stratton Bull
Challenge Classics (dist. Naxos)
CC72933

Jacob Obrecht’s parody mass on the Marian devotional song “Maria zart” is an outlier among Renaissance Masses in both its complexity and its duration: although it is a Mass ordinary that contains only five sections, it takes almost an hour to perform. As for its complexity, scholars have compared it to the work of 20th century avant-gardism Karlheinz Stockhausen, and choral ensembles have long struggled to fully convey its rhythmic subtleties. This the all-male Cappella Pratensis has tried to do for the first time with this recording, and while I’m not enough of a specialist to be able to judge their success with regard to the mensural notation, I can say with great confidence that this is among the most attractive recordings of Obrecht I’ve heard in a long time. Although my usual preference is for mixed-voice choirs, Cappella Pratensis sing with impeccable intonation and a gorgeous blend, and this album is a pleasure from start to finish.

Various Composers
Sonata Tramontana
Carrie Krause; John Lentl
Black Bear
BMM 01

This delicately beautiful recording is (to the musicians’ knowledge) the first commercially-released period-instrument recording to come out of the state of Montana, and it makes an auspicious beginning to what will hopefully become a flourishing early music recording scene there. More importantly, this disc features exceptionally fine performances of chamber works by seldom-heard composers (Philipp Friedrich Böddecker, Bellerofonte Castaldi, etc.) alongside more popular ones (Heinrich Bieber, Johann Schmelzer, etc.). The pieces are all performed by baroque violinist Carrie Krause either as a soloist or in duet with theorbo player John Lenti, and the performances are a model of elegant and engaging period practice. The production quality is also excellent. For the performers, “the pieces on this album will forever be connected with the scenes rolling past our car window during tours or on pre-concert morning runs: a snowy mountain pass… a golden field of the prairie… the great cliffs and canyon of the Missouri River…”. While those images of memory may not be available to most listeners, imagining them in the context of this music does give it a whole different kind of resonance. Though quite pricey, this disc is recommended to all libraries. (The digital version is much cheaper.)

Franz Joseph Haydn
Piano Trios
Altenberg Trio Wien
Paladino Music (dist. MVD)
PMR 0132

Franz Joseph Haydn
Heretic Threads (2 discs)
Boyd McDonald; Joseph Petric; Peter Lutek
Astrila
No cat. no.

On the first album in this entry, Altenberg Trio Wien give absolutely sparkling and thrilling accounts here of five works from late in Haydn’s career but early in the development of the piano trio as a form. Playing on modern instruments, this group conveys not only the structural and melodic brilliance of these pieces, which are arguably among the finest examples of the form ever written, but also the sheer joy that emerges from the real-time manifestation of such formal virtuosity. I’ve listened to a lot of Haydn in my life but I don’t think I’ve ever been as enthralled by a Haydn performance as by this one. For a very different approach to Haydn’s chamber music (the keyboard sonatas, in this case) consider Heretic Threads, a two-disc set featuring interpretations of two sonatas and one fantasia from Hob.XVI. Disc 1 finds Boyd McDonald playing the pieces expertly and winningly on a fortepiano of the kind that was in common use during Haydn’s day. The second disc features the same pieces being interpreted on the concert accordion(!) by Joseph Petric. These performances are no less compelling but obviously bring a completely different vibe, and are both fun and interesting. The final piece on the program is an electronic composition by Peter Lutek that uses the previous two recordings along with “audio ephemera excavated from the recording sessions” to create something entirely new and decidedly out of the classical character. It’s frankly a blast. This recording would make an excellent pedagogical tool and should find a happy home in most academic collections.

JAZZ

Mike Jones Trio
Are You Sure You Three Guys Know What You’re Doing?
Capri
74169-2

To look at Mike Jones, with his elaborate tattoos and ear gauges and everything, you would never guess that he’s such a straight-ahead, hard-swinging, deeply tradition-based pianist. But when he puts together a program of standards he basically takes you on a tour of jazz piano history: those big orchestral chords on “Watch What Happens” evoke strong memories of Errol Garner; his impressionistic intro to “On Green Dolphin Street” is like a tribute to Bill Evans; his strutting midtempo take on the Sonny Rollins classic “Doxy” contains more than a hint of Oscar Peterson’s high-octane virtuosity. I realize I’m making Jones sound like a derivative pianist, but it’s not that — he’s a master, and that means he’s mastered a curriculum. Oh, and did I mention that he’s got Jeff Hamilton on drums and the very tasteful Penn Jillette on bass? Great, great stuff.

Núria Andorrá; Fred Frith
Dancing Like Dust
Klanggalerie (dist. MVD)
gg429

This is a mix of live and studio performances by the legendary avant-garde guitarist Fred Frith and percussionist Núria Andorrá, all of them fully improvised. No one who is familiar with Frith’s previous work will be surprised by the sounds he makes here — using a bottomless toolbox of implements and extended techniques he coaxes a seemingly endless variety of noises from his instrument. More surprising is the work of Andorrá; many of the sounds she creates are barely recognizable as percussive. To call this “noise” music would be to give the wrong impression; there’s nothing skronky or assaultive about it. Instead, it’s subtle and infinitely detailed and filled with good humor and intelligence. Believe it or not, sometimes the music actually borders on lyrical. Highly recommended.

Idle Hands
Get a Grip
Posi-Tone
PR8245

Idle Hands is a jazz supergroup, a sextet that features Will Bernard (guitar), Behn Gillece (vibes), Donny McCaslin (tenor sax), Art Hirahara (one of my favorite pianists currently working), Boris Koslov (bass), and EJ Strickland (drums). Their second album is an all-original program that offers compositions by every member of the group (the one exception is a bustling rendition of Charles Mingus’s slyly humorous composition “Monk, Bunk and Vice Versa”). Just about every track here would count as a highlight on any other jazz album: Gillece’s nimble, boppish “Show of Hands” and his somewhat Tristano-esque composition “The Great Quarterly”; Hirahara’s cheerfully headlong “Soho Down”, Strickland’s thoughtful jazz waltz “Presence,” McCaslin’s gently funky “Memphis Redux.” The overall style is straight-ahead, but none of these guys is afraid to get just a little bit “out” from time to time — particularly McCaslin, who flirts with a Coltrane-ish “sheets of sound” approach and sometimes indulges an edgier tone than one might expect. These are all amazing musicians who work together beautifully.

Aline’s Étoile Magique
Éclipse
Elastic
ER 009

Though trained as a jazz violinist, Aline Homzy makes music that doesn’t push the boundaries of jazz as much as it blithely and cheerfully ignores them. Her compositions unfold with something like dream logic — they’re genuinely weird but always feel like they make sense while you’re listening. Then afterwards you ask yourself “Wait, what was that?”. Take, for example, “Cosmos,” which is like a walk through eight or nine different rooms in each of which an entirely different party is taking place — but all with the same people. Others, like the Latin-inflected “Circa Herself,” are more conventionally structured, but they just set you up to be surprised by what will come later: the lilting jazz waltz of “Aliens Are Pieces of Wind” that suddenly morphs into a gently stomping, almost rockish fusion piece; the conventionally swinging “La belle et l’abeille” on which Homzi’s solos meander off in oddly chromatic directions; the dubwise excursion in the middle of “Mesarthim.” This is an utterly unique album, and a great one.

FOLK/COUNTRY

Sarah Morris
Here’s to You
Sarah Morris Music
No cat. no.

When it comes to country music, the line between a pleasant honky-tonk lope and a dreary plod can be thin and treacherous. On the album-opening title track from Sarah Morris’s fifth album, I at first thought that maybe she was falling on the wrong side of that line — but what soon became clear, especially as the light and golden-hued warmth of her voice took hold, was that she was actually dancing on it with grace. Elsewhere she dances with similar agility back and forth across other lines of demarcation — like the one that separates folk pop from roots rock (“You Are [Champagne on a Wednesday]”) or the one that separates dream pop from everything else (“Something That Holds,” ” The Longest Night”). Throughout the program it’s the melodies she writes that hold everything together, and her delicate but utterly reliable voice that makes it all worth hearing and re-hearing.

Maia Sharp
Reckless Thoughts
Self-released
No cat. no.

I’ve been a fan of Maia Sharp ever since I heard (and recommended) Mercy Rising a couple of years ago. On her new album she moves from strength to strength. Her songwriting skills have made her a go-to songwriter for the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Cher, and Trisha Yearwood, but her own voice makes the songs that much more compelling, in my view. Technically it’s probably an alto, but often it reminds me of Neil Young’s falsetto (in a good way). Ultimately, though, it’s the songs themselves that hit you the hardest, and it’s often small and subtle moments: the way the melody steps down on the lines “She’ll let herself out/She’ll let herself out”; the way she follows the line “I built that city” (one that we all unconsciously expect to be followed with “… on rock’n’roll”) with “… while the ground was still shifting.” Sharp has recently settled in Nashville, but it doesn’t seem to have budged her from her unique songwriting vision — there are elements of country and roots here, but this is really just Maia Sharp music, and all the better for that.

Brennen Leigh
Ain’t Through Honky-Tonnkin’ Yet
Signature Sounds (dist. Redeye)
SIG-CD-2150

Sarah Morris and Maia Sharp may spend their times in the shadowy margins of musical genre, but Brennen Leigh is an unapologetic fan and exponent of classic Nashville country. The title of her new album tells you exactly what you need to know: song titles like “Somebody’s Drinking About You” and “When Lonely Came to Town” evoke a time when punning wordplay and weepy lyrics combined to make radio hits, as long as they were combined with hooky tunes, a whining steel guitar and lush choral backing vocals. “The Red Flags You Were Waving” boasts a Waylon Jennings-style slow two-step beat and a throaty resonator guitar, while the title track sounds like it was both written and recorded at RCA Studio B (maybe right after a Jim Reeves session, using the same musicians). Leigh’s voice is strong and clear, with just a tastefully perfect hint of a sob. Highly recommended.

Ronn McFarlane & Carolyn Surrick
And So Flows the River
Flowerpot Productions
No cat. no.

After some internal debate, I decided to place this one in the Folk/Country category. Why (you may well ask), given that a) Ronn McFarlane plays the lute and Carolyn Surrick the viola da gamba, b) a significant amount of the material is from classical composers like Bach, Satie, and Dowland, and c) the program includes a version of “Over the Rainbow”? And the answer is: vibe. Like Surrick’s group Ensemble Galilei, this duo takes material from a variety of sources and traditions and makes it sound both elegant and folky. And also, the thematic through-line of this program is undeniably trad: tunes by Turlough O’Carolan and John Jacob Niles are scattered throughout, as are original compositions by both McFarlane and Surrick that come very much from a folky place. Smatterings of North African percussion (courtesy of Yousif Sheronick) add yet another layer to the mixture. Recommended.

ROCK/POP

New Math
Die Trying & Other Hot Sounds (1979-1983)
Propeller Sound Recordings (dist. Redeye)
CD-PSR-012

Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of New Math — they flourished briefly in the rather insular Rochester, NY scene and never quite broke through despite recording a single with British CBS and an EP with the American indie label 415 Records; a skimpy 1984 album on the Brain Eater label appears to have been their last gasp. This disc brings together some of their early singles and demos, and reveal them during these early years exploring a blend of backward-looking 1950s/60s elements (the hesitation-step rhythms of “Angela,” the Clash-y punkabilly of “Johnny’s on Top”) and edgy, sometimes ironic postpunk flourishes (that Springsteenesque tambourine on “Take to the Night,” the headlong hardcore tempo of “The Restless Kind”). Any library that collects in American pop music history should check this one out.

The Rocket Summer
SHADOWKASTERS
Aviate
1982

Bruce Avary burst onto the music scene twenty years ago with Calendar Days, a breathtaking tour de force of self-produced, one-man-band power pop. Over the years since he has expanded his sonic palette to include elements of electronica and dance music, and on SHADOWKASTERS he mixes it all together: you can hear electropop creeping in from all directions even as the core of his sound remains crunchy guitars and lush conventional keyboards. And as always, the hooks are everywhere: “M4U” and “Stuck Inside Your Light” (both previously issued as singles) blend crunchy guitars and blissful melody, bringing in subtle breakbeats as well. “Hope Is a Treacherous Drug I’m Getting High Though” flirts with a sort of Parliament/Family Stone funk, while “Disco in Circles” is a much more electro-sounding, almost claustrophobic groove counterbalanced by Avary’s angelic tenor voice. This man is a genius, and any library with a collecting interest in pop music should jump at the chance to pick up his latest album.

Steve Roach
Rest of Life (2 discs)
Projekt (dist. MVD)
406

For ambient music to be (in my estimation) worth recommending to libraries, it has to be more than just pretty or pleasant: it needs to be interesting. It should be music that you can ignore if you want while you do things like read or focus on work tasks, but that rewards your attention if you stop and attend to it. The latest from Steve Roach (a composer whose music, I must confess, sometimes leans a bit too far in the New Age direction for my taste) achieves that balance perfectly. The music floats and drifts without anything that feels like a purposeful chord progression, but at the same time there is real complexity here: listen to the harmonic structure of those floating chords on “Future Informing,” for example. All six of the featured compositions (the last one a disc-length, hour-long meditation on “the unexpected harmony of chance and expanding time”) are both deeply pleasant and genuinely interesting. Highly recommended.

Killing Joke
In Dub: Rewind (Vol. II)
Cadiz (dist. MVD)
CADIZCD252

Killing Joke was that rarest of things: a truly unique punk band. Their music was harsh and angry and confrontational, but also dense, swirling and sometimes surprisingly melodic. So what would lead someone to want to give that band’s music the dubwise treatment? Here it’s important to understand that Killing Joke’s original bassist, Martin Glover (better known as Youth), has a longstanding connection to experimental techno and dub reggae and has made a huge name for himself as a producer in that vein. So really, it was the most natural thing in the world for him to dive back into the Killing Joke catalog and reinterpret it through the dub lens. To be clear, this is not a reggae album, though a couple of tracks do incorporate skanking dancehall backbeats: it’s a re-envisioning of classic KJ material like “Bloodsport,” “Change,” and “I Am the Virus” with radically remixed instrumental and vocal parts and lots of new effects. I somehow slept on Volume I and now need to seek it out…

upsammy
Germ in a Population of Buildings (digital & vinyl only)
PAN
PAN132

You’ve heard of dream pop? How about dream bass? The second album from upsammy “is rooted in her interest for ambiguous environments in constant shift, and the feeling of discovering strange patterns in different ecosystems,” which I realize may make it sound like a boring exercise in abstract concept music, but that’s not what it is at all. Sammy’s compositions and constructs are rich and detailed without ever sounding dense or ponderous — there are microscopic rhythmic details (tiny little clicks and glitches that add funkiness in subtle ways) nestled among juddering sub bass, manipulated vocals, and pulsing grooves that phase in and out of the mix. Listening to this album is a bit like wandering through a huge and virtuosically designed building that is filled with unexpected spaces and beautiful artistic elements tucked into surprising nooks and corners. Highly recommended to all libraries.

WORLD/ETHNIC

Yosef Gutman Levitt; Tal Yahalom
Tsuf Harim
Soul Song
No cat. no.

This gently gorgeous album by bassist Yosef Gutman Levitt and guitarist Tal Yahalom is an exploration of nigunim — traditional wordless Jewish melodies, in this case collected by Eli Rivkin from among the Lubavitcher Hasidim of Russia. Levitt plays both upright bass and acoustic bass guitar, while Yahalom plays both nylon-and steel-string guitars; their parts are often multitracked, but never orchestrally; the sound is quiet, spare, and intimate. The melodies themselves are often played in the acoustic bass guitar’s high register while the upright bass lays down a harmonic foundation and the guitar plays chords, but some of the arrangements involve a more complex melodic back-and-forth. Everything here is quietly but stunningly lovely.

Mungo’s Hi Fi
Past and Present (digital & vinyl only)
Dumbarton Rock
DUMBYLP001

In reggae music, you usually get the vocal version before the dub remix. But the latest album from Glasgow reggae stalwarts Mungo’s Hi Fi reverses the traditional pattern: this album presents the full vocal versions of tunes that were originally issued on 2021’s Antidote, a dub album released during the height of the COVID pandemic when no one was touring and the sound systems were silent. Featuring stellar appearances by old-school legends like Lady Ann, Johnny Clarke, and Prince Alla alongside contributions from younger stars including Charlie P, Hollie Cook, and Kiko Bun, all supported by the elephantine grooves of the Mungo’s Hi Fi rhythm section, Past & Present beautifully demonstrates how strong the roots reggae scene remains – at least in Scotland. Highly recommended to all libraries. 

African Head Charge
A Trip to Bolgatanga
On U Sound (dist. Redeye)
ONUCD154

Back in the early 1990s, one of my earliest introductions to the mighty On U Sound label was the album Songs of Praise by African Head Charge. To this day that remains one of my desert-island discs; it’s a masterful piece of ethnomusicological rhythms-and-samples collage, the kind of thing that Alan Lomax might have created if he had traveled in Africa with a sampler and handed over all his field recordings to Adrian Sherwood for production and mixing. Now, after a 12-year hiatus, Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah (the mastermind behind African Head Charge) is back from a trip to Ghana with a new collection of weird and wonderful beats and textures. As always, his collaboration with Sherwood results in musical moments both baffling and entrancing: the bubbling and horn-heavy ¾-time title track; the bouncy, calypso-inflected “Accre Electronica”; the eerie falsetto vocals and mbira on “Never Regret a Day.” I’d still say Songs of Praise is the best introduction to African Head Charge, but this is a very fine album.

Stinging Ray
Fantasy & Waitin’ to Cross Caribbean (digital only)
ChinaMan Yard
No cat. no.

Let’s finish out this month’s issue with one more reggae release. This one comes from Stinging Ray, born Liu Ray. Ray emerged originally from Beijing’s bustling hip hop scene, but over the years eventually gravitated in the direction of deep, hardcore roots reggae. He subsequently cofounded the ChinaMan Yard label and his new album is a model of modern-but-traditional reggae music; the rhythms are provided by a shifting all-star cast that includes the late Errol “Flabba” Holt on bass, Dwight Pinkney on guitar, Sly Dunbar on drums, and many other musicians from in and around the international reggae scene. Ray’s voice is a sweet and clear tenor, and particularly when he sings in Chinese he creates a sound that is simultaneously unique and familiar. Highlights include the churning “Jalhouse Skanking” (along with its dubwise companion track), the gently devotional “Jah Forever Lives,” and an acoustic rendition of the calypso classic “Jamaica Farewell.” Reggae is an increasingly international musical genre, as thr work of Stinging Ray nicely illustrates.

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