Best of 2021 Playlist – Spaces

The other half of things I found and loved over the course of this year. These are the tunes that stabbed me in the heart or colored the world in a different way. The songs/spaces distinction is obviously porous and often ambiguous, but in general, I think of stuff that hits this list as landscapes or sculptures, atmospheres, not as much telling a linear story. Frequently instrumental. But there’s probably 20% if you asked me in a week, I’d put it on the other list.  Continue reading for my rambling notes.

Bandcamp links where available, courtesy of the Hype Machine’s Merch Table feature: https://hypem.com/merch-table/6z8411eDN5Dg7ALX8XtFou

• Yasmin Williams featuring Amadou Kouyate, “Urban Driftwood” – I bookended the list with excerpts from two of my records of the year. Yasmin Williams’ Urban Driftwood is the most exciting solo guitar record I’ve heard in a very long time, breaking away from the problematic connotations of the “American Primitive” designation and bringing in other facets and influences. This title track, featuring hand drumming from Amadou Kouyate knocked me over and the rest of the record delivered on its promise – meditative, searching music that’s never boring or static. 
• Vijay Iyer/Linda May Han Oh/Tyshawn Sorey, “Entrustment” – I drank the Vijay Iyer Flavor Aid long ago, but he keeps stunning me. This new trio date, with a cracking rhythm section (for someone I’ve never seen bring a less-than-stellar rhythm section) of Linda May Han Oh on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, was my favorite thing to write to and keeps revealing secrets, mysteries for days. This closing track, written by Iyer, slides through an almost telepathic hookup between the three, at times Iyer’s chords hang suspended in Oh’s gravity then disburse like steam over Sorey’s cymbal work. So many ideas in these five minutes but nothing showy or extraneous. 
• Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson, “Moonbow” – Two of my favorite musicians who balance lilting melodies with spiky abstractions teamed up on the duet record Searching for the Disappeared Hour, and it’s every bit as fantastic as I hoped. A burst of frenetic, jagged piano coalesces into a gorgeous leading line that gets sliced and stitched back together around Halvorson’s guitar. 
• Miguel Zenón & Luis Perdomo, “LA Vida Es Un Sueño” – Another duo record from one of my favorite alto sax players, Miguel Zenón, and pianist Luis Perdomo who I was not as familiar with. Intimate excavations into the Cuban bolero form. This Arsenio Rodriguez tune is a cresting wave of space and light with the alto diving into and illuminating the keys. 
• Gary Smulyan and Ronnie Cuber, “Nica’s Dream” – Like so much else, I owe Andrew Patton and his finely honed radar for great bari sax playing for this recommendation where Smulyan and Cuber team up on Tough Baritones. They dig deep into this Horace Silver classic with a surging rhythm section of Gary Versace’s piano, Jay Anderson’s bass, and Jason Tiemann’s drums powering the forward motion. Gleaming, ferocious hard bop. 
• Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds, “He Walked In” – I’ve never been disappointed by Kid Congo Powers, live or on record, but this 14 minute dreamlike reckoning with his late friend and bandmate Jeffrey Lee Pierce feels like fresh terrain for the constantly searching, inventive singer-guitarist. Languid and sweet and deeply sad.  
• Emmet Cohen, “Toast to Lo” – A more straightforward eulogy with rising jazz pianist Cohen leading a joyous celebration of the life of drummer Lawrence Leathers, a fellow traveler in New York jazz circles, especially around the Smalls scene, who died in 2020. Boasting killer playing from a tight quintet, especially a molten-chrome solo from Melissa Aldana. May we all leave the kind of memories that inspire smiles like this tune. 
• Gerycz/Powers/Rolin, “Lamplighter” – A fantastic year for two pillars of the Columbus music scene, Jen Powers and Mathew Rolin, who got married and put out what seemed like a never ending font of fantastic music. The album that made my end of year list isn’t on Spotify – and good for them – but this trio record teaming them with Jason Gerycz from Cloud Nothings came damn close, pastoral beauty sparks up against jagged European improv, one of my favorite records to get lost in and with. 
• Charles Lloyd and the Marvels, “Anthem” – Saxophonist Lloyd has been on a hot streak the last ten years, forty-plus years on from making a splash on the San Francisco scene. He and his band take a Leonard Cohen song that I’ve turned to for hope and reassurance since I was a teenager and highlight all of its hope for transcendence in the broken things, with Bill Frisell’s guitar and Greg Leisz’s pedal steel singing in concert with Lloyd over the subtle, meditative rhythm section of Reuben Rogers on bass and Eric Harland on drums. 
• Tin/Bag, “One of Us Cannot Be Wrong” – Another jazz Leonard Cohen cover, this one by the duo of Mike Baggetta and Kris Tiner on guitar and trumpet. They not only make that aching, lovelorn melody soar, they even manage to capture a little of the sly humor without the benefit of the lyric. 
• Marisa Anderson and William Tyler, “Hurricane Light” – This collaboration of two of my favorite guitarists was every single bit as good as I hoped it would be when I first heard about it. Their shared loves of traditional forms, of pushing forward, of melody and texture, are all on full display throughout Lost Futures, especially on this flamenco-flecked number. 
• Lea Bertucci, “An Arc of the Horizon” – Composer and sound artist Lea Bertucci can’t seem to miss lately. This piece vibrates around a gorgeous morning-sunlight drone and wraps it in woodwinds and snippets of found sound. Just beautiful. 
• City Band, “N’Golo Kanté” – This chiming song by Parisian City Band, named after the Chelsea footballer, feels like sunshine nostalgia, memories vibrant – you can smell the leaves on the trees, the warmth on your forearms – but also becoming indistinct – who was I with? What did their voice sound like? 
• Brandee Younger, “Reclamation” – I get a similar sense of complicated nostalgia and warmth from this gorgeous track from harp player Younger. Underpinned by the swinging rhythm section of Dezron Douglas on bass and Allan Mednard on drums, Chelsea Baratz’s sax and Anne Drummond’s flute flow through and are illuminated by Younger’s harp at the center of the track, like the sun. 
• The Bug featuring Manga Saint-Hilaire, “High Rise” – An unsettling portent and nostalgia for a dystopian that didn’t come into being exactly the way you expected. Justin Broadrick’s pummeling electronica-reggae hybrid gets stronger and deeper, on this JG Ballard-riffing song, the strip-mine bass lines and depth charge drums bump chests with an antic, ferocious vocal from Manga Saint-Hilaire. “We don’t take the high road. We just screw face and explode.” 
• Ceramic Dog, “The Long Goodbye” – Marc Ribot’s long running trio with Shazad Ismaily, and Ches Smith released a crushing record this year, Hope, and this track featuring alto titan Darius Jones is one of the high points. Starting from a slow burn and rising in intensity and power, this ten-minute rollercoaster ride of ambiguous emotion is one of the most powerful things I heard all year. 
• Xordox, “Dark Matter” – JG Thirlwell’s dark synthesizer project Xordox put out a chilly, gorgeous new record this year, Omniverse. This track has the ominous sense of an ‘80s Michael Mann tracking shot down a neon-splashed city street, with the sense of melody that’s never far away when Thirlwell’s involved. 
• More Eaze and Claire Rousay, “kyle” – This collaboration between more eaze (Mari Maurice) and avant-garde composer Claire Rousay (who put out a couple other stellar records this year) plays with the tropes of synth-pop but deployed in a way that felt like it made more sense on this side of the fence. The crunching rhythm and use of distortion and noise keep me coming back to this track, intrigued. 
• JD Allen, “Queen City” – One of my favorite tenor saxophone players in an unaccompanied ode to his sometimes home, Cincinnati. The unassailable riff and the amount of space Allen leaves kept me coming back to this lovely song, a highlight on its eponymous album. 
• Broken Shadows, “Una Muy Bonita” – Bad Plus members Dave King (drums) and Reid Anderson) bass bring their volleying interplay to back the reunited Bloodcount front line of Tim Berne and Chris Speed on sax. Their playful, grooving take on this Ornette Coleman classic unfurls with charm and swagger to spare, a highlight on a great record of mostly covers of foundational tunes for the four. 
• Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, “Despedida: Del Mar”- Pianist-bandleader Arturo O’Farrill is a giant of New York Latin jazz, as bandleader of the long running Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble and as son to Chico O’Farrill and father to Adam and Zach O’Farrill. This opening track of his Blue Note Records debut is the first part of a suite he wrote for Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Ensemble. Those luscious horns capture the beauty of being with the people we love and the wistful nature of goodbyes, with the piano and drums moving forward and out like the implacable progression of time. 
• Roy Montgomery, “Cowboy Mouth (For Sam Shepard)” – Roy Montgomery casts a long shadow over New Zealand experimental music. His new record, Island of Lost Souls, is structured into four tributes and this one to Sam Shepard, who changed the course of American playwrighting, has the wide-open spaces and the anxious paranoia, the long lines that snake and circle around the knockout blow the world is waiting to deal us, just like the characters in Shepard’s best work grappled with. 
• Susan Alcorn/Leila Bordreuil/Ingrid Laubrock, “Indigo Blue (Wayfarin Stranger)” – A song with a similar sense of space and also the depths of loneliness. Susan Alcorn is doing as much as anyone to extend the vocabulary of the pedal steel guitar and Bird Meets Wire puts her in the context of Leila Bordreuil’s cello and Ingrid Laubrock’s saxophone for free improvisations.  
• William Parker, “Mayan Space Station” The title track of this fascinating Parker project recalls a freer version of the heavy out-there rock trios of the ‘60s and ‘70s, working with guitar master Ava Mendoza (who also put out a blistering solo record New Spells this year) and the great Gerald Cleaver on drums. The intensity of the playing finds its match in the players’ commitment to listening and to the collective, creating some deep, grooving, spacious soundscapes. 
• Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra, “High Light” – Steven Bernstein’s one of the great contemporary jazz composers, from bands like Sex Mob to albums as a leader like Diaspora Soul, but for many years one of the great, surprising party bands of all time, his Millennial Territory Orchestra, only delved into others’ material. We were finally gifted with a record of Bernstein writing for that boiling 9 piece orchestra and it’s fantastic. This song, a case in point, is a slinky, charming groover that never plays the listener cheap. 
• Amir ElSaffar’s Rivers of Sound, “Transformations” – Another phenomenal trumpet player and writer, with every record ElSaffar gets closer to mastering and merging the power and special qualities of jazz with maqam music. The Other Shore is a massive step forward, for him and for all of us as listeners. 
• Roy Hargrove and Mulgrew Miller, “Monk’s Mood” – A charming piano-trumpet duet between two giants of different generations, both of whom have left us since. They burn through this killer Monk tune with grace, elegance, and the ease of a conversation between old friends that leaves you hanging on every word. I’m so glad someone caught this on tape. 
• Tony Kieraldo, “Warren Street Rag” – I’ve been pals with Tony since he went to college with a good friend of mine and from his keytar work with Boston funk band Bootyjuice through his magnetic harmonium playing in Brooklyn Qawwali Party up to his vital role in the most recent iteration of Tommy Stinson’s Bash and Pop, he always brings some magic to whatever context he works in. He’s been delving deep into ragtime lately and the fruits of that come in sprightly originals like this, paying tribute to his current hometown on the delightful Hudson Ragtime Piano Suite. 
• David Sanford Big Band, “A Prayer for Lester Bowie” – Bandleader Sanford’s (no relation) marvelous record has this gorgeous Hugh Ragin (also guesting on trumpet) piece at its heart. A tribute to the trumpeter who revitalized old traditions and brought everything he loved into a music that never felt cluttered, that always felt like him. It’s a beautiful tribute and a key reminder of the strengths of a band this size. 
• The Cookers, “Traveling Lady” – I defy anyone to find a better working hardbop band than the supergroup The Cookers. I was on my way to catch some flavor of the month a few Winter Jazz Fests ago and two different friends said, don’t miss The Cookers. It took the top of my head off. Their new record, Look Out!, finds them at the height of their powers. This supergroup is held down by the rhythm section of Billy Hart, Cecil McBee, and George Cables, and a powerful frontline of Eddie Henderson and David Weiss on trumpets and Donald Harrison and Eddie Harper on saxophones. This Cables original has the kind of melody that rattles around your rib cage, with enough harmonic material to supply a marvelous starting point for a series of dazzling solos, particularly a marvelous flight of fancy from the writer’s piano. 
• Eric Wyatt, “Blues for RH” – The tributes to Roy Hargrove keep rightfully rolling in (there’s at least one more on this list), and this stunning blues from saxophonist Eric Wyatt (Sonny Rollins’ godson) is near the top of the list. A warm, deep solo from Wyatt dancing with trumpeter Theo Croker somersaults off Jeff “Tain” Watts’ always crushing and immediately identifiable drumming alongside phenomenal solos and comping from bassist Eric Wheeler (that solo of his toward the end is one of the highlights in a track where everyone delivered) and pianist Donald Vega. 
• Makaya McCraven, “Autumn in New York” – Makaya McCraven’s not only one of the finest drummers of his generation, he’s one of the most sophisticated practitioners of welding electronic techniques to intense improvisation. His remix/rework record with the Blue Note catalog, Deciphering the Message, lived up to every expectation I had. This tune takes one of my favorite standards – and one of my favorite seasons – starting from Kenny Burrell’s yearning classic version and adds elements include McCraven’s own drums, Joel Ross’s vibes and the glowing trumpet of Marquis Hill. Bliss. 
• Theon Cross, “We Go Again” – London tuba player Theon Cross is also at the forefront of jazz and electronic music. This shuddering, leaving-the-club-too-late track reminds me of a well-crafted update on the acid jazz I went crazy for in high school. I’m fascinated to hear what a whole solo album in this vein feels like. 
• King Britt and Tyshawn Sorey, “Untitled One” – I’ve been a fan of Tyshawn Sorey since my pal Mike Gamble hipped me to him in the mid ‘00s and my affection for King Britt goes back to dancing in clubs where several members of that crowd, most prominently Steve Hager, were big fans of King Britt and his record label partner Josh Wink. The series of collaborations on Tyshawn & King are shifting and hard to pin down in all the best ways, playing on both collaborators’ strengths and seeing where they collide. This track builds with insistent keyboard pulses and drumming that recalls breakbeats but subverts them then builds something new inside the cracks. 
• Ches Smith and We All Break, “Path of Seven Colors” – One of my favorite drummers, Ches Smith, goes deep into Haitian drumming with his We All Break project, featuring his frequent collaborators Matt Mitchell on piano and Nick Dunston on bass, beautiful alto work from Miguel Zenón, and Daniel Brevil, Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene, and Markus Schwartz on tanbou and vocals. A journey, packed with details you don’t want to miss but that never let themselves be distracting from the overall path; a reminder to be here now. One of the sets I’m most looking forward to at Big Ears if it happens. 
• Andrew Cyrille Quartet, “Leaving East of Java” – Another drummer who’s played it all, from the earlier generation, I became a massive fan of Andrew Cyrille hearing him on record with Cecil Taylor and Muhal Richard Abrams as a kid. I’ve been lucky enough to see him a few times in the last 20 years and there’s always a sense of quiet assurance, solidity that balances out the explosions of wild surprise, no matter how far out he gets, he takes the responsibility of the eye of the hurricane seriously. The quartet he put together for ECM album, Ben Street on bass, Bill Frisell on guitar, David Virelles on piano, The News shines on this Adegoke Steve Colson tune. 
• Sunn O))), “Troubled Air” – There’s a like-minded meditative pulse running through this gorgeous, world-cracking-open live in the studio piece they created for the BBC in 2019. 
• Mary Lattimore, “We Just Found Out She Died” – I’ve been a fan of harpist Mary Lattimore since I saw her in an improv trio at Hopscotch about 6 years ago and the expanded odds collection Collected Pieces II was a balm to me this year. This swirling piece, with her harp surrounded by wordless vocals and synths, conjures the way the air changes when you get news that the world isn’t what it was just before. 
• Audrey Ochoa, “Groundhog Day – Battery Poacher Remix” – Trombonist Audrey Ochoa’s Frankenhorn was a delightful surprise to me this year. I love the subtle wah guitar here and the throbbing piano around the melody I couldn’t get away from. Ochoa also blew me away seeing her with the touring company of Hadestown this year. 
• Houston Person, “Since I Fell For You (Live)” – Tenorist Houston Person was one of my first bridges to unabashed love of soul jazz, with a Wexner Center supergroup when I was 21: Person, local B-3 hero Hank Marr, guitarist Russell Malone, and drummer Grady Tate. That tone and the ability to move from the righteous party of Saturday night to the deepest of lonely 3am ballads without losing anyone and without dumbing any of it down, I was in awe then and I’m in awe now. Live in Paris, recorded when he was 85, finds him still playing with the energy and power of someone half his age but deploying absolutely everything he’s learned in that lifetime. The cracking rhythm section of Peter Bernstein on guitar, Ben Paterson on organ, and Willie Jones III (who also put out a stellar record this year Fallen Heroes) add juice to the proceedings, making their own statements while supplying a perfect backdrop for Person’s honeyed tone. 
• Christian McBride and Inside Straight, “Uncle James (Live)” – I fell for McBride’s bass playing around the same time I saw that crucial Houston Person show, and while it’s hard to keep up with his flood of releases, every time I check in, I’m glad I did. This record with his group Inside Straight, Live at the Village Vanguard, is a damn fine addition to the tradition of great documents coming out of that tiny basement room and makes me miss it so much. There’s a moment on this track where Peter Martin’s killing piano solo flows right into Warren Wolf’s vibes that makes time stand still – it’s a frozen-in-amber reminder of how often those moments happen in the Vanguard. 
• Johnathan Blake, “Homeward Bound (For Anna Grace)” – One of the great drummers and current standard-bearer for the fantastic Philly tradition, Blake first got my attention playing behind Dr. Lonnie Smith at Winter Jazzfest a few years ago, and I think I caught him behind the kit on a second set that weekend (if not it was another NYC trip that year) and it blew me away. In addition to playing on the good Doctor’s record this year, he made a great Blue Note debut as a leader, Homeward Bound. His crème de la crème quintet, with David Virelles on piano and Dezron Douglas on bass alongside Blake in the rhythm section, as well as Joel Ross on vibes and Immanuel Wilkins on drums, achieves the kind of jubilance and depth I get more of from jazz than any other genre. 
• Kenny Garrett, “Hargrove” – Kenny Garrett, one of the great saxophonists I became a fan of through hearing with John Scofield, I think, in the early 2000s then went back to his work with Miles, etc, never puts out a bad record. This year’s Sounds from the Ancestors pays tribute to friends and collaborators as well as more literal ancestors. This tune in honor of Roy Hargrove, meshes the kind of funk-jazz Hargrove excelled at (with Garrett on electric piano and some wordless vocals as well as sax), trading catchy, sinewy lines with trumpeter Maurice Brown over crucial, flexible beats from the rhythm section of Ronald Bruner and Corcoran Holt. 
• James Brandon Lewis’s Red Lily Quintet, “Jesup Wagon” – James Brandon Lewis, one of my favorite newer sax players, had a remarkable year, with three records that blew me away. But this quintet’s Jesup Wagon, paying tribute to George Washington Carver, kept bringing me back to it. The compositions are surprising, crafted and detailed but always rich with feeling, and the playing is otherworldly – on this title track, Lewis’s lead goes into a jaw-dropping solo from Kirk Knuffke (who I’ve been a fan of for years but have never heard play better), with the killer rhythm section of Chris Hoffman on cello, William Parker on bass, and Chad Taylor on drums. The thing I was most crushed to miss when Winter Jazzfest canceled (which was the right thing, it just triggered a pang of loss). The kind of free jazz that makes me want to pump my arms in the air and jump around. 
• Lisa Bella Donna, “Take Me in the Morning” – One of Columbus’s finest musicians full stop, who’s blown me away playing fusion with Stan Smith, modern soul with Talisha Holmes, and heavy metal with Dead Sea to name the first three things off the top of my head, Lisa Bella Donna’s solo work gets more and more expansive and refined. This gorgeous track on guitar and keys Riffs on and touches a number of reference points but never sounds like anyone else. 
• Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion’s “A Gradual Dazzle” – I came to know the world of the Sō Percussion ensemble and composer-vocalist Caroline Shaw around the same time and loved both at once. This merger was maybe even better than I dared to hope. They set a piece by one of my favorite poets, Anne Carson, an ekphrastic that sets a standard for that kind of work, for me, and it both does the material justice and lets me see it in a new way. “A gradual dazzle / upon / the ceiling / Gives me that / racy / bluishyellow / feeling / As hours / blow / the wide / way / Down my afternoon.” 
• Roberto Prosseda, “4 Studi: Quarto Studio” – I’ve been a massive fan of Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack work since I bought that two disc compilation when I was 15, and I knew some of his electroacoustic chamber music, but I didn’t know any of his solo piano writing until Roberto Prossseda’s fantastic Ennio Morricone: Piano Music. This is a brooding, hypnotic piece alternately makes me want to sit down and write or stop whatever I’m doing and check in with the moment. Every time. 
• Tyshawn Sorey and Alarm Will Sound, “For George Lewis” – We wrap up with another appearance by Tyshawn Sorey, here with vanguard chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound, and another tribute, though to someone thankfully still with us, the great composer, trombonist, bandleader, teacher, and author George Lewis. The piece uses long tones, stillness, and negative space to create these seemingly endless vistas, like the best kind of looking into the abyss. This gives me feelings in the same spectrum as looking at my favorite Rothko or Eliasson.