Tag: Wild Up

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Best Of Playlist record reviews

Best of 2023 – Spaces

Here are some things that moved me in jazz, classical, and other instrumental (mostly) forms this year.

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/bbe455af-3b1f-4a30-a42c-9a967bc93869

  • Wild Up/Julius Eastman, “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?” – The ensemble Wild Up continues their vital grappling with/resurfacing the once-thought-lost work of composer Julius Eastman with a third volume containing several of the pieces on the original three-disc anthology I had the hardest time grappling with. The acidic overtones and sharp stabs on this sardonic, jagged piece are perfectly executed here, under the baton of Christopher Rountree, and reflect a world I see in a way I didn’t when I first heard the piece, also laying bare the sense of hope inherent in getting off the mat every time.
  • Wadada Leo Smith and Orange Wave Electric, “Nzotake Shange” – One of America’s finest composers and trumpeters, Wadada Leo Smith (Anne said, after watching a quartet set at the Stone, it sounded like “Falling down stairs” and she wasn’t wrong but in a good way), assembled a dream team of electric downtown-associated players for his remarkable record Fire Illuminations: guitarists Nels Cline, Brandon Ross, and Lamar Smith; bassists Bill Laswell and Melvin Gibbs; electronic musician Hardedge; percussionist Mauro Refosco; and drummer Pheeroan akLaff. Each tune reflects on an individual or a specific moment in history, and this piece, named for the poet and playwright who broke me when I read for colored girls 15 years after it premiered, exemplifies everything I find so intoxicating about the album, the deep groove and the perfectly refined and directed shots of fire spraying over it.
  • Irreversible Entanglements, “root ⇔ branch” – Irreversible Entanglements not only blew my hair back twice this year but also put on an even more assured and powerful second album, Protect Your Light. This piece, partly in tribute to jaimie branch, has been a favorite since I first hit play, and it’s still a balm, horns slowly waltzing through Moor Mother’s poetry and the deep, circular groove of Luke Stewart’s bass before erupting into a hip-swaying march. “Let the horns open the day and get free.”
  • Johnathan Blake, “Lament for Lo” – Drummer Johnathan Blake released his best record as a leader with this year’s Passages, and it’s full of great players. Still, I kept coming back to this drum solo intro/tribute to fellow New York drummer Lawrence “Lo” Leathers, both as a tribute to conciseness in a playlist more given to sprawling statements and a reminder of how much texture and emotional content one instrument being played alone can be.
  • Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, “Last Waltz for Levon” – I’ve been waiting for several of the pieces on Darcy James Argue’s latest record, Dynamic Maximum Tension, to be collected on a recording for a very long time. This one, written in the wake of The Band drummer Levon Helm’s passing, I saw him do almost ten years ago in the basement theater of subculture, and he introduced it by paying tribute to Helm’s deep, instantly recognizable pocket. The Secret Society pays tribute to that slippery waltz that shadow-painting sense of time, in one of a record packed with gems – until writing this, the Duke Ellington tribute “Tensile Curves” was my choice for the playlist periodically, it was the Buckminster Fuller-inspired piece – and I can’t wait to see this band again at Big Ears finally.
  • Henry Threadgill, “The Other One: Movement III, Section 13” – Henry Threadgill followed one of the all-time great music memoirs, Easily Slip Into Another World, with a stunning chamber music record, The Other One, from which this is drawn. Not playing horn, just conducting, Threadgill’s affinity for tension and mystery in dynamics shines through loud and clear and his facility for strings takes on dimensions I wasn’t expecting.
  • Kali Malone, “Does Spring Hide Its Joy v2.1” – One of the standout performances I saw at Big Ears last year, composer and organist Kali Malone convenes a trio with cellist Lucy Raiton and guitarist Stephen O’Malley for a long record of beguiling riffs on melodic cells glowing with long tones.
  • Ingrid Laubrock and Cecilia Lopez, “LUNA MAROMERA” – Ingrid Laubrock put out several good records this year but I kept coming back to this duo record with Cecilia Lopez on electronics, Maromas, a continued investigation of the duo format from one of my favorite saxophonists, that also beguiled me when Anne and I saw the duo in Brooklyn in the Spring. There’s grit here, the ragged breathy tones and the long pulses that decay unevenly, that add to the inherent mystery.
  • Thandi Ntuli and Carlos Niño, “Lihlanzekile” – Producer/percussionist Carlos Niño has gotten a lot of deserved heat this year, I saw him anchor a brilliant trio with Surya Botofasina and Nate Mercereau at Winter Jazzfest in January, and my favorite record of his was this gorgeous duo album with South African pianist Thandi Ntuli. This closing track, translating to “It is clean”, was a piece I returned to over and over, an undulating landscape that changes every time I try to perceive it.
  • Andre 3000, “BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears a 3000® Button Down Embroidered” – The record that put Niño’s name into the wider American consciousness and which I liked a lot; though, as I discussed with Andrew Patton, it fits more neatly into the ambient genre or even downtempo electronica than the “flute jazz” box some people who didn’t know that was a genre tried to put it in. This track features the trio I mentioned above, creating alongside Andre Benjamin, and is one of the two tracks to feature flute instead of what I think is an EWI. It’s beautiful.
  • Allison Miller, “Fierce” – One of my favorite composer-drummers, Allison Miller, outdid herself this year with a small group record co-sponsored by a series of art spaces with Lake Placid Center for the Arts in the lead, Rivers in Our Veins. As always, she assembled a remarkable group of musicians with a deep history with her and each other: Jenny Scheinman on violin, Jason Palmer on trumpets, Ben Goldberg on clarinets, Carmen Staaf on keys, and Todd Sickafoose on bass. The intertwining – I think – Rhodes and acoustic piano comping under Scheinman’s solo that seems to burble out of Goldberg’s is a highlight of this track, and there’s not a dull track on the album. The interplay is really as good as it gets.
  • Damon Locks and Rob Mazurek, “Yes!” – Trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Rob Mazurek has worked with composer/bandleader/polymath Damon Locks in a variety of settings, most notably Mazurek’s shifting Exploding Star Orchestra, but distilling their two languages down to a duo on New Future City Radio paid off big, both on this record and seeing them live at Big Ears.
  • MEM_MODS, “Midtown Miscommunication” – One of my sleeper favorites in the good-for-all-parties category, a deep Memphis groove project from Paul Taylor (Amy Lavere, New Memphis Colorways), Steve Selvidge (Big Ass Truck, Hold Steady, Lucero), and Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars).
  • James Brandon Lewis and the Red Lily Quintet, “Were You There” – Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis reconvenes my favorite of his bands, the Red Lily Quintet – Kirk Knuffke on cornet, William Parker on bass, Chad Taylor on Drums, Chris Hoffman on cello – for a tribute to his Grandmother by way of paying tribute to the pioneering gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. Every song on For Mahalia, With Love, is a winner, with deep soulful grooves and stretching out without sacrificing any bit of these timeless melodies. The colors of the instruments coming in on this one remind me of Beethoven’s 9th in the best way.
  • Chris Potter, “You Gotta Move” – Saxophonist Chris Potter has a special affinity for the Village Vanguard. His newest record, Got the Keys to the Kingdom, is another stunning example. Potter and his powerful quartet – Craig Taborn on piano, Scott Colley on bass, and Marcus Gilmore on drums – tear into and pay homage to fascinating repertoire throughout the record, but I kept coming back to this glorious cubist-gutbucket take on Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “You Gotta Move.”
  • Mendoza Hoff Revels, “Echolocation” – Also blues-inflected but with open arms for everything since, the collaboration between guitarist Ava Mendoza and bassist Devin Hoff, featuring James Brandon Lewis in a more coiled, snarling mode than I’m used to, and Ches Smith’s powerful drumming, is the best avant-rock ensemble I’ve heard in recent memory. The liner notes referencing Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time and later Black Flag ring true, but this doesn’t sound like anyone else.
  • Tyshawn Sorey, “Seleritus” – Drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey digs into the corners of the songbook with his killing trio of Matt Brewer on drums and Aaron Diehl on piano on Continuing. This deep dive into an Ahmad Jamal piece captures the space and silence of Jamal’s kind of shorthand in the common parlance but also captures the heaviness he always brought to the bandstand. A majestic tribute that plays everything these three have learned about the source and brought to their own work through the original.
  • Love in Exile, “Eyes of the Endless” – This supergroup of Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily exceeded every expectation I had going in as a big fan of all three players and writers. This piece has Iyer on Rhodes instead of the normal acoustic piano, and both the heavy strike and the ring of that instrument give the astonishing melody from Aftab a different, shimmering texture, like a cape being flung off and tossed into a bay.
  • Kurt Rosenwinkel and Geri Allen, “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing” – The gods of reissuing blessed us with a remarkable document of a duo concert in Paris in 2012 before Allen’s untimely passing. Two voices that shaped the jazz players my age and younger as much as anybody else explode this tune, one of my favorite Billy Strayhorn pieces, thoughtfully, out of love. Every note of this holds the next, waiting to be born, but not in a way that ever feels rote or obvious.
  • Aaron Diehl and the Knights, “Gemini” – Speaking of acts of love, it’s hard to compete with this one. The great Mary Lou Williams wrote her Zodiac Suite – which many jazzers play at least parts of to this day – as a through-composed chamber suite but it’s – I don’t think – ever been recorded as such. Masterful pianist Aaron Diehl restored the score and teamed up with NYC guardians of the contemporary canon, The Knights, for a beautifully recorded, definitive reading.
  • Roy Hargrove, “The Love Suite: In Mahogany – Obviously Destined” – Another gift from the reissue gods: a pristine recording of the 1993 Alice Tully Hall performance of trumpeter-composer Roy Hargrove’s piece The Love Suite: In Mahogany. This movement highlights both Hargrove’s sizzling horn playing and Marc Cary’s piano (that solo a couple of minutes in undulates with silky dynamism, but everyone – Jesse Davis, Ron Blake, and Andre Heyward comprise the rest of the horn section, Rodney Whitaker and Gregory Hutchinson keep things moving and held down as the remainder of the rhythm section – kills it here.
  • Yasmin Williams featuring Aoife O’Donovan, “Dawning” – Columbus was finally blessed with Yasmin Williams as the Wexner Center this year after several cancellations. The entire performance floored me, but I was especially intrigued by this new piece she introduced, revealing Aoife O’Donovan’s involvement. The studio recording delivers on all the promise that collaboration holds. Williams lets every note ring on its own, rolls feel like last year’s snow finally slipping down cliff sides, in a slow drag tempo perfectly suits O’Dovonan’s wordless vocals.
  • Chad Fowler/Zoh Amba/Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/William Parker/Steve Hirsh, “Sentient Sentiment” – Chad Fowler, here on stritch and saxello, assembles a contemporary fire music supergroup and lets them loose in a frenzy of ecstatic, deeply thoughtful play on the five tracks of Alien Skin. The single show I was sorriest to miss in my town was Zoh Amba’s local debut featuring Chris Corsano, and I heard it was just as good as I’ve heard her in the past. Her lines exquisitely intertwine with Fowler’s and Perelman’s, particularly on this slow burn that blossoms into a line of explosions, as Parker, Shipp (both of whom appear elsewhere on this playlist), and Hirsh set up a baseline that shifts exactly as the music needs to.
  • Wolf Eyes, “Engaged Withdrawal” – I’ve been a fan of Wolf Eyes almost as long as I’ve been digging William Parker and Matthew Shipp, and their Dreams in Spattered Lines is another classic, with maturity as a blessing and not a crutch. This song creeps at a measured pace, Nate Young and John Olson leaving one another enough space and care, enough listening, to each make a proper impression on a record that has everything in its place and wastes no gesture, no moment.
  • David Lang/Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Sō Percussion, “man made” – The CSO (not that one, the other one), under their director Louis Langrée, teamed up with leading NYC contemporary troupe Sō Percussion for the first recording of David Lang’s stunning piece “man made.” Lang’s program note about the orchestra acting as translators and decoders, for the less traditional instrumentation and movement of the percussion quartet rings true, and that process – showing the strings – makes it all more magical rather than less.
  • Matthew Shipp, “The Bulldozer Poetics” – Shipp continues his growth into a clearer more approachable, even when the work itself gets thornier and more complex, like the world, piano style on the phenomenal solo album The Intrinsic Nature of Shipp. From the crush of those first notes, this driving piece sets up an entire world.
  • Curtis J. Stewart, “vii. Adagio from Johannes Brahms Sonata No. 1 Op. 78 (We Are Going to Be OK)” – Violinist/composer/arranger Curtis Stewart’s remarkable solo record of Love is one of those gargantuan acts of love I keep talking about and being drawn to. An expansive weaving together of pieces he’s been playing for years and knows well by composers who still speak to him, like Brahms and Ellington, and originals, played in tribute to his late Mother in her Upper West Side apartment. 
  • Kieran Hebden and William Tyler, “Darkness, Darkness” – This collaboration between Kieran Hebden, the electronic musician better known as Four Tet, and avant-Americana guitarist William Tyler, delighted me, particularly this take on the Youngbloods song “Darkness, Darkness.” It unfurls slowly, letting the listener glimpse it in pieces, coming into view like a slowly backing-up camera refocusing every few seconds and coalescing into a powerful groove.
  • Rob Moose featuring Phoebe Bridgers, “Wasted” – yMusic co-founder violinist Rob Moose teamed with a variety of singers on his dazzling Inflorescence EP. I kept coming back to this fragile, pulsing collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers. The strings are both stabbing and enveloping light here. “Standing in the parking lot, in the glow of a Rite-Aid sign, everyone I know is staying in tonight. I’ve been here before, just screaming at a cell phone. Seems like a couple of months went by, but it’s years ago.”
  • Gerald Cleaver, “Of the American Dream” – One of the finest jazz drummers, Gerald Cleaver, has been working up a second strain of electronica-based music that I think hit its most assured and together expression yet with 22/23.
  • JD Allen, “Mx. Fairweather” – JD Allen stepped into the ring with electronics on THIS without sacrificing any of that rich, rounded tone. His great trio – Alex Bonney on those electronics and effects, Gwilym Jones on drums – attack this ballad and the other gorgeous originals on the record with subtlety and laser focus.
  • Nubya Garcia, “Lean In” – This killer single from one of my favorite London sax players, Nubya Garcia, summons up some of the textures of the garage club music she grew up with for an infectious mix.
  • Sexmob, “Club Pythagorean” – Downtown New York institution Sexmob – Steven Bernstein, Briggan Krauss, Tony Scherr, Kenny Wollensen – brought longtime collaborator Scotty Hard (Prince Paul, Mike Ladd, Antibalas) into the fold as a full member on their electrifying The Hard Way. This track also features John Medeski on Mellotron for a powerful groove bursting with hooks.
  • Javier Nero, “Kemet (The Black Land)” – Trombonist-composer Javier Nero leads a large band – including guest Sean Jones on a crackling solo on this title track – paying tribute to the ancient African empire of Kemet. The wordless vocals and frenetic cymbal work from Kyle Swan set up gorgeous massed horns, and killer vibes work from Warren Wolf, and a sizzling solo from Nero.
  • Marquis Hill featuring Joel Ross, “Stretch (The Body)” – Trumpeter Marquis Hill approached the ways intention can give our lives meaning and thoughtless action/habits can decay us, in a way that made more musical sense than any other such attempt I can think of, with the riveting Rituals + Routines. This track features vibes player Joel Ross painting constellations around the tight quartet of Hill, Junius Paul, Micheal King, and Indie Buz.
  • Chris Abrahams, Oren Ambarchi, Robbie Aveniam, “Placelessness (Side B excerpt)” – Chris Abrahams (The Necks’ pianist) brought together this trio of avant-garde guitarist and electronics player Oren Ambarchi and drummer Robbie Aveniam for Placelessness, two extended tracks of throbbing minimalism. Those squiggles around the minute mark, creating an interference color between the circular piano figure and the stuttered drums, were my initial handhold into the world of this music, and they still excite me.
  • Greg Ward Presents Rogue Parade, “Noir Nouveau” – Chicago alto player Greg Ward brings together some of his town’s finest players under the Rogue Parade name – Matt Gold, Dave Miller, Matt Ulery, Quin Kirchner – for the delightful concept album Dion’s Quest. This cinematic piece builds slowly, like shadows creeping along a wall, and develops sharper edges and flashes of light.
  • Sara Serpa and Andre Matos, “Carlos” – The vocalist pushing the boundaries furthest in the jazz/improvisation world right now, Sara Serpa, found an exquisite foil in guitarist/bassist Andre Matos. They assembled a great band consisting of Dov Manski on keys, João Pereira on drums, Okkyung Lee on cello, and Sofia Jernberg on additional vocals for the astounding album Night Birds. This original builds up from cells, sharing some sound-world commonality with the last two tracks, and flies to another place entirely.
  • Lawrence English and Lea Bertucci, “A Fissure Exhales” – I’ve been a big fan of Lea Bertucci’s playing and soundscapes for years. This collaboration with field recordings and tape manipulation artist Lawrence English, a standout track for me from their record Chthonic summons a sense of glacial motion, like many of the instrumental records that drew me this year, brings an entire world into my view and keeps revealing new mysteries.
  • Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, “Shallow Water (Tribute Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr., Guardians of the Flame)” – The power of the statement in Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah leaving his – up to now – primary instrument, the trumpet, behind in favor of his self-created Chief Adjuah’s bow and vocals, paid off big in his remarkable Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lighting, a mythopoetic tribute to all New Orleans has given us and everything it can still be. This tribute to the great Donald Harrison, Sr., features electrifying playing from Weedie Braimah on percussion, Luques Curtis on bass, and Marcus Gilmore on drums, among excellent guests.
  • Dan Wilson, “Bird Like” – Akron-based guitarist Dan Wilson grapples with his influences on the terrific Things Eternal, leading a great quartet of Glenn Zaleski on Rhodes, Brandon Rhodes on bass, and David Throckmorton on drums. The fluid lines and gleeful interplay make this Freddie Hubbard classic vibrantly, wrigglingly, alive.
  • Matana Roberts, “a caged dance” – Anything Matana Roberts does is worthwhile, and the fifth chapter in her Coin Coin series, delving into her family history and examining its context in American and specifically Black American history, In The Garden, might be the best installment yet. Produced with aplomb by Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio) and a large band of excellent musicians, including Mike Pride and Ryan Swift on drums, Stuart Bogie and Darius Jones on reeds, and Mazz Swift on violin, there’s not a weak track to be found. The stuttering, walking-the-line-between early 20th-century jazz and mid-century free jazz intro of this tune grabbed me immediately, and the rest of the track never let go.
  • Angel Bat Dawid, “INTROID – Joy ‘n’ Stuff’rin”  – When I interviewed Angel Bat Dawid years ago, she was working on the multimedia Requiem for Jazz project. While I’m still chomping at the bit to see it realized, the record was maybe the most ambitious and moving jazz and jazz-adjacent piece I’ve heard all year. Massed vocal writing and those interweaving horns on this tune… it doesn’t get better. I’m still unpacking this Requiem and will be for a while.
  • Ambrose Akinmusire featuring Bill Frisell and Herlin Riley, “Owl Song 1” – Trumpeter-composer Ambrose Akinmusire assembled a trio of guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Herlin Riley for the gorgeous Owl Song. This lead-off track is a tribute to all three players’ dedication to tone, space, and adventuring spirits.
  • Missy Mazzoli/Third Coast Percussion, “Millenium Canticles Pt 5, Survival Psalm” – The “Millenium Canticles” suite by Missy Mazzoli, one of my favorite composers and who makes one more appearance on this playlist, is the opening salvo to Third Coast Percussion’s dynamic Between Breaths and this final movement feels like you’ve just made your way to shore. A tribute to finding ways and reasons to live.
  • Beverly Glenn-Copeland, “Harbour (Song for Elizabeth)” – Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s first record in 20 years is a rapturous collection of art songs only he could write. The melody and lyrics of this song, in particular, wrecks me every time. “Don’t you know that you’re the deep, where water, earth, and fire meet? Don’t you know that when you sleep, life’s laughing, weeping?”
  • Mark Lomax II featuring Scott Woods, “Ho’oponopono” – One of the performances I was sorriest to miss in the fall of 2022 was the premiere of Columbus’s greatest composer Mark Lomax’s newest collaboration with poet Scott Woods, Black Odes. I’m still sorry I wasn’t in town to see it, but the record is a spectacular document of an opening into a new era for two of our finest artists. “What else do I need but this hem? / What else do I need to decolonize this kiss to make it a worthy offering?”
  • Missy Mazzoli/Arctic Philharmonic, “These Worlds In Us” – I’ve been a big fan of Missy Mazzoli’s writing since I heard her chamber ensemble Victoire on a blog, and a year or two later saw them in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Her work has grown more expansive, covering a multiplicity of forms, and finally, there was a collection under her name with a variety of uncollected orchestra pieces, Dark With Excessive Bright. This one, new to me, was an immediate favorite and falls into my usual tone: a prayerful/hope-for-the-world piece I like to end these playlists on. Thank you all for reading/listening. I love you.
Categories
Playlist record reviews

Playlist – June 2023

Active participant in a lot of great stuff this month – as always in Anne’s birthday month – but also did a lot of struggling, feeling like I was mired in my own muck. Shorter blurbs and extremely late this time. I thought about taking my once or twice-a-year mulligan and just putting the playlist out, but when I looked back at it, there were several things I really wanted to give the handshake for. Thanks for reading and listening; I love and appreciate you all.

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/e4dd0206-e2c0-4113-9e6e-7eff22c9e0ad

  • Jaimie Branch, “take over the world” – I don’t think I have words for how happy I am the new music Jaimie Branch spoke about when I interviewed her, at least a slice of it, is coming out on the posthumous album Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (world war). This first taste is a spiky anthem, a fireball; Chad Taylor’s roiling drums lead us on this journey that makes tears spring to my eyes and also pump my fist: the best and rarest of combos. “Gonna, gonna, gonna, take over the world… take it back to the love.”
  • Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, “When We Were Close” – Jason Isbell pivots slightly on this one. As I talked about to old friend and mentor Rich Dansky, Weathervanes (as a whole) feels less like the strobe-and-neon gut punches of Reunions and The Nashville Sound and more like a widescreen version of the interiority he sharpened to a fine point on Something More than Free. I don’t think there’s a weak song on the album, but this song about his friendship with Justin Townes Earle hit me at a moment I was primed to think about dead friends and relationships I didn’t care for like I should have – particularly someone who I wasn’t very close to, but I always liked, and we’d been in the same circles for years; RIP Blair Hook, and so many other pals, comrades, and acquaintances. “Got a picture of you dying in your mind, with some ghosts you couldn’t bear to leave behind – but I can hear your voice ring as you snap another B string and finish out the set with only five. And for a minute there, you’re still alive.”
  • MeShell Ndegeocello featuring Jeff Parker, “ASR” – I put an early single on this playlist a couple of months ago but having lived with The Omnichord Real Book in its entirety for a little while, it might be her finest record – saying something, from one of the finest singers/songwriters/bandleaders of my lifetime. I saw her perform this track live at the Blue Note in January, with featured guest Jeff Parker sitting in, and it was a highlight in a set bulging at the seams with highlights. The hypnotic, trance-like groove, the backing vocals curling like smoke, the subtle, beckoning, judging lead vocal, and the shattered-glass ribbons of Parker’s guitar… everything here is perfect. “Can’t get back the time you wasted, you wasted.”
  • Kassi Valazza, “Room in the City” – Another facet in the prism of that feeling I’m grappling with, a sense of loneliness but also gratitude for making it to the other side, from a Portland singer-songwriter I wasn’t familiar with before this terrific record Knows Nothing. Her voice reminds me of British folk and the New Weird America scene I loved so much, and subtle touches on the arrangement – a mournful moan that could be a harmonica or a harmonium, shards of piano, a soaring steel guitar toward the end of the track – reinforce and subvert the buttery closeness of the vocal. “Shadow mountains and the pale green rivers drifting in and out of windy highway sounds. Copper colors and some lonely search for meaning keep me coming back and turning right around.”
  • Loraine James, “2003” – I got into London-based composer Loraine James with last year’s breathtaking Julius Eastman homage Building Something Beautiful For Me and this advance taste of her upcoming record for Hyperdub points me in the direction of another of my top albums of the year. Hazy, humid, and rich, speckled with rough, acerbic textures and an aching vocal bobbing up and down in the beautiful haze. “So much confusion, came up with many conclusions.”
  • Monophonics featuring Kendra Morris, “Untitled Visions” – I still miss those days Monophonics came through town regularly (a powerful dance party at Brothers Drake Meadery sticks out), but I’m overjoyed to see them getting bigger success with some slight tweaks to the formula. The crisp drums and trademark horn stabs sound gorgeous on this track around Kendra Morris’ warm breeze of a vocal. “I close my eyes and turn up my dreams.”
  • Don Toliver featuring Lil Durk and GloRilla, “Leave the Club” – Houston-based soul singer Don Toliver teams up with rappers Lil Durk and GloRilla for this instant-classic ode to finding something to go home with at closing time (or earlier). The shifts in tempo and intensity keep the song from getting monochromatic, along with the varying tonal qualities of their voices – when GloRilla appears with the best one-liners in the song, it feels like the lights in the club shifted right after a perfect but ill-advised shot of tequila – but these points of interest don’t disrupt the innate, butterscotchy smoothness. “Bet up on my Rosé, and I’m ’bout to leave the section. See me after hours; I left the club with extras. Speedin’ down that highway, it’s lookin’ kinda reckless.”
  • Slighter, “Have No Fear (Dark Rave Mix) – This is very much the kind of music I’d have been dancing to back in the days I identified with the subject matter of the previous song, a thick layer of industrial sounds and lugubrious, squelchy bass welded to a pumping dancefloor groove. I wasn’t familiar with this LA artist, but somehow the algorithm knew this would scratch an itch in my brain, light up some neurons I hadn’t given credit to in maybe too long. The original mix is great but hearing this dark rave mix brought up a purging of sweet nostalgia with light and gratitude.
  • Kassa Overall featuring Laura Mvula and Francis and the Lights, “So Happy” – I first encountered Kassa Overall in his jazz drummer guise, playing in a trio with John Hebert and Peter Evans at the Jazz Gallery, and was immediately a fan, but I love the way his records get harder to classify and more all-encompassing, widening the scope of his subject material while sharpening his own idiosyncratic viewpoint. This standout from his excellent Animals links him up with the great British R&B singer Laura Mvula and synthpop mastermind Francis and the Lights for an infectious, bouncing, cracked hip-hop track that might be my song of the summer. “What if you were chosen but, full of fear, you were frozen? My life almost brought to a close in the fight to get open.”
  • The Freedom Affair, “Make Me Surrender (Instrumental)” – I got to Twangfest too late to catch Kansas City’s The Freedom Affair, but so many of my friends raved so hard about this soul band I had to check out 2021’s Freedom is Love, and immediately fell hard for it. This year’s instrumental version has been one of my prime soundtracks for this sticky, muggy season and keeps paying dividends.
  • Kieran Hebden and William Tyler, “Darkness, Darkness” – I saw Kieran Hebden a few times over the years, mostly in his Four Tet guise in the early 2000s, and a couple of those performances blew my mind the same way his first three records cracked it open, and this pastoral collaboration with searching guitarist William Tyler is just gorgeous, one of my favorite recent records to smoke a cigar on the porch or free write to. The loping groove organically appears here like a sunrise over a Kandinsky landscape, like an aubade.
  • Wolf Eyes, “Engaged Withdrawal” – Wolf Eyes, being from Michigan and getting more mainstream media traction, cast a huge shadow on the scene here in Columbus, playing shows and collaborating with friends of mine. For a few years, I lost track, they were mostly self-releasing, not touring as much, but everything I’ve heard since they popped back on my radar has been excellent, and this new record, Dreams in Splattered Lines, is another high point. This heaving miniature, using overlapping repetition, working these tiny cells and nuances to evoke coiled dread  but also a sense of being present, is a prime example of the pleasures within.
  • Sam Butler, “I. At Night, And Then Upon Waking” – Indiana-based trumpeter/composer Sam Butler made a remarkably assured debut album with Folklore and I think this is a cinematic highlight. It makes excellent use of a tight band comprised of people I was already a fan of, like Greg Ward on alto (Mike Reed, Ernest Dawkins, Hamid Drake) and Kenny Phelps (Pharez Whited) on drums, and names new to me like tenor player Garrett Fasig.
  • Ben Wendel featuring Elena Pinderhughes, “Speak Joy” – Ben Wendel from Kneebody and so much else has released one record after another that document expanding ambition and deeper clarity at the same time, and All One is another step forward. Lush layering of Wendel’s saxophone on this original is contrasted by the warm breeze of Elena Pinderhughes’ flute and alto flute.
  • David Garland, “String Flow 1, Part 2 The Fourth” – I first became a David Garland fan through his richly orchestrated, idiosyncratic songs that used their esoteric qualities to drive a knife deep into my chest (that run from Togetherness through my favorite Noise in You is well overdue for a re-evaluation). I didn’t know his “pure” chamber music until more recently. This track from his rapturous new one, Flowering Flows, pours harmony over drones like honey.
  • Gia Margaret, “City Song” – Songwriter-singer-pianist Gia Margaret’s Romantic Piano fuses her songwriter impulses and “pure” composition tendencies as well as any record I can think of in recent memory. The chords and the field recording atmospherics flow into one another and illuminate the soft, dramatic power of her voice. “In flashback, I saw you with so much to tell; the revolving doors hit in a tentative spell, and the birds still fly. I stay up all night.”
  • Henry Threadgill Ensemble, “Movement II” – I didn’t think I could love a Henry Threadgill album without his inimitable saxophone sound on it. But The Other One, a long-form piece Of Valence inspired by Milford Graves, gives me most of the pleasures I’m expecting and also lets me hear facets of his compositional voice in a way that’s so beautifully surprising. Many of his longtime collaborators – including Jose Davila on tuba, David Virelles on piano – do beautiful justice to this thorny, nuanced work.
  • Curtis J. Stewart, “Adagio from Johannes Brahms Violin Sonata No 1 Op 78 (We are going to be OK)” – Violinist-singer Curtis Stewart’s, founder of PUBLIQuartet, Of Love, is intended as a requiem/tribute to his mother and it’s as wrenching and beautiful as that can imply, a record that I sank into immediately and I’m still swimming inside it, as full of love as it is of mystery. Here, Stewart slips the mantra “We are going to be OK” between the lines of this gorgeous Brahms adagio, his violin raining down over clattering synthesized drum beats. A highlight in a record without any weak links.
  • Maisie Peters, “Lost the Breakup” – This song from English singer-songwriter Maisie Peters (whose first record completely blew past me) opens with a shimmering, slicing violin (or a keyboard I’m mistaking for strings) that links it to the sound world of the last few tracks before blooming into an infectious pop kiss-off. “But for now, I’m out in the dust. Oh, is she just like me? Yeah, I reckon you’ve got two types: Country and Western.”
  • Flo featuring Missy Elliott, “Fly Girl” – This boisterous, finely tuned summer smash takes Missy Elliott’s “Work It” – “If you a fly girl, get your nails done, get a pedicure, get your hair did” – and applies a chromed-out, hyper-modern singing-rapping cadence that winks at Elliott’s groundbreaking fusion of the two in her own writing and singing style while bringing it up today, wtih the great Miss.E rocking a verse that proves she’s still paying attention and can keep up with anyone.”Oh babe, might leave you waiting all day, cause these material things are not enough to make me stay.”
  • Lunchbox, “Feel Things” – This standout from New York rapper Lunchbox’s new record New Jazz, with an ominous, lurching beat from Amir.pr0d, is one of the best musical representations I’ve ever heard of the simultaneous desire to feel as much as we can, soak up as much of life, but numb it at the same time, so many of us struggle with. “All this codeine, I can’t feel shit; shit ain’t real; it’s deceiving. We be on top of the building – what the fuck is a ceiling?”
  • Ari LaShell, “Get Down” – Singer-songwriter Ari LaShell’s debut album AWH is a fountain of ideas and power. This track combines her vintage neo-soul vocal delivery with a big post-disco bass line and hard club drums, using repetition as an invitation and a distancing mechanism. “Can you rock with me now?”
  • YoungBoy Never Broke Again, “Dirty Thug” – Baton Rouge rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again puts out so much material I can’t even hope to keep track, but every time I check in, I’m glad I did. This skin-flaying confessional rides on one of his signature gorgeous melodies with a thumping, insistent beat. “On the dance floor with the devil, can you come take over for him, please? I said, ‘Can you come step in and dance with me?’ Off-white, money coming in left and right, you the last thing that make me complete. I take these drugs with no party. I told that girl I was sorry. I’ m on my shit, oh, now, pardon me. I saw some shit, sad, and it scarred me.”
  • Rodeo Boys, “Tidal Wave” – The fusion of twang and grunge this terrific Lansing quartet brings reminded me of Columbus in the ’90s in all the best ways but the out-in-front queer lyrical perspective and the wide net they cast for sounds and influences plants them firmly in the moment. Had a hard time picking a track, Home Movies is so consistent and so beautifully relentless.
  • Gut Health, “The Recipe” – I’m an unabashed fan of the current wave of rock coming from Melbourne, and this invigorating five piece led by Anhina Uh Oh sums up so much of what I love about that scene: barbed hooks, punchy rhythms, stinging guitars. “Delta of faux! Iridescent! No enemies, real energy.”
  • Nia Archives, “Off Wiv Ya Headz” – London-based producer Nia Archives takes the A-Trak remix of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs rager “Off With Your Head” – already a track that I still put on more party playlists than not, and have on my gym mix – as raw material for this expansive, pounding post-jungle rework. Reminds me of everything I loved about jungle and drum ‘n’ bass and the pure catharsis of dancing.
  • Godflesh, “You Are the Judge, the Jury, and the Executioner” – Godflesh was my entryway into Justin Broadrick’s musical world as a young teenager – and I’ve had my brain melted by live sets by The Bug and Zonal over the years – so I’ve been overjoyed that the comeback Godflesh records since 2014 have lived up to the quality of that impeccable original run, each one getting better. This closing track on the excellent Purge is volcanic, cathartic, and introspective at the same time. As good a fiery riff as I’ve heard in many years and a crunching, unstoppable groove. “The sane, the just, the righteous. We fall. Again.”
  • Boris, “Heavy Friends” – The repetition underpinning the righteous ZZ Top worthy riff from this newest salvo from Japanese power trio Boris, for me, ties together some of the last several items, connectiing Decisive Pink to Godflesh, but even if those connections don’t work for you, this fucking smokes.
  • Serroge, “Damascus” – I believe I found out about this St Louis-based rapper from a random post-Twangfest conversation with someone at the Irish bar down the street from Off-Broadway, and it’s been one of my favorite finds of the year. “I’ve been serving two masters. “I just got multiple packs ’cause I’ve been serving two masters. The truth of the situation: I was blind. Paul on the road to Damascus.”
  • Statik Selektah featuring Posdnous, “Round Trip (For Dave)” – Producer Statik Selektah’s sprawling Round Trip album is packed with pleasures but my immediate favorite was this collaboration with Posdnous in tribute to Pos’s longtime De La Soul compatriot Dave “Trugoy the Dove” Jollicoeur, rippling with horns and piano stabs. “Bittersweet blessings, condolences and congrats in the same sentence while my life learns the lesson. I cry quiet so the knot in my chest is hard to untie, but thankfully the heart keeps pressing.”
  • Vada Azeem, “ABUELA” – Columbus-based Vada Azeem caught my ear with early work as L.e. for the Uncool he continues to impress me. This gorgeous track remembering his grandmother and also a friend who died too young is a horn-drenched standout on his consistently strong We Forgot God Was Working. “I remember what my Grandma told a little me, my eyes full of glee: ‘Stay focused, child, always tie your camel to a tree.'”
  • Lorqa and Synead, “Mirrors” – New York based producer Lorqa and vocalist Synead teamed up for this subtle, icy tune that feels like a perfect tonic for the muggy, suffocating air at the moment and I bet will sound just as good to leaves and snow falling through streetlamps. “Out of bed; muddy boots and I’m still hungover. Clocks are useless, where the time go? Now I see why floating mirrors whisper. All these mirrors are telling you ‘Come on, flow right over.'”
  • Decisive Pink, “Cosmic Dancer” – This collaboration between Angel Deradoorian and Kate NV uses shiny textures to complicate its message, to enhance the mystery, instead of glossing over it – the synth textures tied it in my mind to the previous few tracks but the repetition and the sense of interlocking cells also ties it to Philip Glass but with a heavy dollop of dancefloor charm. “The archer’s bow points out the way to my newest escapade. What lies beyond in the unknown charade?”
  • Gerald Cleaver, “A Marcha Para Baixo” – Long one of my favorite drummers in jazz – a title he handily defended when Anne and I saw him playing with the poet Fred Moten on my last trip to New York – Cleaver’s also been putting out really interesting electronic music, and his new record in that vein 22/23 brings in everything he’s interested in, like the nod to Brazilian music here with sounds that bear faint traces of classic Deodato and David Axelrod, while still flexing his Detroit roots.
  • Wild Up, “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?” – One of my favorite Julius Eastman pieces gets a luminous reading from the collective Wild Up. who also did the astonishing rediscovery of his piece Feminine. The sledgehammer to the chest of those massed horns and ice knife-wielding indictment of the vocals have never been clearer or more powerful.
  • Orrin Evans, “The Red Door” – This title track to another can’t-miss record by one of my favorite pianists and composers finds Evans assembling a world-beating quintet of Nicholas Payton on trumpet, Gary Thomas on tenor, Robert Hurst on bass, and Marvin “Smitty” Smitt on drums. The empathy on those pulsing, enticing sunlight heads and the intriguing everything-pulling-apart sections shine. Jazz you can snap your fingers to and get lost in.
  • Adeem the Artist, “Fervent For the Hunger” – Still hoping Adeem the Artist rides the wave of more-than-deserved hype to tour somewhere near here as I missed their (by all accounts, excellent) hometown shows during Big Ears. This new song continues the volcanic, ferocious compassion they brought to White Trash Revelry and makes it a natural singalong. “And I’m a holy ghost, lamp post, poet of sorts. A rain drop, machine shop, radio source surtured with lip gloss and hot sauce, indian summers. Just a kid with mixed up head, fervent for the hunger.”
  • Eilen Jewell, “Could You Would You” – I’ve been a fan of Eilen Jewell since Alec Wightman first brought her to town for one of his Zeppelin shows, and every record reveals new layers, new reasons to be enraptured. This standout from her excellent Get Behind the Wheel works in that Roy Orbison/Chrissy Hynde swinging stop mode she does better than anyone else right now, making the chorus “Could you love me like I love you?” a flirtatious, poison-dipped dagger of a challenge.
  • Ashley Ray featuring Ruston Kelly, “Break My Heart” – From the first swoop of pedal steel, Ashley Ray plants her flag in a deep river of trad country balladry, every line perfectly enunciated and stretched out juuuust enough, with Ruston Kelly as a devastating foil. “I just thought that you should know I’ve got a little ways to go. I’m a wild horse at the rodeo, but I think you could take her. If you don’t break my heart, honey, somebody else will. You’ve got a deadly charm, I’ve got nothing but time to kill.”
  • Brennen Leigh, “The Bar Should Say Thanks” – A less smooth, honky-tonk brand of country gets an ideal champion in Brennen Leigh, maybe the artist I kick myself most for missing this year when she played Natalie’s with Kelly Willis. The defiance and longing in her voice recalls vintage crying in your beer Merle Haggard and the fiddle-driven blurry waltz paints an entire world. “Don’t they remember each closing time, whose tab is always open? Who can they count on to hold the hand of a friend who’s barely coping? Who’s the queen of rehashing her hard knocks? Who drops all of their cash in the jukebox when I could have been putting it in the bank? The bar should say thanks.”
  • Madison McFerrin, “(Please Don’t) Leave Me Now” – A slightly different stripe of instant last call classic with this highlight off Madison McFerrin’s excellent debut album I Hope You Can Forgive Me. Subtle, introspective disco that makes me regret even more missing her when she came through Rambling House; I’m damn sure the next time will be someplace much larger. “What is all forgiven when it’s said and done? Could it be we’re livin’ all wrong?”
  • New Twenty Saints, “Ghosting” – I was turned onto this Detroit band by my fellow Pencilstorm contributor Jeremy Porter, and they’re exactly the kind of bar room midwestern/Great Lakes region rock I have a soft spot for, done really well. They’re high on my list to check for next time I’m up north. “I’m always doing time. You show your cards when you can’t show signs.”
  • Bettye LaVette featuring Ray Parker Jr. and Jon Batiste, “Mess About It” – If soul legend Bettye LaVette had just made the same record over and over, I’d probably still lap them up: she’s got one of the signature voices of her generation, and it just gets richer and more fascinating with time. But it’s to her credit she keeps searching, keeps working in different modes with different concepts, trusting whatever she takes on will always be her. The new one, LaVette! teams her with southern rock songwriter Randall Bramblett who came up in similar ’70s trenches, and it’s front-to-back magic. This track in particular, with the great Ray Parker Jr. adding his signature guitar alongside fellow guest, keyboardist Jon Batiste, is a classic slice of funky urban soul. “When you’re burning daylight, and you’re almost home, little things can wind their way inside of you. And your smile gets stolen by the fading sun; got a strange hold on the steering wheel.”
  • Joy Oladokun, “Changes” – With every record, singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun’s work gets stronger, deeper, and more herself. Proof of Life, her second for Verve Forecast, might be her first masterpiece. This burnished, ingratiating tune with a vocal that’s immediate but unfolds with attention is co-written and produced with Dan Wilson and features Wilson on harmonium, with Oladokun adding that pulsing bass line and ukulele part and a warm breeze of a saxophone part from Alex Budman (Clare Fischer, Mavis Staples, D’Angelo). “Was a baby during the LA riots, and I’ve seen cities burn again. Cried for the innocent a thousand times, and people still don’t understand what it’s like to hope again and again, knowing the heartache’s gonna be there till the end.”
  • Keturah, “Nchiwewe (Ode to Willie Nelson)” – The eponymous debut album from Malawian singer-songwriter Keturah stunned me the minute I heard it and is still revealing pleasures and secrets to me. This tribute to Willie Nelson stands alongside Miles Davis’, showing the reach and power of Nelson’s work and the connections between a global artistic community.
  • Jerry David DeCicca, “New Shadows” – Even in the Black Swans, who I loved, Jerry DeCicca was always finding new facets, new contexts for his voice without ever chasing trends or doing anything cavalierly. This first single and title track of DeCicca’s forthcoming record expands the palette of his sonic world further than anything other than his collaboration with Mike Shiflet (which I love) and uses guest stars like guitarist Jeff Parker and baritone sax player Steve Berlin beautifully. As with the last several of these playlists, I like to end with a prayer, and DeCicca’s music has always had meditative, medicinal qualities for me, never more than the holy house of mirrors he builds here. I always look forward to a new record from him, but this taste made this my most anticipated record of the year. Thank you all for listening and reading. “The sun went down and the night got big, so I crawl into the hole I dig.”
Categories
Best Of Playlist record reviews

Playlist – 2022 Spaces

In contrast to the last playlist, these are compositions and performances I didn’t think fit as neatly into the categorization of songs. Usually – but not always – instrumental, usually – but not always – a little longer, a little more sprawling.

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/3d5c5631-c345-46e8-8584-b749c9631177

  • Medicine Singers featuring Jaimie Branch, “Sanctuary” – I was a big fan of Yonatan Gat’s band Monotonix live, but they never quite gelled for me on record, but I’ve been extremely excited to see the various paths, curiosities, and enthusiasms he’s followed since breaking out on his own. My favorite is his collaboration with the Native American group Eastern Medicine singers on this stunning self-titled album. The record is full of guests, but every guest seems well-chosen, none more so than Jaimie Branch here, who adds a questing, majestic trumpet that feels like coming home to a place that doesn’t look quite the same.
  • Terri Lyne Carrington featuring Ambrose Akinmusire, “Rounds” – Drummer-composer-bandleader Terri Lyne Carrington’s New Standards project is one of the most important pieces of work enhancing jazz in years, with 100 great new compositions by women. The accompanying record, New Standards Vol. 1 finds Carrington assembling a crack rhythm section of herself, Kris Davis on piano, Linda May Han Oh on bass, Matthew Stevens on guitar, and a series of guests. This album-closing, spiky house fire written by one of my favorite pianists (and the artist we went to see the first time Anne and I went to the Village Vanguard together), Marilyn Crispell, features a jaw-dropping, dangling off the edge of the world trumpet solo from Ambrose Akinmusire.
  • Mary Halvorson, “Amaryllis” – Mary Halvorson made two of her strongest statements yet in 2022, with the mirrored records Amaryllis and Belladonna. I greatly admired the work with the Mivos Quartet on the latter – and it’s one of the things I’m most looking forward to seeing at Big Ears – but I couldn’t get several of the pieces with her crushing new sextet of Patricia Brennan on vibes, Nick Dunston on bass, Tomas Fujiwara on drums, Jacob Garchik on trombone, and Adam O’Farrill on trumpet out of my head, especially this title track on the other album. It’s a call to arms of raging beauty and a successful attempt to transcribe the beauty of the world, that moment where Halvorson’s comping mutates right behind O’Farrill’s blistering solo then takes off in another direction knocks me out.’
  • Loraine James, “Building Something Beautiful For Me (Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc)” – The posthumous renaissance of Julius Eastman continues to be a source of joy. This year brought a couple of artifacts of his own compositions and a breathtaking record of homages and refiguring from London-based composer/producer Loraine James. This title track uses the first piece of Eastman’s work I loved, the vocal intro and massed cellos of The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc, and stretches the tones, playing with the colors so new light shines right through.
  • Brian Harnetty, “Let There Be a Moving Mosaic of This Rich Material” – Brian Harnetty is one of Columbus’s finest composers in a field where the bar is high. Over the last several years, his work with archives, especially with the past of Kentucky and Ohio, has provided a rich field he’s dug deep and made the best use of. His new record, Words and Silences, is a masterful look at the monk and writer Thomas Merton, using Merton’s own words and Harnetty’s settings to craft a mosaic look at the great man’s life. It’s a remarkable paean to stillness, attention, to getting off the merry-go-round of modern life and stopping to hear ourselves. Like all of Harnetty’s work, the insistence on meeting the materials where they are doesn’t negate the artist’s intention or vision, it opens it wide.
  • Bill Frisell, “Waltz for Hal Willner” – As I said in an earlier Parting Gifts playlist, Hal Willner’s tribute records were world-shattering to me, bringing together Leonard Cohen, Diamanda Galas, Harry Partch instruments in the service of Charles Mingus compositions, everything on Night Music… it all stunned me. And I’m so glad I got to see Willner once doing a piece with recordings accompanied by a small band, including Bill Frisell, where the affection between the two was radiating throughout the Stone. I love everything on Frisell’s new record, Four, pairing him with pianist Gerald Clayton, drummer Johnathan Blake, and Greg Tardy on clarinet and saxophone, but I kept coming back to this beautiful, elegiac waltz.
  • Kalia Vandever, “Passing Through” – Composer and trombonist Kalia Vandever assembled a nuanced, powerful sextet for an album of some of the best jazz compositions anyone’s writing now, Regrowth. Her striking trombone voice is front and center with gripping accompaniment from Immanuel Wilkins on alto, Lee Meadvin on guitar, Paul Cornish on piano (check his dancing solo that rises right out of a gorgeously gnarled stretch from Vandever), Nick Dunston on bass, and Connor Parks on drums.
  • Mark Lomax Trio, “Better Get Hit in Your Soul” – Another of the finest Columbus composers is also one of our best drummers and bandleaders, Dr. Mark Lomax II. For Charles Mingus’s centennial, Lomax and his longtime collaborators Dean Hulett on bass and Eddie Bayard on tenor team up for loving, well-crafted versions of a number of Mingus’s finest compositions. This is one of my favorite pieces on Trio Plays Mingus, with a long, melodic bass intro that flowers into a soulful masterclass in group interplay about a minute in. Three of our greatest players digging into material they’ve been working with as long as they’ve been playing music, with nothing to prove but always the questing spirit for finding something new, of surpassing their own expectations. This rises and rises but never leaves the soulful, earthy qualities of the original piece behind; you could sing every solo in this if you had the knack.
  • Tigran Hamasyan featuring Mark Turner, “All The Things You Are” – Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan first caught my attention for his intricate compositions so his album-length detour into standards, StandArt with a sympathetic rhythm section of Matt Brewer and Justin Brown, and guests was a delightful surprise. This gorgeous version of one of my favorite standards features the great tenor player Mark Turner and the lines Hamasyan and Turner weave around one another leave me breathless.
  • Moor Mother featuring Nicole Mitchell, “ARMS SAVE” – Moor Mother’s Jazz Codes plays with and jousts the jazz influences that have always been present in her un-classifiable work. This track, a highlight in a record full of them, featuring multi-reedist and composer Nicole Mitchell, uses the classic poetic device of sliding sentence fragments around, watching them spark against each other, in the night-sky-tapestry of reeds and a subtle beat. “I’m so hot, but no fans, but at the stake of all your demands, guess my presence never been felt.”
  • Mali Obomsawin, “Blood Quantum (Nəwewəčəskawikαpáwihtawα)” – Bassist and bandleader Obomsawin’s Sweet Tooth is one of my favorite debuts in a long while and this 11-minute album closer merges an Obomsawin composition with a contemporary Native American chant written by Obomsawin, Lokotah Sanborn and Carol Dana of the Penobscot Nation with arranging assistance from Lancelot Knight of Muskoday First Nation, and it’s a stunning, defiant, swinging meshing of jazz playing with horns from Allison Burik, Noah Campbell, and the record’s co-producer Taylor Ho Bynum, and a rhythm section including drummer Savannah Harris and guitarist Miriam Elhajli and the music of Obomsawin’s (and the nation’s) heritage.
  • Tarbaby featuring Oliver Lake, “Purple” – The collective trio Tarbaby – pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Nasheet Waits – is one of my favorite groups in contemporary jazz, for many years at this point, and some of my favorite work of theirs also brings in the saxophone giant Oliver Lake. This simmering free ballad featuring trumpeter Josh Lawrence is a perfect example of form meeting intention and lighting the flame of beauty.
  • Jacob Garchik, “Bricolage” – Garchik’s new record “Assembly” fits together pieces of improvisations with a killing quintet of Sam Newsome on soprano, Jacob Sacks on piano, Thomas Morgan on bass, and Dan Weiss on drums, into new compositions in a really beautiful way that feels like it builds on his last few records, Ye Olde and Clear Line and playing with some ideas from his film scores while also staying in touch with his lineage as a jazz trombone player.
  • Bobby Previte, “GAMBLE” – One of my great joys this year was getting together in the same place with my childhood friend Mike Gamble and his wife, filmmaker Devin Febboriello, after a break of several years. So it was an extra joy to get to tell him how much I loved his work on Bobby Previte’s Nine Tributes for Electric Band and ask him if it was intimidating to be the guitarist on a record that pays tribute to so many other amazing players that Previte had worked with, from Sonny Sharrock to Charlie Hunter to Nels Cline. And, of course, with the humility I’d expect, the answer was, “Oh man, of course.” But it says something that not only did Previte – who’s played with everybody – call him for this task, but one of the tributes is dedicated to Gamble. And it’s a crushing piece, a key example of an artist being truly seen by another.
  • Sonic Youth, “In & Out” – I loved the collection of Sonic Youth compilation rarities and outtakes this year, In/Out/In, varying from fully formed works to rehearsal space jams. The wordless vocals on this and sly krautrock rhythms kept giving me joy in the months since its release.
  • Angelica Sanchez Trio, “Before Sleep/The Sleeping Lady and The Giant that Watches Over Her” – One of the great pianists working in jazz today, Sanchez assembled an all-star rhythm section of Billy Hart and Michael Formanek for this formidable trio album. The newly composed “Before Sleep” section blends so perfectly into the Ellington piece it feels like they were made for one another.
  • Lara Downes, “Magnetic Rag” – I was late to the party with Lara Downes, discovering her with last year’s series of work by black American composers, but I made up for the newness of that fandom with enthusiasm, so I was ready for her Scott Joplin record Reflections. This piece is a prime example of how a subtle arrangement by Stephen Buck and her light but decisive touch on the piano can remind us of the gorgeous accessibility, and the big riffs in these 100+ year-old songs, reminding us that Joplin helped define where American music was going and that the artistry of Downes is helping keep it alive.
  • Sweet Teeth, “City of Fern” – Sweet Teeth is a band I love in town because I can never quite get my finger on what they’re doing before they’re onto the next thing, but it’s always good. Brothers Stew (guitar, electronics, vocals) and Sam (cello) Johnson have seemingly voracious appetites for sounds, genres, and approaches. With Body Weather, they made a record as good as the times I’ve had seeing them live. This song sets up a deceptively placid surface and subverts those expectations over and over again for its seven-minute run time. “Ghost walk through a city of fern. All those bell shaped flowers try to sing.”
  • Charles Mingus, “Fables of Faubus” – Much as I love Mingus, I balked at the price of The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s on Record Store Day so I had to find it electronically after multiple people told me I was an idiot. This joyous and rightfully enraged romp through one of his classics is a key example of why this document is important and how his songs still glow 50 years after being recorded. A particularly good showcase for Jon Faddis on trumpet – whose other work did not wow me like he does here – and John Forster on piano about whom I knew nothing.
  • Wild Up, “Stay On It” – The Wild Up ensemble presents this favorite of mine of the Julius Eastman compositions, arranged by Christopher Rountree and Chris Kallmeyer, that captures all of its joy, its ebullient intensity, its encouragement to keep going.
  • Ethan Iverson, “For Ellen Raskin” – Iverson made his best, most consistent solo record with his Blue Note debut Every Note is True, making excellent use of a spectacular rhythm section of Jack DeJohnette on drums and Larry Grenadier on bass. I can’t count how many records I have with those gentlemen on them, but I can promise there’s not a bad one. And having three melodicists but who also know and love the simplicity of comping, of finding that pocket in a rhythm section, makes every tune on here shine. For me, this is one of the best melodies Iverson’s ever written, begging to be untangled, played with, and admired.
  • Fred Hersch, “Pastorale” – Speaking of melodicists, pianist Fred Hersch has been setting that bar high for decades, and his Breath by Breath, with a rhythm section of Drew Gress and Joachen Rueckert and the Crosby Street String Quartet, is another glowing example. An example of being perfectly lovely without being syrupy or contrived.
  • Mal Waldron, “You Don’t Know What Love Is” – I got into Mal Waldron after reading he was Billie Holliday’s last accompanist around the same time my late high school/early college self got extremely into Steve Lacy, who collaborated with Waldron for many years. I remember being in Portland and seeing a whole section of mostly solo Mal Waldron discs, getting two, and being blown away by both. Everything record of his I’ve ever found had something to teach me, and this year’s Searching in Grenoble from 1978 is a prime example. In excellent sound, in a transitional moment in his life, and it all comes out in a series of stormy pieces like this dissection of a favorite standard of mine, played with the thump of a martini shaker hitting the bar, then delicately as playing curls of smoke.
  • Peter Brotzmann/Milford Graves/William Parker, “Side B” – This year’s Historic Music Past Tense Future is a remarkable document of an explosive meeting between three artists who worked with each other over the years, all growing out of ’60s free jazz. Brotzmann always plays best with people with strong senses of rhythm and the storytelling drums of Graves bring out something different in his playing from the soulful pulse of Hamid Drake or the crunching surprise of Han Bennink. And Parker’s bass, that knew both so well, is a magic meeting place. This reminds me how lucky I was to live when all three of them walked the Earth and to make time to see Parker soon and Brotzmann whenever he next hits the states.
  • Anadol, “Gizli Duygular” – Anadol, the electronic music project of Turkish artist Gözen Atila has a sense of going inside oneself – the record Felicita is a favorite thing to write to – but there’s always a sense of play, the kind of joyful curiosity every meditation teacher always told me I should approach meditating with and the kind of joyful curiosity I try to approach writing and anything I absorb culturally (but often fall short of).
  • Immanuel Wilkins, “Fugitive Ritual, Selah” – Rising star saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins’ latest record for Blue Note, The 7th Hand, is a triumph, a connected suite where each piece makes its own impression. This composition features the core quartet of Micah Thomas on piano, Kweku Sumbry on drums, and Rolling Stones member Daryl Johns on bass, with subtle but gripping interplay and a melody that stuck with me as soon as I heard it.
  • Elvin Jones, “13 Avenue B” – Elvin Jones is very well recorded but there aren’t a lot of examples of him this early as a bandleader after leaving the classic Coltrane quartet. This smoking 1967 set from Pookie’s Pub in SoHo. This piece of classic hard bop features a prime example of his hook-up with bassist Wilbur Little, familiar from Jones’ late ’60s studio dates as a leader but also fiery playing from Joe Farrell, best known for his Return to Forever work, and pianist Billy Greene.
  • Taru Alexander, “Kojo Time” – Drummer and bandleader Taru Alexander’s Echoes of the Masters pays tribute to his inspirations, including his father Roland Alexander. This impassioned romp through a Roland Alexander classic highlights saxophonist Antoine Roney as the entire quintet does a spectacular job with the piece.
  • JD Allen, “This World is a Mean World” – JD Allen, with maybe my favorite tone of any working tenor player, continues his deep dive into blues and the roots of American music with Americana Vol. 2, using the same empathetic rhythm section of Gregg August and Rudy Royston, adding guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter to the mix to powerful effect.
  • John Scofield, “Junco Partner” – Maybe the first jazz guitarist I was a fan of, John Scofield’s first solo guitar record, self-titled, is a mix of strong originals and classics. This version of the blues traditional – which I learned from the Clash then went back to the Dr. John, the Professor Longhair, the Louis Jordan – highlights Scofield’s blues background and the smoothness of the ideas flowing out of him.
  • Johnny Gandelsman, “Barbary Coast, 1955” – Violinist Johnny Gandelsman went to many of our great American composers for his rapturous and sometimes heartbreaking This is America. For this piece, for five-string violin, Terry Riley wrote a gorgeous homage to a seedy strip of San Francisco in the ’50s.
  • Antoine Fatout, “Roger’s Riff” – Columbus drummer Antoine Fatout has been making noise as a sideman – I first heard him with great guitarist Brett Burleson – and with his own Trio Fa2. This debut record teams him with two of Columbus’s treasures we sometimes share with the world – Roger Hines on bass, best known for a long stretch in Ray Charles’ band, and guitarist Stan Smith (Moacir Santos, Madrugada, Descendre) – for a swinging, melodic record. This is a favorite of mine but there isn’t a bad tune on the album.
  • Oren Ambarchi, “IV” – Oren Ambarchi’s Shebang is one of my favorite recent examples of composition by accumulation. The guitarist brings in collaborators, including drummer Joe Talia, Necks pianist Chris Abrahams, pedal steel player BJ Cole, 12 string guitarist Julia Reidy, and lets them do what they do in cells, slowly drawing it together into this final, jubilant movement.
  • Isaiah Ceccarelli, “Toute Clarte m’est obscure: V. Aubade” – I fucking love an aubade, though I knew the poetic form before I discovered the musical. This fifth movement of Ceccarelli’s Toute Clarte m’est obscure composition centers on Ellen Weiser’s voice that, along with Katelyn Clark’s organ, feels like the sun rising on your face.
  • Mike Baggetta/Jim Keltner/Mike Watt, “Everywhen We Go” – This title track of the new album from this terrific collaboration has a cool spaghetti western feeling, set up as much by Keltner’s crisp drum rolls and edge-of-the-cymbal work as Baggett’s echoing twang and Watt’s melodic heartbeat bass.
  • James Brandon Lewis, “An Anguish Departed” – Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis seems to pop up everywhere these days. This quartet is probably my favorite of the working bands, with Aruán Ortiz on piano, Brad Jones on bass, and Chad Taylor on drums, and Molecular Systematic Music Live captures them at the height of their powers. This mournful throb of a song features wrenching solos from Lewis and Ortiz.
  • Jeremy Pelt, “Still Standing” – Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt follows last year’s conceptual tribute masterpiece with a record of mostly originals, including this one, cinematic in nature as befits the title, and about getting down and playing. The tight band here includes Chien Chien Lu on vibes (check out that buoyant solo), Vicente Archer on bass, Allan Mednard on drums (throughout, his comping is a wonder), Victor Gould on piano, and Brittany Anjou on synth around Pelt’s razor-sharp trumpet sound.
  • Walter Smith III and Matthew Stevens, “Hornets” – In Common III, the latest in a series of collaboratively led records by saxophonist Smith and guitarist Stevens, with an all-time rhythm section of Kris Davis, Dave Holland, and Terri Lyne Carrington, is a perfect example of how tight and beauitful this kind of small group jazz playing can be. One of my favorite things in jazz is hearing how the group comes out of a solo and there are so many excellent examples in this concise five minute piece, particularly after riveting solos from Stevens and Davis, back to that infectious chorus with meaty transitions.
  • Dezron Douglas, “Coyoacán” – Dezron Douglas leads a killer band including George Burton on piano, Joe Dyson Jr on drums, and Emilio Modeste on sax, through a series of terrific compositions on his new Atalayan. This smoldering tune is a highlight on an album full of highlights.
  • Julian Lage, “Heart is a Drum” – Guitarist Julian Lage continues to refine his approach and expand his field of vision with every outing. On View With a Room, his most developed album yet, he re-teams with tight rhythm section Jorge Roeder and Dave King and adds influence turned peer Bill Frisell into the mix for ten great originals. This one grabbed me by the lapels almost immediately.
  • Kali Malone, “Living Torch I” – Composer Kali Malone trades in the pipe organ she’s best known for on Living Torch for a series of synthesizers in a trio format with trombonist Mats Äleklint and bass clarinetist Isak Hedtjärn. With that instrumentation, long, painterly tones are almost expected but Malone and the other two players use those in a way that’s as surprising and fresh as it feels natural and organic. These two pieces are like watching the shadows change as the sun rises over a canopy of trees.
  • Sarah Davachi, “Harmonies in Bronze” – One of my favorite contemporary composers, Sarah Davachi didn’t disappoint on the 2022 record Two Sisters. This pipe organ solo builds slowly and, appropriate to its name, takes on sculptural qualities. The entire record is stunning but this piece makes me want to simultaneously unpack it and just sit back and watch the light drip out of it.
  • Makaya McCraven, “Seventh String” – I had a harder time finding a way into McCraven’s sprawling In These Times, and I suspect seeing more of the material live (after the tastes we got in the excellent Wexner Center show) will snap it into focus. That said, I immediately loved a handful of songs, including this stormy slow jam.
  • Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, “Have You Felt Lately?” – This opening track from LA based composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith uses elastic tones, sudden shifts in rhythm, and treated vocals to build a doorway to an entire universe, shimmering and shifting.
  • Dirty Bird, “The Question” – This loping house track kicks off producer Dirty Bird’s excellent Wagenmuzik album. The chopped, moaning vocal “Is it real?” repeats and folds over on itself around the hard but distant drums, like the soundtrack to a montage at sunset over a dirty street, day melting into night, one world rubbing up against the next.
  • Anna Butterss, “La Danza” – Anna Butterss, known as a bassist but playing everything on this standout track from her excellent Activities record, creates a soundworld that’s full of details and nuance but here never rising above a steady throb, a slow dance in the waning moonlight.
  • Tyshawn Sorey Trio, “Autumn Leaves” – I’ve seen Tyshawn Sorey a lot over the years in many contexts, mostly focused around his compositions or avant-garde improvisation (I still cherish seeing him in the trio with Ingrid Laubrock and Kris Davis at the late, lamented Cornelia Street Cafe). So it was a little bit of a surprise to see this record of standards with pianist (and Columbus native) Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer come out, but once I heard it it felt like the most natural thing in the world. Standards I’ve heard a million times, like this one, in versions that hold up to any I’ve heard by any of the greats.
  • RedmanMehldauMcBrideBlade, “Rejoice” – The second reunion record of this quartet that was so influential to me and so many others in the ’90s, LongGone, did not disappoint. This bouncing Joshua Redman composition gives he and Mehldau plenty of space to stretch and I’m especially in love with the almost taunting call and response inside McBride’s playing.
  • Tony Monaco, “Lush Life” – One of Columbus’s keyboard treasuers, maestro of the B-3 Tony Monaco, made his best record in years, Four Brothers, teaming up with saxophonist Eddie Bayard, guitarist Kevin Turner, and drummer Willie Barthel III. Here they take on maybe my favorite standard of all time, digging deep on a classic slow-burn rendition.
  • Charles Lloyd with Zakir Hussain and Julian Lage, “Tales of Rumi” – I enjoyed all three of the Charles Lloyd Trios records but I think my favorite was this collaboration with tabla master Zakir Hussain and virtuoso guitarist Julian Lage. The three approach the situation as equals and the equal weight on each instrument shines and lets the difference in tonal quality shine through this winding, snaking piece. As usual with these, I try to end with a prayer. Thank you all for reading and listening.