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An occasional blog about populist politics and popular music, not necessarily at the same time. LinksLocal Links My Other Websites Music Politics Others Networking Music DatabaseArtist Search: Website SearchGoogle: Recent Reading
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Monday, April 14, 2025 Music Week
Music: Current count 44035 [44005) rated (+30), 33 [26] unrated (+7). I had my second cataract surgery on Tuesday. When I took the tape off that evening, it was bright and blurry, but less dramatically so than after the first eye. I had some bruising below the eye, but it seemed minor. I was more struck by how creepy the loose, aged skin of the eyelids seemed. What I had feared was the the if the right eye recovery was as slow as the left seemed, I could have diminished vision for a few weeks. (It had been about a month now, and the left eye was still blurry, although the amount of light passing through the lens was more, and bluer.) But the blurriness in the right eye cleared up right away that morning. When I went to see the doctor, he not only cleared me to drive, but told me I could drive without glasses. I drove home with glasses, deeming them close enough to what I was used to, but I've since stopped using them for walks and TV. I haven't done much driving since, but haven't had any problems. I have an appointment to see my regular optometrist a couple weeks out, so I expect we'll get some better measurements then. The biggest question is what, if anything, the expensive toric lens in the left eye has done. It was supposed to correct for significant astigmatism -- which the right eye had very little of, so we went with the standard lens there. The expectation is that I will need glasses for reading, although in the past I've never used them. (I didn't need them at first; while my bifocals help a little, it usually suffices to hold the book a bit closer.) I've been reading OK, both with and without glasses, all through this period. What seems more likely is that I'll want glasses for the computer screen -- a focal distance of about 30 inches (I would have guessed less, but just measured it). I seem to be having more trouble with computer work this week (or month) -- although there could be other factors at work, including psychological ones. I'm going through a period where I have very little inspiration to do much of anything, or even to assign any blame for my sloth. Speaking of which, this week's haul is down a fair amount from the last couple weeks, although 30 albums has long been my definition of a solid week's work. Most of the A-list came late in the week, thanks to Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide. Two of those records got lower grades at first, raised more on reflection than on further listening. [PS: Also upgraded: The Delines.] I should also mention Dan Weiss' RiotRiot Report, which I haven't really worked my way through yet -- but I'm pleased to see the Ex and YHWH Nailgun (and Mekons, rated much higher here), and probably need the extra encouragement to get to Skrillex. I perhaps should note an unusual degree of ambivalence about this week's grades. I could just as easily have upgraded the Art Pepper and/or the Kenny Dorham live set. Instead of giving the latter a third play, I went into his back catalog, and didn't so much get diminishing returns as flagging interest. Same thing for Birchall: pick any one of his albums and it's likely to sound fabulous, but play five in a row and they all start to sound the same. I know Pepper well enough to hedge my bets. I hardly know Diblo Dibala at all. While I have very little real work to show for last week, I did manage to go back and fill out my long-neglected Streamnotes: Year 2024 Index, from which I had skipped the last four months. I still haven't done any for 2025 yet (other than to create the empty file). I've almost always done these on the same day I opened a new monthly file, but as they take 2-3 hours each, I started putting them off. While the indexes may not be of much use to readers, they help me find old reviews (avoiding inadvertent re-reviews, or at least helping with re-grading; I've already found several records I reviewed for a second time). I'd promise to catch up this week, but this is one of those computer tasks that I'm having eye trouble with. No plans for the upcoming week. Good chance I will publish a "Loose Tabs" later in the week. I've collected a few items for it, and they don't have a lot of shelf life. Unlikely I'll do a books post this week, although I would like to get back to it. More useful would be to get to my planning documents, especially the one for household tasks. New records reviewed this week: MC Paul Barman: Tectonic Texts (2025, Househusband): Rapper, still remembered for his wit and wordplay in 2000-02 albums (first, It's Very Stimulating, a 18:01 EP). Words still dance, even if a bit herky-jerk, or maybe that's the beats? B+(***) [sp] Basic: Dream City (2025, No Quarter, EP): Trio led by guitarist Chris Forsyth, whose records date back to 1998, and percussionist Mikel Patrick Avery, released a group album in 2024 (This Is Basic), follow that up here with a 3-cut, 26:48 EP with new bassist Douglas McCombs. B+(*) [sp] Nat Birchall Unity Ensemble: New World (2023 [2024], Ancient Archive of Sound): British tenor saxophonist, has a 1999 debut but picked up the pace around 2010, "a Coltrane devotee of the highest order," never more so than in this explicit tribute, his core group a quartet plus extra percussion, on this occasion joined by Alan Skidmore (tenor sax) and Mark Wastell (percussion). B+(***) [bc] Nat Birchall: Dimensions of the Drums: Roots Reggae Instrumentals (2024, Ancient Archive of Sound): Another facet of the British saxophonist's work, assembling these mild-to-sublime rhythm tracks single-handedly. B+(***) [sp] Corook: Committed to a Bit (2025, Atlantic): Singer-songwriter, started lo-fi c. 2021 that hardly matters here. Trans, which figures into subject matter too much not to mention, especially as the point seems to be to uncover common humanity without (or even with?) the distractions of gender. A- [sp] Silke Eberhard Trio: Being-a-Ning (2024 [2025], Intakt): Alto saxophonist, trio with Jan Roder (bass) and Kay Lübke (drums). Original pieces, with a hint of freebop Monk. B+(***) [sp] Craig Finn: Always Been (2025, Tamarac/Thirty Tigers): Singer-songwriter from Minneapolis, started in 1990s with Lifter Puller, moved to New York in 2001 and started the Hold Steady, still a going concern but since 2012 he's also been releasing solo albums, this his sixth. Not a lot of difference between the two, as the band albums feature the same detailed storytelling, and if the music is a bit mellower here, it's still cut from the same cloth. Both are nearly peerless. A- [sp] Ayumi Ishito: Roboquarians Vol. 2 (2021 [2025], 577): Tenor saxophonist from Japan, studied at Berklee and moved to New York in 2010. Several albums since 2015, including a previous volume by this "avant-punk style" trio, with George Draguns (guitar) and Kevin Shea (drums). More guitar than sax here. B+(*) [bc] Clemens Kuratle Ydivide: The Default (2024 [2025], Intakt): Swiss drummer, also electronics, debut 2016, second group album, quintet with alto sax (Dee Bryne), piano (Elliot Gavin), guitar (Chris Guilfoyle), and bass (Lukas Traxel). B+(**) [sp] Andy Fairweather Low: The Invisible Bluesman (2025, Last Music): British singer-songwriter, started in Amen Corner, had a notable series of solo albums 1973-76, after which he mostly did session work and tours, ranging from Chris Barber to Roger Waters, Bill Wyman, Joe Cocker, and Eric Clapton. He's put out occasional records on his own since 2004, with 2023's Flang Dang a high point. That was an album of originals, but this one is just a set of blues covers -- probably close to what he's been playing for Clapton, and probably better than Clapton can do without him. [PS: I haven't sought out Clapton since I hated 461 Ocean Boulevard in 1974, although I did enjoy two later albums: 1994's From the Cradle, and 2011's Play the Blues, filed under Wynton Marsalis. I've only heard one other post-1974 album, 2004's Me and Mr. Johnson.] B+(***) [sp] Myra Melford: Splash (2024 [2025], Intakt): Pianist, got on my radar c. 1990, when Francis Davis wrote a Village Voice Jazz Consumer Guide, and and gave her and Allen Lowe the pick hit slots. Trio with Michael Formanek (bass) and Ches Smith (drums/vibes). B+(***) [sp] Gurf Morlix: A Taste of Ashes (2024 [2025], Rootball): Roots-rock singer-songwriter, used to play drums and husband to Lucinda Williams, has been on his own, producing a new album nearly every year since 2000. B+(**) [sp] Elias Stemeseder/Christian Lillinger + Craig Taborn: Umbra III: Live Setting (2021 [2025], Intakt): Swiss pianist, German drummer, both also electronics, only surnames on the album cover so I've tended to credit them as Stemeseder Lillinger, but I usually add the missing names to the credit rather than having to rewrite them in the review. The "Live Setting" is in very small print, but seemed worth noting. Taborn plays piano here, moving Stemeseder over to spinet, synth, and effects. B+(**) [sp] Macie Stewart: When the Distance Is Blue (2023-24 [2025], International Anthem): Pianist, sometimes prepared, also violin and voice, third album since 2020, backed by strings (viola, cello, bass). B+(*) [sp] Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries: Champeta w/Edna Martinez: Diblo Dibala Special ([2024], NAS): Website shows 25 programs currated and introduced by DJ Martinez, exploring the Colombian "champeta": "rhythms and influences are said to have arrived with the sailors from West Africa in the 1960s and 70s." This one focuses on the Congolese soukous star (b. 1954; best known in US for Loketo's Super Soukous (1989), but probably includes other artists, in a continuous mix aside from the branding. It's really terrific, probably improved by the editing, but is it real? Not as far as I can tell, which makes it hard to recommend. A- [os] Kenny Dorham: Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live From the Blue Morocco (1957 [2025], Resonance): Bebop trumpet player (1924-72), a 1951 Modern Jazz Trumpets compilation added him to Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis, and he remained one of the top players into the 1960s. Hard bop quintet here with Sonny Red (alto sax), Cedar Walton (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Dennis Charles (drums). Strong showing, but perhaps more so for the sax. B+(***) [cd] Paul Dunmall/Paul Rogers/Tony Levin: The Good Feelings (2009 [2024], 577): British saxophonist (here plays tenor and soprano, bass and Bb clarinet), backed with bass and drums (before the drummer died in 2011, so this is in some sense a belated tribute). B+(**) [bc] Joe Henderson: Multiple (1973 [2025], Craft): Major tenor saxophonist (1937-2001), made his reputation in a series of now-classic Blue Note albums 1963-66, moved on to an extended run at Milestone 1968-77, had an unaccountably spotty decade-plus after that -- a couple albums on European labels, one more for Blue Note (The State of the Tenor, which pretty much was) -- before Verve picked him up in 1991, giving him the living legend treatment (but saddling him with concepts that I found less satisfying: tributes to Strayhorn, Davis, and Jobim; a big band; Porgy & Bess). I'm far less familiar with the Milestones, although he easily aced his entry in 2006's Milestone Profiles series, so I didn't even recognize this title (a Penguin Guide ***). It may have been easy to dismiss due to the then-fashionable electric keyboards/bass/guitar, congas, bits of soprano sax, flute and vocals. But a rhythm section with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette shouldn't be dismissed -- they also contributed one song each, to go with three by Henderson. But now you can't help but focus on his tenor sax -- the Penguin Guide line is that he always sounds like he's in the middle of a great solo -- an this is certainly a good example. But I also have to admit I'm also digging Larry Willis' funky electric piano. A- [sp] Freddie Hubbard: On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco (1967 [2025], Resonance, 2CD): Trumpet player (1938-2008), opened with a bang on Blue Note in 1960 and was everywhere doing everything with everyone for a few years, although nothing in my database I especially like between Blue Spirits (1965) and Red Clay (1970). Quintet here with Bennie Maupin (tenor sax), Kenny Barron (piano), Herbie Lewis (bass), and Freddie Waits (drums). While this is nice enough, and I'm always up for long takes of "Summertime" and "Bye Bye Blackbird," nothing here really turned my head. B+(**) [cd] Rob Mazurek: Alternate Moon Cycles [IA11 Edition] (2012 [2025], International Anthem): Cornet player, started c. 1995, early on mostly for his Chicago Underground groups, later for larger groups like Exploding Star Orchestra. This came out as the label's first LP in 2014 (2 tracks, 30:45), the digital reissue adding a 20:13 bonus track. Trio with Matt Lux (electric bass) and Mikel Patrick Avery (organ). Ambient. B+(**) [sp] Mac Miller: Balloonerism (2014 [2025], REMember Music/Warner): Rapper Malcolm McCormick (1992-2018), seventh album, second posthumous release, As with 2018's Circles, seems better dead than alive. B+(***) [sp] Art Pepper: Geneva 1980 (1980 [2025], Omnivore): Alto saxophonist, spent much of his prime years in jail, but made classic albums when he was out in 1956 and 1960, and finally got back on track around 1975 -- an album called Living Legend -- and went on to record a huge amount of extraordinary jazz up to his death (at 56) in 1982: The Complete Galaxy Recordings is a 16-CD box which chock full of delights, a bounty more than matched by the steady stream of live shots from those years. This adds 10 tracks, 126 minutes, of previously unreleased material from his first tour of Europe, with his regular touring quartet: Milcho Leviev (piano), Tony Dumas (bass), and Carl Burnett (drums). He is terrific, as usual, mostly playing his originals, with only minor reservations for sound, the less inspired band, and the fact that there is so much similar material already available -- or maybe just that I only played it once. B+(***) [sp] Old music: Nat Birchall Unity Ensemble: Spiritual Progressions (2021 [2022], Ancient Archive of Sound): Tenor saxophonist, from Manchester, plays "spiritual jazz," where the spirit was embodied by John Coltrane, but extends all the way back to Africa. First group album, a quintet with Adam Fairhall (piano), Michael Bardon (bass), Paul Hession (drums), and Lascelle Gordon (percussion), where Birchall is also credited with wood flutes, singing bowls, mbira, balaphon, gunibri, and percussion. B+(**) [bc] Nat Birchall: The Infinite (2022 [202]3, Ancient Archive of Sound): One of several solo albums, where he lays down rhythm tracks with keyboards, bass, drums, and percussion, then dubs in his tenor sax (or soprano, or bass clarinet). B+(**) [bc] Nat Birchall: Songs of the Ancestors: Afro Trane Chapter 2 (2023, Ancient Archive of Sound): Solo again, with some organ for piano, a full range of saxophones, and two Coltrane pieces in addition to three by Birchall and one trad. B+(**) [bc] Kenny Dorham: Blues in Bebop (1946-56 [1998], Savoy Jazz): Early sessions from 1946, with one track from Billy Eckstine's big band, more with Sonny Stitt, a few scraps from 1949 (a session with Kenny Clarke and Milt Jackson, plus a couple Royal Roost shots with Charlie Parker) and 1956 (a side-credit with Cecil Payne). Some good work here, but only the Parker cuts turned my head. B+(**) [sp] Kenny Dorham: Jazz Contrasts (1957 [1992], Riverside/OJC): Six tracks, four with Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), who gets a small print "with" down in the corner, and probably a picture in front of a harp (actually played by Betty Glamman on three tracks, including the two with no Rollins). B+(**) [sp] Kenny Dorham: Quiet Kenny (1959 [1986], New Jazz/OJC): Not really a ballad album, but let's say mid-tempo, the trumpet clear and articulate in a quartet with Tommy Flanagan (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Art Taylor (drums). CD adds a nice "Mack the Knife." B+(***) [sp] Kenny Dorham: Jazz Contemporary (1960, Time): Original LP -- trumpet with baritone sax (Charles Davis), piano (Steve Kuhn), bass (Jimmy Garrison or Butch Warren), and drums (Buddy Enlow) -- had six tracks (39:28), but at some point four alternate takes got tacked on (at least by 2000 in Japan). Nice contrast in the horns here. B+(***) [sp] Kenny Dorham: Whistle Stop (1961 [2014], Blue Note): This is closer to the hard bop album I was expecting, with Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Kenny Drew (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums). B+(***) [sp] Grade (or other) changes: The Delines: Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom (2025, Decor): Americana band from Portlant, sixth album since 2014, Amy Boone is the singer but Willy Vlautin, who has a reputation as a novelist (seven since 2006), is the songwriter. Scant reason for excitement here, but the songs have a quiet majesty, especially when the horn arrangements kick in. [was: B+(**)] A- [sp] Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
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