Sunday, January 12, 2025

Music Week

January archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 45431 [45382] rated (+49), 14 [9] unrated (+5).

I published a year-ending Music Week on December 31, or at least that's how I timestamped it. My only coincidentally a New Years resolution was to not publish another until the 20th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll was published. The task of wrapping it up was potentially endless, and I had to focus to get it done. My initial plan was to aim for Monday, January 5, but I was nowhere near ready. That should have been the first Music Week of 2026, but I had virtually no records to report, and couldn't bother even filing a placeholder. I plugged on, eventually aiming for the week of January 12. I circulated drafts of essays on the website, and eventually caught the attention of ArtsFuse editor William Marx. He figured they were good enough to go, and so around noon today I relented, and he published them. I sent him lots of corrections during the day, and he kept up with them. Finally, I updated the website, removing the block that kept people from seeing the results and ballots. I added a table of contents, which I should be able to just cut-and-paste here:

I had planned on beefing up the articles with extra notes from voters and other readers, and indeed published a few. Even before the weekend, I resolved not to hold the essays back until I was satisfied with the comments. Marx agreed that we could add them after publication, and that's my current plan. Ergo, I added this paragraph:

These articles were initially published on January 12, 2026. They are subject to further revision. In particular, we would like to supplement these essays with additional comments that help explain and elaborate on the poll. We welcome additional comments, which you may submit to 25comments @ hullworks.net.

The email address is a temporary one I can kill off once it's served its purpose. Anything that gets to me will work just as well. I wrote some more about what I'm looking for here.

I also made this point in an email I sent out widely:

I plan on doing some more editing, adding some more interesting points, and correcting whatever I screwed up. In particular, I have more Notes to add, and invite everyone to send in more. There's an email address for that purposes, but any route that reaches me should work.

I hope you will read and enjoy what we've collectively created. I also hope you will write or talk about it in your own media. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Francis always viewed this as a community project and service. In this all I've tried to do is to live up to his example.

I throw these pleas out regularly — I made one on Substack over the weekend, called Editing Help Wanted — and very rarely get anything back. I suppose on some level it helps me just to articulate such needs. If I've learned anything from this poll cycle, it's that time marches on inexorably, regardless of our desires or intentions. And that at some point that becomes very depressing.

Anyhow, while the moment of needing editing help has passed — not that my essays couldn't use more editing, but having been published that's not so much my problem any more.

I'm rushing this out tonight so you can get the notice of the poll while it's news. And also so I don't have to work on this, or any other, post for a week or so. This week is not really going to be mine anyway. A construction crew is showing up tomorrow morning to tear the roof off the sucker, and slap a new one on. It's a big job, not so much because the house is huge as because it was designed to make roofing work as inconvenient as possible: most of the roof is two stories up, but there are smaller bits around the sides and there's something like a skirt between the first and second floors. There's also a carport/patio, which has its own unique obstacles. This could very well take the rest of the week, and I'll still have a railing to put up, and work in the attic to do.

But the roofing job has been hanging over us for several months now, so it will be a huge relief to get it done. As is getting the poll done. Not sure what comes next, but I hope it's more interesting and less wearing than 2025 has been. I should refrain from saying much more about the future. And just feel fortunate to have gotten this far.

Lots of records below. Almost all jazz. First part of the period I tried listening to previously reviewed records, so reviewed next to nothing. Then I switched gears and started picking off records I had missed (and the poll has revealed much more I haven't gotten to yet).

New records reviewed this week:

Sophie Agnel: Learning (2023-24 [2025], Otoroku): French pianist, placed three records in the poll this year, started with a solo album in 2000, come up with another here. An especially striking panorama of sound. B+(***) [bc]

Brigitte Beraha's Lucid Dreamers: Teasing Reflections (2024 [2025], Let Me Out): British jazz singer-songwriter, albums since 2002, third group album, with Alcyona Mick (piano/synth), George Crowley (tenor sax/bass clarinet/electronics), and Tim Giles (drums/electronics). As is often the case with originals, I'm slow on the uptake here, but I am impressed by the jazz feel. B+(***) [sp]

Blue Moods: Force & Grace (2024 [2025], Posi-Tone): Mainstream label house band project, third album, each focuses on a composer, this one on Freddie Hubbard, after the first two addressed Charles Mingus and Duke Pearson. With Diego Rivera (tenor/soprano sax), Art Hirahara or Jon Davis (piano), Boris Kozlov (bass), and Vinnie Sperrazza (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Silvia Bolognesi & Eric Mingus: Is That Jazz? Celebrating Gil Scott-Heron Live (2024 [2025], Fonterossa): Italian bassist, has a fairly wide range of projects since 2005. Music by Brian Jackson and Scott-Heron, with Mingus handling the words, punching hard and adding a few of his own. B+(***) [bc]

Silvia Bolognesi: Jungle Duke (2024 [2025], Caligola): Italian bassist, leads a group where Chicago saxophonist Nick Mazzarella is listed as "featuring" through an Ellington program, mostly early pieces from what's sometimes called the "Bubber Miley era," although "Dreaming Suite" incorporates a couple later works ("Ko-Ko," "Such Sweet Thunder"). B+(**) [sp]

Jakob Bro/Wadada Leo Smith/Marilyn Crispell/Andrew Cyrille: The Montclair Session (2022 [2025], Loveland Music): Danish guitarist, 20+ albums since 2003, including 8 on ECM, has been developing relationships with some top players, including this all-star trio on trumpet, piano, and drums. B+(*) [sp]

Jakob Bro/Wadada Leo Smith/Marcus Gilmore: Murasaki (2025, Loveland Music): Guitar/trumpet/drums trio, takes a while for the trumpet to develop, impressive when it does. B+(**) [bc]

Jakob Bro & Midori Takada: Until I Met You (2024 [2025], Loveland Music): Danish guitarist, playing acoustic, with percussion, piano, and marimba. Takada, from Japan, has been around the world, starting in classical with a solo debut in Berlin, moved on to Africa and Indonesia, with a 1983 album "considered an essential recording of minimalist music in chime with the peak period ambient and fourth world musics explored by Jon Hassell, Don Cherry and Brian Eno." B+(**) [sp]

Jakob Bro Large Ensemble: New Morning (2023 [2025], Loveland Music): Eleven-piece group, up from his Nonet in 2007 (added electric bass and keyboards; Bill McHenry took over tenor sax from George Garzone). B+(*) [sp]

Jakob Bro & Joe Lovano with Larry Grenadier, Thomas Morgan, AC, Jorge Rossy & Joey Baron: Live at the Village Vanguard (2023 [2025], Loveland Music): Bro (guitar) and Lovano (tenor sax) recorded a Paul Motian tribute together in 2021. Lovano had played in Motian's trio, along with guitarist Bill Frisell. The tribute album slotted Bro for Frisell, doubled up on drums, and added two double basses plus one bass guitar (AC, aka Anders Christensen). So this is the same band live, reprising/revising most of their originals, working in a couple more Motian pieces. B+(***) [bc]

John Butcher/Phil Durrant/Mark Wastell: Around the Square, Above the Hill (2024, Confront): British avant-saxophonist, prolific since 1989, here with mandolin/electronics and drums, all three having intersected many times over the years. B+(*) [bc]

Caelan Cardello: Chapter One (2025, Jazz Bird): Pianist, from New Jersey, first album only if you over look Rufus Reid Presents Caelan Cardello, trio plus tenor sax (Chris Lewis) on three tracks. B+(**) [sp]

Dena DeRose: Mellow Tones (2024 [2025], HighNote): Jazz singer, plays piano, debut 1998, cover says "with special guest Ed Neumeister," but the trombonist only plays on the first and last tracks, leaving seven trio tracks with bass (Martin Wind) and drums (Matt Wilson). The trombone is, indeed, a plus, but she's always in command. B+(**) [sp]

Erez Dessel: Pro Fake No Reject (2024 [2025], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Young pianist, first album, solo. B+(*) [bc]

Nick Dunston: Reverse Broadcast (2022 [2025], Carrier): Bassist, has several albums, notable side credits with Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Ches Smith, and Anna Webber. One 40:34 piece, with "processed radios" ahead of bass on his credits list, and cover credits for Wet Ink Ensemble, Katherine Young, Charmaine Lee, Nina Guo, Lester St. Louis,and Weston Olencki. Some interesting moments, but not a concept I enjoy. B [bc]

Nick Dunston: Colla Voce: Praylewd (2025, Out of Your Head): "These long-form electronic pieces, crafted from album samples, serve as a non-linear introduction or follow-up to COLLA VOCE, reflecting cyclical themes of time, life, and death." B [bc]

El Infierno Musical: II (2025, Klanggalerie): Austrian saxophonist Christof Kurzmann is listed as composer here, reprising a group originally assembled for a 2011 tribute to Argentinian poet Alejandra Pizarnik. Only Ken Vandermark remains from the 2011 group, joined by Dave Rempis on sax and flute, so Kurzmann's credit is reduced by computer and vocals. Group is rounded out with two cellists (Katinka Kleijn, Lia Kohl) and drums (Lily Finnegan). The saxes are well behaved, the drums wide-ranging, and the spoken word interesting. B+(**) [bc]

Kurt Elling/Christian Sands: Wildflowers Vol. 3 (2025, Big Shoulders): Jazz singer, since his 1995 Blue Note debut probably the most famous and most widely admired male in the arena, but while recognizing his technical mastery, I've never liked his records (and this is number 20 for me). Not that the distinction matters much, but as he's gotten older (58 now), his voice seems to have deepened and slowed down, which makes him seem less pretentious, but not really better. This is his third short album (5 tracks, 28:03) backed by piano: Christian Sands here, after Sullivan Fortner and Joey Calderazzo. B- [sp]

Extraordinary Popular Delusions: The Last Quintet (2023 [2025], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Late, probably the last record recorded by Chicago saxophonist Mars Williams, struck by cancer and dead within three months. Quintet adds a second saxophonist, Edward Wilkerson Jr., plus Jim Baker (piano), Brian Sandstrom (bass), and Steve Hunt (drums), with everyone supplementing their primary credits, including digeridoo (Wilkerson), toys (Williams), and "miscellaneous paraphernalia" (Hunt). Group name goes back to a 2010 quartet (minus Wilkerson, who may have been added for backup, and may have been the lead early, but Williams certainly got his licks in later). Song titles may have come from Kim Stanley Robinson, but the Mars featured here was in the room. A- [bc]

Fred Hersch/Rondi Charleston: Suspended in Time: A Song Cycle (2025, Resilience Music Alliance): Full cover credit is "Music by Fred Hersch/Lyrics by Rondi Charleston." She sings, he plays piano, backed by string quartet and two bassists. B+(*) [sp]

Art Hirahara: Peace Unknown (2021 [2025], Posi-Tone): Pianist, from San Francisco, based in New York, has 20+ albums since 2000, playing (along with Boris Kozlov on bass and Rudy Royston on drums) on nearly everything his label has released since 2020. Here he lines up their headliners: Diego Rivera (tenor sax), Alex Sipiagin (trumpet), Patrick Cornelius (alto sax), and Michael Dease (trombone), with Markus Howell (alto sax) on two tracks. They can sound like a big band, which isn't necessarily a plus. B+(*) [sp]

Johnny Iguana: At Delmark: Chicago-Style Solo Piano (2025, Delmark): Real name Brian Berkowitz, from Philadelphia, moved to New York, then to Chicago in 1994, where he's mostly played in blues bands, and has a previous album called Chicago Spectacular: A Grand and Upright Celebration of Chicago Blues Piano. Opens flexing his fingers on "Bass Key Boogie," then throws you his first change up: "Heart of Gold." Then come five originals, slipping in "You Never Can Tell" and ending with Jay McShann. B+(**) [sp]

Chris Ingham Quintet: Walter/Donald (2025, Downhome): British pianist-singer, has written many reviews and several books (Billie Holiday, Beatles, Frank Sinara), nothing I can find to suggest he's related to Keith Ingham, has previous project records on Hoagy Carmichael and Dudley Moore. This one reprises 11 Steely Dan songs, and is dubbed "A Becker/Fagen Songbook Volume 1." With Harry Greene (sax/guitar), Paul Higgs (trumpet), bass, and drums. B+(*) [bc]

Italian Surf Academy + Denver Butson: Ennio Morricone Is Dissolving (2024 [2025], 41st Parallel): Italian guitarist Marco Cappelli, from Naples, with Damon Banks (bass) and Dave Miller (drums), fourth album since 2012; Cappelli's various projects include an Acoustic Trio, a Derek Bailey Tribute Band, an Extreme Guitar Project, work with Adam Rudolph and Evan Parker. Butson is a Brooklyn-based poet, who recites the title poem, with the group's music weaving bits of Morricone soundtrack into the guitar jam, in one remarkable 28:54 piece. A- [bc]

Martin Küchen/Mathias Landæus: Müæm (2023 [2024], SFÄR): Swedish duo, saxophone (tenor/sopranino) riffing over beats from analog synths and a drum machine, with various effects, minimal preparation, and no overdubs. (Landæus usually plays piano, but not here.) B+(***) [bc]

Mathias Landæus/Nina de Heney/Kresten Osgood: Dissolving Patterns (2023 [2025], SFÄR): Swedish pianist, 24 albums since 1996, trio with bass and drums. B+(**) [bc]

Hanna Paulsberg Concept & Elin Rosseland: Himmel Over Hav (2023 [2025], Grappa): Norwegian tenor saxophonist, fifth group album since 2012, Rosseland a Norwegian singer who started in the 1980s. B+(*) [bc]

Hery Paz: Fisuras (2024 [2025], Porta-Jazz/Carimbo): Cuban saxophonist, based in New York, several albums since 2004, starts with tenor but credit reads "woodwinds, claves & voice), backed by Joao Carlos Pinto (keyboard/electronics), Demian Cabaud (bass/flute/bombo legüero), and Pedro Melo Alves (percussion), recorded live with Maria Monica ("all live visual sorcery"). Very strong in spots. B+(**) [bc]

Marcelo dos Reis/Flora: Our Time (2025, JACC): Portuguese guitarist, more than a dozen albums since 2012, group name refers to one from 2023, same trio here: Miguel Falcão (bass) and Luis Filipe Silva (drums). B+(***) [bc]

Juan Romeros Manuella Orkester: Lua Armonia (2025, Supertraditional): Argentinian-Swedish percussionist, better known as Juan Romero, based in Stockholm, 30+ years of side credits, including Fire! Orchestra and Cosmic Ear recently. Group with sax (Julia Strzalek), trumpet (Goran Kajfes), keyboards, bass, and drums, cuts a subtle groove. B+(**) [sp]

Akira Sakata/Giotis Damianidis/Giovanni Di Domenico/Aleksandr Škorić/Paal Nilssen-Love/Petros Damianidis/Tatsuhisa Yamamoto: Hyperentasis: Live in Thessaloniki (2023-25 [2025], Defkaz): Two albums (91:23), the second recorded on the Japanese alto saxophonist's 80th birthday, both with the Damiandis brothers (guitar and bass), piano (Di Domenico), and drums (Škorić on the first, the others on the second). B+(***) [bc]

Boz Scaggs: Detour (2025, Concord): Singer-songwriter, recorded a 1965 album, appeared in Steve Miller Band (1968), went solo in 1969 and gold in 1974 but the hits faded after 1980. Tried a standards album in 2003 (But Beautiful) and has several now — I liked 2015's A Fool to Care. Doesn't seem to have the voice for these songs, but acquits himself fairly well anyway. B+(**) [sp]

Noura Mint Seymali: Yenbett (2025, Glitterbeat): Singer, plays ardine (some kind of harp), from Mauritania, comes from a long line of Moorish griot, of which her step-mother Dimi Mint Abba is extra famous. B+(***) [bc]

Vinnie Sperrazza/Jacob Sacks/Masa Kamaguchi: Play Elmo Hope (2024 [2025], Fresh Sound): Drums, piano, bass, part of a series of nine albums, starting with Play Cy Coleman in 2013, with the trio going back to 2010. B+(**) [sp]

Kandace Springs: Lady in Satin (2025, SRP): I've never liked Billie Holiday's 1958 album, and have no desire to ever hear it again: I hated the string arrangements, and the singer, whose recent Verve recordings were often still remarkable, sounded like death warmed over. But the album does have admirers, so I was tempted to overreact to this project, but some respect is due. Springs isn't Holiday, but is an impressive singer, and Orquestra Clássica de Espinho is fine as such things go. B+(*) [sp]

Ben Stapp: Uzmic Ro'Samg (Live Solo Tuba) (2025, 577): Tuba player, came to my attention with a 2008 trio album, shows up on occasional records (Steve Swell, Joe Morris, William Parker). Solo records are always tough, especially for monophonic horns, which tend to sound naked without the warm harmonics of a bass, and to lag without the prodding of a drummer, and the heavier instruments are especially slow and hard to maneuver. Still, this is intriguing and entertaining, no matter how you tune in or out. Includes some sousaphone, pedals, and effects. B+(**) [dl]

David Virelles: Igbó Alákorin (The Singer's Grove) III [Theatrical Cut] (2025, El Tivoli Productions): Cuban pianist, moved to Canada in 2001, first album there 2007, later on to New York with records on Pi and ECM. First two volumes of this title were combined on a single CD in 2018, an exploration of old Cuban themes and techniques developed with orchestra and vocals. This is more rudimentary, or perhaps primitive, with solo piano and UDO Super 6 synthesizer, some recorded direct to wax cylinders, introducing a playback sound reminiscent of vintage sound recordings. Or maybe some of this really is old ("a series of rare danzones by Antonio Maria Romeu from the 1910s"). There is also a (Director's Cut) version with lots of extra material. B+(***) [bc]

Gabriel Zucker: Confession (2023 [2025], Boomslang): Pianist, composer, based in New York, has two previous albums on ESP-Disk, also credited with synths, electronics, and voice here. Group includes guitar-bass-drums plus string quartet, but there are also a dozen more guest spots, and I doubt that accounts for all of the voices. He has a remarkable c.v., including his Rhodes scholarship and work "on homeless services and healthcare access at the Department of Veterans Affairs." I've seen him described as a "maximalist," which runs counter to my own instincts, perhaps why I shrugged off his 2018 album with the conclusion, "dramatic, I guess." First play of this didn't fare any better, but second play revealed a profusion of details each interesting alone. As for the whole, it's way over my head. B+(**) [cd]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

3 Concerts Per A A.T.: In Der Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover (1998 [2025], Corbett vs. Dempsey): A collection from a concert series dedicated to Catalan painter Antonio Tàpies, organized by Günter Christmann, whose trio fills the center section, following pieces by Yoshukazu Iwamoto, Evan Parker, and Fred Van hove, and followed by other pieces to Udo Grim, Trevor Wishart, and Pi-Hsien Chen. B+(*) [bc]

Rashied Ali Quintet Featuring Frank Lowe: Sidewalks in Motion (2001 [2025], Survival): Drummer (1933-2009), originally Robert Patterson, most famous for playing on John Coltrane's most avant-garde works (1965-67), played with Lowe (tenor sax) on a notable 1973 duo, Discogs lists 9 Quintet albums 1967-2007 but only regular is Joris Teepe (bass, after 2000). Also here: Jumaane Smith (trumpet), and Andrew Bemke (piano). B+(***) [sp]

Derek Bailey/John Stevens: The Duke of Wellington (1989 [2025], Confront): Guitar (1930-2005) and drums (1940-94) duo, both important in the British avant-garde (Stevens was a founder of Spontaneous Music Ensemble). Like much of Bailey's work, this can be difficult. But I am quite taken with the drums. B+(*) [bc]

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Strasbourg 82 (1982 [2025], Gearbox): Legendary drummer, took over the Jazz Messengers from Horace Silver in 1956, and through 1965 developed a reputation for introducing brilliant new talent. After that the rosters are less notable, at least until the 1977-82, when Bobby Watson, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Donald Harrison, and Terence Blanchard passed through. This particular date with Blanchard (trumpet), Harrison (alto sax), Billy Pierce (tenor sax), Johnny O'Neal (piano), and Charles Fambrough (bass) reminds you what hard bop sounded like in the early 1960s. B+(***) [sp]

The Bottle Tapes (1996-2005 [2025], Corbett vs. Dempsey, 6CD): Chicago had a storied avant-jazz scene back in the 1960s, when AACM was founded, but got a second jolt in the 1990s when Ken Vandermark moved in from Boston and started organizing his groups, many drawing on top European free jazz players. From 1996 he and John Corbett organized weekly sets at the Empty Bottle, where a steady stream of Europeans could gig with locals, while being treated like jazz royalty. This collects 41 tracks from their tapes, including a couple pieces that run quite long — Peter Brötzmann for 41:16; Alexander Schlippenbach with Evan Parker, Paul Lytton, and Conrad Bauer for 55:01 — some short, most in the 10-23 minute range. Solo pieces include pianists Misha Mengelberg and Irène Schweizer, clarinetists François Houle and André Jaume, and drummer Milford Graves. Remarkable stuff, especially the hard-hitting saxes. There must be tons more where this came from. A- [dl]

Kenny Burrell With Art Blakey: On View at the Five Spot Café: The Complete Masters (1959 [2025], Blue Note): Guitarist, started recording in 1956, many albums up to 2016, live album originally appeared in 1960 with five tracks, with piano (Bobby Timmons or Roland Hanna), bass (Ben Tucker), drums (Blakey), and some fine tenor sax (Tina Brooks), which later reissues have diluted (7 tracks here, out of 14). B+(**) [sp]

Jacques Coursil: Black Suite (1969 [2025], BYG): French trumpet player (1938-2020), parents from Martinique, had a very interesting life, where he entered traveled around Maruitania and Senegal from 1958 (befriending Leopold Senghor), moved back to Paris, then to New York in 1965 (where he played with Sun Ra, Sunny Murray, and Frank Wright). Back in Paris he recorded this haunting suite with Arthur Jones (alto sax), Anthony Braxton (contrabass clarinet), Burton Greene (piano), Bob Guérin (bass), and Claude Delcloo (drums). He dropped out of music, taught for 30 years, then picked it up again. B+(***) [sp]

Miles Davis: The Musings of Miles (1955 [2025], Craft): Quartet with Red Garland (piano), Oscar Pettiford (bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums), his first 12-inch LP (6 songs, 35:46) after several 10-inch albums. Somehow escaped my attention, unless it got swept up in the many compilations of his Prestige sessions. Two originals, three standards, "A Night in Tunisia." Nothing really stands out, other than hints of potential. [PS: I do have the 8-CD Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings, long ago deemed a B+. That box includes the 4 much better LPs this group plus John Coltrane recorded in 1956 to work off their contract and move on to Columbia.] B+(**) [sp]

Yusef Lateef: Golden Flower: Live in Sweden (1967-72 [2025], Elemental Music): Tenor saxophonist (1920-2013), was named Bill Evans before he converted to Islam and changed his name, around 1950. First records in 1957, became increasingly interested in African and Oriental music, playing a lot of flute, including many exotic variants. Two sets, the first with Lars Sjösten (piano), Palle Danielsson (bass), and Albert "Tootie" Heath (drums); the second with Kenny Barron (piano), Bob Cunningham (bass), and Heath again. I love the high-powered sax romps. Flute not so much. B+(***) [sp]

Spiritual Jazz 18: Behind the Iron Curtain: Esoteric, Modal, and Progressive Jazz From Central and Eastern Europe (1962-1988) (1962-88 [2025], Jazzman): Well into an anthology series that started in 2008, with Spiritual Jazz: Esoteric, Modal and Deep Jazz From the Underground 1968-77, which collected 12 tracks from artists only a few I had barely heard of (Lloyd Miller, Mor Thiam, Salah Ragab, Ronnie Boykins). I expected this bunch to be even more obscure, but Krzysztof Komeda, Tomasz Stanko, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Ernst-Ludwig Petrovsky, and ringer Bernt Rosengren are pretty major figures. I've never quite understood what "spiritual jazz" means, other than "sounds like Coltrane," which is a pretty surefire prescription. B+(***) [sp]

Old music:

Jacques Coursil Unit: Way Ahead (1969, BYG): Recorded a month after Black Suite, minus Anthony Braxton, so a quartet with alto sax (Arthur Jones), bass (Bob Guérin), and drums (Claude Delcloo). Some fine trumpet. B+(**) [yt]

Italian Surf Academy: Barbarella Reloaded (2017, Mode Avant): Italian guitarist Marco Cappelli's avant surf rock fusion group, second album, inspired by the movie or possibly the comic book, with JD Foster on toy keyboards, Luca Lo Bianco on bass guitar, and Francesco Cusa on drums. [No recording date on this album, but probably recorded earlier.] B+(*) [sp]

Italian Surf Academy: Fake Worlds (2016 [2022], 41st Parallel): Guitarist Marco Cappelli's avant-surf-fusion trio, with Damon Banks (bass) and Dave Miller (drums), described as later than Barbarella Reloaded although the latter wasn't released until after this was recorded. Front cover bills this with three categories: Spaghetti Western, Tex Mex, Exotica (with the doc connecting Ennio Morricone to Martin Denny). B+(**) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Eddie Allen's Push: Rhythm People (Origin) [01-16]
  • Michael Dease With the MSU Jazz Trombones: Spartan Strong (Origin) [01-16]
  • Gil Livni: All In (OA2) [01-16]
  • Kate Olsen: So It Goes (OA2) [01-16]
  • Paul Ricci: The Path (Origin) [01-16]
  • Mattias Svensson: Embrace (Origin) [01-16]

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