Recent Reading

Music Database

Artist Search:

Browse

Website Search

Google:

Blog Entries [1060 - 1069]

Monday, November 16, 2015

Music: Current count 25787 [25726] rated (+61), 420 [439] unrated (-19).

Several reasons for the huge rated bump this week: one is that I procrastinated in cataloguing the incoming so the week ended Monday afternoon instead of my usual Sunday evening (which also means I've included Monday's mail in the unpacking); I knocked off almost all of the records listed below in a single play (which actually includes the week's two A- picks); about 20 of the records were streamed -- less than half, but they tend to go quick; finally, I noticed a record ungraded in the database that I was pretty sure I had heard, so I made a quick check of all the ungraded post-2000 jazz and that bumped the rated count up from 47 to 61.

I'd guess that probably close to ten records got a second play: Bathysphere, John Dikeman, Giovanni Di Domenico, Ingrid Laubrock, at least one of the Martin Küchens, Jack Mouse, Statik Selektah, both old and posthumous Sun Ra, John Carter (even though it's 2CD), Thank Your Lucky Stars. Still, the only one that came close to an A- was the Beach House, but I didn't feel like spending the extra time, especially after Depression Cherry (and Bloom and Teen Dream) had left so little mark.

The Arab rap anthology (Khat Thaleth) was recommended by Bob Christgau just in time for the massive outpouring of anti-Arab vitriol that followed the terror attacks in Paris (and Beirut, but who's counting?). Even without downloading the trots, it's pretty obvious that these Arabs are not those Arabs. It comes as a unique item, although it probably isn't.

The Errol Garner reissue raises the question of redundancy, as you get two takes of the concert: one complete spread out on 2CD, the other as originally edited (plus one of those interviews that are interesting the first time around but unnecessary after that). Still, I had the old 1987 CD reissue at A-, and most of the cuts that the complete edition adds are every bit as good. Also, I'm relieved to point out that the whole 3CD package only costs $12.89 (at Amazon, although if you want vinyl the price jumps to $39.36). By the way, the original CD is still in print, down at $4.99. One downside is that the CD package is irregularly sized, so most likely it won't fit on your shelf.

I should also note that I was a little surprised to look back in my database and not find any other A- albums by Garner. In fact there are only three other entries: two B (Long Ago and Far Away and The Original Misty), one B+ (Easy to Love [The Erroll Garner Collection Vol. 1]). But Penguin Guide also only credits Garner with one 4-star album, no surprise given their predilection for solo piano: Solo Time! [The Erroll Garner Collection Vols. 4/5] (although they tabbed Concert by the Sea, with 3.5 stars, as a "core collection" album). Seems like there should be more because was such a distinctive stylist.

I had a few more things I wanted to write about this week. Let me just briefly mention one: Tim Niland's book, Music and More: Selected Blog Posts 2003-2015. My copy arrived and it looks terrific (although the perfect binding has developed a small bubble). Tons of reviews, an ongoing chronicle of twelve of the most productive years in jazz history. I do have a couple of quibbles: there is no table of contents or index, so it's going to be hard to find any particular review; for that matter, it doesn't even have page numbers, which should have been pretty easy to set up. I imagine the search function will help out here with the Kindle edition, if you're into that platform. Still, I'm very pleased to own a print copy. I'm adding the book cover to my book roll.

I also wanted to note that I've been working on my soon-to-be-obsolete Music Tracking File. I finally implemented the genre switches, and I've been scraping more sources for data: at this point I've added virtually every 2015 jazz record reviewed by Free Jazz Collective, and I've worked my way back to August in All About Jazz, resulting in a list of 1044 jazz releases this year (I've reviewed or at least own 540 of them). My coverage of other genres is much spottier, but currently adds up to 2748 records. The list will eventually give way to an EOY aggregate list, but meanwhile helps me sort out what I need (or would like to) listen to.

New records rated this week:

• The 14 Jazz Orchestra: Nothing Hard Is Ever Easy (2015 [2016], self-released): [cd]: B
• Bathysphere: Bathysphere (2015, Driff): [cd]: B+(**)
• Beach House: Depression Cherry (2015, Sub Pop): [r]: B+(*)
• Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars (2015, Sub Pop): [r]: B+(***)
• Beach Slang: The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us (2015, Polyvinyl): [r]: B
• Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap: The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern (Columbia): [r]: B+(*)
• Randy Bernsen: Grace Notes (2015, Jericho Jams): [cd]: B
• Bizingas: Eggs Up High (2015, NCM East): [cd]: B+(**)
• Björk: Vulnicura (2015, One Little Indian): [r]: B-
• Bobby Bradford-Frode Gjerstad Quartet: The Delaware River (2014 [2015], NoBusiness): [cdr]: B+(**)
• Leon Bridges: Coming Home (2015, Columbia): [r]: B+(*)
• Dani Comas: Epokhé (2014 [2015], UnderPool): [cd]: B+(**)
• Guy Davis: Kokomo Kidd (2015, M.C.): [r]: B+(*)
• Giovanni Di Domenico/Peter Jacquemyn/Chris Corsano: A Little Off the Top (2013 [2015], NoBusiness): [cdr]: B+(***)
• John Dikeman/William Parker/Hamid Drake: Live at La Resistenza (2014 [2015], El Negocito): [cd]: B+(***)
• Carlos Falanga: Gran Coral (2014 [2015], UnderPool): [cd]: B+(**)
• Amina Figarova: Blue Whisper (2015, In + Out): [cd]: B
• Clare Fischer: Out of the Blue (2015, Clavo): [cd]: B+(*)
• Tigran Hamasyan: Luys I Luso (2014 [2015], ECM): [dl]: B-
• Aaron Irwin Quartet: A Room Forever (2015, self-released): [cd]: B+(*)
• Khat Thaleth [Third Line]: Initiative for the Elevation of Public Awareness (2013, Stronghold Sound): [r]: A-
• Martin Küchen/Johan Berthling/Steve Noble: Night in Europe (2014 [2015], NoBusiness): [cd]: B+(***)
• Martin Küchen/Jon Rune Strøm/Tollef Østvang: Melted Snow (2014 [2015], NoBusiness): [cdr]: B+(***)
• Nancy Lane: Let Me Love You (2015, self-released): [cd]: B+(***)
• Adam Larson: Selective Amnesia (2015, Inner Circle Music): [cd]: B+(*)
• Ingrid Laubrock: Ubatuba (2014 [2015], Firehouse 12): [cd]: B+(**)
• Daniel Levin/Rob Brown: Divergent Paths (2012 [2015], Cipsela): [cd]: B+(*)
• John Lindberg/Anil Eraslan: Juggling Kukla (2011 [2015], NoBusiness): [cdr]: B+(**)
• Luis Lopes/Jean-Luc Guionnet: Live at Culturgest (2011 [2015], Clean Feed): [r]: B-
• Roy McGrath Quartet: Martha (2014 [2015], JL Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Kristine Mills: Bossa Too (2015, InkWell Publishing): [cd]: B
• Jack Mouse & Scott Robinson with Janice Borla: Three Story Sandbox (2015 [2016], Tall Grass): [cd]: B+(*)
• Roots Manuva: Bleeds (2015, Big Dada): [r]: B
• Herb Silverstein: Younger Next Year (2015, self-released): [cd]: B
• Spanglish Fly: New York Boogaloo (2015, Caco World Music): [r]: B+(*)
• Chris Stapleton: Traveller (2015, Mercury Nashville): [r]: B+(*)
• Statik Selektah: Lucky 7 (2015, Showoff/Duck Down Music): [r]: B+(**)
• Ike Sturm + Evergreen: Shelter of Trees (2014 [2015], Kilde): [cd]: B-
• Sun Ra Arkestra Under the Direction of Marshall Allen: Babylon Live (2014 [2015], In+Out): [r]: B+(**)
• Survival Unit III: Game Theory (2010 [2013], Not Two): [r]: B+(**)
• Survival Unit III: Straylight (2014 [2015], Pink Palace): [bc]: B+(***)
• U.S. Girls: Half Free (2015, 4AD): [r]: B
• Manuel Valera & Groove Square: Urban Landscape (2015, Destiny): B+(**)
• Doug Webb: Triple Play (2014 [2015], Posi-Tone): [r]: B-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• John Carter: Echoes From Rudolph's (1976-77 [2015], NoBusiness, 2CD): [cd]: B+(**)
• Hamid Drake/Michael Zerang: For Ed Blackwell (1995 [2015], Pink Palace): [bc]: B+(***)
• Free Jazz Group Wiesbaden: Frictions/Frictions Now (1969-71 [2015], NoBusiness): [cd]: B+(***)
• Erroll Garner: The Complete Concert by the Sea (1955 [2015], Columbia/Legacy, 3CD): [cd]: A-
• Sun Ra: The Magic City (1965 [2015], Enterplanetary Koncepts): [r]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

• Guy Davis: Juba Dance (2013, M.C.): [r]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Juhani Aaltonen & Iro Haarla: Kirkastus (TUM)
• Tom Collier: Across the Bridge (Origin): November 20
• Bram De Looze: Septych (Clean Feed)
• Kaja Draksler/Susana Santos Silva: This Love (Clean Feed)
• Erik Friedlander: Oscalypso: Tribute to Oscar Pettiford (Skipstone)
• David Friesen & Glen Moore: Bactrian (Origin): November 20
• Jacob Garchik: Ye Olde (Yestereve)
• Miho Hazama: Time River (Sunnyside)
• Heroes Are Gang Leaders: The Avant Age Garde I AMs of the Gal Luxury (Flat Langton's Arkeyes)
• Florian Hoefner: Luminosity (Origin): advance, January 15
• Will Holshouser/Matt Munisteri/Marcus Rojas: Introducing Musette Explosion (Aviary)
• Per Texas Johansson: De Långa Rulltrapporna I Flemingsberg (Moserobie)
• George Lewis: The George Lewis Solo Trombone Album (1976, Delmark/Sackville)
• Luis Lopes/Jean-Luc Guionnet: Live at Culturgest (Clean Feed)
• Mundell Lowe/Lloyd Wells/Jim Ferguson: Poor Butterfly (Two Helpins' of Collards)
• Tobias Meinhart: Natural Perception (Enja/Yellowbird)
• Charles Rumback: In the New Year (Ears & Eyes): December 4
• Richard Sears Trio: Skyline (Fresh Sound New Talent)
• Wadada Leo Smith & John Lindberg: Celestial Weather (TUM)
• Mike Sopko/Bill Laswell/Thomas Pridgen: Sopko Laswell Pridgen (self-released)
• Svenska Kaputt: Suomi (Moserobie)
• Curt Sydnor: Materials and Their Destiny (Ears & Eyes)
• The People Having a Meeting (Black & Grey/Fast Speaking Music)
• Torbjörn Zetterberg & Den Stora Frågan: Om Liv Död (Moserobie)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

It's been a good week for warmongering anti-Islamist bigots, what with the Kurdish "liberation" of ISIS-held Sinjar, the ISIS-blamed bombing of a Russian airliner, the drone-murder of reality TV star "Jihadi John," and ISIS-linked murderous assault in Paris on the innocent fans of a band called Eagles of Death Metal. Ann Coulter was so thrilled she tweeted that America just elected Donald Trump as its next president. Shell-shocked post-Benghazi! Democrats were quick to denounce it all as terrorism, using the precise words of the Republican thought police. Someone even proposed changing the Freedom Fries to "French Fries" in solidarity. French president François Hollande declared that the Paris attacks meant war, momentarily forgetting that he had already started the same war when France joined the anti-ISIS bombing party in Syria. He and other decried this "attack on western civilization." Gandhi could not be reached, but he's probably sticking to his line that western civilization would be a good idea.

I'll return to this subject below, but the main point to make up here is that this is above all a time to keep your cool. In fact, take a couple steps back and try to recover some of the cool we've lost ever since demonizing ISIS became so ubiquitous nobody gives it a second thought. I have no wish to defend them, but I will point out that what they're accused of is stuff that virtually all armies have done throughout history. Also that they exist because governments in Damascus and Baghdad became so violently oppressive that millions of people (who in normal times want peace and prosperity as much as everyone else does) became so desperate as to see them as the lesser evil. No doubt ISIS can be brutal to those under their thumb, but ISIS could not exist without some substantial measure of public support, and that means two things: one is that to kill off ISIS you'd have to kill an awful lot of people, revealing yourself to be an even more brutal monster; the other is that you can't end this by simply restoring the old Damascus and Baghdad powers, because they will inevitably revert to type. Yet who on the US political spectrum has a plan to do anything different?

Before this flare up I had something more important I wanted to write about: inequality. Admittedly, war is more urgent: it has a way of immediately crowding out all other problems. But the solution is also much simpler: just don't do it. All you need to know about war has been said many times, notably by people like A.J. Muste and David Dellinger. It might be argued that inequality is the root of war, or conversely that equitable societies would never have any reason to wage war. The ancient justification for war was always loot. And while we've managed to think of higher, more abstract and idealized concepts for justifying war, there's still an awful lot of looting going on. In America, we call that business.

The piece I've been thinking about is a Bloomberg editorial that appeared in the Wichita Eagle: Ramesh Ponnuru: Is income inequality a big deal? He starts:

We conservatives tend to get less worked up about economic inequality than liberals do, and I think we're right about that.

We should want most people, and especially poor people, to be able to get ahead in absolute terms. We should want to live in a society with a reasonable degree of mobility rather than one where people are born into relative economic positions they can never leave.

But so long as those conditions are met, the ratio of the incomes of the top 1 percent to the median worker should be fairly low on our list of concerns; and if those conditions aren't met, we should worry about our failure to meet them rather than their effects on inequality.

If you take "worked up" in the sense of bothered, sure, but if you mean concerned, his disclaimer is less true. The bare fact is that virtually every principle and proposal conservatives hold dear is designed to increase inequality. Cutting taxes allows the rich to keep more income and concentrate wealth, lifting them up further. Cutting food stamps and other "entitlements" pushes the poor down, also increasing inequality. Maybe desperation will nudge some people off welfare into low wage jobs, further depressing the labor market and allowing savvy businessmen to reap more profits. Of course, making it harder for workers to join unions works both ways -- lower wages, higher profits -- and conservatives are in the forefront there. They're also in favor of deregulating business -- never deny the private sector an opportunity to reap greater profits from little things like pollution or fraud. They back "free trade" agreements, designed mostly to protect patent (property) owners and let businesses expand into more profitable markets overseas, at the minor cost of outsourcing American jobs -- actually a double plus as that outsourcing depresses the labor market, meaning lower wages and higher profits. Sandbagging public education advantages those who can afford private schools. Saddling working class upstarts with college debt helps keep the children of the rich ahead. And the list goes on and on. Maybe you can come up with some conservative hot list items that don't drop straight to the bottom line (abortion? guns? drug prohibition? gambling? war? -- one could argue that all of those hurt the working class more than the rich, but I doubt that's really the point). Still, you won't find any conservative proposals to counter inequality.

From time immemorial the very purpose of conservatism has been to defend the rulers against the masses. From time to time that's required some adjustments to conservative thinking: in America at least, cons no longer defend the prerogatives of kings and titled aristocracy (not that they have any problems with the Saudis or Hashemites, or nearly any tin-pot dictator who lets their companies profit); and they've given up on slavery (and the most overt expressions of racism), but still can't stand the idea of unions, and they never have trusted democracy. For a while they liked the idea that America offered a chance for equal opportunity (without guaranteeing equal results), an idea Ponnuru is still fond of, not that he'd actually cross any of his betters by suggesting we do something about it. For one thing they'd probably point out that equal opportunity is how we wound up with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, whereas the worst you'd have to put up with in a closed oligarchy is someone like Jeb Bush (or, pick your poison, Donald Trump).

Ponnuru refers to an article by George Packer: The Republican Class War, probably because the article starts off a "reformocon" conference organized by Ponnuru's wife April (high among the Republican Party's "family values" is nepotism). The reformocons have a book full of policy proposals that allegedly help the middle if not the lower class, but none of the things Packer mentions looks promising. Ponnuru cites a study on opportunity mentioned by Packer then dismisses it with another study on something else. He continues:

When he moved to macroeconomics, Packer was on even shakier ground: "Inequality saps the economy by draining the buying power of Americans whose incomes have stagnated, forcing them to rely on debt to fund education, housing, and health care. At the top, it creates deep pools of wealth that have nowhere productive to go, leading to asset bubbles in capital markets bearing little or no relation to the health of the overall economy. (Critics call this the "financialization" of the economy.) These fallouts from inequality were among the causes of the Great Recession."

Saying that "inequality" has caused income stagnation is question-begging. If most Americans are experiencing stagnant incomes, that would cause difficulties regardless of how the top 1 percent is doing. In the 1980s and 1990s, though, income growth for most people coincided with rising inequality. And the theory that inequality leads to financial crises has a weak evidentiary basis.

Uh, 1907? 1929? 2008? That's a pretty strong series. Maybe some lesser recessions don't correlate so well: 1979-81 was induced by the Fed's anti-inflation hysteria, so the recovery was unusual as well. Income stagnation also started with the early 1980s recession, as did the first major tax cuts for the rich, although even larger sources of inequality that decade were trade deficits (resulting in a major sell-off of assets to foreign investors) and real estate fraud (bankrupting the S&L industry, resulting in a recession). In the 1990s the main sources of inequality were the massive bid-up of the stock market and a loosening of bank regulations, and they too led to a recession in 2001. The labor market did tigheten up enough in the late 1990s for real wages to rise a bit, but that was wiped out in the following recession, and the "Bush recovery" was the worst to date at generating new jobs, as it was fueled almost exclusively by debt and fraud.

Packer finally splits from the reformocons, and Ponnuru's reaction is basically a hand wave.

"The reformocons, for all their creativity and eloquence, don't grasp the nature of the world in which their cherished middle-class Americans actually live," Packer said. "They can't face its heartlessness."

I don't mean to sound heartless myself when I say that no sensible policy agenda is going to protect all towns and industries from the effects of global competition and technological change. But most members of the vast American middle class aren't looking for work in the steel mills or wishing they could be.

Ponnuru may not relish it, but being heartless is part of what it takes to be a conservative these days. So is being a devious little prevaricator. Let me close this section with a couple paragraphs from Packer (starting with the one on macro that Ponnuru thinks he disproved, because it's so very succinctly stated):

Inequality saps the economy by draining the buying power of Americans whose incomes have stagnated, forcing them to rely on debt to fund education, housing, and health care. At the top, it creates deep pools of wealth that have nowhere productive to go, leading to asset bubbles in capital markets bearing little or no relation to the health of the over-all economy. (Critics call this the "financialization" of the economy.) These fallouts from inequality were among the causes of the Great Recession.Inequality is also warping America's political system. Greatly concentrated wealth leads to outsized political power in the hands of the few -- even in a democracy with free and fair elections -- which pushes government to create rules that favor the rich. It's no accident that we're in the era of Citizens United. Such rulings give ordinary Americans the strong suspicion that the game is rigged. Democratic institutions no longer feel legitimate when they continue to produce blatantly unfair outcomes; it's one of those insights that only an élite could miss. And it's backed up by evidence as well as by common sense. Last year, two political scientists found that, in recent times, policy ideas have rarely been adopted by the U.S. government unless they're favored by corporations and the wealthy -- even when those ideas are supported by most Americans. The persistence of the highly unpopular carried-interest loophole for hedge-fund managers is simply the most unseemly example.

Some scattered links this week:

• Dan Sanchez: On Veterans Day, Who Should Thank Whom?:

  Randolph Bourne famously wrote, "War is the health of the State." By that he meant that foreign wars nourish domestic tyranny because they place people into a siege mentality that makes them more apt to give up their freedoms for the sake of the war effort. And indeed, the American national security state, from militarized cops to domestic spying, has metastasized under the cover of the War on Terror.

  So, no, the activity of U.S. soldiers has not secured our freedoms, but eroded them. More specifically, contrary to the common argument discussed above, the troops are not busy protecting freedom of speech for all Americans, including those who are anti-war. Rather, by contributing to foreign wars, they make it more likely that someday the country's siege mentality will get so bad that speech (especially anti-war speech) will be restricted.

  Since foreign wars are inimical to domestic freedom, it is those who strenuously oppose war who are actually fighting for freedom. If not for opponents and skeptics of war, we would have even more war than we do. And in that case, individual freedoms would have been even more infringed upon.

  I grew up visiting houses that had pictures of young men in uniform on their shelves and mantles, mostly from WWII, some from Korea. My grandfather went to Europe for the Great War: I don't recall any photos but he came back with a couple ribbons and medals. Some relatives posted a couple of those photos on Facebook, and I found them touching -- not so much that I thought they did anything worthwhile as because they were just ordinary Americans who happened to get caught up in America's last popular war. On the other hand, we had no such photos in my house, not because my father didn't get drafted into the war but because he considered the experience so pointless. That probably contributed to my skepticism about the army, but Vietnam sealed my opposition. Ever since my opposition to war has only grown. I know a handful of people who went to Iraq, and I have nothing to say to them: I can't thank them because they did nothing worthwhile, and I can't apologize to them because I did everything I reasonably could to keep them from going. So for me all Veteran's Day does is remind me of old (and in many cases now dead) men, who thankfully survived the holocaust and returned to live relatively normal lives -- no one in my family perished in that war -- something I can't say for the atrocities that came later. The only heroes from those wars are the people who opposed them.

• David Atkins: The Morning After Paris: What Do We Do Now?: A generally thoughtful piece, although sometimes he thinks himself into odd positions, especially when he tries to counter straw puppets from the left, but this bit of equivalence with the right resonates:

  Ultimately, what drives both domestic jingoist conservatism and ISIL's brand of extremism is a commitment to violent aggression beyond its own borders, a weird fetishization of guns and gun violence, a misogynistic hatred of sexual freedom for women and non-traditional relationships of all kind, and a deep commitment to conservative religious fundamentalism and patriarchal gerontocracy as the organizational structures of society.

  Earlier he wrote:

  The immediate reaction from many on the left is to simply blame the problem on blowback, insisting that if Western powers simply stopped trying to exert influence on the Middle East, terrorism would not reach Western shores. Many liberals further argue that the social problems in most middle eastern countries suffering from extremist violence are the direct result of a history of imperialism and colonialism.

  These are thornier arguments to dismiss, not only because they contain a great deal of truth, but also because unlike conservative claims that are testable and false, the blowback argument is unfalsifiable.

  He also charges liberals with "special pleading," which he tries to disprove by comparing the CIA coups in Iran and Chile, noting that the latter "has not led to decades of Chilean anti-American terrorism." He doesn't bother adding that even after Pinochet fell the US didn't impose sanctions on Chile, or shoot down Chilean air liners, or blow up Chilean oil rigs -- clear instances of American belligerence, some of which if done by anyone else would meet our definition of terrorism. Nor does he admit that there's not much if any case that Iran has actually committed any acts of anti-American terror. Anti-American sentiment? Sure, but that's not unknown in Chile either. But these are minor quibbles, and clearly the effects of colonialism, imperialism, and cronyism on the Middle East are more layered and more complex than this caricature. (Also note that "blowback" isn't always so indirect: when the US armed the Afghan mujahideen and Hekmatyar and Bin Laden later turned on the US, that wasn't "unfalsifiable.") Atkins carries his confusion forward:

  One could step back and remove all Western influence from the region, both in Syria and in Iraq. One could simply let the Shi'ites, Kurds, Syrian Assad loyalists and Syrian anti-Assad moderates (if any exist) battle it out themselves and hope that some combination of the above emerges victorious, trying not to draw any of their ire and taking in as many refugees from the war-ravaged conflict zones as possible. But it's highly unlikely that the attacks against the West would stop, it's likely that their propaganda would be increasingly successful at radicalizing young men in the West, and it's certainly true that populations across Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East would be greatly harmed by allowing ISIL to expand. Even if America and its allies immediately abandoned all conflict in the Middle East, terrorism would likely continue -- and even 30 years from now the Glenn Greenwalds of the world would still say any such attacks were just so much blowback. Those outcomes and that ideology are not acceptable at a moral or a practical level.

  Atkins' conjecture here (and it's really nothing more) -- that Islamic groups will continue to commit acts of terror in the West even if the US and its allies cease all provocations -- is unfalsifiable as well, because it's not going to be tested: US business has too much money at stake to back away, and US military power has too much ego at stake to back down. (One might imagine a political challenge to the latter, but it's hard to see where it might come from: clearly not Clinton, and even nominal critics of US war policy Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul are pretty compromised.) But one reason to doubt Atkins is that no less an authority than Bin Laden has stated that if the provocations cease, so will the attacks in the West. I'm not sure that the anonymous intellects behind ISIS have thought this through so rigorously, but Atkins seems to have bought the whole party line on their inhumanity -- "an active group of murderous, barbaric theocratic cutthroats who adore violence, desire and rape women as a matter of official policy, desecrate and destroy monuments that have stood for thousands of years, and seek to establish a regional and global caliphate with the goal of a final battle against the Great Satan" -- a definition that is far outside the bounds of any group in the history (and not just of Islam). It clearly serves the interest of Americans who want to escalate the war against ISIS to inflate such visions of evil, and I fear Atkins' repetition of these claims just helps them out.

  My own prescription for what the US should be doing is straightforward:

  1. We should eschew the use of force to settle any and all disputes in the region (or anywhere else, really, but let's focus here on the Middle East). Consequently, we should negotiate a multilateral arms embargo for the entire region (including Egypt, Israel, the Arabian peninsula, Iran, and Turkey), and we should move toward this unilaterally as long as doing so doesn't create a vacuum to be filled with other arms suppliers.
  2. We should promote and facilitate negotiations aimed at resolving all conflicts and protecting minority and individual human rights in accordance with well-established international standards (like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).
  3. We should negotiate an international treaty which establishes a new human right: to exile, which allows anyone jailed or otherwise endangered anywhere to appeal to be granted asylum elsewhere.
  4. We should be willing to grant amnesty to anyone (including ISIS) that agrees to participate in peaceable democratic conflict resolution. We should recognize that disarmament is a goal of this process, not a prerequisite.
  5. We should back up these diplomatic appeals with economic aid. Conversely, any nations that persist in using violence against their own people and/or exporting violence abroad should be ostracized with economic sanctions. (The BDS campaign against Israel is a start here.)

  How hard can that be to understand? But in today's media heat, who's talking like that?

Some more related ISIS links:

• Why John Kerry and the French president are calling ISIS "Daesh": A little history on the ever-shifting arts of naming yourself and your enemies. Kerry et al. don't like Islamic State (or IS) because it suggests at least the potential of a single state representing all Muslims, something they want to nip in the bud. So they've come up with something meaningless and slightly exotic, DAESH (or Daesh) derived from the transliterated Arabic initials (like Hamas). Still, ISIS makes more sense to the rest of us, since it spatially delimits the Islamic State within Iraq and Syria (actually more accurate than the broader al-Sham they used to use, which got translated as Levant). My takeaway is to use ISIS, since I think it is very important to understand that their rump state is an artifact of the lost control of the governments in Damascus and Baghdad. On the other hand, I'm not sure that the aspiring but still pre-state groups in Libya, Yemen, etc., are all that linked with ISIS. Still, Islamic State is clearly a concept (and increasingly a brand name) that resonates with a good many people outside Syria and Iraq. That matters mostly because it means that even if the West smashes (or as Sarkozy put it "exterminates") ISIS the concept will continue to inspire terror groups indefinitely. Obama probably understood this when he talked about "containing and degrading" ISIS -- words that now test as namby-pamby (compared to defeat and exterminate).

• DR Tucker: And That's the Way It Is: Live-Blogging the CBS Democratic Debate: Bad timing, the evening after the Paris attacks. And, no big surprise, the Democrats all vow to wage war:

  In his opening statement, Sanders condemns the attacks and vows to "rid this planet of ISIS" as president, before decrying income inequality, the broken campaign finance system, and calling for a political revolution. Clinton says prayers are not enough for Paris; we need resolve to bring the world together to combat jihadist radicals. Clinton vows to fight terrorism aggressively as president. O'Malley says his heart goes out to the people of France, and says the US must work collaboratively with other nations to thwart terrorism.

  Sanders seems to prefer using Arab proxies in the war against ISIS, calling this a "war for the soul of Islam." He doesn't that if this metaphorical war is fought with real arms, armed warfare will be the only winner. Clinton insists that ISIS "cannot be contained; it must be defeated." She doesn't wonder what an American "victory" might mean for the vanquished, or whether indeed there will be any. David Atkins has a follow-up post to the one quoted above: The Right Will Win if the Left Doesn't Forcefully Confront ISIS. He applauds Hollande and Sanders for "sounding aggressively militaristic in response." The idea is that leftish politicians should deliberately act stupid and malicious in order to save electorates from electing right-wingers who would act stupid and malicious, and in the process really screw everything up. In the debate, at least, Sanders was able to scold Clinton, reminding her that her Iraq War vote was profoundly wrong. Atkins wants to squelch that dissent, and Sanders seems willing to throw his career away going along. Indeed, it's reasonable to argue that had the 2003 Iraq War not happened, ISIS would never have come around. On the other hand, it did, and we're here. Still, that doesn't make bowing to a flare-up of war fever right just because it is (for the moment) popular. Saddam Hussein was painted as every bit as evil then as ISIS is now. But it really doesn't matter how evil the enemy is if you can't do anything constructive about it, and we've proven that we can't. One more thing: while Sanders voted against Iraq, he did vote for the post-9/11 Afghanistan War -- in the heat of the moment, you might say. To my mind, that was the real strategic blunder.

• Alissa J Rubin/Anne Barnard: France Strikes ISIS Targets in Syria in Retaliation for Attacks: Hollande, having vowed to be "unforgiving with the barbarians," takes the path with the least mental effort, not to mention conscience, and goes straight after command headquarters in Raqqa. Of course, they wouldn't have been able to react so quickly except that they were already bombing Syria. The article also quotes Nicolas Sarkozy saying, "We need everybody in order to exterminate Daesh." Grammar isn't totally clear there, but the genocide word is.

• Peter Beinart: ISIS Is Not Waging a War Against Western Civilization: Mostly critiques some particularly dumb things Marco Rubio said. Beinart, who has a checkered history of first supporting and then having second thoughts about America's wars in the Middle East -- he wrote one book, The Good Fight: Why Liberals -- and Only Liberals -- Can Win the War on Terror which can be read as why conservatives are clueless, and another The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris. He concludes here that "both morally and strategically, limiting -- and ultimately eliminating -- the Islamic State's nightmarish dominion over millions of human beings justifies war," but he also argues that it's mostly geopolitics and not some clash of civilizations. One thing I will add is that even if you accept Beinart's conclusion that war against ISIS is justified, it doesn't follow that the US is the one that should be fighting that war. Given Beinart's track record, he'll figure that out . . . eventually.

  Beinart's pre-Paris piece is better: The Mindless Logic of Republican Foreign Policy: Sure, it's like shooting sitting ducks. But at least he's still skeptical on Syria:

  The experience of the last 15 years offers little reason to believe that waging a larger war in Syria will make Syria more stable or America more safe. But for most of the GOP presidential contenders, that's irrelevant. It doesn't really matter where American foreign policy leads, as long as America leads.

• Peter Van Buren: Paris: You Don't Want to Read This:

  But I do have this: stop what we have been doing for the last 14 years. It has not worked. There is nothing at all to suggest it ever will work. Whack-a-mole is a game, not a plan. Leave the Middle East alone. Stop creating more failed states. Stop throwing away our freedoms at home on falsehoods. Stop disenfranchising the Muslims who live with us. Understand the war, such as it is, is against a set of ideas -- religious, anti-western, anti-imperialist -- and you cannot bomb an idea. Putting western soldiers on the ground in the MidEast and western planes overhead fans the flames. Vengeance does not and cannot extinguish an idea.

• Chris Floyd: Age of Despair: Reaping the Whirlwind of Western Support for Extremist Violence:

  Without the American crime of aggressive war against Iraq -- which, by the measurements used by Western governments themselves, left more than a million innocent people dead -- there would be no ISIS, no "Al Qaeda in Iraq." Without the Saudi and Western funding and arming of an amalgam of extremist Sunni groups across the Middle East, used as proxies to strike at Iran and its allies, there would be no ISIS. Let's go back further. Without the direct, extensive and deliberate creation by the United States and its Saudi ally of a world-wide movement of armed Sunni extremists during the Carter and Reagan administrations (in order to draw the Soviets into a quagmire in Afghanistan), there would have been no "War on Terror" -- and no terrorist attacks in Paris tonight. [ . . . ]

  I write in despair. Despair of course at the depravity displayed by the murderers of innocents in Paris tonight; but an even deeper despair at the depravity of the egregious murderers who have brought us to this ghastly place in human history: those gilded figures who have strode the halls of power for decades in the high chambers of the West, killing innocent people by the hundreds of thousands, crushing secular opposition to their favored dictators -- and again, again and again -- supporting, funding and arming some of the most virulent sectarians on earth.

• Jason Ditz: Yazidis Burn Muslim Homes in 'Liberated' Iraqi City of Sinjar: What goes around comes around.

  ISIS carried out several bloody attacks against the Yazidis early in their takeover of the region, and labeled the homes of Sinjar's Sunni residents as such, apparently to advise their forces to leave them alone in their various crackdowns. Now, the homes labeled Sunni are a target.

  Sunnis are often the targets of violent recriminations after ISIS loses control of cities and towns, under the presumption that anyone ISIS wasn't persecuting (or at least was persecuting less publicly) must've been secretly collaborating with them.

• Patrick Cockburn: Paris Terror Attacks: No Security Can Stop ISIS -- the Bombers Will Always Get Through, and Paris Attack: ISIS Has Created a New Kind of Warfare.

• Graeme Wood: What ISIS Really Wants: This is evidently the source of the notion that ISIS is obsessed with hastening the apocalypse that Atkins cites in his pieces. I have no way of judging such views, but I am skeptical that there is a single idea and a single motivation behind a group the size of ISIS. I'll also note that there are plenty of Christians who are similarly obsessed with end times, and while we don't often talk about them, some have even had an inordinate amount of influence when it comes to the Middle East. (One I am aware of was David Lloyd George, Britain's Prime Minister who oversaw the Balfour Declaration, which announced Britain's intention to facilitate the return of the Jews to Palestine, as foretold in the Book of Revelations. Another, who's been very vocal on the subject of late, is former GOP presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann.)

• Scott Atran: Mindless terrorists? The truth about Isis is much worse: Another attempt to probe the ISIS mind, this one focusing on the psychological appeal of jihad to young Western Muslims -- the recruiting grounds for attacks like the ones in Paris. One lesson I draw from this is the importance of establishing the perception that the West treats the Muslim world fairly and justly. Another is that the rising racism and bigotry that prevents Muslims from assimilating in the West helps drive them against us.

If I stayed up a few more hours I could collect many more ISIS links, but this will have to be enough for now. I doubt that my main points will change any. And I don't mind the occasional pieces that show you how maniacal ISIS can be. None prove that the US military is the answer.

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, November 9, 2015

Music: Current count 25726 [25691] rated (+35), 439 [439] unrated (-0).

Fall is coming to Wichita several weeks later than usual this year, but we raked up a first bag of leaves yesterday (many more are still on the trees, but no longer green). That got me started thinking about EOY lists. My own lists-in-progress currently show 59 jazz and 42 non-jazz new records on the A-list (reissues/historic music: 6 + 5).

I added eight records to those lists this week. Michael Tatum reviewed the Chills in his latest column, and also tipped me off on two of this week's three rap albums (Blackalicious and Peaceable Solutions, although I was vaguely aware of the former). The third rap record was Paris, reviewed by Robert Christgau a while back. I had put it off because it's a double, and only gave it one spin, but it's so solid it's in my shopping basket (along with Laurie Anderson, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, and Sleaford Mods) as a possible P&J contender.

Four jazz records too. Jörg Fischer has been sending me CDs for a couple years and Spicy Unit finally hit the spot. The other two -- Ochs-Robinson Duo and Michael Zerang & the Blue Lights -- I had to stream. I spent a big chunk of time last week scanning through The Free Jazz Collective's blog and adding all the new 2015 releases they reviewed to my 2015 release list file. I don't find their ratings to be very reliable, but they do cover a lot of avant-jazz. I probably added a hundred albums, noted a couple dozen to look up, and listened to a handful. The Zerang album is the Mars Williams-Dave Rempis joust of my dreams (and its companion is either more or less depending on your perspective). And the Larry Ochs duo is as clear a showcase for his powerful tenor sax as I can recall. The trawl also located a few links below.

The fourth jazz record was one I got in the mail and played a lot (4-5 times), wavering on the fence. Josh Berman is actually in Zerang's band, but he is better heard on his own new trio record. Probably would have been an easier call had I not played it right after Ochs and the two Zerangs and started worrying that everything was sounding A-worthy. (As I'm writing this, I'm playing random shit from the queue and not having that problem at all.)

The release list file is currently approaching 2500 entries (2389; about one-third are jazz: 813). I'll keep growing the file for a while, but eventually it will give way to an EOY List Aggregate file, like the one I did last year. EOY lists start showing up in mid-November, especially in the UK (which probably has more music magazines than the US does). The counter in the music tracking file shows 751 records either rated or in hand this year. Unlikely I'll hit 1000 this year, as I have done a couple of times in the past.

Recommended music links:

The first few links come from the Free Jazz Collective crawl.

• Free Jazz Collective: To Ornette Coleman: A retrospective of pretty much all the albums. The Free Jazz Collective also did a 50-year series on AACM: Introduction, 1965-1974, 1975-1984, 1985-1994, 1995-2004, 2005-2015.

• My trawl also neeted this interview with Tom Surgall, director of the free jazz documentary Fire Music, with his list of "important free jazz albums": his pick of John Tchicai's Afrodiasica spurred me to listen to a number of the Danish saxophonist's albums (see old music below).

• Milo Miles: First Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ballot: Goes through some rationalization about being "too good" to vote in Pazz & Jop (a status some of us have yet to achieve), then prints out a list of fifteen ballot choices for 2016 (any write-ins?). Then he asks, "which five did I vote for?" I wouldn't presume to know, but I wouldn't feel bad about voting for: Chic, The JB's, Los Lobos. After that it gets a bit dicier. Looking back, I see at least one A- grade for (C means a best-of compilation) for: Janet Jackson (2), Nine Inch Nails (3), The Smiths (1C). I wouldn't mind any of those, but they're not what I think of as all-time legends, and I bet I can find better acts the Hall passed over. I also see that Christgau has at least one A- grade for: The Cars (1C), Chaka Khan (1C), Steve Miller (1C), The Spinners (2+2C). I should probably give that Spinners comp another spin, maybe even check out the Atlantics I totally missed. The others: Cheap Trick (probably entertaining live), Chicago (maybe the worst rock band of all time, not that they started so bad), Deep Purple (nothing in my database, nothing I remember hearing, although I surely must have), N.W.A. (made a big impression on teens at the time), and Yes (very popular among my college friends, but I moved on).

PS: Sometime back I incorrectly got the group and album title swapped: should be The Spanish Donkey: Raoul (2015, Rare Noise). Group members are: Joe Morris, Jamie Saft, and Mike Pride. Grade: B.

New records rated this week:

• Josh Berman Trio: A Dance and a Hop (2015, Delmark): A-
• Blackalicious: Imani, Vol. 1 (2015, OGM): [r]: A-
• The Chills: Silver Bullets (2015, Fire): [r]: A-
• Marcelo Dos Reis/Angélica V. Salvi: Concentric Rinds (2013 [2015], Cipsela): [cd]: B+(*)
• Robin Eubanks Mass Line Big Band: More Than Meets the Ear (2015, ArtistShare): [cdr]: B+(*)
• Sergi Felipe: Whisper Songs (2011, UnderPool): [cd]: B+(*)
• Sergi Felipe/Whisper Songs: Bombú Es Libre En El Espacio (2013, UnderPool): [cd]: B+(*)
• Garrison Fewell: Invisible Resonance Trio (2013 [2015], Creative Nation Music): [r]: B+(***)
• Mike Holober: Balancing Act (2015, Palmetto): [cd]: B+(**)
• Hot Jazz Jumpers: The Very Next Thing (2015, On the Bol): [cd]: B
• Guus Janssen: Meeting Points (1989-2014 [2015], Bimhuis): [cd]: B+(***)
• Marco Mezquida Mateos: Live in Terrassa (2015, UnderPool): [cd]: B+(***)
• The Monash Art Ensemble/George Lewis: Hexis (2013 [2014], Jazzhead): [r]: B+(**)
• Àlvar Montfort/Lucas Martinez/Jordi Matas/Abel Boquera/Pep Mula: Underpool 4 (2014 [2015], UnderPool): [cd]: B+(*)
• Larry Ochs/Don Robinson Duo: The Throne (2011 [2015], Not Two): [r]: A-
• Paris: Pistol Politics (2015, Guerrilla Funk, 2CD): [r]: A-
• Peaceful Solutions: Barter 7 (2015, self-released): [bc]: A-
• Pol Pedrós/Noè Escolà/Albert Cirera/Rai Paz/Paco Weht/Ildefons Alonso: Underpool 3 (2014, UnderPool): [cd]: B+(*)
• Martin Speicher/Peter Geisselbrecht/Jörg Fischer: Spicy Unit (2014 [2015], Spore Print): [cd]: A-
• Spinifex: Veiled (2015, Trytone): [cd]: B+(**)
• Jacob Varmus Septet: Aegean: For Three Generations of Jazz Lovers (2013 [2015], Crows' Kin): [cd]: B+(**)
• Carrie Wicks: Maybe (2015, OA2): [cd]: B+(**)
• Patrick Williams: Home Suite Home (2015, BFM): [cd]: B+(*)
• Dave Wilson Quartet: There Was Never (2015, Zoho): [cd]: B+(*)
• Michael Zerang & the Blue Lights: Songs From the Big Book of Love (2014 [2015], Pink Palace): [bc]: A-
• Michael Zerang & the Blue Lights: Hash Eaters and Peacekeepers (2014 [2015], Pink Palace, EP): [bc]: B+(***)

Old music rated this week:

• The Chills: Kaleidoscope World (1982-84 [1989], Homestead): [r]: B+(*)
• Marty Grosz and the Collectors Items Cats: Thanks (1993, Jazzology): [r]: B+(**)
• Marty Grosz Quartet: Just for Fun! (1996, Nagel Heyer): [r]: B+(*)
• Marty Grosz: Left to His Own Devices (2000 [2001], Jazzology): [r]: B+(*)
• Grant McLennan: In Your Bright Ray (1996 [1997], Beggars Banquet): [r]: B+(*)
• Grant McLennan: Intermission: The Best of the Solo Recordings 1990-1997 (1990-97 [2007], Beggars Banquet): [r]: A-
• John Tchicai: Cadentia Nova Danica (1968, Freedom): [r]: A-
• John Tchicai and Cadentia Nova Danica: Afrodisiaca (1969, MPS): [r]: B+(**)
• John Tchicai-Irene Schweizer-Group: Willi the Pig: Live at the Willisau Jazz Festival (1975 [2000], Atavistic Unheard Music Series): [r]: A-
• John Tchicai & Strange Brothers: Darktown Highlights (1977, Storyville): [r]: B+(***)
• John Tchicai: Put Up the Fight (1987, Storyville): [r]: B+(*)
• John Tchicai: Darktown Highlights/Put Up the Fight (1977-87 [2012], Storyville, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Dan Ballou: Solo Trumpet (Clean Feed)
• Bathysphere: Bathysphere (Driff)
• Scott Clark 4tet: Bury My Heart (Clean Feed)
• Di Lontan: Power Trio (Clean Feed)
• Jorrit Dijkstra: Neither Odd nor Even (Driff)
• Jorrit Dijkstra/Pandelis Karayorgis/Nate McBride/Curt Newton: Matchbox (Driff)
• Brian Fielding: An Appropriate Response: Volume One (Broken Symmetries Music): January 1
• Daniel Levin/Mat Maneri: The Transcendent Function (Clean Feed)
• Jack Mouse & Scott Robinson with Janice Borla: Three Story Sandbox (Tall Grass): January 1
• Ivo Perelman/Mat Maneri/Tanya Kalmanovitch: Villa Lobos Suite (Leo)
• Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp: Complementary Colors (Leo)
• Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/Whit Dickey: Butterfly Whispers (Leo)
• Nate Wooley Quintet: (Dance to) the Early Music (Clean Feed)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Nothing from Crowson this week: he wasted his editorial space with a celebration of the World Series victors. I enjoyed the Kansas City Royals' wins, too -- even watched a couple innings of Game 2, where I didn't recognize a single name but had no problem understanding the many nuances of the game. At least that much doesn't change much, or fade away.

The main topic this week is the mental and moral rot that calls itself conservatism, also known as the Republican Party. Scattered links:

• Anne Kim: The GOP's Flat Tax Folly: It seems like every Republican presidential candidate has his own special tax jiggering plan, although they all have common features, namely letting the rich pay less (so they can save more) and increasing the federal deficit (hoping to trim that back a bit by cutting spending, although not on "defense" or on privatization schemes or on putting more people in jail). And those who lack the staff or imagination to come up with signature schemes fall back on the so-called "flat tax" scam (even more euphamistically called "the fair tax" -- as spelled out in Neal Boortz's The Fair Tax Book): Kim's list of flat-taxers includes Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, and Ben Carson, who likens the tax to a tithe. One thing flat-taxers always claim is that a single rate would greatly simplify the income tax code, but today's "complicated" rate chart is maybe two pages of the code. Reducing that to one line in an age where everything is computerized is nothing. All the rest of the complexity addresses the many questions of what is (or is not) income, at least for taxability purposes. For individuals who don't have many itemizable deductions that's already been simplified, but for businesses that's where all the complexity comes in. The loopholes for any given business may vary, but the bottom line is that businesses (including self-employed individuals) get to deduct many expenses that the rest of us cannot. The flat-taxers may think they're going to cut through a lot of special cases, but it's often hard to separate perks out from necessary expenses, to take one example. Another complicating factor is that we often implement policy through tax incentives. For instance, the tax code favors property owners over renters, married people over single, and families with dependent children over those without (although not nearly as much as the actual increased cost of maintaining those children). The tax code has long favored private health insurance (effectively subsidizing it), and since ACA added penalties for those who are uninsured (who are, after all, not only hurting themselves but becoming public liabilities). And this list could go on and on, from things that seem eminently reasonable to others that are truly perverse (like the oil depletion allowance).

  If the economy itself were totally fair -- if all markets were optimally transparent and competitive, and if had enough leverage they could fully share in productivity gains and profits -- then a flat income tax might also be a fair tax (although it would be easier to account for and collect a business-only tax like a VAT). However, virtually everything in the private sector economy is unbalanced in ways that favor property owners and limit potential competitors. The result, as we plainly see today, is vast and increasing inequality, which at its current stage is undermining democracy and tearing at the social fabric. Indeed, this is happening despite a current tax system which is still progressive: which taxes the rich more than it taxes the poor, and which provides some redistribution from rich to poor. In this context, the flat tax does three things, all bad: it reduces the tax on the rich, increasing inequality; it increases taxes on the poor and at least half of all working Americans, in many cases pushing them into (or deeper into) poverty; and it kills the critical idea of progressivity in tax collection. If anything, we need to extend the notion of progressivity throughout the tax system. For instance, we currently have a flat tax on capital gains and dividends -- almost exclusively a favor to the rich -- but both are forms of income. If anything, as unearned income you can make a case for taxing them more progressively -- since they contribute more to inequality, and since the tax rate has no disincentive. (A higher tax rate offers more incentive to hide income through fraud, but not to gain the income in the first place. I've argued in the past that the proper framework for calculating a progressive scale for unearned income should be the lifetime, which would encourage saving by the young and/or poor.) I'd also like to see progressive taxes on corporations, which would help even the playing field between small and large companies. (At present the latter tend to use their scale advantage to crowd out competition.) Of course, it's not true that every tax should be progressive. But some taxes have to be progressive enough to counter the economic system's built-in bias toward inequality.

  As a rule of thumb, any time you hear "flat-tax" or "fair-tax" you should automatically reject its advocate. Most likely they don't know what they're talking about, but to the extent that they do they are out to trash society, the economy, and the public institutions that make them possible.

• Paul Krugman: The Conspiracy Consensus:

  So, are we supposed to be shocked over Donald Trump claiming that Janet Yellen is keeping rates low to help Obama? Folks, this is a widely held position in the Republican Party; Paul Ryan and John Taylor accused Ben Bernanke years ago of doing something dastardly by preventing the fiscal crisis they insist would and should have happened under Obama. If Trump's remarks seem startling, it's only because the press has soft-pedaled the conspiracy theorizing of seemingly respectable Republicans.

  Uh, doesn't this mean that Trump understands that low interest rates are the right thing for the economy? Sure, he's pissed that Obama gets credit for the stimulated growth, but if he were president he'd want the same low rates so he could get credit for the growth. Maybe he thinks that Yellen is such a partisan hack that if a Republican were president she's raise interest rates just to get them blamed for the downturn. On the other hand, what does that say about Republicans calling for higher interest rates? That they're willing to harm the economy as long as they think a Democrat will be blamed for it? On the other hand, when they were in power, you have Nixon saying "we are all Keynesians now" and Cheney "deficits don't matter."

• Nancy LeTourneau: The Effects of Anti-Knowledge on Democracy: Starts with a long quote from Mike Lofgren: The GOP and the Rise of Anti-Knowledge -- worth checking out on its own, among other things because the first thing you see after a quote attributed to Josh Billings ("The trouble with people is not that they don't know, but that they know so much that ain't so.") is a picture of Ben Carson. Lofgren writes about Carson (evidently before last week's revelations about pyramids and arks):

  This brings us inevitably to celebrity presidential candidate Ben Carson. The man is anti-knowledge incarnated, a walking compendium of every imbecility ever uttered during the last three decades. Obamacare is worse than chattel slavery. Women who have abortions are like slave owners. If Jews had firearms they could have stopped the Holocaust (author's note: they obtained at least some weapons during the Warsaw Ghetto rising, and no, it didn't). Victims of a mass shooting in Oregon enabled their own deaths by their behavior. And so on, ad nauseam.

  It is highly revealing that, according to a Bloomberg/Des Moines Register poll of likely Republican caucus attendees, the stolid Iowa burghers liked Carson all the more for such moronic utterances. And sure enough, the New York Times tells us that Carson has pulled ahead of Donald Trump in a national poll of Republican voters. Apparently, Trump was just not crazy enough for their tastes. [ . . . ]

  This brings us back to Ben Carson. He now suggests that, rather than abolishing the Department of Education, a perennial Republican goal, the department should be used to investigate professors who say something he doesn't agree with. The mechanism to bring these heretics to the government's attention should be denunciations from students, a technique once in vogue in the old Soviet Union.

  Perhaps Lofgren was trying to burnish his conservative bona fides with that Soviet Union example: one closer to the mark would be the Salem witch trials.

  LeTourneau adds:

  That's why I'd suggest that the root cause of an attraction to anti-knowledge was the creation of Fox News. What Murdoch managed to do with that network was to pose the proposition that facts were merely the liberal media at work. So on one side of the "debate" you have the conservative garage logic and on the other you have liberal facts. The rest of the media -- in an attempt to prove they weren't liberal -- accepted this frame, giving credence to anti-knowledge as a legitimate position. That traps us into things like having to argue over whether the science of human's contribution to climate change is real because denialism is given credence as the opposing conservative view.

  I've seen an argument that right-wing opposition to climate science is based on the perception (or maybe just intuition) that the whole thing is just an excuse to promote government regulation; i.e., that because we reject the solution, we have to deny the problem and all the science behind it. That only works if the problems aren't real, which is to say never -- although global warming has had an unusually long run because people readily confuse the variability of everyday weather with the uniformity of climate, and because the latter is a bit too stochastic for certainty. There are many other examples of this -- taxes, stimulus spending, military intervention, defense spending, personal guns: all cases where the right-wing holds to a position based on political conviction regardless of the facts. Part of the problem here is that right-wingers have taken extreme stands, based on pure rhetoric, that have seized their brains like prime directives: like the notion that all government regulation is bad, or that government is incompetent to act. Part is that when right-wing "think tanks" have taken problems seriously and tried to come up with conservative solutions, they've sometimes been adopted by their enemy (leading one to doubt their sincerity: cap-and-trade and Obamacare are examples). As the right-wing has lost more and more arguments, it's only natural that they'd start to flail at the facts and science that undermines their ideological positions. From there it's a slippery slope. For many years, the right has complained about leftists in academia poisoning young minds, but in 2012 Rick Santorum broke new ground in arguing that people shouldn't go to college because the very institutions teach people to think like liberals. Since then the GOP's struggle against science, reason, and reality has only intensified. That leads us guys like Carson, and he's far from alone (see, e.g., the flat-tax brigade, above).

  Also see LeTourneau's "Who's to Blame for This Mess?". Most of the post is a quote from a Robert Reich post, where Reich is interviewing "a former Republican member of Congress," who starts out with "They're all nuts" then goes down the presidential lineup, starting with Carson and Trump ("they're both out of their f*cking minds") and ending with Bush and Christie ("they're sounding almost as batty as the rest"). He places blame: "Roger Ailes, David and Charles Koch, Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh. I could go on. They've poisoned the American mind and destroyed the Republican Party").

  LeTourneau has yet another piece, The Policy Vacuum of Movement Conservatism, where she quotes Michael Lind:

  Yet by the 1980s, movement conservatism was running out of steam. Its young radicals had mellowed into moderate statesman. By the 1970s, Buckley and his fellow conservatives had abandoned the radical idea of "rollback" in the Cold War and made their peace with the more cautious Cold War liberal policy of containment. In the 1960s, Reagan denounced Social Security and Medicare as tyrannical, but as president he did not try to repeal and replace these popular programs. When he gave up the confrontational evil-empire rhetoric of his first term toward the Soviet Union and negotiated an end to the Cold War with Mikhail Gorbachev in his second term, many conservatives felt betrayed . . .

  Indeed, it's fair to say that the three great projects of the post-1955 right -- repealing the New Deal, ultrahawkishness (first anti-Soviet, then pro-Iraq invasion) and repealing the sexual/culture revolution -- have completely failed. Not only that, they are losing support among GOP voters.

  On the other hand, Lind omits the one project that Reagan and successors succeeded spectacularly at: tilting the economy to favor the well-to-do, especially at the expense of organized labor. One might argue -- I would emphatically disagree -- that Reagan offered a necessary correction to the liberal/egalitarian tilt of the previous five decades, but what's happened since then has tipped the nation way too far back toward the rich. And it's clear that the right, like the rich, has no concept of too much and no will to turn their rhetoric back toward center. Still, they can only keep pushing their same old nostrums, even having watched them fail so universally under Bush. Lind's generation of conservatives may have mellowed as he claims, but there have been at least two later points when the Republicans turned starkly toward the right -- in the 1990s under Gingrich continuing through the Bush administration, and after 2009 with the Tea Party doubling down in the wake of failure. Moreover, they haven't given up on the defeats Lind identified, even though they continue to look like losing propositions. Indeed, it's hard to see that they have any viable policy options, leaving them with little beyond their conviction that all they really need is the right character -- maybe a Trump or maybe a Carson. After all, they wrap themselves so ostentatiously in piety and patriotic jingoism that they feel entitled to rule, even when they lose as bad as McCain did to Obama.

Also, a few links for further study (briefly noted; i.e., I don't have time for this shit right now):

• Olga Khazan: Middle-Aged White Americans Are Dying of Despair: One of the most disturbing discoveries of the last twenty years: the average life expectancy in Russia took an alarming downturn after the fall of communism. When I was growing up, one thing we could take for granted was that we were making progress on nearly all fronts, one being that we could expect to live longer lives, and our children longer still. Russia showed that politically-engendered economic despair could end and even reverse that progress. But who thought it could happen here? I first read these reports a year ago and did a quick inventory. On my mother's side of the family, I have a cohort of 20 cousins, b. 1925-43. The first of those cousins to die was in 2003 (emphysema, i.e. cigarettes). The youngest to die was 71, in 2011, and the youngest still alive has beat that. The oldest still alive is 89. But a number of their children are already gone: the first a victim of the Vietnam War, one to a car wreck, one to cancer in her 30s, several more (and my records are incomplete). Perhaps the most striking was one who died at 64, just three days after his father died at 88. I'm pretty sure all of my cousins did better economically than their parents, but despite more education that's less true for the next generation. Just some data, but it fits, and makes the stats more concrete. Khazan cites the work of two economists who blame inequality. That's right, but we need a better way to explain how that works.

  PS: Paul Krugman also has a comment on this, including this chart which shows a downward trend in deaths for all the charted wealthy countries (plus US Hispanics), compared to a slight rise among US whites:

  

  The Anne Case/Angus Deaton paper both posts refer to is Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century.

• Gareth Porter: The New Yorker Doesn't Factcheck What 'Everyone Knows' Is True: Examines a New Yorker article by Dexter Filkins on the shooting of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who had tried to make a case that Iran and Hezbollah were responsible for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires. I've long be skeptical about Hezbollah's (and Iran's) guilt here, mostly because it seems out of character, but it's become such a propaganda point for Israel and the US that most western journalists (like Filkins) take it for fact. Nisman's indictment of prominent Iranian and Hezbollah added fire to the charges, but as Porter points out there is little substance in the indictment -- the main source is the MEK, an anti-Iranian terrorist organization originally set up by Saddam Hussein but lately primarily used by Israel to disseminate disinformation about Iran's nuclear program. Nisman further charged that Argentine presidents Carlos Menem and Cristina Kirchner conspired with Iran to cover up the bombing, but again his evidence is suspicious. As is Nisman's death, apparently a suicide but still, like the bombing, unresolved.

• David Waldman: Good guy with a gun takes out a theater shooter! GunFAIL CLXIII: What's that, 168? Looks like Waldman's been collecting stories of gun mishaps for a while now, and this is about one week's worth (Oct. 11-17, 2015): 47 events. The title refers to a guy in Salina, KS who was watching a movie and fidgeting with a gun in his pant-pocket, finally shooting himself in the leg (i.e., the "theater shooter" he "took out" was himself).

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Music: Current count 25691 [25653] rated (+38), 439 [447] unrated (-8).

A busy week, in all regards except unpacking. Rated count is back up after last week's dip. I got a jump there by looking at everything I hadn't previously heard on Alfred Soto's "third quarter report" (ASAP Rocky, Speedy Ortiz, Florence + the Machine, Brandon Flowers, Angel Haze, Destroyer, Robert Forster, Janet Jackson). Some good records there, but nothing I especially loved. Still, the exercise did send me back to Forster's best-of (didn't get to Grant McLennan's companion comp, something I should remedy; at least with McLennan I'm more familiar with the source albums, a couple of which I've A-listed -- Watershed and Horsebreaker Star).

Most importantly, Michael Tatum published a new A Downloader's Diary last week. (My archive copy is here.) Not a lot there I hadn't heard already -- Deerhunter, Forster, and Destroyer are in my list this week but I got them earlier, without the benefit of Tatum's advice. (I came up with slightly lower grades for Deerhunter, Forster, and Jill Scott -- any of which could be chalked up to lack of patience with records a bit outside of my wheelhouse.) Aside from ratings quibbles, I should point out that the Heems and even more so the Kendrick Lamar reviews rank among the year's best music writing.

I did get two A-list records from Robert Christgau's Expert Witness this week: Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog and Jeffrey Lewis' Manhattan. I gave them two spins each -- not enough to rise beyond A-, although Lewis was getting better, and I can certainly see the appeal of Anderson's stories (I'm just not as swept away by the music as I was by Strange Angels, or even Home of the Brave). I'll probably break down and order copies of both, but actually the new record that impressed me the most this week was Lyrics Born's Real People (also two spins). Evidently it came out in May but the first I heard of it was when it showed up on one of Mosi Reeves' Rhapsody lists. Tom Shimura is as much a cult-favorite among Christgauvians as Anderson or Lewis, so I'm surprised no one flagged it. (Or did I just slip up and not notice?)

Very rare that I actually buy records any more: after Yesterdays closed there are no decent record stores in Wichita, and the impulse buys I would occasionally pick up at Best Buy petered out as their inventory continued to shrink. I do continue to buy books, though not often music books. (I did feel a desire to own, but haven't yet read, Michaelangelo Matos' The Underground Is Massive.) I was tempted last week by the two Allen Lowe books I don't own: Really the Blues? A Horizontal Chronicle of the Vertical Blues, 1893-1959 (the companion to his massive 36-CD trawl through blues history) and, especially, God Didn't Like It: Electric Hillbillies, Singing Preachers, and the Beginning of Rock and Roll, 1950-1970, but I got weak knees in Paypal hell (maybe later).

However, the book I did order, and want to offer a preëmptive plug for, is Tim Niland's Music and More: Selected Blog Posts 2003-2015. I've been reading Niland's Music and More blog for many years now, not so much to find new music (since we seem to be on the exact same mailing lists) as to check my sanity. Blogs are pretty much designed to be disposable but his is the opposite: if compiled into an indexed, searchable Christgau-like website it would be viewed as an essential reference resource. His 822-page book is the next best thing. Bargain-priced, too.

Two more A-listed new jazz albums this week (plus one old one). You may recall that I also liked Nat Birchall's Live in Larissa last year. Maybe the Coltrane-isms are too obvious, but it's not like we'd turn out noses up at a new vault discovery. The fact is I'd take either Birchall album over The Offering (the 1966 tape that swept the polls last year). I've never gotten anything by Birchall in the mail, so reviewing him is strictly a Rhapsody bonus (with the usual caveats: in this case I have no idea who else played on the album, although they're pretty damn good).

Matthew Shipp's trio took a lot more time to suss out -- I must have given it five (maybe six) spins. Without doing any A/B, I think it's his best trio since he moved back away from the jazztronica of last decade, maybe because I hear more of the knockabout rhythmizing of the Ware Quartet and his later albums with Ivo Perelman.

I should probably mention that there will be a memorial "to celebrate the remarkable life of Elizabeth Marcia Fink," who died on September 22. I've seen a very nice invitation, but can't find any public posting of it, so here are the details: the memorial will be on Saturday, November 7, 2015, from 3:00-6:00 pm, at Union Theological Seminary, 3041 Broadway at 121st Street, New York, NY 10027. The invitation asks for RSVP. We're not up for another trip to New York at the moment, but we do miss Liz -- in fact, remark on it every single day.

New records rated this week:

• Laurie Anderson: Heart of a Dog (2015, Nonesuch): [r]: A-
• Dennis Angel: On Track (2014 [2015], Timeless Grooves): [r]: B-
• ASAP Rocky: At.Long.Last.ASAP (2015, Polo Grounds/RCA): [r]: B+(**)
• Nat Birchall: Invocations (2015, Jazzman): [r]: A-
• Sarah Buechi: Flying Letters (2013 [2014], Intakt): [r]: B+(*)
• Sarah Buechi: Shadow Garden (2015, Intakt): [cd]: B+(***)
• João Camões/Rodrigo Pinheiro/Miguel Mira: Earnear (2015, Tour de Bras): [cd]: B+(**)
• João Camões/Jean-Marc Foussat/Claude Parle: Bien Mental (2015, Fou): [cd]: B+(***)
• Romain Collin: Press Enter (2013 [2015], ACT): [cd]: B+(**)
• Caroline Davis Quartet: Doors: Chicago Storylines (2013 [2015], Ears & Eyes): [cd]: B+(***)
• Deerhunter: Fading Frontier (2015, 4AD): [r]: B+(***)
• Destroyer: Poison Season (2015, Merge): [r]: B+(*)
• Marcelo Dos Reis/Luis Vicente/Théo Ceccaldi/Valentin Ceccaldi: Chamber 4 (2013 [2015], FMR): [cd]: B+(**)
• Empress Of: Me (2015, Terrible/XL): [r]: B+(*)
• Florence + the Machine: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015, Island/Republic): [r]: B
• Brandon Flowers: The Desired Effect (2015, Virgin EMI): [r]: B+(**)
• Robert Forster: Songs to Play (2015, Tapete): [r]: B+(**)
• Angel Haze: Back to the Woods (2015, self-released): [r]: B+(***)
• Holly Herndon: Platform (2015, 4AD): [r]: B+(**)
• Keigo Hirakawa: And Then There Were Three (2014 [2015], self-released): [r]: B+(*)
• Sam Hunt: Between the Pines: Acoustic Mixtape (2015, MCA Nashville): [r]: B
• Janet Jackson: Unbreakable (2015, Rhythm Nation): [r]: B+(*)
• Hiatus Kaiyote: Choose Your Weapon (2015, Flying Buddha): [r]: B-
• Emma Larsson: Sing to the Sky (2014 [2015], Origin): [cd]: B
• Jeffrey Lewis & Los Bolts: Manhattan (2015, Rough Trade): [r]: A-
• Lyrics Born: Real People (2015, Mobile Home): [r]: A-
• Michael Sarian & the Chabones: The Escape Suite (2014-15 [2015], self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
• Maria Schneider Orchestra: The Thompson Fields (2014 [2015], ArtistShare): [cd]: B+(**)
• Matthew Shipp Trio: The Conduct of Jazz (2015, Thirsty Ear): [cd]: A-
• Slobber Pup: Pole Axe (2015, Rare Noise): [cdr]: B+(**)
• Speedy Ortiz: Foil Deer (2015, Carpark): [r]: B+(*)
• The Spook School: Try to Be Hopeful (2015, Fortuna Pop): [r]: B+(**)
• Total Babes: Heydays (2015, Wichita): [r]: B+(*)
• Webb Wilder: Mississippi Moderne (2015, Landslide): [r]: B+(*)

Old music rated this week:

• Robert Forster: Intermission: The Best of the Solo Recordings 1990-1997 (1990-97 [2007], Beggars Banquet): [r]: A-
• Marty Grosz and His Sugar Daddies: On Revival Day: Live at the Atlanta Jazz Party! (1995, Jazzology): [r]: B+(**)
• Marty Grosz & His Hot Puppies: Rhythm Is Our Business (2000-01 [2003], Sackville): [r]: B+(***)
• John Law Quartet: Exploded on Impact (1992 [1993], Slam): [r]: B+(***)
• John Law: Extremely Quartet (1996 [1997], Hat Art): [r]: A-
• John Law Quartet: Abacus (2000 [2001], Hatology): [r]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Aaron Irwin Quartet: A Room Forever (self-released): November 24
• Ernie Krivda: Requiem for a Jazz Lady (Capri): November 17

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Some scattered links this week:

• Gary Legum: Sam Brownback is a harbinger of national doom: Bleeding Kansas' scary lesson for America: Brownback's approval ratings are down to 18%, about where Bush's were when his presidency ended. Crowson put it like this:

  

  Of course, Brownback wasn't much more popular when he was reëlected governor in 2014, but the trick there is to play up the fear of the unknown Democrat -- that plus a mysterious shift where Republicans across the board ran about five points higher than the polls predicted. Brownback's income tax cuts, including a free ride for business owners, passed early in his first term, and immediately blew a $600 billion hole in the state budget, leading to massive spending cuts and tax increases (both state and local, all regressive) to keep government marginally functional. Kansas had gotten through the early stages of the Great Recession relatively well, mostly because there was relatively little real estate bubble to pop, but since Brownback became governor economic growth has lagged in every comparison. This should be no surprise to anyone who knows the first thing about macroeconomics: just as more government spending stimulates more economic growth, less undermines growth (or worse). What's harder to calculate is how much long-term damage this level of economic strangulation will cause -- especially the hardships to be inflicted on a whole generation of students -- but there can be no doubt that harm is being done.

  Legum properly sees Kansas as a warning to the nation of what happens when Republicans get too much (or actually any -- his other example is Wisconsin) power, especially when led by an ambitious ideologue. Legum quips: "The biggest mystery about Brownback at this point is that he has been such an awful governor, it's a wonder he's not running for president." Brownback did run for president in 2008 and quit after he couldn't top 2% in Iowa polls. He then decided to give up his Senate seat and run for governor to prove himself as an executive and, well, he simply hasn't done that yet -- in fact, his unwillingness to compromise on rolling back some of his income tax cuts last year shows he's still convinced that they'll pan out eventually. Besides, the early field for governors with hideous records was already overfull with Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal (whose approval rates in Louisiana are even worse), plus his Bible buddy Rick Perry was running -- sure, that niche has opened up with Perry and Walker the first dropouts, but nothing suggests that Brownback would do any better.

• Paul Krugman: The Hamptons Hyperinflation Endorsement:

  As a public service, some background to Marco Rubio's latest campaign coup. As the Times reports, Paul Singer -- a huge contributor to Republican causes -- has thrown his support behind Rubio.

  What it doesn't mention are two facts about Paul Singer that are, I think, relevant.

  First, he's most famous for his practice of buying up distressed debt of Third World governments, then suing to demand full repayment.

  Second, he's an inflation truther -- with an unusual twist. [ . . . ] But Singer has taken a different tack: he knows, just knows, that inflation is running away because of what it's doing to the prices of the things he cares about:

  Check out London, Manhattan, Aspen and East Hampton real estate prices, as well as high-end art prices, to see what the leading edge of hyperinflation could look like.

  Even if you only know one thing about economics, it's probably that prices rise on fixed goods when buyers have more money to spend. If the price of Aspen real estate is going up faster than the general rate of inflation, it's because the people who are in the market to buy that real estate are bidding each other up, and what makes that possible is that they have more money to spend. That would be obvious for a commodity, but real estate and fine art are also thought of as assets, so it's easy for buyers to fool themselves into thinking they're worth all they paid. One sign of increasing inequality is asset inflation, and the more the merrier.

  Also see Richard Silverstein on Singer: Pro-Israel Hedge Fund Billionaire, Paul Singer, Buys Large Stake in Rubio Inc.. Rubio also appears in Policy and Character, but more importantly Krugman gets to remind you of how prescient he's been in the past, and it's a case worth repeating:

  My view here is strongly influenced by the story of George W. Bush. Younger readers may not know or remember how it was back in 2000, but back then the universal view of the commentariat was that W was a moderate, amiable, bluff and honest guy. I was pretty much alone taking his economic proposals -- on taxes and Social Security -- seriously. And what I saw was a level of dishonesty and irresponsibility, plus radicalism, that was unprecedented in a major-party presidential candidate. So I was out there warning that Bush was a bad, dangerous guy no matter how amiable he seemed. [ . . . ]

  And proposing wildly unaffordable stuff is itself a declaration of priorities: Rubio is saying that keeping the Hair Club for Growth happy is more important to him than even a pretense of fiscal responsibility. Or if you like, what we've seen is a willingness to pander without constraint or embarrassment.

• Tom Engelhardt: Campaign 2016 as a Demobilizing Spectacle: No less than a short history of post-WWII America pivoting around the question of when and where the American public is actively engaged ("mobilized") in public affairs, or not. For instance, he quotes Bernie Sanders: "We need to mobilize tens of millions of people to begin to stand up and fight back and to reclaim the government, which is now owned by big money." He ten adds a telling example: "We do, of course, have one recent example of a mobilization in an election season. In the 2008 election, the charismatic Barack Obama created a youthful, grassroots movement, a kind of cult of personality that helped sweep him to victory, only to demobilize it as soon as he entered the Oval Office." He doesn't mention the Tea Party, but that's another reflection of the sense that the government has turned into an alien entity that needs to be "taken back" (perhaps because they view it as something to be destroyed rather than restored as an instrument of the public interest).

  The desire to take the American public out of the "of the people, by the people, for the people" business can minimally be traced back to the Vietnam War, to the moment when a citizen's army began voting with its feet and antiwar sentiment grew to startling proportions not just on the home front, but inside a military in the field. It was then that the high command began to fear the actual disintegration of the U.S. Army.

  Not surprisingly, there was a deep desire never to repeat such an experience. (No more Vietnams! No more antiwar movements!) As a result, on January 27, 1973, with a stroke of the pen, President Richard Nixon abolished the draft, and so the citizen's army. With it went the sense that Americans had an obligation to serve their country in time of war (and peace).

  From that moment on, the urge to demobilize the American people and send them to Disney World would only grow. First, they were to be removed from all imaginable aspects of war making. Later, the same principle would be applied to the processes of government and to democracy itself. In this context, for instance, you could write a history of the monstrous growth of secrecy and surveillance as twin deities of the American state: the urge to keep ever more information from the citizenry and to see ever more of what those citizens were doing in their own private time. Both should be considered demobilizing trends.

  The line that stands out there is "No more antiwar movements!" -- most likely because antiwar movements question not just the strategy of a particular war but the material basis that makes it possible to fight wars, and the very morality of starting wars. Also, in the case of the United States, it is very easy to uncover a long list of dubious choices that led to war -- many taken in secret and covered up by the self-perpetuating security state.

• Robert Parry: A Glimmer of Hope for Syria: For many years one of the best sources on the Middle East has been Paul Woodward's War in Context blog, but something unfunny happened a few years back when he started giving half or more of his blog to articles that seemed to be promoting western intervention in the Syrian Civil War. That didn't render the blog worthless, but it gave it an off odor. (An example today is Syria's horror shows the tragic price of Western inaction. I wouldn't call any of these things inaction: Obama's speech telling Assad he had to step down, the CIA's many attempts to train and arm "moderate" opposition groups, the "red line" ultimatum on chemical weapons, the arming of Kurdish troops operating in Syria, the bombing of all things ISIS, last week's insertion of Special Forces into Syria. And while I'm not sure what Woodward means by "Western" the US, at least, is at least partly complicit in the acts of its allies like Israel, Turkey (above and beyond NATO), Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar -- the first three have bombed Syria, and the latter two have at least shipped arms and money into the war. If anything there's been way too much action -- a charge I don't exempt Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah from.) Woodward doesn't flinch from the human tragedy the war has wrought, but the notion that some "action" is what's needed to bring the war to a just (or merely sane) close is magical thinking of the most fantastical sort. The only thing that can work is some form of agreement where all sides give up the war. Parry's article gives you some background, and a bit of hope. (The part I don't see as hopeful is that while he posits that Russia and Iran may press Assad to compromise, which is indeed essential, I don't see any comparable pressure to get the US to step down. Indeed, it seems to be a common hope that an agreement on Damascus will make it possible for the US, Russia, and Iran to join forces in demolishing ISIS, which is to say in not ending the war.) Also worth reading along these lines is Jimmy Carter: A Five-Nation Plan to End the Syrian Crisis. Still, even Carter's endgame leaves ISIS fighting:

  Mr. Assad's governing authority could then be ended in an orderly process, an acceptable government established in Syria, and a concerted effort could then be made to stamp out the threat of the Islamic State.

  Scaling the civil war back to just ISIS vs. the world would be preferable to the status quo, but certainly isn't optimal.

• The US Spends $35 Billion Helping Out the World . . . But Where Does All This Money Really Go?: Well, the graphic says it all:

  

  I doubt this factors in the money the Defense Department and the CIA spend -- Afghanistan would be much larger -- but it does seem to count some money not destined for established governments (e.g., Syria, but where is Libya?). Of course, Israel you know about, and its two neighboring dictatorships, primarily tasked with keeping Palestinians pent up on their reservations in Gaza and the West Bank. One thing this shows is the extent to which "economic aid" has been reduced to a slush fund for America's imperial ventures. Another is that the US is becoming increasingly entangled in Africa.

• DR Tucker: The Dawn of Darkness:

  This Wednesday marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of one of the great tragedies in American history, a moment of indelible shame, a choice that harmed so many in this country and around the world: the defeat of President Jimmy Carter at the hands of right-wing former California Governor Ronald Reagan. [ . . . ]

  Reagan's economic agenda literally took from the poor and gave to the rich. His race-baiting on the 1980 campaign trail and his demonization of civil rights as president laid the foundation for reckless Republican rhetoric on race during the Obama era. His illegal wars in Central America and his irresponsible invasion of Grenada served as the model for George W. Bush's Iraq misadventure. His scorn of environmental concerns put us on the painful path to a climate crisis.

  Amen. I'll add that while the full horror of those points only became clear over time, even back when Reagan was president I frequently noted that under him the only growth industry in America is fraud.

• David Atkins: Will the Press Recognize the Existential Threat and Fight Back, or Buckle Under?:

  It should astonish even the jaded that Republicans are calling CNBC, that stodgy home of supply-side Wall Street cheerleading, an agent of the left.

  Still apoplectic at being asked some basic questions at the debate, Republican candidates are doubling down on their freakout.

  Ted Cruz is flat-out calling CNBC debate moderators "left-wing operatives" and demanding that right-wing radio hosts moderate their debates, instead.

  Donald Trump, who openly lied during the debate about what is on his own website, called debate moderator John Harwood a "dope" and a "fool."

  All of this after Republican candidates spewed forth one of the most embarrassing explosion of lies ever witnessed during a television presidential debate.

  The press is facing an existential threat. With Republicans increasingly unashamed to tell grandiose lies and respond to any press criticism with derogatory insults and whines about media bias as well as blackmail threats to cancel appearances if the questions are too tough, the press must decide how to respond on two fronts. First, it must decide how to present an objective face while acknowledging that both sides do not, in fact, behave equally badly. Second, it must determine whether it will continue to ask the tough questions that need answers regardless of the threats made by the GOP, or whether it will meekly submit to the demands for kid-glove treatment.

  Atkins also argues that Debate Questions Naturally Lean Left Because Mainstream Voters and Reality Do. One piece of evidence here is how often the right starts to dissemble when they plan on doing something unpopular -- like when Bush dubbed his giveaway bill to the timber industry the "health forests initiative." Brownback moved heaven and earth in 2014 to try to convince Kansans that he was the education governor, after years of underfunding schools and attacking teacher rights. This doesn't necessarily mean that voters lean that far left -- all they need to do is come in left of the Republicans, which isn't hard to do: a little decency and integrity suffices.

  The fact that Republicans have more unpopular positions and a weaker track record of success isn't the fault of debate moderators. It's the fault of Republican candidates and their ideology.

• Israel links:

  • Adam Horowitz: Netanyahu: 'We need to control all of the territory for the forseeable future': "meaning endless conflict and bloodshed."

  • Annie Robbins: Israeli military tells Palestinian refugee camp, 'We will gas you until you die': Also on this story, Richard Silverstein: Echoing Nazi Tactics, IDF Patrol Threatens to Exterminate Palestinian Refugee Camp with "Gas".

  • Allison Deger: Majority of Palestinian citizens of Israel blame gov't for violence, fear revenge attacks, limit their movements

  • Philip Weiss: 'Most-read' article at Washington Post calls Israel 'savage, unrepairable society': the article referred to is by Israeli novelist Assaf Gavron: Confessions of an Israeli traitor

Also, a few links for further study (briefly noted):

• Rebecca Gordon: How the US Created Middle East Mayhem: Provides an explanation why Tunisia alone among the "Arab Spring" countries seems to have developed into a viable democracy -- while there are some local factors of note, one big one is that the US hadn't had much involvement or interest in Tunisia, especially its military. Gordon goes on to report on the region's "Arab Spring" failures: Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria -- each of those are nations the US and/or its so-called allies have repeatedly interfered in. Supposedly these are all nations the US state and defense departments regard as "vital national interests" -- yet somehow stability, popular democratic rights, and social justice aren't reckoned as things that matter.

• James George Jatras: Benghazi: What Neither Hillary Nor the Republicans Want to Talk About: I'm afraid I'm not following all of this, but it is clear that the ending of the Gaddafi regime put a large amount of weapons into circulation, and it seems not unlikely that the CIA was in Benghazi to help direct some of those weapons to supposed allies/clients in Syria and possibly elsewhere.

• Dylan Matthews: Ben Carson accidentally stumbled on a great idea for improving education: James Hamblin quotes Carson: "Wouldn't it make more sense to put the money in a pot and redistribute it throughout the country so that public schools are equal, whether you're in a poor area or a wealthy area?" Carson eventually walked part of that back, but he stumbled onto a basic truth: the federal government has much stronger tax authority than state/local government, plus has the ability to run deficits, but most government spending, especially on things that (unlike the military) directly affect Americans, is done at the state and local level. Figuring out a scheme to redistribute tax receipts from the federal level down would eliminate a lot of inequities -- especially the current race-to-the-bottom of giving tax subsidies to businesses -- and provide more robust support for essential government spending.

• George Monbiot: Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away? Massive forest fires in the US have been a news staple, but this one is new to me:

  A great tract of Earth is on fire. It looks as you might imagine hell to be. The air has turned ochre: visibility in some cities has been reduced to 30 metres. Children are being prepared for evacuation in warships; already some have choked to death. Species are going up in smoke at an untold rate. It is almost certainly the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st century -- so far.

  Well, it is far away from here, but it's still the same planet, and ultimately the same atmosphere:

  Fire is raging across the 5,000km length of Indonesia. It is surely, on any objective assessment, more important than anything else taking place today. And it shouldn't require a columnist, writing in the middle of a newspaper, to say so. It should be on everyone's front page. It is hard to convey the scale of this inferno, but here's a comparison that might help: it is currently producing more carbon dioxide than the US economy. And in three weeks the fires have released more CO2 than the annual emissions of Germany. [ . . . ]

  It's not just the trees that are burning. It is the land itself. Much of the forest sits on great domes of peat. When the fires penetrate the earth, they smoulder for weeks, sometimes months, releasing clouds of methane, carbon monoxide, ozone and exotic gases such as ammonium cyanide. The plumes extend for hundreds of miles, causing diplomatic conflicts with neighbouring countries.

• Thomas Schaller: 55-45 Politics in a 50-50 Country: This looks into various areas where the Republicans have built-in advantages which skew power in their favor -- something which includes but extends beyond the gerrymandered House districts. Then there's also the peculiarity that Republicans ("the party of no") are more often satisfied simply to obstruct Democratic initiatives -- a task that the system's numerous checks and balances favors, as do historical quirks like the Senate filibuster.

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

My patience for political debates gave out long ago. I think the clincher was a 1984 encounter which somehow favored Ronald Reagan despite the clear fact that Walter Mondale out-hustled him on every single question. (I was rather annoyed with Mondale because so many of those tussles revealed him to be the more aggressive and tenacious cold warrior.) It was almost a replay of my first debate experience, Kennedy-Nixon, except where Kennedy appealed to a hopeful future, that future had passed by 1984 and America was ready to be led into senility -- at least they sure picked the guy to do it.

However, some bloggers I follow still take these things seriously, so I figured I'd cite a few of their comments. After all, watching ten right-wing jerks fumble their way through a set of questions and spinning them into their fantasies does offer some opportunity to examine the psychosis that afflicts so-called conservatives today. Whereas Reagan had a knack for amalgamating an imagined past with a fantasy future, at least he was pretty sure it would be a positive future. But today's Republican standard-bearers are united in their conviction that the nation stands on the brink of a catastrophe that only their kind of determined leadership can stave off, even though the scenarios most likely to push the country off the deep end are the very ones that adopt their policy proposals.

Some links:

• Gail Collins: Oh, Those Debating Republicans:

  But about Wednesday night's debate -- the topic was economics, and the big takeaway was probably that when there are 10 people onstage, nobody is going to have to explain how that flat tax plan adds up. When in doubt, complain about government regulations.

  Carson appears to have a particular genius on this front. Asked what to do about the pharmaceutical industry's outrageous pricing policies, he mildly said: "No question that some people go overboard when it comes to trying to make profits," and then he careened off to the cost of government rules on "the average small manufacturer."

  Every seasoned politician is good at answering a difficult question with the answer to something entirely different. But Carson -- who isn't supposed to be a politician at all -- was possibly the champ. Where do you think he picked that up? It's a little unnerving to think this kind of talent is useful in the operating room.

  Because Carson's voice always sounds so moderate, responses that make no sense whatsoever can sound sort of thoughtful until you replay them in your head. Asked why, as an opponent of gay marriage, he serves on the board of a company that offers domestic partner benefits, Carson said that he believed "marriage is between one man and one woman and there is no reason that you can't be perfectly fair to the gay community." He then proposed, in his measured tones, that "the P.C. culture . . . it's destroying this nation."

• Ezra Klein: Ted Cruz's best moment of the Republican debate was also completely wrong:

  "The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media," Ted Cruz said with considerable disgust. "This is not a cage match."

  Cruz ticked off the insults the CNBC moderators had lobbed Wednesday night at the assembled Republicans. "Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don't you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues?"

  The crowd roared. Republican pollster Frank Luntz reported with some awe that his focus group gave Cruz's riff a 98. "That's the highest score we've ever measured," Luntz tweeted. "EVER."

  Cruz's attack on the moderators was smart politics -- but it was almost precisely backwards. The questions in the CNBC debate, though relentlessly tough, were easily the most substantive of the debates so far. And the problem for Republicans is that substantive questions about their policy proposals end up sounding like hostile attacks -- but that's because the policy proposals are ridiculous, not because the questions are actually unfair.

  Klein goes on to quote some of the questions that Cruz caricatured:

  Moderator John Harwood asked, "Mr. Trump, you have done very well in this campaign so far by promising to build another wall and make another country pay for it. Send 11 million people out of the country. Cut taxes $10 trillion without increasing the deficit." [ . . . ]

  Similarly, Ben Carson wasn't asked whether he could do math. He was asked whether his tax plan's math added up.

  "You have a flat tax plan of 10 percent flat taxes," said moderator Becky Quick. "This is something that is very appealing to a lot of voters, but I've had a really tough time trying to make the math work on this. If you were to take a 10 percent tax, with the numbers right now in total personal income, you're gonna bring in $1.5 trillion. That is less than half of what we bring in right now. And by the way, it's gonna leave us in a $2 trillion hole. So what analysis got you to the point where you think this will work?" [ . . . ]

  Meanwhile, Cruz himself was also asked a substantive question. The moderators asked why he was opposing a bipartisan budget deal that would avert a debt ceiling crisis, a Medicare crisis, and a Social Security Disability Insurance crisis. Rather than answer that question, he attacked the moderators for refusing to ask substantive questions, during which he pretended a slew of unusually substantive questions were trivial political attacks.

  Cruz's whine was so popular that the RNC decided to act on it and break an agreement they had with NBC to host a debate in February. See: Jack Mirkinson: The GOP's media warfare goes nuclear: How the RNC is trying to hold journalism hostage. One more example how firmly GOP leadership can act to get things done (or, actually, undone).

  Although Klein has some piece of a point -- the candidates certainly did manage to avoid answering anything substantial in the questions, more than a few came off as snarky and their opening shot, as Stephen Colbert justly complains, was the worst question ever.

• Rick Perlstein: Sociopaths on a Merry-Go-Round:

  I sure hope you didn't bother to watch the absurd Republican debate on CNBC Wednesday night. That's what you have me for. Here are two takeaways: Ben Carson said "crap." (Specifically, that "the government picking winners and losers" is "a bunch of crap.") And, remember that time a few years ago when I wrote that getting anointed a star among the Republican elite "is mainly a question of riding out the lie: showing that you have the skill and the stones to brazen it out, and the savvy to ratchet up the stakes higher and higher"? I worry I understated the case. [ . . . ]

  Something you will not learn consuming accounts of the debate from all those talking heads, the poor saps, forced by the professional canons of "objectivity" to grit their teeth and pretend what went on on that stage in Boulder was legitimate political discussion. No. This was two straight hours of sociopathy.

  Perlstein details examples from Carson, Fiorina, and Rubio, but he could go on and on.

• Heather Digby Parton: The medical miracles of Mike Huckabee: Inside the absurd, dangerous & contradictory health care plans of the GOP candidates: Parton also looks at Carson, who has a history of promoting a fraudulent supplement as a miracle cure for Alzheimer's and cancer. Huckabee, who's made a career out of opposing medical research based on fetal tissue, has suddenly found the solution to America's health care woes: "let's cure the four big cost-driving diseases . . . diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's." Not clear how he'll do all that -- maybe he's bought into Carson's snake oil? More likely it's just that old standby of the religious right: miracles. Huckabee's a big "flat tax" promoter too, if you want another example of magical thinking. Parton concludes:

  So here we have two Republican candidates for president. One has offered an incomprehensible health care plan that he cannot explain to the public. The other proposes that the correct approach is to "pass real reform that will actually lower costs, while focusing on cures and prevention rather than intervention.") Both of them oppose fetal tissue research that promise advances in actually curing diseases while endorsing ludicrous scams that don't work.

  Every Republican promises to vote to repeal Obamacare. It's a litmus test right up there with tax cuts and abortion. Carson says it's the worst thing since slavery, Huckabee calls it a "nightmare." It looks like magical snake oil cures are now what passes for serious health care policy to replace it.

  Parton also unloaded on Jeb Bush's performance: Jeb Bush's stunning, televised implosion: How the former GOP frontrunner became a sad, pathetic joke.

• Jesse Berney: These Republicans are petulant children: What's really behind their whining about the big, bad media:

  But of course the complaints about the media aren't really about getting easier questions at debates; they're much more pernicious than that.

  Republicans are working the refs. They don't care what questions they're asked; what they care about is destroying the credibility of anyone who might criticize their policies or their rhetoric. When Quick asked Carson about the $1.1 trillion in new deficits his tax plan would create, Carson simply replied "That's not true" -- an assertion he could make confidently because he knows Republican primary audiences are much more likely to trust Ben Carson than a member of the media.

  Of course his tax plan would be a disaster -- it would involve huge cuts for the richest Americans and drain the treasury, pushing America even deeper into debt. But facts, even obvious facts, don't matter if you can convince people the arbiters of those facts are liars.

• Ed Kilgore: Stand With Rand . . . for Nineteen Minutes!: Rand Paul's big moment in the debate was his announcement that he would fillibuster the much-hated Bipartisan Budget Deal (at least much-hated by the faction who'd seize any excuse to shut down the government). Turns out that when he did take the Senate floor to oppose the bill, he spoke against it all of 19 minutes. Ted Cruz can't even read Green Eggs & Ham that fast.

• Charles Pierce: I Have Come to the Conclusion That It's Very Easy to Be a Republican Candidate:

  Here at the shebeen, we have been talking almost since our grand opening in 2011 about how the institutional Republican party is nothing more than a sham of a mockery of a façade of a shell of its former self. Now, it seems, the candidates may be forming a creepy little cabal aimed at taking even the debate process away from obvious anagram Reince Priebus, the emptiest suit in American politics.

  "I think the bigger frustration you saw is that all those candidates onstage had prepared for a substantive debate. Everyone was ready to talk about trade policy and the debt and tax policies," Rubio said on Fox News. "And we're ready for that, everybody was. And then, you got questions that everyone got, which were clearly designed to get us to fight against each other or get us to say something embarrassing about us and then get us to react."

  Again, bullshit, all the way down. Rubio was asked a very substantive question about the lunatic tongue-bath to the wealthy that he calls a tax plan. John Harwood cited the conservative Tax Foundation's assessment that his highly redistributive notion of where all the money should end up would balloon the deficit and be an unprecedented windfall for the likes of Norman Braman and (shh!) Sheldon Adelson. If Rubio was "embarrassed" by that question, he should have been.

  But nobody is so unencumbered by facts, and nobody is so utterly unburdened by honesty, as the Tailgunner [Ted Cruz], who has proposed a debate moderated by the superstars of conservative talk-radio.

  "How about a debate moderated by Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Rush Limbaugh? Now that would be a debate." Hannity replied with enthusiasm: "I'm in!"

  By all means, senator. Let's do that.

  I'm not sold on Limbaugh, who has a history of massive flop-sweat attacks whenever he appears on television, or anywhere else outside the cocoon of his studio. And Hannity, I think, still wants too much to be a player in mainstream conservative politics to be very entertaining. But Mark Levin? Abso-freaking-lutely. Mark Levin thinks Paul Ryan is a squish. Mark Levin wants the Constitution rewritten to eliminate the popular election of senators and so that states can nullify federal laws. Let Levin moderate a debate and he'll push these clowns so far to the right that they'll end up in Kazakhstan.

• Josh Marshall: Some More Thoughts on the Debate: If you dig through the archives you can probably find his "live blogging" -- which I did read but have largely forgotten by now. Here he points out that Carly Fiorina got more time than anyone else (funny no one has tabbed her as winning or even gaining this time, like they did last debate), and Jeb Bush "got the least by a significant margin" (although lots of people have commented on how "sad" or "pathetic" Bush seemed). Plus this:

  But as I reflect on the debate a bit more I think a big reason the debate was so weird was that so many of the questions were based on obscurantist and myopic CNBC nonsense -- which is not only far-right and identified with great wealth but specifically owned by the bubble of Wall Street. That led to a lot of odd questions -- like Jim Cramer's saying why aren't GM execs going to jail, Santelli's wild questions or that question about fantasy football. Lots of people are into fantasy football. But whether it's betting and whether it should be regulated, that's a Wall Streeter question -- in the same way huge amounts of the money that gets pushed through political betting sites comes off Wall Street. It's hard for Republicans to say this. But I think this is a significant reason why the debate seemed so odd. And it made it kind of odd to hear anti-liberal bias attacks on the moderators when they were asking questions like shouldn't the Fed be forced to take us back to the gold standard.

  I should never miss the opportunity to say that the stupidest thing any political figure can possibly say is that we should go back to the gold standard.

  OK, here are the live blog links: #1, #2, #3, #57 (who knows)?, Why is this debate so bad?, Some initial thoughts. For a much longer live blog -- one that will take you longer to read than it would have taken to watch the damn thing -- go to 538. Some side-excursions too. One that I found interesting is that Trump's support is pretty even across the ideological spectrum (23-28%, plus a blip at 30% for Tea Party), where Carson is strictly conservative (with a 27% peak for White Evangelical -- a group that raises Huckabee from 4% to 7% and drops Fiorina from 7% to 2%).

• William Greider: Why Today's GOP Crackup Is the Final Unraveling of Nixon's 'Southern Strategy': Not on the debates -- I assume this piece was a response to the House's GOP leadership squabble. The key point is that the pluralism that Ronald Reagan promoted with his "11th commandment" has given way to a hard-core purism that sees every issue as a litmus test and labels any deviant as a RINO.

  A Republican lobbyist of my acquaintance whose corporate client has been caught in the middle of the political disturbances shared a provocative insight. "I finally figured it out," he told me. "Obama created the Tea Party." I laughed at first, but he explained what he meant. "We told people that Obama was a dangerous socialist who was going to wreck America and he had to be stopped, when really we knew he was a moderate Democrat, not all that radical," the lobbyist said. "But they believed us."

  In other words, the extremist assaults on the black president, combined with the economic failures, were deeply alarming for ordinary people and generated a sense of terminal crisis that was wildly exaggerated. But it generated popular expectations that Republicans must stand up to this threat with strong countermeasures -- to win back political control and save the country.

  Greider posits an "odd couple" alliance forged by the Nixon and Reagan "southern strategy" -- a cynical decision by the Republican establishment to broaden their voting base by catering to the racism of southern (and let's not forget many northern) whites. I hardly regard this as so odd: the rich never have the numbers to win in a democracy, so they always have to wrap their naked self interests in a cloak of something that might enjoy broader appeal. Since WWII that was mainly cold war propaganda, with its adulation of capitalism, defense of religion (against "godless communism"), and the growth of a military caste with all the patriotic trappings, including a lot of jingo about "freedom." Admittedly it took a while for Republicans to appropriate those myths as wholly their own, but Barry Goldwater had put it together in terms so stark it could be used to tar liberals as traitors, and Nixon and Reagan only made Goldwater's synthesis more palatable. (What made Nixon appear to be more moderate was that he was generally respectful of unions, albeit more due to pragmatism than to ideology, while Goldwater and Reagan seethed contempt.) If adding a bit of "dogwhistle racism" adds to the vote total, how much of an "odd couple" sacrifice is that really to the Republican rich? There are exceptions, for sure, but the elite country clubs have never lacked for prejudice or snobbery -- why else refer to them as "exclusive"?

  I don't see Greider's evidence that the contradictions at the root of the "odd couple" strategy are coming apart -- for one thing, the appetite of Americans for hypocrisy has never been greater, but also the rich have gotten so rich they've become oblivious to the damage and decay the rest of the world have to live in -- but Republicans do have problems keeping their shit together. The first big thing is that the Bush administration from 2001-09 was an utter clusterfuck: so much so that nearly every substantive policy that any Republican can think of today has been tried out and proven to be disastrous. Bush ended his term with approval ratings way below the Mendoza Line (and Cheney's was in single digits, about half of Bush's). The initial response of sentient Republicans to that debacle was to crawl into a hole somewhere, but all that did was to let the crazies loose, and when they seemed to be having some success, the rest of the party, lacking any better ideas or principles, lined up behind them. The only reason they've been able to survive by doubling down on disaster has been their ability to get people to blame the adverse effects of their policies on the Democrats. (Obama and the Democrats abetted this not only by continuing many Bush policies, like the wars in the Middle East and the bank bailouts, but by not squarely placing blame where it belonged, and by not pushing reforms that would make a real difference.)

  The reason the Tea Party exploded in 2009 was that the Republican propaganda machine, after eight years of lamely recycling pro-Bush talking points, got a chance to go on the offensive, and they did so with a vengeance. They did so by characterizing Obama as a devious monster "out to wreck America," and they clearly equated America not with the majority who had voted for Obama but with the small minority who listened to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck -- a group that flattered themselves as the only true Americans, the vanguard to "take America back." They may even be right that "their America" is slipping away, but they're also letting themselves be used.

  I could probably spend several pages just unpacking that last sentence: there are obvious cons like Beck's gold racket, and there are broader problems embedded in dozens of policy proposals, and there are deeper and subtler problems when a society devolves into nothing but rapacious individuals each out for number one. It seems like a premise of the debates is that all Republicans think alike, so the only thing to decide is the character and tone you want in a leader (ranging from a blowhard like Trump to a soft sell like Carson).

  For more along these lines, see Jacob Hacker/Paul Person: No Cost for Extremism. Subhed: "Why the GOP hasn't (yet) paid for its march to the right."

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Music: Current count 25653 [25626] rated (+27), 447 [449] unrated (-2).

Rated count slipped a bit, mostly because I lost a day-plus cooking up another chapter in my birthday dinner series. Tried my hand at Cuban cuisine this time, something I've sampled in restaurants not much more than a half-dozen times (mostly one in Royal Oak, MI, although we lucked into a very good place southwest of Miami). I've done a lot of Spanish (and Basque and Catallan and Portuguese, so should I say Iberian?) dishes, but very little from south of the border (aside from a massive feijoada one birthday). As with Spanish, Cubans use a lot of garlic but not much in the way of chilis. I've never liked the peppers that dominate Mexican cuisine, although I should figure out my way around them (as I've done with Indian, Thai, and Indonesian) given that the hardest part of any exotic cuisine is the shopping, and there are countless Mexican stores in these parts. (Actually, for this dinner I picked up most of the less conventional ingredients not from the bilingual Kroger but from a large Vietnamese grocer I frequent -- among other things, the only place in town I can get salt cod.)

More details on the dinner in the notebook. Suffice it to say that despite some very poor planning and last-minute panicking pretty much everything came out splendid. Good company too, although by the time I was finished I was a bit too frazzled to get into it. Much on my mind was the thought that I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. No one thought to take pictures. Where's Max Stewart when you really need him? Also nostalgic for so many previous guests, especially Liz Jones, who inspired the first few dinners (and has long since lost touch), and the late Liz Fink -- people who really appreciated good food. (Liz, of course, was represented by her dog Sadie, who earned the title sous-chef by always being under my feet.)

While cooking, I suspended my usual listening work and played oldies, starting with the Beatles and winding up with Atlantic R&B. The former hadn't happened in many years, but when I went out to shop for the meal, before I could pop a CD in -- I had picked out Rumba en el Patio by Conjunto Kubavana (1944-47) -- a song came on which struck me as the most completely marvelous thing I've ever heard: "All My Loving." I probably hadn't heard it since shortly after I bought the With the Beatles CD, but I found myself intimately familiar with every note and harmony. It was followed by Elvis Presley singing "All Shook Up," by comparison merely great, then something else I only vaguely recognized and didn't care for.

Most of this week's list already appeared in October's Rhapsody Streamnotes. I noted there how many of my jazz picks were by (or featured) saxophonists, so maybe I'm compensating a bit for that here. My two top HMs this week -- Rich Halley's Eleven and Scott Hamilton's Live in Bern -- are by long-time personal favorites who have already scored A- records this year (Creating Structure and Plays Jule Styne). I have minor quibbles about both, but I haven't been conscientious enough to do the A:B comparisons to see which is really the better record. I will say that there is some terrific music on both. Instead, I went with another long-time favorite saxophonist, Rodrigo Amado. I suppose one could quibble there too, but Joe McPhee (who has another A- record this year) adds extra bite to some of the year's most impressive sax runs.

The best post-RS record on the list is Marty Grosz's debut. I noticed that Rhapsody added some old Grosz Jazzology titles, and worked my way back. I mostly listen to avant-jazz these days, but I still hold to the idea that the old jazz is the real jazz, so guys like Grosz are always on my radar. Grosz was born a year before Bix Beiderbecke died, and well into his 80s he's still active -- his Fat Babies album Diga Diga Doo is also on this year's A-list.

No comments so far on my question whether it'd be worthile to do another Turkey Shoot/Black Friday Special this year. I dropped the ball last year and no one picked it up -- I had hopes for Odyshape, but they crashed shortly before. I don't want to do the heavy lifting this year -- soliciting and editing entries -- but would be willing to format and post it and might even contribute something. So let me know if you want to volunteer. Time is running out. I'm not going to bring this up again.

New records rated this week:

• Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin: Lost Time (2015, Yep Roc): [r]: B+(*)
• Rodrigo Amado: This Is Our Language (2012 [2015], Not Two): [cd]: A-
• Randy Brecker: Randy Pop: Live (2015, Piloo): [cd]: B
• Art "Turk" Burton and Congo Square: Spirits: Then & Now (1983-2015 [2015], ATB): [cd]: B+(**)
• Marnix Busstra: Firm Fragile Fun (2015, Buzz Music): [cd]: B+(*)
• Rich Halley 4: Eleven (2014 [2015], Pine Eagle): [cd]: B+(***)
• Scott Hamilton & Jeff Hamilton Trio: Live in Bern (2014 [2015], Capri): [cd]: B+(***)
• Alfred 23 Harth/Jörg Fischer/Marcel Daemgen: Confucius Tarif Reduit (2014 [2015], Spore Point): [cd]: B+(**)
• Dale Head: Swing Straight Up (2015, Blujazz): [cd]: B
• Carlos Henriquez: The Bronx Pyramid (2015, Blue Engine): [r]: B+(**)
• Innerroute: Fourmation (2015, self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
• Bill Kirchner: An Evening of Indigos (2014 [2015], Jazzheads, 2CD): [cd]: B+(**)
• Frank Kohl Quartet: Invisible Man (2013 [2015], Pony Boy): [cd]: B+(*)
• John Kruth: The Drunken Wind of Life: The Poem/Songs of Tin Ujevic (2015, Smiling Fez): [bc]: A-
• Amy LaVere and Will Sexton: Hallelujah I'm a Dreamer (2015, Archer): [r]: A-
• Russ Lossing: Eclipse (2012 [2015], Aqua Piazza): [cd]: B+(**)
• Hans Luchs: Time Never Pauses (2015, OA2): [cd]: B+(*)
• Whitney Marchelle: Dig Dis (2015, Blujazz): [cd]: B+(*)
• Matt Mitchell: Vista Accumulation (2015, Pi, 2CD): [cd]: B+(**)
• Ben Patterson: For Once in My Life (2015, Origin): [cd]: B+(*)
• Scottish National Jazz Orchestra/Makoto Ozone: Jeunehomme: Mozart Piano Concerto No 9 K-271 (2014 [2015], Spartacus): [cdr]: B+(*)
• Voicehandler: Song Cycle (2013-14 [2015], Humbler): [cd]: B+(*)
• Lou Volpe: Tremembering Ol' Blue Eyes (Songs of Sinatra) (2015, Jazz Guitar): [cd]: B+(**)
• Bastian Weinhold: Cityscape (2014 [2015], Frame Music): [cd]: B+(*)
• Galen Weston: Plugged In (2015, Blujazz): [cd]: B-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• Willem Breuker Kollektief: Angoulême 18 Mai 1980 (1980 [2015], Fou, 2CD): [cd]: A-

Old music rated this week:

• Marty Grosz and His Honoris Causa Jazz Band: Hooray for Bix! (1957 [1958], Good Time Jazz): [r]: A-
• Marty Grosz with Destiny's Tots: Sings of Love and Other Matters (1986, Jazzology): [r]: A-
• Marty Grosz: Songs I Learned at My Mother's Knee & Other Low Joints (1992 [1994], Jazzology): [r]: B+(**)
• Marty Grosz: Keep a Song in Your Soul (1994, Jazzology): [r]: B+(***)
• The Bill Kirchner Nonet: One Starry Night (1987 [2011], Jazzheads): [r]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• June Bisantz: It's Always You: June Bisantz Sings Chet Baker Vol. 2 (self-released)
• Bizingas: Eggs Up High (NCM East): November 6
• Bobby Bradford-Frode Gjerstad Quartet: The Delaware River (NoBusiness): CDR of LP-only
• The Katie Bull Group Project: All Hot Bodies Radiate (Ashokan Indie): November 10
• John Carter: Echoes From Rudolph's (1977, NoBusiness, 2CD)
• Agedoke Steve Colson: Tones for Harriet Tubman/Sojourner Truth/Frederick Douglass (Silver Sphinx, 2CD)
• Joseph Daley/Warren Smith/Scott Robinson: The Tuba Trio Chronicles (JoDa Locust Street Music): January 1
• Giovanni Di Domenico/Peter Jacquemyn/Chris Corsano: A Little Off the Top (NoBusiness): CDR of LP-only
• Free Jazz Group Wiesbaden: Frictions/Frictions Now (NoBusiness)
• Amina Figarova: Blue Whisper (In + Out)
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: Big Band Holidays (Blue Engine): October 30
• Martin Küchen/Jon Rune Strøm/Tollef Østvang: Melted Snow (NoBusiness): CDR of LP-only
• Martin Küchen/Johan Berthling/Steve Noble: Night in Europe (NoBusiness)
• Ingrid Laubrock: Ubatuba (Firehouse 12): November 6
• Jon Lindberg/Anil Eraslan: Juggling Kukla (NoBusiness): CDR of LP-only
• Roy McGrath Quartet: Martha (JL Music): November 6
• Rova: Channeling Coltrane: Electric Ascension / Cleaning the Mirror (RogueArt, 2DVD): January 7
• Ramana Veiera: Fado Da Vida (Fate of Life)

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

No real time to write this week's roundup -- it's my birthday and I'm busy cooking (see the notebook for the menu). But I do have a bunch of links open in various tabs and I thought I might share them before they become stale. In no particular order:

• Uri Avinery: The Settler's Prussia: In the 19th century, Germany was, fatefully, taken over by a marginal state on its far northeastern border, Prussia. Avinery sees the settler movement doing something like that in Israel. Also see Avinery's Weep, Beloved Country.

• Andrew J Bacevich: Yes, the US can leave Afghanistan:

  What we have here is temporizing dressed up in policy drag. It is a gesture designed to convey an appearance of purposefulness to an enterprise whose actual purpose has long since vanished in the mists of time.

  Having inherited from his predecessor two wars begun in 2001 and 2003, respectively, Obama will bequeath those same two wars to the person who will succeed him as president in 2017. It is incumbent upon Americans to contemplate the implications of this disturbing fact. By their very endlessness, the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq constitute a judgment on American statecraft, one further compounded by the chaos now enveloping large swaths of the Islamic world. Here are the consequences that stem from misunderstanding military power and misusing a military instrument once deemed unstoppable.

  Only by owning up to the mindless failure of U.S. military efforts since 9/11 does it become possible to restore real choice. Alternatives to open-ended war waged on the other side of the globe do exist. Contrary to Carter's lame insistence, the United States can leave Afghanistan. Protecting Americans from the relatively modest threat posed by the Taliban or Al Qaeda or Islamic State -- or all three combined for that matter -- does not require the permanent stationing of U.S. forces in the Islamic world, especially given the evidence that the presence of American troops there serves less to pacify than to provoke.

  Bacevich also wrote a more substantial piece at TomDispatch, On Building Armies (and Watching Them Fail).

• Peter Beinart: Trump Is Right About 9/11: As was well known if not at the time then shortly after, there were a number of concrete things the Bush administration could have done that might have kept 9/11 from happening. Terrorism "czar" Richard Clarke was especially unhappy about how Bush's neocons dropped the ball on Al-Qaeda, and Beinart dredges up all that story -- one that few in the press seem to recall, but which makes Trump's reminder that 9/11 happened during Bush's presidency appear to have more weight. Beinart could have made an even stronger case had he pointed out some of the things Bush did to aggravate tensions in the Middle East, such as his Clinton-esque bombing of Iraq and his support for Sharon's Counter-Intifada in Palestine. One might counter that Trump has unrealistic notions about what presidents can do, but that's a big part of his charm (or absurdity).

• Tom Carson: 'Spies' Like Us: Steven Spielberg and the Cold War's Forgotten Battles: Review of Bridge of Spies and the Cold War it illuminates, for once.

• Kathleen Frydl: Donald Trump and the Know-Nothings: More useful as an historical excursion into the short-lived 1850s nativist party than as an analysis of Trump himself, but that's because the "Know Nothings" were more colorful and their ignorance was more florid. One of history's great truisms: stupid people in the past could be interesting, but stupid people today are just tiresome.

• Assaf Gavron: Confessions of an Israeli traitor:

  The internal discussion in Israel is more militant, threatening and intolerant than it has ever been. Talk has trended toward fundamentalism ever since the Israeli operation in Gaza in late 2008, but it has recently gone from bad to worse. There seems to be only one acceptable voice, orchestrated by the government and its spokespeople, and beamed to all corners of the country by a clan of loyal media outlets drowning out all the others. Those few dissenters who attempt to contradict it -- to ask questions, to protest, to represent a different color from this artificial consensus -- are ridiculed and patronized at best, threatened, vilified and physically attacked at worst. Israelis not "supporting our troops" are seen as traitors, and newspapers asking questions about the government's policies and actions are seen as demoralizing. [ . . . ]

  The cumulative effect of this recent mindless violence is hugely disturbing. We seem to be in a fast and alarming downward swirl into a savage, unrepairable society. There is only one way to respond to what's happening in Israel today: We must stop the occupation. Not for peace with the Palestinians or for their sake (though they have surely suffered at our hands for too long). Not for some vision of an idyllic Middle East -- those arguments will never end, because neither side will ever budge, or ever be proved wrong by anything. No, we must stop the occupation for ourselves. So that we can look ourselves in the eyes. So that we can legitimately ask for, and receive, support from the world. So that we can return to being human.

• Ed Kilgore: The Cult of the Second Amendment:

  And to a remarkable extent, the default position of conservatives has less and less to do with arguments about the efficacy of gun regulation or the need for guns to deter or respond to crime. Instead, it's based on the idea that the main purpose of the Second Amendment is to keep open the possibility of revolutionary violence against the U.S. government.

  This was once an exotic, minority view even among gun enthusiasts who tended to view the Second Amendment as protecting an individual right to gun ownership not to overthrow the government but to supplement the government's use of lethal force against criminals. [ . . . ]

  Nowadays this revolutionary rationale for gun rights is becoming the rule rather than the exception for conservative politicians and advocates. Mike Huckabee, a sunny and irenic candidate for president in 2008, all but threatened revolutionary violence in his recent campaign book for the 2016 cycle, God, Guns, Grits and Gravy:

  If the Founders who gave up so much to create liberty for us could see how our government has morphed into a ham-fisted, hypercontrolling "Sugar Daddy," I believe those same patriots who launched a revolution would launch another one. Too many Americans have grown used to Big Government's overreach. They've been conditioned to just bend over and take it like a prisoner [!]. But in Bubba-ville, the days of bending are just about over. People are ready to start standing up for freedom and refusing to take it anymore.

  Dr. Ben Carson, another candidate thought to be a mild-mannered Christian gentleman, recently disclosed that he used to favor modest gun control measures until he came to realize the importance of widespread gun ownership as a safeguard against "tyranny."

  "When you look at tyranny and how it occurs, the pattern is so consistent: Get rid of the guns," Carson told USA Today. [ . . . ]

  Indeed, a lot of Second Amendment ultras appear to think the right to revolution is entirely up to the individual revolutionary.

  My own view is that the second amendment was meant to ensure that state militias would be able to fight the Civil War, although the other obvious reading had to do with fighting Indians. Both meanings had become obsolete by 1900, and civilians have never had a significant role in fighting against criminals. The second amendment wasn't repealed then because it didn't seem to be all that harmful -- no least because the courts consistently ruled against an individual right to guns. That's only changed recently, and the full impact has yet to be felt, but what's disturbing about it isn't just the increase in the number of guns out there and the number of (often incompetent) people carrying them, but the sheer nonsense gun advocates wind up spouting. One stupid idea is that if everyone was armed we'd all wind up treating each other with more proper respect. A deeper one is that we're shifting responsibility for managing conflict from law and the courts to the streets. Then there's the notion Kilgore dwells on, that because individuals have a right to own guns they have a right to use them to oppose the rule of law when they (alone) find it unjust. The latter is often used not just to rationalize gun ownership but to permit individuals to own ever more powerful firearms because that's what it would take to neutralize the power of the state. The problem here is not just practical -- after all, we're talking about a state that owns AC-130 gunships that can fire thousands of rounds of depleted uranium per minute, and that's not even the scariest example. The real problem is that it gives up on making sure the state is responsible to the public in a fair and equitable way.

• Nancy LeTourneau: What I Learned From Watching the Benghazi Hearing: Mostly, that Clinton kept her cool through eleven hours of idiots trying to rile her. But also it has something to do with the word preferences between Republicans and the administration, not that I get all the nuances there. For example, I tire of hearing the word "terrorist" used so indiscriminately: partly because it seems to be all it takes to gain license to kill someone (and perhaps a few others in the vicinity), partly because it seems like much (if not most) of the real terror is perpetrated by the so-called anti-terrorists. Still, lest the Republicans turn Clinton into some sort of heroic figure, see Jason Ditz: Bizarre Revisionism: Hillary Claims Libya Shows Consequences of US Military Withdrawals.

• Mark LeVine: The tide is turning against Zionist extremism:

  As the inherent contradiction between Israel's self-image as a modern, democratic and progressive country and the reality of a half-century-long brutal occupation become clear to all, the erosion of support for Israel by the emerging generation of American Jews will continue and likely increase, with profound consequences not just for Israel but also for the future of the American Jewish community.

  For an example LeVine didn't cite, see Two establishment Jews (Harvard and Microsoft) endorse boycott of Israel and 'single state' in Washington Post.

• Josh Marshall: Netanyahu Reduced to Defending Hitler, Really . . .: This is the first piece I saw on Netanyahu's speech to the World Zionist Congress, where he argued that Hitler "just wanted to deport the Jews" until he met exiled Palestinian Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, whose answer to Hitler's "So what should I do with them?" was "Burn them." With the Palestinian Revolt of 1937-39 failed, al-Husseini went into exile and spent WWII in Nazi Germany. It is known that he met with Hitler once, in 1941, and Israelis have been trying to make mountains out of that mole hill ever since. Still, it seems bizarre that any Israeli, much less the Prime Minister, would try to make Hitler seem less horrific just to blame some Palestinian -- anything, I guess, to distract from all of Israel's self-inflicted problems. More links on this:

  • Marc H Ellis: Has Netanyahu's revisionism ended the use of the Holocaust as enabler of Israeli injustice toward Palestinians?
  • Tony Greenstein: Rewriting the Holocaust
  • Natasha Lennard: Netanyahu's absurd Holocaust mythology
  • Rainer Schulze: Netanyahu, the Grand Mufti and the Holocaust: Why it is important to get the historical facts right
  • Richard Silverstein: Bibi Butchers History
  • Philip Weiss/Adam Horowitz: Despite global disgust, Netanyahu doubles down on claim that Hitler got idea of Final Solution from a Palestinian

• Gareth Porter: Why the US Owns the Rise of Islamic State and the Syria Disaster:

  The causal chain begins with the role of the U.S. in creating a mujahedeen force to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Osama bin Laden was a key facilitator in training that force in Afghanistan. Without that reckless U.S. policy, the blowback of the later creation of al-Qaida would very likely not have occurred. But it was the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq that made al-Qaida a significant political-military force for the first time. The war drew Islamists to Iraq from all over the Middle East, and their war of terrorism against Iraqi Shiites was a precursor to the sectarian wars to follow.

  The actual creation of Islamic State is also directly linked to the Iraq War. The former U.S. commander at Camp Bucca in Iraq has acknowledged that the detention of 24,000 prisoners, including hard-core al-Qaida cadres, Baathist officers and innocent civilians, created a "pressure cooker for extremism." It was during their confinement in that camp during the U.S. troop surge in Iraq 2007 and 2008 that nine senior al-Qaida military cadres planned the details of how they would create Islamic State.

• Gareth Porter: The US Could End Saudi War Crimes in Yemen -- It Just Doesn't Want To:

  According to a joint report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2,682 civilian deaths and injuries resulted from air bombardment in Yemen from late March to the end of July 2015 -- more than anywhere else in the world during the first seven months of the year.

  The Saudis have also imposed a tight blockade on Yemen by air, land and water, to prevent not only weapons, but also food, fuel and medicine from reaching millions of Yemenis, creating a humanitarian disaster. Doctors Without Borders declared in July that the Saudi blockade was killing as many people in Yemen as the bombing. US Navy ships have been patrolling alongside Saudi ships to prevent arms from entering Yemen, while disclaiming any involvement in the Saudi-led blockade of food, fuel and medical supplies.

  The Amnesty report points out that the United States has a legal obligation under the Arms Trade Treaty not to provide weaponry it knows will be used in the indiscriminate bombing of Yemen. Article 6 of that treaty, which entered into force in October 2014, forbids the transfer of arms and munitions to a party to an armed conflict if it has knowledge that the weaponry will be used for "attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which it is a party."

  I suspect one reason for Obama's reluctance to criticize Saudi Arabia for killing civilians in Yemen is that the US had been doing exactly that through its drone program for many years now. Some details of that (plus much more) appear in Cora Currie: The Kill Chain: The Lethal Bureaucracy Behind Obama's Drone War.

• Jon Schwarz: A Short History of US Bombing of Civilian Facilities, and Tom Engelhardt: The US Has Bombed at Least Eight Wedding Parties Since 2001: Two immediate (and rather obvious) responses to the US bombing of a Médicins Sans Frontières hospital in Afghanistan. The Schwarz piece includes a cartoon with a quote from Obama's then-latest mass shooting speech (the one in Oregon).

• Nathan Thrall: The End of the Abbas Era:

  For Abbas, political survival depended on making significant gains before any of this occurred. His strategy entailed several gambles. First, that providing Israel with security, informing on fellow Palestinians, and suppressing opposition to the occupation would convince Israel's government that Palestinians could be trusted with independence. Second, that after Palestinians had met US demands to abandon violence, build institutions and hold democratic elections, the US would put pressure on Israel to make the concessions necessary to establish a Palestinian state. Third, that after being invited to participate in legislative elections, Hamas would win enough seats to be co-opted but too few to take over. Fourth, that by improving the Palestinian Authority economy and rebuilding its institutions, Abbas would buy enough time to achieve Palestinian statehood.

  In all four respects, he came up short. Israel took his security co-operation for granted and the Israeli public did not demand that its government reward Abbas for his peaceful strategy. The US did not apply the necessary pressure to extract significant concessions from Israel. Hamas won the legislative elections, took over Gaza, and refused to adopt Abbas's political programme (though Hamas's victory also strengthened international support for Abbas, as the international community shifted from democracy promotion to democracy prevention). And West Bankers, though dependent on the jobs and economic infrastructure provided by the PA, also resent it, and have lost whatever faith they once had that Abbas's strategy could succeed. According to an opinion poll taken last month, two-thirds of West Bankers and Gazans want him to resign.

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

A little more than a month since the last one, the extra time making up for our ten-day dog rescue excursion to yield a typical month's worth of triage. The new records are mostly jazz (65%) because I've been trying to make a dent in my backlog. Of the non-jazz picks, three were recommended by Robert Christgau (John Kruth, Amy LaVere, Donnie Trumpet), two more by Michael Tatum (Ezra Furman, Giorgio Moroder). The other two (Metric, New Order) are records I looked up based on prior reputation. My working EOY list for non-jazz is still way underdeveloped compared to the jazz list (35 records to 53). The year-end lists should help even this out, but even the premature British lists are still a month away. Maybe we should revive the Turkey Shoot/Black Friday Special this year?

The old music is more eclectic than it's been in quite a while. I took a break from the Hatology orgy last month, although I'm far from done with that label. Some records came out of a Pitchfork Top Albums of the 1970s list. I think I had 85 of 100 before I started searching out the stragglers (a little heavy on krautrock). Other old music followed new music -- Bottle Rockets, Ulrich Gumpert, I found a Bill Kirchner record with Sheila Jordan on it.

The Notes section has previous grades of albums by artists in the Old Music section. I started this a few months back when it made more sense -- at the time I was filling in holes in various artist lists, mostly by chasing down top-whatever lists. I made a change last month when my Hatology research glanced into some artists it would have been exhausting to list out (like Anthony Braxton and Steve Lacy). This month it's less clear what to do, so I'm winging it. I've included albums by Armstrong and Bechet that have some of the same material as the ones reviewed, then counted up the rest. I listed out Ulrich Gumpert since most of what I've heard was reviewed this month, but merely counted Pandelis Karayorgis. I imagine both pianists are about equally obscure even to American jazz fans, which is a shame. The best place to start on Karayorgis is an album credited to Mi3, Free Advice (2004 [2007], Clean Feed) -- a Jazz CG Pick Hit when it came out.

Total rated count for this column sailed past 7000 this month.

Most of these are short notes/reviews based on streaming records from Rhapsody. They are snap judgments based on one or two plays, accumulated since my last post along these lines, back on September 16. Past reviews and more information are available here (7100 records).

Recent Releases

Bob Albanese: Time Remembered (2012 [2015], Mayimba): Pianist, second album (as far as I can tell), leads a trio with Eddie Gomez on bass and Willard Dyson on drums, and extra percussion on one track. And someone sings some at the end, presumably the artist, with a vocalese air, fitting for all the brisk boppishness. B+(*) [cd]

The Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet: 10 (2015, Zoho): Trumpeter, from Peru, based in New York, celebrates ten years since founding his sextet. One trad piece, jazz standards like "Caravan" and "Lonely Woman" and "My Favorite Things" -- also a take of "Star Spangled Banner" I don't mind too much. B+(***) [cd]

Gonçalo Almeida/Martin van Duynhoven/Tobias Klein: Vibrate in Sympathy (2015, Clean Feed): Credits should be reordered to put Klein up front, making this a sax-bass-drums trio, all original pieces by Klein, who is very clear-headed on alto sax, bass clarinet, and contrabass clarinet. B+(***) [cd]

Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin: Lost Time (2015, Yep Roc): The ex-Blasters' previous reunion album, 2014's Common Ground, had the thematic coherence of a tribute album, not to mention one of the most underappreciated of all blues songbooks, Big Bill Broonzy. On the other hand, this quickie rarely rises above the level of a family singalong. Some songs, of course, are nice to hear, and there's a certain novelty value in hearing Phil try on "Please Please Please." B+(*)

Rodrigo Amado: This Is Our Language (2012 [2015], Not Two): Tenor saxophonist, from Portugal, should be considered a major figure on the instrument. He is spectacular here, not that he doesn't get help from Joe McPhee (pocket trumpet, alto sax) working around his edges. With Kent Kessler on bass and Chris Corsano on drums. A- [cd]

Laurie Antonioli & Richie Beirach: Varuna (2006-15 [2015], Origin): Vocalist and pianist, mostly recorded in two sessions from 2006 and 2012, plus some more recent touch up. Bassist Pepe Berns joins for the jointly-credited three-part "Resolution Suite." Four more originals, plus standards concepts like opening "My Funny Valentine" with Scriabin's "Prelude in E-flat Minor." B- [cd]

The Bottle Rockets: South Broadway Athletic Club (2015, Bloodshot): Country-ish rock band, dates back to 1993 with over a dozen albums, led by Brian Henneman, whose songs are clear and empathetic as ever. B+(***)

Randy Brecker: Randy Pop: Live (2015, Piloo): As pointed out in the liner notes, the trumpeter turns 70 in November, so time, perhaps, for a little nostalgia. Brecker and his saxophonist brother "Mike" ran a successful fusion group in the 1970s but also did tons of studio work, so Kenny Werner got the idea of taking songs the Breckers played bit parts on and turning them into a retrospective: Donald Fagen's jazz-ready "New Frontier," BS&T, Todd Rundgren, a pair of James Browns segueing into Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon. Werner forgets the part about pop being fun but avoids the worst skunk funk, and Brecker's deadpan intros add to the museum effect. B [cd]

A Bu Trio: 88 Tones of Black and White (2014 [2015], Blujazz, CD+DVD): Pianist, from Beijing, accepted at age 9 to the Conservatory of Music, "studied under renowned jazz pianist professor Kong Hongwei," attended sumer camps in Kansas City and San Francisco, joined the Beijing Jungle Big Band in 2012. Debut is a trio with Ma Kai on bass and Shao Ha Ha on drums. The thirteen cuts are all covers, the J.S. Bach sounding odder to me than the Monk. B+(*) [cd]

Art "Turk" Burton and Congo Square: Spirits: Then & Now (1983-2015 [2015], ATB): Conga player from Chicago, joined AACM in 1973, was elected chairman in 2011. This is the only album I've been able to find, built from 2 cuts from a 1983 live shot, 6 more from a recent studio date -- bassist Harrison Bankhead spans both sets. The early cuts have that loose swing one associates with Sun Ra, especially the one joined by Douglass Ewart and Donald Rafael Garrett. The new ones take a while to click -- roughly until the percussion leads the way. B+(**) [cd]

Marnix Busstra: Firm Fragile Fun (2015, Buzz Music): Guitarist, postbop fusion, has several previous albums. This is a quartet with piano-bass-drums, the leader playing bouzouki and electric sitar as well as guitar. All original material. Flows easy. B+(*) [cd]

De Beren Gieren: One Mirrors Many (2015, Clean Feed): Piano trio: Fulco Ottervanger (piano), Lieven Van Pée (bass), Simon Segers (drums). Fifth album since 2010, a nice mix of postbop and avant, dense but nothing untoward. B+(**) [cd]

Benoit Delbecq/Miles Perkin/Emile Biayenda: Ink (2014 [2015], Clean Feed): French pianist, twenty-some albums since 1992, this a trio with bass and drums. I'm struck especially by his rhythmic control. B+(***) [cd]

East West Quintet: Anthem (2011 [2015], self-released): Based in Brooklyn, which I guess makes them more east than west these days. Also I count a sextet's worth of credits: Dylan Heaney (alto/tenor sax), Phil Rodriguez (trumpet), Simon Kafka (guitar), Mike Cassidy (piano, keyboards), Benjamin Campbell (electric and upright bass), Jordan Perlson (drums). Third album, self-described as "genre-bending" and "more likely to rock than to swing" -- actually, odds of either are pretty slim, nor does it help that "anthem" seems to mean slow. B- [cd]

Eskmo: Sol (2015, Apollo): Brendan Angelides' second album, a mix of bent pop and electronics that grows on you, somewhat. B+(**)

EZTV: Calling Out (2015, Captured Tracks): Guitar-driven power pop, just not much power, even less pop. B

John Fedchock New York Big Band: Like It Is (2014 [2015], MAMA): Trombonist, his first New York Big Band album dates back to 1992, a crack outfit -- reed section: Charles Pillow, Mark Vinci, Rich Perry, Walt Weiskopf, Gary Smulyan/Scott Robinson -- not that this breaks new ground. B+(**) [cd]

Ezra Furman: Perpetual Motion People (2015, Bella Union): A singer-songwriter who's able to accent his writerly preoccupations -- whatever they may be, one line being "lose yourself completely, but stay alive" -- by reviving ancient rock archetypes, some doo-wop here, some glam rock there, some honking sax. A-

Gerry Gibbs Thrasher Dream Trio: Live in Studio (2015, Whaling City Sound): Third group album, impossible to fault the drummer's dream team -- pianist Kenny Barron and bassist Ron Carter. All standards, most given a delightful lift with the pianist's light touch. Also, four guest spots for Roy Hargrove, and three for Cassandra Wilson. B+(**) [cd]

Ulrich Gumpert Quartett: A New One (2014 [2015], Intakt): Pianist-led sax quartet, with Jürg Wickihalder the saxophonist, Jan Roder on bass and Michael Griener on drums. B. 1945 in Jena, Gumpert grew up in East Berlin, interested in Satie and free jazz. From 1974 on, he recorded several FMP albums with Günter Sommer, joined Conny Bauer's Zentralquartett (still an important group), recorded a duo with Steve Lacy in 1987 (and was later one of the pianists on Lacy's Five Facings). A- [cd]

Scott Hamilton & Jeff Hamilton Trio: Live in Bern (2014 [2015], Capri): No relation, although drummer Jeff comes from a famous jazz family, which put him in front of what otherwise might be Tamir Hendelman's piano trio. I thought the pianist was a bit obtrusive at first, but the second spin was all smooth sailing for the tenor. B+(***) [cd]

Miho Hazama: Time River (2015, Sunnyside): Pianist, composer, arranger, spends more time conducting on her second album than at the piano. Band is officially 13-piece although I see more credits here, including a full cast of strings, and a guest slot for Joshua Redman. B+(**) [cdr]

Dale Head: Swing Straight Up (2015, Blujazz): Saloon singer, plays some trumpet, is backed by Rory Snyder's Night Jazz Band on a dozen standards (although "Blue Rondo a La Turk" is a vocalese lark). B [cd]

Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness (2015, Domino): From Los Angeles, a singer-songwriter who looks to literature for inspiration -- Colette and Isherwood this time -- and wraps stories up in thick sheets of electronics. B

Innerroute: Fourmation (2011 [2015], self-released): Quartet -- Michael D'Agostino (drums), Rick Savage (trumpet/flugelhorn), Joe Vincent Tranchina (keyboard), Bill McCrossen (acoustic & electric fretless basses) -- second album, the electric ride neither postbop nor fusion, not that there isn't a whole tradition around trumpet slicing through electronics. B+(**) [cd]

Jason Isbell: Something More Than Free (2015, Southeastern): Singer-songwriter, left the Drive-By Truckers in 2007 for a solo career which has never amounted to much. Some attractive songs here. Most seem too understated, but when he pumps one up that doesn't help either. B+(*)

Ivan & Alyosha: It's All Just Pretend (2015, Dualtone): Seattle band, named after The Borthers Karamazov, third album, a pleasant alt-rock group. B

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: Live in Cuba (2010 [2015], Blue Engine, 2CD): A first-rate, even if relatively conventional, big band. Bronx-born bassist Carlos Henriquez serves as musical director, stocking the band with Latin standards without suggesting they know better how to play the local music. On the other hand, they do know how to run a rousing brass section. B+(**)

Ochion Jewell Quartet: Volk (2015, self-released): Tenor saxophonist, based in New York, second album (as far as I can tell), quartet includes bassist Sam Minaie and two-thirds of Dawn of Midi: pianist Amino Belyamani and drummer Qasim Naqvi. The sax doesn't blow me away, but the rhythm section is far from ordinary. Two tracks add Lionel Loueke. A- [cd]

Bill Kirchner: An Evening of Indigos (2014 [2015], Jazzheads, 2CD): Soprano saxophonist and sometime jazz historian (he edited The Oxford Companion to Jazz, organized a nonet for his 1983 debut and that seems to be his favorite vehicle. This is more intimate, a long, relaxed set with Carlton Holmes on piano, Jim Ferguson on bass, and smoky vocals by Holli Ross. B+(**) [cd]

Frank Kohl Quartet: Invisible Man (2013 [2015], Pony Boy): Another mild-mannered guitar album, backed by Tom Kohl on piano, Steve LaSpina on bass, and Jon Doty on drums. B+(*) [cd]

John Kruth: The Drunken Wind of Life: The Poem/Songs of Tin Ujevic (2015, Smiling Fez): Ujevic (1891-1955) was a Croatian poet and essayist; he studied in Split, lived mostly in Belgrade (after some time in France) but died in Zagreb. Wikipedia tells us that "in 2008, a total of 122 streets in Croatia were named after Ujevic, making him the ninth most common person for whom streets were named in Croatia." Nine (of thirteen) songs here are built around Ujevic lyrics, three others Kurth originals "inspired by Ujevic and Croatia," plus a trad folk dance for local flavor. Actually, the music doesn't sound that Balkan, and the lyrics are all standard English translations, accorded the sort of veneration that comes naturally to folkies. A-

Amy LaVere and Will Sexton: Hallelujah I'm a Dreamer (2015, Archer): A country singer who prefers Memphis, and one of those singer-songwriter who having established her own career decided to give her husband some billing -- Amy Rigby, Kelly Chambers, and Kelly Willis are others (although the latter's mate is probably as well known). This was cut cheap, minimal arrangements, recycling some old songs which stand on their own. Still very much her album, although he sings one and does a nice job. A-

Left Exit Mr K: Featuring Michael Duch & Klaus Holm (2013 [2015], Clean Feed): My original parsing had Left Exit as the group name, Mr K as the album title, and the rest as fluff. Some further diggins suggests the above, with some sources marking the transition from white to black print with a comma (and an equally invisible dot): Left Exit, Mr. K. At any rate, the group proper is a duo of Karl Hjalmar Nyberg (saxes) and Andreas Skår Winther (drums, strings), so Duch (double bass) and Holm (sax, clarinet) are guests. Improv that aims at the dark side of ambient, nothing quite so clear as drone. B+(**) [cd]

The Liberation Music Collective: Siglo XXI (2015, self-released): Big band from Bloomington, IN, co-founded and (more or less) led by Hannah Fidler (bass) and Matt Riggen (trumpet), the instrumental stretches cut with interviews, spoken word samples, a "Herstory" rap by Fiddler. May strike you as a bit preachy, but someone in the trombone section has a sense of humor (and so does Fidler -- best presumably assumed name since Joe Strummer). B+(**) [cd]

Expansions: The Dave Liebman Group: The Puzzle (2015, Whaling City Sound): The saxophonist has many groups, well over 100 albums, but this one almost deserves the pretentious name. Liebman plays soprano and wooden recorder -- not something I've been all that fond of in the past, but he mixes well with Matt Vashlishan (clarinet, flute, alto sax, straw, EWI). Bobby Avey is a terrific pianist, and Tony Marino and Alex Ritz are fine on bass and drums. B+(***) [cd]

Russ Lossing: Eclipse (2012 [2015], Aqua Piazza): One of the most impressive jazz pianists to have emerge since 2000. This one is solo, often quite impressive. B+(**) [cd]

Hans Luchs: Time Never Pauses (2015, OA2): Guitarist, based in Chicago, first album, bright tone, some swing, wrote eight originals and covers Ellington and Porter. B+(*) [cd]

Maddie & Tae: Start Here (2015, Dot): The phrase they hint at but can't bring themselves to say (pardon that "French") is "karma is a bitch." Note that Taylor Dye and Maddie Marlow are credited on all songs, but never without help. Feels like too much help, and with their voices locked it's hard to find an individual in the duo. B+(*)

Whitney Marchelle: Dig Dis (2015, Blujazz): Singer, last name Jackson, second album. Plays some piano, moves a lot of musicians in and out -- the late Clark Terry's cut suggests this was recorded earlier but I have no dates. She digs bebop, and this works best when it flies, as on the opening "In Walked Bud." B+(*) [cd]

Josh Maxey: Celebration of Soul (2015, Miles High): Guitarist, tenth album he's recorded in last three years, all original pieces mostly done in a soul jazz mode with Brian Charette on organ and Jeremy Noller on drums, some adding Rodney Jones for a second guitar, more often Chase Baird on sax, or others who didn't make the front cover. B [cd]

Joe McPhee/Jamie Saft/Joe Morris/Charles Downs: Ticonderoga (2014 [2015], Clean Feed): Avant sax quartet, McPhee plays tenor (mostly) and soprano and doesn't push it too hard. Saft plays piano, getting a bit more brittle sound than on his usual electric keybs, and adding measurably to the rhythmic complexity, which is not to say groove. Morris plays bass here, and is superb. [PS: There is an alternate cover, shown on the label's website, which suggests Saft is the leader. My copy lists the four names in the credit order above. The spine only lists Ticonderoga, which the label's website lists as the artist name.] A- [cd]

Bob Merrill: Cheerin' Up the Universe (2013 [2015], Accurate): Trumpet player, crooner, don't know if he's related to the famous songwriter of the same name (1921-98), but is clearly much younger and still living. (AMG errnoeously lists his records under the elder Merrill's discography.) Band includes John Medeski, Russ Gershon, Nicki Parrott, and George Schuller, and Harry Allen and Roswell Rudd drop in for a cut apiece. His standards are mostly pop songs from the '60s and '70s -- "What the World Needs Now," "Compared to What," "Imagine," "Feelin' Groovy," "The Creator Has a Master Plan," "Let's Drop the Big One" -- some of those work and some don't, but the final three are pleasant surprises: "Happy," "IGY (What a Beautiful World)," and "I'm So Tired." B+(**) [cd]

Metric: Pagans in Vegas (2015, Metric): Synth-pop group from Toronto, lead singer Emily Haynes, been around since the turn of the century but took a big step forward with 2009's Fantasies. This is about as good, mature songs built on solid melodies, nothing too chirpy or flashy. A-

Mark Christian Miller: Crazy Moon (2015, Sliding Jazz Door Productions): Standards singer, has a previous album as Mark Miller (Dreamer With a Penny), draws on local talent for his band -- notably Josh Nelson (piano), Larry Koonse (guitar), Bob Sheppard (bass clarinet). Not a classic crooner but agreeable enough, especially if you feed him an undeniable classic. B+(*) [cd]

Ben Monder: Amorphae (2010-13 [2015], ECM): Guitarist, very prolific sideman with 130 albums since 1992, the go-to guy for New York postboppers. Two duos with Paul Motian, two more with Andrew Cyrille, plus trio tracks where synth-player Pete Rende joins Cyrille. Ambient, nearly featureless, aside from some fumbles that could just be artifacts of a defective streaming process. B [dl]

Giorgio Moroder: Deja-Vu (2015, RCA): Best known as Donna Summer's producer (1975-80), Moroder lent his disco touch to dozens of artists in the early 1980s. His own albums start with a 1969 collection of bubble gum covers, proceed through disco versions of the Moody Blues and the soundtrack for Midnight Express, but end in 1985. He's done hack work since then (TV, video games), but this is his first album in 30 years. His disco shtick hasn't evolved much but still gleams -- at one point his disembodied voice tells us "74 is the new 24," but he usually leaves the words to still young pop stars like Sia, Charli XCX, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, and Kelis. And he shows us that "Tom's Diner" gets even better with more remix. A-

Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Mauch Chunk (2015, Hot Cup): Some turnover in the lineup of bassist Moppa Elliott's group as it moves into its second decade: Ron Stabinsky, who joined the group when they attempted to clone Kind of Blue, remains on piano, while Peter Evans (trumpet) is gone. The loss of front-line fire power should hurt, but saxophonist Jon Irabagon goes to Herculean lengths to make up the deficit. Not quite up to their best albums of the past decade, but the bear on the cover reminds me they don't have to outrun time, just the competition. A- [cd]

New Order: Music Complete (2015, Mute): First real album in a decade -- seems to be a lot of that going on recently -- the lapse taking one casualty: bassist Peter Hook is gone (but how hard is it to replace a bassist?), original keyboardist Gillian Gilbert has returned, and they've added some guests and strings, none of which makes much difference: long-term fans will instantly recognize the band, and newbies will be, well, amazed. A-

Oddisee: The Good Fight (2015, Mello Music Group): Underground rapper, born in DC as Amir Mohammed el Khalifa, father originally from Sudan, tenth album since 2009 plus a bunch of EPs and mixtapes. Spoken word bit at the end explains that Oddisee and Blu are two rappers who refuse to "dumb down" to make themselves more accessible. Can't argue against this, given that most of this record just sailed right past me. B+(*)

Caili O'Doherty: Padme (2015, Odo): Pianist, first album, all originals, backed by bass and drums plus many guests -- saxophonists Ben Flocks (tenor) and Caroline Davis (alto) make the best impression, mostly by going with the flow. B+(**) [cd]

Ought: Sun Coming Down (2015, Constellation): Post-punk quartet from Montreal with a heavy metallic klang that reminds me of some of those UK groups that came along after Gang of Four (e.g., Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, less so The Three Johns), an imposing sound when it coheres (as it mostly did on the 2014 debut More Than Any Other Day), although here they fall down repeatedly, and the effect is far more annoying than my hopefully hedged grade. B+(*)

Charlie Parr: Stumpjumper (2015, Red House): From Minnesota, guitarist-singer billed as "country blues" but I'm more inclined to view him as a folk artist -- even if virtually all of the songs are originals the style is as old as the hills. Helps here that he gets some backing vocals -- wife and kids, I gather. B+(**)

Ben Patterson: For Once in My Life (2015, Origin): Organ trio, with Peter Bernstein on guitar and George Fludas on drums. Conventional, almost classic, soul jazz, neatly done. Leader has several previous albums as a pianist. B+(*) [cd]

Pere Ubu: Carnival of Souls (2014, Fire): One of the most brilliant avant-punk groups to come out of the late 1970s -- newbies might consider their new vinyl-only box, Elitism for the People 1975-1978 (Fire, 4LP), but I probably have it all, and having been slow to give up vinyl, I'm even less inclined to retrace my steps. David Thomas, at least, has kept the band name going, his voice unique, and the sonic palette still distinc after all these years. B+(***)

The Pop Group: Citizen Zombie (2015, Freaks R Us): An obscure avant-punk group from 1978-80, their album Y having become a cult item, regroups after thirty-some years (vocalist Mark Stewart, guitarist Gareth Sager, and drummer Bruce Smith, anyway, with a new bassist). More structured than the original group, which is not necessarily a plus. B+(*)

Noah Preminger: Pivot: Live at the 55 Bar (2015, self-released): Tenor saxophonist, won the debut category in the 2008 Jazz Critics Poll, and has only gotten better. Live quartet with Jason Palmer on trumpet, Kim Cass on bass, and Ian Froman on drums -- names I didn't recognize and shouldn't forget. Two 30+ minute jams, an old-fashioned cutting contest. A- [cd]

Tom Rainey Trio: Motel Grief (2015, Intakt): Drummer, I first noticed him with Tim Berne in the 1990s, but it took a while before he started moving his name up front. Third album with this particular group, with Ingrid Laubrock on sax and Mary Halvorson, slippery as ever, on guitar. B+(**) [cd]

Keith Richards: Crosseyed Heart (2015, Mindless/Virgin): First solo album since 1992. Maybe he figured the title tune was good enough, and maybe it is, but Steve Jordan isn't the writing partner he needs, so the filler falls off pretty bad -- especially when you consider he has a knack for making knock offs work (cf. "Goodnight Irene"). B

Daniel Romano: If I've Only One Time Askin' (2015, New West): Canadian country singer, second album. B+(*)

Cecile McLorin Salvant: For One to Love (2015, Mack Avenue): Jazz singer, born in Miami, mother French, father Haitian, studied in France. Her second swept the critics polls and picked up a Grammy nomination. I doubt this would have broken through like that, but fans may convince themselves it's a step forward. I'm not so sure, not just because I found her "Wives and Lovers" unsettling. B+(*)

Jill Scott: Woman (2015, Atlantic): Sixteen songs, runs 57:41, sprawl that I've found hard to get a grip on although I don't doubt that a little pruning would put it over, and suspect even that once that happened the ambient filler might work too. Or maybe just a hard copy and lots of time. Easy enough to get why she favors the sprawl: big subject, and lots to say about it. B+(***)

Scottish National Jazz Orchestra/Makoto Ozone: Jeunehomme: Mozart Piano Concerto No 9 K-271 (2014 [2015], Spartacus): Tommy Smith's pet project, one I indulge mostly because Smith remains one of the world's most dynamic tenor saxophonists. Indeed, there's an early solo here that could be no one else. Still, Mozart, even nicely jazzed up, will never be my cup of tea, and while Ozone may have a reputation in some circles, he's just another piano player here. B+(*) [cdr]

Aram Shelton/Fred Lonberg-Holm/Frank Rosaly: Resounder (2014 [2015], Singlespeed Music): Alto sax-cello-drums trio, leader also credited with "processing," while Lonberg-Holm adds guitar and electronics -- his electronics have moved way beyond the hobby stage, filling up the middle with a dense, prickly sonic framework, which the others can only sharpen up or knick away at. B+(***) [cd]

Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue: Sounds and Cries of the World (2015, Pi): Exotic singer from Peoria, IL; also plays piano and various lutes and zithers and gongs of scattered east Asian origin, and fronts a talented group with Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet), Mat Maneri (viola), Thomas Morgan (bass), and Dan Weiss (drums). Nice work if you can stand it, which for the most part I cannot. B- [cd]

Susana Santos Silva/Torbjörn Zetterberg/Hampus Lindwall: If Nothing Else (2014 [2015], Clean Feed): Trumpet/flugelhorn, double bass, and organ, respectively. Organ and bass are usually exclusive in jazz groups but here they resonate, the organ broadening the bass harmonics and the bass sharpening the organ, while the trumpet easily punctures whatever backdrop they throw up. B+(**) [cd]

Rotem Sivan Trio: A New Dance (2015, Fresh Sound New Talent): Guitarist, born in Israel, based in New York, third album, trio with bass (Haggai Cohen-Wild) and drums (Colin Stranahan). Rather buttoned-down postbop. the pace deliberate, the tone muted, the guest vocal neither here more there. B+(*) [cd]

Snik: Metasediment Rock (2014 [2015], Clean Feed): Norwegian avant quartet: Kristoffer Kompen (trombone), Kristoffer Berre Alberts (saxes), Ole Morten Vågan (bass), Erik Nylander (drums), with Kompen and Vågan composing (6-to-2). B+(**) [cd]

Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment: Surf (2015, self-released): The leader is actually named Nico Segal, but does at least play trumpet. Still, this counts as a rap album for the vocalists, the main one being Chance the Rapper (although I suppose featured artists like Big Sean and Erykah Badu are better known). Underground, flows soulfully, grows on you. A-

Voicehandler: Song Cycle (2013-14 [2015], Humbler): Duo: Jacob Felix Heule (percussion & electronics), and Danishta Rivera (voice & Hydrophonium). The electronics evoke primordial violence, the assembly of the world from chaos, and the vocals try to make it all seem cosmic. B+(*) [cd]

The Weeknd: Beauty Behind the Madness (2015, Republic): Abel Tesfaye, from Toronto, entered the pop world as a damaged outsider and seems determined to stay there, his love songs crippled but shameless. B+(*)

Bastian Weinhold: Cityscape (2014 [2015], Frame Music): Drummer, from Germany, studied in Netherlands, moved to New York in 2009. Second album, quartet with Adam Larson on tenor sax and Nils Weinhold on guitar. More typical of a guitarist's album, a bit of groove with little muss. B [cd]

Galen Weston: Plugged In (2015, Blujazz): Guitarist, from Toronto, easy-going groove album with electric keyb and bits of tasty sax. B- [cd]

Ben Winkelman Trio: The Knife (2014 [2015], OA2): Pianist, third or fourth album, trio with Sam Anning on bass and Eric Doob on drums. B+(**) [cd]

John Wojciechowski: Focus (2015, Origin): Saxophonist (soprano, alto, tenor), one previous album, this a quartet with Ryan Cohan on piano/Rhodes, Dennis Carroll on bass, Dana Hill on drums. Nice tenor tone, good postbop sense, very listenable disc. B+(**)

Recent Reissues, Compilations, Vault Discoveries

Willem Breuker Kollektief: Angoulême 18 Mai 1980 (1980 [2015], Fou, 2CD): Dutch group, led by the saxophonist from the early 1970s until his death in 2010. Like ICP Orchestra (which Breuker briefly played in), and for that matter the Sun Ra Arkestra, Breuker was able to span the whole history of jazz up through the avant-garde, frequently turning to hard swing, but in Breuker's case also mixing in circus, folk, classical, and Brechtian art-song. I've only heard ten (of fifty-some) Breuker records, and most I rate between mixed blessings and downright nuissances, so as I was falling for this one I noticed that my previous favorite was another early (1975) live album. This could have been edited down into something that flows better, but largesse was a big part of their shtick. A- [cd]

Amara Touré: 1973-1980 (1973-80 [2015], Analog Africa): Singer-percussionist from Guinea, played in Le Star Band de Dakar, picking up Afro-Cuban pop from the African end. Stitched together from singles and an album, the tracks progressively refine their groove until the "Africa" chant at the end takes off. B+(***)

Old Music

Louis Armstrong: From the Big Band to the All Stars (1946-1956) (1932-56 [1992], RCA, 2CD): From RCA France's Jazz Tribune series, this gives you a nice overview of Armstrong's post-WWII downsizing, where he basically traded the big band he had led since 1930 for a small group called the All Stars (justly at first, although their star power waned over the years as Earl Hines, Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, and Big Sid Catlett dropped out. This only includes three All Stars cuts, from 1947 with Dick Cary (instead of Hines) on piano. The rest of the cuts are with various big bands -- including one cut with Chick Webb from 1932 and three from 1956. A- [cd]

Sidney Bechet: The Complete Sidney Bechet Volumes 3/4 (1941) (1941 [1986], RCA, 2CD): Elizabeth Fink's father, Bernie Fink, died well before I met her, but his name came up often, especially when we talked about music. Bernie's favorite was Sidney Bechet, so I grabbed this long out-of-print compilation from Liz's shelves. I probably didn't need to since much of this also appears on the even-harder-to-find The Victor Sessions: Master Takes ([1990], RCA, 3CD), which I own and treasure -- this adds extra takes, turning singles into doubles. Still, with music this transcendent, redundancy just drives home the point. A- [cd]

The Bottle Rockets: 24 Hours a Day (1997, Atlantic): Third album, a much-better-than-average countryish-rock band, pretty good song about "Indianapolis." B+(***)

Bottle Rockets: Leftovers (1998, Doolittle): From the 24 Hours a Day sessions, not quite a full platter with eight songs (plus one hidden track), 31:36, but not oversold either. Probably not as good as the keeper album, but more fun -- excepting "My Own Cadillac." B+(**)

The Bottle Rockets: Brand New Year (1999, Dolittle): So this is where they decide to rock out -- always an aspect of what they do, but is it here to cover up a drop in the songs? I'm not sure. B+(*)

The Bottle Rockets: Zoysia (2006, Bloodshot): Continuing much as ever before: "these days my heart's better than broken/not as good as new." B+(**)

Can: Tago Mago (1971, United Artists): German band, formed by bassist Holger Czukay and keyboardist Irmin Schmidt, both Stockhausen students, with jazz drummer Jaki Liebezeit and Michael Karoli on guitar. This is their second or third album (depending on whether you count their 1970 Soundtracks compilation), a double LP with two side-long tracks: the first exceptionally sharp, the second oddly exceptional. B+(***)

Nick Drake: Pink Moon (1972, Island): English singer-songwriter, folkie division, cut three albums before he died at 26, officially a suicide (overdose of anti-depressants). This last album is stripped down to voice and guitar, and while there's nothing particularly depressing about the songs, there is nothing exciting either. B+(*)

Faust: Faust IV (1973, Virgin): German group, one of synth bands that would eventually be categorized as "Krautrock" (the title of the long first cut here). Fourth and last of their 1971-73 albums, before breaking up in 1975 and regrouping in the mid-1990s. Still, they're not purists, setting aside their machines for human vocals (ok, German vocals), not that far removed from Soft Machine (although I can't speak for their wit). B+(**)

Faust: Something Dirty (2011, Bureau B): After regrouping in 1994 the group has recorded a lot. I picked this one out to sample because it is the only one Christgau noted. Guitar rather than synth, sometimes leaning industrial and sometimes delicately not, with occasional annotation. B+(**)

Ulrich Gumpert: Workshop Band (1978-79 [2008], Jazzwerkstatt, 2CD): Compilation of two FMP albums, Under Anderem: 'N Tango Für Gitti (from a Rundfunk der GDR radio shot), and Echos von Karolinenhof (from two live dates at the Akademie der Künste in East Berlin. The bands include the future Zentralquartett -- Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (reeds), Conrad Bauer (trombone), Günter Sommer (drums) -- plus Klaus Koch on bass, Heinz Becker on trumpet, Manfred Hering on alto/tenor sax, and either Helmut Forsthoff or Iri Artonow on tenor sax. Brisk, frisky free jazz, undaunted by the Iron Curtain. B+(**)

Ulrich Gumpert: Erik Satie: Danses Gothiques/Quatre Preludes/Petite Ouverture a Danser (1989 [2013], Phil.Harmonie): Originally released on ITM as Ulrich Gumpert Spielt Erik Satie or Erik Satie Compositeur de Musique depending on how or where you look. Solo piano, not as much snap as I like on Satie, but he's put some thought into it. B+(*)

Ulrich Gumpert Workshop Band: Smell a Rat (1995 [2007], Jazzwerkstatt): Same band as fifteen years earlier, the compositions divided 5-4 between Gumpert and Günter Sommer with Petrowsky the top soloist. B+(***)

Ulrich Gumpert: Quartette (2006 [2007], Intakt): Sax quartet, the leader on piano and the composer of all seven tunes, with Jan Roder on bass, Michael Griener on drums, and Ben Abarbanel-Wolff on tenor -- the latter doesn't strike me as having exceptional range, with the composer feeding him fast freebop runs. B+(**)

Ulrich Gumpert Workshop Band: Suites (2008, Jazzwerkstatt): Quite a bit of personnel churn here -- the pianist is the only player left from 1995, the new septet built around the 2006 Quartette with three extra horns: Martin Klingeberg (trumpet), Christof Thewes (trombone), and Henrik Waldsdorff (alto sax). Three original pieces with 3-4 movements each -- the traditional term, I think, but here they really do move, or more precisely, jump and swing. A-

Ulrich Gumpert/Günter Baby Sommer: La Paloma (2011 [2012], Intakt): Piano-drums duo, long-running relationship including a couple of duo albums on FMP 1978-79. This is relatively relaxed, even a bit folkie. B+(**)

John Lee Hooker: John Lee Hooker on Vee-Jay 1955-1958 (1955-58 [1993], Vee-Jay): Robert Santelli's second pick from Hooker's vast discography, number 18 among all blues albums ever (trailing The Legendary Modern Recordings 1948-1954 at number 6). This is only a fragment of Hooker's Vee-Jays: the first 22 tracks from the 6-CD box The Vee Jay Years 1955-1964, but they are band tracks, where Hooker earned his "endless boogie" handle. A-

John Lee Hooker: Don't Turn Me From Your Door: John Lee Hooker Sings His Blues (1953-61 [1992], Atco): Mostly from 1953 although the four later tracks would be hard to pick out in a blindfold test. Just guitar and voice, the minimal core he built a long career around. Only 36 for the early tracks, yet he already sounds ancient. A-

John Lee Hooker: Never Get Out of These Blues Alive (1971 [1972], ABC): Long before he came up with the Best of Friends the bluesman jams with Elvin Bishop and Van Morrison, running the latter's "T.B. Sheets" through the ringer. B+(***)

The Pandelis Karayorgis Trio: Heart and Sack (1998, Leo Lab): Greek pianist, long based in Boston, piano trio, with Nate McBride on bass and Randy Peterson on drums. Starts pushing a strong rhythmic line, but even when he eases up he keeps this fascinating. A-

Pandelis Karayorgis: Seventeen Pieces: Solo Piano (2004, Leo): Half originals (8), three Monks, pianist pieces from Ellington to Tristano to Sun Ra, pieces from Marsh and Dolphy, one standard ("I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You"). B+(***)

The Bill Kirchner Nonet: One Starry Night (1987 [2011], Jazzheads): After two studio albums went out of print, this radio tape eventually surfaced, the main selling point guest singer Sheila Jordan, who's a little excessive on her Charlie Parker tale ("Quasimodo"). The band itself is an impressive bunch, with Ralph Lalama and Glenn Wilson joining Kirchner on reeds, Bill Warfield and Brian Lynch on trumpet, Marc Copland on piano, Mike Richmond on bass. B+(**)

John Kruth: Banshee Mandolin (1992, Flying Fish): Scholar-turned-musician or vice versa, AMG credits him with liner notes on a dozen albums, and he's written biographies of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Townes Van Zandt, and Roy Orbison (in that order, 2000-12). His side credits on mandolin go back to 1986 (Christine Lavin) -- probably the reason AMG classifies him as folk although they could have gone for jazz or world or sui generis. This takes a funny glance on folk and bounces it off psychedelic rock among other things -- his band credits include Violent Femmes. He would later delve deep into Balkan Music and form a world-fusion group called TriBeCaStan, but while most of what he picked up later sounds borrowed, this is pretty distinct. B+(***)

John Kruth: Eva Destruction (2006, Crustacean): In 2006 Kruth traveled to India to study with Carnatic mandolin virtuoso U. Rajesh. Not sure if that happened before or after this album, but he's at least thinking about Indian music, adding little flourishes, even if sometimes they sound third hand, like something he copped from a George Harrison record. Or Donovan, if you still want to cast him as a folkie. B+(**)

John Kruth: Splitsville (2008, Smiling Fez): Split is an ancient city on the Adriatic Sea in modern Croatia, founded by Greeks in the 4th century BCE, batted about by Romans, Avars, Slavs, Byzantines, Venetians, Ottomans, Habsburgs, Napoleon, Hitler, and Tito -- leaving a set of fortifications and antiquities used as sets for Game of Thrones. Kruth's musical interests span the world, but he learned to focus here -- his wife's Croatian heritage was part of the reason, inspiring this batch of original songs that never stray that far from home, even when singing about "the lone Croatian general not wanted by the Hague." A-

Madness: One Step Beyond . . . (1979, Stiff): British ska revival band, first album, a big UK hit but they never sold much in the US. B+(**)

Madness: Absolutely (1980, Stiff): Another UK hit, with three top-ten singles, not that any of them are obvious on the first pass -- just the upbeat intensity. B

Madness: Complete Madness: 16 Hit Tracks (1979-82 [1982], Stiff): After three albums, the first of many compilations, includes 11 singles that charted 16 or higher in the UK (9 in top-10, 6 in top-5), but came too soon to include 7 more top-10 (only 2 post-1983). So there should be a later, higher-charting best-of, but probably not this tight and consistent. B+(***)

Giorgio Moroder: Knights in White Satin (1976, Oasis): Cover just lists the artist as Giorgio. The disco take on the Moody Blues is a joke, of course -- not a great one, but an improvement nonetheless. The white mist pervades the B-side as well, making me wonder if "I Wanna Funk With You Tonite" isn't meant as some sort of hymn. B+(*)

Giorgio Moroder: From Here to Eternity (1977, Casablanca): Pretty much the centerpiece in the disco producer's own brief fling as a headline artist, although it's hard to hear why: the beats are steady as ever, but the vocals aspire to robot-dom, and don't quite make it. B

Neu!: Neu! (1972, Brain): Guitarist Michael Rother, who went on to have an interesting solo career (also playing bass and, later, keyboards), and drummer Klaus Dinger left Kraftwerk to start this short-lived (and occasionally reformed) group. The 10:07 opener "Hallogallo" is an entrancing piece of minimalist groove. They try some other things, but the album really perks up every time the beat resurfaces. A-

Harry Nilsson: Nilsson Sings Newman (1970, Buddha): All music and lyrics, and for that matter piano, by Randy Newman, whose brilliant second album, 12 Songs would be released later that spring. Nilsson only scooped one song from that album, settling for five from the debut, two songs that Newman released on later albums, and two more I haven't located. Hard to realize now that this was once seen as a favor. B-

Harry Nilsson: Nilsson Schmilsson (1971, RCA): Two of his three top-ten singles here, which although familiar enough don't seem all that inevitable. Two R&B covers that do sound like hits emerge as idiosyncrasies. The other stuff is far from compelling, though lots of smart people thought so at the time. B+(**)

Harry Nilsson: Pussy Cats (1974, RCA): I had long been under the impression that John Lennon collaborated more here, but the fine print above his name on the cover just says "produced by." Lennon wrote one song, arranged a few more, and I suspect his voice is in there somewhere. But the project mostly depends on a random spread of on quick and dirty covers ("Many Rivers to Cross," "Save the Last Dance for Me," "Loop de Loop," "Subterranean Homesick Blues," etc.), and that doesn't prove much. B

The Pop Group: Y (1979 [2007], Radar): British group, nothing pop about them, closer to no wave or postpunk but where those aimed for crude basics, this group seeks magic in chaos. Sometimes they find it, mostly in rhythmic thrash, sometimes with jazz piano or sax that's not part of the core group. Wikipedia has a fairly large table of notable lists this obscurity has appeared on. Too erratic for me to agree, but I can sort of see it. Best thing is the extra single on the reissue ("3:38"). B+(***)

The Pop Group: For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? (1980, Rough Trade): Rough, scratchy, but much more coherent songwise, and clearly political ("Nixon and Kissinger should be tried for war crimes"). B+(**) [dl]

Saturday Night Fever [The Original Movie Sound Track] (1977, Polydor): A double-LP in its time, although it should fit onto a single CD, mixing the good stuff and the not-so-good. The former includes a Bee Gees side (with Yvonne Elliman singing one of their songs), an instrumental "Calypso Breakdown," and a magnificent "Disco Inferno" (The Trammps). The latter includes vain attempts to discofy Beethoven and Mussorgsky. B+(*)

Jill Scott: Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1 (2000, Hidden Beach/Epic): First album, carried the Words and Sounds conceit through three volumes by which time she didn't need anything so self-effacing. She pulls her punches here, too, but just to lure you in. B+(**)

The Specials: The Specials (1979, Chrysalis): Ska band, picking up on the Jamaican pop of the 1960s before rocksteady and reggae and dub and all that evolved, probably because it was easier for English punks than affecting rastafari poses, and this band is unmistakably English. B+(***)

The Specials: More Specials (1980, Chrysalis): More consistent, but less special. B+(*)

The Specials: The Singles Collection (1979-84 [1991], Chrysalis): The early non-album "Gangsters" and the closing, still resonating "Free Nelson Mandela" are highlights, otherwise not a lot of reason to favor this over their first album. Still, does a nice job of framing the band. A- [cd]

Suicide: Suicide (1977, Red Star): American duo, singer Alan Vega and Martin Rev on electronics (keyboards, synth bass, drum machine). Touted as "influential" although one thing this didn't bequeath to later new wave groups was a beat. The A side meanders, while the B side (especially the 10:26 "Frankie Teardrop") aims for something more ominous. B

Suicide: Suicide (1980, Antilles/ZE): Original cover lists artists Alan Vega/Martin Rev as well as the group name and/or title -- I've seen that as the title, also Second Album with/without The First Rehearsal Tapes. In any case, a much steadier, more attractive album than the debut. B+(**)

T. Rex: Electric Warrior (1971, Reprise): Marc Bolan's band, considered "glam rock" although their earlier name (1967-70, 4 albums) Tyrannosaurus Rex suggested something heavier. A fifth album, the eponymous T Rex (1970) sold better, kicking off a stretch when they were very popular, although much more so in England. Still, this was their only number one, filled with their chunky little grooves, although only "Get It On" (aka "Bang a Gong") stands out. B+(**)

T. Rex: The Slider (1972, Reprise): Bigger sound, more flash to the guitar, still the hits ("Metal Guru," "Telegram Sam") pull their punches -- probably why they didn't cross the Atlantic. B+(*)

This Are Two Tone (1979-82 [1983], Chrysalis): Label sampler, effectively covers Britain's postpunk ska revival, built around a six-cut best-of from the Specials, with notable cuts from notable bands The Selecter and Madness, both sides of the first single by what later became The English Beat, and some of those minor artists who only show up on compilations. Rhapsody doesn't have this, but I was able to piece together the songlist, maybe even the same versions. A-

Van Halen: Van Halen (1978, Warner Brothers): Brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen, guitar and drums, launched this "bar band" in 1972, then picked up singer David Lee Roth in 1974 for a front man with the projection to fill arenas. Aside from the note-perfect Kinks cover ("You Really Got Me"), nothing here is memorably distinct -- even Eddie's "guitar hero" licks could have been stamped out in a production line, and with no song running over 3:50, they're actually rather scarce. C+

Revised Grades

Sometimes further listening leads me to change an initial grade, usually either because I move on to a real copy, or because someone else's review or list makes me want to check it again:

Additional Consumer News:

Previous grades on artists in the old music section.

• Louis Armstrong: Pops: 1940's Small Band Sides (1946-47 [1987], RCA)
• Louis Armstrong: The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (1930-56 [1997], RCA, 4CD): A-
• Louis Armstrong: +42 other albums
• Sidney Bechet: The Legendary Sidney Bechet (1932-41 [1988], RCA): A
• Sidney Bechet: The Victor Sessions: Master Takes (1932-43 [1990], RCA, 3CD): A
• Sidney Bechet: +5 other albums
• The Bottle Rockets: The Brooklyn Side (1994, Atlantic): B+
• The Bottle Rockets: Songs of Sahm (2002, Bloodshot): A-
• The Bottle Rockets: Blue Sky (2003, Sanctuary): A-
• The Bottle Rockets: Lean Forward (2009, Bloodshot): B+(*)
• The Bottle Rockets: Not So Loud: An Acoustic Evening With Bottle Rockets (2007 [2011], Bloodshot): B+(**)
• Can: Monster Movie (1969, Mute): A-
• Can: Ege Bamyasi (1972, Mute/Spoon): B+
• Can: Future Days (1973, Mute/Spoon): B+
• Can: Soon Over Babaluma (1974, United Artists): B
• Can: The Lost Tapes (1968-77 [2012], Mute): A-
• Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left (1969, Island): B
• Nick Drake: Bryter Layter (1970, Island): B+
• Ulrich Gumpert/Günter Sommer/Manfred Herring: The Old Song (1973 [1974], FMP): B+(***)
• Ulrich Gumpert/Günter Sommer: Jetzt Geht's Kloß (1978 [1979], FMP): B+(***)
• Ulrich Gumpert/Günter Sommer: Versäuminisse (1979 [1980], FMP): B+(**)
• John Lee Hooker: 17 other albums
• Pandelis Karayorgis: 8 other albums (including 2 as Mi3)
• Harry Nilsson: Son of Schmilsson (1972-73 [2006], RCA/Legacy): B+(*)
• Harry Nilsson: A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (1973 [2006], RCA/Legacy): C
• Harry Nilsson: Everybody's Talkin': The Very Best of Harry Nilsson (1967-77 [2006], RCA/Legacy): A-
• Harry Nilsson: Personal Best: The Harry Nilsson Anthology (1967-77 [1995], RCA, 2CD): B
• Jill Scott: Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds, Vol. 2 (2004, Hidden Beach): B+(***)
• Jill Scott: The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3 (2007, Hidden Beach): B+(***)
• Jill Scott: The Light of the Sun (2011, Blues Babe): A-
• The Specials: Best Of (1979-82 [1996], Disky): B
• T. Rex: Great Hits (1972-73 [1973], EMI): B+
• T. Rex: Light of Love (1974, Casablanca): D

Notes

Everything streamed from Rhapsody, except as noted in brackets following the grade:

• [cd] based on physical cd
• [cdr] based on an advance or promo cd or cdr
• [bc] available at bandcamp.com
• [sc] available at soundcloud.com
[os] some other stream source
• [dl] something I was able to download from the web; may be freely available, may be a bootleg someone made available, or may be a publicist promo

Ask a question, or send a comment.

prev -- next