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Wednesday, October 21, 2015

The Counter-Intifada Grows Desperate

I don't really understand what's been going on there over the last few weeks, other than that it this episode of escalating violence isn't all that different from every other one -- in that it's mostly explained by the exhaustion of hope for change by any means other than yet another mass uprising. In 1989, as 22 years of military rule over the Occupied Territories turned increasingly rote and rigid, numb and dumb, with the Palestinian political leadership broken and scattered, the popular revolt that broke out was called the intifada -- an Arabic word denoting a tremor, shivering, shuddering, derived from nafada meaning to shake, to shake off, to get rid of. It was an almost involuntary response to the daily grind of oppression, and it took the PLO as much by surprise as it shocked Israel's security czars. Their kneejerk reaction then was summed up in Yitzhak Rabin's vow to "break the bones" of those who would dare protest against Israeli power. Nearly all of the violence was the work of Israelis, who killed hundreds of Palestinians, injured and/or detained thousands, and looked foolish. The worst the Palestinians did was to throw rocks at the armed gendarmes, not exactly textbook nonviolence but for two peoples who grew up on the stories of David and Goliath, more an act of symbolic than physical resistance.

Rabin eventually saw the the way out of the embarrassment of the Intifada was to insert a buffer layer of Palestinian "leaders" between the Israeli masters and most of the Palestinian masses: a role that Yassir Arafat all too readily agreed to, as long as it was sugar-coated with vague promises of future Palestinian independence. This was the Oslo "peace process" -- by design it spurred a redoubling of Israeli efforts to "create facts on the ground" (Israel's jargon for building illegal settlements and outposts on occupied Palestinian land) while forces on both sides -- and not just the "extremists" like Kach-ist settlers and Hamas -- worked to poison the agreement. We can only speculate on what might have happened had Rabin not been assassinated; had his successor, Shimon Peres, not recklessly provoked a wave of Hamas terrorism which got him voted out; had Benjamin Netanyahu not come to power and used that power to subvert the "process"; had Ehud Barak, elected with a mandate to deliver the "final status" negotiations, not gotten cold feet, reneged on his promises, tore up the Oslo agreement, initiated the so-called "Second Intifada" while ushering Ariel Sharon into power to nail the coffin shut. But what we know now is that the growing power of Israel's settler movement, its militarist security state, and its right-wing political parties, has buried, as far into the future as we can see, any prospect for equal rights, for justice and peace, under Israel's yoke.

It's unfair to blame the Second Intifada for killing Oslo, but the resort to violence by Hamas and factions of the PLO, especially the practice of "suicide bombing," helped to harden right-wing Israeli attitudes and determination. I always thought the two Intifadas were completely different phenomena: the former a spontaneous mass revolt in the face of Israel's overwhelming potential violence; the latter a calculated attempt by small cadres of militants to show Israel's powers that their subversion of the "peace process" must have adverse consequences for the Israeli people. The former exposed the rotten truth about Israel's "enlightened occupation"; the latter revealed that in a naked test of violence with Israel the Palestinians never stood a chance.

The great failure of Arafat's political leadership was that he was never able to move beyond his famous UN speech where he offered Israel the choice of peace or war, symbolized by an olive branch and an AK-47. When he failed to negotiate a "final status" deal with Barak in 2000 -- which as we now know was almost totally Barak's fault -- his natural instinct was to pick up the gun. It's not clear to me that's what he did: he always held out the hope for further negotiations, but he couldn't distance himself from the militants without admitting that he had no control over them, and as such no leverage against Israel (or for that matter use to Israel). The notion that Arafat launched the "Al-Aqsa Intifada" -- the term widely abused to associate the Second Intifada with the Moslem holy site, hence with Jihad -- is as ridiculous as the notion that Arafat rejected "unprecedentedly generous offers" at Camp David. Besides, we now know the Intifada was something the Palestinians were goaded into: by Barak's self-serving spin after Camp David, by Sharon's massive armed "visit" to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and most of all by Chief of Staff Shaul Moffaz's decision to open fire on Palestinian demonstrators against Sharon's provocations. It's never seemed quite right to view the violence of 2000-05 as an intifada when it was originally set up as an ambush.

It's hard to change long-established terminology, but it would make more sense to refer to the 2000-05 ("Second Intifada") period as the Counter-Intifada. The original Intifada led to the Oslo Agreements and the "peace process" which the Counter-Intifada destroyed: that much should by now be perfectly clear. One can debate whether the Counter-Intifada ever ended: Arafat died in November 2004, depriving the Intifada of its most prominent boogeyman (his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, was so firmly opposed to the Intifada that he was useless as an enemy face, a role that was quickly shifted to Hamas); Sharon withdrew Israeli settlements from Gaza in September 2005; in 2006 Hamas called a truce, and entered the Palestinian Authority's electoral system, winning a landslide before being cut off by a US-sponsored coup attempt. And while Israel's military actions against Palestinians never really subsided, including massive shellings against Gaza in 2006 (and 2008-09 and 2012 and 2014), the violence was at least temporarily eclipsed by Israel's brutal 2006 bombardment of Lebanon (Condoleezza Rice's notorious "birth pangs of a new Middle East").

Levels of eruptive violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have waxed and waned, but Israel has always threatened and exercised much more violence in its efforts to control Palestinians. In most years since 1967, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces is ten times as many as the number of Israelis killed by Palestinian "terrorists." Ironically, the ratio drops to about four-to-one in 2001-03, the one (and only) period where there was significant armed Palestinian resistance. (By the way, the distinction between "eruptive" and "potential" violence is a key concept in the book The One State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine, by Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir. Eruptive violence is something that Israelis and Palestinians can compete at, but potential violence totally favors Israel: it is, for instance, what allows Israel to require permits, to impose checkpoints, to pick up and hold prisoners. Comparing the ratios of killed or injured, even when we're talking ten-to-one, doesn't even hint at balancing the power scales.)

Most eruptive violence is, at least as rationalized by those who perpetrate it, retaliatory, which means as a first approximation is perpetual, a self-sustaining cycle. However, the actual incidence is far from regular. Palestinians, who suffer disproportionately, are more likely to declare unilateral truces and less likely to break them. And while Palestinians will sometimes inflict violence just to remind Israel that Israel's own violence will not go unanswered, Israelis put much more stock in the deterrence value of violence. Moreover, Israelis are much more likely to see violence as a path to personal advancement. For starters, a majority of Israel's Prime Ministers built their careers on their military records -- more if you count paramilitary terrorists like Begin and Shamir. And as Israel continues its drift toward the extreme right, even mainstream politicians take on genocidal airs.

But while Israel's eruptive violence never seems to go away -- the one exception was the year-and-a-half from when Barak won with his peace mandate in 1998 until he squandered it at Camp David and let Sharon run amok at Al-Aqsa in 2000 -- the eagerness of Palestinian militants to match Israel's violence with their own seems to roughly correlate with a generational (12-15 year) cycle -- making this year's uptick in stabbings seem like a harbinger of a third Intifada. I think three things are going on here: (1) people confuse intifada -- a significant increase in activism meant to "throw off" the occupier -- with violence, a tactic that cannot conceivably stand up against the military and police power of Israel; (2) much of the talk of Intifada comes from militant groups seeking to exploit widespread discontent for their own sectarian purposes (or, conversely, from Israelis who see the militants as their ticket to more devastating repression; (3) while at the same time a rigorously non-violent intifada, aimed at soliciting international support especially for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, has been the predominant political expression of Palestinians for the last decade -- Israelis hope that by provoking more violence they can draw attention away from non-violent and increasingly international organization.

The uptick in violence that's been getting the most attention (at least in the US press) concerns stabbing attacks, notably in Jerusalem. The location is significant because Netanyahu's administration has been especially active in building Jewish-only settlements and in isolating Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. One thing that can drive people to desperate acts of violence is hopelessness, and life for Palestinians in East Jerusalem has never been grimmer. I've yet to see a comprehensive report on such events (maybe one will show up in the links below), but my initial impression is that the stabbings are ineffective even on their own terms: hardly any of the people stabbed die, few are injured seriously, while nearly all of the stabbers are quickly apprehended and/or killed on the spot. Rather, this seems like some form of suicide ritual. Some years back one of Israel's security gurus said that the goal of the occupation was to convince Palestinians that they are "an utterly defeated people." When I read that I didn't know what it might look like, but here it is.

Of course, what I just said only applies to Palestinians attempting to stab Jews. There have been a similar number of Israeli Jews stabbing Palestinians (plus at least one case of an Israeli Jew stabbing a Mizrahi Jew mistaken as Arab). In those cases the assailant is much less likely to be apprehended, let alone gunned down immediately. And if arrested, the Israeli Jew is less likely to be convicted, and far less likely to serve any significant time behind bars. Israel has different courts for Jews and Palestinians, different laws, different rights of appeal, and different punishments -- there is, for instance, no death penalty for Israeli citizens, but Palestinians are routinely targeted extrajudicially. Again, I haven't seen a clear statistical analysis, but a casual review of news items (Kate's compendia at Mondoweiss is a good source) suggests that Israeli settlers have become much more violent in the last couple of years, and that officials are doing little to curb their enthusiasm.

Israel's elections last year brought the most extreme right government to power in the nation's history, with Netanyahu finally making explicit his opposition to any form of peace settlement. His cabinet includes members who have called for the forcible expulsion of all Palestinians, in some cases Israeli citizens as well as the unfortunate inhabitants of the Occupied Territories. Last year Israel stepped up harassment of the West Bank, then turned to a 51-day bombardment of Gaza where its kill rate rivals that of Syria's Assad regime. (For some reason you never hear about Israel "killing its own people" like Saddam and the Kurds or Assad and the Sunnis although the ethnic differences are comparable.) Lately various Israeli religious leaders have issued ruling that aim to legitimize indiscriminate killing of Palestinians, while the Netanyahu government has adopted the policy of shooting stone throwers.

If you know one thing about Israel it should be the utter unwillingness of its right-wing political class to do anything to mitigate a conflict that goes back 50 or 70 or 100 years. (Amy Dockser Marcus' Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israel Conflict sees the origin in 1913 resolutions that committed Zionists to seeking exclusive power over Eretz Israel.) They grew up on that conflict, thrived even, advancing to the most prestigious positions in an increasingly militarized society. And quite frankly, they wouldn't know what to do without the conflict -- so they fight on, inventing new existential threats to replace vanquished ones. (Egypt might have been a real one had they focused on Israel but Nasser had other preoccupations. Syria was never a threat without Egypt as an ally. Iraq had actually fought Israel in 1948, but Saddam Hussein was much more interested in the Lebensraum to his east. And Iran, even under the Ayatollahs, had never been less than friendly toward Israel, but Netanyahu sold them to the Americans as a monstrous threat -- which worked because deep down Americans realized that Iran had good reason to hate the United States.) They even find threats hiding in the closets, like the so-called demographic problem. And they've so conditioned the Israeli public, long steeped in the legacy of Jewish victimhood from the razing of the ancient temples to the Holocaust, that every act against them, regardless of how trivial -- like the rockets from Gaza that never hit anything, or a vote from an American church group to divest from companies that profit from the occupation, or an agreement between Iran and the world ensuring that Iran won't develop nuclear weapons -- is received by ordinary Israelis as nothing less than bone-chilling terror.

The main thing you'll learn if you read Tom Segev's 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East is how split Israelis were over the coming war: on the one hand, the military leaders were utterly confident of victory; on the other hand, the Israeli public was completely terrified. Of course, overconfidence is endemic in the military (cf. Germany and Japan in WWII, everyone in WWI, Bush in Iraq), but has rarely been rewarded so quickly as when Israel attacked Egypt in 1967. Victory inflated the egos of all Israelis, especially the quaking masses who concluded they were protected not just by the IDF but by God. Israel's leaders were still cognizant enough of world (and especially American) opinion to treat lightly, but almost immediately a dynamic developed where civilians (notably the energized Gush Emunim) and politicians competed to see who could most aggressively expand the Yishuv onto Palestinian land, over the Palestinian people.

For many years, politicians like Shimon Peres and Ariel Sharon exploited the settler movement for their own (mostly militarist) purposes, but under Netanyahu it's hard to tell who's pushing whom, in large part because the settler movement and the political powers have largely become one. Netanyahu's own contribution to this comes not just from his pedigree as right-wing royalty -- his father was Vladimir Jabotinsky's secretary in exile in New York -- as from his conceit that he is a master not just of Israeli but of American politics. Moshe Dayan famously said that "America gives us money, arms, and advise; we take the money and arms, and ignore the advice." Even as powerful a politician as Sharon had to humor George Bush when he came calling. Netanyahu, on the other hand, has repeatedly flaunted his contempt for Obama, confident that no matter what the President feels the US is stuck in its carte blanche support of all things Israeli.

Whether Netanyahu is right about America remains to be seen, but for how his position has freed Israel from any pretense of civility -- the last barrier against all sorts of ghastly policies. One could write a whole book about what right-wing Israelis are up to, both as officials and as vigilantes -- indeed, Max Blumenthal wrote one such, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, but his 2013 book already seems quaintly dated. The upshot is that a growing number of Israelis have decided that they can't abide the presence of non-Jews anywhere in Eretz Israel, even completely submissive ones. That's probably not a majority view yet, but one should recall that in 1937, when the British offered to "transfer" all the Arabs out of the proposed Jewish partition of Palestine, the notoriously pragmatic David Ben-Gurion was little short of ecstatic. (A decade later, Ben-Gurion engineered the nakba -- the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from territory seized by Israel. Ben-Gurion argued against seizing more land in the 1967 war on grounds that this time the Arabs wouldn't flee, but like everyone else got caught up in the glory of Israel's "victory.") The fact is that as far back as 1913 "transfer" has been a fundamental (albeit sometimes tactically unspoken) plank of the Zionist platform. The question isn't whether a majority of Zionist-identified Israelis approve of "transfer" -- it's only whether it can be done cleanly, and even that matters less as Israel proves they can get away with ugly.

As it happens, Netanyahu is running two pilot projects to show the feasibility of "transfer" ("ethnic cleansing" is the more accurate term, even if it, too, is merely a euphemism -- the Serbs coined it at Srebrenica). One involves the Bedouin who have for ages lived in the Negev Desert in the southern quarter of Israel. The plan there is to force them off the land and move them into newly constructed Arab-only villages (synonyms are ghettos and concentration camps). This would allow Israel to build new Jewish-only settlements pushing ever further into the Desert. The other is in East Jerusalem, which Israel took from Jordan in the 1967 war and "annexed" days later. Israelis have been building Jewish-only neighborhoods ever since, but as "security tensions" increase they've become more aggressive at isolating and separating Palestinian neighborhoods. The latest round of closures, house demolitions, and exiles are clearly meant to push Palestinians out of Jerusalem, eventually aiming at a city where only Jews can live. And when that happens, demands to raze the Al-Aqsa Mosque and build a Third Temple -- something we already hear -- will be deafening.

For many years now critics have pointed out the similarities between Israel and other colonial settler states -- notably South Africa, with its Apartheid policies. The links if anything go deeper: Israelis call their foundation, in emulation of the United States, their War for Independence, but in fact Israel preserved nearly all of Britain's intrinsically racist colonial laws -- they merely reshuffled who was privileged and who was not. Ever since 1948, Palestinians under Israeli control have lived under unequal laws and an often brutal administration, impoverished by both formal and informal descrimination. But while growing inequality is a grave political and economic, indeed moral, problem in the US (and very likely within the Jewish segment of Israel), non-Jews under Israeli control are locked by birth into a life of perpetual crisis, one that is currently worsening, one which ultimately, at least on the individual level, is a matter of life or death.

Whether Israel arrives at the final solution that is the logical outcome of Zionist ideology and unchecked power ultimately depends on whether they can stop themselves. There are, for instance, some number of dissenters within Israel: some are explicitly anti-Zionist, some style themselves as post-Zionist; more are repulsed by the growing violence of the settler movement, or by the chokehold of established orthodox Judaism. The BDS movement is also likely to become more of a burden to Israel, especially if the atrocities the current regime seems to produce like clockwork mount and the credibility of Israeli hasbara wanes. Given how modest the BDS movement's goals are -- equal rights for all, the one thing we should all be able to compromise on -- one can't call BDS a threat to Israel, except inasmuch as Israelis insist that their privileges and prerogatives should be maintained to the exclusion of everyone else.

Some recent links:

  • Richard Silverstein: Third Intifada or Zionist Jihad: Israel Escalates Tensions With Execution Style Force: Surveys many recent events and argues that "Netanyahu has no strategy for addressing Palestinian grievances short of more force and more blood spilled from Israelis and Palestinians alike." Here are a couple samples:

    This video shows Ahmad after he was struck by the settler driver. Two Israeli ambulances arrive and emergency medical personnel approach, stand over him, and then withdraw. Bystanders curse the wounded 13-year-old boy, telling him: "Die, you son of a bitch," and goading police to shoot him.

    As of Wednesday, at least 31 Palestinians have been killed and as many as 1,200 others injured amid escalating clashes between Israeli security forces and protesters in Gaza and the West Bank in the past two weeks alone. During this period, eight Israelis have been killed and dozens others injured. [ . . . ]

    Those suspected of committing a terrorist act will have their residency permits revoked, effectively expelling them from Jerusalem. This is just one more instance in a series of acts of ethnic cleansing imposed by Israel.

    This is a return to the martial law regime which ruled over Israeli Palestinians from 1948-1966. Under these regulations, they were not governed by civil law, but by a military government which imposed a far more restrictive regime. This new development is yet another sign of devolution from democratic rule and values into a form of authoritarianism. It further reinforces the notion of apartheid in which Israeli Jews enjoy superior rights to the Arab minority. [ . . . ]

    On Sunday, Israeli journalist Meron Rapoport quoted a series of statements from various Israeli ministers and NGOs indicating that the government is at fault for inciting the latest wave of protests. He quotes the current culture minister, Miri Regev, who said a year ago: "It is unacceptable that Muslims should have freedom of worship on the Temple Mount, but not Jews." Regev, who was former chairman of the interior for the Knesset at the time, advocated a division of the site as exists at the Cave of the Patriarchs, where Baruch Goldstein murdered 29 Palestinians in 1994. [ . . . ]

    On Sunday, IDF soldiers raided the Bethlehem offices of the International Middle East Media Center, a Palestinian human rights organization which documents the activities of security personnel in the West Bank. Video surveillance footage shows a gang of soldiers breaking into the office at 4 a.m. They rampaged through the facility, overturning and breaking computers, destroying equipment and stealing files containing the records of informants.

    After a prior IDF break-in, the organization discovered that its informants were later arrested and harassed by security forces and threatened for engaging in the legal act of observing and documenting the actions of Israeli security personnel. [ . . . ]

    Last week, in one of the most heinous of a series of incidents in which Palestinians were killed by Israeli security and police forces, Fadi Alloun, a 20-year-old man from the village of Issawiya, was accosted by a mob of Israelis near Jerusalem's Old City. This unruly group, believing that Alloun had stabbed an Israeli Jew, pursued him, screaming: "Shoot him, shoot him!" They summoned the police, and when an officer arrived at the scene and exited his vehicle, he immediately shot and killed the Palestinian with multiple shots. [ . . . ]

    Over the weekend, a freelance journalist and Palestinian investigator for Human Rights Watch wearing a clearly marked "Press" sign, was shot three times -- twice with rubber bullets, and once with live ammunition -- by Israeli forces as she documented and photographed a protest. She could easily have been killed. Israeli forces have been known in the past to directly target and even kill Palestinian journalists covering unrest in a systematic assault on the press. [ . . . ]

    He continues, relaying the experiences of others on the ground, including a young man who drove his wounded friend to the hospital on Friday, journalists who agree that it seems "live bullets were fired at specific targets," and doctors who said "they were shocked at the numbers of victims with precise bullet wounds, which they say appeared to be deliberately aimed not to injure, but to kill or cause the maximum amount of damage." [ . . . ]

    It's important to note that Jewish terrorists are never shot, let alone murdered, when apprehended in the midst of an attack. After a Jew stabbed three Palestinians and a Bedouin in Dimona over the weekend, not a hair on his head was mussed. When Yaakov Schlissel murdered an Israeli woman at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade this summer, he wasn't harmed in any way. The only Jewish terrorists ever killed during commission of their acts of mass murder were Baruch Goldstein and Eden Natan Zenda, who were killed by their Palestinian victims. There are Israeli Jews who have the temerity to condemn Palestinians for taking the law into their own hands in these cases.

    The focus on Jerusalem in general and Al-Aqsa in particular seems intent on provoking the most devout Muslims (and perhaps also of messianic Jews) into acts of violence. I can't describe either the Mosque or the West Wall as "holy places" because I believe all such designations are ridiculous, and doing so only feeds the fantasy world of the "believers" -- something that has long hampered efforts to settle the conflict. The 1967 decision to carve out a Jewish space around the West Wall while leaving the Haram al-Sharif to the Waqf was a concession to coexistence that is increasingly rejected by right-wing Israelis: even those who don't particularly relish the erection of a Third Temple see it as a blight on Jewish power in the Jewish state. Those same people object not just to any sort of parity with non-Jews but to their very presence, especially in their Holy City. Pretty much everything that we are witnessing derives from the notion that the end game requires the elimination of non-Jews from Israel. Piecemeal this is becoming Israeli policy, dismantling all checks against the abuse of total power. Netanyahu and his ilk are being swept along by the mob, because they have no alternative vision.

  • Jonathan Cook: Chaos in Jerusalem is a warning of things to come:

    Strangely, in the face of all this, there are signs of a parallel breakdown of order and leadership on the Israeli side.

    Mobs of Jews patrol Jerusalem and Israeli cities, calling out "Death to the Arabs!" A jittery soldier causes pandemonium by firing his rifle in a train carriage after a bogus terror alert. An innocent Eritrean asylum seeker is shot by a security guard during an attack because he looks "Arab," then beaten to a pulp by a lynch mob that includes soldiers.

    Meanwhile, politicians and police commanders stoke the fear. They call for citizens to take the law into their own hands. Palestinian workers are banned from Jewish towns. Israeli supermarkets remove knives from shelves, while 8,000 Israelis queue up for guns in the first 24 hours after permit rules are eased.

    Some of this reflects a hysteria, a heightened sense of victimhood among Israelis, fuelled by the knife attack videos. But the mood dates to before the current upheavals.

    It is also a sign of the gradual leaching of the settler's lawlessness into the mainstream. A popular slogan from the past weeks is: "The army's hands are tied." Israeli civilians presumably believe they must take up arms instead.

  • Willa Frej: Violence Escalates in Jerusalem and West Bank: Scattered reporting, much familiar but this is another angle:

    Four Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv, voted Sunday to temporarily ban all Arab workers from their schools.

    "Entrance to cleaning and maintenance workers will be forbidden during school hours," the Hod Hasharon municipality wrote on its website.

    Israel's Education Ministry has yet to comment, but the Interior Ministry released a statement calling for municipalities to "continue to act with respect and equality towards all their workers, irrespective of religion, ethnicity or gender."

    Israeli police were also granted greater stop-and-frisk powers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Sunday that these measures were about "preserving the status quo, we will continue to do so."

  • Meron Rapoport: The paradox of Jerusalem:

    The Palestinians in Jerusalem live in a very peculiar situation. They carry Israeli identity cards, so they enjoy freedom of movement denied to their fellow Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. But contrary to Palestinians living in Israel, they are not Israeli citizens and their temporary residency status could be abolished at any time.

    And above all, Jerusalemite Palestinians feel the burden of Israeli discrimination on a daily basis. While they represent 37 percent of the total population in the city, the poverty rate among them has reached 75 percent, a third of their youth drops out before finishing high school and 39 percent of their houses are built without permits. Events on al-Aqsa ignited a longstanding frustration built for many years.

    As always, Israel responded to the violent events in Jerusalem by tightening its security control over the Palestinian parts of the city, sending in thousands of extra police forces. It also gave these policemen almost an open hand to shoot to kill any Palestinian involved in attacks. "Any event in which policemen or civilians are hurt must end with the killing of the attacking terrorist," said Moshe (Chico) Edry, the commander of Jerusalem's police.

  • Ran HaCohen: What Israel Is Up to in Jerusalem:

    Once again, war atmosphere in Israel. In television day and night nothing but Palestinians stabbing, hurling, burning; current footage is recycled ad nauseam, and, a second before vomiting, reminders from previous Intifadas are aired, to place the present event in the right historical context. As the fruit juice seller told me, "It has always been like that: they always kill us. First Temple, Second Temple, the Crusades, the Holocaust, and now this." (He was overwhelmed when I wondered where the Amalekites had gone, who it was that killed them.) So you have on the one hand Palestinians armed with knives and stones -- not even bombs and guns this time -- and a regional nuclear superpower, one of the world's biggest exporters of weaponry on the other hand, and is quite obvious that the poor, innocent victim is the latter. When the Gods want to destroy a nation, they first make it blind. [ . . . ]

    In coping with the violence -- no community can tolerate daily stabbing of innocents on its streets -- Netanyahu has very little to offer. After all, he refused to negotiate with the Palestinians in years of relative quite (in 2012, for example, not a single Israeli was killed by Palestinian violence), so he won't start now. Demolishing terrorists' homes has been reintroduced as a means of deterrence, a decade after the Israeli army itself under Chief-of-Staff -- now Minister of Defense -- Ye'elon officially recommended stopping such demolitions. With one nuance, though: now Israel has taken the right not only to demolish the houses, but to confiscate their land as well. And this is significant. [ . . . ]

    The Palestinians constitute 35% of Jerusalem's population, a "demographic threat" in Israeli eyes. East Jerusalem is not cut off from West Jerusalem; this is hardly feasible, as East Jerusalem is packed with Jewish settlements. Instead, the Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem are further cut off from each other, encircled and besieged by checkpoints and concrete blocks. There are small extremist Jewish settlements even within many Palestinian neighborhood; the land of demolished houses will be given to them to expand. Palestinians in the strangulated Jerusalem neighborhood will have little choice but to leave to the West Bank enclaves; and, to make things even clearer, deportations and retraction of their Israeli citizenship are already considered. What is likely to take place now is not a division of Jerusalem, but rather its ethnic cleansing.

  • Sam Bahour: The Non-Violent Way Young Palestinians Are Flipping Israel's Script:

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has built his entire political career on a platform of violence against Palestinians. Leading up to his first election as prime minister in 1996 he publicly and aggressively mocked Israel's erstwhile prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, for entering into an interim peace agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization. The toxic environment Netanyahu operated in was partly behind the motivation of a Jewish extremist to assassinate Rabin. Netanyahu prides himself on being the leader who stopped the peace process in its tracks. To make sure peace would never have a chance, he accelerated settlement building in the West Bank, attacked Gaza multiple times, demolished more Palestinian homes, arrested Palestinians, including minors, often without charges, and failed to bring to justice the Jewish settlers who recently burned alive a Palestinian family while they slept in their home.

    But why does Israel seemingly seek violence? The answer is elementary to anyone following this conflict. Israel has a single gamebook against the legitimate Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence: that of using their well-oiled military machine to squash any Palestinian who attempts to resist occupation. Israel since 1948 and 1967 has routinely used war and violence to seize more land, all the while pushing Palestinians to either turn violent or emigrate.

    During the past few years, Israel found itself in a strategic bind. Palestinians shifted gears and started to operate in non-violent venues. Palestinians call it "smart resistance." New tools of resistance, such as calling for a boycott of Israeli products, divestment from Israeli investments, and working to get states to apply sanctions to Israel, contribute to this shift in strategy.

  • Philip Weiss: Facing down hecklers in NY, Gideon Levy calls for equal rights for all in one state: Levy offers what is probably the most succinct summary of the Israeli worldview:

    Levy says that Jewish Israelis have been able to live happily with occupation because of three deep-rooted beliefs/blindnesses: One, we are the chosen people, we can do anything we want, and international law doesn't apply to us. Two, we the Jews are the biggest victim in history and the only victim in history. Golda Meir said after the Holocaust Jews have the right to do whatever we want. And third, that Palestinians are not exactly human beings. "Killing Palestinians is not really a violation of human rights."

    Levy is equally succinct about what is happening today, and what needs to change:

    Now even Israeli Jewish society is threatened by "one lynch after another, day after day." Scenes that he had never thought even imaginable are occurring. [ . . . ]

    "The two state solution is in my view dead. The settlers won." And there is only one alternative: the one-state solution. It's not easy. I have no illusions. "But it is the only game that is in town . . . Therefore the struggle the discourse must be from now on I think a very simple one. Equal rights. That's all." [ . . . ]

    Levy says that only an international intervention will save Israel's "moral profile."

    Life in Israel is too good, Israel is too strong, and brainwashing is much too efficient to expect a change from within the Israeli society.

    No country in the world remains powerful when it lives only on its sword. . . . .

    The world must bring pressure on Israel so that it will consider whether it "is worth it" to continue the criminal occupation.

  • Kate, at Mondoweiss, continues to file two or three long posts every week, compiling many of the everyday news items that get overlooked. Here's just one little sample that caught my eye: Extremist settler kills 40 lambs:

    An Israeli settler ran over 40 lambs in the eastern part of the West Bank city of Nablus, on Tuesday evening. Owner Ayesh al-Da'ajneh said that one of his sons was taking care of the lambs as they were eating in a pasture at the edge of the city. "The Israeli vehicle approached the lambs and my son raised a light sign in his face thinking the settler had taken the wrong side of the road," Al-Da'ajneh said, according to Days of Palestine. He continued: "The settler hit the lambs several times and my son, who was unarmed, could not stop him." Forty lambs, out of 300, were killed and at least 20 others were wounded. Illegal Jewish Israeli settlers and armed forces frequently target Palestinian farmers, killing their sheep and cattle, as well as burning their crops.

    I've also found the rather schematic (and studiously matter-of-fact) lists at Wikipedia to be useful; notably:

    For a sample, the entry for October 20 (the most recent day listed) reads:

    • An Israeli soldier was lightly wounded, suffered scratches when a Palestinian, Udaay Hashim al-Masalma (24) reportedly tried to stab him during clashes at Beit Awwa, west of Hebron. Israeli sources say the incident occurred near the settlement of Negohot, and the assailant threw himself at troops. The suspect in turn was shot dead with a bullet to the head.
    • A settler from Kiryat Arba was killed when he was run over by a truck after he exited his car, which had been struck by rocks, and perhaps with a gun on him. The truck-driver turned himself in to Palestinian police, saying it was an accident.
    • A Palestinian, Hamzeh Moussa al-Imla (25) from Beit Ula, is reported to have rammed his car into Israelis at a bus stop at the Gush Etzion junction. 2 Israelis were injured, one lightly, the other moderately. He is said also either to have tried to stab people after getting out of his car, or to have been found with a knife on him.
    • 9 Gazan Palestinians were wounded by live fire, and one Ahmad al-Sarhi (27), was shot dead. 6 were wounded east of the al-Bureij refugee camp, and a further 3 were wounded near the Eretz Crossing.
    • 9 West Bank Palestinians were wounded by live fire, 3 in Bireh and 2 in Ni'lin.
    • Bashar Nidal al-Jabari (15) and Hussam Jamil al-Jabari (17) were shot dead at a checkpoint near the near the Rajabi house close to Kiryat Arba. It is alleged one of the two tried to stab a soldier. A soldier lightly wounded.

    That's one day, a rather ordinary one by present standards. The thing is it wouldn't take much effort to radically reduce this cycle of violence, only it has to be started by the people with the power to change things: the government of Israel.

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Monday, October 19, 2015

Music Week

Music: Current count 25626 [25588] rated (+38), 449 [449] unrated (+0).

Last week was disrupted by a "sleep study": turns out I don't get enough oxygen when I sleep, which leads to all sorts of unfortunate side effects, ranging from heart trouble to early senility. I've been feeling exceptionally tired this week, and pretty stupid as well. Presumably an expensive treatment regimen will follow. That is, after all, the American way.

I did make a stab at a Weekend Roundup, but didn't get it done in time to post on Sunday. Look for it later this week -- hopefully tomorrow. Also, beware that it won't cover all the stupid things going on in the world right now. Thus far it's limited to Israel, and why the so-called Third Intifada is a ruse meant to derail an increasingly successful BDS movement by clouding the issue with senseless violence.

This week I hope to do some serious cooking. Birthday dinner is coming up. Hopefully we can find some guests. I'm thinking Cuban, which means I'll finally have to learn how to make coffee.

Usual mixed bag of records this week. Christgau recommended the Bottle Rockets and two John Kruth records. I didn't find the latest Kruth [PS: it's on Bandcamp], but took a look at holes in both back catalogs (I only knew Kruth from his duo with John Greene, Tribecastan). I also looked into Ulrich Gumpert's back catalog: a pianist from East Germany, he was at the center of one of the most adventurous jazz circles behind the Iron Curtain (along with Conrad Bauer, Günter Sommer, Klaus Koch, and the remarkable saxophonist, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky). Gumpert has one of this week's two new A- jazz records: the other I attribute to Joe McPhee but I've also seen an album cover with Jamie Saft's name in big print, and the pianist is clearly the one who holds it together.

Much more new jazz in the queue, including some real prospects. I got a large package of material from a Spanish label I wasn't familiar with: UnderPool. Also a package from my Dutch friends at ToonDist -- but it was a little light, omitting the new (and presumably last) one from ICP Orchestra. Reports are that the brilliant Misha Mengelberg has been sidelined with dementia -- very sad news, incredible given the mental dexterity of his work going back to the 1960s.

Among the stupider things I did this week was to write a letter to the Village Voice to inquire whether the new ownership might have any interest in reviving Jazz Consumer Guide. I'm not sure that's a good idea, but in my benighted state it seems at least like something I can still do.

Latest Rhapsody Streamnotes draft count is 104 records. I guess that means I'm due to release one in the next week or so. I should also note that I took a pass at a year-end list: actually, two, one for jazz and another for non-jazz. I expect to do much resorting before the actual end-of-year, as well as adding more records, so take this list with more than the usual grain of salt. One thing that is clear is that the jazz list is shaping up as close to last year's (currently 52 new records, vs. 69 last year), but I'm way short of last year's pace for non-jazz (33 vs. 76 last year). The latter almost certainly reflects lack of effort on my part. Even though I've kept a tracking file this year, it isn't very comprehensive nor have I made much effort tracking things down. I expect to do better by the actual end-of-year, but it's beginning to look like a tall order.

New records rated this week:

  • The Bottle Rockets: South Broadway Athletic Club (2015, Bloodshot): [r]: B+(***)
  • A Bu Trio: 88 Tones of Black and White (2014 [2015], Blujazz, CD+DVD): [cd]: B+(*)
  • De Beren Gieren: One Mirrors Many (2015, Clean Feed): [cd]: B+(**)
  • East West Quintet: Anthem (2011 [2015], self-released): [cd]: B-
  • Eskmo: SOL (2015, Apollo): [r]: B+(**)
  • EZTV: Calling Out (2015, Captured Tracks): [r]: B
  • Ulrich Gumpert Quartett: A New One (2014 [2015], Intakt): [cd]: A-
  • Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: Live in Cuba (2010 [2015], Blue Engine, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
  • Left Exit Mr K: Featuring Michael Duch & Klaus Holm (2013 [2015], Clean Feed): [cd]: B+(**)
  • The Liberation Music Collective: Siglo XXI (2015, self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Joe McPhee/Jamie Saft/Joe Morris/Charles Downs: Ticonderoga (2014 [2015], Clean Feed): [cd]: A-
  • Mark Christian Miller: Crazy Moon (2015, Sliding Jazz Door Productions): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Ben Monder: Amorphae (2010-13 [2015], ECM): [dl]: B
  • Tom Rainey Trio: Motel Grief (2015, Intakt): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Daniel Romano: If I've Only One Time Askin' (2015, New West): [r]: B+(*)
  • Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue: Sounds and Cries of the World (2014 [2015], Pi): [cd]: B-
  • Susana Santos Silva/Torbjörn Zetterberg/Hampus Lindwall: If Nothing Else (2014 [2015], Clean Feed): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Ben Winkelman Trio: The Knife (2014 [2015], OA2): [cd]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

  • The Bottle Rockets: 24 Hours a Day (1997, Atlantic): [r]: B+(***)
  • Bottle Rockets: Leftovers (1998, Doolittle): [r]: B+(**)
  • The Bottle Rockets: Brand New Year (1999, Doolittle): [r]: B+(*)
  • The Bottle Rockets: Zoysia (2006, Bloodshot): [r]: B+(**)
  • Ulrich Gumpert: Workshop Band (1978-79 [2008], Jazzwerkstatt, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
  • Ulrich Gumpert: Erik Satie: Danses Gothiques/Quatre Preludes/Petite Ouverture a Danser (1989 [2013], Phil.Harmonie): [r]: B+(*)
  • Ulrich Gumpert Workshop Band: Smell a Rat (1995 [2007], Jazzwerkstatt): [r]: B+(***)
  • Ulrich Gumpert: Quartette (2006 [2007], Intakt): [r]: B+(**)
  • Ulrich Gumpert Workshop Band: Suites (2008, Jazzwerkstatt): [r]: A-
  • John Kruth: Banshee Mandolin (1992, Flying Fish): [r]: B+(***)
  • John Kruth: Eva Destruction (2006, Crustacean): [r]: B+(**)
  • John Kruth: Splitsville (2008, Smiling Fez): [r]: A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Josh Berman Trio: A Dance and a Hop (Delmark)
  • Geof Bradfield Quintet: Our Roots (Origin)
  • Dani Comas: Epokhé (UnderPool)
  • John Dikeman/William Parker/Hamid Drake: Live at La Resistenza (El Negocito)
  • Carlos Falanga: Gran Coral (UnderPool)
  • Sergi Felipe: Whisper Songs (2011, UnderPool)
  • Sergi Felipe: Whisper Songs: Bombú Es Libre En El Espacio (2013, UnderPool)
  • Erroll Garner: The Complete Concert by the Sea (1955, Columbia/Legacy, 3CD)
  • Guus Janssen: Meeting Points (Bimhuis)
  • Jeff Jenkins Organization: The Arrival (OA2)
  • Nancy Lane: Let Me Love You (self-released)
  • Emma Larsson: Sing to the Sky (Origin)
  • Martin Leiton: Poetry of Sound (UnderPool)
  • Marco Mezquida Mateos: Live in Terrassa (UnderPool)
  • Spinifex: Veiled (Trytone)
  • Underpool 3 (UnderPool)
  • Underpool 4 (UnderPool)
  • Jacob Varmus Septet: Aegean: For Three Generations of Jazz Lovers (Crows' Kin): October 23
  • Carrie Wicks: Maybe (OA2)

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Monday, October 12, 2015

Music Week

Music: Current count 25588 [25572] rated (+16), 449 [437] unrated (+12).

Two weeks ago, Monday Sept. 28, we packed up the car and drove east from Wichita, the main objective being to pick up the late Liz Fink's dog, Sadie, and bring her back to Wichita. (For more on Liz, look here.) We finally got out around 1PM, bypassed Kansas City before traffic got bad, had dinner in Columbia [MO], skipped north of St. Louis, finally pulling into our day's destination, a cheap motel in Effingham [IL], 565 miles out. Seems like I've done that drive dozens of times -- most recently a year ago when I drove to Cape Cod. Last year my second day pushed into southwestern Pennsylvania, but this time we faced constant rain and only made 405 miles, to Cambridge [OH].

That turned out to be close enough to reach Brooklyn on Wednesday. Overcast all day, rain threatening but we never got more than a few sprinkles here and there (and some eerie fog crossing an Appalachian pass). Drove through the Holland Tunnel, then "straight ahead for 3.8 miles" (as the GPS lady put it: down Walker merging into Canal, over the Manhattan Bridge, down Flatbush to Grand Army Plaza) then unload and park -- the part I dreaded most. (We played the "alternate side" parking game that night, then found a safe lot the next morning.) The apartment felt disheveled but mostly familiar -- the closets had been emptied of clothes, and someone unplugged everything so it took a while to get Internet working. My nephew Mike came over, as did Liz's friend Carol, who brought the dog -- a 7-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Laura had spent much time with but I barely recognized. (I had visited in spring 2014, my first New York venture since 2004. In the interrim and after, Laura had been there ten or so times.)

Next day, Pearl Smith (Big Black's widow, Liz's heir, not that there's not much Liz hadn't already given away), Larry Fink (Liz's brother, the famed photographer), his daughter Molly (Snyder-Fink), and some others came over to sort through affects -- packing some things to pick up later but not taking much at the moment. Over the next few days several other friends of Liz showed up to look around, reminiscence, and occasionally pick up mementos. A few of our friends also came over to chat, and sometimes to go out for a bite to eat. When we got to NYC, the weather forecast called for five straight days of rain climaxing with Hurricane Joaquin (expected to miss us but not clear by how much). We only ventured into Manhattan once, a dinner with Georgia Christgau, Steve Levi, Robert Christgau, and Carola Dibbell.

I figured the best time to get out would be Sunday afternoon. My nephew and his fiancée came over to help us load up the car. The drive down Flatbush, across the Manhattan Bridge, up Canal and through the tunnel was as easy as I could imagine. I would normally have driven half way across Pennsylvania after such an exit, but we were due for an oil change, and the dealers didn't do service business on Sunday. So I settled with driving to a friend's house near Newton, NJ, figuring I'd get the oil changed first thing Monday morning. That worked out pretty much as planned, and by 11AM we had driven back to I-80 and turned west. We made it through Akron and turned southeast, stopping in Mansfield, OH for the evening. Tuesday we got off to our earliest start and wound up in Columbia, leaving about 330 miles for Wednesday, home by 5PM.

Normally when I drive that far, I have people and spots I want to see along the way, but Laura doesn't have a lot of patience for that, and I was feeling pretty miserable the whole trip. Before the trip, we had talked about the possibility of stopping in DC on the way out, coming back through Buffalo-Detroit-Chicago, and possibly making a side-trip to Cape Cod. None of that happened this time. (In 2004, I drove out through Kentucky to DC, then went to western Massachusetts before coming back through Buffalo and Detroit, then I took a detour to Ste. Saint Marie and Duluth just to see what I had never seen before. In 2014 I drove straight out to NJ, then on to Cape Cod, back to NJ, up to Buffalo, then down to Arkansas and Oklahoma. In 2001 I took a deeper southern return route, through DC into NC and across Tennessee and Arkansas.)

Since we got home, Sadie has gotten a radical trim and been to the vet's, so now we have all the paperwork in order to get her properly licensed. (A lot more effort than it takes to get an UZI or AR-15 here in Kansas.) We have a two story house (plus a basement of sorts), and a fenced-in backyard she can have the run of -- stocked with squirrels and birds and occasionally visited by wilder life. She seems to be adjusting. Maybe I will too.

I didn't manage to get a Weekend Roundup done yesterday. Had to work on the yard, plus my rhythm is totally screwed up due to a bad head cold on top of all the time changes. Anyhow, I didn't skip this weekly exercise because there was nothing to write. (I usually go into a news deepfreeze when I travel but somehow missed that this time.) Still, this week's stories diverge only marginally from last week's, or next week's, and one gets tired of writing the same over and over again -- so maybe the occasional break is needed just to maintain sanity.

Still, two things I want to at least mention:

  • Don Melvin: At least 95 killed in twin bombings near train station in Turkey's capital: The "twin bombings" were set to disrupt and maim and kill peace protestors, which is to say demonstrations against the ruling party in Turkey. Subsequent articles tell us that the official investigation is targeting ISIS. Not clear why ISIS would bomb a demo against Turkey's war against ISIS. Same for Turkey's perennial enemy the PKK, since Turkey's "war against ISIS" is really little more than cover for Turkish attacks against anti-ISIS Kurds. I'm always opposed to whoever would do such a dire thing, but I'm even more touched by the targeting of "my people" -- the anti-war movement.
  • Israel has right to completely destroy Gaza, right-wing rabbi says, and even more pointedly, Richard Silverstein: Israeli Advocates Palestinian Holocaust. With Netanyahu's recent decision to use "live ammo" to kill Palestinians who throw stones, Israel's increasingly right-wing government is inching ever further toward "the final extermination of the Palestinian people." Ideologues like Rabbi Dov Lior have long been out in front of this, but the movement is palpably closing in on its goal. I never thought Israel would sink so low, but it's hard to see any force within Israeli society providing a check against such violent racism.

I have very little to add about the records below -- roughly one-half of a week's worth. The two picks were items I found on Liz Fink's shelf, and are possibly not the best Jazz Tribune picks for either artist -- Bechet is also represented by Volumes 1/2 which goes back to the mid-1930s, and RCA has both a slice of c. 1930 big band Armstrong and a 1947 live set, The Complete Town Hall Concert. Also, arguably I also overstepped my needs, in that I already have most of the music here, in Armstrong's 4-CD The Complete RCA Victor Recordings and Bechet's The Victor Sessions: Master Takes. Still, there's something to be said for not coming home empty handed.

New records rated this week:

  • Gonçalo Almeida/Martin van Duynhoven/Tobias Klein: Vibrate in Sympathy (2015, Clean Feed): [cd]: B+(***)
  • Laurie Antonioli & Richie Beirach: Varuna (2006-15 [2015], Origin): [cd]: B-
  • Benoit Delbecq/Miles Perkin/Emile Biayenda: Ink (2014 [2015], Clean Feed): [cd]: B+(***)
  • Expansions: The Dave Liebman Group: The Puzzle (2015, Whaling City Sound): [cd]: B+(***)
  • Gerry Gibbs Thrasher Dream Trio: Live in Studio (2015, Whaling City Sound): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness (2015, Domino): [r]: B
  • Jason Isbell: Something More Than Free (2015, Southeastern): [r]: B+(*)
  • Ivan & Alyosha: It's All Just Pretend (2015, Dualtone): [r]: B
  • Oddisee: The Good Fight (2015, Mello Music Group): [r]: B+(*)
  • Ought: Sun Coming Down (2015, Constellation): [r]: B+(*)
  • Charlie Parr: Stumpjumper (2015, Red House): [r]: B+(**)
  • Keith Richards: Crosseyed Heart (2015, Mindless/Virgin): [r]: B
  • Jill Scott: Woman (2015, Atlantic): [cd]: B+(***)
  • Snik: Metasediment Rock (2014 [2015], Clean Feed): [cd]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

  • Louis Armstrong: From the Big Band to the All Stars (1946-1956) (1932-56 [1992], RCA, 2CD): [cd]: A-
  • Sidney Bechet: The Complete Sidney Bechet Volumes 3/4 (1941) (1941 [1986], RCA, 2CD): [cd]: A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last two weeks:

  • Sarah Buechi: Shadow Garden (Intakt)
  • Ann Hampton Callaway: The Hope of Christmas (MCG Jazz)
  • Chaise Lounge: A Very Chaise Lounge Christmas (Modern Songbook)
  • Romain Collin: Press Enter (ACT)
  • Caroline Davis Quartet: Doors: Chicago Storylines (Ears & Eyes): November 6
  • Kirsten Edkins: Art & Soul (self-released): November 3
  • Clare Fischer: Out of the Blue (Clavo)
  • The 14 Jazz Orchestra: Nothing Hard Is Ever Easy (self-released): January 1, 2016
  • Mike Holober: Balancing Act (Palmetto): November 13
  • Hot Jazz Jumpers: The Very Next Thing (On the Bol): November 6
  • Russ Lossing: Eclipse (Aqua Piazza): November 7
  • Kristine Mills: Bossa Too (InkWell Publishing)
  • Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra: Joyful Jazz (MCG Jazz): October 23
  • Matthew Shipp Trio: The Conduct of Jazz (Thirsty Ear)
  • Herb Silverstein: Younger Next Year (self-released): October 23
  • Slobber Pup: Pole Axe (Rare Noise): advance, October 30
  • Lou Volpe: Tremembering Ol' Blue Eyes (Songs of Sinatra) (Jazz Guitar): November 6
  • Dave Wilson Quartet: There Was Never (Zoho): November 6

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Music Week

Music: Current count 25572 [25544] rated (+28), 437 [436] unrated (+1).

Cut this week short, closing it on Sunday afternoon so I can move on to packing. I'll be on the road for the next 2-3 weeks, driving straight east to New York City, then some less straight route back. Not sure about internet access, especially while we are in New York. At any rate I won't have the computers, tools, books, and gear I use to produce these posts, so don't expect much here. Lot of stuff still in the queue, and there will be more before I get back. Ulrich Gumpert album is sounding pretty good at the moment, but I should hold back on it.

Time may have contributed to the dip in rated count, but also note the sheer number of A- records this week. Most of them took 4-5 plays -- only New Order and the older Hooker were obvious picks from the start, and I still don't think the new MOPDtK is as good as most of the old ones (although Jon Irabagon has a field day). The Pop Group, the Specials, and Madness got extra plays in just missing, too. The latter came out of the Pitchfork 1970s list (well, not Madness, but it seemed like the moment). Very little left there that I haven't heard, just a couple records that aren't on Rhapsody.

John Lee Hooker's Don't Turn Me From Your Door was a suggestion from Phil Overeem. There are, of course, dozens of Hooker albums I haven't heard, but On Vee-Jay 1955-1958 was on Robert Santelli's blues list, number 18. Metric is probably the most marginal of the A- records, something that became more apparent after I played New Order.

New records rated this week:

  • Bob Albanese: Time Remembered (2012 [2015], Mayimba): [r]: B+(*)
  • Ezra Furman: Perpetual Motion People (2015, Bella Union): [r]: A-
  • Miho Hazama: Time River (2015, Sunnyside): [cdr]: B+(**)
  • Metric: Pagans in Vegas (2015, Metric): [r]: A-
  • Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Mauch Chunk (2015, Hot Cup): [cd]: A-
  • Caili O'Doherty: Padme (2015, Odo): [cd]: B+(**)
  • New Order: Music Complete (2015, Mute): [r]: A-
  • The Pop Group: Citizen Zombie (2015, Freaks R Us): [r]: B+(*)
  • Noah Preminger: Pivot: Live at the 55 Bar (2015, self-released): [cd]: A-
  • Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment: Surf (2015, self-released): [r]: A-
  • John Wojciechowski: Focus (2015, Origin): [cd]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

  • Madness: One Step Beyond . . . (1979, Stiff): [r]: B+(**)
  • Madness: Absolutely (1980, Stiff): [r]: B
  • Madness: Complete Madness (1979-82 [1982], Stiff): [r]: B+(***)
  • The Pop Group: Y (1979 [2007], Radar): [r]: B+(***)
  • The Pop Group: For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? (1980, Rough Trade): [dl]: B+(**)
  • Saturday Night Fever [The Original Movie Sound Track] (1976, Polydor): [r]: B+(*)
  • The Specials: The Specials (1979, Chrysalis): [r]: B+(***)
  • The Specials: More Specials (1980, Chrysalis): [r]: B+(*)
  • The Specials: The Singles Collection (1979-84 [1991], Chrysalis): [cd]: A-
  • Suicide: Suicide (1977, Red Star): [r]: B
  • Suicide: Suicide (1980, Antilles/ZE): [r]: B+(**)
  • This Are Two Tone (1979-82 [1983], Chrysalis): [r]: A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Marnix Busstra: Firm Fragile Fun (Buzz Music)
  • Rich Halley 4: Eleven (Pine Eagle)
  • Scott Hamilton & Jeff Hamilton Trio: Live in Bern (Capri): October 20
  • Harth/Fischer/Daemgen: Confucius Tarif Reduit (Spore Point)
  • Keigo Hirakawa: And Then There Were Three (self-released)
  • Innerroute: Fourmation (self-released): October 15
  • Matt Mitchell: Vista Accumulation (Pi): October 16
  • Maria Schneider Orchestra: The Thompson Fields (ArtistShare)
  • Martin Speicher/Peter Geisselbrecht/Jörg Fischer: Spicy Unit (Spore Print)
  • Manuel Valera & Groove Square: Urban Landscape (Destiny)
  • Galen Weston: Plugged In (Blujazz)
  • Patrick Williams: Home Suite Home (BFM)

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Sunday, September 27, 2015

Weekend Roundup

With the weekend approaching, I had one entry (on drug pricing) in the draft file. Don't have time to add much, but I do have some open tabs I want to take note of before I go offline:

  • Paul Krugman: Religions Are What People Make Them:

    The current crop of Republican presidential candidates is accomplishing something I would have considered impossible: making George W. Bush look like a statesman. Say what you like about his actions after 9/11 -- and I did not like, at all -- at least he made a point of not feeding anti-Muslim hysteria. But that was then.

    Reason probably doesn't do much good in these circumstances. Still, to the extent that there are people who should know better declaring that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with democracy, or science, or good things in general, I'd like to recommend a book I recently read: S. Frederick Starr's Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age From the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. It covers a place and a time of which I knew nothing: the medieval flourishing of learning -- mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy -- in central Asian cities made rich by irrigated agriculture and trade.

    As Starr describes their work, some of these scholars really did prefigure the Enlightenment, sounding remarkably like Arabic-speaking precursors of David Hume and Voltaire. And the general picture he paints is of an Islamic world far more diverse in its beliefs and thinking than anything you might imagine from current prejudices.

    Now, that enlightenment was eventually shut down by economic decline and a turn toward fundamentalism. But such tendencies are hardly unique to Islam.

    People are people. They can achieve great things, or do terrible things, under lots of religious umbrellas. (An Israeli once joked to me, "Judaism has rarely been a religion of oppression. Why? Lack of opportunity.") It's ignorant and ahistorical to claim unique virtue or unique sin for any one set of beliefs.

    A couple quick points: Bush understood that American intervention in the Middle East wouldn't work without local allies, which the US at least had to go through the motions of cultivating. One side effect of this is that Americans and Arabs would develop attachments which would eventually result in many of the latter coming to the US (much as had happened with Cuba and Vietnam). Islamophobes should have understood this dynamic from the beginning, and as such should have resisted Bush's imperial ventures. Of course, they didn't do that -- they're not very bright, but at least they understood that Bush's wars in the Middle East were wars against the people there. Not so clear that either side understood that long-term wars there would only increase intrinsic Islamophobia among Americans, but that's probably the easiest lesson one could have deduced from a study of America's wars.

    The ending of the Arab enlightenment didn't correspond to economic downturn so much as military defeat, primarily by the Mongols and Turks. (A similar thing happened in Spain, first with the Moors then the Christians.) Of course, once the Mongols sack Baghdad it's hard to rebuild the economy. We've seen that in real time with the American occupation, which by most accounts was considerably less brutal.

    In Israel, Jewish military power has turned Judaism into a religion of oppression -- indeed a remarkably nasty one. Perhaps that "lack of opportunity" has prevented any safeguards from evolving. Indeed, one can point to episodes where Christian rule was at least as brutal -- the Spanish Inquisition, for one.

  • Andrew Pollack: Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight: The drug is Daraprim, a 62-year-old generic which was acquired by "Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager." The first thing you learn in MBA school is that the price of something has nothing to do with its cost: it's simply what the market will bear. For a drug that can be the difference between life and death, a seller can get away with a pretty steep price. Under such circumstances, there's little difference between "smart business" and the highwayman's motto, "your money or your life." What's unusual here is that the drug is generic, so in principle there's nothing to stop other companies from competing, and competition should bring the price down to something related to costs. However, as the article shows, there are ways an operator can create and exploit a temporary monopoly -- even where none should exist. One the article doesn't mention goes back to MBA school doctrine: if all the smart operators look for is huge margin opportunities, they'll never bother to compete a price down -- which leaves the first mover with monopoly rents.

    The article gives several other examples of extortionate price increases. I've seen other reports that couple of them have been rolled back, basically by shaming the companies, although I suspect that the real leverage is that a few large insurance companies and, ultimately, the government are the main buyers of pharmaceuticals -- and while you may be powerless, they less committed to your health than to their own bottom line.

    Dean Baker tweeted: "We don't negotiate firefighters' pay when they show up at the burning house, why would we pay for drugs this way?" Baker argues that we should End Patent Monopolies on Drugs. I agree with everything Baker says here:

    The United States stands out among wealthy countries in that we give drug companies patent monopolies on drugs that are essential for people's health or lives and then allows them to charge whatever they want. Every other wealthy country has some system of price controls or negotiated prices where the government limits the extent to which drug companies can exploit the monopoly it has given them. The result is that we pay roughly twice as much for our drugs as the average for other wealthy countries. This additional cost is not associated with better care; we are just paying more for the same drugs. [ . . . ]

    A monopoly that allows drug companies to sell their drugs at prices that can be hundreds of times the free market price has all the problems economics predicts when governments interfere with the market. Drug companies routinely mislead doctors and the public about the safety and effectiveness of their drugs to increase sales. The cost in terms of bad health outcomes and avoidable deaths runs into the tens of billions of dollars every year.

    Drug companies also spend tens of millions on campaign contributions and lobbying to get [even] longer and stronger patent protection. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the main forces behind the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and its demands for stronger patent protections is one of the main obstacles to reaching an agreement with the other countries.

    We don't need patent monopolies to support research. We already spend more than $30 billion a year financing research through the National Institutes of Health. Everyone, including the drug companies, agrees that this money is very productive. We could double or triple this spending and replace the patent supported research done by the drug companies. With the research costs paid upfront, most drugs would be available for the same price as a bottle of generic aspirin.

    Still, as Pollack's article proves, the problem with drug pricing isn't just patents. Purchasers also need more leverage in negotiating prices -- by consolidating their purchasing power and by promoting more competitive options.

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

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Saturday, September 26, 2015

Elizabeth Fink (1945-2015)

Elizabeth Fink was an attorney who spent her entire career defending and fighting politically-charged cases, especially against the abuse of power by state and federal authorities. She never suffered any delusions about the innocence and/or righteousness of her clients -- not that some weren't innocent and/or justified -- but she fully recognized how stacked the system is against them, and struggled relentlessly to tilt that system back toward justice. As she said, "justice is what everyone deserves and no one gets." And it should be noted that she was exceptionally effective in the courtroom: as Laura Stevens put it, "Liz had outstanding results in her work, winning case after case that was a loser for almost anyone else." Persistent too: "This applies to Attica not on the facts, which were compelling, but on the process, which would have defeated most people before the first 20 years expired."

Liz died on Tuesday, September 22, at age 70, in Brooklyn. She had increasingly dire kidney and heart problems, which forced her to give up her practice a couple years ago. In her last week she was approaching renal failure, and had a hemodialysis shunt installed. She took a short walk on Sunday and fell, possibly breaking her hip. In the hospital, her heart stopped. Laura Stevens, a dear friend ever since college, had spent the previous week with Liz (this is from a personal letter):

Through the whole week we were together, we had a good time with each other, talked for many hours, but her condition was awful. She had the beginning of renal failure . . . Her heart condition also exhausted her, so she couldn't walk any distance. Across the street was the maximum. She had a few comfortable hours a day in the later afternoon.

She didn't want to die, still being interested in "what comes next." She didn't want to live this way either, and was facing medical care she didn't want and didn't have confidence in. They can leave you worse off; we've all seen that, and she was truly wary. She still read voraciously, and listened to music with relish. She played it very loud, being very hard of hearing, but it gave her great pleasure. . . . I was always impressed with how much she took away from it, insights she'd have about the music and things that had been said on the program.

She is survived by her brother, photographer Larry Fink, and by numerous friends who miss her dearly.

The following pieces will give you a quick guide to her career (although each misses much):

Liz grew up in a left-wing family in Brooklyn, keeping a equally committed but less doctrinaire version of her family's politics. (I know little about her father, who died before I met her, but her mother -- I knew her as Sylvia Kleinman -- was always involved in something political, notably the Gray Panthers. She once walked off Charlie Rose's show because she didn't think he was taking her seriously.) Liz went to Reed College and graduated in 1967. That's where she met "the two Lauras" and they remained lifelong friends -- Laura Stevens, introduced above, and Laura Tillem, who later met and married me. In 1971, the Attica prison revolt was murderously put down on orders from NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller. The state's first instinct there was to prosecute prisoners, among other things charging them with the deaths of the nine prison guards who had been held hostage and were shot and killed by the invading troops. When Liz graduated from Brooklyn Law School, she joined the defense team, helped get the charges dropped, and filed suit against the state, resulting in several trials and the settlement in 2000. She stuck through the entire ordeal. Even in her last days she was working on organizing her archives and trying to force New York to release still-secret documents.

I first met Liz shortly after Laura Tillem and I got together. We were living in Boston, and Liz came up frequently -- the "Ohio 7" sedition case was tried in Springfield, so Liz stayed there for the duration of the trial. (Some info here: "the longest and most expensive trial in the history of Massachusetts, . . . When the trial ended with no convictions, it also turned out to be one of the most controversial -- and highly criticized -- trials . . ." -- I remember that we talked at great length about what a staggering waste of public resources the trial was. As I recall the amount of money the government wasted was about five times the capitalization of the start-up company I was working for at the time.) After the trial, she came to Boston less, but we went to New York more. We met up once at her mother's house in New Jersey. On a couple occasions Liz and her mother rented a house way out on Long Island and invited lots of their friends out. Once we flew to Portland for a Reed Reunion -- that was the first time I met Laura Stevens. When Sylvia died we dropped everything and drove to Brooklyn. (A few months earlier Sylvia closed up the NJ home and moved into an assisted living apartment in Brooklyn.) When we moved to NJ, Liz came out many times, including to one of my notorious birthday dinners. After we moved to Wichita, Liz and Laura Stevens stopped on a cross-country drive. We were staying at Liz's when 9/11 happened, and I wound up staying there a month. As Liz's health declined, Laura made several trips to New York to help out. I only made one, in May 2014, at a point when she was doing relatively well.

In listing all these encounters, I can't help but feel like I'm bragging, but really I count myself as incredibly lucky. I've heard that when Laura and I first got together, Liz's only question was whether I was "smart enough" for her. I'm pretty sure I passed muster, but really, the most imposing intellect I've ever encountered was Liz's. She read more than anyone I've ever known, comprehended it all, was always incisive in her critiques, and could speak eloquently and poignantly without ever losing your interest. She was, in short, dazzling. One regret I have is that I never saw her in a courtroom, one of the few places where such rigor may prove decisive. A greater regret is that she always resisted my pleas to write. I would have been satisfied had she found a scribe to follow her around and jot down stories (like Ralph Leighton did for Richard Feynman). Terrific stories, thousands of them. If we're lucky, her friends will recall many of them, but too many are already lost. She may have been right that she could never write as well as her favorite writers, but her voice deserves an oral legacy as rich as, well, the other bard who passed this week, Lawrence Peter Berra.

But that was just one of many facets to this remarkable person. I'd like to close by quoting several memories that people have written to her Facebook timeline.

Gideon Oliver [Sept. 22 at 11:04pm]:

I loved Elizabeth Fink very much and was lucky to have her as a mentor and friend. Beyond that, I don't have words about this yet.

Gideon Oliver [Sept. 22 at 11:35pm]:

Starting at :45 - Elizabeth Fink on the courthouse steps, spitting fire and speaking truth to power: Woman linked to Al-Qaida won't answer attempted murder charges in US.

Lamis Deek [Sept. 23 at 2:11am]:

She was also more beautiful than she knew, more beautiful than the world wanted her to be. Good night dear Elizabeth Fink.

Nancy Alisberg [Sept. 23 at 8:02am]:

So sad to hear of the death of Elizabeth Fink. Friend, mentor, neighbor.

Cynthia Skow [Sept. 23 at 9:07am]:

The world lost a true warrior for justice yesterday and I lost a hero. Elizabeth Fink, rest in power!

Lamis Deek [Sept. 23 at 11:53am]:

Few, far too few, people lived with the integrity Elizabeth Fink did . . . her love was active, full and given to those who need it most in ways that really count. Her life, her practice was ruled by the most important rules "if you're OK, I'm OK" and "Dare to struggle dare to win." She was a school unto herself.

Farewell fallen comrade and teacher.

Fahd Ahmed [Sept. 23 at 1:14pm]:

I'm not big on hero-izing people.

But Elizabeth Fink was one of those people who changed me forever within a few minutes.

I was lucky to have been trained to be a lawyer "on your own terms" (ie. don't let the system define who you are and what you do). But I really learned what it meant within a few minutes of meeting Liz, and definitely the first time I saw her in court. From how she walked about, where she scattered (very intentionally) her belongings, how she talked to court officers and judges, etc. Absolutely outrageous woman. And I absolutely loved it.

It was a measured "fuck you and your whole damn system" approach, while making sure to keep the client at center. Tremendous fierceness against the system and tremendous love and care for the people.

A genuine peoples lawyer who understood the nexus of her work with mass movements.

It was an honor to know you, and to work with you. And I forever take what I learned into all of my work beyond lawyering.

You and your fire will be missed.

Pat Rowbotton [Sept. 23 at 2:53pm]:

Liz fought hard with brilliance and creativity. Saw the Ohio 7 to freedom - no one ever fought as hard or won as much.

Meg Handler [Sept. 24 at 10:06am]:

'Dare to struggle; dare to win.' - Elizabeth Fink

This week, we lost one fierce lady. Liz was tough, brilliant and funny and she committed her life to fighting social injustice. I knew Liz thru her brother Larry. She was like family to me. When 800 of us were wrongfully arrested during the RNC in 2004, and I was asked if I had a lawyer who could be called, I said Liz Fink. It turned out Liz and a few other civil rights lawyers were already down in the courtroom arguing for our release. At that moment I knew I was in good shape, that myself and the other wrongfully arrested, would be taken care of. It took 10 years . . . and in the end, it did get taken care of. 10 years was nothing for the likes of Liz, she fought for the Attica inmates for 25 years. She always fought the good fight. She will be missed by many.

Susan Slovak [Sept. 24 at 11:28am]:

She was always gutsy and brave, even in high school. I so admired her integrity and intelligence, even then. She will be so very very missed.

Gideon Oliver [Sept. 24 at 5:27pm]:

Elizabeth Fink accepting the proclamation and a key to the city of Venice, Italy, for the return of Silvia Baraldini. From Michael Deutsch's article "Frank and Liz" published in the National Lawyers Guild - NYC Chapter 2006 Spring Fling Journal. PRESENTE.

Gideon Oliver [Sept. 24 at 5:35pm]:

Elizabeth Fink talking about the Ohio 7 trial and a whole lot more - "Hundreds of law enforcement personnel from across the Northeast came to campus and protested the event the evening it took place. . . ." - h/t Michael Deutsch: Part 4 "The Great Sedition Trial" issues from the trial 11.12.09.

Rachel J-s [Sept. 25 at 12:41am]:

My mom's best friend Elizabeth Fink died this week. I knew her my whole life, from vivid memories of her not letting me win at monopoly when I was 6, to giving me the keys to her apartment when I moved to New York City when I was 20. She was insanely generous with me and many other people, a wealth of historical knowledge about the American left, and taught me about serious, delicious food, before foodie was a term. I really can't quite believe she won't be opening her apartment door, suggesting something amazing for lunch and telling me to take her dog for a walk, the next time I'm in Brooklyn.

Debbie Hrbek [Sept. 25 at 7:10am]:

Please watch, and share, this powerful presentation by my mentor, the wonderful Elizabeth Fink, who died on Tuesday. Such an inspiration to young lawyers about the importance of fighting the good fight. [Second link to Part 4 "The Great Sedition Trial" issues from the trial 11.12.09.]

Gideon Oliver [Sept. 25 at 3:54pm]:

Long, amazing, and worthwhile interview w/ Elizabeth Fink from Black Panther doc "What We Want, What We Believe" posted to Robert Boyle's page - It's amazing to hear Liz talk about Dhoruba Bin-Wahad - this is history everyone should know, and just a ton of Liz being Liz - YouTube.

Carmen Jeannette Levasseur [Sept. 25 at 9:30pm]:

Liz Elizabeth Fink drove my sisters and I to and from family visits for years. She was a grounded force in a time of chaos. She always let me sit in front.

Bobby Quackenbush [Sept. 25 at 9:45pm]:

"Jeopardizing the Republic. I think I'd like that on my tombstone." - Elizabeth Fink

Ben Feinberg-Gerner [Sept. 25 at 11:35pm]:

Elizabeth Fink at her finest: fiery, passionate, deeply funny. Ever the watchwoman for the Constitutional protections we all have -- even when our government would rather overlook them in the name of policy or expedience.

The details of the case in question make her speech a bit tricky to follow, but what matters here in the underlying message and Liz's passion for justice. [Third link to Part 4 "The Great Sedition Trial" issues from the trial 11.12.09].

Edward Hershey [Sept. 26 at 2:05am]:

Usually glad to see The New York Times quote a passage of mine but not this time because it is at the end of Elizabeth Fink's obituary. I met Liz in Buffalo in 1974 when I covered the trial of 2 inmates charged with inciting the Attica Prison insurrection. She was on the defense team. She returned for her 40th Reed College reunion and I profiled her in the alumni magazine Still Fighting]. She was true to her principles every step of the way.

Finally, here's a recent photo, from an interview Mike Hull filmed:

Elizabeth Fink 2015

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Music Week

Music: Current count 25544 [25500] rated (+44), 434 [436] unrated (-2).

I haven't played any Hatology records since last week's Rhapsody Streamnotes, although I expect I will before October's installment -- I'm still updating my checklist, and there's still lots to do (plus I'm finding a few older Hat Art releases). The only Hat A this week (and it's a full A) is Horace Tapscott's The Dark Tree, the latest reissue of a pair of albums I've long treasured.

My latest tangent as been 1970s pop/rock. As I was checking out the new Giorgio Moroder Michael Tatum recommended, I noticed that Moroder's 1977 album From Here to Eternity was on a list Pitchfork had assembled of The Top 100 Albums of the 1970s. As usual, I was tempted to fill in all the holes, and doubly so for Moroder -- as background for the new one, and because it's an album I used to own but somehow hadn't listed in the database. (I was on Casablanca's mailing list for a while in the late 1970s.)

Turns out that I had previously graded 85/100 albums -- the '70s were my decade, after all. My homework: Nick Drake, T. Rex, Neu!, Can, Saturday Night Fever, Pop Group, Suicide, Specials, Tim Buckley, Cluster, Faust, Van Halen, Nilsson, Throbbing Gristle, King Crimson -- someone at Pitchfork is really into Krautrock. I knocked about half of those off this week. Their list exhibits some unsurprising biases -- among pop/rock entries, 42 Brits but only 8 Afro-Americans, same as the number of Krautrock albums -- but did include 5 jazz albums (4 Miles Davis + 1 Herbie Hancock). There was a severe dry spell in the mid-1970s: only 9 albums for 1974-76. Unlike many lists, they weren't shy about picking 2nd, 3rd, or 4th albums by favorites: 4 each for David Bowie, Miles Davis, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd; 3 for Can, Brian Eno, Iggy and/or the Stooges; 2 for The Clash, Elvis Costello, Nick Drake, King Crimson, Kraftwerk, Fela Kuti, Ramones, Talking Heads, Neil Young. Still, I can't complain about the overall quality (unlike many recent lists): they picked 10 A+ albums, another 25 A albums, 25 more A-, and only 7 albums B or lower (only Van Halen much lower).

On the other hand, some missing artists: Captain Beefheart, Ornette Coleman, Derek and the Dominos, Nick Lowe, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Marley, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Van Morrison, Mott the Hoople, New York Dolls, Parliament, Pere Ubu, John Prine, Bonnie Raitt, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Steely Dan, Donna Summer, Bill Withers. I was tempted to offer an alternative list, but it could easily be as long.

By the way, the new Moroder album is unique in his catalog: it's like a compilation of productions for other singers as opposed to the robotized disco albums he released under his own name. At least Moroder's old Casablanca records are on Rhapsody (but not, alas, his 1969 That's Bubblegum). I tried assembling a playlist to match Casablanca's disco sampler Get Up and Boogie, but came up short by half.

All the new jazz I had this week was three high-B+ HMs until I gave Ochion Jewell a couple extra spins. Although he may be more impressed that he got Lionel Loueke to play on two tracks, the secret ingredient is the pianist and drummer from Dawn of Midi, offering many surprises. Preoccupied as I've been elsewhere, there's quite a bit of new jazz in the queue.

New records rated this week:

  • The Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet: 10 (2015, Zoho): [cd]: B+(***)
  • Animation: Machine Language (2014 [2015], Rare Noise): [cdr]: B
  • John Fedchock Quartet: Live: Fluidity (2014 [2015], Summit): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Ochion Jewell Quartet: Volk (2015, self-released): [cd]: A-
  • Keith Kelly Ask Not: A Grand Apparatus, Discarded (2014 [2015], Edgetone): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Maddie & Tae: Start Here (2015, Dot): [r]: B+(*)
  • Josh Maxey: Celebration of Soul (2015, Miles High): [cd]: B
  • Bob Merrill: Cheerin' Up the Universe (2013 [2015], Accurate): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Giorgio Moroder: Deja-Vu (2015, RCA): [r]: A-
  • Pere Ubu: Carnival of Souls (2014, Fire): [r]: B+(***)
  • Cecile McLorin Salvant: For One to Love (2015, Mack Avenue): [r]: B+(*)
  • Aram Shelton/Fred Lonberg-Holm/Frank Rosaly: Resounder (2014 [2015], Singlespeed Music): [cd]: B+(***)
  • Rotem Sivan Trio: A New Dance (2015, Fresh Sound New Talent): [cd]: B+(*)
  • The Weeknd: Beauty Behind the Madness (2015, Republic): [r]: B+(*)

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

  • Horace Tapscott: The Dark Tree (1989 [2014], Hatology, 2CD): [r]: A
  • Amara Touré: 1973-1980 (1973-80 [2015], Analog Africa): [r]: B+(***)

Old records rated this week:

  • Can: Tago Mago (1971, United Artists): [r]: B+(***)
  • Ornette Coleman: The Empty Foxhole (1966 [1967], Blue Note): [r]: B+(***)
  • Nick Drake: Pink Moon (1972, Island): [r]: B+(*)
  • Faust: Faust IV (1973, Virgin): [r]: B+(**)
  • Faust: Something Dirty (2011, Bureau B): [r]: B+(**)
  • The Pandelis Karayorgis Trio: Heart and Sack (1998, Leo Lab): [r]: A-
  • Pandelis Karayorgis: Seventeen Pieces: Solo Piano (2004, Leo): [r]: B+(***)
  • Franz Koglmann: O Moon My Pin-Up (1997 [2001], Hatology): [r]: B
  • Franz Koglmann: An Affair With Strauss (1999, Between the Lines): [r]: B+(**)
  • Franz Koglmann: Venus in Transit (2001, Between the Lines): [r]: B+(**)
  • Franz Koglmann: Fear Death by Water (2003, Between the Lines): [r]: B
  • Urs Leimgruber/Joëlle Léandre/Fritz Hauser: No Try No Fail (1996 [1997], Hatology): [r]: B+(*)
  • Giorgio Moroder: Knights in White Statin (1976, Oasis): [r]: B+(*)
  • Giorgio Moroder: From Here to Eternity (1977, Casablanca): [r]: B
  • Neu!: Neu! (1972, Brain): [r]: A-
  • Harry Nilsson: Nilsson Sings Newman (1970, Buddha): [r]: B-
  • Harry Nilsson: Nilsson Schmilsson (1971, RCA): [r]: B+(***)
  • Harry Nilsson: Pussy Cats (1974, RCA): [r]: B
  • T. Rex: Electric Warrior (1971, Reprise): [r]: B+(**)
  • T. Rex: The Slider (1972, Reprise): [r]: B+(*)
  • Horace Tapscott/Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: The Call (1978 [2012], Nimbus West): [bc]: B+(**)
  • Horace Tapscott with the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: Live at I.U.C.C. (1979 [2006], Nimbus West, 2CD): [bc]: A-
  • Horace Tapscott: Lighthouse 79, Vol. 1 (1979 [2009], Nimbus West): [r]: B+(**)
  • Horace Tapscott: Lighthouse 79, Vol. 2 (1979 [2009], Nimbus West): [r]: B+(**)
  • Horace Tapscott: The Tapscott Sessions Vol. 8 (1984 [1997], Nimbus West): [r]: B+(***)
  • Van Halen: Val Halen (1978, Warner Brothers): [r]: C+

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Rodrigo Amado: This Is Our Language (Not Two)
  • Randy Bernsen: Grace Notes (Jericho Jams)
  • Marcelo Dos Reis/Angélica V. Salvi: Concentric Rinds (Cipsela)
  • Bill Kirchner: An Evening of Indigos (Jazzheads, 2CD): October 16
  • Frank Kohl Quartet: Invisible Man (Pony Boy): October 2
  • Adam Larson: Selective Amnesia (Inner Circle Music): November 3
  • Daniel Levin/Rob Brown: Divergent Paths (Cipsela)
  • Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Maucha Chunk (Hot Cup): October 27
  • Oscar Perez: Prepare a Place for Me (Myna): October 13
  • Michael Sarian & the Chabones: The Escape Suite (self-released): November 3
  • Ike Sturm + Evergreen: Shelter of Trees (Kilde): November 10
  • Bastian Weinhold: Cityscape (Frame Music): November 3

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Weekend Roundup

Short post this week. Got a late start, and didn't get beyond the usual US political campaign grist. Rest assured though that the Middle East remains as fucked as ever, that Europe is struggling with a refugee crisis, that Greece is stuck with a choice between two defeatist parties, that the rich still aren't satisfied, and environmental disasters are still multiplying. Meanwhile, our "best and brightest" reporters are mired in what Matt Taibbi calls "the stupid season."

  • David Atkins: Why Does the Press Continue to Get It So Wrong on Donald Trump?: Why do pundits, and for that matter pretty much all of the mainstream press, keep getting popular political opinions wrong?

    Conservatives will claim that journalists are liberal and don't understand Republican politics. Perhaps, but progressives have made equally scathing critiques of the press for years in their underestimation of progressive populist sentiment and elevation of centrist candidates. It's less that the political press is liberal, and more that it is trapped' in a bubble inhabited by the wealthy and powerful. [ . . . ]

    But more importantly, there is a bias in the press toward political neutrality and the perception of balance. After a debate in which Republican candidates peddled an endless string of falsehoods and fantasies, the political press has a crisis on its hands: let it all slide and simply transcribe the lies without challenge, or contribute to a perception of "liberal bias" by actually calling out the falsehoods and holding the candidates accountable?

    Trump presents a similar problem. Trump's extremist positions on immigration and foreign policy, combined with his vulgar, racist and sexist remarks, are so obviously appalling that for him to continuously lead the GOP field not only proves the Mann/Ornstein thesis that the Republican Party has grown uniquely extreme, but also shows that problem extends beyond Republican Party leadership to the actual voters themselves. Even more, the fact that Trump's apostasy on taxes and healthcare has not significantly damaged him is a demonstration that GOP voters are not actually so committed to the libertarian supply-side economics of the Republican Party as they are to using the power of government to benefit traditionally powerful whites at the expense of women and minorities.

    This a problem for the press. As long as Trump leads, it's impossible to maintain the fiction of equally extreme "both sides do it" partisanship. As long as Trump rules (and, to a lesser extent, that Bernie Sanders continues to rise on the left) it's also increasingly difficult to pretend that "moderates" in either party are actually the center of public opinion, rather than caterers to a unique brand of corporate-friendly upper-class comfort that labels itself as moderate without holding any legitimate claim to the title.

    Acknowledging those realities would force the press to start reporting the fundamentals of American politics as they stand today:

    First, that the Republican base wants a rebel leader to take their country back from the inconvenience of being nice to women, gays and minorities;

    Second, that the wealthy Republican establishment and its center-right Third Way Democratic counterparts don't actually have a legitimate base of voters, but rather illegitimate institutional capture of government via legalized bribery; and

    Third, that the rest of the country wants liberal public policies that would resemble a Scandinavian government, but most of them are so turned off by the futility of the American political process that not enough of them turn out to vote to make a real difference outside of the bluest states.

    The first two of these points could be phrased better but are pretty self-evident. The Republican Party is an uneasy coalition of leaders and followers: the former that segment of the wealthy that seeks to gain through zero-sum strategies (reducing taxes, suppressing wages, growing monopolies, exchanging wealth for debt, arbitrage); the latter various segments of gullible single-issue voters (racists, religious bigots, anti-abortion, pro-gun, flag wavers, anything that distracts one from class). The appeal to the latter is a combination of flattery (you're the real Americans) and demagoguery (they're hell-bent on destroying your life). That coalition is unstable because the leaders are actively undermining the followers' material basis, and this fracturing only increases as the leaders gain power. It may be possible for a politician to crack this coalition by running against the elites, but I don't see any reason to expect Trump will do that. Rather, as his own billionaire sponsor, his potential independence worries the elites and offers some hope to the gullible followers. Still, I don't see it panning out: even if his understanding of class never extends beyond his own bottom line, you know where he's going to land on every significant issue.

    The third point is the controversial one, because the main obstacle a significant extension of social democratic policies faces comes not from the Republicans -- who would cut their base's throats to achieve their goal of reducing government -- as from the mainstream Democrats, who chase after campaign money with the avarice of Republicans but at least have some scruples against wrecking the status quo (not that they always have the wisdom, as shown by their support for wrecking Carter-Glass banking regulation). The public may very well want more than the Democrats are offering, but without unions or other groups pressuring the Democrats to deliver, they'll keep playing defense (with the occasional fumble).

  • Josh Marshall: The War Party: Responding to the Republican dog and pony show, Marshall points out that when foreign policy issues came up, "Trump may have been silent because he just doesn't know enough details or doesn't care enough about them to engage," while the others "turned not so much to foreign policy as to each candidate trying to outdo the other in embracing the sort of petulant unilateralism that made the aughts such a disaster for the United States. It was, to put it simply, a race to embrace Bush foreign policy on steroids." I wouldn't give Trump much of a pass here -- he has, after all, claimed he's "the most militaristic person there is" (see Scott Eric Kaufman and Glen Healy -- the latter defending Trump by arguing that his boast is the "biggest lie" of a pathological braggart). Still, Marshall is right to focus on Rubio and Fiorina, who pundits like to praise for their ability to spew this shit with a straight face.

    Let's start with Marco Rubio, who has tried to carve out a space as the candidate of the neoconservatives in exile. Joe Klein saw him as the clear winner of the debate with a crisp and incisive command of national defense policy. "To my mind, Marco Rubio won that debate with his obvious fluency on a range of topics . . . Marco Rubio is becoming a force to be reckoned with -- on the debate stage. He is fluent, smart and bold."

    That is not what I saw at all.

    I agree that Rubio continues to come off as likable and he makes no obvious mistakes in these encounters. I actually think that just by dint of process of elimination he has a substantial better shot at the nomination that most people realize. But in his recitations on foreign policy he doesn't come off as knowledgable or seasoned. He comes off as someone who has obligingly internalized, in a kind of rote manner, the wisdom of Bill Kristol to get the money of Sheldon Adelson. There is a strong DC insider appetite for these nostrums. So it's not just the money. But these are dangerous, discredited ideas that were tried and failed miserably under the last Republican President. Indeed, they failed so miserably that even in President Bush's second term the standard-bearers were largely ushered aside in favor of a slightly more realist approach to cleaning up the messes created in the first term.

    If there is one thing the country does not need it is another impressionable foreign policy neophyte who comes under the influence of this war-addicted DC coven.

    Next is Carly Fiorina. I entirely agree that she had a strong, commanding debate. She seemed particularly focused and knowledgable on national security questions as she rattled off a number of things she would do to take a more aggressive posture toward America's adversaries and rivals.

    Unless of course you actually have any idea what you're talking about. In which case, the things she said seemed quite different. At a broad level, it's the same kind of confrontational and dangerous foreign policy that got the country into trouble a decade ago. But as Ezra Klein explains here, Fiorina's list of proposed actions were a mix of things that were irrelevant to the questions at hand, are already happening, or things that operate on a time scale such that they can't have any real affect on the challenges she suggests they're aimed at countering. The dangerous ground of half-knowledge. Or policies as puzzle pieces with no larger picture or understanding.

    I think the appeal the necons have among Republicans now is tied up with the right's obsession with condemning all things Obama. It is, after all, an extremist doctrine, one that takes common assumptions of the cold war security state and through a combination of logical rigor and macho posturing drives them to seductive but untenable extremes. It's worth recalling that the neocons' original nemesis was none other than Henry Kissinger, no minor war criminal himself, so casting Obama as cowardly and unpatriotic was easy. (Lazy and shameless too: after all, the crime they wailed about in Benghazi! wasn't Obama's running an illegal CIA operation there or getting it blown up but not spouting the correct anti-Islamic bigotry afterwards -- i.e., the one that would justify further disastrous intervention.)

    The neocon parlor game of rhetoric is hard to beat in the salons of Washington, even though it has never been shown to work in the real world -- where America isn't omnipotent, where American efforts to "shock and awe" other into submission merely publicize the moral rot that somes with superpower hubris. The neocons always have the excuse that their principles were compromised by weaklings who didn't believe and didn't try hard enough. The real antidote to neoconism is to question the assumptions -- something Obama and Clinton never had the guts to do, because the institutional power of the security state is too entrenched. Some of the leading dimwits of the Tea Party movement were tempted in that direction, but Michelle Bachmann fizzled before she could articulate much, and Rand Paul let himself be convinced that only by prevaricating could he win the nomination -- leaving himself no principle to stand on.

    Marshall's conclusion:

    The attitude of embattlement and grievance that currently animates the Republican party is something we're quite familiar with in the domestic sphere but it's even more present in the outlook abroad. It is a dangerous thing to take a coalition which feels embattled, victimized and disempowered and put them in charge of the most powerful military in the world. A coalition like that, with an untrained hand at the helm, guided by terrible advisors is a recipe for disaster.

  • Philip Weiss: Coulter's point is that Republicans pander on Israel to win donors, not voters: I referred to the Republican presidential debate above as a "dog and pony show" -- a phrase that back in my corporate days we used to refer to any staged presentation (to customers, to investors, or to anyone else you hoped to deal with). I was looking for an alternative turn of phrase, but also I was a bit uncomfortable with "debate" -- that suggests a high-minded collegiate contest being scored by experts, and while many pundits are conceited enough to think of themselves that way, that wasn't necessarily the judgment the candidates were looking for. Some were mostly intent on selling themselves to potential voters, while some were no doubt more concerned with donors. It now occurs to me that the latter may have been the main focus, one that resonates with my "dog and pony show" quip: after all, who bothers to watch a dog or horse race unless they have some money riding on the result?

    Coulter is a thoroughly obnoxious pundit, one who built her entire career by heaping hateful invective on liberals, a torrent so vile it's consumed her, turning her into such a fount of hatred that she's lost the ability to distinguish between former friends and foes. It wouldn't surprise me if her "fucking Jews" tweet reveals anti-semitism because her hate has become so universal, although it sounds as much like her usual stock in trade. Still, the sequence of her tweets shows she's at least trying to think through what she's seeing. She quickly figures out that Republican appeals on Israel aren't meant to curry favor with Jewish voters, because there aren't that many of them, and most vote Democratic anyway. She considers whether it's "to suck up to the Evangelicals" -- they are more numerous, and they're a key target constituency for Republicans: many see Israel as an essential step toward the second coming of Jesus, the "end times" and all that. (I've known people obsessed with that, although you don't read much about them as it's considered impolite to talk about such delusions.) But in the end Coulter decides the candidates are pitching their donors, and she comes up with this tweet, which despite everything is pretty much on target:

    How to get applause from GOP donors: 1) Pledge to start a war 2) Talk about job creators 3) Denounce abortion 4) Cite Reagan 5) Cite Israel.

    Worth noting that (1) is an implicit case of (5), not that war with Iran isn't the only pledge, but if it wasn't Iran it'd be someone else on Israel's "existential threat" list -- ISIS, for one, is looming. Coulter's hot button issue at the moment seems to be nativism, which whenever it has erupted in American history has been rooted in racism (and often linked to anti-semitism, although these days the semites are much more often Muslim). Nativism has also tended to be associated with autarky and isolationism, and Coulter seems to be leaning that way -- if you don't want foreigners coming to America, you shouldn't go around the world starting wars and stirring up distress, like America's liberal interventionists have been doing ever since FDR. One could build a coherent conservative argument around such notions, but I have yet to hear one from Trump or Coulter or even Rand Paul. Part of the problem there is that Fascists in the 1930s discredited those notions for generations. Part is that capital -- the money of the superrich who think they run the GOP -- has become so globalized that any real autarky has become unimaginable. And while it's not clear that global capital really requires America's military sprawl, no Republican has come around to asking that question.

    In a sense, (3) has become the core point: not so much that the money Republicans hate abortion, but abortion has become a litmus test issue, something no Republican can question without being drummed out of the tribe. But then all the points are increasingly like that: litmus tests, articles of faith, self-commitments. They draw applause because Republicans love to applaud themselves. But they're increasingly self-selecting themselves into a power-losing minority.

    By the way, we can thank Netanyahu for moving Israel out of the realm of bipartisan consensus and into the Republican column. That will eventually free the Democrats of a terrible burden. As Weiss puts it:

    One good result of this conversation will be more Jews condemning Sheldon Adelson and Norman Braman and the Republican Jewish Coalition moneybags for trying to have a war with Iran, more Jews declaring that they aren't Zionists.

    As for Coulter's (4) point, see: Jon Schwarz: Seven Things About Ronald Reagan You Won't Hear at the Reagan Library GOP Debate: "And maybe that's appropriate -- since if Reagan stood for anything as president, it was creating a completely fictionalized version of the past."

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Rhapsody Streamnotes (September 2015)

August ended in Kansas this year, atypically, without a single 100 degree day, then we had two in a row a week into September, and it's still up in the 90s as I write this. Two days short of a month since last time, with the biggest haul of albums all year (179 -- in fact since November 30, 2013; although, like then, the bulk is down in the Old Music section, as today's 60 new records is the second skimpiest selection this year).

Last month I wasn't sure where I would go in Old Music since I had ran out of items from Spin's 1985-2015 list. This month I started out picking up old records from Dee Dee Bridgewater and Sleaford Mods -- two artists with new records this month -- then I found some listings from Werner Uehlinger's legendary Hat label -- one of the key European labels that kept avant-jazz in business since the late 1970s. Over the years I had picked up 76 of their releases, and had 26 (36.1%) listed at A- or above. But I had missed a couple hundred albums, so the prospect that most would now be accessible was too good to pass up. Eighty-six more Hat albums are reviewed below (only 85 graded, 24.7% A- or A: in one case -- also for a non-Hat album by Horace Tapscott -- I wrote a bit but decided I hadn't heard enough to firm up a grade). That still leaves unheard 70 albums from my Hatology checklist, plus an undetermined number from Hat's "new music" (i.e., avant-classical) label Hat[new]Art and Hat's pre-Hatology labels (Hat Musics LPs and Hat Art LPs/CDs). So expect more next month, but probably not as many.

Reissues from the last couple years have been slotted in with the Recent Reissues/Compilations/Vault Music, which only seems right. I wouldn't normally have bothered with The Dark Tree, since I've long owned the original CDs, and I usually skip over old music that I've previously graded, even if the packaging it new. In this case two separately-released CDs have been combined, making it a distinct (if not very different) title. Also note that when the combined set was released -- actually as The Dark Tree 1 & 2 in 2000; the new one is a retitled reissue of a reissue -- Penguin Guide gave the set a crown, so it's resided in my database as one of very few crown albums I hadn't graded. Besides, if you weren't aware of it, you should be.

I'll note here that I didn't do the same thing with Steve Lacy's finest album, which I have as Morning Joy: Live at Sunset Paris, credited to Steve Lacy Four, recorded in 1986, released on Hat Art in 1989; subsequently reissued as Morning Joy by Hatology in 2001, and again as Morning Joy . . . Paris Live in 2014. The 2001 edition added the 7:38 "Work," same for the 2014 reissue. So not a distinct recording, nor a new one for me, but a great album, a very solid A.

For Tapscott, I wound up digging a bit further. Most of his work was privately recorded and ultimately released on Nimbus West. Some of that is on Rhapsody, and some more is on Bandcamp. I didn't get very far into the latter -- certainly not deep enough to make any real sense out of his solo discs. I also got stymied looking up Tapscott's Flying Dutchman debut from 1969, The Giant Is Awakened. I found something that looked like it on YouTube, and started to write a bit on it, but it stopped after the first cut/side. Not enough to grade, but if what I heard is indication, very likely an A-. YouTube played the same trick on me with Live at I.U.C.C., but Bandcamp had the whole thing.

Last few months I've been listing previously graded records by artists reviewed in Old Music. That made sense given that I was mostly chasing down the Spin list, filling in holes where it seemed worthwhile in my coverage of mostly rock artists. This time I'm mostly just filling in one label, often in jazz artists I've covered rather extensively before. If I listed everything in my database for all of these artists, this post would get way too long, so for the most part I just give you previously rated Hat albums, plus a raw count of everything else. For what it's worth, including reviews here, these are the top artists (counting first artist listed in credits): Steve Lacy: 58; Anthony Braxton: 54; Sun Ra: 45; Cecil Taylor: 38; Lee Konitz: 37; Peter Brötzmann, Ornette Coleman, Matthew Shipp: 36; David Liebman: 26; Paul Bley: 25; Joe McPhee: 23; Mal Waldron: 22; Billy Bang, Ellery Eskelin: 18; Albert Ayler, Ran Blake: 17.

Only one non-jazz record in the Recent Releases: Sleaford Mods, a major group as far as I'm concerned. Probably just a numbers thing -- only 14 of 60 new records are non-jazz. Also may have given up too easy: five B+(***) albums there (Bobby Bare Jr, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lindi Ortega, Rod Picott, Yo La Tengo). I gave the Ezra Furman album a spin -- Tatum gave it an A -- last night and decided not to commit one way or another. On the other hand, good month for new jazz, even if I'm playing catch up on Allen and Bergonzi. Also note that I've caught up with most of ECM's releases (at least those released from March to September -- I missed some earlier ones, including one by Jack DeJohnette that my friends all love). They're marked as downloads [dl], but were actually streamed using MPE Player. Not a great interface, but enough to tell they're not great records either.

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 August 18. Past reviews and more information are available here (6976 records).

Recent Releases

John Adams/San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas: Absolute Jest/Grand Pianola Music (2013 [2015], SFS): Adams caught my interest with his early minimalism, then lost it as he veered into more conventionally classical music (not that I've listened to much of the latter). But this looked like it might be amusing. The former piece (25:38) is symphonic but airy, parts reportedly cribbed from Beethoven, in jest no doubt, but the jokes are too subtle for me. The latter (31:56) combines minimalist tinkle with choral uplift, hitting a crescendo that is quite wonderful, then settling for the merely grand. B+(**)

JD Allen: Graffiti (2015, Savant): Tenor saxophonist from Detroit, has ten or so albums since 1999. Always an impressive stylist, goes with a basic trio here -- Gregg August on bass, Rudy Royston on drums -- which opens him up. A- [cd]

Barry Altschul & 3Dom Factor: Tales of the Unforeseen (2014 [2015], TUM): Drummer, achieved some prominence in the 1970s as part of Anthony Braxton's quartet, faded away, finally appearing as a venerable elder guest star on tenor saxophonist Jon Irabagon's 2010 Foxy. Irabagon returned on Altschul's 2013 The 3Dom Factor, and again here, although the focus here is more on the drums. Joe Fonda helps out on bass. A- [cd]

Animation: Machine Language (2014 [2015], Rare Noise): Group sometimes referred to as Bob Belden's Animation, and this is billed as the late saxophonist's last album. AMG lists about a dozen albums under Animation, but only three belong to this group (all on this label). Fairly elementary jazztronica, nice beat, doesn't strain any of the talent (which includes Bill Laswell on bass). Enjoyable enough, but the spoken word story line -- something about "human machines" and "perfect machines" and "children's dreams" and such -- didn't interest me at all. The narrator, by the way, is Kurt Elling. B [cdr]

Bobby Bare Jr.: Don't Follow Me (I'm Lost) [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (2015, Bloodshot): Looks like the movie, which went straight to DVD, is a documentary following Bare around on some tour. Much of this sounds like "live in concert" and the rest comes off as even more informal. The offhandedness suits him, not least when it brings out his natural weirdness. B+(***)

Stefano Battaglia Trio: In the Morning: Music of Alec Wilder (2014 [2015], ECM): Italian pianist, has close to 40 albums since 1989 (per Discogs). This is a trio with Salvatore Maiore (bass) and Roberto Dani (drums), playing seven tunes from Alec Wilder. Very thoughtful, a bit more zip than the label norm, probably because the melodies are proven, even if none too recognizable. B+(***) [dl]

Beat Funktion: Olympus (2015, DO Music): Swedish acid jazz group, more like disco, pick up some themes from Greek mythology and swish and swizzle them around the dance floor. B [cd]

Jerry Bergonzi: Rigamaroll (2012 [2015], Savant): Tenor saxophonist, mainstream guy who uses phrases like Tenor Talk and Simply Put for titles (to pick two records I especially like). Quintet with Phil Grenadier (trumpet), Bruce Barth (piano), his usual bassist and drummer, a hard bop set that kicks out the jams. A- [cd]

Dee Dee Bridgewater: Dee Dee's Feathers (2014 [2015], Okeh): Veteran jazz singer, came up in bop but ten years after Katrina she's doing a New Orleans theme album. Irvin Mayfield gets second credit on trumpet, and they're backed by the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra -- I don't have the credits, but they sound more like a conventional big band than a New Orleans trad outfit. Of course, the usual guests drop in, and they work in the "Treme Theme Song" -- anything to please the tourists. Lots of brass and swagger. B+(**)

Dheepa Chari: Patchwork (2015, self-released): Singer, originally from Vancouver but grew up in Dallas, second album, mostly standards but co-wrote three songs with keyboard player Lars Potteiger. Bio compares herself to Betty Carter ("in the spirit of"), Sarah Vaughan ("the dulcet sultriness of"), Billie Holiday ("the emotional depth and sinuous lyricism of"), and Ella Fitzgerald ("the impeccable phrasing and effortless control of"). Shows she can keep her models straight, even if she can't emulate any of them. B- [cd]

Darts & Arrows: Altamira (2015, Ears & Eyes): Guitarist Bill MacKay, has a couple more albums under his and/or his group's name, started thinking of this guitar-keybs-bass-drums quartet as a folk group but somewhere along the way it veered into fusion, the tight grooves punctuated by a dip in the guitar. B+(*) [cd]

Dave Douglas Quintet: Brazen Heart (2015, Greenleaf Music): New saxophonist this time, Jon Irabagon, adding to the string of imposing young tenors recruited by Douglas for his Quintets (Chris Potter, Donny McCaslin, Marcus Strickland). Unfortunately, Irabagon doesn't help out much, for this is one of those Douglas discs where the composition -- "a commission from the Ecstatic Music Festival for a program to be performed at the World Trade Center site in downtown New York" -- swamps the musicianship, always potent in Douglas groups (here: Matt Mitchell, Linda Oh, Rudy Royston). B+(**) [cd]

Elina Duni Quartet: Dallëndyshe (2014 [2015], ECM): Singer from Albania, left for Switzerland at age 10, second ECM album, mostly trad Albanian folk songs, but she has a first-rate jazz piano trio -- Colin Vallon, Patrice Moret, Norbert Pfammatter -- and she's a memorable stylist. B+(***) [dl]

Mathias Eick: Midwest (2014 [2015], ECM): Norwegian trumpet player, third ECM album, with piano (Jon Balke), violin (Gjermund Larsen), and bass (Mats Eilertsen). B+(**) [dl]

Electric Squeezebox Orchestra: Cheap Rent (2014 [2015], OA2): Led by trumpeter Erik Jekabson, a pretty conventional big band based in San Francisco -- they have a weekly Sunday night gig at Doc's Lab with a shifting membership (two lineups split this disc). I don't see where the "electric" or "squeezebox" comes in, but they are snappier than the average postbop orchestra. B+(*) [cd]

Liberty Ellman: Radiate (2014 [2015], Pi): Guitarist, fourth album since 1998, close to thirty side-credits (not counting the mixing and mastering he's done on at least that many records). Sextet, with three horns giving wide-ranging looks -- Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Steve Lehman (alto sax), and Jose Davila (tuba, trombone) -- plus Stephan Crump (bass) and Damion Reid (drums). A- [cd]

Ellery Eskelin: Solo Live at Snugs (2013 [2015], Hatology): Solo tenor sax, twenty years after his first solo effort (Premonition: Solo Tenor Saxophone). Four long pieces, deliberately paced and methodical with no real rough spots. B+(**)

Daniel Fortin: Brinks (2015, Fresh Sound New Talent): Bassist, from Ontario, first album under his own name but he also co-leads the EST-ish piano trio Myriad 3. Postbop quartet with David French (tenor sax), Michael Davidson (vibes), and Fabio Ragnelli (drums). B+(**) [cd]

Funkadelic: First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate (2014, The C Kunspyruzhy, 3CD): Thirty-three years after George Clinton and company hung it up with The Electric Spanking of War Babies, so why not three discs, thirty-three tracks, 3:27:34? (Works out to just one track per year, nothing to break a sweat over.) A couple tracks sound promising, but they don't seem quite up to snuff, and by the time they start covering "Bernadette" you realize they're not going to pull it out. Maybe you can edit this down to something you'd want to play again. B+(*)

Michael Gallant Trio: Live Plus One (2014 [2015], Gallant Music): Piano trio, the leader also playing electric keyboard and melodica, with Rob Mitzner on drums and either/both of Dmitry Ishenko/Pepe Gonzalez on bass (former electric, latter acoustic). Gallant has several previous albums. This one is upbeat, sparkling even. B+(*) [cd]

Clay Giberson: Minga Minga (2013 [2015], Origin): Pianist, fifth album since 2001, solo, so what? B+(*) [cd]

Girlpool: Before the World Was Big (2015, Wichita): Two LA girls, still in their teens but feeling adult to reflect back, get by without a drummer by never running very fast, and get by with slow by having something to say. B+(**)

Girlpool: Girlpool (2014, Wichita, EP): Last year's 7-cut, 15:15 debut. A bit riskier lyrically, as if they feel they have to put out, although they never get in too deep. B+(**)

Chris Golinski/Tim McNally/Boaz Roberts: Rodeo (2015, Edgetone): Drums-bass-guitar trio, order is probably alphabetical as the guitar is the main thing here, to the extent anything is. The net effect is rather atmospheric, an unlikely goal for suc difficult music. B+(*) [cd]

Giovanni Guidi Trio: This Is the Day (2014 [2015], ECM): Young Italian pianist -- turns 30 this year -- already with a stack of records and side credits (especially with Enrico Rava), back for another trio, with Thomas Morgan on bass and Joăo Lobo on drums. One of those delicate, understated piano records producer Manfred Eicher so favors. B+(**) [dl]

Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell: The Traveling Kind (2015, Nonesuch): Second album together, mostly Crowell's songs (even, I suspect, when Harris shares a credit, about half the time), but aside from a Cajun piece at the end, the covers top them (Amy Allison and Lucinda Williams, of course you know the latter). B+(*)

Will Herrington: Solace (2015, self-released): Pianist, based in LA, first album, mostly trio, bright post-bop, two tracks add trumpet (Ambrose Akinmusire), one of those extra percussion, filling out the sound impressively. B+(*) [cd]

Hommage ŕ Eberhard Weber (2015, ECM): The German bassist was one of the labels stars from his first album, 1973's The Colours of Chloë until a 2007 stroke left him unable to play bass. Since then he has hung on to release a couple of albums built around older bass solos, and contributes in that ghostly manner to this 75th birthday tribute, recorded live at Theaterhaus Stuttgart with the SWR Big Band and various stars listed on the cover: Pat Metheny, Jan Garbarek, Gary Burton, Scott Colley, Danny Gottlieb, Paul McCandless, Michael Gibbs, Helge Sunde. The album begins with Garbarek's soprano sax circling around the bass tapes, then plunges into ambitious Metheny's 31:33 "Hommage." McCandless and Burton finish up less decisively. B+(*) [dl]

Hop Along: Painted Shut (2015, Saddle Creek): From Philadelphia, Frances Quinlan has some impressive guitar chops and a voice I doubt I'll ever acquire a taste for. She called her first album's band "Hop Along, Queen Ansleis" and has since shortened the name while beefing up the group. B+(*)

Jon Irabagon: Behind the Sky (2014 [2015], Irabbagast): Tenor saxophonist, made his first (avant) impression with Mostly Other People Do the Killing, then won a Monk Prize which included a record on Concord, so he did something suitably mainstream for them (The Observer -- widely panned but I thought it was pretty good). Since then he's been all over the map, including a fusion thing (Unhinged) I didn't enjoy, some squawky "blues" I didn't get, and key roles in new projects by Barry Altschul and Dave Douglas, plus two of his own records. This one, which he describes as "written with the grieving process," is simultaneously conventional and eclectic, "featuring" Tom Harrell (who often sounds grieving), with Luis Perdomo sneaking in a little clavé. And, of course, some marvelous saxophone. B+(**) [cd]

Jon Irabagon: Inaction Is an Action (2015, Irabbagast): Solo sopranino saxophone, wonder if that's ever been done before? The main guy I associate with sopranino is Anthony Braxton, so I wouldn't lay long odds against it. Like Braxton's notorious For Alto, he starts with a piece way below the horn's normal range, and returns there painfully often (not that the high end can't be painful too). It's not all like that -- if you want something to appall your friends (or impress them with how tough you are), stick with For Alto. But this is mostly a novelty. B [cd]

Keith Jarrett: Creation (2014 [2015], ECM): Solo piano, selected and sequenced from "improvised solo concerts in Japan, Canada and Europe in April-July" 2014. Unlike his early solo work, you never get the sense he might skid off the rails -- all very deliberate and carefully reasoned. B+(**)

Carly Rae Jepsen: E-MO-TION (2015, Interscope/Schoolboy/Silent): A very appealing pop singer, trades on a certain romantic ambivalence perfected last time in "Call Me Maybe," approximated again in "I Really Like You." Nothing else quite so good here, and I'm not quite tempted enough to play it enough to convince myself otherwise. B+(***)

Joanna Gruesome: Peanut Butter (2015, Slumberland): Welsh "fuzz-pop" group, Alanna McArdle was the main singer although that's hard to tell here -- reports are she's left now that all the band members have adopted "Gruesome" as surnames (cf. the Ramones, but note no Joanna). Previous album, Weird Sister, ran 28:27, which seemed close enough for ten cuts. This time they squeeze their ten cuts into 21:35. Still hard to call it an EP, given how short their official EPs are. B+(*)

Darius Jones Quartet: Le Bébé de Brigitte (Lost in Translation) (2015, AUM Fidelity): Alto saxophonist, has a huge sound and an expansive vision, both of which are as prone to blowing up as growing into something special. He builds this set around vocalist Emillie Lesbros, who wrote the lyrics on four (of six) songs and the music on one. Quartet includes Matt Mitchell (piano, keyboards), Sean Conly (bass), and Ches Smith (drums). B+(**)

Anders Jormin/Lena Willemark/Karin Nakagawa: Trees of Light (2013 [2015], ECM): Swedish bassist, more than a dozen albums since 1984, four on ECM, where he had established himself as a sideman with Bobo Stenson, Don Cherry, Charles Lloyd, and Tomasz Stanko. Nakagawa plays 25-string koto, and Willemark, who wrote most of the songs, plays violin and viola and sings. B+(*) [dl]

Keith Kelly Ask Not: A Grand Apparatus, Discarded (2014 [2015], Edgetone): Keith Kelly plays saxophones, bass clarinet, and flute; from Bay Area, has a previous record. Ask Not is a group he leads, adding guitar, bass, drums, and vibes. I can't quite say that what they do is ambient -- too dense, but hazy, featureless, background music that doesn't quite stay there. B+(**) [cd]

Michael Kocour: Wherever You Go, There You Are (2014 [2015], OA2): Solo piano (some Fender Rhodes), second album, also has a group called Unhinged Sextet. B+(*) [cd]

Lona Kozik/Chris Golinski: Spelaeology (2015, Edgetone): Piano and drums, respectively. Only album I can find for Kozik, although Golinski has another new album out, and at least one other shared credit. Title has something to do with caves. Free jazz, three pieces, two longish, not without interest but much of it sails under my ears. B+(*)

Shelby Lynne: I Can't Imagine (2015, New Rounder): Country singer, about 15 albums since 1989, moved to the west coast and tries to write soul ballads. Verdict: unclear. B

Roberto Magris: Enigmatix (2013 [2015], JMood): Pianist, from Trieste, Italy, leads a trio-plus-percussion through a set of lively originals, closing with two pop/rock covers that are sure to wind up in the jazz canon: "My Cherie Amour" and "Do It Again" (although the latter probably started as a jazz melody I can't quite place). Monique Danielle sings one of the originals. B+(**) [cd]

Dave McDonnell Group: The Time Inside a Year (2014 [2015], Delmark): Alto saxophonist, second album, group includes some fairly well known Chicago names -- Joshua Abrams (bass), Frank Rosaly (drums), Jason Adasiewicz (vibes on 2 cuts), Tomeka Reid (cello on on 3), none of which are as critical here as guitarist Welcome, let alone the leader, who favor a rocksteady flavor of postbop. B+(*) [cd]

Merzbow/Balasz Pandi/Mats Gustafsson/Thurston Moore: Cuts of Guilt/Cuts Deeper (2014 [2015], Rare Noise, 2CD): Masama Akita (aka Merzbow) is credited with "noise, power electronics." He has well over 100 albums, and the only one I had heard before he started working with this crew was one I hated so much I graded D+ -- Dharma (2001, 2XHNI) if you're curious. Drummer Pandi and saxophonist Gustafsson joined him on a tolerable 2003 album (Cuts: B -- so this title plays off that record). Gustafsson has always enjoyed a long, hard squawkfest, and the famous Sonic Youth guitarist has joined a few. All jointly-credited improv. Still, they don't overdo it, and Pandi is terrific throughout. B+(***) [cdr]

Stephan Micus: Nomad Songs (2012-14 [2015], ECM): German musician, plays all sorts of exotic instruments (wind instruments, especially flutes; string instruments, percussion) and sings some (in his own language). AMG files him under New Age, others under World. I find it more otherworldly, something beyond normal experience which doesn't suggest elsewhere so much as the arcanum of one's own mind. B+(*) [dl]

Nicole Mitchell/Tomeka Reid/Mike Reed: Artifacts (2015, 482 Music): Flute, cello, drums. It was clear from the very beginning that Mitchell would be the poll-domineering flute player of her generation, but less clear whether we should care. This, however, is terrific on any terms. On the 50th anniversary of the founding of the AACM, she's recorded their songbook -- the Mitchell credit is Roscoe, sandwiched between Braxton and Fred Anderson, with Abrams, McCall (twice), and Wilkerson to come. The cello fits better than a bass would, and the drummer's studied this music all his life. A-

The Montgomery Hermann Quinlan Sextet: Hear, Here (2015, Summit): I sometimes see this with slashes separating the names -- Bob Montgomery (trumpet), Al Hermann (trombone), Josh Quinlan (alto/tenor sax) -- which would be clearer. The others who didn't get their names factored into the group: Dave Hanson (piano), Ken Walker (bass), Todd Reid (drums). B [cd]

Richard Nelson/Aardvark Jazz Orchestra: Deep River (2015, Heliotrope): Nelson is a guitarist, composer, arranger, and teaches at University of Maine. He mostly goes with trad fare here -- "Deep River Blues," "Old Country Stomp," "Wake Up Jacob," "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor" -- sung by Marcia Gallagher and Timothy Johnson, played by Mark Harvey's swing-oriented big band. B+(*) [cd]

Olavi Trio: Oh, La Vie! (2013 [2015], TUM): Trombone-bass-drums trio from Finland, bear with me while I try to retype these names: Jari Olavi Hongisto, Teppo Olavi Hauta-aho, Niilo Olavi Louhivuori, the middle names adopted in honor of Finnish tango singer Olavi Virta (1915-72) and not used elsewhere (Hauta-aho is one of those bassists who gets around. The trombone isn't an especially strong lead instrument here, so the bass and drums stand out. B+(**) [cd]

Lindi Ortega: Faded Gloryville (2015, Last Gang): Country singer-songwriter from Toronto -- the one up in Canada, which I guess makes her alt by definition. Fourth album, has a remarkable voice, and the songs are getting steadily better. B+(***)

Gary Peacock Trio: Now This (2014 [2015], ECM): Bassist-led piano trio, with Marc Copland and Joey Baron, released as the bassist -- and author of 7 (of 11) songs -- turns 80. Well established all around: Copland has 35 albums since 1988, eight with Peacock on bass. He has a lovely touch here, but the mix favors the bass. B+(***)

Rod Picott: Fortune (2015, Welding Rod): Country singer-songwriter from New Hampshire, moved on to Maine (I think), described his last album as "love songs for the broken-hearted and work songs for the unemployed," and doubles down on that, noting that soldiers don't come home. Mostly lean and slow. B+(***)

Enrico Rava Quartet/Gianluca Petrella: Wild Dance (2015, ECM): Italian trumpet player, in his 70s now with at least 70 albums since 1972. Nearly everyone in Italian jazz has passed through his bands, so I'm not surprised I don't know his quartet (Francesco Diodati on guitar, Gabriele Evangelista on bass, and Enrico Morello on drums). The trombonist got some exposure when EMI signed him and Blue Note released a couple of his albums. I wouldn't characterize this as "wild," but it is nimble and artful. B+(**) [dl]

Mike Reed's People Places & Things: A New Kind of Dance (2015, 482 Music): Drummer, runs a couple of groups, this one rooted in a golden age of local jazz, which in Chicago means Sun Ra and the AACM. He aims for dance here, not so much dance rhythms as shots of euphoric melody -- in his liner notes, he cites the late Ornette Coleman's Dancing in Your Head. Quartet has two saxes (Greg Ward and Tim Haldeman) plus bass (Jason Roebke), and Marquis Hill and Matthew Shipp drop in for 3-4 tracks each. The kwela cinches it. A- [cd]

Andy Sheppard Quartet: Surrounded by Sea (2014 [2015], ECM): British saxophonist (tenor, quite a bit of soprano), formed the impressive Trio Libero in 2011 with Michel Benita (bass) and Sebastian Rochford (drums, adding Eivind Aarset (guitar) here. But rather than plunging forward, they seem to have retreated into a kind of tuneful ambiance. B+(**)

Sleaford Mods: Key Markets (2015, Harbinger Sound): Brit post-punks play minimal beats that are to hip-hop as punk is to Springsteen, only less frenzied because Jason Williamson wants his raps to be heard and understood. He has what my mother would have described as "a mouth on him." A-

David Torn: Only Sky (2014 [2015], ECM): Solo guitar, some loops but mostly in the minute, some ambient but most not, striving to keep your interest even though it runs rather long (76:10). B+(**) [dl]

Mort Weiss: Mort Weiss Is a Jazz Reality Show (2015, SMS Jazz): A clarinet player, Weiss retired from his day job around 2000 and returned to his instrument, recording seven albums 2003-13, swing-bop I found charming and delightful. If anything, the records got better as he approached 80. They even started getting noticed, with Weiss emerging as a "Rising Star Clarinet" in Downbeat's polls. Then I got a letter he was hanging it all up, but two years later he's back. The "Dedication" explains a year of bad health, losing his wife of forty-some years, even losing his dog, then finding someone named "Donna." He also found pianist Don Friedman, whose trio anchors these thirteen tunes, mostly indelible standards. Everything works: the Carmela Rappozzo vocal slot, even his own blues vocal. A- [cd]

Juli Wood Quartet: Synnkä Metsä (Dark Forest) (2015, OA2): Tenor saxophonist, from Chicago, fourth album, a collection of Finnish folk songs -- her grandparents' heritage -- with guitarist Alejandro Urzagaste doing most of the arranging, the quartet filled out with bass (Clark Sommers) and drums (Mike Schlick). B+(**) [cd]

Savina Yannatou/Primavera en Salonico: Songs of Thessaloniki (2014 [2015], ECM): Greek folk singer backed by a group that includes oud, qanun, and nay, all very solemn but surprisingly alluring. The songs, nearly all trad, reflect the melting pot that Salonica was before the Greek Nationalists and German Nazis purged the city -- Sephardic, of course; Greek, Turkish, Armenian, Bulgarian, "Kosovo Serbian," "Slav-Macedonian," even an Irish ditty called "Salonika." B+(**) [dl]

Yo La Tengo: Stuff Like That There (2015, Matador): A Fakebook sequel 25-years-removed, like its predecessor a look back at older songs not excluding their own. Only one track here is overly familiar -- an unconvincing, almost unaffected "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" -- I'm sure I've heard their old tunes before, plus covers from the Parliaments and the Lovin' Spoonful and Great Plains though maybe not the closer which nearly makes the album, from "the Cosmic Rays with Le Sun Ra and Arkestra." B+(***)

Recent Reissues, Compilations, Vault Discoveries

Tad Britton: Cicada (1992-93 [2015], Origin): Drummer, moved to Seattle in 1990 and shortly after cut these two sessions with Hans Teuber (saxes, keyboards, flute, cowbell), Jeff Johnson (basses), and Pete Fogle (guitar). Slippery postbop, sliding off on various tangents. B+(*) [cd]

Peter Brötzmann/Joe McPhee/Kent Kessler/Michael Zerang: Tales Out of Time (2002 [2015], Hatology): Recorded in Chicago, home base for the bassist and drummer, and increasingly a second home for the German saxophonist, what with Ken Vandermark sponsoring Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet -- a group which also includes McPhee (tenor sax, pocket cornet, trumpet). Brötzmann's records are always vigorous and harsh, but this one is exceptionally coherent. A-

The Continental Drifters: Drifted: In the Beginning & Beyond (1992-2001 [2015], Omnivore, 2CD): Roots/Americana band from the 1990s, formed as a second act by several non-stars -- Vicki Peterson (Bangles), Susan Cowsill (Cowsills), Peter Holsapple (dBs), Mark Walton (Dream Syndicate) -- cut a 1999 album Christgau liked (Vermillion). This gathers up an early Germany-only LP, a 2001 EP Sandy Denny/Richard Thompson tribute, live cuts, other stuff from I know not where. I'm impressed by the sound, not always by the selection (especially on the second disc). B+(*)

Diplo: Random White Dude Be Everywhere (2012-14 [2014], Mad Decent): DJ, rapper, producer, has been cranking out mostly singles since 2004. This set of seven songs and five remixes of said songs is considered a compilation, though I'm not sure how much was issued before the album dropped -- I'm only finding two songs dated before 2014. "Freak" especially reminds me of Diplo's Jack Ü collaborator, Skrillex: too much of a good thing. B+(***)

Keith Jarrett: Barber/Bartók (1984-85 [2015], ECM New Series): One of the pianist's occasional turns to classical music, playing Samuel Barber's "Piano Concerto op. 38" (backed by Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken), plus Béla Bartók's "Piano Concerto No. 3) and Jarrett's "Tokyo Encore" (with New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra). B- [dl]

Manu Katché: Touchstone for Manu (2004-12 [2015], ECM): French drummer, has a half-dozen albums, side credits notably with Peter Gabriel, Joni Mitchell, Sting, and Jan Garbarek. Two to four tracks from each of four ECM albums, shorting the best (2006's Neighbourhood with Garbarek and Tomasz Stanko), then going long on ambient groove. B+(**) [dl]

Steve Lacy: Shots (1977 [2015], Hatology): Reissues a 1977 album, originally on Musica Records, of Lacy duets with Japanese percussionist Masa Kawate, although the song order is changed (sensibly moving the one cut with Irčne Aëbi (violin, voice) to the end). The percussion helps, but doesn't move this far from being a solo album. [Rhapsody: 6/8 cuts] B+(**)

Joe McPhee: As Serious as Your Life (1996 [2014], Hatology): Solo with some overdubs, McPhee credited with "reeds, pocket cornet, piano & electronics" -- I figure him for a saxophonist (mostly tenor), but he's played trumpet (most often pocket trumpet) regularly for most of his career, one of the few jazz musicians to double up like that. Add to that his swirling, crashing piano ("Conlon in the Land of Ra") and the electronic rhythm track to "The Man I Love" sets off a stunning solo. A-

Horace Tapscott: The Dark Tree (1989 [2014], Hatology, 2CD): One of the all-time great pianists, moved to Los Angeles when he was nine and pretty much built the jazz scene there, or at least an important subset. This is doubtless his masterpiece, recognized by Penguin Guide with a crown, but owning the two original discs separately I favored the first. Still, running the whole thing in one fell swoop it's hard to pick out the divide. John Carter's clarinet is magnificent, and Cecil McBee on bass and Andrew Cyrille on drums are perfect. A

Cecil Taylor: Garden 1st Set (1981 [2015], Hatology): Solo piano, recorded at a concert in Basel, Switzerland but not released until 1993 (as Garden: Part One; a Part Two was released in 1994 and still awaits reissue on Hatology). Taylor cut his first solo album in 1968 (Praxis), a couple more in the 1970s (Indent, Silent Tongues, Air Above Mountains), For Olim in 1986 -- seems like there must have been more, but I've reacted variously and never really tried to sort them out. Takes a while finding himself here, but ultimately builds a suitably complex structure, never quite breaking loose like he does in so many of his group albums. B+(***)

Old Music

Albert Ayler: Lörrach, Paris 1966 (1966 [2013], Hatology): Five live tracks from a radio shot in Lörrach, Germany (41:45), plus three tracks from Salle Playel in Paris a week later. Group includes Donald Ayler (trumpet), Michael Sampson (violin), William Folwell (bass), and Beaver Harris (drums). Mostly standard Ayler fare (including two takes of "Ghosts") with the violin most active at building a circus atmosphere. Originally released in 1982. B+(**)

Billy Bang & Dennis Charles: Bangception, Willisau 1982 (1982 [1998], Hatology): Violin and drums duo, about five years after Bang started recording, a live set that was planned for LP release in 1988 then shelved a decade until this CD came out. Five cuts, including covers of Ornette Coleman and Thelonious Monk. Rougher, sketchier than his later work. B+(**)

Burkhard Beins, Martin Pfleiderer & Peter Niklas Wilson: Yarbles (1996 [1997], Hatology): Sax trio, drummer listed first (Discogs credits him with 13 albums, this his first), bassist last. Pfleiderer plays soprano and tenor. Scratchy inside avant, well done but not that unusual. B+(*)

Ran Blake: Plays Solo Piano (1965 [2013], ESP-Disk): Pianist, the first of a great many solo albums. He was at the time regarded as a "third stream" artist -- I've never really made the connection, although he later called one album Third Stream Recompositions and recorded at least one album with a symphony orchestra, and he has a distinugished career as an educator. From the beginning his piano style was utterly distinct: oblique and, I often find, utterly impenetrable, which is what you get here. B

Ran Blake: Painted Rhythms: The Compleat Ran Blake Volume II (1985 [1988], GM): The second of a pair of solo piano discs from one 1985 session: short, cryptic takes of standards ranging from Joplin and Blake rags to Sephardic folk tunes and contemporary Spanish art songs. B

Ran Blake & Anthony Braxton: A Memory of Vienna (1988 [2009], Hatology): Piano-alto sax duets, eight standards, starting with 11:06 of both avoiding "'Round Midnight," followed by "Yardbird Suite" to pick up the pace. Braxton is often delightful, and Blake has some interesting approaches to running interference. B+(**)

Ran Blake: Something to Live For (1998 [1999], Hatology): Plays like solo piano even though a bare majority (10 of 19) tracks have a duet partner, either Guillermo Gregorio (clarinet) or David "Knife" Fabris (guitar), five tracks each. B+(*)

Ran Blake: Horace Is Blue: A Silver Noir (1999 [2000], Hatology): Mostly Horace Silver songs, with help from David Fabris on guitar and James Merenda on alto sax, but aside from Fabris opening with the refrain from "Song for My Father" they're mostly consigned to lurking in the corners as the pianist does his thing: no wonder Silver is blue. B+(*)

Paul Bley/Gary Peacock: Partners (1989 [1991], Owl): Piano-bass duets (or in a couple cases solos). Both very articulate players, well suited for the intimate space. B+(***)

Paul Bley/Jimmy Giuffre/Steve Swallow: The Life of a Trio: Sunday (1989 [1990], Owl): One of several reunions of Jimmy Giuffre's trio from 1961-62, best known for Free Fall (1962), a Penguin Guide crown record and the source name for a Ken Vandermark clarinet-piano-bass group. This follows a Saturday set, and finds Giuffre shadowing Bley more than the other way around. B+(***)

Paul Bley: 12 (+6) in a Row (1990 [2008], Hatology): By my count, eight solo piano pieces, three duo, and seven trio, the other players Franz Koglmann (flugelhorn) and Hans Koch (clarinet, sax). Bley's solo improvisations are bone-shaking, so it's nice to mix them up with the horns, even when the latter roughhouse. B+(***)

Bobby Bradford-John Carter Quintet: Comin' On (1988 [2011], Hatology): Leaders play trumpet and clarinet, and most of their (mostly quartet) albums together list Carter first. Bradford composed two (of five) tunes here, including the title romp. Still, Carter runs away with the album, playing some of the most energetic clarinet of his career. Rhythm section is superb too: Don Preston earns his keep on piano (and synth), even in a group that usually does without, and Richard Davis and Andrew Cyrille drive hard. A-

Anthony Braxton: Quintet (Basel) 1977 (1977 [2000], Hatology): With George Lewis (trombone) as energized as I've ever heard him, Muhal Richard Abrams furiously fast when he gets some solo room, Mark Helias on bass and Charles Shaw on drums. Braxton (alto and sopranino sax, clarinet) is frenzied too, perhaps a bit too much so. B+(***)

Anthony Braxton: Performance (Quartet) 1979 (1979 [2007], Hatology): With Ray Anderson (trombone, little instruments), John Lindberg (bass), and Thurman Barker (percussion, xylophone, gong). Anderson is even faster than Lewis, dominating the early going until Braxton makes his big splash. Then it really gets unruly, aside from the silly rhythmic stuff near the end. A-

Anthony Braxton: Open Aspects (Duo) 1982 (1982 [1993], Hat Art): Alto and sopranino sax, the duo partner (unnamed on the cover) is Richard Teitelbaum, credited with Moog synth and micro computer -- back when proto-laptops were dubbed "lugables." The electronics have a playful, toy-like appeal, and Braxton is down with that. B+(**)

Anthony Braxton: Seven Compositions (Trio) 1989 (1989 [2008], Hatology): Recorded in Amiens, France, with Adelhard Roidinger on bass and Tony Oxley on drums, and the leader playing four saxes (alto, soprano, sopranino, C-melody), clarinet and flute. A tour de force, on the saxes anyway, as is Oxley's kitchen sink clinkering. A-

Anthony Braxton: Wesleyan (12 Alto Solos) 1992 (1992 [1995], Hat Art): Twenty-four years after For Alto, another solo outing, a relatively sensible and sedate affair done live where Braxton teaches, with a couple cover pieces (one from Charlie Parker) and polite applause. B+(*)

Anthony Braxton: Quartet (Santa Cruz) 1993 (1993 [1997], Hat Art, 2CD): One of the last recordings by one of the greatest quartets in jazz history, with Marilyn Crispell (piano), Mark Dresser (bass), and Gerry Hemingway (drums) -- together since 1985 (John Lindberg was bassist 1983-85; Crispell's association goes back to 1978). Like David S. Ware's later quartet, by the time they were done the rhythm section had blossomed into such an extraordinary machine that they were threatening to eclipse the leader, and that's much of what you hear here. A-

Dee Dee Bridgewater: Dee Dee Bridgewater (1976, Atlantic): Born 1950 in Memphis as Denise Eileen Garrett, picked up her surname when she married trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater. Her 1974 debut was a jazz vocal, but she soon went to Broadway and won the 1975 Tony for her role in The Wiz, and cut a few disco albums before returning to jazz c. 1990 -- this is the first, and the first of two eponymous records (the other on Elektra in 1980). No doubt she had all the tools to be a great disco diva -- except a brilliant producer and better songs. B

Dee Dee Bridgewater: Dee Dee Bridgewater (1980, Elektra): The fourth/last album of her 1976-80 disco period, with Thom Bell credited on 4 (of 8) songs and Don Renaldo synthesizing the strings and horns. Opens with "Lonely Disco Dancer" -- a hint she's losing interest. Closes slow, already lost. B-

Dee Dee Bridgewater: Live in Paris (1986 [1987], Impulse): Post-disco, she continued to act/sing in shows like Sophisticated Ladies and Lady Day, touring France and in 1986 moving to Paris, where she returned to jazz. Backed here by Herve Sellin on piano, Antoine Bonfils on bass, and André Ceccarelli on drums, she opens with "All Blues," works through some standards, closes on "Cherokee" -- all perfectly respectable. B+(*)

Dee Dee Bridgewater: In Montreux (1990 [1991], Verve): Again backed by piano trio, drummer Ceccarelli remains with Bert Van Den Brink on piano and Hein Van de Geyn on bass. Has some high spots but seems to falter midway -- "A Child Is Born" and "Strange Fruit" (don't feel like rechecking) -- but the "Horace Silver Medley" turns out to be a good idea. B

Dee Dee Bridgewater: Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver (1994 [1995], Verve): Recorded in France with a local band, although in a couple cases you'll notice the piano or organ jumps to a higher level -- guest spots for Jimmy Smith and Silver himself. Evidently Silver wrote the lyrics as well as the fabulous melodies, the singer brings tremendous energy to the proceedings, and tenor saxophonist Lionel Belmondo is always on target. A-

Clusone 3: An Hour With . . . (1998 [2000], Hatology): Michael Moore (alto sax, clarinet, melodica), Ernst Reijseger (cello), Han Bennink (drums) -- their names are on the cover, beneath the ellipsis so could be parsed into the title. A radio shot recorded in Stockholm, five (of seven) pieces are medleys, a witty example "Duck/O Pato/Duck/Turkey in the Straw" (Steve Lacy, Jobim, Moore, trad.). B+(***)

Tony Coe: Some Other Autumn (1971 [1983], Hep): British clarinet/sax player, started out in Humphrey Lyttelton's trad jazz band, basically a mainstream player but has worked on soundtracks, in big bands, with Pierere Boulez, Paul McCartney, Derek Bailey, and Tony Oxley: I found this album on trad-oriented Hep while looking to see if they had any of his avant-leaning Hat albums. Quartet with Brian Lemon (piano), Dave Green (bass), and Phil Seamen (drums), with Coe on alto sax and clarinet, live at Ronnie Scott's in London. Neither trad nor avant, but they swing "In a Mellotone" pretty hard. A-

Ornette Coleman: The Empty Foxhole (1966 [1967], Blue Note): One of the few items in the late great's catalogue I missed, there is some suggestion that it's been reissued but all I can find are some digital dumps and a possible Japanese import. In any case, aside from remastering (in 1973 and/or 1994 when it finally appeared on CD) this is the same six-cut album, with the leader dabbling in trumpet and violin as well as blowing you away on alto sax, Charlie Haden on bass, and a not-ready-for-prime-time drummer named Ornette Denardo Coleman. B+(***)

Marc Copland Trio: Haunted Heart (2001 [2010], Hatology): Piano trio, with Drew Gress on bass and Jochen Rueckert on drums. One original, the rest standards including three short takes of "My Favorite Things." [Originally released 2002 on Hatology as Haunted Heart & Other Ballads; Rhapsody offers both, but they are really the same.] B+(**)

Marc Copland/David Liebman Quartet: Lunar (2001 [2002], Hatology): Piano-sax quartet, Liebman credited with soprano over tenor, with Mike McQuirk on bass and Tony Martucci on drums. Copland is a fine postbop pianist with twenty-some records since 1992, and makes the stronger impression here. B+(**)

Marc Copland/David Liebman Duo: Impressions (2002 [2011], Hatology): Piano-sax duo, soprano as well as tenor. Mostly jazz standards (Giuffre, Hancock, Coltrane, Evans/Davis, Prez), "When You're Smiling," one original each. Nice fit together. B+(**)

Marc Copland: Marc Copland And . . . (2002 [2003], Hatology): Piano trio plus John Abercrombie (5 tracks) or Michael Brecker (2 tracks) -- the three non-guest tracks are all short refrains of Paul Simon's "Old Friends," scattered {1, 5, 10}. Fine work by the guitarist, strong sax bits, the pianist holds it all together. B+(***)

Marc Copland: Solo: Time Within Time (2004 [2005], Hatology): If "Duo" and "Trio" designate a group name, why shouldn't "Solo"? That's clearly the label's intent, both typographically on the cover and on their website, but after a moment's reflection I moved Solo into the title, as I've done many times before. Four originals, six covers (not counting the three extra takes of "Some Other Time," scattered {1, 5, 9, 12}.) I've always enjoyed and never particularly loved Copland's piano, so his records have tended to rise or fall marginally on his collaborators (notably John Abercrombie). B+(**)

Daniele D'Agaro/Ernst Glerum/Han Bennink: Strandjutters (2002 [2003], Hatology): D'Agaro plays tenor sax and clarinet, was born in Italy but is based in the Netherlands, home of the bassist and drummer in this trio. D'Agaro's clarinet flies off on avant tangents evoking a spirited response from the rhythm section, but he prefers a ballad tone on tenor, especially on a lovely "Old Folks" and the Mercer Ellington closer. B+(***)

Daniele D'Agaro/Jeb Bishop/Kent Kessler/Robert Barry: Chicago Overtones (2004 [2005], Hatology): A trip to Chicago, where D'Agaro picked up an avant-ready band -- the trombonist and bassist were in the Vandermark 5 at the time, and the drummer (who's also worked with Vandermark) started out in Sun Ra's Arkestra. D'Agaro still likes to blunt the edges, mixing in a Leadbelly holler and two Ellington's. Bishop sounds especially fine. B+(***)

Paul Dunmall/John Adams/Mark Sanders: Ghostly Thoughts (1996 [1997], Hatology): Dunmall plays tenor and baritone sax, has a huge discography since 1986 (AMG lists 46 albums, Discogs 128), some wonderful, some hideous. Adams is a British guitarist (not the American composer or the American bassist) who shows up on at least ten Dunmall albums, and he's very prickly, the real star here. A-

Ellery Eskelin/Andrea Parkins/Jim Black: Kulak 29 & 30 (1997 [1998], Hatology): One of my favorite tenor saxophonists in his long-running trio, a second album after the appropriately titled One Great Day. Parkins plays accordion and piano, Black is credited with percussion. Sometimes the accordion threatens to gum up the works, but the tenor blows past all obstacles. B+(***)

Ellery Eskelin & Han Bennink: Dissonant Characters (1998 [1999], Hatology): Tenor sax-percussion duo, joint improv pieces plus three Monk tunes (on two tracks). Eskelin is in inspired form throughout. Bennink is good company for anyone willing to really get into it. A-

Ellery Eskelin/Andrea Parkins/Jim Black: The Secret Museum (1999 [2000], Hatology): Starts with Parkins' accordion in a dark mood, and never really recovers, although there are certainly fine moments. One Monk tune, two by Eugene Chadbourne. B+(**)

Ellery Eskelin: Forms (1990 [2004], Hatology): Tenor sax trio with Drew Gress on bass and Phil Haynes on drums, originally released in 1991 on Open Minds and reissued here. Not as developed as later discs, but an impressive debut as a leader. I especially love the way he tears through "Bebop." A-

Ellery Eskelin With Andrea Parkins and Jim Black: One Great Night . . . Live (2007 [2009], Hatology): Sequel, a decade later, to the trio's first album, One Great Day. B+(***)

Pierre Favre Singing Drums: Souffles (1997 [1998], Intakt): Swiss drummer, recorded an album called Singing Drums in 1984 and has used that as a group name a couple times since. This cuts the original four percussionists down to two (Favre and Lucas Niggli) and adds two horns -- Roberto Ottaviano (sax) and Michel Godard (tuba) -- a nice touch. B+(***)

Pierre Favre: European Chamber Ensemble (1999 [2000], Intakt): Adds some strings -- violin, viola, bass, and most notably Philipp Schaufelberger on guitar -- to the Singing Drums lineup (Ottaviano on sax, Godard on tuba, Niggli and Favre on percussion). B+(***)

Jimmy Giuffre 3: Emphasis, Stuttgart 1961 (1961 [1993], Hat Art): Came up as a saxophonist in swing bands, perhaps most famous for writing "Four Brothers," the anthem of the Woody Herman reed section, where he played alongside Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, and Al Cohn. But he soon switched to clarinet and formed a series of trios, notably this most avant 1961-62 edition with Paul Bley on piano and Steve Swallow on electric bass (revived several times later and attributed variously as the side men became more famous). I've always had difficulty with this group, but this is getting interesting. B+(***)

Jimmy Giuffre 3: Flight, Bremen 1961 (1961 [1993], Hat Art): Two weeks after the Stuttgart set. Repeats three songs, introducing "Stretching Out" as "Suite for Germany," struggling a bit on the title cut, although the Swallow feature is terrific ("That's True, That's True"). B+(**)

Jimmy Giuffre/Paul Bley/Steve Swallow: Emphasis & Flight 1961 (1961 [2003], Hatology, 2CD): Reissued verbatim in more compact packaging. B+(***)

Jimmy Giuffre/André Jaume: Momentum, Willisau 1988 (1988 [1997], Hatology): I wonder how many readers even recognize Jaume, a French saxophonist/clarinetist with a couple dozen albums since 1978 -- he only has a French Wikipedia page, no AAJ biography, a brief mention at AMG. I'm no expert with only two (Cinoche at A-), plus he appears on Joe McPhee's Oleo & a Future Retrospective (another A-). He plays tenor sax and bass clarinet here, with Giuffre on clarinet and soprano sax. This, unfortunately, doesn't develop any real, uh, momentum, with the two alternating on solo pieces, only joining on two duets, plus chatter and applause. B+(*)

Guillermo Gregorio: Ellipsis (1997, Hatology): Clarinet/alto sax player, originally from Argentina, has lived in the US and Austria, currently in Chicago. Some shuffling, but group mostly includes bass clarinet (Gene Coleman), guitar/accordion (Jim O'Rourke), vibes (Carrie Biolo) and bass but no drums -- a rather irregular chamber music concept. B+(**)

Guillermo Gregorio/Mats Gustafsson/Kjell Nordeson: Background Music (1998, Hatology): Two tenor saxes -- Gregorio also plays alto and clarinet, Gustafsson fluteophone -- plus a drummer, no one here particularly known for fading into the background. Still, they do try awfully hard to make nice. B+(**)

Guillermo Gregorio Trio: Red Cube(d) (1998 [1999], Hatology): Leader plays clarinet and tenor sax, backed unconventionally by Mat Maneri on electric violin and Pandelis Karayorgis on piano. Call it chamber jazz at your own peril. B+(*)

Richard Grossman Trio: Even Your Ears (1990-92 [1998], Hatology): Little-known free jazz pianist (1937-92), from Philadelphia, moved to Los Angeles in 1978, left only a handful of albums -- two 1989-90 albums on Nine Winds are Penguin Guide 4-stars. This is a trio with Ken Filiano (bass) and Alex Cline (percussion). B+(**)

Richard Grossman Trio: Where the Sky Ended (1989-92 [2000], Hatology): With Ken Filiano and Alex Cline, again, cobbled together posthumously from three sessions -- more fragmented and inconsistent than the previous set, but that somehow adds to its mystery, and ultimately to its power. B+(***)

Mary Halvorson/Reuben Radding/Nate Wooley: Crackleknob (2006 [2009], Hatology): Guitar-bass-trumpet, a relatively early recording by Halvorson. Prickly, scattered. B+(**)

ICP Orchestra: Jubilee Varia (1997 [1999], Hatology): Dutch big band, or nearly big (9 pieces), the cover listing out all the member names, most stars in their own right: Misha Mengelberg, Michael Moore, Ab Baars, Thomas Heberer, Wolter Wierbos, Ernst Reijseger, Tristan Honsinger, Ernst Glerum, Han Bennink -- piano, two saxes, trumpet, trombone, two cellos, bass, drums. Two three-part suites, the more avant title jointly composed around the cellos; Mengelberg's "Jealousy Suite" tango-inflected. B+(***)

Isotope 217: Utonian_Automatic (1999, Thrill Jockey): Chicago group, a joint venture with members from post-rock Tortoise and avant-jazz Chicago Underground (Rob Mazurek and Jeff Parker), pursuing a vision of "future jazz" or maybe just farting around. B+(***)

Isotope 217: The Unstable Molecule (1997, Thrill Jockey): Debut, could be considered an EP at six cuts, 31:03. They find their groove on "Phonometrics" then throw it away on the following cut. B+(*)

Pandelis Karayorgis/Nate McBride/Curt Newton: Betwixt (2007 [2008], Hatology): Fender Rhodes-bass-drums trio, from Boston, the latter two were in a trio with Ken Vandermark before the saxophonist moved to Chicago (they later recorded a couple albums as Tripleplay, and cut a very good album with Karayorgis on piano as Mi3). They flirt with funk grooves for a while, a little further out. Later the keyboard sounds more like a horn. B+(**)

Pandelis Karayorgis Quintet: System of 5 (2008 [2011], Hatology): Plays piano this time for a sharper, more percussive sound, a big part of his kit. With Matt Langley (tenor/soprano sax), Jeff Galindo (trombone), Jef Charland (bass), and Luther Gray (drums). B+(***)

Franz Koglmann: Orte Der Geometrie (1989 [1990], Hat Art): Austrian trumpet player stradling avant with third stream, cut a couple albums in the 1970s, the prime of his career for Hat 1984-97 but hasn't been a reissue priority since he founded Between the Lines in 1999. Most tracks are backed by a 13-piece orchestra conducted by Martin Schelling with French horn, oboe, tuba, and a second pianist, Ran Blake (listed as "guest artist" on the cover), and Koglmann playing flugelhorn. Rather ornate. B

Franz Koglmann: O Moon My Pin-Up (1997 [2001], Hatology): Much to dislike here, most obviously that this is opera, with the whole range of high sopranos and melodramatic basso profundos, backed by an orchestra with the requisite oboes and bassoons. The text is from the notorious fascist Ezra Pound, in English so we can't ignore the words. Still, I can't hate it. The music has subtle wit with touches of Weill, and the words are sometimes jarring enough to overcome their awkwardness. B

Franz Koglmann: An Affair With Strauss (1999, Between the Lines): But not a very steamy one: reviewers liken the leader's trumpet/flugelhorn to Chet Baker's cool, but if anything he's frostier, although Tony Coe's clarinet/tenor sax and Burkhard Stangl's guitar can break the chill. In fact, they don't get that close to the old waltzes -- the closest is some Rodgers & Hart, or "Goodbye Vienna." B+(**)

Franz Koglmann: Venus in Transit (2001, Between the Lines): More arty jazz, or maybe you'd call it jazzy art music, but for once the feel is definitely jazz, especially when Chris Speed plays his clarinet. Less so with Mat Maneri's viola, of course, but nothing guitar and drums can't fix. B+(**)

Franz Koglmann: Fear Death by Water (2003, Between the Lines): Another opera, the libretto here from Christian Baier nearly all in German (4 of 17 song titles in English, generously counting "Introduction" and "Hey"). I count thirteen musicians, conducted by Peter Berwick, including violin, French horn, tuba, oboe, and flute. B

Lee Konitz/Martial Solal: Star Eyes 1983 (1983 [2009], Hatology): Alto sax/piano duets, recorded in Hamburg, a fact that was included in the title in previous editions. Both artists were born in 1927 and had recorded since the early 1950s. A little deferential from the pianist, but Konitz is in fine form. A-

Lee Konitz/Don Friedman/Attila Zoller: Thingin' (1995 [2010], Hatology): Alto sax-piano-guitar. Zoller is a Hungarian, left for Austria in 1948, then Germany, and eventually settled in Vermont. B+(***)

Steve Lacy: Clinkers (1977 [2000], Hatology): Solo soprano sax, recorded live at a restaurant in Switzerland. The opener, "Trickles," is especially remarkable. B+(***)

Steve Lacy Three: N.Y. Capers & Quirks (1979 [2000], Hatology): Soprano sax trio, with Ronnie Boykins on bass and Dennis Charles on drums -- picked up for an impromptu visit after Lacy had relocated to Paris (Charles had played with Lacy on 1957's Soprano Sax and in Cecil Taylor's early group; Boykins rarely ventured outside of Sun Ra's Arkestra, and this seems to have been his only set with Lacy). The rhythm section is aggressive and boisterous here, which suits Lacy fine. A-

Steve Lacy: New Jazz Meeting Baden-Baden 2002 (2002 [2006], Hatology): Tracks pairing Lacy's soprano sax with electronics by Christof Kurzmann or Bernhard Lang, or turntablist Philip Jeck, some also backed by bass and drums, all the titles suggest some sort of remix. No beats in the electronics, mostly darkening, although Lacy remains interesting. B+(*)

Jeanne Lee/Ran Blake: The Newest Sound Around (1961 [1962], RCA Victor): Piano-voice duets (plus bass on a couple cuts), first album for either. Blake went on to a remarkably prolific career, marked by many similar duets with female singers, though I suspect none more remarkable than Lee. She died in 2000 having appeared on thirty-some records -- few under her own name, most with avant-jazz notables. Mostly standards, she has a stern voice while the pianist is spare and elegant. B+(**)

Urs Leimgruber: Statement of an Antirider (1988 [1989], Hat Art): Swiss saxophonist, second album, a solo affair playing soprano, tenor, and bass sax, plus flute. One of the most successful solo sax albums ever, I think because he recognizes the inherent limitations in the form -- a limited color range, the lack of a faster element to pace him, the absence of dialog -- and makes a virtue of them, mostly tooting out minor rhythmic figures, never overplaying. Still not exhilarating enough to make the grade, but unique among the several dozen solo sax records I've heard. B+(***) [cd]

Urs Leimgruber/Adelhard Roidinger/Fritz Hauser: Lines (1990 [1994], Hat Art): Sax-bass-drums trio, the leader playing tenor and soprano -- probably more of the latter. B+(*) [cd]

Urs Leimgruber/Joëlle Léandre/Fritz Hauser: No Try No Fail (1996 [1997], Hatology): Sax-bass-drums trio, again more soprano than tenor. Prickly free jazz, probably all improv, something they call a "triologue" as each kicks out terse little statements. B+(*)

David Liebman: Colors (2002 [2003], Hatology): Solo tenor sax album, something I've heard too much of lately. Not as deep down ugly as Joe McPhee's Tenor, nor as cleverly thought out as Ellery Eskelin's new one. Still, the high notes get on my nerves, and nothing else makes up for that. A 4-star Penguin Guide record, if you want a second opinion. B-

David Liebman: The Distance Runner (2004 [2005], Hatology): Yet another solo sax album, this one a bit more varied with soprano sax and wooden flute in addition to tenor. But it's not just variety: he paces himself, never gets out of sorts, even plays some Sidney Bechet. B+(**)

David Liebman/Ellery Eskelin/Tony Marino/Jim Black: Different but the Same (2004 [2005], Hatology): The first of several two-tenor albums Eskelin did with Liebman. I expected some kind of joust, but they mostly play in unison, phat tones that redirect your attention to the marvelous drummer. [Just after writing that, they broke form, but only momentarily.] B+(*)

David Liebman/Ellery Eskelin/Tony Marino/Jim Black: Renewal (2007 [2008], Hatology): Now this is more like it: the saxophonist spread out more and hit each other hard. Marino and Black contribute a song apiece, the leaders two, and they cover two burners from Eric Dolphy. A-

David Liebman/Ellery Eskelin/Tony Marino/Jim Black: Non Sequiturs (2011, Hatology): First set has two pieces by Liebman plus "Ghosts" by Albert Ayler. Second set is the title "suite in 8 parts" by Eskelin. Much more dynamic than their first album, but less fun than the second. B+(**)

Jimmy Lyons & Sunny Murray Trio: Jump Up (1980 [2012], Hatology): Alto sax-bass-drums trio, Murray best known as the drummer who pushed Coltrane over the edge of the avant-garde and out into the cosmos. Lyons was Cecil Taylor's saxophonist all through the 1970s. The bassist was John Lindberg, 21 at the time, having already played with Anthony Braxton and founded String Trio of New York with Billy Bang and James Emery. All three are terrific here. A-

Joe Maneri Quartet: Coming Down the Mountain (1993 [1997], Hatology): Credited with "reeds & piano" here, Maneri developed his own very distinct avant strain, one I always found rather stiff and distant. Quartet includes son Mat Maneri on violin, Ed Schuller on bass, and Randy Peterson on drums. Ben Ratliff notes they are "alternatively quiet and piercing," an approach that I find rarely works for recorded music, but here at least the quiet never fades into nothing. B+(**)

Joe Maneri Quartet: Tenderly (1993 [1999], Hatology): Same group, the leader just credited with tenor and alto sax. Not what you'd call a ballad album, but they slow down some, and hang two standards ("What's New," "Tenderly") out to dry. B+(*)

Joe McPhee: Tenor & Fallen Angels (1976-77 [2000], Hatology): Reissue adds the track "Fallen Angels" to McPhee's solo tenor sax album with its 23:26 title track ("Tenor"). I find myself vacillating here, finding much of this brilliant, but way too often unsettlingly ugly, especially when he pulls a high whine out of what's basically a low-pitched instrument. B-

Myra Melford Trio: Alive in the House of Saints (1993, Hat Art): Piano trio, with Lindsey Horner on bass and Reggie Nicholson on drums, recorded live in Germany. Many astonishing runs, but even the more conventional parts are authoritative. Her third album, all trios, but so much to proove. A-

Myra Melford Trio: Alive in the House of Saints (1993 [2001], Hatology, 2CD): Reissue adds a second disc, another hour of music, proving so much more. A-

Myra Melford & Han Bennink: Eleven Ghosts (1994 [1996], Hatology): Piano-percussion duo, both very explosive players although Melford seems overawed at first, laying out on her partner's solos as if she's unaware that she wields her own powerful percussion instrument. When she does figure that out, she more than holds her own. And I'd love to hear more boogie along the lines of "Some Relief" -- or, yes, "Maple Leaf Rag." A-

Misha Mengelberg: The Root of the Problem (1996 [1997], Hatology): Dutch pianist, longtime leader of ICP Orchestra (Instant Composers Pool), the nine pieces here all numbered variants on "IC Root," all duos or trios with Michel Godard (tuba), Thomas Heberer (trumpet), Steve Potts (alto/soprano sax), and/or Achim Kremer (percussion). B+(***)

Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6: The Pond (2007 [2008], Hatology): Swiss trumpet player, second sextet album, a group which mixes two sax/clarinet players (Adrian Pflugshaupt and Roland von Flüe) with electric bass and guitar -- gives them a rhythmic pulse that can set Mengis up to play Electric Miles, but the saxes never let him get too comfortable. Worked better, I'd say, on the previous album, Into the Barn. B+(**)

Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6: Dulcet Crush (2008 [2010], Hatology): Third album, latest at least on this label, moves toward a denser sound, which is to say more horns playing at once, often in unison. Doesn't seem like an improvement, but they're still a long ways from homogeneity. B+(*)

Max Nagl: Daily Bullet (1996 [1998], Leo Lab): Austrian saxophonist, leads a sextet including Berkhard Stangl on guitar and bass, Josef Novotny on piano and keyboards, and Jonathan Bepler on guitar and vocals -- some kind of spoken word, in English (lyrics by Maria Maturana), hard to follow. Rockish lineup but jazz when it coheres. Thom Jurek dubs it "deep no wave art damage." That aspect comes and goes. B+(*)

Max Nagl Ensemble: Ramasuri (2000 [2001], Hatology): Ten-piece group, more strings (guitar, violin, cello, two basses, I guest you can count piano) than horns (the leader on sax, Thomas Gansch on trumpet, one of the bassists plays some tuba). Sure, the horns get most of the leads (aside from Noël Akchote's guitar, but this is most impressive when the rhythm gets moving. B+(***)

Max Nagl/Steven Bernstein/Noël Akchoté/Bradley Jones: Big Four (2001 [2002], Hatology): Alto sax, trumpet, guitar, bass. The group name refers back to an earlier Big 4 led by Muggsy Spanier (cornet) and Sidney Bechet (soprano sax, clarinet) in 1940 with Carmen Maestren (guitar) and Wellman Braud (bass), but the tones are off, the tunes are new, and the interplay (if not the rhythm) is avant. B+(***)

Max Nagl/Otto Lechner/Bradley Jones: Flamingos (2003 [2004], Hatology): Jones is the Big Four bassist. Lechner plays accordion and piano, while Nagl plays alto, baritone, and soprano sax, and composed eight pieces, the other two Mingus tunes. B+(***)

Max Nagl Ensemble: Quartier Du Faisan (2004 [2005], Hatology): Down to eight pieces (or nine on the 3/9 with piano), trading most of the strings off for horns (two saxes, two trumpets, trombone). Recorded live, has some scratchy moments but also some remarkable details, and swings like hell -- not unlike Sun Ra's Arkestra or ICP Orchestra. A-

Max Nagl/Steven Bernstein/Noël Akchoté/Bradley Jones: Big Four Live (2005 [2007], Hatology): Recorded as Jazzfestival Willisau, as advertised. B+(**)

Lauren Newton: Filigree (1982 [1998], Hatology): Avant-vocalist, born in America but based in Europe, reissue (plus one cut) of her first album, called Timbre in 1983 but not to be confused with a 2001 album of that name on Leo. Idiosyncratic, shrill in spots, backed by bass-drums and most prominently vibes. B+(*)

Anthony Ortega: New Dance (1966-67 [2003], Hatology): Alto saxophonist from Los Angeles, played with Lionel Hampton and Nat Pierce in the 1950s, cut an album in 1959 called Jazz for Young Moderns (as Tony Ortega), moved toward the avant-garde with this record, a sax trio originally released by Revelation in 1967 (the reissue adds four earlier bass duets). After two plays, he doesn't really remind me of anyone else -- maybe Giuffre (with a dash of Konitz), working in a personal space with little to tie him down, least of all stress. A-

Anthony Ortega: Earth Dance (1955-56 [2004], Fresh Sound): Some of the alto saxophonist's earliest tracks, mostly standards, don't have full credits but the first two tracks have some of the worst strings of an era known for sappy strings; the next two cuts favor the trumpet player (Art Farmer?), but Ortega comes into his own after that, and the final set includes pieces where he's almost where he would be ten yers hence. B

Anthony Ortega: Afternoon in Paris (1966-2005 [2007], Hatology): Discographies are inconsistent, but I doubt if Ortega recorded more than a dozen albums over 50 years -- Discogs lists eight, the years {1957, 1967-68, 1978, 1992, 1996, 2007}. This one looks like the career capstone, with three solo tracks from 2002, five duos (with Kash Killion on bass or cello) from 2005, and a bass duo from 1966 ("Ornithology"). Ortega himself plays flute and piano as well as alto sax. B+(**)

Michel Portal/Léon Francioli/Pierre Favre: Arrivederci Le Chouartse (1980 [2002], Hatology): Portal, a major figure in French jazz with forty-some albums to his credit, plays bass clarinet, alto and tenor sax here; the others bass and drums. Three long pieces, more avant than I'm used to with him, constantly challenging you. Real good drummer, too. A-

Max Roach/Anthony Braxton: One in Two -- Two in One (1979 [2004], Hatology): One of the founding drummers of bebop in the 1940s, Roach took a sudden nod toward the avant-garde in 1979 by recording duos with Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, and Braxton -- actually his second with the latter after 1978's Birth and Rebirth (on Black Saint). Both musicians stay in character, a curious contrast which gives Braxton some leeway to veer toward bop but loose and free. B+(***)

Matthew Shipp Trio: Prism (1993 [2000], Hatology): Avant-piano trio with William Parker (bass) and Whit Dickey (drums), the rhythm section to David S. Ware's early quartet. Shipp's favorite move is the deep rumble, and this threatens to roar all over you. Much of the roar comes from the bass and drums, reinforcing the idea. B+(**)

Matthew Shipp String Trio: By the Law of Music (1996 [2002], Hatology): I guess he can count piano among the strings -- the other two being Mat Maneri's violin and William Parker's bass. B+(***)

Sleaford Mods: Wank (2012, Deadly Beefburger): Wikipedia and Discogs list four 2007-11 albums, so this isn't their first, but so far it's the earliest I've found. First thing you notice is that the beats are relatively basic, especially when the vocalist tries to sing. Picks up a bit later when he finds his swagger. B+(**) [bc]

Sun Ra Arkestra: Sunrise in Different Dimensions (1980 [2010], Hatology): Recorded live at Gasthof Mohren in Willisau, Switzerland. Strong piano intro, three originals, and the rowdier they get the more they dig into their trad songbook -- "Big John's Special," "Yeah Man!," "Queer Notions," "King Porter Stomp," "Take the A Train," "Lightning." Not that they play any of them trad. B+(**)

Horace Tapscott Quintet: The Giant Is Awakened (1969, Flying Dutchman): Only one horn, alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, not yet 30, due to become a major player in the late 1970s and deserving of notice here. The extra slot filled by a second bassist, beefing up the sound but not at much as the pianist, a rhythmic powerhouse and a counter-lead, often at the same time. Aside from The Dark Tree for Hat in 1979, Tapscott didn't record on a well-known label again until 1995-97 when he cut two records for Arabesque. [heard first cut only, on YouTube: "The Giant Is Awakened" (17:23)]

Horace Tapscott/Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: The Call (1978 [2012], Nimbus West): Cover describes Tapscott as "conducting" the group (16 pieces, including saxophonist Jesse Sharps -- credited as "leader" -- and a second pianist, Linda Hill). Some impressive runs here, and some spots where they lose thrust. B+(**)

Horace Tapscott with the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: Live at I.U.C.C. (1979 [2006], Nimbus West, 2CD): Large orchestra (24 pieces, including three bassists and four percussionists), playing less like a big band than a community trying to channel that pan-Afrikan groove. This satisfies on many levels: the rich interplay of horns (even the flutes), the vibrant groove, even bits of spoken word, most of all the piano. A- [bc]

Horace Tapscott: Lighthouse 79, Vol. 1 (1979 [2009], Nimbus West): Quintet with no one I've ever heard of -- Reggie Bullen (trumpet), Gary Bias (alto sax), David Bryant (bass), George Goldsmith (drums) -- with a live set at Ruby Onderwyzer's Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, CA. Impressive piano, but not much else. Runs 71:58. B+(**)

Horace Tapscott: Lighthouse 79, Vol. 2 (1979 [2009], Nimbus West): Next night, same quintet (aside from Roberto Miranda taking over at bass). Only one original, not that the 21:48 "Stella by Starlight" is overly familiar, nor that the Monk-ish closer was penned by Monk. B+(**)

Horace Tapscott: The Tapscott Sessions Vol. 8 (1984 [1997], Nimbus West): Tapscott rarely dealt with labels, but Tom Albach bought some tapes off him in 1979 and went on to record quite a bit of solo Tapscott, especially from 1982-84. The first seven volumes were released in a box set of as many LPs, and several more volumes have since come out on CD, starting with this one. Four 9-14 minute pieces from as many piano masters (Monk, Waldron, Weston, and Tapscott). B+(***)

Cecil Taylor Unit: The Eighth (1981 [2006], Hatology): This particular group, with Jimmy Lyons' alto sax contending with the leader's explosive piano, dates from their landmark 1965 Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come and extends past Lyons' death in 1986 with Carlos Ward, not that Lyons was really replaceable, but is close to peak form here, with Rashid Bakr on drums and William Parker on bass. A-

Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy: Live at Dreher Paris 1981 (1981 [2003], Hatology, 4CD): Rhapsody only has three cuts of this, all takes of "Round Midnight." Pretty impressive but not enough to grade. This material had been previously released (1996) on two 2-CD sets: Vol. 1: Round Midnight, and Vol. 2: The Peak.

Additional Consumer News:

Previous grades on artists in the old music section. For Hatology artists I've generally only listed previously graded Hat albums, otherwise the lists would get ridiculously long. I've added a few albums that seemed especially relevant (like the first volumes by Ran Blake and Jimmy Giuffre where I reviewed Volume 2 above, and I didn't see point in writing "+1 album" for Richard Grossman when I could just list it.

  • Albert Ayler: 16 other albums
  • Billy Bang: 17 other albums
  • Ran Blake: Painted Rhythms: The Compleat Ran Blake Volume 1 (1985 [1987], GM): B
  • Ran Blake: That Certain Feeling (George Gershwin Songbook) (1990 [1991], Hat Art): B -- reissued 2010, Hatology 699
  • Ran Blake: +10 other albums (including duos with singers Christine Correa, Dominique Eade, and Sara Serpa)
  • Paul Bley/Jimmy Giuffre/Steve Swallow: The Life of a Trio: Saturday (1989 [1990], Owl): B+
  • Paul Bley/Franz Koglmann/Gary Peacock: Annette (1992, Hat Art): B- -- reissued 2001, Hatology 564
  • Paul Bley: +20 other albums
  • Bobby Bradford: 3 other albums
  • Anthony Braxton: Town Hall (Trio & Quintet) 1972 (1972 [1992], Hat Art): B+
  • Anthony Braxton/George Lewis: Donaueschingen (Duo) 1976 (1976 [1994], Hat Art): B+
  • Anthony Braxton: Dortmund (Quartet) 1976 (1976 [1991], Hat Art): A-
  • Anthony Braxton: Creative Orchestra (Köln) 1978 (1978 [1995], Hat Art, 2CD): B+
  • Anthony Braxton: Eight (+3) Tristano Compositions 1989 (1989 [1990], Hat Art): A-
  • Anthony Braxton: Willisau (Quartet) 1991 (1991, Hat Art, 4CD): A-
  • Anthony Braxton: Charlie Parker Project 1993 (1993 [1995], Hat Art, 2CD): A-
  • Anthony Braxton: +41 other albums
  • Dee Dee Bridgewater: Dear Ella (1997, Verve): B+
  • Dee Dee Bridgewater: Live at Yoshi's (2000, Verve): B+
  • Dee Dee Bridgewater: This Is New (2001 [2002], Verve): B
  • Dee Dee Bridgewater: Red Earth (2006 [2007], Emarcy): B+(*)
  • Dee Dee Bridgewater: Eleanora Fagan (1915-59): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee Bridgewater (2009 [2010], Emarcy): B+(*)
  • Peter Brötzmann: 35 other albums
  • John Carter-Bobby Bradford Quartet: Seeking (1969 [2006], Hatology): B+(***)
  • John Carter: +6 other albums
  • Clusone 3: Soft Lights and Sweet Music (1993 [1994], Hat Art): A-
  • Clusone 3: 2 other albums (as Clusone Trio)
  • Tony Coe/Bob Brookmeyer: Captain Coe's Famous Racearound (1995, Storyville): B-
  • Tony Coe/Alan Barnes: Days of Wine and Roses (1997, Zephyr): B+
  • Ornette Coleman: 35 other albums
  • Marc Copland: 10 other albums
  • Paul Dunmall: 6 other albums, plus 2 as Mujician
  • Ellery Eskelin/Andrea Parkins/Jim Black: A Great Day (1996 [1997], Hatology): A-
  • Ellery Eskelin/Andrea Parkins/Jim Black: Five Other Pieces (+2) (1998 [1999], Hatology): B+(***)
  • Ellery Eskelin: Ramifications (1999 [2000], Hatology): B+(***)
  • Ellery Eskelin: Vanishing Point (2000 [2001], Hatology): B+(**)
  • Ellery Eskelin/Andrea Parkins/Jim Black: 12 (+1) Imaginary Views (2001 [2002], Hatology): A-
  • Ellery Eskelin: Ten (2004, Hatology): A-
  • Ellery Eskelin: +6 other albums
  • Pierre Favre: 3 other albums
  • Jimmy Giuffre: 8 other albums
  • Richard Grossman: In the Air (1989, Nine Winds): B+
  • Mary Halvorson: 12 other albums
  • ICP Orchestra: 5 other albums
  • Pandelis Karayorgis: 6 other albums
  • Franz Koglmann: The Use of Memory (1990, Hat Art): B
  • Franz Koglmann: L'Heure Bleu (1991 [2003], Hatology): B+(***)
  • Franz Koglmann: Cantos I-IV (1992, Hat Art): B
  • Franz Koglmann: We Thought About Duke (1994 [1995], Hat Art)
  • Lee Konitz: 35 other albums
  • Steve Lacy/Roswell Rudd Quartet: School Days (1963 [1994], Hat Art): A-
  • Steve Lacy: Futurities Part I (1984-85, Hat Art): B-
  • Steve Lacy: Futurities Part II (1984-85, Hat Art): B
  • Steve Lacy Four: Morning Joy: Live at Sunset Paris (1986, Hat Art): A
  • Steve Lacy: Clangs (1992 [1993], Hat Art): B+(**)
  • Steve Lacy 6: We See (1992 [1993], Hat Art): B+
  • Steve Lacy: +48 other albums
  • Urs Leimgruber: 2 other albums
  • David Liebman: 21 other albums
  • Joe Maneri: 5 other albums
  • Joe McPhee/Survival Unit II with Clifford Thornton: N.Y. N.Y. 1971 (1971 [2006], Hatology): B+(***)
  • Joe McPhee: Oleo and a Future Retrospective (1982 [1992], Hat Art): A-
  • Joe McPhee: Linear B (1990 [1991], Hat Art): A-
  • Joe McPhee/Lisle Ellis/Paul Plimley: Sweet Freedom -- Now What? (1994 [2008], Hatology): B+(**)
  • Joe McPhee: +17 other albums
  • Myra Melford Extended Ensemble: Even the Sounds Shine (1994 [1995], Hat Art): B+
  • Myra Melford: +10 other albums
  • Misha Mengelberg: Two Days in Chicago (1998, Hatology, 2CD): B+
  • Misha Mengelberg: +7 other albums
  • Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6: Into the Barn (2004 [2005], Hatology): A-
  • Michel Portal: 2 other albums
  • Max Roach/Archie Shepp: The Long March, Part 1 (1979 [1990], Hat Art): B+
  • Max Roach: +6 other albums
  • Matthew Shipp/Joe Morris: Thesis (1997, Hatology): B
  • Matthew Shipp Horn Quartet: Strata (1997 [1998], Hatology): B+
  • Matthew Shipp Trio: The Multiplication Table (1998 [2008], Hatology): A-
  • Matthew Shipp/Mat Maneri: Gravitational Systems (1998, Hatology): B
  • Matthew Shipp String Trio: Expansion, Power, Release (1999 [2001], Hatology): A-
  • Matthew Shipp: +29 other albums
  • Sleaford Mods: Austerity Dogs (2013 [2014], Harbinger Sound): A-
  • Sleaford Mods: Divide and Exit (2014, Harbinger Sound): A-
  • Sleaford Mods: Chubbed Up (2013-14, Ipecac): B+(***)
  • Sun Ra: 44 other albums
  • Horace Tapscott: The Dark Tree: 1 (1989 [1990], Hat Art): A
  • Horace Tapscott: The Dark Tree: 2 (1989 [1991], Hat Art): A-
  • Horace Tapscott: 3 other albums
  • Cecil Taylor Unit: One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye (1978 [1980], Hat Art, 2CD): A-
  • Cecil Taylor Unit: It Is in the Brewing Luminous (1980 [1990], Hat Art): B+
  • Cecil Taylor: +34 other albums
  • Mal Waldron: 21 other albums

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Music Week

Music: Current count 25500 [25453] rated (+47), 436 [426] unrated (+10).

Once again I spent most of the week trawling through the Hatology releases on Rhapsody. The A- rate, which had been declining the last two weeks, even got a bump to 32% (8/25, counting one older Hat Art release; last week was 20.6% [6/29], previous 28.5% [6/21]; previous database was 36.1% [26/72]). I had previously reported on the Myra Melford title (Alive in the House of Saints), but further research revealed that the 2001 Hatology reissue had been expanded to 2CD from the 1993 Hat Art release I previously listened to (then, erroneously, substituted the later cover for). It's one of those "more is more" records, never flagging for a moment.

Among the others, the biggest surprise was Austrian saxophonist Max Nagl. His earlier Ensemble album is pretty much as good as the one I picked, and the Big Four records are more than interesting. The Konitz-Solal duo is the most marginal of the picks, probably because I expected more than just support from the pianist, but it is a lovely outing for Konitz, and sometimes that's enough. Jimmy Lyons shows up on two terrific albums: one an oddly named trio, the other soaring over ane specially energetic pianist named Cecil Taylor. I had some trouble playing Taylor's solo disc: a third cut that played long after I thought the album finished should have prodded me to give it another spin, but I let it go. It's a little annoying that Hat only reissued the first of two Garden sets. Sometimes their latest reissues have combined pairs of separate discs (e.g., Horace Tapscott's The Dark Tree), and now we're starting to see them splitting 2-CD sets up (as with Anthony Braxton's Quartet (Santa Cruz) 1993). Strange company.

What helped me sort this out was the compilation of a complete Hatology Checklist file, based on the label's own discography plus a lot of checking into Discogs. This shows that I still have yet to get to 73 records (although there may be some redundancies there, plus there are a couple of rejiggered reissues of records I've previously heard -- the 2-CD The Dark Tree is bound to be as great as the older separate CDs). I also haven't dealt with their "contemporary composition and new music" label, Hat[now]Art, but it appears that most of their albums are also on Rhapsody now. Right now, I'm more tempted to add the older Hat Musics and Hat Art labels, as some of the latter's titles have also appeared on Rhapsody.

I may take a break from Hat this week as I try to wrap up a Rhapsody Streamnotes column: something like 167 records in the draft file already, but perhaps a little short on new music. I did add three new jazz albums to the 2005 A-list this week -- two with drummer Mike Reed (whom I expect good things from, but not necessarily flute albums). Also good to hear that Mort Weiss is working again.

Still, I doubt if I'll find much more new music soon enough for this month's column. Robert Christgau's revived Expert Witness hasn't been offering much I agree with so far -- second A- we agree on in four weeks is Shamir's Ratchet (first was Boz Scaggs' A Fool to Care), although I'll note that I did only give Jamie XX's In Colour a single cursory spin. (The only one I hadn't heard this week, Diplo's Random White Dude Be Everywhere, got two plays. The massive Funkadelic HM, another 2014 album, just got one, and had settled into its grade slot an hour before it expired.)

More to check out in Michael Tatum's latest, A Downloader's Diary (42): Ezra Furman, Freedy Johnston, Giorgio Moroder. He had already tipped me off to Songhoy Blues (which I had, along with Bassekou Kouyate, Ashley Monroe, and Mountain Goats, at A-, with Tal National and Yo La Tengo just short at high B+ (I'm not as pleased or amused or whatever the verb should be with Nellie McKay's trawl through '60s pop). Also, can the duds (Iris DeMent, Neil Young) really be so bad? If I don't get to them this week, I will next time. (Or maybe not: I've looked for DeMent but her record isn't yet on Rhapsody.)

For those of us who count things, note that Tatum has logged his first thousand Downloader's Diary albums (current count = 1001). See his Archive, in particular the Index. By the way, if someone wants to contribute a banner and suggest a revised color scheme (or a whole new skin) let us know.

New records rated this week:

  • Beat Funktion: Olympus (2015, DO Music): [cd]: B
  • Dheepa Chari: Patchwork (2015, self-released): [cd]; B-
  • Funkadelic: First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate (2014, The C Kunspyruzhy, 3CD): [r]; B+(*)
  • Michael Gallant Trio: Live Plus One (2015, Gallant Music): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Chris Golinski/Tim McNally/Boaz Roberts: Rodeo (2015, Edgetone): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Darius Jones Quartet: Le Bébé de Brigitte (Lost in Translation) (AUM Fidelity): [r]; B+(**)
  • Michael Kocour: Wherever You Go, There You Are (2014 [2015], OA2): [r]; B+(*)
  • Lona Kozik/Chris Golinski: Spelaeology (2015, Edgetone): [r]; B+(*)
  • Nicole Mitchell/Tomeka Reid/Mike Reed: Artifacts (2015, 482 Music): [cd]: A-
  • Mike Reed's People Places & Things: A New Kind of Dance (2015, 482 Music): [cd]: A-
  • Mort Weiss: Mort Weiss Is a Jazz Reality Show (2015, SMS Jazz): [cd]: A-

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

  • Peter Brötzmann/Joe McPhee/Kent Kessler/Michael Zerang: Tales Out of Time (2002 [2015], Hatology): [r]; A-
  • Diplo: Random White Dude Be Everywhere (2012-14 [2014], Mad Decent): [r]; B+(***)
  • Cecil Taylor: Garden 1st Set (1981 [2015], Hatology): [r]; B+(***)

Old records rated this week:

  • Bobby Bradford-John Carter Quintet: Comin' On (1988 [2011], Hatology): [r]; A-
  • Clusone 3: An Hour With . . . (1998 [2000], Hatology): [r]; B+(***)
  • Marc Copland Trio: Haunted Heart (2001 [2010], Hatology): [r]; B+(**)
  • Marc Copland: Marc Copland And . . . (2002 [2003], Hatology): [r]; B+(***)
  • Marc Copland: Solo: Time Within Time (2004 [2005], Hatology): [r]; B+(**)
  • Pierre Favre Singing Horns: Souffles (1997 [1998], Intakt): [r]; B+(***)
  • Pierre Favre: European Chamber Ensemble (1999 [2000], Intakt): [r]; B+(***)
  • Guillermo Gregorio/Mats Gustafsson/Kjell Nordeson: Background Music (1998, Hatology): [r]; B+(**)
  • ICP Orchestra: Jubilee Varia (1997 [1999], Hatology): [r]; B+(***)
  • Isotope 217: The Unstable Molecule (1997, Thrill Jockey): [r]; B+(*)
  • Isotope 217: Utonian_Automatic (1999, Thrill Jockey): [r]: B+(***)
  • Pandelis Karayorgis/Nate McBride/Curt Newton: Betwixt (2007 [2008], Hatology): [r]; B+(**)
  • Pandelis Karayorgis: System of 5 (2008 [2011], Hatology): [r]; B+(***)
  • Pandelis Karayorgis Quintet: System of 5 (2008 [2011], Hatology): [r]; B+(***)
  • Franz Koglmann: Orte Der Geometrie (1989 [1990], Hat Art): [r]; B
  • Lee Konitz/Martial Solal: Star Eyes 1983 (1983 [2009], Hatology): [r]; A-
  • Lee Konitz/Don Friedman/Attilla Zoller: Thingin' (1995 [2010], Hatology): [r]; B+(***)
  • Jimmy Lyons & Sunny Murray Trio: Jump Up (1980 [2012], Hatology): [r]; A-
  • Myra Melford: Alive in the House of Saints (1993 [2001], Hatology, 2CD): [r]; A-
  • Max Nagl: Daily Bullet (1996 [1998], Leo Lab): [r]; B+(*)
  • Max Nagl Ensemble: Ramasuri (2000 [2001], Hatology): [r]; B+(***)
  • Max Nagl/Steven Bernstein/Noël Akchoté/Bradley Jones: Big Four (2001 [2002], Hatology): [r]; B+(***)
  • Max Nagl/Steven Bernstein/Noël Akchoté/Bradley Jones: Big Four Live (2005 [2007], Hatology): [r]; B+(**)
  • Max Nagl Ensemble: Quartier Du Faisan (2004 [2005], Hatology): [r]; A-
  • Lauren Newton: Filigree (1982 [1008], Hatology): [r]; B+(*)
  • Michel Portal/Léon Francioli/Pierre Favre: Arrivederci Le Chouartse (1980 [2002], Hatology): [r]; A-
  • Sun Ra Arkestra: Sunrise in Different Dimensions (1980 [2010], Hatology): [r]; B+(**)
  • Cecil Taylor Unit: The Eighth (1981 [2006], Hatology): [r]; A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Gonçalo Almeida/Tobias Klein/Martin van Duynhoven: Vibrate in Sympathy (Clean Feed)
  • Art "Turk" Burton and Congo Square: Spirits: Then & Now (ATB): October 2
  • De Beren Gieren: One Mirrors Many (Clean Feed)
  • Benoit Delbecq/Miles Perkin/Emile Biayenda: Ink (Clean Feed)
  • East West Quintet: Anthem (self-released): October 13
  • Expansions: The Dave Liebman Group: The Puzzle (Whaling City Sound)
  • Gerry Gibbs Thrasher Dream Trio: Live in Studio (Whaling City Sound)
  • Ulrich Gumpert Quartett: A New One (Intakt)
  • Dale Head: Swing Straight Up (Blujazz)
  • Left Exit: Mr K (Clean Feed)
  • The Liberation Music Collective: Siglo XXI (self-released)
  • Hans Luchs: Time Never Pauses (OA2): September 18
  • Whitney Marchelle: Dig Dis (Blujazz)
  • Joe McPhee/Jamie Saft/Joe Morris/Charles Downs: Ticonderoga (Clean Feed)
  • Ben Patterson: For Once in My Life (Origin): September 18
  • Noah Preminger: Pivot: Live at the 55 Bar (self-released): October 6
  • Tom Rainey Trio: Motel Grief (Intakt)
  • Scottish National Jazz Orchestra/Makoto Ozone: Jeunehomme: Mozart Piano Concerto No 9 K-271 (Spartacus): advance, September 4
  • Susana Santos Silva/Torbjörn Zetterberg/Hampus Lindwall: If Nothing Else (Clean Feed)
  • Snik: Metasediment Rock (Clean Feed)
  • Ben Winkelman Trio: The Knife (OA2): September 18
  • John Wojciechowski: Focus (Origin): September 18

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