Music Notes

One of the recent shows I’ve seen was Marty Ehrlich at The Stone in New York. He is one of those genius saxophonists who are always very well respected in the jazz community, but who never quite broke loose into the larger consciousness. He’s not the guy Kendrick is going to call up when he wants some sax on his latest song, for instance. Ehrlich has been part of the larger circle around John Zorn for a long time, which basically can be summed as mostly white and mostly Jewish guys who started playing in New York in the 80s and continue to practice their craft today. I’ve always felt about Ehrlich like I described–I think he’s a fantastic player and I’ve always wanted to see him live, but he’s not quite at the transcendent level for me. And that’s how the show was. Very, very, very solid work, really great to see him after all these years. The show was a lot of fun, if not among the greatest I’ve ever seen. The band was Ron Horton on trumpet (another guy who has been working around New York forever without that much broader recognition), Matt Pavolka on bass, and Mark Ferber on drums. These are all guys Ehrlich plays with pretty frequently.

This was also my first time at The Stone since it moved from the rat hole it was in on the Lower East Side. That was a great thing Zorn did, creating a new space for creative music, but it wasn’t a great space and given the prices of New York these days, it was going to have its limitations. He finally gave it up and I have no idea of the details, but he’s worked something out to have a space in a room at The New School. It’s not much in the way of atmosphere, but at least there’s a functional bathroom and internal temperature controls.

Speaking of The Stone and Zorn, I noted after Big Ears that Zorn works almost exclusively with white musicians, with a few Asians and very few others mixed in and that this was weird for jazz. I didn’t really get why. Some people in comments asked whether this really matters. I mean, I kind of think of it does, but let’s say it doesn’t. Wouldn’t Zorn at least make his space available to Black musicians? It’s a very simple system he has–you are the curator for four shows over a week. You choose who you want to have. Now, I also have no idea why Zorn schedules this out so far–the schedule is up through 2024 and part of 2025. Are these people in that much demand? In any case, it allows us lots of data on the people Zorn chooses to curate. And the racial look of this…..actually not great. The headliners for 2023 are 31 whites, 9 Asians, 6 Black artists, and 4 Latinos, at least the best I can tell. Zorn has always fetishized Asians (in fact, I know someone a bit who dated an ex-girlfriend of Zorn who confirms this quite literally) so that isn’t so surprising. And it’s not like he is closing his club to Black artists. But in the jazz world…..31 white artists to 6 Black artists??????? I mean, this is not a great look. I don’t think Zorn is a racist. But I do think, and increasingly believe the evidence is clear, that he is the kind of white guy who doesn’t really want to talk about it. And because like lots of other well-meaning whites, he tends to surround himself with his own kind, he just doesn’t see it. Or at least, that’s my possible explanation. Because I can think of worse ones.

Other news and notes:

The major loss to music in the last two weeks is Astrud Gilberto, singer on one of the truly iconic songs in global music history, “The Girl from Ipanema.” As often happens with young female singer in the shadow of Great Men (defined as the male musicians turned into their heroes, Gilberto was often denigrated or dismissed as having less talent than her ex-husband or Stan Getz or Antonio Carlos Jobim or any of the other figures associated with the song. Getz was especially denigrating toward her. But at least she has gotten her due now and everyone who cares knows she was a huge talent.

George Winston is very much not my thing, but worth noting his passing.

The changing forms of America-Jewish wedding music.

God must hate incredibly shitty forms of country music.

As readers of this site probably know, our frequent commenter Burning Ambulance is writing a biography of the great Cecil Taylor and he’s been writing about on his Substack. Check out this discussion of a Berlin concert and other material Taylor put on in 1988. He also writes about dissonant death metal, which is a new concept for me.

Meanwhile, Nate Chinen writes about seeing Fieldwork get back together. I’d love to see this band of Vijay Iyer, Steve Lehman, and Tyshawn Sorey. Dang.

It was right around Narrow Stairs when I gave up on Death Cab for Cutie, seeing them more into boring dad rock, which maybe they always were. But here’s a take on the album as a point for men now reaching middle age getting a soundtrack for their failed marriages and such. I’m a bit old for that album to do that for me, but I get it.

10 memorable non-smash singles from 1984.

Cool look at Altercat Records, which is one of those ridiculously eclectic labels that reflect a labor of love.

Joni Mitchell headlined her first show in two decades under the auspices of Brandi Carlisle’s festival in Washington.

Neil Young has finally decided to get back on the road.

The great H.C. McEntire writes over No Depression about her last album and shares a poem too.

Being Pride Month, I watched a couple of interesting relevant documentaries on queer musicians at Criterion. This first was No Ordinary Man, from 2020. It profiles Billy Tipton, who was a minor league jazz pianist and who was born a woman but passed his entire career as a man, got married to a woman, and adopted and raised three children. No one knew until he died and the doctors were like, wait a minute. Musically, it’s not that compelling–Tipton came out of the white Oklahoma jazz scene in the 30s and 40s, which was tremendously fertile. His career stalled out on the regional level, which is no shame. Lots of talented people were at that level. Liberace invited him to join his band at one point, supposedly, but that was about the end of his active career. Plus musical tastes were changing fast in the 1950s. As a film though, this is quite compelling. Part of it is having various trans male actors performing parts of Tipton’s career and the conversations about what it must have been like to be passing at that time are pretty fascinating. He’s clearly a hero to a lot of trans men today and many are interviewed. Good film.

The second was Chavela, from 2017. This is about a much more important musician, the Costa Rican-born Chavela Vargas, who identified as a lesbian from the time she was a girl, moved to the cosmopolitan and bohemian scene of Mexico City as soon as she could, and became one of the major interpreters of Jose Alfredo Jimenez’s ranchero music in the 50s, all while refusing to wear the traditional dresses that women singers wore when doing Mexican songs. She had all sorts of affairs, including with Frida Kahlo and Ava Gardner. But then she became a massive drunk and her career cratered. She was rescued in part by Pedro Almovodar, who loved her music and helped her revive her career in Spain. As a documentary, this is a bit formulaic–big star does amazing thing, falls on hard time, has a revival in her old age. But it’s still pretty interesting. Although it came out after Vargas’ death, there’s some great interviews here of what it was like being a lesbian at that time and how the only time she really could be out was on stage, singing these songs that were originally heterosexual songs but singing them to women. Almodovar is in there as well and that’s pretty cool. Worthy film.

Playlist for the last two weeks. Short because I was mostly on shuffle, which I don’t do often enough anymore. I was even listening to the radio some while driving my dad’s car. Luckily, Eugene has a marginally functional community radio station that plays actual music instead of NPR shows. It’s more than a little tepid in its offerings, but you hear some good stuff from time to time.

1. Ana Tijoux, 1977
2. Thelonious Monk, Straight No Chaser
3. Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Dancer with Bruised Knees
4. Boubacar Traore, Mongo Kagni
5. Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth, Epicenter
6. Richard & Linda Thompson, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
7. Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerard, Pioneering Women of Bluegrass
8. Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn, Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man
9. Willie Nelson, Country Willie Sings His Own Songs
10. Speedy Ortiz, Foil Deer
11. Torres, Sprinter
12. James McMurtry, Just Us Kids
13. Johnny Cash, The Essential, disc 1
14. Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy
15. Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
16. Adia Victoria, Silences
17. Tom Russell, The Long Way Around
18. Jason Isbell, Something More than Free
19. Mates of State, Mountaintops
20. Joanna Newsom, Ys
21. David Budbill/William Parker/Hamid Drake, Songs for a Suffering World
22. Janelle Monae, iTunes Festival: London 2013
23. Maggie Rogers, Heard It In a Past Life
24. Chuck Cleaver, Send Aid
25. The Coathangers, Parasite
26. Daddy Issues, Fuck Marry Kill
27. John Hartford, Mark Twang
28. Run the Jewels, RTJ4
29. Jane Weaver, Flock
30. Jerry Joseph, Istanbul/The Fog of War
31. Julia Wolfe, Fire in My Mouth
32. U.S. Girls, Heavy Light
33. The Tallest Man on Earth, The Wild Hunt
34. Kim Gordon, No Home Record
35. The Tubs, Dead Meat
36. Wolf Alice, My Love is Cool
37. Neil Young, On the Beach
38. Smog, A River Ain’t Too Much to Love
39. Soccer Mommy, Sometimes, Forever
40. Empress Of, I’m Your Empress Of
41. Julia Jacklin, Pre Pleasure
42. Sad 13, Haunted Painting
43. Riddy Arman, self-titled
44. Yo La Tengo, This Stupid World
45. Tom T. Hall, Faster Horses
46. Tom T. Hall, New Train Same Rider
47. Johnny Paycheck, Modern Times

This week’s album reviews:

Lucero, Should’ve Learned By Now

The new Lucero is basically like every other Lucero album. Very solid rock and roll. Good enough lyrics. Somewhat ragged vocals. Propulsive rock and roll. Not moving anything new forward here, but what is wrong with a set of good songs rockingly played? And “One Last F.U.” is a superb track.

B

Jon Batiste, We Are

I wanted to hear this since Batiste is going to be at Newport Folk and I am going to be there too (sadly, only one of us is performing; luckily for everyone on the planet, it is not me). I know Batiste to the extent that I really do know him Stephen Colbert’s bandleader, which is a lucrative and somewhat interesting but kind of limited gig since most of your playing is in tiny snippets. On the other hand, this means you know everyone on the planet pretty soon and Batiste takes advantage of that on a fairly interesting collection of neo-soul and retro-jazz tunes. Heck, even Zadie Smith shows up here. This sounds like a sunny Sunday picnic soundtrack. It’s interesting enough to vaguely keep your attention. It makes you dance a little bit. But it does not distract from whatever you are doing. It’s just kinda nice.

B

Cheli/Davis/Smith Trio, Composite

The rare geologically-based jazz album. The song titles are geological “Quarry,” “Basin,” “Crust,” “Folded,” “Arches,” etc. It fits. This Kansas City based group (there’s a city you don’t hear about too much in modern jazz) plays like it is providing the soundtrack for the formation of the continents. The songs are both beautiful and ugly at the same time, jagged cuts into the planet’s soundcore. Works pretty well.

Seth Andrew Davis – guitar and electronics
Kevin Cheli – percussion and mallets
Damon Smith – double bass

A-

Mouse on Mars, AAI

I thought I would hate this electronic album, or at least find it to be the boring background music that too much electronic music ends up being. But that was not the case. In fact, I found this a rather fascinating set of compositions. It is like a video game soundtrack from the future, an electronic and technological vision of how we might live and play. The German duo behind this are pretty bright. However, this goes on way, way, way too long. At 30 minutes, this would have worked. At like 65 minutes, it’s just a lot of things that sound pretty much the same and I ended up tuning it out for a good long time.

C+

Carlo Mombelli, Lullaby for Planet Earth

Mombelli, a South African bassist, reminds me of Bill Frisell in the way he uses space and silence as key players in his compositions. He also has the same tendency of Frisell, especially late Frisell, to go for pretty over anything else. Whether that works for you, I don’t know. For me, I think this is a fine recording, but also is a little sleepy. Also a lot like late era Frisell. With Wolfgang Muthspiel on guitar and Jorge Rossy on drums and vibes.

B-

Nala Sinephro, Space 1.8

This is an album of ambient jazz by this British disaporan composer from 2021. Bringing in both her European and Caribbean roots to an album that is remarkable in that it is a debut. The obvious comparison is Alice Coltrane and that is certainly intentional, as Sinephro is a harpist and there are lots of sax solos from various guests, including Nubya Garcia. But this is also heavily processed modern electronic music too. It’s jazz for sure, but it is also doing something that even Alice probably would have had trouble imagining. It’s also less spacey and more contemplative than her influences. Worthy, at minimum.

B+

Neil Young, Citizen Kane Jr. Blues 1974

I am not sure that yet another 70s Neil live release is going to add much to the canon, but why not at least hear it? This is him working a solo show at The Bottom Line, then one of the most important folk clubs in America. The title track, which he opens with, is I think previously unreleased, or at least I didn’t know it before this. Most of the rest of it is material that would show up on On the Beach, which I will never complain about. There’s a smattering of other tunes too–“Helpless,” “Roll Another Number,” even “Greensleeves.” Neil is his stoned chatty self, too chatty at times. Just play! Though the audience is more than a bit high and chatty themselves. But god is “Ambulance Blues” a powerful song. Neil throws out “Roll Another Number” in response to an audience member demanding a country song.

Overall, this is a more an interesting archival document than a great recording, in part because the audience itself is too high in the mix. But no one is looking for transcendence with a recording like this. They are looking for a window into a beloved artist at a given moment. And this definitely delivers that.

B

Iggy Pop, Every Loser

Heck, why not check out the new Iggy album. First, it’s amazing he’s still alive. Second, how does his voice still sound so good! Now, this is not classic Iggy. It’s fine Iggy. It’s Iggy reliving his classic days with his classic styles but without quite the classic inspiration (or maybe the drugs). But “Frenzy” is a pretty damn worthy song to start of the album. And it rocks. Whatever you want to say about it, Iggy can still rock the hell out of anything he chooses to do.

B+

Huerco S., Plonk

This is an alright set of ambient trap compositions (I guess that’s how I’d say it) that do perfectly well as background music to whatever you are doing. But honestly, that’s all this is–background music. Keeps your interest just enough that you have no problem throwing this on. But unless this kind of music is really your bag and you are very into the subtleties of the difference between this and some other similar electronic ambient albums, it’s not going to do much for you. One exception is “Plonk IX,” which features a vocalist with some interesting political speak. More of that have raised this evaluation by at least a third.

B-

Fretland, Could Have Loved You

Fretland is the project of Hillary Grace Fretland, a Seattle-based singer, and her band, released this in 2021. This is simply a very solid songwriter country album. It is really quite beautifully rendered relationship album. Perhaps it could use a bit more stylistic variation, the greatest problem with the singer-songwriter genre. But this felt like a veteran band doing quality work and they are all pretty young. So it’s a very promising group. This got almost no attention outside the Americana world, which is a very small world, and it deserves a good bit more. Check this out.

B+

Ondara, Spanish Villager No: 3

There’s nothing really Spanish on this album released last fall. Ondara was born in Kenya and later immigrated to the U.S. He lives in Minnesota. He at least claims he chose that state because it’s the home state of Bob Dylan, though I have trouble imagining that the Twin Cities has one of the nation’s largest African populations doesn’t have something to do with it. Incidentally, there’s nothing very Kenyan here either. This is a man deeply in love with American music traditions and he places himself firmly within them. This is a warm album for summer days, an album you’d throw on at the backyard BBQ, or even better, imagine him singing these songs outdoors on a warm day. It does tend to remain in the smoothish folk-rock tradition that somewhat limits its impact, but it is pleasant enough.

B

Susan Alcorn, Leila Bordreuil, Ingrid Laubrock, Bird Meets Wire

Alcorn is the rare steel guitarist more interested in jazz and compositional music than country. Leila Bordreuil is a cellist and this is the first I’ve heard her. Laubock is a great German saxophonist and is the one of these three and I have seen live. I do appreciate the rise of all-female jazz combos, a la Artemis. It is so long overdue. Unlike the past of jazz, where 99% of the accepted women in the genre were singers, you see tons of women working every instrument these days. It’s great. This is one of those albums that really plays the quiet. You see a lot of this kind of thing these days–trumpets that are highly muted though making crazy noises, drums barely brushed, etc. It’s totally fine to see live, though you really do have to pay attention. This kind of thing on album is a bit less compelling. It’s interesting enough music, but it is mostly really operating in the lower parts of your ears. These are amazing players. This is a pretty challenging listen and might cause a lot of listeners to tune out after a bit. I was listening to this while looking at microfilm, which is boring enough to be a perfect time to listen to a new album. But even I was starting to realize I needed to get my brain right here. Good album though, just not a great album.

B

Taylor Swift, Midnights (10)

I remain somewhat mystified by the rise of Taylor Swift into A+++ superstardom. I don’t say this as a negative thing. I think that Swift is a pretty good artist and I liked this album I think the most of any I’ve heard. But there’s still a sort of “why her?” aspect of it to me. It seems like a million years ago that she was a teenager playing pop-country music, but obviously she’s understood how to be a pop star for a long, long time. And yet, what is the single distinctive thing about her? She has never sold sex on her way to the top, a la Madonna. She’s not a dancer of any note. She’s fashionable, yes, but within a relatively limited playbook. She’s not, say, Michael Jackson here. She also seems, like, fairly normal? She’s maintained control of her career, being a childhood star didn’t fuck her up, and while I can never have real knowledge of what it is like to be a star of that order, she seems to have done it without getting weird like, say, Bob Dylan. Her career just seems a bit unique. And whatever it is she has, the fans love her for it. I don’t see how or why someone would pay $1,000 or whatever to see her show, but whatever. Fascinating.

But in any case, I figured I should check out her album from last year. And it’s very good. I’ve always believed in her talent, up to a point, but also thought that in the end this was not exactly breaking new pop ground. And I guess that’s the case here too, but while her clean-cut nature makes all the “fucks” in the songs stand out, she’s so in control of what she wants to do that she pulls it off. She’s obviously opening borrowing from Black music, but is certainly aware enough of that and isn’t trying to steal anything.

A-

As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and zero things politics. I don’t’ care if Trump gets indicted again, keep it out of this thread. Even if there are 500 comments, keep the politics outta here.