Music Notes
By 
The last show I will see for a few months was last night at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, that great jazz space highlighting some of the real leaders in the contemporary jazz world. Last night was a Jamie Saft show, that fascinating pianist who often works Jewish themes into some pretty experimental work. Here he had a whole raft of keys–prepared piano, what is basically a ballpark organ, some other funky keys. Playing with him was Joe Morris on guitar and bass, Bobby Previte on drums and whatever else he felt like hitting, and Herb Robertson on trumpet and a whole variety of other little blowing instruments, ranging from tiny flutes to homemade stuff to what looked like a child’s noise toy readjusted to do basically what a trombone does. Robertson was new to me, but the others I know reasonably well and….I can’t believe I hadn’t seen any of them play before. As it turns out Morris has a monthly free jazz show in Hartford that I need to get to one of these days. Anyway, this was a pretty wild show. The first piece was a full 35 minutes long that just shifted in all sorts of directions, from pretty quiet bits to total noise, with plenty of opportunities for solos and combos of two of the musicians to work off each other while the others took a quick break. I texted my wife and said “This is so great! You’d hate it!” That’s the best thing I can say about a jazz show. The second piece was much shorter, maybe 10 minutes, and a lot more subdued. There was a lot of joy on this stage too. I don’t know if they haven’t all played together in this group much (there wasn’t an album in any case), but Saft was super pumped to play with these legends and it was very clear Previte was having a great time. Morris comes across as more the serious professor and he doesn’t show a lot of emotion. Robertson is a pretty old dude who just sat on the side of the stage and got to business. Anyway, it was super.
Incidentally, the reason for this upcoming show drought is that I will be in Mexico until late January. Try not to be too jealous. I have some good shows coming up in the winter and spring too!
A couple of the real all-time legends in jazz died this week. They were both super old, so this wasn’t surprising except for the fact that I didn’t think either was still alive. But I am still happy to give a shoutout to Roy Haynes and Lou Donaldson.
Roy Haynes, as any jazz fan knows, is one of the true all-time legends on the drums. Being 99 and all, he goes back forever. He’s not the last living person to have played with Charlie Parker, as Sonny Rollins lives, but he has to be close. But I mean, Parker hired him in 1949 to replace Max Roach!!!!! So that’s how good Haynes already was. He was around forever. Whenever Elvin Jones had another gig, Haynes was the backup drummer in the classic Coltrane quintet; not that he was a “reserve” in any case, he was playing with Sarah Vaughn most of these years, but if you could get Haynes, you knew you were gold that night. He didn’t adjust well to the electric or free jazz eras and wasn’t around a lot in those years, though he did reappear more with the nostalgia-based acts that rose in the 80s. Total and absolute legend. Check out Nate Chinen’s long remembrance of Haynes as well.
Lou Donaldson by comparison was a whipper-snapper at 98 and a real titan alto player of the great hard bop era. Among many other things, he was the saxophonist on Art Blakey’s A Night at Birdland, for god’s sake. I mean, can you imagine having been part of that? Unfortunately, other than maybe Curly Russell, Donaldson was the least famous person of that recording. Incidentally, Donaldson completely rejected the idea that this was a Blakey recording, saying it was a Blue Note All-Stars recording that unjustly got released under Blakey’s name. Like all these guys, he also played with effectively everyone for a 20 year period, also including Bird. Again, two absolute legends.
You might be familiar with Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music and maybe even the second volume, but you are probably not familiar with the fact that Charles actually released a whole bunch of country albums and two of them are back in print for the first time in decades.
The muse, by which everyone means groupie, of the 60s San Francisco scene Julia Brigden died. Well, no big news there I guess, but I was reading her obituary and it mentioned that her husband Mick, who was a legendary tour manager of Dylan and the Stones died of an “accident” while digging a grave for a pet. I am just curious–what accident could happen digging a hole in the ground for a dog or cat? Or even a horse I guess? I followed various articles down this rabbit hole, but didn’t get any details. I confess curiosity.
Pitchfork has bailed on its annual music festival in Chicago, for reasons unknown.
For those of you who were big Boygenius fans, Julien Baker and Torres are starting to work together, doing a few shows next year, including at Big Ears, as which you will probably find me.
A good feature on some of the working country musicians trying to break through in Nashville.
The historical musical piracy scene of Mexico City, rereleased on a compilation.
This week’s playlist:
- Tom Russell, The Rose of the San Joaquin
- Neko Case, Blacklisted
- Curtis Mayfield, Superfly
- Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics, Inspiration Information
- John Tchicai, With Strings
- David Torn/Tim Berne/Ches Smith, Sun of Goldfinger
- Charlie Haden, Liberation Music Orchestra
- Empress Of, I’m Your Empress Of
- Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
- Richard Buckner, Surrounded
- Sleater-Kinney, All Hands on the Bad One
- Arexibo, Counter!
- George Jones, The Essential, disc 2
- Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit
- Neil Young, Rust Never Sleeps
- Robert Earl Keen, Walking Distance (x2)
- The Band, self-titled
- Sugar, Copper Blue
- Richard Thompson, Watching the Dark, disc 3
- Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, De Facto
- Sudan Archives, Natural Brown Prom Queen
- Julia Jacklin, Pre Pleasure
- Yo La Tengo, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
- Miles Davis, Porgy and Bess
- Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
- Silver Jews, The Natural Bridge
- Roscoe Mitchell, Nine to Get Ready
- Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks, Vol 5, disc 1 (Oakland, 12/26/79)
- Willie Nelson, Teatro
- Townes Van Zandt, High, Low, and In Between
- Guy Clark, Texas Cookin’
- BR 5-49, Coast to Coast: Live
- Si Para Usted: The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba
- Parquet Courts, Content Nausea
- Ralph Stanley, Classic Stanley, disc 1
- Harriet Tubman, The Terror End of Beauty
- David S. Ware Quarter, Wisdom of Uncertainty
- Rilo Kiley, The Execution of All Things
- Dwight Yoakam, Second Hand Heart
- Angelica Garcia, Gemelo
- Laura Gibson, La Grande
- Terry Allen, Lubbock (On Everything)
- Wussy, Funeral Dress
- Wussy, self-titled
- Amanda Shires, To the Sunset
- The Beths, Future Me Hates Me
- Sleater-Kinney, Call the Doctor
- Pink Floyd, Meddle
- Wayne Hancock A-Town Blues
- Bois Sec Ardoin, Allons Danser
- H.C. McEntire, Eno Axis
- James McMurtry, Live in Aught Three
- Bill Frisell, Unspeakable
- Patsy Montana, Best of
- Chris Stapleton, From a Room, Vol. 2
- Aretha Franklin, Lady Soul
- Camera Obscura, Let’s Get Out of This Country
- Ray Price, Touch My Heart
- Jim Reeves, The Blue Side of Lonesome
- Guided by Voices, Alien Lanes
- Drive By Truckers, Heathens Homecoming, February 14, 2020
Album Reviews:
Ellie Goulding, Higher than Heaven
I guess Goulding has been a pretty big pop star in Britain for a long time now and one can see why–this is polished, highly produced, catchy material that is basically ear candy. I guess it’s fun enough, for a completely insubstantial album. I’d say compared to some of the great American pop coming out in the last decade or so, it gfeels a bit more marginal. But comparing people to Beyoncé isn’t really fair. It’s totally fine for the right mood. If your kid was into this, you could live with it.
B
Morgan Wade, Obsessed
Reckless was a pretty fantastic debut a few years ago and “Wilder Days” is for me an all-time country banger. I have felt since then, including seeing her live last month, that since then she’s sort of struggled to find fresh material. She portrays as outlaw country, but that’s mostly the tattoos, but her songs are really more love songs with a strong pop sensibility. If she wasn’t from very small town Virginia with the accent to prove it, she’d probably be more a pop singer. So you have a lot of longing love songs and then some songs about her struggling with sobriety, which fair enough. She’s a good enough songwriter and I like her voice a lot, but there’s just a kind of lack of urgency here. It’s fine, but it’s not “Wilder Days.” That’s OK though.
B
Metz, Up on Gravity Hill
Significantly more than solid punk-noise that tends toward longer tunes that really let the rock and roll out. The drummer, Hayden Menzies, is especially outstanding on this album. The songs are, as punk songs often are, a combination of pissed and sad. But this album really rocks and that’s the highest recommendation I can give. Think Jesus and Mary Chain, think Pavement. Love it at 34 minutes too–perfect length for something like this. Very sold work.
A-
Alexander Hawkins/Tomeka Reid, Shards and Constellations
This 2020 collaboration between the pianist Hawkins and the cellist Reid works amazingly well. OK, maybe “amazing” isn’t the right word, since they are both such masterful musicians. What surprised me a bit is that while some of this music could be called difficult, a lot of it isn’t nearly as arch as jazz duet albums sometimes can be. They cover Muhal Richard Abrams and Leroy Jenkins, and they also write their own tunes (mostly the latter). Some of it is pretty abstract, but some of it is also quite melodic and overall is a very solid intro for someone interested in what more challenging modern jazz might sound like while keeping it very listenable.
A
MJ Lenderman, Manning Fireworks
Lenderman recently left Wednesday and as much as I love that band, he has completely blown up with this album, with an almost completely sold out tour on almost every show for months. Remarkable and great to see; it’s so hard for young acts to become big these days, especially rock acts.
Lenderman is a little more laid back than his Wednesday partners and this ends up sounding a good bit like Kurt Vile at times, and maybe Jason Molina too. I absolutely love the fiddle on this. Like one of Neil Young mid 70s albums, it just builds and builds as the lyrical mastery takes over and you stop wondering why this isn’t louder. Lyrically, this is actually pretty grim, maybe not Tonight’s the Night level of depression, but not as far from it as one might hope for the singer’s mental health. But then no wonder he covers DBT’s “Women Without Whiskey”–like Cooley he is a bard of down and out southern men. Really fantastic album that I loved more with each song.
A
As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics.