Music Notes
By 
OK, sure, this was the 8th time I’ve seen Mary Halvorson play and this was the 3rd of those times that it was her Amaryllis band. Does that mean I didn’t feel incredibly lucky? No! Because seeing these geniuses is a wonderful experience. This time, I saw them at the Regattabar in Cambridge, which is probably Boston’s second jazz club, behind Sculler’s, though (and perhaps unsurprisingly) there’s little I want to see at that more famous club. Regattabar definitely leans into the shared table model of that kind of jazz club, which I sort of hate. Why do I need to have a table? And to share it with strangers? Just a bunch of chairs would really be better. But nostalgia for 1962 still does dominate the jazz community. Anyway, none of this is important. What is important is that this very well may be the best working band in jazz today. Halvorson was switching projects constantly until Amaryllis hit and did well and now she’s recorded 3 albums with that band and evidently this will be the 4th because most of what they played was unrecorded material. That’s great, because this is a super band. One of the things I love about this group–as I do about much of the experimental jazz scene these days–is how they are able to split the difference between the free jazz days of the 60s and more melodic music that stays tremendously creative while not just pretending like it’s 1962. At this point, these players know each other so well that they just vibe from the very beginning of this show. Now, one thing that was interesting is that I evidently got one of the last tickets available, which, given the old school jazz club shared table thing, meant I was almost behind the band. Not great seats for viewing the band, but just fine for hearing them. In terms of watching though, the best view I had was of bassist Nick Dunston and it was great watching him work. Such power in those hands. The rest of the band is Halvorson on guitar, Tomas Fujiwara on drums, Patricia Brennan on vibes, Adam O’Farrill on trumpet, and Jacob Garchik on trombone. Just astounding.
Other news and notes:
RIP to the jazz organist Akiko Tsuruga, only 58. Also to rock photographer Joe Stevens. Bollywood star Zubeen Garg died at 52. That was drowning. Stay out of the water. It is not human habitat. Not sure why humans refuse to understand this. Most importantly is the death of songwriter and composer of “I Fought the Law,” Sonny Curtis.
Evidently the British are falling in love with country music and given that it is Luke Combs, not the best kind.
Bandcamp’s best albums of the summer.
On “lowrider soul,” i.e., Chicano soul.
The guitarist Yasmin Williams decided to play the Kennedy Center to support the workers there, even though she hates Trump. So the Log Cabin Republicans–the Republicans who like gay sex and also deporting people and destroying the Constitution but pretend that gay marriage will remain legal–decided to come heckle her at the show. Classy!
More bands are leaving Spotify. We’ll see if it matters. Unlikely.
Nate Chinen chats with the great drummer Ches Smith.
Evidently there’s a growing genre of Charlie Kirk songs. Kill me now.
Paul McCartney played “Help” for the first time since 1965, for those of you who haven’t gotten past the Johnson administration in your musical tastes yet.
This week’s playlist:
- Kate Davis, Fish Bowl
- Craig Taborn, Daylight Ghosts
- U.S. Girls, In a Poem Unlimited
- Bruce Hornsby & The Range, The Way It Is
- Richard Thompson, Celtschmerz: Live UK 98
- Rhiannon Giddens, Freedom Highway
- Sierra Ferrell, Trail of Flowers
- Julia Jacklin, Pre Pleasure
- Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey from a Winter Stone
- The Handsome Family, Hollow
- Miles Davis, Porgy and Bess
- Nick Drake, Pink Moon
- Bill Frisell, Nashville
- Norman Blake, Blackberry Blossom
- Joanna Newsom, Divers
- Jason Isbell, The Nashville Sound
- Wussy, Attica
- Chris Acker, Famous Lunch
- Laura Veirs, The Lookout
- Dale Watson, Cheatin’ Heart Attack
- Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny
- John Moreland, High on Tulsa Heat
- Bobby Bare, Cowboys and Daddys
- Jimmie Dale Gilmore, After Awhile
- Billie Eilish, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
- The New Pornographers, Whiteout Conditions
- Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
- Mekons, Deserted
- Lydia Loveless, Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again
- Silver Jews, Tanglewood Numbers
- Bill Frisell, History, Mystery
- Alejandro Escovedo, With These Hands
- Tom Russell, The Rose of the San Joaquin
- Amanda Shires, To the Sunset
- Haley Heynderickx, Seed of a Seed
- Drive By Truckers, Live at Plan 9, 2006
- Patsy Montana, Best of
- Parquet Courts, Content Nausea
- Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit
- Bomba Estereo, Amanecer
- Lambrini Girls, Who Let the Dogs Out
Album Reviews:
Facs, Wish Defense
Pretty solid British punk-influenced rock and roll, though a Chicago band, not Manchester. This is also a histroically notable album for one sad reason–it’s the last album that Steve Albini produced before his death. It has a good solid Albini sound too. In fact, if you wanted an early 80s sounding rock and roll album released today, I’m not sure what more you would want, except perhaps for it to sound slighly less early 80s and slightly more like something new. But maybe there is nothing new under the sun anymore in rock and roll. In any case, “Wish Defense,” especially, the title track, really channels the best of that early 80s type moment. The band is a lot more technically skilled than a lot of bands doing this kind of thing (the core of this band was once Steve Shelley’s post-Sonic Youth band) and it shows. Good album, though I still wish rock and roll had more new to say. But that’s an existential crisis more than a critique of this good band.
A-
Rats on Rafts, Deep Below
Another band mining that 80s rock history, this time out of Rotterdam and this time the slower droney and sometimes whiny rock bands of that period such as The Cure, but with more guitar out in front. It’s a pretty good version of what that is, though as this appeals to me slightly less than a more punkish sound it leaves me a little colder and the endless slow here makes the thing kind of boring toward the end. Fundamentally though, my comment is the same as above–does any rock band have anything new to say in 2025?
B-
Tanika Charles, Reasons to Stay
Charles is a soul singer out of Canada and this is a perfectly fine album from her. Hits the marks, doesn’t break much new ground. I’d rather listen to Bettye LaVette or Sharon Jones myself; I would’t quite compare Charles to them. But it’s entirely adequate and pleasant.
B-
Isaiah Collier/William Hooker/William Parker, The Ancients
This is a new William Parker band and yeah, it sounds damn good. Part of this is raising up the profile of Collier, who is a very young and super promising saxophonist. Some of it is remembering the great drummer Milford Graves in the music. But really, in addition to this just being powerful music, it’s the interplay between generations that makes it exciting. It would be easy for Parker and Hooker to play with some of the guys (and it’s mostly dudes) they have played with for a half-century. But they aren’t interested in that. They want to find the new talent and bring it in, bridging eras on an album that would make late-era Coltrane and Pharoh Sanders fans pretty dang happy.
A-
Sun-Mi Hong, Fourth Page: Meaning of a Nest
Some inventive compositions here. Hong is an interesting story herself, a Korean female drummer from a very conservative family who evidently was not happy their daughter decided to become a creative person. Well, she hasn’t let that stop her. She made it to Europe and worked her way up the jazz world and she’s pretty super. This is definitely a European-influenced jazz album, one that fits a bit closer to the chamber music side of jazz than anything else, not that it’s uncommon to see that in the U.S. these days either. Now based in Amsterdam, she has many of Europe’s best jazz musicians waiting to play with her and if this doesn’t quite reach the heights of the very best jazz that comes out of the U.S., it’s only a half-step too close to classical music to meet it. A very fine album and I need to explore more of her work.
A-
Emily Elbert, Woven Together
Elbert is more known as a songwriter than a singer herself. She’s worked with a lot of people, including Esperanza Spalding, Leon Bridges, Jenny Lewis, and Gwen Stefani and it shows–this is a jazzy sort of songwriting, well conceived jazz-pop songs with a real solid band behind them. I guess this sounds a little like Feist, but more energy. That more means it’s an acceptable enough mid-range album musically and lyrically than something I love, but you know, it’s alright. “Thousand Ways,” the closer, is a real nice one.
B
King Creostoe, I Des
I was extremely skeptical about the 36 minute drone piece at the end of this–who the fuck wants to listen to 36 minutes of electronic instrumentation by a guy who is normally a songwriter. But you know, it’s alright. It’s not the kind of thing I would choose to listen to much, but it’s actually totally fine as background music.
B-
Computerwife, Computerwife
I felt when listening to this EP that here is a person, a young woman named Addie Warncke who has a lot of talent but maybe hasn’t lived long enough have that much to say. She’s listened to everything and has a good sense of beats on her cheapy keyboards and is a pretty OK singer. And look, I’m not the audience here. I’m not a 20 year old hipster sad about my relationships. But then I listen to Soccer Mommy, for example, and am like, OK that’s someone who maybe had more to say about these universal subjects even if I’m 30 years older. And this album, even the name she gives her act, is about terminally online, which might be how a lot of people live their lives, but maybe isn’t the most interesting subject matter. Or maybe I am just old.
C+
V/A, No Options: Hip Hop in Appalachia
This is a fascinating document. Appalshop is a legendary folk music operation based out of Whitesburg, Kentucky that has put out Appalachian folk music since the year I was born. A lot of that for a long time was old time fiddlers and the like. You will find that at the Bandcamp page and a lot of that stuff is fantastic. Fuck the haters who want all their music super smooth and studio produced. But this is not an outfit strictly looking at the past. If we believe that hip hop is folk music–and much of it is–then why not record Appalachian hip hop artists, even if they are far away from the scenes in LA or Atlanta or New York. And you know what? A lot of it is pretty good. In fact, I wish this had come out while Justified was still on the air, because it would have fit perfectly and gotten these artists some exposure. Is it all the greatest hip hop you’ve ever heard? OK, no. Is most of it above average and worthy? Yes. Does it demonstrate a bit about the global appeal of the music that has changed everything, the last major musical innovation before the endless recycling of old songs on Spotify and other streaming services destroyed popular music innovation? Yes. There’s a lot of drug songs, a few banjos, and a lot of people doing the best they can to get by. It’s worth your time, if nothing else.
B
Ron Pope, American Man, American Music
Pope’s been around a long time, but I never really got around to him. I am glad I did. Not every song on this album is great, but the best ones sure are (see the song below). There’s the song about being a responsible father who got addicted to painkillers and needs to feed his kids, so does he feed the addiction and keep working so food is on the table or does he get off the drugs before he dies? I mean, what is country music if not a song like that? There’s one song that is a bit listy in the way of bad modern country and its fetish of the trucks and girlfriends sitting on the flatbed while fishing at al, but at least it’s framed as a specifically nostalgic song, meaning Pope probably understands what he is doing here.
A-
Memorials, Memorial Waterslides
Yet another example of a current band wishing it was the 80s, in this case the art pop world. Again, it’s fine. But hell, maybe rock and roll really is dead and it’s all just recycling the old shit in slightly different ways. At least being art pop, it does encourage some playing around and not just sounding like The Cure, which makes it better than some of these bands at least. But it gets frustrating.
B-
As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics.