Music Notes
By 
Three last shows for 2025:
I FINALLY saw Tyshawn Sorey, with his superb trio that includes Aaron Diehl on piano and Harish Raghavan on bass, I say it that way because Sorey played like 9 sets at Big Ears last year and I never saw a damn one of them, which happens there because there’s so much to see. And then when I saw the Vijay Iyer Trio at Newport Jazz a few years ago, Sorey was sick and Iyer had to find a different drummer for that evening. So when I saw he was playing with his trio at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, I had to go, especially to see him in a such an intimate venue. It was so great, though short. They only played a couple of songs, one an Ahmad Jamal track and the other another cover that I don’t remember precisely who it was by. But boy did they swing through that 40 minutes with such tremendous power and grace and to see them in a place that small, well that was really special.
Speaking of jazz, I saw a second show at Firehouse 12 in December. This was Ingrid Laubrock’s Grammy Season group. That includes herself on tenor and soprano sax, Tom Rainey on drums, Brandon Seabrook on guitar, Shawn Lovato on bass, and DoYeon Kim on gayageum. This was the kind of high energy show that I love. Seabrook is a monster on guitar and Kim adding the touch of her traditional Korean instrument, making it sound like a force from outer space, was just super. I didn’t know Lovato but he was just fine on the bass and of course Laubrock and Rainey, life and musical partners, are so fantastic together.
Finally, I managed to see Lilly Hiatt at a small club in Providence. I almost didn’t make this set and wanted to see Jenny Owen Youngs, her opener, too. That didn’t happen, but circumstances allowed me to get to the show just before Hiatt played. I had seen her once before, 4 or so years ago. She has continued to mature as a songwriter and was surprisingly powerful by herself, since she’s really a rocker at heart. I wish Providence had more shows like this, but its live scene isn’t good these days, as clubs have closed and Boston naturally sucks up all the energy. It was awfully nice being 15 minutes away from a venue instead of 90.
My top albums for 2025. I listened to 111 new albums over the year, a new record for me by quite a bit actually. 99 was the previous record. There’s a lot of great releases out there. I thought the year was mostly dominated by some astounding jazz releases and while the top couple of albums here aren’t, they dominate the proceedings. Here’s 10 with comments, then 10 more that are really good without comments, in vagueish order.
- Bonnie Prince Billy, The Purple Bird–my leader out of the clubhouse ever since its release in January, this is the best songwriting of Will Oldham’s long career, plus the Nashville session guys sound great. I don’t know that’s my very favorite of his albums–that might be Viva Last Blues or I See a Darkness. But this is just fantastic.
- The Lambrini Girls, Who Let the Dogs Out–a shot of intense feminist punk from the UK that still shows what power punk music can offer.
- Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey from a Winter Stone–astounding jazz from a trumpeter I wish I had paid attention to years ago,
- Mary Havlorson, About Ghosts–the latest from her Amaryllis band, Halvorson continues to amaze the world with her guitar and her compositional skill. The addition of a couple more horns on a few tracks sure didn’t hurt.
- Wednesday, Bleeds–while I’m bummed that MJ Lenderman has left the band for his solo work, I don’t expect the overall quality to slip, since Karly Hartzman is a force of nature on her own. This might even be better than their previous work and continues to demonstrate the tremendous power of southern rock.
- James McMurtry, The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy–you know who still really hates George W. Bush? James McMurtry. Few have a better sense of how to convey the horrors of the 21st century and he expresses these so powerfully here. One of the best writers working in America today, regardless of genre.
- Chicago Underground Duo, Hyperglyph–Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor make arguably the most powerful duo in contemporary experimental jazz and show it once again.
- S.G. Goodman, Planting by the Signs–A great songwriter maturing even more and writing songs about beating the shit out of kids who are beating up a snapping turtle in one of the year’s most epic songs.
- James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores–Lewis is a beast among men, an enormous talent; he has more than one excellent album this year. I guess I’ll choose this one to represent him.
- Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Live Like the Sky–more known as an indigenous activist than for her music, but her music continues to be tremendously powerful, indigenous music from someone who doesn’t take much inspiration from either of the two dominant genres among the tribes–metal and country, but instead PJ Harvey.
- Rosalia, Lux
- Ken Pomeroy, Cruel Joke
- Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet
- Linda May Han Oh, Strange Heavens
- Derya Yildrim & Grup Simsek, Yarin Yoksa
- The Mekons, Horror
- Maiya Blaney, A Room with a Door That Closes
- Die Spitz, Something to Consume
- Marshall Allen, Live in Philadelphia
- Adam O’Farrill, For These Streets
A few other bits:
Excellent Texas Monthly piece on the last days of Joe Ely.
I always appreciate the Pitchfork weekly review of an album they didn’t review at the time. A recent one was the Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares album, which was this weird moment of eastern European music taking the world by storm for about 5 seconds back in 1997. I hadn’t thought about that album or that moment for a long time.
LCD Soundsystem is now “cringe” for whatever reason. Shrug.
Is social media killing dancing during shows because people are scared to look like idiots?
“I Can’t Stand the Rain” is one of the best songs ever recorded, in any genre. Ann Peebles didn’t have that many hits, but good lord does that song rule. Her husband, Don Bryant, wrote it for her and he died a few days back, so RIP.
Perry Bamonte of The Cure died as well. 80s acts are moving toward antiquity too, so expect a lot more of this very soon.
Finally, I was never much of a fan of the kind of fusion that Michael Urbaniak specialized in, but he was certainly a big figure in a certain kind of jazz and he died at the age of 82.
Playlist for the week:
- Iron & Wine, Our Endless Numbered Days
- Justin Townes Earle, Harlem River Blues
- Tangerine, Behemoth!
- Robert Earl Keen, Gringo Honeymoon
- Stereo Total, Paris Berlin
- Merle Haggard, Down Every Road, disc 4
- Neil Young, On the Beach
- Wednesday, Bleeds
- Jason Isbell, Sirens of the Ditch
- The New Pornographers, Whiteout Conditions
- Wet Leg, Moisturizer
- Matt Sweeney & Bonnie Prince Billy, Superwolf
- Richard Thompson, Rumor and Sigh
- Butch Hancock, West Texas Waltzes and Other Wind-Blown Tractor Tunes
- Duke Ellington, The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse
- Richard and Linda Thompson, Hokey Pokey (Bonus Tracks Live at the BBC)
- Drive By Truckers, Decoration Day (x2)
- U.S. Girls, In a Poem Unlimited
- Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home
- Neil Young, Harvest
- Torres, Silver Tongue
- Willie Nelson, Shotgun Willie
- Lone Justice, The Western Tapes
- Top Country Hits of the 1960s
- Merle Haggard, Down Every Road, disc 3
- James McMutry, Just Us Kids
- Irving Fields, My Yiddishe Mama
- Priests, Bodies and Control and Money and Power
- Mannequin Pussy, Perfect
- Blood Orange, Negro Swan
- Mary Lattimore & Paul Sukeena, West Kensington
- Penny & the Pits, Liquid Compactor
- Bill Callahan, Gold Record
- Julien Baker, Turn Out the Lights
- Deadbeat Beat, How Far
- Loretta Lynn, The Definitive
- John Moreland, Live at Third Man Records
- Turnpike Troubadours, The Price of Admission
- The Waco Brothers, Resist!
- La Santa Cecilia, self-titled
- Cat Power, Sun
- Jason Isbell, Southeastern
- Julien Baker & Torres, Send a Prayer My Way
- Peter Oren, Anthropocene
- H.C. McEntire, Eno Axis
- Marika Hackman, Big Sigh
- Aziza Brahim, Sahari
- Old Crow Medicine Show, Live from the Ryman
- Willi Carlisle, Winged Victory
- Robbie Fulks, Now Then
- Mabe Fratti, Se Ve Desde Aqui
- Darius Jones, Le Bébé de Brigitte
Album Reviews:
Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, The Future
I have never, ever understood the appeal of this guy and more to the point, why he’s basically become programming director for the Newport Folk Festival. He’s not terrible, not really. I’ve just never cared one way or another about him. But you know, you gotta try, so I thought I’d give him another shot, listening to his album from last year. And look, there’s nothing really wrong here. But it’s just a pastiche of styles that a lot of other people can do better. He is what to me is an all too typical example of indie folk these days, a situation where people sound great and look great and really love a combination of the Laurel Canyon scene with just enough soul to show that they aren’t too white, but ultimately have nothing interesting to say. Rateliff lines up more on the soulful side of this world, and that’s fine, but the problem is clear, which is that I can’t find a single reason why I’d choose to listen to this instead of Charles Bradley or Sy Smith or 100 other artists. He’s basically a less interesting Kevin Morby.
B-
Mediopicky, Bexaco y Rico
This should fill your desperate need for Dominican club music that isn’t too connected to reggaeton. Me? Look, I respect that this exists, but it’s just not my thing in any way, shape, or form. The deep thumps of the club are so disconnected from my experience that I just can’t relate to this how people who might actually enjoy it do. I can hear that this is somewhat more interesting than other examples of modern club music due to some compelling production techniques and choices and if I was a different person, I’d probably hear this differently. So take this grade with a grain of salt, perhaps laced with the ecstasy that would make this go down the right way. But really, it is useful to hear Latin American dance music that is explicitly not reggaeton, bachata, or salsa. And honestly, it kind of grew on me over the songs.
B-
Harold Land, Westward Bound
To the extent I knew Land’s music, which wasn’t that deep, it was as a soul jazz guy of the 70s, which was through some compilations I have. So I was interested to hear these live performances from the early to mid 60s, which show him not as a Coltrane/Coleman level figure, but as a clear second level saxophonist of that period, which only makes him fantastic instead of world changing. Philly Joe Jones is the most well known of the collaborators on these recordings. This isn’t going to change your life, but it is going to deepen your knowledge of the jazz of this period and that’s a strictly good thing for all of us.
A-
Stillhouse Junkies, The Ballad of Charlie Avalon
If I say “bluegrass song cycle,” you might run away. And I get that. The fact that they are based in Colorado–center of hippie jam bullshit “bluegrass” should make you even more skeptical. But I’ll be damned if I didn’t love this album. This is a trio that doesn’t engage much in that hippie bullshit, or at least not here. Rather, this is a story created by the band about an obscure folk musician (vaguely based on the rediscovery of Mississippi John Hurt) who gets a chance at fame and maybe doesn’t quite get there but at least tried. The vocals are so warm and the the story is really quite good. The band is first rate. It’s a quite fine album and so much more interesting than another fucking cover of “Orange Blossom Special” or Billy Strings jerking off with his guitar for another 27 minutes.
A-
Rosalia, LUX
Rosalia, you are the queen of international pop and you deserve everything. I wondered if her flamenco-based sound would become a cliche. Nope. She’s just one of the defining musician of our times and her new album should be beloved by all.
A
As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics or war.