Music Notes

I was lucky enough to see Mon Laferte in Boston a couple of weeks ago. Laferte is the most popular Chilean musician in the world, though this may well mean nothing at all to you. She moved to Mexico in her 20s and has engaged very deeply in the Mexican romantic music tradition. She gives it a sharp feminist spin in a place where misogyny reigns like almost nowhere else in the world. What this meant is that at this show I felt very old, very white, and very heterosexual. All of these things are objectively true of course. But the audience was made up of a lot of women from about 25 to 40 and a lot of queer men, who trended a bit older I think. Everyone was in love with everything about her–the audience definitely added to the experience. Lots of people were dressed in the costume of her latest album Femme Fatale. Our seats weren’t the best in the house, but it was a small house so that was OK. Her pretty long show consists of four acts, with all the costume changes that entails, and a set of dancers that turn much of it into a burlesque show. As for the music, she’s great, though at a show that long, where I don’t know all the lyrics (I can understand some of it but it’s hard to follow an entire song), it can become a bit repetitive since the musical style doesn’t change a ton between songs. In any case, it was really fun to see her, someone I had wanted to tick off my list for quite some time.

So…. I have no way to evaluate the following claim. And I hope I am even articulating this correctly. But I remembered that last month, when I was taking my Spanish classes in Chile, I had an interesting discussion with the Chilean teacher and a German student. Somehow it came up about all these European singers from non-Anglophone countries singing in English. I always assumed this was a commercial decision to access the American and British markets, since most of their fans at home would have some English too. But both said that actually English is much easier to sing in than Spanish or other romance languages at least and said it with a level of vigor that surprised me. My sense here is that it had something to do with the language’s structure. Maybe this is true. I still say the commercial side of it has to be part of it. But I wanted to throw this claim out to the readers, see if anyone has anything to say about this argument.

I am happy Billy Strings got his life together from a rough background and I am sad that background included his mom dying of an overdose not long ago. I also think that while he is a great guitarist, his jam band schtick gets old very fast and that I think consider him the way I think about Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen–a tremendously talented guitarist with no sense of taste or control. I also hate how bluegrass has become hippie music. Could say with the same with the horrible Les Claypool and Primus, one of the worst bands to ever exist, despite the man being obviously extremely skilled on the bass. Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe roll over in their graves about some of what Strings does. But maybe they need to roll over in their graves too.

I like Kacey Musgraves’ music just fine–not my favorite, but generally enjoyable. Dirty martinis are gross though and the point has to be said.

The kids are into Shania Twain, for some reason.

Jason Isbell is a great songwriter, The Nashville Sound is a great album, and “Someone to Love” is a very nice song that I like a great deal and am always happy to hear. But I can’t say I ever considered a summer song per se. Interesting essay making that argument. Anyone want to list their favorite summer songs? Don’t worry, I’ll be judging you for your choices.

Some of the pretty obscure albums on Brian Eno’s label, Obscure Records, from the 70s. Great label name.

Last Music Notes, I bemoaned the death of my external drive I’d been using to organize my music. It still is making me sad. I also note though that streaming is NOT a good option if you care about music as much as I do. There’s just way too much that isn’t on there. Every time there’s a new medium, a lot of art doesn’t make the cut. We’ve seen this with films going from VHS to DVD to Blu Ray to streaming. If only care about Hollywood shit that you’ve already heard of, you probably don’t care. That’s what the studios count on. But for those of us who really do care, who see art made in 1926 as relevant as that of 2026, etc., it’s a disaster. Here’s a good Bandcamp piece on jazz that never made it to streaming services. That doesn’t even have to be old, it includes recent Jason Moran releases. Of course all this is in fact on Bandcamp, but the self-serving part of this reinforces the larger point.

Finally, RIP to the great Dave Marsh, one of the greatest rock and roll writers who has yet lived. He was 76.

Album Reviews:

Julia Cumming, Julia

I really like a lot of Sunflower Bean’s work, which is Julia Cumming’s band, where she sings most, though not all, of the songs. So I was wondering what her solo album would be like and the answer is that it is a bit more like a lot of these solo albums than I wish, which is that it shaves all the edges off and moves toward a bland pop-rock. Even reviews that favor the album compare it to “coffee shop pop” like Sheryl Crow and Dave Matthews. And that’s not the worst music in the world, not by a long ways. But it’s also boring and forgettable. Hmm…maybe it is the worst music then. So for me, this is a real disappointing album. There’s some confessional feminist lyrics that are great if you like that sort of thing, though basically every female singer-songwriter does that these days so it doesn’t super stand out that way either, even if she is a talented songwriter. The final thing I’ll say here is that the promo work for this album is all about how this is for the not-cool kids. And maybe Cumming sees herself that way, I don’t know. But she’s also the frontwoman for a popular band and an actual model for global clothing designers, with all the looks that entails. We can all hate ourselves, Lord knows, but this doesn’t exactly convince as a lyrical theme given the context.

C+

Ladytron, Paradises

If you had asked me 25 years ago which new bands would still be rocking on a quarter century later, I would not have chosen Ladytron. I’ve always liked their work more than most electronic bands, largely because they are good lyricists on top of the great sounds. But since they barely seemed like a band to me and electronic bands come and go a lot, I don’t know, I guess I’m surprised that they are now an institution of British music. Their new album is the kind of midcareer album that a lot of bands make, which can be summed up by doing the things they do best, not doing a lot of new things, and not doing a lot of the old things better than they used to. Actually, this describes a lot of recent Drive By Truckers and Wussy and Old 97s albums too, so I can extend this critique to my favorite bands. It’s good for fans, it’s fine for everyone else, it’s not overly exciting, the sounds and songs are basically fine but not quite on par with their best work. In the case of this album, it also runs a solid hour and could use some trimming.

B

Kalia Vandever, Mana

Vandever is a trombonist and vocalist recording on International Anthem, which has become one of the most exciting labels in jazz in recent years. I have friends who just buy anything IA releases. I’m not going that far, but it releases interesting works. Although I wasn’t familiar with her before this, she’s been playing a lot for the last decade, but recently has done a lot of non-jazz work, or in front of non-jazz audiences, including working with Harry Styles and Japanese Breakfast, and has found this somewhat liberating for her music. Genre can be a bitch when people come with expectations to your music instead of meeting you when you are at. She said it was opening for the (excellent imo) folksinger Haley Heynderickx. who audience was mostly not bringing any baggage to what a trombonist would sound like as opening act, that really freed her mind.

Well, as for the music, sadness is the tone here. A lot of this sounds like mournful dirges, which I don’t say as a negative at all. Not only is the trombone work here fantastic and the overall ambience of these compositions totally compelling, but even the vocals really work for me, largely because they share almost nothing with traditional jazz vocals and really come from this ethereal place that fit this music beautifully, at least in the first couple of tracks with vocals. As the album goes on, the vocals get a bit more dominant and they get more dominant lyrically and become a bit more distracting. But overall this is a fine album by a talent I plan to follow going forward.

A-

Southern Avenue, Family

Pretty good new Memphis soul. This is the kind of band I wish there was more of, it’s such a super solid group you’d be happy to listen to at any time. It’s not really breaking new ground, but it’s a rockin, bluesy, soulful Memphis band with a big dollop of gospel. Why wouldn’t you be cool if anyone was listening to this around you?

B+

Webber/Morris Big Band, Unseparate

This is a project from two saxophonists. Anna Webber I know well, having seen her many times. She even plays Providence, I mean who does that? Angela Morris I don’t really know at all. Their big band includes four other sax players, four trumpets, four trombones, then vibes, guitar, bass, drums, and piano. Maria Sanchez on piano is really the only I know well at all and I don’t know her work that well. So I figured this would be fun–let’s hear a lot of rising youngish people in the jazz community. Like a lot of modern jazz, only a bit of it is streaming, 4 of 11 tracks in this case. This is a quality project from what I can tell. I like a big band scenario anyway–give me a lot of noise. So this was quite appealing to me, with such lovely blowing and ecastic noise. I just wish I could hear more of it and I bet if I heard the whole album, I’d up that grade. But while I did put this on the To Buy list, it might take awhile, so I’ll evaluate it on what the promoters–or given that we are talking about modern jazz I should just write “promoters”–allow this ol’boy to escuchar.

B+

Marshall Crenshaw, self-titled

I haven’t gone into the archives to review something old I haven’t heard before in a long time, So how about Marshall Crenshaw’s debut album from 1982. Crenshaw has long existed at the margins on my consciousness. What I really. know him for is his excellent contribution to the Johnny Paycheck tribute album. And while that’s great, it was fun to go back and listen to this. For someone like me, the early 80s were a pretty shitty time in music. Almost everyone from the 60s and 70s were releasing complete garbage by this time, with Richard Thompson as a notable exception. But most of these guys were, between 15 years of drugs, booze, and fame, as well as the bad production decisions of the early 80s and its brittle sounds, totally finished. Though some had 90s revivals and that was cool.

But there was a good group of folks–even if they didn’t usually sell that well–who weren’t interesting in the bullshit electronics of 1982 and they weren’t interested in production that barely sounded like instruments. They loved pop and they loved rockabilly and they loved rock and they loved country and they just made music that made sense to them. Los Lobos, Stray Cats, Elvis Costello, X, Concrete Blonde, Long Ryders, Lone Justice, etc. I hardly need to tell readers here that included Crenshaw. I know he hates the term “power pop” but this really is a good example of how cool that sort of rock can be, plus his obvious rockabilly themes. He’s still on the road today, even though this is the most commercially successful album he ever released, and let’s be clear, it wasn’t really that successful. But the man has great taste and it’s so clear from his debut that he had this all the way back at the beginning. So yeah, glad I checked this out.

A-

Alma Tree, Sonic Alchemy Suprema

A fascinating percussion trio here on this 2024 release. It’s Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Melo Alves, and Vasco Trilla, none of whom I have heard of before. Moses is a New Yorker who played with Rashaan Roland Kirk a zillion years ago and has in fact played with a ton of guys since, even though I didn’t know him by name. I’m sure I’ve heard his work though. Alves is from Portugal and Trilla from Spain. They are much younger. This album is hard to describe, but I guess the way to put it is that here are three guys that will probably hit anything for sound. And they hit a lot of them here. It’s not overwhelming and it’s not some bullshit hippie drum circle. A lot of the sound is actually pretty soft. It’s super experimental and isn’t going to follow any 4/4 beat, or much of a beat at all. There are some reeds on a few tracks, but they are supporting the percussion rather than the other way around. So if this sounds like your thing–and mostly it is mine–you might want to check this out because you are unlikely to find out about it anywhere but here unless you are a super percussion nerd, in which case I’d like your recs.

A-

Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet, Live Spirit I

I don’t always love European jazz, which so often feels too disconnected from the black American music that generated it and too close to classical music. That makes sense intellectually and of course these highly trained European musicians are excellent, but sometimes I find it boring and arid. That is not the case with the Polish bassist Wojtek Mazolewski and his quintet. This album came out last year and is a very fine live performance that splits the difference between the free improvisation of free jazz and the tightly controlled Euro jazz. This band has great chemistry, shifting up and down between tempos, a few solos, and some fantastic compositions with beauty. Really good album.

A

As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics.