Jan 23 2019

Bird is the Worm 2018 Album of the Year: Bobby Previte – “Rhapsody”

 

Every year, without fail, one of the top albums of the year will be in possession of a lyricism that is positively epic, as if existing in some primal state of mythology.  It’s the kind of things one can imagine viewed by an ancient community sitting on rock ledges in a makeshift theater on the edge of the forest, as actors orate timeless tales of the gods and their impact on humanity on an otherwise ordinary day.  This particular album will hint strongly of a narrative arc.  Despite the odds against it, the album will attain a cohesion in the face of its wild nature.  A sharp intelligence will act as an undercurrent to implausible plot twists and otherworldly conflicts.  The album will conjure up the uncommon magic that lies at the heart of mundane events and seemingly ordinary times.

In recent years, we’ve seen John Ellis’s 2014 release MOBRO and Michael Blake’s 2016 release Fulfillment fill this role.  They are recordings that put their imprint on their respective years of release, but more importantly, they belong to a lineage of music projects that possess the wild abandon and creative courage required of epic tales.  It’s no small thing, and it can never be overvalued in the context of any art form, any life.  For 2018, the album to achieve these heights is Rhapsody by Bobby Previte.

It’s a story about traveling.  It’s about a life in motion, and about the state of existence in between.  When you’re no longer in the place you were and not yet in the place you are headed, you exist in a perpetual state of transition, where what was old is being shed and what will be new has not yet been embraced.  These changes may only be momentary and impermanent, but it’s during a state of flux that all of the rules of expectations and understanding may be warped and broken and bled.  It is during these moments that the greatest upheavals may occur and the most sublime segues.  Bobby Previte’s ensemble of guitarist Nels Cline, pianist John Medeski, harpist Zeena Parkins, vocalist Jen Shyu, and alto saxophonist Fabian Rucker exploit every instance of those opportunities for the most dramatic, thrilling, expressive and fun recording of 2018.  This is what it sounds like when a creative vision is completely unleashed.

Rhapsody is The Bird is the Worm 2018 Album of the Year.

Released on RareNoise Records.

Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Music from New York City.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

Read more about the album on Bird is the Worm.

I also wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

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Jan 21 2019

Best of 2018 #2: Walking Distance – “Freebird”

 

It’s not unlike experiencing Charlie Parker again for the first time.  Not necessarily the sound per se, but that highly charged reaction to high voltage music.  As I wrote for The Bandcamp Daily about Freebird, “There’s a giddy euphoria that comes with the discovery of the music of Charlie Parker- the thrilling experience of hearing crisp melodies formed under the pressure of high speeds of swing.  That same response is the best proof of Freebird’s success.”  As if taking a clipping and planting it into new soil, the Walking Distance quartet (along with a superb guest spot from Jason Moran) embrace passages from Parker’s tunes and then release them as something quite new.  But the newness isn’t a measure of the jazz age the music most sounds like.  It’s about capturing that joyful spirit of Parker’s music, and the power and grace it possesses to launch a person’s heart and soul into space.  It’s also about music’s ability to inspire, a timelessness that continues to affect minds and hearts long after the creator has passed, and to ignite in future generations a desire of their own to take that spark and create fires of their own, burning bright.  Everything about this album is representative of everything that is great about jazz.

Released on Sunnyside Records.

Music from New York City.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Available at:  Amazon | Bandcamp

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Jan 21 2019

Best of 2018 #3: Quin Kirchner – “The Other Side of Time”

 

When this album was released, a year ago January, I wrote for The Bandcamp Daily that “it’s way too early to be saying things like this is the best thing I’ve heard all year,” and then naturally went on and declared, “but this is the best thing I’ve heard all year.”  As it turned out, too soon was predicative of now’s the time.  The Other Side of Time is both a throwback to a past era of spiritual and free jazz and a symbolic proclamation of the pounding heartbeat of the modern scene.  In that way Quin Kirchner achieves a communion between his own modern pieces and renditions of past works by Mingus, Sun Ra, Cohran and Motian, the seamless flow of thoughts and theory and imagery between jazz eras brings to mind that of blood through the circulatory system, and the inescapable sense that there is no past and present eras, but simply a common language that perpetually reveals more of itself in coordination with our changing perception of time.

Released on Astral Spirits Records.

Music from Chicago, IL.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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Jan 20 2019

Best of 2018 #4: Thumbscrew – “Ours” and “Theirs”

 

The Thumbscrew trio of guitarist Mary Halvorson, drummer Tomas Fujiwara, and double bassist Michael Formanek had two simultaneous releases in 2018, but for all intents and purposes, they should be viewed as a single recording.  Ours consists solely of compositions from the trio members, while Theirs features compositions by jazz giants Wayne Shorter, Herbie Nichols, Jimmy Rowles, and Misha Mengelberg.  However, Theirs is Ours, too, because these three musicians, each with their own striking personal voice, bring that same individuality as a trio to that music from a past jazz age and make it sound as brand new as tomorrow’s sunrise.  The language of jazz is passed on down through the generations, and in that way each successive generation is shaped by the environment they are born to, they give new shape to the music language they’ve inherited.  Thumbscrew is a priceless example of how old and new can sound nothing alike and yet still exist in a state of unity like one slow exhalation of the most enchanting sound ever.  Jazz never dies.  It evolves.  And then there are those instances, like Theirs and Ours, when sometimes, instead, it is an act of reincarnation.  These are the tiny miracles that music can convey upon our lives.  Be sure to celebrate them.

Released on Cuneiform Records.

Music from New York City.

I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Available at: (Ours) Bandcamp | Amazon and (Theirs) Bandcamp | Amazon

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Jan 20 2019

Best of 2018 #5: Makaya McCraven – “Universal Beings”

 

I’m not sure how much more I can say about this recording.  I originally included Makaya McCraven‘s Universal Beings in my Best Jazz on Bandcamp column, in which I explained how “Four concerts in four different cities [and] four casts of collaborators lead to four different perspectives on the expressionistic range of modern jazz.”  Later, for the Best Bandcamp Jazz in 2018 column, I added that his “cohesive vision of the strength and diversity of today’s talent pool… is a statement, and that statement is: This is jazz today.”  And then, finally, for its inclusion on The Best Albums of 2018, which included music for all genres, I summed up that “Universal Beings reveals the wealth of riches right there in front of us.  You don’t need to hold onto 1959; Makaya McCraven can give you today.”  McCraven captures four different takes on the modern jazz sound with four different ensembles performing in four different cities, further cementing the fact that this music is everywhere and that its potential for expression is limited only by the space on the planet and how that affects the space within artists heads and hearts and souls.

Released on International Anthem.

Music from Chicago, IL.

I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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