New York City

Feb 17 2020

Best of 2019 #03: Matana Roberts – “Coin Coin Chapter 4: Memphis”

 

The meeting point of history and mythology is as much collision as it is convergence, and there’s no better musical representation of this dichotomy than the “panoramic sound quilting” of Matana Roberts. The compositions of Coin Coin are as likely to be cryptic as they are to be clearly focused. On Memphis, it trends toward the latter, and that clarity is what makes it the most stunning offering in the series to date. The past is present in Roberts’ music, and its creative daring reflects the strength of the modern scene, even as it moves on into the future.

That’s how I summarized the latest chapter in the Matana Roberts Coin Coin series for The Bandcamp Daily.  My write-ups, and thoughts, about this music has always been brief.  It’s a necessary succinctness.  The alto saxophonist’s compositions are dense with history, with dreams, with the weight of passing time.  Attempting to parse that down is counterproductive.  My reactions to this music are ineffable, and not a little bit impenetrable.  By its nature, art becomes personal, and as we experience it, we incorporate it into our own lives, and that’s when the art no longer belongs to the artist, but becomes our own with our own context.  The chapters of Coin Coin just don’t lend to that transformational relationship.  Roberts story is hers, and it boils down to it is what it is.  It is also one of the most stunning works of 2019.

Your album personnel:  Matana Roberts (alto sax, clarinet, wordspeak, voice), Hannah Marcus (electric guitar, nylon string guitar, fiddle, accordion, voice), Sam Shalabi (electric guitar, oud, voice), Nicolas Caloia (double bass, voice), Ryan Sawyer (drumset, vibraphone, jaw harp, bells, voice), and guests:  Steve Swell (trombone, voice), Ryan White (vibraphone), Thierry Amar, Nadia Moss, Jessica Moss (voice).

Released on Constellation Records.

Music from Earth (via New York City, Chicago, Montreal, and Memphis).

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Check out Roberts’ project-specific Tumblr page for more on Coin Coin and etc.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Feb 15 2020

Best of 2019 #05: Jaimie Branch – “Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise”

 

It would’ve been so easy to do the same thing.  It wouldn’t even have been a bad thing.  Had Jaimie Branch made the second installment of her Fly or Die series the same as the first, it would’ve been more of the good stuff, and that would’ve been quite all right.  But she didn’t.

It would’ve been so easy to do something completely different.  It wouldn’t even have been a bad thing.  Had Jaimie Branch made the second installment of her Fly or Die series the polar opposite of the first, it would’ve been something brand new from an exciting artist, and that would’ve been quite alright.  But she didn’t.

The trumpeter situated herself dead center of possibilities, and that was best of all.  Rather than duplicate a winning formula, and, conversely, rather than turn her back on it and make dramatic changes for the sake of change, Branch added depth and nuance to what was familiar, and brought unity to what is old and new.  On Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise, the electro-acoustic posture maintains the lean toward each extreme, but influences of chamber, Latin, rock and bouquets of percussion round things out in a way that makes it so it ain’t a duality at all.  The trumpeter’s pure aggression, raw melodicism and punches-in-bunches style haven’t gone anywhere, but they’re given new life with the new approach.  As I stated in my write-up of this album for The Bandcamp Daily, “Branch’s debut made a formidable impact, which makes the achievement of her sophomore release that much more impressive. It can take half a lifetime for an artist to discover their voice, and sometimes even longer before they can bring that voice into focus.”  The timer had barely started ticking before Jaimie Branch hit that mark.

Your album personnel:  Jaimie Branch (trumpet, voice, synths, sneaker squeaks, bells & whistles), Lester St. Louis (cello, percussion), Jason Ajemian (double bass, percussion, vocals), Chad Taylor (drums, mbira, xylophone), and Guests:  Ben LaMar Gay (voice), Marvin Tate (voice), Matt Schneider (12-string guitar), Dan Bitney (percussion, synthesizer) and Scott McNiece (egg).

Released on International Anthem Recording Co.

Music from New York City.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Feb 15 2020

Best of 2019 #06: Guillermo Klein’s Los Guachos – “Cristal”

 

So, when are we gonna hear another Bird, are we ever going to see another Miles, is anyone ever gonna rise up to the heights of Coltrane?  These are questions I field with no little frequency, and my answer is always the same:  They’re already here. The giants walk amongst us.

Guillermo Klein is counted among those giants. The pianist has been responsible for some of the most stunning, beautiful music of the modern era.  No better proof of this claim are the recordings made with his Los Guachos ensemble.  Klein brings about a communion of modern post-bop and Argentinean folk, and is capable of generating epic melodic journeys and sublime harmonic reveries all within the span of one piece, no one element outshining the other, and all feeding into one another, like stars sharing the role of lighting up the night sky.  As I summed up for The Bandcamp Daily, “Cristal is yet another sign that we no longer have to wait for the next anything. [And] when historians attempt to pinpoint the modern equivalent to 1959, they will almost certainly select a year that saw a Guillermo Klein Los Guachos recording hit the shelves. Hell, it may even be 2019.”

Your album personnel: Guillermo Klein (piano, vocals), Miguel Zenon (alto sax), Bill McHenry (tenor sax), Chris Cheek (soprano, tenor & baritone saxophones), Diego Urcola (trumpet, flugelhorn), Taylor Haskins (trumpet, flugelhorn), Sandro Tomasi (trombone), Ben Monder (guitar), Fernando Huergo (electric bass), Jeff Ballard (drums), and Richard Nant (percussion, trumpet).

Released on Sunnyside Records.

Music from New York City.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Feb 14 2020

Best of 2019 #07: Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom – “Glitter Wolf”

 

With 2016’s Otis Was A Polar Bear, Allison Miller opened a new door.  The drummer’s career to that point was not constricted to just one sound, or solely one territory.  A machine-gun style of post-bop or a conversant chatter of pop music accompaniment or a straight-ahead swing were all part of her repertoire, and the combination of versatility and individualism distinguished Miller as one of the top drummers on the scene.  But her 2016 recording, inspired by and dedicated to her new child, was something truly brand new… and unexpected.  Eliciting the imagery of a childhood fairy tale and powered by a potent dose of surreal melodicism, that recording was a series of magical pieces, all standalone gems in their own right, but made even more electrified when absorbed in its totality as a narrative-driven story.  Arguably, it could’ve been named the 2016 album of the year.  2019’s Glitter Wolf builds on that foundation, and the story just keeps growing more fantastic with each new piece.  And, arguably, it could easily be considered for the top spot in 2019.

Your album personnel:  Allison Miller (drums), Jenny Scheinman (violin), Kirk Knuffke (cornet), Ben Goldberg (clarinet), Todd Sickafoose (bass), and Myra Melford (piano).

Released on Royal Potato Family.

Music from New York City.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Feb 1 2020

Best of 2019 #14: James Brandon Lewis – “An Unruly Manifesto”

 

There’s a relentlessness to this music that is nothing less than thrilling.  But more than that, it’s got heart.  It’s evident in every note, and it bleeds on through no matter how volatile the music may get, and that’s why the unerring melodicism of this music is the quality that eclipses all others.  James Brandon Lewis has crafted a recording that, for all intents and purposes, has the character of protest, of standing up to everything that’s wrong… and, yet, it would take very little convincing were the tenor saxophonist to assert that love was the album’s inspiration, or a response to the spiritual.  It’s a rare thing to hear the tender pulse from music that rages with the fury of the world coming apart at the seams.  Lewis, along with trumpeter Jaimie Branch, bassist Luke Stewart, guitarist Anthony Pirog and drummer Warren Trae Crudup III, make it seem as natural as taking your next breath.

Your album personnel:  James Brandon Lewis (tenor sax), Jaimie Branch (trumpet), Luke Stewart (bass), Anthony Pirog (guitar), and Warren Trae Crudup III (drums).

Released on Relative Pitch Records.

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

Music from New York City.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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