It's time to get this blog going again. UMFM now automatically uploads my show onto their server so that you fine folks can enjoy the program via podcast. So I'll be posting links to my show and playlists here on a weekly basis. If all of a sudden I feel like doing more (admittedly, this is unlikely to happen) you may find even more stuff here. But in the meantime enjoy my program from yesterday. I spent the entire time celebrating the wonderful Chicago-based collective AACM (the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). If you want even more on AACM, check out Alexander Hawkins' excellent piece on them here.
Set #1:
Air: "B.K" from Air Mail (Black Saint)
Muhal Richard Abrams: "March of the Transients" from Things to Come from Those Now Gone (Delmark)
Set #2:
Lester Bowie: "God Has Smiled on Me" from The 5th Power (Black Saint)
Matana Roberts: "Dreamer of Dreams" from Coin Coin Chapter Three (Constellation)
Wadada Leo Smith: "Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 381 Days" from Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform)
Set #3:
Harris Eisenstadt: "It's Never Safe to Be" from Golden State (Songlines)
Nicole Mitchell: "Jo Jar" from Artifacts (Pi Recordings)
Nicole Mitchell: "B.K." from Artifacts (Pi Recordings)
Tameka Reid Quartet: "Woodlan" from Tameka Reid Quartet (Firehouse)
Art Ensemble of Chicago: "A Jackson in Your House" from A Jackson in Your House, Message to Our Folks (Charly Records)
I'm trying to put some coherent thoughts together about my year of music. Mainly because I want to be able say with confidence that I played my part in the monster that is the "Year-End List" tradition, but also because I'm a music lover who likes to pretend that people actually care about my musical judgments. However, given that my writing on this blog generally only occurs during the F-man's naps (which can range anywhere from 45mins to 3.5 hours), this has become a more onerous project than in years past. So here's my plan (which I reserve the right to not follow through on). I'll put together some form of a top ten - in spite of being particularly uncomfortable about saying anything so definitive about music this year (more on that later), as well as a downloadable playlist of my 25 favourite songs. But to begin I thought I would give a bit of space to one of the many vibrant genres that, in my opinion, remains all-too ignored in our indie-centric current musical climate - jazz.
If there has been one genre of music that has fallen by the wayside as a result of me having to do the majority of my listening while also parenting a one-year old this fall, it's jazz. For the most part I've been pretty fortunate that my son is pretty patient with some of my music tastes. He's okay with me putting on noise records. He can ignore most minimalist stuff I enjoy. And he clearly loves listening to pop and hip-hop (one of his favorite songs, it appears, is "Work" by Gang Starr!). As a parent who also happens to be a music lover, I really couldn't ask for more.
Unfortunately, one genre of music he seems to actively dislike, is jazz. Or more specifically the brand of jazz that I typically gravitate towards - namely, jazz that carries rough edges. He's fine with older stuff - Coleman, Ellington, Coltrane, and even Steve Reid. But once I try to put on something more contemporary that I've grown to love - such as Vijay Iyer, Matthew Shipp and the AUM Fidelity - he quickly gets irritated. As a result, once I became a full-time stay at home dad this fall, I soon lost touch with what was going on in the jazz world. I still haven't found the time and space to enjoy records this year that I know would normally have made a list such as this one (think Neneh Cherry, Sam Rivers David Virelles, Moritz von Oswald, and Wadada Leo Smith's Ancestor record), and with whatever little chance I did get to put on some jazz, I tended toward something familiar rather than new. Thus, what follows should at no point be seen as something final. Instead here are 5 Jazz records that moved me most over the past 12 months, in spite of not really paying much attention to new jazz the last four months.
Wadada Leo Smith - Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform)
Consisting of four discs, and over five hours of music from the venerable Smith, Ten Freedom Summers proves to be the masterpiece so many have declared it to be. This shouldn't be surprising at all, given it comes from a horn player who has consistently proved himself to be one of the greatest composers and improvisers jazz has to offer for over six decades.
The Darius Jones Quartet - Book of Mae-bul (AUM Fidelity)
It's remarkable just how versatile a player Darius Jones is proving to be. At times he can be terribly challenging to listen to, pummelling our senses into submission with his roaring saxophone. At others he can encourage us into our comforts, playing some of the finest melodic lines in jazz. And on Book of Mae-bul, (the third, and last instalment in his Manish Boy series), it's Jones' ability to bring these seemingly competing aesthetics together in such fine fashion that proves that he is definitely one of the more compelling figures currently working in the jazz tradition.
Vijay Iyer Trio - Accelerando (ACT)
Easily one of the most talked about jazz records of the year, it seems silly to devout much space to it on this blog. All I will say is this, I love Vijay Iyer's playing, his ability to rework songs from a variety of traditions into one seamless work of art, and even the way he is able to articulate what it is he as attempting to do with his music so eloquently. However, what really grabs me about this record is how much this record sounds like one coming from a band. The Vijay Iyer trio - with Stephen Crump on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums - work together on Accelerando in such remarkable ways - the above video is but one example. I could go on and on and on. So I'll just stop there instead.
Mary Halvorson Quintet - Bending Bridges (Firehouse 12)
Mary Halvorson has been my favourite guitarist in jazz for some time. Weirdly though, it was only until this year's Bending Bridges, with her quintet, that I got to see what she can do as band leader. The 10 pieces that make up this beast of a record all remain focused primarily on the playing of Halvorson, while never really compromising the unity of the group as a whole. I can't help but tribute this to the gifts of Halvorson as band leader. Oh yeah, and she can also slay on that axe as good as anyone.
Matthew Ship Trio - Elastic Aspects (Thirsty Ear)
Like the Vijay Iyer Trio, on Elastic Aspects it's the Matthew Shipp Trio's ability to play together as a band that really makes this record work. And like Accelerando, Elastic Aspects may not only be one of my favourite jazz recordings of the year, it may very likely also be one of my favourite's all together. This record is such a remarkable triumph, building on last year's brilliant Art of the Improviser, by showcasing both Shipp's remarkable talents as an improviser (bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey are equally talented in this as well), but relocating them within more strict song structures (Art of the Improviser was a live recording in which the songs all bleed into one another). If I were to have to recommend just one jazz recording from this year, Elastic Aspects very well may be it.
