I finally kicked things off yesterday. The show was a bit all over the place, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. I'm still getting set up for posting podcasts with the episodes on here, so I don't have that ready for you yet. Once they're ready I'll make sure to post them on here. In the meantime here's the playlist from yesterday's show. Throughout the show I had tracks from Nick Fraser's latest record Towns and Villages playing underneath me while I talked. I didn't include those tracks on the following playlist.
Cecil Taylor - "Steps" (from the album Unit Structures) The Joe Henderson Trio - "'Round Midnight" (from the album Joe Henderson in Japan) Steve Reid featuring the Legendary Brotherhood - "Lions of Judah" (from the album Nova) Oren Ambarchi - "Knots" (from the album Audience of One) The Nick Fraser Quartet - "Sketch #12" (from the album Towns and Villages) The September Trio - "Additives" (from the album Destructive Element) The September Trio - "Ordinary Weirdness" (from the album Destructive Element) Mostly Other People Do the Killing - "Can't Tell Shipp from Shohola (from the album Slippery Rock)
As you can see, I stuck with a lot of classics to kick things off, and then finished with some new cuts. I can't recommend Harris Eisenstadt's The September Trio's record Destructive Element enough. So if you enjoyed the two tracks I played yesterday, be forewarned, you'll be hearing a lot more in the weeks to come. Speaking of which, in spite of the holiday next week Monday, I will still be doing my show. So make sure to stay tuned for more!
So today from 3:30-5:00pm Rhythm and Sound will have its inaugural show. To kick things off I'm planning on staying with the classics (Coleman, Ayler, Henderson) but will throw in a few other excursions. I'm pretty pumped, and I hope you enjoy what's in store. To celebrate here's a recording from the too-often overlooked Milestone period of Joe Henderson. This is him live in Japan playing "Out n' In."
One of my greatest concerns about hosting a jazz-focused show has to do with maintaining the integrity of the show while also following the CRTC Canadian content quotas. Thank the good Lord for players like Nick Fraser who continuously pump out fascinating pieces. Make sure to check out his quartet at the West End Cultural Centre on September 25th. Here's a video of him with the Lina Allemano Four to get you ready.
Rhythm and Sound kicks off in exactly two weeks from today. To celebrate I'm going to be posting videos and other things related to the radio show on this blog to get you all ready. The show is going to be focused primarily around jazz, with the occasional exploration into other sounds as well. So for the most part what you're going to find here is my personal reflections on jazz recordings both new and old, coupled with playlists and podcasts from the show itself. I'm pretty pumped to see where this whole thing goes.
To get you ready, here's a video of Roland Kirk playing "Pedal Up" from the 1975 Down Beat Awards show. I've never been that huge on Roland Kirk, but there's no denying how awesome this particular video is. The band, feature McCoy Tyner on piano, Stanley Clarke on Bass, and Lenny White on drums is extremely tight. Kirk is his usual bizarre self. Tyner's slacks are ridiculous. Oh, and Kirk plays two saxophones for the entire piece. Pretty great stuff. Enjoy!
Better late then never right? Thinking about what my favourite albums from the past 12 months are has been a more difficult process then usual. Not because I find these lists to be definitive in any real sense. It's a waste of time, in my opinion, to try to come up with 'the perfect year-end list', for judgements on musical tastes are never really ever finalized in such a way. Every time I attempt at a judgement on my own taste (like saying that Daphni's Jialong is my record of the year) I find myself questioning whether such was actually the case (can I really say Jialong was a better record than Tame Impala's Lonerism?). But of course, these misjudgements are part of what makes making lists fun in the first place, inciting further dialogue on what constitutes good music.
More likely however, my difficulty is the result of the fact that 2012 was a bizarre year in music for me. I'm not sure why the reason, but unlike with previous years (2011 in particular), few albums really moved me this year. There were some albums - like Lower Dens' Nootropics or Grizzly Bear's Shields- that killed me at first, but then quickly began to bore as time moved along. There were others - like Kendrick Lamar's record - that I know I should have loved, but just didn't seem to get. Particularly disappointing for me this year was electronic music (notwithstanding those listed below), where the genre appeared dominated by records trying to rehash the past by simply either trying to sound exactly like Burial, or either throwing a shit-load of envelope-filter effects on top of synthesizers in some vain and lazy attempt to celebrate years gone by. What's most depressing about this though is that these apparent shortcomings are really only indicative of my own failures to uncover and discover music that I could really love to the extent that I have grown used to.
But wait, this is supposed to be a celebration. Right? Here are my 10 favourite records of the year with two disclaimers. 1) The record that hit me hardest this year actually was Danny Brown's XXX. But it's from 2011 and can't be counted here. And 2 - Thee Oh Sees are hands down my choice for band of the year. Only problem is that I found myself listened to their back catalog (particularly Help, and Carrion Cralwer) more than this year's Putrifiers III.
10. Andy Stott - Luxury Problems
9. Matthew Shipp Trio - Elastic Aspects
8. Julia Holter - Ekstasis
7. Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel .
6. Martha Wainwright - Come Home to Mama
5. The Men - Open Your Heart
4. Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE
3. Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
2. Angel Olsen - Half Way Home
1. Daphni - Jialong
And the rest ...
Chris Cohen - Overgrown Paths
Metz - Metz
Lee Gamble - Diversions 1994-1996
Tame Impala - Lonerism
Nas - Life is Good
Thee Oh Sees - Putrifiers II
Vijay Iyer - Accelerando
Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes
Eric Chenaux - Guitar and Voice
Robert Hood - Motor: Nightime World 3
I've put together a playlist of some of my favourite songs of the year. This playlist isn't really complete as I've excluded some top 40 songs that I probably should have included, and simply forgot about others (ie. Lower Dens "Brains"). Nevertheless, it's a playlist that I'm satisfied with and hope you enjoy. The link will be up for 5 days for your downloading pleasure. Merry Christmas!
Here's the song order:
1. Oddisee - "Ready To Rock" (People Hear What They See)
2. Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland - "Baby" (Black is Beautiful)
3. Angel Olsen - "The Waiting" (Half Way Home)
4. Thee Oh Sees - "Flood's New Light" (Putrifiers II)
5. Dum Dum Girls - "Lord Knows" (End of Daze)
6. Julia Holter - "Moni Mon Amie" (Ekstasis)
7. Killer Mike -"Southern Fried" (R.A.P. Music)
8. Gonjasufi - "Nikels And Dimes" (MU.ZZ.LE)
9. Big Baby Ghandi - "Hi It’s Me, Baby" (NO1 2 Look Up 2)
10. Frank Ocean - "Forrest Gump" (channel ORANGE)
11. Fiona Apple - "Anything We Want" (Idler Wheel)
12. Chris Cohen - "Heart Beat" (Overgrown Path)
13. Pangea - "River" (Killer Dreams)
14. The Sea and Cake - "Harps"(Runner)
15. Daphni - "Cos-Ber-Zam Ne Noya (Daphni Mix)" (Jialong)
16. The Men - "Open Your Heart" (Open Your Heart)
17. Metz - "Wasted" (Metz)
18. El-P - "Oh Hail No (Feat. Mr. Motherfucking Exquire And Danny Brown)"
19. Earl Sweatshirt - "Chum"(single)
20. Flying Lotus - "See Thru to U feat. Erykah Badu" (Until the Quiet Comes)
21. Nas - "The Don" (Life is Good)
22. NHK'Koyxeи - "638" (Dance Classics Vol.I)
23. Andy Stott - "Sleepless" (Luxury Problems)
24. Oren Ambarchi - "Salt" (Audience of One)
25. Marth Wainwright - "I Wanna Make an Arrest" (Come Home to Mama)
26. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffitti - "Baby" (Mature Themes)
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.
