The Five Albums with the Biggest Influence on my Musical Taste

 

Grateful Dead - Reckoning

Phish - Junta

Yvonne Casey - Yvonne Casey

Sun Ra - Lanquidity

Tommy Guerrero - Lifeboats and Follies

Honorable Mention - Five More

Ween - The Mollusk

My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves

John Prine - John Prine

Grant Green - Blue Breakbeats

Tony Rice - Manzanita

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Special Addendum - Must Add Two More

Merle Haggard - Back to the Barrooms

Culture - Two Sevens Clash

The Ten Best Albums of 2021

I did an okay job keeping up with new releases this year.  Okay enough that I didn't feel compelled to do any end of year cramming or searching. I simply looked back at the list I'd been maintaining all year long and picked my overall favorites, which gave me a list of 18 choices. From there I narrowed it down to these 10.

Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal

I knew of Neal Casal primarily through his instrumental band Circles Around the Sun. However, when he passed away in 2019 at the age of 50 I had no idea that he was also an expert lyricist and songwriter. Thankfully, Neal's friends and admirers got together to record over 40 of his songs as a tribute. I wouldn't normally include a various artists compilation like this on an end of the year list, but it's too good to leave off.

Lost Futures by Marisa Anderson and William Tyler

Both primitive and sophisticated is this meeting between two guitar greats: Marisa Anderson and William Tyler. I listened to it while driving along the Oregon Coast and it was the perfect soundtrack to that road trip and landscape.

Heaven and Holy by Painted Shrines

This is perhaps the most pop-oriented selection of the ten on this list. Jangle-pop that is. The guy from Reds Pinks and Purples teamed up with the guy from Woods to create this little gem of an album. Deceptively psychedelic.

New Love by Charnett Moffett

Charnett Moffett is not a name I had heard of before and bassist-led jazz releases are not usually something I am seeking out, yet I knew this was a best of year candidate from the moment I clicked play. Moffett has an understanding of Harmolodics, as taught by Ornette Coleman. Few people can even explain what Harmolodics is, much less utilize it in an effective way, but the way Moffett conducts the instruments and positions the role of the bass within this ensemble may provide some clues.

First Flight REDUX by Dave Harrington

I don't know what this is! I just like the sound of it. Especially the drumming. It quickly became my go-to exercise music for the year.

Searching for the Disappeared Hour by Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson

Despite being a long-time fan of guitarist Mary Halvorson, this is the first time I've gotten to hear her play with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, or any piano player. The piano adds a richness which I find soothing. While still being very abstract and difficult to comprehend, it may be ever so slightly more conventional than what we are used to.

Sunshine Radio by Tommy Guerrero

Tommy Guerrero is someone I admire: a DIYer who can be counted on to put out catchy, melodic, instrumental albums time and time again. Don't mistake this pro skater for being an amateur musician. This is pretty much the sound. The epicenter. Exactly what I am looking for in music. 

Children In Space by Guess What

I detect some major Sun Ra vibes from this album. Big, spacey tones for a keys and drums duo.

Confabulations by Duck Baker

Years ago I saw Duck Baker play a solo show in Richmond, VA but I don't recall him being this out. We're talking Derek Bailey level out. Could this be easy listening in disguise? Something keeps me coming back to it.

Yol by Altin Gün

I was watching a Phish webcast this summer and during the setbreak you could just make out the house music that Phish's sound person was playing at the venue. It sounded really good to me at the time but I had no idea what it was. After a while I thought to try the Shazam app and it was able to tell me it was a song by Altin Gün. I checked again a few minutes later and it was another song from the same Altin Gün album called Yol. This would be good music to put on the jukebox in the Star Wars Cantina.

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A Decade's Worth of Top Album Picks: 2011 To Now

Here's a look back at a decade's worth of best album of the year picks...from 2011 until now.

2011 List

In 2011 I picked Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong as my album of the year. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Dawes and I may have cooled some in the years since, but it was an amicable parting of ways. I could play Nothing Is Wrong right now and sing along with every song, and maybe even get a little teary eyed as a result. However, my #2 pick from that year - The Harrow and the Harvest by Gillian Welch - has risen to even higher prominence in the ensuing years, proving to be one of the best albums of the last decade. Meanwhile, a forgotten gem from 2011 is the Jamacian mento album We Will Wait (like a folkier reggae) by Blue Glaze Mento Band. Well worth seeking out. 

2012 List

2012 is very heavy on folk, old-time and trad but its supreme leader is still the same as it was then: The Murphy Beds' self-titled debut album. A desert-island disc for me. The Murphy Beds are Eamon O'Leary and Jefferson Hamer. They're still somewhat active as a duo, but unfortunately there never was a 2nd Murphy Beds album. At least not yet. 2012's dark horse is Dan Gurney - Traditional Irish Music on the Button Accordion. That one's pretty pure. Plus Béla Fleck and the Marcus Roberts Trio. Nice!

2013 List

Even by 2013 The Sadies were already an established favorite of mine, but a young previously unheard of Scottish Alt. Country band called The Wynntown Marshalls gave them a run for their money. The Sadies won out in the end and that was a good decision as I have continued to listen to Internal Sounds quite frequently in the time since. A couple forgotten gems from that year are Mandolins at the Cakewalk by The Ragtime Skedaddlers and Redlight Rag by Rattletrap Ruckus.

2014 List

Here we see the beginnings of an experimental streak that continues to this day. Rhyton - Kykeon as number one. Nice pick if I do say so myself. Go back and listen to that and see if you don't agree. Greg Cohen - Golden State is one that I have grown to love even more, and Xylouris White - Goats continues to get better and better with every listen. Goats might be the new number one if I was to do it over again.

2015 List

2015 wasn't that long ago and I don't see anything wrong with any of these picks. Nowadays I would definitely elevate Mary Halvorson - Meltframe to the top of the list. Although I'm not sure it could unseat Tomeka Reid. Mary Halvorson is all over this list actually. Also give Susan Alcorn a listen if you can find her recordings. 2015 is looking pretty good.

Woolen Men - Post.
I totally missed this one in 2018!

2016 List

For some reason I could only come up with five favorite new albums in 2016? I guess I didn't yet know about Idris Ackamoor - We Be All Africans, Psychic Temple - Plays Music for Airports, or Atlantis Jazz Ensemble - Oceanic Suite. If one of those didn't occupy the number one slot, then a worthy resident would have been I Long to See You by Charles Lloyd and the Marvels.

2017 List

In 2017, Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile helped get me back on track. And they stayed one step ahead of The War on Drugs. There's some really good stuff further down this 2017 list: Ches Smith, Jenny Scheinman, and Wolf!  Actually Wolf! should have been on the 2016 list! Missing altogether is Jake Xerxes Fussell. I didn't know about him yet.

2018 List

Nothing wrong with this list. It's full of goodies. Even my 2018 albums that you might have missed list has got it going on. And to think that I hadn't heard of the band The Woolen Men until this year so there's no mention of them at all yet. I'm pretty sure The Woolen Men's brilliant 2018 album Post would have been near the top of the list had I known about it.

2019 List

By 2019 I was fully under the influence of Spotify for good or ill. The platform's algorithm had figured out my musical taste and spoon fed me one personalized hit after another. It looks like I chose not to rank my 2019 list but instead just narrowed it down to ten favorites. A year later I'm thinking Carla Dal Forno - Look Up Sharp is a strong contender for number one. Although there is some very strong competition from Goes West by William Tyler and The Borametz Tree by C. Joynes and the Furlong Bray. One year ago I didn't yet know about The Reds, Pinks and Purples yet so Anxiety Art is strikingly absent from last year's list. That was a pretty big omission. Apologies to Glenn Donaldson.

2020 List

Just posted today!  Will Sleeper and Snake hold on to the top position or will they be overtaken by Silverbacks? Or will I soon be turned on to something that I'm currently unaware of and kick myself for not including it? Time will tell. I also posted a much longer 2020 music list and chances are good that some off-handed reference from that grouping will grow in stature in the future. 

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The Ten Best Albums of 2020 - As Chosen By Me

Last week I posted a long, toilsome list of the year's best music albums. Link here.

For those that don't have time for that kind of slog, here's a quick rundown of the year's ten best. And yes I am picking a sleepy little Ozzie wombat pop record as my number one. 

Number 1: Sleeper and Snake - Fresco Shed

Conjures Visions Of: kangaroos, barbecues, Subaru Outbacks, down under blankets, and those frilled-neck lizards that run on their hind legs. Those thorny devils those.

Reminds Me Of: The Moldy Peaches, Young Marble Giants, Lotta Sea Lice, Daniel Johnston.

Why I Like It: drum machines, super catchy songs, saxophones, and a DIY approach. What's not to like?

Number 2: Silverbacks - Fad

Conjures Visions Of: Singing along with the radio.

Reminds Me Of: Camper Van Beethoven, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, The Hold Steady.

Why I Like It: These Irish lads (and lass) know how to rock.

Number 3: Ron Miles - Rainbow Sign

Conjures Visions Of: Being at one of those ideal jazz clubs like you see in movies, for both the early and late sets (you ain't going nowhere).

Reminds Me Of: Blue Note's golden era where every record was a winner.

Why I Like It: One word - Melody. Ron Miles can write some tunes, and with the best of the best accompanying him this band delivers track after track after track. A soon to be classic.

Number 4: Gillian Welch: Boots No. 2 - The Lost Songs, Vol 1, 2 and 3

Conjures Visions Of: Walking the streets of 'Frisco in a brand new pair of shoes.

Reminds Me Of: Gillian Welch songs willed into existence.

Why I Like It: Quantity and quality. These "throw-away" songs are unbelievably good.

Number 5: Surprise Chef - All News is Good News

Conjures Visions Of: Having a tailor make you a suit designed to look like it came from a thrift store, but with just enough bespoke touches that someone with an eye for it can tell that it's hand made.

Reminds Me Of: That legendary funk jazz album from the 1970's the crate diggers rave about.

Why I Like It: From the sound of it, you would never know that this is another contemporary Australian band. 

Number 6: Bill Frisell - Valentine

Conjures Visions Of: That strange dream you had last night.

Reminds Me Of: Three musicians listening and responding to each other.

Why I Like It: Not many artists produce a career-defining work 30+ years into their career, but Frisell did with Valentine.

Number 7: Elds Mark - Elds Mark

Conjures Visions Of: Strange rituals in the deep dark woods of the far far north.

Reminds Me Of: Everything that's good about Scandinavian music right now.

Why I Like It: You're constantly wondering, "is this the same album?".

Number 8: This Is The Kit - Off Off On

Conjures Visions Of: Popping a cassette tape into the boombox and playing it loud enough so that someone else can hear it besides me.

Reminds Me Of: Someone who writes and creates her own songs, with internal muse as the primary influence.

Why I Like It: What kind of banjo is that she's playing? Then those horns come in.

Number 9: Martin Rude & Jakob Skøtt Duo - The Discipline Of Assent

Conjures Visions Of: Constantly being on the verge of something.

Reminds Me Of: Too much. Desert Blues, Miles Davis, Pink Robots.

Why I Like It: It's what I was looking for.

Number 10: Los Days - Singing Sands

Conjures Visions Of: Tumbleweeds, distant horizons, trotting horses.

Reminds Me Of: Friends of Dean Martinez, Atmospheres and Soundtracks, Ennio Morricone.

Why I Like It: It's Tommy Guerrero.

***

The Search for the Best (Non-Phish) Jamband Album

For fun I thought I'd figure out what was the best non-Phish jamband album. We have to rule out Phish because, ummmm, Story of the Ghost. There's a clue above but first let's walk through the process. To whittle down the list I set a few parameters. Mainly, the album had to come out between the landmark dates of 8/9/95 (Jerry Garcia's passing) and 12/31/99 (Phish's midnight 'til dawn Big Cypress set).

Why these two dates? Sure the jamband scene was already burgeoning before the death of Jerry Garcia, but his passing seem to really ignite a level of creativity that may have been stifled up to then. I mean I can remember before the term jamband was even invented, when you had bands like Solar Circus; basically just very minor league Dead lookalike bands soaking up some of the trickle down from the real thing. With the Grateful Dead off the road their shadow loomed a little less large, allowing bands of a certain ilk to show off their individuality. There may have been some friendly competition involved too. Any halfway good band seemed to get a bump or a promotion after the top, top dog was no longer in charge.

Enter Phish. Phish was already killing it, but they really stepped up their game from '95 onward and set a standard so high that no other band could possibly keep up with, but at the same time this raising of the bar lifted many others up along with them. The new average was way better than the previous average. Things happened fast, super fast, then it peaked and suddenly crashed with the performance Phish gave on 12/31/99. Nothing could ever top that so it was almost like why bother. Of course things continued to grow, but my point is if you hadn't done it by 1999 then you hadn't done it. You can't put out an album in the 1970's and have it be a 60's album. So the same thing holds true here.

OK so who are the contenders?  One obvious choice is Widespread Panic. I never did listen to those guys a whole lot, but the album of theirs that definitely qualifies as classic is Space Wrangler. That's from 1988 though, way too early to enter the contest by the rules I'm making up. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with anything WSP put out between 1995 and 1999 and if I didn't listen to it in real time it would be wrong to try and include it now. So cahoots to them for putting out such an ahead of its time album in the 1980's but no can do.

Next would maybe be The String Cheese Incident. They really grew during this 1995 to 1999 time period and put out a couple notable studio albums - 1996's Born on the Wrong Planet and 1998's Round the Wheel. I listened to both of these a lot back then, but upon a 2020 re-listen they just don't hold up. There's an inconsistency due to some songs being too goofy or just not up to par.

I might consider Ween if I considered Ween to be a jamband, but it's pretty clear they aren't/weren't. Especially not in the 1990's. They turned their noses up at such a thought. Although I do probably consider Ween's 1997 album The Mollusk to be even better than Story of the Ghost. Moving on.

I'm going to also rule out Medeski, Martin and Wood and Yonder Mountain String Band. MMW's Shackman album (1996) is no doubt one the best of that decade, as is their 1998 collaboration with John Scofield called A Go Go, but these are not square in the jamband universe, if you will. These are on the fringe, overlapping more with what they used to call acid jazz than pure jamband music. In YMSB's case, their debut album Elevation came out in 1999 so it's within the time frame, but this particular CD was more bluegrass than jamgrass. Not gonna make it.

It's worth mentioning Minnesota's The Big Wu. They never made it big so you might not have heard of them, but their 1997 album Tracking Buffalo Through the Bathtub was one I used to love. The Big Wu were about as stereotypically jambandy as you could get. Unfortunately that works against them now because while still fun, upon re-listen there's too much of an obvious Grateful Dead influence in there for it be legitimately considered.

Now we're getting to the strong contenders. I consider Sound Tribe Sector 9, or just "Sector 9" as they were known in 1999, to be a strong contender. Go back and listen to their 1999 debut Interplanetary Escape Vehicle. Pretty well formed from the get-go, right? Problem is it's all instrumental. Don't get me wrong. I love instrumental music and nowadays I listen to instrumental music more than music with vocals, but lyrics - even if they are mindless, repetitive, non-sequitur filled lyrics - are so part and parcel to the jamband aesthetic that I can't ultimately keep STS9 in the running. The other problem is their 2nd album Offered Schematics Suggesting Peace from the year 2000 is the one.

Keller Williams is a strong contender, believe it or not. Especially his 1999 album Breathe with The String Cheese Incident as the backing band. I listened to that just the other day in preparation for this and was singing along with songs I hadn't heard or thought about in over a decade. Why not Breathe? Because I already know who the winner is and Breathe falls just shy.

Strangefolk's Weightless In Water has all the characteristics I'm looking for. It came out in 1997. They were a jamband. Not the jammiest of jambands, but a jamband nonetheless. Strangefolk was almost like our scene's version of The Jayhawks if The Jayhawks had been trying to appeal to a Phish audience. The emphasis on lyrics and songs was as crucial to Strangefolk as Robert Hunter's lyrics and Jerry Garcia's singing were to the Grateful Dead. Plus, it didn't sound derivative in Reid Genauer's capable hands. This made Strangefolk stand out in what was quickly becoming a crowded field. Most every song on Weightless in Water is good. There's nothing to bring it down. But I'm not there yet.

I mustn't forget about Leftover Salmon. However by my own stupid rules I automatically eliminated what might be their defining album, 1993's Bridges To Bert. Without being able to count that one I look to their 1997 release Euphoria.  Guess what. It's even better than I remember it being. Euphoria has the quality mix of Vince and Drew you expect from Leftover Salmon. This team effort aspect should not be discounted. Having two or even three strong singers/songwriters in your band is a big plus. Having all band members come across as equals with no weak links is a big plus. Despite their bluegrass and cajun roots, Leftover Salmon didn't eschew the jamband label either. They embraced it. Euphoria is very well produced as well. Clocking in at under 42 minutes they avoided the CD era's 70+ minute temptations. This means there's absolutely no filler on Euphoria. This would be the winner if not for .moe.

Yes, .moe comes out on top.  And I had two great .moe albums to choose from: No Doy from 1996 or Tin Cans and Car Tires from 1998. (Can I also count the 46+ minute Meat single that was released as part of the promotion of No Doy?). I'm going to go with No Doy for the win.  The influences are perhaps equal parts Phish, Zappa, Camper Van Beethoven, They Might Be Giants and Meat Puppets. Maybe some Uncle Tupelo.  But on No Doy it's really just .moe sounding like .moe. Not two but three strong frontmen? Rob, Al and Chuck. Check. Crazy time signatures, epic anthems, weird modal scales, nonsense lyrics? Check.  .moe wasn't just working from the playbook, they were helping establish it. Any Grateful Dead influence is deeply buried, imperceptible.  That no longer mattered. Instead of building from a tradition like bluegrass or jazz, if anything .moe used alternative rock as its jumping off point. They just took songs that might have otherwise been 4 or 5 minutes and jammed them out for 20+ minutes live. In the studio these were still good songs without those extra minutes being added on. Save that for the live show. If I was also judging by how many times it got played, then No Doy excels on that front as well. If I had to pick just one album that best represents the "genre" for lack of a better word, this would be it. I might listen to No Doy again right now as a matter of fact.

***

Five, Make That Six, Favorite Albums So Far in 2020 (Best Albums of 2020, So Far)

I've been wanting to post this for a few days now, and I already had five 2020 albums picked out as favorites. By the time I got around to writing this the list had grown to six! Here they are.

Phish - Sigma Oasis
What It Is: It's Phish, dude. The same Phish whose live show is where it's at, man. In case you forgot, these guys are pretty good in the studio as well.
Why I Like It: Lots of reasons. There are no clunker songs. Each track is strong. The production may the best I've ever heard on a Phish album. Engineer Vance Powell did a much better job of capturing the band's sound than any of the name brand producers they've worked with before managed to do, and better even than the band itself has done in the past. With Phish you are usually judging the studio versions of songs as being inferior to the live versions. On Sigma Oasis these studio takes come off more as definitive than inferior. Or at least as an alternative. Do I have criticisms? Sure. It's Phish so I analyze everything with a microscopic lens. But those objections are starting to wash away. Phish is a team and they know what they are doing. If they chose to make it this way it's better to trust their decisions than to try and poke holes in them.



Habibi - Anywhere But Here
What It Is: An all female post-punk style band from Brooklyn with more than a hint of an Arabic influence in their music.
Why I Like It: I had already been researching all-female bands from yesteryear - like The Raincoats, Kleenex and ESG - so I was happy to learn of an equally cool present day band. Habibi's songs are super catchy. Just the right mix of garage rock and pop musicality.



Hawktail - Formations
What It Is: An instrumental quartet that uses bluegrass instruments (fiddle, upright bass, flatpicked guitar, mandolin) in a musical style that used to be (?) called "new acoustic". Hawktail has the gravitas of a David Grisman Quintet or the Strength In Numbers Telluride Sessions but with more of a Scandinavian folk influence, à la Väsen.
Why I Like It: The world of new acoustic music is still ruled by the Mike Marshall, Béla Fleck, Darol Anger generation. Hawktail is perhaps the best of the next round of bands following in this progressive tradition. I don't know if they are taking it farther, but they are certainly fanning the flames.



Jon Stickley Trio - Scripting the Flip
What It Is: A wildly unique instrumental trio (guitar, violin, drums) that can hold its own at both jamband and roots music festivals.
Why I Like It: When I listen to Jon Stickley Trio I can't help but think of Shooglenifty, the legendary Scottish folk group that took trad music into new dimensions during the 1990's and 2000's. Jon Stickley Trio's music is very different than Shooglenifty, but it contains the same groovy energy, referencing bluegrass or Southern Appalachian fiddle tunes in the way that Shooglenifty expanded upon its Celtic roots. Jon Stickley (guitar) may have his name in the title, but everyone on board shines with Lyndsay Pruett (violin) and Hunter Deacon (drums) contributing in massive ways to make this the best album of the band's career. Track after track is one brilliant composition after another. I'm liking this one a lot!



Stein Urheim - Downhill Uplift
What It Is: Difficult to categorize music out of Norway that seems to float between spiritual jazz, psychedelic rock and world/folk.
Why I Like It: The first time I listened to it I picked up on what must be a Sun Ra or Alice Coltrane influence. The 2nd time around it sounded more like Pink Floyd or even Phish. The 3rd time it came across as if an American blues musician was traveling along the Silk Road. All on the same 37 minute album. So take a listen today, then again tomorrow, then the next day. It'll be different each time. Pay attention to the remarkably good drums/percussion.



Seahawks - Island Visions
What It Is: A modern day take off on Library music, inspired by the cult classic KPM albums of the 1970's, although this sounds more 90's than 70's.
Why I Like It: Exotic without being exotica. Sunny with a patch of clouds. Slightly buzzed. The soundtrack for relaxing with your cocktail of choice. This is a chilled out album and maybe a little too savory or intelligent to pass for legit Library music, but it's all the better for it. I'm not familiar with the band Seahawks, but this record sounds like something Sound Tribe Sector 9 or Boards of Canada might have come up with if given the same task of expanding upon the KPM catalogue.
Listen here: https://www.emipm.com/en/browse/labels/KPM/2127

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Anxiety Art - Best Overlooked Album from 2019

The best overlooked album from last year is far and away a little known pop rocker called Anxiety Art by San Francisco's The Reds, Pinks and Purples. 

A couple months ago I posted my favorite 2019 albums list. And what a fine list it is! Of course it's just my favorites out of the albums I was able to hear and familiarize myself with during 2019. With Spotify and other means (plus a hunger for searching) it's easier than ever before to continually find new and old music that you A) love and B) haven't ever heard before. Inevitably some good things get left off of any person's best of because you can't hear it all.

In the two months since 2019 ended I've been turned onto at least a dozen great albums from 2019 that I wasn't even aware of at the time of making my own favorites list. These include:

Tomeka Reid Quartet - Old New
Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek - Kar Yağar

Gong Gong Gong - Phantom Rhythm

Joose Keskitalo - En lähde surussa

Los Wembler's des Iquitos - Vision del Ayahuasca

Mike Compton and Norman Blake - Gallop to Georgia

Woolen Men - Human to Human
Billy Strings - Home

These are all albums I wish that I had known about in 2019 but I'm glad that I know about them now. However, for me, the best overlooked album from last year is far and away a little known pop rocker called Anxiety Art by San Francisco's The Reds, Pinks and Purples. 

I know little to nothing about this band or album. It was listed on Raven Sings The Blues' enlightening best of 2019 list: http://www.ravensingstheblues.com/rstb-best-of-2019/

On Bandcamp The Reds, Pinks and Purples are described as "DIY kitchen pop project of Glenn Donaldson with live support from friends, currently: ‎Katiana Mashikian, Thomas Rubenstein & Andrew Hine.‎"  About the songs, Donaldson writes:

I wrote these songs in the Inner Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco. They came to me on walks around Golden Gate Park and shopping at Asian grocery stores on Clement Street. They are fiction and non-fiction. I recorded them in my kitchen, but we live in the future now, so some of them are coming out on vinyl in Spain. To me, they are straight pop songs with not much of a filter. The cover art is by my partner's father; he has dementia but still makes amazing pictures sometimes. Stress or bad times can drive people to make music or art. It's a relief for me to make things, so I called this record Anxiety Art.

I'm not sure why this album has had such an impact on me.  New Wave, or middle of the road rock in general, is not necessarily my most preferred style. The songs are not super hooky and the musicianship - while sufficient and well formed - is not what I would call virtuosic. There are no long jams or much improvisation or experimentalism of any sort. The songs are pretty short - the two or three minute range - and have pretty basic structures. The same chord patterns, guitar riff motifs, and topics seem to show up on multiple tracks, whether intentional or by accident. It doesn't quite sound like 2019...or 1982. But oh is it addictive and gripping. The feeling the album conjures can't really be put into words - something like a mature, hopeful, melancholy. Hidden beauty. Finding pleasure in simple, mundane things. Too bad the vinyl is completely sold out. Good thing I'm also into compressed audio.

Favorite Albums of 2019 (Best of the Year)

My Ten Favorite Albums of 2019

The Mauskovic Dance Band - The Mauskovic Dance Band

Space disco music by way of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Is this what an Afro-Caribbean influenced new wave jamband from Europe sounds like?

Carla Dal Forno - Look Up Sharp

Poppy, minimalist and deceptively hooky songs from a London-based Australian music creator.

Akron - The Akron Quartet Plays Ritual Sferei

Cool rhythms, killer bass-lines, and catchy melodies color this exotica from Barcelona, Spain. 

Dennis Young - Primitive Substance

The spirit of Liquid, Liquid lives on in this trippy, percussive, and dance-friendly collection of tracks.

Jenny Scheinman and Allison Miller - Jenny Scheinman and Allison Miller's Parlour Game

The most listenable and melodic jazz of the year came from this new collaboration between drummer Allison Miller and violinist Jenny Scheinman. Pianist Carmen Staaf and bassist Tony Scherr make it a quartet.

Jake Xerxes Fussell - Out of Sight

Another great set of songs from North Carolina guitarist Jake Xerxes Fussell. The production is turned up a little bit this time, giving the music a modest sheen.

Better Oblivion Community Center - Better Oblivion Community Center

The closest thing to indie-rock you'll find on this list. I listened to this over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again when it came out back in January.

The Natural Yogurt Band - Braille, Slate and Stylus

These funky, hazy, vintage grooves from England should appeal to acid-jazz and trip-hop fans, and those who pay attention to the background music in make-believe wildlife films.

C Joynes and The Furlong Bray - The Borametz Tree

A globe spanning array of quasi field recordings, inspired by Eritrean wedding music, the Gamelan of java, Indian ragas, old-weird Appalachia, Celtic traditions, Asian scales, Tuareg desert blues, and who knows what else. 

William Tyler - Goes West

Straight and to the point acoustic, Americana guitar instrumentals backed by a sympathetic ensemble consisting of guitarist Meg Duffy, bassist Brad Cook, keyboardist James Wallace and drummer Griffin Goldsmith.

Favorite Albums of the Decade, 2010's: 2010 to 2019

This is not an attempt to name the biggest or most important albums of the last decade. I'm too old to care about that. These are just the ten albums that I rank the highest from the years 2010 to 2019.

Listening methods and habits changed pretty significantly during this decade. Spotify became the new norm - an endless supply of albums, artists and tracks to check out. At some point I learned how to let my ear take the lead.

Here are those ten favorites in chronological order.

Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest (2011)
Fans waited eight years for The Harrow & the Harvest, and were then delivered the best album of Gillian Welch's career. Refined yet boundless.

Tommy Guerrero - Lifeboats and Follies (2011)
Highly influential DIY instrumental grooves from a guy originally know more for his skateboarding than his music. Not overly complex, but extremely enjoyable. (This style of music was a big part of my listening the last decade. Khruangbin's The Universe Smiles Upon You could also have represented).

The Murphy Beds - The Murphy Beds (2012)

A duo: guitar, mandolin(s) and/or bouzouki; two voices in harmony. Simple, catchy, and beautifully played.

The Sadies - Internal Sounds (2013)
An artistic equal to the previous decade's Favourite Colours, The Sadies struck gold again with Internal Sounds. Punk campfire tribal rock.

Xylouris White - Goats (2014)
Debut album by this unusual collaboration between Cretan lute player Giorgis Xylouris and rock/jazz drummer Jim White (Dirty Three). An in-the-moment musical conversation as two masters listen and respond in real-time while the tape is rolling. Something entirely new.

Atlantis Jazz Ensemble - Oceanic Suite (2016)
Spiritual, modal, North American jazz with an ear toward Europe and Africa. Meditative and introspective music meant to elevate the soul. Yes there is a love supreme.

Jake Xerxes Fussell - What in the Natural World (2017)
There's beauty, strangeness and savagery in these songs, telling of devils, dangers, ghosts and mythical monsters. Fussell chooses to interpret his "old-timey" repertoire on electric guitar instead of acoustic, and it works.

Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids - An Angel Fell (2018)

This is my jam. The rhythms and melodies traversed over the course of this album's hour are patient, cosmic and spread far out. A further highlight are the tones band member Sandra Poindexter is able to summon from her violin.

Mary Halvorson and Bill Frisell - The Maid with the Flaxen Hair (2018)

Two guitar legends, the sixtysomething Bill Frisell and the thirtysomething Mary Halvorson meet (for the first time on record) on the high, common ground that is Johnny Smith. What could have easily turned into a competitive battle of notes is actually the exact opposite. The two guitars blend in a delightfully cooperative way that is way more calming and far less noisey or flashy than one might have expected. The more closely you listen the more you are rewarded.

William Tyler - Goes West (2019)
If there's no tension, can there be release? William Tyler's beguiling instrumental melodies bask in the now while also peering ahead at something just out of reach, just off the screen, marching, but sometimes jigging, on the edge of Americana.

***

Best Albums of 2018

My top five albums of 2018 are, in this order:
1) Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids - An Angel Fell
2) Phish - Kasvot Växt í Rokk
3) Eamon O'Leary - All Souls
4) Mary Halvorson and Bill Frisell - The Maid with the Flaxen Hair
5) Andrew Marlin - Buried in a Cape

The next five, in less particular of an order, are:
Alina Engibaryan - We Are
Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo
John Prine - The Tree of Forgiveness
Jimi Tenor - Order of Nothingness
Circles Around the Sun - Let It Wander

Below I have categorized these in more detail.

Best Singer-Songwriter Album - All Souls by Eamon O'Leary
Eamon O'Leary beat out one of the all-time greats (John Prine) to take the top slot in this category.  John Prine's The Tree of Forgiveness falls in the top ten overall, but All Souls probably ranks in the top three for me this year.

On All Souls Eamon has fine-tuned his brand of self-penned melancholy ballads and distilled it into a near perfect ten song package. There's a charming, seductive edge to these songs and still another quality that for some reason brings to mind the sounds of Wake of the Flood and From the Mars Hotel era Grateful Dead studio albums.

Best Acoustic Instrumental Album - Buried in a Cape by Andrew Marlin

I'm a sucker for CDs of all original fiddle tunes and Buried in a Cape is perhaps the best album I've ever heard in this category.  The primary influence seems to be vintage late 70's/early 80's Newgrass ala Tony Rice and Sam Bush.  But there's also stately compositions like the type found on Norman Blake's Natasha's Waltz, jazzy numbers that wouldn't sound out of place under the fingers of Jethro Burns or Tiny Moore, and crooked old-time fiddle tunes that seem as if they were plucked straight from the hills.  

Andrew Marlin is best known as a songwriter in the increasingly popular duo Mandolin Orange.  With the all-instrumental Buried in a Cape it's clear that he can add "formidable tune composer and instrumentalist" to his reputation.  It doesn't quite seem fair that a lyricist of Andrew's caliber should also be capable of writing such memorable fiddle tunes but here is the proof.

Best Electric Instrumental Album - Con Todo El Mundo by Khruangbin

This is the most competitive category for my musical taste.  I had several contenders in this style, including Five Star Motel by Gitkin, Spacesuit by Robert Walter's 20th Congress, Road to Knowhere by Tommy Guerrero, The Serpent's Mouth by Bacao Rhythm and Steel Band, and Let It Wander by Circles Around the Sun.

Khruangbin wins, however.  Con Todo El Mundo expands upon the retro thai funk they established on their full-length 2015 debut The Universe Smiles Upon You while still keeping that signature blend of guitar melody, counterpoint bass-lines, and "snap" drumming.  Whether you approach this music as chilled-out psychedelia or uptempo exotica, there's a dependable magnetism to Khruangbin's unique take on the art of music making.

Best Album Featuring Mary Halvorson or Bill Frisell - The Maid with the Flaxen Hair

It's true that I eat up almost everything Bill Frisell or Mary Halvorson puts out.  In 2018 the choices were many.  In Mary's case, among the releases she participated in, I returned frequently to Theirs by Thumbscrew.  In Bill's case it's hard to overlook his long-awaited solo studio album Music Is.  Nonetheless, crushing everything in its wake is the monumentally demure and completely unexpected collaboration between Mary Halvorson and Bill Frisell called The Maid with the Flaxen Hair.

On this duo record, Halvorson and Frisell meet on middle ground by interpreting music associated with 1950's era guitarist Johnny Smith. What could have turned into a competitive battle of notes is actually the exact opposite. The two guitars blend in a delightfully cooperative way that is way more meditative and far less noisey, flashy or "out" than one might have expected. Hearing these innovative guitarists' immediately recognizable and iconic individual characteristics being played in tandem, as on the track Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair, is quite satisfying.

Most Unexpected Album - We Are by Alina Engibaryan

A random choice caused me to duck into 55 Bar late in the afternoon of Saturday, March 24, 2018.  The place was empty and it looked like a nice, quiet spot to have a Guinness before going to the Village Vanguard later that evening.  Little did I know that an hour later I'd be taking in one of the most memorable live sets of my life.  The bartender mentioned that the band starting in a few minutes was going to be good.  Soon the room was packed and the music had started.  Not being familiar with Snarky Puppy I had no idea that this ensemble included Michael League on bass and Chris Bullock on sax.  I just knew it sounded good, incredibly good, and that I really liked the songs by the keyboardist and vocalist, who turned out to be Alina Engibaryan.  She was featuring material from her brand new CD titled We Are.

We stayed for the entire first and set and would have stayed for more had it not been for other commitments. It was not until the next day that I started to look up who and what that was we had seen play.  Moments later I was listening to We Are on Spotify knowing that it would likely end up on my best of 2018 list.  And here it is!  Alina's music is a little more poppy than I'm used to, but having seen the organic live at 55 Bar version I know it's the real deal. And with that backing band (Michael League, bass; Chris Bullock, saxophone; Ross Pederson, drums), her jazz-informed songs are nothing less than ear candy.

Best Surprise Album by My Favorite Band - Kasvot Växt í Rokk by Phish

This is what space smells like.  Phish started the now common live band musical tradition of secretly covering an album on Halloween with The Beatles' White Album in 1994.  Subsequent years have included Remain In Light by The Talking Heads, Loaded by The Velvet Underground, and the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street.  Faceplant into rock.  Phish occasionally turns this tradition on its head by using the Halloween "cover" set as an opportunity to debut an album of all new original material.  Perception is spoon fed.  That's what happened for their middle set on 10/31/18 when they performed a 1981 record called í Rokk by the so-obscure-they-are-fictional Scandinavian band Kasvot Växt, even going so far as to plant back-dated album reviews, interviews and crate-digger articles on the internet as proof of its provenance.  I'm the glue in your magnet.

All of this proved to be a hoax of course....Kasvot Växt í Rokk was simply an excuse to inhabit the persona of a fake band of Phish's own creation as a means of debuting ten new original songs in a style that does and doesn't quite sound like the Phish we know and love, with lyrics that are however so Phishy that they could in fact be lost in translations from a mixture of Icelandic, Norwegian, and Vonlenska.  Say it to me S.A.N.T.O.S.  Even if these songs weren't so damn good and catchy Phish would still deserve an A for the artistic design work that went into this (stage setup, wardrobe, choreography, performance...).  We are come to outlive our brains.  But the songs are good - better with each listen.  I hope someone notices.

(I might as well create another category called "Best Improvised Music Played Live on Stage That Leaves Behind the Song Structure".  If so, this category would be created so that it could also recognize Phish based on moments during almost any show they played during their Summer or Fall 2018 tours.  There's a type of improvisation that Phish does which its fans have named Type II Jamming in which they leave the song structure behind and compose new, (usually) awesome sounding music on the spot while on stage in front of live audiences in excess of 10,000 peeps.  Phish is the best ever at this type of in the moment full-band live composition and that skill was on full display this year in a clean, melodic way that is unique to the last year or year and a half).

Best Party Album - Order of Nothingness by Jimi Tenor

Spotify has been helping me hone in on the sound I'm looking for and now it probably knows what I'm going to like better than I do. Jimi Tenor is one of those that popped up on my new release radar. I started with the songs My Mind Will Travel and Quantum Connection. Those made it to a summer playlist I put together and primed my taste for this album of full-on trippy and soulful Euro funk jazz.

My idea of a party album is for the party in your mind.  And I hope it never stops.  Order of Nothingness meets those needs.

Best Overall Album - An Angel Fell by Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids

If I were to make up a special category for this it might be "Best World Music Meets Spiritual Jazz CD" or "Best Album in the Sun Ra or Mulatu Astatke Lineage".  But those qualifiers are unnecessary since An Angel Fell can simply be labeled Best of the Year.  

Coming from a cosmic, here-and-now globalist perspective, the rhythms and melodies that are traversed over the course of this album's hour are so dead-on that it had no peer in 2018. The music is patient and freely spread out; the groove never dissipates, and the chant-like vocals are quite profound, not throwaway.  For me a highlight is the tones band member Sandra Poindexter is able to summon from her violin.  She takes an instrument - the fiddle - that doesn't always shine in a jazz setting and makes it growl.  With her at the controls the violin acts as a co-lead match to Ackamoor's sax.  For a band whose first album came out in 1972, An Angel Fell felt as fresh as anything I heard this year. 

Best EP (tie) - Cardamom Garden by Habibi and Down in the Basement by Mauskovic Dance Band

I think I found out about Mauskovic Dance Band by searching for bands that might be influenced by Liquid Liquid or Arthur Russell - both of which are apparent in their songs.  In the case of Habibi, the liking of them stems primarily from the allure of it being a kick-ass all female rock band.  I'm still waiting for that all female jamband that takes the music out there on twenty-minute rides like JRAD, by the way.  Back to the point, make a playlist of these two EPs back to back and you've got a killer 25 minutes ahead of you.  

Best Archival Compilation - Sun Ra Exotica

The folks at Modern Harmonic who put this three LP collection together really hit the nail on the head by calling attention to Sun Ra's connection to Exotica. The Saturnian prophet is not usually recognized as a member of or contributor to this style of music, but you can certainly notice an exotic thread there now.

Even those who don't know they know it, know the genre of Exotica when they hear it. Also called Lounge, Bachelor Pad Music, Tiki Music or Cocktail Music, Exotica was popular in the 1950's and 1960's as people opened themselves up to a post WWII sense of wordly culture and prosperity filtered through a clichéd idea of what Polynesian or Island music might sound like overlapped with the growing hi-fi stereo technology of the space age. All filtered through a white, middle-class, Disney-like, pre-Beatles perspective.

Who knows where Sun Ra was coming from when he made tracks like the ones found here, but he elevates the coolness of Exotica just by association.  It doesn't matter where you start or stop with this Sun Ra compilation - it's all good.  

Best Archival Live Release - The Grateful Dead Pacific Northwest '73 and '74

As someone who listened to a massive amount of Grateful Dead during my twenties, I do have to say that the GD's position as the nucleus of all my music listening and liking has shifted somewhat over the last 15 years.  This might explain why my jaw dropped and then remained there as I first listened to this music recorded between 1973 and 1974 in Oregon and Washington.  Those two years have always been favorites among Deadheads.  I've always thought of myself as more of a Brent Mydland era kind of guy (1979 to 1990) but this release puts that opinion to shame.

Maybe I had just forgotten how incredibly good - on every level - this post-Pigpen yet pre-hiatus time-period is, but these recordings make that explicitly clear.  With standout version after standout version, songs such as Bird Song, Eyes of the World, Brown Eyed Women, Row Jimmy, Playing in the Band and Dark Star demonstrate that there was some important historical music being made back then.

Mary Halvorson and Bill Frisell Make Guitar Duo Album

Somewhere around mid-to-late August I learned that two of my favorite musicians, guitarists Mary Halvorson and Bill Frisell, had released a duo record called The Maid with the Flaxen Hair.  That's past tense.  Made.  Released.  As in available as of July 2018 and therefore already out now at this very moment.  Why was I just then finding this out?  Weeks earlier I could have been listening to it, if only I had known.  Maybe you are finding out right now, as you read this.  I instantly went in search of this music. 

It wasn't easy to instantly find.  Spotify didn't have it.  (The album is on the Tzadik label, whose stuff isn't usually on Spotify.)  It also wasn't on Bandcamp.  Fine, I'll order it on vinyl, I thought.  Nope it's not available on vinyl.  That sucks.  It is on CD, but who buys CDs any more?  Still I wanted to hear it ASAP so I was willing to purchase the CD and then convert it to digital upon delivery (the only CD player I still have is on an old laptop).  But then, luckily, after first searching and not finding it, I found it on Amazon ready to be downloaded.  Finally, instant gratification.

And it's as awesome and refreshing as I had hoped it would be!  

Instead of each contributing original material, Frisell and Halvorson meet on middle ground by covering music associated with the sophisticated and dare I say easy listening 1950's era guitarist Johnny Smith, whom they both admire.  I'm not that familiar at all with Johnny Smith, nor am I that well versed in the jazz canon, so most of these melodies outside of Shenandoah were new to my ears.  Not complaining, but how many times does Bill Frisell need to record Shenandoah?!

I like the idea of interpreting songs from the golden era in a project like this because these standard(?) tunes bring with them very strong melodies.  Having that classic structure in place can give two adventurous musicians plenty of material to work with and build up from.

Now to the listening part.  Would it be cliche to say that Mary and Bill contribute exactly equally?  By that I mean neither guitarist outshines the other.  If anything they attempt to out humble each other.  This is not the multi-generational competitive battle of virtuosity or egos that it could have devolved into.  No, the two guitars blend in a delightfully cooperative way that is way more meditative, and far less noisey, flashy or "out" than one might expect.

It's not always easy to tell who is playing what, but if I had to guess I would say it sounds like Bill is playing more lead stuff and Mary is doing more accompaniment, but I'm not sure if those traditional roles even apply here.  And who knows, I could have it backwards.

I definitely know it's Mary when I hear her signature pitch-shifting.  She has yet to ever stray too far from that, no matter what the setting is.  In Bill's case he seems to play things fairly cleanly, but there is the presence of the delay/looper effects he is known for.  Hearing these innovative guitarists' immediately recognizable and iconic individual characteristics being played in tandem, as on Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair, is quite satisfying.

Frankly, I'm not really listening to hear who is doing what...instead I'm just bathing in the calming sound this beautiful work induces.  I'm so happy this music now exists and it came out better and more tasteful than I could have ever imagined.

T Banjo's Five Favorite Albums of 2018 - So Far

John Prine - Tree of Forgiveness
When John Prine puts out a new album chances are good it's going to mesh extremely well with his existing body of work, like a new chapter in an unfinished story.  Tree of Forgiveness sits on equal terms with John's best albums from the 70's, 80's, 90's, 2000's and 2010's.  Prine has given us a tremendous gift with this addition to his legacy.  Listening to Tree of Forgiveness is like a musical meditation.


Eamon O'Leary - All Souls
He may never be well known, but Eamon O'Leary is a musician's musician - someone who is just as likely to be playing in an Irish session as he is to be on stage at a folk festival.  On All Souls Eamon has fine-tuned his brand of self-penned melancholy ballads and distilled it into a near perfect ten song package.  There's a seductive edge to these songs.  O'Leary is a charmer and this a record to be listened to on a moonlit night with your lover, a couple bottles of wine and an illegal smile.


Jimi Tenor - Order of Nothingness
Spotify has been helping me hone in on the sound I'm looking for and now it probably knows what I'm going to like better than I do.  Jimi Tenor is one of those that popped up on my new release radar.  I started with the songs My Mind Will Travel and Quantum Connection.  Those made it to a summer playlist I've been putting together and primed my taste for this album of full-on trippy and soulful Euro funk jazz.


Gitkin - 5 Star Motel
I have no idea what this is.  I just like it.  The music is a global smorgasbord, reminiscent of Akira Satake, Laika and the Cosmonats or Khruangbin.  The grooves are heavy and the melodies are up front and catchy, just the way I like them.  This could just be some guy in his bedroom playing all the instruments.  I don't know.  The track Cancion Del Rey fits perfectly on a summer playlist, although really anything here could have made the cut.


The Congos and Pura Vida - Morning Star
I only recently became aware of the 1977 album Heart of the Congos, considered to be one of the best reggae albums of all time.  So it was good timing to find out that The Congos were teaming up with Belgian Rasta musician and producer Pura Vida to put out a new album called Morning Star.  I've probably listened to this album about ten times in the last week.  It's fresh and rootsy.  Nothing beats the falsetto vocals of Cedric Myton sprinkled throughout.

***

The Five Albums That Are Currently Driving My Musical Taste

Lately I've been hearing a sound in my head. That may sound a little crazy, and it is. Instead of ignoring this sound I've gone looking for it.

With Spotify and other digital resources, a person like myself can binge on music the way others can binge a TV show. (I can do that too).  One pratfall of this wormhole is overcoming the ephemeral anxiety that it might be a bottomless well.  You can take the view that there is no edge or limit to our musical world, or you can come to the conclusion that this world is a round one, not flat. It all comes back around.

On the flipside of digital, the return to good old analog vinyl as a music resource can serve as a reminder to slow things down and try and make connections in a more organic way. Vinyl can get costly so you have to be a little selective. I might do loads of crate digging research online, but if I'm going to pull the plug on a $20 or $30 record from a merchant I ought to have a pretty good hunch that it's worth it.

Out of that vinyl foundation, these five records are helping to feed that endless search for the sound.

Sun Ra - Exotica
Exotica is a word that gets used to describe a certain kind of music. You know it when you hear it. Other terms that mean similar things include Lounge, Space Age Pop, Bachelor Pad Music, Tiki Music or Cocktail Music. Exotica was popular in the 1950's and 1960's among a certain demographic that was probably opened up to a post WWII sense of wordly culture and prosperity -- a rapidly expanding awareness of other countries, flavors, rhythms and spices which overlapped with the expanding hi-fi stereo technology that was also tied into the larger world of booming, rapid technology - like the idea of going to the moon in a rocket.  Keep in mind this was all still filtered through a white, middle-class, Disney-like, pre-LSD perspective.

If you start to research Exotica you come across names like Les Baxter, Arthur Lyman and Martin Denny. I've dabbled into these guys' recordings and it might not be what I'm looking. The only reason I'm familiar with those names at this moment is because they are mentioned in the liner notes to the new Sun Ra Exotica compilation.  Honestly, I'd rather just continue listening to Sun Ra's take, which is really just a fantasy-island in the sun among the larger Sun Ra oeuvre.  However, the more I listen to this I think that the folks at Modern Harmonic who put this collection together really hit the nail on the head by calling out Sun Ra's connection to Exotica.  He's not usually recognized as a member of or contributor to this style of music, but you can certainly hear an exotic thread there.

An association with Sun Ra can only help to elevate the neo-coolness of Exotica.  I probably wouldn't be writing about it right now had it not been for this collection.  Thankfully, Modern Harmonic has now released this collection as a 3-LP set on regular old black vinyl for folks who want the luxury of listening to this excellently remastered music on a turntable, but don't want to pay the Black Friday hyped extra cost that colored vinyl brings.

So where does this album lead?  Like anything else once you get to where you want to be you find suitable offerings that open entirely new doors.  Through this Sun Ra compilation I've happened upon the Brazilian organist Walter Wanderly (Rain Forest) who could actually lead around and into the Bossa Nova records of Zoot Sims and Gene Ammons.  There's also a guy named Robert Drasnin who did some delightfully straight-up Exotica (Voodoo I, II, III), as well as more contemporary artists who work out of an Exotica-like base, including Les Hommes, Monster Rally and Creepxotica.  I'm basically a sucker for anything tropical with a vibraphone in it.  I can kind of see how vintage Exotica could morph nowadays into a trippy form of instrumental hip-hop, but that's another story.  Come to think of it, Nels Cline's Lovers double LP (a favorite from 2016) could be seen as a loungey form of Exotica.

Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu of Ethiopia
I found this album by sampling through the many great offerings of Strut Records.  This is African music, but not the African music of King Sunny Ade, Fela Kuti or Manu Dibango. Technically this is Ethiopian-Jazz, which you just know is going to be cool even before you hear it!  "Yeah man, I've been listening to a lot of Ethiopian Jazz lately".  Back in the 1960's this guy Mulatu basically invented a distinct style that came to be known as Ethio-Jazz -- similar to how you can attribute Bluegrass to Bill Monroe or Reggae to Bob Marley.

Mulatu's music could also be pigeonholed into that "world" music category, but ironically it's much more universal than that.  Ethiopian Jazz (AKA Mulatu's music) certainly has its roots in Addis Ababa, but it also has tentacles stretched out to London, New York, the Middle East, and South America.  There's definitely a sophisticated awareness of Modal and Latin Jazz that gets paired with a deep understanding of traditional Ethiopian modes and melodies. At the same time it is the product of a singular vision that was not overly concerned with what was going on with other trends of the time.  It sounds the way Ethiopian food tastes.

Mulatu had few contemporaries. That almost generic Afrobeat/Highlife/Juju type sound that people associate with African music does not sound like Mulatu.  Hailu Mergia's name comes up as a fellow Ethiopian instrumental musician but what I've heard of Hailu is good but not quite the same. Abdou El Amari of Morocco is also awesome but not really related to Mulatu.

It's taken decades but now there are a bunch of bands making music influenced by Mulatu. As a listener, the hard part is distinguishing between what is simply derivative and what is actually unique and inspired interpretations.  So far I like these artists: Atlantis Jazz Ensemble (Canada), Akale Wube (France), Black Flower (Belgium), Pyramid Blue (Spain), Yazz Ahmed (England), and Invisible Astro Healing Rhythm Quartet (California).  Richmond, VA's own Afro-Zen All Stars are a great band that is also directly influenced by Mulatu.  Some more yet to be name-checked Ethio-Jazz inspired bands are on my list to suss out.

Arthur's Landing - Arthur's Landing
Even nerdy music geeks might be asking who/what is this?  Arthur's Landing is actually another product of scrolling through Strut Records' releases.  Arthur's Landing is a loose ensemble of musicians all associated - in one way or another - with a musical pioneer named Arthur Russell.  Who is Arthur Russell you might say?  A year ago I would have been asking the same thing.  The music on this album captivated me so much that I recently took it upon myself to find out.

Basically, Arthur Russell was a guy from Iowa. Ha! Born in 1951, Arthur learned to play the cello as a teenager and yearned for more culture and enlightenment than prairies and grains could offer. He was an Allen Ginsberg or a John Cage trapped in a farmboy's body and existence.  So he ran away from home; first to San Francisco and then to New York where he arrived smack dab in the middle of that early 1970's muck and nirvana that HBO's The Deuce is trying to capture on TV.  Living in New York gave Arthur a concrete backdrop and access to an artistic community that allowed his musical potential to really develop.

From what I've been able to tell, Arthur did his composing and production in the form of written notebooks and lo-fi demo recordings.  His work is strewn across various different short-lived projects, unfulfilled collaborations and pseudonyms.  My guess is that during his creative life Arthur would rather write a new piece of music today than polish up and put out a song written yesterday.  Add to that the fact that Arthur Russell died in 1992 at the very young age of 40 and you have all the makings of a musical guru.

What Arthur Russell did really, really well is he took the common, amped-up bubblegum nature of danceclub Disco and fused it with the high-brow abrasion of New York's experimental music scene.  He did this much to the chagrin of his NYC peers.  A lot of the music Arthur made himself has been coming out posthumously, but where the band Arthur's Landing comes into the picture is they assembled in 2008 for the purposes of presenting Arthur Russell's music in a new light.

On this 2011 recording they really capture the essence of that dance music meets heady music partnership.  The first time I heard it - which was last fall - I was hooked.  It was my official introduction to Arthur Russell by way of musicians who knew him, understood him, respected him, and could do his music justice.

For some reason I thought I might be let down by the real thing so it took me a few months to even check out any actual recordings by Arthur Russell.  I finally listened to Love Is Overtaking Me and it was also a pretty life changing instant.  It didn't sound anything like Arthur's Landing!

Love Is Overtaking Me seems to be the music of a very elite brand of singer-songwriter.  It can be appreciated in the same way that John Prine, Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch can be appreciated.  There is no real connection to the disco or "new" music that Arthur is known for.  You have to dig farther into Arthur Russell's catalog to find that.  That search is now starting to turn up some bands like Liquid Liquid, ESG, Konk, and Bush Tetras - and I am having fun listening to these groups!  Kind of like a less commercial Talking Heads, I guess.

I'm really quite happily baffled by Arthur Russell!

Those three albums - Sun Ra "Exotica", Mulatu Astatke "Mulatu of Ethiopia" and "Arthur's Landing" - cover the majority of the sound I've been drawn to lately.  Some additional frenetic energy can be bottled up in the following two selections.

Kenny Graham and His Satellites - Moondog and Suncat Suites
This is another case of a band interpreting and arranging a composer's music.  The band in question is Kenny Graham and His Satellites - a group put together by British jazz saxophonist, arranger and composer Kenny Graham for the purpose of playing the music of Moondog, who at the time (1956) was an eccentric, obscure street musician who in-the-know jazz tape traders were just becoming fascinated with.  Prestige records put out official recordings of Moondog in 1956 but those came out after this recording was made.  Interesting.

In the 60+ years since those days, Moondog has gained cult-hero status.  His music can come across as weird at first - and it is perplexing - but it's actually built around pretty simple harmony lines.  Moondog's compositions primarily treat each instrument as independent voices with no traditional chords.

What I like about this Moondog and Suncat Suites LP is it takes Moondog's music and places it in a pretty easily digestible format.  The instruments used include vibraphone, bass clarinet, cello, and tympani drums.  You wouldn't really call this jazz ala 1956 because swing and improvisation are mostly absent.  The time signatures, rhythms, contrapuntal melodies and a general sense of kitsch are at the forefront here.  The 2nd half of the album is Kenny Graham's original music written in the style of Moondog. It holds up quite well, actually.

I definitely hear the influence of Moondog in the band Tortoise, especially their TNT album.

Moondog and Suncat Suites is almost tied back to Exotica.  Moondog and Sun Ra are related in a way - atmospherically if not cosmically.  Another band that has interpreted Moondog's music is Hobocombo.  This Italian trio is worth checking out.  They add a modern twist to Moondog's timeless music.

Augustus Pablo - East of the River Nile
This is not a new one to me.  I had it on CD many years ago and it was one of the first vinyls I got when starting an LP record collection.  I just listened again yesterday and boy the Side A of this record is strong!!!  Augustus Pablo certainly knew what sound he was going for - the heartbeat of the earth apparently.  It's not the most complex music, but it is very enjoyable.  His chosen instrument is the melodica, which you could put into a novelty category like the steel pan, kalimba or K-Board.  I can relate to that.

I haven't found much instrumental Jamaican/reggae music made before or since East of the River Nile that can match the essence distilled here.  I need to check out more Augustus Pablo.  Maybe also some Mad Professor, Dub Colossus, and Soul Sugar. There's a German(?) band called Bacao Rhythm and Steel Band whose album 55 is a bit of a jump but there is a connection to what Augustus Pablo was doing.

Those are the five albums.  This covers a lot but not everything, obviously.  There's a bunch of funk and groove type music in my ears recently that may or may not fit into anywhere mentioned above.  Bands like Bixiga 70, Soul Jazz Orchestra, Orchestra Baobab, Magic In Threes, Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, Ikebe Shakedown, Polyrhythmics.   Oh jeez, I've also been enjoying the old school Soul, Gospel, Rhythm and Blues of Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and The Impressions.  Plus the music of Guadeloupe and Martinique.  That is most definitely not covered in the above.  Make it stop!!!!