Month: January 2023

It’s the end of January, and there’s tons of great new music to write about here. The New Year started with a great release from Jason Moran, and after that, we have been enjoying cool vocals from José James, the perfect solo drums from Andrew Cyrille, and an album for cold days from Mette Henriette. Then to heat things up, we listened to guitar from Álvaro Domene of TITUBA and Samo Salamon with drummer Asaf Sirkis. The Art Ensemble of Chicago dropped a giant album celebrating 50 years since their arrival in Paris. The month ended with a heavy release from East Axis featuring the nonpareil Matthew Shipp. A great month for music!

Pick Hit!
Jason Moran – From the Dancehall to the Battlefield
(released January 1, 2023)

Jason Moran – Piano and voice
Tarus Mateen – Bass
Nasheet Waits – Drums
Logan Richardson – Alto Saxophone
Brian Settles – Tenor Saxophone
Darryl Harper – Clarinet
David Adewumi – Trumpet
Reginald Cyntje – Trombone
Chris Bates – Trombone
Jose Davila – Tuba, Helicon

Jason Moran started 2023 off with a bang with this New Year’s day release, celebrating what Moran calls “one of the original Big Bangs in Black Music,” James Reese Europe. A decade before Louis Armstrong made his first record, Europe was the seminal figure of black music, but forgotten now. Moran pays tribute with a program of fantastic depth and variety. The Bandwagon (Moran with Tarus Mateen on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums) forms the core musical unit, but on many tracks, seven horns and brass are added, with arrangements that move happily from early jazz anachronisms to modern and free playing. The ground covered is astonishing, exemplified by effortlessly mashing up Europe with Geri Allen and spirituals segueing into Albert Ayler. To these ears, the most impressive release so far this year.

Pick Hit!
East Axis – No Subject
(released January 27, 2023)

Gerald Cleaver – drums
Kevin Ray – bass
Scott Robinson – sax
Matthew Shipp – piano

It’s exciting news that East Axis is back with this follow-up to the brilliant Cool With That (2021). This time, Scott Robinson brings his array of saxophones on board, giving the album a lot of variety. The songs here are shorter and darker in tone than the first East Axis release, but the music is constantly stimulating. Especially remarkable is Shipp, who, after years of excellent music making, has developed a refined language that is at once flexible, dynamic, and deeply his own. Ship’s musicality on this album is immense, and so is his close relationship with drummer Cleaver. This is a group that needs to keep on putting records out.

Mette Henriette – Drifting
(Released January 20, 2023)

Link to Apple Music
Link to Spotify

Mette Henriette – saxophonist and composer
Johan Lindvall – pianist
Judith Hamann – cellist

This winter, there’s been no snowfall in NYC, but when we were teased with a few flakes in the air, we knew we had to put on this album. The floating ethereal piano, sax, cello, and crystalline ECM production make this a perfect winter album. Don’t listen when driving; the serene and contemplative music demands late-night listening or headphones on a winter walk. That will let you hear the tranquil but imaginative textures and appreciate the small surprises when Henriette’s compositions introduce subtle dissonance. Probing and intelligent music. Now, if only we’d get some snow!

Art Ensemble of Chicago – The Sixth Decade – From Paris to Paris
(released January 20, 2023)

Roscoe Mitchell – sopranino and alto saxophones
Famoudou Don Moye – drums, percussions
Moor Mother – spoken word
Roco – vocal (bass)
Erina Newkirk – vocal (soprano)
Nicole Mitchell – flutes, piccolo
Hugh Ragin – trumpet, flugelhorn, thai bells
Simon Sieger – trombone, tuba
Jean Cook – violin
Eddy Kwon – viola
Tomeka Reid – cello
Brett Carson – piano
Silvia Bolognesi – double bass
Junius Paul – double bass
Jaribu Shahid – double bass, bass
Dudu Kouaté – percussions
Enoch Williamson – percussions
Babu Atiba – percussions
Doussou Touré – percussions
Steed Cowart – direction

Frankly, we were a little confused by this album, but maybe we can help you come to it with the right expectations. First, this is essentially a jazz opera. Recorded at a show to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the AEOC coming to Paris, Moor Mother’s poetry often dominates the music, along with vocal stylings from Córdova and Newkirk. It threw us off at first find to find Roscoe Mitchell and percussionist Famoudou Don Moye – the only surviving founders of the original AEOC – a bit sidelined in their own band. However, there’s a lot of stirring and wonderful music here, and coming back to it with expectations recalibrated, we can say it’s mostly excellent. The AEOC is one of the most incredible groups in music history, and even their 2nd tier works are great. Just don’t expect Nice Guys or A Jackson In Your House.

Rainbow Bubbles – Samo Salamon & Asaf Sirkis
(officially releases February 15, 2023, but available now)

Samo Salamon – electric guitars, banjo, six and 12-string guitars, bass guitar, Moog, synths, piano
Asaf Sirkis – drums

This album is an excellent showcase for Salamon’s spirited banjo and guitars, accompanied by Israeli drummer Asaf Sirkis. In the liner notes, Salamon writes, “Asaf had initially recorded around 30 minutes of drum improvisations, which represented the basis for my compositions. I could then write melodies, solo parts, chord changes, etc., which was fantastic for me to compose in a different way. Hope you enjoy this one. I love it!” The collaboration produced very fresh and exciting results – check it out.

José James – On & On
(released January 20, 2023)

José James – vocals, bells, singing bowl, Bali metal tongue drum
Ebban Dorsey – alto saxophone (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5)
Diana Dzhabbar – flute, alto saxophone (tracks 1, 3, 7)
BIGYUKI – piano, fender rhodes, Wurlitzer, Hammond B-3, synthesizers
Ben Williams – bass
Jharis Yokley – drums

James channels past soul and hip-hop by interpreting the catalog of Erykah Badu. Also, check out that album cover paying tribute to Alice Coltrane. There’s a lot of reverence for the past, and the joy that went into making this album is unmistakable. Listening is just pure enjoyment too, and at times very funny! Recommended.

Álvaro Pérez/Colin Fisher/Álvaro Domene/Mike Pride – TITUBA
(released January 6, 2023)

Álvaro Pérez – alto
Colin Fisher – tenor
Álvaro Domene – seven string guitar
Mike Pride – drums and percussion

TITUBA features an international quartet of Colin Fisher (Toronto) and Álvaro Pérez (Madrid) on saxophones, Álvaro Domene (New York) on seven-string guitar, and Mike Pride (New York) on drums. Amazing that such organic and focused music was created by musicians recording remotely on multiple continents! At least to these ears, Domene’s scorching guitar is out in front, especially on proto-metal material like “Background Abundance” or the more avant-garde “Dreamscaping.” An exciting album.

Andrew Cyrille – Music Delivery / Percussion
(released January 20, 2023)

Andrew Cyrille – Drums

The drum kit’s sound is full of drama and, in the right hands, musicality. The solo drum album is a genre created by Max Roach, whose forays always spotlighted his signature use of space and time. Cyrille is a drum master who should be mentioned in the same breath as Roach, and here Cyrille deploys an innovative program featuring every aspect of his creativity. On each track, Cyrille explores different sonorities, textures, and ideas that cumulate into an awe-inspiring portrait of his musicality.

Afonso Pais/Tomás Marques – The Inner Colours of Boglin’s Outline
(released January 24, 2023)

Afonso Pais – guitar
Tomás Marques alto saxophone

Afonso Pais (guitar) and Tomás Marques (alto sax) played and recorded these improvisations during 2022, entirely impromptu and without editing. The liner notes say, “trust is to accept the metamorphosis,” as a motto for this project, and the simpatico language is obvious when you listen. The ebb and flow of one feeling to the next is very natural, which the musicians highlight when they say, “the music was highly susceptible to the moods, entirely different from session to session and take to take, and specially pleasurable to play on.” A great document of effective collaboration.

This blog is still young enough to celebrate 1/2 birthdays, and we’ll be 2 and 1/2 years old in a couple of weeks- that’s how long it’s been since our inaugural post on August 13, 2020. Happy HBD TNB! Like many creations during the 2020 lockdown, this blog had only been an idea for years. With extra time and the magical ingredient of boredom, we decided to create The Necessary Blues and get started writing. It’s been our honor to share music we love, and we thought now’s a good time to look back at the posts we feel are representative of what this blog is shooting for.

Our first substantive post is about music which is a paradigm for this blog. Julius Hemphill’s composition “Dogon A.D.” has earthy grit conveyed through the blues-soaked tone of Hemphill’s alto sax, yet its artistic raison-d’être is the beat itself. The insistent, driving pulse of the song, written in 11/8 by Hemphill and brilliantly played by the overlooked drummer Philip Wilson, is unforgettable. We quoted critic Robert Palmer, who said that Hemphill’s music is a “fruitful dialogue between experimentation and tradition.” That’s what “progressive” music is all about and what this blog seeks to explore!

TNB has found it fruitful to focus on single works of art rather than the often extensive discographies of artists, an approach we picked up with our profile of Nate Wooley’s Seven Storey Mountain VI. Wooley’s expansive and epic “Seven Story” series is too big to do justice in one post. Wooley uses processed instruments played live against prepared tape loops to create an ecstatic event and deploys this approach slightly differently with each installment. Our post focused on the incredible sixth iteration and tried to capture some of the flavor of Wooley’s concept and explain his motivations and purpose.

We’ve tried to embrace an eclectic approach and write about music of different categories and approaches. In this spirit, some of our subjects have been progressive rock, such as a profile of King Crimson’s epic Lark’s Tongue in Aspic, Magma’s strange and exciting “The Last Seven Minutes” or Bill Bruford’s wonderful jazz/rock fusion Feels Good to Me. With other posts, we’ve explored the 1970s free jazz of Poughkeepsie great Joe McPhee, the calm wonder of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbru’s piano, and the “comeback” of Charles Mingus with sideman Don Pullen.

Some posts we’re especially proud of explore multidisciplinary or intersectional artistic statements. “Attica!” looks at the art made to the wake of the government’s infamous crackdown and cover-up of the 1972 prison rebellion. “Soundtracks In Search of a Movie” looks at electronic music inspired by Frank Herbert’s famous science fiction novel, Dune. These posts look at art’s reflections on life and art’s commentary on art itself.

In March 2021, we started our “New Album Round-up,” which we’ve posted monthly, culminating in our annual album round-up. We took a break from the monthy round-ups for a while, but they are back again (it’s our most popular series of posts) and here to stay! You can expect a round-up of our favorite albums at the end of every month – make sure you check in here!

Another series of posts we’ve done periodically is the “Gig Journal,” posting about live performances we’ve seen in New York City, where we are based. The “Gig Journal” started in May 2022 with the 5/21/2022 performance of Jason Moran at the beautiful Park Avenue Armory. We then posted about an intimate Kresten Osgood gig in the basement of Downtown Music Gallery – amazing hearing a band of masters in a space no bigger than a living room! We were also there during Arts for Arts’ series of free concerts this summer. Unfortunately, over the last 2 1/2 years, a lot of the great musicians have passed away, and we did memorial posts about Stanley Cowell, Billy Bang, Abdul Wadud, and Grachan Moncur III.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed this content! We know it’s been fun creating these posts and sharing them. Our goal is to explore the beauty and wisdom of great music and, hopefully, in the process, to help benefit the creators of that art too. We believe in art, and we know that you do too!

So what’s next for The Necessary Blues?

We’re so excited about the content we’re planning for this year, and we can’t wait to share it. We’re working on a profile of a masterpiece of Canterbury rock, an album that is funny, adventurous, and strangely easy to enjoy. Also on the horizon is the long-delayed series on the legendary African Blue Notes, including discographical information and rare field recordings. We’re also planning a profile of a jazz master who should be mentioned in the same breath as Monk, Mingus and Miles but somehow is not. Who is it? You’ll have to wait and see!

Thank you so much for being here. We hope you’re excited to share this journey with us!