So many albums at the start of the Fall, and we frankly spent our time listening rather than writing. This double-month round-up is a belated attempt to catch up. If you’ve read our album review of Kate Gentile’s Find Letter X, you know it’s TNB’s top album out now. Here are more really excellent releases – what we think are the best of the best from the last two months. Please note, this month, we’ve dropped singling out some albums as “pick hits” – there’s no reason to differentiate when all of these albums are so great! Enjoy.
Angelika Niescier – Tomeka Reid – Savannah Harris – Beyond Dragons
(released September 15th, 2023)
Angelika Niescier – Alto Saxophone
Tomeka Reid – Cello
Savannah Harris – Drums
I became aware of Niescier with the 2018 recording The Berlin Concert and was immediately knocked out by her intense sound, blistering phrasing, and the way her sax playing locks in with drummers. So I’ve been looking forward to Beyond Dragons – and happy to report that it’s pure fire. Niescier’s music is better than a double shot of espresso. Reid’s cello matches Niescier with electrifying pizzicato playing and frantic, overpowering arco solos. Harris lays out drum bombs that explode. Words can’t convey this date’s taunt band dynamics and shear energy. It’s the best Niescier album yet; don’t miss it!
Nate Wooley – Four Experiments
(released September 26th, 2023)
Nate Wooley – trumpet, trombone, voice, compositions
John McCowen – recorder
Weston Olencki – trombone
Ryan Packard – bass drum, sine tones, speaker cone, and rope
gabby fluke-mogul violin
Russell Greenberg – percussion
Cory Smythe – piano
Lester St. Louis – cello
Luke Stewart – double bass and amplifier
Joshua Modney – violin and voice
Seymour Wright – alto saxophone
Laura Cocks – flute
Madison Greenstone -clarinet
Eric Wubbels – piano, voice, autoharp
Four Experiments documents Nate Wooley’s music inspired by poet Stephen Spender and is intended to provoke new ways of viewing the relationship between composition, instrument, and technique. Each disc highlights a different challenge to the soloist. For example, on disc one, the player is instructed to repeat a single musical cell identically until there is an error, and then the error must be repeated with each cycle and is now part of the “tune.” As interpreted by recorder player John McCowen on the first track, the song slowly morphs and turns. The music embraces mistakes, which is fascinating and very human. Similar challenges are thrown down on the remaining discs – on disc two, the players explore the vibratory surfaces of their instruments in ways that roll back virtuosity; on disc three, instrumentalists who are not trained singers have to vocalize in just intonation over a drone. On the last disc, musicians must find ways to modulate a fragment of musical information using specific pre-defined parameters. The philosophy of these compositions was developed on Wooley’s Mutual Aid Music (check out the album of that name from 2021) – to create a space where musicians can use compositional prompts to explore what can be made from “failure.” The music here is abstract, meditative, fascinating, and deep with rhetorical and philosophical dimensions.
Anna Webber with Adam O’Farrill, Mariel Roberts, Elias Stemeseder, and Lesley Mok – Shimmer Wince
(released October 20th, 2023)
Anna Webber – tenor sax, flute, bass flute
Adam O’Farrill – trumpet
Mariel Roberts – cello
Elias Stemeseder – synthesizer
Lesley Mok – drums
Anna Webber’s new album explores the language of just intonation (also used by Nate Wooley above), an ancient musical notation system employed in a modern context. Webber’s music uses webs of repeated short phrases that build a wall of sound around dissonant pulses. Shimmer Wince is an apt description of the radiant sweet-sour aesthetic, and this band does a great job executing the concept. I enjoyed Adam O’Farrill’s metallic tone and vibrant phasing, the sweeping cello lines from Mariel Roberts, and the delightfully twisted avant-robot synths from Elias Stemeseder. Mok’s chipper drums are just what the music needs. Best of all is the leader, whose flute is commanding on “Squirmy” and blustery tenor grounds the esoteric flights of “Periodicity 1” and “Swell.” The best moment is at 5:48 of “Wince”: the music swells once more with the entrance of Webber’s warm Ben Webster-like tenor over Stemeseder’s seasick bleeps – old and new clash to create a moment as profound as any I’ve heard all year.
Jessica Pavone – Clamor
(released October 6th, 2023)
Jessica Pavone – composer
Katherine Young – bassoon solo (tracks II, III)
Aimée Niemann and Charlotte Munn-Wood – violin
Abby Swidler and Jessica Pavone (solo on tracks III, IV) – viola
Mariel Roberts (solo on track IV) – cello
Shayna Dulberger – double bass
The notes to Jesica Pavone’s new album Clamor state that its four movements are “titled after innovations made by women throughout history to circumvent obstructions to their freedoms.” You can read the music as a metaphor for overcoming adversity, but maybe it is best to simply appreciate it’s abstract beauty without programmatic concerns. The dynamics of the strings subtly build throughout “Neolttwigi,” and the listener can enjoy granular details of the interaction between the players or focus on the sweep of the track as it builds. The highlight for me is “Nu Shu (part 1),” where Katherine Young’s bassoon blasts at the tune’s opening, then segues into an ethereal variety of woody trills, key clicks, and breath effects. Meanwhile, the strings intersect to create interlocking and beautiful layers. Check out the profile of this album on Bandcamp, where it was named one of the month’s best.
Matthew Shipp – The Intrinsic Nature of Shipp
(released September 15th, 2023)
Matthew Shipp – piano and compositions
Like discographical bookends, September brought us two important Matthew Shipp releases – the reissue of his first leader date (see TNB Archival Music picks below) and a solo record released September 15th, The Intrinsic Matthew Shipp. This new release is an encapsulation of what makes Shipp one of the great musicians alive today – ten tracks and 50 minutes of Shipp alone at the keyboard, playing material that is quite meditative and melodic but also free of any formulaic song structures. Especially impressive is Shipp’s command of his materials – he segues from one idea to the next with total ease, and at each moment, you can hear his awareness of where he is and where the music is going. Shipp’s playing is uniquely his own and becomes more distinct with each record. There’s no better place to listen than his solo piano recordings, and I recommend immersing yourself in Shipp’s sound and keyboard language with this release. Check out a feature on Bandcamp about this album here.
Mendoza Hoff Revels – Echolocation
(released October 13th, 2023)
Ava Mendoza – electric guitar, compositions
Devin Hoff – electric bass, compositions
James Brandon Lewis – tenor saxophone
Ches Smith – drums
The unmistakable guitar of Ave Mendoza owns the opening notes of “Dyscalculia,” the first track of the new release by Mendoza Hoff Revels – Mendoza’s heavy, overdriven riffs quickly lock into the lumbering groove set by Devin Hoff’s bass and Ches Smith’s drums. James Brandon Lewis waits in the wings until two minutes in – when he joins with the band, all hell breaks loose. Echolocation feels like a descendent of Sonny Sharrock’s guitar and sax collaborations with Peter Brötzmann or Pharoah Sanders, but updated for the here and now. Yes, the whole album rips. Favorite moment: at the restatement of the head on mid-album stunner “Babel-17,” Ches Smith goes all-out rock with a loose-limbed barrage of drumming à la Keith Moon while Lewis’ sax wails and Mendoza’s guitar sails over the chaos.
Ghost Train Orchestra & Kronos Quartet – Songs and Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog
(released September 29th, 2023)
Kronos Quartet, Ghost Train Orchestra with guests Sam Amidon, Jarvis Cocker, Petra Haden, Karen Mantler, Marissa Nadler, Aoife O’Donovan, Rufus Wainwright, and Joan Wasser
The press for this album argues that legendary and groundbreaking musician Moondog (whose birth name was Louis Hardin) is now quite forgotten, and this record seeks to remedy some of that. I recommend this extensive and excellent article from The Guardian if you need a primer. I learned that Moondog crashed at Phillip Glass’s apartment for a year, and Glass said he learned more from Moondog than he did at Julliard! Songs and Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog is very, very entertaining and makes excellent use of features from a host of artists, including Jarvis Cocker’s inimitable appearance on “I’m This, I’m That,” the amusing wordplay of “Enough About Human Rights” which features Karen Mantler, and “Behold” where Kronos Quartet delivers a lively string part. All excellent – now I’ll have to go back and listen to Moondog himself.
Steve Lehman & Orchestre National de Jazz – Ex Machina
(released September 15th, 2023)
Steve Lehman – alto saxophone, electronics
Jonathan Finlayson – trumpet
Chris Dingman – vibraphone
Members of Orchestre National de Jazz
Steve Lehman has a penchant for heady conceptual albums, such as his two avant rap albums (2016’s Sélébéyone and last year’s Xaybu: The Unseen) or his prior octet works that The New York Times dubbed “A blast of urban futurism.” Lehman’s new album could not have a more apropos title than Ex Machina, as it sports multiple organizing ideas that drive the playing – the continuation of the “spectral jazz” that has been Lehman’s trademark language, the combination of real-time interactive electronics developed at IRCAM (Institut de Coordination Acoustique Musique), and a French big band, Orchestre National de Jazz (ONJ). There are many acronyms and ideas to swallow, so the best thing to do is listen – you’ll hear precise modern (or post-modern?) big-band charts that provide the framework for sparring between computers and humans. Lehman’s quicksilver articulation is always thrilling, and solos from Chris Dingman on vibes and from the French band by pianist Bruno Ruder and tenor saxophonist Julien Soro all stand out.
TNB Top Archival Releases
Pharoah Sanders – Pharoah
(Released September 15th, 2023)
Pharoah LP
Pharoah Sanders, Tenor Saxophone, Percussion, Vocals
Bedria Sanders, Harmonium
Steve Neil, Bass
Tisziji Muñoz, Guitar
Greg Bandy, Drums
Clifton “Jiggs” Chase, Keyboards
Lawrence Killian, Percussion
Harvest Time Live 1977 LP
Pharoah Sanders, Tenor Saxophone, Percussion, Bells
Hayes Burnett, Bass, Percussion
Clifford Jarvis, Drums
Khalid Moss, Piano, Electric Piano
I’d never heard this album or its key track, “Harvest Time,” before this reissue, and listening to it was one of those moments of destiny where you know this music was supposed to enter your life, and now it’s part of who you are. Pharoah has a bewitching calmness and peace that comes from the combination of Sanders’ majestic tone, the unhurried guitar of Tisziji Muñoz, and a perfectly gauzy production that doubles the atmosphere. This is an essential release. Sanders had no record label when this was recorded in 1977, and its initial release limited to a tiny run on the long-defunct India Navigation label. Since then, it’s lived mainly on YouTube, so having an official reissue is wonderful.
What’s more, if you spring for the deluxe CD or vinyl issues, you get bonus live versions of “Harvest Time,” all beautifully packaged. I’ve ordered mine! Don’t skip this one – music of this beauty can change your life.
Matthew Shipp – Circular Temple
(released September 9th, 2023)
Matthew Shipp – Piano
Whit Dickey – Drums
William Parker – Bass
If you want a contrast to Matthew Shipp’s new mediative solo piano discussed above (The Intrinsic Nature of Shipp), look no further than Shipp’s first album as a leader, reissued here for the first time on vinyl. Hearing the bookends of Shipp’s career is instructive and makes you appreciate his art all the more. On Circular Temple, recorded and first released in 1990, Shipp sounds energized as he moves from one block of riffs and themes to the next. The music favors the propulsive and percussive. On the long standout track “Circular temple #4,” he plays a forceful solo section, and then drummer Whit Dickey and bassist William Parker (both sounding great) come in. Shipp trades ideas with them in a vigorous back-and-forth over the epic 20-minute track. You can hear a real debt to Cecil Taylor in how the music is presented, but Circular Temple also announces a new and singular voice in jazz—a terrific reissue.