Stars Like Grains of Sand

David Murray Octet Murray's Steps ★ ★★★ David Murray is known to me through his work in the New York Loft Scene, but I know he has been a torchbearer for the new wave of jazz artists after Coltrane, especially through his work on the amazing Black Saint label. On this, and many other dates, he's accompanied by an octet that sounds much more compact than you would expect. Murray is always the star of the show and it's not difficult to understand why; he's uniquely great. The horn section here is just pure gold too: Henry Threadgill on alto and flute, Lawrence Butch Morris on cornet, Bobby Bradford on trumpet, and Craig Harris on trombone. Of course the rhythm section is not slacking either, especially with the fast paced heartbeat that Wilber Morris brings with his bass. Curtis Clark stays light and whimsical on the piano, much like an early Herbie Hancock. And Steve McCall ties it all together with a flavorful and sometimes even Latin inspired drumming.  ...

Edu Lôbo Edu Lôbo ★★★½ Brazilian music in the 70s is something that's out of this world. In my experience, there are very few MPB albums that can top the genius, flavor, and diversity of albums during this era. Edu creates just that, in the very Brazilian fashion of cultural clashes and fusions. Like Brazil, the backgrounds of people from all ways of life are present here. The African rhythms and drumming, mixed with fanciful horn sections, and Edu's soulful and heartfelt singing ties it all together. On a side note, I could imagine Madlib sampling the life out of this album. Edu doesn't have the most memorable or unique voice during this Brazilian Golden Age of music, but it's stable like a wall, unfaltering in any way. Each song has its own personality and story. He utilizes many different musical styles and techniques to mold them into the perfect dough that he completes by cooking it with mystery spices and pours his warm voice onto the steaming pastr...

Ornette Coleman Skies of America ★★★ I've only heard two opinions on this record: one is that it's one of Ornette's best works and one of the best examples of Third Stream music to exist, the other is just meh. And not to oversimplify it all but I'm part of that second crowd. Sure this is a politically and personally motivated album by Ornette, and this makes it interesting in many ways. Yet I can't shake off the real disinterest or sameness a lot of this album makes me feel. There definitely is the aura of the great American plains and music from another time, a soundtrack to the wayward travelers to the West and their dreams. As well as all the pain and genocide they caused along the way, a destruction of an entire way of life. This isn't forgotten by Ornette and his ability as a composer is pretty significant of course. There is a bit of Stravinsky and the likes mixed in and that's to be expected of most Third Stream, or composers of the ti...

Park Chan-wook 올드보이 [Oldboy] ★★★★½ It really caught me off-guard, especially as the movie reached the end. But it's an insane ride all the way there, from beginning to end you need to pay attention to this. Every piece of dialogue is important and the tiny nuances in the acting really bind the film's ideas all together. I'm not going to spoil anything but these really demands a second viewing in my opinion. There are very little special effects too so the majority of the action shots are real and very well performed. And the violence that comes from that is very visceral and at some points over the top, not like Tarantino, but it gets pretty damn close. I think that aspect is important though; it numbs you for a good portion of the film but tears all that down by the end. You're left helpless in the wake of such a twist and the terror that comes with it. The film seems to be shot in a very bleak and almost hazy manner. The colors are muted and the fla...

Akufen My Way ★★★½ Akufen, who also goes by his real name, Marc Leclair, has created one of my favorite releases of this century. With  Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes , Leclair helped merged modern electronic music with a very fluid and organic approach. On this earlier release it's not so organic, but there are many similarities. The whole clicky and glitchy style is very much present, but with more of a club feel. I could definitely see a few of these tracks being played to start a boiler room set. The whole thing feels kind of jumbled up and incoherent on certain points, a mashup of sorts that works pretty well though. And there are many types of "hooks" I guess you could call it, but those are very enjoyable and make these songs much more memorable.  When you begin with "Even White Horizons", there's a certain unclear or misty quality about it, and the vocals cut through pretty clearly. Still I don't think it's a great opener...

Sun Ra God Is More Than Love Can Ever Be ★★★½ You know, anyone who's listened to at least a couple Sun Ra records knows what they're going into. A space age proclamation of universal love and extraterrestrial origins, with the music to match. But every now and then you get something that is completely unexpected. This is one of those albums. Sun Ra in a trio setting is not something I expected, and I truly am surprised by how great it is. If you are looking for that traditional Sun Ra space jam then I would suggest not really delving into this; it's on a different area in the jazz spectrum really. I think he draws upon his early years as a bluesy Chicago player, before he converted into the translator of the infinite cosmos. It's extremely intimate and helps you get inside the mind of a man who spent his whole life pushing the boundaries of jazz and creating an entire universe to serve as his playground.  Ra's piano playing is unlike what you'...

Nmperign + Dörner, Beins Nmperign + Dörner, Beins ★★★ This is one of my first real excursions into a more "modern" form of improvised music, EAI, lowercase, whatever you call it. Who knew that two trumpets, a saxophone, and a percussionist could make such estranged and textured music in such a cold and absent environment. I think that's safe to say for a lot of EAI music, at least in my experience. I do plan on going down this path further as it does intrigue me and draw me in for basically the entire duration of the album.  The main thing here is the real non-human nature of the entire recording, but also its organic feeling. It's anything but a human creation, originated from the remainders of human machines that have evolved into something new, surrounded by ancient and young species of various animals. All of which are completely isolated in this completely neutral and empty space; nothing but the reflection of themselves everywhere. Of course t...

Andrew Hill Change ★★★ ★ Wow here I go again with another Andrew Hill archived release. It really makes you think, how could Blue Note sleep on such amazing work by one of their most intelligent and creative leaders? Unlike the last one I listened to ( Passing Ships ) this release is a quartet compared to his experimental big band setting. I'm sure Blue Note was having its own issues at the time and trying to stay competitive in an increasingly funky and R&B based world. But I'm happy this was let out of the dark and made its way to my ears. This is of course one of his freer albums, and with the members of the quartet, it's not hard to tell. Sam Rivers on tenor, Walter Booker on bass, and J.C. Moses on drums. With this group you're bound to have some sparks fly, maybe even more than that actually, perhaps a full blown inferno.  "Violence" is the opening track that serves as a long maze that helps all the players present themselves in a ...

Boris  Sound Track From Film "Mabuta no Ura" ★★★½ I have quite a limited experience when it comes to Boris, and a lot of Japanese experimental rock music. But from what I've heard I can tell that they're really into expanding an atmosphere of sheer intensity, that leads directly into the eye of an apocalypse. Some of it works for me, like on their album Flood, which feels like a mile long glacier shifting over a barren tundra landscape. I listened to that album a lot and it's almost impossible to not listen to the whole thing; one part out of the four just seems so wrong. Here Boris takes some of the elements from Flood  but also infuses techniques that I haven't heard from them before. Unlike their stoner metal material this is a lot more relaxed, in the post-rock fashion that Tortoise might have, but turned way up. The vocals are missing except on I think three songs on here, and the whole atmosphere is a little turquoise, like the cover. My d...

Yeah Trying to write more, flesh out ideas and feelings. Maybe set up a whole new system for it. Who knows. 

Maalem Mahmoud Gania Colours of the Night ★ ★ ★ ★ The beginning and end of two things: this was the last recorded session of Gania's music, and it's being released as the debut for Hive Mind Records. Gania is a musician I've heard about from his collaboration with Pharaoh Sanders and his live recording with Peter Brötzmann and Hamid Drake in Austria. Both of which are supposedly very well performed, but more importantly Gania is a star in his home country of Morocco. Moroccans helped popularize his signature style of music which is called Gnawa, while only recently has he gained more international recognition. He descends from a family of musicians and this has undoubtedly helped foster the mastery of craft that Gania possesses.  Gnawa culture is descended from Muslim Africans in Northwest Africa, but African animism maintains a strong grip on their way of life and this sense of fusion is definitely passed on through the music here. The trance-like qual...

John Zorn The Big Gundown ★★★½ My introduction to the now infamous John Zorn was through his most well known recording, Naked City. And while that is a great album and a perfect depiction of the hidden intensity of everyday life in New York, it was pretty heavy and in some ways turned me off. I thought that after listening to his magnum opus there wouldn't be much to check out. But after finally coming around and listening to this album, I think this is an even better place to start. Sure Naked City  was really diverse and strange, but those "Zorny" characteristics are available here in a more accessible manner.  It helps to have some background info on Morricone and his compositions before listening to this, but it doesn't matter that much. It's just important to recognize Morricone's importance in helping immortalize the Spaghetti Western genre, and also his skills and influencing power as a composer. Here is a great example of how that in...

Walt Dickerson To My Queen ★★★★ Someone kill me. All I can listen to is jazz and the urge won't go away. What a lovely album this is too, a pure dedication to the woman Dickerson loves; and the love is palpable. I haven't listened to Dickerson before and to be honest I am not really a fan of vibraphone. But man when I listened to this, that changed. He is pretty unique in the small pool of vibraphone players I've listened to, the only one I really was ok with was Bobby Hutcherson but even he could be a bit much.  It's pretty cool that he brings in a young but impressive group, and acting as a leader like  a horn player would be, he helps create a quartet that is completely unique in my listening experience. Andrew Cyrille on drums, he's very much restrained compared to his later releases which see him as an avant jazz hero. Andrew Hill is as graceful as always, perhaps a bit more jagged on the sides, and that makes sense as he was nearing completi...

John Coltrane First Meditations (For Quartet) ★★★★½ Is it fair that I'm giving both this version and the original release the same rating? Probably not but I'm so split on it, that I think it's not really easy or even possible to compare the two. This is the recording without Pharaoh Sanders, so it loses some of its edge and inaccessibility. And even looking at this cheesy, definitely 70's album cover, you can tell it's not going to be the roaring thunderstorm that Meditations is.  Not to say it's not as beautiful, in fact in a very straightforward manner it seems a lot more beautiful. I find the beauty and soul of these two recordings to be equal but here it seems a lot more fluid. Like it's constantly pouring out of his inner-self, and while this may not be as religious or spiritual as his seminal album A Love Supreme , there's a lot of similarities. But when relating it to the original release with Pharaoh Sanders, there's not m...

Katie Gately Color ★★½ A dizzying and ultra lush soundscape that mixes avant electronic and modern pop. Katie Gately seems a bit different from the type of electronic-based avant pop of the current day such as Björk and Grimes. While those musicians bend the whole idea of pop music to their will, Gately more or less tries to fit in every nook and cranny pop music has to offer. I'm fairly certain I prefer artists of the former style.  The pinnacle of maximalism in modern music actually, with so many condensed layers that it becomes very numbing to listen to on certain songs. It's very catchy, and I think that's one of the things it really has going for it. The vocal layers don't really cut into that area but when they do, the choruses become so overwhelming that the whole song becomes a sort of mushy substance that doesn't seem to have any form.  With all of these layers and added confusion the idea of maintaining a catchy hook becomes a fruitless ...

Alan Wilkinson, John Edwards, Steve Noble Live at Cafe Oto ★★★★ A wild group of kids who were unleashed into the contemporary jazz atmosphere without any supervision. This is such a loose release, and at many points pretty humorous too. This live performance is intense and smoky, with the existence of the audience known. They don't intrude but you can almost feel the sense of shock their bodies are feeling while witnessing this performance.  Each of the players puts in their most violent but flavorful playing. Although I haven't listened to any of these musicians before this recording, I'm sure seeing them live is something else completely. But really the star of this show is Alan Wilkinson and his saxophone playing. While he isn't doing anything new or extremely unusual, he is taking some techniques and amplifying them to new degrees. Almost to a level of comedy, but he stays challenging and varied. The influence of Dolphy, Coltrane, Ayler, and Ornette...

Elliott Carter / The Composers Quartet String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 ★★★½ Two quartet pieces that are pretty distinct from each other, and created about a decade apart. Elliott Carter is a pivotal American composer that helped differentiate the scene from what the Europeans were doing at the time. And he is quite prolific with his output as well; especially in his later years. He got a lot done by the time he passed away at the ripe old age of 103.  The first quartet is composed of three movements that are intensely emotional and articulate. I think the problem many American composers, or musicians in general, have is trying to stay original in a world in which many musical techniques and styles have already been developed. Of course the blues and jazz music are both distinctly American genres but classical music is a bit more difficult to pin down. It wasn't until the 20th century (except Charles Ives to some extent) that American composers would be recognized gl...

Swans Die Tür ist zu ★ ★ ★★ Swans is one of those bands that has really created a monolith of a musical career, spanning decades. Not all of it is music I enjoy, but the mid-nineties to their initial breakup is probably my favorite period. This release is a comp of bits and pieces from Soundtracks for the Blind, arguably one of my favorite Swans releases. This 55 minute long EP they released just expands upon the ideas present on that mysterious, labyrinth of an album.  Starting with by far the longest piece on here, "Ligeti's Breath / Hilflos Kind", is a great example of the music Swans was making at the time. A mix of the music that influenced Gira, (e.g. Ligeti) but formed in a way that was utterly harsh and massive. With relentless drones and even German singing, Gira reinvigorates the darkness and despair from Swans's earliest releases. The second track is probably the weakest for me on the album; the vocals are just not a great fit. And after ...

Pita Get Down ★★★½ You ever just turn off all your lights and flip through channels endlessly in the dead of night, only stopping briefly on those programs which produce the strongest light? This album is like that for me. The funny looking cover doesn't give me the impression that this music will be a hodgepodge of glitches, alarms, and intensely exaggerated sound textures; instead it looks like a cover for an obscure drum n bass or footwork 12 inch.  "We Don't Need No Music" is the opening track that really stands out, it's basically ambient music that is being played through a decaying arcade game from the 80's. It stands out in the way "Opium" stands out on the Christoph De Babalon album. This transitions to the longest and most diverse song on here, "43353.rf", which describes that situation I was talking about. Just a barrage of rapidly changing sounds that disorient you and leave you sort of helpless in the hands o...

Joachim Kühn  Sound of Feelings ★★★½ Yeah I've been listening to a lot of jazz lately, but that's just how I've been feeling. And the BYG label has been out of my listening schedule for a while. Joachim shows up to the BYG party strong too; channeling Coltrane and Ayler in the most European fashion. While it works most of the time, it gets a little weird here. The first two tracks, especially "Scandal", swing for the most part. Nothing too challenging or "BYG" about it. Although like most sessions on this label, the quality is pretty rough; everything sounds a bit too thin and metallic. Joachim's piano playing is pretty McCoyish for the most part, and he'll draw from Cecil Taylor later too. The song "Wester Meaning" is the first wild track on here, as Joachim switches over to saxophone for a bit. And around the seven minute mark, he performs a piano version of a section of "The Ecstasy of Gold".  That Cec...