Whats playing on your system today?
Easily my vote for the best jazz release of 2023, which has been a pretty strong year for those of us in search of new jazz. Ingrid Laubrock - The Last Quiet Place (2023) First of all, this woman has some pretty serious chops on sax. Second, her compositions are extremely good and creative. This is pretty complex stuff, with great playing and improvising by all musicians. Not really what I’d consider avant-garde, but not playing it safe either.
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Not today, but from last night's listening session: Craig Taborn - Daylight Ghosts (2016, CD) / Fantastic jazz quartet on ECM label, with the phenomenal Taborn on piano. Excellent mix of high energy and introspective jazz, in that typical ECM esthetic. Great recording quality. Ernst Krenek - Static and Ecstatic (1972, vinyl) / Serialism with sensuality. Played by the LA Phil chamber orchestra. This recording has a seriously large, well defined soundstage, and image specificity within that soundstage. Anekdoten - Until All Ghosts are Gone (2015, CD) / Extremely good progressive release by this Swedish band, Dark, moody, great musicianship. |
Earlier today. Ernst Krenek - Static and Ecstatic (1972) Vinyl An underappreciated serial piece, by an underappreciated composer. Expertly preformed by the LA Phil chamber orchestra. One of the best recordings for evaluating soundstage size, and images within the soundstage. Side 2 contains an almost equally great piece, Kitharaulos. With an almost heroic oboe performance by James Ostryniec, of this extremely difficult music to play. |
This is a pretty strong release. Probably their best. Even better than 2017's, "Detachment". As a plus, it's got ALESSANDRO BONETTI on violin on one track. He's the incredible violinist for the best modern Italian prog band, Deus ex Machina. |
This is not from today, but my most recent listening session from last night. Mary Halvorson - Amaryllis / The best jazz release from 2022. This extremely creative guitarist has been on a role lately. This is complex, progressive jazz with great playing by all members. The Contortionist - Language (2014) / Anyone who thinks that very technical, complex metal lacks emotion, should give this a try. Terrifying levels of messiahship, mostly clean vocals. Pasquale Corrado - Works for Ensemble / All works from the last 10 years. Excellent avant-garde classical on the great and consistent Kairos Records . Pretty thorny sounding stuff, very well recorded. Deep and wide soundstage, with excellent 3d image within that soundstage. |
Not today, but my latest listening session form last night. Cynic - Traced in Air (2008, remix 2019) / Incredible technical-metal, with great melodies and emotion, and incredible musicianship. Way too compressed.
Alice Coltrane - Ptah, the El Daoud (1970) / Brilliant "spiritual" jazz. with killer lineup.
Panzerballett - Hart Genossen - Von ABBA bis ZAPPA (2009) / German jazz-fusion band that gets quite heavy, intense and complex. Yes, they do cover versions of Abba and Zappa tunes on this. The entire band has chops from hell, and a sense of humor.
Anna Þorvaldsdóttir - Archora (2022) / Great Icelandic composer working in the "spectralism" realm of classical music. Really haunting, beautiful stuff. I am not usually a fan of spectralism, but Þorvaldsdóttir is an exception.
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