New Releases 9/07/2023

'Good fresh things every day of the year...'

I’m going to try to write about new music in a digest style every so often (whoa, don’t overcommit, there, Marshall!). I love to hear new releases but I go through phases where I’m listening to a lot of new stuff and phases where I’m listening to older stuff (largely as research). This month it seems like a lot of stuff came my way that I was interested in bringing your way. Hope you find something to enjoy.

Photo by Heather Gill on Unsplash

Just released is Jaimie Branch's third album with her incredible Fly or Die combo. This one is called Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)), and the only thing that is wrong with it is that it is a posthumous release, Branch having passed away unexpectedly a year ago at the age of 39. This is such fresh, free music that it reminds me how much I'm at the point that I just want to jettison genre altogether, which Branch certainly does here. There's the kind of reinvention of the trumpet that Louis Armstrong's Chicago sides managed and Branch's trumpet playing owes as much to that tradition as to the more recent influence of the city's free jazz artists, such as Lester Bowie. The way that the pieces move from one mood to another within the same composition also reminds me of Rip Rig & Panic's free punk jazz masterpiece God.

Branch sings again, as she did on Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise, and her lyrics are direct, political, personal, and blunt. As she wrote on Fly or Die II's album notes: “So much beauty lies in the abstract of instrumental music, “but being this ain’t a particularly beautiful time, I’ve chosen a more literal path. The voice is good for that. " Working with her excellent group that includes Lester St. Louis (cello, voice, flute, marimba, keyboard), Jason Ajemian (double bass, electric bass, voice, marimba), and Chad Taylor (drums, mbira, timpani, bells, marimba), Branch creates music that is just music, and this record reminds me of the best of people just playing music, often improvising together.

And they do a really fantastic version of Meat Puppets' "Comin' Down," here titled 'the mountain.' Branch and Jason Ajemian do it up right with vocal harmonies that are reminiscent of John Doe and Exene Cervenka.

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Kirsten Edkins' Shapes & Sounds is the debut release on Mastering Engineer Kevin Grey's Cohearent Records. It's an audiophile record label that uses all-tube recording from start to finish, producing a sound that harkens back to the heyday of Rudy van Gelder. That's no surprise, as Grey has long been respected for his work with Joe Harley on the various Blue Note album reissue series, including the Tone Poet and Blue Note Classics Series.

"Well that's great" I hear you saying. "I like a record that sounds good on my equipment, but how is the music? Is Ms. Edkins a solid tenor player?"

And my answer is oh yes. If you like modern post-bop jazz in a traditional quartet (sometimes quintet with the addition of trombonist Lemar Guillary), this is definitely a record you will listen to again and again. Edkins possesses a warm, sonorous tenor tone, and she plays with a vigorous attack and energy, sometimes reminding me of Dexter Gordon, at others of Joe Henderson. She's got an ear for a melodic line as well as solid rhythmic phrasing which makes a good improvisor as well as a composer. She composed six of the eight tracks here, and they sound fresh without resorting to odd time signatures or awkward melodies.

"Party Slug," the opening track, has a samba rhythm and gently undulating melody. The whole thing reminds me of a Steely Dan groove, and pianist Gerald Clayton gets in a nice solo between Edkins' statements. "Bird Shapes" is obviously Charlie Parker-related, but Edkins plays with a Dexter/Lester laid back-ness. "Sweet Pickles" is a blues with a bridge that features trombonist Guillary on the head and playing a well developed solo. He also plays on the giddy romp "Wuhu."

Edkins plays soprano sax on the Wayne Shorter-ish "Proprietary Minor," and her work on that instrument is a pleasant textural addition to her tenor work. The final track, "Hula Hoop" by drummer Chris Wabich, is a splendid highlight of all the band members. Wabich snaps and cracks, sounding great as he has throughout the record. Bassist Ahmet Turkmenoglu on bass  is this album's secret weapon, always there providing the necessary support as well as sparring with Wabich where appropriate, but rarely calling attention to himself except for the rare solo. Clayton' piano work is lovely, always providing just the right touch, and is work is beautifully captured on this record.

And there is Kirsten Edkins herself, an excellent saxophonist who has already distinguished herself as an educator, a regular with Bill Holman's group, and a semi-regular on The Voice. Hopefully our opportunities to hear her play will continue to increase.

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Mixing solo piano with electronics isn't exactly a new concept, going at least back to the Blue Series with Matthew Shipp playing in a variety of jazztronica settings. But the idea can be executed in a wide variety of ways depending on the styles and temperaments of the players and the tech wizards. On Refract, pianist Jason Moran, drummer Marcus Gilmore, and Tyler Gilmore, who records electronic music as Blankfor.ms create a spacey, chill vibe that is easily dismissed as ambient, but which has a nice balance of texture and intensity that is often missed by those seeking to mix the organic with the magno-electronic.

While there are chill out room moments, Gilmore's appearance always betokens a rise in energy level. He pushes the loopy electronics along like a possessed broom on "Tape Loop A," (on which Moran lays out),creating the only sense of motion in the piece. On "Inward, Curve" he and Moran tumble into a straight ahead jazz segment that is grounding and welcome at this point in the program.

Blankfor.ms uses a variety of media and techniques, including analog synthesizers and cassette tapes to create his atmospheric sounds, many in real time. He also has the setup to record and process the playing of Moran and Gilmore, feeding it back in altered or distorted form as at the conclusion of "Inward, Curve" where he slowly allows backward tape versions of the music his bandmates are playing to envelope and overwhelm them.

The adventurous quality of this record should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed Jason Moran's career. Truly a master of jazz piano with a deep understanding of its history and his debts to its innovators. Both Marcus and Tyler Gilmore are worthy co-creators on this sonic adventure that I personally am enjoying more with each listen.

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Cindy Wilson was one of my New Wave crushes. Hearing her wailing voice, catching here and there, singing the powerful lead on "Give Me Back My Man" she was the the perfect combination of old school girl group swagger (Shangri Las, Ronettes) and retro sci-fi tiki party original. It was a mix all her own, and it still is on Realms, her second solo record. Wilson sounds terrific in a trance/dance electronics forward club mix atmosphere. Her marvelous voice is as strong as ever, but she textures it much more into the mix, surrounding herself with background vocals, processed and multitracked.

But the songs are great, melodic and bright, happy to create their own mood without trying to impress with unnecessary nods to modern hipness. Musical collaborator Suny Lyons does a bit more layering with synthesizers on this record than on Wilson's first solo outing, 2017's Change, but the result is still light and airy, pop music from a fairy realm, perhaps.

"How’d you know my favorite escapes," Wilson sings on "Midnight," the record's opening gambit,

"And what you make of them/Night aside/Let’s walk through time/I want to know what’s in your mind."  The song feels celebratory, maybe the kind of music for dancing in the garden in torn sheets in the rain--sort of the night time dream version of "Deadbeat Club."

Other songs, like "Hold On" and "Find Me" have elements  of the shoegaze sound. It all fits together nicely and it comes off as a nifty update of Cindy Wilson, giving her a relevant sound while not turning its back on her storied past.

Wilson constructed the record with Suny Lyons in a process that doesn't sound terribly dissimilar to that of the B-52s:

“It started like anything else, with jamming,” she continues. “Suny brought structured synthesized music, so we jammed on top of that. We were using nonsense words at first, and building the structure that way. The lyrics would morph and the music was changing, and so finally it became something. It was a slow process, but magically, it all came together. I was bowled over.”  https://americansongwriter.com/cindy-wilson-explores-new-realms/

This record is perfect for summer evenings when you maybe watch the fireflies and look at the stars and planets and wonder what it's all about while you sit on the porch and swing.

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The slow collapse of the music industry has had the interesting effect of allowing some bands to mature over the course of years in ways that are often interesting and unexpected. That has certainly been the case with 90s bands in the shoegaze & indie pop categories. Because of the collapse of the major label system, these bands would have been searching for labels to release their music anyway. They now find themselves in the enviable position of being able to release music when it's ready to go and having the name recognition to at least attract a core group of listeners to new material.

Slowdive returned in 2017 with a self titled release that didn't ignore their past but didn't trade on their glory years either. It's surprising how many bands are able to move on and find a sound that represents who they are ten or fifteen years after they first came into public view without the constant carping of label execs and A&R folks. Slowdive did just that, and now they are back an unthinkable six years later with everything is alive, a stately and sometimes glacial group of sounds that is very arresting.

Shoegaze is based on complexity coming from the layering of guitar pedals, synths, and studio effects rather than from harmonic or technical complexity. Sometimes tracks are seemingly built on nothing, just the faith of the musicians and listeners that it is going somewhere. "Prayer Remembered," the second track, is a perfect example of this.

Slowdive restarted their career as a band in 2014 and recorded their first new album in twenty years in 2017. It has been noted by most listeners and writers that their music is not just a taking up where they left off--the group members have all evolved as musicians and as human beings, and their new music reflects that. With the release of everything is alive, the group seems as relevant as ever, perhaps more so than in their nineties first run. The ability of Slowdive to incorporate new electronics and tech into its sound world is impressive, and part of the reason this genre continues to expand its audience. It's possible that the band has more fans now than they ever have, and that has to be a satisfying feeling.

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