What are you listening to? - January 2019

[Ojai Sam]

Various Artists - Motown Unreleased 1962: The Girls (2012)

Berry Gordy's leftovers are better than what most labels released. Don't believe me? Give it a spin.

 

[lpfreak1170]

Juliana Hatfield - Weird (2019)

 

[axolotl]

Orchestra Baobab ~ Pirates Choice (2014)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Natalia Lafourcade - Musas Vol. 2 (2018)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Juliana Hatfield - Weird (2019)

Not on Spotify (yet?).

 

[JazzyRandy]

Jonathan Finlayson - 3 Times Round (2018)

Finlayson, Steve Coleman's trumpeter for nearly two decades, releases an album every three years or so. This is his third and all are great. This one, like the previous two, is listed on several "Best Jazz Of the Year" lists.

he’s using his acquired skills to move several steps further and develop an original voice as a writer and improviser. The music on 3 Times Round, his third album as a leader, often feels complex, with melodies from three horns flying from every angle. At the same time, he infuses his writing with strong lyrical qualities, many of which come from his pure, rich trumpet tone.
...
It takes several listens to discover how everything comes together in Finlayson’s music. But it’s hard to walk away from this combination of accessibility and intricacy anyway.

4 out of 5 stars
...his emergence as one of the newer boundary-stretching conceptualists. These pieces spark peppery, odd-metered cadences with experimental caricatures of native jazz idioms amid mutable tonalities and swiftly executed odd-metered unison choruses. And with the frontline's dashing, razor-sharp solos and brisk call-and-response activities atop the rhythm section's reverberating grooves, you have a malleable in-your-face program that commands attention.
...
Finlayson's bold sound, spirited narratives and emphatic treatments contain poetic qualities throughout. His intrepid composing skills have branded an identity that nestles him among the crème de la crème of modern-era jazz futurists.

8 of 10 stars
...a sextet that replicates the instrumentation of many of the great hard bop bands of the '50s and '60s—trumpet plus tenor saxophone and alto saxophone (think of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers or the Cannonball Adderley bands)—but uses that punching sonority in the service of tunes of rhythmic complexity and multi-layered melodies.
...
3 Times Round continues the superb writing and development of Jonathan Finlayson, placing his work both in league with and slightly apart from the music of his mentors and his peers.
...
It's a cool combination because the accusation that sometimes stands against the new jazz is that it can be cold and cerebral, without the joys of the blues, the fun of just hearing great players wail. Once again, Finlayson is smart and complex but also lets the players play and generate heat. He's building a career that speaks well of the music's potential to be cerebral and strutting at once.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

春ねむり Haru Nemuri - 春と修羅 (Haru to Shura) (2018)



Japanese Hip-Hop.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Riverside - Second Life Syndrome (2005)

 

[Nickyboy]

Pizzicato Five- Playboy and Playgirl (1999)



Perfect J-pop

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

The Monkees - Head (Soundtrack) - (1968)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Harry Nilsson - Aerial Ballet (1968)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Eric Bachmann - No Recover (2018)



I quite like this. Sure, it's basically easy listening, but I don't care.

 

[axolotl]

Eric Bachmann - No Recover (2018)



I quite like this. Sure, it's basically easy listening, but I don't care.

I'll get to it.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Mott The Hoople - Wildlife (1971)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

The Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (1968)

 

[axolotl]

I'll get to it.

I like it. It reminds me of everything ...and yet of nothing in particular.

 

[JazzyRandy]

Jonathan Kreisberg - The South of Everywhere (2007)

• Jonathan Kreisberg
  guitar
• Matt Penman
  bass
• Mark Ferber
  drums
• Gary Versace
  piano
• Will Vinson
  alto saxophone

 

[Unsomnambulist]

I like it. It reminds me of everything ...and yet of nothing in particular.

It's so well put together. Like from a musician who's been a musician his entire adult life.

 

[lpfreak1170]

Juliana Hatfield - Weird

Not on Spotify (yet?).

Vinyl pre-order from the record company came in early...plus the bonus 7".

 

[axolotl]

Marc Ducret ~ L'ombra diverdi (1999)