What are you listening to? September 2023

Woody Allen - The Night Club Years 1964-1968 (comp. 1972)

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Vinyl Spin Of The Day.
Does that have his recounting of hitting a moose with his car?
 
I started with the first this morning while mucking around on the computer. Before I knew it, two other in the Jazz folder played. I guess this is a trip down Jazz 1986 lane.
Jackie McLean - New Wine in Old Bottles (1986)
Yellowjackets - Shades (1986)
Wood Shaw - Solid (1986)
 
Throttle Elevator Music - Final Floor (2021)


Saxophonist Kamasi Washington lends his talents to this rockish side project (referred to by some as punk Jazz) that completely slipped underneath my radar for the decade of its existence. This is their seventh and ostensibly final album. Very listenable for fans of disparate genres.
 
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NewJeans - NewJeans (2022)

This is how it goes. JazzyDaughter1 gets a new K-Pop album/ep. She holds tight to it for a couple of weeks, then comes to my office and demand I rip it and do a listening session with her, including videos on YouTube. This was the ep from almost a week ago. I've listened to it a couple of times. Very poppy and easy for me to listen to. Though I can't understand most of it (sung in Korean with random lyrics in English,) these producers make it work for me.

Last night she brought me an EP by ATEEZ, a very large boy band. That wasn't as immediately as likeable as NewJeans, but I think it will be good enough after a couple more listens.

Digression Alert!
With the Korean guys and young women, I'm always surprized to hear them break out into a rap in the middle of a song. One of the guys in a different band (j-Hope from BTS) did a collaboration with J Cole this summer.
For anyone interested, here is the j-Hope J-Cole collaboration:
 
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Phonte & Eric Roberson - Tigallero (2016)

This is an unusual (but good) album concept. Phonte is a rapper who is part of the North Carolina based trio Little Brother, which sprouted the Justice League, a collective of Hip-Hop and R&B artists. Eric Roberson is a R&B singer who was trying to rise above the pit of unknown singers and make a name for himself, which he did when he focused more on producing and songwriting for others. Eventually he made a name for himself by winning a couple of Grammy awards.

There have been thousands of instances where rappers collaborated with well known singers for a single. And dozens of examples of rappers collaborating with one singer on an entire album, like Jay-Z and R Kelly. But this might be the first (and only?) time a rapper collaborated with a singer on an album and the rapper sung. Here, in addition to rapping, Phonte sings on every song. This is no fluke because he's proven to be a capable vocalist before and after this, but it surprised me at the time to see him focus so much on singing. And Roberson joins in the flip flop by rapping a verse here and there on the album.

A nice little 10-song album that sounds like it was a lot of fun to make. It's fun and uplifting for me to listen to. What us older Hip Hop fans like to call "Grown Folks Music."

AllMusicGuide said:
Tigallerro is made of relaxed yet moving grooves, supplied by a cast of over of a dozen, that often evoke sunny and carefree Saturday afternoons. The two occasionally play around with some commercial trends, but they remain themselves, as grown men who descriptively sing about everyday romantic highs and lows, whether they're recalling contentment or regretting transgressions. Some of the cuts flow with such ease that the depth is easy to miss.
 
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James Brandon Lewis - Jesup Wagon (2021)

from markeef on RYM said:
I like his tone a lot, which reminds me of Albert Ayler's. The album is free-wheeling, but not free. The genre tags here––avant-garde with spiritual jazz overtones––seems exactly right to me. William Parker's veteran presence on bass keeps the music grounded, while Christopher Hoffman's cello adds a melancholy chamber-jazz feel to certain moments. Jesup Wagon is my favorite jazz album of 2021.

I can't say it was my favorite of 2021, but I can't disagree with anything else Markeef said. Well, maybe I'd insert "quite" into "but not free" to say "but not quite free."
 
Throttle Elevator Music - Final Floor (2021)


Saxophonist Kamasi Washington lends his talents to this rockish side project (referred to by some as punk Jazz) that completely slipped underneath my radar for the decade of its existence. This is their seventh and ostensibly final album. Very listenable for fans of disparate genres.

I have Area J and Retrorespective. Both are keepers. I have yet to hear this one.
 
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