Time Keeps On Slippin’

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

My favorite cousin died this week. My aunt and uncles raised lots of wonderful kids, but I shared a birthday and an excessive predilection for the proverbial wine, women and song with the deceased. Our age disparity- he was five years my elder- wasn’t our most significant difference. He was a giant. I’m a relative shrimp. Although his taste in music ran to Blue Öyster Cult and the Steve Miller Band, he was nice enough to escort me to Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson’s area nightclub show in 1979. I was underage, but my gargantuan cousin intimidated the doormen on my behalf. I’ve since treasured that night. In a painful form of familial affection, he regularly subjected me to abusive roughhousing. With his unexpected death, he knocked the breath out of me one last time.

Jerry Granelli: A Middleman’s Memorial

My appreciation for A Charlie Brown Christmas is different from most people’s.  I moved truckloads of the unlikely Fantasy Records hit through Walmart as a commissioned sales representative in a previous lifetime.  Initial orders each year were in the five figures, quantities that facilitated many happy holidays in my home.

Jerry Granelli, the drummer on the timeless classic released in 1965, died this week.  But his role in making money for a middleman isn’t his only contribution to my life.  Granelli played an inadvertent role in helping me avoid becoming as jaded as many of my mercenary colleagues.

Another Place, Granelli’s adventurous 1994 release on Intuition Records, was one of my favorite albums of that year.  Highlighting the exquisite tandem of saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and trombonist Julian Priester, Another Place kept me company in rental cars and motel rooms on countless sales trips.

While it took no more time to sell 30,000 units of A Charlie Brown Christmas to a box store behemoth than it did to place three copies of Another Place in a discriminating mom-and-pop shop, my obvious appreciation for the non-commercial recordings I represented almost certainly enhanced my standing among the retail buyers I courted.

Album Review: Cochemea- Vol. II: Baca Sewa

Daptone Records’ illustrious history of promoting artists with a knack for avoiding the threadbare clichés that vex most soul revivalist acts is integral to the label’s success. Cochemea, a go-to Daptone saxophonist, extends the tradition with Vol. II: Baca Sewa. Rooted in percussion, the new celestial soul album is ideally suited for listeners who believe bacchanal summertime parties and introspective spiritual ruminations are two sides of the same coin. Emphasizing his indigenous North American ancestry, Cochemea’s incantatory hymns, sultry grooves and loose-limbed funk workouts manifest the breadth of human experience.

Album Review: Attacca Quartet- Real Life

Original image of Summerfest concert at Atonement Lutheran Church by There Stands the Glass.

I was among the youngest of 60 devotees of chamber music at Atonement Lutheran Church for the final concert of the annual Summerfest initiative on Sunday, July 11. A rendition of Daniel Bernard Roumain’s String Quartet No. 5, Rosa Parks was among the vital works performed. The tiny audience was dominated by geriatric- albeit admirably enlightened- nonconformists. In naming its 2019 collaboration with Caroline Shaw my #9 album of the year, I verified Attacca Quartet’s exceptional ability to resonate with relative newcomers to the classical tradition. Its latest release Real Life highlights the work of electronic-leaning composers including Flying Lotus and Tokimonsta. Only the tacky opening track “Electric Pow Wow Drum” sounds contrived. Squarepusher’s distinctive contribution “Xetaka 1” is an auspicious culture clash. The album’s best track, a relatively conventional treatment of Anne Müller’s “Drifting Circles,' subtly fiddles with studio dynamics. Classical music will limp along with or without the help of Attacca Quartet. Even so, Real Life is further proof that the artistic and social constructs preventing timid people from enjoying the style should be ignored.

Je Chante

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Prince Charles stumped the chump. The divisive personage recently listed 13 of his favorite songs in coordination with a charitable endeavor. In a blindfold test administered by my life partner as a humiliating parlor game, I identified only six of his selections. Charles Trenet’s "La mer" was among the songs I knew. My love affair with the romantic songs of the French crooner and his country was rekindled. I’ve visited Paris just once. That won’t do. I intend to hum "Moi j'aime le music hall" and "Le jardin extraordinaire" when I return to the 5th Arrondissement in the next two or three years.

Album Review: Dyke & The Blazers- Down On Funky Broadway: Phoenix (1966-1967) and I Got a Message: Hollywood (1968-1970)

Dyke & The Blazers’ postulation that Jimmy Smith and Nancy Wilson merited shout-outs alongside James Brown and Johnny Taylor on “We Got More Soul” expanded the way I thought about music when I encountered the jubilant 1969 single in the 1980s. Yet until now, my appreciation of Dyke & The Blazers was largely limited to “We Got More Soul” and "Funky Broadway". A pair of illuminating new Craft Recordings releases- Down On Funky Broadway: Phoenix (1966-1967) and I Got a Message: Hollywood (1968-1970)- filled me in on what I’ve been missing. I didn’t know much about the group’s tragic career arc until I watched Craft’s two-minute documentary. Dyke & The Blazers may have been largely limited to emulating Otis Redding and Booker T. & the M.G.’s, but the frenetic funk documented on Down On Funky Broadway and I Got a Message is my idea of definitive party music.

Catching Up: Overlooked Albums and Songs of 2021 (so far)

Rather than compiling a conventional mid-year best-of ranking, I’m acknowledging albums and songs I initially overlooked or previously underappreciated in the first six months of 2021.  Many of the selections are obscure, but millions of people were tuned into songs and albums like “No More Parties” and En Contra De Mi Voluntad long before I caught up.

Top Ten Overlooked and Underappreciated Albums of 2021 (So Far)

1. Marianne Faithfull and Warren Ellis- She Walks in Beauty

Pure poetry.

2. Jaimie Branch- Fly or Die Live

Angry improv.

3. Lambchop- Showtunes

My review.

4. Susan Alcorn, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bordeuil- Bird Meets Wire

Hung up.

5. Jimmy Edgar- Cheetah Bend

My review. 

6. La Arrolladora Banda el Limón- En Contra De Mi Voluntad

Stupendous big band.

7. Silicone Prairie- My Life On the Silicone Prairie

Space junk.

8. Michael Wollny- XXXX

Progressive Euro-jazz.

9. Birds of Maya- Valdez

Unfiltered scuzz.

10. Elizabeth Chang- Transformations

Kirchner, Sessions and Schoenberg.

Top Ten Overlooked and Underappreciated Songs of 2021 (So Far)

1. Coi Leray- “No More Parties”

Curfew.

2. Moby, Mark Lanegan and Kris Kristofferson- "The Lonely Night"

Hurt.

3. Celeste- "Tonight Tonight"

Undeniable pop.

4. Karol G and Nathy Peluso- “Gato Malo”

Discussion on the In My Headache podcast.

5. Armand Hammer, the Alchemist and Earl Sweatshirt- "Falling Out of the Sky"

Crash.

6. Roman Alexander and Ashley Cooke- “Between You & Me”

Closing in.

7. Anitta- "Loco"

Crazy-good.

8. Ana Lélia- "Meu Cantinho"

Gentle breeze.

9. Cuee and Joel Leoj- “Ain’t Going Back”

Amen.

10. Sir the Baptist and Anthony Hamilton- "Jesus in the Ghetto"

Can’t tell Him nothing.

My previous monthly rankings of albums, songs, concerts and films are here.

June 2021 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of the trailer of Lili by There Stands the Glass.

Top Ten Albums (released in June)

1. Migos- Culture III

My post-vaccination party soundtrack, 1/2.

2. Billy F Gibbons- Hardware

My post-vaccination party soundtrack, 2/2.

3. Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion- Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part

I love the elements I love more than I loathe the elements I loathe.

4. Anthony Braxton- 12 Comp (Zim)

My review.

5. Chris Thile- Laysongs

Anxious gospel.

6. Tyler, The Creator- Call Me If You Get Lost

Goblin grows up.

7. Julian Lage- Squint

A different type of power trio.

8. Wild Up- Julius Eastman, Vol. 1: Femenine

A vital conceptualization.

9. Mac Lethal- Winter Heartbreak II

My review.

10. Angel Bat Dawid- Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1 Doxology

Ancient to the (lofi) future.

Top Ten Songs (released in June)

1. Megan Thee Stallion- “Thot Sh*t”

“Lit since brunch.”

2. Little Simz- "Rollin' Stone"

Quenched.

3. Rauw Alejandro and Anitta- "Brazilera"

Carnival.

4. Moor Mother- "Zami"

Traveling the spaceways.

5. Billie Eilish- "Lost Cause"’

Dead flowers.

6. Petra Haden- "Silence"

Song for her father.

7. Becky G and El Alfa- “Fulanito”

Rhythm nation.

8. Jennifer Hudson- "Here I Am"

Aria for Aretha.

9. Bfd Da Packman- “Wendy Williams”

“Back to Walmart.”

10. Brittney Spencer- “Sober & Skinny”

You got a fast car.

Top Ten Concerts (first monthly ranking since March 2020!)

1. Irreversible Entanglements- Stephens Lake Park Amphitheatre (Columbia, Missouri)

My review.

2. Johnny Rawls- Gladstone Summertime Bluesfest 

My notes.

3. Bird Fleming and Bill Summers’ “Voyage of the Drum”- Dunbar Park

My review.

4. Second Nature Ensemble- Westport Coffee House

My review.

5. En Vogue- Hy-Vee Arena

My review.

6. Mike Dillon and Nikki Glaspie- 1900 Building

My review.

7. Adam Galblum Quartet- Market KC

Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli revived.

8. Kian Byrne- Second Presbyterian Church

A singer-songwriter sweats it out under the setting sun.

9. Roman Alexander- KC Live

My review.

10. The Kansas City Chorale- Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church

Docked several notches for a clergyman’s abhorrent mask-shaming.

Top Ten Movies (viewed for the first time in June)

1. Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Gesundheit!

2. Lili (1953)

A French twist on The Wizard of Oz.

3. La ciociara/Two Women (1960)

Sophia Loren and Eleonora Brown suffer unspeakable trauma.

4. Polish Wedding (1998)

Love in Hamtramck.

5. Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Psychotropic noir.

6. I Accuse! (1958)

Straightforward depiction of the Dreyfus affair.

7. Lisztomania (1975)

Richard Wagner is Satan in Ken Russell’s gonzo freakout. 

8. Terri (2011)

Teen cringe.

9. The Shadow on the Window (1957)

And Jerry Mathers as the murder witness.

10. Small Town Crime (2017)

Negligible noir.

May’s recap and links to previous monthly surveys are here.

Album Review: Anthony Braxton- 12 Comp (Zim)

I binged on Anthony Braxton’s 12 Comp (Zim) this week.  Rather than savoring each of the 12 concerts in the new set, I elected to plow through all 638 minutes of the recordings from 2017 in three days.  My approach may have devalued the music, but it elevated even the most mundane aspects of my daily life.  The work of the decorated genius demands- and merits- attentive listening.  Yet I experienced it amid the footsteps of joggers, the thrum of kitchen appliances, the chatter of tree-dwelling creatures and the rumble of street traffic.  I felt consecrated by the merger of hallowed and commonplace sounds.

As someone who traveled 500 miles to attend a Braxton concert in 2018, I realize I’m an atypical listener.  Even so, it’s amazing how some of his most challenging music is transformed into semi-easy listening after just a few hours. My life partner didn’t once complain about the continual onslaught. She may share my sense that the spectral sounds are divinely inspired. The interstellar chamber music documented on 12 Comp (Zim) is a self-contained universe.  Akin to an alien life form derived from unknown biological building blocks, Braxton’s drummer-less band exists apart from established Earth-bound categories.

The sonic wavelengths created by a core group that includes an accordionist, a pair of harpists and a tuba player operates within a system of recondite rules outside the realms of classical, jazz and popular music. Figuratively and literally, it’s a lot. I would be content spending the remainder of 2021 decoding 12 Comp (Zim). Corresponding video documentation would aid in the analysis. Yet Quartet (Standards) 2020, an even bigger box of Braxton with a very different set of collaborators, was also released this month. The Braxton binge is just beginning.

The Thrill of the Crowd

Original image of Johnny Rawls in Gladstone, Missouri, by There Stands the Glass.

After attending 11 concerts in the last 16 days, it’s safe to say I’m back at it. And I still feel as if I’ll never catch up. Why am I compelled to venture out several night a week? Sure, I’m a music fiend, but that’s not the only reason I’m willing to drive four hours to catch a 40-minute performance. Even when the environment is less than ideal, being amid a crowd of vivacious music fans brings me joy. Seeing drunken revelers and serious soul-blues fans share an improvised dance floor with sugar-fueled children and their accommodating mothers at the Gladstone Summertime Bluesfest last night greatly enhanced my appreciation of Johnny Rawls’ headlining appearance. In those sublime moments I feel as if everything is right in the world.