June 2025 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of the trailer for Polish National Opera’s production of The Secret Life of Paintings by There Stands the Glass.

The Top Ten Albums of June 2025
1. Ches Smith- Clone Row
The month’s best Mary Halvorson album.

2. Karol G- Tropicoqueta
Summertime, and the living is G-easy.

3. Little Simz- Lotus
Full bloom.

4. Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Mat Maneri- Armageddon Flower
Scratchy bouquet.

5. Terrace Martin and Kenyon Dixon- Come As You Are
California dreaming.

6. Comet Gain- Letters to Ordinary Outsiders
My review.

7. John Zorn- Fantasma
The month’s second-best Ches Smith album.

8. Tech N9ne- 5816 Forest
My review.

9. Mary Halvorson- About Ghosts
The month’s second-best Mary Halvorson album.

10. Alexandre Tharaud- Satie: Discoveries
Twenty-seven recently uncovered miniatures.

The Top Three Reissues, Repackagings and Reimaginings of June 2025
1. Bruce Springsteen- Tracks II: The Lost Albums
The promised land.

2. Ella Hanshaw- Ella Hanshaw's Black Book
Amazing grace.

3. Charles Mingus- Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts
Disheveled in 1977.

The Top Ten Songs of June 2025
1. Erykah Badu and the Alchemist- “Next to You”
Contact high.

2. Charlie Hunter and Ella Feingold- “Shirley Chisholm”
Heroes.

3. Mocky- “Wiggle Room”
Free space.

4. Alfa Mist- “Avoid the Drones”
In the shadows.

5. Lyra Pramuk- "Babel"
Towering.

6. Nick León featuring Esty and Mediopicky- “Millenium Freak”
Characterized.

7. Seven Davis Jr.- “Don’t Crash Out Challenge”
Danger.

8. Lil Wayne- Lil Wayne- “Welcome to Tha Carter”
Tha Carter VI isn’t all bad.

9. Offset and JID- “Bodies”
Missing Migos.

10. Norah Jones and John Legend- “Summertime Blue”
Premium cheese.


The Top Ten Performances of June 2025
1. Wayne Hancock and IV at Live at the Divide (Bozeman)
My Instagram clips are here and here.

2. Swamp Dogg at the Lawrence Arts Center
My review.

3. Vanessa Thomas, Kara Smith, Michael Pagán and Steve Rigazzi at the Blue Room
My Instagram clip.

4. Dave Wickerham at the Kansas City Music Hall
My Instagram clip.

5. EMAS’ Extra Large Electro-Acoustic Big Band at Charlotte Street Foundation
Instagram clip.

6. Beth Watts Nelson at Trailside Center
My Instagram clip.

7. Matt Otto, Aaron Sizemore, Forrest Stewart and Taylor Babb at the Music House
Instagram clip.

8. Overland Park Civic Band at Indian Creek Recreation Center
My Instagram clip.

9. Allied Saints at Meadowbrook Park
My Instagram clip.

10. Stan Kessler, Rod Fleeman and Joey Panella at Market at Meadowbrook
Instagram snapshot.

The previous monthly recap is here.

Album Review: Tyshawn Sorey and Adam Rudolph- Archaisms II

I first encountered Ennio Morricone’s “Algeri: 1 Novembre 1954” on John Zorn’s 1986 tribute album The Big Gundown. The terrifyingly insistent theme has haunted me ever since. 

As part of my self-directed study in the history of the Arab diaspora, I recently watched the excruciatingly intense 1966 Italian film The Battle of Algiers. I leapt from a couch upon discovering Morricone’s doom-laden composition in its original context. 

The tone of Morricone’s agitated score echoes in Archaisms II. Recorded live at Roulette last year, the album captures a quintet led by Adam Rudolph and Tyshawn Sorey in pursuance of an elevated consciousness that seems aligned with violent uprisings.

Book Review: Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer: The Guitarist Who Changed the Sound of American Music, by Philip Watson

Original image by There Stands the Glass

Pitchfork’s list of The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s inspired outraged tirades last month.  Recently reading Philip Watson’s new book Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer: The Guitarist Who Changed the Sound of American Music reminded me that by including guest appearances and collaborations, an enthusiast could compile a solid “The 50 Best Bill Frisell Albums of the 1990s” list.

The music of the staggeringly prolific Frisell became a staple of my rotation during that decade.  The guitarist who is a genre unto himself hasn’t slowed much in the intervening years.  I continue to listen to a lot of Frisell, and I’m fortunate to have attended many of his performances.  Having devoured Beautiful Dreamer, I’ll continue overdosing on Frisell for the foreseeable future.

The primary value of Beautiful Dreamer for this reader is its detailed accounting of works that had escaped my memory.  Even though I own physical copies of the ensemble’s albums including I Have the Room Above Her, I’d forgotten about Frisell’s trio with Paul Motion and Joe Lovano.  Furthermore, I hadn’t known that John Zorn played a significant role in Frisell’s evolution.

Watson wrote Beautiful Dreamer with the participation of Frisell.  He’s susceptible to accusations of being a fawning flatterer, but Watson is not wrong in his assertion that Frisell is the modern-day equivalent of titanic figures of American music like Duke Ellington, Jimi Hendrix and Thelonious Monk.

I’ve never been particularly interested in the private lives of artists.  I’m not disappointed, consequently, that Watson treads lightly on the subject of Frisell’s spectrum-ish disposition.  Besides, the portion of the biography’s 548 pages dedicated to listening sessions with admirers ranging from Mary Halvorson to Justin Vernon are more insightful than theoretical armchair psychology.

Even after reading Beautiful Dreamer, I’m not mad at Pitchfork for overlooking Frisell. I like the publication’s rankings although my list would include only a couple dozen of the same titles. I’d begin by sifting through Frisell’s discography were I to take on the task today. Thanks partly to Watson’s invaluable biography, the list-making would be delectably difficult.