As an avid Bruce Springsteen fan forty years ago, I dutifully acquired every project affiliated with the star. Springsteen’s imprimatur compelled me to buy albums by the likes of Gary “U.S.” Bonds, Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers and Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes. Some were good; many were forgettable. Springsteen’s winning appearance on Bleachers’ Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night helps makes the new album superior to those bygone projects. Even though I’ve long been skeptical about the output of Bleachers mastermind Jack Antonoff, I’m finally won over by the unabashedly bombastic effort. Not only does the album rekindle the overwrought emotions behind the decisions I made as an incipient adult, it seems to momentarily resurrect a few of my departed friends. Springsteen insisted “I don’t want to be just another useless memory” on The River, an obvious touchstone for Antonoff’s unexpected stroke of genius. Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night is a spellbinding conduit for curative recollections.
Book Review: Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music by Alex Ross
Original image by There Stands the Glass.
An amusing reference to Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung is made in the 2021 zombie saga Army of the Dead. I watched the irredeemably trashy flick because I’m an uncultured rube. Or at least I was prior to the pandemic. As sporadically documented at this site, I dedicated much of the quarantine to an immersion in opera. My nascent fascination with Wagner led me to Alex Ross’ deliriously dense Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music. Ross documents and analyzes Richard Wagner’s immense influence on music, cinema, visual art, literature, philosophy, politics and other aspects of contemporary society.
I treated Wagnerism as a textbook. Although I have a firm grasp of history and read Thomas Mann’s doorstop The Magic Mountain for the first time last year, I was woefully ignorant of many of the intellectual and academic concepts Ross examines through the lens of Wagner. My cultural illiteracy forced me to pause every few pages to get up to speed. The methodical process lasted four months. I’m not entirely to blame. Ross occasionally writes unfortunate sentences like this: “He proposes an ontology based on the rational operation of mathematics, at the same time, he stresses the infinity of being, defining it in terms of multiplicity.”
Just as taking in Die Zauberflötein last year allowed me to see layers of significant subtext that had previously been invisible to me, Wagnerism heightened my capacity to experience life more meaningfully. The Wagner joke in Army of the Dead would have sailed over my head a few years ago. I’m still a pitiful excuse for a scholar. Yet given enough time, this country bumpkin might manage to transform his life into an admirable Gesamtkunstwerk.
July 2021 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency
Screenshot of Bahar Pars in the trailer for En man som heter Ove.
Top Ten Albums (released in July, not including July 30 titles)
1. Lise Davidsen and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra- Sibelius: Luonnotar, Op. 70 & Other Orchestral Works
Finnish fever dreams.
2. Cochemea- Vol. II: Baca Sewa
3. Rey Sapienz and the Congo Technical Ensemble- Na Zala Zala
African footwork.
4. Les Filles de Illighadad- At Pioneer Works
Tuareg trance.
5. Rodney Crowell- Triage
The truth hurts.
6. Maya Beiser- Maya Beiser x Philip Glass
Transparent cello.
7. Attacca Quartet- Real Life
8. Drakeo the Ruler- Ain't That the Truth
Truth to tell.
9. Alasdair Roberts and Völvur- The Old Fabled River
Scottish/Norwegian freak-folk.
10. Leon Bridges- Gold-Diggers Sound
Bridges’ best album by a country mile.
Top Ten Songs (released in July)
1. Little Simz- “I Love You, I Hate You”
Decisive.
2. IDK with the Neptunes, Swae Lee and Rico Nasty- "Keto"
On sight.
3. Snow Tha Product- "Que Oso"
Agua bendita.
4. Big30 featuring Yo Gotti- "Too Official"
Outlawed.
5. Lolo Zouaï- “Galipette”
Candy store.
6. Willow featuring Cherry Glazerr- “¡Breakout”
Ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!
7. Kevin Abstract featuring Snot and Slowthai- “Slugger”
“On my Lauryn Hill ish.”
8. Tinashe- “Bouncin’”
Elastic.
9. Billie Eilish- “NDA”
Creep.
10. Lorde- “Stoned at the Nail Salon”
Pure heroine.
Top Ten Concerts (attended in July)
1. Pistol Pete- recordBar
The rapper was accompanied by the rock band Various Blonde.
2. Te Deum- St. Mary's Episcopal Church
Latin vespers.
3. Eddie Moore, Ryan Lee and Zach Morrow- Charlotte Street Foundation
My review will be published at Plastic Sax on August 1.
4. Kyle Hutchins, Aaron Osborne, Seth Davis and Evan Verploegh- Charlotte Street Foundation
5. Summerfest- Atonement Lutheran Church
6. Trinity Jazz Ensemble- Rolling Hills Church
7. Jackie Myers, Matt Hopper and Ben Tervort- Market at Meadowbrook
Fresh readings of jazz standards.
8. Granger Smith- KC Live
Yee yee!
9. Rod Fleeman, Gerald Spaits and Ray DeMarchi- Green Lady Lounge
Spare the Rod, spoil the month.
10. Big Spin- 1400 Union
Explosive Fourth of July punk party.
Top Ten Films (viewed for the first time in July)
1. Z (1969)
Grotesque political thuggery in Greece.
2. The Steel Helmet (1951)
War is hell.
3. Der blau Engel/The Blue Angel (1930)
L-o-l-a, Lola.
4. Fruitvale Station (2013)
Oscar Grant III.
5. En man som heter Ove/A Man Called Ove (2015)
Saab story.
6. Journey into Fear (1943)
WWII noir.
7. Summer of Soul (2021)
So much talking.
8. Mahler (1974)
Wut.
9. The Wrath of God (1972)
Proto-Tarantino bloodbath.
10. The Hunt (2020)
Deplorable!
June’s recap and links to previous monthly surveys are here.
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
4. Susan Alcorn, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bordeuil- Bird Meets Wire
Hung up.
5. Jimmy Edgar- Cheetah Bend
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.