September 2021 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

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

Top Ten Albums (released in September)

1. Mathias Eick- When We Leave

My review.

2. Borderlands Trio- Wandersphere

My review.

3. Nala Sinephro- Space 1.8

My review.

4. Drake- Certified Lover Boy

Infuriatingly undeniable.

5. Roscoe Mitchell- Dots: Pieces for Percussion and Woodwinds

Solemn incantations from the auspicious octogenarian.

6. Moor Mother- Black Encyclopedia of the Air

Urgent poetry.

7. Pat Metheny- Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV)

My review.

8. Lea Desandre- Amazone

Sensual baroque chamber music.

9. RP Boo- Established!

Zany Chicago footwork.

10. The Count Basie Orchestra- Live at Birdland

My review.

Top Ten Songs (released in September)

1. Tokischa and Rosalía- "Linda"

Besos.

2. Priya Ragu- "Lockdown"

Not so solitary.

3. Chlöe- "Have Mercy"

Oh Lord.

4. Lauren Alaina- "On Top of the World"

My album review.

5. Lydia Loveless- "Let's Make Out"

“The maid won’t be here until nine or ten.”

6. Amyl and the Sniffers- “Don’t Need a **** (Like You to Love Me)”

Rock’s not dead.

7. Paul Wall and Rich The Factor- "Countin' Paper"

Stacks.

8. Kirby- "Coconut Oil"

Silky.

9. Lady Blackbird- "Fix It"

Peace piece.

10. Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch- “Im Rhein, im schönen Strome”

I’ve contracted a nasty case of Lisztomania.

Live Music

The books I read outnumbered the shows I attended in September.  I intend to venture out a lot more in October. I’ve even timed a trip to Detroit to catch a concert by an artist listed above who has conspicuously bypassed Kansas City for years.

Top Ten Films (viewed for the first time in September)

1. Lawrence of Arabia: Director’s Cut (1962)

T.E. Lawrence as white savior.

2. Body and Soul (1925)

Paul Robeson’s first film.

3. Hoří, má panenko/The Firemen’s Ball (1967)

Shameful Czech corruption.

4. The Golden Ring: The Making of Solti’s Ring (1965)

My notes.

5. Street Girl (1929)

Betty Compson stars in a racy Jazz Age musical.

6. 奇跡/I Wish (2011)

Japan is now at the top of my travel wish list.

7. Cairo (1942)

Loopy wartime musical with Ethel Waters.

8. Take a Giant Step (1959)

Johnny Nash plays a beleaguered teen.

9. The Outhouse: The Film, 1985-1987 (2019)

“My” version of the Kansas venue- Tupelo Chain Sex, Sonic Youth, the Georgia Satellites, etc.- receives short shrift in the documentary.

10. The Courier (2021)

By-the-numbers cold war spy thriller.

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

Album Review: Mathias Eick- When We Leave

The 18-year-old sensation Olivia Rodrigo is the most popular star in the latest wave of prodigiously talented hitmakers specializing in giddy odes of heartbreak geared to sensitive young women.  Believe it or not, I’m not a member of the target audience.  What would a bespoke album catering to my current sensibilities sound like?  My wish list would include:

• wordless jazz based on European chamber music and America’s improvised avant-garde tradition

• the earthy shadings of a pedal steel guitar 

• an expansive sound field

• an intimation of spirituality with a tacit acknowledgement of mortality

When We Leave, Mathias Eick latest release on ECM Records, meets each of my specifications. I’m deeply indebted to the Norwegian and his collaborators for obliging my persnickety inclinations.

Album Review: Borderlands Trio- Wandersphere

Piano trios needn’t be moldy. More than a quarter of the innumerable piano trio recordings issued every year are commendable. Wandersphere, a new release featuring pianist Kris Davis, bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Eric McPherson under the banner of Borderlands Trio, is something else entirely. The 2020 session possesses the same sort of palpable tension and momentous sense of occasion as the landmark 1963 album Money Jungle. Davis, Crump and McPherson may not be legendary figures like Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach, but the unrelenting interest they sustain throughout 116 minutes of deep improvisation rekindles the restless spirits of the jazz icons. Davis is one of the leading lights of improvised music. Crump, best known for his collaborations with Vijay Iyer, is boundlessly imaginative. McPherson’s cerebral contributions unify their dichotomous melodic pursuits. The audience for Wandersphere may be infinitesimal, but the artistic achievement is colossal.

Grunting and Snorting

Photo of pages 221-222 of John Culshaw’s Ring Resounding by There Stands the Glass.

John Culshaw writes about the incidental noise issued by conductor Hans Knappertsbusch in Ring Resounding.  Sure enough, Knappertsbusch’s “grunts and snorts” are clearly audible at the opening of a 1951 recording of Parsifal.

Studying the book is part of an ongoing investigation of Wagner corresponding with my burgeoning interest in classical music.  Culshaw’s detailed account of the first complete recording of Der Ring des Nibelungen is filled with delectable gossip and substantive musings.

Discovering that the disruptive ambient noise accompanying many of the classical concerts I’ve attended isn’t an aberration came as a shock.  Ill-timed coughs and the creaking of seats are also part and parcel of live recordings.  The non-musical sounds created by artists further altered my connection with the so-called fine art.

For instance, a pivotal moment of Deutsche Grammophon’s otherwise wonderful new recording of Krystian Zimerman’s Beethoven: Complete Piano Concertos is marred when members of the London Symphony Orchestra clamorously adjust their sheet music.  And the breathing of pianist Behzod Abduraimov is clearly audible on one of my favorite albums of 2021.

When I put on headphones and queue up Beethoven, Debussy or Wagner, I’m no longer surprised when the ostensibly pristine and often ethereal sounds are accompanied by grunts, snorts, murmurs and heavy breathing.  The humanizing revelation is one more indication classical music and opera aren’t nearly as arrogantly inhospitable and formidably precious as they initially appear.

The art of opera has nothing to do with obscene galas. Culshaw hoped his landmark recordings would make the form more equitable: “The sickness of opera has been, and is, that it is a very expensive and exclusive closed shop… Richard Wagner abhorred this attitude a hundred years ago, and we are only now beginning to make the slightest progress towards a change.”

Album Review: Nala Sinephro- Space 1.8

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed on Sunday. In need of a pick-me-up more potent than coffee or juice, I turned to Nala Sinephro’s Space 1.8. I’d already been charmed by the London composer’s blend of new age mysticism and downtempo spiritual jazz. Could Sinephro’s “premise that sound moves matter” actually cure what ailed me? Sure enough, my discomfort eased markedly within 15 minutes. I felt fully restored by the end of the 44-minute album. Just as the apparent healing power of Space 1.8 works as a miraculous potion, it’s an artistic triumph in spite of a dubious premise. Few artists are capable of successfully combining the loopy quietism of 1980s Paul Winter with the contemporary telepathic transmissions of Flying Lotus. Yet Sinephro’s Space 1.8 is just the latest example of the magical improvised music renaissance raging in Britain.

Album Review: Molly Herron and Science Ficta- Through Lines

What’s a viola da gamba? I scarcely know. Yet I’m absolutely gobsmacked by the sounds created by trios and quartets of the instrument on Through Lines. The new album by Molly Herron and Science Ficta opens with the portentous "Canon No. 3". Enchanting selections including "Trill" and "Lyra" advance the boundless beauty. Some may categorize Through Lines as classical music. Others may call it new music. As for myself? Clearly, it’s a divine manifestation of modern-day sorcery.

Album Review: Lauren Alaina- Sitting Pretty on Top of the World

One of the ongoing jokes I share with my life partner concerns our mutual affection for K.T. Oslin’s infuriatingly catchy 1989 hit “Hey Bobby”.  Summoning one of the song’s several hooks is sure to lodge “Hey Bobby” in the other’s head for hours or even days.  It’s a delightfully dirty trick.

I mourned Oslin’s death at There Stands the Glass last year.  Even though Lauren Alaina failed to distinguish herself in the two live performances I’ve witnessed or with any of her initial hits, the contemporary country artist revives Oslin’s fiercely independent streak and wicked sense of humor on her surprisingly strong new album.

Rooted in age-old country themes, Sitting Pretty on Top of the World is a stylistic departure portraying Alaina as a new-school honky tonk hero.  Yet because it’s hindered by a few obnoxiously overproduced tracks, Sitting Pretty on Top of the World is a far cry from a dusty Loretta Lynn album.

Alaina strikes a delicate balance between the vanilla blandishments demanded by country radio programmers and forlorn songs about drinking and despair.  Some of the soccer moms who make up the core of her substantial fan base may conscientiously choose to shield their kids from the booze-laden project.

It’s possible a Sitting Pretty on Top of the World song- “Getting Over Him”, a duet with Jon Pardi, is a particularly promising candidate- will join “Hey Bobby” as one of my go-to personal relationship pranks rooted in a genuine appreciation of Alaina’s blend of slick pop-country and backwoods barroom anthems.

Album Review: Kanye West- Donda

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

I drove from Portland to Mount Hood a few hours after Donda was released.  Approaching the landmark while hearing Kanye West’s long-awaited tenth album for the first time was an unforgettable experience.  The increasingly imposing Mount Hood played peekaboo through the Oregon forest amid the plentiful twists and turns on U.S. Route 26.  Donda provided a correspondingly awe-inspiring soundtrack.

Just as calling Mount Hood a big pile of lava is misleading, to say Donda is unwieldy is a gross understatement.  Donda’s overwhelming scale initially causes it to seem incomprehensible.  Even though complaining about an excess of music from the most talented and influential figure in popular music of the past 20 years is churlish, the flabby album would benefit from the ruthless trimming of an unforgiving editor.

Pruned to four minutes, “Jesus Lord” would be an instant classic.  Yet “Jesus Lord” is stretched to nine minutes on the 108-minute Donda.  The 23-minute addendum of alternate versions of four songs tacked on to the end of Donda exacerbates the flaw.  In spite of its cumbersome length, Donda is a tour de force.

Donda is a somewhat conservative consolidation of West’s career.  Two elements prevent the ruminative perspective from being a nostalgic regression.  He attempts- and like all his brethren in faith, fails- to uphold the Christian tenets he’s embraced in recent years.  The palpable tension between the sacred and profane is delectable.

An astonishing parade of guests likewise invigorates Donda.  “Off the Grid,” one of Donda’s most immediately accessible songs- is bolstered by the presence of current star Playboi Carti.  Few things in recent memory make me happier than hearing the breakout Griselda crew members Conway the Machine and Westside Gunn collaborate with West on “Keep My Spirit Alive.”  The youthful coterie is balanced by the contributions of veterans including Buju Banton, Jay Electronica and Jay-Z.

Dad jokes, verses about parental responsibilities and acknowledgements of marital woes further reinforce West’s generational status.  As one of West’s famous rivals might suggest, what a time to be alive!  One day West will be as dormant as Mount Hood.  Yet appreciative fans will relish scrutinizing Donda’s gloriously imperfect cataclysmic eruptions for decades.

Album Review: Lee Morgan- The Complete Live at the Lighthouse

My admiration of excess is even more pronounced than my fascination with confrontation.  That’s why I’m all in on The Complete Live at the Lighthouse, the seven-hour and 31-minute expansion of the Lee Morgan album originally released soon after it was recorded at the California club in 1970. The daunting length is a documentation of all 12 sets the quartet of Morgan (trumpet), Bennie Maupin (reeds), Harold Mabern (piano), Jymie Merritt (bass) and Mickey Roker (drums) played in the intimate room during a labor-intensive three-day stint. The stylistic tension between the musicians is conspicuous.  While his band mates seem content to rehash the hard bop that was quickly becoming passé, Maupin is eager to expand on the innovations of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy.  The Complete Live at the Lighthouse, consequently, is a fascinating glimpse of music at a fateful breaking point.

August 2021 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

(Screenshot of Bye Bye Braverman by There Stands the Glass.)

Top Ten Albums (released in August, not including August 27 titles)

1. Jana Rush- Painful Enlightenment

The art of noise.

2. Abstract Mindstate- Dreams Still Inspire 

My review.

3. Pink Siifu- Gumbo'!

Hey ya!

4. Shannon and the Clams- Year of the Spider

My review.

5. Tinashe- 333

Lucky numbers.

6. Max Richter- Exiles

Luminous.

7. Isaiah Rashad- The House Is Burning

Fire!

8. Bleachers- Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night

My review.

9. Boldy James and The Alchemist- Bo Jackson

Another hit.

10. Angelika Niescier and Alexander Hawkins- Soul in Plain Sight

European birds of a feather.

Top Ten Songs (Released in August)

1. Injury Reserve- "Knees"

“A tough pill to swallow.”

2. Jungle- "No Rules"

Anarchy on the dance floor.

3. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss- "Can't Let Go"

Ooby dooby.

4. Connie Smith- "I'm Not Over You"

Going under. 

5. Rachika Nayar- "Memory as Miniatures"

What if Pat Metheny signed to Windham Hill instead of ECM?

6. Benny the Butcher- "The Iron Curtain"

Imposing.

7. Irreversible Entanglements- "Open the Gates"

“It’s energy time.”

8. Blackstarkids- “Juno”

Summertime blues.

9. Christina Bell featuring Fred Hammond- "Still Faithful"

Conviction.

10. $uicideboy$- “If Self-Destruction Was an Olympic Event, I’d Be Tanya Harding”

Going for gold.

Top Ten Films (viewed for the first time in August)

1. あん/Sweet Bean (2015)

Deliciously transcendent.

2. Moonlight (2016)

Hello stranger.

3. Blue Jasmine (2013)

Family feud.

4. The Wild Bunch (1969)

Desperados waiting for a train.

5. Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot/Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)

French slapstick.

6. Bye Bye Braverman (1968)

Funeral for a friend.

7. La Collectionneuse/The Collector (1967)

Attractive people do ugly things in beautiful places.

8. CODA (2021)

High school musical.

9. The Falcon in San Francisco (1945)

Conventional potboiler.

10. The Tomorrow War (2021)

Goofy sci-fi romp.

Live Music

I swore off electing to place myself amid crowds in Kansas City after a disheartening experience at the airport as August began.  The abhorrent behavior of halfwits and lunatics temporarily eradicated any possibility of enjoying myself at musical performances.

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