Almost everything about Sueños Paralelos sounds wrong. Drummer Lionel Friedli could be auditioning for a rock band. Hans-Peter Pfammatter’s synthesizer belongs in an avant-prog ensemble. The storied saxophonist Tony Malaby and Swiss violinist Laura Schuler get tangled up like competitive kite fighters. The quartet’s rude, unpolished anti-jazz is a combative rebuttal to the codified, calcified realm of mainstream improvised music.
January 2022 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency
Screenshot of the trailer of The Face of Another by There Stands the Glass.
Top Ten Albums (released in January)
1. The Weeknd- Dawn FM
2. Andrew Cyrille, William Parker and Enrico Rava- 2 Blues for Cecil
3. Earl Sweatshirt- Sick!
4. Tony Malaby’s Sabino- The Cave of Winds
5. Silvana Estrada- Marchita
Not unlike peak k.d. lang.
6. Modern Nature- Island of Noise
Jazz-stained freak-folk.
7. Lise Davidsen and Leif Ove Andsnes- Edvard Grieg
8. John Mellencamp- Strictly a One-Eyed Jack
9. Pan Daijing- Tissues
Industrial opera.
10. FKA twigs- Caprisongs
Peculiar pop.
Top Ten Songs (released in January)
1. The Smile- "You Will Never Work in Television Again"
Static.
2. Big Boss Vette- "Heavy"
The weight.
3. Christina Aguilera- "La Reina"
I knew she had it in her.
4. Barbara Hannigan- "Youkali"
Well done Weill.
5. Che Noir- "Split the Bread"
Food for thought.
6. The Streets- "Wrong Answers Only"
“I am a God: I can turn wine into vomit.”
7. Banda Los Recoditos- "Me Siento a Todo Dar"
Drinking and dancing.
8. Love Regenerator featuring Sananda Maitreya- "Lonely"
Terence Trent D’Arby!
9. Sebastián Yatra featuring Rosario and Jorge Celedón- "Dharma"
Dance, laugh, cry.
10. Benny the Butcher and J. Cole- “Johnny P’s Caddy”
The Butcher arrives.
Top Ten Movies, Television Broadcasts and Streaming Programming (viewed for the first time in January, in lieu of live music)
1. The Face of Another/他人の顔 (1966)
Freaky Japanese psychological thriller.
2. Jeopardy! (2022)
Amy Schneider’s remarkable 40-game streak ends.
3. Handsome Serge/Le Beau Serge (1958)
Très barbare.
4. Buffalo Bills vs. Kansas City Chiefs (2022)
The NFL is made for TV.
5. Mary Lou Williams and Carline Ray- At Les Mouches (1978)
6. The Lost Daughter (2021)
Grief in Greece.
7. The Royal College of Music’s Die Zauberflöte (2021)
8. The Catered Affair (1956)
Ernest Borgnine, Bette Davis and Gore Vidal.
9. Winter JazzFest (2022)
A handful of the virtual performances are stunning.
10. From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2022
Life goal.
Links to previous monthly surveys begin here.
Album Review: Tony Malaby’s Sabino- The Cave of Winds
The Cave of Winds is mean and ugly. The confrontational chaos overseen by saxophonist Tony Malaby suits the intractable moment. Malaby, guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tom Rainey convey legitimate fury on the new release. The aggressively angry “Scratch the Horse” sounds like Charles Mingus by way of Sonic Youth. The ebb and flow of the 18-minute title track evokes a middle aged riot. The quartet doesn’t merely disregard the established rules of improvised music; they deface every signpost of swing propriety.