Vanessa Rossetto has been based variously in Texas and New York, but the most important location is whatever place her recordings reveal from second to second. She uses field recordings, snatches of found dialogue, the voices of her and a few confederates, and a viola to make long form sound expositions that bristle with expressed emotion and revealed texture. Since 2007 Rossetto has recorded on her own and in duos with Steve Flato, Lee Patterson, and Matthew Revert. Her most recent releases are the hour-long Rocinante, which is available as a Bandcamp download and a limited-run CD-r from Hologram, and Fashion Tape, a cassette from No Rent.
About the list
Often people who only know me through my work are surprised by the type of music I most often actually listen to. They aren't all I enjoy, of course, but some of the main types of music I have always been drawn to are early blues and country because of the emotive power of those genres as well as the strong narrative threads that run through the songs, especially when contrasted with much of more aesthetic-based (versus content-based) "experimental" music, so there's a lot of that sort of thing in here. Descriptions of each of my selections will be pretty brief, because sometimes it feels hard enough liking things at all without explaining why you do.
"When The Moon Shines Bright On Charlie Chaplin" (Anti-Chaplin WWI Novelty Song) - 1918
This is one of the primary songs I remember being sung to me by my grandmother, usually while having my hair brushed out. I listen to it on repeat a lot when I am waiting for large files to bounce down.
Roscoe Holcomb – “I am a man of constant sorrow”
Not sure if listening to this as often as I do contributes to me being a giant bummer or if my love of it is a symptom of that. Regardless, it hits me right in my heart. Holcomb, a shit-hot banjo player, elected to record this one without instrumental accompaniment which I think makes it even more poignant and impactful.
Nugrape Twins – “I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape”
Christy & Launa Burroughs – “Swamp Guinea Legend & Been To Swamp Guinea”
Possibly, no, definitely my favorite song of all time. There is nothing about it I do not love. There's very little known about these guys, other than that their names were Matthew and Mark Little, they were actual twins and were from Georgia. This track is utter perfection to me.
In a similar Southern advertising jingle vein
Washington Phillips – “Paul and Silas in Jail”
A totally different song from the commonly covered "Paul and Silas Bound in Jail," this is just a beautiful track with lovely, delicate instrumentation. Poor Washington died from a fall down a flight of stairs, which is a fate I fret over pretty often.
Jacki Apple – The Mexican Tapes
This is not a lot like most of the other things I'm including here, but if I could make something one tenth as engaging and fascinating as this I think I could be happy forever.
Joseph Spence – “I'm Going to Live That Life”
The best advice, delivered impeccably.
Geeshie Wiley – “Last Kind Words”
No known photos of Geeshie Wiley are extant, which doesn't sound like such an awful legacy, left to represented only by your work. Such a great vocal performance on this, defiant and yearning all at once.
Texas Gladden
This has been a hugely important song to me for most of my life. It's pretty much perfect, in my estimation.
Child Ballads taught me how to live. Another from Texas Gladden, this is a particularly cheeky version of the Farmer's Curst Wife.
"The old woman went whistling over the hill, said the devil won't have me I wonder who will?"
Tita Merello – “Se Dice de Mi”
I couldn't not include this, with its supercharming delivery and some of the best lyrics ever, conveniently translated.
Dock Boggs – “Oh Death”
There are SO many good versions of this song, but this one is probably my favorite of them.
Sweet Emma Barrett – “I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None Of My Jellyroll”
Shane Parish knows a few things about changes. Born Shane Perlowin, he grew up in the sticky flatlands of Florida and settled in the higher, dryer environs of Asheville, NC. He formed the Ahleuchatistas, a high-energy electric instrumental outfit that took its name from a Mexican revolutionary movement and a Charlie Parker tune, in 2002, and has been its sole consistent member (currently drummer Ryan Oslance is the other half of the band). In Asheville, Shane earns his crust as a guitar teacher and has made his cultural impact as the curator and coordinator of improvised music at a succession of venues. He’s demonstrated his responsiveness on recordings with Jacob Wick, Tatsuya Nakatani, Frank Rosaly, and Tashi Dorji, but also articulated a personal improvisational language that aspires to the formal coherence of folk songs and classical compositions on solo recordings like Odei and his Tzadik debut, Undertaker Please Drive Slow (reviewed on Dusted here). Along the way he’s acquired a different surname, a family, and a dress-up gig entertaining tourists at Asheville’s Biltmore Estate.
Remembering Mr. Rogers (1994/1997), Charlie Rose
"We get so wrapped up in numbers in our society.The most important thing is that we're able to be one to one. At the moment. If we can be present to the moment with the person that we happen to be with at the moment. That's what's important.” I personally regard Fred Rogers perhaps the way many people do the Dalai Lama. A giant of a man who has made the world safer for millions of children and adults. And not a bad composer in his own right!! When Charlie Rose asks him, “Who has made a difference in your life?” Mister Rogers answers: “Oh, a lot of people. But, a lot of people who have allowed me to have some silence. And I don't think we give that gift very much anymore. I am very concerned that our society is much more interested in information than wonder. In noise, rather than silence.”
Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists by Kay Larson
Having spent a large part of my college days reading and writing about John Cage for my BA in philosophy, I was super stoked when this biography was published in 2013. It features my favorite writing about Cage’s life and the global community of artists that he inspired. It delves deep into the Zen philosophy that informed his life and work, and draws lines connecting the various artists with whom he came into contact.
The Complete Folkways Recordings, 1958 by Joseph Spence
Bahamian guitarist, Joseph Spence, mumbles and growls improvisatory variations on the themes of his repertoire throughout each performance. While his playing is hard-driving, he doesn’t ride the pulse to death with a bass note on every quarter note. I once read that his style is “rolling” like the ocean he was surrounded by, as opposed to the American players whose feel mimicked the driving straight lines of the railroad trains. The music is constantly morphing and breaking into jagged angles, full of his own idiosyncratic ornaments that get recycled into subtly shifting permutations, while never losing the implied pulse. These songs could go on all day long and that would be a great day of head bobbing, indeed.
What Happened Miss Simone? by Liz Garbus
The 2015 documentary about Nina Simone is an intense emotional roller coaster about one of the greatest musical geniuses to grace our planet with her presence. Her life was a struggle marked by trauma and abuse. Her militant politics were uncompromising, as she responded to the daily violence and injustice perpetrated against black people by our racist society. Her pain found expression in the all-consuming, overwhelming intensity of her performances. As a virtuoso pianist, she seamlessly fuses Bach with the blues and jazz to produce the most kaleidoscopic and dazzling improvised fantasies imaginable.
King of the Klezmer Clarinet by Naftule Brandwein
A traditional Klezmer song performance cycles through a handful of themes a few times and then the song is over. Any fresh perspective brought to these tunes must happen with subtle changes in articulation, ornamentation, tone, and dynamics. Naftule Brandwein plays with such whimsy and abandon within the confines of this restricted form. The way he toys with the composed melodies keeps them alive and interesting for each cycle through. I have often thought about how his glissandi and trills can be realized on guitar. A great role model for avoiding stagnation within a context of repetition.
Tallahassee, The Movie, parts 1 - 4 by Courtney Chappell
In this piece of cinéma vérité the director takes us with her as she returns to her childhood hometown, ostensibly to work on an art project with a childhood friend. It explores themes of failure, trauma, nihilism and friendship against the backdrop of a mundane college town in Florida.
Solo in Rio 1959 by Luiz Bonfa
One of my favorite solo guitar outings, full of syncopated rhythms, incredible contrasts in tone, lyrical use of chromatic harmony. You get the sense there is nothing this guy can’t do. The guitar as drum. The guitar as orchestra, in the Segovia sense. He paints a rich and colorful picture of life going by with his instrument, as in the inventive tone poem, “A Brazilian in New York”, where he live scores his spoken narrative about walking through the city. “Murder” is an angular and varied improvisation that sounds incredibly modern, as if parts of it could have been played by Mary Halvorson or Thomas Bonvalet.
His Great Songs by Atahualpa Yupanqui
The legendary Argentinian folk singer and guitarist’s playing is dark, lyrical and virtuosic, and he has the voice of an angel. In his hands, the instrument becomes a sparkling stream of water flowing. He blends classical technique with flamenco and folkloric traditions, performing breathtaking instrumentals and providing intricate accompaniment to his velvety vocalizations.
Doris by Cindy Crabb
A prolific handmade zine chronicling the adventures of a lifer punk rock political activist, dealing with issues around abortion, sexual abuse, masculinity, feminism, anarchism, and mental health. Often, the stories are accompanied by Crabb’s stylized cartoon drawings. For me, her short stories have a kinship with the realism and inner life revelations of Carson McCullers.
Thelonious Himself by Thelonious Monk
There is nothing quite like Monk alone. Brad Mehldau explained it well, even if a bit overly academically, in his liner notes to his own 2006 album, House on Hill. The internal logic of a piece is inherent in Monk’s improvisations, which flow naturally out of the theme. When anyone else plays a Monk tune, they superimpose their own jazz education, background and inclinations into the improvising. While this is unavoidable, and not a bad thing altogether, hearing the singular artist alone is a total immersion into his peculiar genius.
Canticles of Ecstasy by Hildegard von Bingen performed by Sequentia
This music was the soundtrack to the birth of my daughter. Haunting holy vocal music from the 12th century and some of the finest drone-based music ever composed. Transcendent.
Paris is Burning by Jennie Livingston
Documentary about the New York gay ballroom scene in the late 1980’s. A candid and deep study in counterculture, persona, and fame. Dorian Corey, a drag queen whose insights are featured prominently throughout the film leaves us with these words, “You left a mark on the world if you just get through it… you don’t have to bend the whole world. I think it’s better to just enjoy it, pay your dues, and enjoy it. If you shoot a arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you.”
