The Old Normal: Derek Taylor 2021
2021 marked my twenty-third-year writing about music. Across the avocation, I have taken hiatuses. One must, I think, to remain engaged, inspired and hopefully, relevant. Late September signaled another sabbatical and the good ship Dusted sailed on without my association. Reviewing for this publication and being part of its community of writers for the past two decades has been a pleasure and a privilege. It is a pursuit that I plan to resume in earnest in early-2022.
In the meantime, here is an annual tradition of trawling through the vast musical treasures released over the past twelve-months to construct a semblance of a list of those that sound elevated to these ears. There is so much in the world designed to deaden, diminish, and deter one’s faculties, but artists and the music they create past, present, and future continue to persevere and endear. Despite the tenacious primacy placed on self-interest in this country, we are still all in this together.
Wadada Leo Smith
Doyen Wadada Leo Smith was steadfast in celebrating his ascension to octogenarian early, opting to embrace the entirety of the year through a series of opulent and edifying releases on the Finnish TUM label. The pandemic pushed back, delaying several until after his December 18th birthday. The titles in the world as of this writing are all nigh essential, including the three-disc solo, Trumpet, the mix-and-match Sacred Ceremonies with Milford Graves and Bill Laswell, The Chicago Symphonies, conceived and scored for his all-star Great Lakes Quartets, and A Love Sonnet for Billie Holiday, which enlists pianist Vijay Iyer and drummer Jack DeJohnette in an album-length paean to the star-crossed chanteuse. The remaining titles are thankfully set to drop in February.
Joe McPhee
McPhee has an invariable and inviolable place on this list, year-end, year out. The passing of his brother Charlie in June 2020 was the biggest blow that year, but he kept a busy release schedule into the next across a variety of projects including the sensibly solo Route 84 Quarantine Blues and a handful of exciting ensemble ventures, among them: Flow Trio’s Winter Garden (ESP), the Blue Reality Quartet with Michael Marcus, Jay Rosen and Warren Smith, and The Sweet Spot, aptly titled in its assemblage of McPhee, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Michael Bisio and Juma Sultan, who turns 80 in April and appears to still be going strong.
Julius Hemphill — The Boye Multi-National Crusade for Harmony (New World)
Physical box sets are still plentiful and popular these days; this one managed to easily match the ask of its exorbitant price with the copious riches of its contents. Curated by the late Hemphill’s erstwhile student Marty Ehrlich, it is an “inside baseball” survey of the maestro’s work from the invaluable perspective of previously unreleased recordings. Vintage duets with musical soulmate and cello wunderkind Abdul Wadud? Check. String ensemble reimaginings of Charles Mingus compositions? Check. The list goes on, and Hemphill shines with scintillating consistency in every context, whether he is playing notes or not.
John Coltrane — Love Supreme Live in Seattle (Impulse)
It is hard not to harbor ill will towards the late Joe Brazil, who sat on the tape source that yielded this release for 43-years and subsequently left hungry listeners the world over in the dark as to its treasures. Yes, the balance is suspect, preserving Elvin Jones’ drums in stentorian clarity while recessing Coltrane to something of a muted, off-mic guest on his own gig. And yes, it is sidemen McCoy Tyner and Pharoah Sanders who subjectively shine most brightly in their respective solo features. But this is still very much a late-period Coltrane concert and one of plum circumstance and topical focus. The titular devotional suite receives a singularly expansive reading, one steeped in energy music extrapolations that set it starkly apart from both its earlier studio and Antibes renditions. Essential listening.
Stephen Riley
Another regular in these end of annum assessments, Riley’s now my depending-on-the-day favorite under-fifty saxophonist, simply because he aged out of the under-forty bracket. I Remember You astutely teams him with an old teacher, guitarist Vic Juris, who lamentably passed away several weeks post-session. Original Mind is similarly incandescent in its capture of a duo concert with pianist Ernest Turner at a Canadian patron’s home. Both deliver on the deep listening, colloquial improvisation that is not as common as it should be given the immense possibilities such intimate engagement accords.
James Brandon Lewis
Science no longer carries the pervasive cachet in public consciousness that it once did. Lewis’ music exists as an exhilarating rejoinder to this depressing directional turn. Inspired and shaped by the intricacies of molecular biology, his working quartet with pianist Auran Ortiz, bassist Brad Jones, and drummer Chad Taylor is proudly egghead on their sophomore album, Code of Being (Intakt), completely sidestepping pretentiousness for an abiding soulfulness and improvisational cooperation. Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms), is a sister project in that regard, working from a broader palette trading piano for cornet, cello, guembri and mbira in aural homage to African American scientist/inventor George Washington Carver.
Cecil Taylor
Taylor’s been gone almost four-years, but the archival wing of his discography is still yielding riches. Lifting the Bandstand (Listening Foundation) applies attention to a dynamic quartet as diverse in membership as it was in sound. Göttingen and Music for Two Continents – Live at Jazz Jamboree ’84 (Fundacja Sluchaj) feature two large ensembles: the first a sprawling variation on Taylor’s workshop venture, the second an iteration of his Euro-American orchestra bolstered by the heavy horn firepower of Frank Wright, Enrico Rava Tomaz Stanko. Corona (Corbett vs. Dempsey) frames a 1996 reunion duo with Sunny Murray with vocal choir while Live in Ruvo di Puglia 2000 (Enja) unearths a solo first set from a momentous concert with the massive Italian Instabile Orchestra. The master’s legacy lives.
Haasan Ibn Ali
A half-century’s worth of whispers and rumors finally came true this year with the release of two archival repositories returning pianist Haasan Ibn Ali to the limelight. Metaphysics dusts off his long-thought-lost quartet session for the Atlantic label with a twenty-something Odean Pope bringing Philly tenor heat. Retrospect in Retirement of Delay takes a deep and welcome dive into the solo side of Ali’s ivories-gilded expression through an extended program of standards and originals. Both are essential post-bop documents, indicative of a fiercely original improvisor who died tragically absent his due.
Fresh Sound
Strange that the most consistently satisfying jazz reissue label is this Spanish one that operates largely independent of stateside copyright considerations and still manages to produce product that frequently puts its domestic counterparts to pasture. This year signaled the launch of another series, “Rare and Obscure Jazz Albums,” which is absolute truth in advertising, returning seminal sides by the likes of reedist John La Porta and the Sandole Brothers (older sibling Dennis, a teacher of Coltrane) to circulation in two-fer form. Bassist Vinnie Burke, guitarists Jimmy Gourley and Arv Garrison, vibraphonist Bobby Montez, and pianist John Dennis (a contemporary of Haasan Ibn Ali) received similar regal treatment through their regular reissue line.
NoBusiness
This Lithuanian label is similarly persistent and dependable in its mission of balancing new free jazz and improvisation releases with impeccably curated archival editions. Most ambitious on their docket this year, Joel Futterman’s Creation Series: five densely packed discs of solo performances by the improvising pianist, doubling sparingly on curved soprano saxophone and creating arrestingly involving worlds of sound. Undulation, a fifth entry in the ongoing Sam Rivers archival series, documents a regrettably truncated fusion-infused tributary of his discography, while the Chap Chap series, revitalizing the work of key Japanese and Korean improvisers, highlights historical performances by saxophonist Mototeru Takagi and brassman Itaru Oki.
Ezz-thetics
A passing of torch in remastering engineers from the prolifically nonpareil Peter Pfister to the so-far worthy Michael Brandli, did little to decelerate the latest iteration of producer Werner Uehlinger’s Hat Hut label. The purview is still a balance of new recordings of creative improvised music and modern classical proponents and carefully refurbished and curated combinations of classic free jazz sessions from labels like ESP, Impulse and Fontana. Vocal detractors may question the legality and ethics of retooling these sacred texts, but there is no denying the proof of the enhanced fidelity on projects like New York Eye and Ear Control and Celebrating Bird at one hundred, the latter which adds further luster to iconic concert and studio sides by centenarian Charlie Parker.
Ches Smith’s We All Break — Path of Seven Colors (Pyroclastic)
Ches Smith had a cultural appropriation problem. Certain audience members started attributing the Vodou rhythms laced inventively through his music as his own creations. The drummer addressed the erroneously assumed authorship head on, forming a band with the Haitian musicians who had inspired him. This handsome, but still economical, box documents two of the ensemble’s iterations separated by a span of a half-decade and the outcome is one of the finest cross-cultural collaborations of improvised music in recent memory. Smith’s kit is a frequent fulcrum, but the singers and percussionists that surround him in both settings are on equal, if not more prominent footing in the figurative and literal dances that ensue. Everybody wins.
Natural Information Society with Evan Parker — descension (Out of Our Constrictions) (Eremite)
Originally released on vinyl, but beyond my scope in that format for reasons noted below, the CD edition of this double album as licensed by Eremite to the Aguirre label brought the music into my orbit and it has never really been absent since. Josh Abrams first assembled the ensemble back in 2010 and like the “ecstatic minimalism” it espouses, there’s malleability to both instrumentation and direction that feels simultaneously deeply organic and mesmerizingly optimistic. Recorded at London’s Café Oto in the summer of 2019, the concert finds Evan Parker augmenting the core instrumentation of harmonium, drums, bass clarinet and Abrams’ anchoring guembri. It is an inspired addition, as the saxophonist mostly sheds his usual acerbic accoutrements for a sonorously sustained euphoniousness that’s utterly disarming.
Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 2 (Rhino/Warner Bros.)
More of Joni as I tend to dig her most. Just a guitar or piano within reach and a repertoire threaded with both originals and folk covers that serves as a means of reciprocal satisfaction between her and audience(s). This second dispatch from singer/songwriter’s dusted-off and voluminous archives leans more to the former stripe. Delicate pathos and winding turns of veiled phrase and phrasing are still populous and personal no matter their sourcing. Fidelity is expectedly variable, but surprisingly listenable across the coffee house stages, TV and radio studios, living rooms and Carnegie Hall. Joni is vulnerably and venturously Joni throughout.
Baligh Hamd — Instrumental Modal Pop of 70s Egypt (Sublime Frequencies)
An invaluable hour-long survey of one of the undisputed innovators of Egyptian orchestral pop music, this assiduously assembled compilation still only scratches the surface of Hamdi’s vast discography. Similar to Salah Ragab in his openness to Western music forms and instruments as additives to a fundamentally Arabic musical foundation, Hamdi’s reach was wider, deeper, and more prolific. The sides gathered, sourced from 1970s albums, revel in intricate quarter-tone constructions and grand ensemble gestures that also benefit from the presence of ace instrumentalists like guitarist Omar Khorshid, organist Magdi al-Husseini, and accordionist Faruq Salama to interpret them. It is the kind of keenly programmed teaser disc that begs for an expansive box set follow-up.
Pastor TL Barrett & the Youth for Christ Choir (Numero)
A Chicago spiritual staple, Pastor TL Barrett recognized that rolling with the idiomatic changes instigated by soul music and proactively involving youth in his vibrant Southside ministry were crucial strategies in successfully spreading the gospel. Barrett recorded a string of albums in the 1970s that are optimal candidates for the royal Numero Group treatment. This CD edition gathering four of the finest of them along with a fifth disc of extras is an effective antidote to the “exorbitantly-priced vinyl blues.” The music is keenly indicative of that contemporaneous “Trojan Horse” tactic of cloaking religious teachings in musical trappings popular with secular circles to create a supercharged alloy equally appealing to audiences suited to both Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings.
Smokey Hogg — The Texas Blues of… (Ace)
Texan Smokey Hogg left a lot to be desired as an accommodating bandleader. Ruled by an idiosyncratic rhythmic compass that rivaled the likes of Jenks “Tex” Carman or John Lee Hooker, he often left his sideman struggling to conventionally accompany him. Keeping up with and catering to his quixotic whims just came with the gig. This compilation, the fifth from the UK Ace imprint, captures more of the weirdly satisfying gestalt Hogg was miraculously able to maintain much of the time. His vocals and guitar spill and slosh over valiant, often futile, backing and somehow stay compelling through a confluence of swagger and ad-lib invention. Solo sides confirm the scrupulous method undergirding his outward-facing arbitrariness. File under music ill-suited for fence-sitters.
V/A — Shake the Foundations: Militant Funk & the Post Punk Dancefloor, 1978-1984 (Cherry Red)
The UK-based Cherry Red imprint has cobbled a cottage industry out of curatorial box sets that also serve as enlightening aural textbooks around musical genres and idioms. This three-disc set applies a research lens to a loosely defined species of funk-influenced post punk that sprang up in British clubs at the cusp of the 1970s. Backbeats and corpulent, rolling bass lines abound, vying with jangly guitars, staccato synths and the occasional compact horn section to express attitude and anomie without sacrificing the vital supremacy of epic grooves. Simple Minds, Jah Wobble, Vicious Pink, Furniture, Perfect Zebras and forty-four other bands get single track opportunities to impart their parts in shaping the scene.
Dollar Vinyl
It is a not-so-secret secret that I have lived nearly the entirety of my adult life without a turntable. That has not precluded the procurement of vinyl, but it has necessitated playing it on borrowed equipment. The reasons behind the admittedly odd abstention fall to spatial considerations and spousal appeasement, but my wife signaled a sea change when she reversed past proclamations and gifted me a record player for my 50th birthday. Since then, it has been self-determined limitations of selectivity and a preference for dollar-priced vinyl with specific priority placed on vintage belly-dancing and Hawaiian/country steel guitar recordings. The specimen below is an especially enjoyable envoy from the first category and made all the better by the presence of a surf-meets-Anatolia guitarist in the accompanying band who arguably was on a steady diet of Omar Khorshid albums at the time.
Unleash the Archers
As a writer who professes a wide purview when it comes to ingesting music, I can still be stubbornly parochial towards certain genres. This is true of metal, where dabbling in unfamiliar bands is something done only rarely and sparingly. Unleash the Archers came to my attention during a lapse in defenses. Initially chafed by their sci-fi-meets-sorcery bombast and theatrics, these traits, amplified through unabashed earnestness that feels gloriously grounded in their British Columbian roots, are now aspects I unreservedly adore. Iron Maiden and Queensryche are indelible antecedents, but Brittany Slayes’ stratospheric pipes, twining melody-musclebound guitars, a Spinal Tap-style, revolving bass chair, and the math-meets-meteorological event that is often Scott Buchanan’s properly pummeled cans make for a reliably engrossing, fist-pumping, power metal result.
Twenty-five more in loosely stochastic order:
Roscoe Mitchell & Mike Reed - Ritual & the Dance (Astral Spirits)
JD Allen – Queen City (Savant)
Nicole Mitchell/ Tomeka Reid/ Mike Reed – Then There’s This (Astral Spirits)
Ben Goldberg – Everything Happens to Be (Bag Productions)
Roscoe Mitchell/ Sandy Ewen/ Damon Smith/ Weasel Walter – A Railroad Spike Forms the Voice (ugEXPLODE)
Claire Chase – Density 2036 (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Jamie Branch – Fly or Die Live (International Anthem)
Lee Morgan – Complete Live at the Lighthouse (Blue Note)
Roy Brooks – Understanding (Reel to Real)
Ray Russell – Forget to Remember, Live Vol. 2 1970 (Jazz in Britain)
Sun Ra – Lanquidity (Philly Jazz/Strut)
Lloyd McNeil – Tori (Baobab/Soul Jazz)
JR Monterose – JR is Alive in Amsterdam (HSM/Ultra Vybe)
Spontaneous Music Ensemble – Question & Answer 1966 (Rhythm & Blues)
Juju – Live at 131 Prince Street (Black Fire/Strut)
Don Cherry – The Summer House Sessions (Blank Forms)
V/A – Zanzibara 10: First Modern Taarab Vibes from Mombasa & Tanga 1970 – 1990 (Buda Musique)
V/A – Edo Funk Explosion, Vol. 1 (Analog Africa)
V/A – Habibi Funk Vol. 2: An Eclectic Selection of Music from the Arab World (Habibi Funk)
Costantinos Kostas Bezos – Jail’s a Fine School (Mississippi)
Bad Brains – Rock for Light, Original 1983 Mix (ORG)
Keith Hudson – The Black Breast Has Produced Her Best, Flesh of My Skin, Blood of My Blood (Mamba/VP)
Neil Young – Way Down in the Rust Bucket (Reprise)
Reverend Robert Ballinger feat. Willie Dixon – King’s Highway (Bear Family)
Waylon Jennings – Singer of Sad Songs/ The Taker & Tulsa/ Good Hearted Woman/ Ladies Love Outlaws (RCA/Morello)
