I recently got a press release for singer Cyrille Aimee's new album that featured the following blurb: "When you see Cyrille Aimée perform, you instantly fall in love with her—her voice, eyes, curls and the joyful spirit she invests in each song." The quote comes from a 2013 interview with Aimee by the singer Roseanna …
Continue reading It’s Not about Cyrille Aimee’s Eyes and Curls
So I went and did some work on my favorite releases of 2014 page, check it out here. It comes with my rational for my new approach to listing my favorite albums by year, and some thoughts on a few of the albums. And check back to the page periodically, as I'll be expanding the …
My S.O. said I couldn't limit my thoughts on last week's Django Gold's satirical piece in the New Yorker about Sonny Rollins to five short sentences. I'm about to prove her wrong. In no particular order: If you thought it was funny (I laughed at the Miles bit), cool; if not, also fine. The response …
Continue reading Brief thoughts on the Sonny Rollins/New Yorker/Django Gold Kerfuffle
TUM Records, based in Finland, is quickly becoming one of my favorite new labels. This is for several reasons: first, and most importantly, the music is all creative, fresh and forward looking, with nods to the jazz tradition and the avant-garde; second, the packaging, artwork and lengthy liner notes makes each release a complete package …
You might have read Ted Gioia's recent piece on The Daily Beast entitled "Music Criticism Has Degenerated into Lifestyle Reporting." Gioia laments the current state of music criticism, arguing that it rarely includes analytical discussions of the music in the way that football commentators often include details of how a particular play or strategy works …
Continue reading What Ted Gioia Missed, and Absolutely Nailed
Those who know me, or at the least know my writing, know that I buy way too much music. More than I can hope to listen to more than once or twice and get to really know. Jean Baudrillard suggests that we collect things because collecting them represents the free time we hope to have …
Continue reading Record Shopping at Home: Muhal Richard Abrams’ Things to Come From Those Now Gone
The folks in charge of Miles Davis' estate, along with Columbia/Legacy, are becoming masters of finding new ways to repackage and re-release the Prince of Darkness' catalog. Or, in the case of the live bootleg series, releasing material for the first time in high quality packaging (Vol. 3 comes out later this month). This fall …
Continue reading Miles Davis’ The Original Mono Recordings: A Buyer’s Guide
In Simulacra and Simulation Jean Baudrillard notes how humans like to stockpile their past as a way to remember it. Perhaps one of the finest examples of this are the various year end poll, best of lists, recaps, summaries etc. This year NPR Music hosted the annual jazz critics poll that Francis Davis has been …
Well shoot, it's that time of the year again - time for me to start going through the numerous albums from 2013 I listened to and try to figure out how to rank them, an arduous task to be sure. As a voter in the annual Rhapsody.com critics poll, I will have to figure out …
Continue reading Voting for Debut of the Year is Gonna Be Tough
There's been a whole slew of great new music that's either come out in the last few months, or that will be coming out recently - more than I have time and energy to write about (especially since I'm trying to finish my dissertation). But, one of these new albums that I absolutely feel compelled …
