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The Big Takeover Issue #93

Michael Toland

Michael Toland began scribbling about music in 1988 for the photocopied ‘zine FHT Music Notes. He’s since written for various print and online publications, including Pop Culture Press (for whom he was reviews editor for several years), Texas Music (of which he was a founding editor), Trouser Press, Sleazegrinder, Sonic Ruin, Amplifier, Goldmine, Austin Citysearch the Austin American Statesman, Blurt and the Austin Chronicle. He was also the creator and grand poobah of the music-obsessive web site High Bias (2001-2006). He lives in Austin, Texas and works for public television.

Charles Lloyd - The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note)

15 March 2024

Concerned by the state of the world, the saxist brought together old and new tunes, with an ear toward inspiring melodies and arrangements.

Ivo Perelman/Mark Helias/Tom Rainey - Truth Seeker (Fundacja Sluchaj)

13 March 2024

The rhythm duo fits right into Perelman’s free improv vision, following him anywhere he chooses to roam.

Rodrigo Recabarren/Pablo Menares/Yago Vazquez - Familia (Greenleaf)

8 March 2024

With a rhythm section from Chile and a pianist from Spain, the beats here don’t reflect the danceable end of Latin America. Instead the trio draws on the Chilean chacarera and the Galician xota to find cultural beats that intersect and evolve.

Frank Carlberg Large Ensemble - Elegy For Thelonious (Sunnyside)

6 March 2024

Elegy For Thelonious is a tribute both to its subject and its creator.

Julian Lage - Speak to Me (Blue Note)

1 March 2024

Lage and producer Joe Henry plot a divergent course for the music, worrying less about genre than about melody and how best for the players to bring it to life.

Doug MacDonald - Sextet Session (Dmac)

28 February 2024

Guitarist/composer Doug MacDonald has somehow never been a household name in the jazz world.

Riley Mulherkar - Riley (Westerlies)

26 February 2024

Trumpeter Riley Mulherkar usually plies his trade with the all-acoustic, rhythm-less brass band the Westerlies. For Riley, however, he’s chosen a different route: blending standards and originals with modern production approaches.

Vijay Iyer/Linda May Han Oh/Tyshawn Sorey - Compassion (ECM)

23 February 2024

One of 2024’s most magnificently, passionately musical releases.

William Brittelle - Alive in the Electric Snow Dream (New Amsterdam)

21 February 2024

Given access to a makeshift studio in the barracks of an abandoned army base, eclectic experimental composer (and New Amsterdam co-founder) William Brittelle created Alive in the Electric Snow Dream, a hypersonic trip through a fractured but fascinating musical mind.

Ghost Funk Orchestra - A Trip to the Moon (Colemine/Karma Chief)

19 February 2024

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Seth Applebaum has fingers in many pies: old fashioned analog instrumentation, up-to-the-minute digital and sampling technology, cross-genre arrangements, an interest in American space history, and an unfettered imagination.

The Jack Rubies - Clocks Are Out of Time (Big Stir)

16 February 2024

Thirty-four years later, the Jack Rubies – consisting entirely of its original lineup – returns with the difficult third album.

The Obsessed - Gilded Sorrow (Ripple Music)

14 February 2024

Gilded Sorrow, the sixth Obsessed album, bears all the hallmarks of the stoner doom pioneer.

John Surman - Words Unspoken (ECM)

12 February 2024

As he approaches his eightieth year on the planet, John Surman chooses not to look back, but to move ever forward.

Joel Ross - nublues (Blue Note)

9 February 2024

On his new album nublues, vibraphonist Joel Ross sets expectations early.

Gentleman Jesse - “Where Time Stands Still”/”Return of the Mack” (Drunk Dial)

7 February 2024

Unlike snooty major labels and high-powered management firms, indie label Drunk Dial encourages its artists to write and record while wasted.

Baratro - The Sweet Smell of Unrest (Improvised Sequence)

6 February 2024

Now based in Milano, Italy, Dave Curran’s joined up with a pair of likeminded natives to form Baratro, an ugly power trio now bearing its first album.

Orgöne - Chimera (3Palm)

5 February 2024

On their latest album Chimera, guitarist Sergio Rios, keyboardist Dan Hastie, bassist Dale Jennings, and drummer Sam Halterman lay it down with the assurance of musicians for whom this music is a part of their very bones.

Ches Smith - Laugh Ash (Pyroclastic)

2 February 2024

Surrounding himself with horns, strings, bass, electronics, and vocals, Smith conjures a strange and seductive spell.

Ivo Perelman/Barry Guy/Ramon Lopez - Interaction (Ideji)

31 January 2024

Recorded in Paris in 2017, the record follows Perelman’s usual MO: gather his pals in the studio and record whatever happens.

The Paranoid Style - The Interrogator (Bar/None)

29 January 2024

The Interrogator sounds like manna from heaven for a certain type of rock & roll fan – specifically those that prefer their riffs ‘n’ grooves to be accompanied by a barrage of smart, pointed, funny lyrics.

Arve Henriksen & Harmen Fraanje - Touch of Time (ECM)

26 January 2024

After improvising a set together at ECM’s fiftieth anniversary concert in 2019, the duo decided to continue their working relationship, culminating in Touch of Time – their first album together.

Amanda Gardier - Auteur (Music Inspired by the Films of Wes Anderson) (self-released)

24 January 2024

Fortunately for those of us unfamiliar with Anderson’s ouevre, knowledge of the inspirational source isn’t required.

Matthieu Bordenave - The Blue Land (ECM)

22 January 2024

Whether on tenor or soprano, Matthieu Bordenave favors a plush tone and a winding, almost slithering technique that sounds like it’s searching for the heart of a piece.

Various Artists: The Memphis Blues Box: Original Recordings First Released on 78s and 45s, 1914-1969 (Bear Family)

20 December 2023

The Memphis Blues Box includes twenty disks’ and over 500 songs’ worth of blues recordings from one of the United States’ most important musical cities, almost all from the first half of the twentieth century.

The Wreckery - Fake is Forever (Helixed)

19 December 2023
Thirty-five years after their final studio LP Laying Down Law, the band reunites for Fake is Forever.

Sullivan Fortner - Solo Game/Micah Thomas - Reveal (Artwork)

18 December 2023

Jazz label Artwork Records has apparently been operating way under the radar, as I hadn’t heard of them until now. That’s especially surprising given their talent roster, including these two piano men.

The Veldt - Illuminated 1989 (Little Cloud/5BC)

15 December 2023

A mere thirty-four years late, the Veldt’s debut album finally arrives.

Datura4 - Invisible Hits (Alive Naturalsound)

14 December 2023

As far as pure listening pleasure goes, Invisible Hits hits every mark Datura4’s albums do, and more.

Tony Marsico - Sleepwalker (Rum Bar)

13 December 2023

Bassist/songwriter Tony Marsico’s long and varied career stretches back to his membership in pioneering Chicano punk band the Plugz, eventually encompassing work with Bob Dylan, Matthew Sweet, Neil Young, and tons of others.

Alon Nechushtan - For Those Who Cross the Seas (ESP-Disk’)

12 December 2023

Recording live in 2006, For Those Who Cross the Seas finds keyboardist and composer Alon Nechushtan assembling a titanic lineup of NYC free and experimental jazz players to perform a pair of longform pieces.

Mark Reboul/Roberta Piket/Billy Mintz - Seven pieces/about an hour/saxophone, piano, drums (ESP-Disk’)

7 December 2023

Few labels are as adamant at showcasing free improvisation as ESP-Disk’, but Seven pieces/about an hour/saxophone, piano, drums does more than that: it shines a light on an under-recorded talent.

Anthony Pirog - The Nepenthe Series Vol. 1 (Otherly Love)

6 December 2023

It’s not only the leader’s own sound that unites the pieces – it’s a shared vision, as clearly every person from whom Pirog asked for tracks got the memo.

Benjamin Koppel - White Buses: Passage to Freedom (Cowbell Music)

5 December 2023

During World War II, there were 20,000 concentration camp prisoners rescued by the White Buses, an operation coordinated and organized by the Red Cross. Danish saxophonist Benjamin Koppel feels this is a story we should all remember – hence White Buses: Passage to Freedom, a thematic concept album.

Eamon Ra - Dunce Witch Snowman (self-released)

4 December 2023

The latest avatar of a recent mini-revival of psych/power/folk pop revival, Eamon Ra shows a great deal of talent and smarts on his second album.

Nitai Hershkovits - Call of the Old Wise (ECM)

1 December 2023

For his fourth solo album, Hershkovits goes it alone, without even a sheaf of scores for company.

Brad Marino - Grin & Bear It (Rum Bar)

29 November 2023

As long as Marino treads the boards, old school rock & roll values of melody, riff, and spice will never die.

Trio Grande - Urban Myth (Whirlwind Recordings)

27 November 2023

Though definitely jazz in nature, the band never specifies what kind of jazz.

Bill Evans - Tales: Live in Copenhagen (1964) (Elemental)

22 November 2023

Taken from two separate dates in August 1964 (plus a bonus track recorded in 1969), these tracks capture the early sixties Bill Evans Trio at its most synchronous.

Palle Mikkelborg/Jakob Bro/Marilyn Mazur - Strands (ECM)

21 November 2023

A Danish jazz summit, the concert captured on Strands brings together three different generations of Denmark-born or based improvisers.

Steve Davis - Meets Hank Jones, Volume 1 (Smoke Sessions)

20 November 2023

In 2008, trombonist Steve Davis and bass player Peter Washington met up with legendary pianist Hank Jones for a relaxed trio session.

Yuhan Su - Liberated Gesture (Sunnyside)

17 November 2023

Featuring tunes written before and during the pandemic, Liberated Gesture presents vibraphonist Yuhan Su with an exceptional band of fellow travelers.

Ivo Perelman/Nate Wooley/Mat Maneri/Fred Lonberg-Holm/Joe Morris/Matt Moran - Seven Skies Orchestra (Fundacja Sluchaj)

15 November 2023

Saxophonist Ivo Perelman tends to stick to small ensembles – duos, trios, even solos. So it’s a nice surprise to hear him with a sextet.

Dave Sewelson/Stephen Moses/Jochem van Dijk/Steve Holtje - Orca Uprising (MechaBenzaiten)

13 November 2023

Nothing like a good old-fashioned free improv party.

Mareike Wiening - Reveal (Greenleaf)

10 November 2023

Three albums in, Cologne-based drummer/composer Mareike Wiening has made herself one of those artists – one whose latest record immediately vaults to the top of the buy/pre-order/save list upon announcement.

Sunny Kim, Vardan Ovsepian, Ben Monder - Liminal Silence (Earshift Music)

9 November 2023

Liminal Silence, the culmination of a long-standing collaboration between Korean singer Sunny Kim, Armenian keyboardist Vardan Ovsepian, and American guitarist Ben Monder, is an album that defies categorization.

Adam Deitch Quartet - Roll the Tape (Golden Wolf)

8 November 2023

Call it soul jazz, jazz funk, boogaloo, or whatever – there’s something irresistible about a good, danceable groove coupled with improvisational flair.

Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quintet - Hear the Light Singing (RogueArt)

3 November 2023

Last year’s debut For the Love of Fire and Water instantly put the Quintet into the top tier of twenty-first century working groups, and Hear the Light Singing will ensure it stays there.

The Drop Nineteens - Hard Light (Wharf Cat)

2 November 2023

There’s nothing particularly twenty-first century about Hard Light – no one’s trying to reinvent the wheel here.

Joe Santa Maria - Echo Deep (Orenda)

1 November 2023

Joe Santa Maria is a great example of the new breed of jazz player – one who absorbs musical influences from across the spectrum of music and incorporates them into his own ideas.

Divine Horsemen - Bitter End of a Sweet Night (In the Red)

27 October 2023

When the Horsemen began in the mid-eighties, they were seen as the Flesh Eaters’ country cousins, with Desjardins’ patented noir lyrics set in friendlier, more melodic environs. As time passed, however, the line between the Horsemen and the Eaters blurred considerably, in part due to each band’s Red Rover membership, and that’s still the case here.