Chie Ogura
My fiancé and I will be married in Isehara, Japan on February 17. Embarking on a life together with Chie is a dream come true!
Matthew Shipp – One (Thirsty Ear Blue Series)
Shipp’s 26th album finds him returning to the solo acoustic format for just the fourth time on record, and it carries a special feeling. Jazz purists unhappy with his recent forays into electronics will be comfortable with this entirely acoustic outing, but Shipp’s not regressing or standing still; this disc will stand as a milestone in his discography as his stylistic maturation reaches a new peak. Pointing at influences no longer serves any purpose since Shipp is now a piano icon himself, and certainly all the old Cecil Taylor comparisons remain misguided despite certain surface similarities, but it’s hard to avoid sensing the spirit of the late, great Mal Waldron hovering around this project. Shifting between modality and freedom, these improvisations develop with supremely balanced equinamity, mood counting for vastly more than flashy technique in the organically unfolding, occasionally spiky structures. It’s only January, but I know that at the end of 2006, this will be on my year’s-best list.
Ursula Rucker – Ma’At Mama (!K7)
Brace yourself, here comes this Philadelphia poet/Roots collaborator’s third album: so musically beautiful, yet so lyrically hard-hitting. Some tracks here are more musically aggressive than on her previous albums, more hip-hop inflected, but mellow jazzy grooves still dominate. The musical sound, including the cool, level tone of her voice, is strongly contrasted by the pointed, often confrontational content of her words—whether she’s celebrating female sexuality in graphic (yet not leering) terms, praising minority heroes and heroines, or decrying injustice and mistreatment. It’s not a comfortable listen, but instead a stirring, inspiring incitation to action.
Caracas Lions
The Caribbean World Series was carried, for the first time they said, on U.S. TV. In NY it was on the YES Network, and I watched as much as I could. To be able to see high-quality baseball in early February made me ridiculously happy. Many of the players are major leaguers; Alex Gonzalez, the new Red Sox shortstop, starred for the champions, Venezuela’s Caracas Lions, undefeated in the six-game round-robin tournament.
Beatles – Revolver (Parlophone/EMI)
My favorite Beatles album was the 1966 result of the Fab Four abandoning touring and getting more experimental in the recording studio. The results varied from Paul McCartney’s “Eleanor Rigby” using a string quartet (but not using the other Beatles) to guitar riffs played backwards on tape (“I’m Only Sleeping”) to full-blown psychedelia (“Tomorrow Never Knows”)—before 99 percent of the world had heard of the Grateful Dead—to George Harrison playing sitar (“Love You To”) more authentically than on his first effort, and with guest Anil Bhagwat drumming on tabla. The album’s secret hero: producer George Martin, who wrote the string quartet arrangement, hired Alan Civil to play French horn on “For No One,” and figured out how to bring the band’s myriad ideas to reality.
Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Reprise)
Young found his personal style—and his ultimate band, Crazy Horse—in 1969 on the second album under his name. Droning rock with country inflections, minimally produced by Young and David Briggs, it yielded such classics as “Cinnamon Girl” (his first great exposition of his attraction to women of color), the murder ballad “Down by the River” with its dry, minimal repeated-note guitar solo, and the ambivalent “Cowgirl in the Sand.”
Live Skull – Don’t Get Any on You (Homestead)
One of my top 10 live rock albums. New York’s finest (I think they were better than Sonic Youth) played grunge before it had been named, and this aptly titled album sounds nastier than anything Nirvana (or any other Seattle bands) ever perpetrated. This performance is an explosion of angst punctuated by the most chilling version of Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman” ever.
James Booker – New Orleans Piano Wizard (Rounder)
Recorded “live” in 1977, the best pianist to come out of New Orleans – playing solo as usual – rocks with a steady roll, ornaments with the flashiest right hand in town, and sings the blues. This solo effort grooves deeper than most funk bands—even “On the Sunny Side of the Street” sounds bad.
Gene Clark – Gene Clark AKA White Light (A&M)
Lead singer and main songwriter of the Byrds on their first three albums, Gene Clark didn’t have a whole lot of commercial luck afterwards but made some superb music. This 1971 release might be his best solo album, including a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Tears of Rage” that’s as good as the Band’s more famous version. Now, after the LP’s rocking final track “1975” (with brilliant guitar by producer Jesse Ed Davis of Taj Mahal fame), come five bonus tracks.
Rachel Goswell – Waves Are Universal (4AD)
The Slowdive/Mojave 3 fixture with the dreamy voice finally moved out front for an entire album two years ago. The music alternates between jangly, thickly produced tracks and relaxed, folksy (or outright country) tunes with a more acoustic feel – both modes familiar to Mojave 3 fans, who will love this pretty album’s quietly catchy songs just as much and maybe even a little more.
