Midnite Jazz :: The Tommy Flanagan Trio (1960)

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The Midnite Jazz column returns with The Tommy Flanagan Trio (1960): a purely laid-back rendezvous into classic jazz ballads and standards. With a sprightly runtime of just over a half-hour, it's the perfect soundtrack for late-night strolls after last calls, when the streets are as hushed as the trio's dynamics . . .

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Transmissions :: Steve Lillywhite

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Welcome back to Transmissions with Jason Woodbury. This week, Steve Lillywhite, a producer who's had as pivotal a role in shaping your host's musical taste as anyone. In this conversation, Lillywhite opens up about working with artists like Dave Matthews Band, U2, Phish, XTC, The La's, Marshall Crenshaw, The Killers, and more. From The Joshua Tree to Billy Breathes, from Before These Crowded Streets to Field Day, Lillywhite speaks about it all, the influence of dub, his production approach, and more . . .

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The Pretty Things :: Rock St. Trop

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Sometimes a record's peculiar milieu is so anomalously ingrained with the finished product that attempting to separate the two is a futile exercise. The "lost" 1969 album Rock St. Trop (sometimes simply titled Philippe DeBarge) is a glaring case study . . .

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Will Stratton :: Points of Origin

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Will Stratton ditches his usual delicacy and heads deep into fire country on his eighth album, delivering a quietly ambitious and wholly convincing set of songs about conflagrations, California and the steady erosions of time. Featuring an array of characters connected by circumstance, saloons and prisons of society’s making as well as their own, Points of Origin expands on (and pares back) Stratton’s careful fingerstyle guitar arrangements and folk melodies to incorporate the bizarro American visions of Steely Dan and Jimmy Buffett. It’s a vivid and exquisite update of rock’s bummer era to fit today’s . . .

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Pass The Hatchet :: On Yo La Tengo’s Guitar Sculptures

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When Yo La Tengo shifts into "guitar sculpture" mode, you'd be forgiven for thinking the idea is simply to make as much noise as possible. But closer inspection reveals Alexander Calder-like complexity, a commitment to movement and grace. The band’s sculptures aren’t static objects made of hard materials like traditional sculpture, but instead are always shifting and moving. The following is a sampling—though not all—of Yo La Tengo in this zone. They are presented chronologically and unranked. After all, this isn’t Guitar Player magazine . . .

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Geologist :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

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We caught up with Brian Weitz (Geologist) late in February about his new collaborative record with Doug Shaw, A Shaw Deal, which transforms guitar sounds into an eclectic, sometimes unrecognizable shapes and patterns, as well as about his fascination with the renaissance instrument, the hurdy-gurdy, which he first heard at a Keiji Haino concert at Tonic in the aughts, and now employs to create hallucinatory improvised sets, about as far from the Ren Faire as a stringed instrument can wander. He’ll be releasing an album of hurdy-gurdy music later this year . . .

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David Grubbs :: Whistle From Above

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This is Grubbs’ first solo LP since 2017, though he has, in between, made records with a Ryley Walker, Taku Unami, Jan St. Werner and the Wingdale Community Singers. This one, too, is a collaborative effort, though Grubbs remains at its intellectual center, pushing the boundaries with precision, rigor and surgical cleanliness, but pushing them all the same . . .

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Echolalia :: S/T

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For a debut founded on the sensibilities of musical friendship, the coexistence of playfulness and brilliant musicianship makes Echolalia a refreshing marvel. Here's hoping there's plenty more to come . . .

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Jan Erik Vold & Jan Garbarek :: Hav (1971)

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In 1969 Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold teamed up with compatriot and a young tenor saxophonist Jan Garbarek who would provide the musical backdrop to his debut poetry record Briskeby Blues. A fantastic record in its own right, but notable here for laying the groundwork for its successor – Hav, in 1971. By this point Jan Garbarek had also released his own debut album in The Esoteric Circle and had just recorded his masterpiece Afric Pepperbird towards the end of 1970 . . .

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John Coltrane :: A Love Supreme (60th Anniversary Edition)

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In 1966, an interviewer in Japan asked John Coltrane what he hoped to be in five years, to which he replied, 'a saint.'" Whether you're an audiophile, record collector, or Coltrane-fanatic (or all of the above), the sixtieth-anniversary edition of A Love Supreme is a welcomed addition to any vinyl library. One small recording session for jazz musicians, one giant leap for all music . . .

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Transmissions :: Jazz Is Dead (Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Adrian Younge)

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This week on Transmissions: Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, the duo behind the label and concert series Jazz Is Dead. Founded in 2017, Jazz Is Dead began releasing new work by jazz artists frequently sampled in rap and hip-hop in 2020, including releases from legendary players like Roy Ayers, Azymuth, Gary Bartz, Lonnie Liston Smith, Tony Allen, and more. Recorded in analog at Linear Labs, the Jazz is Dead series does more than pair younger players with established elders; it showcases the powerful link that connects musicians across decades . . .

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James Brandon Lewis :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

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Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis joins us to discuss his riveting new album Apple Cores: "I just operate within my natural being...I'm the person who, the things that people have told me were wrong about my playing, I leaned into harder . . .

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Group Listening :: Tell Everyone Everything

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Employing synths, drum machine, and a heavily processed clarinet, Group Listening come into their own as agents of playfully askew dance music, launching into a pulsing beat that is quickly augmented by ascending beams of synth and modulated reed tones. A slinky, ribbiting bass line sneaks in, loosely trailed by a cascading synth arpeggio, and a breathy off beat of clarinet emerges as a counter rhythm. The synths begin a dizzyingly layered upward spiral and are then pared back leading, ultimately, to the bass drop . . .

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Roy Haynes :: Hip Ensemble

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A long overdue LP reissue captures drummer Roy Haynes adapting to the disruptions of the ‘70s with his usual alacrity and aplomb. Hip Ensemble finds Haynes dipping into fusion, free jazz and funk, all with his characteristic confidence and vibrant unpredictability. It’s both a snapshot of a particular era and a testament to a classic sound . . .

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Ichiko Aoba :: Luminescent Creatures

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The Disneysical indie folk Ichiko Aoba composes, centered on classical guitar arpeggios and whispered vocals, calls to mind both the halfway-to-classical minimalisms of the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, who she has collaborated with, but also the ambient music boxes of Masakatsu Takagi and the idyllic soundtracks to Zelda games and Studio Ghibli films . . .

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