#hamid drake

[burlveneer-music]

Peter Brötzmann - Majid Bekkas - Hamid Drake - Catching Ghosts - Brötzmann on ACT?! A 2022 live set released shortly before his death

The 2022 Jazzfest Berlin performance by revered, iconoclastic reedist Peter Brötzmann, Moroccan Gnaoua adept Majid Bekkas playing the two-stringed, camelskin-backed guembre, and Chicago-bred drummer Hamid Drake, documented as Catching Ghosts, is historic.

[jacobwren]

Mawama (Live) - Peter Brötzmann · Majid Bekkas · Hamid Drake

[dustedmagazine]

Drazek Fuscaldo — June 22 (Astral Spirits/Feeding Tube)

Chicago residents Przemyslaw Krys Drazek and Brent Fuscaldo have been musical partners since 2007, but this is only the second recording to come out under their respective names. It probably won’t be the last, though. About a year ago they retired their old monicker, Mako Sica, after a decade and a half, having concluded that it might not be respectful for a couple Caucasian guys to use a Lakota name. But in recent times their music has charted a growth trajectory, due in no small part to their choice to persistently team up with elder musicians whose presence and example lights a fire to the core duo’s feet.

You don’t invite Hamid Drake, Joshua Abrams, Tatsu Aoki and Thymme Jones into your circle if you feel like coasting. On June 22, each plays with a degree of attunement and imagination that elevates and fills out Drazek and Fuscaldo’s open-ended, skeletal themes with rhythmic undercurrents and nationality-transcending melodic inventions. The duo have also have used a recording methodology, in which live performances are lightly shaped during post-production, that corresponds to the way Abrams records the Natural Information Society. Finally, a poke from Drake resulted in one of the album’s more remarkable aspects, at least in relation to the rest of the Mako Sica discography. After a concert at the Hideout in 2019, the drummer had suggested to Fuscaldo that he incorporate comprehensible messages into his usually wordless singing, which often sounds rather like that of a guy singing remembered fragments from a Gregorian chant while he takes a nighttime stroll past a graveyard with a bad reputation. The way he binds prayerful cadences to reverential sentiments on “Weaving Tongues,” which takes up the LP’s first side, might make it harder to assign such fanciful projections, but it invests the music with a gravity that suits the times in which it was made.

Parts of “Weaving Tongues,” were drawn from the same session at Promusica, a studio situated within a high-end audio component shop, that yielded last year’s Formless CD. The rest of the album comes from a second session held at Electrical Audio just ten days later. Both occurred in December 2020, when concerts weren’t happening in Chicago, so each gathering was a release from the prevailing COVID circumstances, and the push and pull of twinned basses and percussion underneath echo-laden, questing trumpet lines on “The Coyote Messenger” evokes the way that the vibe of the tines tinged even opportunities for genuine liberation with a sense of inhibition.

A word of caution; the vinyl edition of June 22 only contains about half of the album’s music. Side two of the LP contains edited versions of two tracks, and a fourth, the tersely propulsive “Mirror Beams,” can only be heard on the download. So, be sure to cash in that Bandcamp code.

Bill Meyer

[soundgrammar]

Hamid Drake

[de-salva]

WILLIAM PARKER QUARTET - Malachi`s Mode

Live in Houston, Texas, 2007

Personnel:

William Parker - double bass, double-reed, shakuhachi Hamid Drake - drums Rob Brown - alto saxophone Lewis Barnes - trumpet

[musicmakesyousmart]

Mako Sica with Hamid Drake, Thymme Jones, Tatsu Aoki - Formless

Feeding Tube Records

2022

[thefeminineessence]

I think when we start to understand what masculinity and femininity is, then men won't fear so much the feminine side coming out. And the masculine side for women coming out won't be such a burden, in a way. Just be ourselves.

Hamid Drake

[donospl]

Co w jazzie piszczy [sezon 1 odcinek 10]

premierowa emisja 7 czerwca 2023 – 18:00 Graliśmy: Karoline Weidt Quartet  “Hiatus” – z albumu “Inviting -JazzThing Next Generation Vol. 98” – Double Moon Records / Jazz Thing Mark Dresser “Tynalogue” z albumu “Tines of Cahnge” – Pyroclastic Records The Vampires “Game Changers” z albumu “Nightjar” – Earshift Music Yoni Mayraz “Painkillers” z albumu „Dybbuk Tse!” – Astigmatic…

[choicesficwriterscreations]

It's that time of year again! Thank you to the creators who have shared their Top 5 creations of 2023 according to Tumblr note count. The Creator's Pick Top 5 will be posted this weekend! Links to all fics can be found below the break.

@aallotarenunelma ✒️

So This is Love (BOLAS) - Aerin Valleros x M!elf!MC

Distant Light (BOLAS) - Tyril Starfury x F!elf!MC

Indigo Night (ID) - Cassius Harlow x NB!MC, NB!OC

Répondez, s'il vous plaît! 3 (ILS/ID) - Various Pairings

Sophomore Secret (ILITW) - Dan Pierce x F!MC, M!OC

@angelasscribbles ✒️

A Fervid Fixation (TRR) Ⓜ️ - Drake Walker x MC

In Your Room (TRR) Ⓜ️- Drake Walker x Leo Rys

The Dark Kingdom (TRR) Ⓜ️ - Various Pairings

Dark Elf (TRR) Ⓜ️- Various Pairings

Heir Apparent (TRR) Ⓜ️- Drake Walker x MC, Liam Rys

@baldwinboy5ive 🎨

Blades Coffee Shop AU (BOLAS) - Aerin Valleros x MC

I Will Drag Him Back (BOLAS) - Tyril Starfury & Aerin Valleros

The Spray Bottle (BOLAS) - Imtura, Mal, Aerin

Aerin Instagram (BOLAS) - Aerin Valleros

The Prison Visit (BOLAS) - Aerin Valleros x MC

@cariantha ✒️

Accidental Valentine (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

If Only I Could (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

Code Yellow (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

A Kiss on the Hand (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

Daddy Distress (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

@inlocusmads ✒️

Intro To Negotiation Science (COP) - Trystan Thorne x F!MC

A Strange & Sudden Companionship (COP) - Trystan Thorne x F!MC

Cross Your Hearts & Set it Ablaze (COP) - Trystan Thorn x F!MC

Partner (Disambiguation) (COP) - Trystan Thorne x F!MC

New York, June 2014 (COP) - Trystan Thorne x F!MC

@jerzwriter ✒️

A Different Fate, Part 1 (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

What Happened in Vegas, Part 4 (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

Abundance (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

The Perfect Gift (OH) - Tobias Carrick x F!MC

Take Me Out (COP) - Trystan Thorne x F!MC

@ladylamrian ✒️

Welcome to the World of Night (NB) - Nightbound MC

Bound by Fate (NB) - Nik Ryder x F!MC

A Meeting in Wyoming (NB) - Nik Ryder x F!MC

Wedding Proposal (NB) - Nik Ryder x F!MC

OC Headcanons (NB)

@liaromancewriter ✒️

Every Day (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

Summer Romance (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

Beautiful Stranger (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

Sleeping Beauty (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

Something to Talk About (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

@noesapphic ✒️

The Other Woman (D&D) - Roselyn Sinclaire, Ernest Sinclaire, Duke Richards

A Glimpse of Us (TRR/TRM) - Liam Rys & MC, Fabian Rys & MC

Barcelona | Prince Hamid (D&D) - Prince Hamid x MC

Worthy (TRR) Hana Lee x MC

The Cursed Heiress, Ch. 17 (D&D) - Mr. Sinclaire x F!OC

@peonierose ✒️

Losing Game - Part 1 (OH) - Bryce Lahela x F!OC

Nightbound AU vs. Hänsel & Gretel, Part 3 (NB) - OCs

Nightbound AU vs. Hänsel & Gretel, Part 2 (NB) - Nik Rider, F!MC, OCs

Once, Part 2 (TNA/OH) - Sam Dalton x F!MC

Hau’oli la Heleui (OH) - Bryce Lahela, F!OC, Keiki Lahela

@storyofmychoices ✒️

Go On, Feel It! (BOLAS) - Mal Volari x F!MC

Our Future Doctor (OH) - Bryce Lahela x F!OC

No Kissing! (COP) - Trystan Thorne x F!MC

Dance With Me (OH) - Bryce Lahela x F!MC

A Theif in the Gardens (BOLAS) - Mal Volari x F!MC

@tessa-liam ✒️

Memories (TRR) - Liam Rys x F!OC

The Sacrifice (TRR) - Liam Rys x F!OC

Regrets (TRR) - Liam Rys x F!OC

Old Habits Die Hard (TRR) - Liam Rys x F!OC

Turning the Page, Prologue (TRR) - Liam Rys x F!OC

@trappedinfanfiction ✒️

Brunette (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

Crossroads (OH) Ⓜ️ - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

A New Neighbor (COP) - Trystan Thorne x F!MC

Midnight Talks (OH) - F!MC, Sienna Trinh

What's in a Name? (COP) - Trystan Thorne

@zealouscanonindeer ✒️

Together (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

Company (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

Locked In (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

20 Questions (OH) - Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

Long Overdue (OH) Ⓜ️- Ethan Ramsey x F!MC

[the-unconquered-queen]

This includes every LI you get the chance to marry throughout their series, and boy, are there a ton of them now that I get to making this poll

[lorirwritesfanfic]

WIP Wednesday

(It almost Thursday where I live but who cares about dates, right? 😂)

Looking at me slowing removing the dust from my WIP folder lol. Here are a few WIPs I've been working on lately:

1. Closer [working title] | Prince Hamid X MC (Daphne Wang) - Desire & Decorum Modern Day AU

"So you have family in Europe too!"

"I do. My whole family was exiled after World War One. My grandfather grew up here in the US, but most part of the family lived in Europe. He was visiting one of his cousins in London when he met my grandmother. She was a History teacher and she was fascinated by all his stories about the sultanate and the janissary."

"She wasn't wrong. It does sound fascinating. But why was your family exiled after the war?"

"It's what usually happens to royal families when monarchy is abolished. That is to say, when they get a chance to flee the country before being executed."

Daphne stared wide eyed at him.

"If they stayed, I probably wouldn't be sitting here having tea and baked goods with you."

"Oh..." she mumbled in realisation. "You really are a descendant from the Ottoman sultans."

"I am."

"You could've been a sultan!"

"I'd be a prince, actually. My father is very much alive, thankfully."

2. Mending Fences | Hana Lee, MC (Jade Bourbon)

By the time Jade walked into the room, everyone minus Liam were already there on their seats. Leo, Juliet and Drake seemed engaged into an deep conversation, while Maxwell and Hana had a small talk with the other ladies.

All of them acknowledged her presence with her polite smiles and wishing her good morning, except for three people. Madeleine, of course, just seized her from head to toe, probably disappointed the future queen wasn't poorly dressed as she expected. Drake glared at her for a brief moment then returned to their conversation. Hana's reaction, however, was different from anyone else's. Despite not saying anything, the sorrow in her eyes spoke volumes. Perhaps, it was about time for Jade to take the first step ans start mending fences.

Tagging @jerzwriter @lilyoffandoms @missameliep @noesapphic @thosehallowedhalls and anyone else who wants to share snippets of WIPs

[lilyoffandoms]

Tag game: I will name you some categories or a word and you will tag a tumblr friend or a mutual which matches with it or gives you these vibes. Or their blog vibes. Don't worry, just a game. If you get tagged by someone else, you are lucky. Continue this game with the words of your choice :)

Friends to Lovers

Shy romancers

LGBTQ+

Forbidden Romance

Strangers to Lovers

Royal Romance

Fairytale Romance / Fantasy Romance

Historical Romance

Okay I had to think because some these were difficult!

Friends to Lovers: It’s not a big fav of mine so I rarely read it or search it out. But is it wrong or me to say Daenarya and Maiele for this one? @storyofmychoices would that be okay?

Shy Romance: Again not a big fav of mine since I can’t relate at all to this but I’d say probably @storyofmychoices Olivia (she’s the shy one) and Bryce.

LGBTQ+: Gotta say @oh-so-youre-a-nerd Raine x Aerin, @peonyblossom Thomas x Jackie, @aria-ashryver Cas x Gabe x Luca (<3!!!<3), just about any and all of @aallotarenunelma pairings (Saini holds a special place in my heart tho) and @mydemonsdrivealimo Bryce x Jensen.

Forbidden Romance: Again not a fav of mine

Strangers to Lovers: I got nothing with this one haha Anyone got some recs for me?

Royal Romance: @inlocusmads Trystan x Nora. I don’t care if any y’all say it ain’t royal. Disgraced Royal/Former Reigning Royal covers the bases for royal romance. I don’t read much TRR (like at all) because I can’t get over the name haha but @petiteboheme Drake x Ava makes me long for home in the best of ways! The royal romances that aren’t royal any more are my kinda royal romance hehe

Fairytail Romance/Fantasy Romance: @ladylamrian hands down! Keeping the Nightbound fandom alive and just all around beautiful human bean!! Also @storyofmychoices for my favorite OTP that ain’t mine with Mal x Daenarya!!

Historical Romance: @lorirwritesfanfic Hamid x Daphne is my favorite Hamid writer (though her version isn’t historical I’m counting it hehe)

[dustedmagazine]

“Everybody Hollerin’ GOAT” — Derek Taylor’s 2022

I’ve been reverentially pilfering Bill Steber’s photos as visual ledes for as long as I’ve been writing these Year End paeans (the first was in 2003, making this one the nineteenth). There’s something about Steber’s keen eye for negative space, composition and context that makes me think of Blue Note’s Francis Wolff, if transplanted to the Mississippi hill country. No blues to speak of in the stack of recordings this time around, at least as sourced from that legendary, loamy region, but still lots that’s helped keep my head screwed on and faculties relatively fog-free over the past twelve-months.

Wadada Leo Smith

Smith’s ascendance to octogenarian eminence was simply too merry and momentous an occasion to be contained to a single year. As the concluding two entries in a hexalogy of releases on the Finnish TUM label highlighting facets of his multifarious output, Emerald Duets and String Quartets, Nos. 1-12 dropped in May and were also arguably the most ambitious. The Dusted bullpen collectively dug in on both sets in a rousing Listening Post roundtable that forgivably favored the more accessible exploratory encounters with drummers Jack DeJohnette, Andrew Cyrille, Han Bennink and Pheeroan AkLaff.

Joe McPhee

The Powerhouse from Poughkeepsie turned 83 years young in November and as with past years his productive spirit appears immune to enervation or ennui. Ensemble efforts like Survival Unit III’s The Art of Flight (Astral Spirits/Instigation) and Pride of Lion’s No Question No Answers (RogueArt) continue to be the common currency of his artistic realm, but McPhee also found aegis for the release of exhilarating duets with cellist (and freshly-minted MacArthur “genius”) Tomeka Reid (Let Our Rejoicing Rise) and British sax eidolon Evan Parker (Sweet Nothings (For Milford Graves), both pressed on the prolific Corbett vs. Dempsey imprint (see below).

Peter Brötzmann

Speaking again of unstoppable octogenarians, Herr Brötzmann came out of COVID isolation with renewed vigor and a concert calendar still compellingly competitive with musicians a fraction his age. New entries in his edifice-sized discography weren’t nearly as plentiful, but a pair of archival releases still packed a gobsmacking punch. Historic Music Past Tense Future (Black Editions Archive) drops the German reedist and bassist William Parker into the precision polyrhythmic maelstrom of Milford Graves circa spring 2002 across a double slab of vinyl. In a State of Undress (FMP/Be!) is free jazz of a more formal sort with the one-off aggregate of trumpeter Manfred Schoof, bassist Jay Oliver and drummer Willi Kellers tempering the leader’s orotund edges.

Tyshawn Sorey + Greg Osby — The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism (Pi)

Keeping up with Tyshawn Sorey’s indefatigable activities is a lot like keeping pace with Joe McPhee, a full-time pursuit worth every penny and effort. This three-disc set has the instant enticement of capturing his working trio in the hothouse context of an extended gig at the Jazz Gallery in NYC. Add to that a program of alchemized standards sourced from the Great American Songbook and jazz brethren along with altoist Greg Osby in a rare sideman station and the results become an irresistible trigger pull. In a word: epic.

Cecil Taylor

Taylor’s been gone four-plus-years, but his in-life prolificacy continues to bestow posthumous gifts. Revelatory and digital-only, The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert at the Town Hall, NYC, November 4, 1973 (Oblivion) expands greatly on its previously truncated incarnation, Spring of Two Blue-J’s originally on Taylor’s own Unit Core imprint back in 1974. Respiration (Fundacja Słuchaj!) and Live in Ruvo Di Puglia 2000 (Enja) reveal previously unreleased prototypes of his solo repertoire separated by the span of thirty-two years. Sharing a surname with the pianist probably suggests the presence of bias, but I will still ardently go on record in stating that all three are essential.

Albert Ayler — Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings (Elemental)

Previous editions of this material are now obsolete thanks to this magnificent, meticulously assembled set. So invasive were earlier edits and excisions, particularly as concerns the catalytic contributions of Ayler’s life and musical partner Mary Parks (aka Mary Maria), that it’s like hearing the concerts anew. Parks’ memory and jazz history are restored by producer Zev Feldman and his retinue of collaborators. The results are glorious, both in terms of restored fidelity and the extended majesty of Ayler’s last band firing on collective, conflagratory cylinders.

Chris Dingman — Journeys Vols. 1 & 2 (Inner Arts)

Chris Dingman nearly topped my Year End list two-years ago with an ambitious five-disc opus Peace, a dedicatory body of work for solo vibraphone initially conceived as an aural paregoric for his ailing father. The elder Dingman passed away prior to its release and in navigating the grief in the years since, the son’s doubled down on the unaccompanied format as means of realizing Albert Ayler proffered adage that “music is the healing force of the universe.” Journey’s 1 & 2 reflect their predecessor, but also refract it through a sequence of malleted excursions emphasizing melody and repetition in rippling, elliptical patterns that soothe and enthrall.

Corbett vs Dempsey

John Corbett is indicative of my favorite species of record collector: an altruist whose obsessiveness in the endeavor is exceeded by his ardor for sharing the spoils of this searches through reissues that completely do the artifacts justice. Chief among the offerings this year, German free jazz pianist Georg Gräwe’s first two forays as a leader, New Movements (1976) and Pink Pong (1978), and the pivotal Globe Unity (1967), which restores Alexander von Schlippenbach’s first multinational large ensemble enterprise to circulation. Also of note, another stack of entries inspired by the Sequesterfest series of concerts initiated during the pandemic. Drummer Hamid Drake’s Dedications features solo percussion-planted encomia to his influences and is probably my pick of the eight titles released so far.

The Pyramids — Aomawa: The 1970s Recordings (Strut)

A box set that brings a personal blind spot into bracing focus and rectifies it. The Pyramids initial three albums plus a concert air shot given the deluxe treatment by the Strut label. Ancient to the Future with audible Sun Ra Arkestra and Art Ensemble influences, reedist Idris Ackamoor’s ensemble is never slavish or supine in its interpretations of precedence. Percussion jams are plentiful, as are spiritual jazz overtones, and it all combines in an earthy gestalt that also has a healthy respect and acumen for groove. I’m of an age where regrets feel increasingly impractical, but it’s still good to catch up.

Grounation — The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari (Soul Jazz)

An arguable Jamaican analog to Aomawa in its assemblage of certain analogous ingredients, Groundnation was also something else entirely. Sprawling across three LPs (a milestone in the country’s recording industry), The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari resonates as history lesson, call to arms, sacred text, and adulatory celebration among other appellations. Count Ossie, Cedric IM Brooks and their confreres mined both zeitgeist and musical alloy that had lasting effects not just on reggae, but self-determinate roots-oriented music of all sorts. Soul Jazz’s painstaking attention to accurate reproduction and contextualization is admirable and immersive.

Robbie Basho — Bouquet (Lost Lagoon)

Self-produced, released and circulated in 1984, Basho’s penultimate album tests and perhaps proves the prevailing theory that detractors of his singing far outnumber those of guitar playing. Still, he succeeds where other great polarizers of the pipes like Irene Aebi, Yoko Ono and Ethel Merman fail in his unflappable earnestness and credulity. The self-doubt and cumulative frustrations that haunted Basho in life subsume in the sincerity of his music, strangely sui generis in its intensely personalized strains of borrowed religion, spirituality and mysticism. Mileage varies, but there’s no denying Basho’s commitment to his muses.

Sun Ra

Labels like Modern Harmonic and Cosmic Myth Ra continue to keep Ra relevant even though the Saturnian left the planet decades ago. This year’s passel of reissues includes timely returns of Ra to the Rescue and Universe in Blue, each augmented with extra and/or extended tracks. The latter album includes several showstopping John Gilmore spotlights and ample Ra organ-omics while the former gets its most complete edition yet with a survey of snapshots across 1970s sessions. A genuinely new release, Prophet zeroes in on Ra’s 1986 in-studio experiments with the then-newfangled eponymous console and he responds like a kid in a keyboard candy store with select Arkestral band members, including an ailing June Tyson, in exuberant, if fleeting, support.

Steeplechase

The Danish label is an old reliable in these pages, plugging along with current releases from its international stable of artists alongside occasional, but always welcome, reissues. Stephen Riley’s My Romance isn’t the tenorist’s first recording with B-3 organ, but it does mark his first as a leader. Electing Brian Charette to cover the keys with just Billy Drummond on cans in support is a stripped-down stroke of genius. Vintage concert performances with bop pianist Duke Jordan in the company of Danish tenorist Bent Jaedig (Montmartre ’73) and archival recordings by tenorist Brew Moore (Special Brew) and dearly departed Philly guitarist Monette Sudler (In My Own Way) stand out, too.

Bear Family

Bear Family basically has access to a bank vault-sized archive when it comes to vintage country fare. It’s a mighty good thing because Bill Carter holds at best token traction with the 21st century arbiters of the genre. Sixty-seven tracks across two discs chart the ups, downs, and all arounds of Carter’s career (The Complete Recordings from 1953 to 1961) jumping from Western Swing to hillbilly to honkytonk to rockabilly. Perhaps best of all, Carter was 92, lucid, and around to see the release back in March. Western Swing legend Bob Wills’ younger brother Billy Jack was the recipient of similar treatment with Cadillac In Model ‘A’, a comparatively stingy 31-track survey and latest in the label’s long running Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight series.

Ezz-thetics

Born out of both providence and necessity, the Ezz-thetics label exists in the continued absence of the venerated Hat Hut lineage of imprints. The earlier catalogs are tied up in legal proprietary knots, leaving owner Werner X. Uehlinger to throw caution to the curb and pursue a longstanding dream of applying his decades-honed judgment as a producer to free/jazz classics. The venture immediately ran afoul of critics who took umbrage with his audacity in side-stepping stateside copyright considerations and reimagining sacred texts. Wherever one opines on those controversies, there’s no denying the new lease audio engineer Michael Brandli has accorded the source materials. Cecil Taylor’s (With) Exit to Student Studies Revisited, Paul Bley’s Play Annette Peacock Revisited, and Sun Ra’s Nothing Is… Completed & Revisited are exemplary stand outs.

Fresh Sound

Lisbon-based Fresh Sound is another reissue label that continuously courts its share of contention. The logical, if admittedly self-serving counter is that American rights holders to nearly all of the music that they traffic in couldn’t be bothered to apply even a fraction of the care or quality they bring to bear. Exacting attention to the most esoteric and obscure jazz artists has long been the archetype. This year’s batch includes definitive collections of trumpeter Dave Burns (1962 Sessions), baritone saxophonist Virgil Gonsalves (Jazz in the Bay Area 1954-1959), altoist Joe “Mouse” Bonati (Portrait of a Jazz Hero) and Belgian vibraphonist Fats Sadi (Sadi’s Vibes: A Retrospective 1953-61).

Morteza Mahjubi — Selected Improvisations from Golha, Parts 1 & 2 (Death is Not the End)

Tempered instruments aren’t an intuitive match for micro-tonal composition, but that hasn’t hindered musicians of manifold ethnicities from adapting them to the intricacies of indigenous music. Iranian pianist Morteza Mahjubi did so prolifically during his lifetime, recording his innovations for Golha (Flowers of Persian Song and Poetry) radio programs between 1956 and his passing in 1965. Spread over two album-length discs (with hopefully future volumes to follow), Mahjubi applies his custom tuning system to the ivories and approximates the sonorities of endemic instruments like the tar (lute) and santur (hammered dulcimer).

Branko Mataja — Over Fields and Mountains (Numero)

Mataja’s biography reads like a Spielbergian screenplay. Abducted from his native Belgrade and conscripted to a German work camp during WWII, the lifelong guitar enthusiast worked a variety of trades after being liberated, before emigrating to England, then Canada, and finally a string of stateside cities. Mataja eventually settled in Los Angeles where he worked as a barber and started a side business a freelance guitar technician. Memories of his home country haunted him, and he recorded a pair of albums in his garage studio/workshop from which this LP is sourced. Milky, murky reverb and sustain are calling cards, alongside an improvisatory approach to traditional Croatian melodies that’s equal parts melancholic and mysterious.

V/A — Padang Moonrise: The Birth of the Modern Indonesian Recording Industry 1955-1969 (Soundway)

A double-LP + 7” survey stacked with sublime discoveries from coordinates geographic and temporal that beg for an even deeper dive. Reverb-dipped guitars and swirling, droning organs are persistent common denominators alongside varied hand percussion and a revolving cast of melancholic crooners across genders and dialects. It’s cross-cultural music that’s exotica-adjacent and still ripely redolent of American soul. Ghost World’s Enid would’ve had a field day immersing herself in this stuff. I know I have.

Jalaleddin

Old, but still new to me, and perhaps my most listened to platters among the many vinyl discoveries procured on record shop safaris this year. Discogs lists seven albums to Jalaleddin’s name, and I feel fortunate to have found six on the cheap in a single shop. Based in San Francisco in the 1970s and a master of the kanun (Turkish trapezoidal zither,) Jalal Takesh started his musical career cutting belly dance records. Benefiting from a Santana-like broadmindedness, his bandleading would soon conscript musicians of other traditions including Indian ragas, Greek rebetika, and Spanish flamenco. Hand-sketched and colored by an academic friend of Takesh’s, the album cover illustrations are aces, as well.

25 More in No Fixed Order…

Andrew Cyrille/William Parker/Enrico Rava — 2 Blues for Cecil (TUM)

Michael Bisio Quartet — MBefore (Tao Forms)

Ingrid Laubrock/Brandon Lopez/Tom Rainey — No Es La Playa (Intakt)

Patricia Brennan — More Touch (Pyroclastic)

Mark Turner — Return from the Stars (ECM)

Jeb Bishop/Pandelis Karayorgis/Damon Smith — Duals (Driff/Balance Point Acoustics)

Ches Smith — Interpret it Well (Pyroclastic)

Sam Rivers — Caldera (NoBusiness)

Toots Thielemans & Rob Franken — The Studio Sessions 1973-1983 (Dutch Jazz Archive)

The Pyramids — Penetration! (Sundazed)

Horace Tapscott Quintet — S/T (Mr. Bongo)

V/A — Girls with Guitars Gonna Shake (Ace)

John Ondolo — The Hypnotic Guitar of John Ondolo (Mississippi)

Biluka y Los Canibales — Leaf-Playing in Quito 1960 to 1965 (Honest Jon’s)

Myra Melford’s Fire & Water Quintet — For the Love of Fire & Water (RogueArt)

Ndikho Xaba & The Natives — S/T (Trilyte/Mississippi)

Brandon Seabrook — In the Swarm (Astral Spirits)

Sirone — Artistry (Moved by Sound)

William Parker — Universal Tonality (Centering)

Charles Mingus — The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s (Resonance)

Markos Vamvakaris — Death is Bitter (Mississippi)

Jeff Parker — Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy (Eremite/Aguirre)

Mal Waldron — Searching in Grenoble: The 1978 Solo Piano Concert (Tompkins Square)

Allan Botschinsky Quintet — Live at The Tivoli Gardens 1996 (Stunt)

Jimmy Castor Bunch — The Definitive Collection (Robinsongs)

Derek Taylor

[soundgrammar]

Listen/purchase: FOR JEMEEL - FIRE FROM THE ROAD by STEVE SWELL'S FIRE INTO MUSIC (STEVE SWELL, JEMEEL MOONDOC, WILLIAM PARKER, HAMID DRAKE)

[thomasmartinnutt]

Chance Encounters #005

https://www.mixcloud.com/thomasmartinnutt/chance-encounters-005/

Magdaléna Manderlová, Akio Suzuki, Alessandro Bosetti, Stephen Vitiello, Aho Ssan (feat. Nyokabi Kariūki), Biliana Voutchkova & Charmaine Lee, Coppice, Douglas Quin, William Parker & Hamid Drake, Rajesh Mehta, Gabi Losoncy, Thomas DeAngelo, Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Laraaji, Voice Actor, Jen Powers, Cole Pulice & Matthew J. Rolin, Lilien Rosarian, Dick Raaijmakers, John Grzinich, Eric La Casa & Seijiro Murayama, Heiner Goebbels, Erlend Apneseth Trio, Erik Griswold, Natalie Beridze, Joep Beving, Timothy Leary, Brian Eno with Jon Hopkins & Leo Abrahams