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Anais Mitchell (LP)
Anais Mitchell
Anais Mitchell is an incredible person. I first became aware of her as a National adjacent artist. Her voice was so arresting, I searched her out. I waited for this album for months and was not disappointed. It's quiet but mighty. Her lyrics are intimate and personal, but the themes she writes about are the biggies: relationship to self and others. How we manifest love, how it scares us to be vulnerable. Our mortality. How time doesn't relent. How to hold on to optimism after we really start to know that. "Brooklyn Bridge" is a song that embodies a beginning. The rush of an unknown that feels full of promise. The audacity to reach for what you want. We all need more of this. But the track that grounded me and affirmed what I have come to understand about what we call growing is "Watershed". Taking it one step at a time even when it feels insurmountable. And then looking back and not understanding why it seemed so hard. But the next challenge always looms, intimidating me and amplifying my fears. It never gets easier, the only comfort is that the fear gets a little more familiar. When I was a kid, I used to think that at some point I would grow-up and things would get easier. After a couple of decades I realized that each little era of my life presents different hurdles that always somehow surprise me and at many times, overwhelms me. But I try to hold onto optimism and courage. "Watershed" is an homage to that impulse. Anais also wrote a great Broadway production called Hadestown, that I was lucky enough to see in New York this summer (before I finally got Covid) and it was stunning. Even if you don't particularly gravitate towards Broadway shows, I highly recommend checking it out.
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Special (LP)
Lizzo
I'm a slow listener, not a prodigious one. Miss Lizzo was the other release that made me happy recently. There are so many imbedded messages in the consumer construct that tell us we are not enough: that there is a product, a look, a social stance outside of us that we need to be okay. And here comes Lizzo telling me that I am enough. And that goddamnit, so is she. That all the self-appointed gatekeepers can STFU, thank you very much. No-thank you Lizzo! We all need to hear more of this.
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Everything Everywhere All at Once (BLU)
This feels like the first movie that has an official Tik Tok aesthetic. Quick edits, crazy pace, references that circle back in a brilliant way. Wow. You cannot "kinda" watch this movie. You have to be all in. But in the end, the mother/daughter story so beautifully acted by Michelle Yeoh and Stephanie Hsu is its gravitational center. One that is timeless, not trendy. I cried at the end because that's my mom. She is my hero. And I know I wouldn't be who I was today without her constant love. I am so, so lucky.
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The Red Hand Files (Other)
Nice Cave
Nick Cave is an international treasure. This blog continually reminds me that love is the answer. I can't recommend it highly enough. Irreverently reverent, 100% authentic, and shamelessly vulnerable. It reminds me that, it's not about me in a beautiful way and inspires me to stay connected to this fucked up beautiful world. Shout out to Jim Marshall for hipping me to this treasure.
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The Love Symbol (1992) (CD)
Prince
The Love Symbol may not register as one of Prince's best but I find it far more engaging than the more popular and venerated Diamonds & Pearls the year before. The NPG had the worst time living up to The Revolution but they have some stellar moments here- and Prince was still engaged in the art of record making, producing a cool clutch of content that underlines his legend, expands some of it, while also showing his limiataions in the marketplace of trends at that moment. Over all, the thing works well enough in a way that gets you comg back.
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ELMER GANTRY (1960) (DVD)
A dyed in the wool classic for which Burt Lancaster won the Oscar, it rumbles and rolls along like a great old Hollywood epic should, with all the bells and whistles and unreal color coming at you full blast. Lancaster sizzles and strikes his way through this film, his raw virility palpable. As a charismatic confidence man who sells appliances with a fervor befitting a preacher, Lancaster's energy cannot be contained, as he punches out every line as if it were judgment day. Jean Simmons plays a successful revivalist, selling The Almighty Gospel in tents set up in small towns. Once the two converge, a routine takes shape, and this pair of sincere hucksters make all the moral moves needed to grow their constituency. There is fire and brimstone, deceit and deception, betrayals and cons, low morals and high, and the wondrous spectacle of not only Lancaster's excited performance- but dozens of peripheral characters who assist in making this sing a beautiful song. These are the kinds of film Hollywood excels at producing, and worth the 146 minutes, as you follow down what happens to just about everybody here, as they all have some sort of fascination within their motivations in which to engage the audience. However, it is Lancaster's show piece, and he is as showy as showy gets, without being exaggerated or outside the depth of what this character has on hold. And Shirley Jones as a blackmailing tramp is one for the books.
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BLUE JASMINE (2013) (DVD)
This gem from 2013 is marvelous. Cate Blanchett does a masterful turn as a ruined woman attempting to build herself back from the brink of broke, and Sally Hawkins does an absolutely stunning piece of acting as her sister, suffering through insults and aggravations brought on by Blanchett's non stop hassling of her choices and ways of being. Andrew Dice Clay is a wonderful surprise here, not exactly doing anything far from his basic character, but perfectly cast to be the man he is in this film. Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Louis CK, Peter Sarsgaard and Max Casella beautifully flesh out this monstrous observation on the perils of self delusion and self denial.
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The Desktop Digest of Despots & Dictators (Book)
Gilbert-Alyer
A fantastic primer as to why the concept of democracy and equal rights and a free existence are things worth fighting for and complaining about no matter how hopeless it seems, because the alternative is...oh, say..having your eyes plucked out because you didn't smile at the emperor ....that's the kind of shit we fight against- oligarchs and despots and presidents who want to be kings that want to stay forever and fill the government with cronies. It may seem a useless struggle to beat that back, but as the man once said "I'd rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave"
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Air (LP)
Sault
Having become familiar with the output of the UK collective over the course of 10+ releases, this album drops with profound confusion. Absolutely beautiful and wonderfully produced as all Sault releases have been, but whereas I've come to expect a pushing of the R&B/HipHop envelope, Air delivers a 20th-Century Classical orchestral/choral landscape more akin to the works of Charles Ives than Minnie Riperton. The settings shimmer with David Axelrod tribute and, all in all, a sumptuous full meal of choral concept. Get surprised.
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s/t (LP)
Meridian Brothers & El Grupo
The Meridian Brothers create a warped, psychedelic and typically humorous angle on Cumbia and Salsa. This release has them playing tighter and better than ever, though the weirdness has been just slightly muted. Thrilling performances, social commentary and a simmering strangeness pervade.
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Two Centuries (LP)
Qasim Naqvi / Wadada Leo Smith
Electronic composer, Qasim Naqvi (Dawn Of Midi) teams up with two octogenarian masters of the Jazz form to bring all of the above into the future. Probably my favorite listen of the year. It just astounds me that two 80-year-old performers are making music more forward-thinking than ANYTHING ELSE that I have heard in years. This trio is dreaming in sync and have created pure revelatory bliss.
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Así No Se Puede (LP)
Romperayo
Pedro Ojeda constructs a new music landscape out of vintage Colombian samples and new performances that skirts the borders between traditional, psychedelic and avant-garde. There is always a groove and a pulse, though sometimes careening into the deep strange. Thanks to World buyer David Gomez for dropping this gem in my lap.
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The Sixth Decade From Paris To Paris (LP)
Art Ensemble of Chicago
AEC celebrated its 6th decade of African American Improvisation by returning to Paris, where they recorded some of their most profound performances. most notably People In Sorrow and Les Stances A Sophie. This time, the two remaining original members, Roscoe Mitchell and Famoudou Don Moye bring along some veterans like trumpeter Hugh Ragin and emerging stars of the new: Moor Mother, Tomeka Reid, Junius Paul and many more. Everything you'd expect: chamber jazz meditations, vocal improvisation, North African rhythms and the sheer tenaciousness of the creative spirit.
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Moshi (re-issue) (LP)
Barney Wilen
French saxophonist Wilen is best known for his playing on Miles Davis' soundtrack to the film Lift To The Scaffold. In 1970, he traveled to Africa with a team of filmmakers to record the music of the native pygmy tribes. On return, he cut together this strange, catchy, slightly hippie document. Though it tests the lines of cultural appropriation, it is still a thing of its own. The spirit of "why not?" bubbles through its whole length. Not far afield from Don Cherry's world music experiments of the same era. I dig it.
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