Author Archives: Joseph Neff

Based in Catalonia, Spain, the Guerssen label, which includes subsidiaries Out-sider Music, Pharaway Sounds, and Sommar, had a productive 2023. We begin the new year by throwing a multi-part spotlight onto a handful of recent Guerssen releases; the first five are Pete Fine’s On a Day of Crystaline Thought, Asgard’s For Asgard and eponymous records by Heavy Rain, Blind Willie, and Majic Ship, all available now and given proper consideration below.

Pete Fine’s On a Day of Crystaline Thought is a wildly ambitious slab of symphonic rock with prog, psych, and folk elements. It was recorded in NYC in 1974, privately pressed in an edition of 100 copies and is therefore totally scarce. In addition, this album is effectively Fine going solo, as he was previously in The Flow, a solid but equally obscure heavy psych band (think Blue Cheer and Cream) who cut a one-sided album, The Flow’s Greatest Hits in ’72 that was given an expanded reissue on CD by Shadoks Music a couple decades back. Guerssen delivered a repress on wax in August of 2023 with copies still available.

One song, “Bijinkes,” made the transition from The Flow to Crystaline, but overall, any similarities are hard to detect. Of course, when dudes in heavy bands fall under the sway of Anton Bruckner there are serious reasons to worry, but Fine had the skills and the organizational smarts to productively realize his flights of imagination. The title composition is a four-part suite loaded with flute, guitar strum and a legit string section; its sweep is lilting rather than ponderous. Even better, the singing across the record adds value, especially the gal vocals by Sam Hardesty on the folkier second side.

While Crystaline doesn’t radiate strong “private press” vibes, neither does it succumb to the sort of slick maneuvers that would’ve surely been thrust upon it by production pros, even those employed by a smaller label. The job in this case was handled by Fine and Hardesty, who captured a sound that is bright, full-bodied, and at times quite intense.

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High-quality new music flowed with abundance in 2023. Here’s part one of the best to hit our ears throughout the year.

20. The Garment District – Flowers Telegraphed to All Parts of the World (Happy Happy Birthday To Me) This one’s a grower, and it already made a strong positive impression when released back in September, so here we are. The Garment District is the project of Jennifer Baron, a founding member of Ladybug Transistor, and the connection is clear through occasional pop-psych vibes, though ultimately Baron’s direction is distinct and stylistically broad. Bottom line is Flowers Telegraphed to All Parts of the World is a fun record, and that makes it quite the worthwhile thing in non-fun times. “Cooling Station” is a gem.

19. Dex Romweber – Good Thing Goin’ (Propeller Sound Recordings) That Dex Romweber is still putting out killer records this deep into his extended venture into recording and performing (“career” just isn’t the right word) is cause for wonderment and celebration. Romweber first hit the scene as half of the Flat Duo Jets, a roots-manic experience if ever one was, but his recent stuff is bold, bright, and straight-up necessary, branching out with suave maturity while keeping a tight grip on classique American forms of all stripes. The aura of Gene Vincent is still tangible, is what I’m saying.

18. Dustin Wong – Perpetual Morphosis (Hausu Mountain) I’m guessing the long wait times in vinyl production played a part in this always interesting label Chicago label’s choice to release most of its recent catalog on cassette. And that’s exactly how Perpetual Morphosis was given a physical release, a fitting format as guitarist Dustin Wong’s layering and looping has gotten increasingly complex. It’s wonderful to imagine popping this into an auto-reversing deck and just letting it roll on for infinity, or at least until the tape or the machine breaks. So maybe buy two copies, just to be safe.

17. Ricardo Dias Gomes – Muito Sol LP (Hive Mind) Multi-instrumentalist Ricardo Dias Gomes played extensively in the band of Caetano Veloso and has collaborated in his own work with Arto Lindsay, relationships that help to situate where Muito Sol is coming from, though it’s where Gomes is headed that’s most exciting. While the experimentation is surely psychedelic at times, there are metallic touches, aspects of drone and a whole lot of post-rock. The record’s Brazilian bedrock is inviting but avoids the mellow, instead cultivating a naturally unwinding if sometimes jarring strangeness. That’s great.

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And here we are with our Top 10 new releases of 2023. Had time allowed for deep listening, so many more recordings put out this year would’ve entered into the equation and the list would’ve surely been different. If we say this every year, that’s because it remains true. This isn’t an exercise in finality but the beginning of a long discussion.

10. Rob Mazurek – Exploding Star Orchestra – Lightning Dreamers (International Anthem) Craig Taborn’s Wurlitzer and yes, Rob Mazurek’s trumpet really bring the Electric Miles vibes, but much of Lightning Dreamers goes farther out than Davis did and does so distinctly. Damon Locks bring his words to Mazurek’s banquet once again, and the band, a scaled-down version of his Orchestra, is a murderer’s row of a major players: along with Taborn and Locks, there’s guitarist Jeff Parker, keyboardist Angelica Sanchez, drummer Gerald Cleaver, percussionist Mauricio Takara, and flautist Nicole Mitchell.

9. Josephine Foster – Domestic Sphere (Fire) The music of Josephine Foster has always had currents of the eerie and the out-of-time about it, but Domestic Sphere, her 14th solo album, gets positively otherworldly as it consists of just Foster on guitar and vocals and field recordings that are interjected throughout, sometimes subtly, at other times abruptly, by producer-collaborator Daniel Blumberg. It’s a strikingly experimental work that only amplifies the unique characteristics of Foster’s work. Anyone with fond memories of the New Weird America should step right up to this one.

8. The Clientele – I Am Not There Anymore (Merge) It’s hard not to worry a little when a band reemerges after a long absence. What exactly have they been doing all that time? I hope nothing bad. And it’s always risky when a significant progression in sound gets unveiled after that period away. Hope you like our new direction! With I Am Not There Anymore, The Clientele’s first record since the autumn of 2017, the band swung into some musical strides, but to wholly positive effect, and without disconnecting from the sound that made them such an appealing indie pop outfit for so long. What a savvy bunch of cats.

7. Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide – Perpetual Motion (Ayler) & Ikue Mori + Kaze – Crustal Movement (Circum-Disc /Libra) It proved impossible to decide on which example of pianist-composer-bandleader Satoko Fujii’s collaborative prowess was the better, so deciding got the kibosh. Perpetual Motion takes the art of the duo to rare heights in a first time meeting, as Fujii tackles the keys with intense precision, getting deep inside the instrument at times. Otomo wiggles, roars and wails like a champ. Lovers of racket will find much to dig, but it’s a sublime racket. They also explore the atmospheric.

Crustal Movement finds Fujii’s group Kaze—that’s Fujii on piano, Christian Pruvost on trumpet and flugelhorn, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, and Peter Orins on drums, teaming with Ikue Mori on electronics, and if racket’s your bag, this one’s suitable for all-day sack races. Valves and no reeds brings Kaze a distinct flavor, and with some fine extended techniques on display. Fujii can shift from full-on energy runs to captivating restraint, and sometimes she drops out entirely, waiting to strike. Orins excels at abstract rattle and thump, and Mori’s electronic splatters and spasms have rarely sounded better.

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A few of the selections below aren’t much slimmer than what was on offer in yesterday’s list of expanded releases and box sets, but please understand this sort of undertaking isn’t an exact science. Here’s part one of our picks for the best reissues and archival releases of 2023. Part two, with entries 10-1, will arrive tomorrow.

20. Come – Near Life Experience (Fire) On paper, the merger of ’90s indie rock and punky bluesy thump might not seem like that big a deal, but if it’s being dealt by Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw, then expectations do rise considerably. And on this reissue of their third album, initially released in ’96, they exceed expectations, which is particularly impressive, as the band was whittled down to Zedek and Brokaw plus a bunch of guest contributors. But with Tara Jane O’Neil, Bundy K. Brown, and John McEntire amongst the helping hands, Near Life Experience is right up there with Come’s very best stuff.

19. Moonshake – Eva Luna (Deluxe) (Beggars Arkive) Sole constant Moonshake member David Callahan was in the swell C86-affiliated outfit Wolfhounds. The main trait carried over to this band/project is Callahan’s vocals, or more specifically the sound of his voice; here, he lands securely in the agitated UK frontman zone as the music expands to the borders of post-rock (the choice of moniker was swiped from a Can song). Later, Moonshake eschewed guitar entirely, but Margaret Fielder’s presence on the instrument and vocals (and her songs) boost Eva Luna’s value considerably, plus an added Peel Session.

18. John Hartford – Aereo-Plain (Real Gone) Famous for writing “Gentle On My Mind” (a hit for Glen Campbell), multi-instrumentalist (a triple threat on guitar, banjo, and fiddle), singer and songwriter Hartford indulged his amiable eccentric side with Aereo-Plain, though the record, masterful though it was (featuring Norman Blake, Vassar Clements, Tut Taylor, and Randy Scruggs), didn’t exactly spark a retail firestorm. It did help set the stage for newgrass (Sam Bush advocates for its influence), and that’s fine as it lands in the zone between the Holy Modal Rounders and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

17. Shizuka – Heavenly Persona (Black Editions) Here’s the only studio album from this Japanese cult group affiliated with the legendary P.S.F. label featuring Shizuka Miura (vocals, guitar, bells, songs), Maki Miura (guitar, “music helper”), and Jun Kosugi (drums). While noise is an element in Heavenly Persona’s thrust (unsurprising as Maki and Kosugi were in Fushitsusha), Shizuka’s songs exude elements of psychedelic rock, ethereality, and acid-folk. There is a handful of live releases in the Shizuka discography, but this record is essential, and kudos to Black Editions for making it (briefly) available on wax.

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It’s striking that so many entries below are documents of live performances. This reaches down all the way to the top spot. Music created in the moment and captured in the moment to be returned to, shared and cherished. These are our picks for the best reissues and archival releases of 2023. The new releases list starts tomorrow.

10. Sonic Youth – Live in Brooklyn 2011 (Silver Current) With a pointed emphasis on pre-Geffen material, this unexpected late-summer arrival clarified the sharpness this band sustained until the end (or at least very near the end). The career-spanning set list (or as Thurston puts it, going “super-deep”) was by design, as this was their final US show, fittingly going down in the city where they came together decades before to permanently alter rock history. Over time, any lingering sense of the bittersweet has passed (bands break up, y’know?), but it’s fair to say Sonic Youth are still very much missed.

9. John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy – Evenings at the Village Gate (Impulse) I’m not a gambling man, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to discover they’re taking odds in Vegas on whether or not someone (most likely Zev Feldman) turns up some previously unheard material by John Coltrane to see release in 2024. When uncovered stuff by a single artist comes out with such frequency it can reduce the specialness a little, but Evenings at the Village Gate is from a crucial point in Coltrane and Dolphy’s development. Imperfectly recorded, it sounds at times like you’re sitting right beside Elvin Jones at the kit. Cool.

8. The Feelies – Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground (Bar/None) Normally, a recording of an all-covers live set wouldn’t linger long in consideration on these year end lists, but when the band is The Feelies, and when the covers are all by that New Jersey band’s biggest influence (see the title for details), well, that changes the calculus more than a little. To begin, this set offers versions of 18 VU songs with nary a fumble. But what clearly puts Some Kinda Love over the top is the care, commitment, and clear pleasure the band is experiencing as they pull off this considerable feat.

7. V/A – The Secret Museum of Mankind: Atlas of Instruments–Fiddles Vol. 1 (Jalopy) Beginning in the mid-’90s, The Secret Museum of Mankind compilations, curated by 78 collector, fount of knowledge, and occasional recording artist Pat Conte and originally released by the Yazoo label, offered a sweet offramp from the increasing staleness of the indie era. Extending the “old weird” mythos of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music to the entire planet, The Secret Museum’s reemergence after a long hiatus in 2021 was cause for celebration, and this terrific set reveals the return wasn’t a one-off.

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As is mentioned every December when the time comes to unveil these Best of the Year lists, please keep in mind that these rankings are in no way attempt to represent the exhaustive, particularly in regard to expanded releases and box sets, which naturally take more time to absorb in the midst of slimmer reissues and archival material and the deluge of high quality new music. With this said, here’s our top ten expanded releases and box sets of 2023.

10. Superchunk – Misfits & Mistakes: Singles, B-sides & Strays 2007-2023 (Merge) When Superchunk returned to activity in the mid-’00s, they scaled back stylistically, ramping up the classic power pop in their sound while maintaining the punk punch that’s been a constant across the band’s run. This 4LP set roughly coincides with said comeback and rounds up all (or nearly all) of their material that didn’t originate on their full-length releases. This level of late-career prolificacy is striking and rather surprising, even as I already own a bunch of this stuff. The emphasis on cover material remains, and to fine effect.

9. Telex – S/T (Mute) The remastering and rounding up of this enduringly underrated Belgian techno pop outfit’s six albums is few of frills but still a wholly worthwhile gesture, as Telex’s albums were remarkably solid and consistent over time. Eccentric experimenters inside the realms of pop, Telex flexed a sense of humor without cracking jokes and against the odds, their cover versions always worked. The group’s disinterest in rock moves is well documented (no guitars here), which remains refreshing, and to get an idea of the shrewdness on display, check out the Martin Denny moves in “Café de la Jungle.”

8. Eddie Lockjaw Davis & Shirley Scott – Cookin’ with Jaws and the Queen (Craft Recordings) The Prestige catalog is deep, and Craft Recordings handling of the reissues has been impeccable and inspiring. Organ jazz records often can’t escape getting ranked as likeable but ultimately minor in the scheme of things, but in the case of Cookin’ with Jaws and the Queen, the sheer quantity of high quality ensures that Scott and Davis’ achievement can’t be denied. Davis blows with confidence and deep feeling, and Scott is soulful without succumbing to overabundant note spillage. When they play the blues it’s an utter treat.

7. Soft Machine – The Dutch Lesson (Cuneiform) It’s always struck me just how good Soft Machine remained for so long through so many personnel changes. This is the four-piece band that recorded Seven, featuring Roy Babbington on 6-string bass, Karl Jenkins on horns and electric piano, John Marshall on drums, and sole founding member Mike Ratledge on electric piano and organ, live in performance at De Lantaren, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, October 26, 1973. The 15 tracks document a band in transition, often heavy but never ponderous and very much in control of its direction.

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The musically adventurous Virginia-based multi-instrumentalist and builder of drones Daniel Bachman has returned with another masterful album, When The Roses Come Again, which is out now on vinyl (standard black, limited red), compact disc, and digital through Three Lobed Recordings. The record continues Bachman’s expansive questing across 15 pieces that unfurl with a glorious interconnected flow. The unified progressions thrive on discipline and clarity of vision, and Bachman has once again cut one of the best records of its year.

Circa 2012-’13, when Daniel Bachman’s two excellent albums for Tomkins Square (Seven Pines and Jesus I’m a Sinner) were released, he was pretty easily described as a fingerpicker in the American Primitive tradition. His arrival on the scene was part of a sustained resurgence in Guitar Soli, just another welcome surprise in a style that few would have predicted would be successfully embraced by a younger generation of musicians.

Like a few American Primitive players including the originator of the form John Fahey, Bachman has migrated away from straight picking, and on When The Roses Come Again he largely sets the guitar aside for drones and extensive, at times collage-like editing of solo improvisational recordings that in his essay for the album, Jerry David DeCicca’s calls a week’s worth of 8-hour a day excursions emanating from a cabin on the border of Shenandoah National Park.

Bachman’s move into the abstract has certainly realigned his fanbase, but perhaps not as much as one might initially suspect, and that’s mainly through focus and determination. Instead of meandering, When The Roses Come Again is at times unnervingly in its intensity, and it’s all the more powerful through concision. That’s to be expected from the drones, as Bachman has grown increasingly adept as harnessing sustained tension, but it’s also heard in those edited improvs, which were assembled by cutting and pasting and altering speed and pitch on a laptop.

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Remembering Denny Laine. —Ed.

Though the music they produced was only fitfully successful, the Denny Laine-fronted incarnation of The Moody Blues deserves to be remembered for more than a momentary chart fling topped by a gem of a single. In ’65 they released an album at home and another in the US under distinct titles, both holding a dozen tracks and with a third of each LP also unique. The better of the two, Go Now–The Moody Blues #1, was issued in the States by London Records.

Heavy on covers and by extension lacking in gestures toward originality, the ’64-’66-era Moody Blues are unlikely to be many people’s (I’ll stop short of saying anybody’s) most beloved component in the British Invasion. In fact, talk of the group today reliably focuses on the post-Denny Laine/Clint Warwick lineup that saw new members John Lodge and Justin Hayward helping to transmogrify the Moodies into one of the leading if artistically lesser examples of Symphonic Rock. I won’t sully the Prog genre with an inapt association since there was hardly anything progressive about The Moody Blues Mk 2.

Instead, they exemplified the Middlebrow impulse, though that’s ultimately a separate discussion. This piece concerns a band that came together when the leader of Denny Laine and the Diplomats joined up with a bunch of nameless Birmingham hopefuls, their main desire hitting it big or even just making a good living; they briefly played as the M & B 5, the initials an attempt at landing sponsorship from two local beer brewers (last names Mitchell and Butler). And similar to many of their contemporaries, The Moody Blues’ method at least initially was the borrowing and alteration of Rhythm and Blues.

And they did storm the charts with “Go Now,” in the process overtaking in popularity the terrific Leiber and Stoller-produced original by Bessie Banks, though the idea of the cover destroying the source’s commercial hopes is basically a myth. Banks’ tune was released by the Tiger label in January of ’64 while The Moody Blues’ version didn’t emerge until the following November, eventually peaking at #10 in the US in February of ’65 (it took top Brit honors a month earlier).

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If fusion can be accurately assessed as the dominant jazz development of the 1970s, free jazz was still making waves, although the progressions were increasingly based in community rather than through dalliances with major labels. A fine example has just been given a very welcome vinyl reissue by Wewantsounds of Paris, in collaboration with Corbett vs. Dempsey of Chicago. Funky Donkey Vol. 1 by the Luther Thomas Human Arts Ensemble is a wild excursion into free funk and spiritual-tinged avant gush. It’s a record with beaucoup historical connections and we outline them below.

Collectivity in jazz stretches all the way back to New Orleans, but in the era after bop, the leaderless impulse is most commonly associated with the Art Ensemble of Chicago as an outgrowth from the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), though numerous other groups were following similar paths.

There was Air (saxophonist Henry Threadgill, bassist Fred Hopkins and drummer Steve McCall), Circle (pianist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland, drummer Barry Altschul, saxophonist Anthony Braxton), the Creative Construction Company (trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, violinist Leroy Jenkins, pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, bassist Richard Davis, Braxton, and McCall), the Revolutionary Ensemble (bassist Sirone, percussionist-pianist Jerome Cooper, Jenkins), and the Sea Ensemble (saxophonist-clarinetist Donald Garrett and multi-instrumentalist Kali Fasteau).

Add to the list the two outfits contributing to Funky Donkey Vol. 1, the Human Arts Ensemble and the St. Louis Creative Ensemble as they shared the same stomping grounds and both had ties to the AACM (there was a strong Chicago-St. Louis bond) and the Black Artists’ Group, a huge AACM-like collective that many know for In Paris, Aries 1973. That LP was cut by saxophonist Oliver Lake, trumpeters Baikida Carroll and Floyd LeFlore, trombonist Joseph Bowie, and drummer Charles “Bobo” Shaw, all members of the BAG.

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New York City’s Comateens cut three full-length albums in the early 1980s, two of them for major label Virgin. They are often mentioned when the subject turns to synth-punk. Before that however, when guitarist-vocalist Romona Jan was in the group, they cut an early single that’s getting the limited edition reissue treatment December 5 on 12-inch vinyl (90 copies orange, 200 black) through Left for Dead Records. “Danger Zone” b/w “Elizabeth’s Lover” combines a punky mover with a new wavy flip and is exactly the sort of thing fans of the pre-hardcore punk/wave scene will want on their shelf.

If the name Romona Jan rings a bell, that might be because she was in both Dizzy and the Romilars and the Nastyfacts, with Left for Dead reissuing the latter band’s “Drive My Car” single on limited 12-inch vinyl just last year; ‘twas a very hep release reviewed in this very column. Jan also chalked up extensive experience as an engineer-producer, and counted The Ramones amongst her fans.

Jan was only in Comateens long enough to cut that first single, but let’s make clear that Left for Dead’s reissue nixes “Cool Chick,” a nifty dose of cold wave chilliness complete with the drum machine action that was an integral component in the band’s scheme circa the first LP. “Cool Chick” is replaced with an early, previously unreleased version of “Elizabeth’s Lover,” a song Jan rerecorded with Dizzy and the Romilars. This initial take was cut during the same session that produced the single.

The omission of “Cool Chick” might bug some potential buyers, but it’s pretty clear that Left for Dead has chosen to focus on Jan’s contribution to the early Comateens (she does contribute to the ’79 version of “Cool Chick,” but the song was written by Diana Dominicci). And focusing on Jan is a savvy gesture, primarily because she stuff she wrote and plays on is quite spiff, but it also corrects the historical record, as many band bios neglect to mention her involvement in Comateens.

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Tompkins Square’s knack for bringing fresh fingerpicking talent to light continues with the December 8 release of I Kept These Old Blues, the first album by Ireland’s Muireann Bradley. Deft and intense on the strings and with a strong, emotionally resonant voice, Bradley is part of a younger generation that’s busy putting a personal stamp on traditions roughly a century old, which is how it’s always been done. Across a dozen tracks she tackles a handful of acoustic blues heavyweights and she more than holds her own. Available on vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital, it’s a recording poised to leave aficionados of the form feeling good.

There’s really nothing mysterious about how this stellar album of acoustic blues fingerpicking by the young Irishwoman Muireann Bradley (she lives in Ballybofey in County Donegal) came about. She learnt the instrument and the blues from her father starting at age nine. Then she practiced. Then she put the instrument down as her focus shifted to training and competing in combat sports. As Covid emerged, she picked the guitar back up again with renewed vigor. A YouTube video was made. Josh Rosenthal, who runs Tompkins Square, a sharp recognizer of talent, came a calling. This record was cut.

The lack of the enigmatic doesn’t make Bradley’s achievement any less impressive, particularly as she’s 16 years old (or thereabouts). Bradley mentions that she wrote out a list of tunes to learn and then set to work, with the first one “Police Dog Blues” by Blind Blake. That was the song in the first YouTube video (there are now numerous videos), and the recording of it here, sequenced third on the album, is a dexterous dazzler keeping close to Blake’s instrumental template, though Bradley sensibly makes lyrical adjustments.

Bradley sings with confident sass (much closer to the coffeehouse than the nightclub) but keeps it in check as the fingerpicking never takes a back seat. This all comes through with clarity in opener “Candyman,” her splendid take of the oft-recorded chestnut by Reverend Gary Davis. And from a pure guitar standpoint, the most impressive tracks here are I Kept These Old Blues’ two instrumentals, “Vestapol,” a traditional tune in an arrangement by Stefan Grossman, and “Buck Dancer’s Choice” by Sam McGee in an arrangement by John Fahey.

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Having chalked up many hours playing in country & western bands, pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn’s recorded output, which is considerable, is stylistically wide-ranging as it emanates from the avant-garde. Her latest CD is Canto, available now through the Relative Pitch label. It’s a striking set documenting Alcorn’s trip to Chile to play with free improvisors and folk musicians in a group she named Septeto del Sur. Five original compositions including the titular suite and one interpretation of a song by the great Chilean folk singer and cornerstone of the nueva canción movement Victor Jara broaden Alcorn’s sound in unexpected ways.

Baltimorean Susan Alcorn’s discography begins in 2000 with her debut CD Uma. Also released that year, she played on Eugene Chadbourne’s “To Doug” 7-inch, a tribute to the exemplary Texan Doug Sahm. Since, she’s recorded with Chadbourne on additional occasions (as who wouldn’t seize the opportunity) and with a diverse list of heavyweights on the avant scene: Pauline Oliveros, Ellen Fullman, Michael Formanek, Mary Halvorson, Nate Wooley, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Ellery Eskelin, Ingrid Laubrock, Janel Leppin, Astroturf Noise, and Jandek.

Those esteemed collaborators could lead one to assume Alcorn excels at abstraction, and yes, that’s right, and yes, free improv is a part of Canto’s stylistic weave. But this disc is also extremely solid compositionally, with Chilean folk, including nueva canción, and contemporary classical part of the equation.

Nueva canción chilena was a 1960s-’70s leftist movement with a prominent musical component that took influence from traditional Chilean folk (the nueva canción impulse also emerged in Argentina, Cuba, Spain, Catalonia and Nicaragua). Amongst the best-known exponents of nueva canción chilena are Violeta Parra, Rolando Alarcón, Isabel Parra, Patricio Castillo and of course Victor Jara, who was brutally tortured and murdered after Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile in 1973.

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The We Are Busy Bodies of Toronto, Canada, in connection with As-Shams/The Sun Records of Johannesburg, South Africa, have indeed been quite active as they curate the As-Shams Archive Series of 1970s South African jazz sounds. The three newest entries, all available now, spotlight saxophonists Winston Mankunku Ngozi and Mike Makhalemele. Alex Express is Ngozi’s album (backed by The Cliffs), The Peacemaker is Makhalemele’s, and the two come together on The Bull and the Lion. Ears attuned to the mingling of jazzy expansiveness and funky groove flow should check out all three.

By my count, the records covered here are the seventh, eighth, and ninth entries in the As-Shams Archive Series, and it’s safe to speculate that folks into Creed Taylor’s CTI productions from the same era and Real Gone Music’s recent reissues of the ’70s indie Black Jazz label will find the sounds offered here of interest. Of the two saxophonists, tenor-man Ngozi was the first to record, so it’s with him that we’ll begin.

His debut was Yakhal’ Inkomo, cut in July 1968 (issued the following year) with the Mankunku Quartet, its four selections clearly influenced by John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and the mainstream heyday of Blue Note Records. This set was quickly followed by the Chris Schilder Quintet’s Spring, cut in November of ’68 (also issued in ’69) with Ngozi on sax, a very likeable dive into post-bop/modal jazz. After that emergence onto the scene, there was a sizable gap in recording until Alex Express was released in ’75.

Alex Express is a decidedly different affair, with its five tracks likely to hit soul jazz mavens right in their sweet spot. The Cliffs feature Ngozi, here on alto sax, alongside two trumpeters, Stompie Manana and George Tyefumani, organist Roger Khoza, guitarist Allen Kwela, bassist Philip Kiti, and drummer Peter Jackson, and they establish a template that’s grooving but thankfully lacking in slickness and more crucially, there are no flourishes of overplaying.

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Amongst the handful of important UK fingerpickers to have emerged in the ’60s and early ’70s, Dave Evans’ output is not the highest of profile, though his story is very interesting and his tight discography quite rewarding. His second LP Elephantasia, originally released by The Village Thing label in 1972, is getting a first-time reissue on LP, CD, and digital November 24 through Earth Recordings. Fans of Bert Jansch, Wizz Jones, Michael Chapman, Bill Fay, and Nick Drake do take note.

Dave Evans lived a busy, bohemian lifestyle before he ever released an album. A sailor in the merchant navy (rising to Third Mate), collegian (art school, in fact), operator of a folk club, pottery maker, guitar builder, and vintner, Evans, who was briefly married to Brit folk singer-guitarist Julie Felix (contributing songs to two of her albums), eventually moved to the English city of Bristol to reunite with college friend and fellow guitarist and singer Steve Tilston.

The story is that Evans’ playing on Tilston’s debut album from 1971, An Acoustic Confusion, impressed The Village Thing co-founder Ian A. Anderson enough that he was given the opportunity to cut a record of his own, which essentially meant playing in Anderson’s basement, where there was a Revox reel-to-reel machine and two microphones at the ready; The Words in Between was released later that year.

Evans’ discography can essentially be cleaved in two. The Words in Between and Elephantasia are the first half, with both albums placing roughly equal emphasis on Evans’ abilities as a singer and as a guitarist. Of the two, Elephantasia has a slightly more psychedelic atmosphere, giving it a very minor edge over The Words in Between.

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To our great benefit, Zev Feldman is a tireless excavator of jazz brilliance, often from the bandstand, and the fruits of his labor have become a Record Store Day staple. For Black Friday 2023, he has four releases available: Maximum Swing: The Unissued 1965 Half Note Recordings by Wes Montgomery and the Wynton Kelly Trio (3LP, Resonance Records), Tales – Live in Copenhagen (1964) by Bill Evans (single LP, Elemental Records), Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse 1966-1968 by Ahmad Jamal (2LP, Jazz Detective / Elemental), and Catch the Groove: Live at the Penthouse 1963-1967 by Cal Tjader (3LP, Jazz Detective / Elemental). All are limited editions, so prepare accordingly. CDs follow for all December 1.

Tales – Live in Copenhagen (1964) is the eleventh release of archival music by Bill Evans that Zev Feldman has been a part of in connection with the pianist’s son Evan Evans, and the second this year, as Treasures: Solo, Trio & Orchestra Recordings From Denmark (1965-1969) was released by Elemental for Record Store Day as a 3LP set in April. Eleven releases is a high number that gets to the core nature of jazz and the depth of Evans’ artistry.

The largeness and breadth of Treasures might steal a little thunder from the trim focus of Tales, particularly as the latter features bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker in a trio that’s fairly well-documented, first on Bill Evans Trio at Shelly’s Manne-Hole, Hollywood, California prior to the Copenhagen trip and on Trio ’65 after.

But the reality is that if a trio brought together by Evans made it to the point of performance or recording, they were worth hearing every time they played, for every time would be unique, if also familiar. Succinctly, the music transcends a leader-backing scenario as the three players are in constant expressive communication, navigating and elevating the structure of each song. But they’re not striving to be different, instead just collectively attempting to give the song the best performance possible.

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