Author Archives: Joseph Neff

Remembering Nat King Cole, born on this day in 1919. —Ed.

Nat King Cole’s enduring renown derives from his skill as a vocalist, but he’s also arguably the most underrated of jazz’s great pianists. The seven CDs or ten LPs comprising Hittin’ The Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943) do a stellar job of highlighting Cole’s keyboard prowess while documenting the growth of his superb trio with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince first, and later Johnny Miller. There are also brief visits from the great saxophonists Lester Young and Dexter Gordon and a ton of singing, though the approach lands solidly in a hot and often vocal group zone. 

Back in 1991, Mosaic Records issued The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio, an exhaustive limited-edition set spread across 18 compact discs or 27 vinyl records. It was obviously produced for hardcore jazz nut collectors, the kind of listener who would know that Cole had worked extensively as a musician prior to his career-defining move to Capitol (an association he would maintain throughout his superstardom until the end of his life) but with very few commercial records detailing said period.

Hittin’ The Ramp features jukebox-only discs, private recordings, and a slew of radio transcriptions along with the handful of sessions that resulted in discs that were available for retail purchase, with the vast majority of the selections here officially released for the first time. There is a smidge of overlap with the Mosaic collection, but it doesn’t arrive until LP eight (or CD six) with “Vom, Vim, Veedle” commencing a smattering of cuts for the small Excelsior and Premier labels which were later purchased by Capitol and serve as the kickoff to the Mosaic set.

This repetition isn’t likely to bother owners of The Complete Capitol Recordings one bit, as it’s a miniscule percentage, specifically ten tracks out of Hittin’ The Ramp’s 183. Yes, that’s a lot of music, but slim compared to the behemoth decades-of-discovery scenario presented by Mosaic’s presentation of Capitol’s holdings, though in its vinyl incarnation Resonance’s achievement is also a limited edition.

Read More »

Remembering Lightnin’ Hopkins in advance of Sunday’s birthdate. —Ed.

Lightnin’ Sam Hopkins remains one of the crucial figures in the annals of the blues. By extension, he recorded a ton, and owning all his music will require diligence and a seriously long shelf. However, there are a few albums that are a must even for casual blues collectors, and his self-titled effort from 1959 is one of them. Recorded by historian Samuel Charters in Hopkins’ apartment while he played a borrowed guitar, it served as the door-opener to years of prominence. A highly intimate gem of nimble-fingered deep blues feeling, Lightnin’ Hopkins is available through Smithsonian Folkways, remastered from the source tapes in a tip-on jacket with Charters’ original notes.

To call Lightnin’ Hopkins the byproduct of rediscovery isn’t inaccurate, but it does risk stripping the contents of its unique story. Unlike Son House, Skip James, Bukka White, and John Hurt (all from Mississippi), Texan Hopkins had only been inactive for a few years when Samuel Charters found and recorded him in Houston, and if he’d been playing since the 1930s, he was still very much in his musical prime.

Hopkins debuted on record in 1946 for the Aladdin label of Los Angeles in tandem with pianist Wilson “Thunder” Smith, the partnership bringing him his sobriquet. From there, a solid decade of studio dates (and some R&B chart action) commenced; his additional sides for Aladdin fill a 2CD set, and the sessions for Gold Star take up two separate CD volumes. Additionally, there were worthy recordings for Modern, Sittin’ in With, and majors Mercury and Decca. 1954 brought a massive spurt of wild, highly amplified material for the Herald label; it contrasts sharply with the one-man circumstance of Lightnin’ Hopkins.

If commercial recording industry prospects had dried up by ’59 and Hopkins’ guitar was in hock, there was no trace of rustiness from inactivity, though the comfort level does increase as these songs progress (the bottle of gin Charters bought likely had something to do with it). What’s shared with his prior electric band stuff is a recognizable, eventually signature style based in the conversation between rural blues verve and more citified boogie motion (in this he shares much with John Lee Hooker).

Read More »

Born in Moscow in 1986 and currently based in Berlin via Tel Aviv, Mary Ocher is the daughter of Jewish-Ukrainian parents and a fiercely committed musician who’s been on the international scene for 25 years. With her new album Weimar, she shifts gears from her art-punk foundations to deliver an album of considerable intensity and beauty. It features Ocher in truly solo mode. It’s out March 13 on 130-gram 10-inch vinyl and digital through Underground Institute.

Mary Ocher has amassed a sizable discography, but she’s also a prolific collaborator. The folks she’s grooved with creatively include King Khan (producer of her 2013 LP EDEN), the drum duo Your Government (co-credited on her eponymous 2016 LP and other releases), Die Tödliche Doris and Felix Kubin (guests on her 2017 LP The West Against the People), Julia Kent (cellist on a sweet cover of Robbie Basho’s “Blue Crystal Fire” on her 2017 10-inch Faust Studio Sessions and Other Recordings), and pianist-composer Roberto Cacciapaglia and Mogwai (on her 2023 LP Approaching Singularity: Music for the End of Time).

But with one exception, Weimar is just Ocher singing and playing a piano she purchased during the pandemic after she left her now ex-husband. As track four on this concise but powerful LP (released on heavy 10-inch vinyl to maximize the sound quality) is titled “Divorce,” it’s clear this collection of compositions is quite personal.

The record does include two new versions of piano-based songs from Ocher’s discography, “(As Free as) the Great Outdoors (revisited)” (originally from EDEN) and “On the Streets of Hard Labor (revisited)” (first recorded on her debut CD, 2011’s War Songs). The EDEN recording of “(As Free as) the Great Outdoors” hit a sweet spot between Lotte Lenya-style torch songs and crafty avant-pop. The revisit here ups the torchy quality by leaning into a zone reminiscent of Diamanda Galas, but mildly so.

Read More »

Sam Snitchy is the newest moniker employed by the Swiss gent once known as Maniporno. Also known as Melker, a handle slapped on the cover of two full-length releases, a recurring characteristic of his current sound is the blending of punk scuzz with electronics of assorted stylistic stripes. 2 Horse Forse, the third release as Sam Snitchy, is a wild ride, hitting stores on March 13 through the Voodoo Rhythm label.

As Maniporno, the man now known as Sam Snitchy, has been described as a street poet. Recordings under that name are pretty scarce. As Mani Porno, there’s one cut, “Fuchs,” included on the compilation Reitschule Beatet Mehr, which was released on CD in 2010 by the Swiss label Endorphin Entertainment.

Notably, that comp also included a track by Reverend Beat-Man, aka Beat Zeller, the musician who is additionally responsible for the increasingly copious discography of Voodoo Rhythm, including his own work. All three Sam Snitchy albums have been released by Voodoo Rhythm, beginning with Got Me Wrong in 2022, continuing with Talking Talking in 2024, and now 2 Horse Force.

But before the association with Voodoo Rhythm, two albums were released under the Melker name, first “2-10” in 2017 and then Roc the following year. These are both solid releases, but as Sam Snitchy, there’s been a deeper commitment to combining punk with strains of technology as the artist has really come into his own.

Read More »

The Primitive Art Group was formed in 1981 and lasted until 1986. The locale: Wellington, New Zealand. In the midst of the burgeoning Flying Nun scene, this collective stood far apart stylistically, taking influence from the titans of avant jazz and specializing in a wild and varied strain of often Euro-tinged free improvisation on their two studio albums along with dishing impressively inspired interpretations of Fire Music classics in a live setting.

The group’s studio records are paired with one bonus live track on the 2LP set 1981–1986. A sweet batch of performance stuff gets compiled on the cassette Live Cuts 1981–1983. Both collections are available now through Amish Records separately and in a Bandcamp bundle. The retrieval and wide dissemination of this material is, simply put, cause for celebration.

To shed light on this situation of immense and unexpected excellence, these reissues aren’t brand-spankin’ new. 1981-1986 came out in late October 2024, and Live Cuts 1981–1983 was released in February of last year. But this is a time where the lurching ugliness of fascism overtakes good news discoveries such as these beautiful bursts of freedom on a regular basis. And so, spreading the word is imperative.

There is also a book, Future Jaw-Clap: The Primitive Art Group and Braille Collective Story, that will provide a fuller historical picture for anyone interested. This writer has yet to read it but is eager, indeed positively salivating, to inhale its contents. The author is Daniel Beban, and it was published by Te Herenga Waka Press in November 2024.

Read More »

Remembering Ornette Coleman, born on this date in 1930. —Ed.

Ornette Coleman is most often associated with his numerous quartets, but his Blue Note debut found him exploring the possibilities of the trio configuration. At the Golden Circle Stockholm Volume One is the first half of that journey into addition by subtraction; it not only inaugurates the highpoint of Coleman’s Blue Note run, it also stands amongst the very greatest work the trailblazing saxophonist has recorded.

The end of the 1980s was swiftly approaching, and the jury was still out on the music of Ornette Coleman. The temporary reign of compact discs was well underway, and it gradually became easier to actually hear (instead of just read about) the sounds that so divided jazz at the dawn of its most tumultuous decade. However, for my first two Coleman purchases I had to settle for cassettes. Until the CD reissues of Ornette’s Atlantic efforts began showing up in the racks (or more appropriately put, started getting listed in catalogs as being available for purchase), hearing the man’s groundbreaking early material was a struggle. Even the ‘70s fusion work with Prime Time and his ‘80s albums were difficult to locate.

What’s more, none of the meager number of older jazz heads I’d become acquainted with at that point appreciated him; when the subject arose a few were downright dismissive. And dialing the handful of jazz radio programs that my stereo tuner managed to pick up in the wee hours of the AM proved just as futile.

I’ll never forget the short but pleasant conversation I had with one of those DJs, the voice of the gent on the other end of the line informing me that he loved Coleman but had sworn off playing him due to the swarm of angry calls he’d receive in response. So deep was the animosity over a divergence from and perceived threat to the post-bop standard that nearly 30 years later merely offering it on the radio brought an influx of opprobrium via the telephone.

Read More »

Born in Denmark and currently based in Oslo, Norway, saxophonist Amalie Dahl is a composer, improviser, and bandleader of distinction on the contemporary scene. Amongst numerous projects is the quintet Amalie Dahl’s Dafnie, which has released two albums, beginning with a self-titled effort in 2022. Now there is Amalie Dahl’s Dafnie EXTENDED, as the 5-piece expands to a 12-piece unit with a double rhythm section. Combining free jazz abstraction with compositions that sway and groove, this large band’s debut, the 2LP set Live at Moldejazz, is out March 6 through Sonic Transmissions.

In addition to Dafnie, Amalie Dahl has released two albums under her own name. First came Memories, a CD issued by Sonic Transmissions in 2022, and then Breaking / Building Habits followed, an LP/CD on the Sauajazz label from last year. Additionally, Dahl has played in a leaderless trio with drummer Jomar Jeppsson Søvik and bassist Henrik Sandstad Dalen; they released the 2CD Live in Europe on Nice Things Records in 2024.

Other projects with releases include Noize R Us, Treen, and Superspreder. A constant across all of Dahl’s work is a disinterest in trad predictability, an absence that’s particularly notable in Dafnie, and now especially shines through in the lineup’s expansion. The list of personnel and their instruments will provide a tip-off for the uninitiated.

Along with composer Dahl on alto sax, Live at Moldejazz features Henriette Eilertsen on flute and electronics, Oscar Andreas Haug on trumpet, Jørgen Bjelkerud on trombone, Sofía Salvo on baritone sax, Ida Løvli Hidle on accordion, Anna Ueland on synthesizers, Lisa Ullén on piano, Nicolas Leirtrø and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on double basses, and Trym Saugstad Karlsen and Veslemøy Narvesen on drums.

Read More »

Celebrating Fergal Lawler, born on this date in 1971. —Ed.

With Dolores O’Riordan as their distinctive vocalist, the Irish four-piece The Cranberries took alternative rock by storm in the 1990s, crafting a sound drawn from ’80s UK indie pop and adding elements of dream pop, post punk, and the nascent alt-rock scene. It was their second album, 1994’s No Need to Argue, that made the biggest splash and remains the band’s biggest seller; it’s just been given an expanded 30th anniversary edition that includes remixes of “Ode to My Family” and “Zombie,” a demo of “Zombie” and live tracks from Woodstock ’94 and MTV Unplugged. A fresh consideration of the LP is below.

If No Need to Argue was The Cranberries biggest success, their debut album from the previous year, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? laid the groundwork. That first record, like its follow-up, was produced by Stephen Street, and landed the band an alternative hit in “Dreams” and a legit mainstream breakthrough with “Linger.”

Released in October 1994, No Need to Argue managed four singles, with the first, “Zombie,” issued a month prior to the album, becoming huge internationally. The heaviest song they’d recorded up to that point, and featuring O’Riordan’s sharp, heavily accented wail, “Zombie” wasn’t a complete change of pace, as they’d gotten loud on their debut, and O’Riordan’s vocal prowess was a defining trait on their first album.

Second single and album opener “Ode to My Family” is closer to what fans would’ve expected; it’s pretty and achy and showcases O’Riordan’s singing exceptionally well. It’s followed on the LP by the more straightforward, punked-up rocker “I Can’t Be With You,” which was the third single from the album everywhere in the world except the USA, where it was single number four.

Read More »

Bette Adriaanse is a Dutch writer also known as Bette A. Along with authoring two novels, she’s co-authored with musician Brian Eno a non-fiction work on art and its impact on human experience that was published just last year. Now she’s back with Slow Stories, a collection of short works available today in hardcover. This book is also part of another collaboration with Eno, a white vinyl album in a gatefold jacket featuring two sidelong stories from the book read by Bette A. These readings are complemented by ambient music played by Eno.

Along with the book and record, there are 20cm x 20cm original paintings on canvas boards by Bette A. and Eno, each one unique and each one numbered and signed by the artists. This bundle is limited to just 444 copies, with no digital release of the two album tracks in the works. Soon to be highly sought after, 2 Slow Stories is assembled and issued by Unnamed Press. The artist’s proceeds go to their charities, The Heroines! Movement, co-founded by Bette A., and Earth Percent, co-founded by Eno.

Bette A.’s prior novels are Rus Like Everyone Else, published in 2015, and What’s Mine, published in 2023. The book co-authored with Brian Eno is What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory. Both novels were published by Unnamed Press, an independent house that focuses on global literature by underrepresented voices. The book authored with Eno was published by Faber & Faber.

Slow Stories will be widely available as a standalone hardcover book. It collects 16 works that have been in development across two decades. Bette A. offers that these stories were rewritten from memory and became shorter. Her style is indeed spare, leaving the impression of dispensing with what’s unneeded while dishing vivid descriptive sparks.

Read More »

Marc Riordan and Jon Leland are multi-instrumentalists, extensive collaborators, members of Sun Araw and also Ragger, an undertaking dedicated to playing the ragtime compositions of Scott Joplin on synthesizers (Riordan) and electronic V drums (Leland). If Wendy Carlos springs to mind, that’s a solid conclusion to jump to, but think of Carlos composing for Nintendo while sitting on a big-ass synthetic mushroom.

This electronic ragtime impulse isn’t revivalist, but neither is it a gimmick. Instead, Euphonic Sounds connects as a thoughtful and fascinating reinvigoration that retains its recognizability and is a sheer pleasure to listen to, even for those who’ve never, or hardly ever, brutalized a joystick or commandeered a controller in their lives. Ragger’s debut release is out now on compact disc, cassette, and digital through Hausu Mountain.

There’s nothing inherently boneheaded about tackling the ragtime style in a purist manner. When a skilled pianist who understands the music is sitting at the bench, ragtime’s worthiness can still be very much in evidence. It’s Joshua Rifkin’s three volumes of Scott Joplin compositions recorded for Nonesuch from 1970–’74 that set the standard and, crazy as it might seem now, rescued The King of Ragtime from obscurity.

Ragger establishes that straight ahead isn’t the only route to ragtime success. Euphonic Sounds includes four Joplin pieces handled by Rifkin on those Nonesuch sets—the title track, “Paragon Rag,” “Original Rags,” and “Weeping Willow.” And adds four more. The final selection, “Wiggle Rag,” was composed by George Botsford. As said, this album isn’t a gimmick on Ragger’s part and is also not an attempt at twisting or otherwise distorting the ragtime form into something deliberately strange.

Read More »

The Tomeka Reid Quartet consists of the leader and composer on cello, Mary Halvorson on guitar, Jason Roebke on bass, and Tomas Fujiwara on drums. This lineup has been solid since their debut recording arrived in 2015, and with dance! skip! hop!, they’ve now cut four full-length albums of structurally dynamic and skillfully exploratory contemporary jazz. The set consists of five tracks that range from astute swing to full-throttle scorch. The record is out now on limited vinyl (black, green, multi-colored one-of-a-kind CHROMA), limited compact disc, and digital through Out Of Your Head Records.

A band that stays together can attain exemplary levels of elevated interaction and do it gracefully. Some might say these bands make it sound like they are doing it with ease, but anybody who has played an instrument, or even (especially) tried to play an instrument and failed, will understand there is nothing easy about it. Interacting and improvising with other musicians can increase the level of difficulty but also inspire heightened creativity.

As the leader of this decade-long-running quartet, Tomeka Reid brings the compositions and also an instrument that, while solidly established in jazz history (Fred Katz, Oscar Pettiford, Ron Carter, Abdul Wadud, Hank Roberts, and Eric Friedlander, to name six), still has a captivating freshness about it when played well, and Reid plays with consistent excellence.

And so, the Tomeka Reid Quartet continues to get down to it on dance! skip! hop! This is due to a lack of faltering by any participant, but we’re not done with Reid yet. In the opening title track, she presents a composition that’s almost bebop-like in its sheer infectious groove-verve. Roebke and Fujiwara lay down a foundation that’s massive as a linebacker but still supple like a youthful ballerina, upon which Halvorson and Reid get off and go off mightily.

Read More »

Celebrating David Sylvian on his 68th birthday. —Ed.

When UK new wavers Japan broke up in 1982, the members predictably splintered off into various directions, and the highest profiles belonged to Mick Karn and David Sylvian. Over the decades the latter has amassed a solo and collaborative discography of unlikely reach and impressiveness; however, giving a fresh listen to ‘84’s Brilliant Trees makes abundantly clear Sylvian’s career trajectory isn’t as surprising as it might initially seem.

Upon consideration, very few musicians who made their name in the pop sphere have aged as well as David Sylvian. Of course, this is mainly due to his choice after Japan’s dissolution (they briefly reunited for one self-titled ’91 album under the name Rain Tree Crow) to gradually leave the milieu that fostered his initial reputation. The subsequent journey led him into the outlying territories of experimentation and the avant-garde, though this shouldn’t give the false impression that Sylvian’s post-Japan oeuvre is devoid of pop elements.

As a youngster of the ‘80s, I knew little of Japan, my discovery of Sylvian supplied by his ’87 collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Secrets of the Beehive. The introduction was made through the frequent play and promotion of said disc by my hometown Mom & Pop record mart, an enterprise also involved in the sale of high end stereo equipment.

To my teen mind any system comprised of separate components was high end, and at the time Secrets of the Beehive basically eluded me, as did much “deep-listening” material attached to ambient, new age, minimalism, art-pop etc. Reengaging with Sylvian as a mature adult provided, if not an epiphany than another instance aiding the realization that artistic assessments work in tandem with personal growth, therefore flouting finality.

Read More »

Remembering Kurt Cobain, born on this day in 1967. —Ed.

In 1991 a Pacific-Northwest three-piece changed the direction of the record industry, securing a spot in music history as the spearhead of Grunge. In 2002 a self-titled album attempted to sum up their essence; rather than electing to represent the trio’s actual range, Nirvana is dominated by chart entries, a handful of non-surprises, and a (then) previously unreleased track. 

To obtain a full grasp of how well Nirvana succeeds in offering a tidy retrospective of an important, oft volatile, and enduringly polarizing act required getting reacquainted with their discography from ’88 to ’94. With time spent the verdict is in: first hitting racks roughly 8½ years after Kurt Cobain’s suicide and a little over a decade removed from the band’s unexpected runaway success, Nirvana ultimately falls short of top-tier.

This assessment comes not by any fault of the group but through unimaginative assemblage and a problematic title. Leaving the occasional sarcastic usage aside, the words Greatest Hits summarize an objective truth, and the use of Best Of, while potentially arguable, is a nomenclature making its intentions plain. The eponymous treatment employed here is merely ambiguous.

If the purpose behind Nirvana was to encapsulate its subject’s breadth and heights on one record the results don’t meet the goal. Far too safe to accurately embody the Best, it essentially flirts with Greatest Hits; perhaps the term was just considered tacky when applied to retail achievements stemming partially from a perceived lack of calculation and even borderline disinterest.

Read More »

The Berlin-based electronic musician Sascha Ring is better known as Apparat. Emerging as a recording artist around the turn of the century, he’s been responsible for scads of releases of varying formats and durations on a variety of labels since, including Mute, which is issuing his sixth full-length A Hum of Maybe, on vinyl (turquoise or black), compact disc, and digital February 20. Starting out as a dance floor techno specialist, Ring’s been branching out stylistically for a long while. His latest is a fruitful extension of those progressions.

Before he broke out as a musician, Sascha Ring co-founded the record label Shitkatapult. His earliest full-lengths came out on this imprint, a run culminating with the acclaimed 2007 set Walls. His next LP, The Devil’s Walk, was released in 2011 by Mute, which has been his primary label since.

Ring’s move away from beat-centric techno stuff wasn’t a deliberate, calculated swing toward abstract soundscapes. Some of his material was downright songlike and even featured vocals, often his own. Beats were, in fact, still part of the scheme. And while many musicians in the electronic field struggle with longevity, the 2019 Apparat set LP5 garnered a solid reception; it even received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album.

A Hum of Maybe is the first new Apparat music since the release of LP5, having taken shape only after Ring overcame a sustained period of writer’s block. Breaking through in earnest last year, he teamed up again with Philipp Johann Thimm, who co-wrote and co-produced the record, along with contributing cello, guitar, and piano.

Read More »

The Setting is the trio of Eivind Opsvik on bass, Elias Stemeseder on piano and synthesizers, and Will Graefe on acoustic guitars. Opsvik provides the compositions on their eponymous debut album, which is available on vinyl February 20 through the Loyal Label. The cited influences are synthesizer music from the 1970s and ’80s, ECM guitar records, and art pop with a tendency toward experimentation, but there are also touches of ambient and jazz in a sound that’s unhurried and satisfying.

In addition to the instruments designated above, Elias Stemeseder plays the Wurlitzer electric piano and the lute-harpsichord (aka lautenwerck), while Will Graefe adds electronics and utilizes a Leslie speaker. Eivind Opsvik is credited with operating a drum machine in the overall scheme of an album that’s as welcoming as it is progressive in scope.

Opener “Corner Song” establishes the album’s art-pop bona fides, hitting a sweet spot between Eno (both pre and post-ambient) and certain entries in the early Ralph Records discography (both Residential and non). It’s worthy of note that nothing screamingly weird is happening here; instead, the sound swings toward the calmness displayed by Eno as the 1980s approached.

This is not to say that your square-ass co-worker won’t look askance if they overhear this record playing in your cubicle during lunch break, but that’s ultimately a reflection on them, not The Setting. Nor will it be a reflection on you.

Read More »