To borrow a directive for Robert Fripp and Brian Eno: no more pussyfooting. Here’s part two of TVD’s Best New Releases of 2022, with thoughts to consider and sounds to savor. Everybody have a safe and pleasant holiday and a great 2023.
10. Tyler Mitchell featuring Marshall Allen, Dancing Shadows (Mahakala Music) Craft Recordings’ fresh edition of The Futuristic Worlds of Sun Ra came out in 2022, a fine reissue (if not strong enough to land on our Best Reissues of 2022 list). Marshall Allen played on Futuristic Worlds, and he’s in exemplary form on Dancing Shadows by Tyler Mitchell, a Sun Ra alum from the ‘80s and again later post-Sun Ra’s passing when the Arkestra was under the direction of Allen. The connection to Futuristic Worlds is notable as many of the pieces here are Sun Ra compositions from the same era. Raucous and rhythmic.
9. Joy Guidry, Radical Acceptance (Whited Sepulchre) Bassoonist-composer Guidry self-describes as “Black, Fat, Queer and Non binary.” Radical Acceptance is their debut album, its title taken from a therapeutic practice of honoring the whole person and in turn reducing self-harm and promoting positive mental health. Guidry’s music is appropriately wide ranging, Opening with a spoken artist’s statement railing against toxic judgements, the selections alternate ambient pieces with robust free jazz but with a clear compositional component from Guidry. Fully realized, yet promising.
8. The Whitmore Sisters, Ghost Stories (Red House Records / Compass Record Group) Siblings Eleanor and Bonnie Whitmore are experienced musicians (Eleanor has made four records with husband Chris Masterson as The Mastersons and Bonnie has released four solo albums), but this is their first as a duo, and it’s an utter delight, packing a rootsy yet pop savvy wallop upon introduction and refusing to lessen in its appeal after repeated listens. Ghost Stories is a direct byproduct of the Covid pandemic, cut during a sisterly visit but avoiding the scaled-down aura of so many pandemic era recordings.
7. Éliane Radigue & Frédéric Blondy, Occam XXV (Organ Reframed) Organ Reframed is an experimental music festival focused on the organ and only the organ, curated by composer/performer and London’s Union Chapel music director Claire M Singer, with their first release a commissioned work from the renowned electronic composer Éliane Radigue, her first piece for organ and an extension of her Occam Ocean series, with the commission performed by multihyphenate Frédéric Blondy. It is a gradually building and fascinatingly subtle work nearer to experimental drone than to the cathedral.
6. Andrew Cyrille, William Parker & Enrico Rava, 2 Blues for Cecil (Tum) Andrew Cyrille is the drummer on pianist Taylor’s back-to-back ’60s masterpieces for Blue Note, Unit Structures and Conquistador! and more. Bassist William Parker came to prominence as Taylor’s bassist in the 1980s, playing on over a dozen recordings including major label dalliance In Florescence and another late masterpiece, Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants); that one also includes trumpeter Enrico Rava. But if this 10-track CD is in dedication to Taylor, it follows its own often contemplative group logic, which is totally fitting.
5. Matthew Shipp Trio, World Construct (ESP-Disk) While impacted by the precedent of Cecil Taylor, pianist Matthew Shipp has long been the master of his own energy and lyricism, standing out in part because he’s a far more adaptable player. That is, Taylor’s artistry came to dominate any setting in which he was heard, which is distinct from Shipp’s approach, as it ranges from full-on thundering to more introspective and even tender passages. Both are in evidence on this superb set with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker.
4. Chad Fowler & Matthew Shipp, Old Stories (Mahakala Music) It was while attending the Vision Festival, a long-running annual event organized by William Parker and his wife, the dancer Patricia Parker, that Shipp first met multi-reed man Chad Fowler (while watching Parker on stage). That occasion directly led to this delightfully inspired serving of prime duo exchange, with the communicative on-the-fly construction at a high level throughout. Fowler, who is more often heard on alto sax, gets a beautifully robust sound playing the stritch and the late David S. Ware’s saxello.
3. Chad Fowler, Zoh Amba, Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Steve Hirsh, Alien Skin (Mahakala Music) Fowler and Shipp are joined by Brazilian tenor saxophonist Perelman, upstart tenor saxophonist-flautist Amba, bassist Parker, and drummer Hirsh for a set that can get substantially rowdy, as the sextet also simmers down into more reflective stretches. While the whole taps into the fiery spiritualism of yore, with Fowler again on stritch and saxello, the set is also a rousing multi-generational summit that, like Amba’s work below, establishes the music’s possibilities moving forward.
2. Zoh Amba featuring William Parker and Francisco Mela, O Life, O Light (577) & Zoh Amba, Bhakti (Mahakala Music) Talk about inspiring. 2022 is the year that Zoh Amba seemingly came out of nowhere, blowing with an intensity that rivals Charles Gayle and wielding a devotional focus that’s reminiscent of Coltrane and Ayler. Of course, to play like this, Amba had to come from somewhere (Kingsport, Tennessee, as it happens), and she possesses the stamina that can only come with constant practice. But there are beauty moves that establish a wider spectrum than sustained lung fireworks.
Bhakti is a quartet session with Micah Thomas on piano, Tyshawn Sorey on drums, and for the final track, Matt Hollenberg on guitar. Fireworks? Oh, yes. Fireworks of love. The trio session O Life, O Light arises a bit more meditatively, but worry not, as full liftoff is achieved. And please note that Amba has two other records out in 2022, Causa Y Efecto (Vol. 1) with Mela on 577 and O, Sun on John Zorn’s Tzadik label.
1. Lucrecia Dalt, ¡Ay! (RVNG Intl.) Lucy & Aaron, which teamed Lucrecia Dalt with sonic explorer Aaron Dilloway (formerly of Wolf Eyes) made this list last year, but it’s a much different, far more abstract affair. Frankly, those who require, if not necessarily songs, then at least tangible structure, are likely to get the fidgets from Lucy & Aaron, but ¡Ay! has structure in spades as extends from Dalt’s youth in her native Columbia and presets an exquisitely arranged, familiar yet wholly unpredictable, often ornate and frequently gorgeous tropical excursion.
Infused with the past yet utterly devoid of cliché as it aims directly for the future, Dalt’s record is warm and brilliant. If it has a flaw, I’ve yet to find it.
