And here are the best of the Best New Releases of 2024. Part one is here.
10. Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra – Live at the Adler Planetarium (International Anthem) The Exploding Star Orchestra is the long-running large scale band of cornetist-trumpeter-composer-bandleader-visual artist Mazurek, who was once a fixture on the Chicago scene. Currently living in Marfa, TX, he returned to his old stomping grounds for this delightful set of expansive jazz, the performance accompanied by abstractions derived from Mazurek’s paintings and animations that were digitally projected above the heads of the audience and band in the planetarium’s Grainger Sky Theater. Sun Ra and Fire Music are the roots, but this is very much music of the future.
9. Ivo Perelman, Chad Fowler, Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille – Embracing the Unknown (Mahakala) The rhythm section here is drummer Cyrille and bassist Reggie Workman (who also adds some percussion to this set), a pair that has already made their mark in this week’s lists as part of the Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy archival set The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp. Cyrille and Workman had already been on the scene for decades by that point, and here we are decades later, with neither having lost a thing. Figure in the lung stamina and deep feeling of Perelman on tenor sax and Fowler on the stritch and saxello and we’re talking another total gem from one of the best jazz labels currently operating.
8. Thumbscrew – Wingbeats (Cuneiform) The trio Thumbscrew, which is Mary Halvorson on guitar, Tomas Fujiwara on drums and vibraphone, and Michael Formanek on bass, has made TVD’s yearly best list numerous times already. They’ve (obviously) make it again with Wingbeats, their eighth album, and they’ve done it mainly through three weeks of intense compositional construction offered by the City of Asylum Pittsburgh residency program. The interweave of the playing here is amongst the finest in Thumbscrew’s entire run, in part through a creative equality that’s further reflected in the equal number of pieces each member has brought to the record. And then they cap it all off with an exquisite version of “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, The Blue Silk.”
7. Alan Licht – Havens (Black Editions Group / Vin Du Select Qualitite) Having emerged in the 1980s to join Rudolph Grey’s Blue Humans, Love Child, and Run On, Licht has also recorded numerous solo albums since the first one in 1994. He’s an insanely versatile giant on the electric guitar, and Havens is his second for the VDSQ label after Currents in 2015. A double LP offering six tracks that’s bookended with side-long pieces, Havens is built almost entirely out of just Licht’s guitar; opener “Nonchalant,” a Guitar Soli deep dive built on precise repetitions and slight variations, is a highlight, as is the cover of The Stooges’ “1970,” but Havens offers a fascinating ride, rigorous but wholly satisfying, from start to finish.
6. Wendy Eisenberg – “The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar” (Other Minds) & Viewfinder (American Dreams) Guitarist Eisenberg’s been active for a while but has recently received a boost in profile as a fourth of the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet. The “Other Minds” EP, issued on 12-inch 45 rpm vinyl, begins with a composition by Morton Feldman written for and performed by Christian Wolff, follows that with Eisenberg’s recording of the piece, and then on the flip, offers Eisenberg’s version of a subsequent piece by Wolff, “Another Possibility.”
While “The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar” is a captivating listen, it’s a short set that gains considerable traction when listened to alongside the double set Viewfinder, a concept album (of sorts) that draws on Eisenberg’s Lasik surgery for subject matter and takes a more experimental and at times free jazzy approach to form, with Eisenberg’s vocals a further distinguishing factor. And it’s worth mentioning that Viewfinder was made through a commission and residency at Roulette Intermedium with further assistance from the Jerome Foundation.
5. Body Meπa – Prayer in Dub (Hausu Mountain) The idea of a post-rock supergroup can be considered a contradiction in terms, but not really, if you consider that prior “post” styles, e.g. post-bop, post-punk, post-hardcore, were to varying degrees advancements of or correctives to the genres on the right side of the hyphen, and they were also in dialogue with history. Those ideas can be applied to post-rock as it continues its association (again, to varying degrees) to Rock as whole. Body Meπa is Grey McMurray (Sō Percussion, Tyondai Braxton, John Cale, Colin Stetson) on guitar, Sasha Frere-Jones (UI, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Calvinist) on guitar, Melvin Gibbs (Defunkt, Power Tools, Rollins Band, Harriet Tubman) on bass and Greg Fox (Teeth Mountain, Guardian Alien, Fox Millions Duo, Colin Stetson) on drums. Prayer in Dub beautifully extends the promise of The Work Is Slow, Body Meπa’s 2021 debut.
4. Adam Rudolph and Tyshawn Sorey – Archaisms I & Archaisms II (Yeros7 / Meta / Defkaz) In 1974, Andrew Cyrille and Milford Graves recorded and released Dialogue of the Drums, a record of drum duets. Archaisms 1 follows in its tradition, but with a few distinctions. Cyrille and Graves emerged as contemporaries on the ’60s scene, but Archaisms 1 is a generational dialogue as well as a rhythmic one; Rudolph debuted on record in 1978, while Sorey’s first record came in 2002.
Their individual percussive approaches are quite complementary however, both on the duet disc and as part of the percussion quintet that shapes up Archaisms II. There really is no fluctuation in quality between the two discs, though obviously some listeners will have their favorite. To my ear, they enter into their own dialogue, and are inseparable.
3. Jessica Ackerley – All of the Colours Are Singing (AKP Recordings) Guitarist Ackerley is no stranger to this list, as their duet album with saxophonist-flautist-clarinetist Daniel Carter, Friendship: Lucid Shared Dreams and Time Travel, shared the sixth spot on our 2021 Best New Releases list. Ackerley was based in New York City then but they’ve since moved to Hawaii, where this album, which features a core trio of Ackerley, bassist Walter Stinson and drummer Aaron Edgcomb was recorded. Ackerley’s string arrangements were added later, performed by Concetta Abatte on violin and viola. The release with Carter is solidly in the tradition of duo exchange, but All of the Colours Are Singing is obviously more composed, tapping into classical, ambient and rock, with flashes of ’80s Downtown NYC. It’s a sweet grower of a disc that firmly establishes Ackerley as a major artist on the contemporary scene.
2. Tomeka Reid Quartet – 3 + 3 (Cuneiform) Cellist and composer Reid’s quartet features Jason Roebke on bass, Tomas Fujiwara on drums, and Mary Halvorson on guitar. Reid considers 3 + 3 to be a suite, and the listening backs her up. It’s also as compositionally sturdy as Thumbscrew’s album above, which makes sense as two-thirds of Thumbscrew is half of this quartet. It’s worth noting that Reid and Halvorson are both MacArthur Fellows. This shared achievement surely played a role in 3 + 3 becoming such a fully-realized work, with the added appeal of string-based front line, not something that’s found on the new release schedule every week. Furthermore, 3 + 3’s recording was made possible by Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works program funded through the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. This album, Wingbeats and Viewfinder shows that providing resources to the arts (time as much as money) strengthens artists and makes better art. And better art is a necessity in this world.
1. Myriam Gendron – Mayday (Thrill Jockey) Gendron’s latest album, her third, is another absolute knockout. With core support from Marissa Anderson and Jim White, Gendron soars as a vocalist and interpreter of a wide range of traditional song (plus another poem by Dorothy Parker), singing in English and French. Gendron’s music has such a wonderful out-of-time quality, and the only point of comparison that I think makes sense is Josephine Foster. It’s like discovering an unknown artist from a box of old records and being unprepared for the sheer beauty of the sounds. And just when I was thinking 2024’s Best list would be lacking in Zoh Amba’s saxophone, there she is on Mayday’s final track “Berceuse.” But Cédric Dind-Lavoie and Bill Nace are here, too. Really, Mayday is an utter marvel of rich interactions. But of course it’s Gendron who makes this record the best new release heard by these ears in 2024.
Take strength from the holiday, and stay sane by listening to some music. It’s already getting crazy out there. We’ll reconvene in 2025, as a slew of worthwhile releases are on deck.
