End Of Year Rotation.

..a few picks.

This isn’t meant to be any kind of end of year best of favourites list, just one of those periodic posts about some of the things I’ve been getting into my ears recently.

As anyone who read my recent little interview here might know, I am huge fan of Captain Beefheart. I’ve recently discovered a few other artists who’ve covered his highly idiosyncratic music, so I’ve been really enjoying this mid 1990’s live album I discovered crate digging on Bandcamp, with a top band led by Swedish drum ace Morgan Ågren, which also features Zappa/Beefheart guitarist Denny Walley.

Great performances and new interpretations of a really good selection of some classic Beefheart material.

Thanks to the mysterious YouTube algorithms, I kept getting fed this marvellous clip of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band live at some Scandinavian festival in the early 1970’s:

I had a passing knowledge of some of their material, but never really connected with it before, but it’s clear from the video however that this is indeed “great stuff” and well worthy of further investigation, so I was pleased when I managed to pick up a box set of five of their 1970’s albums. What was also interesting to me was the number of people who have since mentioned to me how truly great The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were live, which of course is something I’ll never experience, but at least the studio albums give a good idea of the energy and creativity going on. Ahead of their time I think, even if before mine.

Another algorhithmic (..or perhaps I should say algorhythmic…) discovery was the “Hypnotic Dance Punk” band Gut Health:

For once I can understand why, as this popped into my feed as I was revisiting the Au Pairs post-punk classic, “Playing With A Different Sex” and there’s certainly a similarity in the early 1980’s type vibe and the pleasingly upfront basslines. What grabbed my ears in a big way was the long form, trancey title track of their new album “Stiletto”, which, unusually, is in five. Something about the way it moves relentlessly towards it’s cacophonous ending with the “Time Echoes” chant going on caught me emotionally in a way I didn’t expect. I can’t articulate why, but almost as if the seemingly meaningless stream of conscious lyrics actually made some sort of perfect sense at the very end. Understanding without understanding. Or maybe it’s just the time of year, with the same things repeating, as they do around Christmas time, but different and with different meanings. Time is a boomerang, as Jeanette Winterson wrote. I’ll leave that thought there, but one of things I like about this time of year is the sort of liminal quality it can take on, which I think serves an important psychological function.

As you can see from the picture above, along with SAHB, I’ve also got hold of a couple of other multi album compilations, the Miles Davis Quintet’s Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’ and Steamin’ , all brilliant, and as I was missing one, a useful purchase. Similarly the case with the Ahmad Jamal double CD. Over the years, I seem to have bought various CD versions of Ahmad Jamal’s marvellous 1950’s era trio live albums with Israel Crosby on bass and Vernell Fournier on drums, with each one claiming to be a complete set, but this 4 album compilation has a load of material I didn’t have, so I must have been mislead or more likely just ignorant.

I have to admit, it took me a while to “get” the spacious and often minimal Ahmad Jamal Trio. My initial exposure, many years ago, gave the impression there wasn’t much going on, especially compared to the much more full on (…but still astonishing) Oscar Peterson Trio, a mainstay of my father’s listening habits and with which I had long been much more familiar, leading me to believe the Ahmad Jamal Trio was just a kind of lightweight, background cocktail jazz. As with a lot of things that don’t chime immediately, you are rewarded with repeated listening, as elements of mastery emerge when you direct your attention. Absolutely fabulous trio interplay, super cool arrangements and astonishingly interlocked, telepathic level, in synch bass and drums, which I have never got tired of listening to. It’s the epitome of laid back, cool jazz in a trio format really.

I was very glad to discover Tony Levin had a new solo album. One of the most innovative, creative and inspiring bass players of all time, he’s released a great new album with a stellar cast of supporting musicians. Lots to discover in “Bringing It Down To The Bass” and I am literally all ears. I am also hoping to catch Tony Levin on tour with Beat if they make it over the pond.

Somewhat disappointed to discover that Black Midi had called it a day after only three albums, but my disappointment has been moderated by frontman Geordie Greep’s new solo album “The New Sound” which is a really fascinating release. I find to quite hard to describe, there’s an odd mix of Latin influences, brass, strings and dark humour with twisted lyrics. It’s almost jazz rock, but not really. It’s very well recorded and quite a different listen and I am sure I’ll discover a lot more with subsequent listens.

Apparently last in the recent series of Can live albums comes Live in Keele 1977.

With Holger Czukay no longer on bass but moved onto shortwave radio, and Rosko Gee filling the low end instead, it’s an unusual document of the lesser celebrated later period Can, but still well worth a listen. All the things I like about Can are well in evidence.

Lastly, I picked up this compilation of UK dub producer and bassist Dennis Bovell’s work. I’ve been well aware of Dennis’s late 1970’s/early 1980’s work as a producer and especially with poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. I also saw Dennis play live with the LKJ band sometime around the time of this great Paris concert:

…but recently I had spotted his name in the credits of a few albums and figured I’d get more familiar with some of things I didn’t know so well, or know at all, and I am very glad I did.

I’ve also been reading Bill McCormick’s Making It Up As You Go Along, which is an entertaining read about his decade as a full time bass player, before giving it all up and going into politics. Lots of background about working with Robert Wyatt, Phil Manzanera and the band 801. I wore out the unimaginatively titled live album “801 Live” years ago and always wondered why it was only a one-off. He’s quite self deprecating about his musical ability but I did get right into the 801 Live album at one point and I always thought he was great.

Continuing my long overdue exploration of the Stranglers, and having read Hugh Cornwell’s Song by Song, I decided to get hold of J.J. Burnel’s Strangler In The Light, which is pretty easy to dip in and out of, being more or less conversational as it’s really a long transcribed interview. Interesting to get a different perspective on the band and also the split of the original line-up, quite enjoyable in places.

Anyway, I hope some of the above is of interest..….I’m signing off now until 2025, which really isn’t that far off!

Thanks to everyone who subscribes here, I can promise much more to come…for now a slightly early Happy New Year. Best to all.