International Anthem: S/D

So far I don't like it as much as The New Breed, but I think it will be a slow burner. "3 for L" is fantastic.

Digging the Makaya McCraven / Gil Scott Heron thing at the moment.

It's really good! I actually really like that Alabaster Deplume album too.

otm! big up calzino for mentioning the DePlume on the rolling jazz thread: it is achingly beautiful

Agreed!

i could use some achingly beautiful today; queuing up now.

Oh, the dePlume is really nice!

Yes enjoyed it on a short flight yesterday

Another vote for the deplume here finished it and immediately restarted it for a second listen thru critical and kind music at this moment

yeah, it's great.

Good god damn this DePlume record is absolutely beautiful.

Thanks for the reminder -- I checked out the DePlume today, and it is wonderful. It has a slight Getatchew Mekurya vibe.

yah, that is right. really a great album, thanks for hipping me to it.

That Alabaster DePlume record is exactly what I needed right now, thank you

"Not My Ask" brings me to tears

Praise for Recent Non-Album Track "Homeless/Global"https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/homeless-global

this is so good rn

Alabaster DePlume = ILM record of the year 2020, calling it now

icymi, rob made a thread for it:

thread of rapturous appreciation for Alabaster DePlume

Interview w Angel https://thequietus.com/articles/28498-angel-bat-dawid-emma-warren-interview-total-refreshment-centre-transition-east

I am two tracks into the new Makaya McCraven (Universal Beings E&F Sides) and it is FYAH

Loving this one

posted unwatched but excited to see this short makaya bio doc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9t86fAuz5s

okay, watched; really great and helpful in understanding his process.

Interested in seeing that. New album is decent but I don't think it's as good as Universal Beings. Some good grooves, though; I can see why it would appeal to Jordan.

Universal Beings continues to be my most reliably enjoyable album of quarantine. Works for anything. I know it gets a lot of love but if anything I think it's underrated. Like, why isn't this guy on tv?

I wonder if the Jaimie Branch agnostics itt have heard the Anteloper stuff with Jason Nazary. It definitely converted me. Great stuff

i do feel like the crossover with makaya and say, the herbie hancock/robert glasper/kamasi washington crowd seems natural and it's either a matter of time for him to break bigger or it's just a sign that he's not interested in pursuing a broader audience.

Again, that doc is great; anyone even a little into makaya should watch it.
Turns out his mother is a lead member of Kolinda (pictured, i think, on this youtube thumbnail on the right)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46C4F7XmYLg

Will check doc, thanks. He was featured on Jazz Night In America not too long ago, should be in their archive. Also in that good recent UK comp Kaleidoscope, which is on YouTube, also w some Brits on https://totalrefreshmentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/makaya-mccraven-where-we-come-from-chicagoxlondon-mixtape A bunch of other stuff on bandcamp I haven't listened to yet, but digging this: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/universal-beings-e-f-sides. And def. Gil Scott-Heron's We're New Here: A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven, as I carried on about over on What Are You Listening To? 2020:
Still haven't heard the original album, or Jamie xx's reworking, but the unmistakable sound and sensibility of classic Gil come through: sharp, reflective glints in the dark, rough-edged a fluid, lyrical and realist, searching and on point, thematic and grooving---jazzwise, yet "blues is a feeling" the overall. Only thing is, some of the originals are really short, like down to 37 seconds: golden kernels of potential and realization---McCraven is def. not showboating, but I wish he extended these--maybe he was required to stick to the original track times? I'd like a bit more---Laswell redoing Marley and Miles? Anyway, it's all good, though faves are mostly because they have longer to make an impression: "New York is Killing Me," "I'll Take Care of You," "Me and the Devil"--yes, Scott-Heron and Robert Johnson and Mr. D. on the Greyhound, seems natural. Speaking voice is worn but clear, singing voice not that different from 1970s.

―

That Where We Come From set is maybe my favorite McCraven thing; you can get it on IA's Bandcamp page (I have the CD):

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/where-we-come-from-chicagoxlondon-mixtape

Can’t wait to hear the new Angel & the Brothahood live album, the backstory is grim but I loved the part about how she sat down at the hotel piano and went off on the guy who told her not to play.

https://pitchfork.com/news/angel-bat-dawid-and-tha-brothahood-release-new-live-album-listen/

^I still haven't gotten to that, but I just listened to Rob Mazurek/Exploding Star Orchestra's "Dimensional Stardust" and really loved it: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/dimensional-stardust

Her live album is REALLY good, would recommend with the caveat that it's pretty heavy!

It's emotionally a lot to take - not something you're gonna want to listen to every day. But yeah, it's great stuff.

I'm on track 5 of the Mazurek now and am really liking it so far.

It took a few listens to absorb, but I'm now quite taken with the shimmery Chicago Waves by Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. It's much much more new age/ambient than jazz, probably closest to the De Plume record than anything else on the label that I've heard, though it doesn't pierce your heart with melodies like AdP. Maybe some day I can listen to it while strolling through an aquarium (perhaps Shedd...sigh).

As that recommendation maybe implies, I still haven't gotten into the mental space to try the new Dawid

I worked yesterday afternoon in front of a fire with the Exploding Star Orchestra album on and it was very nice.

There's a new Damon Locks/Black Monument Ensemble album coming in April: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/now

the first track is really beautiful (recorded live & outside last summer -- you can hear the cicadas)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQLGNOCb6ZM

I love that. The video is very cool as well.

The whole album is amazing. I said on Twitter that it's like a combination of SAULT, an Adam Curtis documentary, and Archie Shepp's Attica Blues.

Will be pre-ordering this for sure. A little surprised the physical edition isn't out until July though, shit must really be getting backed up.

I've only seen like 10 mins of a Curtis doc but I am intrigued by that description

Well this totally rules—deserves its own thread really, but I'm annoyingly busy today

fyi Sons of Kemet fans should get on this immediately

This = Damon Locks and Black Monument Ensemble? It's great. Wish there was a little less spoken parts, but I get that's an essential part of what their doing.

was a little less = were fewer, jesus

yes that's the one!

Since we have some deathly allergic-to-spoken-word jazz fans around here, I think it's fair to note that, aiui, most of the "spoken parts" are samples not slam poetry, giving the whole thing something of Madlib/sound collage quality (I assume this is what unperson meant by referencing Adam Curtis). Still might not be your cup of tea, but it's a different vibe from some of the declamatory contemporary jazz that I know rubs some the wrong way

Yeah I like the Damon Locks album a lot. The first and last tracks in particular.

Been enjoying it

Went to see Jaimie Branch & her fantastic band blow the roof off last night -- it was my first show post-pandemic and I may have been primed to enjoy it regardless but I LOVED IT. I loved everything about the performance -- the band's chemistry, the energy, the music itself, interaction with audience, guest players!, her performance style. If you have a chance to see her, don't miss it. I think the band is on tour?

Yeah, I've been getting that experience, as much as possible online, from listening to their live album:
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/fly-or-die-live

I am not super familiar with Angel Bat Dawid's work, does she always use autotuned vocals so extensively, like on this?

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology

She uses a lot of different vocal techniques/ways of singing and/or vocalizing -- that's just one thing she does ime. Not broadly representative of her vocal style.

thanks!

PERFORMING AT BASILICA SOUNDSCAPE 2021

“Like a blossom emerging from between the floorboards of a slaughterhouse, Moor Mother’s music is an act of transcending a violent, intolerable present.” - The Fader

Today Moor Mother – aka Camae Ayewa – is announcing her new album ‘Black Encylcopedia Of The Air’, thirteen mesmerizing tracks about memory and imprinting and the future, all of them wafting through untouched space like the ghostly cinders of a world on fire, unbound and uncharted, vast and stretching across the universe.

On the new single “Obsidian”, Moor Mother says the song is about present danger - “thinking about one's proximity to violence. Thinking about violence in the home. Violence in communities." Featuring rapper Pink Siifu, listen and watch the song’s new video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fovnxpu10EA.

from Rolling Jazz:

More Energy Fields, Current
by Carlos Niño & Friends
Tagged in label notes as 10 pristine gems of collaborative communication helmed by the Southern Californian sage, elegantly presented in his unique “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” style. And sounds like the improvisational part might feed and respond to the Space Collage: it's more jazz than set piece, like the tracks, never too long, might be scooping up something along the way, lighting in the bottle and vice-versa. Wonder if they play live, with loops, maybe? (I imme

Listening on headphones, I keep getting aerial glimpses of the Pacific Coast Highway, interspersed w more time in little caves and coves: an intimate, though airy, small group sound, always incl. Niño (percussion, sound design, editing, mixing) and I think always Jamael Dean on keys, with others sometims on drums, tenor and/or flute, synths, and voices (on one track: wordless ones, don't worry, of Laraaji and Sharada). Shabaka Hutchings, Dntel, Adam Rudolph, Aaron Shaw, a bunch of others, coming in and moving on, at least for a while, never too many at once.

First one to command my attention was "Nightswimming," then so many of the others that I gave up on linking a favorite in addition to the whole thing:
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/more-energy-fields-current

― dow, Monday, May 31, 2021 4:57 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Niño’s previous album on IA, Chicago Waves, is live if you’re curious! I think I described it as more like ambient/new age than jazz on the IA thread but I liked it a lot

― rob, Monday, May 31, 2021 5:08 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Will check, thanks! Ambient/New Age usually puts me right to sleep, but this got me more awake.
Also, this one has *kind* of a DePlume vibe, or related appeal,anyway, but maybe earlier in the day or evening, and a little more spare?
https://alabasterdeplume.bandcamp.com/
- dow

also from RJ:
omg Dedicated to Saint Escrava Anastacia.
credits
released June 19, 2021

All instruments, vocalz, and synths performed, produced, recorded, arranged & mixed By Angel Bat Dawid.
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology
First encounter w this, and don't know of course if it will seem as amazing now that I know what to expect (nothing like what I did expect from several titles, which is prob the point), but so far it's immediately compelling, often beguiling, with an eerie, tranquil intensity, and some shifting surfaces and perimeters (for inst, what's happening to the vocals going around the room---"I know I should be grateful"---in " 'Goree,' or Slave - Stick"---we also get the improbably redemption of overt Auto Tune sometimes, or maybe keys, emphasizing the inflection (of male group vocals? Or herself treated?) that suggests a African-Hebraic-Isalmic chain, rattling a little (the clarinet encourages this). One of the most affecting tracks is her untreated, a capella , "Bet"--followed, in a plausible way, by a calmly killer finale trilogy. None of this is an onslaught of sounds though; each room is only as full as need be. Seems like a rec to fans of adventurously historical clarinetists John Carter and Matana Roberts (her Coin Coin series, and maybe all of his Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music, although the album from that I'm thinking of, and most familiar with, is Fields).

― dow,

^^ I'm really enjoying that one

Hush Harbor Mixtape is amazing, too bad I'm too late to pick up the tape
Quite an amazing label, starting to feel I can basically buy anything I happen to see out there

Hush Harbor is great, been listening alot (and did order the tape!). Just saw this one dropped with very little info: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/jps-myspace-beats

Not much info to go on as there's no digital release, only the 2xlp. It sounds like it's beats and tracks Jeff Parker has worked on over the years. I can't find internet documentation of much, but did find one of the tracks on his Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jeff-parker/supernat

Has anyone received their Damon Locks vinyl? I think it was supposed to ship in July but there has been a delay?

Bought it in a shop last weekend so it's out there!

IA tweeted about pressing & shipping of LP's recently:

To Whom It May Concern: an update on vinyl pre-orders (Damon Locks, jaimie branch), pressing/shipping woes, challenges, commitments, ideals and other musings...

To Whom It May Concern: an update on vinyl pre-orders (Damon Locks, jaimie branch), pressing/shipping woes, challenges, commitments, ideals and other musings... pic.twitter.com/Q1VZkF0f7y

— International Anthem (@intlanthem) July 22, 2021

(1) Damon Locks NOW LP's have been stuck customs in the US for the last couple of weeks.. So if you're waiting on this LP which we said would ship July 9th... The albums are out of jail soon. We’ll start shipping them as soon as they arrive in Chicago. Hopefully in 2-3 weeks max

They just announced a new Irreversible Entanglements album, Open the Gates, out in November.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/open-the-gates

Thanks, willem. I found something indicating a September 16 date so just a little longer.

I think this record is just incredible, so gorgeous, almost ambient:

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/chicago-waves

yep, that's my favorite IA release that I've heard. I have yet to buy the new Carlos Niño album but I plan to.

New Irreversible Entanglements out in Nov, on Don Giovanni/IA

This label is just absolutely incredible, I don't know that I can pick just one favorite. The new Carlos Niño & Friends album is even better, to my ears anyway.

I think this record is just incredible, so gorgeous, almost ambient:

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/chicago-waves

I'd not heard this one. Wow, it's beautiful. First track reminds me of The Lark Ascending, somehow.

These guys have all of my money. Those ambient records are really nice, and I dig all of the projects Jaimie Branch is involved in (like the anteloper/tour beats record). But the Makaya McCraven records are still tops for me, especially Highly Rare.

xp willem or others who wanted that Angel Bat Dawid cassette: I noticed there are 25 copies in the bandcamp store as of today.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology

Thanks cw! IA's IG account recently mentioned extra copies were to be brought to a live event and remaining copies would be sold through bandcamp. Sadly, the shipping costs to the EU are insane since there's only shipped from Chicago. Too bad. Still enjoy it through spotify though

So happy to finally get my hands on a physical copy of the Alabaster DePlume album today.

New Irreversible Entanglements out in Nov, on Don Giovanni/IA While we're waiting, the aforementioned Moor Mother alb is just out:
https://moormother.bandcamp.com/album/black-encyclopedia-of-the-air (This bandcamp also has her Brass collab w billy woods from Dec., which I just now noticed, d'oh!)

BEN LAMAR GAY ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM
OPEN ARMS TO OPEN US

OUT NOVEMBER 19 VIA
INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM / NONESUCH

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR
“SOMETIMES I FORGET HOW SUMMER LOOKS ON YOU”
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/open-arms-to-open-us

it is the best thing i listened to this week. so good!

psyyyyyched to hear the rest of this dos santos album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n23rl_6gdXM

New Irreversible Entanglements is sounding pretty sick!

Waiting for my CD to get here in a couple of days, stoked to hear it. This label.

it's ridiculous how many extremely good albums from the last few years feature Luke Stewart as a bass player.

Yeah, the Irreversible Entanglements album is great, maybe my favorite IA release of the year.

Kicking myself for missing them at Big Ears. I saw Moor Mother's solo set, which was fiery, but not with the band.

Another huge thumbs up for Irreversible Entanglements.

Also stoked for the new solo guitar Jeff Parker record and the new Ben Lamar Gay, basically everything they put out is instant purchase imo.

late pass on angel bat dawid, this is liquid fire
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/track/black-family-2

Jeff Parker's new one is a solo acoustic folky thing, by the look of it. New Ben Lamar Gay is wonderful.

Still superenjoying City of Mirrors. Alma Cósmica is my fave track still but it has a very enjoyable vibe throughout. I’m making seeing them live a priority!

solo acoustic folky thing
it's solo but it's not acoustic or really folky

Very excited about solo Parker, love the preview track (very patient and loop-based, duetting with himself)

Truly a miraculous year for this label. I just listened to the Jamire Williams album; naturally, it's excellent. The Parker is up next

incredible run in '21.

Yes the Jamire Williams is great!

Every album a must buy

It's pretty wild! For ex, the Dos Santos album isn't really my usual thing genre-wise, but it's super well made and sounds great

hello it is fantastic -- the more you listen to it, the better it gets. if you have ever wondered about the intersection of cumbia & krautrock (I have) it really hits the spot.

i should say motorik -- krautrock is too vague

my problem is I only have a vague idea of what cumbia is :/

but I did like it a lot on two listens, just got overwhelmed by IA releasing 4 more albums I had to hear

Soundway Records (another no-miss label imo) has some great comps if you're interested. this was released in 2011 and continues to deliver! https://soundwayrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-original-sound-of-cumbia

I am interested and that looks amazing, thank you!

cosign on that Soundways cumbia comp, it's fantastic

there's two great LP comps via the Mississippi label as well ("A Orillas De Magdelena" and "Remolino De Oro")

saw nicole mitchell performing the xenogenesis suite and angel bat dawid doing the music of yusef lateef. that shit was fucking great but the carnegie audience was extremely square.

enjoying "recordings from the åland islands"

Same, very lovely. Would have been a big lockdown record.

Honer and Chiu opened for Alabaster dePlume when I saw him last night; it was a pleasant new age knob twiddle. I will put the album on now.

Speaking of new age knob twiddle, have you heard this, forks? Pasted way upthread from Rolling Jazz 2021:
More Energy Fields, Current
by Carlos Niño & Friends
Tagged in label notes as 10 pristine gems of collaborative communication helmed by the Southern Californian sage, elegantly presented in his unique “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” style. And sounds like the improvisational part might feed and respond to the Space Collage: it's more jazz than set piece, like the tracks, never too long, might be scooping up something along the way, lighting in the bottle and vice-versa. Wonder if they play live, with loops, maybe? While mixing on the fly---?

Listening on headphones, I keep getting aerial glimpses of the Pacific Coast Highway, interspersed w more time in little caves and coves: an intimate, though airy, small group sound, always incl. Niño (percussion, sound design, editing, mixing) and I think always Jamael Dean on keys, with others sometimes on drums, tenor and/or flute, synths, and voices (on one track: wordless ones, don't worry, of Laraaji and Sharada). Shabaka Hutchings, Dntel, Adam Rudolph, Aaron Shaw, a bunch of others, coming in and moving on, at least for a while, never too many at once.

First one to command my attention was "Nightswimming," then so many of the others that I gave up on linking a favorite in addition to the whole thing:
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/more-energy-fields-current

― dow, Monday, May 31, 2021 4:57 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Niño’s previous album on IA, Chicago Waves, is live if you’re curious! I think I described it as more like ambient/new age than jazz on the IA thread but I liked it a lot

― rob, Monday, May 31, 2021 5:08 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Also now I see Carlos has his own Bandcamp page, with lots more to check out.

new to me but will add to the playlist!

LOVING THIS https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/panam-77

Panamá 77 – a vibrant and verdant suite of multi-textural, jazz-laced psychedelic instrumental folk-funk – is the debut album by Panamá-born, Chicago-based drummer and DJ Daniel Villarreal.

yeah this is fannnnnntastic

This album is so freaking good. It reminds me of George Braith's Musart, which is one of my favorite albums of all time.

Which for some reason is not on streaming afaik.

yeah I dig the Panama 77 album! thx for the rec, LL

absolute bliss listening to this outside yesterday as the sun set

I love Jeff Parker's contributions to this

In/On is soooo good

wow the hits just keep coming, psyched for this:

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/extra-presence

And the Charles Stepney archival collection is now fully up for preorder

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/step-on-step

new Carlos Nino album "Extra Presence" is fantastic FYI

astonishing list of collaborators including Iasos, Laraaji, Shabazz Palaces, and a bunch of other folks

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/extra-presence

Carlos Niño & Friends

Thanks for the reminder! Like I carried on about way upthread, CN & Friends' More Energy Fields, Current was one of my toppermost picks of '21.

Premiere of a new Angel Bat Dawid composition streaming here tonight (Saturday 8/20):

https://m.twitch.tv/elasticartschicago

Literally can’t believe we will never hear new music or see the exuberant performance of Jaimie Branch again — the realest of the real, will pour one out for her tonight 🥲

I kinda can't believe this. Shocked. What a loss.

just terrible news

what the hell

Well shit. For real one of my favorite new artists of recent years. So lucky I got to see her at Big Ears. Really sad to hear it.

this sucks so much

Oh no that is awful and shocking news

Well shit. For real one of my favorite new artists of recent years. So lucky I got to see her at Big Ears. Really sad to hear it.

Saw her twice — once with a trio (Luke Stewart on bass, Mike Pride on drums) and once as part of an expanded version of Harriet Tubman (HT + the James Brandon Lewis trio + Branch + Darius Jones) performing a re-interpretation of Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz". Fantastic both times. And all three of the Fly Or Die albums are just stunning.

What the fuck

only 39, fucking hell

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2WTLKvbhWA

an absolute and gutting loss; she should've had decades of great albums ahead.

xxxpost Pour one out on my behalf as well, LL.
Rough x mellow like no other.
Fly or Die Live audience singing along with
"Thi-i-s, is, a lo-o-ve song, for ass-holes, and clowns..."

No!

Hadn't see this interview before

My first AD interview was with Jaimie Branch. What an artist. https://t.co/FF4If0i3kr

— Jennifer Kelly (@jkellyfinwriter) August 23, 2022

just heard. so sad. so young!

Sweet post by Alabaster dePlume (saw them play together at Big Ears too): https://www.facebook.com/100057753771232/posts/pfbid0E1D2NzQpXReurcDBryXvTSY9Bje7febpxNN9tEdEbtLv2Mn9khbTf2Zdu8tRk2cul/?d=n

https://chicagoreader.com/music/jaimie-branch-has-flown-away-too-soon

Written by someone who knows everyone, worth a read

she fell hard for punk, ska, and hip-hop; she had a feel for abstract styles, and just as firm a grasp on music that communicated directly.

she understood that people who think they’re good guys can be assholes, and that even assholes need love.

She got people, and people got her. They recognized the human complications that were as much a part of her music as her combo’s practiced rapport and exhilarating spontaneity.

"they think they run this shit" is the quote that keeps sticking with me

(from the live album)

https://aquilesnavarro.bandcamp.com/track/el-amor-que-ella-te-dio-para-jaimie-branch

Feels sad to move on from mourning Jaimie Branch itt, but ... this upcoming Tom Skinner album seems v promising. A band with Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings on saxes. (It's funny, when I first looked at the page it listed all the personnel, but now that's gone. I wonder if they're still working out contracts or something.)

https://tom-skinner.bandcamp.com/

personnel (and colored vinyl) are on the International Anthem page for the album ():

Tom Skinner – Drums
Kareem Dayes – Cello
Nubya Garcia – Tenor saxophone and flute
Tom Herbert – Acoustic bass
Shabaka Hutchings – Tenor saxophone and bass clarinet

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/voices-of-bishara?

Ah, I didn't see I'd defaulted back to the main artist page. Well, the preview track is good!

Not what I expected from the description (ie influenced by Tony Williams Lifetime and chopped up like Makaya McCraven), but I'm looking forward to hearing the full record.

Big fun---her other group (didn't get into their previous, but better check it again):

“We’re improvisers first and we’re bringing “moment music” into these other zones of hip hop and electronic music, drum-machine music, sound-system culture… Acoustic musicians sun-kissed by electro-magnetism, flowing out into everything. This is the shit that we want to be playing on big ass systems. Omnivorous, energy space time, mosh pit dance-music. Get it in the subwoofers so you can feel it hit, cuz the music has to begin in the body!” – jaimie branch

Jaimie branch - trumpet, electronics, percussion, vocals
Jason Nazary - drums, synths
Jeff Parker - guitar, bass guitar, percussion, Korg MS-20
Chad Taylor - mbira (track 2)

Also, from unperson's Burning Ambulance newsletter:
Hank Shteamer, a friend and colleague, conducted what is almost certainly Jaimie Branch’s final interview. It’s a tremendous piece, very much worth your time:
https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/hank-shteamer-jaimie-branch?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Also AMEN to all:

LOVING THIS https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/panam-77

― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Friday, May 20, 2022 1:52 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Panamá 77 – a vibrant and verdant suite of multi-textural, jazz-laced psychedelic instrumental folk-funk – is the debut album by Panamá-born, Chicago-based drummer and DJ Daniel Villarreal.
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Friday, May 20, 2022 1:53 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah this is fannnnnntastic

― tylerw, Friday, May 20, 2022 5:13 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

This album is so freaking good. It reminds me of George Braith's Musart, which is one of my favorite albums of all time.

― PBKR, Friday, May 20, 2022

this is fucking great, label is unstoppable atm

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/an-offering

Been listening to a ton of stuff from this label. The latest one to get me was Irreversible Entanglements - Open the Gates. Are the other IE albums as good?

The only other one I've heard is Who Sent You?, so great.
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/who-sent-you

And---fine-wine summer '22 music by Jaimie Branch's other group, Anteloper:

“We’re improvisers first and we’re bringing “moment music” into these other zones of hip hop and electronic music, drum-machine music, sound-system culture… Acoustic musicians sun-kissed by electro-magnetism, flowing out into everything. This is the shit that we want to be playing on big ass systems. Omnivorous, energy space time, mosh pit dance-music. Get it in the subwoofers so you can feel it hit, cuz the music has to begin in the body!” – jaimie branch

Forgot I already posted that, sorry! But worth it.

Thoroughly enjoying this at the moment: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/voices-of-bishara....Tom Skinner, Tom Herbert, Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia...

Yeah, really like that Tom Skinner album.

Just catching up on some recent releases, both the Tom Skinner and Dezron Douglas albums are really great. The latter is the most "traditional" sounding thing I've heard from this label in a long time, but it still really works.

Agreed on the Douglas "oh! this is 'normal' jazz" reaction. I'd love to see that group live.

I've listened to the Skinner twice and would say it's very good but it also faded from memory quickly (possibly a result of my listening to too much [old] jazz lately though).

International Anthem musicians: They're Just Like You update:

Spotted M McCraven behind me in line at Target today!

only time i ever saw him in public, I started approaching him to tell him how much i loved his music and he gave me a clear "please don't talk to me" look
i dunno, i probably caught him at a bad moment

I’ve seen him 3x now — twice at the restaurant where I work and this once at Target. I didn’t say anything about being a fan any of those times but did get to make limited small talk when I delivered his drink once.

I met him at the Green Mill once. He wasn't playing, just there for the after-hours jam the night that Anderson Paak was playing at the theater next door and so Kamasi Washington and everyone from the band was in the house. The drummer was late and I was 'joking' that he should play the first tune, but he was off the clock. Super nice though.

Saw him again at a very intimate club with a (guitar) trio, incredible show.

Daniel Villarreal brought the house down last night at the venue attached to my workplace. I caught a tiny bit of it (I was working) and could only wish I was not working so i could see the whole show. People were raving on their way out.

Ooh very jealous!

Thanks for reminding me how much I listened to that earlier this year. Need to pull it out again.

the new / upcoming Angel Bat Dawid album is incredible.

Chain Around The Spirit!!!

https://i.imgur.com/L6vaN8wl.jpeg

saw tortoise in portland last night and dan bitney was wearing a fly or die shirt <3

<3

I wish the rest of this Rob Mazurek album was less free and more like the first track, I had high hopes

Angel Bat Dawid album felt corny as hell to me but I stopped after five tracks

same

She can be a bit much. I think Damon Locks does something similar to her but a whole lot better.

I like The Oracle a lot, but I couldn't get into the choral stuff on this one. Plus I still need to see The Cry of Jazz, so that reference is lost on me

My first take, when a friend sent it to me recently (the gist: I got more into the second half on first listen)

Tue, Mar 28, 3:21 PM (4 days ago)
to John

Dammmm---gonna take me a while to wrap my head around all of that---at first, was put off/distracted, in my secular way by extended, layered, ornate use of themes otherwise recalling spirituals (chorales not her specialty) as associated, in less pressing way, with Ra, and Ellington, for that matter, also somewhat distractingly, though the notes warned me, w The Cry of Jazz/Ed Bland's insistently polemical POV---but the second half pulled me in more, as often happens, maybe takes my brain that long, but also got more into reeds, strings, some electronics, perceived in more of a prominent, supportive partnership with chorale--also emerging w for inst klezmer-associated motifs, also dig the early New Orleans groove of another track, and of course Marshall Allen and Knoell Scott get into thee penultimate performance--I like how these live sections are mutable, without going on too long--will take some more listening, but some great stuff here, obviously------she pulls off a much more concise collage ov speculative fact and effects here, a trip : https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology On this latest, she incl. some fellow members of the Monuments Ensemble; they all have some bracing urban offroad excursions here: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/now

I have to say the new Angel Bat Dawid is a rare miss from this label. I love her other stuff, but this really feels like an event you needed to see in person to appreciate. On the recording, it comes across as really stilted and episodic, it rarely coheres in an engaging way and I wonder if the stage spectacle would have helped with that. I don't think it's corny at all and appreciate what she was trying to do, it just doesn't hold up as an album.

*announcing* IARC0066 jaimie branch -
Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))
LP, CD, Digi album out August 25th, 2023

LINK: https://t.co/itzFirAMIs pic.twitter.com/9jsXJpGkR7

— 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 (@intlanthem) June 20, 2023

Pre-ordered my copy already.

amazing cover imo, can't wait to hear it!!

Surprised not to be seeing much about the new Asher Gamedze, Turbulence and Pulse. I know it's not as forward looking as some of the other stuff these guys put out, but I think it sounds great!

it's really good

finally getting around to the Gamedze today, and, yeah, it's excellent

Not IA, but of related interest:

Hi everyone,

Infrequent Seams keeps at it, releasing an astounding amount of astoundingly creative music. I wrote to y'all about this last week, but today's the day we announce the debut recording from Chicago's Mad Myth Science, to be released 8/25.

It's been four years since Elaine Mitchener put together her brilliant Vocal Classics of the Black Avant Garde playlist for The Wire* and if she reprised it today, I have to believe Mad Myth Science would be a top contender for inclusion. Julian Otis's beautiful, fragmented, passionate poetry and vocalizations thread together these shimmering and forward-thinking improvisations, helping to elevate what was already exceptional to something beyond.

Texture and timbre are central to this work. Mad Myth Science finds power in nuance, in sensitive and subtle –– if not always gentle –– interplay between the idiosyncratic mix of instruments: flute, saxophone, cello, harmonica, vibraphone ... the pre-Don Moye era Art Ensemble of Chicago might come to mind here, with good reason.

For years I used to attend Umbrella Music's jazz night at the Hungry Brain in Chicago every Sunday and frequently visited Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge. Mad Myth Science reminds me of the very best of these evenings; it feels like a distillation of many things memorable and powerful about avant garde jazz and creative music, definitely recommended for fans of Angel Bat Dawid, Matana Roberts, Jeanne Lee, Irreversible Entanglements, and the aforementioned Vocal Classics of the Black Avant Garde playlist.

Please share news of this forthcoming release and share "We Instruments."

Peace,
mark at clandestinepr dot com
SINGLES & RELEASE CALENDAR

JULY 19 _ album announce + "We Instruments" single release
AUG 25 _ full-length release

LIVE

AUG 11 _ Lafayette, IN at Spot Tavern

AUG 13 _ Chicago, IL at The Hungry Brain
with Keefe Jackson / Julian Kirchner / Fred Lomberg-Holm trio

LINKS
Mad Myth Science Instagram
Infrequent Seams Bandcamp

ALBUM CREDITS
Molly Jones: saxophone, flute, toys (Untoward Sound LLC)
Julian Otis: voice, electronics
Wilson Tanner Smith: cello, harmonica, bells & whistles
Ben Zucker: cornet, vibraphone, percussion (ASCAP, Ben Zucker Sounds)

*https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/elaine-mitchener-selects-vocal-classics-of-the-black-avant-garde

And speaking of vocals, excerpts of Clifford Jordan's previously unreleased Drink Plenty Water, recorded in 1974, incl. cosmic chorales and bent-nose spoken words in ways that suggest Sun Ra and Mingus, as reviewer Kevin Whitehead notes here:
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/19/1188651008/newly-unearthed-1974-session-by-clifford-jordan-is-a-striking-one-of-a-kind-albu

This is exciting—a new track from Resavoir with the promise of an album in the future: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/inside-minds

ooh yes

Daniel Villarreal Announces New Album Lados B
Out Oct. 6 2023
Featuring Jeff Parker & Anna Butterss
Releases Video for Lead Single "Sunset Cliffs"
Fall US Tour Dates

On October 15th and 16th, 2020, drummer Daniel Villarreal was joined by guitarist Jeff Parker and bassist Anna Butterss for two afternoons of recording in the backyard of Chicali Outpost in Los Angeles. For all three musicians, it was the first ensemble recording session they’d done in-person since the pandemic locked the world down just seven months prior. Some choice moments from these sessions made it onto Villarreal’s critically-acclaimed 2022 album Panamá 77, but most of the music remained unreleased.

Lados B is a deep dive into the high-level spontaneous music made by Villarreal, Parker, and Butterss across those two days in 2020. Villarreal is heard leading the group through various rhythmic modes and structures for improvisation – flow as informed by the Latin funk of Fania Records as it is by the otherworldly humanity trance of Brain Records – while Parker and Butterss draw on their extensive experience playing free together (as heard on Parker's recently-released Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, and the LA side of Makaya McCraven's 2018 LP Universal Beings) to build harmonic buoys for their spontaneous melodicism. The result is a beautifully vivid illustration of context, creativity, and collective composition from a particularly rich moment in history.

DANIEL VILLARREAL ON "SUNSET CLIFFS"

This song brings me back to when I used to visit my daughters down in Ocean Beach, San Diego. It has a total cruiser vibe as we used to drive up and down the shore as a family and go to these lookout points at the cliffs and enjoy magnificent sunsets colors by the ocean and watching the waves crashing into the rocks.

US TOUR DATES

Wednesday, October 18th - Public Records - Brooklyn NY -
Friday, October 20th - Solar Myth - Philadelphia PA -
Saturday, October 21st - Solar Myth - Philadelphia PA -
Friday, October 27th - Jack London Revue - Portland OR -
Saturday, October 28th - Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts - Beverly Hills CA -
Monday, October 30th - Yoshi's - Oakland CA -

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/lados-b

Yeeeeessssss I saw him play recently at my workplace and it was fantastic!! I love his whole vibe and the folks he plays with are also all top notch.

Finally got around to hearing the Mazurek/Locks thing and, I hate to say it, but man that is disappointing. If there were more of "Twilight Shimmer" type moments it would have been great, but this was kind of a letdown.

got a promo of that Villareal album, it is fannnnnnntastic

super stoked for that and the new Fly or Die

i just saw DV perform recently and -- as usual -- he was great! i extra enjoyed the extended solo. his band was absolutely smokin too.

the bass player in particular but all of them were really fun to watch. he played two shows at the venue attached to my workplace and they were not esp well attended but that's everyone else's loss. lots of people don't know what they're missing.

this Jaimie Branch record, wowwwww

Listening now, sounds great. I was so bummed out by her death. This must have been recorded just like a month after I saw her play.

Finished listening and immediately started it again. Hot damn. I realize I'm in the buzz of first listen, but serious AOTY contender. All the parts of it work. She was so great, and what a band.

sleeve and tipsy otm, listened to this loud in the car on a long ride home yesterday, what a blast!

I love the way that Meat Puppets song is folded in there. I'd have to think a bit to articulate exactly why it fits, but it really does.

this Jaimie Branch record, wowwwww

yes indeed! Take Over The World!!

IA alumni, Irreversible Entanglements new album on Impulse! is also getting a lot of plays this week.

The new Alabaster DePlume record is really lovely, much better than the 'main' companion album the sessions came from imo

very much looking forward to the Bex Burch album

I’m ok admitting I’m in love with the Jaimie Branch record — so great to hear her vocal and trumpet voice, hear body music with an improvisational bent, and I just love the whole thing.

Finding myself wondering who tf is Bex Burch?

Looking forward to that one as well, not familiar but the preview tracks sound great

IE are great and anything with Moor Mother rules, I forgot this group had been on International Anthem. Also love to see DC guy Luke Stewart get recognition and acclaim.

Open the Gates might be my favorite IE release I've heard.

My first encounter with Moor Mother was Art Ensemble of Chicago's We Are On The Edge: a cast of thousands, but she stood out among the standouts. Fave IE is still Who Sent You?, but haven't heard the latest yet.

Speaking of Bex Burch, got this today:

oday, composer, percussionist, producer and instrument maker Bex Burch (Flock, Vula Viel, Boing!) shares the second single “Don't go back to sleep” from her forthcoming LP, There is only love and fear, along with a music video she made herself.

A twinkling piece of arcadian minimalism, “Don’t go back to sleep” eavesdrops on an electro-acoustic conversation with the avian world. Pulsing and playful, Burch and Dan Bitney (Tortoise) merge the organic qualities of synthesis with the synthetic qualities of the organic to create an intuitive tone poem that takes the rhythms and melodies of birdsong as its natural cue. Recorded at the Center of Search & Research where Burch was based while in Chicago, its homely feel bathes the track in dappled sunlight. Deceptively simple in its construction, “Don’t go back to sleep” is an invitation to wake up and listen to what is already out there.

The music video for “Don’t go back to sleep,” created by Bex Burch, demonstrates the unspeakable beauty of nature’s synchrony and how it reflects in Bex’s and Dan’s interplay.

Read the full story of the album by Emma Warren:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZO15FMKKByTAmHF4-yVuQwzSnnnh42bFy58YgzMbYp4/edit?pli=1

TOUR DATES
October 13 - RIAA, Hamburg, Germany (Listening session w/ Bex Burch)
October 20 - Cafe Oto, London, UK
October 27 - King Georg, Cologne, Germany
October 30 - Rhinoçéros, Berlin, Germany (Listening session w/ Bex Burch)
November 03 - ÜBERJAZZ Festival, Hamburg, Germany
November 17 - Jazz Brugge, Belgium

<<< for more information >>>
Label: Scottie McNiece // scottie at intlanthem.com

Not sure if gossip is welcome here, but I heard that Andre 3000 is working on an album for International Anthem

:0

I can see it, he's already guested on an IA record (I think it was Carlos Ninos?).

this Jaimie Branch record, wowwwww

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, August 26, 2023 9:11 PM (three weeks ago)

finally got around to listening to this (extremely hectic fall here) and it is so great!

^

picked up the LP over the weekend and the cover is astonishingly gorgeous

The Daniel Villarreal / Jeff Parker / Anna Butterss record sounds fantastic so far.

agreed!

as does the new Jeremiah Chiu!

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/in-electric-time

new Bex Burch also sounding great this morning, man this label!

Really lovely, yeah.

I didn't realize Bex Burch was also involved in the Flock album from last year that I really liked.

https://flock.bandcamp.com/album/flock-2

I’m off to see Bex Burch tonight and am looking forward to it a great deal. “Messy minimalism”, yes please.

Bex Burch was every bit as good as I’d hoped. The show was mostly solo with some interjections on violin.

They encored with a version of “O Superman”, using whatever member of the xylophone family she was playing. I couldn’t believe my luck. That verse that starts “When love is gone, there’s always justice” always seemed like a punch in the guts to me- now, more than ever.

unperson recommended the new Thandi Ntuli with Carlos Niño record on another thread. Absolutely lovely Sunday morning music and I imagine just excellent at other times. Ordered a copy.

new chiu, honer & kalma 👌🏽

Yes, real good.

otm x2

yeah, I was underwhelmed by Recordings from the Åland Islands, but this is beautifully immersive

Anyone else enjoying the new Villarreal/VV Lightbody Valebol album? I’m absolutely loving it — so springy, reminds me of Antena

It’s very accessible and I can see people well outside the IA world enjoying it.

This one (Row Row Row) is my favorite so far https://open.spotify.com/track/3UZv2dCGfVS1cllt4oVPhO?si=b592c32c71fe4934

Woops this is not released via IA — a different label called Otherly Love Records

It’s still good!

agreed, really enjoyed that one. thanks for the mixup haha

This is really fun, thanks LL! Her voice reminds me of someone. I want to say Liz Fraser?

Always I am mixing up this label with the very different but equally good Imaginational Anthem label.