International Anthem: S/D

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!