Rolling Jazz Thread 2023

looking forward to playing that new Nduduzo!

I checked out the Konjur Collective album after reading the BA newsletter. Good lord, what an album. I look forward to listening to it on decent headphones. Great start to the year!

The 2022 Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll has been published:

https://hullworks.net/jazzpoll/22/totals-new.php

Although it technically belongs to 2022, I figured it’s fair game for the 2023 thread since it was just published today. I made a Spotify playlist of the top 40 new albums. I know Spotify sucks, but I'm hoping someone will fall in love with one of these albums and buy it on vinyl, CD, or Bandcamp:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1o2Vzc55rVw6D1uIsO8cpl?si=6BAlQS8LSOqIydiy1nS4Wg

It seems to still be populating; I can't see the results yet.

Sorry, the first link appears to have reverted to a previous version of the page, without the final results. It worked on my phone a few minutes ago, but when I clicked the link on my laptop just now, the page went bye-bye. Not sure what happened there. Perhaps it was published erroneously but then taken down right away for some reason? I just happened to stumble upon it.

Oh wow, new Moran and Live at Big Ears (w Milford Graves) now in full on Bandcamp, spotted for the first time since I started checking.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1o2Vzc55rVw6D1uIsO8cpl?si=6BAlQS8LSOqIydiy1nS4Wg

― Skrot Montague, Thursday, January 5, 2023 11:02 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this worked for me. thanks!

It looks like the Jazz Critics Poll results are finally live (for real this time). The link I posted above now works. The results can also be found here:

https://artsfuse.org/267017/the-17th-annual-francis-davis-jazz-poll-a-profusion-of-geniuses/

Thanks! One thing distracts me from results---Terry Gross was gone from Fresh Air a long time, and somewhere in there the sub mentioned family health, so I was heartened to see another poll, bummed to see he didn't feel like putting it together himself---still has his mordant sense of humor (about still looking like shit) and some other characteristic lip action, but right now thinks he may not do a poll next year:
https://artsfuse.org/267051/the-17th-annual-francis-davis-jazz-poll-my-poll-without-me/ ("my first concussion, my first pneumonia": wow.)

Halvorson is the third woman (after Maria Schneider and Kris Davis) to top the poll; also the first guitarist.

I somehow managed to not notice the existence of that other Tyshawn Sorey album, the live one

it’s supposed to be pretty good, just downloaded it today

I’ve been ambivalent about buying it because it’s three CDs worth (Pi doesn’t put new releases on streaming and I don’t want to steal it). I like Osby a lot though.

A lot of critics are big on it but I was only kind of meh on his last standards album.

Apparently the live one is supposed to be much more engaging, unsurprisingly.

I absolutely stole it, if a label doesn’t do streaming they should expect it afaic.

Reminding me I still haven't listened to all of this, but:

Comments and especially excerpts in Kevin Whitehead's Fresh Air coverage of Sorey's Mesmerism indicate more variety and shades of interest than I expected: an "Autumn Leaves" I didn't recognize even when he gave the title after playing it, and a couple I didn't know at all: Horace Silver's "Enchantment," where

they leave open space, but every part fits together drum choir-style. Bass becomes a percussion instrument like piano, drums and cymbals.
Even more intriguing is Muhal Richard Abrams' "Two Over One," and KW mentions, without naming or playing, something by Paul Motian. Indicates that there are some more trad numbers as well, and indicates they're not always more than "polite" or "breezy"---a v. laid back "REM Blues," by Ellington, is one I could do without, judging by the wisp of it here---but will prob stream the whole thing somewhere at some point:
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/28/1114236045/tyshawn-soreys-mesmerism-celebrates-the-everyday-miracle-of-the-jazz-rhythm-trio
― dow, Thursday, July 28, 2022 9:18 PM (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink

i was just coming here to say the same thing, or nearly the same thing, which is that i like how it sounded much more than i was expecting to, and that the MR abrams-penned track piqued my interest

― budo jeru, Friday, July 29, 2022 8:41 AM

I bought it — Pi Recordings had a 25% off sale on their site around Christmastime, so I indulged my support-independent-artists-and-fellow-small-labels side and bought three Sorey discs/sets and three more by Henry Threadgill. The live set is good, mostly because of Aaron Diehl, who's one of my favorite pianists; I'm not as enthused about Osby. I saw him play a really good gig about 22-23 years ago with Jason Moran, Stefon Harris, Lonnie Plaxico and Eric Harland (the band on Moran's debut album, Soundtrack To Human Motion, but it was Osby's gig). But I haven't been that much of a fan since.

Gotta say, Diehl is really killing it on the keys on this Sorey 3-disc, very much in agreement with you there.

His three albums under his own name are great, too; I particularly like The Vagabond, from 2020, which includes pieces by Roland Hanna, Prokofiev, and Philip Glass alongside originals.

http://www.mackavenue.com/store/mac1153

Unperson, I'm curious if you've heard any of the JMI Recordings lps?
https://www.jmirecordings.com/coming-attractions

It's a vinyl-only jazz label from the engineer who's worked on all the Roots/Questlove/D'Angelo related stuff for years. Kind of annoying since I would love to hear these records, even a Bandcamp-only + no preview digital version would be something (like Jason Moran's approach). I guess I respect the commitment though.

Not familiar with them at all but I've just sent them an email about at least staying on their PR list. That David Murray 4LP set sounds like it could really be something.

Yeah I'm very curious about that one (heard them talking about it on Questlove's podcast). Also the Mike Mitchell solo drums album, although this can't possibly be true:

As far as we know, a double LP consisting of solo drums has never been released. In Spring, 2023 we will do just that with Blaque Dynamite, the debut vinyl release from one of the hottest drummers in the world.

Oh I should add that it's not just vinyl-only, the conceit is that it's all analog from beginning to end, just tape and hardware, no computer or plugins. Very Steve Hoffman forums, but I guess turning it into streaming digital and mp3s at the end would defeat the point.

(Pi doesn’t put new releases on streaming and I don’t want to steal it)

― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), 8. januar 2023 23:24 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

They are on Apple Music, which might be the best argument for choosing that.

xpost - I listened to the Sorey Trio's Mesmerism for the first time last night. I quite enjoyed it. The bass work was the highlight on first listen (Matt Brewer); he's given a lot of room to stretch out. The album is a relatively compact 47 minutes, which is always okay by me.

Is anyone going to the NYC Winter Jazzfest? If so, who are you most looking forward to seeing? I'd been thinking about making a long weekend out of it, but my finances fell through. The Jaimie Branch tribute looks good.

(Pi doesn’t put new releases on streaming and I don’t want to steal it)

― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), 8. januar 2023 23:24 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

They are on Apple Music, which might be the best argument for choosing that.

i'm doing both days of the winterjazzfest marathon.
General plan of attack is Manhattan: immanuel Wilkens, joel ross, jason lindner, lakecia benjamin, mo betta brown
Brooklyn is: Black Lives, Julius Rodriguez, Brandee younger, Makaya mcCraven, Dawn Richard, Sun Ra Arkestra, maybe ghostfunk orchestra?

She's not exactly jazz in the traditional sense, but Susana Santos Silva is one of the most brilliant trumpeters around, and I interviewed her for Bandcamp:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/susana-santos-silva-discography-feature

Thanks! Speaking of distinctive brass with jazz appeal, though not bound by genre usuals, New Year's Eve introduced me to what Toast of the Nation host Christian McBride referred to as "the quarter-tone trumpet" of composer-arranger-leader Ibrihim Malouf, whose playing seemingly reflects his French-Lebanese background and brings a concentrated contemplation through his 601 (counting him)-person-generated arena jazz. It's never bombastic, never lulling for long: the arena seems like a natural formation, where you sit yourself down and dig other natural wonders--but def. not def facto New Age, like that Floating Points thing always put me right the fuck to sleep, quite literally.
The closest thing I've heard to it, not all that close, but IM's 100-voice children's choir helps, are certain moments in Morricone Spaghetti Western soundtracks.
Also it's kind of like if Kamasi Washington had brought all his troops from The Epic to the wide open spaces of his follow-up EP---amd McBryde says that a "more intimate" encounter with Malouf can be found on Jazz Night In America---maybe "even more intimate" is the way I'll find it, but right now I'm still fascinated with this---scroll down past other good sets:
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/28/1143391829/celebrate-new-years-with-toast-of-the-nation

Sorry, that spelling should be: Ibrahim Maalouf.

The other Toast of the Nation set (linked from xpost same page) that really drew me in consistently: Jose James, whose vocals sometimes go into scatting, vocalese, and elements of hip-hop, with flexed, sometimes staggered (sung) phrases and even a singer's adaptation of scratching---also, he's evidently confident enough to give his musos plenty of room, though they don't overindulge---was especially struck by how James and the rhythm section and omg pianist BIGYUKI (sic) build from what they find in the songs of Bill Withers, rather than just putting up a snazzy stage set of chops over the changes: yet another side of BW, damn.

New album out Jan. 20, with similar line-up, some tracks already streaming:

José James - vocals, bells, singing bowl, Bali metal tongue drum
Ebban Dorsey - alto saxophone (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5)
Diana Dzhabbar - flute, alto saxophone (tracks 1, 3, 7)
BIGYUKI - piano, fender rhodes, wurlitzer, hammond B-3, synthesizers
Ben Williams - bass
Jharis Yokley - drums

James is a great singer, Moodyman did an excellent remix for a track of his back in 08

Great interview with SSS. Her duo set with Kaja Draksler at Tectonics Glasgow was one of the best things I saw/heard last year: state of the art spontaneous composition, so open and generous with each other. Their duo album from 2022 is excellent too. She was superb with Braxton in London in November too - I think that quartet (also with Carl Testa and Maria Portugal) will be touring this year.

I love Jose James but feel like he hasn't made his ultimate album yet. 'No Beginning No End' comes the closest, all originals and a great band (Pino Palladino produced, Chris Dave is on a few tracks). Flying Lotus produced his early albums, haven't really listened to those.

This new one's a Badu tribute? Idk, it's hard to get excited about that, it just makes me want to listen to Badu.

That was my take when I saw him live doing it: it was nice? I saw badu last year so I may be spoiled.

Starting jazzfest off with Immanuel wilkins. Crowded room, maybe 2% masking.

Wilkins and Odean Pope tore it up at Big Ears last March.

Described as “an artist with so much fire in his sound,” by renowned jazz journalist Nate Chinen, James Brandon Lewis is sharing “Send Seraphic Beings” today, the final pre-release track from his upcoming album ‘Eye of I,’ to be released February 2. Filmed live in studio, listen to the moving track and watch Lewis perform the song – also featuring electric cello and drums - below.

“Send Seraphic Beings” (Live): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdjvDUt17t8

More advance tracks: https://jamesbrandonlewis.bandcamp.com/album/eye-of-i

Lewis’ melodic identity encompasses ancient and future, inside and outside, density and openness, church and street. He’s a master of the short infectious motif, and like Sonny Rollins, devotes long expanses of his improvisation to the stretching and refracting and mutating of short phrases.

Lewis writes at the piano, not the tenor, and says that on this project, he found himself thinking cinematically after a conversation he had with saxophonist and composer Henry Threadgill. “He got me thinking about foreground, middle ground and background, like in a scene from a movie,” Lewis says. He adds that to make his themes stand out even further, he didn’t include conventional chord symbols or any harmonic guidance on his charts. “I don’t write any chords on my music. There are more colors available when things are open. I think that’s why my music has a certain lift to it, because I’m encouraging the other musicians to explore and bring out the harmonies that resonate for them.”
One result of that: ‘Eye of I’ travels through a staggering range of musical styles and moods, from Donny Hathaway to Cecil Taylor to the plaintive gospel cry “Even The Sparrow” to the anthemic closing throwdown “Fear Not,” a collaboration with the postpunk group The Messthetics, an instrumental trio featuring guitarist Anthony Pirog, who is joined by former Fugazi members Joe Lally (bass) and Brendan Canty (drums). This February, Lewis and The Messthetics will embark on a co-headlining tour that will traverse both the East and West coast. All upcoming dates are listed below.

TOUR DATES
2/22 - San Diego, CA – Casbah#
2/23 - Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon#
2/24 - San Francisco, CA – SFJazz
2/25 - Bend, OR – Volcanic Theatre Pub#
2/26 - Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios#
2/27 - Seattle, WA – Madame Lou’s#
3/12 - Kingston, NY – Tubby's#
3/13 - Toronto, ON – Drake Hotel#
3/14 - Erie, PA – JazzErie @ The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie#
3/15 - Chicago, IL – Constellation#
3/17 - Pittsburgh, PA – Club Café#
3/18 - Washington D.C. - Black Cat#
3/19 - Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s#
3/20 - New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge#
3/30 - Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival 2023

# with The Messthetics

dang that nduduzo album is fun

so the winter jazzfest marathons were a really good time, though riddled with a constant sense of FOMO. I was talking to a friend who commented that the experience forced you to decide if you wanted to hear new artists or just artists that you knew you already liked. I opted for the latter this go round.

Saturday night in Manhattan underlined how spreading out venues complicates the experience. Most of the early evening was centered downtown by Les Poisson Rouge, Bitter End and Zinc Bar, which means there was a barricade of bodies blocking the smaller clubs and making it nearly impossible to see smaller sets with Doug Wamble and Endea Owens.
The bigger ticket events at LPR were pretty satisfying tho: Immanuel Wilkins set focused almost entirely on his first album.
Donny McCaslin with Jason Lindner, Tim Lefebvre and Mark Guiliana brought a fuckton of chaotic energy and skronk.
The Joel Ross set with the Parables ensemble (featuring Wilkins, Marquis Hill, Kalia Vandever and the superlative flutist Gabrielle Garo among others) was a lovely opportunity for individual exploration and some pretty melodies ("prayer" in particular is very memorable) but, much as when i saw this same set at BRIC jazzfest, i couldn't help but wish for more playing from Ross.
I regretfully called it an early night and missed the Lakecia Benjamin / Mobetta Brown doubleheader at City Winery in favor of pacing myself for the next few nights.

Sunday in Brooklyn was a bit more jampacked, starting out and centering primarily at the Williamsburg Opera House, a venue I've never been in. Capacious, well lit, very comfy, maybe a little too hot on the sound but a nice place to catch a show. I began with the last half of Black Lives from Generation to Generation, a melting pot supergroup of Andy Milne and Stephanie McCay and David Gilmore and EJ Strickland and like ten other people. Suitably raucous and spirited.
Next up was Julius Rodriguez, who put out one of my fave jazz albums from last year. His set was high speed and playful and multivalent, weirdly evoking Prince's Under the Cherry Moon for me. Very young, very excited crowd; I think this kid is going to be very big.
Brandee Younger played with a trio and tested out some new material that sounded downright transcendent.
I regretfully bailed from there early to try to catch a bit of Makaya McCraven's set at Supreme Ingredients, a 20 minute walk away that I recognized as located at the now departed Output once I got there. Absolutely overpacked. I ended up watching four really great songs from the stairwell.
Stumbled back to the Opera house with a stop by National Sawdust where Surya Botofasina was hosting a memoriam for Meghan Stabile and I stepped up to the balcony just as Ravi Coltrane took a five minute solo. Nice timing.
Got back to the Opera House in time for the latter 2/3 of Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn's Pigments. I was wondering how they'd pull this off live given that the (beautiful) album has long gaps of instrumental only work and Dawn is a bit of an attention draw. That led to some cognitive dissonance with Dawn in an inverted black tutu and a rhinestone balaclava shuffling at center during reflective synth sequences. She is, nonetheless, a star and sounded gorgeous. Probably could've used a multimedia projection to fill in some of the gaps though.
it's likely churlish and the apex of point missing to accuse the Sun Ra Arkestra of being disjointed but they seemed a bit out of it. 11.30 pm start time for a lot of that crew seems like elder abuse. Somehow Allen is still up there squealing, Knoel Scott is somersaulting on the stage, Tyler Mitchell is gamely plucking away at the bass solos. It was all slighly wonkier than usual and a bit logy but you get the moments with legends when you're available not when they're necessarily at their best.

for reference: https://www.winterjazzfest.com/marathon-map#/2023-01-13

Who else went?

I just simplify my FOMO by not going at all.

Donny McCaslin with Jason Lindner, Tim Lefebvre and Mark Guiliana
This would have been my go-to in the familiar names department.

They were raucous and banged around a lot. McCaslin commented how it had been a long time since the four of them had played together publicly and that he liked the "danger" of the combo.

I know i just missed this, but anything interesting happening in NY this friday or saturday? i’ll be in town, would be nice to check a set

Just looking now. David Murray at the Vanguard, maybe? Haven’t seen him in ages myself.

Or maybe The Houston Person Quintet at The Birdland Theater.

Or even Al Foster Quartet 80th Birthday Celebration at Smoke.

Those three in roughly increasing order of preference for me.

forksclovetofu - great report, thank you. You mentioned a few intriguing performers that I haven’t heard before. I’m gonna check out Julius Rodriguez first. Then probably Brandee Younger.

That new David Murray band - Marta Sanchez on piano, Luke Stewart on bass, Kassa Overall on drums - promises to be pretty great. Murray's usual thing is to take a band to the stage before bringing them into the studio, so I hope there'll be an album down the road.

I can’t see going uptown— Murray might be it, Saturday late show. Need to do a bit of coordinating before I commit tho—! I’ll be in Chinatown area from around 330-onward. Thanks for the advice!

tbh yr preferences are mine, too, but I like Murray and have never seen him live.

Cool, sounds like a plan!

will check out both records, thanks

my favorite record on AS remains quin kirchner's "the shadows and the light."

Thanks for the tip on this, I sampled it last night and immediately placed an order.

I like the kirchner album I heard a lot then I saw him live and was like whoa ... this is AMAZING ... not sure why the album didnt sound more like this..

I love watching John Hollenbeck (looked this up after listening to their new studio album):

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

Higher quality video -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_7JUrtTQaA

Although he has much less of a clockwork muppet vibe in that one

My latest Stereogum jazz column is up; I used the André 3000 album as a springboard to talk about Yusef Lateef, Bobbi Humphrey, Hubert Laws, and Nicole Mitchell, and reviewed new albums by Ambrose Akinmusire, JD Allen, Thandi Ntuli (with Carlos Niño), Lafayette Gilchrist, Myra Melford and others.

I either missed or forgot about Chris Potter's Live at the Village Vanguard album from this year (Taborn/Colley/Gilmore), it's fucking sick.

https://chrispotterjazz.bandcamp.com/album/got-the-keys-to-the-kingdom-live-at-the-village-vanguard

Yeah, that's a good one — his third live-at-the-Vanguard disc, and they're all worth hearing.

I got super-confused the other day because there is a music student studying guitar with Pasquale Grasso whose name is also Chris Potter.

Great column unperson, thanks.

(That said, whew the plethora of ads on Stereogum gives my browser a workout)

Yeah, meant to mention that I liked your column as well unperson. Although I guess I missed that Shabaka Hutchings was completely ditching all his other bands for the flute, I guess I thought that was just another additional stream for him, bummer that he'd abandon all of those.

yeah that's kind of a shocker. I like to chill out as much as anyone the rehabilitation of New Age music has IMHO led to more bad than good.

but the rehabilitation

I saw Hitchings just past May subbing on sax for an indisposed Roscoe Mitchell in the Art Ensemble Of Chicago, maybe his last hurrah on sax?

Hutchings.

The Marxist scholar and cultural critic Robin D.G. Kelley wrote a biography of Monk that looks pretty interesting, and the first part of this interview focuses on the bio and the socius that surrounded Monk. Pretty interesting.

https://black-ink.info/2020/01/16/solidarity-is-not-a-market-exchange-an-interview-with-robin-d-g-kelley/

Kelly's Monk bio is indeed amazing and compulsively readable, an absolute must-read

I'm sold, just purchased the e-book.

I need to read that Kelley Monk bio. I recently read Laurent de Wilde's book when I found it in a local used shop, but it was pretty meh.

By comparison, I'm finding Aidan Levy's Sonny Rollins bio a little slow going (got it last Christmas, only getting to it now, lol).

Haha yeah, I've had that on my shelf for a few months now but keep choosing something else, it always seems daunting lol.

I read the Monk bio, it's excellent. It really covers every documented gig he ever played and every record, and it was really a pleasure listening through along with it.

I seem to remember something about that book bugging me but maybe I should just try again.

Definitely took it in chunks with a long break in the middle, every now and then it felt relentless but found it largely compelling.

I started the Monk bio many years ago, put it aside, then picked it up a year or two ago and absolutely blasted through it.

The Rollins bio is indeed exhaustive. My own upcoming book on Cecil Taylor is nowhere near that granular. It covers pretty much every album, but I didn't feel the need to describe every gig, and I didn't do a whole lot of detective work in terms of tracking down former boyfriends and stuff like that.

thread favorite Dave Easley plays on Alex Sadnik's Charlie Parker album Flight and it's a joy, "Bird of Paradise" is a favorite
https://alexsadnik.bandcamp.com/album/flight

^ this is some cool shit although it does make me feel like i'm not quite smart enough to understand what they're doing

ok some of it is actually pretty straight ahead

Always a joy to watch Herlin Riley (only now connecting that Emmet Cohen is the piano in his regular NYC group for awhile now)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZK2blf-wvI

Loving that Alex Sadnik, ty (Jay Bellerose on there too, the sound of LA jazz of a certain stripe)

What’s the deal with Emmet Cohen? Was that his first mention in this borad? I’ve seen his name a lot and he’s on a record or two with some singers that I like but I’ve never actually seen him.

He's got a popular youtube channel now where he puts together different groups to perform in his living room, that's really boosted his visibility as far as I can tell

I think he's really good. Hear him on my local jazz station. Don't really know anything about him.

Oh yeah, did watch him a few times during the lockdown I think.

Spiritual soul-jazz saxophonist Muriel Grossmann has a new album out today, and it's coming out on Third Man in the US, so who knows? She might even get some press coverage. It's a 90-minute double LP and so far (I'm about 2/3 of the way through) it's pretty good — one of her more energetic, uptempo records, not so much meditative space jamming this time. The drummer's going off.

https://murielgrossmann.bandcamp.com/album/devotion-2

she's kind of a kook, isn't she? i've liked some of her music in the past

I listened to the JD Allen record that unperson mentioned in his recent column, it is phenomenal and moody, perfect for my bike ride on this foggy Sunday. big recommendation.

Greg Osby has made his first album in 15 years. There is some discussion, in the linked article, of the #metoo-ish accusations which led him to leave Berklee.

“I had a beef with a school in Boston where I was teaching, and I had to get legal. I had to let the lawyers do the talking.” This is how Osby broaches the subject of his dismissal from the Berklee College of Music, which followed accusations of sexual misconduct.

Osby had joined the faculty at Berklee in 2008, as a full-time professor in the Ensemble Department. At some point he began dating a woman who’d previously been a student, though she was no longer enrolled. After the relationship ended, she brought her complaint to Berklee administrators, claiming that he had pressured her for sex. Osby resigned in 2012, and at the time he decided not to contest the charges.

This is where the situation might have remained, if not for a story in the Boston Globe on Nov. 8, 2017, during the first wave of coverage around the #MeToo movement. The article, by Kay Lazar, a public health and accountability reporter, bore the attention-grabbing headline ‘Berklee let teachers quietly leave after alleged sex abuse, and pushed students for silence.’ Osby, having granted Lazar an hour-long interview, was damningly cited in the piece.

“Only an idiot would sleep with students, and I am not an idiot,” read the most egregious of his quotes. “I would not do that. But after they graduate, it’s open season.” Another quote implied that the former student wasn’t attractive enough to be a credible accuser. Osby was swiftly renounced on social media. At a moment when entire industries were beginning to reckon with systemic problems — most pointedly, the lack of consequences for sexual harassers and abusers — this was a story that resonated in jazz, and in the broader realm of music education.

...

Berklee, through its Office of Media Relations, declined to comment on Osby’s departure. But Osby — who says that during his four years on faculty, “I didn't write one new song, because I was that beat down” — spoke freely about the situation. Regarding his brief relationship with the former student, whose identity has not been disclosed, he says: “For better or for worse, she became obsessed. And I withdrew, which didn't sit well; the idea that I didn't return any phone calls or emails really infuriated her. It got to the point where I was almost a victim of being stalked. And the last time that I saw her, she more than inferred that I would pay for it.”

After the Boston Globe story, Osby sought legal action against his accuser for defamation. The case was settled in his favor. “I kept every email, and I kept every text message,” he says. “So that's how my case was won. Because I had hard evidence. It wasn't my word.” By contrast, he says Lazar had made no recording of their interview — a crucial factor, in light of the incendiary quotes at the heart of the story.

Osby says he issued a complaint to the Globe, which invited him to submit an open letter. He did, but it never ran. He also sent in a statement to the paper’s “Fresh Start” initiative, which allows individuals to appeal older stories that have had an adverse impact on their lives. Again, the effort led nowhere. Absent a defamation lawsuit against the Globe, which Osby deems a financially ruinous prospect, that’s probably where it stands.

There has to be a better way to phrase that.

“He has a great knack for picking amazing younger musicians and grooming them,” Carrington affirms."

Moor Mother has a new album coming out on Anti- next year and the first track has just been released — it's a collaboration with Nicole Mitchell on flute and Nduduzo Makhathini on piano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1OBIgFHFqQ

I'm in love with this brand new Ambrose Akinmusire album Owl Song, it's a trio with Bill Frisell (!) and Herlin Riley (!!). I've never been into him before, but I've had a big Frisell year and this fits perfectly with all the minimal, ambient Scandinavian jazz I've been listening to. And it's cool to hear Herlin in this mode (all the low end is left to the drums too, since there's no bass or piano).

Yeah, it's a really good record.

Heh glad you like it, I wasn't sure.

Also, I'd been ignoring these Youtube recommendations for a "StickPeople" podcast, but it turns out it's Lenny White + Mike Clark + David Garibaldi + Michael Shrieve + Greg Errico all interviewing another musician, which is really cool.

Also this Paul Motian documentary is on Youtube in full:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9DkKTbyobA