From quietest to loudest.
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Devin Sarno, "The Liquid Real" Dawn mist with barely perceptible subrhythms. Dare you to clench while listening to this beautiful dream. Put it on repeat. (13 min.) Check it here.
Steuart Liebig, "Small Forms" This might be my favorite recording by the long-running electric bassist, and he's not even playing bass! Slow piano arpeggios with distant memories of Satie and Bach, sustaining via creative electronic augmentation. Icicle reverberations; locusts & hibernating bears. Makes me smile. (21 min.) Check it here.
Scot Ray Quartet, "Bridge the Chasm" A delicate Spanish flavor pervades this idiosyncratic collection of eight well-wrought compositions, executed by guitarist Ray, harmonica player Bill Barrett, bassist Steuart Liebig and drummer Alex Cline. Troubled lullaby, mournful intensity, Moroccan Bo Diddley and a lot of soul. Check it here.
Charles Lloyd, "8: Kindred Spirits, Live From the Lobero" (Blue Note) The woodwind great's elevational new live album, recorded on his birthday two years ago, features the all-star talents of guitarist Julian Lage, pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland, with guests Booker T. Jones (an old Memphis crony) and ubiquitous bassist Don Was. It's an accurate and inspiring document, highlighted by the deep Spanish ballad "La Llorona," where we hear the established rapport between Lloyd and Clayton, and the way Lage feels his way in, not quite melding but promising great things. That's what puts the thrill in live music.
Patrick Shiroishi, "Eye for an Eye" (Thin Wrist) Dave Van Heusen may observe that it sounds like "something that needed to be sprayed with WD-40," but this suite of solo improvisations on sopranino saxophone shows enormous skill, sensitivity and concentrated emotion comparable to forebears such as Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton. A valuable and active torchbearer of the L.A. avant, Shiroishi specializes in multiphonics that quaver and slip seamlessly from one into another. Check it here.
Patrick Shiroishi, "Descension" Shiroishi (who must have a hammock in a studio) electronifies saxes to make them sound like cellos, guitars, saws and drills in the pursuit of industrial balladry and urgent declamations. (27 min.) Check it here.
Nakata, "El Sueño de Lilith" (Atlantic Rhythms) Shiroishi and keyboardist Paco Casanova begin with the music of the spheres before descending to earth amid alien abductions, mockingbird battles and gypsy Tranes. An uneasy repose drifts into dreamless slumber at last. (26 min.) Check it here.
Bobby Previte-Jamie Saft-Nels Cline, "Music From the Early 20th Century" (Rare Noise) Good gawd, what a blast! I kept waiting for a letdown in these 10 rock-jazz jams, and it never arrived. Drummer Previte, keyboardist Saft and guitarist Cline know their Deep Purple, ELP, Quicksilver, Hawkwind and electric Miles, and possess the strong chops to shove their influences right over a cliff in a shipping crate. Me: "Everything's so loud! Where's that hum coming from? How did they get so excited?" Answer: It was recorded less than a year ago, culled from four live gigs around New York and Pennsylvania. And I didn't figure out it was live until the crowd went crazy at the end. I'm gonna swill some tequila and listen to it again right now. (Available online most everywhere.)
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PHOTO BY GOG BOG.