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Favorite Music of 2020

2020 was a “mindblower” on so many levels! During this time of uncertainty and unexpected changes, music that I listened to played such a crucial part in my emotional and spiritual life. My list of favorite albums for 2020 is “ginormous” – so much great music this year! I am therefore highlighting just a handful of my favorites from the year’s list. I decided to avoid reflecting on the more well known artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple, Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift or Jonsi in favor of some artists readers be less familiar with.

Here is my 202 list – in alphabetical order:

–         Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers

–         Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters

–         Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini – Illusion of Time

–         Matt Berninger – Serpentine Prison

–         Tim Berne’s Snakeoil – The Fantastic Mrs. 10

–         Jim Black Trio – Reckon

–         Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard & Steve Swallow – Life Goes On

–         Jake Blount – Spider Tales

–         Bradfield, Goldberg, Hall – General Semantics

–         Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie – Another Flower

–         Carolina Blue – Take Me Back

–         Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface

–         Sylvie Courvoisier Trio – Free Hoops

–         Dawes – Good Luck with Whatever

–         Dirty Projectors – Windows Open

–         Bob Dylan – Rough & Rowdy Ways

–         Brian Eno & Roger Eno – Mixing Colors

–         EOB – Earth

–         Fleet Foxes – Shore

–         Nils Frahm – Empty

–         Hannah Georgas – All That Emotion

–         Ben Goldberg – Symphony # 9

–         Ben Goldberg – Plague Diary

–         Ben Goldberg & Kenny Wollesen – Music for an Avant-Garde Massage Parlour

–         Gordon Grdina’s Nomad Trio – Nomad

–         Half Waif – The Caretaker

–         Ross Hammond, Oliver Lake & Mike Pride – Our Place On the Wheel

–         Ross Hammond & Thom Nguyen – Vines

–         Bruce Hornsby – Non Secure Connection

–         Innocence Mission – See You Tomorrow

–         Sarah Jaroz – World On the Ground

–         Jonsi – Shiver

–         Kirk Knuffke – Brightness: Live in Amsterdam

–         Diana Krall – This Dream of You

–         Marie Kruttli Trio – The Kind of Happy One

–         Jim Lauderdale – When Carolina Comes Home Again

–         Logan Ledger – Logan Ledger

–         Adrianne Lenker – Songs

–         Makaya McCraven – Universal Beings E&F Sides

–         Pat Metheny – From This Place

–         Ron Miles – Rainbow Sign

–         The Moore Brothers – Autobiography

–         Benjamin Moussay – Promontoire

–         Fradreck Mujuru & Leonard Chiyanike – Mbira Partners Forever Vol 2

–         North Country Blue – Flight

–         Aoife O’Donovan – Bull Frogs Croon

–         Jeff Parker – Suite for Max Brown

–         Pinegrove – Magnolia

–         Katie Pruitt – Expectations

–         Psychedelic Furs – Made of Rain

–         Sturgill Simpson – Cutting Grass Vol 1

–         Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You

–         Squrl – Some Music for Robby Muller

–         Sufjan Stevens – The Ascension

–         Moses Sumney – Grae

–         Taylor Swift – Folklore

–         Tennis – Swimmer

–         Alexandre Tharaud – Pesson, Abrahamsen & Strasnoy: Piano Concertos

–         Molly Tuttle – But I’d Rather Be with You

–         Ultraista – Sister

–         Raf Vertessen Quartet – LOI

–         M Ward – Immigration Stories

–         Watkins Family Hour – Brother Sister

–         Webber/Morris Big Band – Both Are True

Jake Blount – Spider Tales

Bluegrass and old-timey fiddle music are often seen by the wider culture as largely “white people” music. The truth, however, is that these genres have deep roots in black music. Rhode Island banjo player/fiddler/singer Jake Blount has made an album that sounds simultaneously ancient and modern. This is deep roots music reclaiming a tradition that was wrenched from America’s black and indigenous cultures.

Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie – Another Flower

Harold Budd’s music holds a special place in my life. In 1984, Budd and Brian Eno collaborated on an ambient music masterpiece, “The Pearl”. The music on that album takes me to places within myself that are hard to describe. If I had to make a list of my 5 desert island discs that record would be on there. Budd and Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie have been collaborating on music together since the late 80s. Their beautiful new recording “Another Flower” was released just just 4 days before Harold Budd’s death from COVID. A special parting gift. 

Ben Goldberg – Symphony No. 9

Clarinetist Ben Goldberg is one of my very favorite composers and improvisers. His “Symphony No. 9” is embodied largely by the triple reed section of Ben (clarinet), Kasey Knudsen (alto sax) and Chris Speed (tenor sax). It rides a wave somewhere between composition and improvisation which vacilates greatly in textures and mood – at times edgy and angular – at times sublimely lyrical. Ben also has initiated an ambitious bandcamp project called “Plague Diary” (also an entry on my list) where he has been composing releasing a song per day since COVID Shelter in place started in March. Check it out! https://ben-goldberg–bag-production-records.bandcamp.com/album/plague-diary

Logan Ledger – Logan Ledger

Nashville singer/songwriter Logan Ledger has a voice that reminds me of George Jones, Roy Orbison and Elvis. His music feels both retro and modern, all at the same time. A recent review from The Wall Street Journal described his music as “awash in unabashedly subjective moods—the dreamy, the whimsical, the fantastic—evanescent but often dark.” His great vocals and songwriting are further enhanced by T Bone Burnett’s sepia tone production. 

Aofie O’Donovan – Bull Frog Croon (and other songs)

Singer/songwriter Aofie O’Donavan is most well known as the lead vocalist for Crooked Still. On her “Bull Frog Croon” EP, she was inspired by the poetry of Peter Sears, who was the poet laureate of Oregon in the mid 10’s. She has created a sublimely beautiful song cycle which stylistically glides somewhere in the space between Americana and classical genres. She is joined by some great musicians including fiddler Brittany Haas (Cooked Still), bassist Paul Kowert (Punch Brothers) and others. For me, it was one of the most soothing yet emotionally provacative records of the year. Perfect for the space I was needing in 2020! 

Tumble – “Waves”

By the time my band Tumble released our first album, “Music for Trio”, in February of 2017, Tumble was already a quartet. We had the good fortune of adding bass player Bill Douglass as a full time member in 2016. Bill is a master musician and improviser who has played with so many musical greats including Paul McCandless, Mark Isham, Art Lande, Mose Allison, Tom Waits and many others. For Randy, Sean and I, Bill was a musical mentor and we learned so much from the opportunities we had to play with him. We were often encouraged by Bill to leave more space in the sound. During the time we played with him, the band developed a deeper sense of listening into our ensemble playing and group improvisations.

In May 2017, three months after the release of our first album, Tumble returned to the studio to begin work on our second album titled “Waves.” Just like on our first record, we tracked all songs live. We again recorded at Blue Whale Recording with our friend Bruce Wheelock. Bruce runs a very warm and homey studio and he excels at making the artists feel comfortable. This was the perfect environment for us to create and explore!

   

The centerpiece of the album is Sean’s magnum opus “The Nuthatch.” It is a 3-part suite that was inspired by the namesake bird. This piece covers vast musical terrain including odd time signature grooves, free-form group improvisation, a solo guitar cadenza, and a samba inspired ending. At the heart and center of this piece is a beautifully expressive midsection featuring Bill’s inspired bass improvisations. He takes a lyrical approach over Sean’s descending chord progression. We chose “The Nuthatch” as the opening piece on the record. The album is quite eclectic musically, and we initially had difficulty decided where to start regarding song order.  “The Nuthatch” covers so much ground through diverse textures and thus seemed to be a microcosm for the whole record. On the morning that the album was released, I looked out of my kitchen window to see a Nuthatch perching on our bird feeder. I thought it was an auspicious sign!

For me, working on “Unsuitable” was also a highlight. In the early 80s, I was introduced to artists who were creating ultra short pieces of music. During that period, highly creative groups like The Residents and The Minutemen were routinely producing songs that were under 2 minutes. This is so much shorter than is necessary to create a proper pop song, but in the realm of “art music” it can work quite well. Around the same time that I was exploring these groups, I was also studying classical piano. I was playing the 2 and 3 part inventions from Bach which are similarly short, concise and musically dense. This esthetic of short pieces is in some ways the opposite of what Tumble is well known for – long extended jams. I came to the composition for “Unsuitable” with the explicit desire to create something that could work for Tumble but still be short and concise. It was also fun to record my daughter Mei Lin on this piece playing some pizzicato violin which makes a counterpoint with the mbira part quite nicely. I am proud of the 1:20 time mark on this piece. 

Bill brought Monk’s “Misterioso” into the group. For Bill, Thenonius Monk was an artistic high priest supreme. Something about the alternating octaves that I often play on mbira made him think of this iconic Monk melody. He suggested that Tumble try playing “Misterioso”. He suggested to me that I play an mbira solo on this song. I had never before taken this role in Tumble and I was initially quite reticent to say the least. Randy, Sean and Bill are all such fine soloists and so the prospect of taking a solo break was initially not appealing to me. Bill was quite encouraging though and I think he had a vision of just how cool an mbira break could sound. With his encouragement, I found my way and I really appreciate the support and patience of the whole band during the process of finding my voice in this musical context. I really enjoy the quirky Tumble version of this tune and think of Bill every time I hear it. 

Randy brought in his fun Ornette Coleman-influenced tune “Much Happy”. This was the first time that Tumble played a completely free piece in terms of having no time signature. The tune has an amazing blend and balance of quirky humor and sensitive listening. The group improvisation on this tune was a highlight of this recording process for me. It is an example of a tune that really grew in scope and approach through the process of recording in the studio. Early on during the recording sessions, we brought in several special guest musicians for an expanded group approach on this tune. I think we recorded more versions of this song than any other. In the end, we chose a quartet version for inclusion on the record. 

On this album, we had the opportunity to mix with Mikail Graham. This was also a fun collaboration.  I had worked with Mikail several years previously on my solo album “Soft Sea Creatures”. We spent many sessions mixing that album  and I greatly appreciated the sense of musicality and artistry that he brought to the process.  Sean and I spent many nights at Mikail’s “Other Studio” in Nevada City working on the mix for Waves. On several tunes, Mikail brought in extra layers of treatment on the instruments to enhance the emotional tone of each piece. Sean and I really enjoyed working with Mikail on this process and I feel that he helped bring these tracks to the next level. 

Tumble had the good fortune of playing a couple of house concerts at Bill’s friend Ellen Reynard’s home in Nevada City. She had a beautiful intimate space for us to perform in. The walls were adorned with some incredible art. I later found out that the art in the space were original paintings from her late husband Paul Reynard. Paul’s art covered a vast array of artistic territory throughout the six decades of his work. We were quite taken by his painting “The Orient” and Ellen graciously allowed us to use tis image for the album cover.  We felt that the imagery of this piece provides a nice counterpoint to the sonic elements of “Waves”. As on our first record, we again worked with graphic artist Julia VBH on the CD graphics and layout. 

Just as “Music for Trio” was already a document of a past stage of the band by the time it was released, so again Tumble has moved on since the time that we recorded “Waves”. We are currently thrilled to be playing as a quartet with bassist/percussionist Rob Holland and our music is moving in some new and exciting directions. “Waves” captures the band as it was during a special time when we were a quartet with Bill Douglass. I am really glad to have this musical statement out in the world to share with others. 

Boston Ravine – new band and debut EP

My daughter Mei Lin and I have put together a bluegrass band – Boston Ravine. This peculiar band name comes from the original name given to our neighborhood back in the Gold Rush days. Pioneers from the Boston area settled in and around Wolf Creek in search of new fortunes. Later on, the whole Grass Valley area was called Boston Ravine before the township settled on “Grassy Valley”. As we live just across the street from Wolf Creek, we thought it appropriate to call ourselves by this name – a fitting name for a Bluegrass band. 

People who are familiar with my musical leanings towards modern cross-cultural trancy groove music (that was a mouthful!), might be a bit surprised to see me playing old-time Bluegrass music. You might be wondering how I ended up traveling this particular road.  

When I was in High School, a friend of mine turned me on to the Grateful Dead. I went to see them in 1980 at the Long Beach Sports Arena. This was one of the first “big” concerts I ever attended. I had a strong sense that the Dead were pulling from deep roots in American music. Later, when I was in my early 20’s, a friend introduced me to Old & In the Way, the short-lived bluegrass band that Jerry Garcia started with David Grisman in the mid 70s. When I first heard Old & In the Way, it all connected for me. I later found out that Jerry Garcia played banjo long before he ever picked up any electric instrument. So Old & In the Way was really a return to roots for him. Over the next few years I started to explore David Grisman’s music as well.

Years later, my friend Russel Roe made me a cassette tape of some of his favorite Bill Monroe recordings. Around this time, my brother Darrel started playing banjo, and was also really getting into bluegrass. I started playing bluegrass songs in living room jams with Russ and also with my brother when I would visit the family in central coast California.  

In 2002, Juli and I moved from the Bay Area to Grass Valley which is up in the Sierra Foothills above Sacramento. Grass Valley is also the home of one of the best bluegrass festivals in the world. Going to the festival every summer and experiencing top notch bluegrass bands live in performance really enhanced my love for this music! 

We started bringing Mei Lin to the festival with us when she was a baby. Although she has been exposed to such a broad range of genres and styles in our musically diverse household, she really loved bluegrass from the very start. She started playing violin when she was 7 years old, and it did not take long at all for her to start picking up old-timey and bluegrass fiddle tunes. From that time on, we have been frequently jamming in our living room. I cannot express what a wonderful bond and blessing this shared passion for playing music together has been for us!  I also love how everything just fell naturally into place for this over time. Beautiful how life works sometimes!! 

Last year, we recorded an EP of some favorite traditional bluegrass tunes. Our friend Kathy Barwick played some Scruggs style banjo on the old Flatt & Scruggs tune “Somehow Tonight”, and Juli played a bit of clawhammer banjo on the old folk tune “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”. We hope you enjoy our renditions of these old soulful tunes. 

7/23 – Update to post.. This EP is no longer available or in circulation.

Best of 2018 – Collaboration and the Craft of Songwriting

While looking back on many of my favorite songs from 2018, I was surprised by how many happened to be written collaboratively between two or more songwriters. Music is inherently social and the history of songwriting is rife with many great collaborations – Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein – John Lennon & Paul McCartney – Elton John & Bernie Taupin and so many others! Music composed collaboratively is like a magic that would not exist without either partie’s influence upon the other. 2018 saw some truly great collaborative efforts. Here are a few of my favorites.

Birds Bewildered – written by Derri Daugherty & Steve Hindalong

Back in the late 80s, my band Challenge the Light shared a bill with the then Orange County band The Choir at a club called Bogarts in Long Beach California. I remember being impressed with their textural guitar sounds and strong melodic content. Several decades later, this band is still making music and are now located in Nashville. “Birds Bewildered” reflects the varying complex emotions, regrets and hopes related to the recent dissolution of drummer Steve Hindalong’s marriage. The beautiful string arrangement reminds me a bit of “Ocean Rain” era Echo & the Bunnymen.

Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter – written by Elvis Costello & Carol King

Elvis Costello and Carol King had been friends for years, often meeting over Sushi prior to writing this song together back in 1997. Over 2 decades later, Costello has finally released this song on his excellent new album “Look Now”. Carol King has talked in interviews about how she often begins her songwriting process with chord progressions that speak to her. The harmonic elements in this song are often dense with just enough dissonance to create feelings of tension. The song lyrics which mirror this tension, paint a portrait/story of a hurt heart which turns bitter. The song carries all this tension while at the same time being very tuneful and catchy. First rate work by two absolute masters of song!

Everyday Is a Miracle – written by David Byrne & Brian Eno

David Byrne and Brain Eno have been major musical influences on me ever since I was a teenager. Through the years, have done many great and groundbreaking collaborations. For David’s 2018 album “American Utopia, Brian Eno gave him tracks he was working on, with the idea that David would finish these. So the collaboration on this project was more like a remix in some respects where one artist builds on the previous work of another. “Every Day Is a Miracle” is such a fun and uplifting track. Byrne and Eno combine sonic inventiveness with lyrics that are both joyful and hilarious. 

Flower of the Universe – written by Sade Adu, Andrew Hale and Ben Travers

My favorite song of the year. Breathtakingly beautiful! This is as great as ANYTHING Sade has done in her whole career. The song was written for the Film adaptation of Madeline L”engle’s A Wrinkle In Time. The song beautifully matches the story’s themes of human attachment and spirituality with a such haunting melody!  Sade and her long time keyboardist Andrew Hale have been composing songs together since the start of her career. They also co-wrote such classics as “is It a Crime?” and “Paradise”. 

Heart of the House – written by Becky Buller & Sarah Majors

My favorite Bluegrass album of 2019 was Crepe Paper Heart by Becky Buller. She co-wrote “Heart of the House” with Nashville songwriter Sarah Majors. It is a story of grief – of a home that feels the absence of one no longer there-  who once filled that house with such life and vitality. It’s a universal story that so many of us have experienced in our own lives – so beautifully and tunefully rendered by these fine songwriters!

Nothing For Free – written by Paul McCartney & Ryan tedder

I’m so glad that Sir Paul continues to be an active force in songwriting in this… his 5^th (nearly 6^th) decade! “Nothing For Free” was co-written with OneRepublic vocalist Ryan Tedder. The lyrics are far from profound, but it’s an extremely quirky, off the cuff and odd pop song with inventive production. It’s my personal favorite off McCartney’s latest album “Egypt Station” and was only included as an extra on the limited edition version of the album.

Glen Suneson and The Early Days of Breathe

Back in late 84, my friend Ed Snyder and I were talking about putting together a new music project. Inspired by Cocteau Twins, Joy Division, This Mortal Coil, Norwegian guitarist/composer Terje Rypdal, and “Unforgettable Fire” era U2, we were both interested in doing something more impressionistic – more melodic – than our past projects. We recorded a song called “Rain” as a duo that reflected some of these influences. Our friend Al Olefer saw what we were doing, and highly suggested that we connect with a local guitarist friend of his named Glen Suneson. I had heard of Glen, and had seen him around but didn’t really know him. Upon meeting him, I was immediately impressed! His musical influences were extremely broad and he was a very gentle natured guy. His guitar tone was quite beautiful, his playing melodic, and he had a good sense of the value of space in music. He was fun to hang with!

For a period of time, Ed, Glen and I used to get together to improvise and generate ideas. Our friend Shane Stewart had a local rehearsal space that he let us use. I remember some memorable nights where we would go to Shane’s rehearsal space, light candles, turn the lights off, share a bottle of wine and play. These were magical times! It was mostly improvised on the spot, but we would sometimes take ideas generated from the improvisations and develop them further into pieces.

Glen turned me on to a lot of great music. He introduced me to Wire, Julian Cope, What Is This? (who we later did a gig with), and The Blue Nile. We were both fans of the English experimental guitarist Fred Frith, so Glen and I went to check out his 80’s project Skeleton Crew at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. These are all artists that I still listen to and enjoy to this day.

We later joined forces with drummer Ernie Woody and bassist Mike Patton and became a band – Breathe – which would later evolve into Challenge the Light. Ernie and Mike had both played in Jack Grisham’s band Cathedral of Tears, and Mike was a founding member of the seminal Orange County punk band Middle Class. Once we became an actual band, we started to incorporate more elements from pop, rock and dance music into our sound. We all shared a desire to create music that defied many of the conventions of the times – music that was simultaneously edgy and accessible, melodic and powerful, introspective and celebratory. In 1985, we recorded some 4 track demos of our songs on my cassette portastudio. You can check it out here:

The first song on this demo – “Overcome” is what I always think of when I think of Glen’s guitar playing. I really love those beautiful ringing arpeggios! It also most closely resembles the direction we were moving in during those earliest days of playing with Glen.

What I remember most about the earliest incarnation of Breathe was that all the players took a melodic approach in their playing. Mike’s bass playing was unique in that he retained the edgy energy and drive from his punk rock roots but would compose bass lines which were also quite melodic. His playing always reminded me a bit of Peter Hook’s (Joy Division, New Order) style.  As I stated earlier, Glen was a very melodic player whose parts and sounds always served the songs. He never overplayed which is a rare commodity amongst guitar players who have chops!

Glen and Mike left the band after about a year. Ernie, Ed and I went on to play with several other lineups of players through the next few years and the band evolved in other directions. After Glen left the band, we drifted apart and I didn’t really see as much of him as the years went on.

A few years ago we re-connected through social media and I was so happy to catch up with him a bit – if only superficially. I was very sad to hear about his recent passing and wish we could have connected more. I send my love to his family and friends! I feel very blessed that our musical and friendship paths crossed during a very important period of my life and artistic development.

Music With My Daughter

One of the greatest gifts of being a musician is the opportunity to play/create music with others. I feel so lucky to have been able to collaborate with so many creative and gifted musicians through the years. There is an aspect to the art of music that is inherently collaborative. The act of playing music with someone is an aspect of human connection and communication that is very special! About a year and a half ago, I did a series of blogs that were tributes/appreciations of some of my musical friends who played on my album Soft Sea Creatures.

Of all the wonderful musicians I have been able to collaborate with, none have been as personally fulfilling as collaborations with my daughter Mei Lin, who plays violin/fiddle.  Whether I am accompanying her on the piano while she plays Bach, playing bluegrass tunes with her on our front porch, joining our voices in harmony in the car or playing free jazz when she joins in with Tumble, I so love the opportunity to connect with her through our shared musical languages.

I have some special memories of our musical connection going back to when she was a baby. I remember on the day that we adopted her, I held her in my arms and softly sang the melody of a traditional Zimbabwean mbira tune to her. Her eyes latched on to mine while I was singing and I felt her body relax. The song held her attention in a deep way. I could feel the beginnings of her deep connection to music which has grown and flourished so much since that time. Several months later, I was playing a simple groove on a little kalimba I have had since I was in my 20s. She rocked her body in groove to the rhythm – looked at my hands playing – looked at her hands – grabbed towards my instrument – wanting to play. I again could sense her strong musical spirit. We were lucky enough to capture that moment on a video.

Click on link to view video: Music w Dada

Eventually, she started to play the violin, and her love for the instrument and musicality have grown steadily through the years.

It has been a real joy to have her join in as a special guest with my band Tumble on both recordings and performances. Here is a video of our set from the Night of Giving benefit concert in December 2017. Bill was not able to make it that night so we were “bass-less”. Mei Lin joined us for our set that night.

Best of 2017 – New Discoveries

On this last day of 2017, I am reflecting on all wonderful 2017 albums that I enjoyed this year. Instead of doing a typical end of the year list, I thought It might be interesting to highlight artists who were new discoveries for me this year.

Jagged Spheres – Jagged Spheres II:

I was already a big fan of saxophonist/composer Anna Webber’s music when I discovered Jagged Spheres, a group she co-leads with keyboardist Elias Stemeseder and drummer Devin Gray. They create muscular and shape shifting modern improvisational music. Their new album inspired me to think about musical composition and structures in new and different ways!

I could not find ANY videos of Jagged Spheres so I included a video of an Anna Webber performance.

L’Rain – L’Rain:

Multi-instrumentalist/composer/songwriter Taja Cheeks records and performs under the name L’Rain. She creates music from cello, guitar, bass and keyboard textures as well as sonic collages from found sounds. Her new album is a beautiful and heartfelt exploration of personal grief inspired by the recent loss of her mother.

Juana Molina – Halo:

Juana Molina has done an amazing and rare thing. In the 1990’s she had a very successful career as a television star in Argentina. At the height of her success, she completely left television to follow her muse. She had a vision of a type of music she wanted to create, and took the dive headfirst. Her music is built around unusual grooves based largely on loops she creates from her guitar and keyboard playing. Her voice is often like another instrument in the mix in her beautifully strange world of “almost” pop music.

Janna Nabay and the Bubu Gang – Build Music:

Janka Nabay was born in Sierra Leone and moved to the US in 2003. He is known as a central figure in Bubu music – a type of African pop music played by the Temne people in Sierra Leone.  I discovered him through Luaka Bop Records, a label started by David Byrne. His new album “Build Music” has a soulful homespun feel to it with some very hypnotic grooves.

Angelica Sanchez Trio – Float the Edge:

Brooklyn based pianist Angelica Sanchez has a special intimacy and flow with her instrument. I can hear influences on her playing ranging from Bill Evans to Cecil Taylor to modern classical chamber music. A review in the New York Times described her playing as “seeking out the lyrical heartbeat within an avant-garde storm”. Her excellent trio features Tyshawn Sorrey on drums and Michael Formanek on bass. The type of improvisational interplay that this band creates reminds me of Bill Evans legendary trio with Paul Motian and Scott LeFarro, only with more modern/abstract compositions. Michael Formanek’s beautiful bass tone alone is worth the price of the record!

David Virelles – Gnosis:

Pianist David Virelles was born in Cuba and later studied with one of my musical heroes, Henry Threadgill. To me, his music sounds like someone has taken the many rich musical traditions of Cuba and melted them down into a mysterious watery dream. His music is simultaneously abstract, grooving, and impressionistic.

Rising Tide Lyric Video

Back in November of 2001, only months after the tragic events of 9/11, my wife Juli and I headed up to British Columbia for a wedding. Our dear friends Linton & Jehanne were getting married on Hornby Island in BC. On our way up to the wedding destination, Juli and I spent a few days on nearby Denman Island. It was an incredibly beautiful and soul nourishing time! On one late afternoon, we sat on the rocky northern beach of the island and watched as seagulls were picking up live oysters and flying high into the air to drop them onto the rocks below. The rocky beach was strewn with seemingly infinite  multitudes of broken white shells and yet the birds were able to easily spot and devour the oyster body – these soft sea creatures – from their newly broken shells. Unbelievable! Juli and I sat mesmerized and moved by this amazing show of nature! As we were watching, we noticed the tide rising toward us – slowly and steadily eating up the beach. At that moment, I was touched by so many things – the fragility of life – the wonder and mystery and power of nature – the inevitability of death – the beauty all around me. I picked up my mbira and composed “Rising Tide” right there on the beach. The inspiration for a song has rarely come to me so purely and so spontaneously.

Later on Hornby Island, shortly after the wedding, Linton and I played the song together for the 1^st time. I immediately loved the way his beautiful bansuri (East Indian bamboo flute) playing lent itself to the inherent vulnerability of the song.  When I eventually recorded the song for my album, I was blessed to have Linton’s lovely playing grace my tracks. The song also features a few brief instances of otherworldly ambience provided by Michael Masley’s one of a kind cymbalom (hammered dulcimer).

 

I was recently approached by my friend, videographer Michael West, regarding the possibility of collaborating on a music video. I suggested Rising Tide and Michael got to work immediately! I am so pleased with the imagery he cooked up to compliment the song and lyrics. Check out websites for my collaborators below.

http://www.artistgeneral.com/

http://lintonhale.com/

https://www.bobbiemoonvideo.com/

New Tumble Album – Music for Trio

I have always loved jazz, especially the more experimental and progressive edgy stuff. I have never considered myself a jazz musician however, yet mbira music is full of improvisation. Playing in Tumble has given me the opportunity to bridge the worlds between traditional African trance music and modern improvisational jazz.

My band Tumble formed in the Summer of 2014. At the time we were a trio – mbira – guitar – reeds. From the very start, I realized that the interplay in our playing and the collective timbre created by our instruments was very special. As a band, we have consistently embraced a very delicate balance between structure and improvisation that is exciting to me.

We began recording our album in the Spring of 2015, before bassist Bill Douglass joined the group. In our trio format, with no bass player, there was a certain open ended quality to the sound. At times, I could play in the lower register of my mbira and become the “bass player”. At other times, guitarist Sean Kerrigan would fill that role by digging into the lower register with his already thick and deep guitar tone. Reed player Randy McKean would do the same thing, especially when playing bass clarinet or tenor. At other times, we would all play in the higher register, creating a more “bottomless” or ungrounded feeling and sound. These shifts were never planned, but could happen spontaneously as a part of the group improvisation. 

Music for Trio is unlike any album I have ever worked on. My approach to album making and recording has always been to meticulously layer parts through overdubbing over a period of time. In this sense, my artistic process in recording was more like weaving.  With Tumble, we set ourselves up in the studio facing one another in a triangle, and played live with the “tape” always rolling. With an improvisational band like Tumble, the challenge in recording is to create a space where the spontaneous musical conversation can flow freely. During the recording of this album, we were able to get deep into our collective improvisation vibe where some real musical communication happened!  I am quite pleased with how it turned out. Much thanks is due to engineer Bruce Wheelock for creating such a warm, homey and comfortable environment at his wonderful studio Flying Whale Recording. 

Music for Trio is released on 1/31/17. You can get it at Clocktower Records in Grass Valley and at Tumble’s Bandcamp page.

My Favorite Albums of 2016

2016 was not a kind year to our world community of important musicians. We lost way too many musical legends last year! Yet, despite all these losses, 2016 was a wonderful year for new music. There were so many wonderful records which inspired me greatly. When I was working on my first draft of albums I loved in 2016, I had well over 30 on my list! So… I have narrowed these down to 10. These are not scaled, but rather in alphabetical order. Instead of giving “music critic” type of descriptions of each album, I have decided to write a Haiku review/impression of each album.

Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop 

“Love Letter for Fire”

Harmonies in groove

“Don’t even know me that well”

Fractures of the heart

David Bowie

“Blackstar”

A swansong supreme

“At the center of it all”

Starman waves goodbye

Leonard Chiyanike

“Kamusha 2016”

Mbira master

Extended hypnotic spin

Get down in the depths

The video below is not taken from the album but shows Leonard and his brother playing mbira together

Leonard Cohen

“You Want It Darker”

Leonard spins song craft

“Lift the veil and see your face”

Fades into the light

Christian Fennesz & Jim O’Rourke

“It’s Hard for Me to Say I’m Sorry”

Brooding soundscapes

Sonic layers on layers

Soothes and scrapes longing

Lisa Hannigan

“At Swim”

Deep subtle textures

“Hide the rich and spare the young”

Melodies on ice

Invisible Guy

“Knuckle Sandwich”

Angular movement

Clarinet-piano-drums

Shifty interplay

Live footage of Invisible Guy – not from album

Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom

“Otis Was a Polar Bear”

Now who was Otis?

Polar bear Mingus glacier

counter point in punch

Radiohead

“A Moon Shaped Pool”

Haunting majestic

“The white room by the window”

Caressed in deep strings

Kjartan Sveinsson

“Der Klang  der Offenbarung des”

Ex Sigur Ros man

“Sonics of Divinity”

Rising orchestral

Please feel free to post/share some of the music that moved you the most in the past year..

Blessings for 2017!!