Picks and Misc. for May 27
Enter the fire-breathing sloth
Sloth Racket - Ten Years of Live Sloths (Luminous Label) I’ve been a vocal advocate of Cath Roberts and her merry band of musicmakers for almost a decade. Sloth Racket specifically is one of the prime examples of how a DIY punk ethos can drive some of the most excitingly radical, improv-driven jazz music I’ve heard (and been impressed by). Roberts plays baritone sax and composes all the music, which utilizes graphic scores, as well as group composing and improvising, to generate edgy, surprising, earworm-y performances. This is a compilation of live performances and a fantastic introduction to one of my personal favorite bands.
Snakeoil - Snakeoil OK (Screwgun Records) Arguably one of the legends of the DIY punk meets jazz ethos, Tim Berne continues to release some mindblowing archival tapes digitally through the Screwgun Records Bandcamp account. The latest is a 2013 recording from Snakeoil’s first European tour, which featured the original quartet lineup of Berne, Oscar Noriega on clarinets, Matt Mitchell on piano, and Ches Smith on drums and percussion. An epic show, featuring extended versions of “Static” and “Incidentals Contact,” plus an encore of Paul Motian’s “Psalm.”
Russ Johnson, Christian Weber, Dieter Ulrich - To Walk On Eggshells (Ezz-thetics) First of all, Christian Weber’s an MVP of the trio format, appearing on excellent records with Nate Wooley and Paul Lytton, Ellery Eskelin and Michael Griener, Aki Takase and Griener, Rudi Mahall and Griener (just about anybody and Griener make for an A+ trio, for what it’s worth), and here he’s collaborating with the great trumpet player Russ Johnson and drummer Dieter Ulrich. I’ve listened to this set—which features compositions by all trio members—around five or six times in the last two months. It’s an endlessly delightful, rich, and lively album, the kind that’s likely to fly under most critics’ radars, so maybe this gets the attention of some interested listeners.
Misc.
Vision Festival 2025 is about to kick off, celebrating Roscoe Mitchell with a lifetime achievement award. The lineup is, as usual, superb with tickets available for livestreaming if you’re not in the New York City area.
I joked the other day that my controversial take of 2025 is Kelly Reichardt’s new period film about a (fictional) 1970s art heist, with a score by Rob Mazurek, was probably going to be my favorite movie of the year. The Mastermind premiered at Cannes and critics had nice things to say!
Check out a clip, with music by Chicago Underground Duo. Can’t wait.