Weekly Picks and Misc.
Picks
Kaze - Unwritten (Circum-Disc/Libra) Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura’s Kaze quartet with Christian Pruvost and Peter Orins is one of my all-time favorite ensembles. In the past couple of years, they’ve partnered with Ikue Mori for two phenomenal albums. And now, for the first time in over five years, they’re back to the core quartet. Over an hour of improvised music (amazingly, only their second fully improvised album, after the 2017 expanded Trouble Kaze album June), Unwritten is the sound of a band with no creative ceiling.
Fay Victor - Herbie Nichols SUNG Life Is Funny That Way (TAO Forms) This one comes out later in the year, and it should most definitely make its way to the top of many lists come end of year. An epic exploration of Herbie Nichols’s music, Victor wrote lyrics to Nichols’s already quite hummable melodies and arranged a book of music for quintet, with Michaël Attias on sax, Anthony Coleman on piano, Ratzo Harris on bass, and Tom Rainey on drums (keep your eyes open for more Attias this year).
Keiji Haino, Jim O’Rourke, Oren Ambarchi - With pats on the head, just one too few is evil one too many is good that's all it is (Black Truffle) What can I add to the accolades this trio’s gotten over the years? Twelve albums in, and this is their longest, heaviest, most exciting release to date.
Misc.
Among the authors who have had to most meaningful and lasting impact on me are Stanley Elkin and William H. Gass, and just chatting about Elkin recently reminded me of this excellent dual interview from The Iowa Review.