Picks
ØKSE - ØKSE (BackwoodzStudioz) I’ll be straight with y’all, there are many contenders for best album of the year right now, and ØKSE just shot to the top of the list. Mette Rasmussen, Val Jeanty, Petter Eldh, and Savannah Harris are the core quartet, on vocals you get four guest rappers, ELUCID, billy woods, Maassai, and Cavalier. Fiery fire. Jealous of anyone who gets this on vinyl, it’ll sound epic on big speakers.
Darin Gray, Pak Yan Lau, Steve Noble, Alan Wilkinson - The Worm Turns (Shrike Records) Shrike Records continues an amazing run with another brilliant quartet that’s rapidly climbing my personal charts. As soon as I heard about this album, I knew I needed to hear it. Alan Wilkinson is another one of those fantastic British saxophonists we don’t talk about much stateside. But setting that aside, the interplay here is rich and imaginative. And as a tie-in recommendation, Pak Yan Lau had a brilliant duo album with Rasmussen a year or two ago.
Pat Thomas - This Is Trick Step (577 Records) Would any of the above be possible without Pat Thomas? Possibly, but probably not quite the way we’re hearing it. Thomas has transformed everything and anything that jazz music can do, and This Is Trick Step feels like a spiritual, logical sequel to his groundbreaking New Jazz Jungle: Remembering album, which was reissued in 2022. Thomas has about eight or ten new albums this year, each one feels like a tile in a single mosaic or pane in a sheet of stained glass. This one, in particular, could fit snugly next to [Ahmed], for instance, but has the same improvisatory drive as anything on BleySchool’s Where.
Misc.
Slow Horses (Apple TV+) How can anyone not love this series?
Only Murders In the Building (Hulu) Same question, although I know someone highly trustworthy who does not love it, and I’m not holding it against them.