With wry wit and a handful of orbiting factoids Ishmael Reed wonders what on earth we’d do without the moon, that star which spices up our sky, in the company of flautist Roger Glenn, guitarist Ray Obiedo, violinist Carla Blank, and the poet and vocalist Tennessee Reed as the legendary author presents an album of original music drawn from his 2021 play The Slave Who Loved Caviar. Felicity Mangan sets out her stall in Piedmont by the banks of the Toce river on a record which explores geophonic and biophonic sounds with a question mark in the form of the warped hand of human-generated production. The sitar player and songwriter Ami Dang introduces listeners to a world of muted crime and sinuous rhapsody, the pianist Anja Lauvdal links up with Laurel Halo for a suite of stovetop dreams and antediluvian fantasies, and David John Morris rocks up at a guardianship in North London where limerence comes through Hook and a sense of community which one might call home.
Loosely wrapped with a ribbon of warmth just apt for the season, Sean McCann manages to corral 44 guests from Oren Ambarchi, Claire Rousay, and Patrick Shiroishi to Loren Connors, Alex Twomey, Sarah Davachi, and Charlie Morrow to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Recital. The amber tones and lilting graces of Autumn Fair reach a whirligig climax more reminiscent of a Ferris wheel or carousel as the closing track collages two-second excerpts of every album released to date by the label. Just as ambitious, the spontaneous composer Ivo Perelman offers a rapturous celebration of reed instruments, from the sopranino and slide soprano saxophone to the basset horn and bass clarinet, as extensive duos with Joe Lovano, Tim Berne, David Murray, Lotte Anker, Ken Vandermark, Roscoe Mitchell, James Carter, Jon Irabagon, Joe McPhee, Colin Stetson, Vinny Golia, and David Liebman canvas the best improvisers of the past few decades.
Impaired when her left hand was almost amputated in a car accident at the age of seven, for her latest album on New Amsterdam Records the artist Molly Joyce engaged the perspectives of 47 disabled interviewees. Buttressed by the torrents and drones of her vintage toy organ, Joyce receives probing and often conflicting answers to questions about weakness, interdependence, and resilience on a piece designed to be listened to alongside a series of open-caption videos. Homeboy Sandman hitches himself to the producer Deca with a convective flow, a clang and a yurp, Naphta splits the difference between dubstep and oberek on an album which spotlights the vocal talents of Mala Herba and blends headspinning club rhythms with traditional folk motifs, as tracks by the Swedish alto saxophonist Hannes Bennich, the Japanese documentarian and electronic musician Norio, and Joe Andrews, Tom Halstead, and Valentina Magaletti as Moin complete the week’s roundup of best new music.
Playlists: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube
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Naphta – ‘Chodź tu do mnie’ (feat. Mala Herba)
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Ivo Perelman & Roscoe Mitchell – ’03’
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Felicity Mangan – ‘River Toce’
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Autumn Fair – ‘Three Pastorals’
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Hannes Bennich – ‘Non-Religious’
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David John Morris – ‘Ballad of Ross Wyld’
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Ishmael Reed – ‘How High the Moon’
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