Starting a #music thread to share the music I've loved this year. Whether or not it was actually released this year.
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Kahlil El'Zabar, legendary Chicago jazz musician, had a great album called "A Time for Healing" that connects jazz with its African roots. The best way to describe it is 'healing'. This is clear on the track 'Urban Shaman'.
Its cover of 'Summertime' is also special.
I bought an album on Bandcamp: https://kahilelzabar-is.bandcamp.com/album/a-time-for-healing
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I don't usually listen to Americana or folk at all, but Allison Russell's music defies genres.
Her album "Outside Child" is transformational. Part memoir, part journey, this is the first album that I've heard that is almost entirely about SA. Yet it defies all expectations.
Watch her on Tiny Desk: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/14/1121277047/allison-russell-tiny-desk-concert
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Ahmad Jamal's lost Paris recordings were recently issued by the French publisher: I bought a vinyl, it's so precious!
Stream it here also:
Live in Paris (1971), by Ahmad Jamal
Live in Paris (1971) by Ahmad Jamal, released 14 October 2022 1. Bogota 2. Manhattan Reflections 3. Effendi LOST TAPES Concert du Ahmad Jamal Trio, Concert à Paris, 1971 Bogota : 15'33" Manhattan Reflections : 10'20" Effendi : 13'53" Ahmad Jamal : Piano, Fender Rhodes Jamil Nasser : Double Bass Frank Gant : Drums Recorded live on June, 25th 1971, Grand Auditorium Studio 104 - Maison de la Radio. Excerpts from the full performance. Executive production : Jonathan Fitoussi & Sébastien Rosat Sound restauration : Ian Debeerst. A.D & Graphic design : Jean Philippe Talaga. INA coordination : Christiane Lemire Photos: Ahmad Jamal at Studio 104, 06/25/1971 © Christian Rose - Fastimage © INA 1971 (P) 2022 Transversales Disques
Transversales Disques (transversales.bandcamp.com)
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Here's a collaboration I never expected: Khruangbin made an album with Vieux Farka Touré.
Ali, by Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin
Ali by Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin, released 23 September 2022 1. Savanne 2. Lobbo 3. Diarabi 4. Tongo Barra 5. Tamalla 6. Mahine Me 7. Ali Hala Abada 8. Alakarra Ali Farka Touré is well known as one of the most influential and talented guitarists that Africa has ever produced. His legacy and impact are hard to overstate. Ali’s sound merged his much-loved traditional Malian musical styles with distinct elements of the blues, singing in the local languages of Fulfulde, Tamasheq, Songhay and Bambara. The result was the creation of a groundbreaking new genre, now well known as the ‘desert blues’, earning him three Grammy awards, widespread reverence and the nickname of the ‘African John Lee Hooker’. Though he transcended in 2006, Ali’s musical legacy lives on through his son, Vieux aka “the Hendrix of the Sahara,” an accomplished guitarist and champion of Malian music in his own right. On Ali, his collaborative album with Khruangbin, Vieux pays homage to his father by recreating some of his most resonant work, putting new twists on it while maintaining the original’s integrity. The result is a rightful ode to a legend. Ali isn’t just a greatest hits compilation. It’s a lullaby, a remembrance of Ali's life through known highlights and B-sides from his catalog. It is a testament to what happens when creativity is approached through open arms and open hearts. “To me, music is magic, it is spontaneous, it is the energy between people,” Vieux says. “I think Khruangbin understands this very well.” The genesis of the album dates back to 2019, when Khruangbin, coming off their breakthrough album Con Todo el Mundo, was beginning to play to bigger crowds. The record was finished in 2021, as a global pandemic shuttered businesses and forced us to take stock of what Earth was becoming. Indirectly, Ali captures this as a moment of peace within a raging storm, a conversation between past and present without allegiance to suffering. Now, given Khruangbin’s reach as a unit with legions of fans (including the likes of Jay-Z and Paul McCartney), they’re poised to bring Malian music to broader groups of listeners. Ali is a masterful work in which the love surrounding it is just as vital as the music itself, driving it to unforeseen places; Vieux and Khruangbin are spreading the good word to a completely new generation. “I hope it takes them somewhere new, or puts them in a place they haven't felt or heard,” Lee says. “It is about the love of new friendship and making something beautiful together,” Vieux continues. “It is about pouring your love into something old to make it new again. In the end and in a word it is love, that's all.”
Khruangbin (khruangbin.bandcamp.com)
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If you've liked Mongolian music like The Hu, check out Mongolian metal.
MIIIST's album on Bandcamp is pay what you want. (Caution: loud and amazing)
Let it ever be remembered…, by MIIIST
Let it ever be remembered… by MIIIST, released 30 October 2022 1. Intro 2. Let it ever be remembered… 3. Babel 4. In the quest for the high tower
MIIIST (miiist.bandcamp.com)
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As a clarinet player myself, Anat Cohen has been such an inspiration. She's been called the greatest living clarinet jazz player, for good reason! I had an opportunity to see her live at SFJazz this year. Took my breath away.
This year, she released Quartetinho. Listen to it here:
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Cuban big band Orquesta Akokán's 2021 album '16 Rayos' has been playing on repeat all of 2022 and will probably continue well through the next year.
Fearless and intimate are the best words for this album.
16 Rayos, by Orquesta Akokán
16 Rayos by Orquesta Akokán, released 22 October 2021 1. Mi Conga Es De Akokán 2. 4 De Octubre 3. Guajira Del Mar 4. Interludio No 1 5. El Inflador 6. Fiebre Del Mambo 7. Orchídea 8. Interludio No 2 9. Llegue Con Mi Rumba Following their critically acclaimed Daptone debut, Orquesta Akokán is ready to unleash 16 Rayos on the world's dance floors. Recorded in Havanaʼs famed Egrem Studios, the group displays a cohesion forged by an intense performing and touring cycle. The musical conversation that began in the Areito studios three years earlier blossomed into an easy, intimate dialogue between good friends - allowing full, fearless musical expression and risk-taking outside of their comfort zones. Building upon Perez Pradoʼs dissonant, near avant-garde vision of the mambo, and highlighting the Lucumí subtext of Cuban rhythms and styles, the band continues to explore, develop and expand the islandʼs rich rhythmic palette and repertoire - pushing the conventions of what is considered “mambo” - and drawing deeply from folkloric and religious traditions seldom heard in popular music. 16 Rayos is here to shine its musical rays on us, warm our hearts, and irresistibly move our bodies.
Orquesta Akokán (orquestaakokan.bandcamp.com)
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The guitarist Jun Xiao is the first Chinese musician to have an album on Blue Note. There's a bit of emo, trip hop, rock... I love it.
There was a big band x Chinese folk x jazz scene in China in the 20s, you can still see snippets of it in Shanghai. But the contemporary stuff, I want to learn more about. Jun Xiao is a sterling place to start.
Atypical Airship by Jun Xiao on Apple Music
Listen to Atypical Airship by Jun Xiao on Apple Music. 2022. 10 Songs. Duration: 47 minutes.
Apple Music - Web Player (music.apple.com)
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Adrianna Tanreplied to Adrianna Tan on last edited by
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Adrianna Tanreplied to Adrianna Tan on last edited by
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Adrianna Tanreplied to Adrianna Tan on last edited by
Tom Skinner's "Voices of Bishara" EP is a winner if you're a fan of his other work on Sons of Kemet. Also moving, a little dissonant, but always beautfiul
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Adrianna Tanreplied to Adrianna Tan on last edited by
billy woods' Aethiopes: one of the best hiphop albums this year, for sure. Poetic, brave and meaningful, like great hiphop is.
Aethiopes, by billy woods
Aethiopes by billy woods, released 08 April 2022 1. Asylum 2. No Hard Feelings 3. Wharves 4. Sauvage (ft. Boldy James & Gabe Nandez) 5. The Doldrums 6. NYNEX (ft. ELUCID, Denmark Vessey & Quelle Chris) 7. Christine (ft. Mike Ladd) 8. Heavy Water (ft. Breeze Brewin & El-P) 9. Haarlem (ft. Fatboi Sharif) 10. Versailles (ft. Despot) 11. Protoevangelium (ft. Shinehead) 12. Remorseless 13. Smith + Cross DIGITAL VERSION OF THE ALBUM DROPS ON APRIL 8, 2022. Aethiopes is billy woods’ first album since 2019’s double feature of Hiding Places and Terror Management. The project is fully produced by Preservation (Dr Yen Lo, Yasiin Bey), who delivered a suite of tracks on Terror Management, including the riveting single “Blood Thinner”. The two collaborated again on Preservation’s 2020’s LP Eastern Medicine, Western Illness, which featured a memorable billy woods appearance on the song “Lemon Rinds”, as well as the B-side “Snow Globe”.
billy woods (billywoods.bandcamp.com)
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Mr. Completelyreplied to Adrianna Tan on last edited by
@skinnylatte if you haven't heard it, I think his newer one Maps with Kenny Segal is great too, especially the jazz-heavy tracks which have a splintered, surreal sound to them. And he's on Shabaka Hutchings' Kofi Flexx project, and apparently Shabaka will be on his next album under a pseudonym, that's a cool pairing (Shabaka is also on that Tom Skinner album you posted of course)
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Adrianna Tanreplied to Mr. Completely on last edited by
@mrcompletely Thank you! Will check it out
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Figured I'd poke my head in at this point to congratulate you on what (for me) is a finefine music thread.
Et pour la charmante épouse, mes félicitations pour s'être associée à cette personne manifestement très intelligente...
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@tuban_muzuru @mrcompletely thanks for listening and sharing!