I’ve been doing some pretty tedious processing work over the last week and this has given me some time to listen to music. I’ve also had a chance to take some late afternoon walks by the sea accompanied by some lovely tunes.
First, I’ve been enjoying the David Murray Quartet’s new album Francesca where he plays with a deeply complementary cast of Marta Sanchez on piano, Luke Stewart on bass, and Russel Carter on drums. I’ve found Murray a bit of an acquired taste. He wasn’t avant-garde enough to attract my attention immediately (and had a bit of a reputation as a reactionary) and wasn’t quite “classic” enough to fit into some probably flawed developmental view improvised music.
Starting last summer, that changed, and I started to enjoy his music more and more even when it was more lyrical than challenging. I think his recent album reflects that aspect of his playing and is quite nice:
Since the entire album isn’t available, you can catch a concert by Murray and most of his quartet in Hamburg posted on Youtube last week:
This morning I listened to the new Alan Braufman album. Braufman was a staple of the loft scene and I just happened upon his iconic 1975 album Valley of Search last year. This led me to his ongoing revival album in 2020, The Fire Still Burns. This spring he released another new album, Infinite Love Infinite Tears. It features the ubiquitous James Brandon Lewis on sax with Braufman, Patricia Brennan on vibes, Ken Filano on bass, and Chad Taylor and Michael Wimberly on drums. It has a bit less of an edge if compared to The Fire Still Burns or Valley of Search, but this isn’t necessary a criticism. It shares with its predecessors simple melodies, repeated and the developed as the basis for spirited improvisation. I really like it. Check it out here (and check out the track “Brooklyn”):
Finally, I’ve been really enjoying the new Vampire Weekend album and the “B” side in particular. I really like “Gen-X Cops” because it speaks to my growing awareness that the world is changing so quickly that we’ll all likely end up on the wrong side of history:
Archaeology of the Mediterranean World 