The 13th Annual Jaybee-bies: 23 and Me

Alex G, Not Jesus C

Executive Summary:

Music: Pop good.  Jazz and Blues great.

Music/Personal: Still striving for competence on guitar. 

Personal: I'm a grandfather now, and getting close to retirement.

Politics: Too many wars, dictators, climate deniers, and general assholery.

Abstract:

Pop in a holding pattern.

Jazz strikes back. 

The Blues never went away.

Oldies make a comeback. 

Fascists making a comeback, too, and way too many people are okay with it.

(Note: Shouldn't abstracts be longer than executive summaries??)

Humans:

Best:

The same group as last year but with one addition:

• An ex-President - Jimmy Carter

Worst:

And the bar just keeps getting lower:

• Jim Jordan
• Tucker Carlson/Jesse Watters/Marc Levin/Laura Ingraham (what's plural for despicable?)
• Elise Stefanik
• An ex-President. You Know Who.
• The Usual Suspects

Best Books:

• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead - Pre-Civil War slavery with a bit of fantasy thrown in. 
• The Known World by Edward P. Jones - Pre-Civil War slavery with no fantasy, or illusions, for that matter.
• Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe - The Troubles. F*ck you, Gerry Adams. 
• Quantum Criminals by Alex Pappademas and Joan Lemay - Steely Dan, for better or even better than that.

Best Movies:    

• Poor Things
• Oppenheimer

I'm sure there were other good ones, but I don't get out much.

Best TV:

• Ted Lasso
• The White Lotus
• The Bear
• Baby J
• Slow Horses
• Reservation Dogs
• Catastrophe

Suddenly I'm a couch potato.

Best Concerts:

None. I'm still waiting for one that's worth time/trouble/$.

Music Awards:

Most Work (But Worth it): 

• Various Artists: The Music of Erik Satie

Most Work (And Possibly Not Worth It): 

Educationally worth it, musically, not so much: all that time spent on Lou Reed, and specifically his first five solo records. Granted, it was wonderful to re-listen to the VU albums, and the good LR solo-ish records. But I was hearing those first five from scratch. And none of them cracked my top ten. Some way to spend the summer, huh?

Most Surprising (and Not Necessarily in a Good Way): 

But this year it is in a good way! (Lou Reed doesn't count, because I didn't have high hopes to begin with. Thank god for the Steely Dan book. I finally got to it after Christmas. I should have read it sooner. It reminded me of how they produced way more great music in the 1970s than Reed managed. They weren’t exactly summer breezes either but at least they had something to show for it.

Most Disappointing: 

The Dismemberment Plan: Emergency & I

Best Nostalgia:

Talking Heads: The Name of this Band Is Talking Heads - They really were a great band with great songs, just like I thought.

Best Artist: 

Miles Davis, due to sheer volume. 

I got ten (eight new) albums by him, and aside from Bag's Groove and Aghartha, I haven't gotten to the bottom of any of them yet.

The eight new ones came from two "Four Classic Album" collections. Here they are:

• Cookin'
• Steamin'
• Workin'
• Relaxin'
• Miles Ahead
• Sketches of Spain
• Porgy and Bess
• Elevator to the Gallows

I will get to this before I die.

Best Albums of My Year:

At first, I felt like I had to split genres this year because it seemed ridiculous to put Alex G ahead of Roots of Jazz Funk. But because I lean pop-centric, I'm enjoying Alex more right now. In a couple of years, though, who knows if that'll still be true? 

But goddamn it, my pop-democratic brain decided to mix them back up. The only true genre is Good, and that's subjective anyway.

1. Alex G: God Save the Animals
2. The Beths: Expert in a Dying Field
3. Various Artists: Roots of Jazz Funk
4. Galaxie 500: On Fire
5. Duke Ellington Orchestra: At Newport
6. Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden
7. The Smile: A Light for Attracting Attention
8. Miles Davis: Bag's Groove
9. Fleetwood Mac: Live at the Boston Tea Party, Vol. 1.
10. Thelonious Monk: Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 2

Honorable Mentions/Also-Rans/Tieds for Tenth: John Coltrane: Africa Brass, Forlorne: Daydream Hangover, Sun Ra: Lanquidity, Alvvays: Blue Rev

Oh, and Mrs. Jaybee's Favorites:

• The National: The First Two Pages of Frankenstein
• boygenius: the record

What can I say? She's way better at staying current than I am.

Best Compilations:

1. Ella Fitzgerald
2. Coasters
3. Billie Holiday

Album I listened to the most but had the least to Say About (Due to Density – Mine, not the music's.)

Erik Satie: The Music of Satie

Some of the best songs - including some great jazz - I heard this year can be found here.

Conclusions:

A new granddaughter has pushed my musical concerns back to somewhat normal proportions. A positive development I think.

Pop was good but not great, a crucial difference. It does make me wonder if I'm all Popped out. Maybe I'm at that point where I get off the fence and stick to finding great older records and give up on current stuff. I've felt this way before and what typically happens is that someone puts out a pop album that completely dominates my imagination. I hope it happens. I'd like to avoid geezerdom if possible.

Jazz and blues filled the gap. The former via new records and the latter by dipping into ones I already had, more or less. (Sorry that BB and Sonny Boy count as 2022 records I just hadn't gotten to yet.)

Still nice to still have a democracy. But I'm worried.