The 14th Annual Jaybee-bies: 2024, or Love Among the Ruins

Billie Eilish

You don't need me to tell you how f*cked up 2024 was. I'll try to identify some silver linings.  

Executive Summary:

Music: Pop music good, if not exactly in my comfort zone. Jazz, Blues, and Oldies wonderful. Weirdos thriving. (More to come on that).

Music/Personal: No longer striving for competence on guitar. 

Personal: Retired and grandfather of two. Getting old fast.

Politics: Everybody knows the war is over, everybody knows the bad guys won. Fascism is cool again, apparently. The young folks - men, mostly - let us down.

Humans:

Best:

• Jimmy Carter
• Adam Kinzinger
• Liz Cheney
• Many, many others who, in my current state, I just can't bring to mind. Feel free to write in some names.

Worst:

The ever-expanding "Usual Suspects", as I called them last year, make a repeat appearance here. I'll only make special mention of their Rookie of the Year, Nancy Mace, whose popularity confirms the existence of a new mini-industry busily producing Awful Women, like veterans Elise Stefanik, Nicole Malliotakis, Marsha Blackburn, Kristi Noem, and others. However, I will risk being accused of sexism by saying they'll never quite match the production of Awful Men. But keep up the bad work gals!

Best Books:

During this, my first year of retirement, my ambition was to "just lie down on the damn couch and read a f*cking book or two". 

And I did! I read all of the following books with great enthusiasm:

• A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman: A remarkable history of Europe (mostly France) in the 14th century. 
• The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre: A true-life spy story and a great one.
• Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain: A true-life restaurant story, and a very entertaining one.
• Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett: What's an "I", anyway? Mr. Dennett tries to explain.
• Karla's Choice by Ken Hardaway: John le Carre's son admirably continues the George Smiley saga.

The following are part of my World History Project, which has now reached the end of the American Civil War. I read a lot more than these five, but these are the best of the lot:

• The Good Lord Bird by James McBride: A hilarious and tragic retelling of the John Brown story.
• The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner: Notorious flip-flopper's views on slavery. 
• Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson: The entire Civil War, miraculously, in a single volume. 
• Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin: Lincoln and his Cabinet. Possibly the best history book I've ever read.
• Lincoln by Gore Vidal: Vidal could be pompous in interviews and lectures but he did work his ass off to get his historical fiction right. I read this alongside Team of Rvals, and was in awe of his grasp of the details. And, like Burr, it's funny too.

Best Movies:

I did manage to get out and see a few movies, but the only one worth mentioning here is A Complete Unknown. What it may be lacking in specific details, it more than makes up for with Timothee Chalamet's performance (and performances). Ed Norton is also great as Pete Seeger. The music is pretty great, too.

Best TV:

• Somebody Somewhere
• I May Destroy You
• Insecure
• Bodkin

Best Concerts:

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

Music Awards:

Most Work (But Worth it): 

    Billie Eilish

Most Work (And Possibly Not Worth It): 

    The Dirty Projectors

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

    Nico

Best Nostalgia:

    Jimi Hendrix 

Best Artist:

    Daniel Nigro, producer of both Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan

Best Albums of My Year:

1. Billie Eilish: Where Do We Go When We Fall Asleep? - The key to this young lady, and what eventually wore me down - is not the loopy sound effects (that's her brother). It's the songwriting that stays consistent from beginning to the very end.
2. Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else - NOT "worse" than Billie. Just a slower burn.
3. The Quintet: Hot House: The Complete Jazz and Massey Hall Recordings - Ditto.
4. Jimi Hendrix: The Cry of Love - Not a masterpiece. Just a very consistent (that again!) yet relaxed set of tunes with great guitar playing.
5. Chappell Roan: The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess - I'll get to this at another time, but in short, she edges out Olivia by the sheer volume of hooks and emotion she brings to the table. Geez!
6. Olivia Rodriguez: Guts - A smart young woman. NOT worse than Chappell. Just a bit more professional sounding, which is both a plus and a minus.
7. The Chills: Brave Words - Another one for a later time. RIP Martin Phillips.
8. The Feelies: The Good Earth - "Only" rock n' roll and I love it.
9. John Cale: Paris 1919 - Professed weirdo plays it straight with lovely results.
10. Low: I Could Live in Hope - Just how depressed can you get? Find out here and come back alive.

Honorable Mention: Arto Lindsay, Fishermans, Steely Dan, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Stars of the Lid, David Behrman, Elliott Smith, Beyonce

Best Compilations:

1. Muddy Waters: Anthology
2. Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings
3. The Shirelles: 25 All-Time Greatest Hits 
4. Fats Domino: My Blue Heaven, The Best of...
5. Sir Warrior etc: Heavy on the Highlife!

The Album I Listened To Most but Had the Least to Say About It Due to Density (Mine, not the music's.):

Bach: Violin Concertos

Some of the best songs I heard this year can be found here.

Oh, and Mrs. Jaybee's Favorites:

1. Beyonce: Cowboy Carter
2. Billie Eilish: Where Do We Go When We Fall Asleep?
3. Gorillaz: Cracker Island
4. Bill Withers: The Ultimate Collection
5. Amy Winehouse: Back to Black

Conclusions:

Now with two granddaughters, I'm slowly beginning to understand what life is all about. I hope I'm not too late. 

Pop continues to grow - sometimes away from me. That's okay. I don't have to be in the middle of it. As long as I can find some electric guitar music - now a small sub-section of pop - I'll be okay.

Jazz and blues (and oldies, and older pop) will always be there to fill the gap. I was hoping to keep you informed about new stuff, but if old stuff is new to both of us what's wrong with that?

And finally, I have come to realize that most of my countrymen think a dictator is someone who is NOT popular. A little more education might have helped. One can only hope the bad guys form a circular firing squad.

Happy New Year!

The (Not for) Summertime Blues

Reasons to (Not) be Cheerful:

1. Sweltering summer weather (courtesy of James Inhofe, who at least had the decency to die recently. Keep up the good work, Jim! Won't miss ya! #pissonjimsgrave), and
2. The lack of quiet central air conditioning (this one's all on me) 

have combined to frustrate my attempts to listen to new (for me) music. I can only hear it clearly when the humongous dining room AC is off at the beginning of the day or later when hypothermia sets in.

And no, don't tell me to wear earbuds. It's hot enough already without chunks of plastic in my ears. Plus, I'm one of those pessimists who assumes the call to get to a fallout shelter will occur while I'm listening to the Ramones. So no earbuds!

Thus, I'm left to report on some music I listened to this past winter, which you might understandably not be inclined to listen to in the hot weather. 

Of course, you may not be like me - a depressive type needing all sorts of artificial stimulants (coffee, alcohol, chocolate, the odd pill, music, etc.) to maintain a positive outlook on life - and can handle music in July that I'd only recommend for January, then be my guest because the first two below are great. 

Though to be on the safe side I've included one pretty damn good Afropop record that I have been able to listen to in our newly sub-tropical climate, probably because it was recorded in a similar one. It reminded me of our honeymoon in Aruba in 1985, where the island setting and intense heat taught me to appreciate reggae, which was playing by the hotel pool. It was too freakin' hot to listen to anything louder or peppier than that. So now, in Brooklyn - hot, steamy, noisy, pungent Brooklyn - Afropop is the way to go.

But before we get to that:

Reasons to be (Somewhat) Cheerful:

Muddy Waters: Anthology 1947-72 (2001)

Muddy had to play in the summer before AC was widely available. You'd think simple empathy would encourage me to at least listen to it in July, but no. It just makes me feel hotter.

So it's not your summer picnic music. But what it is is primal. It packs more punch per CD than the BB King box set I was raving about last year. And it's sharper than the Sonny Boy Williamson record from the same post. And because of his electric guitar, it's more impactful than his own acoustic Plantation Recordings record.

Oddly, I find I prefer Muddy in the studio rather than live. I caught him in 1978, when he leaned into his faster crowd pleasures, like "I Got My Mojo Working". Here he's basically alone with his electric slide, telling you his troubles and there ain't no white college students around pretending they can empathize. He's telling you the bitter truth, to no applause. 

This two-disc set is less comprehensive but takes up less room than the three-disc Chess Box Set. You see? I'm learnin'!

And yes, it all sounds the same, more or less. You gotta problem with that?

Not for an afternoon with friends in the Hamptons. Try it in January when the credit card bills start coming in. Then queue up Martin Mull.

A

"I Can't Be Satisfied"

The Quintet: Hot House: The Complete Jazz and Massey Hall Recordings (2023)

This is a recording of what some consider "the greatest jazz concert ever", aka "Jazz at Massey Hall". There are numerous incarnations of the event but this purports to be the entire concert, with improved sound. 

Why the greatest? First, there's the band, which actually deserves the label "all-star" - Charlie Parker (sax), Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Charles "not Charlie" Mingus (bass), Bud Powell (piano), and Max Roach (drums). Hint to fellow geezers: It's the rough equivalent to Cream, but with Jimi Hendrix and Steve Winwood added.

And they've all brought their A-game. Powell is the one I immediately respond to, then, in order, Parker, Gillespie, Roach, and Mingus.  And because of people like me, who notice the bass last, Charles Mingus (quite the character) insisted on overdubbing his bass lines, as one does when surrounded by four geniuses playing their asses off. My edition has an extra disc containing versions with said overdubs. I still don't hear a difference.

Oh, wait. Now I do!

I'm still partial to Charlie Parker and the Stars of Modern Jazz: The Complete 1949 Carnegie Hall Concert. It's not a fair comparison, since Carnegie is a showcase for several different artists, and thus unrelenting in its quality. HH is "just" these five men. But since Bebop is so insistent one can't help but be in awe of what they accomplish.

This one takes a bit longer to sink in but once it does you're hooked for life. 

A

"Wee (Allen's Alley)"

Dr. Sir Warrior and the Oriental Brothers International: Heavy on the Highlife (2006)

This is a compilation covering 1973 to 1988 by three brothers from Nigeria who make Oasis and the Kinks seem like models of sibling harmony. Just for fun here's a (probably incomplete) list of the "Artist Names" that have been slapped on the several records where these six songs have appeared:

• Oriental Brothers
• Dan Satch Orchestra
• Dr. Sir Warrior
• Warrior
• African Brothers International

That's approximately one artist name per cut, which makes the Artist Name of this compilation a wonder of concision.

Why this record, you ask? Blame Robert Christgau, who is my go-to guy for all things Afropop-related. He's been listening to it for over four decades and, dilettante that I am, I know I'll never quite appreciate it at the historical/political level he does. The liner notes are quite helpful, though. Either way, it's no biggie when the music is this good.

I can hear the enthusiastic vocals and the more-detailed-every-time-you-hear-it guitar accompaniment. The songs veer from the short and sweet to the long and insistent. It will take a few listens to take in the details. But give it a chance and this 67-minute CD will flow by in no time.

And like the reggae in Aruba (or, for that matter, Beach House's Teen Dream in cloudy, humid, rainy Brooklyn in June 2018) this one fits the weather quite well. 

No air conditioning required.

A-

"Uwa Atu Alamujo"

In the Meantime...

Enjoy yet another heat wave. I'm sure everything is just fine.

It’s Complicated

Although Grimes brought me pretty much up to the present, for the most part I’m dwelling in the past.

There is my foray into the 1970s - the Kinks, Roxy Music , Fairport Convention, etc.

Then there have been my retreats into ambient music where the amount of sensory input is limited, which, believe me, has its uses.

And then there’s the classical music I’ve been delving into, which I’ll get into another time.

And now, it’s 1940s blues. Why? No philosophical reason. It’s just because Barnes and Noble told me so, for $4.99.  Totally worth it, too.



Muddy Waters: The Plantation Recordings (1941)

This one fits most of the above criteria of what I need now.  Out of this current time. Limited sonic input.

On the first count, it brings us back to the 1940s. Yet that makes it way newer than the classical music I’ve also been listening to. And yet, much more “primitive”. (I like primitive, btw.)

Doesn’t that make it inferior to classical music? Yeah, bullsh*t. If anything, it’s a response to it. After all, the people creating and listening to classical music had the money and the education that enabled them to create and consume said music. And they got the money, etc by giving the blues to everybody else.

Whatever. Peace and love, etc. Back to Muddy.

On that latter count (limited sonic input, in case I lost you), it couldn’t be more different from Grimes, say.

At the time of this recording, Muddy was about the same age as Grimes was for Art Angels. But he sounds way older. By about a thousand years.

This record is mostly just him and a guitar, which is more than enough, usually. I will admit I slightly prefer his later electric sound. (Not many electric guitars on the plantation, you know.)

Muddy isn’t quite as exciting as Howlin’ Wolf  vocally, and Elmore James plays a meaner guitar. But he's probably the best overall.

And he’s full of seeming contradictions, at least to a clueless dolt like me. He sings about being poor but looks like a million bucks on the cover. (Where can I get a suit like that?) Then he’s singing about god on one song and then sin on the next. And love, too, and it’s sometimes bitter aftermath.  In other words, in a dozen or so "primitive" songs, you get life in all it’s complexity.

Okay, there are several interview tracks sprinkled throughout, but they’re not as annoying as you’d think.

So, not exactly rousing, but very, very down to earth. Literally.

Because of the low volume on this one, I count it as morning music. But it has to be a pretty bad morning.

But that’s okay, if that happens, you just begin to sing:

Woke up this morning…

And you take it from there.

A-

“You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone”