Twelfth Annual Jaybee-bies: Journey Through the Past

Executive Summary:

Musically and politically, better than 2021. Personally stressful.

Abstract:

Slightly fewer fascists than expected in the Senate, but alas, they're in charge of it.

An excellent year in music. Women continue to damn near dominate. Few Masterpieces (frankly, they're usually overrated anyway). Just lotsa good rekkids.

Best Humans:

• Volodymyr Zelensky
• Jacinda Ardern
• Greta Thunberg

Worst Humans:

• Vladimir Putin
• Ron DeSantis
• MTG
• Lauren Boebert
• Alex Jones
• Matt Gaetz
• George Santos

Best Books:

• All the Marvels by Douglas Wolk: Having loved Marvel comics from 1965-1975 this was like manna from heaven. A celebration of great storytelling. 
• Orwell on Truth by George Orwell: Alleged stoolie tells you exactly what he thinks. Lucky for us he can see straight.
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: You have got to read the 1,300-page unabridged version, with a translation by Robin Buss. I'm a notoriously slow reader and yet I polished this off in three weeks. Rife with ludicrous plot twists and fantastical coincidences, this was an absolute delight to read.

Best Movies:

• The Banshees of Inisherin
• The Batman
• Glass Onion

This might just be a list of what movies I saw. What can I say? I don't get out much.

Best TV:

• Better Call Saul
• Barry
• The White Lotus

What can I say? I don't stay in much, either. (I spend a lot of time in the vestibule.)

Best Concerts:

• None

Maybe I'm spending too much time in the vestibule.

Music Awards:

Most Work (But Worth it): 

• Schubert Leider: Sure, it will never be in my top 10, but I'm glad I've heard it.

Most Work (And Possibly Not Worth It): 

• Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht is the single piece of music I listened to the most this year, and I'm still not sure if I like it or not. Save it for a World History Project post, I say!

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

• Elizabeth and the Catapult: Taller Children - An excellent singer and band saying the obvious very expertly. They relentlessly pursue their goal of music utterly at odds with whatever I happen to like.

Most Disappointing: 

No music. Some humans, though...

Best Nostalgia:

10cc: Still as funny as when I first heard it and tuneful enough to keep me coming back.

Best Artist: 

Judee Sill, mainly because of neglect over the last 50 years.

The Best of My Year:

1. Wet Leg: Wet Leg (2022): Funny deadpan girls, Serious rock n' roll band.
2. Judee Sill: Abracadabra: The Asylum Years: Stunning melody - courtesy of God, it seems - gets me every time.
3. Yo La Tengo: Fade (2013) Modest and lofi to a fault. But by the end, they've convinced you it was worth it.
4. Spring Heel Jack: Busy, Curious, Thirsty (1997) Relentlessly invention electronica from beginning to end.
5. Ben Webster: King of the Tenors (1956) So simple and straightforward you couldn't be blamed for underestimating it. I know I did. Indelible.
6. Japanese Breakfast: Jubilee (2021): Somebody MUST have already come up with these melodies already, right?
7. Bob Marley: Burnin' (1973): A bit laid back but the songs just modestly pile up one after the other.
8. Dry Cleaning: New Long Leg (2021): The guitar is the star here. The "vocals" add a bit of clove.
9. Max Richter: The Blue Notebooks (2004): Not quite as haunting as Intra but damn close.
10. Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella (1990): Nice to hear a bunch of songs from these guys. A highlight for both of them.

Honorable Mentions/Also-Rans/Tieds for Tenth: 

• Sonny Sharrock: High Life 
• Thelonious Monk: Monk's Dream 
• Haim: Women in Music, Part III 
• Amyl and the Sniffers: Comfort to Me 

And a lot more not far behind! Another year with a bunch of also-rans. A good sign!

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

Conclusions:

A stressful year. Some drink more or smoke more. I listen more, which resulted in a lot of new records, plenty of which I haven't even mentioned. I hope I'll have a chance to. 

The musical present seems pretty good but there's so much of it, I'm finding it necessary to wait it out a bit to let the wheat separate from the hype. Hence, I've been spending more and more time delving into the past, where that separation has already occurred.

Oh, and it's nice to still have a democracy.

The Winter of Jaybee

The picture above gives an idea of what I had in mind for 2022. Laugh if you will, but the most unrealistic thing about it is the guy doesn't have a bald spot. 

I had plans! I was gonna get records from Big Joe Turner, Sonny Boy Williamson, Skip James, Lefty Frizzel, Joe Tex, Merle Travis, Louis Jordan, Hound Dog Taylor, Tom T. Hall, Papa Wemba... 

I was SET. A deep dive, Jaybee style, biting off more than I could chew, eating something bigger than my head, my ears bigger than, well, my ears.  You get the idea.

Then I noticed my Amazon gift card balance was kinda low.

The second omen was Mrs. Jaybee telling me she didn't want to hear BB King and Billie Holiday  (Christmas gift box-sets!!) for the twelfth day in a row. (Who'd a thought?)

Then, yesterday, I put on a recent purchase. 

"Who's this?", says Mrs. Jaybee. A long time ago, this might have indicated a degree of interest. Not so much lately.

"Dry Cleaning", says I.

"And who did you put on before that?"

"Oh, that was Weather Station"

"And before that?"

"Haim."

"Okay, now you're just making up names."

This is the point where having mere facts on my side meant nothing whatsoever.

So I've learned - yet again - there are LIMITS. Time, energy, money, other people's patience...

Time especially. First, because I'm running out of it. (Don't laugh. You are, too.) But also, the very limited amount of it on any given day when I can play "questionable" music (i.e., when normal people aren't around.)

So my efforts have been somewhat muted (see what I did there?).

But here are all the records I did pick up so far this year. Well, except for....oh, never mind.

Sonny Sharrock Band: Highlife (1990)

A free jazz electric guitarist decides to rock. And does so quite gracefully, if that's possible. Lovely, bordering on slick,  noisy when he's lulled you. Sonny seems to know just when to rough things up. 

But that slick part leads me to suspect it doesn't have staying power. So I'm hedging my bets. Let's see how it sounds at the end of the year.

B+

"No More Tears"

Ben Webster: King of the Tenors (1956)

Perfect mellow morning jazz, and not that easy-listening stuff, either. You'd swear this was a best-of, but no, just another LP.  No pyrotechnics. No grand statements. Just playing for the song and nailing it every time. 

Again, I'm hedging. For all I know, it'll end up on my all-time greatest jazz list.

A-

"Danny Boy"

Spring Heel Jack: Busy, Thirsty, Curious  (1997)

British Electronic Dance (you read that right) music from the 90s risks being impersonal but somehow avoids it. Essentially by not giving you a moment's rest. Damn near relentless.

In other words, nothing at all like our quaint old picture of the Brits. These are the youngins, who more than make up for their mum's and dad's good manners and bad teeth. 

They also make up for all those awful 80s bands that covered old R&B songs. (I'm looking at you, Soft Cell.)

A-

"Bells"

Next time, I will attempt to prove the existence of Dry Cleaning, Weather Station, and Haim to Mrs. Jaybee, even if I have to create fake Facebook pages for them.

And then, I'll get to... never mind.