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.

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.

A Summer for Old Men

Having been less than overwhelmed by the amount of joyful summer music, and quite underwhelmed by a series of "summer reading" novels that were work to get through (Pathfinder, Possession and Green Mars, I'm looking at you), I was willing to entertain music I would normally have postponed until winter.

And was delighted.

Max Richter: The Blue Notebooks (2004)

You may know Max (Mrs. Jaybee and I met him so I feel I'm on a first-name basis with him) for putting his musical stamp on The Leftovers and any number of films. Mrs. Jaybee and I saw him play a number of those pieces live, and took the occasion to get Infra, which he had showcased that evening. It holds up remarkably well on CD, and is one of my favorite CDs of the last decade.

He works foremost with violins and keyboard, adding in various sound and vocal effects along the way. At the show, the house was full of couples holding hands for what is essentially classical music. Now that is no mean feat. 

My favorite Max piece is - of course - "On the Nature of Daylight" which originated on this album (and pops up in Shutter Island). The good news is that almost all of the other cuts strive for a similar intensity of feeling. Almost all succeed.

Either Max has got quite the scam going (the James Taylor of classical music??) or he's found a way to be both experimental and emotional simultaneously. 

I'm glad he's around.

A-

"On the Nature of Daylight"

Thelonious Monk: Monk's Dream (1962)

I've got at least a dozen Monk records now. And a perusal of the titles on this one tells me there's only one composition here that's new to me.

T has a habit of re-recording his compositions, which means I must have at least five to ten versions of most of his songs. You'd think that would be a problem. 

And yet, this one is one of my favorites. The band is on it, as is Monk himself. I can't even say they are the best musicians he's ever had. But they may be the most sympathetic.

Everything here has got that extra added oomph to make you sit up and notice.

A pleasure from beginning to end.

I dream one day of burning all his CDs in order to make a playlist sorted by title. (Eight versions in a row of "Bolivar Blues" anyone?) I might not play it around Mrs. Jaybee though. She tends to notice things like that.

A

All this may encourage me to explore, say, surf music. 

In January maybe?