Wayne Shorter, Charles Mingus, and an appreciation of jazz on vinyl

No. 1293: Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil

If you’ll forgive me for a moment, I’m going to get a little meta about this project. I began it in 2014, I only had a couple hundred records. I was at the point where my wantlist eclipsed my actual collection by volumes and volumes. As it is now, my wantlist is still pretty damn long, but back then I still wasn’t quite at the point where I was picking up every new release I loved. Partially for budget reasons, partially because back catalogue curiosities were capturing my interest—there’s a lot of reasons. But one of the things I absolutely knew for sure was that I wanted as much of the Blue Note jazz catalog from ‘58-’67 or so that I could reasonably find. You can’t throw a stone at that library of music without hitting something amazing, and as it turned out around 2014-2015, there were a lot of classic records going back into print. Which then went out of print a few years later. That’s how it goes sometimes.

That goal renewed itself in the last couple years when Blue Note began an early 85th anniversary celebration with a bunch of new reissues, with the campaign continuing into 2025. There’s a bunch of records that I still have on my wantlist from the likes of Joe Henderson and Bobby Hutcherson and Big John Patton and various others (plus some that they still haven’t reissued—it’s a big catalog) but in early 2022, I realized it was time to get Speak No Evil.

Now, if pressed, I might say this isn’t my favorite Wayne Shorter album. That would be Juju, which is a bit darker and more mysterious in its atmosphere (and which I also still don’t have on vinyl—that one’s also on the wantlist). But Speak No Evil, regardless of any discussion of “favorite” or “best,” is still a 10 out of 10 record. It’s a stellar mix of kinetic hard bop and more atmospheric material—I tend to favor the second side, as it’s more tonally and atmospherically engrossing rather than rhythmically (though that stuff rules, too—just a matter of preference). But most of all, what I like about this is that it’s the kind of record you can put on anytime, it sounds great, and sets a mood you never want to escape. Just one of the many things I love about jazz. Rating: 10.0

Listen: “Speak No Evil”

No. 1294: Wayne Shorter - The All Seeing Eye

And yet another Wayne Shorter album. I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure how I’m even gonna talk about this one because it’s a much different album than Speak No Evil, a lot more frantic and intense. But obviously it’s amazing. The lineup is untouchable: Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter, etc. Basically, the album is sort of Shorter’s attempt to create an album suite of the creation of the universe, which is a pretty heavy thing to do! And naturally, there are eruptions of sound that sort of mimic the Big Bang and act as musical parallels to Acts of God. It’s wild. And very good. I highly recommend it, but it’s probably a bit much to process on a first listen. Just give it a few more—it’s worth it. 

A quick note about this pressing: Like the other Shorter album here, it’s part of a Blue Note anniversary series that included a bunch of new pressings of classic records. (As far as I know, it’s still going, which is cool; there’s actually quite a few I need to catch up on.) But this is part of the Tone Poet series, which focuses on maybe less widely known records from artists in their catalog, with glossy gatefold sleeves and remastered sound and, most importantly, being in print for the first time in ages. I support this endeavor 100 percent. Rating: 9.2

Listen: “The All Seeing Eye”

No. 1295: Charles Mingus - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

I generally don’t care that much for albums comprising re-recorded versions of an artist’s existing songs. Typically they’re a way to reclaim recordings without a protracted fight with a label that owns the rights to them. Gang of Four and Cracker each did this in the 2000s, and of course we all know about all the Taylor’s Versions (and I should note I don’t begrudge anyone for doing this, it's just… redundant?). The same can’t really be said for jazz artists. Thelonious Monk recorded many different versions of his own compositions, and they’re anything but redundant. 

Likewise, Charles Mingus revisited his own catalog on Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus, which I bought used at Deep Groove along with these two excellent Wayne Shorter records. I actually hadn’t really listened to much of this before—Mingus is one of my favorites, but for whatever reason this album fell under my radar. But I actually really love these versions, and much like with Monk, Mingus reinterprets his own material in novel ways. Take “Better Git Hit In Yo Soul,” which kicks up the tempo of the original from Ah Um and turns it into a frantic, wild frenzy. “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” has its name changed to “Theme For Lester Young”, but the elegiac beauty of the song remains. And by and large, there’s a more pronounced urgency to everything here, making it a more accessible but energetically aligned counterpart to the previous year’s The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. Just another album that shows, musically, Mingus could really do no wrong. Rating: 9.5

Listen: “Better Git Hit In Yo Soul”

No. 1296: Nilüfer Yanya - PAINLESS

I like to pride myself with being an early adopter with great artists, but it doesn’t always work out that way. And increasingly that has more to do with the fact that I’m less concerned with having to be on top of the Next Big Thing—which more often than not ends up fizzling. See: all the hyped UK indie bands of the ‘00s that are now referred to as “landfill indie” (e.g. post-Libertines garage lads like Razorlight and The Cribs). And after reading Meet Me in the Bathroom recently, it struck me as kind of weird and desperate that Spin and Rolling Stone were tumbling over each other trying to be the first to get the scoop on the hot new band—which I guess was The Strokes. (Yawn.) Sometimes I’d rather sit with a band for a while; Fontaines D.C. are a good example, their debut album a fun rock record that was by no means groundbreaking, but who delivered more rewarding results each time, and are now one of my favorite contemporary groups. Or Squid, whose new album I just reviewed, and which is easily their best after a steady upward curve.

All of which is to say, I was not an early adopter of Nilüfer Yanya’s music. Not that I thought it was bad or anything, it sort of just slipped under my radar. I saw her name a lot but managed to not hear much of it until year-end 2019, when “Heavyweight Champion of the Year” landed on Treble’s best songs list and, you won’t be surprised to hear, really impressed me! But it wasn’t until she released “midnight sun” in 2022 that I was really blown away. Blending singer/songwriter intimacy with a Radiohead-like intricacy and abstraction, the song showcased the best of Yanya, gorgeous and cryptic, poetic and layered. That’s a damn song.

After hearing the rest of PAINLESS I was decidedly on board the Yanya train, and this is a fantastic record. While the energy dips a little in the middle, to be fair, it starts off a lot more frantic, with a bit more of the immediate art-rock up front and then easing back into something more like indie Sade or Jessie Ware’s ballads. All of which is A-OK with me. I became even more enamored of her music with her next album, but we’re not there yet, so we’ll put a pin in that for now. Rating: 9.1

Listen: “midnight sun”

No. 1297: Divide and Dissolve - Gas Lit

I first saw Divide and Dissolve back in 2019 when they opened for Sumac at Brick by Brick in San Diego, and I was sold pretty much immediately. A Black/queer/indigenous duo from Australia, they make droning doom metal with elements of poetry and ambient as well as some trippy saxophone instrumentals. All cool stuff, plus they sell merch that says stuff like “Destroy White Supremacy” and whatnot. 

We saw them again in Washington, D.C. opening for Low, and were reminded of the kind of intense wall of distortion they throw at the audience. Great performance, of course, but at one point my wife went to talk to them at the merch booth and came back with a copy of this album, so kudos to her for grabbing this one. It’s dense and heavy, an overwhelming onslaught of sound more than, say, discreet and distinctive songs. Which tends to happen with instrumental drone metal. But you don’t see me complaining. Intense, awesome stuff. Rating: 8.7

Listen: “Oblique”

No. 1298: Moses Sumney - Aromanticism

It’s kind of astonishing to me that Moses Sumney has only released two full-length albums, even though one of them is a double album, released in two parts. (He also has several EPs, which I suppose means he has a lot more music out there than it initially seems.) Back in 2016, I heard “Lonely World” and was immediately won over by his songwriting, which merged Radiohead-like art-rock ambition with a singer/songwriter’s personal touch. And in early interviews he said he preferred being described as “folk,” which makes sense at least in part on his debut, Aromanticism. Especially on side one, there are starker moments that do, in part, sound like “folk”, as we typically understand it (starker arrangements, gentle guitar plucks etc.). 

But there’s also that song that bowled me over the first time, “Lonely World,” with its soaring hook, as well as the lush arrangements of “Quarrel” and “Drowned,” which expand outward from those starker central points, and showcase his talents as more versatile and innovative. And since then he’s been cast in cologne commercials and modeled in fashion campaigns, so he’s sort of graduated beyond just being a musician. And you know, good for him! He’s increasingly going into the multidisciplinary Björk lane, and his music is singular as it is. But who knows. All I know is I was listening to “Quarrel” on my computer early on in 2022 and said “fuck it,” and bought this on impulse. Sometimes you just have to get that record that’s been playing in your head. Rating: 9.2

Listen: “Quarrel”

No. 1299: P.E. - The Leather Lemon

P.E. are a great band that not enough people know about. I may not be able to count on many certainties in life, but this much I know to be true. They formed about six years ago when members of Pill and Eaters were planning a show and not everyone in either band was available, so those who were put together an improvisation-heavy live set that they eventually translated into some recordings. I previously wrote about their debut album, Person, which was one of my favorites of 2020 and kind of a lifeline during the pandemic. Everything that year was sort of frustrating and anxiety-inducing and demoralizing and, if we’re being honest, a little boring after a while! But I had P.E. P.E. helped bring me out of my malaise, and I’d recommend them to anyone who’d listen. (Which was not in person because, well… you know.) 

Their sophomore album The Leather Lemon is similarly outstanding and shows some stylistic growth for that matter. While songs like first single “Blue Nude (Reclined)” emphasize their beat-driven energy, they veer into a seductive kind of sophisti-pop on “Tears in the Rain,” which sounds more like something The Blue Nile would have released in the late ‘80s. (Which, you should know, is very much a good thing.) It also features guest vocals from Parquet Courts’ Andrew Savage, enhancing the he-said she-said breakup melancholy vibe of the whole thing. It’s glorious. I first heard it live, in fact, when the group opened for Parquet Courts in Richmond in fall of 2021, one of the first shows we saw after moving here. When I first heard it, I assumed it was a cover — they really nailed the sophisti-pop sheen dead on. But it’s an original, and an amazing one at that. 

Since this album was released, the group’s done some experimental mixtapes of more abstract electronic, noise and industrial stuff, mostly without vocals, and I’m not entirely sure what the status of the group is. I’d obviously love them to release more music, but they’re also one of those bands I fall in love with and evangelize despite having a relatively niche concern. This isn’t terribly commercial music, after all, but then again they’re capable of releasing some serious bangers, and this album has ‘em. I don’t know when they’ll release more music, but I’m ready for it whenever they are. Rating: 9.1

Listen: “Tears in the Rain”