Music Monday: Avant-garde and Straight

I’m slowly getting into the habit of listening to music again. It is perhaps not a coincidence that I’ve also spent a good bit of time doing book layout work and other summertime tedium recent.

There are two new albums that have captured my attention. The first has garnered a good bit of critical buzz: Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy (2023)with stories in the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, NPR, and elsewhere.

It’s a good album and it’s always great to hear more Eric Dolphy and the see how their collaboration on Africa/Brass (1961) manifested itself in live performance. 

I particularly enjoy the live ambiance, even if that means that the recording itself isn’t unblemished, but is, in its own way, sonically engaging. 

If Africa/Brass was criticized for its avant-garde approach, David Murray has always been seen (especially by guys like Stanley Crouch) as a wellspring of tradition and a counterweight to Coltrane’s (and Dolphy’s) tendency toward anti-jazz. His latest album is with Questlove (from the Roots) and keyboardist Ray Angry (who has appeared on any number of pop albums in the last thirty years). The album is called Plumb and so far has received relatively little advanced attention (which suggests that folks didn’t have advanced copies of it?). 

Anyway, the album is good and worth repeated listens. Murray is in great form, and Ray Angry provides some cool droning and cosmic keyboard backing. At times, Murray, Questlove, and Angry approach the languid grooves of late-1970s Sun Ra (esp. Lanquidity era Arkestra), but mostly this album is what it says in the label: Plumb as in straight ahead jazz.

And, with a little Questlove pyrotechnics. 

I was going to thrown another album in the mix for this Monday, but maybe this pairing of recent releases is a fine enough tandem for any Monday.