Music Monday: More Brandee Younger, Ahmad Jamal, and Fire! Orchestra

My it’s the time of year, but I’m almost overwhelmed by the quantity of good music that is coming out these days. I’m also feeling the shift from one listening situation, sitting in my favorite chair and listening to my “grown up stereo,” to another, listening through headphones in various apartments and storerooms in Greece and Cyprus. I’ve also tinkered with my grown up stereo a bit and swapped out my beloved vacuum-tube amplifier with a solid-state amp from Audio by Van Alstine. The change is not subtle and sacrifices some of the mid-range subtly in my Audio Research amplifier with a good bit more punch and dynamism. Hopefully this change will be useful

I’ve found myself listening a good bit of Brandee Younger’s latest album Brand New Life. Her version of “Windmill of Your Mind” is a big hit in our household:

Evidently the album is a tribute of sorts to Dorothy Ashby’s Afro-Harping (1968), which is an album that I don’t know very well, but will definitely check out. And Ashby covers “Windmills of Your Mind” in 1969:

As much as we’ve been listening to younger lions of post-bop jazz (see what I did there?), we’ve also been spinning some of late Ahmad Jamal. I’m especially fond of the pair of live albums that he released in 1961. Check out “Love for Sale” on his Abmad Jamal’s Alhambra. The Alhambra was the name of his Chicago club and the album shows his remarkable ability to breathe new life into jazz standards.

The other live album that he released that year was All of You which was also recorded at his club. Here’s the title track:

Finally, I’ve been really digging a somewhat more obscure recent release: Echoes by Fire! Orchestra. I honestly know almost nothing about this ensemble, but discovered them from this review at the Free Jazz Blog. Evidently they are Swedish and love Sun Ra. That’s pretty much enough for me to give them a spin.

As a bonus track, my buddy Mike Wittgraf has been on fire lately and releasing recordings on his YouTube channel. Here’s the latest: