2011 Top 10 CDs

In no particular order, here's my top 10 CD list for 2011. I'm sure I'm missing a few but here's what I can recall.

Andrew


1. Darius Jones & Matthew Shipp - Cosmic leider

Spooky, eerie alto sax and piano duets. Seriously freaky at times.

2. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness blues

More off-kilter hippie folk. Not quite as their first full-length release but that's usually the case with most 2nd albums.

3. Chris Parrello + Things I Wonder - s/t

4. Turtleboy - Smart matter

5. A Troop Of Echoes - Days in automation

#s 3-5 were deceptively good, growing with each listen and crossing musical boundaries (is it jazz? or rock? or ...?)

6. Grateful Dead - Europe '72, vol. 2

OK, I'm a bit of a deadhead. I didn't pick up the 73-CD set of the complete 1972 European tour but this is a nice addition to the original Europe '72 set.

7. Miles Davis Quintet - Live in Europe 1967: the bootleg series vol. 1

Live recordings of the latter days of the second great Davis quintet.

8. Crumbling Ghost - s/t

UK folk-rock done right.

9. Raoul Bjorkenheim, Bill Laswell, and Morgen Agren - Blixt

Loud, wild instrumental rock/jazz power trio.

10. Richard Thompson featuring Linda Thompson - Live at the BBC

Any RT is good RT.

November 21, 2011

Number two in a series of long-delayed setlists. More to come.

Andrew


"C'est plein pour moi" - Richard Thompson (Greenstreets, Columbia, MO, February 27, 1991)
"Tribal wisdom" - Vijay Iyer/Prassanna/Nitin Mitta (Tirtha)
"Inana's dance (IV)" - Amir ElSaffar Two Rivers Ensemble(Inana)
"Free sometimes rules" - Weasel Walter (Ominous telepathic mayhem)
"No holds barred" - John Mayall (The second decade: 1972 to 1982)
"Hymn to freedom" - Oliver Jones (Live in Baden Switzerland)*
"Jigsaw variations" - Mats/Morgan Band (Live)
"Chicago" - Tom Waits (Bad as me)
"The gift" - The Velvet Underground (White light/white heat)
"City of souls" - Kathryn Calder (Bright and vivid)*
"Gaia/Goya: part six - theme for Japhy Ryder (a buddhist meditates on a mountain top)" - The Keith Price Trio/Quintet (Gaia/Goya)*
"Telegram" - Julian Lage (Gladwell)
"Mothership" - Cripple Creek Fairies (The suction)**
"Interception" - Dave Holland Quartet (Conference of the birds)
"Congo" - Stefon Harris (Ninety miles)
"Watkins Glen" - Dead Cat Bounce (Chance episodes)
"I just feel that was him getting old and thinking, I gotta seem young and hip" - Bitter Fictions (Percolator glitch)**
"Urban chaos" - Black Pestilence (Tradition is obselete)**
"Over the humpty dump" - Cinque (Catch a corner)*
? - Foonyap and the Roar (Foonyap and the Roar)**
"Speed roadster" - David Lynch (Crazy clown time)
"Carambola" - Sao Paulo Underground (Tres cabecas loucuras)
"Moon tune" - Raoul Bjorkenheim/Bill Laswell/Morgan Agren (Blixt)
"Boogaloo Joe" - Booglaoo Joe Jones (Legends of acid jazz)
"Mates for life" - The Claudia Quintet + 1 featuring Kurt Elling and Theo Bleckmann (What is the beautiful?)
"Mouths" - Mark Alban Lotz & Islak Kopek (Istanbul improv sessions May 4)
"Cycles de derives" - Ariane Plante (Ariane Plante)*

Canadian=*
local=**