Category: around the web

Zoh Amba: Bhakti

Hank Shteamer‘s New York Times piece on Zoh Amba was my introduction to her and I’ve since been enjoying her playing quite a bit. She’s covering a lot of territory with her improvisations, and each piece on Bhakti is its own kind of trip.

Abdul Wadud Survey

via Avant Music News

“This survey of the life and music of cellist Abdul Wadud (1947-2022, born Ronald DeVaughn) aired on ‘The Brewing Luminous,’ WCSB Cleveland 89.3 FM on August 17, 2022. It is the first or two parts, produced and hosted by Tom Orange. This low-fi (64 kbps mp3) archived version is intended for educational purposes only.”

New Freedom Sound 2xLP

New Freedom Sound’s Eight Freedoms (45RPM 2xLP) was released on Friday. It marks the culmination of roughly a full year of work and shepherding and if you bought a copy, thank you and I hope you’re enjoying it.

If you haven’t bought a copy, there’s still a few left, at Dischord or Stickfigure here in the US, or via Arctic Rodeo Recordings in Europe.

Download purchase and streaming is available at Bandcamp, and the album is streaming on all streaming platforms.

Upcoming Jawbox Shows

This is a friendly reminder that we’re playing here in New York City at Le Poisson Rouge on July 20-22 and then in D.C. at The Black Cat on July 23. You can click on the venue links for tickets and info. The NYC shows are kind of survey of our catalog, each night emphasizing a certain era of our time together. We’re not playing complete albums but we did pull out a bunch of stuff just for these shows. Here’s a clip from a recent rehearsal to whet your whistle.

We also recorded some new versions of two songs from our first album and a Wire cover. You can buy them via Bandcamp.

I hope you enjoy it all and look forward to seeing you next week.

Second Freedom (Resuscitative Demo)

While we’re waiting for New Freedom calendars to synchronize for our next full session at Magpie Cage, I’ve been working on some things here in New York. Second Freedom wasn’t ready for everyone when we last met but some new contributions from Gordon brought the current draft to light. Hope you enjoy it.

Inspiration: Julius Eastman

I listen to Femenine quite frequently these days. Walking to my studio or to the shop, or sometimes when I’m writing in the morning, I’ll grab 20 or so minutes of it. I listened to it in its entirety, a rare treat, on a recent drive to Baltimore (for both Jawbox rehearsal and a New Freedom Sound recording session: a big music day!) and on the drive home. This version of this piece utterly captivates me. It seems to contain much of what I look for in music, a capacity for immersion, some rowdiness, some sheer beauty, wiggle-room, improvisation, and a fairly wide range of instrumentation. Alex Ross wrote about it with characteristic enthusiasm and intelligence. You’ll learn more about Eastman and his music by reading that article than skimming this post, but I will say that Eastman’s approach, his sense of minimalist grandeur, generates a kind of monumental quality notable as much for its duration as its density.