2024 Favorite Music (So Far)

Here are my favorite 20 releases of 2024 so far.

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• Ghosted II by Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin

• Live in Paris 1973 by Can

• Lives Outgrown by Beth Gibbons

• the Collective by Kim Gordon

• Blu Wav by Grandaddy

• the Handover by the Handover

• Bright Future by Adrianne Lenker

• Drop 7 by Little Simz

• Two Improvisations by Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock

• Locust Land by Bill MacKay

• Funeral For Justice by Mdou Moctar

• the Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis by The Messthetics

• David Nance & Mowed Sound by David Nance

• Bite Down by Rosali

• Water Still Flows by Rich Ruth

• Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace by Shabaka

• Exotic Birds of Prey by Shabazz Palaces

• Time Is Glass by Six Organs of Admittance

• Africa Yontii by Tidiane Thiam

• Tiger’s Blood by Waxahatchee

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Sons of Kemet :: Live From The Basement

Many thanks to Harvey G. Cohen for pointing out this fantastic live set on Twitter. Harvey says:

“Earlier this year, Sons of Kemet, quite possibly the best band in jazz today, announced they are disbanding by the end of the year. Terrible news. But here is a newly filmed concert of theirs, live in London. Awesome. And not just because they have a tuba:”

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Setlist:

1. Pick Up Your Burning Cross

2. Think Of Home

3. In Remembrance Of Those Fallen

4. Throughout The Madness, Stay Strong

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• Read about the session, including an interview with Lucy Bourton

• Visit the official Shabaka Hutchings website

• Follow Sons of Kemet at Facebook

• Support Sons of Kemet at Bandcamp

• Purchase Sons of Kemet’s music at Amazon

• Browse all Shabaka Hutchings posts here at Holiday at the Sea

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Soundtrack to the Collective Meltdown (2021) :: A Holiday At The Sea (MEGA) Playlist

The next time you’ve got nearly 5 hours to kill, I’ve got the mix for you! These are not necessarily my “favorite songs of 2021.” Instead, these are choice cuts; one representative track from each of my favorite 50 albums of the year. Regardless of length.

Get ready for a ride.

Tracklist:

1. Pray for Peace by Ustad Saami from East Pakistan Sky

2. Recessinater by Birds of Maya from Valdez

3. The People vs. the Rest of Us by Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble from NOW

4. Bell Song by 75 Dollar Bill featuring Barry Weisblat from Social Music at Troost Vol. 1

5. Ya Rossoul by Khaira Arby from Khaira Arby In New York (Live In 2010)

6. Movement by Bell Orchestre from House Music

7. Broken Mirror (A Selfie Reflection)/Composition 9 by Matthew E. White and Lonnie Holley from Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection

8. Riddim Rek Sa Niouy Mom by Wau Wau Collectif from Yaral Sa Doom

9. All That They Left You by Six Organs of Admittance from The Veiled Sea

10. Days Like These by Low from Hey What

11. VBS by Lucy Dacus from Home Video

12. Brothers by Phil Cook from All These Years

13. Dark In Here by the Mountain Goats from Dark In Here

14. Djougoh by Nahawa Doumbia from Kanawa

15. The Call by Madlib from Sound Ancestors

16. Beat Up Born Where I Come From by Ghost of Vroom from Ghost of Vroom 1

17. Dovetail by Girls in Airports from Leap

18. descension (Out of Our Constrictions) III by Natural Information Society and Evan Parker from descension (Out of Our Constrictions)

19. Beowulf’s Trip by Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders from Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders

20. World is Turning by Rose City Band from Earth Trip

21. Disposable Thumbs by Endless Boogie from Admonitions

22. Staggering With a Lantern by Mountain Movers from World What World

23. Albuquerque by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis from CARNAGE

24. OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN (for D.H.) by Godspeed You! Black Emperor from G_d's Pee At States End!

25. Juvenescence by Yasmin Williams from Urban Driftwood

26. Invisible Map by Derek Piotr from Making and Then Unmaking

27. You Can Regret What You Have Done by Matt Sweeney and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy from Superwolves

28. This Old World by Billy Strings from Renewal

29. Kelp Highway by Drew Gardner from Drew Gardner

30. Jnoun ! by Bachar Mar-Khalifé from Ghost Songs

31. In Remembrance Of Those Fallen by Sons of Kemet from Black To The Future

32. Bertha The Cool by Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog from Hope

33. Give Me Back My Loving by Leo Nocentelli from Another Side

34. Don’t Let The Tears by Howlin’ Rain from The Dharma Wheel

35. Tree of Tule by Daniel Lanois from Heavy Sun

36. Way To Cairo by Native Soul from Teenage Dreams

37. Ethiopian Sunshower by Adrian Younge And Ali Shaheed Muhammad from Brian Jackson JID008

38. Zengadyw Derekou by Hailu Mergia from Tezeta

39. Ya Habibti by Mdou Moctar from Afrique Victime

40. Tropicale Moon by Mouth Painter from Tropicale Moon

41. Natural Facts by Wet Tuna from Eu’d To A Fake Boogie Volume 4

42. Shrinks the Day by Ryley Walker and Kikagaku Moyo from Deep Fried Grandeur

43. Musungu Elongo Paints His Face White to Scare Small Children by Kasai Allstars from Black Ants Always Fly Together, One Bangle Makes No Sound

44. Trap Life by Sault from Nine

45. Désert by Dobe Gnahoré from Couleur

46. Part 1 by Elkhorn from The Golden Lag

47. If It Comes In The Morning by Hiss Golden Messenger from Quietly Blowing It

48. Morning River by Steve Gunn from Other You

49. Shiva With Dustpan by Ryley Walker from Course In Fable

50. Cortez the Killer (live) by Neil Young and Crazy Horse from Way Down In The Rust Bucket

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• Browse my favorite albums of the year

• Browse my “2021 Yearly Wrap-it-Up” which is really a ramble about seeing Phish

• Browse my favorite books of 2021

• Browse my favorite movies of 2021

• Browse my favorite television of 2021

• Listen to a nearly 5-hour very low quality mix of one song from each of my favorite albums of 2021 called “Soundtrack to the Collective Meltdown”

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Sons of Kemet Live at Big Ears Festival (2019)

“This concert was recorded at The Mill & Mine on March 24, 2019, as part of the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tenn.”

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Setlist:

1. "My Queen is Ada Eastman"

2. "My Queen is Angela Davis"

3. "The Itis"

4. "Breadfruit"

5. "Mo' Wiser"

6. "My Queen is Harriet Tubman"

7. "My Queen is Mamie Phipps Clark"

8. "Inner Babylon"

9. "My Queen is Berta Cáceres"

10. "My Queen is Albertina Sisulu"

11. "Afrofuturism"

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Players:

• Shabaka Hutchings (saxophone)

• Theon Cross (tuba)

• Tom Skinner (drums)

• Eddie Hicks (drums)

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• Visit the official Shabaka Hutchings website

• Follow Sons of Kemet at Facebook

• Support Sons of Kemet at Bandcamp

• Purchase Sons of Kemet’s music at Amazon

Shabaka and The Ancestors :: Live at the NTS Live at Jazz Cafe (2017)

Shabaka and The Ancestors :: Live at the NTS Live at Jazz Cafe (2017). Sorry, I don’t know much else about this show. The Youtube page doesn’t include any further information or setlist.

Oh well.

Enjoy.

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• Visit the official Shabaka Hutchings website.

• Visit Shabaka and the Ancestors’ Bandcamp page.

• Follow Shabaka and the Ancestors at Facebook.

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2020 Year-End Music Round-Up Wrap-Up Extravaganza

No one could have predicted a year like 2020. The live music industry is on life support. Bandcamp came through just about better than anyone else to support music. And there was a ton of great music released this year.

Per the norm, I do not rank albums. Music is not a competition and my taste is not your taste. So, after lots of thought and list-shuffling and winnowing, these are the 75 albums that really stood out for me. My original list was quite a bit longer (and you can always keep up in real-time by following the Yearly Bookkeeping page), so I can tell you that this list provides a great overview of my music listening for this crazy year.

Here are my favorite 75 albums of 2020.

The Visual List:

The Alphabet List:

1. Live at Tubby's by 75 Dollar Bill Little Big Band

2. Shaman! by Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids

3. Time is A Gift Which We Share All The Time by Afriquoi

4. Rejoice by Tony Allen and Hugh Masekela

5. Live by Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood

6. Fu Chronicles by Antibalas 

7. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple

8. Roy Ayers JID002 by Roy Ayers, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad

9. Ex-Voto by Jamie Barnes

10. Please Advise by Beauty Pill

11. Crash Test Kid by Sammy Brue

12. Long In The Tooth by the Budos Band

13. Regresa by Buscabulla

14. Shadow Talk by Café Racer

15. Echo Mine by Califone

16. Gold Record by Bill Callahan

17. Have We Met by Destroyer

18. I Just Wasn't Made For These Set Times by Dire Wolves (Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band)

19. Rough and Rowdy Ways by Bob Dylan

20. Afternoon Tea at Six by Eishan Ensemble

21. Acoustic Storm Sessions by Elkhorn

22.  Kahil El’Zabar’s Spirit Groove by Kahil El'Zabar & David Murray

23. Wake Up! by Hazel English

24. Shore by Fleet Foxes

25. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.

26. Peoples Motel Band by Chris Forsyth and Garcia Peoples

27. SOURCE by Nubya Garcia

28. Nightcap at Wits' End by Garcia Peoples

29. Big Dark Bright Futures by Growing Concerns Poetry Collective

30. Women In Music Pt. III by Haim

31. Infinity Of Now by the Heliocentrics

32. National Freedom by Lonnie Holley

33. Muerto, Carcel o Rocanroll by Huntingtons

34. Beginners by Christian Lee Hutson

35. Reuinions by Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

36. Babani Koné by Babani Koné

37. Mutation by Les Freres Smith

38. 2020 by Magik Markers

39. Eno Axis by H.C. McEntire

40. Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock by Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock

41. Microphones in 2020 by the Microphones

42. Circles by Mac Miller

43. Dimensional Stardust by Rob Mazurek/Exploding Star Orchestra

44. Annual by Modern Nature

45. Getting Into Knives by the Mountain Goats

46. Staunch Honey by David Nance

47. Three by the Necks

48. Rob Noyes & Sam Moss by Rob Noyes & Sam Moss

49. We No Be Machine by Onipa

50. Jams From The Sun by Oregon Space Trail of Jazz

51. High Upon The Mountain by Pacific Range

52. Suite For Max Brown by Jeff Parker

53. Summerlong by Rose City Band

54. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels

55. Landwerk demos by Nathan Salsburg

56. Acoustic by Oumou Sangaré

57. Untitled (Black Is) by Sault

58. We Are Sent Here By History by Shabaka and the Ancestors

59. The Don of Diamond Dreams by Shabazz Palaces

60. Ocean Bridges by Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic & Damu the Fudgemunk

61. Companion Rises by Six Organs of Admittance

62. Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? by The Soft Pink Truth

63. Optimisme by Songhoy Blues

64. Swirling by Sun Ra Arkestra

65. Oh Yeah? by Sunwatchers

66. Wooden Flower by Tambourinen

67. Folklore by Taylor Swift

68. Nomad by Tengger

69. Sun Racket by Throwing Muses

70. Siftorde by Tidiane Thiam

71. New Vanitas by William Tyler

72. The Great Mountain by Waterless Hills

73. Eau’d To A Fake Bookie Volume 3 by Wet Tuna

74. Strange to Explain by Woods

75. Homegrown by Neil Young

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• Browse Volume 01 of my 2020 favorites playlist

• Browse Volume 02 of my 2020 favorites playlist

• Browse Volume 03 of my 2020 favorites playlist

• Browse Volume 04 of my 2020 favorites playlist

• Browse Volume 05 of my 2020 favorites playlist

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Holiday At The Sea's Favorite 2020 Music Mix (Volume 04)

Volume 04 of some of Holiday at the Sea’s favorite 2020 music. I chose 75 albums this year and the playlists total 74 songs since “Microphones in 2020 by the Microphones” is 45 minutes long and I didn’t want to include the whole album as part of a mix.

Anyways, enjoy!

Tracklisting:

1. “Solace” by Adrian Younge And Ali Shaheed Muhammad

2. “Theme For Cecil” by Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids

3. “Venom” by The Heliocentrics

4. “Slow Bones” by Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela

5. “Eurasia” by Tengger

6. “Galaxy 1000” by Rob Mazurek and the Exploding Star Orchestra

7. “Two” by Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock

8. “The Message Continues” by Nubya Garcia

9. “Makoma” by Onipa

10. “Ju$t” by Run The Jewels

11. “The Coming Of The Strange Ones” by Shabaka and the Ancestors

12. “Wet” by Shabazz Palaces

13. “No Talk Talk” by Les Freres Smith

14. “Strange To Explain” by Woods

15. “Go Away” by Jeff Parker

16. “Pray Up Stay Up” by Sault

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Half-Year Half-List? 20 Fantastic Albums of 2020

20 isn’t half of 2020, but here are 20 fantastic albums of 2020:

In Alphabetical Order:

• Rejoice by Tony Allen + Hugh Masekela 

• Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple 

• Rough and Rowdy Ways by Bob Dylan

• Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock by Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock

• Circles by Mac Miller

• Annual by Modern Nature

• Snapshot Of A Beginner by Nap Eyes

• Three by The Necks 

• Jams From The Sun by Oregon Space Trail of Jazz 

• Suite For Max Brown by Jeff Parker

• Summerlong by Rose City Band

• RTJ4 by Run The Jewels 

• Acoustic by Oumou Sangaré

• We Are Sent Here By History by Shabaka & The Ancestors 

• Ocean Bridges by Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic & Damu the Fudgemunk

• Companion Rises by Six Organs Of Admittance 

• Oh Yeah? by Sunwatchers

• Tamotait by Tamikrest

• The Great Mountain by Waterless Hills

• Strange To Explain by Woods

What am I missing?

What’s been some of your favorite music of the year?

The Comet Is Coming: Tiny Desk

Since you, dear friends, trust my musical explorations, I know you remember my recent post about Shabaka and the Ancestors: Soul Jazz For The End of Days.

Between Shabaka and the Ancestors, Sons of Kemet, and The Comet is Coming, I dig the musical universe of Shabaka Hutchings in a way I have dug a musical universe in quite a while. While Shabaka and the Ancestors scratch my soul/spiritual-groove-roots-jazz itch, The Comet Is Comet channels my Quarantine angst with electronics, pulsating beats and skreeking skronks and some of the most evocative playing I’ve heard in a while.

The group’s Facebook page says:

“The Comet is Coming to destroy illusions. It will manifest new realities, perceptions, levels of awareness and abilities to coexist. It is a musical expression forged in the deep mystery. It is the overcoming of fear, the embracing of chaos, the peripheral sight that we might summon the fire.

Through the transcendent experience of music we reconnect with the energy of the Lifeforce in hope of manifesting higher realities in new constructs. Because the end is only really the beginning.”

Late last year, the group recorded an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, performing tracks from Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery.

Setlist:

1. "Super Zodiac"

2. "Summon The Fire"

3. "Blood Of The Past"

Musicians:

• King Shabaka: saxophone;

• Danalogue: synthesizer;

• Betamax: drums

• Visit the official Shabaka Hutchings website.

• Visit the official website for The Comet Is Coming.

• Follow The Comet Is Coming at Facebook.

• Visit The Comet Is Coming’s Bandcamp page.

• Purchase The Comet Is Coming’s Music at Amazon.

• Visit Shabaka and the Ancestors’ Bandcamp page.

• Follow Shabaka and the Ancestors at Facebook.

Shabaka and the Ancestors (Cosmic Soul Jazz For The End Of Days)

Bandleader Shabaka Hutchings has made a name for himself as an adventurous player in the adventurous London jazz scene. Perhaps most well known for his role in Sons of Kemet, or The Comet Is Coming, Hutchings recently released his sophomore release with Shabaka and the Ancestors, We Are Sent Here By History.

While Hutchings is the constant between the three projects, each has its own unique personality. Shabaka and the Ancestors finds Hutchings collaborating with a group of South African artists. The album’s page at Impulse Records says:

“We Are Sent Here by History’ is a meditation on the fact of our coming extinction as a species. It is a reflection from the ruins, from the burning. a questioning of the steps to be taken in preparation for our transition individually and societally if the end is to be seen as anything but a tragic defeat. For those lives lost and cultures dismantled by centuries of western expansionism, capitalist thought and white supremist structural hegemony the end days have long been heralded as present with this world experienced as an embodiment of a living purgatory.”

The album is out now on Impulse! Records.

Watch the band live at North Sea Jazz 2017:

• Visit the official Shabaka Hutchings website.

• Visit Shabaka and the Ancestors’ Bandcamp page.

• Follow Shabaka and the Ancestors at Facebook.