DMG/BLG Top 10-15 Recommended Recordings of 2018 from Six Selected Journalists

Greetings to Serious Music Listeners around the world! In January I asked a handful of my favorite journalists & label heads to submit their top 10 recommendations lists for 2018, plus another 5 of anything they would like to recommend: books, movies, plays, concerts, anything that occurred or was released in 2018. All formats and genres are welcome, whether new or reissued. I picked a diverse cast of my favorite journalists and serious listeners. All are friends whose informed tastes I respect. Each writer/listener compiled a list in their own way so each one is very different. Please spend some time looking over the lists, there is much to recommend here. I have already gone out to find copies of and re-listen to some of the items listed below. I wrote a short blurb about each of the half dozen writers below at the end of their lists… These lists appear in the order of when I received them. - BLG    


KEVIN REILLY:

Satoko Fujii released one cd each month in 2018 as part of her Kanreki. 
Every one is worth checking out.

LPs

Chris Corsano, Bill Nace, Steve Baczkowski - Mystic Beings

Mette Rasmussen / Tashi Dorji 

Jean-Luc Guionnet - Arantzazu Close & Far

Ken Vandermark & Nate Wooley - Deeply Discounted II / Sequences Of Snow

CDs

Axel Dörner ‎– unversicht

Peter Evans - Barry Guy - Syllogistic Moments

Kyoko Kitamura - Protean Labyrinth

Cecil Taylor - Poschiavo 

VWCR : Ken Vandermark · Nate Wooley · Sylvie Courvoisier · Tom Rainey - Noise Of Our Time

Martín Escalante Weasel Walter - Lacerate

Michael Foster, Ben Bennett, Jacob Wick - Glove Issues

Jeremiah Cymerman - Decay of the Angel

Ingrid Laubrock - Contemporary Chaos Practices / Two Works For Orchestra With Soloists

Mary Halvorson - Code Girl

Urs Leimgruber - Broken Silence

Tim Berne, Matt Mitchell ‎– Angel Dusk

Mette Rasmussen & Chris Corsano - A View Of The Moon (From The Sun)

Cassettes

Charmaine Lee - Ggggg

Michael Foster - Choke On Love / Spit It Out

Philip White, Chris Pitsiokos - Collapse ‎

Colin Webster ‎– Hiss

Rachel Musson, Olie Brice - Tapering Arms Point Into The Wind

Brandon Lopez - The Church Of Plenty, Empty

Tyler Damon & Dave Rempis - Full Yum ‎

老丹 = Dan Lao ‎– 思維扭曲的行動體 = Functioning Anomie

Reissue/Compilation

Nurse With Wound ‎– Sinister Whimsy To The Wretched

Steve Lacy - Stamps

Anthony Braxton - Quartet (Willisau) 1991, Studio

Eliane Radigue - Œuvres Électroniques

Thelonious Monk - Mønk

Charles Mingus - Jazz In Detroit / Strata Concert Gallery / 46 Selden

Misha Mengelberg, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Peter Bennink, Paul Rutherford, Derek Bailey, Han Bennink - Groupcomposing

La Monte Young - Marian Zazeela ‎– The Well-Tuned Piano In The Magenta Lights

Eric Dolphy: Musical Prophet

Kevin Reilly founded the Relative Pitch label with Mike Panico, who passed away in September of 2018. The Relative Pitch label has more than 60 releases and it is the label to go for challenging, creative music. Mr. Reilly supports and promotes a vast array of creative musicians by seeking them out, helping them get gigs in NY and carting them around when need be. His monthly e-mail “Shortlist”, has more than 100 subscribers from around the world base their gig-going activities on his recommendations. 

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KURT GOTTSCHALK:

10 faves from 2018

Rinde Eckert – The Natural World (National Sawdust Tracks)

Magos Herrera and Brooklyn Rider â€“ Dreamers (Sony Music)

Angelique Kidjo – Remain in Light (Kravenworks)

Charles Mingus – Jazz In Detroit / Strata Concert Gallery / 46 Selden (BBE)

Josh Modney – Engage (New Focus Recordings)

Møster! – States of Mind (Hubro Music)

Prince – Piano & a Microphone 1983 (NPG/Warner Bros.)

Cory Smythe – Circulate Susanna (Pyroclastic Records)

Henry Threadgill 14 or 15 Kestra: AGG – Dirt … and More Dirt (Pi Recordings)

Wet Ink – 20 (Carrier Records)

Plus five contenders for 2019

Bearthoven – American Dream (Cantaloupe)

Anthony Braxton – GTM (Syntax) 2017 (New Braxton House)

I Am Three and Me – Mingus' Sounds of Love (Leo Records)

Jamie Saft / Steve Swallow / Bobby Previte – You Don't Know the Life (Rare Noise Records)

Varispeed Collective – Empty Words (Gold Bolus)

Jazz, Rock and New Music journalist, Kurt Gottschalk, writes for The Wire, New York City Jazz Record and much more. He also has a great radio show on WFMU called Miniature Minotaurs. Over the past few years, Mr. Gottschalk has been writing more about Contemporary Classic Music and attending festivals of this music. He also got married last year to a lovely lady, so a hearty Mazel-Tov to the couple!  
 
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PAUL ACQUARO: 

Paul Rogers, Olaf Rupp, Frank Paul Schubert - Three Stories About Rain, Sunlight And The Hidden Soil (Relative Pitch). It all came together for me when I saw this trio play live. With Rupp's textural guitar, Rogers unbelievable 7 string acoustic bass, and Schubert's wide-ranging sax work, the output is daring and completely captivating.

Duck Baker - Plays Monk (Triple Point) Hot on the heel's of his 100th birthday, there have been many Monk related releases, from the historical to the obsessive, like guitarist Miles Okazaki who covered all of Monk's compositions on  "Work (Complete, Volumes 1-6)". Here, I chose Duck Baker's wonderful interpretations, but it was not an easy choice. - LP only

Momentum - Brüllt & Monster Roster (Audiographic) A milestone for Ken Vandermark as a composer. I'm still working on it as a listener.

Henry Threadgill -14 or 15 Kestra: Agg - Dirt... And More Dirt (Pi Recordings) A large big band triumph, the music on Dirt and More Dirt carries the distinction of sounding both thoroughly forward thinking with its angular and twisting themes and complex harmonies, and at the same deeply rooted in tradition.

Devin Gray - Dirigo Rataplan II (Rataplan Records) Drummer Gray leads a group of fantastic musicians through a series of tunes show casing his ever growing compositional prowess.

Andrew Cyrile, Wadada Leo Smith & Bill Frisell - Lebroba (ECM) Lovely lines, fragile melogies, and muscle when it's called for. I am submitting this in lieu of  Jakob Bro's Bay Of Rainbows (ECM), which I would say similar things of.

Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog ‎– YRU Still Here? (Yellowbird) He's pissed and he's political. This is a monster album full of hard-charging proto-punk/funk tunes and snarling lyrics.

Samo Salamon & Tony Malaby - Traveling Moving Breathing (Clean Feed)
How does Clean Feed do it? Releasing dozens of incredible albums every year? I've asked head-honco Pedro Costa this very question and he just said “I just can't stop!”. On this album guitarist Salamon goes for the jugular, letting the electric guitar marinate in distortion and heavy rhythmic passages. Malaby's saxophone runs the gamut, from the sounds of clicks and the compressed mouth pieces to soaring in the high register, to funky tattered passages. 

Wendy Eisenberg - The Machinic Unconscious (Tzadik) and Its Shape Is Your Touch (Vin Du Select Qualitite) I've spent more time with the solo “Its Shape is your Touch” and have hung expectantly on each plink, plonk, and plunk. It's flow between folk, jazz, and Derek Bailey is fascinating. The Mechanic Unconscious is a crackling trio with Ches Smith and Trevor Dunn is fierce and electric.

Cuong Vu 4TET: Change In The Air (RareNoise) This is the Bill Frisell album I wanted to hear after I picked up "Gone Just Like a Train" from a little record store in Hoboken back in 1998. At least that's how I felt the moment the track "Alive" picked up. Here was the guitarist playing with that Americana swagger and twangy Tele that brings tears to my eyes.

Open Land - Meeting John Abercrombie (Music Heritage Productions / ECM Records. (DVD) Guitarist John Abercrombie had long been a favorite musician of mine, I tried to see hear him play whenever I could, and was saddened when he passed away last year. This documentary really hits the right notes, with intimate footage of Abercrombie walking us through his life, and playing his music along the way. We are quite lucky that Arno Oehri and Oliver Primus decided to make this film when they did.

Michael Heller - Loft Jazz: Improvising New York in the 1970s (University of California Press) (Book) Ok, this is actually a 2017 print, but I didn't pick it up until 2018, and didn't finish it until later in the year, so I'm including it here. The 'Loft Jazz' era in New York City has become something of legend, marking a time in the life of the city that is long gone. Michael Heller takes a serious and methodical approach to his study of the era, and in this slim, dense volume, he explores the conditions that created the loft scene using overlapping frameworks to view and analyze rich source materials.

Paul Acquaro is an editor and contributor to the FreeJazzBlog website: www.freejazzblog.org. He has taught at Columbia University for many years. Mr. Acquaro also got married last year and is currently teaching in Germany. Mr. Acquaro redesigned the DMG website several years ago and still helps us maintain & update it. We are forever in his debt.    

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GLENN KENNY

Peter Blegvad Quintet “Go Figure” (ReR)

Ethan Iverson and Mark Turner “Temporary Kings” (ECM)

DKV Trio “Latitude 41.88” (NOTTWG)

Henry Kaiser “The Deep Unreal Solo Guitar 2017” (Metalanguage)

Brandon Seabrook Trio “Convulsionaries” (Monofonous Press)

Dan Weiss “Starebaby” (Pi)

Tyshawn Sorey “Pillars” (Firehouse 12)

Bill Frissell “Music Is” (Okeh)

Ceramic Dog “YRU Still Here” (Noise)

Henry Threadgill (X 2) “Double Up” / “Dirt & More Dirt” (Pi)

AMM “An Unintended Legacy” Matchless

Thumbscrew “Theirs”/”Ours” (Cuneiform)

Mary Halvorson & Bill Frissell,”The Maid With The Flaxen Hair, A Tribute To Johnny Smith” (Tzadik)

Steve Coleman and Five Elements, “Live At the Village Vanguard Volume 1: The Embedded Sets” (Pi)

Satoko Fujii/Joe Fonda “Mizu” (Long Song)

Soft Machine “Hidden Details” (Moon June)

Simon Barker/Henry Kaiser/Bill Laswell / Rudresh Mahanthappa  “Mudang Rock” (Fractal Music) 

The Necks “Body” (Northern Spy)

Jurg Frey “120 Pieces of Sound” (Elsewhere)

Wendy Eisenberg “The Machinic Unconscious” (Tzadik)

John Butcher/Eddie Prevost “Visionary Fantasies” (Matchless)

Peter Brotzmann/Heather Leigh “Sparrow Nights” (Trust)

Anthony Braxton/Taylor Ho Bynum “Eight Improvisations—Trio” (Tubapede)

Manna/Mirage “Rest of the World” (New House)

Henry Kaiser/Max Kutner “Wild Courses” (Iluso)

Andrew Cyrille “Lebroba” (ECM)

Gosta Berlings Saga “Et Ex” (Sony)

Stephen Thelen “Fractal Guitar” (Moniune)

Kevin Drumm “Inexplicable Hours” (Boomkat)

Harriet Tubman “The Terror End OF Beauty” (Sunnyside)

Glenn Kenny writes movie reviews for the New York Times and other fine magazines. As a longtime proghead and Canterbury fan, he is an old friend of mine and supporter of DMG. He usually stops in at DMG on Fridays and we always look forward to his repartee and recommendations.

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SETH COLTER WALLS:

10 FAVORITE SOUND-ARTIFACTS FROM 2018

9 albums (in alphabetical order, by principal artist):

Arooj Aftab - Siren Islands (New Amsterdam)

Bruckner Orchestra Linz/Dennis Russell Davies - Philip Glass: Symphony No. 11 (Orange Mountain)

Neneh Cherry - Broken Politics (Smalltown Supersound)

Rory Cowal - Clusters: American Piano Explorations (New World)

Mary Halvorson's Code Girl - Code Girl (Firehouse 12)

Harriet Tubman - The Terror End of Beauty (Sunnyside)

Ingrid Laubrock - Contemporary Chaos Practices: Two Works for Orchestra with Soloists (Intakt)

Sabine Liebner - Karlheinz Stockhausen: Klavierstücke I - XI (Wergo)

U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited (4AD)

1 movie sound-mix:
Jean-Luc Godard - The Image Book (Kino Lorber)
[see it in a theater, if you can, for the surround-sound experience!]

Seth Colter Walls writes about New Music for the New York Times and several other publications of note. He wrote an excellent John Zorn live review last year and it is always great to bump into him at The Stone or National Sawdust and discuss music. 

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DAVID FRICKE

Hedvig Mollestad Trio – Smells Funny (Rune Grammofon) – and at Victoria Nasjonal Jazz Scene, Oslo, Norway, December 1st, 2018

Howlin' Rain – The Alligator Bride (Silver Current) – and at Brooklyn Bowl, New York,
July 13th, 2018

Soft Machine – Hidden Details (MoonJune)– and at Iridium, New York, October 12, 2018

Mary Halvorson – The Maid With the Flaxen Hair (Tzadik)

Charles Lloyd and the Marvels w/ Lucinda Williams – Vanished Gardens (Blue Note) – and at JALC, New York, December 15, 2018

Svein Finnerud Trio – Plastic Sun (Odin) – 2018 reissue of 1970 Norwegian jazz classic

Moskus – Mirakler (Hubro) – This album is great in its own right, as if the Bad Plus had
cut a new version of Eno's Another Green World as an electric trio. But I also saw this
young Norwegian band live in Oslo, play the entirety of the Svein Funnerud Trio's Plastic Sun live to dynamic, renewing effect . . . .

Yonatan Gat – Universalists (Joyful Noise) – and at Le Poisson Rouge, July 15, 2018,
which included the improvising-psychedelia guitarist's collaboration with the Eastern
Medicine Singers, a Native American vocal-percussion group.

John Coltrane – Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album, The Deluxe Edition (Impulse)

A2 (Various Artists) - The A-Square Compilation (Third Man) – A two-LP set of vintage,
explosive Michigan garage rock from the Sixties, all issued on the independent A-Square
label, including the MC5's incendiary, original 45 of “Looking at You” a three-minute
distillation of that band's unique fusion of Detroit streetwise rock & roll fury with the fire music of Coltrane, Sun Ra and Albert Ayler.

David Fricke is/was a senior editor & writer for Rolling Stone magazine for several decades. Mr. Fricke has written more liner notes for essential rock/roots anthologies than anyone else and I always look forward to reading his informative notes. I often bump into to Mr. Fricke at seminal concerts throughout the many years of gig going in the NYC area. I recommend you check David Fricke's radio show on SiriusXM: blog.siriusxm.com/tag/david-fricke.  

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BRUCE LEE GALLANTER -  

Top 15 Favorite CD Releases of 2018:

ANTHONY BRAXTON With MARY HALVORSON/TAYLOR HO BYNUM/JESSICA PAVONE/JAY ROZEN/CARL TESTA - 3 Compositions [EEMHM] 2011 [3 CD Set](Firehouse12 01-02-020; USA) - 3 CD Set

GLOBY UNITY ORCHESTRA With ALEXANDER VON SCHLIPPENBACH / EVAN PARKER / RUDI MAHALL / GERD DUDEK / MANFRED SCHOOF / AXEL DORNER / TOMASZ STANKO / JEAN-LUC CAPPOZO / ERNST-LUDWIG PETROWSKY / WOLTER WEIRBOS / PAUL LOVENS / PAUL LYTTON / et al - Globe Unity - 50 Years (Intakt 298; Switzerland)

HENRY THREADGILL With ROMAN FILIU / CURTIS ROBERT MACDONALD / CHRISTOPHER HOFFMAN / DAVID BRYANT / LUIS PERDOMO / DAVID VIRELLES / CRAIG WEINRIB - Double Up, Plays Double Up Plus (Pi Recordings 75; USA) *

SOFT MACHINE [JOHN ETHERIDGE / THEO TRAVIS / ROY BABBINGTON / JOHN MARSHALL] - Hidden Details (MoonJune 093)

INGRID LAUBROCK with MARY HALVORSON / KRIS DAVIS / NATE WOOLEY - Contemporary Chaos Practices (Intakt 314; Switzerland)

MICHAEL FORMANEK ELUSION QUARTET With TONY MALABY / KRIS DAVIS / CHES SMITH - Time Like This (Intakt 313; Switzerland)

TYSHAWN SOREY With STEPHEN HAYNES / BEN GERSTEIN / TODD NEUFELD / JOE MORRIS / MARK HELIAS / CARL TESTA / ZACH ROWDEN - Pillars (Firehouse12 01-02-028; USA) - 3 CD set 

VINNY GOLIA / HENRY KAISER / DAMON SMITH / RAKALAM BOB MOSES / WEASEL WALTER - Astral Plane Crash (BPA Spa 018

MARY HALVORSON  With AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE / AMIRTHA KIDAMBI / MICHAEL FORMANEK / TOMAS FUJIWARA - Code Girl (Firehouse 12 04-01-027; USA)

STEVE COLEMAN and FIVE ELEMENTS With JONATHAN FINLAYSON / MILES OKAZAKI / ANTHONY TIDD / SEAN RICKMAN - Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1 (Pi Records 76; USA) - 2 CD Set

JOHN ZORN With CHES SMITH / IKUE MORI - In a Convex Mirror (Tzadik 8360; USA)

TIM BERNE / MATT MITCHELL - Angel Dusk (Screwgun/Moose Knuckles; USA) 

ERIK FRIEDLANDER / THROW A GLASS With URI CAINE / MARK HELIAS / CHES SMITH - Artemisia (Skipstone 024; USA)

THE NELS CLINE 4 With JULIAN LAGE / SCOTT COLLEY / TOM RAINEY - currents, constellations (Blue Note 2811702; USA)

SYLVIE COURVOISIER TRIO With DREW GRESS / KENNY WOLLESEN - D'Agala (Intakt 300; Switzerland)

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10 Vocal Favorite Vocal Releases for 2018:

PETER BLEGVAD With KAREN MANTLER / BOB DRAKE / JOHN GREAVES / CHRIS CUTLER - Go Figure (ReR PB4; UK)

RICHARD THOMPSON - 13 Rivers (New West Records 6446; USA)

JIMI HENDRIX - Both Sides of the Sky (Experience Hendrix/Legacy 19075814192; USA)

ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS - Look Now (Concord Records 00791; USA) - 2 CD set

KIP HANARAHAN With JACK BRUCE / ROBBY AMEEN / BRANDON ROSS / CRAIG HANDY / CHARLES NEVILLE / STEVE SWALLOW / FERNANDO SAUNDERS / MILTON CARDONA - Crescent Moon Waning (American Clave AMCL 1062; USA)

KRISTO RODZEVSKI With MARY HALVORSON / INGRID LAUBROCK / BRIAN DRYE / KRIS DAVIS / MICHAEL BLANCO/ TOMAS FUJIWARA - The Rabbit and the Fallen Sycamore (Much Prefer Records 003; Czech Republic)

KYOKO KITAMURA'S TIDEPOOL FAUNA With INGRID LAUBROCK / KEN FILIANO / DAVEON SEOK - Protean Labyrinth (Self-Produced; USA)

JOHN HOLLENBECK LARGE ENSEMBLE With TONY MALABY / ANNA WEBBER / JEREMY VINER / BEN KONO / DAVE BALLOU / JACOB GARCHIK / ALAN FERBER / MATT MITCHELL / CHRIS TORDINI / THEO BLECKMANN - All Can Work (New Amsterdam 094; USA)

MARC RIBOT With TOM WAITS / STEVE EARLE / MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO / FAY VICTOR / SAM AMIDON / JULIAN VIVIAN BOND / DOUG WIESELMAN / ERIK FRIEDLANDER / JAMES BRANDON LEWIS / SHAHZAD ISMAILY / CHES SMITH / CHAD TAYLOR / et al - Songs Of Resistance 1948 – 2014 (Anti 87604) 

RY COODER - The Prodigal Son (Fantasy 0235; USA)

DAVE ALVIN and JIMMIE DALE GILMORE - Downey to Lubbock (Yep Rock 2587; USA)

Up until the mid-nineties, my recommended vocals lists would run upwards of 100 discs a year, nowadays I found it hard to come up with a top 10 list. Strange. I seem to often go back to old standards: Robert Wyatt (now retired), Richard Thompson, Neil Young, Wilco, Radiohead, Jesse Sykes, Elvis Costello… More often, I have been checking out many reissues & historic recordings: Bobbie Gentry, Tim Buckley, Bob Dylan, live Zappa/Mothers, The Residents, the United States of America, quite a bit of Live Dead goodies…     

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10 Reissues or Historic Recordings:

THE TRIO [JOHN SURMAN / BARRE PHILLIPS / STU MARTIN] & MIKE OSBORNE/ALAN SKIDMORE/MARC CHARIG/KENNY WHEELER/CHICK COREA/NICK EVANS/HARRY BECKETT/JOHN MARSHALL / et al - Incantation: The Dawn Recordings (Esoteric Antenna 22635; UK) - 2 CD Set 

JOE HARRIOTT QUINTET QUARTET [With SHAKE KEANE/COLERIDGE GOODE/HARRY SOUTH/PAT SMYTHE/BOBBY ORR/PHIL SEAMEN] - Southern Horizons / Free Form / Abstract plus 6 bonus tracks (Poll Winners 27320; EEC) - 2 CD Set 

MILFORD GRAVES with ARTHUR DOYLE / HUGH GLOVER - Bäbi (CvsD 052; USA) - 2 CD Set

VINNY GOLIA WIND QUARTET With JOHN CARTER / BOBBY BRADFORD / GLENN FERRIS - Live at the Century City Playhouse, Los Angeles, 1979 (Dark Tree 08; France) - CD

ORNETTE COLEMAN with DEWEY REDMAN / CHARLIE HADEN / DENARDO COLEMAN DON CHERRY - Ornette at 12 / Crisis! (Real Gone Music 614; EEC)- CD

SUN RA TRIO With HAYES BURNETT / SAMARAI CELESTIAL - God is More Than Love Can Ever Be (Cosmic Myth 003; USA) - CD & LP

ANTHONY BRAXTON QUARTET With MARILYN CRISPELL/MARK DRESSER/GERRY HEMINGWAY - (Willisau) 1991 Studio (Hatology 735; Switzerland) - 2 CD set 

BEAVER HARRIS / DON PULLEN 360 DEGREE EXPERIENCE With HAMIET BLUIETT / RICKY FORD / BUSTER WILLIAMS / et al - A Well-Kept Secret (CvsD 046; USA)- CD

JOHN COLTRANE with McCOY TYNER / JIMMY GARRISON / ELVIN JONES - Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Impulse!/Verve 28227; USA)

BOBBY NAUGHTON / WADADA LEO SMITH / PERRY ROBINSON - The Haunt (NoBusiness 105; Lithuania)

5 Recommended Box Sets for 2018:

JOHN ZORN // SECRET CHIEFS 3 / GNOSTIC TRIO / CLERIC / SPIKE ORCHESTRA / KLEZMERSON / BANQUET OF THE SPIRITS / JULIAN LAGE-GYAN RILEY / SHANIR BUMENKRANZ'S ABRAXAS / SOFIA REI / ZION 80 / CRAIG TABORN & VADIM NESELOVSKYI - Masada Book 3: The Book Beriah (Tzadik; USA) 11 CD Box Set

ANTHONY BRAXTON SEXTET With PAUL SMOKER / ARI BROWN / MISHA MENGELBERG / JOE FONDA / HAN BENNINK or PHEEROAN AkLAFF - Sextet (Parker) 1993 (New Braxton House 907) - 11 CD Set 

BILL DIXON - Odyssey (Archive Edition 51019251; USA) 6 CD Box Set

PETER BLEGVAD with JOHN GREAVES / CHRIS CUTLER / B.J. COLE / SYD STRAW / LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III / BOB DRAKE / et al - Bandbox (ReR Megacorp PBBB1; UK) - 6 CD Box Set

THE ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO - And Associated Ensembles (ECM 2630; Germany) - 21 CD Deluxe Box Set

MOST PROLIFIC RECORDING ARTISTs OF THE NEW MILLENIUM: 

JOHN ZORN released nearly 1 CD a month for the past five years!?! The vast MASADA songbook now has 650 songs, spread across three books. The last volume of Book Two / The Book of Angels is ‘Paimon' (Vol 32) by the Mary Halvorson/Miles Okazaki Quartet is my favorite one and we have been playing it at DMG almost every day wince it came out at the end of 2017. Released last year was the final Book of Masasda songs, Book 3: The Book of Beriah, an 11 CD set which is being released individually1 per month throughout 2019. I've listened to about half and am knocked out by what I've heard. After the Masada songbooks, Mr. Zorn wrote another 300 Bagatelles, which are only performed live and not to be recorded. There is lots more as well… 

HENRY KAISER has also been immensely prolific over the past few years with some two dozen plus releases, each one with different personnel! Mr. Kaiser also collaborates with Wadada Leo Smith, Bill Laswell, Derek Bailey, Fred Frith… Kaiser has also organize a number of tribute/memorial discs from Terje Rypdal, Sonny Sharrock, Steve Lacy and John Stevens.

ANTHONY BRAXTON loves to release multi-disc sets and has unleashed quite a bit over the past few years: Tri-Centric Vocal Ensemble - 12 CD set released last month; 3-CD set on Firehouse 12 from last year, BRAXTON SEXTET - Sextet (Charlie Parker) 1993 (N B H 907) - 11 CD Set; 12 Duets with Vocalists - NBH 904 - 12 CD set; etc. 

SATOKO FUJII has released 12 CD's, one per month, all though out 2018, for her 60th birthday year. I have reviewed each and every one and all are pretty great! 

I know that I cheated a bit since I have some extra lists added. The thing is that I love to compile lists and have dozens (hundreds?) of notebooks of lists, discographies, cover songs, geographical, historical, recordings, concerts, and all sorts of connections, from hopelessly obscure and well known. I try to listen to at least 1 new recording a day, something I've never heard before. I usually succeed. I will leave you with something Sun Ra once said, “Give some credit where credit is due or the same thing will happen to you!” - Bruce Lee Gallanter from Downtown Music Gallery, March 5th, 2019