Feb 10 2020
Now up: January’s Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations
And here we go. Okay, so before entering the homestretch of the #Bird2019 Best of 2019 countdown, lets take a brief interlude and put the spotlight on some excellent recordings that made their mark in the first month of the new year. Just now, my latest Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations posted on The Bandcamp Daily. This monthly installment covers albums for January 2020. There’s ten primary recommendations in total, plus some bonus recommendations, to boot. The new year is off to a great start, so don’t go thinking that all of your budget is going to be obliterated by my Best of 2019 list. You’re just getting started on a whole new year of great music.
On that note, let’s begin.
Follow this LINK to read those recommendations and listen to music from each album.
Check out past recommendations by running through my contributor archives.
Have fun going through the list!
Cheers.
Feb 15 2020
Best of 2019 #05: Jaimie Branch – “Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise”
It would’ve been so easy to do something completely different. It wouldn’t even have been a bad thing. Had Jaimie Branch made the second installment of her Fly or Die series the polar opposite of the first, it would’ve been something brand new from an exciting artist, and that would’ve been quite alright. But she didn’t.
The trumpeter situated herself dead center of possibilities, and that was best of all. Rather than duplicate a winning formula, and, conversely, rather than turn her back on it and make dramatic changes for the sake of change, Branch added depth and nuance to what was familiar, and brought unity to what is old and new. On Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise, the electro-acoustic posture maintains the lean toward each extreme, but influences of chamber, Latin, rock and bouquets of percussion round things out in a way that makes it so it ain’t a duality at all. The trumpeter’s pure aggression, raw melodicism and punches-in-bunches style haven’t gone anywhere, but they’re given new life with the new approach. As I stated in my write-up of this album for The Bandcamp Daily, “Branch’s debut made a formidable impact, which makes the achievement of her sophomore release that much more impressive. It can take half a lifetime for an artist to discover their voice, and sometimes even longer before they can bring that voice into focus.” The timer had barely started ticking before Jaimie Branch hit that mark.
Your album personnel: Jaimie Branch (trumpet, voice, synths, sneaker squeaks, bells & whistles), Lester St. Louis (cello, percussion), Jason Ajemian (double bass, percussion, vocals), Chad Taylor (drums, mbira, xylophone), and Guests: Ben LaMar Gay (voice), Marvin Tate (voice), Matt Schneider (12-string guitar), Dan Bitney (percussion, synthesizer) and Scott McNiece (egg).
Released on International Anthem Recording Co.
Music from New York City.
I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.
Listen | Read more | Available at: Bandcamp – Amazon
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By davesumner • Recap: Best of 2019 • 0 • Tags: Best Jazz of 2019, Chad Taylor, International Anthem, Jaimie Branch, New York City