One of the left-field delights of 2022, in fact my top pick for that year, was Activities (Colorfield), the debut release from LA-based Anna Butterss, a multi-talented acoustic and electric bassist from Adelaide, Australia. Mighty Vertebrate (International Anthem), the sophomore outing, is more a band document, with Josh Johnson on alto and effects, Gregory Uhlmann on guitar and Ben Lumsdaine on drums (Johnson and Lumsdaine were guests on Activities). The music is beat-driven, sonically rich, harmonically sophisticated, with strong melodies and a dark, twangy almost Old West vibe on “Ella,” “Lubbock” and “Seeing You,” bringing Wayne Horvitz to mind. Guitarist Jeff Parker, who just released The Way Out of Easy (International Anthem) with Johnson and Butterss as part of his ETA IVtet, guests on “Dance Steve.”
Here for Part 1 of our 2024 Year in Review
Here for Part 2 of our 2024 Year in Review
Tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia, prominent on the London scene, has a fullness of tone and a sense of melodic restraint that permeates Odyssey, her second release for Concord. She’s joined, as on Source from 2020, by keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, bassist Daniel Casimir and drummer Sam Jones, who are versatile and on point throughout this vibrant R&B- and dub-influenced set. Odyssey is largely instrumental, fully acoustic on tracks like “Solstice” and “The Seer,” though it opens with esperanza spalding’s voice and the strings of the Chineke! Orchestra on the soaring “Dawn,” and features Richie on “Set It Free” and Georgia Anne Muldrow on “We Walk in Gold” (each vocalist contributed their own lyrics). The orchestra returns on the darkly hued “Water’s Path” and underscores the shimmering, bolero-like “Clarity.”
Pianist Tigran Hamasyan went big in 2024 with The Bird of a Thousand Voices (Nonesuch), following up a foray into standards (StandArt, 2022). This is hard-hitting original music in the vein of 2020’s The Call Within, although the trio with bassist Evan Marien and drummer Arthur Hnatek is supplanted for now by Marc Karapetian and Nate Wood. Wood also plays bass, quite possibly while drumming, as he’s demonstrated to jaw-dropping effect elsewhere. The metal-inspired propulsion of “The Kingdom,” “The Quest Begins” and “Red, White and Black Worlds” is one facet, with asymmetrical beats, punch-in-the-gut basslines and feats of piano/synth technical wizardry. But there’s a contemplative calm as well, brought out not least by Hamasyan’s singing voice (in his native Armenian) and even his beautiful whistling on “Flaming Horse and the Thunderbolt Sword (From the Depths of the Sea).” Arena Agbabian, Sofia Jernberg and Vahram Sargsyan contribute vocals as well. Harmony enthusiasts, feast your ears on 1:14-1:43 of “Areg’s Calling.”
Voice is also a big component on Planetarium (Sunnyside), by guitarist Ben Monder. Theo Bleckmann sings on five tracks; Charlotte Mundy, Emily Hurst and Theo Sable make appearances as well. Monder writes music of extraordinary complexity and immersive effect, often in unusual tunings, shifting between consonance and dissonance, light and darkness. It sounds like absolutely nothing else. Planetarium is three discs of extended works include a 23-minute opus “Ataraxia,” the intimidating score of which you can follow along with here. Monder plays solo acoustic on the expansive “Noctivagant” and solo electric on “Planetarium,” “Globestructures: Option II,” “Where or When” (Rodgers & Hart) and the nearly 23-minute “3PSC.” On “The Mentaculus,” bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Ted Poor bring fluidity even to the knottiest of passages.
There’s a moment in “Breathing,” on Shabaka’s 2024 offering Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (Impulse!), that takes one by surprise. It starts as a simple, hypnotic flute melody over a mridangam groove played by Rajna Swaminathan. Suddenly, an upwelling of clarinet improvisation, an element of tension. The flute returns, busier, then Shabaka roars in on tenor sax, the instrument on which he gained renown but now has back-burnered in favor of flute, clarinet, shakuhachi, svirel (Slavic end-blown flute) and other softer-sounding winds. Staging the instruments in this way on “Breathing,” Shabaka reconciles the various elements of his musical persona, perhaps more successfully than ever. Fellow flute explorer Andre3000, of Outkast and screen fame, plays Teotihuacan drone flute on “I’ll Do Whatever You Want.”
