Odds & Ends 099
Ambrose Akinmusire: On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment
With all of Downbeat’s eggs in his trumpet, he’s quite muted, riding his compositions without excessive trickery, yet more than capable of emotion when honoring friends and celebrating defeats, dominating the album to the extent that his support is mostly anonymous, but hey, it’s his face on the cover (“Tide of Hyacinth”, “Roy”, “Moon (The Return Amplifies the Unity)”)
Kenny Barron/Dave Holland Trio featuring Johnathan Blake: Without Deception
The three names on the cover default to pace and swing, with nothing too surprising and nothing cliche or half-hearted, and when it’s ballad time, they’re pure comfort (“Pass It On”, “Speed Trap”, “Until Then”)
Douglas Germano: Escumalha
Anti-Bolsonaro album that surrounds the singer’s calm center with swirling arrangements that seem busy rather than complex, but if you’re going to call a guy Hitler, complexity may be counterproductive (“Valhacouto”, “Chapa”, “Escumalha”)
Tricot: 真っ黒 (Makkuro)
Math-rock, but it’s by Japanese women with a token male drummer, tuneful and well-played with the time-signature changes executed as smoothly as possible, so really the only problem is that it’s math-rock (“Smooth Sailing”, “Mitete”, “Afureru”)
City Girls: City on Lock
While “broke n*ggas don’t deserve no pussy” risks becoming distasteful as they get famous, their evident skill and commitment to craft means they still construct fun aplenty, though admittedly no more than the less evidently skilled Doja Cat (“Pussy Talk”, “Flewed Out”, “Rodeo”)
Evan Parker & Paul Lytton: Collective Calls (Revisited) (Jubilee)
English niche legends celebrate 50 years of playing together by, how else, playing together, with Lytton’s percussion pushing Parker’s tenor to go faster and further, in turn propelling Lytton to deeper abstraction (“Each Thing, the One, the Other and Both Together Would Amount to the Truth”, “Alfreda Was Always Especially Cordial to Me…”)
Aksak Maboul: Figures
Apparently seminal Belgian avant-something band reunites after nearly 40 years with what you’d expect an album by Crammed Discs’ founder would sound like—beats stated clearly but not too forcefully, abounding with evidence of a broad record collection, often a little noodly—but Véronique Vincent adds concreteness and prevents things from drifting out too far asea (“Retour chez A.”, “Tout a une fin”)
Lil Uzi Vert: Luv vs. the World 2
All the interesting guests line up in slots 3 to 6, while on the leadoff pair he states his preferences in guns, depressants, and your mom with admirable specificity; for the rest, “statistically I can’t win every time” (“Bean (Kobe)”, “Wassup”)