All that jazz (and pop)

A year of musical delights

by Jim Macnie

Various Artists: Red, Hot and Latin: Silencio = Muerte (Luaka Bop)
This was our beach disc of preference, so there may be a slight romanticizing of bright yellow freedom splashing in my brain as I sit making decisions in a home-office jail on a gray December morn. But from Cafe Tacuba's gleeful up-yours havoc, to Cibo Matto's sassy romp through Jobim, its rambunctiousness is as deep as its wit, and as convincing as its kaleidoscopic musicianship. With every track -- yeah, even the Melissa Etheridge bowser -- musical geography feeds into political ideology.

Jazz Passengers: Individually Twisted (32 Records)
It gives the ever-daffy bohos what they've long need: a front person with Windex in hand, and a brain full of anything goes. With Deborah Harry at the mic, former fuzziness is ditched for focus, a blow for hepsterism is struck, and conformist pop fans still have a place to hang their ears.

Afro Cuban All Stars: A Toda Cuba le Gusta (World Circuit)
A band with just as many oldsters as kids found a way to generate enough vivaciousness to deep-six every wisp of anxiety within earshot. The subject matter of these guarachas, guajiras and danzonetes is ultra-ordinary: the beauty of the countryside, what studs they all are, how cash is tight and friends are bountiful. But the spirit of the performances speaks volumes about how (and why) the world is beginning to appreciate the destitute isles still fertile culture of creativity.

Beth Orton: Trailer Park (Heavenly)
Denigrators think Trailer Park sustains itself merely on mood -- like Puffy and electronica don't -- but this singer-songwriter didn't need trip-hop cadences to substantiate her tunes -- they were already mesmerizing. The sonically chic atmosphere is a plus, though, providing a steamy, mechanical feel to the folk formalism, a balance that eluded Rickie Lee Jones on her prance down the same dark path.

Elliott Smith: Either/Or (Kill Rock Stars)
Most shamble-pop hangs together by a thread. Smith's previous work was the sound of both emotions and music crumbling apart. On Either/Or, acute observations are defined by ostensibly fragile elements -- a murmur, some guitar plinking, brushes rubbing a snare drum -- but with a bit of elan, they hang together. The depth of sullen twee on these ditties suggests an unholy alliance of Boyce and Hart and Nick Drake -- not a bad dream to saunter through.

Various Artists: Amp (Astral Works/ Caroline)

I still haven't heard a full disc of electronica I'd want to sit through more than thrice. But this comp soundtrack to the MTV show that has already been yanked supplanted itself not only in my brain but my heart. The private codes that drive techno culture found a way to sustain their individuality while being neighborly. It had a lot to do with flow: how else do the robotics found in The Future Sound of London's "We Have Explosive" wind up trickling into the pimpled rage of Atari Teenage Riot's "Sick To Death"?

Cornershop

Cornershop: When I Was Born Again For the Seventh Time (Luaka Bop)
A blow for optimism in a time when cynics, smarties and pricks too often rule the roost. Keeping more than a few dreams alive -- funky days are back again! -- Tjinder Singh and pals make a point of surrounding themselves with Rube Goldbergesque baubles which proudly turn their Punjabi roots inside out. Some slip-slide on accordion, some float with sitars, all know that drums are king, even during prayer hour.

Pavement: Brighten the Corners (Matador/Capitol)
If professional wiseacre Stephen Malkmus finally wants to communicate -- maybe that's elucidate -- then I'm throwing my vote behind him just for good will purposes. Not that racket and obfuscation ain't lurking in the shadows of Pavement's most glimmering guitar disc ever; dissonance and clankery peaks out on even their sunniest pop piece. But just a tad of convention makes them seem more authoritative. And when weirdos speak eloquently, art happens.

Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot: Supa Dupa Fly (EastWest)
By stressing entertainment rather than politics, Elliott risked being deemed trite. By being proud of her pear-shaped frame, she challenged the cliched image of rap diva as glamour ho. But it was the music that really got me about the new queen's persona. Its diversity refreshed my general appreciation of hip-hop; its comparative shunning of sonic clutter jump-started the form's coherence. There is such a thing as plain old cool, and Missy's every move -- especially the invites to Li'l Kim, Da Brat, Ginuwine, and Timbaland -- proved she had oodles of it.

Yo La Tengo: I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One (Matador)
Love among the ruins, with nostalgia, haze, rubble, poignancy, and exhilaration joining forces to decide whether that decrepit domain is a place where passion and adoration can thrive. It can, if enough immediacy drives the guitar rave-ups and enough magnetism is at the heart of the drones. They're not a big motorcycle, just a groovy little motor bike.

ALSO-RANS
Dr. Octagon: Instrumentalyst (DreamWorks)
Cuban Gold 4: Fuego, Candela! (Qubadisc)
dEUS: In a Bar, Under the Sea (Island)
Patty Loveless: Long Stretch of Lonesome (Epic)
Bjork: Homogenic (Elektra)
Various Artists: The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute (Egyptian/Columbia)
Robert Wyatt: Shleep (Hannibal/ Rykodisc)
Sleater-Kinney: Dig Me Out (Kill Rock Stars)
Supersuckers: Must've Been High (Sub Pop)
Neal Coty: Chance and Circumstance (Mercury)
NRBQ: You're Nice People You Are (Rounder)
Various Artists: Cuba: I Am Time (Blue Jackal)
Mike Watt: Contemplating the Engine Room (Columbia)
Jim White: Wrong-Eyed Jesus (Luaka Bop)

REISSUES
The Anthology of American Folk Music (Smithsonian Folkways)
Raybeats: Guitar Beat (Bar/None)
The Byrds: The Notorious Byrd Brothers, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Dr. Byrd and Mr. Hyde, The Ballad of Easy Rider (Columbia/ Legacy)

SINGLES
Spice Girls: "Wannabe" (Virgin)
Hanson: "MMMBop" (Mercury)
Prodigy: "Firestarter" (Mute/ Maverick)
Janet Jackson: "Got 'Til It's Gone" (Virgin)
Imani Coppola: "Legend of a Cowgirl" (Columbia)
Chumbawamba: "Tubthumping" (Republic/Universal)
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot: "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" (EastWest)

JAZZ
Various Artists: Warner Jams Volume 2: The Two Tenors (Warner Bros.)
The intergenerational mojo created by James Moody and Mark Turner is irresistible. The best blowing session on disc in many years.

Bill Stewart: Telepathy (Blue Note)
Grace, brains, and a swing so sophisticated that even the snarls seem insouciant.

Abbey Lincoln

Abbey Lincoln: Who Used to Dance (Verve)
She has the whole world in her head, and its frayed condition troubles her. She also has art in her heart, so her worries never fail to compel.

Kenny Wheeler: Angel Song (ECM)
Four quaint voices -- the trumpeter-leader, Bill Frisell, Lee Konitz, and Dave Holland -- agree on a way to drift that makes this dreamscape seem fully spirited.

Chick Corea and Friends: Remembering Bud Powell (Stretch)
The mainstream bop language as spoken by virtuosos. The entire energy level is as chipper as a blast from Bud's right hand.

Andy Laster: Interpretations of Lessness (Songlines)
Written to have formally disjunctive lines coalesce, the saxophonist's music is enigmatic and witty.

Jim Hall: Textures (Telarc)
His virtuosity is usually proven in guitar lines, but here, on this orchestral escapade, his eloquence was also established on the page.

Fred Hersch, Michael Moore, Gerry Hemingway: Thirteen Ways (GM)
Leftist chamber improv that trades expressionism for stretches of quiet dignity and puckish humor.

Rodney Kendrick: We Don't Die, We Multiply (Verve)
Resourceful piano moves by a trio leader whose touch is never less than explicit and inspired. Three or four notes can prompt his rhythm section to amend its trajectory.

Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton (Verve)
An antidote to all things hectic, this meeting may have been a marketplace contrivance, but it was also a fluent essay on how the broader jazz language sometimes begets a consensus of dialects. Here's to the polish of New Orleans swing!

ALSO-RANS
Ben Wolfe: 13 Sketches (Mons)
Marcus Roberts: Blues for the New Millennium (Columbia)
Tim Berne's bloodcount Unwound (Screwgun)
Jacky Terrasson & Cassandra Wilson: Rendezvous (Blue Note)

BEST REISSUES
Herbie Nichols: The Complete Blue Note Recordings (Blue Note)
Teddy Wilson: The Complete Verve Recordings of the Teddy Wilson Trio (Mosaic)
Miles Davis: Dark Magus, Live-Evil, At the Fillmore, Black Beauty, In Concert (Columbia/ Legacy)
Jackie McLean: Swing, Swang, Swingin' (Blue Note)