My interview for I Care If You Listen.
Category: Composers
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Best of 2018
Brandon Coleman Resistance
Tigran Hamasyan For Gyumri
Zaki Ibrahim The Secret Life of Planets
The Internet Hive Mind
JACK Quartet Everything That Rises (John Luther Adams)
Kuniko Drumming (Steve Reich)
Kukuruz Quartet Julius Eastman Piano Interpretations
Kendrick Lamar/Various Artists Black Panther: The Album
Kelly Moran Ultraviolet
Georgia Anne Muldrow Overload
Steve Reich/International Contemporary Ensemble/Colin Currie Group Pulse/Quartet
Esperanza Spalding 12 Little Spells
Kali Uchis Isolation
Kamasi Washington Heaven and Earth
Tierra Whack Whack World
Aretha Franklin The Atlantic Singles Collection 1967-1970
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Best of 2017
Alarm Will Sound with Meet the Composer Splitting Adams (Cantaloupe)
Sarah Cahill with Regina Myers and Samuel Adams Eighty Trips Around the Sun: Music by and for Terry Riley (Irritable Hedgehog)
Ars Nova Copenhagen First Drop (Cantaloupe)
Julius Eastman The Zürich Concert (New World)
ÌFÉ IIII+IIII (Discos Ifá)
Kelly Moran Bloodroot (Telegraph Harp)
Sampha Process (Young Turks)
Tyshawn Sorey Verisimilitude (Pi)
Moses Sumney Aromanticism (Jagjaguwar)
SZA Ctrl (Top Dawg/RCA)
Thundercat Drunk (Brainfeeder)
John Williams Close Encounters of the Third Kind · 40th Anniversary Remastered Edition (La-La Land)
Music by Linda Catlin Smith, Martin Arnold, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Marc Sabat Canadian Composer Series (Another Timbre)
Various Artists Spiritual Jazz 7: Islam (Jazzman)
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Best of 2016
Childish Gambino “Awaken, My Love!” (Glassnote)
Vicky Chow A O R T A (New Amsterdam)
King We Are King (King Creative)
Laura Mvula The Dreaming Room (Sony · RCA)
Holly Roadfeldt The Preludes Project (Ravello)
Solange A Seat at the Table (Saint · Columbia)
Esperanza Spalding Emily’s D+Evolution (Concord)
reissues · remasters · restorations · box sets
Wally Badarou Back to Scales To-Night (Barclay · Expansion)
The Emotions Blessed: The Emotions Anthology 1969-1985 (BBR)
Philip Glass The Complete Sony Recordings (Sony)
Bernard Herrmann Twisted Nerve (Stylotone)
John Williams Jurassic Park · The Lost World: Jurassic Park (La-La Land)
Various Artists Doing It in Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco in 1980s Nigeria (Soundway)
Various Artists Star Trek: 50th Anniversary Collection (La-La Land)
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Best of 2015
Some great new discoveries and otherwise the usual company in abundance.
John Adams Absolute Jest · Grand Pianola Music San Francisco Symphony · Michael Tilson Thomas · John Adams (SFS Media)
Bang on a Can All Stars Field Recordings (Cantaloupe)
eighth blackbird Filament (Cedille)
Mahan Esfahani Time Present and Time Past (Archiv)
Morton Feldman · Erik Satie · John Cage Rothko Chapel [Gnossiennes, In a Landscape, etc.] Kim Kashkashian · Sarah Rothenberg · Steven Schick · Houston Chamber Choir · Robert Simpson (ECM)
Floating Points Elaenia (Luaka Bop/Pluto)
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg · Aftermath · Interscope)
Steve Martland Band Martland (NMC)
Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians Ensemble Signal · Third Coast Percussion · Brad Lubman (Harmonia Mundi)
Max Richter Sleep (Deutsche Grammophon)
Linda Catlin Smith Thought and Desire Eve Egoyan (Earwitness Editions)
Stephen Sondheim Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano Anthony de Mare (ECM)
Ann Southam Glass Houses for Marimba Taktus (Centrediscs)
Tennyson Like What EP (self-released)
Kamasi Washington The Epic (Brainfeeder)
John Williams Star Wars: The Force Awakens Gustavo Dudamel · William Ross · John Williams (Walt Disney)
reissues · remasters
Bernard Herrmann Obsession Special Archival Edition (Music Box)
The Spinners Spinners (BBR)
John Williams A.I. Artificial Intelligence Expanded Archival Collection (La-La Land)
John Williams Jaws and Jaws 2 (Intrada)
John Williams, Herman Stein, Hans J. Salter, Joseph Mullendore, Alexander Courage, Cyril J. Mockridge, Gerald Fried, Leith Stevens, Robert Drasnin, Fred Steiner and others Lost in Space 50th Anniversary Soundtrack Collection (La-La Land)
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Glass Houses for Marimba
My reviews of the launch and CD for I Care If You Listen.
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Best of 2014
John Adams, The Gospel According to the Other Mary – Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Master Chorale, Gustavo Dudamel
John Luther Adams, Become Ocean – Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot
D’Angelo and The Vanguard, Black Messiah
Morton Feldman, String Quartet No. 1 – FLUX Quartet
Flying Lotus, You’re Dead!
Philip Glass, The Complete Piano Etudes – Maki Namekawa
Meredith Monk, Piano Songs – Ursula Oppens, Bruce Brubaker
Laura Mvula, With Metropole Orkest Conducted by Jules Buckley at Abbey Road Studios
Steve Reich, Radio Rewrite – Jonny Greenwood, Vicky Chow, Alarm Will Sound, Alan Pierson
Ann Southam, Glass Houses Vol. 2 – Christina Petrowska Quilico
tuku, moonday sessions:the black
reissues
Herbie Hancock, The Complete Columbia Album Collection 1972-1988 (rel. late 2013)
Odyssey, Happy Together (Expanded Edition)
Sly Stone & various artists, I’m Just Like You: Sly’s Stone Flower 1969-1970
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Radio Rewrite Is ‘Everything’ and Then Some
An excerpt of my review of the Nonesuch album for I Care If You Listen; full version available with a subscription.
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I Care If You Listen – FLUX Quartet Records Feldman’s String Quartet No. 1
Here’s my review of FLUX Quartet’s recording of Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No. 1, Structures and Three Pieces, over at I Care If You Listen.
EL MAHBOOB 