Some great records released this year UPDATED (mostly) guitar

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I sent out this post earlier with a paywall. I decided to send it without a paywall, on the theory that these artists deserve to be heard by as many people as possible. Meanwhile, I've added a few records that weren't there before, a couple of which don't have any guitar.

Happy New Year to everyone! Let's celebrate the profusion of incredible music being made in our troubled world.

Jason Moran - Go to Your North

Fantastic “out of the box” composing by a man who never fails to enlighten and surprise. It’s refreshing and inspiring to hear sui generis big band music.

Linda May Han Oh (featuring Ambrose Akinmusire and Tyshawn Sorey) - Strange Heavens

How these monster players make a trio sound so BIG is a question…and then so subtle, intimate, and small. No wonder this record got a lot of love this year.

Deerhoof - Noble and Godlike in Ruin

It's safe to say you've never heard anything like this record. Except Deerhoof’s other works. I'm kind of late to the game with this band, but they've been bashing out their own brand of uncategorizable rock music for a long time. Something I appreciate about this record is the myriad guitar sounds. The explosion of noise at the end of Immigrant Songs is rather astonishing. I'd really like to see this performed live. The forms of these songs are completely unpredictable. It's really classical music clothed in a rock quartet.

I've written about Danny Gatton’s live set from the Holiday Inn fairly recently, so I won't get into it again. Suffice to say it feels like a miracle that this music was given to us 37 years after his death. And from the lowliest of venues, a Holiday Inn in Tysons Corner Maryland. I was at that venue once to see him and it was really, truly lame. However…Behold the genius. I'm grateful to have seen him and known him. I will include my Downbeat review below.

https://www.dannygattonguitar.com/

Ben Garnett is a young artist from Texas, now living in Nashville. He is an excellent composer and acoustic player, part of a relatively small cadre of acoustic musicians building upon the breakthroughs of Tony Rice, Grisman, Sam Bush, Darol Anger, The Punch Brothers, etc.

Rez Abbasi: Sound Remains

Rez has come out with yet another fine record, this time on acoustic. “Sound Remains,” shows his powers are as forward thinking, fluid, and melodic as ever. The ensemble includes percussion and vibes, a fresh instrumentation Fine wring and ensemble play and dizzying solos.

Molly Tuttle: Goodby Little Miss Sunshine

Tuttle is a fantastic acoustic picker and a lot more. These are really good songs that take her bluegrass roots into lovely pop orchestrations. It’s exciting to see virtuoso bluegrass players expanding past that hidebound tradition into an all-encompassing American music. I wish I’d written this song. I sure agree with the sentiment. This is remarkably positive music.

Wolfgang Muthspiel Trio: Tokyo

Wolfgang consistently puts out some of the best guitar music on the planet, yet remains stubbornly obscure in the U.S.

“Tokyo,” with Brian Blade and Scott Colley is another set of elevated tunes sporting the telepathic interplay you’d expect from these three. Wolfgang’s honey tone and expert touch is a joy to behold.

https://ecm.lnk.to/TokyoID

Knox Chandler: The Sound

Knox is an old college classmate, and was a member of some storied bands way back when, The Psychedelic Furs for one. Knox creates soundscapes unlike anyone you ever heard. Did you hear me? Seriously he has figured out ways to paint sound pictures that are unique even in today’s ambient/ textural rich landscape.

Dave Holland and John Scofield: Memories of Home

These guys have ascended to elder status. Their intimate rich partnership on this album is relaxed, lovely, salty and just plain great.

And….

I am avoiding discussing records I released on my label but…at AGS Recordings we are definitely trying to do our part.

Here is the Gatton DB review

Danny Gatton and Funhouse Live at the Holiday Inn 1987

Gress Records

4½ stars

This recording is a bit of a miracle. Gatton’s set was captured on VHS tape by Kinloch Nelson at a Holiday Inn brunch in Tysons Corner Maryland, emerging as if from a dream 38 years later.

The band includes a smoking Chris Battistone on trumpet, and two gentlemen I played with decades later, John Previti and Barry Hart. Most folks associate Danny with rockabilly, country, and blues. This is further proof that he was also one of the greatest straight-ahead players that ever lived. Here is a history of jazz guitar, the language pre-1960, stretching back to Charlie Christian and before. His knowledge is deep and thorough, George Barnes to Tal Farlow, and a ton of Wes Montgomery, the octaves, the chord solos, the hip phrasing.

Gatton’s technique is dumb-founding, pinpoint accuracy, total command of every American music you can name— but that’s not really the point. What you hear is Danny having fun. You can’t help but smile and laugh as your jaw drops. He can’t help peppering his jazz with rock n’ roll, western swing, and country licks, and it all feels entirely spontaneous. This is a band, the rhythm section laying a sure foundation for torrents of fabulous invention. Danny was always at his best live. How fantastic to be reminded of the resounding joy of his genius.

In other hands “When You’re Smiling,” a dusty tune from 1928, might be corny. For Gatton it’s a chance to explode into up-tempo gladness, where Bill Haley, Barney Kessel, Eldon Shamblin, and Jimmy Bryant are all name-checked. On Benny Goodman’s “A Smooth One” we hear choruses of lyrical inspiration from Johnny Smith, Les Paul and steel guitar before an eruption of double-time madness that must have made polyester-suited tourists spill hollandaise sauce on their shirts.

The fantastic rhythm section plays way on top of the beat. Lots of burning tempos. But the urgency has its charms with everyone listening and contributing equally. This is E Pluribus Unum in sound.

Danny Gatton and Funhouse Live at the Holiday Inn 1987: Besame Mucho; On Green Dolphin Street; Fried Potatoes; A Smooth One; Unknown; Killer Joe; Secret Love; Witch Doctors; When You’re Smiling; One For Lenny; Take the A-Train

Personnel: Danny Gatton, guitar; Chris Battistone, trumpet; John Previti, bass; Barry Hart, drums www.DannyGattonGuitar.com

https://agsrecordings.bandcamp.com/