May 2014 reviews, part one

Highly recommended: Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Death Vessel

Worth your while: TuneYards, Chad Van Gaalen, Lykke Li, Dolly Parton

These reviews ran, as always, in the Waterloo Record and Guelph Mercury.

Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots (Parlaphone/EMI)

It took me a long time to come around to Damon Albarn: never being a Blur fan, and being attracted more to the idea of Gorillaz—and that band’s undeniably great collection of collaborators—than any particular record. But I have to respect Albarn for the music he puts out on his Honest Jon’s label, everything from calypso to avant-garde eccentric Moondog to the Hypnotic Brass Band, as well as his role as a catalyst in records like soul legend Bobby Womack’s The Bravest Man in the Universe. He’s a man of impeccable taste. I even liked Monkey, his Chinese opera. No one else seemed to.

Most Blur fans—and there are still millions of them waiting for an album to accompany the reunion gigs of recent years—don’t really care about any of that. Which is why this Albarn solo album arrives with great anticipation—and proceeds to bum everyone out. That it’s a generally downcast record is not its downfall; it’s that it’s so dull, stuck in one programmed drum groove, and Albarn appears to be mumbling his way through it. The chipper ditty about an orphaned baby elephant, "Mr. Tembo," is out of place here—or anywhere, really. It's certainly not going to make anyone revisit their prejudices regarding songs about baby elephants.

Lyrically, Everyday Robots is partially a concept album about alienation in a society suffering from too much technology. Mostly it just makes me want to pull the plug. I suppose I like everything about Albarn’s taste in music… except his own music. (May 8)

Download: “Everyday Robots,” “Lonely Press Play,” “Hostiles”

Jeff Bird – Rhythm and Entertainment: Recordings 1983-2009 (independent)

If you’ve seen live music in Guelph, K-W or Elora in the past 35 years, you’ve most likely seen Jeff Bird. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have seen him with the Cowboy Junkies since 1988. Before that band’s success and whenever he’s had free time since, Bird has been a very, very busy man. He was a founder of Canadian folk group Tamarack, does regular jazz gigs and had a long-standing collaboration with fiddler Riki Gee, some of Bird’s many sides that appear on this career retrospective of sorts.

On his own, however, Bird gets up to all kinds of experimental weirdness: improv with shakuhachi and drums, cinematic ambience, some straight-up country shuffles, experimental dub reggae, francophone folklore, spoken-word dream recollections set to music, and gorgeous harmonica and harmonium duets. You know, the usual. The stunner is “Little Hooves,” a piano ballad from his 1997 album featuring vocalist Nick Craine, followed closely by a take on Hank Williams’s "Rambling Man," featuring Tony Quarrington on vocals.

In the background of "Mu Blues," you can hear a dinner audience blithely ignoring Bird’s jazz combo, gabbing away despite the fiery fingerwork of pianist Witold Grabowiecki. The track is indicative of Bird: always around, politely ignored, inconspicuous, and indifferent as to how he might be blowing the minds of anyone who cares to listen. (May 8)

Download: “Souvenir Flutes,” “Six Legs,” “Little Hooves”

Death Vessel – Island Intervals (Sub Pop)

Joel Thibodeau, a eunuch-voiced singer/songwriter from New England, sums up the ever-elusive and mysterious creative process better than most: “I don’t know what to do when the universe is in my room.” Clearly, however, he figured it out on this, his third album, for which he travelled to Iceland. Sure enough, Jonsi from Sigur Ros—a man with an almost identical range and timbre as Thibodeau—shows up. Arrangements of Thibodeau’s wonderfully wistful, melodic folk songs are adorned with marimbas, glockenspiels, fuzzed-out bass, pump organs, accordions and other instruments that seem to be always lying around Icelandic studios (see also: Bjork, Mum, Nico Muhly). On first impression, Thibodeau is too fey by half, with lines like, “I have an unbridled ideation / jumping over every moon with indignation.” He also enjoys employing words like “derring-do” and “looky-loo” with a straight face. He’s nothing if not earnest, and it wouldn’t be surprising to discover that he spent the six years since his last album in a seaside cabin with a library of pre-Victorian literature. (He didn’t—to my knowledge, anyway.) No matter your take on the lyrics, however, the melodies and arrangements are consistently and almost undeniably gorgeous. (May 1)

Download: “Velvet Antlers,” “Mercury Dime,” “We Agreed”

Brian Eno and Karl Hyde – Someday World (Warp)

Brian Eno can work with anyone in the world. The legendary producer often does, whether it’s Coldplay or a totally obscure musician in Mali (see the excellent 2013 Africa Express album). Eno’s last pop album was a collaboration with David Byrne. Here, he joins Karl Hyde of ’90s electronica act Underworld, a man whose vocals aren’t that different from Eno’s, and who doesn’t appear to enhance any of the musical sketches Eno had kicking around since the ’90s—or earlier, as the tinny synth horns would suggest. (There are also, however, real horns to be found on the peppiest song here, “Daddy’s Car.”) Eno credits Hyde with bringing life to long-dormant material he’d had lying around; yet it’s the basic rhythm tracks here that are most fascinating, steeped in African polyrhythms. The more elements Eno and Hyde layer on top—particularly Hyde’s vocals—the less interesting it is. (May 8)

Download: “When I Built This World,” “Daddy’s Car,” “Witness”

Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott – What Have We Become (Universal)

The Beautiful South are a long-forgotten artifact of early ’90s British pop, one that arose from an only slightly better-remembered band, the Housemartins. Like most North Americans, I didn’t realize The Beautiful South lasted until 2007, when they finally parted ways, citing “musical similarities”—admitting that most of their albums sounded the same. (They were always witty lads.) Founder Paul Heaton has been largely in the musical wilderness ever since, but this album reuniting him with his old band’s female vocalist Abbott, perhaps the only two people on Earth who could create a peppy chorus out of the line: “The revolution won’t be televised, and neither will your death.” Abbott hadn’t sung for anyone but her own family in 14 years, but you’d never know it; Heaton is clearly—and quite understandably—inspired in her presence. (May 15)

Download: “Moulding of a Fool,” “D.I.Y.,” “If He Don’t”

Lykke Li – I Never Learn (Warner)

Swedish singer Lykke Li is about to enter the world of fashion this fall, releasing her own line of clothing through a subsidiary of H&M. According to London newspaper The Independent, one can “expect black, black and more black.”

No wonder. Check the titles on this, her third album: “Sleeping Alone.” “Never Gonna Love Again.” “Heart of Steel.” It sounds like Li wrote this with a broken heart in a hamlet set atop a wet, wind-swept cliff. Despite the rich, full-band arrangements with choirs, this is the loneliest pop album you’re likely to hear this year. Gone are the synths and layers of percussion that defined her earlier work; in their place are 12-string acoustic guitars, pianos and barely any drums at all. This is all about Li’s voice, which has all the command of Stevie Nicks at her prime, and her songs, which are minor-key grandiose ballads worthy of, well, ABBA—and I’m not just saying that because of their shared nationality. “Heart of Steel” features a guitar riff lifted from Roxy Music’s “More Than This,” from Avalon: an album with an equally luxurious melancholy at its core. That said, Li excels when she strips everything right down: “Love Me Like I’m Not Made of Stone” could pass for an old Everly Brothers ballad. (May 15)

Download: “No Rest for the Wicked,” “Gunshot,” “Love Me Like I’m Not Made of Stone”

Dolly Parton – Blue Smoke (Sony)

Dolly Parton is 68. This is her 42^nd album. It proves, for the umpteenth time, that Dolly Parton can do whatever the heck she wants. The title track is blistering bluegrass. The duet with Kenny Rogers, “You Can’t Make Old Friends,” is ripe old cheese and better for it. A cover of the traditional murder ballad “Banks of the Ohio” is all the more disturbing because Parton delivers it so beautifully. A cover of Bon Jovi’s “Lay Your Hands On Me” completely—and thankfully—obliterates any memory of the original. Speaking of originals, the woman whose songwriting talent has always been her most underrated asset shows that she’s still on top of her game and capable of writing modern classics. I had to double check to make sure “If I Had Wings” wasn’t a new take on an earlier Parton track—perhaps one suspected to date from a period I would naively consider her prime—because the fact is, Parton never left her prime. Her contemporaries might be more than willing to coast and cave in to low expectations; Parton’s still pumping out new material with the same pride and purpose she’s had her entire career. (May 15)

Download: “Blue Smoke,” “Don’t Think Twice,” “If I Had Wings”

Pixies - Indie Cindy (Pias)

There is no way the Pixies could have won this round. The legendary alt-rock game-changers broke up acrimoniously in 1993; they reformed in 2002 and have been touring large venues, playing all their classic non-hits, ever since. In 2013, beloved bassist Kim Deal announced she was finally quitting days before new material was to be recorded. For many fans, expectations were low—and most reviews of the two EPs questioned why this material even had to exist other than to sabotage a near-perfect discography.

But come on: if you’ve been touring for the last decade cashing in on your rep, wouldn’t you want to make new music? Bandleader Frank Black has probably put out at least 20 non-Pixies albums in the last 20 years; why wouldn’t he employ the musicians who helped make some of his best work?

Of course (the admittedly terribly titled) Indie Cindy is nowhere near as powerful as Surfer Rosa or Doolittle. Whatever could be? But it hardly defecates on the band’s reputation; most of this material wouldn’t have been out of place on the 1991 swan song Trompe le Monde. Guitarist Joey Santiago has a distinct style that, when paired with Black’s absurdist lyrics (“I’m the burgermeister of burgatory!”) and unhinged howl (which is in fine form here, despite the passing of time), sounds undeniably like the Pixies. Returning producer Gil Norton no doubt helps as well.

Indie Cindy could easily shed a few of the more ham-fisted rockers (“Blue-Eyed Hexe”) that sound like third-generation copies of vintage Pixies, but it’s nowhere near the disaster Pixie purists expect it to be. (May 1)

Download: “Greens and Blues,” “Andro Queen,” “Magdelena 318”

Rodrigo y Gabriela - 9 Dead Alive (ATO)

This Mexican duo, who were discovered while busking on the streets of Dublin, made a name for themselves for playing traditional Spanish and Roma guitar music, having come from a background of heavy metal: they’ve covered Metallica and Led Zeppelin, and their last album, 2009’s breakthrough 11:11, featured a guest spot from Testament’s Alex Skolnick.

Here, however, on their fourth album, the novelty has worn off. Not that Rodrigo y Gabriela were ever just a novelty: they are serious shredders and songwriters, possessed with an ability to amaze any music fan. They’re not attempting to fit into flamenco mode, nor cater to rock or jazz or “world music” audiences or anything else. You can still hear the metal influence in the riffing and chord progressions on songs like “Torito” and “Somnium,” but that’s only for trainspotters. Such is the power of the playing and the songwriting that there isn’t much time while listening to ponder much else.

The title references the idea that each of these nine songs was inspired by a historical figure: psychiatrists, luthiers, poets, nuns, slave liberators, Nobel laureates and Russian novelists. This duo is not dense. They’re not just hot-shot showoffs; they’re clearly inspired by much more than Malmsteenian fretwork. And the music they make here could easily bring the dead back to life. (May 1)

Download: “The Soundmaker,” “Misty Moses,” “Megalopolis”

TuneYards – Nikki Nack (4AD)

TuneYards is currently opening some dates on Arcade Fire’s Reflektor tour. It makes a lot of sense. Both travelled to Haiti for inspiration recently. Both started making music in Montreal in the first half of the 2000s. Both take great care to make every corner of their career part of a larger art project. And sadly, the most recent albums by both are bisected into moments of thrilling brilliance and head-scratching bewilderment.

One thing is obvious: lead single “Water in the Fountain” is a lip-smacking, finger-popping good time that’s been compared more than once to a digital take on the Dixie Cups’ “Iko Iko.” It illustrates Merrill Garbus’s exuberant vocals, love of percussion and melodic hooks thrown into a dense sonic delicacy. She mines similar territory in “Sink-O” and “Real Thing,” diving deep into hip-hop influences like never before; her 2011 masterpiece, Whokill, was largely infused with West African rhythms. The gorgeous “Wait For a Minute,” a comparatively low-key R&B track, provides a welcome respite from the general hustle and bustle.

As captivating as Garbus usually is, Nikki Nack is the first time she sounds adrift. She tapped into a certain energy on Whokill and is clearly trying to move beyond it and expand her range; more than admirable, but Nikki Nack sinks as often as it soars. Not unlike, say, Reflektor. (May 8)

Download: “Water in the Fountain,” “Wait for a Minute,” “Sink-O”

Chad Van Gaalen - Shrink Dust (Flemish Eye/Sub Pop)

Plenty of artists in the last 50 years have claimed to make psychedelic country music. They’re all posers. (Okay, not the Sadies.) Chad Van Gaalen qualifies to be a truly interstellar cowboy, a “cosmic destroyer”—his term. For this Calgary singer/songwriter, the phrase “high lonesome sound” works on several levels.

The country signposts are certainly here: pedal steel guitar, country rhythms, rich harmony, as well as the fact that Van Gaalen has never sounded more like Neil Young than he does here. But this is the perpetually unconventional landscape that Van Gaalen has always inhabited, one as bizarre and unsettling as it is glorious in its fractured beauty.

His voice is drenched in ghostly reverb, his drums sound like they were recorded in a bedroom (they most likely were), the guitars sound like they’re falling apart, and in between the spaces are evocative sounds of indeterminate origin—never more so than when Van Gaalen sings a song called “Where Are You,” seemingly from the middle of a tornado, as droning synths and Echoplex guitars swirl around him. As always, Van Gaalen’s lyrics find him keeping it surreal: “All the blues and greens rise up and out of us now”; “Last night I weighed my sins”; “Come on, let’s get high on other people’s dreams.”

The prolific Van Gaalen can sometimes come off as too carefree and ramshackle; certainly, much of Shrink Dust seems held together by a thread. Though it’s often beautiful, it’s not a pretty album—most of it will scare CBC to death. (Good.)  But it’s as weird and wild as Van Gaalen has ever been, without diving right off the deep end. (May 1)

Download: “Cut Off My Hands,” “Frozen Paradise,” “Weighed Sin”

Wye Oak - Shriek (Merge)

Chances are good that you’ve never heard of this Baltimore duo, so you probably don’t care that singer Jenn Wasner has abdicated her crown as a roaring guitar hero, in order to take up bass and surround herself in synths. In more ways than one, Wye Oak is a brand new band for most people—including the band themselves. Drummer Andy Stack was already accustomed to juggling drums and keyboards; now the division of labour between both musicians is harder to decipher.

Perhaps not coincidentally, this new material also lacks some of the tension at which Wye Oak always excelled; without the roaring guitar, and with a now-necessary dependence on consistent tempos, much of this material explores a trippy weightlessness that is both the best and worst thing about it. Wasner’s vocals occasionally drift into the stratosphere, recalling ’80s 4AD acts like the Cocteau Twins; speaking of that decade, “Despicable Animal” nods to Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” There’s no known precedent, however, to the inverted reggae of “The Tower.”

As one of the more creative American rock bands of the last five years, Wye Oak’s makeover doesn’t entirely suit them—yet. That doesn’t make it a mistake. It just sets them up for even greater adventures. (May 15)

Download: “Shriek,” “Glory,” “Sick Talk”

2013 cleanup

Everyone knows no good new records ever get released in early January, which is why I spent most of this month’s Waterloo Record column reviewing albums I missed from the end of 2013. See also: yesterday’s review of the magical Nick Buzz album.

Highly recommended: Africa Express Presents: Maison des Jeunes, Brandy Clark, Patty Griffin

Worth a listen: Robbie Fulks, Alison Moyet

Africa Express Presents: Maison Des Jeunes – Various Artists (Transgressive)

This album was recorded in Bamako, Mali, over seven days last October. Damon Albarn arrived with Brian Eno, Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and others, and set up a studio at a local youth centre. They corralled the best young local acts they could find—perhaps through word of mouth via the more established acts Albarn booked on the U.K. tour called Africa Express—and somehow came out of that week with an 11-song album that is an embarrassment of riches. There’s no mistaking the Malian roots here—koras and n’gonis abound, and the sound is familiar to anyone familiar with Rokia Traoré, Ali Farka Touré or Amadou and Mariam—but Maison Des Jeunes is modern and vibrant. Though there are some stripped-down, gorgeous acoustic tracks—the likes of which you might expect—there are also roaring electric guitars, modern electronics and hip-hop influences enhancing and playing off the traditional instrumentation, while the drumming is, naturally, phenomenal (especially on tracks by Lil Silva and the Lobi Traoré Band).

There are no African names here recognizable to Western audiences—yet. You’re unlikely to hear a better compilation of music from any genre or continent for the rest of the year. (Jan. 23)

Download: Songhoy Blues – “Soubour,” Lil Silva – “Bouramsy,” Lobi Traoré Band – “Deni Kelen Be Koko”

Brandy Clark – 12 Stories (Slate Creek)

As will quickly become evident in this entry of 2013 catch-up, I barely listened to any country music in the last 12 months. But I can’t imagine anything being better than Brandy Clark.

When you’re a songwriter for hire, even when you’re in your mid-30s and you’ve scored Nashville hits for Miranda Lambert, LeAnn Rimes, and newcomer Kacey Musgraves, there’s some subject matter best kept to yourself. Singers like a sure thing; risks are few—despite the fact that the likes of Lambert and Musgraves owe a large part of their success for their resistance to complacent country music stereotypes.

Though Brandy Clark is musically conservative—12 Stories is note-perfect, tasteful, conventional country—she throws caution to the wind when penning narratives of sin, sex, revenge and regret. Clark’s characters cheat, carouse, imbibe and inhale—mostly because the men in their life have let them down: “Boy, if you build a fire, you better bet she’s got a match.” Clark can be deadly serious, a bonafide tearjerker, yet also has a wicked and cheeky side: the protagonist in “Stripes” resists wreaking violent revenge on her ex-husband because, as she says, “There’s no crime of passion worth a crime in fashion / the only thing saving your life is that I don’t look good in orange and I hate stripes.”

This album is called 12 Stories for a reason: they are Alice Munro-meets-Elmore Leonard in miniature. And yet despite the fact that two of these songs were previously recorded by LeAnn Rimes and Reba McEntire—and Clark also has a Grammy nomination for Kacey Musgraves’s “Follow Your Arrow”—this powerhouse debut was, sadly, obscure outside of critics’ circles (I only discovered it after reading some year-end lists), released to little fanfare in October by a tiny label with only one other artist on its roster. In yet another year when mainstream country deserved so much mockery (just Google “Grady Smith” and “Gawker” for an illustrative video montage of 2013’s crimes against country music), it’s no wonder Clark was held up as a beacon of light. (Jan. 2)

Download: “Stripes,” “Hold My Hand,” “Hungover “

Robbie Fulks – Gone Away Backward (Bloodshot)

Fulks was a leading light of the alt-country scene of the late ’90s, a wiseacre who revelled in wordplay, one-liners and sharp satire, but who also demanded to be taken seriously. He had clearly studied all the country music songwriting greats, and didn’t want to settle for being anything less than in their company.

Fulks has not been as active in recent years; I’ll admit I also lost track. But on Gone Away Backward, he’s sounding better than ever: no longer a joker, his wit is instead focused entirely on capturing the pain and disappointment of the New Depression, set to entirely acoustic arrangements featuring little more than guitar, banjo, fiddle, bass and four-part harmony. Even the instrumental tracks stand out—which, for a wordsmith like Fulks, says a lot about his evolution as a songwriter. (Jan. 2)

Download: “I’ll Trade You Money for Wine,” “Where I Fell,” “Sometimes the Grass is Really Greener” 

Patty Griffin – Silver Bell (A&M)

Patty Griffin – American Kid (New West)

Silver Bell, released in October, is Patty Griffin’s third album. American Kid, released five months earlier, is her eighth. You follow? The singer/songwriter, who has written hits for a who’s who of Nashville and is a current collaborator (personal and professional) with Robert Plant, has a long and varied career, and American Kid is worth the while of any roots music fan—that almost goes without saying at this stage in Griffin’s career.

Silver Bell is a whole other story. Recorded in New Orleans at Daniel Lanois’s Kingsway Studio in 2000, it was shelved by her record label. She re-recorded some songs for later albums; others were covered by the Dixie Chicks; the whole project was widely bootlegged and a fan favourite. Said record company finally decided to release it 13 years later, recently remixed by Glyn Johns (The Who, Eric Clapton)—which must be bittersweet for Griffin, as it’s an astounding album, one that vastly overshadows her newer material.

Here, she sounds like an amalgam of Emmylou Harris, Kathleen Edwards, Lucinda Williams and Sam Phillips, both vocally and in terms of songwriting heft. Musically, there’s little here that sounds like Nashville at all: there are Arabic motifs, New Orleans rhythms, scorching electric guitar, raw rockers that wouldn’t be out of place on Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville or Weeping Tile’s Cold Snap, and, on the fuzzed-out “Perfect White Girls,” what sounds like a template for everything Melissa McClelland currently does in Whitehorse.

Eclecticism aside, the songs are fantastic, and it’s hard to imagine them ever sounding better than they do here, in Griffin’s hands, with this band, in this studio. No one said the music business ever made sense, but better late than never to hear this Silver Bell ring. (Jan. 2)

Download from Silver Bell: “Little God,” “Perfect White Girls,” “Silver Bell”

Download from American Kid: “Don’t Let Me Die in Florida,” “That Kind of Lonely,” “Get Ready Marie”

Jessy Lanza – Pull My Hair Back (Hyperdub)

This new Hamilton singer/producer grew up loving ’90s R&B, which is obvious in her cooing vocal melodies and some of her rhythmic approaches. Her production style—with help from Junior Boys’ Jeremy Greenspan—is far from slick or glossy, filled as it is with analog synthesizers, skittering beats that draw from underground strains of house music, and long instrumental passages that sound like remixes of Top 40 hits where only hints of the hook are evident. Lanza makes it all work, coming off like a more mainstream Grimes at times, but is best enjoyed in small doses; the album as a whole feels featherweight. (Jan. 9)

Download: “Keep Moving,” “F--k Diamond,” “Against the Wall”

Lenka Lichtenberg – Embrace (independent)

Born in Prague, based in Toronto, singing in Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian and English, Lenka Lichtenberg is a klezmer vocalist who intertwines her various musical sources until they become indistinguishable, bound together only by her voice. She gets comparisons to Loreena McKennitt, which are not unwarranted: there’s a similar pristine vocal tone and meticulous, delicate arrangements designed for concert theatres where you can hear a pin drop. That’s in part why it’s refreshing to hear Guelph remixer Eccodek get his hands on the track “Open My Eyes” and breathe some life into it (you can hear it on Soundcloud). Hopefully that collaboration convinces Lichtenberg to pump some bass into her musical backbone. (Jan. 9)

Download: “Open My Eyes,” “Raise a Cup of Joy,” “Vayn fun lebn”

Alison Moyet – The Minutes (Cooking Vinyl)

Thirty years ago, Alison Moyet left her first band, the electro duo Yazoo. Her solo career since then was full of ups and downs and label frustration, followed by a long period of silence. The Minutes is her return—in parts—to the electronic backdrops that contrast and complement her soulful voice perfectly. Sadly for Yazoo fans, that doesn’t mean a return to the disco or experimental pop heard on the classic Upstairs at Eric’s—that was another time, another place. “Suddenly the landscape has changed” is the first lyric Moyet sings here. Of course, it’s not exactly sudden, but hearing her come even within close proximity of the sound that spawned her talent on the world is a relief.

Moyet now makes adult pop music the way any 52-year-old British singer would, somewhere between the polarities of Massive Attack and Kylie Minogue. Working with producer Guy Sigsworth (Seal, Bjork, Alanis Morissette), who drenches her many minor-key melodies in melancholic pomp. At its worst, it drowns out Moyet herself; the best moments happen when they either strip everything back (“Filigree”) or write a major-key pop anthem (“When I Was Your Girl”) or take their sole excursion onto the dance floor (“Right as Rain”).

Moyet has a voice that demands to be heard; hopefully this album is just the first step of a larger comeback. (Jan. 16)

Download: “When I Was Your Girl,” “Right as Rain,” “Filigree”     

 Doug Tielli – Keresley (Tin Angel)

Doug Tielli, Martin’s youngest brother, has been making music for almost 20 years, and yet Keresley is only his second solo album. Recorded in the titular rural British town (30 minutes east of Birmingham), Keresley features little more than Tielli’s gorgeous, elastic voice, acoustic guitar, drums and trombone. Sometimes he channels Nick Drake, sometimes his acoustic guitar sounds like a Malian kora, sometimes it feels like he’s back home in Toronto playing improv at the Music Gallery with jazz-informed players. It’s lilting and lovely. Tielli has spent most of his career playing well with others, but he’s even better when left entirely to his own devices. (Jan. 9)

Download: “Water Falls,” “Oak,” “Big Man of the Underbrush”