The Year In Relics

2021 Highlights in the realm of vault discoveries, anthologies, and reissues

Let’s start with a quick lament: We don’t “Give the Gift of Music” the way we once did. That’s a shame, because there’s nothing like picking out a record that you know a friend will cherish. And, on the flipside, there’s also nothing like getting a record a friend thinks you should hear.

And yet, according to those who sit in the little tollbooths that monitor traffic on streaming sites, we’re browsing at the endless buffet of music more than ever. Theoretically at least, that means we’re discovering things we haven’t heard before, and, by extension, sharing those discoveries. The apparatus may be clunky but the end result is mostly the same. People who celebrate music and share music, even just links to non-tangible audio, are participants in a great big inspiration circuit that travels forward and backward in time and visits all corners of the earth.

Below: An erratically annotated list of some significant vault discoveries, reissues and compilations that proved critical to my wellbeing in the startlingly strong music year of 2021. I’ve included links to Echo Locator coverage where appropriate.

Also, where possible, I’ve included Bandcamp links, because that site is one of the few that strives to make the digital music ecosystem equitable to artists. The quote on my wall speaks to that: “The public today must pay its debt to the great composers of the past by supporting the living creators of the present.”

John Coltrane: A Love Supreme Live in Seattle. Most archive documents provide scattered small details, footnotes to a legacy. This discovery of a rare live version of the full suite, made in 1965 at a club in Seattle, does much more: It shows Coltrane and his high-torque trio extending the spiritual outlines of the studio recording in rousing, fiercely intentional ways that expand our understanding of the work itself.

Joni Mitchell: Archives – Vol. 2: The Reprise Years 1968-1971. This exhaustively researched five-disc set follows Mitchell through a period of explosive creativity. Where Volume 1 covered Mitchell’s early history, this focuses on her stepwise yet astonishingly rapid development as both a songwriter and performer, which culminates in her much-worshipped effort from 1971, Blue. Presented chronologically, it unfolds like a great documentary, alternating between intimate song demos and jaw-dropping live tracks.

Connie Smith: Latest Shade Of Blue: The Columbia Recordings 1973-1976. With this, archive-oriented Bear Family Records again puts the spotlight on the wrenching, slightly weary voice of Connie Smith, who’s revered by Nashville insiders yet remains underappreciated by the public. Smith left her first label RCA to join Columbia in 1973; the products of that tenure  include the scary  good Sings Hank Williams Gospel.

Joseph Spence: Encore. More previously unreleased live recordings from the legendary Bahamian guitarist and singer, made in 1965. Featured here. Available here.

Bola Sete: Samba in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse 1966-1968. Live recordings bring us into close proximity with greatness, closer than we could get otherwise. Here, that means being close enough to feel the sparks fly from the strings of Bola Sete’s guitar. We’re not talking random sparks, either: These are high-intensity crystal-clear syncopated sparks notable for that quintessentially Brazilian mix of flowing lyricism and rhythmic precision. Don’t miss Sete’s medley of songs from the film Black Orpheus, or his interpretation of Bach’s “Partita in E minor.”

Available here:

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts. Speaking of sparks flying….how was this not released in entirety before?

Lee Morgan: The Complete Live at the Lighthouse. Featured here.

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: First Flight to Tokyo. Featured here.

Radiohead: Kid Amnesiae. Featured here. Available here.

Hasaan Ibn Ali: Retrospect in Retirement of Delay: The Solo Recordings.

This year brought two releases that clarified and augmented what’s known  about the mysterious Philadelphia pianist and composer Hasaan Ibn Ali. The first, Metaphysics, is a crisply recorded 1965 group session featuring saxophonist Odean Pope. It’s discussed here.

The second is a prismatic, endlessly beguiling set of informal solo recordings from the early ‘60s. Traveling from moments of anguish to pensive beauty to levity with whiplashing speed, it presents Hasaan as an original thinker who could transform a standard like “Besame Mucho” into a thrill ride, then plunge into gorgeous moments of introspection, as on “Untitled Ballad” or “Extemporaneous Prose-Poem.”

Professor Longhair: Fess at Home. Speaking of intimate, less-than-pristine location recordings, this previously unreleased gem from 1973, gettable via a subscription in the Tipatina’s Record Club, captures the grand wizard of New Orleans piano in a relaxed and expansive mood on his home piano. Discussed here.

Compilations

Various Artists: Indaba Is. A few days before news broke about the Omicron variant of COVID-19, I’d been captivated by Indaba Is, a bold, diverse collection focusing on current jazz-adjacent artists from South Africa. After hearing about the new dread, I keep returning to this adventurous set, to revel in its life-affirming fearlessness. It’s just flat-out stunning throughout – with thoughtful messages about identity and history expressed through ear-stretching harmonies, and spirited solos sprawling out over beats (organic and electric) that could last agreeably for hours. Available here.

Related: The currently hot South African genre known as amapiano has been evolving mostly through singles. That makes it challenging to find key artists or important tracks. One reliable source has been the curated playlists on Apple Music, particularly Amapiano Nation; the latest edition begins with Caltonic SA’s percussive “Swenka” and includes a stunner from Mr. JazziQ entitled “Shaker Smart.”

Squarepusher: Feed Me Weird Things. This pulse-quickening tidal wave from 1996 doesn’t get the respect it deserves – it’s a foundational moment in the development of the arty wing of electronica, before EDM became a thump/tick/thump business. The textures sound as relentless as ever on the Warp label’s newly remastered vinyl pressing, and the original sequence is augmented with two unissued bonus tracks on a separate 10” disc. Those won’t prompt any exhaustive re-evaluation, but their multi-dimensional arrays are apt and nearly timeless additions to the discography, reminders of that swerving, near-spastic kinetic energy that became Squarepusher’s calling card. Available here.

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