Top 10 Albums of 2012

When I'm not working, my mind floats somewhere between anxiety and anger, admittedly. Music is the comfort food most of the time. The chicken fried steak with gravy and biscuits. With mashed potatoes also with gravy. Certain albums step in and I'll listen over and over.

In April, I decided to dig a garden in by backyard to grow tomatoes. My grandfather grew tomatoes in his yard and I remember how they tasted: pure and simple; seeds, water, dirt, sunshine. So I wanted to grow my own in Brooklyn soil. Granted these would be tough tomatoes. They would have to grow up through glass and rocks and soil that has seen God knows what. But I started to dig. The spot I chose ended up terrible for two reasons: (1.) It turned out to be shady 24 hours a day, awful for tomatoes. (2.) It was next to a tree = lots of roots.

After about 15 minutes of digging I realized it was a bad idea. I was 3 feet from the base of a tree. Some of the roots were 4 or 5 inches in diameter. I asked my roommate, "have you ever started doing something and realized immediately it was a dumb idea, but continued to do it anyway." He said, "I've lived most of my life that way."

I continued on. The shovel I used was a rusty old guy I found in the backyard. It didn't have a handle, but I found one of those too.

Robert Pollard once said, "If you're ever feeling depressed go in your backyard and dig a hole 6 feet deep. But DON'T jump in. If you're still depressed after, dig another hole 6 feet deep. And so on."

I can't say I spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself this year. But I did spend time floating on that ship between anger and anxiety. And so the ludicrous hole I dug was chicken fried steak. The $1.50 24-oz Coors Original from the corner bodega next to my apartment never tasted so good after breaking my back digging a hole through an endless system of roots and rocks in Brooklyn soil.

...

João Gilberto (b. 1931) - Chega de Saudade (1959)

The album Chega de Saudade was the first viable, relevant bossa nova LP; the song by the same name is considered the first bossa nova song. It was Gilberto's first full-length LP, and here, he paints a picture that became hugely influential. 

Bossa nova was born out of the rhythms of Brazilian samba and the harmonies of jazz.

The album is a collection of twelve songs crafted on nylon strings and vocals with minimal percussion and sparse production. Each song is a scant two minutes, rounding the total out at around twenty-two.

It is said Gilberto developed his style in the confines of a bathroom for improved acoustics. He waded his way through his twenties sleeping on couches and turning down gigs.

Chega de Saudade was a hit, and made bossa nova both a jazz and popular music sensation in Brazil and the US. Five years later, in 1964, Gilberto recorded The Girl from Ipanema, with Stan Getz, which became one of the most popular and most recorded songs of all time. 

Chega de Saudade is intimate, delicate, though. The 28-year old broke Gilberto, whose father once admitted him to a psychiatric ward, and who, as it turns out, is as crazy as any poet, is practicing his craft in the bathroom.



Dexter Gordon (1923 - 1990) - Doin' Allright (1961)

Doin' Allright was a comeback album. It was Dexter Gordon's first recording for Blue Note, and the beginning of a resurgence of his career. He went to jail in 1952 for narcotics possession and spent most of the decade inactive or in prison ... out to sea.

Doin' Allright was the beginning of his "mature" era, a break from bebop. By 1961, Jazz had evolved away from the hard-hitting, vitriolic virtuosity of the 1940's club scene. The likes of Miles Davis and John Coltrane forged ahead both harmonically and rhythmically. As a saxaphonist, Gordon was inspired by Lester Young (1909 - 1959) and was an [early] inspiration to John Coltrane (1926 - 1967). After losing almost a decade, he stepped out of the dark and into stride. Coltrane lead the way, but Gordon maintained his characteristic  with Coltrane's style.

Gordon's sound was commonly characterized as being 'large' and spacious and he had a tendency to play behind the beat.

He recorded three more albums for Blue Note between 1961 and 1962, and then moved to Europe to live as an expatriate until 1976.

 
Lineup: Dexter Gordon (tenor sax), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Horace Parlan (piano), George Tucker (bass), and Al Harewood (drums).
 

I never actually finished reviews of the remaining albums, but here is the list:

Gang Starr - Step In the Arena
Charlie Parker / Dizzy Gillespie - Bird and Diz 
Chet Baker - Ensemble
Bach, JS - Brandenburg Concertos
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - San Antonio Rose (Discs 1-11)
Desmond Dekker (1941-2006) & The Aces - Rudy Got Soul: The Complete Early Years 1963-1968
Mississippi Fred McDowell - I Do Not Play No Rock 'N' Roll
James Wallace & the Naked Light - More Strange News From Another Star (only released on cassette tape)
Gene Autry - That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine (Discs 1-9) 
The Ink Spots - Greatest Hits: The Original Decca Recordings 1939-1946

Dan Deacon - America
Mozart, WA - Philips Complete Mozart - Vol 11: String Quintets (Disc 1-3)   
Jorge Ben - Samba Esquema Novo
Nina Simone - Nina Simone Sings the Blues
Kourosh - Back from the Brink - Pre-Revolution Psychedelic Rock from Iran (1973-1979)
Jelly Roll Morton - 1923/24
Carsick Cars - You Can Listen, You Can Talk
Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso
Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso (1969) 
Tom Waits - Bone Machine
The Deep Dark Woods - Winter Hours
Sigur Ros - Valtari
Townes Van Zandt - For the Sake of the Song