A List for 2013

As family tradition would have it, once again we compile our own list of favorite artists/albums from 2013.  Just for fun; for whatever it is worth.  Here goes:

My clear favorite this year, interestingly, comes from an artist featured on last year's top pick.  That would be Valerie June and her "Pushin' Against a Stone"; she made an appearance on a track ("Be My Husband") on the 2012 Me'Shell N'Degeocello album, "Pour Une Ame Souveraine - A Dedication to Nina Simone."

The remaining favorites, in no particular order, are:

Sarah Neufeld: Hero Brother
Atoms for Peace: Amok
Lucrecia Dalt: Syzygy
The Necks: Open
Agnes Obel: Avertine
The Bryan Ferry Orchestra: The Jazz Age
Olafur Arnalds: For Now I Am Winter
Latvian Radio Choir: On Photography
The National: Trouble Will Find Me

Others were considered, and gave some good listens, including:

James Blake: Overgrown
Bombino: Nomad
Emika: Dva
Ludovico Einaudo: In A Time Lapse
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Push The Sky Away
Tim Hecker: Virgins
Arcade Fire: Reflektor
Neko Case: The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight
Laura Mvula: Sing to the Moon
Courtney Barnett: A Sea of Split Peas

A special mention is deserved of Caroline Shaw.  I haven't heard a full album from her, but the Pultizer-award-winning composer's "Partita for 8 Voices", performed by the vocal ensemble, Roomful of Teeth, made me eager to hear more of her work.  You can do that, too, on her site, on YouTube, on Vimeo, etc.

I probably forgot some other respectable contenders, but that it as good as memory serves at the moment

Yusef Lateef Passes On ...

In the early 60s, I first heard Yusef Lateef, and still have his Eastern Sounds album from 1961.  I hear these sounds frequently as I walk about as they have a more or less permanent home on my MP3 player.  He died yesterday at age 93. Long live Yusef Lateef!  Let's revisit some of Yusef's great music:

Open

"Open" by The Necks is a 68 minute long single number album:



This Australian minimalist-jazz-ambient trio has apparently been around a long time, but they are new to me. I am wanting to explore everything they have ever done. My first hearing of "Open" conjured up the likes of Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" for me. If this keeps up, I'll be adding this album to my (yet to be posted) favorites of 2013.

Tallis Scholars Live in Concert

For at least a while -- five or six days, you can hear the Tallis Scholars live in concert in the Temple Church in London.

Nelson Mandela, Free

Nelson Mandela's passing yesterday immediately brings to mind this anthem from the 80s, before he was freed from prison, before closing the chapter on apartheid, before becoming president of South Africa.  Here is a tribute to one of the most important figures of our times, perhaps ever: