Bachelor - Doomin Sun - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Bachelor, the new project from Melina Duterte (Jay Som) and Ellen Kempner (Palehound), is not a band, it's a friendship. In January of 2020, the duo packed the entirety of Duterte's recording equipment into two cars and headed to a rental house in Topanga, CA where over the course of two weeks, they wrote and recorded their debut album Doomin' Sun. In this space, Kempner and Duterte hybridized their individual songwriting talents, producing a collection that slips between moods with ease and showcases their lyrical prowess. On the bass-heavy rock song InchStay in the Car,Inch the duo paint a yearning portrait of a woman in a supermarket parking lot, a barely-contained desire oozing out of cotidian descriptions like InchShe burns out of the market/ Plastic bags digging into wrists/ Blood stuck in her fingertips.Inch The heavy bass makes another appearance on InchAnything At All,Inch a track with a chorus so playful it could be a schoolyard taunt, defying the darker lyrical themes heard on the verses.There was a lot of pain that went into the record, especially around themes of queerness and climate change inspired by the red skies and wildfires subsuming Australia at the time. However, when the duo did shed tears during the creative process, they weren't tears of sadness, they were tears of laughter. When Kempner and Duterte look back on those weeks, what they remember first is shortness of breath and the inability to track vocal takes without falling to the floor howling. They couldn't remember a time they'd ever been so delirious with creativity, so overwhelmed with joy.

Pianist Bross Townsend was born Bross Elvie Townsend Jr. In October 18, 1933, in Princeton Kentucky. He later moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked with musicians such as Little Jimmy Scott, Wynonie Harris, Gene Ammons, John Coltrane, Memphis Slim, and Jimmy Reed. After relocating to New York City in 1959, he was best known as the pianist with Dakota Staton's band, as well as freelancing around the area with various swinging Jazz artists, such as Carrie Smith, Bubba Brooks, Arvell Shaw, Panama Francis, and countless other legends. He also toured extensively throughout the world, especially Europe and Japan. These recordings mark Bross' sessions as a leader, independently, how he conceptualized his music in the straight ahead Jazz idiom. Immediately soulful and funky, his interpretations are bold and fresh, as well as solidly rhythmic. His partner in crime, bassist Bob Cunningham is present on five of the tracks, with the swinging John Dooley rounding out the rest. Drummers Greg Bandy and Rudy Petschauer keep that grooving beat going, and we get some fiery horns from trumpeter Greg Bobulinski and Swing Masa on saxophones. We get a sample of the Townsend repertoire, everything from Ellington to standards, to Bross' own originals here, rounded out by his usual feature that would always bring down the house, Avery Parrish's After Hours. We are re-releasing this great recording because it was never distributed for retail, just sold at gigs by Townsend himself, and now that Bross is gone (he passed away in 2003), it appears he only had 2 recordings under his own name, this one being essentially self-produced. As a result this remains a truly important piece of work for all true fans of great jazz music to enjoy.

Dead Sun - Grand Chamber [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/26/2019