15 FROM '15

I wrote more than I expected to this year. Here are 15 of my favorite pieces.

Napalm Death Albums From Worst To Best, Stereogum (big factual error in this one, but I own it in comments)

Yes Albums From Worst To Best, Stereogum

Motörhead Albums From Worst To Best, Stereogum

How Five Finger Death Punch Got Huge By Writing Songs For Soldiers, Stereogum

The Short, Strange Music Career Of Leonard Nimoy, Stereogum

Machine Head Bring A Massive, Anthemic Roar To New York 'Homecoming' Show At Irving Plaza, Village Voice

Jandek Affiliate Heather Leigh Brings Appalachian Soul And Pedal Steel Guitar To Improvised Noise, Noisey

All of the following are from Burning Ambulance:

An interview with the members of the new John Zorn-created organ trio, Simulacrum

A review of two albums of music by composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir

An interview with Jacob Garchik and Oscar Noriega of Banda de los Muertos

An interview with percussionist Andre Martinez about his time playing with Cecil Taylor in the 1980s

A review of the Sonny Rollins Complete Live at the Village Gate 1962 box

A review of Aleksei German's Hard to Be a God, George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road, and William Friedkin's Sorcerer

An interview with Udo Dirkschneider (U.D.O., ex-Accept)

An interview with Max Cavalera (Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, ex-Sepultura)

YEAH, WELL, YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT I THINK?

I contributed to The Wire's year-end roundup, sending them my top 10 albums, my top 10 reissues, and some short thoughts on 2015 as refracted through the prism of culture. Those thoughts are reproduced below, but you should really buy the issue; there's a ton of great stuff in it, including my reviews of the new albums by Apparatus and Nate Wooley, both of which are very good. I recommend getting a digital subscription, which allows you full access to the Wire archives going all the way back to their first issue, plus subscriber-only music downloads and other cool stuff. Anyway, year-end thoughts:

The jazz story of the year was the arrival and rapid ascent of Kamasi Washington. His presence on the most overrated hip-hop album of 2015, Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly, helped his PR team create significant anticipation for his debut The Epic. Rapturously received, even by critics who couldn't spell jazz if you spotted them the j and one of the zs, it became the music's biggest crossover success story since the 1970s. It was also a really good record, and Washington is one of the most compelling live performers around. I was privileged to review his New York debut for this magazine, and it was the best show I saw all year.

I attended more jazz performances in 2015 than any other type, and that seems likely to continue. Jazz feels like it's revitalizing itself from within, in exciting, unpredictable ways. On the other hand, my other great musical love, metal, seems to be imploding. Formerly extreme styles have become cliches and crutches; bands can either sell records or get positive reviews, but not both, and the state of the US market dictates that tour packages must include a minimum of four bands, which is two too many for an old man to put up with on a weeknight.

No year is complete without a death list, and 2015's included some musicians whose work - even if only a single towering album - permanently altered my personal soundworld: Ornette Coleman, Tangerine Dream's Edgar Froese, the Stooges' saxophonist Steve Mackay and Yes bassist Chris Squire all departed this year. Nothing here now but the recordings, in William Burroughs's phrase.

THANKSGIVING PRAYER

When I clicked play on this video, it was preceded by an ad for Chili's.

MIDYEAR REPORT, JAZZ DIVISION

Here, in alphabetical order, are 20 jazz albums I like from the first half of 2015. It was only when I started making this list that I realized there were that many. I feel like I've been listening to a lot more old jazz than new. But this is a pretty impressive list.

JD Allen, Graffiti (HighNote)
David Chesky/Jazz in the New Harmonic, Primal Scream (Chesky)
Duane Eubanks, Things of That Particular Nature (Sunnyside)
Ghost Train Orchestra, Hot Town (Accurate)
Stephen Haynes, Pomegranate (New Atlantis)
Albert “Tootie” Heath, Philadelphia Beat (Sunnyside)
Eddie Henderson, Collective Portrait (Smoke Sessions)
Jeremy Pelt, Tales, Musings and Other Reveries (HighNote)
Chris Potter Underground Orchestra, Imaginary Cities (ECM)
Nate Radley, Morphoses (Fresh Sound New Talent)
John Raymond, Foreign Territory (Fresh Sound New Talent)
Matana Roberts, always. (Relative Pitch)
Matthew Shipp Chamber Ensemble, The Gospel According to Matthew and Michael (Relative Pitch)
Alex Sipiagin, Balance 38-58 (Criss Cross)
Jim Snidero, Main Street (Savant)
Terell Stafford, Brotherlee Love (Capri)
Dayna Stephens, Reminiscent (Criss Cross)
Tom Tallitsch, All Together Now (Posi-Tone)
Tim Warfield, Spherical (Criss Cross)
Doug Webb, Triple Play (Posi-Tone)