Music, all I hear is music...guaranteed to please

Recently I put a CD shelf together and got all of my music CD's unpacked. Well, most of them. Bootlegs remain in a box. Since then I have bought even more and now have to rejigger things to make room for them on the proper shelves.

The Louis Michot and Alash albums were bought at their shows here earlier this month while the one by Verità Baroque was purchased online after seeing one of their performances at the Madison Early Music Festival back in January. Tomeka Reid - come back to Madison, please! 

I bought The Monks album just yesterday at B-Side. It was neat because I hadn't been there in ages and had never been to their new digs which, I suppose, aren't all that new anymore. The general layout is the same as the old space and the presence of Steve Manley behind the counter gave a familiar and welcoming feeling. But it was really odd to be able to browse without having to squeeze between shelves. All that space is so odd. Ha!

I was happy to see that the King Crimson selection remains strong there. 

New tunes

Jay Farrar continues channeling Woody Guthrie in a new song called "These Days Have No Shame". Also, Son Volt will be on tour later this year.

Tomeka Reid has a new album out on the 13th called dance! skip! hop!. The 2nd single from it, "oo long", is previewed on Youtube and can be found in full on her Bandcamp page. Both it and the title track are available there and they both are fantastic. Hopefully she and her band will return to Madison this year.

Now where is that review? (Introducing the Tomeka Reid Quartet)

A couple months ago I ran across a review of the Tomeka Reid Quartet's eponymous album at what I thought was a progressive rock review site I frequent but, having sought out the review, I find that it's nowhere to be seen there so I don't know where I found out about Tomeka Reid and her quartet. Nonetheless I am glad I did.

She is a jazz, a.k.a. - black classical music, cellist and composer out of Chicago. Since the review eludes me, I won't be able to say what caught my attention and compelled me to check out her music. I just recall there being a link to her Bandcamp page that I followed and found that I really enjoyed her 2015 album done with her quartet.

Since she is from Chicago, I thought there was a chance that she had played here in Madison at the Arts + Literature Laboratory which hosts jazz performances. Not only that, many of the shows there have been recorded by an anonymous taper and put into circulation. So I checked my stash and found that I indeed had a recording of the Tomeka Reid Quartet from the Arts + Literature Laboratory.

Jazz taxonomy is not my specialty so I am unsure into what subgenre she falls into. It's just jazz to me. But there is no brass. Instead guitar and Reid's cello do the melodic legwork.

Here's "Billy Bang’s Bounce" recorded here in Madison at the Arts + Literature Lab on Halloween night of 2019.

Piper likes free jazz

Thanks to Mad City Music for the new tunes. And thanks to Chicago's Tomeka Reid for making the great tunes. I hope you can visit our fair burg again soon and play "Old New" and "17 West".