This list could’ve been a helluva lot longer. Like, easily three times as long, which excludes the unheard releases. So if you’re favorites aren’t here, please assume they are hovering just outside the top 20, or just didn’t get a listen, because time is finite. And as Booker T. told us, time is tight, so here’s part two of the Best Reissues and Archival Releases of 2022. Part one is here.
10. Savage Republic, Tragic Figures Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition (Real Gone) & Africa Corps Live at the Whisky A Go Go 30th December 1981 (Independent Project Records) Tragic Figures remains one of the more underrated records to have emerged from the US underground of the 1980s, expanded here to 2LP by Real Gone with an extra album of rehearsal recordings. Afrika Corps’ live set is from the same period, with nearly all the cuts from Tragic Figures represented during the set. It’s a sweet complement to the studio work, as the Flipper meets Einstürzende Neubauten feel burns bright during “Real Men.”
9. Pepper Adams with the Tommy Banks Trio, Live at Room at the Top (Reel to Real) Pepper Adams (who passed in 1986) might not be the highest-profile baritone saxophonist (that honor likely still belongs to either Gerry Mulligan or Harry Carney), but he’s far from obscure, having worked consistently for decades as a leader and a key sideman on records and on the bandstand. In September of ’72 he lit out for Alberta, Canada between stints in the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band and hooked up with a local trio led by pianist Tommy Banks. This 2LP documents the performance, imperfect and lowkey, yet sublime.
8. The Flamingos, Flamingo Serenade (Real Gone) Most great doo-wop LPs weren’t recorded as such, instead being compilations of singles with a few unreleased cuts possibly added in to pad out the runtime. Flamingo Serenade is an exception, and indeed a thematically constructed LP full of The Flamingos’ vocal group interpretations of pop standards cut at the behest of End Records producer George Goldner. What could’ve been a snooze fest is transformed by inspired harmonies and in-the-pocket instrumental backing. And you’re not going to find an original that’s not marred with crackle.
7. Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, Spielt Eigen Kompositionen (Mississippi) This is a fresh edition of Mississippi’s earlier reissue of Ethiopian Nun Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru’s privately pressed debut album from 1967, originally a 10-inch that now sells for hundreds of dollars. The set’s five tracks were also included on Éthiopiques 21: Piano Solo, a set devoted entirely to the works of Gebru, who was born in 1922 and is still with us today. A documentary on Gebru is titled Honky-Tonk Nun, but her vibrant piano compositions are in the classical tradition with distinctive Ethiopian flavor.
6. Beat Happening, 1983-1985, Jamboree, Black Candy, Dreamy, You Turn Me On, Music to Climb the Apple Tree By (Domino) If Savage Republic are underrated in the ’80 underground scheme of things, Beat Happening were and likely still are the most divisive band of the era. Much of this comes down to their sheer honesty. While scads of their contemporaries were softies under surly exteriors, Beat Happening skipped the pretense and embraced a general decency that was only magnified by their stripped-down, instrument switching take on post-VU indie pop.
5. Skip James, The Complete 1931 Session (ORG Music) That Paramount actually released all 18 sides Skip James recorded for the label in 1931 is somewhat surprising, given that none of the records were big sellers and it was the Great Depression. Thankfully, they did, as otherwise these songs, which stand amongst the very best of country blues and Skip James’ artistic peak, would’ve been lost. James is more celebrated for his harrowing guitar and vocals in tracks like “Devil Got My Woman” than for his striking piano playing, but this set has it all, and has it in better sound than I’ve ever heard it before.
4. Ahmad Jamal, Emerald City Nights (Live at The Penthouse 1963-1964) & Emerald City Nights (Live at The Penthouse 1965-1966) (Jazz Detective / Deep Digs Music Group / Elemental Music) The great pianist Ahmad Jamal was never better than when he was on the bandstand. Indeed, it was At the Pershing: But Not for Me, released in 1958 by Argo, that cemented his reputation. This pair of 2LP/2CD sets underscore his prowess in the trio format, with the playing frequently more energetic than one might expect. All four sides flow without a hitch as they reinforce Jamal as one of the greatest jazz pianists.
3. Mal Waldron, Searching in Grenoble: The 1978 Solo Piano Concert (Tompkins Square) Mal Waldron was another titan of the jazz piano, serving as Billie Holiday’s final accompanist, collaborating extensively with the soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, and making an out of tune upright sound like a million bucks on Eric Dolphy Live at the Five Spot. There is also no shortage of Waldron solo endeavors, and while I’ve never encountered a subpar recording of the pianist by his lonesome, this rediscovered set might be the best I’ve yet heard. It’s destined to rank amongst Waldron greatest achievements.
2. Andy Irvine & Paul Brady, S/T (Compass Records Group) An argument can be made that this is the greatest recording of traditional Irish music ever. Its sheer excellence is such that it should be experienced even by folks who profess to disdaining trad Irish stuff as perhaps too lilting, or maybe too maudlin. This set, cut in 1976 by two members of the Irish folk group Planxty in the wake of their breakup, has heft and even a little edge as the emotionalism is high but never soppy. Newbies should dip a toe by checking out the album’s tour de force “Arthur McBride.”
1. William Parker, Universal Tonality (Centering) The name of this double live set is also its operating principle, coming to bassist and bandleader William Parker after a performance pairing a group of improvisors with didgeridoo players and Cherokee dancers went down wonderfully. The realization of Universal Tonality is, to quote Parker, “the concept that if we’re all breathing together, we’re singing together.” This nearly two hour performance from NYC’s Roulette on December 14, 2002 (that’s 20 years ago today!) is based in and exemplifies the Universal Tonality model.
The participants, 16 in all, are a huge reason for this recording’s success. Vets Grachan Moncur III (trombone), Dave Burrell (piano), Billy Bang (violin), Daniel Carter (reeds and brass), and Jerome Cooper (drums), and younger players Gerald Cleaver (drums), Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Rob Brown (alto sax) ,and Leena Conquest (voice). Conquest in particular, whether speaking or singing, is key to the objective of elevated unity, as is the range of instrumentation, with balafon by Roger Blank and Cooper, chirimia by Cooper, komungo by Jin Hi Kim, and koto by Miya Masaoka.
Along with Parker’s propulsive anchor, Joe Morris (guitar), Steve Swell (trombone), Matt Lavelle (trumpet), and Cale Brandley (tenor sax) complete the band. The music has lineage in the ’60s ecstatic jazz that informed the music of the ’70s lofts (the era where Parker debuted on record) and gave way to the ’80s Downtown underground and the gradual resurgence of freely improvised music on record and live in the ‘90s and into the new century. Universal Tonality is a prime example as it spits out beautiful sparks of freedom for the everloving now.
