It’s striking that so many entries below are documents of live performances. This reaches down all the way to the top spot. Music created in the moment and captured in the moment to be returned to, shared and cherished. These are our picks for the best reissues and archival releases of 2023. The new releases list starts tomorrow.
10. Sonic Youth – Live in Brooklyn 2011 (Silver Current) With a pointed emphasis on pre-Geffen material, this unexpected late-summer arrival clarified the sharpness this band sustained until the end (or at least very near the end). The career-spanning set list (or as Thurston puts it, going “super-deep”) was by design, as this was their final US show, fittingly going down in the city where they came together decades before to permanently alter rock history. Over time, any lingering sense of the bittersweet has passed (bands break up, y’know?), but it’s fair to say Sonic Youth are still very much missed.
9. John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy – Evenings at the Village Gate (Impulse) I’m not a gambling man, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to discover they’re taking odds in Vegas on whether or not someone (most likely Zev Feldman) turns up some previously unheard material by John Coltrane to see release in 2024. When uncovered stuff by a single artist comes out with such frequency it can reduce the specialness a little, but Evenings at the Village Gate is from a crucial point in Coltrane and Dolphy’s development. Imperfectly recorded, it sounds at times like you’re sitting right beside Elvin Jones at the kit. Cool.
8. The Feelies – Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground (Bar/None) Normally, a recording of an all-covers live set wouldn’t linger long in consideration on these year end lists, but when the band is The Feelies, and when the covers are all by that New Jersey band’s biggest influence (see the title for details), well, that changes the calculus more than a little. To begin, this set offers versions of 18 VU songs with nary a fumble. But what clearly puts Some Kinda Love over the top is the care, commitment, and clear pleasure the band is experiencing as they pull off this considerable feat.
7. V/A – The Secret Museum of Mankind: Atlas of Instruments–Fiddles Vol. 1 (Jalopy) Beginning in the mid-’90s, The Secret Museum of Mankind compilations, curated by 78 collector, fount of knowledge, and occasional recording artist Pat Conte and originally released by the Yazoo label, offered a sweet offramp from the increasing staleness of the indie era. Extending the “old weird” mythos of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music to the entire planet, The Secret Museum’s reemergence after a long hiatus in 2021 was cause for celebration, and this terrific set reveals the return wasn’t a one-off.
6. De La Soul – Three Feet High and Rising + De La Soul Is Dead + Buhloone Mind State + Stakes Is High (AOI/Chrysalis) Reissues don’t get much more overdue and anticipated than this. It’s been no secret that legal troubles kept this music legally unavailable for years, and the story’s handling this year across assorted media outlets related to how De La Soul’s music was finally hitting streaming platforms. But just as importantly, particularly in respect to the raison d’etre of this website, all four of the above records received vinyl reissues, and that’s excellent, as they present a consistently worthwhile if evolving sound.
Three Feet High and Rising made the biggest splash and that’s the record most discussed in mainstream circles, but it’s also enduringly beloved by the serious hip-hop heads. Three Feet has their big hit, but it also introduced a new density and artfulness in sampling that was extended on the sprawling and often dark De La Soul Is Dead, my pick for the best of these four, though the jazz-inflected Buhloone Mind State is exceptional with a very digestible length (it’s the only single LP of the four). Stakes Is High spread back out a bit, but it’s still flows mightily and is comparable in quality to A Tribe Called Quest’s later stuff.
5. Sonny Sharrock – Black Woman + Albert Ayler – In Greenwich Village + Byard Lancaster – It’s Not up to Us (Superior Viaduct) This is simply a fantastic triple serving of ’60s avant jazz from what a song title from It’s Not up to Us describes as John’s Children, with the John in question Mr. Coltrane: three guesses who “Mr. A.A.” from the same album refers to. Of this batch of LPs, it’s Lancaster’s album that holds the most modest reputation, which is likely due to it being the least fervent in expression. But it’s still quite worthwhile, with Jerome Hunter’s Fender bass in the mix alongside Sonny Sharrock’s guitar.
Sharrock is credited with composing “John’s Children” for It’s Not up to Us, and what’s too often overlooked when folks champion the guitarist’s work is that he was far more than just a sonic disrupter. Don’t get it wrong; Black Woman is one of the wildest releases in the free jazz canon, but there’s also “Blind Willie.” And beauty is crucial to Ayler’s In Greenwich Village even as the saxophonist remains an iconoclastic figure. People will occasionally diminish Ayler’s Impulse material but don’t believe ‘em, especially in regard to Village, which is his best LP for the label.
4. Bill Evans – Tales – Live in Copenhagen (1964) + Treasures: Solo, Trio and Orchestra Recordings from Denmark (1965-1969) (Elemental) Released in the spring for Record Store Day, Treasures is a 3LP set that deserves to be coupled with Tales, which came out just last month (both are the handiwork of Jazz Detective Zev Feldman). Tales gets to the core of Evans’ greatness with the trio of bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker. By ’65 that group was done and Treasures captures adventures in Demark in a variety of contexts, all of them highly rewarding.
3. La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela – 31 VII 69 10:26 – 10:49 PM / 23 VIII 64 2:50:45 – 3:11 AM The Volga Delta (Superior Viaduct) This recording, commonly called The Black Record, is a cornerstone Minimalist document, and with an emphasis on the heavy drone. With the exception of bootlegs and more frequently digital files of varying quality, it’s also been essentially unavailable since its initial release in 1969. Young and Zazeela have never seemed to care much about the scarcity of their recordings, so this reissue is a sweet turn of events that holds up like a truckload of suspenders.
2. Matthew Shipp Trio – Circular Temple (ESP-Disk) This is the second time this record has been reissued, though it is making its debut on vinyl here and with its third cover design. First released in 1992 by the pianist on his own label Quinton Records, the contents, featuring Shipp with bassist William Parker and drummer Whit Dickey, remain startling all these years later. It’s really no surprise that it received a repress two years later on Infinite Zero, the label of Henry Rollins and Rick Rubin, with the boost in profile serving as my introduction. That it’s back in the racks and on wax is just splendid.
1. Milford Graves with Arthur Doyle & Hugh Glover – Children of the Forest (Black Editions) + Milford Graves – Babi + Milford Graves & Don Pullen – The Complete Yale Concert, 1966 (Deluxe Edition) Drummer-percussionist Graves passed in 2021, a terrible loss as he was an inspiring figure (check out the movie about him, Milford Graves Full Mantis, currently streaming on the Criterion Channel and purchasable on Apple TV+). This year brought an outpouring of Graves reissues and discoveries that reinforce his mastery, with Children of the Forest, taken from his private archive, closely related to Babi.
Both records feature horn players Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover; along with Graves, they take Fire Music to its molten core. Children of the Forest’s release can reinforce a sense that the music this trio was playing was just too much for people at the time, as Babi became one of the hardest free jazz releases to obtain. But audience reactions highlight that the response of listeners was positive, emphasizing how jazz, and free jazz in particular, is a music best experienced in a live setting. Vinyl records are a close second, of course.
As the title of their record makes plain, the duo of Graves and pianist Don Pullen are captured in live performance (and notably, not in a club gig), the recording initially broken in two and released as In Concert At Yale University and Nommo. In reissuing those original albums separately and in a double set Superior Viaduct is providing a few options, but rest assured that the whole performance is a must for any free jazz shelf. Pullen went on to play with Charles Mingus and co-lead a quartet with saxophonist George Adams, but he’s never sounded better than on The Complete Yale Concert, 1966.
