New releases

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to receive an advance promo copy of a CD that I wasn't even aware was being released - Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake - From The River To The Ocean, a Thrill Jockey release. Their first Thrill Jockey was the excellent Back Together Again, a duo album that highlighted their incredibly telepathic and empathetic musical relationship that had developed over the course of the past 40+ years of playing together.

Before I opened it up, I expected this album to be the same duo format, but was pleasantly surprised  to see that it also included three other Chicago based musicians - Josh Abrams, Jeff Parker, and the formidable and severely slept on/ underrated Harrison Bankhead. I realized that the band, if you swapped out Fred Anderson for trombonist Jeb Bishop, was the band that Hamid Drake had played with under his leadership several times in Chicago over the past few months and that he must have liked the configuration and decided to throw Fred Anderson into the mix.

I've only listened to it through once so I can't comment on it yet, but I will review it in full once I dig in deeper. My first impressions are highly favorable.

I also just received my copy of Indigo Trio - Live in Montreal, featuring Nicole Mitchell on flutes, and the same stellar Chicago rhythm team of Harrison Bankhead and Hamid Drake. Again, I've only listened a couple of times but there's some really beautiful stuff on here and I'll write more later.

To round out these Chicago based releases, Josh Abrams' new disc on the freshly launched Ropeadope digital label under his pseudonym Reminder, the West Side Cabin EP #1 is now available and I will probably pick it up soon.

I love new music.