A List of Music You Didn't Ask For - 2017 Edition

There is absolutely no way to overstate what a vital role music has had for me throughout 2017. As many of you know, the year began with my left forearm broken in half, banded back together with titanium only to rebrake mid-February, forcing a second surgery and prolonged rehab and physical therapy. Combine this with a frustrating year of politics and policy, uncertainty with my job (since abated, thank goodness!) and actually seeing a person die, the need for that "thing" to transport me away from the moment was essential.

In past years, my bike was my solace, taking me outside and allowing me to push my endurance and spiritual limits that would allow me to recenter. With that outlet removed due to recovery (at least through May), I found my peace with my turntable and the warmth of vinyl turning. My new happy place moved from my bike saddle to stretching out on my couch, listening to lots and lots of music. And, fortunately, there was lots of great music to hear this year. And with every great new release, there usually was a corresponding concert nearby, taking me from the personal confines of my living room to Phoenix's newest concert gem or Hollywood's most fabled cemetery to boogie and sway.

My greatest musical discovery this year was my reawakening to the beautiful age of bebop, hard bop and post bop jazz. I could not stop consuming artists like Cannonball Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver, Milt Jackson, Grant Green and many others beyond the usuals like Miles, Trane and Brubeck, brought to life on the thick black platters from Blue Note, Verve, Impulse, Columbia and Riverside. Unfortunately for you, this means another list will descend upon you shortly.

For now, here are my favorite records of 2017.

1. Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly & James McAlister, Planetarium
I'm convinced that nobody is pushing creativity right now quite like Sufjan Stevens. And he here collaborates with one of modern classical's greatest composers and one of rock's greatest guitarists to create a musical trip through our galaxy that never ceases to be rooted right here in the humanity of Earth, warts, flaws and all. This album is big, exploratory, wandering, lost, found, strange and brilliant.

2. The National, Sleep Well Beast

This album not only is the most straight guitar rock by The National in nearly 10 years, it also manages to wrap itself around you like a warm, electric blanket and let you peer into the personal relationships of Matt and the brothers Dessners and Devendorfs.

3. Spoon, Hot Thoughts

Like most every other record by Spoon, this one flat cooks. The difference this time is more keyboards. But the ability by this band to rule a stage was on full display when they split a bill with The Shins and they made The Shins feel like the warm-up act even though they closed. I've yet to hear a bad record by these guys.

4. Ron Miles, I Am a Man
Ron Miles: I Am A Man from Derek O. Hanley on Vimeo.
This album gets its title from the sign carried by striking sanitation workers in Memphis in 1968. This set is jazz as its finest workings, with a collection of today's very top: Jason Moran, Bill Frissell, Brian Blade and Tom Morgan. This is grace.

5. Grizzly Bear, Painted Ruins

The continued evolution of this group of Brooklynites, here with more pronounced drums, has more bounce and quirk than their previous sound.

6. San Fermin, Belong

I'm astonished how few know about this outfit. And that one of their lead singers, Charlene Kaye, comes from here in Phoenix.

7. LCD Soundsystem, American Dream

As far as comebacks go, this is as good as they come.

8. Sylvan Esso, What Now

You have to be crafty to write a song that skewers pop and radio and then become a hit on pop radio and far beyond. It's incredible to see two people put on the show that they do, too.

9. Beck, Colors

A step back for Beck is still so much better than most others. Can't see why he should be penalized when his songs are still so dang good.

10. Kamasi Washington, Harmony of Difference

It seems Kamasi Washington is most known for making the music on Kendrick Lamar's albums so good. Others go to his really long album from a couple of years ago, The Epic. This is Washington finding his real sound and making it tight while still exploratory. Good things look to be on the horizon for this still very young sax master.

And nine more because this year's sounds were just so good:
11. Portugal. The Man, Woodstock
12. Japanese Breakfast, Soft Sounds From Another Planet
13. Sharon Jones & the DapKings, Soul of a Woman
14. Mac Demarco, This Old Dog
15. The XX, I See You
16. Phoenix, Ti Amo
17. St. Vincent, Masseduction
18. Tennis, Yours Conditionally
19. Temples, Volcano

As for concerts, I have to call out the tremendous show by Iron & Wine at the Van Buren in October. It was simple and beautiful and funny and perfect. Sam's new album is one I have not had a chance to dive into yet, but I do love this track:

I hope you find a few new things in this list that move you as much as they have carried me this past year. Here's to a great 2018!

My condolences to all of US

As a friend semi-sarcastically posted this morning, "I think we can all agree that the shooting was bad." We all have heavy hearts for those victims and their families in Las Vegas. We should be able to say, "That goes without saying," yet we all feel compelled and responsible to still say it.

But shouldn't we all also be sending condolences to the American people at large? We have had so many opportunities to curb this kind of incident through levels of control and legislation that would keep the weapons this man used out of the hands of people like this man. This is an incident where more guns would not have prevented this or made it any less tragic. This is an incident where this man could have been identified for amassing weapons and ammunition if proper registration and tracking processes were in place. This is an incident where this man could have possibly been identified if Donald Trump had not repealed a rule to block sales from people with certain mental illnesses.

No one, and I mean NO ONE, has ever come forward with legislation to revoke all guns from all people and repeal the Second Amendment. That has never happened, and it never will. But reasonable people want reasonable laws passed so that these tools of death and destruction (that is their sole purpose) can be regulated to minimize this kind of incident as much as possible. It is time for courageous people to stand up and make necessary laws to protect us as citizens.

So I send my condolences to those in Las Vegas, but I also send them to the rest of us across the United States of America, because unless something is done to curb this violent nonsense we will probably be next.

We actually saw a person die tonight

The following is an email I sent last night to my mom and brother, Wyatt, after my wife, Vicki, our kids and I said goodbye after a quick weekend getaway to Pine, AZ. Pine is the home of our summer retreat at the base of the Mogollon Rim, about 90 minutes north of Phoenix. As we were leaving, we saw a heard of elk, about 35 strong captained by a massive buck with stout antlers and a menacing yet protective expression. It was an awesome sight of nature and wildlife, yet looking back felt more like some kind of animalistic warning out of a Miyazaki movie.


Mom and Brother,

Well, we finally just made it home, but not without a great deal of drama. The short of it is that we are all here, we are all safe. But, we actually saw a person die tonight.

As we went past Deer Creek, a couple of motorcycles whipped past us at way beyond high speed, gripping the curving highway leaning their motorbikes at 45 degrees or more. They weaved their way around cars and disappeared around the bend that leads up the big climb through where the roads get limited down to a single lane. As we made our way through that area, with any trace of daylight now fully evaporating, we noticed a third motorcycle cut right around us just as the left lane got pinched into the right. We all got in line to make our way through this section when I saw the other two waiting on the right, clearly looking for their other member of their group. He revved to let them know he caught up and then once the lanes opened up, all three bolted off around the bend of Mt. Ord and into the darkness.

We began the descent past the Sycamore Creek turnoff when I noticed what looked like a red flare against the median and quickly realized it was one of the bikes, so I started scanning the road for a body. Vicki, who did an amazing job driving through this incident, saw the body stretched across the left lane and dodged around it as I saw a second bike on the ground on the right shoulder. Cars began pulling over with people jumping out and heading up the hill to see if the could find the bodies and, more importantly, signal to the other cars streaking down the mountain to slow down. Vicki, among several others, was on the phone to 911 letting them know of the incident. We could hear the body in the highway get run over several times and by the time we got to it, it was hardly human any longer. One man dragged it out of the highway while a few of us looked among the roadside for any sign of another person. The cars screaming around that downhill bend and starting to stack up where we all pulled over were absolutely terrifying. The other motorcyclist whose bike was in the shoulder finally came walking back down the hill, clearly beyond shock but uninjured. He was joined by the third rider who made his way back up along the shoulder to find this devastation. It was amazing to see these young men high on thrill become so instantly mortified and broken, but their carelessness brought this upon themselves.

It took well over 20 minutes for the first emergency respondent to show up. I returned to the car to be with the kids. Vicki finally made her way back to us 10 minutes later. Amazingly, no other accidents occurred. Vicki said that one of the men who was up the road with her remarked to his wife just moments before the incident, "I wonder how long before one of them gets scraped off the road." Little did he or any of us know.

As we were leaving Pine, we did come back across that heard of Elk, making their way down Bradshaw to the meadow. I half joked to the kids once I got back to the car on the side of the road after the accident that those elk knew something and were trying to keep us from getting on the road tonight. The entire incident still haunts me, even as I sit here in my bed now. Yet I also thought of the 10-15 cars of people who immediately and instinctively pulled over to assist in whatever way we could. In a span of a few moments we saw how stupid, foolish and selfish a few people can be while so many more are so good, so decent.

It was a hard remainder of a ride home, but here we are. We even stopped at Target to get Lucas a few supplies for his first day (he is grinning ear to ear in anticipation for tomorrow) and some yogurt so we could have a sweet taste touch our tongue before truly calling it a night.

Thank you for a wonderful yet quick weekend. I love you both. Be careful out there.

Love,
Jason

Here is the report from the Payson Roundup on the accident.

Making America great again?

How does one go about making America great again? Apparently, you follow these five easy steps:
 
1) Instead of properly vetting qualified personnel to surround yourself to navigate this new venture of Federal government, you hire a bunch of self-centered, novice government and administrative sycophants (not to mention all those family members) who you will end up firing within six months.
 
2) Instead of working with leading experts to put together health care reform that can help all those coal miners and blue collar workers you romanced to get elected, you focus on imaginary voters and Russian conspiracy, contradicting yourself endlessly at every step.
 
3) Instead of building stronger foreign relations with your current allies and new relationships with adversarial nations, you antagonize all your friends, focus on building a see-through border wall to avoid flying bags of narcotics and hit on the wife of the newly elected President of France.
 
4) Instead of putting forward new economic stimulus and tax reform packages that will push the national economy to tremendous new heights (believe me), you ride the coat tails of the the previous administration's economic plan that continues to generate a bull market and job growth but claim it as your own.
 
5) Instead of leading, making sure the buck stops with you and owning accountability for everything on your watch, you play the greatest victim, pointing fingers everywhere but at yourself, blame fake news (#sad), FBI investigators and your own political appointees for your own failures.

All things considered, I'm kind of glad America has sucked all this time.