Just finished: Dino Buzzati’s “Larger Than Life” (1962). Henry Reed translation. Italian SF novel about artificial intelligence. So much better than real AI. #BookSky

Vinyl reckoning: Paul Motian “Tribute” (ECM / Polydor), 1975. Pulled this out after Nels Cline cited it as one of his favorite albums. The double-guitar lineup is tres heavy. Motian lets loose. Haden sounds incredible and they do “Song for Che” and “War Orphans.” An overlooked gem. #JazzSky

Vinyl reckoning: Paul Motian “Tribute” (ECM / Polydor), 1975. Pulled this out after Nels Cline cited it as one of his favorite albums. The double-guitar lineup is tres heavy. Motian lets loose. Haden sounds incredible and they do “Song for Che” and “War Orphans.” An overlooked gem. #JazzSky

Just finished: Kate Atkinson’s “Normal Rules Don’t Apply” (Vintage), 2024. Ostensibly a short story collection, but it’s all linked. Slipstream-y and funny as fuck. Atkinson is certainly one of our best living writers. #BookSky

Vinyl reckoning: Oregon “Music of Another Present Era” (Vanguard), 1972. The first Towner record I ever heard. A friend played it for me but hid the cover. Bought this at Orpheus in Arlington. #JazzSky

Vinyl reckoning: Ralph Towner / Eddie Gomez / Jack DeJohnette “Batik” (ECM / Warner Bros.), 1978. R.I.P., Ralph Towner. #JazzSky

Vinyl reckoning: Ralph Towner “Diary” (ECM / Warner Bros.), 1974. Rest in peace, one of my favorite guitarists. #JazzSky

Vinyl reckoning: Gary Burton “Seven Songs for Quartet and Chamber Orchestra” (ECM), 1973. German pressing. Always a pleasure to hear guitarist Mick Goodrick. This seems of a piece with Mahavishnu’s orchestra-augmented “Apocalypse,” which came out a year later. Heavy times. #JazzSky

Friday morning metal: Melvins “8 Songs” (C/Z Records), 1986. 1991 12” reissue. At a crawl. #Melvins

Clone Row at @rhizomedc.bsky.social tonight. #JazzSky

Vinyl reckoning: R.I.P. Bob Weir

@joegross.bsky.social on Fugazi’s “Red Medicine in the new Creem. Yes, please!

Just finished: Thomas Disch “Echo Round His Bones” (Rupert Hart-Davis), 1969. 1967 novel that seems influenced by Bester’s “The Stars My Destination.” Disch was a great new wave author who was much, much better when not attempting hard sci fi (“334,” “Camp Concentration,” “Asian Shore”). #BookSky

Vinyl reckoning: Tom Prehn Quartet “Axiom” (Rune Grammofon), 1963/2016. Churning, restless sax/piano/bass/percussion flow from what might be Europe’s first free jazz unit. Discovered this in “Now Jazz Now” and had to pick up the reissue (previous Sonet run was a couple test pressings). #JazzSky

Literally a publication for eight-year olds 40 years ago

Speaking of Mats Gustafsson, I asked my friend if we had ever seen The Thing at Bohemian Caverns (I have a 7” and a vague memory). Turns out the answer is ‘yes.’ He sent me this picture. Wow. #JazzSky

About to dig into @byroncoley.bsky.social’s “Now Jazz Now.” Looks amazing. Another neighborhood pickup from Art Sound Language. PJ, the owner, was playing #25, Steve Lacy’s “Forest and the Zoo,” when I walked in the door. #JazzSky #BookSky

FUCK SPOTIFY CD 2 €

Vinyl reckoning: The Paul Bley Quartet (ECM), 1988. One of my favorite pianists with saxophonist John Surman, guitarist Bill Frisell, and drummer Paul Motian. Neighborhood pickup from Art Sound Language. Sparse, melancholic set that suits my mood on this c-c-cold New Years’s day. #JazzSky

Vinyl reckoning: Robert Wyatt “Ruth is Stranger Than Richard” (Virgin), 1975. Some incredible tunes. I especially love “5 Black Notes…” and “Muddy Mouth”—both of which highlight Wyatt’s combo of melancholy and whimsy. Closing with a Charlie Haden cover, it only pales in comparison to “Rock Bottom.”

Vinyl reckoning: Robert Wyatt “Ruth is Stranger Than Richard” (Virgin), 1975. Some incredible tunes. I especially love “5 Black Notes…” and “Muddy Mouth”—both of which highlight Wyatt’s combo of melancholy and whimsy. Closing with a Charlie Haden cover, it only pales in comparison to “Rock Bottom.”

Vinyl reckoning: Mass “You and I” / “Cabbage” (4AD), 1980. Early 4AD post-punk goodness. Post-Rema Rema band that kept the Rema Rema sound alive. #Nowplaying

Not subtle but magnificent.

More Christmas vinyl: John Fahey “The New Possibility.” When I first heard this in a bookstore years ago, I asked the clerk, “Which Bert Jansch record is this?”

Now playing: John Abercrombie “Current Events” (ECM), 1986. Some peak-80s synth guitar in this jazz. Peter Erskine on drums and ‘mullet’ Marc Johnson on bass. It really does sound like they might bust out a cover of Steve Winwood’s “While You See A Chance.” #JazzSky

Vinyl reckoning - Slapp Happy “Sort Of” (Recommended), 1980. UK reissue of Slapp Happy’s 1972 Polydor debut. I always manage to forget this is basically a Faust album. (And a good one.)

"WHEN JAZZ IS FREE EVERYBODY PAYS" Bathroom graffiti, Cafe Oto London

Not to be a hipster, but if you’ve got time and you wanna hear some really great music, try his late quartets

Going to list out some 2025 favorites. Alphabetical order. This is the music that really made my eyes roll back in my head. I'll include Bandcamp links where they exist.

Vinyl reckoning: Marc Johnson “Bass Desires” (ECM), 1986. Generous double-guitar lineup (Frisell and Scofield). Just got into this band in the last few years. Definitely one of the unfuckwithable groups of the eighties. #JazzSky iverson.substack.com/p/tt-399-pet...

Vinyl reckoning: Hedvig Mollestad & Trondheim Jazz Orchestra “Maternity Beat” (Rune Grammofon), 2022. Just catching up on this one, which is quite different than her other records. The combo of guitar and violin—not to mention vocals and orchestra—reminds me of Mahavishnu’s “Apocalypse.” #JazzSky

Just finished: J.G. Ballard “Running Wild” (Hutchinson), 1988. Finally got around to this gated-community-as-panopticon novella. It was the only work of Ballard’s fiction that I had yet to read. Kind of bittersweet to come to the end. #BookSky #JGBallard

Just finished: Robert Coover’s “Briar Rose” (Grove), 1996. I picked this up because of its proximity to Angela Carter’s “Bloody Chamber.” It also reminds me of Anna Kavan’s “Ice” (a feature a friend calls “abyssal refraction”). “Happily ever after…it’s never quite like you imagine it.” #BookSky

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis play Sonny Sharrock’s “Ask the Ages,” The Hamilton, DC, 11/28/25. They threw in a raging version of Sonny Sharrock Band’s “Dick Dogs” and a wild set of their own music (about 50% new) for good measure. #JazzSky

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis play Sonny Sharrock’s “Ask the Ages,” The Hamilton, DC, 11/28/25. They threw in a raging version of Sonny Sharrock Band’s “Dick Dogs” and a wild set of their own music (about 50% new) for good measure. #JazzSky

David Holland, 1983. Solo cello. #jazzsky

Another re-read: Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland” (Little Brown), 1990. I picked this up at a New Orleans thrift store a few years after it was published. Sort through the shaggy dog anecdotes, and there’s a pretty good story in there. #BookSky

I remember talking to Michael Moorcock once about music and he said the first time he went to Memphis he couldn’t believe that nothing was preserved, given the fact that the second half of the 20th century started there.

Vinyl reckoning: Eberhard Weber “Fluid Rustle” (ECM, Germany), 1979. Guitarist Bill Frisell’s first ECM session. One-of-a-kind quintet lineup: bass, guitar, vibes, and two vocalists. Ethereal. #JazzSky

I’ve been enjoying @jrdarchivist.bsky.social’s “Keep Your Ear to the Ground,” a book that’s helped illuminate the world I stumbled into when I moved from SW Va. to DC. A fan of John’s zine, Held Like Sound, I somehow talked him into letting me contribute to HLS back in the day. #BookSky

Morning screening: Kurosawa’s “Hidden Fortress” (1958).

Vinyl reckoning: Lee Morgan “Infinity” (Blue Note), 1981. 1965 session with Jackie McLean, Larry Willis, Reggie Workman, and Billy Higgins. Hard to believe it took 16 years to release this. Even the ‘81 liners acknowledge this is among Morgan’s “best work.” #JazzSky

Dad Calling    Just To Say He Loves King Crimson https://theonion.com/dad-calling-just-to-say-he-loves-king-crimson/

Where I’ll be for the next 207 minutes.

Vinyl reckoning: Tortoise “Touch” (@intlanthem.bsky.social), 2025. Deep instrumentals that reward deep listening.

Vinyl reckoning: Grant Green “Talkin’ About” (Blue Note / King), 1965/1983. ‘80s Japanese reissue of this proto-Lifetime trio session with Green on electric guitar, Larry Young on organ and Elvin Jones on drums. I’ll listen to ANY Grant Green recording, but this one is special. #JazzSky

I saw the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, led by Tõnu Kaljuste, performing Arvo Pärt back in 2014. Easily one of my top 10 favorite concerts. They performed "Fratres" and "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten" among others. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Vinyl reckoning: Grateful Dead “Blues for Allah” (Grateful Dead Records), 1975. R.I.P. Donna Godchaux. #GratefulDead