William Schuth

  • My 2018 Favorites

    I haven’t done something like this in a few years.

    2018 Favorites

    Books

    • Poetry: Wisława Szymborska’s Here
    • Fiction: Evgenij Vodolazkin’s Laurus
    • Non-Fiction: Michael McGregor’s Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax
    • Children: Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen

    Music

    • Album (new): Sons of Kemet, Your Queen is a Reptile
    • Album (old): Tohru Aizawa Quartet, Tachibana
    • Tune (instrumental): Kenny Barron Quintet’s “Aquele Frevo Axé”
    • Tune (w/ vocals): John Prine’s “Summer’s End”

    Gustatory

    Web & Tech

  • I really do not need to know about a refurbished Olympia Traveler or an heirloom-quality Remington Torpedo available for sale.

  • Should I be watching video analyses of the music theory & production techniques of recent popular music right before bed? It’d be a problem if I still dreamt.

  • Post-holiday confession: I’m not a huge fan of prime rib, nor does it particularly signify “holiday meal” to me. I appreciate the spirit in which it is offered, but it’s not even in the top five proteins I’d choose for my own Christmas meal.

  • It’s silly, but this made me smile.

  • Blending foodways: a Brandy Old Fashioned & τυροπιτάκια.

  • Bach was at the peak of his creative powers. Yet for some reason, instead of sitting down and writing original music, he turned increasingly to old compositions, pulling them off the shelf and using their contents as the basis for new works.

    The Master Recycler | NYRoB

  • Post-holiday mental exhaustion set in today with a vengeance. I took a little time to “put away my brain” and just be, which our cats were glad to facilitate, but the most restorative thing was the moment my daughter walked in the house & told me she wanted to give me a hug.

  • I just completed one of my favorite end-of-semester traditions: the last-minute renewal of library loans.

  • Well, I certainly didn’t expect to find an Ello notification in my stocking, er Inbox, this morning.

  • Merry Christmas from our house to yours.

  • Uncle Fritz started early.

  • Is there any more exquisite-yet-fleeting pleasure than gathering four generations of a family in the same room?

  • Found the cover shot for my never-to-exist Christmas jazz album.

  • I wasn’t about to turn down a glass of 18 year old single malt, but my stomach still rememberers why I quit drinking Scotch.

  • Beloved terrain.

  • Rockin’ John McDonald’s annual “I Like It Like That” Christmas show on WORT is one of my favorite traditions. You can listen live right now, or catch it in WORT’s program archive for the next couple weeks.

  • I really wish Overcast could track podcast recommendations from the wonderful, interesting people in my Micro.blog timeline.

  • My all-time favorite line from an Out of Office reply:

    If your email is urgent, please resend it on [date over a month from now].

    Season’s greetings, everyone.

  • Rarely is there a new Christmas album that doesn’t come across as a hollow, crass money grab. JD McPherson’s Socks blends just enough nostalgic sound to make the fresh songs feel like sneaking a little rum into the eggnog.

  • The Last Day of Sunlight in Norilsk | Nowness [YouTube]

  • James Mattis’ departure from the Pentagon, just announced by vandal-in-chief on his pet social media platform, should chill every person in this country to the marrow. There is no unassailable counterweight to Bolton’s influence on the White House left in the administration.

  • If you’re looking for a type of weather to make me cranky, you couldn’t pick something more effective than high 30s & rain in late December.

  • I’m guessing the likelihood of finding an archived version of an app removed from the App Store to unlock & extract my data from the app’s proprietary backup file in Dropbox is close to zero.

  • My Year-End Music Mixes for 2018

    In early December I usually make a year-end mix of the tunes I’ve enjoyed for distribution with a small group of friends. That circle of distribution has grown smaller over the last five or so years. Last year, I didn’t make a mix at all. I made one this year, but — for a couple of reasons — have not shared it beyond a couple of folks in town.

    One reason, which probably makes a difference if you’re curious enough to go listen, is that the two mixes are almost entirely jazz or jazz-adjacent, and I know that’s to everyone’s taste. I’m not going to impose an expectation of some kind of reaction on someone who is going to feel a burden to respond. If you like jazz, great — follow the links to listen. If not, we can chat about something else.

    The second reason is, as I think the music in the mix largely conveys, I feel like I have less to say than I did several years ago. It doesn’t mean I’m any less interested in the world around me — I’m thinking about it about the same amount as always — but that I am reserving comment for moments when I think it’s most important or valuable. Not everything I think needs to be a public thought, and not everything I would wish to express needs to happen through words.

    Finally, before we get to the mixes: You will see a link to a public Spotify playlist following the track list. Do not follow me on Spotify. I do not regularly use the service. These may be the only playlists I share in the next eleven months — or ever.

    2018 (Mix One)

    1. The Kenny Barron Quintet – Aquele Frevo Axé | Concentric Circles
    2. Emil Brandqvist Trio – Starlings | Within a Dream
    3. Snorre Kirk – Blues Overture | Beat
    4. Bombino – Adounia Idagh | Deran
    5. David Virelles – Tapame Que Tengo Frio | Igbo Alakorin (The Singer’s Grove) Vol. I & II
    6. Pablo Lapidusas International Trio – Nandri | Bora
    7. Bixiga 70 – Levante | Quebra Cabeça
    8. Thompson Egbo-Egbo – Gangsta’s Paradise | Gangsta’s Paradise – Live at The Horseshoe Tavern
    9. Orquestra Akokán – Mambo Rapidito | Orquestra Akokán
    10. Anbessa Orchestra – Gize Suite | Negestat
    11. Sons of Kemet – My Queen is Harriet Tubman | Your Queen is a Reptile
    12. Bill Frisell – Change in the Air | Music IS
    13. Pipe Dream – Summer Prayer | Pipe Dream
    14. John Prine – Summer’s End | The Tree of Forgiveness
    15. Bobo Stenson Trio – Canción Contra la Indecisión | Contra la Indecisión
    16. Tord Gustavsen Trio – The Other Side | The Other Side
    17. Mathais Eick – For My Grandmothers | Ravensburg

    Note: Spotify does not have Track 5, David Virelles’ glimpse into the musical heritage of Santiago de Cuba via his beautiful rendition of “Tapame Que Tengo Frio.” Instead, I have included Kamasi Washington’s “Testify” from Heaven and Earth.

    Listen on Spotify

    2018 (Mix Two)

    1. Dmitry Chemierv Quintet – Ghost | Dmitry Chemierv Quintet [EP]
    2. Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, & Jack DeJohnette – One for Majid | After the Fall
    3. Cuong Vu 4-tet – Alive | Change in the Air
    4. Anthony Joseph – Suffering | People of the Sun
    5. Tohru Aizawa Quartet – Samba de Orfeu | Tachibana
    6. Yellowjackets – Mutuality | Raising Our Voice
    7. Daniel Erdmann, Christophe Marguet, Claude Tchamitchian, & Henri Texier – A n’importe quel prix | Three Roads Home
    8. Aaron Parks – Small Planet | Little Big
    9. Edward Simon – Uninvited Thoughts (with Afinidad & Imani Winds) | Sorrows & Triumphs
    10. Trygve Seim – Ciaccona per Embrik | Helsinki Songs
    11. Charlie Haden & Brad Mehldau – My Old Flame | Long Ago and Far Away

    Listen on Spotify

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