2021: the best bits
“Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future, / And time future contained in time past.” The older I get, the more profoundly those words resonate. They begin “Burnt Norton”, the opening poem of T. S Eliot’s Four Quartets sequence, first published together in 1943. When the initial lockdown began last year, the actor Ralph Fiennes had the idea of committing the poems to memory. Then he decided to present them on stage in a production that he would direct. A risky proposition, staging poetry. But the miraculous property of Fiennes’s monologue, which I saw at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London at the end of November, was that by acting the lines, and by using his body as well as his voice, he brought out meanings that might have escaped even the most assiduous silent reader. Hildegard Bechtler’s set, Christopher Shutt’s sound design and Tim Lutkin’s lighting helped Fiennes to guide us, over the course of 75 unforgettable minutes, through a great work in all its dimensions.
NEW ALBUMS
1 The Weather Station: Ignorance (Fat Possum)
2 Masabumi Kikuchi: Hanamichi (Red Hook)
3 Vijay Iyer / Linda May Han Oh / Tyshawn Sorey: Uneasy (ECM)
4 Anthony Joseph: The Rich Are Defeated Only When Running for Their Lives (Heavenly Sweetness)
5 Amir El Saffar / Rivers of Sound: The Other Shore (Out Note)
6 Peter Hammill: In Translation (Fie!)
7 Alexander Hawkins: Togetherness Music (Intakt)
8 James McMurtry: The Horses and the Hounds (New West)
9 Jason Moran: The Sound Will Tell You (Bandcamp)
10 Miguel Zenón & Luis Perdomo: El Arte del Bolero (Miel Music)
11 Sault: Nine (Forever Living Originals)
12 William Parker: Mayan Space Station (AUM Fidelity)
13 Johnathan Blake: Homeward Bound (Blue Note)
14 Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue: Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses (Pi)
15 Xhosa Cole: K(n)ow Them, K(n)ow Us (Stoney Lane)
16 Tom Rainey Obbligato: Untucked in Hannover (Intakt)
17 John Zorn: Parables (Tzadik)
18 Tomos Williams: Cwmwl Tystion (Ty Cerdd)
19 Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders: Promises (Luaka Bop)
20 Tom Challenger: Imasche (Bandcamp)
21 Hiss Golden Messenger: Quietly Blowing It (Merge)
22 Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra: Tales from the Jacquard (Whirlwind)
23 Tyshawn Sorey / Alarm Will Sound: For George Lewis / Autoschediasms (Cantaloupe)
24 Lana Del Rey: Chemtrails Over the Country Club (Universal)
25 The Memory Band: Colours (Hungry Hill)
ARCHIVE / REISSUE
1 Julius Hemphill: The Boyé Multi-National Crusade for Harmony (New World)
2 John Coltrane: A Love Supreme Live in Seattle (Impulse)
3 The Band: Stage Fright / Live at the Albert Hall (Capitol)
4 Various: This Love Was Real: L. A. Vocal Groups 1959-1964 (Ace)
5 Splinters: Inclusivity (Jazz in Britain)
6 Alice Coltrane: Kirtan: Turiya Sings (Impulse)
7 Group Sounds Four & Five: Black and White Raga (Jazz in Britain)
8 Mose Allison: The Complete Atlantic & Elektra Albums 1962-1983 (Strawberry)
9 Bob Dylan: Bootleg Series Vol 16: Springtime in New York (Columbia)
10 Barney Wilen: La Note Bleue (Elemental)
11 Van Der Graaf Generator: The Charisma Years Box (Virgin)
12 Mike Taylor: Trio, Quartet & Composer Revisited (ezz-thetics)
13 Various: Separate Paths Together: An Anthology of British Male Singer-Songwriters 1965-75 (Grapefruit)
14 Hasaan Ibn Ali: Metaphysics (Omnivore)
15 Various: People Get Ready: The Curtis Mayfield Songbook (Kent)
16 Elton Dean Quartet: They All Be on This Old Road (Ogun)
17 Third Ear Band: Alchemy: The Albums 1969-72 (Esoteric)
18 Various: Lowrider Soul Vol 2 (Kent)
19 Graham Collier: British Connection (My Only Desire)
20 Stan Getz Quartet / Astrud Gilberto: Live at the Berlin Jazz Festival 1966 (The Lost Recordings)
LIVE
1 Patti Smith Group (Royal Albert Hall, October)
2 Vijay Iyer / Linda May Han Oh / Tyshawn Sorey (Queen Elizabeth Hall, November)
3 Nu Civilisation Orchestra’s What’s Going On (Queen Elizabeth Hall, November)
4 Xhosa Cole Trio (Cockpit Theatre, October)
5 Cécile McLorin Salvant (Cadogan Hall, November)
STREAM
Bob Dylan’s Shadow Kingdom (Veeps.com)
FILMS
1 The Summer of Soul (dir. Ahmir Thompson)
2 David Byrne’s American Utopia (dir. Spike Lee)
3 The Velvet Underground (dir. Todd Haynes)
BOOKS
1 Patrick Modiano: Invisible Ink (Yale University Press)
2 Rickie Lee Jones: Last Chance Texaco (Grove Press)
3 Lenny Kaye: Lightning Striking (White Rabbit)
4 Horst Krüger: The Broken House (Bodley Head)
5 Richard Thompson: Beeswing (Faber & Faber)
6 Michael Holding: Why We Kneel, How We Rise (Simon & Schuster)
7 Andrew Humphreys: Raving upon Thames (Paradise Road)
8 Harvey & Kenneth Kubernik: Voodoo Child (Sterling)
9 Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz: The Passenger (Pushkin Press)
10 Lili Anolik: Hollywood’s Eve (Scribner)
thebluemoment.com 
Thank you for doing this. Best, Andrew Taylor
Absolutely loved Four Quartets. Along with Under Milkwood. So glad to have caught them both
Many thanks for such an inspiring list and for all your insightful and enjoyable posts during the year. Very much look forward to more of the same in 2022. Your choices, and succinct analysis and comments are always a delight to read. Merry Christmas!
Some I’d picked up on, but a lot to spend my record tokens on in January. Thanks for the summary, and your delightful posts during the year. Merry Christmas.
Some inspiration to be drawn from those lists, Richard. Thanks for all your informed and entertaining pieces throughout the year and best wishes for 2022.
I have looked forward to your end-of-year ‘best bits’ since you first started writing these posts, and this year’s, like all the previous ones, is packed with treasure; many thanks. I am particularly grateful to you for highlighting some of the non-jazz recordings released in 2021, and I look forward to hearing Hiss Golden Messenger and James McMurtry, both new names to me.
My own archive release of the year is the appearance on CD – at long, long last – of Barre Phillips’ ‘Basse Barre’ from 1968; I’ve been waiting a long time to hear this solo bass classic.
Thanks again for all your terrific writing this year – best wishes for 2022.
Thanks, Graham. Much appreciated. Is ‘Basse Barre’ the same as ‘Journal Violone’, issued in the UK as Unaccompanied Barre? All best to you, too.
Yes, Richard, it’s the same as the ‘Unaccompanied Barre’ UK album (except the CD artwork is not easy on the eye; the photos of Barre on the UK LP sleeve would have been better). Used copies of the LP have been available, but at ridiculous prices, so the CD release is most welcome. Here it is:
https://futuramarge.bandcamp.com/album/basse-barre
An annual treat with lots to explore – particularly loved seeing Michael Holding’s essential book in there
Thank you Richard for sharing with us.
Happy New Year.