Gadabout Ghosts | Outside the Changes, Q2 2025
My new favourites from the rest of the world: Brandee Younger, Charlie Ballantine, Ches Smith, Mary Halvorson, and more
Outside the Changes is back for its second edition, sharing my favourite new albums that I wouldn't otherwise cover, which basically means international (but excluding clients of mine).
In the first edition, we looked at releases from the first quarter of 2025. These ones below are from the second quarter: April, May, June.
I have 12 albums for you today, in alphabetical order by artist name, plus four honourable mentions. Let's do it:
Brandee Younger: Gadabout Season
I could understand preferring Brand New Life, the album honouring harpist Dorothy Ashby which Younger brought to the 2023 jazzfest, to this one which is less beat-music and more typically meditative, with the spotlight on Younger as composer. But I've been replaying it. Shabaka, Courtney Bryan, and three members of Makaya McCraven's jazzfest band appear.
Charlie Ballantine: East by Midwest
The Indianapolis-born, Baltimore-based guitarist strikes me as a comrade in post-rock improv trio designs. "Strawberry Fields Forever" is a pinpoint take on how I feel about the trio I'm playing in right now, down to the reverse-pedal outro. "Storyteller" is like Lucinda Williams' "Sweet Old World" cast into this mould. And you gotta have that Ornette blues.
Ches Smith: Clone Row
Smith composes for two guitars, playing vibraphone, drums, and FX with guitarist and old bandmate Mary Halvorson, bassist Nick Dunston (they appear again together below), and guitarist Liberty Ellman. Hyperactive glitch-improv that rocks. Coastal Jazz have switched into year-round mode by bringing this group to the Revue Stage on Oct. 10.
Chris Cheek: Keepers of the Eastern Door
As foreshadowed in my notes on Chris Fraser's quartet, here it is: Cheek with a blended Bill Frisell Trio, all-analog with a pastoral environmental theme. Some of the tracks fly by. Messiaen's "O Sacrum Convivium!" on acoustic is an off-the-board call; of course there's a Beatles tune later. I'll probably put this on over I Wish I Knew. Sorry, Chris (Fraser).
