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).
Eric Scott Reed: Out Late
Simply the best of what straight-ahead is all about today: fun, first takes, and jolts of inspiration. Only one of the five men on the cover – the most controversial – is even slightly unfamiliar to our local clubs lately, with the other four having come to swing in different configurations. Reed came to play solo piano at Pyatt Hall last year.
Etienne Charles: Gullah Roots
A rowdy time from the Trinidadian-Floridian trumpeter, who isn't old in the big picture but comes across as a veteran sharing his culture's beauty. It spans from blues guitar shredding to a literal "Kumbaya" choir. Bassist Russell Hall of Emmet's Place fame is also Caribbean-born. It's fun for me to catch up with pianist Christian Sands' playing, too.
Hemphill Stringtet: Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill
I didn't know Hemphill's name until I was mixing Tim Berne's voice into an episode of Dave Douglas' podcast, heard Berne mention the late composer and World Saxophone Quartet founder, then saw that he had named countless album tracks after his former teacher. Here the music of Hemphill, and Mingus, comes through a hip string ensemble.
Hiromi & Sonicwonder: Out There
The virtuosic keyboardist-composer and her Sonicwonder quartet of Adam O'Farrill (who appears again below) on trumpet, Hadrien Feraud on electric bass, and Gene Coye on drums are a riot. The four-part OUT THERE suite is riveting; my favourite track is "Yes! Ramen!!" I remember Feraud as one of the bass kings of early YouTube in the late 2000s.
Marcus Gilmore - Journey to the New: Live at the Village Vanguard
Motivationally roiling like a live record should be. Gilmore brings two bassists: Rashaan Carter, who played on Brandee Younger's new album as well, and Burniss Travis who composed the extended opener "Voltaire", which could be a whole album itself. I'm a fan of guitarist Emmanuel Michael from Dayna Stephens' Closer Than We Think on Cellar.
Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts
Two saxophonists join the sextet for half the record: recent jazzfest headliner Immanuel Wilkins on alto and Brian Settles on tenor. As a big Halvorson fan, I didn't like it as much as the last couple records when I first put it on: it's less flashy, the guitarist isn't the focal point herself, and no one track stands above the others. Yet it rules, and it's sweeter.
Matt Ulery: Mother Harp
Ulery's fresh take on rock in a creative ensemble delights me. There's something about the overtones, some juice in the combinations of instruments that link up for these riffs, that hits the spot. Drummer Quin Kirchner came from Chicago to play the jazzfest with the band Hanging Hearts and also got to jam with Joel Ross.
Sumac & Moor Mother: The Film
Now with a year's hindsight from Todd hearing them and me hearing Irreversible Entanglements at the 2024 jazzfest, I confess that this project reaches me where I'm at better than the Irreversible Entanglements records have (though I saw and felt them live too, then). Challenging and visceral.
Honourable mentions
- Bill Stewart, Walter Smith III, & Larry Grenadier: Live at the Village Vanguard. Do bass captures get any better than this tone from Grenadier in the chordless trio? I've been replaying the double-length blues "How Long Is Jazz".
- Brìghde Chaimbeul: Sunwise. A mostly soundscaping album from the piper who guested on her fellow Scot Matt Carmichael's latest record. It does have a couple fiddle-tune moments plus vocal lilting.
- Esthesis Quartet & Bill Frisell: Sound & Fury. I can't hide my love for any Frisell record, and this one was imagined for the late Ron Miles, who didn't get to play on it. But when would I spin this versus other favourites? Dunno. One of the quartet members, Dawn Clement, is known to our scene.
- Vilhelm Bromander Unfolding Orchestra: Jorden vi ärvde. The Swedish bassist sounds in great form as he puts together a large ensemble that makes me want to read some Henrik Karlsson and revisit the Liberation Music Orchestra.
Some of the things I liked about this go-around: the Windy City, rocking out, being introduced to important stuff or to heritages, and finding collections of people that I can continue following as individuals. Let me know what you discovered.
