fussyjazz:

Mulatu Astatke — Tezeta (Ethiopiques Vol. 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Intrumentale, 1969-1974)

I am one of the few people I know who wasn’t bowled over by Bill Callahan’s last record, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle. Across the board, most everyone I’ve talked to about it is smitten with it. Truly, I think his trio of albums leading up to it (Supper, A River Ain’t Too Much To Love and Woke on a Whaleheart) might just prove to be his hat trick of masterpieces [note: Supper and A River Ain’t Too Much To Love released under Callahan’s Smog moniker]. They also find Callahan in a better mood than we find him most times — er, as good a mood as we could hope for, a lot of credit probably going to his now-defunct romantic relationship with a one Joanna Newsom during which at least two of those records were made (Newsom plays on A River Ain’t Too Much…). On those three, his wordplay, composition and instrumentation are all spritelier. You can almost hear him grinning as the words come out. There’s nary a grin to be found on the latest record. That said, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle contains some Callahan lyrics I oft-return to in my mind: “I used to be darker/Then, I got lighter/Then, I got dark again/Something too big to be seen/Was passing over and over me.” Nothing fancy here, just a cloud metaphor. But it gets you thinking about the chapters of your life, those times when it seems your stars have all aligned, you’re unbeatable; but also your down and out phases, your pricklier times. I feel the big shadow at the moment. Maybe it’s seasonal, astrological, etc. I’m just listening to “Tezeta” on repeat, trying not to look at the cloud, let it take its course. The stars have aligned, turned surpetine and are an orobourus circling all around us now. And I’m actually thinking about a Newsom song, “Go Long,” which makes some obvious allusions to Callahan’s return to darkness: “There’s a man/Who will only speak in code/Backing slowly, slowly down the road/May he master everything/That such a man may know/About loving, and then letting go.”

An excellent post from my favorite blog of the last few months. A toast to keeping it real.