While it seems like ancient history, it is within living memory that releasing an album was an entirely reasonable economic decision for independent musicians. Back when people were accustomed to exchanging currency for physical objects embedded with sonic information, musicians could expect to cover their costs of an album’s production.
These days, it’s never been easier to record and release music. The process of writing, arranging, recording, mastering, sequencing and packaging a series of tracks that ideally add up to more than the sum of their parts can still play an essential role in a musician’s creative process. But producing an album is harder than ever to justify financially.
Yet hundreds of East Bay artists still seek to define and share their music by releasing CDs and even LPs, which invariably provide better sound and a more engaging experience than music disseminated solely online. Here are nine of my favorite albums released by local artists this year, in alphabetical order. Paying for the albums increases the likelihood these artists will be able to continue recording their music.
Actual Trio, ‘Spires’
Forged during a years-long regular gig at North Oakland’s long-defunct Actual Café, Berkeley’s Actual Trio features insistently exploratory guitarist John Schott and the supplely swinging team of bassist Dan Seamans and drummer John Hanes. The group’s third album, Spires, centers on a concise three-part suite inspired by Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers, which neatly matches the trio’s spikey but discreet sound with the soaring, latticed South Central Los Angeles landmark.
Citta Di Vitti, ‘citta di vitti’
Though saxophonist Phillip Greenlief relocated from his longtime digs in Oakland to Maine last year, the collective trio Citta Di Vitti features the prolific Berkeley rhythm section tandem of bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and drummer Jason Levis. Inspired by the portentously spacious films of Michelangelo Antonioni, the eponymous project moves curiously through those cinematic vistas with a variety of undulating, rhythmically taut interactions.
Daggerboard & Erik Jekabson Orchestra, ‘The Axes Volume II: Summer Solstice’
Part of an ambitious, ongoing project featuring trumpeter Erik Jekabson’s orchestral works inspired by seasonal shifts, The Axes Volume II was recorded live at the Hillside Club in Berkeley and the Dresher Studio in West Oakland.
Stocked with an embarrassment of talent, the ensemble navigates Jekabson’s lustrous melding of jazz voicings, minimalism and chamber music with glorious results. Working closely with Gregory Howe, a writing and arranging partnership that records as Daggerboard, he’s created a sumptuous lyrical realm unlike any other on the scene.
B. DeVeaux, ‘Chrysalis’
It’s been a breakout year for Oakland soul singer/songwriter B. DeVeaux, whose luscious contralto and gift for crafting incantatory tunes have led to performances on illustrious stages. From the opening chords of “Because You” (cleverly repurposed from Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”), Chrysalis delivers a program of songs enhanced by the stripped down production, with DeVeaux emerging as a fully formed musical force.
The Doodle Cats, ‘Reinventing the Wheel’
While I’d never heard of the Doodle Cats before receiving a link to the sextet’s second album, Reinventing the Wheel, a quick glimpse at the personnel led me to take a listen, and the experience was deliriously pleasurable.
Interpreting tunes by bassist and bandleader Mighty Joe Belson, the Cats swing with elegance and conviction, delivering tunes that sound like lost tracks from a Thad Jones session circa 1955. The cast includes some of the region’s most dependably eloquent improvisers, including El Cerrito trumpeter Erik Jekabson, Emeryville pianist Kevin Wong and El Sobrante drummer Julian Hogan.
Green Mitchell Trio, ‘Nature Channel’
One of 12 albums released as part of Lisa Mezzacappa’s 12/12 series on her Queen Bee Records label, Nature Channel features her on bass with frequent musical partner Jason Levis in a program of original tunes by Cory Wright (on tenor sax and bass clarinet).
The Oakland-based Wright is an invaluable figure on the Bay Area improvised music scene who is heard much more frequently elevating ensembles led by his peers. His own music is always intriguing, unfurling with deliberation and muscular grace. Just when it seems he’s channeling his Apollonian inclinations through his tenor and his Dionysian impulses via his bass clarinet, he switches it up, leaving one guessing about his next move.
Myra Melford, ‘Splash’
Berkeley pianist/composer Myra Melford has a long track record of assembling volatile bands, and the trio Splash is a singular addition to her treasure-laden discography. Featuring powerhouse bassist Michael Formanek and the protean percussionist Ches Smith on vibraphone and drums, Splash is distinguished by a bright but earthy sound, full of dense harmonies and lapidary textures. It’s her latest project inspired by the cryptic canvases of Cy Twombly, and the music often evokes the rhythmic intensity and foreboding silences of his painting.
John Santos Sextet & Friends, ‘Horizontes’
Oakland percussion maestro John Santos leads one of the best Latin jazz bands in the country, and his compatriots, John Calloway (flute), Marco Diaz (piano and trumpet), Saul Sierra (bass), Charlie Gurke (saxophones) and David Flores (drums), get plenty of room to express themselves on Horizontes.
But this passionate program is designed to showcase the band’s expansive web of musical relationships, encompassing Puerto Rico, Cuba, New York and beyond. With guests such as clarion vocalist Jerry Medina, drum great Eric Harland and flutist Elena Pinderhughes, each track can serve as dance floor fodder but invites closer scrutiny.
Ben Davis and Chris Brown, ‘Jongleurs’
Berkeley cellist Ben Davis, a jazz-steeped improviser, and Oakland pianist and electronics explorer Chris Brown, who spent three decades as co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College, convene for a series of mercurial dialogues.
More interested in granular textural details than thematic development, the Jongleurs conversations can sound aggressive, melancholy, playful and heady, while always feeling open to a sudden shift in perspective. Obscuring distinctions between composition and improvisation, the pieces develop with their own internal logic and dramaturgy.
