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0:23

Hey, happy Friday, Sheldon. It is May 24th. And I don't know about you, but for me,

0:25

all I can think about is the fact that tomorrow, one

0:32

of my heroes, Marshall Allen, is turning 100 years

0:34

old. Man.

0:37

What a life. What a career. I

0:41

mean, it feels like he maximized every single one

0:43

of those years. It

0:48

feels like he maximized every

0:50

single one of those 100

0:52

in all that he accomplished with his work with

0:55

Sun Ra. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

0:57

So Marshall Allen is an alto saxophonist. He

1:00

has been playing with the Sun Ra Orchestra

1:02

since the 1950s. He

1:05

took over leadership of the band

1:07

when Sun Ra made his transition

1:10

to the Spaceways more than 30

1:12

years ago. And he

1:14

has been wildly prolific in his late

1:16

90s. And

1:18

if you are listening to this on

1:20

Friday, tonight he will be on stage

1:22

at Union Transfer in Philadelphia with the

1:25

Sun Ra Orchestra, making a big noise

1:27

with what I dare say

1:30

is undiminished energy. So, man,

1:32

happy centennial to the great

1:34

Marshall Allen. Someone

1:37

that we can all look up to. On

1:39

the show today, we've got some more celestial

1:41

music. I'm Nate Chenin from

1:43

WRTI in Philadelphia. And I'm Sheldon Pierce,

1:45

an editor at NPR Music. And this

1:48

is New Music Friday for May 24th.

1:54

Today, we're going to talk

1:56

about Placenta by the percussionist

1:59

Carlos Nino. We're

2:01

also going to touch on new albums

2:03

by the band Dive and

2:05

the Andrew Bird Trio. Sheldon,

2:10

do you have a whole lot

2:12

of perspective on natural birthing? I

2:15

have. Is this an area of expertise for

2:17

you? This is all new

2:20

to me. It's

2:22

sort of interesting. I'm a big fan of

2:24

concept records where the concept in question is

2:27

completely foreign to me. So

2:29

sort of diving into this

2:31

one was really interesting. Can

2:34

you talk through for those who aren't

2:37

familiar Carlos's background? Because this seems like

2:39

sort of right up his alley

2:41

if you've spent any time with his music. It's

2:45

hard for me to imagine

2:47

anyone else making this album.

2:49

You're right. That's

2:52

exactly right. As we said, this

2:55

is an album called Placenta. The

2:59

opening track is Love to

3:01

All Dulas! Exclamation point. There

3:45

are other tracks on this album titled Placenta,

3:49

Merishment, New Home, The Galaxy.

3:53

There's a track called

3:55

Generous Pelvis. One

3:59

important thing. To say right up

4:01

front is that there is nothing Ironically

4:05

or like snickery about this

4:07

Yeah, like the sincerity is

4:10

deep deep deep and

4:12

that says a lot about the artist

4:14

We're discussing Carlos Nino is a

4:16

percussionist and a real connector. Yeah

4:19

in the Los Angeles scene You

4:21

know, I think he lives in

4:23

the Santa Monica area His

4:25

name has been on a lot of lips

4:27

this year because he really was the the

4:29

key catalyst in This current

4:32

phase of the Andre 3000 artistic

4:34

journey. Yes, it was, you know

4:36

running into Andre in their local

4:39

natural grocery store and introducing

4:41

himself that led to this

4:43

whole flute and

4:45

electronics ambient exploration That

4:48

most tangibly produced the album new blue

4:50

Sun. Yeah, and I

4:53

saw Carlos with Andre at the Big Ears

4:55

Festival this year I also saw him with

4:57

Shabaka and I've seen him with

4:59

some other artists at the New York Winter

5:01

Jazz Fest And yeah, that's the

5:04

first thing to know about him is that he's

5:06

this like sort of mystic

5:08

of sound And

5:11

when I say he's a percussionist It

5:13

almost is a misleading Description.

5:16

Yeah, when you think of a percussionist you

5:18

probably think about Percussive rhythm

5:20

and like noise and

5:22

speed and all these things and he's

5:25

really the kind of percussionist who you

5:27

think about like a membrane stretched over

5:29

a wooden frame and like a hand

5:32

like gently brushing against the grain of

5:34

the drumhead, you know or like the

5:36

Russell of like

5:40

Cowrie shells and you know, it's it's like yeah

5:42

that kind of vibe Yeah,

5:44

it's interesting because on the list

5:46

of things that he is responsible

5:49

for on this record You have

5:51

bells you have chimes collage cymbal

5:53

drums field recording Soo-hoo

5:55

gongs kalimba, but then you

5:57

get into leaves and playing

6:00

Just like general rattle

6:02

sound design as an

6:04

idea. He really

6:07

does take percussion to

6:09

mean just any kind

6:11

of sort of percussive

6:14

influence that you can have on a song.

6:16

He's not like a drummer

6:18

in the traditional sense. And it's

6:20

funny, you mentioned the title Connector.

6:22

He also puts like radical empath

6:24

in his bio. And it feels

6:26

like he cherishes those as

6:29

much, if not more so than

6:31

the title of percussionist or producer.

6:34

He produced, mixed, edited and

6:36

arranged this whole record. And

6:39

just to give you a sense of the

6:42

artist at play here, there are performance credits

6:44

for painting and dancing on here.

6:46

And one on Carla's

6:49

beads is just labeled as

6:51

Celestial Instrument. So

7:14

the vibes are strong with this

7:16

record. The idea behind

7:18

the project, which is Carlos Nino

7:20

and friends, is that the title

7:22

is supposed to invoke like freedom

7:24

in collaboration, like to be able

7:26

to pursue his wildest creative impulses

7:28

with the people that are closest

7:30

to him. And it feels powerful

7:34

that that is happening in

7:36

service of this record that

7:38

is literally about child births

7:40

and the people who often

7:42

make natural childbirth possible. It's

7:45

funny, Andre 3000, the newest

7:47

entrant into his little cast

7:50

of characters, told the New

7:52

York Times that Carlos

7:54

was the one who put the idea of

7:56

being a part of a collective in front

7:58

of him. was the birth

8:01

of New Blue Sun, but also even

8:03

more so, he appreciated meeting someone that

8:05

was crazier than he was. What

8:08

I thought was very, very

8:10

representative of the sounds that

8:12

you hear on this record.

8:14

This record goes to a

8:16

lot of different places. I

8:19

was wondering, what do you think it is about

8:21

Carlos that seems to draw so many people to

8:23

him? I think really the

8:25

childlike purity of his, creative

8:30

intention is like, it has to be at

8:32

the top of the list. And

8:35

it's funny, it is so complete,

8:38

his commitment, that it really disarms

8:40

the skepticism, which I think is

8:42

crucial because like on paper and

8:44

maybe even beyond that, this is

8:46

a project that probably should

8:49

raise some eyebrows. Yeah. It's

8:51

kind of like a walking Fred

8:53

Armisen skit. Here's

8:57

this like bushy haired, like

8:59

woo woo, Southern

9:01

California percussion celestial guru, who

9:03

is like waxing rhapsodic about

9:05

placentas and like the birth

9:08

canal contractions and what have

9:10

you. We should say, and Sheldon,

9:13

we're a couple of men having

9:16

this discussion right now, but this

9:18

is a pretty like fraught time

9:20

to talk about women's bodily autonomy

9:23

and the process of childbirth and

9:25

like especially like presuming

9:27

to tell that story as

9:29

a man, I don't

9:31

know that he ever acknowledges that

9:34

position, but I do think that

9:36

he comes correct, he

9:38

comes with a lot of

9:40

like sincerity and like generosity

9:43

and wonderment. But

9:46

I mean, you really do have to kind of like

9:49

toggle off your cynicism

9:52

approaching this album, because

9:54

on its face, it's kind of

9:57

suspect. Yeah, yeah. I don't think

9:59

he even. That

10:01

thought never even crossed his

10:03

mind. I think he's so

10:05

earnest in his belief that

10:07

this is like him channeling

10:09

the very explicit

10:11

and unique experience that he

10:13

felt when his child was

10:15

recently born, Moss, and then

10:17

tying it to the experience

10:19

that he felt when his

10:21

first child, Azul, was born,

10:23

and really trying to wrap

10:25

himself up in the feeling

10:27

of that, in the experience

10:30

of that, in being connected to the people who

10:32

were a part of that. It's

10:34

he's so earnestly feels like

10:36

he is connecting that individual

10:39

moment that he can't see

10:41

beyond it to the scope

10:43

of, you know, motherhood and

10:46

childbirth and where

10:48

he figures into it. It

10:51

does create a sort of interesting

10:53

record that seems to be like

10:55

trying to strike a balance between

10:57

calm and exertion when you're like

11:00

on the outside of that process.

11:04

The resulting music, it sort of

11:06

almost feels like something out of

11:08

a sci-fi score at times. When

11:10

you think about like Moonlight Watsu

11:12

and Dove, which has like

11:14

this really good sound,

11:49

or even you mentioned like generous

11:52

pelvis, which has those like staggered

11:54

drums and the chimes and little

11:56

bursts of ambient noise. It's

12:07

always impressive, it's like never sitting

12:09

still in any given pocket,

12:13

which maybe is representative of the

12:15

fidgetiness of an expected dad, like

12:17

waiting for a child to come

12:19

into the world. I can

12:22

only appreciate this record as

12:24

one that really seems to

12:26

be trying

12:28

to understand a process that it

12:30

isn't really fully a part of,

12:33

but is really trying to appreciate. I

12:36

think that's a good way to put it. I

12:39

want to underscore something you

12:41

said about the all over the placeness

12:44

of this album stylistically. That's one reason

12:46

that I would not slot

12:48

this under new age or easy

12:50

listening. You

12:54

can certainly vibe out and go

12:56

on the journey, but if you pay

12:59

attention to what's happening musically

13:02

here, it's pretty fascinating. It

13:04

is this amalgam of styles.

13:07

You mentioned the dub track. It's

13:11

pretty comfortable and

13:13

just calmly authoritative in

13:15

that groove. There's

13:17

also a track that caught

13:19

my eye because the title is In

13:22

Appreciation of Chico Hamilton's Vast Influence

13:24

on the West Coast Sound, which

13:28

is a really cool head

13:30

nod toward a legendary drummer

13:33

and composer band leader from

13:36

mid-century. Chico

14:01

Hamilton is a really meaningful touchstone

14:03

for someone like Carlos Nino. And the other

14:05

person who comes to mind for me, because

14:07

of the scope of this project, is

14:10

Milford Graves, who was,

14:12

you know, like Carlos,

14:14

he was a percussionist plus,

14:16

you know. And in Milford's case, he

14:18

was a botanist and a martial artist

14:21

and a sort

14:24

of homeschooled cardio

14:27

researcher. You know, like he

14:29

was somebody who did all this work on

14:31

the human heartbeat, thinking

14:34

about it as a rhythmic instrument, but also

14:36

like expanding that out. And

14:39

that kind of conceptual relationship

14:41

to rhythm feels

14:43

very pertinent here, you know.

14:46

And so does the way, like

14:49

the use of metaphor. Yeah. Yeah.

14:52

On that track that I mentioned, Placenta

14:55

Nourishment, New Home, The Galaxy. There's

14:58

some spoken word that, you

15:00

know, that makes the sort of wide-eyed

15:03

observation, you know, for a fetus,

15:06

the placenta is the known universe. The

15:15

baby, whole universe, the

15:18

placenta, the galaxy, the galaxy.

15:31

By extension,

15:34

there's kind of something to be

15:36

said about that. We're all in

15:39

the sort of placenta substance

15:42

of the actual universe, you know. There's

15:44

this kind of connection being made there.

15:46

Yeah. You know, I think

15:49

that is why the record ends up

15:51

working for me. I haven't been shy

15:53

about saying that New Blue Sun didn't

15:55

really hit for me the way that

15:58

it hit for many. I think the

16:00

difference in this record is... something you

16:02

mentioned earlier, it's in intention. Like even

16:05

as scatterbrained as it can be,

16:07

as many different

16:10

directions as it is trying to move,

16:12

it has very specific ideas about

16:15

what it wants to do and

16:17

where it wants to go. Like

16:19

whether or not it successfully pulls

16:21

off every maneuver that it tries,

16:23

that's up for debate, but it

16:25

knows what it wants and

16:27

in pursuit of that, it does

16:29

some really really interesting things that

16:31

are worth exploring. And to your

16:33

point, it's not the kind of

16:35

record that you can just throw

16:37

on and ignore. Like throughout this,

16:39

there are really interesting compositional moments

16:42

that you are forced to hone

16:44

in on and really go, huh,

16:46

oh okay, and really wrestle

16:48

with those. Yeah. So

16:55

once again, this is Placenta by

16:57

Carlos Nino and Friends. Some of

16:59

those friends include the guitarist Nate

17:02

Mercero and the saxophonist Sam Gandel,

17:06

and someone you may know named

17:08

Andre 3000 playing some of

17:10

his flutes. Now

17:15

we're going to take a short break, and

17:17

we'll talk about more albums, including

17:19

new projects from Andrew Bird and

17:21

Dive when we get back. no

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slash whatsyourwhy. And

18:51

we're back. I'm Nate Chenin from WRTI. I'm

18:55

here with Sheldon Pierce, and we're talking about

18:57

some of the best new albums out on

18:59

Friday, May 24th. Our

19:02

second album is by the shoegaze

19:04

band D.I.V. That's D-I-I-V. The

19:08

record is called Frog in Boiling Water.

19:11

It's their first album since 2019's

19:13

Deceiver. Produced

19:16

by Chris Cody, who worked on

19:18

records for Beach House and mixed

19:20

the Slow Dive Return. This

19:23

record found the band in

19:26

sort of a chaotic place

19:28

in an attempt to make the

19:31

band democratic for the first time.

19:33

It nearly destroyed itself in the

19:35

four year process of recording this

19:37

record. But the

19:39

resulting album is quite

19:41

breathtaking. It references

19:43

the boiling frog from the Daniel Quinn

19:46

novel, The Story of V. A

19:48

metaphor here used for

19:51

this broad scale representation

19:55

of our place in

19:57

late stage capitalism. We

19:59

are. The Frog capitalism the

20:01

boiling water. Fittingly the music

20:04

is dense as and cataclysmic

20:06

of from the Job is

20:08

Less you know where it

20:10

is on the Opener in

20:13

Amber. Zachary.

20:45

The things the rotating villains

20:47

profit off suffering a doomsday

20:49

machine Glitch: is our new

20:52

god forbid an Asian Her:

20:54

Yeah, we we know what

20:56

we're getting into. How do

20:58

you really feel for membership?

21:00

Definitely not a lot of

21:02

subtlety there, but I think

21:04

that is really the power

21:06

of this record is is

21:08

so so packed in, so

21:11

so happy and it's sort

21:13

of just washes over in.

21:15

The way that a lot of

21:17

the best he does or does

21:19

it is interesting to hear you

21:21

see those lyrics cook. It feels

21:23

so much more. it's it's like

21:25

pulling them out of the vickery

21:27

a know environment and plopping get

21:29

on like a lab table without

21:31

throw up because the the effect

21:34

of the album, you know, as

21:36

with I'm so much today's rate,

21:38

it's like it's a very light

21:40

steady. Hum of both

21:42

music and lyrics and and the

21:44

like for me because the the

21:46

sort of The Roots as likes

21:49

your gaze hit me right in

21:51

my sort of teenage. If you

21:53

don't have developed it like a

21:55

for me this is actually like

21:57

a very kind of comforting lounge.

22:00

You know, it's maybe at odds

22:02

with the urgency of the message

22:04

yeah, but I mean I just

22:07

I love like the enveloping character

22:09

us of this album sonically. You

22:11

know it's there. Every every like

22:13

little detail is so perfectly calibrated.

22:15

I'm to me, it's like it's

22:17

the same Pleasure Centers that I

22:20

get from revisiting you know, Kevin

22:22

Shields? yeah, productions with My Bloody

22:24

Valentine. You know there are a

22:26

couple of moments that remind me

22:28

in a good way. Of like

22:30

vintage Smashing Pumpkins out on like

22:33

did you just feel like you

22:35

are in the presence of a

22:37

bandit? Really knows exactly what it's

22:39

set out to do there. And

22:42

just like this is very obviously

22:44

not like a first or second

22:46

record. Like this is a band

22:48

that has lived. With. This

22:50

music and live with each other. Yeah,

22:52

yeah. I mean if you listen to

22:55

old dive records and then come into

22:57

this when it feels very much like

22:59

they have settled into something it's interesting

23:02

to hear the backstory of In Fighting

23:04

In A didn't have to sort of

23:06

like. Democratize. The

23:09

sound creating this record because

23:11

it does feel like they've

23:13

settled into some kind of

23:15

late you know for harm

23:18

organism on this record. I'm.

23:20

And. See your point of I'm

23:22

I'm predisposed to liking this sort of

23:25

thing, and I think they're only great

23:27

dive records, but I think this might

23:29

be their best one. Just how. The.

23:32

Music is. it isn't necessarily at

23:34

odds with the lyrics, but see

23:36

your point of what unifies this

23:38

record With the law of Best

23:41

Games records, his legs you don't

23:43

have to be see them to

23:45

what is being said to like

23:47

appreciate them textural, we and sonically

23:49

arm and I think you don't

23:51

have to necessarily understand at their

23:53

don't have to be lyrics at

23:56

all in a lot of those

23:58

cases for them to view. to

24:00

express what they're trying to express to

24:02

you. And I think this record does

24:04

that as well, which is even more

24:06

impressive considering the particular aims. I mean,

24:09

on the title track, there's this

24:11

big surge about a minute in,

24:13

and it crests to like, if

24:16

you listen closely, like really opulent

24:18

imagery. music Mooted

24:44

golden calves, ivory towers and crosses,

24:47

and then it all builds to

24:49

this big gut punch of a

24:51

lyric. My livelihood is rotting in

24:54

your hands, which is heavy. But

24:56

then it settles again into this

24:58

foam, decompressing

25:01

back into itself. It

25:04

becomes this really pleasant

25:07

experience. It's an interesting

25:09

thing to have to

25:11

make sense of. You have a song like

25:13

Little Birds that sounds almost

25:16

haunted and resigned to its fate,

25:18

but the guitarists feel like they're

25:20

just like a weeded

25:23

blanket, like the end. They

25:26

draped over you in the best sense.

26:00

What? funny As if this is probably

26:02

like this is probably the influence of

26:05

our Carlos Nino Sidebar but you know

26:07

there is like the word that popped

26:09

into my head as you're talking was

26:11

amniotic. a pseudo a sexist had feeling

26:14

of these guitars mix to the way

26:16

that they are without a slow steady

26:18

see that the John Connor has that

26:21

feeling you know like the sort of

26:23

if like a little muffled with his

26:25

very own like sensory and an immersive

26:28

and another song that I'm. That

26:30

captures that for me with lyrics

26:32

that I think we're a little

26:34

a little more like Rule Late

26:37

of like personally related will I'm

26:39

is brown paper Bag Yeah. So

27:18

this is America really

27:20

more about feeling of

27:22

was. A

27:24

kind of resigned despondency. you

27:26

know, And then like and

27:29

then the word again and

27:31

house Like this. like I

27:33

feel like this disposable kind

27:35

of garbage. basically. yeah, floating

27:37

along again. like oh, I'm

27:40

in. This place was once

27:42

more and I'm and I'll

27:44

probably be here again. Savvy,

27:46

Who. Hasn't. felt that yeah

27:48

i mean see your point

27:50

about be amniotic minister from

27:52

with the power to him

27:54

i'm mixing in fear it

27:57

in the song was that

27:59

bad juxtaposition of the

28:01

heavy guitars as this sort

28:03

of outer sack but

28:05

the airy vocals sort of

28:07

like just drifting in like

28:09

this compartmentalized space that feels

28:11

like you can't quite access

28:13

but you can see and

28:17

I mean to your point about

28:19

Kevin Shields at the risk of

28:21

sounding blasphemous it does have that

28:23

same sort of textural richness of

28:25

My Bloody Valentines. Well

28:29

I like this album I think probably as

28:31

much as you do yeah that's possible but

28:34

yeah it's really great. Yeah

28:36

yeah that's the latest from

28:39

Dive it's called Frog in

28:41

Boiling Water. Our

28:44

next album is by the singer

28:46

songwriter and violinist Andrew Bird it's

28:49

called Sunday Morning Put On. This

29:18

is an album of

29:21

reimagined and

29:24

reconfigured songs from

29:26

mostly the Great

29:40

American Songbook. I

29:44

hesitate to call it a jazz album but

29:47

it is certainly in dialogue with the

29:49

jazz tradition. In

29:51

addition to his voice and violin he has a

29:54

really capable rhythm section with Alan

29:56

Hampton on bass and Ted Poor

29:58

on drums. There's

30:01

also a couple of guests, guitarist

30:03

Jeff Parker and organist Larry Goldings.

30:06

But really the focus is on the

30:09

vocal interpretation of these songs. And

30:11

it was really fascinating to me as somebody who

30:14

hears these songs performed by jazz

30:16

artists all the time, this

30:19

crossing of the tracks that he does here, it

30:21

really caused me to sort of sit up and

30:23

take notice. How did it hit you,

30:25

Sheldon? Yeah, you know, I do

30:27

think it's accurate. I'd be more accurate to

30:29

think of it as like a standards album.

30:31

It doesn't, I mean, it

30:33

is clearly jazz touched, but it feels

30:36

like he is coming at these more

30:38

straight on. He

30:40

has said that when

30:42

he lived in Chicago in his

30:44

20s, he would stay up on

30:46

Saturday nights listening to the WBZ

30:48

radio show Blues Before Sunrise, which

30:51

played rare blues, jazz and gospel

30:55

records. And then, you know, he'd wake up the

30:57

next morning to a show where Dick Buckley played

30:59

the jazz of the 30s and 40s. And

31:03

that Sunday morning put on is his

31:05

attempt to sort of like tap into

31:07

the version of himself who

31:09

was appreciating all those things. He felt

31:12

like those traditions had

31:14

informed a lot of the music that

31:16

he was making, but that now that

31:18

he had some distance between that time,

31:20

he wanted to connect with it more

31:22

explicitly. And so there are takes here

31:25

from Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Lerner and

31:27

Low, Rogers and Hart.

31:31

He does a take on the My Fair

31:34

Lady show too, and I've grown accustomed to

31:36

her face. There

31:38

is a lot of substituting

31:40

his violin in for

31:43

other instruments and

31:45

using his weapon of choice to

31:47

sort of like bring these standards

31:49

closer to the Andrew

31:51

Byrd like musical universe. I

31:55

do think it is successful

31:58

in bringing something. almost

32:01

a little somber to Sun with

32:03

these. A lot of these

32:05

songs, you think of them as sort

32:07

of like schmaltzy classics, but I mean,

32:10

to take, I've grown accustomed to her

32:12

face as an example, which was performed

32:14

by everybody from Nat King

32:16

Cole to Dean Martin and

32:18

is normally more of a sort

32:21

of like uplifting song. His

32:25

version kind of like strips the

32:27

sort of like musical sheen from

32:29

it and makes it something a

32:31

bit more down to earth. It

32:33

feels like that is the mode

32:35

that he is generally trafficking in

32:37

throughout this record. I think

32:39

stripped down and looking at these songs

32:42

and saying, oh, these songs have good

32:44

bones. Yeah. You know what

32:46

I mean? Like let's cut to the heart

32:48

of them, right? And I

32:50

have a lot to say about kind of what

32:52

has happened to standards, you know, like all of

32:55

the association that we have. You

32:57

remember the Rod Stewart American songbook series,

33:00

you know, where he sort of did

33:02

his best impression of like a wedding singer

33:06

with these kind of like, as you say,

33:08

schmaltzy cocktail backings.

33:10

Yeah. We

33:12

can talk about Michael Bublé. We can talk

33:15

about Lady Gaga, you know, doing her thing

33:17

with Tony Bennett. What all of those things

33:19

have in common is this kind of like,

33:21

we are going to class up the joint.

33:24

Like it's time to like put your

33:27

grown up clothes on, like, you know,

33:29

sashay in, you know, on the ballroom.

33:31

Very serious dinner party energy. Yeah. Yeah.

33:34

And you know, one thing that this reminds me of is I

33:36

love Lyle Lovett's

33:39

large band. You know, Lyle Lovett

33:41

is a country singer songwriter, really

33:43

fabulous country artist. And he's got

33:45

this big band basically. And they

33:48

do all kinds of stuff. And years

33:51

and years ago, I saw him do

33:53

some standards with the large band and he's not,

33:55

you know, when he does that, he's not trying

33:57

to sound like a quote unquote jazz singer. Yeah.

34:00

singing the songs, you know. Another

34:03

really huge touchstone here, of course, is

34:05

Willie Nelson, you know, his Stardust album.

34:07

And so this feels like

34:09

a similar impulse to me, you

34:11

know. It's like, there is jazz

34:14

in this, you know, and he is

34:16

certainly a jazz

34:18

literate performer. Yeah. And

34:20

he can improvise and all of that. He has

34:23

the flexibility of phrasing and, you know.

34:25

But there's

34:27

a way in which he's kind of saying,

34:31

like, let's just forget about genre for the

34:33

moment and let's just like look at the

34:35

material. One really good example

34:37

for me is, You'd Be

34:39

So Nice to Come Home To, which

34:42

is a song that a lot of people might know from Kett

34:45

Baker's version, you know. You'd

34:48

be so nice

34:51

to come home to. You'd

34:55

be so nice by

34:57

the fire as

35:01

a breeze on high.

35:04

Sing along, by you'd

35:06

be alone. Like

35:10

a desert, under

35:14

stars chilled by

35:17

the moonlight. And

35:20

this song has lyrics that are very like, oh, you

35:22

know, it's sort of picturing this domestic

35:24

idol, right? Like, you'd be so nice

35:27

by the fire, you know. But

35:30

it's really like the heart of

35:32

the song is this kind

35:35

of yearning because it is picturing

35:37

this thing that is not a

35:40

reality, you know. Yeah. Like,

35:42

this would be a really wonderful

35:44

thing to have if only I had it,

35:47

you know. And so I

35:49

think he captures some of that, you know,

35:52

just that tiny hint of like desolation in

35:54

the lyrics. You know, it's

35:56

romantic, but it's also kind of

35:58

a little bit desperate. To

36:00

your point about not

36:02

feeling beholden to the

36:04

like jazz standards

36:07

vision, there are

36:09

no rules that

36:11

he is following on this. So often

36:13

it feels like in embracing

36:15

standards, people feel like they are moving

36:18

into a very specific wheelhouse and they

36:20

have to do a very specific kind

36:22

of thing in service of a very

36:25

specific kind of audience. And this feels

36:27

more like Andrew Bird saying, I like

36:29

these songs. They mean something

36:32

to me, but this is

36:34

how I express them and what

36:36

they mean to me. I think

36:38

about Django, which is

36:40

a take on John Lewis's tribute

36:43

to the great jazz guitarist Django

36:46

Reinhardt. Bird

37:18

uses his violin as a stand

37:20

in for the vibraphone on that

37:22

song, which is like such a

37:25

dramatic textural shift, but it

37:27

really does transform the song into

37:29

an Andrew Bird song. And he's

37:32

not thinking at all about like

37:34

what that means in terms of

37:36

this song's relationship to its original

37:38

context. He's breaking from all of

37:41

that completely. I wonder if

37:43

on some level as he plays Django,

37:45

he's thinking about Stefan Grappelli, who was

37:47

Django Reinhardt's right hand man.

37:51

He's such a strong voice on his instrument

37:53

that you never think that

37:55

he's going into a bag. He's not.

37:58

But yeah, his fluidity and And his

38:01

sensitivity to the heart

38:03

of the song in each case,

38:05

I think is what really makes

38:07

this such a winning effort. Yeah,

38:09

the whole record just clearly twinkles

38:11

with an admiration for a music

38:13

of that time. So

38:16

that is the Sunday Morning Put On, excellent

38:18

title, by the Andrew

38:21

Byrd Trio with Alan Hampton on bass

38:23

and Ted Poore on drums. We've

38:26

got several more albums

38:28

to share in our lightning round that's

38:30

coming up right after this short break.

38:36

This message comes from NPR sponsor

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financial goals. Learn more at

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massmutual.com. It's

39:10

time for a quick roundup of some other

39:12

albums out today, May 24th. Nate,

39:16

what do you have for us? The

39:19

first album we have is called All

39:21

for Something. It's by

39:23

the folk pop group Tiny

39:25

Habits, which originated in Boston

39:28

out of some Berkeley College

39:30

of Music students. This

39:53

is an album that has a

39:56

low key charisma, but it's

39:58

very confident in itself. It's

40:01

very tuneful, it has a lot of

40:03

balanced texture and songs

40:05

that reward some

40:08

intimate, close listening. The

40:10

Long Beach rapper Vince Staples is releasing

40:12

a new album called Dark Times. His

40:15

first album since 2022's Ramona Park

40:18

Broke My Heart, released on the

40:20

heels of his Netflix tragicomedy, The

40:22

Vince Staples Show, was recorded over

40:24

six months in North Hollywood. And

40:27

he describes the record as an attempt to master

40:29

things that he's been doing throughout his career. Mission

40:32

complete, out of the mud, label the leader, they

40:34

followin' the hood, light on my feet, floatin' the

40:36

club, I don't be creepin' and keepin' in the

40:38

hood, I'm not gonna hurt that up, pull up to

40:41

get me some pussy before they come get me a

40:43

hood, shit is a star, stand for hot man. Only

40:45

that has one eye on the table. Next

40:49

up, Alex Sipiagan, is a jazz

40:52

trumpeter who's worked across the whole spectrum

40:54

of modern jazz since he moved to

40:56

the United States from Russia in 1990.

41:00

And he has a deeply sure-footed new

41:02

album called Horizons with a

41:05

real dream team of collaborators. Saxophonist

41:07

Chris Potter, pianist John Iskrete, bassist

41:10

Matt Brewer, and drummer Eric Harland.

41:12

You can hear how this group

41:14

gels on the hong, jumping ahead.

41:35

Travis Stewart's new album as Machine Drum,

41:37

3 for 82, was inspired

41:39

by a trip to Joshua Tree National Park,

41:42

where solitude led him to old hard

41:44

drives below. Impulse Tracker produced beats

41:46

from the late 90s. The

41:49

resulting record taps into the old

41:51

mode and the creativity required to

41:54

navigate and develop. And

41:56

it includes collaborations with Ajay Mormar

41:58

and Ashay. Mick

42:00

Jenkins, Topaz Jones, Dean Spencer,

42:03

Jesse Boykins, The Bird, and

42:05

more. If

42:21

you know the name Joshua Mashi,

42:24

it's probably because you've seen his

42:26

credit as a composer for film

42:28

and television. The FX series Baskets,

42:31

or Documentary Now, or

42:33

the new iteration of Looney Tunes. Now

42:36

with semi-permanence, he's making his move

42:38

as a chamber jazz band leader,

42:40

writing drifty, nifty tunes that

42:42

feature his piano and synths in dialogue

42:44

with some folks from the LA scene,

42:47

like vocalist Sabina Skuba,

42:49

saxophonist Caroline Davis, and

42:52

on this track, Cancelled Plans, the

42:54

guitarist Jeff Parker. And

43:06

last but

43:11

not least, in the four years since

43:13

Nati Paluso released her debut album, Palamre,

43:24

the Argentine-Spanish singer and

43:26

rapper has collaborated with

43:28

international hitmakers like Bizarap,

43:30

Carol G, C.

43:32

Tangana, and Christina Aguilera.

43:35

Her second album, Graca, balances salsa

43:37

vocals with her cutting bars over

43:40

the innovative wacky beats of a burglar

43:42

in Spanish. Thank

43:54

you. And

44:06

that wraps up this episode of

44:08

New Music Friday for May 24th.

44:12

If you have feedback for us, please

44:14

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44:17

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44:44

Apple Podcasts. This podcast

44:46

was produced by Joaquin Kotler. We

44:48

had editorial support from Jacob Gans.

44:51

I'm Nate Chenin from WRTI. I'm

44:54

Sheldon Peirce for NPR Music. Thanks

44:57

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