What’s New for 11th of October: Music reviews picked by Gary for you to consider, ‘Hotel California’ live by the Eagles for you to listen to, and a biography of the Eagles for you to read. So isn’t that enough for one edition here? I think so.

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (any time of year)
You can find it here.

The Eagles

Gary did such a nice job with Music this time that I’m going to let him run with it and leave everything else aside this time. Now may I suggest that you go listen to your favourite music. after you’ve done that, go to your favourite legal, note I said legal, music site to get it on compact disc or vinyl, both of which are doing amazingly well these days, or as a download if you find that your interest.

I’m rather fond of Swedish fiddlers, so I’m going to go check out Lena Jonsson Trio’s Elements. Do read his review to see if you find it interesting as well.

Gary here with music that somehow gives off an autumnal vibe, at least to me. First up is one of indie folk pop cult fave Andrew Bird’s early solo efforts. ‘Weather Systems is an adventurous, idiosyncratic recording, a worthy if at times puzzling chapter in Bird’s recorded legacy. Bird seems to be coming ever closer to finding his true voice, and it’s always entertaining to listen in as he follows his muse.’

Andrew gets a shout-out from me in my review of Swedish fiddler Lena Jonsson Trio’s Elements. ‘ This time out she’s playing in a trio with Erik Ronström on guitar and Kristofer “Krydda” Sundström on bass, on a dozen of her own compositions. Based around the Swedish folk tradition but with lots of influences from jazz to world music, they range from humorous Scottish folk dances to melancholic waltzes and nimble polkas.’

Gereg Jones Muller ended up feeling ambivalent about Crow Autumn by the Lancashire ensemble A Broken Consort, which is named for a style of English Baroque music. ‘Crow Autumn opens with a low-key, minor play of strings, an unobtrusive background against which most of the accents are soft touches that you might not hear if you weren’t listening for them. That’s how it opens, and in fact that’s pretty much the whole album, as it happens.’

There’s something simultaneously joyous and melancholy about the music of Anna & Elizabeth, and I find those adjectives also apply to this time of year. I found a lot to like on their self titled sophomore release. ‘Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle have studied at the feet of the masters of Appalachian music and they do it right, in the old style, their vocals unadorned and straightforward. Elizabeth plays claw-hammer banjo and sings lead on most of these songs in her durable alto, and Anna plays guitar, fiddle or banjo and sings in a lighter, higher voice that’s a perfect complement.’

As the season turned, I found myself listening almost compulsively to Ben Goldberg‘s Everything Happens to Be. ‘The quintet here features an unusual front line of clarinet and saxophone — Goldberg on (mostly) B-flat and Ellery Eskelin on tenor sax. The rhythm section’s core are also two players known for their progressive chops, Michael Formanek on bass and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. Mary Halvorson, one of the most experimental of guitarists playing today, fluidly moves back and forth between the rhythm section and the front line, adding lots of texture and color with an array of effects pedals in addition to her keen melodic inventiveness.’

And that led me to the deep listening experience of Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus’s The Distance. ‘Formanek’s The Distance is as epic in scope as (and thematically more varied than) Kamasi Washington’s 2015 smash The Epic. And it’s all about the ensemble, which includes five wind players on everything from flute and clarinet to baritone sax and bass clarinet; eight brass players on trumpets (among them Ralph Alessi), cornet, and trombones (including bass and contrabass); plus a rhythm section that includes marimba, piano, bass, drums and the secret weapon Mary Halvorson on guitar.’

The Eagles penned a song, but not just any song. It was ‘Hotel California’ and pretty much of all of the band in the form of Don Felder, Don Henley and Glenn Frey are credited in writing it. It was released in February 1977, it is truly magnificent with its never to be forgotten refrain as Glen Frey performing it. Here it is as performed thirty five years ago in Burbank, California.

Speaking of The Eagles, David looks at what’s likely the definitive book on them and that circle of Southern California musicians: ‘Subtitled the true life adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and their many friends, Barney Hoskyns’ Hotel California is exactly that: a chronicle of the heady days of the singer-songwriter era, when songs became diary entries, and radio listeners learned more about the artists’ sex lives, drug use, and political interests than we had ever known before. Hoskyns captures them all, in all their egomaniacal glory!’