Alex (aka edward glissando) is a writer and educator invested in the stories we tell about music. His short-lived show, some worldly echoes, mixed music that resonated beyond geographic or linguistic boundaries. edward glissando wanted to showcase records that he likes sharing with friends.
The Charles Mingus Quintet & Max Roach, The Charles Mingus Quintet & Max Roach (Waxtime, 2018 Reissue)
This was one of the first records I started my collection with after I moved to Philadelphia in 2023. I took the train to Levittown on the recommendation of my friend, and I found this reissue for sale while looking around Siren Records in Doylestown. The album features live renditions of Gershwin classics like “A Foggy Day,” some of Mingus’s own compositions like “Love Chant” and “Haitian Fight Song,” and other standards. This album is a good reminder of how jazz tunes are never fixed objects, but works that are constantly being informed by who is performing them and when. In the case of this live album, it is a fantastic melding of some of the greatest minds of post-war jazz.
Grace Givertz, Year of the Horse (Self-Released, 2019)
I bought this record directly from Grace Givertz after attending the first performance of the Black Opry Residency in Philadelphia. The program supports upcoming Black musicians across the spectrum of Americana. When I saw Grace Givertz perform live, she sang alone, only accompanied by her guitar or banjo. Though Year of the Horse features a full band backing her, the album still feels as intimate and personal as seeing her perform solo. The band helps her country influences shine. Her lyrics vividly describe overcoming heartbreak, loneliness, and leaving places we once called home. She describes her emotions and actions in a way that would be embarrassing, perhaps almost cliché, if it didn’t feel so honest.
Chastity Belt, No Regerts (Suicide Squeeze, 2013)
Oftentimes I, as someone from Portland who has lived in the northeast for six years, have been asked if the show Portlandia is realistic. While the show is (for better and for worse) one of the more visible representations of the Pacific Northwest, a band like Chastity Belt paints a better picture of the blending between irony and sincerity that reminds me of home. The album’s title tells listeners that they shouldn’t take the band too seriously. This allows for the more sincere tracks to carry more emotional weight. The band’s singer, Julia Shapiro, will switch from describing accidentally exposing herself while drunkenly eating chips and dip at a bar on “Nip Slip” to admitting “I’d rather be at alone / Than feel like I’m not at home” on “Happiness.” To me, the negotiation between laughing through the absurd or crying about it reminds me of what it’s like to grow up in the PNW much more than Fred Armisen’s or Carrie Brownstein’s acting ever could.
Kali Uchis, Orquídeas (Geffen Records, 2024)
Many Latin American and Latine vocalists have proven their chops as performers by creating multi-genre albums that span popular genres of music throughout the Americas. On her fourth album, Kali Uchis embarks on a similar endeavor as Celia Cruz, who sang across genres throughout her discography, but trades boogaloo and rock en español for R&B, house music, dembow, reggaetón, and bolero. There is not a single track that feels out of place, proving the skills Kali Uchis has as both a vocalist and songwriter. The singer’s ability to seamlessly move between Spanish and English in the same verse with no hesitation. With features from Karol G, Peso Pluma, Rauw Alejandro, and more, this album has a tune for everyone.
Vince Staples, Vince Staples (Blacksmith Recordings, 2021)
The self-titled record by Vince Staples represents an important shift in the rapper’s career. Over time, Vince Staples has recorded fewer party anthems. Instead, he writes about people he knows impacted by the realities of gang culture, mental health, American politics, and racism. His most recent release, Crybaby, is a good example of this, especially with his turn to rock instrumentation to help vocalize a general distaste for the current political and social landscape. Vince Staples is simultaneously his most personal and succinct project. The album does not include the hyperbolic language often heard on his earlier projects. Instead, the lyrics are soft-spoken and depict the realities of his life and those of his friends he grew up with in Long Beach, California. Though he “fell in love with guns,” he also confesses how “When I see my fans, I’m too paranoid to shake their hands.” Vince Staples simultaneously depicts the rapper contemplating fame, the violence of gang culture, and how it shaped Vince Staples as a performer and human being.
Keith Lamar and Albert Marques, Freedom First (Say It Loud Records, 2022)
The first time I heard Keith Lamar was at a show at the Nuyorican Poets Café in Loisada, a Spanglish term for what is more commonly known as the Lower East Side in Manhattan. I went on a whim after interviewing the poet Bob Holman. Keith Lamar is currently incarcerated on Ohio’s death row after he was falsely accused of murdering correctional officers during a prison riot while serving time for a drug deal gone wrong. Lamar recorded the album, and performed it live, through a telephone. Live was a band led by Albert Marqués, a Catalonian pianist who would record Lamar’s performances alongside performers like Arturo O’Farrill, Roy Nathanson, among others.
On “Calling All Souls,” Lamar writes, “I write and recite these words on January the 2nd, 2022, less than two years away from my proposed ‘execution,’ which is scheduled to take place on November the 16th, 2023.” Lamar received a stay of execution and recorded a live album, Live from Death Row, where he changed the line to account for his new assigned date of execution. On Freedom First, “Calling All Souls” is a haunting record of a multi-disciplinary artist and “innocent man being thrown into the depths of Hell” that he can only survive through the comforts of John Coltrane, his “introduction to improvisational music, more commonly known as jazz.” I guarantee that you’ll never look at Coltrane the same way after listening to this album.
Lamar’s stay of execution was granted until January 13, 2027. Learn more about his story at keithlamar.org.