Mike Jurkovic Poop 2017

fuck 17

I know we all know someone/love someone/hate someone who said
Wow! I’m glad that fuckin’ year’s over when 2017 finally broke.
But wasn’t it a prologue in many ways? A year older/closer/nearer the fire?
And who knew that fire was a bushland combustion,
devouring our time/our senses/our songs?
Who knew the forward rate of spread
would be so rapid? The department of this/the department of that
acting as accelerants, torching canopy and street. Leaping fire breaks
w/a single bound. An uncontrolled disaster. The coup behind
the theatrics. A smoldering transition scorching the air.
Great vertical differences you feel in your bed/your shower/your soul.
A stack effect, for sure, as air rises when it’s heated. Birthing new updrafts,
sucking the air from the baby’s room.

Piano players pulled me from the shock and awe this year. Especially those who played w/a wild, corpuscle abandon. Opening me to the true possibility that we can fight our way out of this thing.
This malaise as Carter called it. And when it gets bloody, (and it will, when the necessary elements of a fire triangle intersect) I hope to be listening to these as the front sweeps in.

Buy Randy Newman - Dark Matter New or Used via Amazon
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Randy Newman – Dark Matter
proof positive the old masters know

Buy Django Bates - The Study of Touch  New or Used via Amazon
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Django Bates – The Study of Touch
a disc of passionate, relentless invention and humor

Buy Benedikt Jahnel Trio - The Invariant New or Used via Amazon
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Benedikt Jahnel Trio – The Invariant
a math geek pianist making new equations

Buy Little Steven - Soulfire   New or Used via Amazon
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Little Steven – Soulfire
“Blues is My Business” is worth the price alone and speaking of price –
                                        Scalper of the Year to Steven’s boss on Broadway
                                   . . . rich man in a poor man’s shirt, indeed –

Buy Vijay Iyer Sextet - Far From Over New or Used via Amazon
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Vijay Iyer Sextet – Far From Over
creation music for repeated listening

Buy Emmet Cohen - Masters Legacy Series: Vol. 1 Jimmy Cobb  New or Used via Amazon
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Emmet Cohen – Masters Legacy Series: Vol. 1 Jimmy Cobb
there are many great piano players on this list and Cohen is ready to join them

Buy The Beatles - Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - 50th Anniversary Edition New or Used via Amazon
Buy New or Used via Amazon
The Beatles – Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band – 50th Anniversary Edition
really? this comes as a surprise to you?

Buy Colin Vallon Trio - Danse New or Used via Amazon
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Colin Vallon Trio – Danse
yet another euro-pianist making amerikkkans think twice

Buy Anouar Brahem - Blue Maqams New or Used via Amazon
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Anouar Brahem – Blue Maqams
soaring, elegant whispers from Tunisian oud master Brahem w/ Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, and the previously mentioned piano jokester Django Bates

Buy Waxahatchee - Out in the Storm New or Used via Amazon
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Waxahatchee – Out in the Storm
when I first heard Katie Crutchfield on some porous XM station, I couldn’t catch my breath

Buy Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series #13 Trouble No More New or Used via Amazon
Buy New or Used via Amazon
Bob Dylan – Bootleg Series #13 Trouble No More
I never shied away from ’79 -’81. What few bootlegs there were proved the guy was on fire.
Whether it was hellfire or the cleansing fires of the Lord, well, your guess is as good as mine.

falling just under the line for purely personal reasons:

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile – Lotta Sea Lice
so I go about the last few years telling anyone who cares to listen that Barnett’s got that Dylan energy circa ’65/’66 and she delivers me this? sometimes I get so mad

Robert Plant – Carry Fire
yea I dig the mystery and muse, but it all sounds the same to me.

U2 – Songs of Experience
It took me a couple listens to appreciate it but still Bono’s too keen on mulling and preaching and where the hell is the Edge?

Best music read: Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life – Jonathon Gould
Political read: Playing with Fire – Laurence O’Donnell

I think I like Blade Runner 2049 better than the original. Kind of fit my overall mood. And even though we managed to see many of the front runners film wise, give me Wonder Woman or give me death.

Resist my droogies.
mj