Following on from our First Look at the stunning carbon Mondaraker Dune in June, we cast our eye over the rest of the Mondraker 2016 range.
Let me guess, a 2016 bike launch = 27.5+ wheels?
Yep, Mondraker has shown its hand for 2016 and it's going all-in on plus bikes. The Spanish company will be producing eight models fitted with 27.5×3.0 tyres next year including the Vantage+ hardtails, Crafty+ full suspension, e-Vantage+, e-Crafty+ and other e-MTBs.
Mondraker has never been shy of innovation as its dedication to Forward Geometry has shown and it clearly believes that Plus bikes are the next big trend for mountain biking.
The video above demonstrates the Crafty+, the Plus bike version of Mondraker's existing 140mm trail full-suspension bike. it shows the bike tackling dsuty trails, clifftop paths and most worryingly of all, sand (won't someone please think of the bearings!?).
There are three Crafty+ models available – the Crafty+, the Crafty R+ and the Crafty RR+. The higher specced RR+ will have a FOX 34 fork, a Float X shock, Deore gearing and a Reverb seatpost but there's no official word on pricing just yet.
The Vantage range will be expanded to four models next year. Two Vantage models will become 27.5+ with the other two remaining on the standard 27.5 wheels.
Will 27.5+ wheels sort the Vantage's handling problems?
It seems that Mondraker are ticking all the 2016 boxes, much like Scott and Lapierre they've launched a range of e-bikes too.
Leading the way is the absolutely unstoppable looking e-Panzer, an electric version of Mondraker's fat bike.
However there are also electric versions of the Crafty and Vantage for those of you wanting less of a tank. All the Mondraker electric models are powered by a Bosch Performance CX Drive with a 400Wh Powerpack battery. They also have an on-board electronic display.
Is it all fat for Mondraker then?
No unlike Charge, it's worth saying that Mondraker hasn't fully comitted to plus sized wheels and will still be making bikes with normal width tyres such as the gorgeous Dune Carbon that we listed as one of our Most Exciting Mountain Bikes for 2016.
Is this a wise move from Mondraker?
Well, potentially. We just spent two weeks in Italy on the Scott Genius 700 Plus and that was enough to convince us that there's is definitely a future in plus sized wheels. If Mondraker gets the right frame and spec combo on these bikes it could make for a very interesting range indeed.


text:
That Gene Seymour
In which Gene Seymour muses about movies, music, TV and other distractions
Gene Seymour's Top Ten Jazz Albums for 2020
December 2nd, 2020 — jazz reviews
With a couple of (qualified) exceptions, there's not a whole lot on this year's list that will wake the neighbors or set off cowbells and car alarms. This, somehow, didn't feel like the year for that kind of noise, though there sure was a whole lot of unwelcome noise pounding on the walls of wherever we hunkered down to Stay Safe. I would like to think that for every two or three people shut in by the pandemic who could do nothing but keep some form of broadcast news on in every room of their houses, there were one or two others determined to find in music, or any other art, some deliverance from the relentless meanness of this year. Maybe that explains why most of the items listed below emit vibes owing to the ruminative, the elegiac, even, at times, the shadowy and ethereal. If you needed swinging, swaying and rocking, you could find all that, too and I wish all three were more conspicuous than they appear to be on this list. My own impulse for breadth and adventure is otherwise mostly indulged here with the hope that you all will do likewise.
One question for further study, and by now it's a familiar one: Just what the heck is an album these days? And is that really how you all still listen to music these days? I know that's two questions and I'm not going to go too deep into the weeds on either of them. Discuss. We'll talk later.
1.) Jimmy Heath, Love Letter (Verve) – Even before he began recording this gleaming array of ballads two days before his 93rd birthday and polished it to a fine gloss weeks before his death this past January, Jimmy Heath seemed infused with a magical elixir whose ingredients were known only to him. I remember watching him conduct a concert of the Queens Jazz Orchestra en route to his 90th year and his compact, five-foot-three-inch frame seemed as agile as ever; plus he was blowing his tenor saxophone with as much force (if not velocity, but you can't have everything) as he did when he was a badass young composer, arranger and leader in the 1950s. In each of these tracks, the power of Heath's playing emerges in its conceptual energy, the soft glow and austere intricacy of his thematic variations, whether on Billie Holiday's "Don't Explain" and "Left Alone," whose lyrics, written by Holiday for Mal Waldron's melody, are tenderly, fastidiously enacted by Cecile McLorin Salvant; or on Heath's own pieces, including "Inside Your Heart," "Fashion or Passion" and "Ballad From Upper Neighbors Suite." The formidable supporting cast comprises Salvant, pianist Kenny Barron, vibraphonist Monte Croft, bassist David Wong, guitarist Russell Malone, drummer Lewis Nash, vocalist Gregory Porter (featured on "Don't Misunderstand," a tune Gordon Parks wrote for his 1972 feature, Shaft's Big Score) and Wynton Marsalis, appropriately bringing his trumpet along for "La Mesha", composed by Heath's onetime confrere Kenny Dorham. Though properly regarded, to quote Gary Giddins' liner notes, as a "stunningly elegant last testament," Love Letter sure doesn't feel final; rather as though its leader is summoning a hard jolt of giddy-yap for the next album. Which is the kind of monument we'd all like to leave behind.
2.) Ron Miles, Rainbow Sign (Blue Note) – The title track immediately conjures up references to the biblical admonition cited at the conclusion of James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. (I'll just let you look it up, if you don't already know it.) But while such a connection seems especially timely this year, especially for a follow-up to cornetist Miles' 2017 album I Am a Man given that title's reference to the signs carried by striking Memphis garbage workers when Martin Luther King Jr. made his ill-fated stand with their picket lines, the polychromatic music on this Blue Note debut is more contemplative and probing than its immediate predecessor. The gorgeous mosaics forged by Miles' crystalline musings, guitarist Bill Frisell's laser-light interjections, pianist Jason Moran's stealthy adornments, bassist Thomas Morgan's vertically inclined strumming and drummer Brian Blade's sandman grinding make for a graceful, variegated sound that is deceptive in its seeming calm. The music may secretly wish to cry out, but mostly unravels in a kind of sang-froid wariness for whatever's ahead. The presence of spirits, including those who have departed this very year, are sensed more than heard outright. As much as Miles' music fixes your attention overall, tracks like "The Rumor," "Custodian of the New," "A Kind Word" and "Like Those Who Dream" also makes you restless with the known world's prevailing dread. You're ready to move somewhere, anywhere away from Fear Itself, even if you're not entirely sure where and when you're due to arrive.
3.) Aaron Diehl, The Vagabond (Mack Avenue) – The fifth album featuring Cecile McLorin Salvant's onetime/sometime accompianist displays what may well be his most comprehensive immersion in musical tradition, whether modernist or post-modernist . Thus, both Prokofiev ("March from Ten Pieces for Piano, Op. 12") and Philip Glass ("Piano Etude No. 16") are in the house for interpretive tweaking. But so are Sir Roland Hanna ("A Story Often Told, Seldom Heard ") and John Lewis ("Milano"), whose rhythmic poise and lissome riffing find in Diehl a stunningly worthy exponent. With his own compositions, Diehl makes his own way through the motifs and dynamics of jazz piano history. Hence the deft negotiation of space and time on "Park Slope" and "Kaleidoscope Road," reminiscent of both Lewis and Ahmad Jamal in the latter's latter-day period. His years of comping behind Salvant have bestowed upon him ears big enough to listen, respond and gently steer his conversations with bassist Paul Sikivie and drummer Gregory Hutchinson. The whole enterprise emits a soft glow of intimacy braced by a subtle urgency for wider vistas. It leaves you with no doubt whatsoever that Diehl, in whatever context, has more of those in store.
4.) Maria Schneider Orchestra, Data Lords (Artists Share) — Within every tender lament for a lost time, there is rage at whatever's shoving it aside. Most times, that anger is implied. But Schneider, on her first album since the masterly 2015 tone poem, The Thompson Fields , takes her regular patrons aback somewhat with this Janus-faced inquiry into what we once only hypothetically regarded as "cyberspace" has done to our collective minds and hearts. The first disc, "The Digital World," leans hard on the foreboding, the invasive and the insidious in evoking what the composer-arranger-conductor characterizes as concurrent erosions of public and private space. "Don't Be Evil" piquantly appropriates its title from one of Google's maxims to its employees and weaves into its thematic progressions the familiar melody of "Taps." One isn't used to this kind of acid spurting out from Schneider's orchestrated tapestries and at first it seems as if she's swinging too wildly at her digitized demons.. But what makes this particular recording stand out, both in the first volume and in the second, more typically Schneider-esque volume, "The Natural World," is the considerable room she's giving to her musicians to run wild and unfettered on both acoustic and electronic instruments. One could cite as examples tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin's shape-shifting wails and trumpeter Greg Gisbert's electronically enhanced narratives making their way through "CQ, CQ, Is Anybody There?" or how, on the subsequent "Sputnik," Scott Robinson's baritone sax climbs the registers in tandem with the rest of the horns to replicate both the relative barrenness of outer space (towards which the orchestra likewise urges you, later on, to "Look Up") and the lengthening chain of satellites playing pitch-and-catch with our unending data streams. Or how guitarist Ben Monder, pianist Frank Kimbrough, accordionist Gary Versace, reed player Steve Wilson and all the others contribute so distinctively to their leader's vision of awe, terror and hope in the ongoing percussive shock of the new in conflict with whatever remains of biology, oxygen, water and blood. The more you listen to the whole thing, the less certain you are about where those two worlds it explores begin, end…or, even, merge.
5.) Liberty Ellman, Last Desert (PI) – Maybe the best way to walk into Ellman's fifth album as a leader is to imagine the guitarist sitting with friends at a table on the first track — conveniently labeled "The Sip" for the purposes of our analogy – and just to make the afternoon lively, opens up a conversation with a few random phrases, each reaching around for some connection with one of the others hanging out: trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson, saxophonist Steve Lehman, bassist Stephan Crump, drummer Damion Reed and tuba player (tubaist?) Jose Davila. Since none of these guys are strangers to each other (one or all of them has at some point played with each other on other PI albums), it's easy enough for outsiders to follow along, even if there doesn't always seem to be a steady beat to hang on to. So you listen to what each of them contributes and what continually impresses is how lucidly the "talk" seems to flow, sometimes with Ellman augmenting Lehman's ideas by either sliding alongside in harmony or hanging back with Reed as Lehman elaborates with mounting intensity. Davila's tuba steps out of the background because it can't keep quiet for long and Finlayson, now barely able to contain himself, completes somebody else's premise with sparkly ingenuity. This is all a bone-simple way of saying that this album is mostly and ultimately about group interaction and however you want to listen, talk back or even dance along can only carry the conversation to another level, or tangent.
6.) Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, The Music of Wayne Shorter (Blue Engine) – I can remember a time, maybe a decade-and-a-half before this landmark 2015 concert, when things were nowhere near as collegial between the mercurial, enigmatic Mr. Shorter and the "uptown" jazz classicists of Lincoln Center. The details of this impasse are now blurry to me and, I suppose, everybody involved. All I knew, even then. was that sooner or later there had to be some rapprochement between the Imperial City's dominant jazz institution and the music's greatest living composer. Still, going in, one wondered whether Shorter's oeuvre, most of which was configured for small combos, would be adequately retrofitted for the demands of a 15-piece band. David Weiss pulled it off nicely with his tribute ensemble two years earlier. But Weiss didn't have The Man Himself playing alongside them the way Wynton's outfit did that night. The possibilities seemed rife for tension between J@LCO's imperative to swing and Shorter's impulse towards introspection. And from the jump – a Victor Goines arrangement of "Yes or No" from Shorter's 1964 album, Juju — there was a possibility that Shorter would be overpowered by the band's might. But the deeper their dialogue progressed, the more invigorated Shorter and the band seemed by the exchange. After a while, it became apparent that the tension between these sensibilities wasn't something to be resolved or overcome during the show; the tension was the show. And through their smart, measured and diligent exchanges of ideas and invention, Shorter and the orchestra managed to make each of these works – "Lost," "Teru", "The Three Marias," even the knotty "Contemplation" sound staggeringly fresh and (very much) alive.
7.) Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride & Brian Blade, Round Again (Nonesuch) – Hard to believe that this is only the second album recorded by this celestial body and that its predecessor (Mood Swing) was released way back in 1994. Somehow you'd like to believe in a world where this band of Super Friends could have hung together for that whole 26 years while continuing to veer off occasionally for their respective projects. But that deprives us of the illuminating perspective of their cumulative growth between those albums – and the attendant revelation that they now sound fresher and more inventive, individually and together, than they did when they were daring young tyros. Redman is the nominal leader here, as he was back in Bill Clinton's first term. But, having just edged past 50, the erstwhile swashbuckling prodigy from Harvard here sounds more authoritative and more relaxed, giving his bandmates plenty of room on the marquee and on these sessions to share with the class everything they've learned since they first played with fireworks together. In pianist Mehldau's case, it's the spherical sense-of-play on "Moe Honk" that gives his still-frequent cohort Redman another opportunity to light up the sky with his own ballistic spinoffs while McBride, now as prodigious a bandleader as he is a bassist, flashes both his virtuosity and ingenuity on his "Floppy Diss." Perhaps the most surprising contributions come from Blade, whose trap-set back in the day emitted enough rumbustious flash and bravado to compete with Redman's own magnetism. Here Blade sounds relatively circumspect and cagey, having figured out as the canniest veterans eventually do, that what you don't fill in is as important as what you do. Redman's party favor for the gathering is "Silly Little Love Song," a soulful romp that gives all four guys a case of the grins as it also seems to be waiting for someone not named Sir Paul McCartney to write lyrics for it. (No knock intended. He'd probably suggest someone else to do it anyway.)
8.) Matthew Shipp Trio, The Unidentifiable (ESP-Disk) – It's tough to stay an angry young man of progressive jazz piano when you've turned 60. But age will never deter Shipp's impetus to color outside the lines. The older he gets, the more apparent it becomes that few people now living can lay down as many dense clusters of chords in as many combinations as he can. With bassist Michael Bislo and drummer Newman Taylor Baker (I think this is their fifth year together, but one is never totally sure of such things), Shipp is expanding the possibilities for jazz piano trio while at the same time allowing his more lyrical side to gradually emerge from behind his polychromatic walls of sound. The title track provides the best vantage point for where Shipp is right now: a Tyner-esque roller-and-tumbler propelling Shipp's hands back and forth across his keyboard, shagging and snapping eccentric, oblong riffs that Bislo and Baker field with grace and idiosyncrasy. Baker, by the way, figures prominently on a series of tracks labeled, "Virgin Psych Space," which I am taking to mean exactly what it says it means. There is even (merciful heavens!) a samba, "Regeneration," that should someday be a global dance phenomenon when the world figures out how to colonize Venus. That this is among the more satisfying albums of Shipp's prolific career won't slow his roll. He's never satisfied. Besides, angry young men can often evolve into valuable curmudgeons. Shipp, trust me, is already there.
9.) Artemis, Artemis (Blue Note) — Conventional wisdom insists that supergroups never work for the simple – or simplistic — reason that star players can't, by definition, be team players. Maybe that's true most of the time. And maybe that's why the seamless interplay of this septet's members – pianist Renee Rosnes, clarinetist Anat Cohen, saxophonist Melissa Aldana, trumpeter Ingrid Jenson, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller and vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant – is a surprise large enough to grab your lapels at the outset. What keeps you involved are the different ways each track hugs and tugs at the core of its respective composition, economy without restraint, minimalism with soul. They all play so well with each other that it's difficult to single any of them out. But as quarterback for this all-star all-woman team, Rosnes also does most of the arrangements and her bold, slow-hand reimagining of Lee Morgan's four-on-the-floor burner "The Sidewinder" along with her incisive collaboration with Cohen on arranging the latter's "Nocturno" provide sufficient evidence that this contingent has far more on its mind, and in its quiver, than Making A Point to male supremacists. She and the rest of the band give Salvant a sultry, multi-dimensional frame for Rocco Accetta's "Cry, Buttercup, Cry." Jensen applies unexpectedly deeper shadows in her arrangement of "The Fool on The Hill" while Miller ("Goddess of the Hunt"), Aldana ("Frida") and Ueda ("Step Forward") make their own striking contributions to the repertoire of this road-tested murderer's row.
10.) Fred Hersch, Songs From Home (Palmetto) – Not long after the Black Swan of pandemic first locked us out of our schools, churches, gyms, theaters and interstates, Hersch, sheltering in his rural Pennsylvania home, brought some added light into his Facebook followers' afternoons with his "Tune of the Day' live piano recitals from his living room. Call this then, "Tune of the Day: The Album," a ten-track compilation of classic standards ("After You've Gone," "Get Out of Town,") "contemporary pop" hits ("Wichita Lineman, "All I Want"), originals ("Sarabande," "West Virginia Rose") and even a folk tune ("The Water Is Wide"). You are transfixed and startled throughout by the stark intimacy and the quiet intensity of Hersch's variations and ruminations. The wistfulness lurking within the presumptive gaiety of Lerner and Loewe's "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" is gently, resolutely funneled to the forefront of Hersch's interpretation while Ellington's "Solitude," as familiar to a jazz lover as a tender old robe, becomes something far eerier and more profound given both the immediate present-day context and the implied long-term uncertainties towards whatever happens when the coronavirus is finally subdued. There's not a single piece of this album – whatever albums are supposed to be right now – that we don't badly need for solace, commiseration and grace. It wishes nothing more than that we stay safe, be well and hang on for dear life.
1.) Edward Simon, 25 Years (Ridgeway)
2.) Ella Fitzgerald, The Lost Berlin Tapes (Verve)
3.) Frank Sinatra, Nice n' Easy (Capitol)
Allegra Levy, Lose My Number (SteepleChase)
HONORABLE MENTION: Kurt Elling, Secrets are the Best Stories (Edition)
Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Four Questions (Zoho Music)
Rudresh Manhanthappa, Hero Trio (Whirlwind), Charles Tolliver, Connect (Gearbox), Joe Farnsworth, Time To Swing (Smoke Sessions), Ambrose Akinmusire, On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment (Blue Note), Orrin Evans and the Captain Black Big Band, The Intangible Between (Smoke Sessions)
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Gene Seymour's Top Ten Jazz Discs for 2018
December 9th, 2018 — jazz reviews
It was the kind of year when the biggest, most-talked-about release in recorded jazz was a compilation of takes and outtakes from fifty-five years ago. It wouldn't surprise me to see Both Directions At Once at or near the top of some reviewers' lists for best new album since its 1963 sessions by the John Coltrane Quartet had never before seen the proverbial light of day. The album doesn't appear on this list, and I've already suggested why it won't. Still it was the kind of marketing triumph rarely seen in jazz music, pulling in a big, broad spectrum of listeners. Some older jazz heads told me Both Directions drew bigger crowds than Coltrane did when he was still alive – which sounds more than plausible.
Even with my misgivings, it was hard not to be caught up in the excitement Both Directions At Once aroused among listeners, especially those who weren't yet born when Coltrane died in 1967. Yet along with the excitement there was also a melancholy acknowledgment that Back Then aint the same as the Here & Now. Hearing the Coltrane quartet at a time when some of its greatest breakthroughs were just ahead reminded you that those early-to-mid-1960s were an era of expanding horizons and greater possibility.
And now? To paraphrase something one of my peers told me earlier in the year, we once lived in a time of transcendent, boundary-breaching improvisers. Now we live in an era awash in very-good-to-great players working well and even nobly within the standards set by giants. Every once in a while, one of them spins you around by making a sound you never heard before. (Number 4 on this list has been doing this since she emerged only a few years ago.) But maybe Gary Giddins was right when he wrote back in 1983 about the emergence of the Marsalis brothers and their contemporaries, "My intuition is that innovation isn't this generation's fate."
After almost forty years have passed and at least a couple more of waves of musicians have emerged, Giddins' assessment still sounds prescient, at least as far as improvisers are concerned. But there are other ways to be innovative. Throughout this period of revision and retrenchment, some of our most interesting jazz artists have devoted their energies to creating or, in Wynton Marsalis's case, refreshing contexts for jazz's presentation, whether by expanding the music's canon through jazz repertory or providing broader frameworks for presenting the music. Maybe you bring choirs along as part of your equipment, as Kamasi Washington does, or revise conventional horns-rhythm-section stagecraft as the late Max Roach once suggested – and as artists such as Esperanza Spaulding have been doing. It's the same kind of musical nation-building that Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey and Betty Carter used to do with their outfits and I'd like to believe that from these revised contexts, more than a few musicians will emerge and make all our heads spin the way John Coltrane once did, and still does.
Or…I could be wrong. Anyway, here's my list and I'm sticking with it:
1.) Steve Coleman and Five Elements, Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1 (The Embedded Sets) (PI) – In Coleman's previous appearances on this list, I've described what he and his band are doing as an ongoing quasi-scientific inquiry into what he characterizes as biological processes, but are in reality groove dynamics and harmonic montage. The studio work has yielded encouraging and often earth-shaking results. But in a live setting, especially within the concave confines of jazz music's Holy Dive, everything the band does seems ramped up in intensity as if having live witnesses to its experiments goads Coleman, Jonathan Finlayson, Miles Okazaki, Anthony Tidd and Sean Rickman to raise their respective games. The overlapping dialogue between Coleman's scorching alto sax and Finlayson's slashing trumpet seems more colorfully serpentine on stage while the worlds-within-worlds polyrhythmic drive provided by bassist Tidd and drummer Rickman yanks you into the music's molten core and Okasaki's guitar sets off well-timed compression bombs. If your head can move to this group's percolating dramatic tension – and it should – your body will eventually follow.
2.) Wayne Shorter, Emanon (Blue Note) – This just in: THE MULTIVERSE EXISTS! If you doubt this, and you do so at your peril, you need to find the nearest available copy of The 3 Marias, a "prestigious publication" dominating a "one world reality" known as Logokrisia. Failing that, you'll just have to trust this one-of-a-kind artifact springing from the teeming brain of a comic-book nerd from Newark who grew up to become, among (many) other things, one of this year's Kennedy Center honorees. This combination of graphic novel and three-disc collection is a multiverse you can carry around the house or, if invited to do so, somebody else's. The title, which is "no name" spelled backwards , owes its origins to a Dizzy Gillespie tune and is given to the novel's mystical superhero. Described by Shorter and co-author Monica Sly as a "rogue philosopher," this Emanon travels from dimension to dimension to subdue fear and oppression in all its forms and replace them with knowledge and wisdom. The real mystery and suspense come with the music performed on the three discs by Shorter and his comparably intrepid sidekicks, pianist Danilo Perez, drummer Brian Blade and bassist John Pattitucci, spinning off motifs, ideas and even characters from the comic book ("Pegasus," "The 3 Marias," "Prometheus Unbound" etc.) The first installment has the quartet deploying its customary allusive interplay in tandem with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. At times the combination sounds like the soundtrack to a cryptic SF movie spectacular. But then, almost all of Shorter's compositions, going as far back as such grandly-conceived classics as 1965's The All-Seeing Eye and ahead towards such underrated pastels as 1985's Atlantis (where "The 3 Marias" first appeared) and 1995's High Life, are soundtracks to movies whose stories would be too inscrutable for Hollywood to attempt. The quartet carries on its sporadic, probing conversations on the other two discs, whose content is culled from a live London concert. Some listeners have complained that the music seems more tentative than they expected as a definitive statement from the greatest living jazz composer. (We'll argue that latter clause some other time.) But it all sounds pretty definitive to me, coming as it does from somebody whose teenage nicknames were "Mr. Gone" and "Mr. Weird." Listen to this music often enough and you'll find that its secrets aren't meant to be deciphered; only appreciated on their own slippery, shadowy terms.
3.) Charlie Haden & Brad Mehldau, Long Ago and Far Away (Impulse!) – Up until his death in 2014, bassist Haden was always up for melding minds with other individual seekers of beauty and truth. This colloquy, recorded in 2007 at a jazz festival in Mannheim, Germany, may not be perfect (since nothing is), but it is gorgeous in the affecting manner of an early winter sunset or a lingering over-the-shoulder pivot towards a onetime lover you're certain of never seeing again. Haden knew a fellow romantic sensibility when he met one and Mehldau found in Haden's generosity of spirit a warm, safe haven for his vagabond lyricism and bold phraseology. The playlist is pure classic standard, from "Au Private" to "Everything Happens to Me," both of whose steady-as-she-goes renditions here would have made Charlie Parker smile. But what would have caused Bird to sit up straight with wide eyes are Mehldau's variations within each chord change; sometimes they swirl and tumble onto a different path while at other times they imperturbably ride with whatever tangent Haden discovers along the melody's surface. These collaborators bring out each other's richest conceptual contours in such ballads as "What'll I Do" and a Haden favorite, "My Love and I," David Raksin's love theme from the 1954 movie "Apache," within whose bridge Mehldau shakes loose some of his most stunning inventions, expansive yet firmly tethered to the song's pulse. Haden has always shown a special watchfulness in piano duets. This one is most remarkable for disclosing many things we either didn't know, or merely suspected, about Mehldau's resourcefulness. And, as another entry on this list will attest, we've come to know a lot more by now.
4.) Cecile McLoren Salvant, The Window (Mack Avenue) – She can neither be stopped nor contained by anybody's marketplace; nor is she in any way daunted by having to immediately follow the most breathtaking and ambitious jazz vocal album of this century. She takes a heady gamble on this one by relying mostly on a single accompanist: pianist Sullivan Fortner, who is as formidable a dramatist with his instrument as she is with hers. Her inflections provide well-timed cues for his embellishments and fusillades. Granted, there are times when their respective strengths almost collide, most notably on that Bernstein-Sondheim rouser, "Somewhere," when their attacks at different ends of the song threaten to shortchange its impact and even confuse their listeners. But even when they threaten to go too far, they end up creating something you haven't heard before – and won't mind hearing again. She's still at the top of her game and, more definitively, her profession. I wouldn't be at all surprised if I'm talking about her again in this space a year from now. I expect to be surprised by what she chooses to do next.
5.) Charles Lloyd & The Marvels + Lucinda Williams, Vanished Gardens (Blue Note) – "We all play folk music," Thelonious Monk once told Bob Dylan. Accordingly, this smoke-cured aggregation of laments, dirges and secular prayers lofted towards what we cringe to regard as Present Day Reality feels very much like the album Dylan would release if he believed now was the time to try more jazz with his blues. Led by tenor saxophonist Lloyd, who at 80 seems to be (in Dylan-speak) a lot younger than he was in his Forest Flower period of the 1960s, guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Eric Harland and steel guitarist Greg Leisz concoct a spectral blend of American musical java that soothes and jolts at odd hours of the day. Williams, in my judgment, has never had more suitable backup for her leathery vocals, whether on original songs such as "Ventura" or "Unsuffer Me" or on Jimi Hendrix's "Angel" on which you're tempted to imagine an alternate reality where he lived long enough to accompany her. (Maybe Wayne Shorter, or Emanon, can find one.) Still wondering why "Ballad of the Sad Young Men" is an instrumental, but they (whichever [sic] "they" are) may know something I don't.
6.) Joshua Redman, Still Dreaming (Nonesuch) – Jazz needs another tribute album the way I need another Bush, Clinton or Trump to run for president. But this feels far more like an urgent personal testament than yet another solemn salaam to a past master. It's a tribute, perhaps foremost, to Redman's father, which also makes it a homage to the Old and New Dreams band that featured Dewey Redman on tenor, Don Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass and Ed Blackwell on drums. And because that group was formed as a kind of early exemplar of an Ornette Coleman repertory band, the younger Redman, Ron Miles, Scott Colley and Brian Blade are taking on the respective roles of the aforementioned (now departed) players, but in their own voices and on their own terms. Thus, these four guys aren't paying homage so much as paying renewed attention to a state of mind, a manner of behaving well under pressure and a means of stretching the collective unconscious. There is one piece each by Haden ("Playing") and Coleman ("Comme Il Faut"). Yet most of the compositions are originals by Colley and Redman, the latter of whom, despite the fearsome range displayed in his previous recordings, shows sweet affinity with the serrated rhythmic patterns and riff extensions of the older band. It's hardly a secret that all was not well between the elder Redman and his son in the former's lifetime. But the peaceful feeling one gets listening to these tracks suggests a more intimate, profoundly deeper peace fully achieved within a tumultuous heritage of undaunted dream weavers.
7.) Brad Mehldau Trio, Seymour Reads the Constitution (Nonesuch) – To get the obvious out of the way, yes, I was intrigued, though mildly disappointed to find out that the title tune refers to a dream Mehldau had wherein the thirsty-grizzly voice of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman was reading the Constitution to him. But it wasn't the only reason I couldn't keep this disc out of my player for most of the calendar year. By now, the things Mehldau has done to stretch possibilities of the piano trio format have become part of the music's turn-of-the-century heroic folklore. But what keeps us attentive to Mehldau and his longtime partners Larry Grenadier (on bass) and Jeff Ballard (on drums) is their expansion of jazz's repertoire, either by broadening the definition of "classic pop" (Brian Wilson's "Friends," Paul McCartney's "Great Day") or by prying open fresh approaches to modernist standards, especially Sam Rivers' evergreen "Beatrice," whose natural bounce is refreshed here with insouciance and ingenuity. To his own compositions, Spiral" and "Ten Tune," Mehldau brings deeper harmonic invention and tonal progressions that reflect the abiding influences of both Bach and Brahms. Somehow, Mehldau has softened his intensity without losing his edge and still stands out among a prodigious — and increasingly crowded — pack of great jazz pianists.
8.) Christian McBride's New Jawn (Mack Avenue) – "Jawn" is Philly-speak for…well, I suppose if a definition of a noun is person, place or thing, then "jawn" is another word for "noun," though I always took it as a Del-Val variant of "joint." In any event, I don't think McBride's piano-less quartet necessarily qualifies as a "new thing," which for jazz heads of earlier generations was a euphemism for what was considered avant-garde from roughly 1959 till 1971. In fact, there's something bracingly familiar in this joint's blend of freewheeling neo-bop and nimble rhythm machinery. Trumpeter Josh Evans and saxophonist Marcus Strickland let fly with seeming abandon while staying grounded to the shifting pocket of percussion lad down by drummer Nasheet Watts and the bassist-leader, who despite his growing reputation as an eminence-gris on his instrument still comes across as the young tyro breaking loose from Philadelphia's storied Settlement Music School. And perhaps what's most gratifying about a small ensemble such as this is that it provides an ideal showcase for hearing what McBride has learned and can teach as a musician and a leader.
9.) Eddie Henderson, Be Cool (Smoke Sessions) – Let me tell you about Eddie Henderson because his is one of the most remarkable jazz-life stories you probably never heard. First of all, it's Doctor Eddie Henderson, having earned a medical degree from Howard University in 1968 four years after earning a B.S. in zoology from Cal-Berkeley in 1964. His general practice came in pretty handy in the years after he'd recorded with Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi electro-boogie band in the early 1970s. Oh, and before all that happened, he took his first trumpet lesson with Louis Armstrong at age nine. This was in large part because he came from Harlem entertainment royalty since his mother was a Cotton Club dancer and his father was a singer whose 1957 cover of "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" was a million-seller. If that sounds like too much to take in at once, then we'll make this long story short by saying that Dr. Henderson continued to practice general medicine while playing, recording and touring all over the world. This latest album of polished hard bop, backed by solid gold players such as pianist Kenny Barron, alto saxophonist Donald "Big Chief" Harrison, bassist Essiet Essiet and drummer Mike Clark, comes across as the closest thing to a musical autobiography Henderson has put forth so far. Its selections pay homage to players who have inspired and nurtured him throughout his long career whether it's Hancock ("Toys"), Coltrane ("Naima"), and fellow trumpeters Woody Shaw ("The Moontrane") and Miles Davis (his take on "Fran Dance" just misses equaling Davis' dry-witted studio rendition from 1958, but that's OK because Miles never quite matched it either and Henderson's comes closer than he did). But what boosts this testament towards rare air is its approach to that stout old warhorse, "After You've Gone." Most interpretations play that Tin Pan Alley ditty as a briskly paced taunt. Henderson, however, goes against the grain and slows the tempo, turning what's popularly recognized as a jolly anthem of comeuppance into a wistful rumination on loss. I forgot to mention: Henderson turned 78 last October and is still gigging, recording, broadening his musical horizons and, for all I know, available for consultation.
10.) Noah Baerman Resonance Ensemble, The Rock & The Redemption (RMI) – The notion of a jazz suite devoted to the myth of Sisyphus seems so obvious that you wonder why it hasn't happened before now. (Albert Murray, the late philosopher king of swing, had to have at least sketched out an idea of Sisyphus as the first blues hero…somewhere.) It's likely that the idea was waiting to land on someone like Baerman, a keyboardist-composer who teaches at Wesleyan University and has struggled his entire life with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, an incurable malady that affects connective tissue. As one can imagine, the disorder has tempted Baerman to walk away from playing music, but he has gone on and in doing so, found communion with the dogged Sisyphus, whose labors to roll a boulder up a slippery slope are duly honored with an 11-part piece blending funk, gospel, hard bop and (of course) blues. Baerman's Resonance Ensemble provides formidable support for this tribute to perseverance: Kris Allen on reeds, Chris Dingman on vibraphone, Henry Lugo on bass, Bill Carbone on drums and vocal support from cellist Melanie Hsu, Garth Taylor, Latanya Farrell and the late Claire Randall, whose murder at age 26 a year after this 2015 recording session became yet another painful marker on the slippery, treacherous slope of day-to-day existence. Her presence here is part of the bittersweet gift this enterprise bestows on those of us who wake up every day with a boulder in front of us, still standing wherever we left it the day before. The way I see it – and maybe Noah does, too – the rock mocks us, but in doing so, its presence reminds us that we're still alive. And pushing.
HONORABLE MENTION: Orrin Evans and the Captain Black Big Band (Smoke Sessions) Andrew Cyrille, Lebroba (ECM); Luciana Souza, The Book of Longing (Sunnyside); Renee Rosnes, Beloved of the Sky (Smoke Sessions); Jeremy Pelt, Live in Paris (High Note); Fred Hersch Trio, Live in Europe (Palmetto); Don Byron & Aruán Ortiz, Random Dances and (A)tonalties (Intakt); Ambrose Akinmusire, Original Harvest (Blue Note); Dave Holland, Uncharted Territories (Dare2); Matthew Shipp Quartet Featuring Mat Walerian, Sonic Fiction (ESP Disk); Kamasi Washington, Heaven and Earth (Young Turk)
HISTORICAL/ARCHIVAL/REISSUE, ETC.
1.) Frank Sinatra, Only The Lonely (Capitol)
2.) Keith Jarrett, La Fenice (ECM)
3.) Miles Davis & John Coltrane, The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 (Columbia/Legacy)
LATIN ALBUM
David Virelles, Igbó Alákoran (The Singer's Grove) Vol. I & II (PI)
HONORABLE MENTION: Ruben Blades, Wynton Marsalis & Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Una Noche Con Ruben Blades (Blue Engine)
Cecile McLorin Salvant, The Window
HONORABLE MENTION: Luciana Souza, The Book of Longing
Arianna Neikrug, Changes (Concord)
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December 3rd, 2016 — jazz reviews
It strikes me – as it should strike you – that there's an especially pervasive aura of American-ness suffusing this year's roundup, especially given that the words, "America" and "American" appear in most of the titles. This motif was making itself apparent as I started putting the list together before November 8 and it became even more – what? "prevalent"? "0mnipresent"? "prescient"? – after November 9.
One need not use this space for further dissection of what happened, and didn't, in that 24-hour period. It's all we keep talking about, and avoiding talking about, sometimes simultaneously. All I can say for my part is that these selections reflect a socio-cultural patriotism in both my conscious and subconscious mind that, in spite of all that has happened and may soon happen, remains steadfast. Whatever's coming down will likely give jazz even more of a beating than it's already sustained through this (so far) dismaying century. But the best thing one can say is that it's no more beaten up or beaten down than it's been since, let's say…1968? That was a helluva year, too. Some of us feared the worst after that election. . But we made it. And so, somehow, did music.
That's all I got. You want to feel warmer and fuzzier about things watch a Wal-Mart commercial. But if you really want to feel good about this country and its (say it with me, America) Greatest Art Form, these eclectic items, I promise, will do the job.
In the deathless words of Yuri Gagarin (who wasn't American, but we've always secretly wished he had been), "Let's go!"
1.) Jane Ira Bloom, Early Americans (Outline) – Hard to believe that after sixteen albums through nearly four decades, Bloom has never before walked the high wire with nothing more than a bass (Mark Helias) and trap set (Bobby Previte). She comes through just as you'd expect: with bold, deep tones that swallow you whole and bright,supple phrases that recombine themselves into breathtaking shapes. From Helias and Previte, she gets the kind of backup an ace improviser deserves. They merge their rhythmic instincts with her soprano saxophone's probing, soaring voice to become one entity, totally in control of whatever they take on, regardless of tempo or mood. On the (literally) groovy "Singing the Triangle," they seem to take turns at the wheel with Previte's toms assuming melodic duties with his characteristic wit and bravado. When it's just Bloom and Helias, as on "Other Eyes," the colloquy is so detailed and urgent that you think you're eavesdropping on a secret plan for curing cancer, hunger and ignorance. And when it's just her, in full flight, she asserts her command of every aspect of her art whether assembling a necklace of diamond-hard chords and taking them apart ("Rhyme or Rhythm"), burrowing deep into the contours of a classic melody ("Somewhere') or blowing the blues with joyous abandon ("Big Bill"). It's now official and can be certified by any number of witnesses: There's no one like her. Anywhere.
2.) Wadada Leo Smith, America's National Parks (Cuneiform) – Having previously contained multitudes in his matchless pageant of historic landmarks (2012's Six Freedom Summers) and his widescreen embrace of Midwest natural wonders (2014's The Great Lakes Suite) Smith, himself a force of nature whose renown has burst into a big, blinding glow at age 76, would of course be inclined to celebrate this year's National Park Service centennial with a similarly ambitious and dauntingly variegated tour through the service's assets, both widely known ("Yosemite: The Glaciers, the Falls, the Wells and the Valley of Goodwill 1890") and relatively obscure ("New Orleans: The National Culture Park USA 1718"). Don't expect either a Copland-esque procession of soaring, meaty strings or a rustic stream of acoustic guitar riffs cueing your awe over big rivers, big mountains and bigger skies. Smith has a way of swelling the American heart that's distinctly his own; his horn, by turns plaintive, coarse and slashing as Miles Davis' once was, assumes an even heavier, more rugged tone to keep up with his voracious impulse to take in the colors, textures and elements of his subject's landscapes, even when he's mostly imagining what they're like. ("You don't need to visit a park," he says in the liner notes, "to write about a park." And there's something about his submission to the imaginative muse that overpowers your literalist's skepticism.) His instrumental voice fuses effectively with that of cellist Ashley Walker and the rest of his Golden Quintet, with pianist Anthony Davis, bassist John Lindberg and, most especially, drummer Pheeroan akLaff, seems to take on added strength and power from the music's robust challenges. It's not an easy hike. But if you give in to the arcane beauties and shape-shifting aspirations of Smith's muse, you'll remember most, if not all, of what your inner ear sees.
3.) Fred Hersch Trio, Sunday Night at the Vanguard (Palmetto) – We've been here before with this group and we know from previous experience that they come to kill every time they show up downstairs on 178 Seventh Avenue South in Manhattan. So what's different this time? Maybe because, as the title says, it's Sunday night and as every Village Vanguard habitué knows, Sundays are when performers wind up their six-night engagements. While critics always show up Tuesdays for the opening-night sets, the Sunday closers can be less-heralded occasions when the ensembles, after a hard week's work, are at once locked in tight and empowered to let loose. Hersch tweaks expectations from the jump with an appropriately spry-and-whimsical treatment of "A Cockeyed Optimist," a Rodgers-and-Hammerstein chestnut that isn't often put through the jazz colander. The spiraling variations Hersch's piano applies to the melody makes you wonder why this is so and then you realize, once again, that it's because Hersch may be one of the few pianists of his generation with the open-hearted imagination to re-invigorate mid-20th-century Broadway grandeur for post-Millennial jazz heads. Along with bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson, Hersch builds upon this frisky beginning with a couple of classics from the jazz repertoire ("We See," "The Peacocks"); some of his own compositions ("The Optimum Thing," "Calligram," "Black Wing Palomino") that deserve to be part of that repertoire and, of all things, a ruminative, fireplace-glow cover of Sir Paul McCartney's "For No One." Hersch's liner notes say he and his partners were "in the zone" on this Sunday night last March. He'd know. All I know is that I had an especially hard time keeping it all out of my player – and my head – for the rest of the year.
4.) Henry Threadgill Ensemble Double Up, Old Locks and Irregular Verbs (PI) – For a change, this year's Pulitzer Prize winner for music is letting his sax and flute sit this dance out while leading two pianos (Jason Moran, David Virelles), two altos (Roman Filiu, Curtis McDonald), a cello (Christopher Hoffman), a tuba (Jose Davila) and a drummer (Craig Weinreb) in a four-part suite paying tribute to the late Lawrence "Butch" Morris (1947-2013), Threadgill's fellow Vietnam War vet and partner in avant-garde insurgency and orchestration. The band is a typically eccentric gathering, but it is by no means Threadgill's strangest combination of instruments. And if the dense musical collages assembled by the composer are as inscrutable and idiosyncratic as ever, they are also less forbidding; the angular dynamics and static-but-surging momentum urgently aligned with the wary-to-yearning-to-anxious mood swings of the present day. Indeed, I think Old Locks and Irregular Verbs is Threadgill's most emotionally accessible work since Where's Your Cup?, his 1996 Columbia album with Very Very Circus. And it couldn't have come at a better time for him – and for our jittery selves needing the reassuring possibility of discovery and adventure in an uncertain future.
5.) Allen Toussaint, American Tunes (Nonesuch) –It may not quite fit into whatever gets categorized as "jazz" in its ever-marginalized marketing niche; not as neatly as 2009's incandescent, expansive Bright Mississippi where Toussaint got to wander through a smoke-filled, twilit museum of 20th century black music with the likes of Don Byron, Nicholas Payton, Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman and Marc Ribot. But even with a relatively smaller guest list of notables (Charles Lloyd, Bill Frisell, Rhiannon Giddens), this album, whose concluding sessions were cut a month before Toussaint died in November, 2015 while on a European concert tour, is a deeply moving valedictory for an epoch-making legacy. No other pianist, living or dead, could apply his ironwork-ornate flourishes and mosaic-tile detail to such chestnuts as "I'm Confessin'," "Viper's Drag," "Rosetta" and "Waltz for Debby." No one could better evoke the resilient, inexhaustibly vivacious spirit of his home town when rolling through "Mardi Gras in New Orleans," "Big Chief" and "Hey Little Girl"; just as no one else could have written "Southern Nights," whose solo rendering here is sweet-and-sour enough to sting the eyes. But you should save your tears for the finale: his vocal performance of Paul Simon's "American Tune," which goes down, especially this season, like both commiseration and a blessing, even when you're stopped dead in your tracks by the plaintive, unadorned manner with which he sings: "Still when I think of the road/we're travelling on/I wonder what went wrong/I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong…" And I wonder how we're managing to go on without him.
6.) Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Real Enemies (New Amsterdam) — On the most elemental level, I can (almost) see conservatives' point when they keep insisting that government isn't your mother. But government also isn't, or shouldn't be, that creepy uncle who insists on hanging around your bedroom, listening in on your phone conversations, reading your mail and letting rich people with giant-squid tax shelters follow you around while you buy things. This is the world we've been living with for most of this – as I referred to it earlier – dismaying century so far; full of night sweats in broad daylight, cynical whistling-in-the-dark and equivocal behavior by those who've known too much for too long. So why, you wonder, would you want to listen to a whole damn album summoning up this dark matter? Because Darcy James Argue is a wicked-smart conjurer of phantasmagoric narratives grounded in real-life mystery. (See 2014's Brooklyn Babylon for further enlightenment.) And his 18-piece Secret Society kicks ass and proves itself worthy of its name by enabling its leader to put forth a gnomic, allusive, brassy and insinuating musical soundtrack you can apply to any noir mind-movie your paranoia can summon to life. It's the kind of story I wish someone of Argue's boundless energies and bountiful vision didn't have to tell. But, as many have observed of Edward Snowden's transgressions, I suppose somebody had to do it.
7.) Joshua Redman & Brad Mehldau, Nearness (Nonesuch) – These two guys have been all but joined at the hip since Mehldau served in Redman's quartet along with drummer Brian Blade and bassist Christian McBride. (Yes, that actually happened. Only one 1994 album, but, as you'd imagine, it remains a good, if retroactively undervalued one.) Redman and Mehldau have supported and inspired each other in the intervening years to the point where one is tempted to refer to them as the Huck and Tom of their generation of jazz musicians. I hope you've noticed that I did not say "Huck and Jim" and if you've read the books and been paying attention to their respective career arcs, it wouldn't be hard to decide which is Huck and which is Tom. Or would it? Never mind. What you need to know about these live duets from five years ago is that they get off to a bit of a ragged start on "Ornithology," but soon meld together in rapturous communication on Mehldau's ""Always August." Here and throughout the rest of the album, you're aware of how much each of them has grown into their respective styles; Melhdau's piano unfurling sheets of rich harmonies while Redman, on tenor and soprano, shows how impressively he's contained and controlled that prodigious talent that got everybody excited more than two decades ago. And he can still level you when he wants to; most especially on a stunning extended solo break he takes on "The Nearness of You," throughout which he doesn't seem to take a breath – except, maybe, your own. Mehldau likewise makes your eyes grow big with his own derring-do on "In Walked Bud." But they're at their most potent when putting their heads together on Mehldau's originals, notably the easy-rolling (at first) "Old West."
8.) Kenny Barron Trio, Book of Intuition (Impulse!/Universal) — Sometimes, maybe most times, you just want music to come across like sunlight shimmering along the nearest available body of water, the undulations so soft and sweet that you don't care how far or how high you're floating. At 72 years young, Barron may be the undisputed living grand master of jazz piano. He is, without dispute, his idiom's t most agile communicator in whatever setting or at whatever tempo. With bassist Kiyoshi Kitigawa and drummer Johnathan Blake, the group he's been leading in nightclubs and concert halls for most of the past decade, Barron delivers a state-of-the-art smorgasbord of straight-ahead pleasure, much of it braced by the Latin and Brazilian rhythms that highlight his tuneful dynamics. The table is set from the start with "Magic Dance," whose soft bossa-nova beat is Barron's happy place; happy enough, in any case, for him to tempt fate with a flurry of arpeggios that settle soon enough into an easy-does-it samba. His homage to Bud Powell, "Bud-Like," surges into Afro-Cuban overdrive while his fealty to Thelonious Monk is served with two of the Enigmatic One's lesser-known pieces, "Shuffle Boil" and "Light Blue." In each of these, Barron doesn't try to out-Monk Monk so much as let his own graces impose their own manner of wit and mischief into their workings. It's one of those records (and I have at least one of them every year) that doesn't reinvent the wheel, but reminds you why and how wheels work so beautifully.
9.) Etienne Charles, San Jose Suite (Culture Shock) – This ambitious work, enacted here in twelve parts, encompasses not just one, but three San Jose settlements in three different Western Hemisphere spots: California, Costa Rica and Trinidad. What's distinctive about each of these San Joses/St. Josephs is less important to the formidably gifted Charles than what they share and the music he fashions from his inquiries is bright, ingenious and bursting with provocative rhythmic combinations. The polyglot of Indo-African-Latin-American-European influences not only evokes the past but advances a singular new musical language redolent of the "creole soul" that gave trumpeter-composer Charles the title of his potent 2013 album. Whatever you call it, as pure sound, it is gorgeous to behold with intensely committed interaction throughout from Charles, altoist Brian Hogans, guitarist Alex Wintz, pianist Victor Gould, bassist Ben Williams and drummer John Davis. The last three tracks are a mini-suite, "Speed City," in which Harry Edwards recalls his tumultuous career at San Jose State University when he helped spearhead the African-American boycott/protest of the 1968 Olympics. At first, I thought the "Speed City" trifecta differed so much from the nine previous pieces that they belonged on a different album. Over time, I've come to think they not only belong, they're a bonus to what precedes them; mostly because Charles and the rest of his crew leave blisters no matter when or where they turn up the heat.
10.) Delfeayo Marsalis & The Uptown Jazz Orchestra, Make America Great Again! (Troubadour Jass) – In the most politically astute and (therefore) funniest Saturday Night Live sketch of the late, unlamented campaign season, Darnell Hayes (Kenan Thompson), host of an edition of "Black Jeopardy!" made extra special by the participation of a white blue-collar-Trump-supporting contestant (Tom Hanks), is given the last word: "When we come back, we'll play the National Anthem and see what the hell happens." Well, you're all encouraged to stand – or, if you roll that way, kneel – when this album begins with a stately, serious-as-a-heart-attack rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner." And what the hell happens after that's over is a raucous compound of house party, choral recital and vaudeville revue offering, as one song lyric puts it, "soul food for your ear." The album's title track is played for cheeky irony with the trombone-playing Marsalis brother's narration intoned by actor Wendell Pierce with hambone slyness over an antic riff reminiscent of Mingus' "Fables of Faubus." The words question whether the "catchy slogan" is a "pragmatic proposition" to "a melting pot of diversity fighting a juggernaut of adversity." Did Marsalis and company know how things would turn out after the recorded this session? Feel free to ponder that as his 19-member orchestra throws down a potpourri of hard-driving arrangements whose sources range from the Dirty Dozen Brass Band ("Snowball") to Benny Carter ("Symphony in Riffs"). Final question: Is this a bittersweet send-off to the optimism that followed the election of 2008 or a defiant hello to the dark-edged uncertainties unleashed by the election of 2016? Guess we'll know for sure in eight years, if not sooner.
HONORABLE MENTION: Sonny Rollins, Holding the Stage (Doxy/Okeh); Jonathan Finlayson & Sicilian Defense, Moving Still (PI); Matt Wilson's Big Happy Family, Beginning of a Memory (Palmetto); Bill Frisell, When You Wish Upon A Star (Okeh); Roberta Piket, One for Marian (Thirteenth Note); Chris Potter, Dave Holland, Lionel Loueke, Eric Harland, Aziza (Dare2); Anat Fort & Gianluigi Trevisi, Birdwatching (ECM).
BEST VOCAL ALBUM: Catherine Russell, Harlem On My Mind (Jazz Village)
BEST REISSUE/HISTORIC ALBUMS: 1.) Larry Young in Paris: The Ortf Recordings (Resonance); 2.) Joe Bushkin Quartet, Live at the Embers 1952 (Dot Time) 3.) Joe Lovano Quartet, Classic! Live at Newport (Blue Note)
BEST LATIN JAZZ ALBUM: Etienne Charles, San Jose Suite. HONORABLE MENTION: Sao Paulo Underground, Cantos Invisieves (Cuneiform)
on writing lit — and unlit
Politics & Other Disappointments
Aaron Diehl Brad Mehldau Cate Blanchett Cecile McLorin Salvant Charlie Haden Chris Rock Christian McBride Confessions of Nat Turner Daniel Day-Lewis Dave Holland David Weiss Denzel Washington Erroll Garner Etienne Charles Fred Hersch Greta Gerwig HBO Henry Threadgill jazz Joey De Francesco John Coltrane Joshua Redman Kendrick Lamar Kenny Barron Lincoln Maria Schneider Matt Wilson Miles Davis NFL Oprah Winfrey Ornette Coleman Quentin Tarantino Ron Miles Scarlett Johansson Sonny Rollins Spike Lee Steve Coleman Steven Spielberg Ta-Nehisi Coates Thelonious Monk Treme Veep Wadada Leo Smith Wayne Shorter William Styron
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Here is a statement cuff bracelet for all of our beach goddesses and gypsies. Feel the positive energy flow through you today wearing your vintage Bronzed, big stone charm statement jewelry.
Materials: Bronze Zinc Alloy, Natural Color Charm Hollowed-Out Cuff Boho Design Bracelet, Native Pattern Details.


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New Pet Transport Policy Adopted By United Airlines!
A new policy has been established by United Airlines for transporting pets in cargo holds that includes banning dozens of dog breeds and various types of cats.
The new policy will be taking effect on June 18, the time when the carrier will be resuming the reservations for its PetSafe program. In March, the airline temporarily stopped the program after a series of incidents involving pets that were lost and some others which died on United flights.
United said it will be working with an animal-welfare group called American Humane, to improve the well-being of pets that travel both in the cargo hold and in the cabin on United.
The types of dogs and cats which are banned are short or snub-nosed breeds, the ones with strong-jawed breeds, out of concern for higher worse health risks. Banned dogs include Boston terriers, pit bulls, boxers, pugs, bulldogs, and mastiffs among others, also including mixes of those breeds. Types of Banned cats are exotic shorthair, Persian, Burmese, and Himalayan. No other pets qualify for the PetSafe program other than dogs and cats.
Extreme heat on the ground can also be a problem as United won't accept reservations to and from four desert airports which are Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Phoenix and Tucson from May 1 to Sept. 30. The reservations to and from India and Australia will also not be accepted
United said it will be resuming the reservations from June 18 for pets traveling with their owner for flights beginning from July 9. For pets traveling alone, it will start taking reservations from July 16 on flights that will be departing July 30 and after.
If a pet carrier fits beneath the seat in front of them, then passengers can still bring dogs and cats into the cabin.
Do You Know The Surprising & Controversial Things About United Airlines?
Virgin America Reviews, Baggage Policies, & Specific Allowances!
← Logan Airport Looking Into Other Methods Of Internal Transportation
Best Meals Served In Various Flight Ticket Deals To India! →


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Major boost will bring museum collections to life
Jan 14, 2019 | Arts and Culture, Things to do
ONE of the region's top visitor attractions is to get a new flexible learning and performance space aimed at attracting new visitors and bringing museum collections to life.
The development at Sunderland Museum, Library and Winter Gardens is being made possible thanks to a £156,000 grant to Sunderland City Council from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and the Wolfson Foundation.
The funding will create a new flexible space that will improve the visitor experience by providing an exciting changing programme of activities taking place in and around the collections.
Awarding the funding, the DCMS/Wolfson Foundation expert panel praised the ambitions of the application and the 'excellent plans for how the space will be used to enhance the experience of existing users and attract new visitors'.
Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism Michael Ellis, said: "Our museums and galleries are among the best in the world and we are rightly proud of these institutions. The DCMS/Wolfson Fund demonstrates how the government and philanthropic organisations can work together to boost our museum sector.
"We want people up and down the country to enjoy culture and heritage wherever they are. The 35 grants awarded today will make important contributions towards improving the visitor experience; ensuring our wonderful collections are open to as many people as possible."
Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said:
"We are delighted to provide this funding through our longstanding partnership with DCMS – an excellent example of how we as a charity can work together fruitfully with government. We are grateful to DCMS for matching our funding.
"One of the great treasures of this country is the sheer quality and range of our heritage collections – stored and displayed in wonderful museums and galleries. This funding will help to provide even better visitor experiences and greater awareness of these fascinating collections. A particular joy of this funding round has been the impressive mix of the projects supported: from a dress collection at Carlisle's Tullie House to temporary exhibition space in Falmouth's National Maritime Museum."
Welcoming the announcement, Cllr John Kelly, Portfolio Holder for Communities and Culture at Sunderland City Council, said: "We're delighted to have been awarded this funding by the DCMS and the Wolfson Foundation to help us in our long term aim of improving and developing the Museum, Library and Winter Gardens.
"Museums have to keep evolving and improving if they want to attract new visitors and to keep people coming back time after time. That's why the council has invested in improvements in recent months with the transformation of the shop and reception area to make them more open and inviting, and has pledged to continue developing the museum.
"The new enhanced space funded by this award will be fantastic for the building. It will allow us to work with partner organisations to develop exciting activities for people of all ages from school groups, families and children to older people.
"It also means we'll be able to look at a range of things from workshops, events and experiences to talks and performances aimed at bringing the collections to life. It will also give us the opportunity to temporarily display of some of the things we have in store but don't have space to have on permanent show."
Keith Merrin, Chief Executive of Sunderland Culture, said: "Sunderland Museum, Library and Winter Gardens is one of the top 5 most visited attractions in North East England.
"Securing external funding for each phase of the improvement works is paramount and will help to ensure the continued success of this important community asset. "
Work is expected to start on the development in mid May following on from the exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci drawings which runs from 1 Feb – 6 May 2019 and to be completed in the autumn.
PreviousCheeky start to 2019
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The Bridges are backing independent businesses across Sunderland


In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the contribution of scavenger receptors in regulating macrophage responses to different stimuli. Clever-1 (also known as Stabilin-1) is a multifunctional molecule conferring scavenging ability on a subset of anti-inflammatory macrophages. In these cells, it is involved in receptor-mediated endocytosis and recycling, intracellular sorting, and transcytosis of altered and normal self-components. More recently, we have found that the progression of melanoma tumor growth and metastasis is attenuated in Stab1-/- (Clever-1 knock out) mice, and in mice treated with anti-Clever-1 therapy. Clever-1–positive macrophages are found in human cancers and high number of Clever-1–positive macrophages is associated with shorter disease-free survival in colorectal cancers of advanced stage and overall survival in bladder cancer. Clever-1 expression is increased on circulating monocytes and tissue macrophages in situations where immunosuppressive events prevail, such as pregnancy and cancer. Also, it has been demonstrated that the expression of Clever-1 on human monocytes suppresses the activation of Th1 lymphocytes indicating a possible role of Clever-1 in regulating monocyte/macrophage responses to inflammatory stimulus.
Figure. Effect of Clever-1 targeted treatment on cancer growth. Clever-1 positive M2 macrophages (pictured green) maintain cancer growth by expressing growth factors as well as immune-suppressing molecules. By blocking the action of Clever-1 with CLEVEGEN, macrophages are converted into M1 type cells (red in the picture), expressing T-cell activating receptors and producing TNF-α (tumor necrosis factor). As a result, the tumor is targeted by a common attack of macrophages and lymphocytes and cancer cells are eliminated (tumor rejection).
By modulating Clever-1 functions we hope to help the majority of patients lacking response to immune checkpoint blockage by converting cold tumours hot. We work together with Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd to support the development of their lead compound CLEVEGEN into clinical trials. CLEVEGEN is a humanized IgG4 that targets a functional epitope on Clever-1.
The MATINS (Macrophage Antibody to FP-1305 To INhibit immune Suppression) study is a first-in-human open label Phase I/II adaptive clinical trial (sponsored by Faron Pharmaceuticals) in selected metastatic or inoperable solid tumors to investigate the safety and efficacy of CLEVEGEN (FP-1305), the humanized monoclonal antibody against Clever-1. The selected tumors are cutaneous melanoma, hepatobiliary, pancreatic, ovarian or colorectal cancer, which are all known to contain high amounts of Clever-1 positive TAMs. The trial is to be run in three parts. Part I will be conducted to determine the safe and tolerable dose of CLEVEGEN, which will then be used in Part II to expand the cohorts of individual tumor types. Part III of the trial aims to confirm the efficacy of CLEVEGEN with the cohorts selected based on Part II.
The possibility of probing the molecular landscape of solid tumors via a blood draw (liquid biopsy) has attracted remarkable interest among the oncology community. Our group aims at identifying patients under immunosuppression who could benefit from immunoswitching therapies. To date we have detected increased expression of Clever-1 on peripheral monocytes (the precursors of TAMs) in cancer patients. This provides the benefit of patient selection during the MATINS trial as an indicator of prevailing immunosuppressive inflammation. We find this highly important since patient selection is central to the success of targeted therapies and identification of tumor specific molecular landscapes is pivotal to guiding treatment choices. Longitudinal surveillance of anti-tumor immune responses is essential for precision medicine but cannot be effectively achieved using tissue biopsy specimens. The MATINS trial offers our group a unique possibility to investigate the inflammatory responses related to the release of immunosuppression in tumors before, during and after CLEVEGEN therapy and identify markers of response for future drug development. Future cancer treatments will involve combination therapies, and we think that CLEVEGEN could bring a synergistic benefit for example to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 and increase the success rate of these cancer treatments.


We compared price of Blue Pneumatic BP734M Heavy Duty Lever Rivet Nut Tool across hundreds of online stores. We found Blue Pneumatic BP734M Heavy Duty Lever Rivet Nut Tool in 1 store with lowest price $120.66 in ToolKing.com. For detailed price comparison of Blue Pneumatic BP734M Heavy Duty Lever Rivet Nut Tool check table below.
Heavy Duty Lever Rivet Nut Tool BP-734 (M5-M10 Nose Assemblies Included) Heavy Duty Lever Rivet Nut Tool Comfortable easy grip handle Long handles for easy rivet nut and nutsert installations Includes M5, M6, M8 and M10 Nose Assemblies.
I looked over all internet for Blue Pneumatic BP734M Heavy Duty Lever Rivet Nut Tool and there are best prices of Blue Pneumatic products what I saw.


text:
Чемпіонат Австрії 1982—1983 () — 72-й сезон чемпіонату Австрії з футболу. Свій двадцять сьомий титул чемпіона Австрії здобув Рапід.

Турнірна таблиця

Посилання
 Чемпіонат Австрії на austriasoccer
 Чемпіонат Австрії на rsssf

1983
Австрія
Австрія
1982 в австрійському спорті
1983 в австрійському спорті

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Home › News › Improved GIFT CARDS!
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Please join the RISE Learning Institute, Arabic Culture Student Association, Associated Student Government, Campus Activities Board, and the Bellevue College Communications Studies Department on Tuesday, May 30th for a special screening of Tickling Giants as a part of Arabic Heritage Week. The screening will be held in Bellevue College N-201 and will start at 12:30 pm.
There will be a second screening at 6pm in N-201 for the Muslim community, paired with iftar and dinner.


text:
Mixx Facebook Twitter Digg delicious reddit MySpace StumbleUpon LinkedIn Viadeo
Japan utility sticks to timeline for ending nuclear crisis
By the CNN Wire Staff
TEPCO share prices take a hit
Tokyo Electric Power Co. first announced the timetable for ending the crisis in mid-April
Three reactors at plant overheated after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami
The company says it will have to change strategies in cooling the No. 1 reactor
Tokyo (CNN) -- Worse-than-expected damage in one reactor is forcing a change of plans at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but its owners say they still expect to end the 2-month-old crisis by January.
The Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it will have to change its plans for cooling reactor No. 1 after determining the unit's fuel rods melted almost completely in the early hours of the disaster and that the pressure vessel at the heart of the reactor may be leaking. That has forced the company to revise its plan to cool the reactors by flooding the surrounding space to draw heat away from the core, the company announced Tuesday.
The company says it will now step up efforts to set up a cooling system in which water is pumped through the reactor, chilled, decontaminated and pumped back into the crippled reactors -- similar to the system knocked out by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
But Sakae Muto, Tokyo Electric's vice president for nuclear power, said the company still is planning on restoring normal cooling no later than October and bringing the reactors to a complete "cold shutdown" by January at the latest.
Japan tourism hit by disaster
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Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc.
Tokyo Electric first laid out a six- to nine-month timetable for bringing an end to the crisis in mid-April, a month after the historic earthquake that struck northern Japan. But an assessment released over the weekend concluded that coolant levels in the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi were much lower than previously believed.
That meant the fuel assembly at the reactor's core was fully exposed and melted, settling into the bottom of the surrounding pressure vessel and likely damaging the vessel.
"That would make this a very, very bad accident and extremely difficult to clean up," said Kenneth Bergeron, a physicist who used to work at the U.S. Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. Bergeron said the molten core may have damaged some of the lines leading into the pressure vessel, such as the tubes that house the control rod drive mechanisms, leading to the leaks.
The company said that while it believes the unit is now leaking, temperature readings from inside the pressure vessel suggest the molten fuel is now being kept cool.
Unit 2 was already believed to be leaking, resulting in a massive buildup of highly radioactive water in the turbine plant behind the reactor. And in documents released Tuesday, the company warned that it faces "the same risk" in the No. 3 reactor.
All three overheated when cooling systems failed at Fukushima Daiichi, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Tokyo. Hydrogen explosions blew apart the housings around the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors and another is suspected of damaging the No. 2 reactor.
Engineers have been forced to pump hundreds of tons of water a day into the reactors and the spent fuel pools of units 1, 3 and 4 to prevent them from overheating again. But the resulting release of radiation forced the evacuations of more than 100,000 people in towns surrounding the plant and has forced Japan to rethink its plans for future nuclear plants.
"The government must squarely face the Japanese people's sense of betrayal over the belief that nuclear power is safe," Banri Kaieda, Japan's minister of the economy, trade and industry, said Monday. "The government has been drawing up nuclear energy policy as a nation with scarce resources. We as a government take full responsibility. We shall finish this accident. We will do our utmost as a country for you all to go back to your home sweet home."
Over the weekend, residents began evacuating from two villages that had originally been outside the danger zone drawn around the plant. The towns of Iitate and Kawamata were downwind of the plant in the early days of the disaster, and radiation levels there are high enough to raise the long-term risk of cancer for those remaining, the government said.
"I know that they are having to endure great hardships, and their life in evacuation going forward will be a very harsh one," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters Monday. "We truly regret that this had to happen."
Radiation levels in Iitate, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the plant, were nearly 40 times normal background levels Monday, according to data released by the country's Science Ministry. Someone who spent eight hours a day outside would get the government's maximum allowable dose of 20 millisieverts in about six months at those levels.
Residents of those towns and all or part of three others were given orders to start packing in April. Five more areas have been put on notice to await evacuation orders, and the government says it will decide whether those residents will be allowed to return around the time the crisis is resolved.
CNN's Kyung Lah and Matt Smith contributed to this report.
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text:
using System;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace Arges
{
    [DataContract(Namespace = "")]
    [Serializable]
    public class WindowsServer
    {
        [DataMember]
        [XmlAttribute("id")]
        public int ServerId { get; set; }

        [IgnoreDataMember]
        [XmlAttribute("grp")]
        public string GroupName { get; set; }

        [IgnoreDataMember]
        [XmlIgnore]
        public string Master { get; set; }

        [XmlAttribute("ip")]
        public string ExternalIP { get; set; }

    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
10 reasons to study with us
Year abroad
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Partners and Public Engagement
Banister Fletcher Fellowship
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University of London Menu
Language Acts for the Archives of Contemporary Migration
Written by 30/06/2020 | 30 Jun 2020
How can language act for those whose lives are suspended in long periods of administrative and physical precarity? And what acts are needed to enable sense to emerge and find form despite the pressures of minimal or non-existent shelter, frequent displacements into different linguistic environments and nation-states, and the circuitous and often indecipherable nature of administrative processes?
The Language Acts for the Archives of Contemporary Migration workshop will gather scholars in the fields of translation and multilingual studies, human geography, and public-outreach professionals from the museum world to explore the materials generated by a series of small-scale workshops at a public library in Paris. During these sessions, young asylum seekers produced a series of one-off books with a common but flexible format that are gradually constituting a new collection for this library. The materials that were examined at the workshop were produced during two series of workshops in Paris – in spring 2018 and spring 2019 – and exemplify extremely different types of language acts, from rudimentary description often accompanying drawings, to multilingual narrative, poetry, and 'self-help books' for people in equivalent predicaments (The Book of Sport for young illegal migrants). Produced in a collective environment by people of varied educational and geographical backgrounds, the books will be preserved as an integral part of the library reserves, and as such constitute not only a future resource, but also a physical representation of a world that still lacks an infrastructure. During the workshop, this collection will be presented and discussed as a contribution to a development of that 'infrastructure'.
This workshop, supported by AHRC's Small Grants Scheme of the Language Acts and Worldmaking programme, aims to support and develop the collaborative structures between UK-based scholars working in the field of translingualism and the contemporary urban environment and the work of the University of London Institute in Paris.
The workshop is currently being rescheduled for autumn 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
How can language act for those whose lives are suspended in long periods of administrative and physical precarity?
Open University of China/CDE collaboration success
The Centre for Distance Education is helping the Open University China to develop their approaches to online education through online staff development.
A General Practice - A book launch event
Please join online for the book launch of Anna-Louise Milne's new publication, a short fiction entitled A General Practice.
Unbound possibilities: Introducing the Spineless Wonders Project
The history of Camden's music scene and venues
Public Ecologies: Imaginaries of Urban Nature-Culture
Explore ULIP
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Once you know how to cook it, quinoa is a really good addition to salads, vegetables or a nice alternative to serve with casseroles or curries. By cooking a little extra you will have some ready for lunches or a breakfast alternative.
Here are the steps to follow for perfect quinoa every time.
Always rinse quinoa well under cold water using a fine mesh strainer, and rub the grains together with your hands. This removes the natural coating that can sometimes cause a bitter taste.
Measure out 1 cup quinoa (serves 2) and add 1.5 cups water, place both in a pot with a pinch of sea salt.
Bring to the boil, then cover and reduce to simmer (low heat) for 10-15 minutes, or until all the water has absorbed.
Leave to stand for 5 minutes, then fluff up with a fork before serving.
Voila! Perfectly cooked quinoa ready to eat.


Apple sold 29 million iPhone X units during the holiday quarter, according to a report from analytical firm Canalys. That made the Apple iPhone X the world's number one shipping smartphone model during the three month period from October to the end of December. While that sounds like good news for Apple and its tenth anniversary handset, Canalys analyst Ben Stanton notes that while the figure was impressive for a high priced device, it was below industry expectations. Last week, connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities said that he expects Apple to stop production of the iPhone X in the middle of this year due to low sales.
According to Canalys, other iPhone models tallied high shipping totals in the quarter, such as the Apple iPhone SE, Apple iPhone 6s, Apple iPhone 7 and the Apple iPhone 8. Older models, like the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 7, are being bought by those who feel that they have discovered value for the money paid. Canalys Analyst TuanAnh Nguyen said that for the fourth quarter, "Apple is looking at its best performance to date, all thanks to the massive changes it made to its portfolio in Q3."
Stanton does point out that the big $999 price tag for the 64GB iPhone X, combined with the split launch dates, were some of the reasons why iPhone X shipments failed to hit expectations during the fourth quarter. As Stanton mentions, iPhone X shipments were not the fastest ever for an iPhone.
Apple is expected to report its fiscal first quarter earnings on February 1st. On that date, we should know how many iPhone units the company sold during the fourth calendar quarter. Whether Apple breaks out iPhone X sales separately won't be known until the earnings release is disseminated.
Let's not forget "Report Claims iPhone X Sales Not as Strong as Expected in the U.S. Poor iPhone X Sales Are Good News For Apple iPhone X sales 'below' expectations due to price, says key analyst Analyst suggests customers prefer cheaper iPhones to the iPhone X Apple's combined iPhone X, 8 and 8 Plus uptake still can't beat the 6 and 6 Plus Chinese tech stocks slump after report that Apple has cut its iPhone X orders by 40% The iPhone X order cuts news erase $14 billion off Apple's market cap Interest in Apple's new iPhones near all-time lows at Verizon, AT&T and Sprint What? Ming-Chi Kuo expects Apple to cease production of the iPhone X by mid-2018 due to low demand" Like i said, i wonder where these analysts are when Apple announce their q results next month. 29 million in two months is just incredible number, but it doesn't surprise me.
It was released in november, with short supply remember not enough to go around. I think someone is telling porkey pies.
No let's not forget that Apple projected original to sell 50M and cut their own estimates to 30M, per PA posted article which we showed you and you denied as even being fact. Don't try to backtrack trying to quote others. It solid not sell as expected, because foe one they couldn t even make enough and for 2, they lowered their own project sales. Now you're trying to deflect as per usual. You were proven wrong. Accept it and move on.
Please show a link to a source showing that Apple projected 50 millions. You won't find one because Apple has never said that. All those numbers have just been speculations from analysts, not Apples own estimates.
"No let's not forget that Apple projected original to sell 50M and cut their own estimates to 30M," And again you are doing it, giving a false information. Kuo expected X preorders to be 40 or even 50 million, which had nothing to do with Apple. The number from begin sounded ridiculous.
Samsung sold only 29 million S8's within a year. So Apple made roughly 30+ billion in revenue just on the iPhone X in one quarter.
iPhone X is the best phone available.
Its not even the best iPhone available. Not even close to best overall.
iPhone X is easily the best phone available.
You may more or less have a point about the iPhone X being the best handset available, but saying "easily" might be quite a stretch.
I'm inclined to agree with you. It's definitely between the s8+ and the iPhone X. Pixel would be up there too if it weren't for all the issues.
I think the iPhone is the best phone available. I don't know about it easily being the best. I have an S8 plus as well and honestly I'm just waiting for them to build a iMessage/Facetime competitor that works with both sides and ill switch over permanently. The slight difference in app quality isn't going to make me stay on iOS.
Last I looked imessage/facetime don't work on both sides? Google allo and google duo work on everything. You do have to install or have friends install them ,but after the 30 seconds that takes your good to go. They all have strengths and weaknesses but there are usually work arounds. Unless you only use apple and their services, then you are stuck with only iphones.
"iPhone X is the best phone available." BAAAAAA LMFAO!!!!!!!
How times have changed. I remember when Samsung phones were only "shipped" when they were sold to retailers, and Apple numbers were only "sales". Good times.
I know right. But shipped is sold. Because no one is shipping without getting a certain amount of money. Verizon can order 10M phones and .maybe they pay for half upfront. Apple IOS still gonna count all 10M. Just like all preorder are counted as sold even if they don't shop for 8 weeks. But yes we know how they are hypocritical right?!
Shipped is not same as sold. Unsold can be returned back to Apple. Which wont be reported to the public. Thats why Apple changed from sold to shipped years back, to not revealed how many actually been sold and how many units been returned back.
Remember, this is Canalys' best estimate for the quarter. When February 1st rolls around, we will get the official numbers from Apple (if they care to break it down for us... in the event that they really did sell that many and want to disclose it).
What you need to realize is that Apple at the end of the day doesn't care if a $1000 phone sold less than years previous. They are making a bigger profit margin. They are a FOR PROFIT company after all. They are making MORE MONEY by SELLING LESS.
All I can say is this, ask anyone under the age of 30, about which phone they would pick. I'm guessing most would say the iPhone X.
There isn't a company on the planet willing to report the numerical value of returns to the general public because that's stupid. What good information can be gleamed from those numbers?
Report said "shipped", source also said "shipped", and then PhoneArena write "Sold" on title, nice..


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