Part of my 2015 was spent under the influence of Gordon
Hempton’s book One Square Inch of Silence: One Man's Quest to Preserve Quiet.
Reading that book led to my seeking silence more often during those occasions
when I would have normally listened to music--fixing a meal or washing dishes,
getting dressed before going out, and grading essays. At night, when working on
my classes, I often wore my headset without having anything come through the
earphones. The headset simply served to filter out any other sounds.
A few things within my house kept me from hearing as much
music as I normally would have. My wife’s health wasn’t as good as it could
have been. Unwilling to visit a doctor, she often was in a great deal of pain
and relied on over-the-counter painkillers for several months. Fortunately, our
visiting the gym on a regular basis has helped. Our son’s girlfriend also
started living with us and has her own taste in music, so I didn’t subject her
to mine very often.
Another part of the year went toward discovering what I had
overlooked. Having missed Brad Mehldau’s concert in Kansas City during the
previous year, partly because of the expense, I devoted some of my attention to
Brad Mehldau’s Places (2000) and Day is Done (2005), two albums that I had not
listened to as closely as I had other albums by Brad Mehldau--Ode (2012), for
example. My Internet subscriptions led
me to discover music by Adam Baldych and Verneri Pohjola, both of whom were
new discoveries for me. That initial introduction led to my listening to Pohjola’s
Ancient History (2012) and Baldych’s Imaginary Room (2012) and The New Tradition (2014), a duo album
with Yaron Herman.
Those albums that came to my attention during the year and
that I have come to think of as favorites appear below in no particular order.
1. Bridges, Adam Baldych and Helge Lien Trio (ACT)
2. Slow Eastbound Train, Daniel Herskedal (Edition Records)
3. Intervals, Einar Scheving (Valrun)
4. Oscalypso, Erik Fiedlander (Skipstone Records)
5. Midwest, Mathias Eick (ECM)
6. At the End of the Day, Pauseland (Self Produced)
7. Bullhorn, Verneri Pohjola (Edition Records)
8. Desire, Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet (Challenge)
9. Everblue, Yelena Eckemoff (L&H Production)
10. Never Ending January, Espen Eriksen Trio (Rune Grammofon)
