❄️ Holiday Music Collections, Best Jazz of 2020, Best Podcasts, Holiday Films, & More...
Annual Holiday Radio Show is Tuesday, December 22nd at 6pm
I’m Jason Boucher and welcome to Nocturnal, a weekly newsletter about sound + music where I highlight some of the best new music, podcasts, stories, and streaming video. I’ll be dispensing related links about music, art, film, and other news that I hope you dig. I don’t know about you, but I get excited for new records, reissues, soundtracks, live music, and films—so I’m sharing with you! My hope is this newsletter increases awareness of the extraordinary art communities all over the world, even if it’s just a smidgen. Questions? jason.boucher@icloud.com
Today in the newsletter: The best holiday music collections, best jazz of 2020, best podcasts and of the year, and of course my latest playlist and audio archive.
But first… We made some gingerbread cookies using my Aunt Barb’s recipe. Next week, we’ll share our gingerbread houses. So far, delicious! ⛄️
🎧 Listen Up!
Here’s some of my favorite holiday music collections. Remember, I’ll have my annual holiday music radio show Tuesday, December 22 at 6:00 p.m. on WSCA 106.1 FM and streaming at wscafm.org/listen.
Various ‘Where Will You Be Christmas Day?’ (Dust To Digital)
Low ‘Christmas’ (Kranky)
Various ‘Hanukkah+’ (Verve)
Various ‘A John Waters Christmas’ (Watertower Music)
Top 10 Jazz Albums 0f 2020
Makaya McCraven - Universal Beings E&F Sides (Int’l Anthem)
Dougie Stu - Familiar Future (Ropeadope)
Aquiles Navarro & Tcheser Holmes - Heritage of the Invisible II (Int’l Anthem)
Jeff Parker - Suite For Max Brown (Int’l Anthem)
Josh Johnson - Freedom Exercise (Northern Spy)
Shabaka and the Ancestors - We Are Sent Here by History (Impulse)
Nubya Garcia - Source (Concord Jazz)
Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra - Dimensional Stardust (Int’l Anthem)
Sun Ra Arkestra - Swirling (Strut)
Immanuel Wilkins - Omega (Bluenote)
This Week’s Reading List
Piano Bars and Jazz Clubs Reopened, Calling Live Music ‘Incidental’
Charley Pride, first major Black star in country music, dies at 86
Top Podcasts of 2020
The Watch List - Holiday Version
Christmas Vacation
Love Actually
Last Christmas
Gremlins
It’s A Wonderful Life
Elf
The Night Before
Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol
Krampus
The Family Stone
Nocturnal: A Sound + Music Experience is delivered fresh each Tuesday evening through an ominous freeform cloud featuring hubbub from then and now. Listen live Tuesday evenings on WSCA, or the next day via Mixcloud.
December 8th playlist:
Nas “Ultra Black (feat. Hit-Boy)” King’s Disease (Mass Appeal)
Moses Sumney “Neither/Nor” græ (Jagjaguwar)
Adrianne Lenker “forwards beckon rebound” songs (4AD)
Aquiles Navarro; Tcheser Holmes “Pueblo” Heritage of the Invisible II (Int’l Anthem)
Siti Muharam “Pakistan” Siti of Unguja (Romance Revolution on Zanzibar) (On The Corner)
Phish “Everything’s Right” Sigma Oasis (JEMP Records)
Fiona Apple “Under The Table” Fetch the Bolt Cutters (Epic)
Taylor Swift “exile (feat. Bon Iver)” folklore (TS)
Phoebe Bridgers “Kyoto” Punisher (Dead Oceans)
Rjd2 “Flocking To The Nearest Machine” The Fun Ones (RJ’s Electrical Connections)
Bonny Light Horseman “The Roving” Bonny Light Horseman (37d03d)
Fleet Foxes “Young Man’s Game” Shore (Anti/Epitaph)
Gwenifer Raymond “Gwaed Am Gwaed” Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain (Tompkins Square)
Bill Fay “Filled With Wonder Once Again” Countless Branches (Dead Oceans)
Sir Richard Bishop “Celerity” Oneiric Formulary (Drag City)
Run The Jewels “JU$T (feat. Pharrell Williams & Zack de la Rocha)” RTJ4 (BMG)
Destroyer “Cue Synthesizer” Have We Met (Merge Records)
Waxahatchee “Fire” Saint Cloud (Merge Records)
Mourning [A] BLKstar “If I Can I May” The Cycle (Don Giovanni Records)
Makaya McCraven “Kings and Queens” Universal Beings E&F Sides (Int’l Anthem)
Matt Berninger “Collar Of Your Shirt” Serpentine Prison (Concord)
See you next week… - JB