Sadly, the music world seems to have people passing away all too frequently nowadays, something to do with the age range of that golden sixties generation I suppose, that generation whose music shaped everything that has evolved ever since and therefore, for the most part, has remained timeless. But then there are also, all too often, reports of someone from a younger generation falling too soon and that, for obvious reasons, feels like a whole other kind of tragedy. A life cut short, the thoughts of what might have been. And then there are deaths like that this week, of Jaimie Branch, who has left us at the horribly young age of thirty-nine to causes as yet unreported. A death like this is a strange one, I can only liken it to, as far as its similarity in shock and sense of immense loss, to the that of Elliott Smith. That feeling in the moment you learn of their passing of, oh shit, we’ve really lost someone quite special there, a genuine one-off. The music world is going to be a lesser place without this person in it from now on.

That is how I instantly felt when I learned of the death of Jaimie Branch this week. Even though I had not taken a deep dive into learning about her personal history, the music she had released had left a serious impression on me, especially the two ‘Fly Or Die’ albums released under her own name in 2017 and 2019. These were albums that had firmly grabbed my attention, Free Jazz albums that were not only innovative and explorative but accessible too, ram-packed with hooks that were exciting and stimulating to the ears and the head. And Jaimie’s personality seemed to smash through the complexities within the grooves, she seemed like an in-your-face left leaning activist who understood the shades and contradictions of the human condition and that sometimes, even those who thought of themselves as the good guys could be “assholes and clowns” who needed some love.

I’ve been listening to her a lot this week, trying to uncover the collaborations she worked on as well as the headline slots. Not entirely successfully either, apparently, she played on some Spoon tracks but, thus far, I have been unable to find out which ones. But my-oh-my, she was so good, she had such a good ear for melody and, maybe without my even being aware of it, had entered that space in my musical consciousness whereby if she’d been playing in my part of the country, I’d have gone to see her; if she’d been playing at a festival I was at, I’d have gone to see her; whenever a new release was announced, I’d have been on to it immediately. But I hadn’t even heard of her until 2019 and so, in my head at least, I was just on the first step of the ladder in terms of my musical relationship with Jaimie Branch. And now she has gone and the feeling of loss is tangible but, if I can find one thing to hold on to, it is by reading the numerous online tributes this week and realizing that there were many, many others who heard the magic in her music too but still, you know, whatever; gone way too soon.

There’s a trio of Jaimie Branch tracks kicking off the September playlist: