Rolling Jazz Thread 2018

I feel like interest is growing, so let's have an easy-to-remember title this year.

First promo to land in my inbox this year: trombonist Michael Dease's latest, Reaching Out, coming out on Posi-Tone 1/26. A good band: Ralph Bowen on tenor sax, Walt Weiskopf on alto and tenor saxes, Behn Gillece on vibes, Luther Allison on piano, Peter Brendler on bass, Zach Adleman on drums. Includes a version of "Live and Let Die," though.

Also, there's a brand-new Henry Threadgill album, Dirt...And More Dirt, recorded with a 15-piece band; it's being made available on Pi Recordings' Bandcamp page for a day or two, then it'll disappear again until the official release in late spring (April, I think). He's actually gonna put out two albums simultaneously at that point. It's really good, so buy it while you can.

https://henrythreadgill.bandcamp.com/album/dirt-and-more-dirt

HT album is great, thanks for the tip!

Yeah, it's really good. He was supposed to premiere that piece at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center, I forget which, back in September - I was all set to go, but the show got cancelled because he was suffering from exhaustion or something. Hope they reschedule for the spring.

nice piece on the late roswell rudd by the npr people:

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/05/575930368/remembering-roswell-rudd-a-jazz-musician-with-an-ebullient-sound

going to go listen to the BA interview now!

jason moran is coming to the walker in april. an acquaintance of mine is one of the curators and what she's told has me real stoked.

The exhibition will highlight Moran’s mixed-media “set” installations STAGED: Savoy Ballroom 1 and STAGED: Three Deuces (both 2015), sculptural vignettes based on storied music venues from past eras that were his acclaimed contributions to the 2015 Venice Biennale. The exhibition will also premiere a new sculptural commission as part of this series. The presentation also features a selection of Moran’s most recent charcoal drawings and time-based media works from his long-standing collaborations, or sets, with visual artists including Lorna Simpson, Glenn Ligon, and Theaster Gates. In-gallery performances and a new commission for the stage will be orchestrated during the run of the show to complement the gallery presentation.

https://walkerart.org/calendar/2018/jason-moran

and then there's this "sonic universe project" feat. wadada leo smith and roscoe mitchell

An all-star lineup of master jazz innovators spanning three cities (Minneapolis, New York, and Chicago) and two generations creates a new sextet for an exclusive Walker engagement. The ensemble includes visionary trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith, a transformative figure in jazz; powerhouse saxophonist/composer Roscoe Mitchell, a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago; Hamid Drake, one of the great drummers working in jazz and global music today; Oliver Lake, longtime member of the World Saxophone Quartet; bassist Anthony Cox, one of Minnesota’s most in-demand musicians for years; and composer/flutist/saxophonist Douglas Ewart, who helped bring these master musicians together.

90 minutes

World Premiere

https://walkerart.org/calendar/2018/sonic-universe-project-douglas-ewartwadada-leo-smithroscoe-mitchelloliver-lakeanthony-coxhamid-drake

jazzfest marathon suggestions for tonight?

Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity, Jaimie Branch's Fly Or Die (unfortunately they're playing opposite each other), Donny McCaslin's quartet.

I'm hoping to see the Harriet Tubman-plays-Free Jazz show tomorrow night.

i had mccaslin and branch boldfaced too
other potential hits: Ches Smith, Sons of Kemet, ONYX collective, MAST, Blaque Dynamite
the only thing i'm really hyped to see is the 11pm Nicole Mitchell piece with Jason Moran, may need to get there early
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/arts/music/nicole-mitchell-black-earth-ensemble-mandorla-awakening.html

I interviewed Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Yazz Ahmed yesterday for the next Burning Ambulance podcast - it'll be going live in a week, on 1/19.

Well huh, Wynton's son makes beats: https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/meet-standing-on-the-corner-the-post-genre-crew-whose-music-speaks-a-secret-language/

JM: Honestly, I have an extremely antagonistic relationship with hip-hop.

Think he said that just to keep his dad off his back?

Here's a link to my interview with Hutchings (who's on the cover of the new issue of The Wire, btw), Garcia and Ahmed.

Coming soon: Preemo's Club Henny at Lincoln Center

NPR are streaming the new Sunwatchers album

(as well as Julian Lage's)

Oh, thanks. I was a little underwhelmed by the advance JL single "Roger the Dodger" but I'm definitely interested in listening to this.

This is just what I want tonight, actually.

My latest podcast is up - I interviewed Orrin Evans, who is now the pianist in The Bad Plus.

nice

Finally, this is legit and remastered from original: live in '65 Paris, Wes is into Trane, shadowed by Harold Mabern, and later Johnny Griffin shows up, intriguingly enough (astute excerpts and comments by Kevin Whitehead)https://www.npr.org/2018/01/31/582118519/in-paris-recording-guitarist-wes-montgomery-shows-his-head-for-melody

Yeah, that's a great album.

A bit of a row in Germany over the Echo Jazz awards ceremony – best newcomer winner Anna-Lena Schnabel wasn't allowed to perform any of her own music. The producers rejected her piece "Plop" :-) and four other suggestions, and they asked her to do her version of Horace Silver's "Peace" instead. The show was televised on NDR, a non-commercial broadcaster, which denies censorship and says it wanted "the young generation" included on the show... just not playing anything written after 1959.

German public media are usually open-minded about new jazz afaik – they filmed Schnabel's full concert below, and public media told her side of the story first in a documentary where they accused themselves of censorship. It's a good system. Enjoy!

- http://www.3sat.de/mediathek/?mode=play&obj=69772
Anna-Lena Schnabel @ JazzBaltica: online til 20 Oct 2018

I had no idea that a new Bad Plus album w/Orrin Evans came out weeks ago, hadn't heard a single thing about it until listening to your podcast. The three tracks on soundcloud are cool, if maybe not quite as distinctive-sounding? Don't love how the drums were recorded/mixed on this one.

Listening to some Orrin Evans stuff on Spotify today, the trio with Christian McBride and Karriem Riggins is nice.

I heard the clips of that Wes Montgomery record on NPR and it sounds burning, never heard it before I don't think.

Pretty sure I'd only heard OE as a sideperson before, like on Ralph Peterson records.

Also, while I'm sure it wouldn't be ideal in some ways, I'd love to hear a version of the Bad Plus with Eric Lewis on piano.

I'm still getting my head around the Bad Plus continuing with the same name without Iverson. I'll listen, though.

my local public radio jazz station is usually pretty trad but has one show on a weeknight that does more "adventurous" stuff

they played a band called The Comet is Coming? British, and sort of electronic, jazz, R&B hybrid...wouldn't be out of place on an old Thirsty Ear comp

Yeah, The Comet Is Coming is one of Shabaka Hutchings' projects.

ah i'm really enjoying it

Just got the promo of the next Sons of Kemet album, their debut for Impulse!. The cover art is wild.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVc_N_3VoAASHZj.jpg

Anyone have any thoughts on Badbadnotgood? I randomly watched a What's in My Bag video with them and liked their taste and what they had to say. Where is a good place to start with them?

their album with ghostface is great! no idea about their regular stuff

Yeah, I haven't checked them out yet either. I may get to see them this summer, though - I'm hoping to get press access to the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, and they're playing.

they seem to skirt the line between jazz and Budos Band type stuff

I was a hater when they first blew up, because they were goofy college kids who made a video doing jammy covers of Odd Future beats and sent it to Tyler, then they were playing festivals doing jammy covers of EDM tracks.

But I've got to give it up, they matured and learned some restraint, and that 'IV' album is pretty cool. Nice '70s-style production, the collabs with Colin Stetson and Samuel Herring work, lots of attention to sound and texture. Good for them!

Gurls: Norwegian trio at the poppier end of the spectrum I guess, though pretty understated with sax + bass + vox only; opened here for a-ha (!) a few days ago; album just released. Quite enjoying this in the middle of the night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDqBG1jrR9Y

The lineup for this year's Vision Festival is out, and it's amazing. I would go every night if I could, but it's in Brooklyn so I'm almost certainly gonna miss the whole damn thing. Get there if you can.

https://www.artsforart.org/vf23lineup.html

Is this the first Vision fest to not feature a William Parker-led band? I see he's joining a few groups but his relative absence seems a bit conspicuous given his involvement in previous festivals

Might make the trip once day passes are announced. Ambrose Akinmusire has become one of my favorite trumpeters. He and Mehldau are both incredible here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BKVfbwI3X4

Definitely enjoyed that

yup, that was great

My latest Stereogum column is up. I talk about the Bad Plus, GoGo Penguin, and a bunch of other stuff, including a book on 1970s jazz that kinda disappointed me.

Re Parker and Vision Fest, doesn't seem so odd, especially as many of his regular bandmates are presenting their own projects. He's maybe taking a backseat from leader projects atm? Or perhaps he's cooking something big up. He has an album coming out soon with his wife Patricia Nicholson on his own Centering records.

Electronic Press Kit for new David Murray/Saul Williams alb, out 2/16, anybody heard the whole thing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbgAmvDz6fQ

Yeah (I was trying to get Murray on my podcast, but the publicist totally dropped the ball). It's pretty good. I wrote about it in this month's Stereogum column (linked above):

Saxophonist David Murray met poet Saul Williams at Amiri Baraka’s memorial service in 2014. The day after hearing Williams read, Murray knew he wanted to make an album with him. Four years later, here it is, billed as a tribute to Mehmet “Memo” Uluğ, a major figure on the Turkish jazz scene. The core band includes Orrin Evans on piano, Jaribu Shahid on bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums, with additional contributions from Jason Moran (on Fender Rhodes), Murray’s son Mingus on guitar, Craig Harris on trombone, and Aytac Dogan on kanun, a zither-like Turkish instrument. Williams discourses on a variety of subjects, some political, others more celebratory of life. On “A Mirror Of Youth,” Williams’ impassioned delivery — and his vocal timbre — remind me of Black Thought, while the band behind him goes just as hard, without ever abandoning melody. Murray, like Archie Shepp, has always been a living bridge between avant-garde jazz and its roots in blues and swing; he can scream like Albert Ayler, or sing low like Coleman Hawkins, and here he’s in a hard bop mode, spinning out passionate lines that always keep one foot on the ground.

"This group is smoking, but wouldn't it be even better if they had someone sorta-rapping-but-not-really-rapping on top? Like slam poetry, you know?" - no jazz fan ever

I interviewed Tony Allen for Down Beat.

The new issue of The Wire is out today; I wrote the cover story on Mary Halvorson, reviewed Anthony Braxton's new 11CD box set (first line, which I can't believe they kept: "Anthony Braxton has developed gigantism") and the new Sons of Kemet album, and profiled French avant-metal band Chaos Echoes, who have an album coming out that's a collaboration with Mats Gustafsson.

Wow, I've really liked a lot of what I know from Halvorson and am curious about the Braxton. (Marking some midterms with essays about Braxton rn, actually!)

anyone recommend a good 2018 spotify list to follow?

this one has lots of good stuff, but it's mostly Danish https://open.spotify.com/user/jazzyniels/playlist/1KpooeZNb18FltdeWgWlSy

Nels Cline 4 jam concisely on song from new album, info and live-in-studio vid link here:
https://www.stereogum.com/1986225/the-nels-cline-4-imperfect-10/music/?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral
Mainly of interest to me for the Cline solo, also like the way its momentum lifts the full group at end (but mainly his solo).

That sounds surprisingly similar to, like, John Scofield w/Medeski Martin & Wood. I like it, that's a very funky 5/4. Tom Rainey is fun to watch.

Oh yeah, I like this. Cline and Lage in the same band! I've been enjoying the Lage album a lot too; will buy it.

Oh no I am thinking of Jon Raney and Doug Raney, sons of Jimmy Raney, never mind.

So there's jazz guitarists Julian Lage and also Lage Lund, huh (the latter is married to a singer I went to college with).

Yes. This is often discussed. I believe Julian Lage was a protégé of or at least studied under a guitar teacher named Randy Vincent who has written some good books but employs a very stretchy, risky, Johnny Smith-like left hand technique, so it wasn’t totally surprising when the student developed some kind of tendinitis.

Lage has tendonitis at such a young age? Man.

Oh right, I've probably made the same post at least three times, huh. Too much time on ilx.

Think he did some work and took some posture lessons so that the tendonitis/tendinitis (seems both spellings are acceptable) has abated

The new issue of The Wire is out today; I wrote the cover story on Mary Halvorson, reviewed Anthony Braxton's new 11CD box set (first line, which I can't believe they kept: "Anthony Braxton has developed gigantism") and the new Sons of Kemet album

― grawlix (unperson)

Enjoyed the Braxton piece. Good choice of word given the size of this release (and his back catalogue!). I'm tempted but it's $150 on his Bandcamp.

Listening to lots of Henri Texier. He's got a swarmingly intimidating catalogue but current favourites are Varech (obvs) and his Suite Africaine, with Aldo Roman and Louis Sclavis.

Listening to the Julian Lage record and enjoying it, I like the folky/pop feel. S/o to Kenny Wollesen, the only drummer in jazz who tunes his snare way down.

Kind reminds me of some Scofield and Ribot records, which is a good thing.

Milford Graves followed by Mary Halvorson on the front cover of the Wire, it's almost like it's a jazz magazine.

I thought Mary's recent Tzadik album is really brilliant, one of her best yet.

This one?
http://www.tzadik.com/index.php?catalog=8356

Also - wow, I didn't know Zorn was working toward an endpoint:
After 13 years and 32 CDs Zorn’s expansive “Book of Angels” project is now complete! This final installment presents the last 10 unrecorded compositions from “Masada Book Two” and the variety, drama and lyricism is just as strong as the very first volume. Mary Halvorson, a longtime Masada fan and one of the most acclaimed guitarists of her generation, leads a dynamic quartet featuring Miles Okazaki, Drew Gress and Tomas Fujiwara. The music is intense, wild and incredibly varied—a beautiful and fitting conclusion to this historic Masada series—hailed as one of Zorn’s best!

yep, and even in such a giganto series it's quite right to say this is one of the best!

The folk/pop feel of the Lage also reminds me of some mid-period Frisell stuff.

Joe Lovano is playing Wednesday to Friday at my local jazz club, I feel like going

Whaaaat, there is a new Brian Blade Fellowship album from Nov 2017, and it didn't make last year's thread (or this one)? I'm very disappointed in all of you (and Blue Note).
http://www.bluenote.com/artists/brian-blade/body-and-shadow

Yep; I wrote about it for Stereogum back in September:

Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band, Body And Shadow (Blue Note)
Drummer Brian Blade’s latest release might be the shortest jazz album of 2017: nine tracks in under 32 minutes. The group — Myron Walden on alto sax and bass clarinet, Melvin Butler on tenor sax, guitarist Dave Devine, pianist Jon Cowherd, and bassist Chris Thomas — has been together for 20 years. This is their fifth release. They’ve never been a traditional jazz group; their debut was produced by Daniel Lanois, and their music has always had a wafting, atmospheric feel. They incorporate elements of country, blues and gospel into their slow-walking compositions, and solos are subued, though still vibrantly alive. There are some interesting structural experiments here; the title piece is played three times (“Morning,” “Night” and “Noon”), and there are two back-to-back versions of the spiritual “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” — a solo take that sounds like it’s played on a harmonium or accordion, and a full-band version. “Broken Leg Days” has one of those meandering, slowly building seesaw melodies that seem to dominate 21st century jazz, but when Blade brings the drums crashing in, he ups the energy level about five notches in an instant. This is a very enjoyable way to spend a half hour.

Listening now and it's pretty and Fellowship-y, it does sound like their most minimal and restrained one yet though. Also found this review which is pretty brutal, ha: https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/brian-blade-fellowship-band/

NPR covered it! At least I think that’s where I heard about it

Tbh, that album was one of my biggest disappointments of 2017, but only because I loved Landmarks so much.

Nate Chinen has a book coming out in August. It looks interesting.

That does look promising.

Hi jaymc! I get that, it is pretty slight. It's funny, the last couple (totally essential) BBF albums each had one or more tracks that were super restrained, no solos, and those were my favorites (like 'Stoner Hill' on Season of Changes, or 'Embers' on Landmarks). But on this one, every track except one is like that, except maybe not as a strong, and I wish they would play a little more.

I will buy that Nate Chinen book, looks good

Now I wanna hear the new BBF, sounds up my alley. I love when I read a "negative" review and think "that sounds great"

On a Bill Stewart listening kick today. Solo album from 2015 called Space Squid (great), most recent Larry Goldings Trio (kinda boring), that John Scofield one from a couple years ago with Joe Lovano and Larry Grenadier (pretty great).

My latest Stereogum column is up. Watch out - I think one of the streaming tracks is set to autoplay.

That Jeremy Pelt track is burning. Even the cajon solo works.

Really really like this Patrick Zimmerli thing too.

Today I'm enjoying Bill Stewart's Incandescence (from a decade ago), cool double-keyboard trio. Drums, organ, and either Rhodes or piano (or sometimes piano + accordion).

I've been jamming the new Frisell today, good stuff

I guess I have uncool taste in jazz in that I often prefer the kinda... subtle stuff

Re: the comments below Phil's column, Kurt Rosenwinkel's tone has never bothered me, and I actually recall liking him on the few tracks he played on on Chris Potter's Vertigo album

David Ake is a new name to me but I'm liking this track a lot. Monder's guitar at about 4 minutes in is certainly...unexpected

I don't keep up with new jazz releases as much as I would like but I'm still very much attached to ECM. Jakob Bro's first two (trio) albums for the label immediately won me over and I was worried that the addition of a trumpeter on his latest, Returnings, would undermine the music's oneiric dolefulness. Except said trumpeter is Palle Mikkelborg, whose downcast playing fits Bro's compositions like a glove, and the couple of pieces that he penned for the album do not draw our attention away from its overall flow, which is exactly as should be. The less overtly tonal, processional title track (co-written by Bro and Mikkelborg) is the only one that stands out, bringing to mind Edward Vesala, but its intimations of a far-off catastrophe are needed in this potentially too genteel context. Good stuff, overall – I should probably explore Bro's pre-ECM output as well.

I didn't know about the Frisell. A solo electric guitar album from is pretty much exactly what I want; sounding good so far. Also, Roscoe Mitchell's album with the Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra Ride the Wind just arrived. Looking forward to it.

The Mitchell/MTAO is really good!

xp I've seen Bro live with Mikkelborg a twice, both great so I am looking forward to listening!

you might want to check out Balladeering which is one of my favorite albums
https://open.spotify.com/album/3dsUvkEtccETDqWcXUUXxh

The only Mikkelborg I have is Miles Davis's Aura, which PM composed, arranged and produced, with a big band incl. NHØP and John Mclaughlin: it's like "What if Miles and Gil plugged in and kept it tasteful." Good of its kind for sure.

Just did an hour+ interview with Billy Cobham for the Burning Ambulance podcast - it'll be live on 4/13. Awesome guy - had stories about Miles, McLaughlin/Mahavishnu (McLaughlin can apparently be kinda shady at times), the Fania All-Stars, and much, much more.

Cool! Really enjoyed his Trap Set interview.

Today I'm listening to all the versions of 'So What' from that new Miles Quintet bootleg series thing. Spoiler alert - they keep getting better.

http://i8.cmail19.com/ei/i/79/EB4/FC8/222203/csimport/r-1260625-1360137078-7003-jpeg_7.jpg

Soul Jazz Records EVENTS Horace Tapscott: Musical Griot Documentary TOMORROW Wed 28 March 2pm Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image
TOMORROW AFTERNOON!
Exclusive screening + After-film discussion panel including Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records)

This event is FREE - info here
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/session-thirteen-horace-tapscott-musical-griot-rebirth-is-necessary-tickets-43055887318

Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square

London WC1H 0PD

Going back to Jeff Parker's 'The New Breed' and this is so my shit. Maybe one of the best blends of jazz + electronic music, and many have tried and failed.

(also holy shit, that record has sold a ton on Bandcamp alone, good for him for tapping into the 'chill beats' economy perhaps)

Guardian focus on the British Jazz scene:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/08/british-jazz-invasion-moses-boyd-matthew-halsall-nubya-garcia?CMP=share_btn_tw

xp thanks for heads up on the Parker, totally missed that when it came out

Billy Cobham podcast is going up on Friday, and I just taped the next one this morning. It's with Dave Burrell, who played at Cecil Taylor's funeral yesterday. We talked about that, and about a bunch of his projects, including the whole free jazz migration to Paris in 1969/70 and what he'll be doing at the Vision Festival this year. It's a really interesting interview, and it'll be up on 4/27.

I finally listened to all of Code Girl and I am really liking this, wow. "The Unexpected Natural Phenomenon" is probably the biggest standout rn.

Nels Cline 4 live stream rn: https://www.facebook.com/PasteMusicAndDaytrotter/videos/10156393536779529/

Cline album sounds good, and it looks like a proper Blue Note record to boot

I posted about it on the 'third stream' thread but I really like that Patrick Zimmerli record, now that it's out. Seems mostly through-composed, and I'm sure that there's a lot of harmonic and conceptual stuff that I'm not getting, but the good thing is that it's a very pleasant listen without worrying about any of that. Also it's one of the best sounding jazz recordings I've heard in a minute.

This makes some good points and clarifies some turns in the discography I got discouraged from taking---also, re the mention of Cosey etc. at the end, what he'd like to hear in the Bootleg Series, reminds me of a rare PC interview, in which he casually mentioned his own onstage tape recorder tour mascot, sometimes pulled those cassettes out from a shoebox under the bed, listened to them 'til he fell asleep---wonder who has the rights to those, if they still exist (think I may still have a few x-generation dubs via Goldmine Magazinec ca. late 80s-early 90s). Um, anyway:
https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/04/19/do-we-need-another-miles-davis-box-set/?utm_source=Village+Voice+Music&utm_campaign=0bc3f4529c-Music+Newsletter+1%2F19%2F2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_58e5ed4fcb-0bc3f4529c-58804241

Yeah, the last 3 paragraphs of that piece are the only parts I care about. Here's what I'd like to see show up in the Bootleg Series:

• a multi-disc set from the 1971 European tour featuring the Gary Bartz/Keith Jarrett/Michael Henderson/Mtume/Leon "Ndugu" Chancler version of the band (a few tracks are on Vol. 4)
• a multi-disc set of the non-Agharta/Pangaea dates from the 1975 Japanese tour
• a multi-disc set of We Want Miles-era shows

I don't think any of those are likely to happen, though, because Sony seems to prefer focusing on acoustic Miles. I mean, that Freedom Jazz Dance set was basically a "super deluxe edition" of Miles Smiles. I've played it exactly once.

Were the shows from the We Want Miles era what resulted in Star People? If so I wouldn’t mind hearing that. I’m fairly fond of that record.

Agreed about Jeff Parker's "The New Breed", it's wonderful. It has a kind of "Mark's Keyboard Repair" quality that I love; the last track, with his daughter - I think - singing, is a treat. International Anthem (the label) really delivering lately*: "In the Moment" by Makaya McCraven (also feat. Parker) is great, and the Irreversible Entanglements album is fantastic.

*"lately" to me, these days, can mean any time in last five years.

My latest Stereogum column is up. I talk about Cecil Taylor, Billy Cobham, those two new Kamasi Washington songs, Sons of Kemet, and a bunch of other stuff.

Oh wow, cool that you reviewed Paw@n's record. He used to come sit in with a group I played with when he was, idk, 10? 13? Had a really nice sound even then, glad he's doing the thing.

I don't even know if he has a publicist - I bought it on Bandcamp.

I'm sure he doesn't, that's a beautiful story. I'll make sure he sees it.

The Centro d'Arte Padova has uploaded 25 minutes of previously unreleased Cecil Taylor solo piano from 1975 to Mixcloud via AllAboutJazz.com. It's great; very much in the vein of Air Above Mountains.

From 2016 but I was immediately drawn to Florian Weber's solos on this Angelika Niescier LP on Intakt. He's inserting this avant-Euro-experimental thing into a hard bop framework, and it's great. Found out afterward he was cutting a record with Stockhausen fils for ECM around the same time

Sick, I've been wanting to hear Tyshawn Sorey in a more, um, rhythmic context.

Sorey (and bassist Tordini) also have a a trio album with saxophonist Angelica Niescier coming out on Intakt a little later this year.

Great column, as always, but re the origin of the name Shatner's Bassoon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_Eye

I think I'm going to listen to nothing but Dave Burrell for the next few days.

I interviewed three really good South African jazz musicians - keyboardist/bandleader Thandi Ntuli, trombonist/singer Siya Makuzeni, and saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane - for Bandcamp:

http://daily.bandcamp.com/2018/05/02/new-south-african-jazz-feature/

FTR, Linda Sikhakhane is a dude.

On first listen, really digging ANTELOPER (Jaimie Branch and Jason Nazary), to the point that I had to restrain from starting a Jaimie Branch thread.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/kudu

I'm getting slaughtered on Facebook for this opinion, so I might as well share it here:

Late '70s-early '80s NYC funk/fusion had to be the worst sound in jazz history. The jangling guitars, the high bass lines, the biting-on-tinfoil snare drums. Prime Time, the Decoding Society, anything with James "Blood" Ulmer. Really talented players (Ulmer excepted; that dude is running a long, long con) making irredeemably awful music.

I know this stuff is well regarded, and "important" as an overall development. All I'm saying is, it doesn't work for me. None of it. And these are people whose work I like a lot at other times (I love Ronald Shannon Jackson with Last Exit and with Cecil Taylor, my love of Ornette's non-Prime Time music is certainly established, etc.). It was the combination of what they were playing and the sharp, trebly '80s production. It is so, so Not For Me.

I agree for the most part, it's rough. The sounds on that 80s Bill Frisell live set posted on his thread make it come off like a 'shreds' video.

Does Dancing in Your Head fit into this period? I love that.

Yeah, I'm basically talking about all the Prime Time albums, all the albums by Ulmer's various projects (solo discs, Music Revelation Ensemble, Odyssey), and Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society. (I do like Arthur Blythe's Lenox Avenue Breakdown and Illusions, which are from this period but don't have that same jangly sound and go-nowhere "funk" style.)

Oh, yeah, I like that stuff. Not for everyone.

If I'm thinking of the same Frisell clip (1993?) that Jordan is talking about, I agree that there are some things I don't love about that sound, but it seems like a different thing altogether.

I love 80's Fusion these days but it feels like a genre that you get into long after you've exhausted a lot of other stuff (not that I'm saying you haven't done that, unperson!). In my teens it would have been the definition of bad taste to me.

Mini-doc on the first Bad Plus show w/Orrin Evans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikioo--iFUo&t=0s

Don't know why that didn't work but it's on the Jazz Night in America channel.

The only thing I disagree with in that statement is this:

Ulmer...is running a long, long con

Ulmer's great! I even like his blues records! He has a great sound that splits the difference between Hendrix and Sonny Sharrock (whose later LPs I[m assuming you also don't like). What don't you like about him?

But the sound of this period is rough going, I agree. A lot of it is the 80s production, but I think some of the music is worth getting beyond that, like Frisell's Power Tools album. Do you know that one? How do you feel about 80s Zorn?

Got a promo of the new Kamasi Washington today. A double CD, 16 tracks, just under 2 1/2 hours long. I've listened to the first disc so far. It's all the same musicians as The Epic, including the orchestra and choir, plus a few guests - Sput, the drummer from Snarky Puppy, is on a track or two. It's Epic-ish, but with the same kind of slick CTI sound and feel as the Harmony of Difference EP. Washington's compositional voice is easily recognizable at this point, but he's improved as a player, and an arranger; everything about this record is kinda "the same, but better." I'm liking it a lot so far.

The orchestra and choir are what really interest me. I don't really love how the other instruments (especially drums) are mixed, but I can get with it as kind of a period '70s sound where everything is kind of small and close mic'ed, but with the sweeping Alice Coltrane strings and 'Volunteered Slavery'-type choir. Definitely looking forward to this one based on the two singles anyway.

I was just going to ask about the records incl. Earl McIntyre and Beaver Harris, because I don't think I've ever heard those two guys? But jeez, what a list---Downtown Music Gallery newsletter, Vinyl Spring Cleaning Edition---I've got a few of these (Sun Ra, Blood Ulmer) but comments on any would be welcome:

Hello Earthlings! Greetings from the Planet Vinyl where Records are still the preferred format! We recently got in several small album collections and have been working our way through cleaning, pricing and listening to as much as is possible. Here is our monthly list of Vinyl Goodies. We have only one copy of most of these so order what you want quickly, first come first served. Recently checking out early Duke Ellington & the Jungle Band (from the 1020’s, Joe Albany & Warne Marsh, lots of Carla Bley & Mike Mantler and even more Sun Ra!

Take 3 or more and get 10% off:

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO - The Paris Session (Arista / Freedom 1903; USA) Records = A- / Cover = B+ (some ringwear, slight stains, 1/2" cut-out / 2 LP Set = $25

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO - People in Sorrow (EMI/Odeon EOJ 50040; Japan) Record = A / Cover = A with obie = $40

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO + MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS - Fanfare of the warriors (Atlantic 1651; USA) Record = A- / Cover = A- (some ringwear, worn a bit) = $25

ALBERT AYLER QUINTET With DONALD AYLER / MICHAEL SAMPSON / LEWIS WORRELL / RONALD JACKSON - At Slug's Saloon (BASE LP 3013; Italy) Record = A- / Cover = A- = $25

ALBERT AYLER With DONALD AYLER/CHARLES TYLER/LEWIS WORRELL/SUNNY MURRAY - Bells (BASE/ESP 1010; Italy) Record = A- / Cover = A- = $25

ALBERT AYLER with CALL COBBS / STEVE TINTWEISS / ALLEN BLAIRMAN / MARY MARIA - Nuits De La Fondation Maeght (Shandar SR 10.000; France) Record = A/ Cover = A = $40

CARLA BLEY With MICHAEL MANTLER / STEVE SLAGLE / TONY DAGRADI / GARY VALENTE / VINCENT CHANCEY / STEVE SWALLOW /et al - Mortelle Randonnee (Mercury 812097; France) Record = A / Cover = A- = $25 (last copy)

CARLA BLEY & STEVE SWALLOW - Duets (Watt 20/ECM; Germany) Mint & Unplayed - Last copy
LP $20

CARLA BLEY BIG BAND w/ LEW SOLOFF/FRANK LACY/GARY VALENTE/BOB STEWART/ANDY SHEPPARD/WOLFGANG PUSHNIG/STEVE SWALLOW/ et al - Fleuer Carnivore (Watt 21/ECM; Germany) Mint & unplayed = LP = $25

CARLA BLEY BAND w/ MICHAEL MANTLER/STEVE SLAGLE/GARY VALENTE/VINCENT CHANCEY/ARTURO O'FARRILL/ et al - I Hate to Sing (Watt 12 & 1/2/ECM; Germany) Mint & unplayed =
LP $25

CARLA BLEY with MIKE MANTLER/STEVE SLAGLE/TONY DAGRADI/VINCENT CHANCEY/EARL McINTYRE/ et al - Live! (Watt 12/ECM; Germany) Record = A (unplayed)/Cover = A- slightly warn
LP $25

CARLA BLEY With STEVE SWALLOW/HIRAM BULLOCK/LARRY WILLIS/VOCTOR LEWIS/MANOLO BADRENA - Night-Glo (Watt 12/ECM; Germany) Record = mint/Cover Near Mint = $20

CARLA BLEY with HIRAM BULLOCK / LARRY WILLIS / STEVE SWALLOW / DON ALIAS / VICTOR LEWIS - Sextet (Watt 17; USA) Last sealed copy with 3" cut in top left corner = $20

CARLA BLEY with MICHAEL MANTLER/CARLOS WARD/TONY DAGRADI/GARY VALENTE/JOE DALEY / et al - Social Studies (Watt 11/ECM; Germany) Last sealed copy / slightly crunched corner top upper right = $25

DONALD BYRD / BOOKER LITTLE With CURTIS FULLER / BILL EVANS / PHILLY JOE JONES / et al - The Third World (TCB 1004; USA) Record = A / Cover = A = $25

JOHN CAGE // YUJI TAKAHASHI - Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (Denon OX-7059; Japan) Record & Cover = A+ (stone cold mint) = $40

ALICE COLTRANE - Radha - Krsna Nama Sankirtana (Warner Bros. BS 2986; USA) Record = A- / Cover = A- (2" cut, a bit worn) =

MILES DAVIS with GARY BARTZ/CHICK COREA/KEITH JARRETT/DAVE HOLLAND/JACK DeJOHNETTE/AIRTO - Isle of Wight [8/29/70] + 6 bonus trax 1st time on LP frm 11/19/69-NYC, 7/7/72 & Sept 1973 (CBS 450472; Holland = Record A- (near mint) / Cover = A = $45

ELTON DEAN QUINTET With HARRY BECKETT / PAUL RUTHERFORD / MARCIO MATTOS / LIAM GENOCKEY - Welcomet (Impetus 18612; UK) Unplayed/Record = A / Cover = A- = $35

DOCTOR NERVE - Armed Observation (Cuneiform Rune 8; France) LP = A / Cover = A- = $20

ERIC DOLPHY With MISHA MENGELBERG / JAQUES SCHOLS / HAN BENNINK - Last Date (Limelight LM 82013; Japan) Mono! Record = A- (neat mint) / Cover = B (worn but sturdy) = $50

DIZZY DILLESPIE / SONNY STITT / JOHN LEWIS / HANK JONES / PERCY HEATH / MAX ROACH - The Bop Session (Gazell 1005; Sweden) Last sealed copy = $20

DIZZY DILLESPIE / SONNY STITT / JOHN LEWIS / HANK JONES / PERCY HEATH / MAX ROACH - The Bop Session (Sonet Records 692; USA) last sealed copy = $20

JOE HARRIOTT With JOHNNY WEED / MAJOR HOLLEY / PHIL SEAMAN - Partying with Joe (Gearbox GB 1506; UK) Unplayed / Mint import = $35

BEAVER HARRIS / 360 DEGREE MUSIC EXPERIENCE with DAVE BURRELL/AZAR LAWRENCE/HAMIET BLUIETT/CECIL McBEE /et al - In: Sanity (Black Saint 0006/6; Italy) Records = A / Cover = A- somewhat worn) = 2 LP Set $50

ICONOCLASTA - Soliloquio (Discos Rosenbach 007; Mexico) Legendary Mexican prog/Henry Cow influenced band - Record = A / over = A- = $30

HENRY KAISER With BOB ADAMS / SCOTT COLBY / ERLING WOLD / GREG GOODMAN / JOHN FRENCH - Aloha (Metalanguage 109; USA) Records = A / Cover = A- = 2 LP Set = $40

THE LAST POETS - The Last Poets (Douglas 3; USA) Record = A- / Cover B (aged but sturdy, small cut corner) = $25

ABBEY LINCOLN With ARCHIE SHEPP / HILTON RUIZ / ROY BURROWS / JACK GREGG / FREDDIE WAITS - Painted Lady - In Paris (Blue Marge 1003; France) Record = A (near mint) / Cover = A- = $25

MICHAEL LYTLE / GEORGE CARTWRIGHT - Bright Blue Elewhale ( Cornpride East 003; USA) Last sealed copy of this Downtown classic w/ Lytle from future Dr. Nerve & Cartwight from Curlow = still sealed = $25

MICHAEL MANTLER With JACK BRUCE / DON CHERRY / CARLA BLEY - No Answer (Watt 2/ECM' Germany) Record = unplayed/Cover = slightly aged = $25

MICHAEL MANTLER / CARLA BLEY - 13 & 3/4 (Watt 3; USA) Record = A (unplayed) / cover B (old & worn but sturdy) = $20

MICHAEL MANTLER With LARRY CORYELL / CARLA BLEY / STEVE SWALLOW / TONY WILLIAMS - Movies (Watt 7; USA) Last sealed copy = $20

MICHAEL MANTLER with PHILIP CATHERINE / GARY WINDO / CARLA BLEY / STEVE SWALLOW/D SHARPE - More Movies (Watt 10; USA) Last couple of sealed copies / covers slilghtly worn = $20

MICHAEL MANTLER With JACK BRUCE / ROBERT WYATT / MARIANNE FAITHFULL /DANISH RADIO ORCHESTRA - Many Have No Speech (Watt 19/ECM; Germany) Record = A / Cover A- 1/4 cut in top right corner = LP = $25

MICHAEL MANTLER / DON PRESTON - Alien (Watt 15/ECM; Germany) Record = A (mint)/Cover A- (a bit worn) = $20

MICHAEL MANTLER With MIKE STERN / CARLA BLEY / STEVE SWALLOW / NICK MASON + LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - Something There (Watt 13/ECM; Germany) Unplayed import = Record = A / Cover = A- = $20

MASSACRE [FRED FRITH / BILL LASWELL / FRED MAHER] - Killing Time (Celluloid 5003; USA) Record = A / Cover = A- = $30

JACKIE McLEAN With GRACAHN MONCUR III / BOBBY HUTCHERSON / LARRY RIDLEY / ROY HAYNES - Destination...Out! (Blue Note 84165; USA) Record = A - / Cover = A- (cut corner) = $25

THELONIOUS MONK with SONNY ROLLINS / JOHN COLTRANE / ERNIE HENRY / OSCAR PETTIFORD / SAM JONES / ART BLAKEY / et al - Farewell to Monk (SMJ -9546-7; Japan) Record & Cover = A (mint) - 2 LP Set = $35

JOE MORRIS TRIO With SEBASTIAN STEINBERG / LAURENCE COOK - Wraparound (Riti Records 1001; USA) Record = A - / Cove = A- = $25

MUSICA FUTURISTA - Anthology Sonora a Cura di Daniele Lombardi Testo Introduttivo di Luigi Rognoni (Fonitsetra FCM 007; Italy) Records = A / Cover + A- 2 LP Set = $75

NEW YORK JAZZ QUARTET [ROLAND HANNA / FRANK WESS / GEORGE MRAZ / RICHARD PRATT] - Song of the Black Knight (Sonet 753; UK) Last couple unplayed copies / Record = mint/cover = A- = $20

THE NICE - Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Immediate 212 52 020; USA) Record = A- / Cover = A- = $20

CHARLIE PARKER With FLIP PHILLIPS SEXTET / BENNY CARTER ORCHESTRA / JOHNNY HODGES / BEN WEBSTER - The Parker Jam Session (Verve 2683 043; UK) Records = A / Cover = A- = 2 LP Set =$35

CHARLIE PARKER With DIZZY GILLESPIE / MILES DAVIS / BENNY CARTER / JOE ALBANY / AL HAIG / NAT COLE / et al - Yardbird in Lotus Land (Spotlite SPJ 123; UK) Record = A / Cover = A- = $25

PRAXIS [With BILL ASWELL / BUCKETHEAD / BRAIN + DR. ISRAEL / IGGY POP / BERNIE WORRELL / TATSUYA YOSHIDA / OTOMO YOSHIHIDE / et al - Profanation (MOD 0005; USA) LTD Edition / Record & Cover = Mint = 2 LP Set = $35

HERB ROBERTSON QUINTET With BILL FRISELL / TIM BERNE / LINDSAY HORNER / JOEY BARON - Transparency (JMT 850002; Germany) LP = A - / Cover = A- = $25

SONNY ROLLINS With OSCAR PETTIFORD / MAX ROACH - Shadow Waltz (Jazzland AM 86; USA) Mono - Record = A- / Cover = B (aged but sturdy) = $20

SHOCKABILLY [EUGENE CHADBOURNE / KRAMER / DAVID LICHT] - Colloseum (Rough Trade 68; UK) unplayed / Record = A / Cover = A = $20

BILL SMITH With DAVID LEE / DAVID PRENTICE - Pick a Number (Onari 004; Canada) Record = A & Cover = A- / $20

SOFT MACHINE [MIKE RATLEDGE / ELTON DEAN / HUGH HOPPER / ROBERT WYATT] - Live at the Proms 1970 (Reckless 5; USA) Record = A / Cover = A- = $25

SOFT MACHINE [ALAN HOLDSWORTH / MIKE RATLEDGE / KARL JENKINS / ROY BABBINGTON / JOHN MARSHALL] - Bundles (Harvest SHSP 4044; UK) - Record = A- / Cover = A- = $25

SONIC YOUTH - Master-Dik (SST 155; USA) Record = A / Cover = A- = $25

JIM STALEY With JOHN ZORN - OTB (Lumina 008; USA) Record = A / Cover = A- = $40

STRING TRIO OF NEW YORK - First String (Black Saint 031; Italy) Record = A / Cover = A
LP $25

SUN RA and his ARKESTRA - Discipline 27-II (Saturn 538; USA) Original Saturn / Quad / Record = A- (a bit scratchy but plays well) / Cover = A- (worn but sturdy) = $200

SUN RA and His ASTRO INFINITY ARKESTRA - My Brother The Wind (Saturn ESR 521; USA) Original Saturn = Record = A - / Cover = A- (worn but sturdy) = $200

SUN RA and His ASTRO INFINITY ARKESTRA - Holiday for Soul Dance (Saturn SR-508; USA) Original Saturn / blank cover / Record = A- / Cover = A- = $250

HORACE TAPSCOTT & EVERETT BROWN JR. - At the Crossroads (Nimbus NS 579; USA) Last sealed copy = $25

HORACE TAPSCOTT - Sessions Vol. 2 (Nimbus 1692; USA) Last sealed copy = $20

ART TATUM - Masterpieces (MCA 2-4019; USA) Record & Cover = A / 2 LP Set = $20

CECIL TAYLOR - Praxis (Praxis 104/105; Greece) solo piano rec in Italy July, 1968 = Records = A- / Cover = A- (slight rip on top cover) = 2 LP Set = $75

KENNETH TERROADE With FRANCOIS TUSQUES / RONNIE BEER / EARL FREEMAN / BEB GUERIN / CLAUDE DELCLOO - Love Rejoice (BYG 22; France) Record = A- / Cover = A- = $40

JAMES BLOOD ULMER With CHARLES BURNHAM / WARREN BENBOW - Part Time (Rough Trade/Celluloid 6719; EEC) Record & Cover = A = $25

JAMES BLOOD ULMER With CHARLES BURNHAM / WARREN BENBOW - Live at the Caravan of Dreams (Caravan of Dreams 85004; USA) Record = A / Cover = A- = $25

TOM WAITS - SwordFishTrombones (Island 90095; USA) Record = A (small 2" cut in top upper left corner) / Cover = A- = $35

BEN WEBSTER With TETE MONOILIU / ROB LANGEREIS / TONY INZALACO - Live at the Haarlemse JazzClub (Cat LP-11; Holland) Record = A / Cover = A- = $25

STEFAN F. WINTER With BILL FRISELL / TIM BERNE / HERB ROBERTSON / BOB STEWART / et al - The Little Trumpet (JMT 860007; Germany) w/ booklet - Record = A / Cover = A = $25

WORLD BASS VIOLIN CHOIR With BRIAN SMITH / RUFUS REID / BOB CUNNINGHAM / RICK ROZIE / THURMAN BARKER / et al - Bassically Yours (Black Saint 0063; Italy) Record A / Cover = A- = $25

FRANK ZAPPA - Lumpy Gravy (Verve Select 2317 046; EEC) Import copy = Record = A / Cover =A- = $35

FRANK ZAPPA / MOTHERS OF INVENTION - 200 Motels (Liberty 29 218/19; France) No booklet - Records = A / Cover = A- = $30

FRANK ZAPPA - The Grand Wazoo (Bizarre/Reprise 2093; USA) Record = A- / Cover = B (some split seams, worn down) = $35

Hi, we're Downtown Music Gallery and in addition to the retailing and
mail-order of an amazing assortment of jazz, improv, and progressive
rock/pop obscurities,
we also do all the mail-order for the Tzadik and Avant labels!!!
______________________________
Monday through Sunday Noon to 6pm

at

Downtown Music Gallery
13 Monroe Street
(between Catherine and Market Streets in Manhattan's Chinatown)

"F" to East Broadway stop

Tel: 212 473-0043

Visit our website to see what we our collected offerings are
http://www.downtownmusicgallery.com

(Also got Ayler's Bells, Waits' Swordfishtrombones). Don't think I've ever heard Joe Harriott either, what's his sound?

His sound is sort've an Anglo-Carribean variant on Coleman/Cherry 'free jazz', especially on the key recs Free Form and Abstract, where he's paired with trumpeter Shake Keane. In the mid-sixties he also made two 'Indo-Jazz Fusion' albums with violinist John Mayer which are pretty ahead of the game. Great musician.

https://henrythreadgill.bandcamp.com/album/double-up-plays-double-up-plus

they are streaming two tracks off the latest Henry Threadgill lp that comes out on the 18th, here.

Oh wow, I'll listen. First, though, that reminded me that I never actually listened to In for a Penny, In for a Pound, the album that won the Pulitzer. Addressing that now.

I always want him to make another Too Much Sugar for a dime or Spirit of Nuff ... Nuff or whatever masterpiece from the 90's/00's of his, but he is Henry Threadgill and sometimes it might take you a couple of years to catch up with where he is at now!

Yeah, Too Much Sugar and Makin' a Move are the ones I listened to. I actually really liked the preview tracks from the new one, though, maybe more than the preview tracks from In for a Penny.... Latter point is definitely fair.

I listened to Dirt...And More Dirt front to back the other day while traveling in and out of NYC. Haven't gotten through the other one yet, but I will next week as I'm writing them both up for Stereogum.

Oh, that's the one I previewed, not the Double Up one!

"Game Is Up" is bending my brain.

I liked the live duet I saw the other night of Cuban pianists Aldo López-Gavilán and Jorge Luis Pacheco at the opening of the Artes de Cuba fest at the Kennedy Center in DC. Straight-ahead stuff mostly.

I really love the Duduka Da Fonseca Trio Plays Dom Salvador lp at the moment. Never heard of the samba legend it is honouring but it's fab stuff!

Interesting. Who else plays on that?

David Feldman: piano; Guto Wirrti: bass; Jacques Morelenbaum: cello.

Joe Armon-Jones' new lp is a great snapshot of the current London scene. Echoes of Sun Ra's "Languidity", dub, afrobeat, jazz-funk, Leon Thomas vocals, MCs. Moses Boyd is on there, Oscar Jerome - all very Gilles Peterson-y.

Here's a link to my latest podcast, which is an interview with bassist Dave Holland. I talked to him about Miles Davis (obviously), as well as his time with Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers, Chick Corea, playing with John McLaughlin and Jimi Hendrix, his own quintets, Evan Parker, and a million other things.

That sounds interesting. Is there any way to download an mp3 without itunes?

Yeah, you can grab it here.

Thanks! I'll probably listen to it on my way to work on Monday.

Andre 3000 - not a bad saxophonist?

https://soundcloud.com/therealandre3000benjamin/look-ma-no-hands

https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/henry-threadgill-conversation-studs-terkel

this won't play for me, possibly some global copyright issue, if it works in the US I might have to VPN up.

MICHAEL MANTLER With LARRY CORYELL / CARLA BLEY / STEVE SWALLOW / TONY WILLIAMS - Movies (Watt 7; USA) Last sealed copy = $20

MICHAEL MANTLER with PHILIP CATHERINE / GARY WINDO / CARLA BLEY / STEVE SWALLOW/D SHARPE - More Movies (Watt 10; USA) Last couple of sealed copies / covers slilghtly worn = $20
Spotify has these as a twofer: both splendid, though if anything the sequel seems even more consistently engaging on first listen, even getting into kind of an art-metal groove thing at times (not xp "fusion funk")---when was the last time I thought of Philip Catherine!? And I didn't know Bley played tenor sax.

Mantler's 1968 The Jazz Composer's Orchestra is proving surprisingly hard to get through, so far: the initial excitement of hearing these avant stars together----Pharoah Saunders, Don Cherry,Roswell Rudd, Gato Barbieri, Larry Coryell, with Cecil Taylor to come, in front of an Orchestra incl. Charlie Haden, Bob Northern/Brother Ah, Steve Swallow, Julius Watkins, Andrew Cyrille, and many more---gets pulled into the inertia of Mantler's long, lugubrious lines, like the worst of Gil Evans and his imitators. When Mantler the composer's thinking more like Mantler the trumpet player, as on Movies and More Movies, that's what I'm talkin' about. Think I'm going to jump ahead to his albums incl. Robert Wyatt, Kevin Coyne, Marianne Faithful.

Meanwhile, Carla Bley's 1976 Dinner Music seats her and Mantler and Rudd and Carlos Ward with funky-smooth session aces Eric Gale, Richard Tee, Cornell Dupree, Steve Gadd, Gordon Edwards---tuba player Bob Stewart is kind of the hinge--for results that can be sneaky-acerbic in the mellow pocket, keeping or bringing it all back to the foreground, forebrain: "Ad Infinitum" def. keeps it, from the beginning, and Rudd soon takes a hold of the closer. "A New Hymn," after the near-generic chit-chat/inconsequential refinements of "Ida Lupino" and "Funnybird Song"--but "Dreams So Real" seems as sincere and even urgent as highbrow, and "Song Sung Long" is urban romantic intrigue, and "Dining Alone" is urban anxiety unifying furtive imagery (via Bley's sung-spoken thoughts)---the pressure of that Manhattan candlelight!

The opener, "Sing Me Softly of the Blues," starts well but turns into something like more nerf-funk chatter, music for the pilot of a pre-PBS afterschool series, but the good tracks here are really up my alley.

I always like Sanders' appearance on that album - it's got nothing to do with anything else happening in the piece; it's like someone pushed a button labeled "Pharaoh Sanders" and he did his thing for a couple of minutes and then they pressed the button again to shut him off.

Last night I went to see Broken Shadows, a new quartet featuring Tim Berne on alto sax, Chris Speed on tenor sax, Reid Anderson on bass, and Dave King on drums, playing the music of Ornette Coleman, Dewey Redman, Julius Hemphill, and Charlie Haden. Most of the tunes were by Ornette ("C.O.D.", "Ecars," "Humpty Dumpty" and two more), though they also did "Walls-Bridges" by Redman, Haden's "Song for Che," and Hemphill's "Body." It was a blast, and I learned something - I always thought Julius Hemphill's last name was pronounced "hemp-hill," but it's pronounced "hem-fill."

Looking forward to seeing that band here later this summer

I like the new Nolatet album because it's a lovable pop album with New Orleans influences, like the last one, I will have probs forgotten about it in a couple of months - but it is still ace.

Michael Mantler:
The Hapless Child
Watt/4
words by Edward Gorey
(from 'Amphigorey')

Robert Wyatt (voice)
Terje Rypdal (guitar)
Carla Bley (piano, clavinet, synthesizer)
Steve Swallow (bass)
Jack DeJohnette (drums)

recorded July 1975 through January 1976
Willow, NY, and England
A whirlwind right out of the gate, and I knew from later all-instrumental versions how strong some of these frameworks would be---did not expect the excellent and unusual studio effects on some of Wyatt's vocal turns---but eventually, when the words are more upfront, can seem overly emphatic---Gorey's dank little narratives work better with his spare, black white & grey drawings or etchings or whatever they be. Also, c'mon, it's Gorey---think I'll go on to the settings of Beckett and Pinter.

That is, the *overall* effect, the ensemble onslaught, not primarily Wyatt's vocals, can seem overly emphatic here.

Mantler again: Silence(1976)---the overemphasis here is confined to some of MM's heavier handling of Pinter's words, and Chris Spedding's often repeated use of sustain etc., drawing a note out and curving it around 'til it's a needle in my earphones ---but it can hurt so good, and the voices are strong and distinctive, Carla Bley holding her on with Kevin Coyne and Robert Wyatt---and sometimes everybody follows Wyatt's dustdevil percussion, without ever missing their cues (it's a play with a small cast/combo, compressed, maybe condensed, into a single LP's worth of songs).

The text itself may grow on me, but so far doesn't seem up to several Pinter plays I'm more familiar with, though Mantler can highlight the weak spots in his literary sources, maybe by blurring some of the plot points.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is gonna be livestreaming their tribute to Ornette tonight at 8 PM EST. I saw a little clip from the rehearsals on Twitter; arranging Ornette's melodies for a big band turns them into...well, big band melodies, basically. But I'll check it out anyway, and compare it to the Broken Shadows show I described upthread, for my Stereogum column.

https://www.jazz.org/media/live-webcasts/

I know I'm a year late on this, but I just got into Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah's Centennial Trilogy and it's pretty awesome. They were playing all of it on WWOZ last night, and I had it on in the background and it was one of those things where at a certain point I was just like, "What IS this?"

been listening to the sprawling Dave Holland/Evan Parker/Taborn/Ches Smith - Uncharted Territories LP and the new Mehldau today, glad they both exist!

NYC based Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto's Big Band album Back to the Sunset has some nice material. Guests on it include Henry Threadgill and Steve Coleman. While I like Eddie Palmieri's album from last year better, maybe they shouldn't even be compared.

Always want to hear Latin x post-out or whatever it's called now, will check that thanks.

@JustinFarrar 14 hrs ago
Of course, the highlight of #tripmetalfest3 was getting to see the #artensembleofchicago. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen. They played HARD, with #roscoemitchell setting the tone early.

@residentmusic
Fasinating collaboration incoming from Charles Lloyd & The Marvels (@CharlesLloydSax) + Lucinda Williams (@HappyWoman9)

'Vanished Gardens' out via @bluenoterecords 29.06.18

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeDmQkQXUAA7tzZ.jpg:large

Wow speaking of and with Dave Burrell, re unperson's excellent podcast upthread---next dig this: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/arts/music/dave-burrell-archie-shepp-vision-festival.html

Open Land - Meeting John Abercrombie TRAILER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U3UQFY9_II

More details here

My latest podcast is up - I interviewed David Murray.

new JD Allen album of ballads is really lovely and chill. I got lost in my thoughts and became convinced I was listening to Sonny Rollins about half way through it.

Yeah, he's very Rollins-esque at times. A big, big tone. I've interviewed him a couple of times before, and I'm hoping to have him on the podcast this summer.

Lost 1963 Coltrane album discovered

xp
The JD Allen album - Love Stone, is deffo my fave of his yet, although I've only listened to a few, but this current band he has is A+.

xp More on the Trane album (Both Directions at Once) in Search & Destroy: John Coltrane

I finally bought Starebaby and I love it. I'm planning to go see that group at this year's jazz festival, maybe Herbie Hancock and Angles 7 too.

Saw Kamasi Washington last night (he was opening for Alt-J at Forest Hills Stadium; the rest of his US tour is club dates, I think). Two songs from Heaven & Earth, one from Harmony Of Difference, one from The Epic. I hadn't seen him live since 2015, when The Epic was just out. Really good show, and the overwhelmingly young, indie-rock crowd was really into it (I think having their skulls crushed by the double drummers helped a lot).

A bassist I've done some playing with put out his debut as a leader, don't know what I expected but it's really lovely:
https://shiftingparadigmrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dear-friend-2

Has some folk elements that remind me of the Fellowship.

x-post- Kamasi Washington is also on new Florence and the Machine album coming out June 29, and doing some shows opening for her/them

Silkheart is putting their catalog up on Bandcamp.

https://silkheart.bandcamp.com/

Tons of crucial early titles by Charles Gayle (they were the first label to record him), David S. Ware, Other Dimensions in Music, Matthew Shipp, and a ton more. All for just $7 each.

So I'll be in NYC (staying in the Village) June 23-July 1, and I'm hoping to use the opportunity to hear some jazz. There's quite a bit going on, e.g., William Parker, David Murray, Ravi Coltrane, and JD Scott afterhours at Smalls (not to mention a lot of other stuff). As I've never been to NYC for jazz, any must-see things or places?

!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DhnVAXn22k

Wow

If any band can give shredding a worthy context...

My latest Stereogum column is up. This is such a ridiculously stacked month: Kamasi Washington, John Coltrane, JD Allen, the R+R=NOW record, two new Thumbscrew albums, albums by Shamie Royston and Tia Fuller (they're sisters)...

I'm so glad someone has mentioned that ace Matt Penman album, some really nice pulsating fender rhodes work from Parks on there as well, I love it!

I saw Craig Pedersen Quartet the other night. They put on a really good show, with a lot of out playing but always grounded in melodic themes and (complex) grooves. The quintet CD from last year that I picked up is really good too: took a couple of listens to digest. Thierry Amar (GYBE) is probably the most famous guy who plays in the band but Linsey Wellman's circular breathing and extended techniques on sax probably make the group for me.

Angles 7 tonight.

They put on a really good show, playing things from the last couple of Angles 9 albums, I gather. Drummer kept a solid 4 or 12 most of the time, with intricate but still singable horn riffs and out breaks. We caught Tanya Tagaq doing an outdoor set from the fence on the way home too, which was great. (I feel a bit bad about not paying but I rationalize that I've spent a lot on the festival and have paid to see her twice.) Dan Weiss/Starebaby tonight: I'm most excited about this; I haven't seen Monder live before.

love that Starebaby album!

Yeah, I've been playing it all the time since getting it.

Just came across this interview which seems to have a lot of interesting detail: http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2018/05/milt-bernhart-have-trombone-will-travel.html

Also, how was that show? Did you talk to Ben?

just listening to the new Jamie Saft Quartet - Blue Dream. Finding it most agreeable.

Starebaby were very good, even inspiring. So tight and precise. They were playing from sheet music. I was a little surprised that some of the lines on the album that I thought were played on guitar were actually synth/keyboard parts and vice versa. Monder played really fast, really complex parts without missing a beat, playing a note out of place, or making a facial expression. I introduced myself and looked at his pedals afterwards but got nervous and left him alone.

I almost feel bad that I didn't coach you ahead of time about how to talk to him but maybe what works for James Redd wouldn't work for Sund4r.

Herbie did a great all-electric set last night. Age isn't slowing him down. Loueke was dazzling, getting all sorts of timbres out of his guitar and effects and singing through a harmonizer.

Wait is there some sort of festival going on there?

Yeah, it finished today.

You didn’t go to see Russell Malone, did you?

I didn't. I had to pick my events this year, for a couple of reasons, but I'm not that familiar with Malone tbh. Listening to him on Youtube, he sounds pretty good.

https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0004/252/MI0004252938.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
his last album could be a nom for worst lp covers of our era, but it's excellent.

He’s a super nice guy , too.

Came to ask Phil if he has ever interviewed Harold Mabern or thought about doing so.

I have never talked to him, no. I liked his last album, though.

Harold Mabern, To Love And Be Loved (Smoke Sessions)
Pianist Harold Mabern has been on the scene since the 1950s, recording more as a sideman than as a leader, though he’s got over 20 albums to his name. This is his third release for the Smoke Sessions label, and his first since 2012 not to feature bassist John Webber and drummer Joe Farnsworth; instead, Nat Reeves is on bass and Jimmy Cobb (the last living member of the band from Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue) is behind the kit, with Eric Alexander on tenor sax, Freddie Hendrix on trumpet on three tracks, and Cyro Baptista contributing percussion to the opening title track. Mabern has done everything from accompanying singers to playing smooth jazz-funk electric piano to playing with multi-piano ensembles. Here, though, he’s in hard bop mode, leading the band through standards like “If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “I Get A Kick Out Of You.” They also play Lee Morgan’s “The Gigolo” (Mabern was in Morgan’s final band, and was present the night he was shot and killed by his girlfriend, in 1972), which is an excellent showcase for Hendrix’s fiery trumpet. The version of “So What,” from Kind Of Blue, is less successful, mostly because Reeves pushes the bass line too forcefully instead of letting it drift along. Still, this is a great, straightforward “jazz-club jazz” album by a crew of veterans.

Based on my chat with him at The Jazz Standard on the 4th I think he would be an excellent interview subject.

Cool interview earlier this year with Steve Swallow and John Scofield.

Gets into some of the different jazz scenes around NY and elsewhere. Found out that Ian Underwood later of The Mothers of Invention and LA studio player was college friend of Swallow and they played music together then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZe7HoJhcIY&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZe7HoJhcIY&feature=youtu.be

Just recorded an interview with trumpeter Jeremy Pelt for the podcast. It started out rough - he answered my first three or four questions with single sentences - but then we clicked into gear and the stories started flowing. It's gonna be a good one.

Will check that one. And speaking of Harold, leave us not forget this 'un with Wes:

Finally, this is legit and remastered from original: live in '65 Paris, Wes is into Trane, shadowed by Harold Mabern, and later Johnny Griffin shows up, intriguingly enough (astute excerpts and comments by Kevin Whitehead)https://www.npr.org/2018/01/31/582118519/in-paris-recording-guitarist-wes-montgomery-shows-his-head-for-melody

― dow, Friday, February 2, 2018

Yeah, that's a great album.

― grawlix (unperson), Saturday, February 3, 2018

this new Binker and Moses, alive in the east album is so good.

the drummer is an absolute star.

Just got wind of a new bio written by Maxine Gordon about Dexter that is coming out at the end of this year which seems likes it’s going to be really good.

https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520280649/sophisticated-giant

https://www.maxinegordon.com/bio/

Wow, that ought to be really good indeed. I've just requested a review copy from the publisher. I had no idea about the whole Woody Shaw - Maxine - Dexter thing, or that she was the mother of Woody's son.

Yeah, I never knew that either.

been on a bit of a Dave Liebman tip recently, of his more recent stuff his Fire album w/ DeJohnette/Holland/Werner is well worth checking out.

Wayne Shorter is putting out a 3CD set, Emanon ("no name" backwards), on August 24. It's one studio CD with his quartet + an orchestra, and two live CDs by the quartet. Plus it comes with an 84-page comic book written by Shorter. Pre-orders are up. The standard edition is $75; the deluxe edition (the 3 CDs, the comic, and the same music on 3 LPs, plus it's signed) is $175.

Whoa. Most interested in the comic tbh.

I'm so happy to find this high-quality video of Elvin Jones' band with Eric Lewis, which remains one of the most transcendent shows of my life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxmdm1xTtp0

Whoa. Most interested in the comic tbh.

Ha! I couldn't be less interested in the comic. In fact, I'm almost certain to buy the music as a download rather than a physical object.

Now I'm listening to Eric Lewis' (aka ELEW) trio record with Reginald Veal & 'Tain' Watts from 2016, and it's excellent. Glad he made this after the solo stuff, he's so fun to listen to in a group. Such a powerhouse.

https://✧✧✧.shop✧✧✧.com/s/files/1/0003/8961/1572/products/GB1541_PACK_SHOT_1024x1✧✧✧@2✧.j✧✧?v=1532534610

From Gearbox Records:
Mønk

Clear vinyl 180 gram 33rpm LP (Street date: 28th September 2018)
- Strictly limited edition, only 500 available*
- Individually hand-numbered
- Heavy-weight tip-on sleeve
- Signature-embossed Val Wilmer photographic print (limited to 500)
- AAA release

Hot on the heels of Impulse’s recent unearthed Coltrane number one hit album comes another beauty from Jazz’s ‘holy trinity’. This is a previously unreleased, precious lost treasure from Monk’s most critically acclaimed line-up; Charlie Rouse on saxophone, John Orr on double bass, and Frankie Dunlop on drums. Without a widely agreed must-have Monk release, could this fill the void as the Monk everyone should own? Recorded live in Copenhagen in 1963 at the peak of Monk’s career. A year later he was to feature on the cover of TIME magazine, one of only for 4 Jazz artists ever to do so.

Cut in-house with Gearbox’s 1967 Haeco Scully lathe, the exact same lathe set-up as Blue Note used back in the day.

Line-up:
Thelonious Monk - piano
Charlie Rouse - tenor saxophone
John Orr - double bass
Frankie Dunlop - drums

Track Listing:
A1 Bye-Ya A2 Nutty B1 Bye-Ya B2 Body and Soul B3 Monk's Dream

More info: https://store.gearboxrecords.com/collections/vinyl/products/thelonious-monk-collectors-edition-pre-order *There's also a "standard black LP" option, according to Vinyl Factory, may not be limited ed., or as limited. Don't see that on the Gearbox site, though. Maybe it'll be available later, after they sell out the ltd.

Apparently not a boot, given the Wilmer connection, unless that's booted too.

The Tohru Aizawa Quartet's Tachibana was reissued today by BBE, the label that put out that excellent J-Jazz compilation earlier this year. It's heavy post-Coltrane/Tyner blare from 1975. Not life-changing or anything, but worth a listen.

Listening to the promo of that new Wayne Shorter album. It's pretty short(er) - the first disc (new studio material with his quartet and an orchestra) is 51 minutes; the live material with just the quartet adds 76 more minutes, but it's split across two CDs for some weird reason. Anyway, the orchestral stuff is amazing so far.

talking of him - I've been listening to an obscure Shorter tribute album from '83 - Shorter by Two - by piano duo Kirk Lightsey & Harold Danko, it's very good imo - the version of marie antoinette even had my eyes tapping their feet!

That sounds cool.

Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko has died. His 2017 album December Avenue with David Virelles on piano, Reuben Rogers on bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums is fantastic.

https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/img/SitkN2ZTRmNrRVYwSFdzT3JHYmF0dz09/a3469264455-10.jpg

Don Cherry
Home Boy, Sister Out
WEWANTSOUNDS
**Features the classic disco-not-disco tune, 'I Walk'!**

Don Cherry's downtown Paris funk masterwork produced in 1985 by Ramuntcho Matta and originally released by Barclay in France only, finally gets a worldwide reissue on Wewantsounds. Featuring French post-punk muse Elli Medeiros, avant garde poet Brion Gysin and cult Senegalese drummer Abdoulaye Prosper Niang (Xalam), this is a unique soundbite of Paris in the early 80s at its coolest when funk, jazz and new wave were mingling with sounds from Africa, Jamaica and Latin America. Newly Remastered, the album is augmented by a second LP worth of bonus tracks!
More info, audio:
https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/don-cherry-home-boy-sister-out

https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/img/Z1YyMS9iemJ4WVhKcDY2dXRSSGt0dz09/c6qyfg-waaun0hj.jpg

LP
Don Cherry
Music, Wisdom, Love
FINDERS KEEPERS

Reaching a near-mythical status amongst fans of free jazz’s most worldly intrepid explorer, these seldom heard Paris soundtrack sessions known as ‘Music, Wisdom, Love’ have evaded collectors’ grasps and confused historians for exactly 50 years. Instigated in Paris in 1967 and filmed during Don’s downtime on a visit to the Chat qui Pêche nightclub in March 1967 (where he played with Karl Berger, Henri Texier and Jacques Thollot), the bulk of this cinematic portrait was filmed on the streets of Paris under the direction of creative all-rounders Jean-Noël Delamarre and Nathalie Perrey who, as their careers bloomed, would become pivotal figures in underground French cinema - straddling La Nouvelle Vague, adult entertainment and cinema fantastique in what can only be described as speedball cinema.

Available for the first time ever and licensed from producer and director Jean-Noel Delamarre himself.

More info, audio:
https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/music-wisdom-love

They've also got Brown Rice and Mu Part I.

So it turns out that all of those and a lot more DC are on Spotify, but I'd never heard of HBSO orMWL.

Saw Tony Allen last night at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. He had the band from The Source and was playing all that music. Harpist Brandee Younger opened the show, doing duos with a bassist whose name escapes me. Great show.

In which Robert Glasper (whose music I don't even like that much, FTR) eats Lauryn Hill alive and spits out the bones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54WECf1ioeY?t=26m57s

That was good. Even I've heard some stories from people who have played in her band.

I don't know much about Kip Hanrahan but back in the 80s I bought two remarkable albums released on his American Clave label, Astor Piazzolla's Tango Zero Hour and Conjure, settings for x delivery of Ishmael Reed's words, with David Murray, Allen Toussaint, Taj Mahal, Billy Hart, Steve Swallow(one of my favorites, incl. singing, is "The Wardrobe Master of Paradise," which always seemed like a working man's portrait of Sun Ra).
Haven't heard about KH in a long time, but wondering about this new album, Crescent Moon Waning---from his comments in press release:
This record is informed by the music that preceded it, and it is critical of it (otherwise there'd be no reason to make it), but it is in itself, of course, a new music. As far as a "culmination" or "completion", on any second (or ninth) thought you realize that there never really is one, we all have so much more music waiting to be made. Oh, and parenthetically, I guess, we only make records and music when there are records and music demanding to be made. I hope that makes sense.

There is, though, a particular tone, instantly recognizable as ours, that's clear and remains constant, remains audible, through the records and years. It's something many of the players pointed out at different times, independent of each other. This tonal continuity is a little amusing in a way, as "Crescent Moon Waning" was recorded with the instruments and voices tuned to 432 rather than the expected 440. The change in tuning was our playing with different possible human scales (pun intended). It's funny, but it seems to most of us on the record that the 432 tuning makes everything seem a little slower and more relaxed, regardless of how fast and busy the music is.

Crescent Moon Waning was recorded between August 2015 and December 2016 in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The last track on the album is live and was recorded October 1984 in Nancy, France.

A list of the players on "Crescent Moon Waning" in order of appearance: Kip Hanrahan; Michael Chambers, Dick Kondas; Brandon Ross; Luisito Quintero; Robby Ameen; Yunior Terry; Charles Neville; Lucia Ameen; Milton Cardona; Anthony Carrillo; Richie Flores; Andy Gonzalez; Steve Swallow; Xiomara Laugart; Fernando Saunders; Josh Sinton; Alfredo Triff; J.D. Allen; Miss Jennifer Hernandez; Roberto Poveda; David Rodriguez; Craig Handy; Lucy Penabaz; Giacomo Merega; Grayson Hugh; Senti Toy; Ignacio Berroa; Giovanni Hidalgo; Steve Berrios; Jack Bruce; Chico Freeman; Mario Rivera

It was produced by Kip Hanrahan and Michael Chambers with Leijia Hanrahan as executive producer and Dick Kondas and Robby Ameen as co-producers.

A breakdown of the players on each song is available upon request, as is a few pages of additional information about each of the players.

One particular note about one of the players: Charles Neville is a constant presence on this record, a kind of Greek chorus throughout, constantly offering alternative melodies to that of the singer, of the words, as well as a constant musical commentary on what was going on in the rest of the song. He was a central figure in our group of musicians, sharing and contributing to the music, frustrations angers and the ultimate celebrations, of our musical "project" for 35 years. He passed away last week, and we already miss him. His deep presence on this record changes the way I now hear some of the music on it.

xp also on Conjure: Carla Bley, Olu Dara, Milton Cardona, quite a few more. Haven't yet heard the follow-ups, Cab Calloway Stands In For The Moon (Bobby Womack joins Murray Toussaint & Co), and Bad Mouth(ditto Billy Bang, Alvin Youngblood Hart etc), but I will---all three are on Spotify, for inst.

Last night, dithering around like a dizzy bizzy bee---and Sundays are always kinda weird at best---I found my attention and pleasure principle repeatedly pulled into a performance-and-interview episode of Jazz Night In America:, feat. drummer-composer Allison Miller and her group Boom Tic Boom (think it's usually spelled "Tic" not "Tick," which I dig), incl. " Miller alongside violinist Jenny Scheinman, cornetist Kirk Knuffke, clarinetist Jeff Lederer, pianist Carmen Staaf and bassist Tony Scherr." Jazz, no question, but/and I get how she credits Prince as inspiration (reminding me, though don't think she mentioned it, that P. hired Clare Fischer to arrange and conduct). The "melodic drumming" thing demonstrated here---in a spotlight studio segment, as well as all through the BTB set---she traces to Africa, and shows how she has no prob w melody as written, then responds to vocal interpretation/
So here's all that, 56:08's worth, just posted, I think:
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/639233311/more-than-keeping-time-a-melodic-drumming-demo

Also, from a couple of years ago, when her most recent album was released, here she is on WBGO, with Myra Melford and Todd Sickafoose instead of Staaf and Scherr---also got Ben Goldberg on clarinet:
http://www.wbgo.org/post/many-dimensions-drummer-composer-and-bandleader-allison-miller-checkout#stream/0

Goldberg in stead of Lederer, not along with, though I'd like to hear that too.

I cannot help but think this album cover is going to rebound really badly on Mr. Deutsch. Especially since the record comes out November 2. I really hope he reconsiders between now and then.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DlEegpYXgAUWBVQ.jpg

Was worried that was going to be about Josh Deutsch

Ouch @ that cover

digging this complete set of every monk composition played by miles okazaki on guitar:

https://okazakiwork.bandcamp.com/album/work-complete-volumes-1-6

Poll! I'm liking this as well tbh, he doesn't just play the notes, there is a strong essence of Monk in these interpretations.

he has to realise now he must do the complete works of Bud Powell!

The Young Mothers - Morose
(Self Sabotage Records)

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/DmVvfMDXgAEFr5f.jpg

Got the CD direct from Super Secret Records. Mothers of Invention meets Mother's Finest at an indie hip-hop show? Regardless, they're bad mothers alright - free Jazz from Austin with more than enough skronk for the hesher that I am.

https://open.spotify.com/album/3HwMEbG9tky1gkRl1QDdnP?si=Tuvy_S1ZQYWVxqOxP9tftg
https://selfsabotagerecords.bandcamp.com/album/morose
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/morose/1395589943

They don't usually bother to vocalize, but when they do, they can---good comments on the opener, and the closer is even a mellow skronkfest ballad, not at all too long at five minutes and change (though most cuts are far shorter, without ever skimping). And the Funkadelic, Sharrock traces are well-digested---good shit, thanks!
(PS: currently finding that Spotify, despite its stingy payments, servers the artists pretty well soundwise, though that hasn't always been the case.)

There's a pretty amazing Mingus box set coming out in November from BBE (the label that did that J-Jazz compilation and the Tohru Aizawa Quartet album). It's a live recording from Detroit 1973, with Joe Gardner on trumpet, John Stubblefield on sax, Don Pullen on piano, and Roy Brooks on drums. It's about four hours of music spread across five CDs (it was a radio broadcast, so there's also a 40-minute track that includes an interview with Brooks and listener phone calls). Since it was recorded for radio (on a 16-track unit owned by the venue), it sounds great. Highly recommended.

CD 1
1. Pithecanthropus Erectus (Long Version)
2. The Man Who Never Sleeps
3. Peggy's Blue Skylight

CD 2
1. Introduction by Bud Spangler/Celia
2. Bud Spangler Interview with Roy Brooks and Commentary

CD 3
1. C Jam Blues
2. Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk
3. Dizzy Profile

CD 4
1. Noddin' Ya Head Blues
2. Celia (Alternate Take)

CD 5
1. Dizzy Profile (Alternate Take)
2. Strata Gallery Announcement by Bud Spangler / Radio Broadcast WDET FM

Digital-only bonus track:
1. Pithecanthropus Erectus (Alternate Take)

https://bbemusic.bandcamp.com/album/jazz-in-detroit-strata-concert-gallery-46-selden

Thanks! Reminds me---since I can't find the J-Jazz thread, will post this here:
BBE Music is proud to present the next instalment in the J Jazz Masterclass Series: ‘East Plants’ by Takeo Moriyama, one of Japan’s finest jazz drummers.
A genuine ‘under the radar’ album known only to a handful of Japanese jazz collectors, ‘East Plants’ is now available once more, reissued for the first time as a double 180g LP, with exact reproductions of the original artwork, obi strip and insert. It also comes with the original notes fully translated. ‘East Plants’ is also available as CD and digital formats. This reissue is fully endorsed by Takeo Moriyama himself.
Originally released in 1983 on the Japanese VAP label, ‘East Plants’ is an essential album in the J Jazz canon. It’s an album that distills several key characteristics of Moriyama’s music: clearly articulated and inventive rhythms, open yet orderly arrangements, and an accessible groove balanced with a graceful control.
PS: heard an amazing "It Might As Well Be Spring" on the radio last night---turned out to be Woody Shaw, shoulda known. Think the too-cool DJ mumbled that it was from a comp called Winter Jazz.

Randomly Spotify-surfed onto a 2007 album with Bruce Hornsby, Christian McBride, and Jack DeJohnette playing acoustic jazz over distorted, high-passed drum loops. And it's kinda great?

Pretty sure this is not the first time I've "discovered" this record, my memory can be so bad.

My new Stereogum column is up.

Also, I just taped a podcast interview with Ethan Iverson and Mark Turner that'll be out next week, and it's a fucking blast.

Lots of intriguing descriptions there, thanks---speaking of Alice Coltrane reissues, Amazon's also got Carnegie Hall '71, listed as a May 2018 release.

Yeah, that's a bootleg of a WQXR radio broadcast that's been in circulation forever. Probably mastered from an MP3.

is it good?

Will catch up with the column.

I'm missing her performance tonight but I just checked out the 2017 album Live at Jazz Room Cortez by Satoko Fujii Quartet on Spotify and thought it was fantastic.

in related news, I absolutely love the This Is It !(satoko fujii, natsuki tamura, takashi itani) 1538 album, the opening track absolutely rips it up!

Yeah, I reviewed 1538 in last month's column; I've been a Satoko Fujii fan for quite a while. I interviewed her for Global Rhythm magazine in 2007 or 2008.

I once bumped into Russ Abbot, having a piss outside Batley Frontiers variety club in '87 fwiw!

i recently picked up a solo satoko fujii disc, part of i guess a release-a-month thing this year she's doing, and it's terrific

Just heard a long, fascinatingly developmental, never Imposing nor into-the-weeds performance by Randy Weston's African Rhythms Trio---another murmuring DJ, but think it was from their Zep Tepi. Must check out all of that---the only Weston I ever owned was Carnival: some of my friends agreed that the title track sounded like an endless soundtrack for a Navy recruitment PSA, dunno if that was right, though I knew what they meant. But "Tribute To Duke Ellington"---homage as launching pad for appropriate inventions, shadowy sidewalk figures from a calmly visionary piano--shut us all up, ditto the moonlight miles of "Mystery of Love": 17 minutes, guided by the flute of Billy Harper. Whole thing rec. live at Montreux, 1974.

I listened to this this morning and really enjoyed it: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/500-chains. Didn't focus on the content of the text but the overall sound is pretty good. Only thing I might change is the voice on "One Thousand Butterflies". They describe it as

Seven pieces of animated, dynamic & melodic, colorful quartet music that sound, to our ears, like Andre 3000 (the balladeer) backed by a Mardi Gras marching band channeling Chicago style post rock & free jazz...

Bluesy guitar lines that aren't particularly complex but work really well imo.

Yes, and a friend directed me to his previous '18 release, pretty amazing:

"Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun" is as much a 'greatest hits' as it is a 'debut album' for Ben LaMar Gay. It's a collection of music composed, performed & produced by the anomalous Southside Chicago-born, sometimes Brazil-residing artist, compiled from 7 albums he made over the last 7 years but never made the effort to actually release.

With its title taken from the mantra Ben repeats across several tracks on "Grapes" (1 of the 7 aforementioned albums), "Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun" is our effort to channel the rainbow of sonic expressions, art & poetry beaming from the ark of his unreleased catalogue into a cohesive & communicable compilation. It's as good of an introduction to Ben LaMar Gay as we could fit onto a single LP. To call it "eclectic" would only scratch the surface. This music is everything.
credits
released May 4, 2018
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/downtown-castles-can-never-block-the-sun

Also, I just taped a podcast interview with Ethan Iverson and Mark Turner that'll be out next week, and it's a fucking blast.

Enjoyed this, although I chuckled at "I don't think anyone involved in hip music is happy about the existence of New Age" -- oh Ethan, if you only knew how wrong you are.

I posted this sad news about Jerry Gonzalez on some other threads, but not sure if you folks saw it--

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/latin/8477603/jerry-gonzalez-dies-trumpeter-dead

Latin jazz trumpeter Jerry González has reportedly died at age 69, according to The Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) and local reports.

González reportedly died after a fire blazed through his first-floor home in Madrid around midnight on Monday (Oct. 1...González, who was of Puerto Rican parentage, was born in East Harlem and grew up in The Bronx. He was a member of Eddie Palmieri’s band early in his career, then joined Manny Oquendo’s Conjunto Libre with his brother, bassist Andy González. Andy was also by his side in The Fort Apache Band, which he formed in 1979.

After appearing in Spanish director Fernando Trueba’s 2000 Latin jazz documentary Calle 54, Jerry González moved to Madrid. There, he formed a quartet, El Comando de la Clave, and recorded and performed with both jazz and flamenco musicians

Sad, but thanks for the update---here's Nate Chinen's appealing description of a Fort Apache gig (that I'll have to look for on the 'Tube):
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/arts/music/jerry-gonzalez-the-fort-apache-band-at-the-blue-note.html

The Elemental Music label is putting out some great previously unreleased live material by Dexter Gordon and Woody Shaw; they started with Tokyo 1975 and Tokyo 1981 by Shaw, and the next two, coming later this month, are Espace Cardin 1977 by Gordon and Bremen 1983 by Shaw. I mean, obviously they're strictly for diehard fans, but I've become a big Shaw fan over the last few years and this new one - it's a two-CD set - sounds phenomenal. The band is Mulgrew Miller on piano, Stafford James on bass, and Tony Reedus on drums. The Gordon band might be even better - Al Haig on piano (the only recording of him with Gordon), Pierre Michelot on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums. Those latter two were on Gordon's album Our Man In Paris in 1963, with Bud Powell on piano.

Sounds good, thanks. Did you get your press copy of the Dexter bio yet?

No, not yet. Forgot all about it, actually. Hope it shows up soon!

Tompkins Square is pleased to announce our new association with jazz saxophonist and educator, Dr. Teodross Avery.

Avery, currently head of Jazz Studies at the California State University Dominguez Hills, has played with everyone from Art Farmer, Hank Jones, Roy Ayers and Roy Hargrove to Lauryn Hill and Amy Winehouse.

His most recent album, Post Modern Trap Music, is a duo collaboration with drummer Marvin "Bugalu" Smith (Sun Ra, Archie Shepp, Chet Baker) in the spirit of duo albums of the 1960’s and 70’s such as John Coltrane’s Interstellar Space and Frank Lowe & Rashied Ali’s Duo Exchange.

** Avery & Smith will play a very special one-off show at Smalls in NYC on October 20th, 4:30pm. **

Avery's Tompkins Square debut, a Coltrane program recorded live in Oakland, will be released in 2019.
Buy Post Modern Trap Music on CD via Tompkins Square by simply sending $15 via PayPal using this link ($25 x-US)https://www.paypal.me/TompkinsSquare

Spotify

Apple

https://www.teodrossavery.com/bio/

saw Mats Gustafsson and his Fire trio yesterday at a small club, such great, fun, visceral playing - very rocky, slightly noisy, funky, groovy, recommended

I'm going to be seeing them in Oslo at the end of November, at Rune Grammofon's 20th anniversary concert. (Also on the bill: Maja Rajtke, Motorpsycho, and the Hedvig Mollestad Trio.) Very excited.

New ECM disc coming up:Lebroba: Andrew Cyrille/Wadada Leo Smith/Bill Frisell

Wow, is that three releases Frisell is on this year now? I listen to Music IS all the time but haven't got around to the Halvorson collab yet.

There are more Frisell releases from this year. On October 12, a new Wayne Horvitz album will come out with Frisell on it called "Those who remain". There was a vinyl-only release with Skuli Sverrisson too but that stuff is pricey.

Yeah, dude is hard to keep up with.

I've been listening Lebroba today, and if you liked Cyrille's last one with Frisell - Declaration of Musical Independence - this will work for you. The one with Halvorson is brilliant and inspired me to check out loads of Johnny Smith as well.

Yeah, Lebobra is great. I'm a Frisell skeptic most of the time, but him, Cyrille, and Wadada is a fantastic combination. I also recently dug out the Ginger Baker Trio's Going Back Home (Baker, Frisell, and Charlie Haden on bass) which is from 1994 and holds up very well. The group's second album, Falling Off The Roof, is disappointing by comparison.

I love Frisell's overall sound but I'm almost never on board with the actual music. I think I like him best as a sideman.

He does so much, and I really like some of it, but other things, mainly the Americana, suffers by comparison with the original or well-established versions: ol' rugged songs, suddenly super-tasteful, genteel, even. But some of this is pretty effective; Osby stalwart in the river o' reverie, for inst---rerun on Jazz Night In America last weekend:
September 10, 20157:32 PM ET
For the past two years, the remarkably versatile guitarist Bill Frisell has curated Jazz at Lincoln Center's Roots of Americana series. For the final performance of the series, he took a crowd back to the Mississippi River Delta, the great incubator of American music, with a performance titled "Up and Down the Mississippi: Traveling Highway 61." It's his way of exploring music from New Orleans jazz to Delta blues, Bob Dylan to Bix Beiderbecke.

Jazz Night In America takes in the show at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, featuring Greg Osby (saxophone), Craig Taborn (piano) and Rudy Royston (drums).
https://www.npr.org/2015/09/10/439294839/up-and-down-the-mississippi-with-bill-frisell

But overall kinda prefer this:
https://www.npr.org/2012/08/08/158004697/the-bad-plus-with-bill-frisell-live-in-concert-newport-jazz-2012

Posted press sheet upthread about the latest album w Lloyd & Marvels, here's two sets from Lincoln Center:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMSVYi4FD5o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x302QukiQc

When you've got Greg Osby, Craig Taborn, and Rudy Royston, you're 99 percent of the way there already.

I really don't like that Lloyd band/project, but none of his music really does it for me. The 60s albums had their moments, but never really achieved liftoff.

Apparently David Murray was at my brass band gig last night

Say what?

He was playing at the new jazz spot (!) down the block and came by afterwards, I hear he was into it

Alright! What's the name of your band?
Reminds me of this on Twitter:
DavidMurray
October 5 at 11:14 PM ·
When told of the passing of Bluiett I was in a car crossing the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to Saint Paul. Hamiet was mightier than that river,born and died on that river,but accomplished so much in his extraordinary life.His passion for music and wit allowed him to rise up and become not only the undisputed best Baritone player in the entire history of Jazz,but one of our greatest conceptializers. Hamiet Bluiett was a Chief,my mentor,my friend and my brother.We will miss him deeply.Like the Mississippi his legacy will flow through us forever.
This is good on Bluiett and what he brought to WSQ (text here, w link to audio, which incl. quotes and music excerpts):
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/10/05/533784788/hamiet-bluiett-giant-of-the-baritone-sax-has-died-at-78

Mama Digdown's Brass Band

Don't know if this will work but here's a clip someone posted from the set:
https://www.facebook.com/jjminer/videos/10108630286353847/

There's a box set that gathers six of the earliest World Saxophone Quartet albums. Here's the Amazon link, but you can get it cheaper elsewhere. I bought it a month or so back and it's fucking amazing.

Oho, thx
xxp That totally works!! Is there arco bass in there also, or is it all the tuba? Good shit.

Those prices aren't bad at all, esp. if you get it from one of the Amazon dealers, rather than Am itself.

All tuba (sousaphone). Thanks!

The one with Halvorson is brilliant and inspired me to check out loads of Johnny Smith as well.

same

I'm going to be seeing them in Oslo at the end of November, at Rune Grammofon's 20th anniversary concert. (Also on the bill: Maja Rajtke, Motorpsycho, and the Hedvig Mollestad Trio.) Very excited.

This sounds awesome!

I am not normally a big fan of piano trios, but Brazilian pianist Amaro Freitas's album Rasif, which comes out 10/19, is really interesting. He almost reminds me of Matthew Shipp, but he's got a unique thing all his own going on. There are two advance tracks on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kVWGIg2hsI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=937Ooyyrfmg

wow yeah, that sounds v interesting

esp title track

His Sangue Negro album is good stuff as well, very much like his style.

Brian Marsella Trio - Outspoken: The Music of the Legendary Hasaan
^^^^
as a massive fan of the short lived brilliance of the Legendary Hasaan - I'm interested in this one.

Milford Graves' legendary 1976 album Bäbi, featuring Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover on saxes, is being reissued by the Corbett vs. Dempsey label, with bonus material from 1969. It's not up on the label's website yet, but there's an ad for it in the new issue of The Wire, which came out digitally today.

yesssssssssss

new lionel loueke album is excellent

Such great news about the Milford reissue. And supposedly CvD are also preparing a reissue of the 1966 Yale duos with Don Pullen.

Yeah, Babi has been top of my want-as-a-physical-object list since Ornette Coleman's Crisis finally got put out on disc.

Deffo hope the Pullen duos follow (there are two live albs by them? think I have a vinyl-rip of one of them), the Andrew Cyrille duo too, an affordable edition of the Japanese stuff.

And while we're at it, Alabama Feeling also

Thom Jurek's review of the "new" live album by Jakob Bro otm:

There is so much here, in terms of melodic inference as well as articulation, that the music is mesmerizing. Who needs journeyman fireworks when the creation of music from these seasoned collaborators is so utterly compelling?

it's not bebop and unperson will probably find it too subtle, but for me it's as good as music gets

trio is on tour, currently in North America, highly recommend seeing them, a meditative and life-affirming experience (dates: https://www.ecmrecords.com/artists/1435047311/jakob-bro )

Are these guys good?

https://oudxs368zzf12nb073jgnmtc-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2018/10/Karl-Str%C3%B8mme-Quintet.jpg

What sets the Karl Strømme Quintet apart from their contemporaries is the way their respect for the modern jazz tradition is mixed with references and experiences from other musical styles, giving their music a fresh and exciting edge. Inspired by the likes of Miles Davis, Kenny Wheeler and Joe Zawinul, band leader and trumpeter Karl Strømme gives the music a unique flavour with the use of an analog synthesizer which he plays in tandem with the trumpet, and in his words ’gives simpler but stronger melodic lines when improvising – like painting with a broader paintbrush’.

With a classic line-up of trumpet (flugelhorn), tenor saxophone, double bass, guitar and drums Dynalyd is an album recorded with very few overdubs, thus keeping the live sound and achieving the desired vintage feel with minimal effects. Add in the synthesizer to this natural acoustic sound, following the trumpet like a shadow, and the music is given a beautiful contrasting texture. Listening to Dynalyd there is a palpable sense of synergy within the band with Karl having worked with saxophonist Hallvard Godal for almost twenty years in a variety of bands and collaborations. Completing the quintet are guitarist Per-Arne Ferner, drummer Per Oddvar Johansen and double bassist Trygve Waldemar Fiske, all cherry picked by Karl for this project, creating an ensemble with the shared desire and willingness to push the envelope of Nordic jazz.

The title track ‘Dynalyd’ means ‘dynamic sound’ in Norwegian and represents the creative hub of Karl’s work. The song has an African type of groove with a fun and playful melody. ‘Molladalen’ is another highlight, inspired by the spectacular valley in the mountains on the west coast of Norway and consists of a sequence of different minor chords. Embellished by a constantly changing melody throughout, each soloist applies subtle changes from fragments of the original melody. With its distinct melodic change, ‘Strømme’s Mood’ is a song about different emotions, with the musicians seamlessly improvising over the two different moods which merge at the end of the piece.

All songs were composed by Karl Strømme, with the emphasis being very much on the lyrical melodies and giving each song its own unique build up and structure. The final track ‘Portør’ is a beautiful example of this approach and is built around a simple rhythmic idea with a slowly changing harmonic background. Unlike the other tracks there is no soloist which allows the whole band to wind the album down to a fitting closure as one.

Release Date: 30 November 2018
Catalogue No: TUGCD1119
Barcode: 605633011920
Label: Riverboat Records

press at worldmusic.net

no idea, but sure sounds fancy!

ace noise guitarist Brandon Seabrook not only shares his name with my favoured brand of crisps and is arguably the star player of the Chris Pitsiokos Unit, he also has a good trio album out called Convulsionaries. In places it reminds me of early Zorn projects like Spillane.

And while we're at it, Alabama Feeling also

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, October 10, 2018 4:25 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes

Deffo hope the Pullen duos follow (there are two live albs by them? think I have a vinyl-rip of one of them)

Yep, two volumes. The first was In Concert At Yale University, some copies of which had a hand-painted cover. Many years ago, I held one in my hand (a collector friend let me make DAT copies of much of his collection).

The second volume was Nommo, which Milford reissued (credited to "Milford Graves featuring Don Pullen") on his label in 1977.

The duo with Cyrille (Dialogue Of The Drums) is surprisingly/relatively easy to find, as '70s private-press records of this music go.

I was about to say, "Hey, wasn't Alabama Feeling reissued not too long ago?" only to realize the CD came out in 1998 and is now super expensive.

same with the 2009 german vinyl reissue

as a massive fan of the short lived brilliance of the Legendary Hasaan - I'm interested in this one.

― calzino, Tuesday, October 9, 2018 10:29 AM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there was some news about that this summer, not sure if anyone posted about it here. odean pope in an interview from june i think:

(Hasaan) did make a recording under his
own name in 1965 with me and (bassist) Art
Davis and (drummer) Khalil Madi but it was never
released. Now there’s some talk about releasing
it … they say that tape was lost in a fire but
recently somebody found the tape and it may
be released. I was contacted by Atlantic
Records about that since I’m the only living
artist from the recording session. That was the
only recording date that Hassan ever had …

http://www.jazzinsidemagazine.com/LIBERTY/JazzInsideMagazine-2018-06-WEB.pdf

!!

about him i should have said

re: private press jazz rarities, jeanne lee's "conspiracy" was just reissued this year, and superior viaduct is doing joe mcphee's "nation time" in november

Nation Time has been reissued a bunch. The 4CD box from Corbett vs. Dempsey (if you can find it) is the one to have.

it's only been reissued in the US on cd, and the UK vinyl reissue from '04 regularly sells for $80 - $100 on the secondhand market

thanks for the tip on the 4xCD tho, maybe someday i'll snag a copy if i can find it on the cheaper end

Nicholas Payton's records can be a mixed bag but I'm really enjoying this one from 2015 with him on piano/organ/Rhodes and Bill Stewart on drums (one track for every letter of the alphabet):
https://paytone.bandcamp.com/album/letters

Also went back to Milwaukee organist Mel Rhyne's records with Peter Bernstein and Kenny Washington, they're all great but this one is a classic for me:
https://open.spotify.com/album/67BqYdcwTlzN8LEpo7WBI5?si=SglFb92sSEGaA9OUea96WA

It's partially because I've been practicing for some serious gigs this weekend, but I've just been wanting to hear really good feeling swing lately.

Like this '90s Joshua Redman track with Brian Blade, even though I still never listen to the rest of the (double) record:
https://open.spotify.com/track/306RrCH33aUp4C52Q0Th36?si=9wqt2TBGTvWct1AgJebopQ

Kamasi Washington has released a video for his version of Freddie Hubbard's "Hub-Tones" that looks like a video installation in an art museum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-e6mOTK__Y

a jazz video!

Tarfumes, belated thanks for yr v helpful post. Babi now available:

http://www.corbettvsdempsey.com/2018/10/16/album-babi/?fbclid=IwAR3o_kqVCxjpUM8p3CfFdqdyZI2Kxz0XaLy8FHq1qSwLxBUYz3VLexK2Pjs

You're welcome, and thanks for that link! I had wondered for years why Babi never got reissued on CD, either by a label, or by Milford himself. I guess missing tapes is a pretty good reason (not that that prevented a number of BYG-Actuel records from being reissued in the '00s).

I'm super duper stoked for the new Makaya McCraven

Copy of Babi ordered.

that Sam Wilkes s/t semi-ambient album is so chilled out, it's totally growing on me.

Yeah, that one's really good.

Never been impressed with Phronesis. But out trudging through the mud in the wilderness and listening to their new one and it's hitting the spot.

i didn't notice this bit about the "babi" reissue:

In 2017, Graves discovered a previously unknown tape in his archives featuring the same trio at its inception, in home recordings made seven years earlier in 1969.

which of course means that, even though i'll hold on to my cherished original, i'm going in for the cd, too

is anybody into this new record by szun waves? or the group at all? i think the music is great but i'm curious what you jazzheads think, what with all that other jazz in your ears to compare it to.

https://szunwaves.bandcamp.com/

Yeah, I wrote about it last month for Stereogum:

Szun Waves, New Hymn To Freedom (The Leaf Label)
Szun Waves are a London-based sax-synths-drums trio; this is their second album, following a self-released debut. It includes six tracks ranging between five and 12 minutes, all of them fully improvised with no edits or overdubs. The first track, “Constellation,” almost feels like a King Crimson-esque prog band doing a big introductory fanfare to a song that’ll wind up being half an hour long, in four movements. Luke Abbott’s keyboards kick things off, with a shimmering repeated figure that drummer Laurence Pike accents with perfectly timed kick drum thumps and delicately tapped cymbals; saxophonist Jack Wyllie comes in cautiously, as more and more electronic sounds are being added to the mix seemingly every moment, including some bending-metal sounds reminiscent of early-2000s Autechre. By the halfway mark, Pike is playing an almost tribal doom beat as Wyllie seems to be playing through pedals, and the synths are a skull-rattling wave of sound.

https://www.stereogum.com/2015602/ugly-beauty-the-month-in-jazz-september-2018/franchises/ugly-beauty/

This is what I was wanting to listen to tonight, thanks.

that Sam Wilkes s/t semi-ambient album is so chilled out, it's totally growing on me.
yes, it is great

So Steve Coleman is suing the woman who accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior. It's a pretty ugly deal all around, it seems to me.

Thanks for the Szun Waves recommendation - perfect tonight. (I'm on the hills above Hastings. Crowley ended up here, the mad old prick. I'm dowsing among the ruins, hunting for old blood.)

enjoying the new Chris Lightcap – Superette alb, pretty much a load of bog standard psyche-rock jams, but good - might be a bad way of summarising it! Idk, that was my first impression - but I still like it.

That one slipped past me, but it's got Nels Cline and John Medeski on it so I'll give it a listen.

Peter Brötzmann was interviewed by Red Bull Music Academy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywtHnhDqZsU

An interesting Twitter thread from trombonist/composer Jacob Garchik:

Still think it’s bizarre that we walk around with several hundred Tin Pan Alley songs memorized but we don’t know the words. And no, I’m not gonna learn the words! What would be the point?

— Jacob Garchik (@JacobGarchik) October 24, 2018

Yeah, I think about that a lot (not that I have all those tunes memorized).

I think it's sort of the point of the Bad Plus, in a way.

I mean, tbf, I think a lot of jazz players DO listen to and study vocal performances of songbook tunes? And even the Real Book includes a lot of material from outside that repertoire.

I made a conscious effort to learn a lot of those old Cole Porter and Gershwin tunes so I'd recognize them in their twisted-up, mostly superior instrumental versions by jazz guys. It's made me a better jazz listener, I think. I can hear two bars of Art Pepper and know "oh, it's 'You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To.'"

Richard Davis always made us learn the lyrics.

Did you have to sing them onto his answering machine before you could receive full credit?

i love hearing how the educational jazz sausage is made -- more deets!

Richard Davis always made us learn the lyrics.

― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, October 24, 2018 4:53 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Larry Ridley did the same. I think there's something to it -- these were written as songs to be sung, the first instrumental performances were likely imitating or evoking vocal performance, and even later, more abstracted instrumental performances are playing with the idea of the song. And the lyrics are a big part of what dictated the vocal phrasing in the first place. Otherwise you're sort of learning variations without knowing what the original was.

That said, I think standards in general were way overemphasized when I was in music school, and too much focus on the same set of 100-200 tin pan alley songs tends to hold jazz back imo. Today I feel like maybe that's already much less true, as I hear a lot more artists that manage to pull away from the gravity of the past.

New Esperanza Spalding sounded p sweet this morning.

xp admittedly I'm a moldy old fig, but I think contemporary jazz could stand to hew a little closer to the "gravity of the past"

I don't really get that opinion, there are plenty of really good players out there playing trad standards if that's your thing.

But is anyone outside of (maybe?) Downbeat writing about them?

And I'm not bemoaning the dearth of people playing trad standards (which sounds boring to me), I just think the knowledge of that particular corpus and its fundamental use as a jumping-off point for improvisation is a useful tool, just as knowledge of a simple Chuck Berry riff can lead to a psychedelic sidelong jam. I'm not waiting for Shabaka Hutchings to bust out "Embraceable You" or anything (though I bet that would be nice)

Really loving Universal Beings by Makaya McCraven
feels like some Hutchings influence here compared

hahaha influenced in that he actually plays on half the record apparently!

Christian McBride's New Jawn is a fantastic album, best thing I've heard by him so far.

https://wearethreefour.bandcamp.com/album/estrela

there's a nice off-kilter tropicalia quality to Portuguese guitarist Norberto Lobo's alb here.

I saw this Eric Hofbauer tour on Monday night (solo set + trio with Denison and Kruger + trio +1 [with Linsey Wellman here]): https://www.erichofbauer.com/shows. It was wonderful, the kind of guitar noodling I could listen to all day by a jazz virtuoso who could thrown in a standard like "Dexterity" (reminiscent of Lenny Breau's interpretation) while also getting into spaces that were almost reminiscent of Derek Bailey. I bought his 2016 solo CD Ghost Fret, which also seems v good.

I like Hofbauer a lot. His Prehistoric Jazz albums (interpretations of pieces by Stravinsky, Ives, Messaien, and most recently Ellington's "Reminiscing In Tempo") are great. He wrote a piece for my site about an early Seattle trumpeter/composer, Frank Waldron, back in June.

We used to be co-workers, actually. I saw "Prehistoric Jazz" live and it was great.

Really loving Universal Beings by Makaya McCraven
feels like some Hutchings influence here compared

― Greta Van Fleek (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, October 26, 2018 11:52 AM (four days ago)

this album is awesome

yeah i'm super into it...amazingly strong all the way through for how long it is

NPR are streaming the new Sunwatchers album

― Dinsdale, Thursday, January 25, 2018 4:25 PM (nine months ago)

wild

xp
I read Nate Chinen's review in pitchfork and was intrigued, thought I'd sample a couple tracks on bandcamp and ended up listening to the entire thing

Looking forward to checking out that new Christian McBride and going through some of Sonny Fortune's solo stuff. I love him on Agharta and some '70s Elvin Jones records, but have never really checked out anything else.

Ok I'm not feeling the McBride or Sunwatchers, but loving listening to Sonny Fortune. Starting at Last Night at Sweet Rhythm, which feels exactly like catching a great set, and going backwards.

Haven't listened to them in a long time (my friend had 'em, and he don't get around much anymore), but in the 70s we dug Long Before Our Fathers Cried, Awakening, and Waves of Dreams (those last two on Horizon, which provided lush cover art and sometimes insanely-for-a-jazz-label swag, like gatefold pouches full of highest-quality-printed pix, notes, sheet music...)

insanely-for-a-jazz-label-*lavish,* that is.

I've only ever heard Fortune on other people's albums (Miles, McCoy Tyner), will check out those 70s albums if they're on Spotify.

not on spotify but the awakening album is AAAAAAAAAAAmazing particularly sunshower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fH_FANAywg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f40QEnMm9Y

yooooo homie :) :) :)

Roy Hargrove dead of cardiac arrest at 49. Holy shit.

What?!

Listening to a lot of Hargrove today, obviously. I never paid much attention to him in the 90s (except for the Habana album, which was amazing), but I did get to see him live once, at Sonny Rollins' 80th birthday concert. His hard bop style is reminding me a lot of Lee Morgan - virtuosic and could play basically anything. He's got a real feel for Latin grooves, too.

Never saw him, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit.

I was actually thinking about going to see him at the Jazz Gallery next month. Now I'm wondering if the rest of the band - Jaleel Shaw on alto saxophone, Orrin Evans on piano, Eric Revis on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums - will do some kind of tribute to him.

no doubt. Actually haven't been to the Jazz Gallery since they moved.

There was never really a Hargrove album that I connected with deeply, but his parts/phrasing/multi-tracking on D'Angelo's records are just perfection. Wouldn't be the same without him.

I saw Hargrove play with Herbie, Michael Brecker & Terri Lyne Carrington during their 'Directions in Music' tour. Can't remember who played bass. The show was fantastic, much better and more fun than the CD released at the time. It was at Chicago's symphony hall, and 2/3 of the audience, who I assumed were symphony season ticket holders, got up left the second the set came to a close. Then the band came back on and they jammed out Chameleon and a few others tunes for another 30 minutes. The band was just having a blast, and it carried through to the audience that was left.

Did see Terell Stafford recently at least. And used to see a bass player who worked with Terri Lyne Carrington all the time when he and his brother lived in the neighborhood. Sorry, that's all I got.

I've liked Stafford's last couple of albums a lot. I should see him one of these days.

I saw him in an interesting context, at the Jazz Vespers at St. Peter's. Would be good to see him properly in a club.

Yes, their name was what drew me in, but the Austrian trio Cowboys From Hell - sax, electric bass, drums, and loads of electronics - are pretty good. Jazz, rock, dub, and synthwave all swirled into one big roar that's kind of like a cross between The Thing and Shining (the Norwegian industrial-jazz-metal act), with a dash of crazed fusion and the occasional burst of funk bass. Their new album Running Man came out on Friday; I'm listening to it on Spotify.

Brad Mehldau Trio's record from this year (Seymour Reads the Constitution!) is really great. Feels effortlessly so, they're all so good.

Side note I was listening to 'Great Day', which I now know is a Paul McCartney song, but had to check because that melody really sounds like Cruisin' (Smokey Robinson).

New Szun Waves live album is v enjoyable: https://szunwaves.bandcamp.com/album/szun-waves-live-from-space

heck yeah

I interviewed JD Allen for the Burning Ambulance podcast.

Cool, thanks

This is from 2014 but I'd never seen it before and it made me laugh.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dr1XLpvXgAcYQTq.jpg

Gagg, those Jarrett sounds! "aaawww aaaawwww yaaaaawwwwwww" etc

Tompkins Square's 2017 2LP reissue sold out in a flash. Today, we released a 2CD version featuring six additional previously unreleased false starts and alternate takes, plus numerous previously unseen photographs.

BUY 2CD SET

Praise for Sonny Clark Trio : The 1960 Time Sessions :

"Top Ten Jazz Reissue of the Year"
-- NPR Jazz Critics Poll

"Here he states his own themes and commands his own space, letting the light of his major harmonies vie with the darkness of his blues."
-- The New York Times, 12/1/17

"The remastering has given the sound an intimate new presence."
-- Downbeat - 4.5 / 5 stars

"Tompkins Square has certainly done right by Clark's legacy, with new liner notes and a high quality pressing." - Clifford Allen (NYC Jazz Record)

"Top Five Jazz Reissue of the Year"
-- NYC Jazz Record

"You'll like the sound . . . Easily and highly recommended !"
-- Michael Fremer, Analog Planet

"Now you can hear the real thing again, hipper than ever."
-- PopMatters (8/10)

"This is the way jazz re-releases should be done."
-- All About Jazz

Sonny Clark's reputation as one of the finest jazz pianists of his era has grown in recent years, with many folks rediscovering his classic Blue Note recordings like 'Cool Struttin', 'Dial 'S' for Sonny', 'Leapin' and Lopin', as well as session work with Lee Morgan, Grant Green and others. Cut down by heroin addiction at age 31 in 1961, Clark's legacy continues to expand.

The Time sessions were produced by the late Bob Shad, owner of Time and Mainstream Records. The reissue includes the original Time album re-mastered from the original tapes by Dave Donnelly, plus an extra disc of 12 alternate takes. Nat Hentoff wrote the original liner notes, included in the reissue package, and former New York Times critic Ben Ratliff contributes a new 3500-word essay. The set was produced for reissue by Mia Apatow (Time Records) and Josh Rosenthal (Tompkins Square).

Sorry about some of those blurbs, in retrospect. Good album tho.

Haven't heard the added false starts and alt takes, however.

Saw JD Allen’s new trio tonight at the Jazz Gallery. The bassist and drummer were both about 19 or 20, and he guided them a little - clapping to give the drummer the tempo, nodding or verbally confirming when solos shouldbegin or end - but it was a good, high-energy set full of bluesy tunes that swung hard (some of which I recognized from his albums) and a couple of ballads. He took a longish unaccompanied solo that was really nice. They reprised the first tune to end the set, which was cool. And no sheet music on the bandstand! That might have been a first in Jazz Gallery history.

On the radio, just now listened to a rerun of this: http://www.wbgo.org/post/jazz-night-america-ojai-music-festival-vijay-iyer-showcases-improvisation#stream/0 Iyer is or was the music director of the festival, presenting a good range,reportedly, though this show spotlights his own compositions---so far, Tyshawn Sorey's drums are what grabbed my attention and kept me listening for more, as so often happens with drummers, And if I never get past the drums, at least I got them.
Oh yeah, this page also eventually provides a link to this event(kind of burying the lede):
...pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and trombonist/electronic artist George Lewis, all elder statesmen in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians — performed an hourlong concert free of any premeditated impulse, let alone a written score.

Recently read a long featured review of the new movie Green Book, based on the real-life adventures of Don Shirley---somebody I used to read about in Downbeat eons ago, but don't think I've ever heard him--reviewer seemed very impressed by his music; are any of y'all familiar with it??

Dave Douglas recorded a four-night stand at the Jazz Standard in 2015, and released all eight sets digitally on Bandcamp. Now they've been packed into an 8CD box, which is available for $50, the same price as the digital set:

https://davedouglas.bandcamp.com/album/brazen-heart-live-at-jazz-standard-complete

I'm seriously considering buying it. It's a really hot band: Jon Irabagon on sax, Matt Mitchell on piano, Linda Oh on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums.

Always see her billed as Linda May Han Oh these days.

Just got two Arthur Blythe multi-album reissues in the mail: the first has 1982's Elaborations, 1983's Light Blue: Arthur Blythe Plays Thelonious Monk and 1985's Put Sunshine In It, and the second has 1986's Da-Da and 1988's Basic Blythe. The same label (BGO) reissued his first four (1979's Lenox Avenue Breakdown, 1980's In The Tradition and Illusions, and 1981's Blythe Spirit) as a two-CD set in 2016, so his entire Columbia catalog is now remastered and back in print, which is awesome.

"Lenox Avenue Breakdown, 1980's In The Tradition and Illusions"

fucking brilliant trio of albums there!

I love Arthur Blythe so much, Illusions & Lenox are all timers for me

O hell yes---just for one example, great to hear Blood Ulmer in full bloom *and* as a sideman/valuable team player (tempted to say "most valuable," but been a while since I've heard Illusions, and Blythe always knew how to put together a team).
Reminds me, I should play my ancient, still-sealed CD reissue of John Patton's Accent on the Blues, which also incl. Ulmer, but it's maybe more of a conventional organ-guitar-drums trio? Should be good of its kind though.

i saw him play solo recently and his set was 110 minutes long! easily the longest single set i have ever seen at this particular venue.

Oh wow! I'm jealous

Got to see Billy Harper recently at Church Of Sound. His London supporting band included Moses Boyd on drums! Church Of Sound is a really great monthly date for any London ILX Jazz fans.

I bet that was amazing. I’ve only seen him with the Cookers, never as a leader.

hi ilxors,

Where do I see jazz in New York?

http://jazzgallery.org/
http://jazzstandard.com
http://www.fatcatmusic.org
https://www.smallslive.com/
http://corneliastreetcafe.com/underground/performances.asp

recently was hipped to robert (AKA cleve AKA frank) pozar's 1974 lp "solo percussion" -- amazing stuff. guy at 50 miles of elbow room is selling new old stock copies of that record for $60 if anybody is interested. i'd heard pozar's record on savoy from '67 (produced by bill dixon) but had forgotten he played in the early '60s with bob james. here's a cool video from that era:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO-hBKHuLJ0

A young saxophonist named Xhosa Cole has won the BBC Young Jazz Musician award for 2018. He doesn't seem to have any records out - nothing on Spotify, nothing on Bandcamp - but here's a short video clip. I hope this isn't him at his best, cause it's just OK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49p9kv-_JHo

Thanks for posting that Bob James clip, budo jeru! My dad used to see them in Ann Arbor in the early '60s. The bassist (not identified in the youtube description) is Ron Brooks, who is apparently still active on the Ann Arbor scene.

O hell yes & he played on Explosions, BJ's ESP-DISK, as did Barre Phillips!
Yall what are the best jazz albums this year? Albums comprised of *new* jazz? I'm always
a magnet for reissues and prev. unreleased, so I don't mean those (well those too, okay).

for me:

Bill Frisell - Music IS
Jakob Bro - Returnings
Sam Wilkes - WILKES

and if you find Hailu Mergia to be jazz then Lala Belu, too

Apparently Verve released a new compilation called A Day in the Life: Impressions of Pepper last week for Record Store Day, and now the CD is coming out on Friday. It's a tribute to the motherfucking Beatles and motherfucking Sgt. Pepper's, but it's...not a fucking nightmare like I thought it would be. The cover's fucking hideous:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DtDIKOcU4AAhkTb.jpg

The track listing, though, is pretty damn impressive:

1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band performed by Antonio Sanchez
2. With A Little Help From My Friends performed by Mary Halvorson
3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds performed by Makaya McCraven
4. Getting Better performed by Wildflower
5. Fixing A Hole performed by Cameron Graves
6. She’s Leaving Home performed by Keyon Harrold
7. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite! performed by Brandee Younger
8. Within You Without You performed by Onyx Collective
9. When I’m Sixty Four performed by Sullivan Fortner
10. Lovely Rita performed by Miles Mosley
11. Good Morning Good Morning performed by Shabaka & The Ancestors
12. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) performed by Antonio Sanchez
13. A Day In The Life performed by The JuJu Exchange

I'm about halfway through it and...I don't hate it. It kinda reminds me of Hal Willner's tributes to Mingus and Monk, with an all-jazz cast instead of rock ringers. I can actually...recommend this.

weird how an album of the best music ever written by the beat band in history performed by a group of extraordinarily talented jazz musiicians could possibly be good! really makes ya think

jk :)

A lot of times jazz guys doing rock material is kind of bad, for one thing because they don’t like to play non-swing rock time and sometimes end up playing some weak vaguely funky groove, say. Of course there have been plenty of exceptions over the years, but rule of thumb still holds.

Antonio Sanchez used to live right across the street from me but I believe I heard they finally moved. Think I only ever saw him once or twice since he tours a lot, but would see his fiancée Thana all the time.

Yeah, I heard Atremis do a really noodley, diffuse-on-the-verses, going-vaguely-toward-fusion-lounge-on-the-chorus "Fool On The Hill," of all things, on this past weekend's Jazz Night In America. Might get to like it on record, but In The Moment na. Did get into some of xpost Allison Miller's drumming--drummers have to pull so much shit together, in every genre etc.
I suspect the only way to do this song right, is as ECM and/or Gil Evens zombie tread, super-slowly, from way across the fjord fog.
Would like to hear jazzers try "Blue Jay Way," "Dear Prudence," "I Am The Walrus," "She Said She Said."
Steve Marcus and Larry Coryell used to rip into "Tomorrow Never Knows" on occasion.
I did, this past summer, get experienced by "Eleanor Rigby," of all things, among several revelatory covers of songs I never gave a particular shit about, on Dennis Coffey'sOne Night At Morey's: 1968(the only track I don't like is "Cissy Strut," only because it's too close to the original, although that's quite an acheivement in itself, and if I were in the Motor City club audience when they played, with no NOLA or Meters handy, I'm sure I would have minded).
Otherwise, the expertise of guitar-organ-drums as orchestra is as resourceful as you please, in a no-nonsense way---the only per se jazz material is the closer, "Billie's Bounce," but they got the spirit and the focus: https://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/one-night-at-moreys-1968/

*Artemis*, that is---sorry!

Gil Evans not Evens yes

uh yeah "achievement," "i before e" 50 times on the blackboard.

I saw Arun Ghosh a week ago and funnily enough he closed with a cover of "Tomorrow Never Knows" - mostly a showcase for the rhythm section tho, which is the least jazzy part of his combo. Still, hearing a horn section blare those verses was cool.

He was very great and high energy overall.

just listening to Gabriel Zucker's Weighting. A top notch piano/trumpet/sax quartet with the godlike T Sorey on drums, excellent stuff!

Yeah, that’s a good one. I reviewed it twice, by mistake (had an assignment for Down Beat and then the NYC Jazz Record’s editor dropped it on me, too).

dow, here are just some of the ones that have grabbed me this year:

tyshawn sorey - pillars
amaro freitas - rasif
cecile mclorin salvant - the window
dave holland, evan parker, craig taiborn & ches smith - uncharted territories
james brandon lewis, chad taylor - radiant imprints
jamie saft quartet - blue dream
lionel loueke - the journey
makaya mccraven - universal beings
halvorson / frisell - the girl with the flaxen hair
halvorson / lee - seed triangular
miles okazaki - work (i.e. the complete monk songbook)
salim washington - dogon revisited
steve coleman - live at the village vanguard
william parker - voices fall from the sky

but i feel like i'm not even close to doing enough listening yet.

halvorson has released a shitload under her name or groups this year, these are not even her major releases, i happened to like them more, though.

the james brandon lewis duo record is premised on a strategy of working later-career trane fragments into very songlike new music, so it definitely has a strain of familiarity to it but it feels remarkably vital. he's doing a lot of different things in recent records too.

some of these are literally huge - 2+ hours, 3 hours, 6 hours. i feel like the bandcamp era has really had an effect on artists w.r.t. freedom of release.

"mystic beings" by baczkowski / nace / corsano just rips in exactly the right way for me right now. i think this might make it into my top 5 albums of the year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss7n8irdYXM

Thanks, niels and j.! Esp. intrigued by mention of duo dub strategy.

Of the list above, I like these a lot:

tyshawn sorey - pillars
amaro freitas - rasif
dave holland, evan parker, craig taiborn & ches smith - uncharted territories
james brandon lewis, chad taylor - radiant imprints
makaya mccraven - universal beings
salim washington - dogon revisited

Lewis has a fantastic new record coming out in February that features his working trio (bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Warren Trae Crudup III) plus Jaimie Branch on trumpet and Anthony Pirog on guitar. I'm hoping to interview him for The Wire with that as the hook.

Just got a package from Dave Douglas's Greenleaf Music label. They sent me that 8CD live set by his quintet that I mentioned upthread, and Uplift: Twelve Pieces for Positive Action, which features Douglas on trumpet, Joe Lovano on saxes, Mary Halvorson and Julian Lage on guitars, Bill Laswell on bass, and Ian Chang on drums and electronics. The twelve tracks were originally released one a month exclusively to people who subscribed to Greenleaf via Bandcamp (which I don't), but now they've been compiled.

The live Douglas box has me revisiting that band's three studio albums - Be Still from 2012, Time Travel from 2013, and Brazen Heart from 2015. That was a fantastic band.

Watching this Nick Payton Tiny Desk (w/Jonathan Barber on drums, who I like a lot from Jeremy Pelt's stuff). I wondered how some of the stuff on his trio record with both trumpet and Rhodes was recorded (since he's playing both), like which one was played live with the group and which was overdubbed, but I guess it makes a lot more sense that he was playing both at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_dSlxgD2Fo

Also, when you don't have brushes with you, just using your hands rather than sticks is an amazing choice.

That Makaya McCraven album is a revelation.

brings to mind Sonny Rollins somehow

Checking out Sam Harris's Harmony. He's a pianist who plays with Ambrose Akinmusire, Logan Richardson, Melissa Aldana, Rudy Rosyton and others, and this album is really something. It's a five-track, 30-minute trio performance (Martin Nevin on bass, Craig Weinrib on drums) that's more or less a continuous suite. He combines heavy, clanging blues with avant-garde exploration and melodic frills in a way that reminds me of Keith Jarrett, kinda, but I don't really like Keith Jarrett much, and I like this a lot. As far as I know, it's only available on Bandcamp, and it's well worth the $10.

http://samharrismusic.bandcamp.com/album/harmony

I like it, he reminds me of Dave Burrell somewhat, who is a bit of an old grand master of heavy, clanging blues with avant-garde exploration.

https://the1959project.com/

Natalie Weiner is doing this look at jazz in NYC 60 years ago effort. With postings every day she says. She posted photos and more re a Rollins/Mingus doublebill at the Five Spot

just picked up the LP/DVD combo for this https://hypnoticbrassfilm.com/ yesterday, haven't listened yet. Was unfortunately not able to find any Shabaka Hutchings-related vinyl at Amoeba SF :(

that Nick Payton set upthread is great, what releases does he have that are similar/worth picking up?

I've heard some previous albums by the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - felt like they lived up to their name a little too much but maybe I'll give them another chance.

The Heritage EP is my favorite, agree they can get a bit same-y

who else is doing winterjazzfest with me? Some great sets in the offing!

I don’t feel like I can stay our late enough to make it worthwhile but tell me more. Also, seriously thinking of going to Birdland tonight

I'm considering going but may not make it. I really want to see these shows:

Thursday, January 10 - Gary Bartz Plays Another Earth with Pharoah Sanders; Nubya Garcia opening
Friday, January 11 - Marathon, Night 1 (I'm hoping to see Ezra Collective, Makaya McCraven, and Aaron Parks' Little Big)
Saturday, January 12 - Marathon, Night 2 (I'm hoping to see Anteloper, Nubya Garcia, and Irreversible Entanglements)

I have 12 nominations left for the ILM poll if anyone has used up their noms and wants any jazz/improv/classical/avant on the ballot.

i heard a cut from makaya mccraven's universal beings today and was honestly quite blown away. and i never expected i'd be taken in by a jazz record like that.

What was the name of the song? I'm way behind in checking out the last few MM things

Not sure if this is the right thread, but the new Jeff Parker album is phenomenal

Yeah, Universal Beings is wonderful.

xp the song was "suite haus"! i haven't yet listened to the full album but i'll get to it soon i hope

The mew mccraven gil scott heron project sounded great live. Cant wait to chow down on the album.

I've just discovered McCraven's CHICAGOxLONDON mixtape from 2018 which is fantastic. Lots of lovely Rhodes piano.

i heard a cut from makaya mccraven's universal beings today and was honestly quite blown away. and i never expected i'd be taken in by a jazz record like that.

― dyl, Monday, January 20, 2020 11:30 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

thank you for this, this track is incredible

Universal Anthem is where it's at!!

i mean International Anthem!!!!
lol

anyway it's a great record label https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/

Something I was shockingly old when I learned (this week, in fact): this isn't a jazz-centric rebrand of the guitar soli-type label from a few years ago. Obviously I was confusing it with Imaginational Anthem

This revive has really brought my “should I start a dedicated McCraven or an International Anthem thread?” dilemma to a head. Anyone have a preference?

I like label threads because you can talk about more stuff in there. I made one for Soundway records and do not regret it :)

Also IA are really doing an amazing job elevating their artists to the international level, like it's kind of amazing

It really is, and it's nice that they're so thoroughly Chicago-focused.

That's my fave track on Universal Beings.

McCraven thread is overdue imo

I agree and will probably make one anyway when the GSH thing drops, but in the meantime: International Anthem: S/D

Too late to vote but fwiw I too like the idea of a dedicated thread. I thought about starting a similar one for Astral Spirits but, err, didn't

astral spirits is such a sick label start the thread

intl anthem thread good too, keep up the good work posters