Rolling Jazz Thread 2019

I hear it's gonna expand beyond London this year.

Tuba player Theon Cross (of Sons of Kemet) has a solo album, Fyah, coming out February 15. On 6 of 8 tracks it's just him, Nubya Garcia on sax, and Moses Boyd on drums; on the other two they add another saxophonist, electric guitar, trombone, and percussion. Really good stuff.

https://theoncross.bandcamp.com/album/fyah

Great album cover, too:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0979737946_10.jpg

The NPR Jazz Critics' Poll results are out: https://www.npr.org/2019/01/05/682193795/the-2018-npr-music-jazz-critics-poll

My ballot:

NEW RELEASES
Makaya McCraven, Universal Beings (International Anthem)
Sons of Kemet, Your Queen Is a Reptile (Impulse!)
Kamasi Washington, Heaven and Earth (Young Turks)
We Out Here (Brownswood)
Camilla George, The People Could Fly (Ubuntu)
Andrew Cyrille, Lebroba (ECM)
Ingrid Laubrock, Contemporary Chaos Practices (Intakt)
Nicole Mitchell, Maroon Cloud (FPE)
Maisha, There Is a Place (Brownswood)
Henry Threadgill 14 or 15 Kestra: Agg, Dirt . . . and More Dirt (Pi)

REISSUES/HISTORICAL
J-Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan, 1969-1984 (BBE)
Wes Montgomery, In Paris: The Definitive ORTF Recording (Resonance)
Milford Graves, Bäbi (Corbett vs. Dempsey)

VOCAL
No choice.

DEBUT
Maisha, There Is a Place (Brownswood)

LATIN
No choice.

good vocal one is D Virelles Singer's Grove album that he recorded with a load of Cuban talent.

So anyone read that Dexter Gordon book yet?

Thought Phil did

Yeah, it's good - lots of inside-the-industry stuff and discussion of aspects of Gordon's life not made known to jazz journalists at the time ('cause Gordon didn't want to talk about them). One omission I found interesting - she talks about his post-prison comeback album Daddy Plays the Horn, but entirely omits Dexter Blows Hot and Cool, which came out the same year (1955) and is one of my favorite of his records. Oh, well.

Is there much about their time in Cuernavaca?

Some, yeah. A lot about his time in Scandinavia, too. One thing I thought was really interesting was how they created the whole "Dexter Returns to America!" myth in the mid '70s - in fact, he'd been coming back for gigs about once a year the whole time he was living in Europe, but she somehow sold it as his "return from exile" or whatever. It's a really great look at how legends are created.

lucas gillan's re-imagining of the third herbie nichols record was a nice recent find for me

https://lucasgillan.bandcamp.com/album/chit-chatting-with-herbie

Yeah, I'm gonna be talking about that one on Stereogum later this month.

Copying and pasting this here from my Facebook page:

Wayne Shorter topping the NPR jazz critics' poll (I didn't vote for it) is one of the starkest "what critics like vs. what the public likes" splits in a while, I think, because the music was totally inaccessible unless you were willing to drop at least $55 (Amazon's price for the 3CD version). Which is fine, whatever. Critics gonna critic. (I don't know if they mailed physical copies to bigger-name writers, but *I* only got MP3s and a PDF.)

It's more interesting to me that Blue Note, a label that's really good about getting most of its catalog out there digitally - they regularly tweet that some obscure catalog title or another has been added to Spotify and iTunes - decided Wayne Shorter was strictly for the luxury market. I mean, it's not like you NEED the comic. It's not connected to the music in any way.

Would the album have done as well with reviewers if it hadn't been packaged as this grand objay dart? Was this the jazz equivalent of Kanye West flying pop journalists to Wyoming to hear 20 minutes of music in the company of celebrities?

Cool, thanks unperson. Might read that one on vacation.

I probably said this on last year's thread but I talked to that tuba player at his gig a few months ago. Super nice dude, and as I was watching him I was like "I bet this dude loves Nat (my friend from Youngblood Brass Band)", and he was like yup, he's the whole reason I started playing.

Wayne Shorter topping the NPR jazz critics' poll (I didn't vote for it) is one of the starkest "what critics like vs. what the public likes" splits in a while, I think, because the music was totally inaccessible unless you were willing to drop at least $55 (Amazon's price for the 3CD version). Which is fine, whatever. Critics gonna critic. (I don't know if they mailed physical copies to bigger-name writers, but *I* only got MP3s and a PDF.)

― grawlix (unperson)

i mean that really seems like an npr thing. i remember a couple years ago when they went all-in talking about how great the savory collection was. it's streaming - if you have apple music. otherwise, forget it - i don't think anybody's even bothered to pirate that shit, which makes it serious long-tail stuff.

rym has the shorter at 26 ratings and one review, which starts off by calling it "generally disappointing". (for comparison, "kids see ghosts" has 12,522 ratings, and "your queen is a reptile" has 2,552.) on the other hand, it at least appears to have been pirated.

this also, by the way, makes the wayne shorter album both less heard on rym and lower rated than the new squirrel nut zippers album. did you know the squirrel nut zippers had a new album? 44 people on rym did!

been listening to the trygve seim album from last year, helsinki songs, lately. i know he's well established but i hadn't known him, it's nice to hear a solid ECMy album every now and again.

dude's got hella beard and flowing tresses

Listening to the new Resonance Records Eric Dolphy set, Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions. It's the albums Conversations and Iron Man, plus an additional 85 minutes of previously unreleased alternate takes. One of the best things about it, to my ear, is that the old albums have been remastered in mono, and sound incredibly vivid.

Phil, you need to bring up this question of critics with Harold Mabern when you interview him, I’m sure he will have a lot to say. Ask him about Calvin Newborn as well.

Rest in peace, Alvin Fielder.

RIP.

Speaking of Dexter, this morning Michael Bourne is playing some stuff he recorded with Eddie Jefferson that I hadn't known about before.

Such as "Lester's Trip to the Moon."

First night of the winter jazzfest marathon last night mostly spent at Subculture, where I caught Ghost Train Orchestra playing Moondog (remarkably good; can't wait for the album!), Joel Ross (noteworthy vibraphone player; technically strong band that didn't click for me), Theo Bleckmann and The Westerlies (doing a social justice project, utterly beautiful)

Will likely go to the Medeski Martin and Wood/Alarm Will Sound show at Brooklyn Steel later this week; album didn't leave much of a mark but figure it's worth the trip

Love Ghost Train Orchestra; don't care much for Bleckmann but it's part of my larger antipathy to jazz vocals.

oh i've been a bleckmann fan for almost twenty years now; that guy can do no wrong by me.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/01/12-new-jazz-artists-to-watch-in-2019.html
How many do you recognize?

i can co-sign Camila, both Sashas, Jaimie Branch and Chris Beck.

I like this video I just found on Veronica Swift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l69lHOONHCM

Have been aware of Camila for the better part of a decade so don't really think of her as a New Artist.

Branch is great, Connie Han is OK, and I like Barber and Beck. I don't care about any of the singers, obviously.

Then perhaps you will ignore me saying I just enjoyed seeing Gabrielle Stravelli perform her new Willie Nelson tribute album at Birdland, where I sat next to fellow Bob Dorough enthusiast Daryl Sherman. Wish I could have stayed for the second set and then gone upstairs to see Kurt Elling, although I did peek through the window of that show for a bit on my way in and out.

Oh yeah, Will Friedwald was apparently there too.

Maybe I should post about on semi-dormant Jazz Vocalist thread or even Rolling Country, but I can't run fast enough to jump on that boxcar.

Thanks for the jazz vocalists posts. I am fine with them whichever thread you use.

Thanks. I did a double take for a second, because even though I am completely clear on who you two posters are, your screennames are sufficiently similar that I have to read carefully otherwise I might misattribute.

Anyway, even though I didn’t have to time to go see Kurt Elling other than lingering in the lobby for a second, I will say that I am finally warming up to him after keeping him at a distance for quite a while because his voice sounded too good, too rich. I like the Mark Murphy element of his singing, for one thing.

albatre - the fall of the damned

^^^
been enjoying this one today. Late '18 release on Clean Feed and it is an earbleeding noise metal trio that you might like if Ground Zero was a thing to you.

when I say noise metal I meant an Ornette influenced jazz metal thing!

Thanx unperson for citing We Out Here on Pazz & Jop thread: bandcamp page proved quite refreshing in itself and as gateway. Speaking of Nubya Garcia, "Source" ended up making my own P&J Singles:
https://nubyagarcia.bandcamp.com/track/source And your Sons of Kemet album pick provided another Single, "My Queen is Anna Julia Cooper":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HapYxFBF_Lk

Got around to watching/listening to the LP/DVD combo for this https://hypnoticbrassfilm.com/ - film is a good overview of their background and approach, album is about what you would expect based on the film. It does differ from other releases I've heard of theirs in that there's a fair amount of rapping on it, and it's clear these guys are hip hop generation through and through, in the rhythms and riffs they tend to lean on. Oddly, it seems like there's very little improvisation in their output, no one ever really takes solos nor do they go in for any collective free-blowing, so not sure how jazzy I would say this is really. Maybe that's just a function of being a brass band idk.

I think it's just a function of Hypnotic. I like them alright if I remember to not think of it in relation to New Orleans brass bands in any way. They're just very specific (highly arranged, not very loud or high energy, etc).

def very highly arranged

Are Bill Charlap and Danny Huston the same person?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DwVh0HUUwAAGVfE.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DwVh0HXUwAAT399.jpg

That sounds really interesting, calzino. Ground Zero was a thing for me. I'll look for it.

Yeah, thanks for the tip. James B, please feel free to post about the Willie Nelson (or whatever) on RC 2019 (or wherever). Nelson's recent Sinatra trib has jazz-related appeal. Bluesy version of "What Is This Thing Called Love" keeps prowling my head, with Norah Jones slipping along there too. She's proved an effective duet partner-around-the-edges over the years, in the Willie Zone, where she's not Snorah, just cool.

I wanna give some love to the excellent new release by Bugge Wesseltoft & Prins Thomas album. Been a regular feature on my commutes this past month - love the textural feel of it, the precise layered groove construction on the tracks around the Jarrett-esque noodles and vamps on the keys. Very fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvNrjN2d90

^^^this was very nice to listen to driving through the desert at night

i am digging this guy Kassa Overall's new album, Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz; decent hip hop/jazz fusion, fun and easy to enjoy
https://www.kassaoverall.com
https://open.spotify.com/album/6tSHSLgLy19DgFpzKHrrJv?si=lIUlmcSXQKCdlGBAl4XJXQ

He's doing a show with Jason Moran at the Jazz Gallery next week; I'm planning to go.

So what about this young French lady who sings “Giant Steps” and “Frevo” who was at Winter Jazzfest, Camille Bertault?

Recently discovered this:
https://img.discogs.com/fTncE1EcrY_WFJxu39TnvPboVY4=/fit-in/600x596/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-9094566-1486511406-4176.jpeg.jpg

Great relatively unknown singer--sort of a female chet baker with a few Ella-like touches. I skip Body and Soul and Stormy Weather--never want to hear those songs again--but otherwise really nice stuff. Great, great guitar work by Barney Kessel dominating the accompaniment.

I finally bought Threadgill's Dirt... and More Dirt (making use of Christmas gift cards) and, four tracks in, it sounds like the noise in my head.

he's so good :)

Yeah, I really liked the whole thing. When it was done, I couldn't believe it had been 40 minutes already.

his other 2018 release the Double Up Ensemble one is totally ace as well.

Spotify recommendations served me up a song by Alison Miller's Boom Tic Boom

I like the song, is she worth checking out?

Yeah, new album coming out February 1 and it's quite good.

https://allisonmiller.bandcamp.com/album/glitter-wolf

The band is Jenny Scheinman on violin, Kirk Knuffke on cornet, Ben Goldberg on clarinet, Myra Melford on piano, Todd Sickafoose on bass, and Miller on drums.

david murray & dave burrell, in concert '92

^^^ ^^^
this is what I'm loving today, it's a right set.

Oh yeah, discovered Allison Miller last summer---from RJ 2018:

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

Pre-orders are now open for the next Matthew Shipp Trio album, Signature, out 2/15 on ESP-Disk.

My wife designed the CD package, and painted the painting on the cover:

http://www.espdisk.com/image/cache/catalog/shippsignature_1500x1500-750x750.jpg

nice. looking forward to seeing Shipp at Roulette later this year.

Listening to ILX Listen: 2019

I finally bought Threadgill's Dirt... and More Dirt (making use of Christmas gift cards) and, four tracks in, it sounds like the noise in my head.

― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Monday, January 14, 2019 8:12 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agree! i love this record. does anybody else get mingus vibes or am i delusional / stupid

the roiling horn arrangements in particular, the swells, the dissonance, the building tensions around a simple theme that seem to grow and grow

i could only find reference to mingus in a pi recordings press release:

As a composer and improviser, Henry sees artistic process and product as inseparable, the essence of jazz. Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus strove toward the same goal. Rooted in that history, Henry’s solutions have taken radical new tacks.

i feel as though you can hear the influence of both "such sweet thunder" and "black saint" in the "dirt" recording

man alive, just came across a really interesting album with Ted in it.

A snapshot of jazz 60 years ago, every day.

https://the1959project.com

Huh, Kokoroko's "Abusey Junction" is at almost 20 million views on Youtube. Judging by the comments, it seems like the the algorithm smiled on it.

I've been wondering about that track. It has 3.9 million Spotify plays, too, which is 10x more than any other track on We Out Here. I assumed it was on Spotify's State of Jazz playlist or something. (I mean, I like it a lot, but still.)

They've got a four-track EP coming soon that's great. ("Abusey Junction" is on it.)

Went to the Jazz Gallery last night to see Jason Moran and drummer Kassa Overall. It was Overall's show - he's doing a residency at the Gallery where once a month he brings in a different pianist. The next one is with Aaron Parks, on Valentine's Day. Anyway, last night's show turned into a trio set with the addition of Evan Flory-Barnes on bass. A photo:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DxPXyYdVYAAEdB8.jpg

xxp Yeah, I like it a lot too. Just interesting that it quietly racked up so many listens by jazz standards. I can imagine loads of guitarists having it on repeat.

Judging by the comments, it seems like the the algorithm smiled on it.

― jmm, Friday, January 18, 2019 5:19 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yep, AJ shows up in my youtube sidebar recs constantly.

thinking about hitting one of those kassa shows; you recommend it unperson?

Definitely. The upcoming pianists are Aaron Parks (February); Sullivan Fortner (March); Kris Davis (April); Craig Taborn (May); and some kind of finale event over two nights in June.

So---just heard a rerun of last spring's Jazz Night In America session w Jazzmeia Horn---thought she might turn out a bit contrived, but no, or not in a bad way, just over under sideways down around and yet straight ahead at all times, assimilating Cassandra Wilson's strategies, maybe---also Betty Carter's, like the way all three interact with their small groups, in Horn's case here, sometimes glancing off the musus, sometimes seeing and raising, sometimes shutting up for a while. "People Make The World Go Around" was true enough to the original, bittersweet lyrics, but also she went allll around the park, without getting lost Robust, agile, not too long-winded. How's the album?

Also, speaking of last spring, did I mention this? Awesome, and unlike the Horn set, whole thing's posted:
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/23/596004201/jane-bunnett-and-maqueque-the-new-queens-of-afro-cuban-jazz

"musos," not "musus,", sorry player guys

Greg Ward's Rogue Parade band Stomping Off from Greenwood album is quite ace. I remember liking a Mingus tribute alb he did a couple years back as well.

Yeah, I've been following Ward's career for almost a decade now and the new album is really good. I wrote about it here.

I put together a Spotify playlist of all five albums by the Norwegian jazz quartet Cortex (Thomas Johansson on trumpet, Kristoffer Berre Alberts on saxophones, Ola Høyer on bass, Gard Nilssen on drums). Here's a link.

Wayne Shorter's Emanon is now streaming on Spotify (and presumably other services as well).

Just heard Kevin Whitehead's Fresh Air take on the new Eric Dolphy collection, Musical Prophet, mentioned upthread by unperson. It gathers prev. released from a couple of albums with outtakes etc, and KW says some of the best versions made the original cut, but great sound, as unperson says, and cool to have them all together, esp. duets w bassist Richard Davis, also sessions w Woody Shaw and Bobby Hutcherson and larger groups. More info here: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/eric-dolphy-musical-prophet-resonance-review-784055/

If you want to hear Branford Marsalis talk about why Kamasi Washington and Christian Scott aren't jazz, check out my latest podcast:

https://simplecast.com/s/784800dd

He also talks about his time with Sting, playing with the Grateful Dead, and how it took him seven years to get good at playing classical music.

The lineup for Gilles Peterson's We Out Here festival (August 15-18) looks amazing:

https://www.weoutherefestival.com/lineup

Gary Bartz
Matthew Herbert
Tirzah
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids
The Comet Is Coming
Sons of Kemet
Lee Fields & The Expressions
Nubya Garcia
Kojey Radical
Hailu Mergia
A Certain RatioMXMJoY
Moses Boyd Exodus
Steam Down Orchestra
Kokoroko
Children of Zeus
Yazmin Lacey
Kaidi Tatham
Theon Cross Fyah
Joe Armon-Jones
Maisha
Auntie Flo
Skinny Pelembe
Tawiah
Alabaster dePlume

yeah, that looks dope as fuck

Christ. And in August so can actually go.

Listening to the new Christian Scott album Ancestral Recall - it's great, of course. A single disc, and more organic/less trap than the trilogy, but still definitely him. Out in late March.

Did this on Nashville saxophonist-producer JayVe Montgomery and his current project, Abstract Black

man alive, have you heard Hamiet Bluiett live album with Ted on it? It’s great.

I had a very jazzy weekend. Played two nights at the Green Mill, but on Saturday there was some excitement after the show because Anderson Paak was playing across the street. While the next band was setting up I got to meet Makaya McCraven, who was super chill. Then we had to give up one of our band booths to make some room for Kamasi Washington, Maurice Brown and crew. AP came by for a little bit too, but I didn't notice him sitting behind me.

I stayed for the first set (1 - 2 am) and Kamasi didn't sit in, but Maurice B and he killed it. Btw the late night band was the successor to Sabertooth, Pat Mallinger's band with Pete Benson on organ (who is absolutely insane) and a great drummer I hadn't heard before, Samuel Jewell.

dang

Sounds awesome, v envious.
Heard a very nice "Nardis" last night on radio: Cannonball A feat. Blue Mitchell, who especially impressed with shadings into the endpoint, without ever imitating Miles. What other Blue Mitchell (his albums or on someone else's) should I check?

I mostly know him from those great early Horace Silver records

His Riverside albums from 1959-60 are really good, especially Big Six, Out of the Blue, Blue Soul and Blue's Moods. Killer bands on all of those.

Kamasi Washington, Maurice Brown and crew. AP came by for a little bit too, but I didn't notice him sitting behind me.

lol i was skimming and misread this as Kamasi Washington was sitting behind you and I was like goddamn how do you not notice Kamasi Washington?

It's true, he is hard to miss

Saxophonist/flutist Anna Webber's 'Clockwise', is an homage to some of her favourite 20th Century composers as seen through the lens of their works for percussion.
For the project, Webber researched and analyzed various percussion compositions by Iannis Xenakis, Morton Feldman, Edgard Varése, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Milton Babbitt, and John Cage, isolating particular moments that could be extracted and developed into new works.

love this so far, and would listen to any band with Tordini, M Mitchell , Ches Smith anyway, but this is really good.

Yeah, it's an interesting record - I wrote about it for my Stereogum column, which will be running later today I think.

Looking for Charles Lloyd on Bandcamp, found Manhattan Stories (2014), comprised of
Two 1965 New York Concerts, Disc 1 recorded at Judson Hall & Disc 2 recorded at Slugs' Saloon.

A remarkable and previously unrecorded quartet featuring three jazz giants: guitarist Gábor Szabó, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Pete La Roca.

'It was a specific time and place'; Lloyd told Manhattan Stories annotator Don Heckman. 'We all felt like the boundaries were being dissolved and we could do or try anything. This is a music of freedom and wonder -- we were young and on the move.' Which is just what the sample track, "Sweet Georgia Brown," sounds like (17' 49", but quite spritely). Especially digging the interplay of guitar and sax, bass and cymbals, also succinct solos, esp. PLR's and Szabo's---the latter bright and brittle, autumn leaves, but def not drifting. What other Szabo should I check? Used to see his LPs...
https://charleslloyd.bandcamp.com/

Here's my Stereogum column. I talk about Theon Cross, James Brandon Lewis, Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom, Lioness, Jeremy Pelt, Chris Potter, Anna Webber, Joe Fiedler, Maurice Louca, Itamar Borochov, Brent Birckhead, Miho Hazama, OK:KO, Matt Brewer, and Tom Rainey.

Thanks, Phil. Don (do you guys have a father named Ike?), see this thread: Gabor Szabo: Who Cares About His MIddle Eastern Modalities Aside From Me And Hurting?

Interesting that Maurice Louca has gone jazz. His last was egyptian dance music, great album. Looking forward to hearing it.

Something Ethan Iverson said on Twitter got me to check out the Brecker Brothers' Heavy Metal Be-Bop (an album I'd never heard before). I like a lot of 70s fusion - I have albums by Billy Cobham, Jean-Luc Ponty, Al DiMeola, Return to Forever, Weather Report and probably some others in my (digital) Walkman - but this shit is a step too far. This shit is gross.

the Maurice Louca album is very pretty and the vocal track is nice, it is quite a short and slight album - but definitely worth a listen I think.

xxp

you should check out the Anna Weber alb fred, the king of denmark part of the suite is probably the best new music I've heard this year!

Anna Webber

Yeah, thanks for the rec, I really like this.

glad you like it. For me I don't there is much on Pi Recordings that hasn't been A to A+ in recent years.

I listened to Heavy Metal Bebop in high school because of the title (and because we played Some Skunk Funk), but it's my ground zero for why effects on horns are almost always bad.

Also a rare Terry Bozzio appearance before he became a professional drum soloist (I never really got into Zappa).

Jim Black is doing a week at The Stone starting tonight; well worth the Jackson imo!
http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php

Sigh, changing from Apple Music to Spotify means I lose access to the Pi Recordings catalogue :(

Is there something I should especially focus on in the next ten days?

Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman, Tyshawn Sorey, Miles Okazaki, Dan Weiss imo.

You might check the new Allison Miller & Boom Tic Boom, which unperson linked above---very appealing review by Kevin Whitehead on this morning's Fresh Air, with excerpts well-chosen to match his comments:
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/28/698903730/all-the-parts-fit-together-like-clockwork-on-allison-millers-glitter-wolf?ft=nprml&f=

Just found out that Ed Bickert passed on Thursday. I listened to him a lot in Grade 10. RIP:( https://ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/jazzblog/rip-ed-bickert

Listening to him this weekend for the first time. Great stuff. Doesn’t hurt that he plays with an excellent bass player, Don Thompson. Apologies for thinking that there was only room for one good Canadian jazz guitarist and that guitarist was Lenny Breau.

Also---Sonny Greenwich? Heard him only a little bit, long ago, but seemed good, kinda out there.

Thanks Youtube for recommending this banger of a clip with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Mingus, Roy Haynes, and Archie Shepp (etc) on Ed Sullivan, it was new to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzGj_-5FGT8

about as cool as it gets.

Buried in the announcement of a pair of April gigs at the Jazz Standard was the announcement that JD Allen's next album will be called Barracoon and be released in June; it features a new trio (Ian Kenselaar on bass, Nic Cacioppo on drums). He'll be playing at the Standard with them, plus Liberty Ellman on guitar.

Got a promo of the upcoming Art Ensemble of Chicago album, We Are On The Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration, today. It's a 2CD set (1 studio, 1 live, 70 minutes each) out in late April on Pi Recordings and features a ton of guests:

Roscoe Mitchell – sopranino, soprano and alto saxophones
Famoudou Don Moye – drums, congas, djembe, dundun, gongs, Congo bells, bendir, triangles, Thai bells, shakers
Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa) – voice, poetry (Disc One #3, 4, 10)
Rodolfo Cordova-Lebron – voice (Disc One #1, 6, 9)
Hugh Ragin – trumpets, flugelhorn, Thai bells
Fred Berry – trumpet, flugelhorn
Nicole Mitchell – piccolo, flute, bass flute
Christina Wheeler – voice, Array mbira, autoharp, Q-Chord, Moog Theremini, sampler, electronics
Jean Cook – violin
Edward Yoon Kwon – viola
Tomeka Reid – cello
Silvia Bolognesi – bass
Jaribu Shahid – bass, tuned brass bowls
Junius Paul – bass
Dudù Kouaté – djembe, tama/talking drum, calabashes, kanjira, whistles, chimes, bells and small percussions (Disc One only)
Enoch Williamson – bongos, congas, djembe, kenkeni, okonkolo, Congo bells, chekeré, shakers, tama/talking drum
Titos Sompa – vocals, congas, mbira, Congo bells, cuica, shakers
Stephen Rush – conductor

Just heard this great version of “Stella By Starlight” on WKCR with the melody played on a bass but I can’t figure out who was the leader, because the jock didn’t say and they didn’t update the playlist. Damn you, Pledge Week!

Maybe it was Paul Chambers but can’t seem to locate such a recording, especially since it is overshadowed by his playing it with Miles.

It wasn't this, was it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xCwCjYQwJ4

Not 100% sure, but it’s certainly close enough, thanks!

What about The Comet Is Coming, now streaming on NPR?

#FirstListen: Stream The Comet is Coming's (@cometcoming) 'Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery' before it comes out March 15. https://t.co/b5qfLSNn84 pic.twitter.com/dTEyL5mfaR

— NPR Music (@nprmusic) March 7, 2019

yes!

I can't tell whether I am going to go for the gimmick or not.

The TCIC album is really good. I didn't like their stuff at first but it's grown on me quite a bit. I interviewed all three members for a feature that'll be out next week on Tidal's website.

listening to both the new vijay iyer/craig taborn + alexander hawkins piano albums today. Love the hawkins one best at the moment.

Last night on the radio: didn't catch the titles, but first a Hank Mobley septet, incl. the aforementioned Sonny Greenwich, and Lee Morgan, who wrote this theme of some sharp-edged curvature--ace of spades, cut and folded from sheet metal, at least as played---from around the same time as Mobley's employment w Miles, sounds like; maybe this is what got him hired---followed by the steady jolt of a strict funk note--jackhammer meeting great resistance, but persisting---over which layers kept tilting and shifting: this was Bill Warfield and the Hell's Kitchen Orchestra, an octet, so one more than Mobley's group, duh, but more of an expansion and flourish (yet no BS) than Mobley's meld. Only seeing one album by this Warfield crew, Mercy Mercy Mercy---good? Anybody here heard them live?

Hell's Kitchen Funk Orchestra.

Wow, really into TCIC so far. It soundss fantastic.

Yeah, sounded great on first listen.

Here's a link to my TCIC feature.

Thanks!

unperson, enjoyed your Branford interview. I met him long ago in New Orleans and it's always entertaining to hear him talk shit (actually what most struck me is his lack of snobbery about basically any kind of music).

Also, I only say this with love, but you should really change the name of the podcast to "Yeah, Yeah" ;)

Also, I only say this with love, but you should really change the name of the podcast to "Yeah, Yeah" ;)

Oh, I have definitely had this thought, trust me.

the new christian scott is so so so so so good https://christianscott.bandcamp.com/album/ancestral-recall

otm

My album of the year so far, probably.

Weirdly, it reminds me (in overall vibe rather than style per se) to Shafiq Husayn's 'Shafiq En' A-Free-Ka' (which resonance led me to learn that there is a new Shafiq album out later this week!).

Anna Webber still my aoty, but Christian Scott is definitely up there

the Scott album is astonishing

I don't love the sound of processed trumpet, it just never sounds as cool or modern as it wants to, but I do love the percussion on this record.

Makaya is playing around the corner from me tonight, I should really go, right? I'm gonna go. I'm going.

Listening to that Christian Scott album a whole bunch. Most of the percussion on this is looped, right? Is that something that’s becoming more common in jazz?

There are def loops, the whole thing is very layered and constructed in a non-jazz manner. I guess it depends on what's considered 'jazz', but I think everyone these days is more comfortable with using software and production to various degrees.

I'm listening to the last Makaya album, which I had not fully dug into before (possibly because it's 90 min!), but it is indeed great.

Very glad I went, MM blew me away even more than I expected. It was his trio with Matt Gold on guitar and Junius Paul on bass (who has an impressive collection of tights).

More solo-based than his records, but no one ever really drops out. Hugely dynamic, everything is beat-based but in a way that avoids feeling idiomatic or cliched at all. He's so amazing at this certain 12/8 flow, where every note of the triplet is voiced...that's usually an Afro-Cuban thing, and it feels like that, but there isn't a specific clave, it's always moving and shifting. Dave King is good at this too (and he's actually playing here tonight in a duo, but I'm not making that).

Voted in the Down Beat critics' poll this week - well, about half of it, anyway. They've got a million stupid categories, many of which I have no opinion on at all. "Rising Star - Flute"? How the fuck should I know. Oh, well. It's hard for me to believe Anthony Braxton isn't already in the DB Hall of Fame, so I voted for him.

Would love to go to Birdland tonight to see Gabrielle Stravelli and then the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra but don’t think I can make it.

Two bands I really like - flugelhornist John Raymond's trio Real Feels (with Gilad Hekselman on guitar and Colin Stranahan on drums) and pianist Aaron Parks' Little, Big (with guitarist Greg Tuohey, bassist David Ginyard, and drummer Tommy Crane) are playing a co-headlining show at Rockwood Music Hall on Friday night. Looking forward to that.

https://www.challengerecords.com/products/15517942371680

frisell and morgan, another record from the village vanguard date that produced an earlier record, playing monk and james bond themes

sounds beautiful, the resonance of frisell's chords is amazing

the strange duality of despising Bond movies with every atom of my body but always being blown away by renditions of You Only Live Twice!

well John Barry was always the most defensible part of that franchise

I always quite have quite a strong emotional response to renditions of JB. There was a Midnight Cowboy break on a techno album from last year that did the same, despite being nothing special tbh!

I interviewed Dwight Trible for Bandcamp. Lots of people are hearing him on Kamasi Washington's albums, but he's done a lot more than that.

The new Joshua Abrams is rather lovely. He's playing his guimbri a fair bit and the overall method is one of slow build and gradual spreading tones.

I went to Jazz Alley in Seattle a couple weekends ago to see the Joey DeFrancesco Trio (Billy Hart and Troy Roberts, amazing) with special guest Pharaoh Sanders, touring their current album In The Key Of The Universe. On arriving we learned that Sanders had fallen at home and broken his hip, such a disappointment, I hadn't seen him perform since the mid-80s. Instead they had flown in Gary Bartz at short notice to sub in, and he was vital, charming and inspired. The album is really fine, especially on the tracks featuring Sanders that are its centrepiece. These include "The Creator Has A Master Plan" in a version I may prefer to the original.

Working on McLaughlin's "Follow Your Heart" with a student today. A really satisfying tune: there's a lot there! Other than the 1970 Joe Farrell Quartet version (which feels definitive to me) and the 1971 version on My Goals Beyond, does anyone have any favourite versions?

*Was working on

Wondering if should go see Larry Goldings at the Jazz Standard

All right I decided

Report back; I reviewed his trio's latest album (favorably) but I'm not sure I need to see that music played live.

Okay will do. Truth be told I just wanted to see something tonight and that was the venue I felt like going to, haven’t been there in a while.

I didn't know he had a new record, but LG is always delightful imo

That was great. Lots of groove, lots of energy, lots of space. They are there for one more night.

Who was the band?

The trio: Goldings, Bernstein, Stewart.

Frisell/Morgan sounds really pleasant on first listen. Really enjoyed the take on "Red River Valley".

Classic!

Is the Scary Pockets collab his most recent record? Cause yeah, I'm not into them, but mostly because I can't get past Pomplamoose/Patreon guy.

Xp

Dunno. Never listened, don’t like the idea of them, but do like that bass player.

Last trio album I see is from about a year ago, Toy Tunes. Assuming that is the one Phil reviewed, unless there was a more recent one. Scary Goldings album came out a few months after that.

https://michaelgregoryjackson.bandcamp.com/album/whenufindituwillknow-michael-gregory-jackson-clarity-quartet-2019

good is this.

Just had my press tickets confirmed to see Ahmad Jamal in Princeton on May 18. He's got James Cammack on bass, Herlin Riley on drums, and Manolo Badrena on percussion, which I believe is the band from his most recent album, Marseille (which rules). So excited about this.

Listened to Toy Tunes and Music from the Front Room today, both delightful.

That should be great, Herlin especially!

Speaking of which, new Herlin record! I jumped straight to the last track, which yep, never fails, is the second line cut: https://open.spotify.com/album/0adoHb4iey3I7lIeRi1cmY?si=WMLqpHsTReyg5UHN6UCjYA

Yeah, that album's really good. I'm thinking about trying to tape a podcast interview with him - between his work with Jamal, his years with Wynton Marsalis (going back to the 80s) and his own albums, there's a lot to discuss.

If you do, I'd love to hear him talk about his relationship with Shannon Powell, and about his thoughts about the current generation of second line drummers and how that style has developed post-Rebirth.

Jamal is, of course, the god; my fave living pianist and one of those people where you watch his hands the whole concert. Wish he'd come back to New York as i want at least one more show.

hello nyc ilm jazzheads,

i'm in nyc april 25 - 30. any shows to look out for ? or venues whose calendars i could browse ? would also be interested in DIY spaces -- all the ones i used to frequent are long gone. but obviously a good show is a good show and if pharoah sanders is playing the village vanguard i'm gonna go, y'know (he's not) ?

ty !

Stefon Harris's Blackout is at the Jazz Standard during that time; Tomeka Reid's quartet will be at the Jazz Gallery (she'll also be doing a duet with Tomas Fujiwara); Tyshawn Sorey's doing a three-hour or so concert at the Jazz Gallery on 4/27; Jim Snidero is at Smalls on 4/25 with a good band; and speaking of the Vanguard, Gerald Clayton has a really good band there this week.

awesome, thanks !

tyshawn for sure, i've really loved his last two releases.

because it's at least partially my job to keep up with this stuff, here's some other possible recommendations/things to be aware of; I will likely be at the Georgian yodeling show.

April 25 – Kassa Overall with Kris Davis at Jazz Gallery
https://www.kassaoverall.com/#time-capsule

April 25 to 27 – Jazz at Lincoln Orchestra with Ken Burns: Country Music
https://www.jazz.org/events/t-7293/Wynton-Marsalis-and-Ken-Burns-Country-Music/

April 25 to 28 – Manhattan Transfer
http://www.bluenotejazz.com/newyork/schedule/index.shtml

April 26 – Omara Portuondo
https://www.sonyhall.com/shows/2019/omara-portuondo

April 26 – Eddie Henderson
https://zincjazz.com/event/trumpet-masters-series-eddie-henderson/

April 26 – Georgian Polyphony and Yodeling
https://www.livesounds.org/events/georgian-vocal-polyphony-and-yodeling

April 26 to 28 – WFMU Record Fair
https://wfmu.org/recordfair/

April 27 – Village Fete After Party with Hailu Mergia
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/village-fete-after-party-hailu-mergia-chances-with-wolves-tickets-58600751425

April 27 – Zakir Hussain’s Masters of Percussion
https://www.njpac.org/events/detail/zakir-hussains-masters-of-percussion

April 27 – Django a GoGo with Stephane Wrembel
http://thetownhall.org/event/django-a-gogo-2019

April 28 – Gotham Jazz Festival
https://www.facebook.com/events/138020197085574/

April 28 – Arroj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and Shazad Ismaily
https://www.joespub.com/Tickets/Calendar/PlayDetailsCollection/Joes-Pub/2019/Arooj-Aftab-Vijay-Iyer--Shazad-Ismaily-Trio/?SiteTheme=JoesPub

April 29 and 30 – Rosalia
https://www1.ticketmaster.com/rosalia/event/0000566FF257986F

April 30 and May 1 – Karriem Riggins
http://www.bluenotejazz.com/newyork/schedule/index.shtml

April 30 – Mountain Goats
https://www.axs.com/events/368480/the-mountain-goats-tickets?skin=brooklynsteel&x=x

Tomeka and Tyshawn are both good bets for my money.

You should also check out The Stone and Roulette.
http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
https://roulette.org/calendar/

it occurs to me that i should start a "NYC shows" thread on ILM somewhere.

^ would read

also thanks very much !

Same here! Speaking of Tomeka Reid, I recently heard a good song by Hear In Now, her string trio w Mazz Swift and Silvia Bolognesi, on Dee Alexander's oft astute radio show--just now, prompted by TK mention on this thread, I checked for the album, and here it is, with Dee on the title track:
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/not-living-in-fear

RIP Fred Foss, DC- based, NY raised sax player and flutist who played with Lionel Hampton, Hugh Masekela, Abdullah Ibrahim, Tito Puente and more. Had an album out as a leader in 95 or 96

My latest Stereogum column just went up. A lot of the albums therein come out today, so there's plenty to listen to if you're not a Taylor Swift or Bruce Springsteen fan.

Lots of interesting stuff there, thx!

Yesterday I listened to a bunch of Keith Jarrett's '70s records that are on Spotify, and I found your liveblog, which was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.

(Fort Yawuh is the one btw, and I can definitely hear how that band was a big influence on the Bad Plus)

been listening to both that new Angelika Niescier trio and the Matt Brewer one today, both v good.

That Niescier is really good. The Cage-inspired compositional strategies produce some fascinatingly odd results, but it never feels dry or overly cerebral. Having Gerald Cleaver on drums helps of course, but credit is due to the whole band for finding that sweet spot between body and head.

Unperson, really enjoyed the Herlin interview. Thanks for asking about Shannon!

Thanks! I really had a good time talking to him - I hoped my request for an explanation of New Orleans vs. New York rhythms wouldn't come off too "Drumming for Dipshits," but his explanation was really interesting to me, anyway.

Yep, that's exactly what I expected him to say, it's very true.

Just for fun, here he is playing my bass drum at a church service in Switzerland 11 years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwRC2QoEkyg

So the Lithuanian label NoBusiness and writer Ed Hazell have been working with Sam Rivers' daughter Monique to dig through her dad's archives and put out what's going to be a series of eight releases over the next couple of years. The first one is due out late May/early June - it's a live trio recording with Cecil McBee and Norman Connors, the same band heard on 1973's Streams, but this is from June 1971 and is even more intense. One half-hour track, one 45-minute track, total improv.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6OpjFEXsAAAP5o.jpg

Marshall Allen, Danny Ray Thompson, Jamie Saft, Trevor Dunn, Balazs Pandi, Roswell Rudd
Ceremonial Healing

^^^

This is a pretty sick album

recorded in '16 and apparently contains the last recorded appearance of Roswell Rudd (rip).

Sounds interesting - I've just reached out to the label's publicist to see if it's going to be released on anything other than vinyl.

as much as I enjoyed blasting this out yesterday. I wouldn't be even slightly interested in paying £30 odd for it on vinyl. I presume they might be delaying the flac/mp3 downloads to maximize the profits from the collector market first, but that just drives ppl like me to slsk.

The MP3s I got from the label were tagged in a way that makes me think there'll be a 2CD version by the end of the year, but they have to allow a certain window to elapse first to keep it legally an RSD exclusive.

Apparently John Zorn's Tzadik label got fucked really hard by the PledgeMusic implosion - they used the site to fund a giant deluxe box set, but they're not getting the pledge money. So they're launching a limited edition series of LPs to cover their losses:

https://tzadik.limitedrun.com/

Allison Miller is playing here with violinist Jenny Scheinman, I should probably go? But it's on a weeknight and I probably won't, unfortunately.

Jenny Scheinman is worth seeing so yeah, go

The MP3s I got from the label were tagged in a way that makes me think there'll be a 2CD version by the end of the year, but they have to allow a certain window to elapse first to keep it legally an RSD exclusive.

― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Tuesday, May 14, 2019 6:57 AM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is good news

I'm having deja vu about posting this, but I'm listening to the new Lage Lund record and it's pretty cool, it's nice to hear Tyshawn Sorey in a fully rhythmic and idiomatic context (w/Larry Grenadier on bass).

Also enjoying looking up old Bad Plus videos from when Reid Anderson looked like a grunge dude (lots of flip flops and unbuttoned shirt cuffs), and Dave King hadn't gotten all fit and stylish yet.

Anderson was swinging on the flippity-flop.

wait dave king is fit and stylish now?

fit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3isNd6UGaDQ

And the last couple times I saw him, my gf remarked on the quality of his shoes (no socks), he was fully cuffed and had the top button happening, looking good imo.

Brad Mehldau - Finding Gabriel is really hitting me, kind of adventurous in a low key MOR way, a lot of electronics and synth textures, jazz-meets-Brian-Wilson vocal arrangements

ooh good I'm always happy to check out some new Mehldau.

That description literally makes me shudder, but I'm glad you're into it.

An album that surprised me this week is pianist Greg Foat's The Mage, which features Malcolm Catto (of the Heliocentrics), Clark Tracey, and Moses Boyd on drums on various tracks; saxophonists Duncan Lamont and Art Themen; and guitarist Ray Russell. (Those dudes are all British jazz vets who've also recorded tons of library music and whatnot.) The first track is a kind of Pentangle-meets-Wicker Man version of the hymn “Of My Hands” with a female singer (Kathleen Garcia), but there's some other stuff later on that sounds like if Stanley Turrentine had made a whole album of Pink Floyd (circa Meddle/Dark Side) covers for CTI.

https://aotns.bandcamp.com/album/the-mage

Do you like him in general (Brad M)?

well I like a lot of 3 sounds/Turrentine/Pentangle so that sounds fucking good as well!

his last alb Seymour Reads the Constitution was brilliant.

Do you like him in general (Brad M)?

I like the Art of the Trio records, but I don't listen to them often. It was mostly the "jazz-meets-Brian Wilson vocal arrangements" that hurt.

Lol Wilson can be a loaded term, I could have referenced Kamasi or Axelrod I guess

Cheers for the Foat recommendation. I liked the Hampshire Foat stuff without ever being bowled over by it. This is making me think of Ian Carr's Belladonna in places.

At 37 minutes, the Foat record does feel a little like cuttings. By which I mean if there's more lying about, I'd gladly hear it.

Ahmad Jamal’s quartet was INCREDIBLE tonight. Full review on Stereogum on Friday.

really enjoying the Greg Foat

Tried putting on the Mehldau at home and the first track got an instant veto from the other human present

Listening now though and the other tracks are much less obnoxious, although odd-time trap beats aren't particularly cute (but stock drum machine samples + amazing string section on track 5 kinda brings to mind the last Radiohead album, which makes sense with Mehldau).

Funny that the worst tracks on this are the ones with Mark Guiliana ripping (I guess because he was brought in to sell the most overblown/melodramatic moments). I like Mehldau in chill beatmaker mode though!

he's fundamentally uncool but I like em

also this Greg Foat is extremely my jam

Hadn't heard of Greg Foat until now but this does a great job at seemingly like a lost '70s mystic jazz-folk curio

Such stoner jazz! Nice to listen to at work but it veers into corny self-serious jam territory sometimes (as nice as the tones and sax players are)

(sorry, I feel like I'm really bringing spicy takes today)

I find that new Mehldau completely unlistenable :(

Shuffling an old Mosaic box - five CDs by the Teddy Wilson Trio - which has been put up on Spotify by the original label, Verve. I think a whole bunch of these sets have been similarly repurposed in the streaming era, once Mosaic's limited rights to the physical reissue have run out. Anyway, I'm not at all familiar with Wilson's work, but this is pretty nice. Kind of cocktail-ish, but the band (various bassists, with Jo Jones on drums most of the time) swings hard.

Bouncing around Spotify and I learned that Joshua Redman had a new record come out this year, and it's great so far. Greg Hutchinson on drums, who I love (although the drum sound on most modern jazz records is so anemic and boring).

Tried putting on the Mehldau at home and the first track got an instant veto from the other human present

exterior

That makes it sound great, but if you imagine a civilian drinking her coffee in the morning and all of sudden there is a choir with dense jazzy harmonies, a busy distorted trumpet solo, and even busier live breakbeats, y'know, it's a lot. Might be a little offputting!

Re: drum sounds, here's Greg Hutchinson on my favorite Christian McBride record, now that's a drum sound: https://open.spotify.com/track/6rBmuYSyOWxZYCPT2CLBoZ?si=JMczQkyrQBKqhrnJJQ5U3A

wrt Greg Foat, definitely corny and self serious at times but given the UK folk they are touching on that's kind of appropriate

digging it

Oh, I really like the sound of this Mehldau so far.

Currently liking the new dave douglas trio album with andrew cyrille on drums and someone good on piano.

Yeah, that's a good one - it'll be in my Stereogum column on Friday. Uri Caine on piano - it's a sequel to a Douglas/Caine duo album from 2014, but Cyrille really adds to the mix (more so than he's done on some of his own recent ECM work, honestly - Manfred Eicher encourages him to underplay to the point that he's barely present).

https://davedouglas.bandcamp.com/album/present-joys

could imagine Eicher just wanting every drummer to sound like Paul Motian, which is probably quite unreasonable despite the fact that he was pretty great.

Kevin Whitehead on Branford Marsalis Quartet's latest---first excerpt is ho-hum, but others get better and better: https://www.npr.org/2019/05/22/725697470/branford-marsalis-revels-in-jazzs-timeless-challenges-on-new-album

Suffering a bit from LDN Jazz fatigue, but the Cykada album is great.

Thinking about jazz recording, I put on Phineas Newborn's 'We Three' after listening to some modern records, and was struck more than usual by how fucking amazing it sounds (in addition to the playing being amazing), then went down a rabbit hole of Rudy Van Gelder articles & interviews.

This one in particular stood out, with this quote from Steve Hoffman (lol):
https://www.wbur.org/artery/2016/09/01/rudy-van-gelder

Take three or four expensive German mics with a blistering top end boost, put them real close to the instruments, add some extra distortion from a cheap overloading mic preamp through an Army Surplus radio console, put some crappy plate reverb on it, and record. Then, immediately (and for no good reason), redub the master onto a Magnatone tape deck at +6, compress the crap out of it while adding 5 db at 5000 cycles to everything. That’s the Van Gelder sound to me.

And from that article:

More interestingly, in the '50s Van Gelder couldn't or wouldn't record a piano "properly" to save his life. With much the same gleeful and wanton disregard for the potentially brain-hemorrhage-inducing consequences of sticking a German large-diaphragm condenser mic (made for recording orchestras from several meters away) one inch in front a trumpet, he'd stuff a cloth-wrapped mic in one of the sound holes in the piano's harp. And that's what Van Gelder's '50s pianos sound like -- as though you'd crawled under the piano with stoppers in your ears (which is why I shed a tear listening to the fantastic piano solos on his recordings, wishing I could've had a crack at capturing them.) The distant bass and muffled piano contrast sharply with the sizzling cymbals and the crispy "up-in-your-grille" horns, giving the "Blue Note sound" its curious chiaroscuro.

But many of us are also missing something essential about audio recording for people without dog's ears: human ears don't want “clean” sound. Rather, we’re drawn to harmonic distortion. People don't really want realism or even accuracy; we prefer "larger-than-life." That's what Van Gelder gave the world, to the best of his ability and equipment: the biggest, hottest sound he could form.

That's just so important, it's not just that there was more available analog gear in the '60s, it's that the classics were made with creative & irreverent recording choices that privileged excitement over accuracy. I hate that modern jazz recordings seem to have the same approach as classical music, to be as bloodlessly 'transparent' and accurate as possible. You have to do all kinds of inaccurate tricks in recording to recreate the same sort of excitement of hearing the music live.

I hate that modern jazz recordings seem to have the same approach as classical music, to be as bloodlessly 'transparent' and accurate as possible.

Some labels are worse about this than others. Telarc jazz releases used to be The Fucking Worst. But yeah, without going full-on Guitar Wolf, there's a lot to be said for rough recordings. And even the ECM sound isn't "accurate" in any real sense.

Tidal's Out There jazz playlist (not super "out there" tbh) is a good regular listen for me, find some good stuff

https://listen.tidal.com/playlist/0bfac8e5-4ff8-44e4-b112-5fb71d39bcc1

My latest Stereogum column just went up, and it includes my review of the (amazing) Ahmad Jamal show I saw last week, which caught me totally by surprise. Short version: I went in expecting sedate old-man piano-trio action and got a blow-the-walls-down jam.

Nice. A while back I looked up some videos of that band, here are a couple Poincianas. The original is a second line beat anyway, so Herlin really takes it there.

Higher quality video/sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cytUz9KkK9M

Band hitting a lot harder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFk9tms2E1Q

ahmad jamal was and is my favorite pianist and he's always a joy live. i really hope he comes back to NYC soon.

really loving the mehldau album with the exception of "the prophet is a fool" which is embarrassingly bad

I like mark dresser's music a lot, and his zany album titles( Ain't Nothing But a Cyber Coup & You), the new one is good. His last one Sedimental You grew on me quite slowly - so I'm going to give this one some time as well.

Drummer Lawrence Leathers has died, apparently a suicide. He played with Cecile McLorin Salvant, among a million others.

as noted on the RIP thread; Leather's death appears to be a murder.

Branford Marsalis getting opinionated in Jazz Times about who is jazz and who isn't:

Your two albums in the ’90s with the band Buckshot LeFonque—mixing jazz, pop, and DJ culture—got a mixed reception. What’s your take on artists like Robert Glasper and Kamasi Washington, who are now working at the crossroads of jazz and hip-hop?

Robert Glasper has a limited jazz vocabulary, and that’s not anything he would say is not true. I think it’s in his best interest to do that. Kamasi’s not a jazz player either. He’s a sax player. But his vocabulary is not jazz. It’s some jazz.

This is not something I want to go to war with. But I can listen to a Lester Young record, a Dexter Gordon or Wayne Shorter record, and ask, “Do you hear that lineage in his playing?” If you don’t, what makes it jazz? Improv? We’re back to that illusion again. The success that Kamasi has had—it’s awesome. But the people defending him as a jazz player are not jazz players. They have their own idea of what jazz is, and they are entitled to that. But so am I.

One interesting thing about Kamasi’s rise is the way he has connected on the jam-band and rock-festival circuit. But you first did that in 1990 when you played with the Grateful Dead at Nassau Coliseum in New York.

That was different. I was playing in their band. Buckshot played with [the jam band] String Cheese Incident for a while. We could have been in that. But at no time would I have accepted the notion that this was jazz. We had influences from jazz, from rock. It was a hybrid thing.

But you fit into the Dead’s aesthetic so well they invited you to join them at later gigs.

The first time, some of the guys were like, “Oh, no, another jazz guy.” Because they had David Murray and Ornette come in, and they just did their David Murray and Ornette thing on the tunes. But I never bought into the genius thing. The modern definition of genius is not about adaptability—it’s about a singular idea that you thrust and bogart on every situation. If I’m going to play with the Grateful Dead, I’m going to play with them, not on top of them.

https://jazztimes.com/features/interviews/branford-marsalis-secret/

That's more or less what he said when I had him on the podcast. At that point, though, he argued that Kamasi's band didn't swing because the drummers were too up-and-down. As though Duke Ellington's drummers were constantly dicing up the beat like Tony Williams, right?

Greg Tate going off on Marsalis on Facebook was making me laugh hard this morning

Don’t think I brought it up here, but I recently learned about/had been blissfully ignorant of a Wynton beef with Arturo O’Farrill.

Maybe they’ve made up since then, but you can read about it here

I want a battle of the bands on a South Bronx playground.

was only ever vaguely aware of Horace Tapscott as someone who played with Arthur Blythe before I listened to The Dark Tree the other day - which is a fucking great album.

Sure is. Would also recommend 'Sonny's Dream' by Sonny Criss, where Tapscott did all the writing and arranging.

oh thanks.. I'll check that out.

jazz wars will outlast all other wars & war itself

"jazz wars" makes listening to Marsalis beefing sound like fun... even when he isn't beefing and waxing lyrical about musicians I find myself screaming NoOOOO! in an anguished voice.

The Dark Tree is magnificent. Flight 17, the album he did with the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra is spotty but pretty great.

going to have to get everything by Tapscott now. Strange that it has took me so long to find out about him - cos ticks just about every box.

There's a huge amount of archival stuff released on the Nimbus West label that I nabbed off a blog back in the day. Patchy, too, but some real fire in there.

I was lucky enough to see a solo Tapscott performance in 1992. Really stunning.

Nimbus West has a Bandcamp page:

https://nimbuswest.bandcamp.com/music

ahmad jamal's Macanudo newly available on spotify today; this shit goes

new brandee younger album is predictably great

https://www.facebook.com/nightmemer/photos/a.438988833149338/834871306894420/?type=3&theater

Lol

"Would also recommend 'Sonny's Dream' by Sonny Criss, where Tapscott did all the writing and arranging."

finally got round to this one today and it is so fucking good.

going to see The Comet is Coming tonight, very excited,

listening to + digging Getz at the Gate

The Comet is Coming was SO MUCH FUN
packed club, party vibe, people dancing...band seemed really happy and into it...Hutchings is great so is Analog Dave or whatever the synth dude's name is, drummer great as well
so glad I went, glad it was packed so maybe Sons of Kemet comes

Glad you were into it. They really were a blast in NYC, and I'm glad to hear they were able to draw a good crowd. I wonder if they're the kind of act that can bridge the gap between the jazz world and the jam-band world.

Shabaka is out of this world good - feel so lucky I got to see him. Weirdly their Philly show was v poorly attended but there were people there who had just seen him the night before in NY and loved it so much they travelled down to see him again.

the crowd was definitely not the typical mpls jazz crowd, it's not a great city for jazz really but def a lot of rock, hipsterish types mixed with jazz people

i think it's partially the kamasi washington effect, he's had a couple of really well received club shows here and gets a bit of token play on the local mpr indie rock station the current...so maybe some new people are getting attracted to some of this newer jazz that way, kamasi went from when i saw him at a small club to headlining and i believe selling out the first avenue mainroom which is about 1300 or more

This year's festival isn't exciting me as much as last year's (and I also probably have less money) but I am hoping to see both Jakob Bro and a Joelle Leandre/Lori Freedman duet next Tuesday.

Very much enjoying Mobilisation Generale, a compilation of 70's spiritual and free jazz from France, mostly played by members of communes, anarchist collectives, etc. Almost every track features some spoken word declamation on top of it and I'm sure many of them must be super cringey but while I speak ok French I can easily tune them out.

the Fabian Almazan Trio album is quite a standout Cuban influenced piano trio album, some really powerful music on there and not your average trio at all.

Listening to Rajna Swaminathans album 'Of Agency and Abstraction' and I like it a lot. Chamber-jazz/Indian carnatic music hybrid, very beautiful.

Oh, thanks. That's right up my alley and it's sounding pretty good so far.

yeah .. same.

Ah, wow, a female mrdangam player - that's uncommon.

Chamber-jazz/Indian carnatic music hybrid

Sold.

Rez Abbasi's Unfiltered Universe and Avataar's Petal are also recommended if you're looking for Indo-jazz hybrids from the last few years and don't know them.

I most definitely am. Thanks!

Dennis Gonzalez's Ataraxia - Ts'iibil Chaaltun is another good 'un.

forgot to mention Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition as well!

one of my alltime fave older ones is the marvelous joe harriott indo jazz suite, tho. fucking love that one.

I had bought a decent old copy of Oscar Peterson Trio's Affinity from a friends record sale a while back....I don't know if it's a particularly significant record and don't really know much about OP but I can listen to this over and over and over again and never get sick of it

that means it is significant then :) some of my fave OP is his album with the legendary Ben Webster.

it just kind of takes me to that place when you first start listening to jazz and you almost imagine you are a different, more sophisticated person that lives in new york and sips coffee and reads the times then goes for a walk in central park

the band on this is Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen

ray brown is so classic!

just one of the most swingingest of bass players ever to breath oxygen!

Love that Joe Harriott album. The album he did with Amancio D'Silva, Hum Dono, is magnificent, as is D'Silva's solo album Integration.

Earth, Wind & Fire vocalist Philip Bailey has a new album, Love Will Find a Way, out today on Verve. Kamasi Washington's on it, along with Robert Glasper, Christian McBride, Chick Corea, and Steve Gadd, and he does a couple of Curtis Mayfield songs. I'm listening to it now and so far it's really good.

Tbh you should try sipping your coffee Matt, it's a good way to drink coffee

https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/five-times-surprise

good is this.

Jakob Bro/Thomas Morgan/Joey Baron were magical last night! Sounded beautiful. Joelle Léandre/Lori Freedman were v cool too, if that counts as jazz. Really strong sense of dialogue and humour.

I had bought a decent old copy of Oscar Peterson Trio's Affinity from a friends record sale a while back....I don't know if it's a particularly significant record and don't really know much about OP but I can listen to this over and over and over again and never get sick of it.

Ha, I just got a nice copy of Night Train for cheap this weekend. I had it on CD but hadn’t listened to it in years. It sucked me in when I put it on last night.

title track is classic!

Journeying out to Brooklyn tonight to see JD Allen's new trio at some bar. His new album Barracoon is typically excellent, but twitchier/jumpier than his stuff with his previous rhythm section - the two new guys are roughly half his age, and you can hear it in the music.

he'll do well to replace Liberty Ellman with someone as good, he's so versatile and talented.

Would've loved to be at that concert, Sund4r. All involved are amazing.

Earth, Wind & Fire vocalist Philip Bailey has a new album, Love Will Find a Way, out today on Verve. Kamasi Washington's on it, along with Robert Glasper, Christian McBride, Chick Corea, and Steve Gadd, and he does a couple of Curtis Mayfield songs. I'm listening to it now and so far it's really good.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Friday, June 21, 2019 2:52 PM

JD Allen just got a nice piece in the NYT from Gio Russonello: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/24/arts/music/j-d-allen-barracoon.html

Interesting lineup for Roulette's "end of year" back to back shows in NYC: https://roulette.org/event/roulettes-40th-season-closing-party-1/

Saturday, July 20
Ikue Mori and Craig Taborn
Matana Roberts
Nels Cline with Zeena Parkins
Sylvie Courvoisier Trio (with Drew Gress and Kenny Wollesen)

Sunday, July 21
John Zorn’s Simulacrum (John Medeski, Matt Hollenberg and Kenny Grohowski)
JG Thirlwell
John Medeski
Val Jeanty and Fay Victor

https://soundcloud.com/musicismysanctuary/exclusive-premiere-ethinic-heritage-ensemble-pharoah

just been blasting out latest Ethnic Heritage Ensemble album - it's good afro-jazz stuff.

bluesy afro-jazz i should said.

The JD Allen Trio show at Bar Bayeux (where fellow saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh is putting on shows in August, September, and October; someone else is booking July) was really good. His new drummer, Nic Cacioppo, is much more aggressive than Rudy Royston; he took a solo that was somewhere between Buddy Rich and Billy Cobham, while dressed like a member of the Fania All-Stars.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-CJpOOXkAA1dmw.jpg

Apparently, Nubya Garcia was in town last night, too, at Nublu - I'm sorry I missed that show.

News for anyone who's got a spare hundred bucks lying around - Triple Point Records has just released Duets 1992, a 2LP of previously unreleased studio material by Bill Dixon and Cecil Taylor, recorded in Italy. $94 plus shipping. The music's incredible, of course, I just wish it was within a normal person's price range.

bluesy afro-jazz i should said.

heh!

Would've loved to be at that concert, Sund4r. All involved are amazing.

So lovely! I had to miss Brad Mehldau and Mary Halvorson (in Illegal Crowns) last night.:(

Dizzy Gillespie playing tennis in his pants while smoking a cigar. This level of not giving a shit is definitely something to aspire to. pic.twitter.com/AYjcs1SQSw

— Andymack (@Andymack) June 29, 2019

um he appears to NOT be wearing pants there...

those are pants if you're in the UK

I saw Makaya McCraven last night at the Montreal Jazz Festival. He was amazing--probably a banal thing to say, but he is an astonishingly good drummer. The whole band was great, not that I caught their names (all Chicago locals, no ringers; I couldn't catch Nubya Garcia earlier in the day and I'm missing Theon Cross tonight, so I was a little bummed he mentioned both of them), and the pianist was especially good. When it ended, I was disappointed it was only like 45 minutes...turns out it was 90.

i'm double booked for his brooklyn show and sweating it

I feel like I already posted this here, but I was peeved the festival managed to book Garcia, McCraven, Christian Scott, and Theon Cross in four shows on two nights of a 10-day festival. Seeing Scott tonight though

RIP clever pozar

some nice words from adam lore:

Cleve Pozar, brilliant percussionist, inventor/builder/fixer, scholar, teacher, jokester, & dear friend to many of us, has passed. Born Robert Frank Pozar on August 8, 1941, Cleve had a long & vibrant life in music, from playing western swing behind chicken wire in rowdy Arizona honky-tonks as a teenager, to playing works of avant-garde classical composers at the ONCE Festivals in Ann Arbor, being key to Bob James’ early (far out) trio & Bill Dixon’s seminal Intents & Purposes, crafting his visionary Cleve Solo Percussion album, playing Latin & funk on electronic drum kits that he built to his exacting standards, executing the bata / oru (usually played by 3 percussionists) as a soloist, to finally revisiting the "cartoon music" of his youth. & that's the short version.

I learned of Cleve via his friend & collaborator Cooper-Moore, who spoke highly of his musicianship, ingenuity, & resourcefulness. Somehow Cleve’s Tata found out I was looking for him, vetted me, & put us in touch. We first met so I could trade him a copy of his Good Golly Miss Nancy album on Savoy for his self-released Cleve Solo Percussion LP. I am so thankful that it was the first of many hangs, which were invariably fun & headspinning trips for me. He was always enthused by something he was working on or learning about, eager to describe it in way-over-my-head detail. He was intense, focused, cantankerous, & hilarious. Once Cleve mentioned how people often told him, "Oh, you worked so hard and came up with your own unique sound..."; he looked at me incredulously & declared, "That's the deal, man!" He knew no other way.

In his last years he had many physical struggles, but his spirit was resolute. Many times he spoke of his dream to present a concert where he played all the different styles of percussion that he had learned over the course of his life. Perhaps inevitably, the time was never right for this; there was always a new challenge he had to meet. The last time I spoke with him a few months ago, he said that it seemed like he wasn't going to be able to live that dream. Ever looking forward, he then said, "That just means I have to find a new dream." Amen, my friend.

Deepest thanks, Cleve; I'll be seeing you.

more on cleve here: http://www.furious.com/perfect/clevepozar.html

i've posted this before, i'm posting it again:

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

like the new Jamie Saft Quartet album (w/D Liebman/H Drake). It's his 2nd good album of the year.

I really like that too, thanks. Also it sounds great (which I think is typical of Jamie Saft and atypical for jazz records).

he seems on a bit of a roll as well as far i've noticed .. can think of 4 good albums in 2 years now.

"Also it sounds great (which I think is typical of Jamie Saft and atypical for jazz records)"

yeah lol, this as well!

so happy to see jamie saft getting love here he's been a favorite for years and years now ever since breadcrumb sins (2002!)

digging this SEED Ensemble album which is a few months old but i didn't see it mentioned here - from the "London scene"

wow, Bob James in the early 60's was quite different from the stuff I know him from

Yeah just ‘Blue Dream’ by Jamie Saft quartet...sounds great...will definitely check the new one...also the new Douglas/Caine/Cyrille is on my list

they are both A+ imo.

Francis of Anthony off the new Dave Douglas one is so moving and I can't get the melody out of my head.

Very much enjoying Mobilisation Generale, a compilation of 70's spiritual and free jazz from France, mostly played by members of communes, anarchist collectives, etc. Almost every track features some spoken word declamation on top of it and I'm sure many of them must be super cringey but while I speak ok French I can easily tune them out.

― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, June 19, 2019 7:52 AM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

boy, you weren't kidding about the vocals on this thing. Ruins the entire comp for me, sadly

does anybody own (or has anybody ever had a look at) the 92-page book that comes with this ESP anthology ?

https://img.discogs.com/Lpl9mZeaJDwESlenVIJdzUX6tKo=/fit-in/442x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-4432875-1365695849-4227.jpeg.jpg

who is wu ming 1 ? i wouldn't be ordering this for the CD, so i'm just curious if there is good / exclusive info in that book

Daniel_Rf at 4:25 3 Jul 19

wow, Bob James in the early 60's was quite different from the stuff I know him from

haha I love this phenomenon, I have some John Klemmer stuff that's kinda free-ish...the jazz equivalent of how every new wave UK haircut band member used to be in some low level punk band

The liner notes to that box are on Wu Ming's website.

Wu Ming 1's real name is Roberto Bui; he's part of the Wu Ming Foundation, an artistic collective.

thanks !

This is good, Chicago violin/bass/drums trio (Brock/Ulery/Dietmyer) -
https://mattulerywoolgathering.bandcamp.com/album/wonderment

ezra collective tour announced!

Went to the Dave Douglas ‘Engage’ gig at the Jazz Cafe tonight...really nice...interesting line-up...reminded me at times of Henry Cow...love his playing...

Just listened to Rhonda Hamilton's farewell party on WBGO and feeling a little stirred up. Stumbled upon Cat Russell performing live on the Dizzy's feed which is taking the edge off.

Her band is up to the task.

Guitar player is great for this stuff, Matt Munisteri. Hope they stream the next set.

https://jamesbrandonlewis.bandcamp.com/releases

missed that there was a new james brandon lewis record earlier this year

Just learned about Danish guitarist Henrik Andersen recently. His new Soundcloud release WTF Variations consists of pretty interesting and intricate knotty solo acoustic guitar jams. 12 tracks here, not organized into a playlist: https://soundcloud.com/henrik-andersen-612974251

http://henrikandersenmusic.com/____impro/1/onewebmedia/Solo%20Cowboy.jpg?etag=%2221d4ab-54830a4e%22&sourceContentType=image%2Fjpeg&ignoreAspectRatio&resize=266%2B365&extract=3%2B0%2B262%2B365&quality=85

he's a really fine player, but what on earth is that thing!

Ten more strings but one less neck than Metheny's Pikasso (by the same luthier I believe): http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/pikasso1.jpg

Turns out the new album is completely notated, which makes sense.

Tbh, I wasn't sure if it belonged more here or in the acoustic fingerpicking thread but dude seems to mostly be considered a jazz player.

NPR filmed Sons of Kemet's performance at this year's Big Ears festival:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a4fgVKpMiw

I'm kind of amazed to be saying this, but the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is putting out some really good records lately. Swing Symphony, which came out a month ago or so, and Jazz and Art, which came out today, are both really interesting and worth hearing.

loving this new Nérija album

I interviewed guitarist Shirley Tetteh, who's in Nérija, Maisha, and the SEED Ensemble, for Bandcamp.

for those that don't know nubya garcia is also in nerija

unperson have u heard this yet? https://thevinylfactory.com/product/untitled/ looks good - i wanted to see if nubya + shabaka had collaborated on anything and this came up but i don't think they actually play together on the album. have they actually played together on anything that u know of?

Yeah, I reviewed that for The Wire an issue or two back.

Garcia guests on one track on the last Sons of Kemet album; I forget which one. And they played together on the Maisha track that opens the We Out Here compilation - Hutchings is on bass clarinet.

sons of kemet live are a trip

best show i've seen this year was comet is coming

i love the theon cross too - nubya garcia is on the opener of that ("activate" w/ moses boyd too)

Likewise xp

These guys really need to tour my hemisphere. Australia would be good but i’d Gladly sell a limb to get to japan if they got there.

from Omnivore (who should have also mentioned that he's playing with Hank Jones, Billy Higgins, Charlie Haden, Al Foster, and George Cables on these albums):

Art Pepper
Promise Kept: The Complete Artists House Recordings

Release date: September 13, 2019

Pre-Order 5-CD Boxed Set $55.98

Digital Available Sept. 13
Description
The Complete Art Pepper Artists House Sessions.

“Art Pepper had had a brilliant career as a jazz soloist and band leader until the mid-1950s when he started using heroin. After that, incarcerations and treatments in prisons and hospitals, kept him off the stages and out of the studios. He was only able to record sporadically until he got (relatively) sober in Synanon in 1972, and married Laurie—me. Then, in the last ten years of his life, he composed, recorded, and toured more ambitiously than ever before, focused on securing his place among the true jazz greats—where he knew he belonged.”

—from the liner notes by Laurie Pepper

Producer John Snyder had always wanted to record Pepper and booked him into a week at the Village Vanguard in New York. At the time, Pepper was under contract to Contemporary Records and label head, Les Koenig, decided he would record the gigs, quashing any notion Snyder had of doing the same. However, Art promised Snyder that he’d record an album for Snyder’s label, Artists House, at some point down the road. Together they wound up making four.

Here for the first time are the complete Artists House sessions including 21 previously unissued takes. The original albums drawn from these sessions, So In Love, Artworks, New York Album, and Stardust, have been remastered and expanded with additional takes, some having appeared previously on releases such as The Complete Galaxy Recordings and Artists House—Complete (download only), while some appear here for the first time.

Laurie Pepper has provided liner notes and photographs she took at the sessions. Altogether, this is the most comprehensive window into the Artists House sessions ever likely to be.

“John and Art both kept their promises. John brought Art into the wider world; he put him on the road. Just as he said he would, he brought him to New York and to the Village Vanguard, got his picture in the papers, got him on the radio. From Art, John got his dearest wish. He made these 32 recordings.”

—from the liner notes by Laurie Pepper

5-CD / Digital Track List:

Disc 1 – So In Love:

Straight No Chaser (Take 3)
Blues For Blanche
So In Love
Diane
Stardust

Bonus Tracks:

Yesterdays (Take 2)
Landscape
Straight No Chaser (Take 4)*

Disc 2 – Artworks:

Body And Soul
Anthropology (Take 2)
Desafinado (Take 2)
Donna Lee
You Go To My Head
Blues For Blanche (Alternate A)

Bonus Tracks:

Desafinado (Take 1)*
Anthropology (Take 1)*
Donna Lee (Alternate A)
Blues For Blanche (Alternate B)
You Go To My Head (Alternate A)

Disc 3 – New York Album:

A Night In Tunisia (Take 2)
Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)
Straight, No Chaser (Take 2)
Duo Blues
My Friend John

Bonus Tracks:

Johnny’s Blues
A Night In Tunisia (Take 1)*
Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be) (Clarinet)
Straight, No Chaser (Take 1)*
My Friend John (Alternate B)

Disc 4 – Stardust:

My Friend John (Alternate A)
Tin Tin Deo
Stardust (Alternate A)
In A Mellow Tone (Take 2)

Bonus Tracks:

Art’s Sweet Blues
But Beautiful (Take 1)
You Go To My Head (Alternate B)*
Yesterdays (Take 3)*
Stardust (Alternate B)*
In A Mellow Tone (Take 1)*

Disc 5 – Sessions:

Blues For Blanche (Alternate C)*
Yesterdays (Take 1)
My Friend John (Take 1 – Long False Start)*
My Friend John (Take 2 – False Start)*
Blues For Blanche (Alternate D)*
Stardust (Long False Start)*
Donna Lee (Alternate B)
But Beautiful (Take 2)
A Night In Tunisia (Take 3)
Blues For Blanche (Alternate E)
Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be) (Alternate Sax Take)*

* Previously unissued.

Cool. Learned in recent years that Laurie Pepper played a major part in the writing of Straight Life, which is a big part of why it is so good.

Art Pepper is one of those dudes I wish I liked better than I do.

I just interviewed George Cables for an upcoming podcast. We talked about Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, and Dexter Gordon...but not Art Pepper.

(can't resist posting this, sorry) Cables played with him quite a bit, always well, far as I've ever heard. Here there are with one of my faves from the forthcoming, a remarkably justified 11'40" of "So In Love":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_4jLzxD_Xw

(Haden and Higgins are on there too.)

Yeah, the Nérija album is great, as was their EP from a few years ago. I love Shirley Tetteh's guitar playing. There's something about them that remonds me of bands like Rip Rig & Panic - I can imagine a young Neneh Cherry bouncing around with them at a GLC festival in the early 80s.

Going to the Jazz Gallery tonight to see Taylor Ho Bynum's 9-Tette:

Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet, compositions
Jim Hobbs - alto saxophone
Ingrid Laubrock - tenor & soprano saxophones
Bill Lowe – bass trombone, tuba
Mary Halvorson - electric guitar
Tomeka Reid - cello
Ken Filiano - acoustic bass
Stomu Takeishi - electric bass
Tomas Fujiwara - drums

They've got an album coming out next month that's really good, so I'm looking forward to hearing the music live.

show all messages, ctrl + f, 'ill considered', not found.

A shame, as vol. 6 is pretty damn good.

I might have talked about them in last year's thread - I've been a fan for a while. I wrote about them here. They've got a new one coming pretty soon.

Good stuff, thanks.

Bits of vol. 6 reminded me of Jan Garbarek's halcyon days ca. Afric Pepperbird. I'm a sucker for that sound.

Encouraging take on Coltrane's soundtrack of re-recordings,Blue World out Sept. 27:
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/16/751516859/a-lost-album-from-john-coltrane-is-found-with-thanks-to-a-french-canadian-direct

Also encouraging: most of the excerpts from Abdullah Ibrahim's The Balance, out now--stream /read about it here:
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/06/748739170/the-balance-abdullah-ibrahim-is-deeply-rooted-yet-sounds-like-no-one-else

I thought about going to see Ibrahim at the Jazz Standard. The album's good, if a little low-key.

I'm no Lettuce fan but this Adam Deitch record is really enjoyable, in a classic soul jazz vein. It sounds amazing too.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4zIoDg3T014z7nstlEliQ8?si=kIn9FI9lRDGIOj14rOa8VQ

A lot of nice stuff on the new Kevin Hays/Lionel Loueke album Hope: https://kevinhays-lionelloueke.bandcamp.com/album/hope . A good mix of uptempo material that might suggest West African rhythmic influences (?) like "Violeta" and "Aziza"; slower, delicate instrumental material; and vocal songs.

show all messages, ctrl + f, 'ill considered', not found.

A shame, as vol. 6 is pretty damn good.

― pomenitul, maandag 19 augustus 2019 16:22 (two weeks ago)

The earliest known film of Miles Davis performing, on French TV in 1957, has recently been unearthed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdrjmm46YgY

That's Barney Wilen on tenor sax, René Urtreger on piano, Pierre Michelot on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums.

Love those last two

In other Miles news, I reviewed the "lost" 80s album Rubberband for Stereogum. Short version: If you like '80s Miles, it's pretty good, just skip over all the tracks with vocalists.

Yeah, been wondering about that.

I bought the Art Ensemble of Chicago's We Are On The Edge mostly because of the instrumentation, as much or more than the players, as listed by grawlix way upthread---on headphones, especially, you will hear all of this (call it chamber jazz and para-jazz, maybe most of it through-composed, though it's a vast chamber...
Roscoe Mitchell – sopranino, soprano and alto saxophones
Famoudou Don Moye – drums, congas, djembe, dundun, gongs, Congo bells, bendir, triangles, Thai bells, shakers
Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa) – voice, poetry (Disc One #3, 4, 10)
Rodolfo Cordova-Lebron – voice (Disc One #1, 6, 9)
Hugh Ragin – trumpets, flugelhorn, Thai bells
Fred Berry – trumpet, flugelhorn
Nicole Mitchell – piccolo, flute, bass flute
Christina Wheeler – voice, Array mbira, autoharp, Q-Chord, Moog Theremini, sampler, electronics
Jean Cook – violin
Edward Yoon Kwon – viola
Tomeka Reid – cello
Silvia Bolognesi – bass
Jaribu Shahid – bass, tuned brass bowls
Junius Paul – bass
Dudù Kouaté – djembe, tama/talking drum, calabashes, kanjira, whistles, chimes, bells and small percussions (Disc One only)
Enoch Williamson – bongos, congas, djembe, kenkeni, okonkolo, Congo bells, chekeré, shakers, tama/talking drum
Titos Sompa – vocals, congas, mbira, Congo bells, cuica, shakers
Stephen Rush – conductor
... a canopied chamber: you want the forests of the lost homeland, of Earth, here's just some of what that could feel like, in terms of levels and degrees of light, like that album title, incl shade, shading, shades, nuances growing and standing this way and that, with apprehension and awe and alertness require d at all times.

The first 25 minutes or so seemed way too slow the first time I listened, but then the boombox immediately started replaying Disc I--during which I had grabbed a coffee and pumped up the volume---and this time I was immediately grabbed by the forest floor momentum, which goes to big bustling "Chi-Congo 50," def recalling the history of Chicago and the Congo, and Congo Square gets mentioned by Moor Mother, who is invaluable here.

Her exhortation of the title track takes some acerbic turns, like yeah we went forth into bold idealistic adventures, quests---and then "back to the projects," where yeah gotta organize, share what we've learned, but still here we are back in the projects (which might be grant-writing etc. art projects as well as housing projects). Immediately followed, about half-an-hour in, by "I Greet You With Open Arms," also with a somewhat disconcerting Octavia E. Butler, Toni Morrison vibe or zone: she puts the moor in mother alright, but not mad at ya, just that Mama's got some rules, (is the way I take her sound as much as words).

She might be a disciplinary influence on the slightly hushed, so-far-orderly anticipation of travelers swarming into "Oasis at Dusk"---also those who greet them---and I still haven't gotten to Disc 2, the live performance, with some of these titles and more.

Several tracks are here:
[https://artensembleofchicago.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-on-the-edge-a-50th-anniversary-celebration

Moor Mother is fantastic, but seriously intimidating. Have you heard her group Irreversible Entanglements? It's more Ayler-esque free jazz and her going full-on revolutionary up front.

That's some great Kenny Clarke footage

xpost Thanks! OMG here's Irreversible Entanglements on International Anthem's bandcamp, along with Jaimie Branch and Makaya McCraven and several performers also on We Are On The Edge:

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/ I'll brace myself...

I was contacted today by someone I respect in the music field, who is trying to figure out why labels aren't interested in a jazz session he produced. I tried to give some frank advice, and pass it on here in case it might be of interest to others in a similar situation. pic.twitter.com/0N3FChqBy2

— Ted Gioia (@tedgioia) September 5, 2019

The sample track from the new Rez Abbasi is p cool. He's still mining the same intricate South Asian-jazz fusion territory and gets good results. Mrdangam/ghatam/kanjira as well as drum kit : https://rezabbasi.bandcamp.com/album/a-throw-of-dice

He’s not wrong.

Really love this one from Samuel Prather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PJmCT0Ykio

Any Frode Haltli fans here? Border Woods is quite lovely, probably my favourite thing he's done since Passing Images.

wikipedia says that somebody found a copy of the second album by hasaan ibn ali, previously believed to have been destroyed in a late '70s warehouse fire? and that it might be released? god i would love to hear this!

Bumming about Harold Mabern

George Coleman's got an album coming out next week that's probably Mabern's final studio session, unless there's stuff in the vault or other things that haven't been released yet. It's just called The Quartet, on Smoke Sessions, and it's all standards.

https://soundcloud.com/highnote-savant-records/bookendz-from-blue-dawn-blue-nights

latest Wallace Roney album is well cool

this came out in June. solo piano. it is astonishing.

https://akitakase.bandcamp.com/album/hokusai

(duo piano on track #3, with Schlippenbach playin in, which is actually how I ran across this)

her Thema Prima album is p great as well

https://krisdavis.bandcamp.com/album/diatom-ribbons

new Kris Davis album Diatom Ribbons has some nice vox from Esperanza Spalding, a turntablist, the voice of Cecil Taylor talking about how music saved his life on the opening track.

Got a podcast interview with her going up on Friday.

Cool.

Feel like maybe I put the whammy on Harold Mabern by suggesting that you interview him.

Stephen Haynes / Damon Smith / Matt Crane / Jeff Platz – “Theory of Colors”

^^^
exquisite album is this, when a track came on from a shuffle i thought i was listening to some prime Sunny Murray or Spontaneous Music Ensemble or something .. beautiful stuff.

https://ollihirvonen.bandcamp.com/album/displace

new Olli Hirvonen album is nuff good! The McLaughlin/Coryell comparisons are fair but a lot of other interesting influences are in there.

yesssssssssssss... https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/fly-or-die-ii-bird-dogs-of-paradise

Going to see Branch perform today - free outdoor concert in some crappy little park near Houston Street. It's with her other group - Luke Stewart (of James Brandon Lewis's trio) on bass and Mike Pride on drums.

Wow, that Jaimie Branch.

(not a huge fan of the trumpet playing tbh, but everything else is great)

dunno if people rate him as classical, jazz, experimental or what but i LOVE travis laplante and he has a new album out at the start of next month
https://travislaplante.bandcamp.com/album/human

NYC premiere show in the LES on 11/7
http://www.galeriezurcher.com/spip.php?page=article&id_article=1622

Wiil check it, thanks!
Speaking of bandcamp, all of xpost Taylor Ho Bynum 9-tette's The Ambiguity Manifesto is on there now:
https://taylorhobynum.bandcamp.com/album/the-ambiguity-manifesto
Was going to name particular favorites, but even/especially the longest tracks, at 17:18 and 18:25, make it pretty hard to do---maybe the finale, "unreal/real (for old music," for the blend of moods, vibes.

Some of it might be too relaxed, though (not a whole track, but here and there within---few edits wouldn't hurt, seems like)(but that's a first impression)

Yeah, that Bynum record is really good. I caught the record release show at the Jazz Gallery, which given the personnel and their relative busy-ness was likely to be a rare event. It was a blast.

Makaya McCraven just played a very good set with Jeff Parker of Tortoise at the Lodge Room in Los Angeles.

The best song was the first, an unreleased track called "In These Times," which sounded like a collaboration between Steve Reich and Eddie Hazel.

new yazz ahmed is fantastic.

Finally getting to Christian Scott's Ancestral Recall, discussed way upthread: instantly smitten by brittle impassioned brave climbing (because brittle might break) in this our distressed time and space and place(s), major within minor and vice-versa, orbits within orbits (nature's way and more contributed by mankind, for better and worse):idealism and experience and inquiry and reflection, but not imitation; assimilation of African diaspora incl. electric Miles and bits ingested by Radiohead and maybe Sigur Ros, and yes trap music and sounds like he might be listening to Jlin. "Reverse Flugelhorn" might be the way he (dropping the brittle) pushes against the grain, re expected mellowness of that instrument, while mining its riches, somewhat like Red Rodney (as heard live late in his life and on disc).
Main reservation (on first listening): toward the end there's a repetition of effect, where he's maybe too much the heroic herald---I'd like more of that divine interaction w Elena P. on "Before," please, and why is she only on this one track (OMG Logan Richardson on "Songs She Never Heard"!), and especially waiting for him to assimilate himself or shut up a little on the ironically titled "Double Consciousness." But then the pressure he puts on Saul Williams, during title track finale, that works, like most of the album does.
Right now I'm thinkin' it's in my Top Ten, and here's that link one more time, might as well:
https://christianscott.bandcamp.com/

Tension of looking out and drawing in, maybe especially re and via this century's cyber-connections and isolation. But you could say that about so many things of course. I haven't given him Top Ten blessing quite yet.

Yeah, the Christian Scott is my second favorite jazz album of the year, after Anna Webber. One I never really liked was that The Comet Is Coming album, but I'm loving the EP! It's a really well composed and dynamic suite of music.

Does the Christian Scott feature a great deal of spoken word?

https://noahpreminger.bandcamp.com/releases

this is my fave Noah Preminger album so far, episodic 48 minute jobbie that sort of reminds me of Zorn's Spillane. Kris Davis and Rudy Royston are in the band.

xp
Not sure what constitutes a "great deal" but while it's a prominent element on some tracks, it probably only takes up like 15% of the album (lol maybe idk). fwiw I think Williams' spoken word stuff is easier to get on board with than the kinda dated flow of the one rap. All that said, this is easily one of my albums of the year, and if you're at all curious, it's worth checking out.

Am I the only one who likes the Resavoir album? It's on International Anthem and is this superb blend of styles, at times it reminds me of Phil Ranelin and one track is very much in the Tortoise/Chicago Underground lineage. Really beautiful stuff!

Hmmm… I might check it out then. I find spoken word unreasonably off-putting in music (I hate words tbf).

vox on jazz albums are generally awful reedy vocals or some god awful community workshop spoken word bad poetry type shite. as soon as I hear one or the other I won't listen to it again.

Ha, I skipped through one track that had a lot of spoken word, but otherwise, I really liked the new Jaimie Branch in an immediate way.

Kris Davis is a recent honourable exception by using tapes of a Cecil Taylor interview to good effect and using a proper singer on her latest album.

Forevergirl is a really good vocal jazz track from Christian Scott:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MObfOsPra_s

I also liked the spoken word opening of the Comet is Coming EP :)

I haven't gotten around to listening to the EP, but the spoken word stuff on the Sons of Kemet album is great (and I am as allergic to the idea in general as you all are). It helps that it's closer to stuff like Linton Kwesi Johnson than 90s slam poetry. It is interesting how much it seems to be part of the new generation's approach, I assume due to their roots in community arts workshops and the like (?)

The Resavoir album is nice, ty.

Agreeing With Others Dept.:

Resavoir, Jaimie Branch, Kris Davis, and The Comet Is Coming are all really good. So's the new Yazz Ahmed, which came out Friday.

new Tomeka Reid Quartet w/Mary Halvorson is good as well.

Oh, I'll look for that.

me too!
Haven't taken in his lines yet, but I like the way the sound of Saul Williams's voice fits, no bombast or mumblecore, also like Branch's voice on https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/fly-or-die-ii-bird-dogs-of-paradise--but on both albums, there are some words in there, so if you don't want any, you're out of luck. "A luuuv song, for assholes, and clowns," a lullaby. Will check other recent mentions on here; so far y'all have steered me right.

Yazz has a bit of spoken word on a track, but it's about two minutes long and not too distracting.

And I love the Comet Is Coming EP as much as the album. Also has a non-corny spoken word track!

did someone already link Ben Flock's Mask Of The Muse on here? it might have been a burning ambulance review linked on here. it's probably a bit trad for some but it's so dreamy and lush I'm total sucker for it.

erroneous apostrophe there it is Flocks!

I wrote about it for Stereogum in August. It is nice.

Ben Flocks, Mask Of The Muse (West Cliff)
This is a fascinatingly weird, not-quite-retro album by an up-and-coming saxophonist. Flocks, along with guitarist and producer Art Chersky, keyboardist Frank LoCrasto (who’s worked with Jeremy Pelt), bassist Martin Nevin, and drummer Evan Hughes, tackle a collection of songs that aren’t standards, but are old, and associated with singers ranging from Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra to Sam Cooke, Roy Orbison and Patti Page. The arrangements are a little bit soul jazz, a little bit hard bop, and a little bit lounge-act, but there’s also an edge of weirdness to them, like something out of a David Lynch movie. The consistency of the mood is what makes the album really special; it’s like you’re hearing it in a dream. The band’s version of Sam Cooke’s “Smoke Rings” features gentle guitar and organ, and a slow-dance beat, over which Flocks’ tenor floats like he’s playing a 1950s prom.

The Yazz Ahmed is nice, but I'm not totally convinced by it. Apart from the second half of 2857, that is absolutely amazing! It's not like there's only room for one middle eastern inspired jazz album, but I did prefer Maurice Loucas 'Elephantine' from this year.

more great community-workshop-angry-spoken-word jazz: the Irreversible Entanglements album from a couple of years ago

Yeah, unperson turned me onto that upthread, when I was omg at Moor Mother on Art Ensemble of Chicago's We Are On The Edge---her Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes is out Nov.8

I interviewed Peter Brötzmann today - he's got a new solo album coming out in November that's almost all standards(!) - he does "I Surrender, Dear" and "Lover Come Back To Me" and "Con Alma" and "Nice Work If You Can Get It," among others. It's pretty awesome. At the end of our conversation I asked him if he'd consider making an album like this with a rhythm section; I suggested William Parker and Hamid Drake, and he countered saying either them or Eric Revis and Nasheet Waits, with whom he's also worked. We also talked about the time he played with Ginger Baker. He said they didn't get along too well until they finished the second bottle of whiskey.

I interviewed Marilyn Crispell for Down Beat.

saw Makaya McCraven on Friday, what a wonderful show, great ensemble, Jeff Parker on guitar, harpist who really added a lot, McCraven is a monster drummer and also had a a laptop that he played quotes about music, revolution, etc from historical figures, jazz ppl

so glad I went

I've never seen McCraven as a leader, but I'd love to. I saw him play with trumpeter Marquis Hill at Winter Jazzfest 2018 and he really is just astonishing behind the kit. He drove that band hard.

His show in Montreal this summer was one of the best I’ve seen in years. Jealous of Parker & harp though

I'm assuming it was Brandee Younger on harp; they've been working together for a while now. I saw her open for Tony Allen, in a duet with bassist Dezron Douglas.

looks like you are right! here's some more info, was a commission piece

Makaya McCraven: In These Times, with opener Astralblak


World Premiere/Walker Commission

“McCraven, a Chicago-based drummer, producer and beat maker, has quietly become one of the best arguments for jazz’s vitality.” —New York Times

Bridging generations of adventurous music with his improvisational genius and ecstatic beatwork, drummer and bandleader Makaya McCraven performs a timely Walker co-commissioned musical suite—his most ambitious work to date. A “beat scientist” who has galvanized audiences and garnered critical acclaim across the globe while helping to introduce jazz and improvisation to the next generation, McCraven is joined by trumpeter Marquis Hill, guitarist Jeff Parker (Tortoise), bassist Jeremiah Hunt, saxophonist Greg Ward, pianist Greg Spero, violinist Macie Stewart, cellist Lia Kohl,harpist Brandee Younger (Moses Sumney), and improvisational video artist Kim Alpert. Music is community in this multimedia performance that includes strings and a video collage made from archival footage of black activists and influential music innovators.

That's a hell of a band. I just wrote about Marquis Hill's new record for Bandcamp, and Greg Ward's latest is great too.

what's the greg ward one called?

Hill and Ward's solo turns were fantastic

The Ward album is called Stomping Off From Greenwood; it came out way back in January.

oh I know that one, thought he'd released another!

Late to the party but Anna Webber's Clockwise is indeed superb.

yep!

aoty!

I should probably go see the Tomeka Reid Quartet w/Mary Halvorson, huh

(I mean I probably won't because I'm busy and bad at going to things, but I should)

Listening to the album now and it's sick
(https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/old-new)

Damn I might have to actually go

going to this tonight if anyone wants to say hi
https://roulette.org/event/mary-halvorson-john-dieterich-a-tangle-of-stars/

yeah that new Tomeka Reid/Mary Halv album is ace

Oh hey, new Bad Plus album! Sounds very Bad Plus-y so far, which is cool. More Bad Plus-y than the last one.

that about covers it, yes! and in a good way.

I love the matana roberts album

The live in the studio band version of this new Bria Skonberg album coming out tomorrow sounds great. Featuring the “protean” Doug Wamble on guitar, whose playing I have enjoyed but who seems to have never been mentioned here.

I tried that Skonberg album but couldn't get past the vocals. You've got a trumpet right there - shut up and blow.

Went to the ECM 50th anniversary concert tonight. Got to see Wadada Leo Smith in duo with Vijay Iyer, then in trio with Bill Frisell and Andrew Cyrille. It ruled.

whaddaya know, bria skonberg looks EXACTLY like you'd think a bria skonberg looks

Bria is one of the nicest and hard working people I know. what she looks like is not what "a" bria skonberg looks like, but what bria skonberg looks like.

really digging this album by Steph Richards, NYC avant-garde/experimental trumpet player.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1716966144_16.jpg

https://stephrichards.bandcamp.com/album/take-the-neon-lights

https://sunnysidezone.com/album/utica-box

cool dan weiss album here, not the brilliant quintet featured on Starebaby but still excellent. I think there is another with mitchell/taborn coming early next year.

bremer/mccoy is a Danish duo (keys/tape loops and bass) apparently distributed on Luaka Bop in the states - all their stuff is good, new album is great, here's a single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJxZ8fefX5k

Listening to the record now and I don't know that it has much to do with jazz beyond instrumentation, but it's quite lovely (especially the Rhodes). It's just this side of the piano music that you would hear someone playing in a hospital or the better airports, but that's somehow not a bad thing.

Just got to a bass solo though, jazz/10

"jazz på svenka" vibes

definitely

freaking out all alone in my bedroom

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2307103682_16.jpg

https://familyvineyard.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-willimantic-records

it's pretty good !

recorded in 2018. i hadn't heard of lao dan:

This is the American debut release from Lao Dan, China’s emerging free player on bamboo flute, suona and alto saxophone. Dan’s voice is starkly unique, even among the blurred lines of international Improv/Jazz. He’s steeped in native traditions yet eagerly obliterates those boundaries with ecstatic intensity and haunting melodies. His dense reedy, drones and jagged melodic shrieks are described as a “Whitmanian yawp,” by Marc Medwin in the liner notes.

having a nice late morning sunday session with this groovy dark stretched-out drone stuff, RIYL "he loved him madly"

loren connors & daniel carter "the departing of a dream, vol. vii"

https://familyvineyard.bandcamp.com/album/the-departing-of-a-dream-vol-vii

Yeah, that's a good one.

giving lao dan a listen now; like him so far!

So the local station carries the public radio-distributed Jazz For The New Millenium, run by the author of the same-title book. All time fave ep likely to remain the first heard, feat. Stevie Wonder's frequently headspinning guest shots on jazz albums: no idea he did so many, or any.
This may be a unique tack, because all the others I've heard are adventures of a sideman-and-occasional leader (well, except Dave Holland, but even that incl. a lot of side gigs).
Recent faves incl. Cecil McBee: earliest sides played, from the early 60s, I think (the host tends to murmur), present him as arriving fully formed, though the most exciting cuts were with the Leaders, one from his most (not very) album as a leader, and omg w the Cookers, from their 2012 release, covering Jazz Messengers-era Shorter. Nothing retro about that track.
Speaking of which, last night Wycliffe Gordon demonstrated diff ways to adjust and reinforce vintage and vintage-y frameworks via application of heat, at various degrees and angles. I usually don't care about trombones, but damn (ace choice of and by clarinet players too).

most (not very) *recent* album as a leader, I meant to say.

I interviewed McBee a few years ago for The Wire. He's amazing, and the Cookers are as anti-nostalgic as you can get. I got to see them live once; they were killer.

Miles Okazaki's new album after doing entire Monk songbook sounds brilliant after 1st listen

I had a McBee album from the 70s (can't remember the name) where on one track he was upposedly playing two basses at once. Never could work it out...

highly recommend the LP "euganea" by upperground orchestra, released earlier this month. opening track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pko-IfO6MQ

for lovers of the electro-free, definitely hyper-frenetic at times, but enough focus and precision and (above all) ecstatic epiphanies so as to keep me zoned in

take the journey

an hour of cecil mcbee? sounds cool, just got into him fairly recently (more recently than the japanese clothing label named after him, put it that way) - actually looking at my timestamps just about a year ago? i have been listening to a _lot_ of jazz in the past year - latest listens are max andrzejewski (thanks bandcamp) playing the music of robert wyatt and "sahib's jazz party" by sahib shihab.

https://milesokazaki.bandcamp.com/album/the-sky-below

this new Miles Okazaki lp is my absolute fave at the moment, feel like i need to listen to all his previous lps although I'm familiar with The Trickster and the huuuge Monk one.

xpost Matana Robert's bandcamp page for Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis provides an overview within the overview of her series design, which does seem grand, but right off I'm digging the prismatic inside voices of all players,singers, and Roberts' own vividly succinct talker, walker, runner, leapfrogger, eyewitness, refugee, sender, occupant, for whom Willie Nelson's "still is still moving to me" also seems to apply. bandcamp mentions "historical" and "diaristic" sources sep, but in effect they merge here (incl. music and other history of the Bluff City and elsewhere, as that Old Man River just goes muddin' along. The album is firmly grounded in layers, currents, even breezes of association----jazz precedents, sonically central, in ways the hip will recognize, also sprout fresh details from moment to moment (a Buddhist sawmill drone might be bow of bass x keys of accordion; no gamelan is listed, so might be bells and ?, theres's also a harmolodic hoedown and sort of washboard fiddle and oh yeah that must be sax x clarinet)(also 'ppreciate how the drummer shifts terrain when nec.) Funny secular ending, no slacking,
https://matana-roberts.bandcamp.com/album/coin-coin-chapter-four-memphis

Her label Constellation has a really good deal going right now - you can get the first three Coin Coin albums 3-for-2 (so $24 CAD for the bundle) plus another $12 for the new one, and then they're giving people 15% off all orders through November 30. Including shipping to the US, you can get all four CDs for well under $40 US.

Wow, thanks for the Max Andrzejewski recommendation; amazing stuff. An Ivor Cutler song in there too.

travis laplante live two nights ago was one of the better and more intense shows i saw this year; his new one, human, is very much of a piece with his prior work and just as affecting
https://travislaplante.bandcamp.com/

Copped a few "Jazz Casual" episodes to watch, including this killer performance/conversation with Cannonball Adderley, such fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi0OMG4xAko

I interviewed Peter Brötzmann for Bandcamp - he's got a new solo album out that's all versions of jazz standards like "I Surrender, Dear," "Con Alma," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," etc., etc. We talked about his relationship to the jazz tradition and his favorite versions of these old songs.

Nice ulysses, I have the Coltrane quartet one on dvd somewhere.

Xpost, per that Brotz interview, I would love for him to do a set of standards with Waits & Revis backing him up (as much as I love Parker & Drake) cuz that's a trio that has played a bunch but somehow I don't think has ever made a record? Unless I missed it which is certainly possible.

Excited for the new solo lp

Which reminds me I saw Brotz & Waits as duo 15 yrs ago and in the middle of the set Waits stood up and walked out of the room. Brotz kept playing like nothing had happened, in fact it was so smooth it seemed almost planned, like Waits was going to like him have a solo spot and in the meantime dip out for a smoke. 5 or 10 minutes later Waits came back, sit back behind the drums and immediately started playing again.

I had to leave so I never figured out what happened. 10 yrs later I ran into Waits at a bar and I asked him what was up with that and he goes

"Oh I got food poisoning and had to go puke"

No, as far as I know the Brotz/Revis/Waits trio has only ever recorded one track, on the 5CD live box Long Story Short. (Of course, that one track is close to 40 minutes long...

My new Stereogum column just went up; I talk about the ECM 50th anniversary concert, the death of Gerry Teekens, and a bunch of new albums.

Will check that, but before I forget: speaking of Coltrane, what does anybody here think of Blue World?

No, as far as I know the Brotz/Revis/Waits trio has only ever recorded one track, on the 5CD live box Long Story Short. (Of course, that one track is close to 40 minutes long...

Ahh I have the other 5CD box 3 Nights In Oslo

^great Waits story, ty

yeah, what a champ !

Nice writing on Gerry Teekens, Phil. I read an interview with him today online, from a couple of years back. He was reluctant in accepting that interview and didn't want to be interviewed at home (actually I never read an interview with him before).

y'know, i haven't even TRIED blue world yet, which is ridiculous. Going in.

Psyched to have ordered the new Muriel Grossmann. I’ve been blown away by everything I’ve heard so far from her.

yikes who wrote this copy tho https://murielgrossmann.bandcamp.com/album/reverence

My new Stereogum column just went up; I talk about the ECM 50th anniversary concert, the death of Gerry Teekens, and a bunch of new albums.

― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Thursday, November 21, 2019 3:32 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not to get all Steve Hoffman here, but how would you describe the sq on the est Live in Gothenburg release?

It's on a par with their other releases. Certainly not a bootleg or anything. I wouldn't be surprised if it had been recorded with an eye toward release at the time.

Excellent. Thanks! Will order it tonight. I loved Live in Hamburg and don't recall the sound quality on that one bugging me too much, so if it's on par with that, I'm sure it'll be fine.

The 10 best jazz albums of 2019, according to me (via Stereogum):

https://www.stereogum.com/2067204/best-jazz-albums-2019/franchises/2019-in-review/

10. Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom, Glitter Wolf
9. Branford Marsalis Quartet, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul
8. Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis
7. SEED Ensemble, Driftglass
6. Victor Gould, Thoughts Become Things
5. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Ancestral Recall
4. Theon Cross, Fyah
3. Jeremy Pelt, Jeremy Pelt the Artist
2. Yazz Ahmed, Polyhymnia
1. Jaimie Branch, Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise

First listen to the Jaimie Branch and holy shit at Prayer for Amerikkka.

Thanks for the list, unperson. I've only heard the Matana Roberts (my first encounter with her music; by no means the last).

Nice. The real winners for me this year were Tomeka Reid and the Comet Is Coming releases.

No idea which thread to mention it on, but the Sarathy Korwar album is super interesting

anyone like Marilyn Mazur's Shamania? I love it!

Glitter Wolf and Fly Or Die II made my uproxx list, Coin Coin Dance Chapter Four: Memphis will be on the Nashville Scene ballot, at least in my hacked-in category of Related. The uprxx was mostly jazz, mostly thanx to this thread, may post later.

Oops still need to listen to this:

The musicians featured are Marc Edwards, Warren Smith, Michael TA Thompson, Mara Rosenbloom, Stephen Gauci, Eriq Robinson, Theodore Woodward, Faye Kilburn and William Hooker.

Symphonie Of Flowers is available on 2LP, CD and digital and shows how William Hooker has been recognized as one of the most innovative musicians and drummers of his generation, leading a variety of ensembles within the worlds of free jazz, experimental, and new music. Hooker's prior collaborators range from avant-garde jazz musicians to indie rock legends like Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. On his latest work, “Symphonie of Flowers”, Hooker weaves three sections into a whole, or a “symphonie” of sorts. As he says, “the piece begins and ends with the drum…my instrument. Its rhythm and variations of timbre are the stabilizing element.”

Read more about the album and order your copy here.https://orgmusic.com/william-hooker-symphonie-of-flowers/

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/junius-paul-ism-interview

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

New album by the trio Birth, first in 15 years:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6Z7TQTuAiH5myCaHokhl4i?si=P6vTX7dLQtOE8tZQ-KAg4w

Features drummer extraordinaire Joe Tomino from Dub Trio. They absolutely blew minds when I saw them in '00 and they were doing sort of live jungle that would dissolve into free jazz. Happy Apple energy.

This album rules.

anyone like Marilyn Mazur's Shamania? I love it!

― calzino, Wednesday, December 11, 2019 7:44 AM bookmarkflaglink

Tuomas has nominated it on the ILM poll.... "Force of nature" is right!

- https://marilynmazur.bandcamp.com/album/shamania

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2819965007_7.jpg

I'm afraid the only band member I knew much about was the pianist Makiko Hirabayashi, who's been part of the Danish jazz scene for many years.

Marilyn Mazur has hardly done any interviews recently. There's one in Die Tageszeitung – she talks about her early experimental group the Primi Band, and working in the U.S. in the late '80s:

It all happened very quickly. I played with the Gil Evans Orchestra, including Wayne Shorter, and I was on tour for three years without a break. Then Miles asked if I wanted to tour with him again. But I couldn't anymore, I just wanted to go home and do my own thing and cancelled.
How did he react?
He wasn't used to people turning him down, and he was upset. As much as I loved playing with him, Miles' music had become so strange to me. Back then he was very popular, his sound was also macho. I've never used the term to refer to Miles, but it's true. The atmosphere on stage was not very communicative, everyone had their role.
– (taz.de)

haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else, so posting here as it may be of interest: earlier this year austrian label black-monk reissued franz koglmann's "flaps" and "opium for franz" on both vinyl and CD.

i've found it incredibly difficult to track down even an mp3 rip of "opium for franz" (to say nothing to say of an original LP), so this is most welcome !

looks like some of the european distributors still have copies, but americans might have better luck sending an email directly to the label.

http://www.blackmonk.at/blog

Opium/For Franz was reissued on CD in ‘99 or 2000, but it was a needledrop. Curious if this new reissue (the vinyl, particularly) is mastered from a different source.

anyone like Marilyn Mazur's Shamania? I love it!

This is great New Year's Day morning music.

Time for new thread?

Indeed.

Rolling Jazz Thread 2020

Brad Mehldau - Finding Gabriel is really hitting me, kind of adventurous in a low key MOR way, a lot of electronics and synth textures, jazz-meets-Brian-Wilson vocal arrangements

I was going to say that I've been checking this out yesterday and today and loving it, then saw that I apparently actually posted that I liked it literally a year ago.

I like Jon Batiste a lot more than I used to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyds04mi_Z0

He put out a couple of short live albums recently that I liked, one more than the other.

he's always a good time live.