Rolling Jazz Thread 2022

"When I was growing up, what I was doing was making everything abstract. I'd go to a party and they'd be playing all this Bullmoose Jackson stuff. All these fine ladies around and I'd be saying, 'Hey, don't y'all know Billy Eckstine?' I'd go to the record bin while they were slow dragging and throw on some Bird, and they'd say, 'Get him out of here, he's crazy. Don't invite his ass to no more parties.' Me and my brother Alan, they tagged us. 'Don't invite them two to no more parties. They too weird. Abstract and all that.'" — Wayne Shorter, interviewed by Greg Tate, 1985

This afternoon I listened to California Concert by the CTI All-Stars, a one-off (I think) band put together in 1971. Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Hank Crawford on alto sax, Stanley Turrentine on tenor sax, Hubert Laws on flute, Johnny Hammond on keyboards, Ron Carter on bass, Billy Cobham on drums, and Airto Moreira on percussion. It's a 2CD set full of long jams on "Red Clay," "So What," James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" (Hubert Laws recorded that), etc., etc. Great stuff. I bought it on Discogs a while ago and it seems like it was a print-on-demand thing because the discs are CD-Rs.

Really enjoying the variety in the Burning Ambulance festival!

Nice to find that California Concert on Spotify!

Never thought I'd hear an In A Silent Way-esque treatment of "Fire and Rain":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-2dU0go1Jc

Anything w Hubbard on it is gonna have the showmanship! I even liked his cover of frickin' "Birdland."
xxpost the quote from the Tate interview totally confirms the way Leroi Jones started his 60s piece about the Shorter brothers: that when he and they were coming up in Newark, he started hearing this expression "as weird as Wayne," way before he knew who Wayne was. (Postcript added in Black Music collection indicates that he felt Alan never did realize potential like Wayne did, but I thought Alan's "Orgasm" was great opener to Chicago Underground Quartet's Good Days, one of my faves of 2020.)

Bill Crow still going strong: https://www.local802afm.org/allegro/articles/band-room-january-2022/

This came out on 12/31. I've developed a real fondness for Scofield so it's right up my alley

https://scarypockets.bandcamp.com/album/scary-goldings-iv

Scomplamoose

(I love Scofield but resist Scary Pockets)

yeah they're not great but fuck every time he starts to play, I care very little about what else is going on. he is so good!

OTOH they have a tune called "Tacobell's Canon," seriously fuck you for that Scary Pockets

He's so prolific I have to remember to check in every so often. Have you heard Piety Street, his New Orleans album from (checks watch) 12 years ago? I have a soft spot for that one. The Hudson group with Jack deJohnette/Medeski/Grenadier was really nice.

Just threw on Past Present, the one with Joe Lovano/Bill Stewart/Grenadier and it's sounding great.

No I gotta check that one out! he's just a dude whose style is so distinctive, listening to him is like hearing an old friend's voice.

Totally. And I really appreciate how he always has a specific concept for each album, and regular groups that he keeps returning to.

Shannon Powell is a national treasure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKn5hgOSx0Q

(so is David Torkanowsky)

Been watching some great videos on this channel, Chris' Jazz Cafe in Philly:

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

The sound is really great compared to pretty much every other jazz livestream, great performances from Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Ari Hoenig, etc.

Trying again, just go to this channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b7rSL6IxJg

Keystone Korner in Baltimore does good paid streams.

Keystone Korner in Baltimore does good paid streams.

Oops 😬

Ari Hoenig is a madman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg4zNbnEbjI

I can't even.

He is so intense. I remember one time listening to him before a gig talking on the phone to the insurance company after he had recently hit a deer and had to total his car. All that same energy.

Haha, love that image

Late to the Brandee Younger album from last year, but I'm really enjoying it today.

Some of the people who took part in the streaming festival I put on on New Year's Day have been posting their videos on their own YouTube channel. Here's one by Muriel Grossmann:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q-8LAgYiy4

Sorry; didn't know the embed wouldn't work.

Released today! Winifred Atwell Revisited - @AdamFairhall & Johnny Hunter

Celebration of the repertoire and idiom of groundbreaking Trinidadian pianist Winifred Atwell, examined through Adam & Johnny's contemporary, avant-garde lens. CD/DL out now!https://t.co/PTrjfctdeC pic.twitter.com/6MrOSOQVm8

— Efpi Records (@efpirecords) January 7, 2022

she was the first black recording artist to have no 1 hit single in the UK and something of a star in the 50's. Nice little album this.

Joe Farnsworth's tribute videos are true gems:

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

Didn't know Kenny Garrett released a new album in the fall, it's extremely enjoyable. Ronald Bruner Jr (Thundercat's brother) on drums is a big presence.

Gave an interview to DownBeat today about my book (out January 28! Buy it!). I have so much more sympathy for artists after having to give an interview myself. There's no better way to convince yourself you're the world's dumbest asshole than to talk about yourself and your work for an hour straight.

So Ted Gioia wrote a long-ass essay in his weekly Substack newsletter about Michael Brecker, and since I thought it was one of the dumbest things I'd ever read, I decided to respond in my own newsletter:

*****

Ted Gioia calls his Substack newsletter The Honest Broker. This is hilarious, because Ted Gioia is one of the most agenda-driven music writers this music has ever known. He's also one of the most frequently and bafflingly wrongheaded critics in jazz. If jazz has an Armond White, it might be Ted Gioia.

This week, Gioia took it upon himself to defend saxophonist Michael Brecker from a critical mafia that has snubbed his work, and kept him toiling in undeserved obscurity. No, that can't be right, because as he says early in his piece, "almost every saxophonist I met in the closing decades of the 20th century treated Brecker as a superstar at the pinnacle of the jazz craft. This was especially true of students at college jazz programs, where Brecker was a revered name, not far below John Coltrane in the hierarchy of jazz saxophony." He continues, more in sorrow than in anger, "How can Michael Brecker be the jazz sax hero among other hornplayers, but get so little respect from the critical establishment?"

In the next paragraph, he explains that one of the things that sparked this investigation into the mysterious lack of Michael Brecker love among jazz critics was the 15th anniversary of the saxophonist's death, from leukemia, on January 13, 2007. The other is the publication of an entire goddamn book on the guy, Ode to a Tenor Titan: The Life and Times and Music of Michael Brecker, by Bill Milkowski, who is — would ya look at that! — a jazz critic who writes regularly for DownBeat, Jazziz, Guitar Player and other outlets. Gioia talks a little bit about the book, noting that Milkowski stuffs it full of quotes from dozens of jazz musicians who absolutely adored Brecker and thought he was a brilliant player.

So we've established that Brecker, when he was alive, enjoyed a great deal of respect and admiration from his fellow musicians, and was a role model to young jazz students and players. He lists two dozen recording sessions Brecker participated in between January and September 1977, which ran the gamut from Hank Crawford and Chet Baker dates to a Noxzema commercial. But as gratifying as that amount of peer affirmation and steady work would be to any professional musician, it doesn't matter as much to Gioia as the fact that "critics never thought Michael Brecker was cool enough for that full-scale profile in The New Yorker." He lists what he calls "the embarrassing facts that (1) Brecker sold lots of records, (2) he enthusiastically embraced commercial and crossover styles, and (3) he played on a bunch of records with famous pop musicians," and adds, "I hate to have to remind you of this, but each of those are problematic achievements among jazz insiders."

Gioia devotes a significant portion of his piece to a detailed rundown of the albums Brecker made under his own name (as opposed to with the Brecker Brothers) in the late '80s, the '90s and the early 2000s, all of which is interesting if you're a jazz fan. Based on the personnel, I'd like to hear those albums, and they're all on streaming services, because — and this may shock you — Michael Brecker's music was quite popular during his lifetime, and he retains a posthumous audience in the jazz world. But Gioia concludes with this:

"Michael Brecker left the scene as a legend, but somehow never seemed cool enough or sufficiently transgressive to get respect from the mainstream media. His most significant coverage in Time magazine came with one paragraph devoted to his obituary. He was never mentioned in Newsweek during his entire lifetime. My search of The New Yorker archive comes up empty-handed. If there was a full-scale profile in Rolling Stone or The Village Voice, I must have missed it. Online searches indicate that Brecker’s death got more coverage than any of his albums or tours."

Even though I know he's not reading this, I feel I need to address Gioia directly at this point:

Who gives a flying fuck?

First of all, if you're going to Time or Newsweek for jazz coverage, I have to wonder if you were recently struck by falling masonry. And while they come up with a good piece now and then (shout out to Hank Shteamer), generally speaking, the same goes for Rolling Stone. You might as well gripe that Sports Illustrated never put him on the cover. And how about Car & Driver? Where do they stand on the art of Michael Brecker? This is the kind of tendentious BS you pull when you're so in thrall to your narrative that no stretch is too far.

Here's the thing about Brecker's best-known music: it is screamingly of its time and place. There's a story (I'm paraphrasing) that one of Miles Davis's 1970s saxophonists asked the trumpeter why he kept him in the band, and Davis told him that the audience liked to watch his fingers move while he played. Whenever I listen to the Brecker Brothers, I think about that story.

I listened to one of their albums this morning, in fact — 1981's Straphangin' — while doing laundry (and thinking about writing this). And later, I listened to his debut as a leader, a self-titled album from 1987 that Gioia discusses in detail in his piece; it features keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, guitarist Pat Metheny, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Between those two albums, and several others I've heard, as well as Brecker's performances on other people's records, I have a pretty good idea of his style, and can venture a guess as to why he's not as beloved by critics as he is among saxophone students and other jazz musicians. (I don't know if that's even accurate, by the way — I haven't done my own research, and Gioia doesn't quote any negative reviews, he just declares that there hasn't been enough praise for his liking, and walks right up to the edge of calling it a conspiracy of effete snobs.)

Michael Brecker played a lot. You know that joke that goes, "I thought the Oscar was for the best acting, not the most acting?" To this guy, "best" and "most" were equivalent. Once he gets a solo going, he never seems to pause for breath. He rips off long, complicated lines, fingers flying, and he's got a big, showbizzy tone. When I was listening to one of the slower tracks on Straphangin', I thought, This sounds like the kind of sax you hear over the end credits on Saturday Night Live, and later on, I checked Wikipedia, and sure enough, Michael Brecker was part of the Saturday Night Live band from 1980-85. It's a shiny, post-Sonny Rollins kind of saxophone sound, pushed through some very late '70s/early '80s reverb, so yeah, it's no surprise that he did a lot of rock and R&B session work, and played for TV commercials and whatnot. That's exactly where his tone and approach fit best.

Which is not a bad thing. His music was appealing! And perfectly suited to the late '70s and 1980s. It had a big, garish brashness; the Brecker Brothers were a solid funk-fusion band, but no matter the context, he played what Ethan Iverson refers to as "stadium jazz." It's not intimate music. It's blow-the-walls-down music, rooted in a very particular kind of extreme technical skill. Michael Brecker was a shredder. If he was a guitarist, he wouldn't be Jim Hall; he'd be Joe Bonamassa. In a way it's not fair to compare him (as Gioia does) to John Coltrane, because Coltrane evolved. Can you imagine what A Love Supreme would sound like if Coltrane had still been playing, in 1964, the way he played in 1959? You can draw a straight line from the first Brecker Brothers album in 1975 to the first Michael Brecker album in 1987, because he's doing the same thing, just in a different context.

And that's fine. It's called having a style. But it may have something to do with why Michael Brecker is not as critically beloved (and again, I'm taking Gioia's word for it here) as Ted Gioia would like. But again, I return to the question that this piece leaves me with:

Who gives a flying fuck?

There are very few jazz critics left in the world. There are also very few people who read jazz criticism. I am both. I have never read a piece shitting on Michael Brecker (and I hope nobody thinks I've written one here). I have, however, read a lot of writers talking about musicians whose work they admire. And it's not a zero-sum game. A positive review of some other saxophonist who is not Michael Brecker does not equate to a negative review of Michael Brecker. They're two separate things, and nobody is required to listen to, or write about, everything. (Hell, in the introduction to his piece, Gioia admits that he never wrote about Brecker before!) Critics should write — thoughtfully, insightfully — about music they like, and want more people to hear. That's what I try to do, anyway.

I don't have a conclusion. Gioia's piece was dumb, and I feel dumber for having devoted this much time to thinking and writing about it. Listen to whatever makes you happy. Having listened to a bunch of Michael Brecker's music, I understand why saxophone students would worship the guy. You could hear every hour of practice in every note he played; he was a slick, talented professional. But I'll end with this, because there's one thing I know, as a writer and an editor: when it comes time to write a story, there's got to be more to a person than "they play their instrument really well" if you want anyone other than fellow instrumentalists to care.

Good points throughout, thanks. I probably like Ted Gioia more than some but his gatekeeper function can be irritating.

Yeah I pretty much agree with that.

Also I shamefully admit to hearing Joe Lovano on a recent record and thinking "didn't he pass away? Oops, that was Michael Brecker."

Ha, was wondering when Joe would get mentioned.

There are basically only a very small bunch of people writing about jazz at all, let alone in "mainstream" outlets, whatever that is these "days," so only a tiny number of artists will be mentioned at all in this latter, and every once in a blue moon a few new ones get added to the rotation. Similar to the reason Charley Pride could have a career in Country Music but not Swamp Dogg/Jerry Williams Jr.

I mean the people who book or have booked some the of the venues like Smalls or the late lamented Jazz Standard etc seem to know something but that doesn't translate into press. Maybe a listings recommendation now and then.

(a lot of people do write about country music, but Swamp Dogg only occasionally puts out albums of country music of which 2020's Sorry You Couldn't Make it is a very satisfying example---on bandcamp with Total Destruction To Your Mind and many others.)
I've never cared that much about Michael Brecker outside the xpost garish attractions of Brecker Brother Band and BS&T's kitsch classic Child Is Father To The Man, but will always love Randy's solo on Springsteen's "Meeting Across The River"---like I said:
Bruce Springsteen labored for years on Born To Run, as the title became ironic, but a lot of it worked, to varying degrees–-most of all, for me, in “Meeting Across The River,” which still sounds like a magical one-off: a seemingly basic scenario, with no purple passages, as written, sung, and played. Roy Bittan’s keys get room to breathe, Richard Davis’s bass slips through shadows, as it did on Astral Weeks, and Randy Brecker, having left his own purple passages far behind in Blood Sweat & Tears and The Brecker Brothers Band, leans his trumpet waaay out of
Cherry’s nightside window and fire escape (I don’t think she’s home).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6OAtvjSf1Y

The Swamp Dogg analogy was imperfect, I admit. More about the limited opportunities to record or be played in the past.

Just ordered some late '60s/early '70s out-jazz titles in fancy mini-LP sleeves from Japan:

Stanley Cowell, Brilliant Circles
Andrew Hill, Spiral
Oliver Lake, NTU: The Point From Which Creation Begins
Charles Tolliver, The Ringer

Ok Ted Gioia linked to this article but he didn't write it-- about Ghanaian jazz and Louis Armstrong's 1956 visit there, and jazz there today

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/louis-armstrong-jazz-highlife-ghana

Ghana jazz article is from December 2021, apologies if it was mentioned last year. I am just seeing it

looks like Ted Gioia made his top 100 albums of 2021 list available only to paid subscribers of his substack (but his honorable mention list free)

https://alexanderhawkinsintakt.bandcamp.com/album/break-a-vase-2

new Alexander Hawkins album out on friday with his usual band from the previous sextet albums including guitarist Otto Fischer and Shabaka Hutchings.

xp

lol I can think of few places where Ted Gioia can stick his paywalled list

I keep going back to the Kenny Garrett album, it rules. Wish I would have come across it in time for the ILM poll.

Been listening to Charles Brackeen's Silkheart albums from the late '80s; they're great. Half Ornette, half Ayler, and the bands are killer. Brackeen, Dennis Gonzalez, Malachi Favors and Alvin Fielder on Bannar, and Brackeen, Olu Dara, Fred Hopkins and Andrew Cyrille on Attainment and Worshippers Come Nigh. Also been listening to the two ECM albums he made with Paul Motian (and David Izenzon), Dance and Le Voyage. I'm not the world's biggest Motian fan, but those albums are really good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5o4JAKMBZ8

Angel bat Dawid 2022 Winter Jazz fest live

I interviewed South African jazz drummer Ayanda Sikade for Bandcamp Daily, with additional quotes from pianist Nduduzo Makhathini and saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane:

http://daily.bandcamp.com/features/ayanda-sikade-umakhulu-interview

Missed seeing the November 2021 death of spiritual jazz flautist Lloyd McNeill, a dc born guy, who was also a painter/ artist, designed concert posters, and hung out with Picasso and Andrew White

https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2021/11/11/artist-and-flutist-extraordinaire-lloyd-mcneill-jr-passes-at-86/

I do always find something new from Fred Kaplan's year-end list and playlist.

Yeah, and I agree about the one I already knew, Shepp-Moran's Let My People Go. The musical and emotional range just keep unfolding, giving us the whole picture, so we get the thoughtful spirituals and Ellington-Strayhorn's jewel of The Far East Suite's"Ishtafan" (originally "Elf" before they played Iran), and "Wise One," the non-obvious Trane pick, which fits just fine with all the above and with "Lush Life" and "'Round Midnight," and even a radio edit of the opener, "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child," because the Lord helps those who help themselves.

Yeah I big upped the Shepp album on the Floating Points thread.

My latest Stereogum column is up now. I talk about Kenny G; explore my decades-long suspicion of the critical love for Fred Hersch; eulogize Mtume, Charles Brackeen, Khan Jamal, and Fred Van Hove; plug my book; and more, so check it out if you like.

Paul Steinbeck
@steinbeckpaul
Just arrived in the mail: Timo Hoyer's astonishing new book ANTHONY BRAXTON / CREATIVE MUSIC.
#aacm #creativemusic #experimentalmusic #wolkeverlag
https://wolke-verlag.de/musikbuecher/timo-hoyer-anthony-braxton-creative-music/

It’s in German though right?

Yeah, I replied to that tweet saying I’m waiting for a translation, as my wife can read German but has no interest in Braxton.

David Kikowski is dueting with this monster bari player I never heard of before named Jason Marshall at Smalls right now and it is sounding amazing.

This guy: https://www.bestsaxophonewebsiteever.com/bari-sax-master-jason-marshall-players-dont/

From my Brussels buddy John W.: ...yesterday I learned of the existence of this Black Belgian woman,Peggy Pierrot, and I listened to last night's podcast (her playlist is at the link below; the podcast went online even though she herself couldn't go on mic because she's home in bed with Covid; I assume her occasional voiceover readings in both English and French had been recorded in advance). As you would expect from her inclusion of tracks by Drexciya and Detroit-homeboy allies like the Aquanauts, she's into the underwater-aquatic end of Afrofuturist myth. But in her mix she achieved a terrific balance between Detroit electro beats, what people are now calling "spiritual jazz" (one highlight being the Joe Henderson / Alice Coltrane track; another being "Old and New Dreams" by the Old and New Dreams Quartet, and in context it wasn't just Dewey's Chinese musette that sounded spooky, but even Blackwell's drumming) and the music of the whales[!] without being goopy NewAge sentimental about it. If a link to stream the podcast shows up, I'll alert you. Meanwhile, here's her playlist:
http://www.q-o2.be/en/event/songing-with-our-ancestors-live-radio-session-with-peggy-pierrot/
Live radio session with writer, radio dj and educator Peggy Pierrot.
From Drexciya and other Detroit techno bands, to historians and science fiction writers, to Solomon Rivers, author of speculative and literary fiction such as The Deep, the Atlantic Ocean – known here as the Black Atlantic – has been the crucible for stories of loss and flight, abduction and rebirth. This radio program invites us to dive into this black ocean in search of these sounds and stories.

Playlist of the Radio Show:

Vangelis -Sauvage et Beau, le chant des baleines
Clipping – The deep
Ed Blackwell / Don Cherry / Charlie Haden / Dewey Redman – Old dream and
new Dreams
The comet is coming – The Prophecy
Drexciya – Intro: Temple Of Dos De Agua
the Aquanauts – Aquatic Kamikazi
Drexciya – Hydro Theory
Earth – Sonar and Depth Charge
Joe Henderson & Alice Coltrane – Water
Shabaka and the Ancestors – The Sea
Mr. Bubble – Bubble Beats
Sun Ra – Lanquidity
Le chant des baleines – Killer Whale, Orcinus Orca
Ras-G – Been Cosmic
Le chant des baleines – narwhal Whale, Monodon Monoceros
Sons of Kemet – in remembrance of those fallen
Extracts from The deep by Rivers Solomon in french and in english.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FKahqdmWUAMfgUz?format=jpg&name=small

beautiful album is this.

Recently posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxM980ocuCw

🖼

beautiful album is this.

Just got my download of the Peter Brötzmann/William Parker/Milford Graves live set, Historic Music Past Tense Future, recorded 3/29/02 at CBGBs' 313 Gallery. Available from Black Editions on vinyl and digitally, though the former is likely to sell out fast. It rips, of course.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0994075720_10.jpg

So we were talking about Michael Brecker's overplaying---here's an exception I should have thought of: not brilliant, but it works (and I'd like to hear an all-instrumental version of this song),
Garland Jeffreys, "I May Not Be Your Kind"---from Ghost Writer(1977)

Oops!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knPYobziFmg

New Kamasi Washington tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzrkerz1SW8

Sounds like Kamasi Washington. He should make the trumpet player a full-time band member.

"Sounds like Kamasi Washington" is enough for me, tbh.

Btw, unperson, looking forward to your book arriving later this week!

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

Note that Ted Gioia's brother, Dana Gioia, was once the US poet laureate, and is also a notorious fucking asshole.

...and that's how you get the gig

xp

Which one?

Making a Rational Funk joke about the Julian Lage video (which is great)

Oh, okay. I miss the days when I would see Jorge all the time. And would also see a friend from Mexico who studied with Randy Vincent who also taught Julian Lage and would tell him about this kid who was really talented.

I overlooked his trio album from last year, need to give that some time.

Speaking of Dave King, just got tix to see the new Ben Monder + Chris Speed version of the Bad Plus at a small venue here next month.

Cool.

I feel like the Bad Plus are on the downward slide and just don't want to admit it yet. I mean, swapping Orrin Evans in when Ethan Iverson left/was fired is one thing, but to bring in Monder and Speed, neither of whom has shown much interest in the past in being part of a steady, hard-touring band... it feels kinda desperate, and I don't see it lasting very long. Plus, it's too big a structural change. People (rightly) think of TBP as a piano trio, so to now become a sax-guitar-bass-drums quartet runs the risk of alienating a whole lot of the audience, many of whom were originally drawn in by piano-trio covers of rock songs and only incidentally converted to fans of original jazz music...which was still presented in piano trio format!

This has nothing to do with the merits of the music, of course. I hope they make a record soon, 'cause I'd love to hear it. Monder's skronk on top of a rhythm section that hard-hitting? I'm 100% on board for that.

A guy I know produced this. I really like it

https://theofficialcowmusic.bandcamp.com/album/live

Yeah, I'll listen to Monder play on anything but I don't get how this is still the Bad Plus.

The Bad Minus Plus Plus Plus

Add Ben to (X)

Finally got the Courvoisier/Halvorson album from last year: https://sylviecourvoisiermaryhalvorsonpyroclastic.bandcamp.com/album/searching-for-the-disappeared-hour . It really is marvellous, almost like a bizarro world Undercurrents. The connection between the two of them is really strong throughout, no matter how intricate they get.

Ah! you mean the Jim Hall Bill Evans Undercurrents, I take it:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61gr6T-rTuL._SL1200_.jpg

Yes, exactly. Obv a lot further out.

The Courvoisier/Halvorson album is so, so good.

I feel like the Bad Plus are on the downward slide and just don't want to admit it yet. I mean, swapping Orrin Evans in when Ethan Iverson left/was fired is one thing, but to bring in Monder and Speed, neither of whom has shown much interest in the past in being part of a steady, hard-touring band... it feels kinda desperate, and I don't see it lasting very long. Plus, it's too big a structural change. People (rightly) think of TBP as a piano trio, so to now become a sax-guitar-bass-drums quartet runs the risk of alienating a whole lot of the audience, many of whom were originally drawn in by piano-trio covers of rock songs and only incidentally converted to fans of original jazz music...which was still presented in piano trio format!

I'm inclined to agree with all that, yeah. On the other hand, they've gotta eat, and I'm looking forward to hearing the new lineup play the old material. Also since I've seen both Chris Speed's trio with Dave King and Broken Shadows (including Chris/Dave/Reid) recently, it'll be interesting to hear how different they sound in context as 'The Bad Plus'.

Also I guess TBP did do that record with Joshua Redman already, but that's one of their projects I've listened to the least.

I really like a few things on that Redman/Bad Plus record, I actually enjoyed it more than some of their other material.

love this one especially
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmQTZb81qQ8

Youtube has been very concerned that I should watch this Ari Hoenig video, and I'm glad I finally did

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1zPpLdc-Go

Can't tell who he is playing with there.

Credits say:

Tom Ollendorff - Guitar
Conor Chaplin - Bass

Not familiar, but they're great, especially that trading with the bass player.

Francis Davis comments on the year in jazz, and his own ballot, a little longer than usual, as he says, with several I hadn't heard of, looking good:
https://artsfuse.org/244710/the-2021-jazz-critics-poll-only-the-best/

Saw a great Christian Scott Atunde show last night

Speaking of 2021, here's one I should have mentioned the, from my forthcoming blog round-up:

The cover of Leni Stern’s Dance is a winter curb full of musos, looking for the bus. Sure, that’s always a big part of the roving life, whether coups and pandemics happen to be on at the moment or not: guitarist Stern, of Munich, Manhattan, and Mali, for instance, has seen all that, also The Big C, and just so far, of course. Her lines, whether building to solos or not, are always headphones, finding what they need in the mesh and tapping, digging in, birds on the wire and then some. Dance sees Stern again fronting her cross-cultural New York quartet, featuring brilliant Argentine keyboardist Leo Genovese and the bone-deep rhythm duo of bassist Mamadou Ba and percussionist Eladji Alioune Faye, both originally from Senegal. ..Along with Genovese, Ba and Faye, the album features one of Leni’s confreres from her days playing in Salif Keita’s band, Haruna Samake, who added his harp-like kamele n’goni to three tracks from afar and co-wrote one song with Leni, the buoyant “Kono” (“Bird”).

Along with “Yah Rakhman,” co-written by Leni and Faye, other highlights of Dance include the freshly arranged, richly harmonized traditional West African griot tune “Daouda Saane” and the hard-grooving, Genovese-penned “Kani” (“Spicy Pepper”), which features some characteristically piquant solos by the pianist. The track list also includes Ba’s atmospheric “Maba” (an homage to his great-great-great grandfather, a heroic figure in Senegalese history), Faye’s hopping, skipping instrumental “Hale” (“Children”) and Leni’s tuneful vocalise “Adjouma” (“Friday,” a tribute to multicultural New York City)

...As Leni explains, the band has gone from strength to strength. “It has been a real love affair between the keyboards and the rhythm section! The guys love Leo and all his fire. They always say, ‘Leo is so baaad!’ The West African rhythmic vocabulary – as well as its sense of form and call-and-response – can be challenging for any musician who isn’t native to the music, but Leo seems to relish that, finding it to be a fun way of connecting to the African roots of his South American heritage. And, of course, there are lots of European classical influences on South American music. The richness of Leo’s harmonic approach and his modern jazz idiom really add to the music, which you can hear on his new tune, ‘Kani’.
https://lenistern.bandcamp.com/album/dance">”https://lenistern.bandcamp.com/album/dance

Finally got around to the Shepp/Moran from last year and it's really nice, genuinely raw and moving at moments.

Also finally got around to hearing the Love Supreme Live in Seattle (on a Valentine's day playlist, along with Battle Trance's Blade of Love - both her picks fwiw) and wow, I did not expect the recording to sound that good. It seems to go pretty far out.

Nate Chinen this morning, with Lee Morgan updates, accompanied by excerpts from Lighthouse box: new doc, mainly from POV of his wife-killer, but apparently not just complaints? Or her words/take only. Dunno, will have to look up more about this. Also, a fan went looking to pay his respects, and How a jazz legend's resting place was lost and found, 50 years after his tragic deathhttps://www.npr.org/2022/02/16/1080984321/lee-morgan-50th-anniversary-death-gravesite

wife who was also his killer, I meant.

https://chetdoxas-whirlwind.bandcamp.com/album/you-cant-take-it-with-you

this is another 2021 release I've just caught up with. Would recommend if you like those 50's/60's Jimmy Giuffre trios.

Battle Trance for v-day, Sund4r you found a real one!

Sex Mob (AKA Sexmob, on Bandcamp), Theatre and Dance
Another pick for 2021 list, a reissue, from 2000, not quite top tier, because occasionally a tad bleary, world-weary, hungover, even jizzed-out (during some originals, not the Ellington), yet all of that's quite appropriate, as you will see---from Steven Bernstein's backstory: merch community
Theatre and Dance
by Sexmob

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Black and Tan Fantasy 00:00 / 04:28
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1.
Black and Tan Fantasy 04:28
2.
The Blues 04:51
3.
Night Creature 06:09
4.
It Don't Mean a Thing 03:39
5.
The Mooche 04:09
6.
Harlem (excerpt) 05:24
7.
Dirty Charity 04:25
8.
Mattress Blues 04:16
9.
Queen Mae 04:48
10.
Overture and Out 00:23
about
Reissue. Originally released in 2000.

In Nov/December 1998 I was touring with the Donald Byrd Dance Company for their epic staging of “The Harlem Nutcracker” which featured Duke Ellington’s arrangements of Tchaikovsky’s holiday classic, along with new arrangements by David Berger that continued in Duke’s lineage. Not only was the piece beautifully conceived and executed, but the band included many legendary musicians (some who had played with Duke) including Britt Woodman, Jerome Richardson, Jerry Dodgion, Marcus Belgrave and Art Baron. I knew that Donald Byrd had expansive tastes in music, and at a party at the end of the run, I gave him the 1st Sexmob CD, which had just been released. A little while later Donald contacted me, he had been turned on by the music and made me an offer couldn’t refuse…. To reimagine Duke Ellington’s music in the image of the “old 42nd St”, full of sex shops, peepshows, hookers and grime. … I know its typecasting.. but it was a perfect assignment. FYI, I listened to Duke Ellington’s music every day for approximately 30 years, starting in 1981.. it was as close as I ever got to a strict religious affiliation.
Donald gave me complete freedom in the recording, just giving me approximate timings for the pieces. I decided to use rhythms from across the decades of 42nd St’s reign as the smut capital of NY, brought the arrangements in, and Sexmob went to work...
he work, entitled “In A Different Light:Duke Ellington” was premiered at the Joyce Theatre Feb 29, 2000. Donald’s vision of capturing the feeling of the old 42nd St including outfitting all the dancers with giant prosthetic breasts and enormous hanging phalluses (each dancer having a different coordinated color pattern on their apendages). This made for an incredible spectacle, but limited the number of venues willing to present the piece…story of my life.. the blessing and curse of a band named “Sexmob”
There is a funny story about a workshop/preview of the piece where Stanley Crouch was on the moderating panel. You can imagine what he had to say!
The final 4 pieces on this CD were written for a production of Mae West’s 1926 play entitled “Sex”…yes more typecasting. The play was was presented by The Hourglass Group, and directed by Elyse Singer. It premiered in Dec 1999 at the Gershwin Hotel, and it was the first restaging of the play since it opened in 1926. The music manages to sound like classic Sexmob while being very “era specific”… Tony overdubs banjo, and Kenny sounds like a mix of Baby Dodds and Dave Grohl. Well, maybe not.

released April 1, 2021

1-6 Composed by Duke Ellington
7-10 Composed by Steven Bernstein /Spanish Fly Music ASCAP
All music arranged by Steven Bernstein
Steven Bernstein Arranger, Composer, Conductor, Primary Artist, Slide Trumpet
David Bias Sleeve Design
Jim Black Drums (Track 6)
Danny Blume Engineer, Mixing
Duke Ellington Composer
Chris Kelly Engineer, Mixing
Briggan Krauss Sax (Alto), Sax (Baritone)
Bubber Miley Composer
Irving Mills Composer
Gene Paul Mastering
Tony Scherr Banjo, Bass, Engineer, Mixing
Kenny Wollesen Chimes, Drums
Julie Lemberger Cover photograph
Read more, hear it all here:
https://stevenbernstein.bandcamp.com/album/theatre-and-dance

Oh sorry, didn't mean to incl. all that stuff before his story and track list etc.!

blade of love is one of my fave albums of the decade

Battle Trance for v-day, Sund4r you found a real one!

<3

A bit more on 2021 releases, from the blog round-up

Poet-novelist-songwriter-performer Anthony Joseph, of Trinidad and Tobago and Britain, gets compared to Linton Kwesi Johnson, but The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running For Their Lives is electrified by his own kind of speech-song, going back and forth from one to the other, syllable to syllable when he chooses, on the beat and calling it to free jazz, including splatter bop and Caribbean elements, whirling imagery—but then there's that show-stopping sound: dirt hitting the lid of his father's coffin. He's the immigrant in reverse, stepping around a now-unsettling setting in "my hip waistcoat," also in the apparently patient, good-humored, steady gaze of old and new friends and relations. Later he recalls other voices in the UK recalling when they eventually could call it home, and his own path toward that. The music always adapts to, is always just the right part of, each situation, and of him.

https://anthonyjosephofficial.bandcamp.com/album/the-rich-are-only-defeated-when-running-for-their-lives

The spirit of free jazz also recharges its now familiar subgenre elements on the latest albums by Rova and Ill-Considered, with both brainiac ensembles going raw soon enough, although IC's Liminal Space starts out relatively tame, and overall can't escape slightly disappointing comparison w 2020's East-West, which was astonishing, as I noted then:

1 hour, 47 minutes, 58 seconds, rolls right along, segmentation down in there, tiny mile markers: seconds of distorted audience sounds back in the headphones every now and then, even a little back-and-forth of musos and crowd at one point, also distorted: all part of the carnival scrim, incl dub-associated effects, on the fly or might as well be. Sax turns into a swarm of bassoons about 8 minutes in, bass gets more distorted, needs no other guitars as suggestions of Last Exit just behind the curtain---in the vast Jazz Park (don't stick your fingers in there) on a windswept gray-green summer's day. Later clearing for a Middle Eastern view of the Med, which comes back later still as slow modal ferris wheel, empty but still turning-- for a minute,'til the bass has enough, and everything gets zigzag funky---going to night skies, night sweats, emitting then melting down, the ECM Sound expansions--the bass goes toward a metal chant, everybody falls into a funeral procession, like Ishmael at the beginning of Moby Dick: it's a sign it's time to ship out, and so they do, finding more excitement, along the way, that is--finale is black helicopter blades too fast and shakey, but still cutting through waves ov grooves. I dunno if there might be some predictable bits in there very eventually, for a while--hazards of long live performance--but an edit might kill the sense of pace, of searching in the moment, however in the moment this actually is. (All three of those albums are on Bandcamp too.)

Friend living in Belgium hyped me to this, enjoying:

http://blackflower1.bandcamp.com/album/magma

^^^

fair enjoying this

not overly keen on the vox, but I always say that about 99% of vocals on modern jazz albums

the new Mostly Other People Do The Killing album has one of the daftest bandcamp write ups I've ever seen. But tbf the album is decent enough.

The horns were the best thing about them. And the augmented version with banjo, guitar, etc. was great. Not sure I care about a piano trio incarnation.

Rolling Jazz! Would you all be willing to help me ID the song the house band plays from 10:37-10:55 in this video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wcSFoOPn3U

Sorry, I thought I did the thing where it was just a link, not embedded. :(

It starts out as Thelonious Monk’s “Epistrophy,” but I don’t recognize the line the horns are playing.

Probably familiar to some of you but I just found this great clip of Mazur in 1988:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9tiCflWbvE

It's like he gets distracted from listening by thinking about what he's going to say: I've done that too, recognize the symptoms.

Oops wrong thread sorry

Can't remember where I found this one— might have been on a Bandcamp list of Best Jazz of January or whatever— but I have really been enjoying this solo record from 17 year old Saskatchewan resident Chloe Jackson-Reynolds, "The Winter Concert."
https://sr3323.bandcamp.com/album/the-winter-concert

On her page, she writes: "I am a 17 year-old improviser, multi-woodwind player and jazz musician. My biggest inspirations are Anthony Braxton, Charlie Parker, Roland Kirk, Eric Dolphy and Henry Threadgill."

Of course there are lots of little jazz prodigies running around, but eh, I thought this record did some interesting stuff with looping effects etc.

A 17 year old in Saskatchewan that knows about Anthony Braxton, I love the 21st Century some times.

Haha wow, she would have been 6-8 when I lived in Regina.

"Recorded live in a Discord call on January 3rd, 2022"

!

Right? The whole thing is pretty neat.

The way that she's using looping effects does remind me of Shiroishi's recent output, though his approach is a little more punk.

this is probably old news to you jazzheads, but Chet Baker (with Massimo Moriconi on bass and Michel Grailler on piano) Live from the Moonlight has probably been the album I've listened to the most this year, and I say that as someone with this display name. It was recorded in Nov 1985, at the Moonlight Club in Macerata, Italy.

i find it to be the perfect music for just about every moment. his playing is very VERY "airy", and it's mic'd so that you can really hear the wind coming out. i'm not enough of a Chethead to know how that sound compares to his earlier playing, but as I remember from that (really, really good) film about him, Let's Get Lost, he lost all of his teeth due to misadventure and had to come up with a new way to play, or something?

the pace of the set is so languid, calming, relaxed. Each song exceeds 11 minutes. there are sound issues at one moment, a couple hours in, and you can hear chet and someone (the sound guy?) discussing the problem and laughing, the occasional barroom clatter. and it just gets better as it goes, imo - by the end chet is taking these really adventurous routes all around the register...it's amazing how he evokes Cool so easily, even at that late stage in his life, both in the cool jazz kind of style of playing of the late 40s/50s but also his entire persona, which couldn't possibly be more "cool jazz guy in the 50s" than it was

Thanks. One of the funniest bits in Miles is when Miles gets upset again about 50s suits promoting cute, clean-cut white boys Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Art Pepper, as the new faces of respectable American jazz, while Miles, Rollins, many others, were those junkie Negroes playing in b-movies across the tracks, proceed at your own risk (many did, of course)---when those particular white boys, sometimes put in sweaters on LP covers, were jazz-biz-notorious, like when Getz was found unconscious, having broken into a pharmacy and stuffed himself w pills---Baker was said to have gotten his embouchure busted by the goons of a dealer he'd burned, who was trying to ruin his career---didn't work; he adapted his playing and singing, never having been a conventional muso in the first place, of course.

Eerie contrast between the cool of his (and Getz') music vs. chaos of life in some other respects---also true of Pepper for a while, though his music evolved, without ever losing the sense of thoughtful control, though, no matter the shit that might be flying again offstage, so contrast still there. Same contrast w Sinatra sometimes, although he did have throat hemorrhage onstage, I think, while Ava Gardner was still on his mind.

I love all that stuff.

Liked the Winter Concert a lot on first listen.

Chris Paquette
18 hours ago
On the one hand: a characteristic time feel and tone, and a beautifully rendered classic;
On the other hand: puts up a poster of himself in his own room.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59XAG0AU5aU

Fantastic sample track here:
https://maryhalvorson.bandcamp.com/album/amaryllis

Yeah, I've listened to a little bit of the new Halvorson album (the promo player Nonesuch uses suuuuucks, like all major label promo apps) and it's really good. She spent their money well.

that's a nice track. it had me thinking about funky jazz tunes in odd meters, which inevitable led me to thad jones's "ahunk ahunk"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKQlZl6N11g

Oops, why I should keep up w my twitter better:

Nubya Garcia
@nubya_garcia
·
Mar 14
tonight and tomorrow opening for
@Khruangbin
in Nashville
@theryman
! on at 8pm 🖤

🖌
@yesolpictures
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FN1ZzOrWYAA5fta?format=jpg&name=medium

Coming up in the US:
MAR 17 THU
Roadrunner @ 8:00pm
Boston, MA, United States
TICKETS RSVP
MAR 18 FRI
Roadrunner @ 7:00pm
Boston, MA, United States
TICKETS RSVP
MAR 19 SAT
The Met Philadelphia @ 8:00pm
Philadelphia, PA, United States
TICKETS RSVP
MAR 22 TUE
Le Poisson Rouge @ 7:00pm
New York, NY, United States
TICKETS RSVP
MAR 24 THU
Treefort Music Fest 2022 @ 12:00pm
Boise, ID, United States
TICKETS RSVP
MAR 26 SAT
Big Ears Festival 2022 @ 7:00pm
Knoxville, TN, United States
TICKETS RSVP
Then to Manchester https://www.nubyagarcia.com/

Yeah, I interviewed her yesterday for Stereogum; it'll run on Monday as hype for the Le Poisson Rouge gig (which is her as headliner, not support for Khruangbin — she was here last week with them, two nights at Radio City Music Hall).

Yeah her site doesn't list any other artists on shows coming up, although maybe it does on those tickets links or in news section.

Once the Khruangbin tour ends she's back to Europe for spring and summer, but she'll be back in the US later this year — she told me she just got a 3 year visa for the US in February.

I saw David Murray with Dave Burrell at the Blue Note last week. IIRC he mentioned in-between numbers that the group performing those nights had also cut an album that will be released soon. He's done something like a HUNDRED albums and I've only heard a fraction of them, but what I've heard has been great, including the few I have with Burrell (for a Japanese label was back in the late '80s).

Forgot to mention, he played two numbers from the album and they were both great. I'm not sure if he played different ones in other sets - had it been a weekend, I definitely would've stayed for the late set or at least caught another day as well.

I wrote a short beginner's guide to Murray not long ago, which includes capsule reviews of 10 representative albums. He did a set of five albums with Burrell in 1988 for DIW that are organized around themes (ballads, spirituals, tunes by famous tenor players, etc.) and are pretty good.

the 1988 Lucky Four album with Murray/Burrell is a fab album. I like quite a few solo Burrell albums as well, the Morton tribute one, Jelly Roll Joys is worth checking out as well.

I always try to see Murray live when he comes to town, but I only have maybe a dozen or so of his releases, exclusive of the WSQ albums.

The “Waltz Again” album with Lafayette Gilchrist is one of my favorites.

I thought he was still living in NYC but it sounds like he moved to France some years ago (in the '00s or '10s?)

Not sure if he's scaled back his U.S. appearances because of that, but I was glad to catch at least one set. If he comes through again, I'll be sure to catch him.

Oh wow, didn't know about some of those in your beginner's guide to Murray, thanks. Last one reminds me (re Caribbean) of his mighty guest shots on The Skatalites'Hip-Bop-Ska. Got a bunch of MRE, WSQ, Dark Star (he's usually to be found on YouTube with the live Dead, too), several of your picks, Clarinet Summit, and Plays Nat King Cole en Español is just incredible, even for him: his string charts alone are worth the price of admission.
I used to get the impression, back when I tried to keep up with such things, that he seemed to be taken for granted, maybe because so many albums (Branford seemed annoyed by the release schedule, and in fact that's the only Murray comment I've seen by him, typically enough).

Been digging the new-ish Hawkins, featuring a number of other great players.
https://alexanderhawkinsintakt.bandcamp.com/album/break-a-vase-2

If I may, the latest episode of Jazz Police with music from the late, great Dennis Gonzalez, Tomas Fujiwara (absolutely ripping solo from Mary Halvorson folks), Myra Melford, Flower-Corsano, GOATFACE! and much more.

https://www.mixcloud.com/RepeaterRadio/stewart-smith-presnts-jazz-police-live-gateshead-uk-1/

xp

it's a really good album. I think this is the first time I've seen him mentioned on here despite him being a longtime Shabaka Hutchings collaborator and done lots of good to brilliant releases since at least 2013. I was starting to think he got cancelled for doing that album with [redacted anti-vaxxer crank] last year!

Hawkins is great I follow him religiously. Never seen him live sadly.

He's performing with Hafez Modirzadeh in Glasgow in a couple of weeks, doing the Facets material. Really psyched for that. Also Decoy coming up at Cafe Oto - Hawkins unleashes the full cosmic power of the Hammond B3.

that sounds excellent!

well they both sound good, but especially the Modirzadeh gig. Be interesting hearing him filling in for Sorey.

I saw the new Bad Plus in a pretty small venue in Madison WI, and it was fantastic. All originals (all by Reid & Dave), mostly from the upcoming quartet record (out in Sept. apparently).

At first I was distracted by Monder's guitar tone in context -- no highs, zero attack, pretty quiet, kept getting lost in the low mids of the bass and sax. But I think it's partially just his thing, and also maybe trying not to act like a piano replacement? It was very much a background thing, sometimes doubling the sax, sometimes the bass, and even when he was shredding it was sort of a white noise element. Kinda cool and different how it just blended into everything, or maybe I was just sitting in a bad spot. I'm curious how it's mixed on record.

Anyway everyone sounded very committed and distinctly Bad Plus-y (which highlights their aesthetic even more in a way), and now I think this was a better move than trying to find another piano player. Highly recommend catching them if you can.

(also my wife & I got into a long conversation with Monder after the show, super nice dude)

Nubya Garcia just finished a string of tour dates opening for Khruangbin (a really good combination, to my ear) and is headlining Le Poisson Rouge in NYC tomorrow night. I interviewed her about getting back to the US for the first time since, I think, 2018 in my latest Stereogum column.

(He is great to talk to, I have done so many times)

I think I met him once after a gig at the Jazz Gallery, and I interviewed him once for The Wire. He is a very nice, soft-spoken dude.

I know this is the jazz thread, but I just need to make note that I find it *super weird* that Khruangbin don't have any actual Thai people in their band?

Has the recent Smalls "controversy" come up here yet?

No, but for the record I am pro-Smalls, and found that aside to be a weird sour note in an otherwise excellent piece.

For those not paying attention, Gio Russonello (a writer I like a lot) wrote a NY Times feature on new jazz and jazz-adjacent venues, some of which sound really cool. But for some reason, he felt the need to throw in a shot at Smalls:

At Smalls Jazz Club, the storied West Village basement, purebred jazz jam sessions still stretch into the wee hours on a nightly basis, inheriting some of the infectious, insidery energy that existed in its truest form into the 1990s at clubs like Bradley’s. But today it’s hard to argue that Smalls is the right destination for hearing the most cutting-edge sounds.

And although they don’t usually say it publicly, seasoned players have come to agree that the code of conduct at Smalls’ jam sessions went a little flimsy after the 2018 death of Roy Hargrove. His frequent presence as an elder there had helped to keep the bar high, even as the room had come to be filled with musicians whose hands-on experience of jazz arrived mostly through the distorted lens of formal education.

Spike himself wrote a rebuttal as did Sasha Berliner.

Great looking compilation of post-war British jazz, featuring Shake Keane, Joe Harriott, Ronnie Scott et al.

https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/i-had-the-craziest-dream-modern-jazz-and-hard-bop-in-post-war-london-vol-1?from=fanpub_fb

[tiny thread] Missed this from last week. Great stuff, showing the ongoing fragmentation of 21c art, "we contain multitudes." However NYC is also where true bebop still lives, and IMHO there was no need to take a swipe at Smalls... https://t.co/aXUmRcbuVa

— Ethan Iverson (@ethan_iverson) March 22, 2022

otm

the distorted lens of formal education

Um anyway---some new and recent Sunnyside jazz---think I only recognize Matt Slocum? At least muh lens is ok.
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Sunnyside-in-Early-Spring.html?soid=1101632560908&aid=rOF0xfVkkdY

Oh wow--should check spam folder more often:

https://artistshare.blob.core.windows.net/artists/001/1/images/11079.jpg?1648595335444

and other news via artistshare: http://artistshare.blob.core.windows.net/artists/019/19/downloads/03-23-2022.html

My dad's 1968(?) Down Beat review of the Tony Williams with Larry Young and John McLaughlin performing at the Village Vanguard. Since he (famously) hated rock, dad praises the musicians, but undersells it. Me--I'd cut off a toe to hear that show... pic.twitter.com/1OJ4nAvOOZ

— Fitz Gitler (@techdef) March 29, 2022

Wonder what Dad thought of their NYC gig w Jack Bruce? Now that's what I call heavy.

okay ill admit it, when i was younger i thought that every time someone on a jazz record was credited for "vibes" it meant they hung out at the recording session and made everything feel cool

— Fritz Pape (@fritzpape) March 31, 2022

If only!

Lol

“Wow, musicians really liked hanging out with that Milt Jackson guy!”

tapes?

Archie Shepp Quintet with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III, & Beaver Harris (Jimmy Garrison n.p.), Copenhagen, October 1967

📸 Jan Persson / Getty Images pic.twitter.com/WaEt0DI3eG

— jeff (@jazyjef) April 2, 2022

Oh, here they all are:

Archie Shepp Quintet with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III, Beaver Harris, & Jimmy Garrison, Copenhagen, October 1967

📸 Jan Persson / Getty Images pic.twitter.com/eDOF4Yf1ko

— jeff (@jazyjef) April 2, 2022

Archie Shepp & Roswell Rudd, Copenhagen, October 1967

📸 Jan Persson / Getty Images pic.twitter.com/AkWacHY2fT

— jeff (@jazyjef) April 1, 2022

these were my cheap record finds today O_O

Tidy little pile of jazzers from the chazzer, all early pressings from the 50s/60s pic.twitter.com/F4OhatDX0g

— fell into a green dream (@Mount_Analogue) April 2, 2022

all super-clean and sounding ~incredible~

braggin' with the miles davis quintet

nice find. are they all english pressings?

also, does chazzer mean charity shop?

yes and yes! the blue notes are US, but the Miles are all first UK pressings

That’s a sweet haul.

real good.

Jerome Harris was born in Queens, NY on this day in 1953. He’s 69 today. pic.twitter.com/is8QSr04vN

— jeff (@jazyjef) April 5, 2022

From Nonesuch:

Mary Halvorson
Amaryllis & Belladonna
Available May 13
Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer, and MacArthur fellow Mary Halvorson makes her Nonesuch debut with two albums, Amaryllis and Belladonna . The two suites, which Halvorson describes as "modular and interlocking," come in a two-LP vinyl set or as two separate CDs and digital albums. Amaryllis is a six-song suite performed by a newly formed sextet of master improvisers; the Mivos string quartet joins for three of the songs, making this the largest ensemble for which Halvorson has written to date. Belladonna is a set of five compositions written for Halvorson on guitar plus the Mivos Quartet, whose parts are through-composed and augmented by Halvorson's guitar improvisations.

http://maryhalvorson.lnk.to/AmaryllisBelladonna?eml=2022March18/5645359/6011771&etsubid=33248291

Links to advance track on bandcamp etc., also video.

49 years ago tonight, Pete Cosey makes his debut as a member of Miles’ massive 10-piece live band.

The tape’s a brief one (2 songs, 33 minutes) but Cosey’s solo in “Ife” is the equivalent of a new universe being created in real time. https://t.co/ZhKfNMHhaO

— the Heat Warps (@theheatwarps) April 6, 2022

Via the same links, check also (as we heat warp through electric Miles appearances from 1969 to 197?) the Brazil '74 shows with his three-guitar band (yo Sund4r)

Oh, I will look into that. And yeah, the advance Halvorson track is great, actually p tuneful and groovy for her. I heard it some time ago.

Where hs the Heat Warps been my whole life damn

Ornette Coleman's two albums for Contemporary are now back on CD and LP as "Genesis Of Genius" - just the kind of grandiose title his records got early on. Back then, Ornette's champions made extravagant claims on his behalf - that his tunes would become classics, that jazz would never be the same, that his quartet was the hottest thing on New York's incandescent 1959 jazz scene. The thing about Ornette is all that hype turned out to be true.

i always forget it's shelly manne playing drums on "tomorrow is the question!" -- such a weird choice.

!

I got a copy of that box the other day. Nice packaging, but it's interesting to me that there's no alternate takes from those sessions or anything else — would have been cool if they'd included Live at the Hillcrest Club 1958 (released under Paul Bley's name) as bonus material.

i always forget it's shelly manne playing drums on "tomorrow is the question!" -- such a weird choice.

Not so weird surely? Manne sounds right at home on Way Out West, and from there it's not that much of a leap to those first couple of Ornette recs also from way out west). Some of these cats could play on anything.

Chico Pinheiro live-streaming from Mezzrow right now and playing great as always. No Ari Hoenig for Jordan this time, but Alex Kautz is no slouch.This Alex Kautz, not the first Google hit.

Yamamoto/Parker/Hirsh/Fowler Quartet Announce "Spontaneous Folk Music" CD Sparks April 29 Via Mahakala Music, Share "In The Garden" Single + Live In-Studio Video
+Playing Vision Fest June 24

Genres: jazz, avant-garde, free jazz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddboA1PRG3Y

ABOUT THE ALBUM

When Eri Yamamoto, William Parker, Chad Fowler and Steve Hirsh settled in for their first recording session together, the engineer shouted “rolling” and sparks flew. But they weren't steel mill sparks: the music unfolding in that moment was more like a crackling campfire, smoke rising slowly, points of light lifting lazily into the breeze — and foreshadowing a greater heat to come.

Such an image is apt for the airy chords with which Yamamoto kicks off the title tune of Sparks, the quartet's new album on Mahakala Music. After her piano begins, like wind chimes playing standards, Parker and Hirsh fall in as if walking up from the woods, and then Fowler's stritch enters, do-re-mi-do, like a sprite carrying memories of a folk song.

“Spontaneous folk music,” says Yamamoto with a ripple of laughter, recalling the phrase Fowler used to suggest the quartet's point of departure that day. And she responded immediately to the premise, as Yamamoto herself has created hybrid free/composed jazz that sometimes harkens back to the traditional Japanese music of her youth, as on her Goshu Ondo Suite. For over a quarter century, she's made waves as she “gracefully bridges the worlds of post-bop and free jazz” according to Time Out New York, with her “evocative songs without words.”

A classically-trained pianist with a vibrant improvisational streak, she's long performed and recorded with William Parker, a composer in his own right and a mainstay of the New York free jazz community. Indeed, playing a session with Parker, who has pursued an unparalleled vision of free jazz since before his days with Cecil Taylor, and whose quartet recordings in this century are legendary, was an inspiration to all. “I've played on nine or ten albums with William as a leader,” says Yamamoto. “He's really been an eye opener for me. It was like he reminded me, 'Ah, I can be free!' And he always writes great melodies, which is very natural for me: start with a good melody, and have a lot of open space.”

With only those sentiments and a brief introductory chat guiding them, the players created these pieces on the spot. And like a strong line in visual art, a spontaneous, striking melody typically jumpstarts each performance on Sparks. That's always been at the core of Yamamoto's playing. “Growing up in Kyoto, I was surrounded by a lot of traditional Japanese music, with very minimalist melodies. I started writing music when I was eight, and I still write the same way. It all starts when I hum some melody. But even with my composed tunes, my approach is to leave a lot of space for musicians to go beyond the form.”

Space is another key element on this album. “Kyoto is a very old city, with a lot of shrines and temples,” says Yamamoto. “And zen philosophy is very prominent there. Sometimes emptiness is more full of feeling.” The space is crucial to even the more lively passages. When Parker announces, “I can pull an old rabbit out of the hat” and launches the swinging “Bob's Pink Cadillac,” Fowler and Hirsh immediately pick up on the groove, spontaneously evoking the classic trio sound of, say, Sonny Rollins' Way Out West. Yamamoto is content to listen, until she's not: reaching into the piano with her left hand, her right hand chops the keys like rim shots. As the tune evolves, Fowler squawks, Hirsh rolls, and Yamamoto is up and down from her seat, first muting strings, then playing traditionally, then plucking the strings like a ragged harp.

“That was completely spontaneous. I don't plan anything, in general. Then after I play, I don't remember anything,” Yamamoto laughs, recalling the performance. “But the piano is a percussion instrument, after all. On that one particular tune, I felt, 'I'm gonna wait until the moment comes.' And then, Boom!”

Such dynamics were typical of the day. As Fowler notes, “We expected this session to be laid back. And there are some moments of beauty and tenderness, but it was anything but mellow, overall.” That's partly thanks to Hirsh's perceptive drumming, ranging from the gentle rattle of shells to to full on Klook-mopping and bomb-dropping as the intensity demands.

Ultimately, the rapid-fire energy, the screeching and hammering, was a natural corollary to the music's spaciousness. For Yamamoto, it's all about dramatic juxtapositions. “I always like contrast in music,” she reflects. “Or in anything. Paintings, poems. The contrast makes art, especially music, more interesting. When I play something, yes, at some points the dynamics get very intense with more notes, but after that, in contrast, having a chunk of space is pretty powerful. That empty spot has more meaning. So I try not to do too much all the time. If I say something, then in the other spot I want to have a chunk of space.”

The miracle of these performances was how well each player tuned in to the others' dynamics, in the moment. Though Fowler and Yamamoto had each played with Parker separately, the saxophonist and pianist had never played together. As it turned out, they surprised each other with some distinctly Asian touchstones at the core of their playing. “'Taiko' is named after my Japanese grandmother, Taiko 'Jean' Sawyer, who passed at 92 in late April of last year,” says Fowler. “Before we started it, I asked the group to play something as a memorial for a lost loved one. My playing references some music of meaning to my grandma, including a minor key version of 'You Are My Sunshine,' her favorite song. None of that was planned, but it came out as we went.”

All told, there's an infectious joy felt as these players encounter each other in this arrangement for the first time. As Yamamoto says, “That was the first time I'd been in a recording studio for a year and half. New York City was locked down for a long time. And I'd never played with Chad or Steve before. But I could tell, just from our first greeting, that we could trust each other. So, returning to the studio with such wonderful musicians, I felt so alive. I said to myself, 'Yes! Yes!'”

She pauses and reflects on the final product. “The four of us really made one music together. Everything was just one take, and I think we really blended well. No one was shy. We just trusted each other and made one sound. Instead of going, 'I'm saying blah blah blah,' and then answering, 'da da da da,' we made one moment together. Spontaneous folk music. Improvising that moment together.”

April 29 - Full Album

LIVE DATES

April 26 - Album Release Party - Brooklyn, NY @ Bar Lunatico - LINKhttps://www.barlunatico.com/calendar/2022/4/26/eri-yamamotowilliam-parkerchad-fowlersteve-hirsh
April 30 - Radio Appearance on WFMU's Music For a Free World with Dave Sewelson
June 24 - Vision Festival NYC - Full Schedule
https://jazztimes.com/festivals-events/lineups/2022-vision-festival-lineup-announced/

LINKS
Chad Fowler: Website || Instagram
Steve Hirsh: Website || Instagram
William Parker: Website || Instagram
Eri Yamamoto: Website || Instagram
Mahakala Records: Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram || Bandcamp

ALBUM CREDITS

Eri Yamamoto – piano
Chad Fowler – stritch and saxello
William Parker – bass
Steve Hirsh - drums

CONTACTS
Press: Gabriel Birnbaum, Gabe at clandestinepr.com
Radio: Evan Welsh, radio at clandestinelabelservices.com

really enjoying melissa aldana's 12 stars

More Miles from xpost The Heat Warps: the same run of shows that gave us Black Beauty (not incl. among these tapes, because officially released:

OTD in 1970, Miles wraps a 4-night stand with the Grateful Dead at Fillmore West.

“What’s the use? How can we possibly play after this? We should just go home and try to digest this unbelievable shit." -Phil Lesh https://t.co/pW1gDy4zqg

— the Heat Warps (@theheatwarps) April 12, 2022

Really enjoying that Yamamoto.

Actually a septet, he corrects later, says he's in denial of Dominique Gaumont's departure:

Today’s tape: The Miles Davis octet ends a brief California run with 4 nights at the Troubadour.

Oscillating between waves of unreal intensity and stretches of near-silence, this is the final tape before the Japanese tour that produced Agharta & Pangaea. https://t.co/ofDrjBoA9n

— the Heat Warps (@theheatwarps) April 14, 2022

How did I not know about Jessica Williams?!

David Bianculli: For over 30 years on our show, we have played recordings by pianist and composer Jessica Williams. We were sorry to learn that she passed away last month on March 10, a week before her 74th birthday, after a period of declining health. She leaves behind dozens of great solo and trio recordings. For several years, Jessica Williams was the house pianist at the Keystone Korner jazz club in San Francisco, where she played with jazz giants, like saxophonists Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz and Charlie Rouse, and drummers Philly Joe Jones and Tony Williams, both of whom she became close to. McCoy Tyner and Dave Brubeck were among the jazz pianists who singled her out for her spectacular playing.

In 1994, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition. After years of trying, we finally were able to bring her to Philadelphia in 1997 to play on FRESH AIR. In a few minutes, we'll hear that performance and the interview she did with Terry. But first, a brief appreciation from our executive producer, Danny Miller.

So Miller plays some favorite Williams tracks, then she demonstrates some ideas she got and adapted from Monk, Garner, Rollins, and, lately stride pianists---good talk, good-to-fairly dazzling music, much more of the latter:
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/15/1093047427/remembering-jazz-pianist-and-composer-jessica-williams

I'm not familiar with her at all either! Will definitely listen.

Same here. I hadn’t heard about her at all until my kid’s piano teacher told me of her passing.

My new Stereogum column is up. One commenter fixed on my use of the phrase "highly complex composition in the 'Brooklyn jazz by white people' tradition" but, come on, you can't deny that it's a tradition, school, whatever. I even defined it in a parenthetical - "(long, post-Tim Berne melody lines; intricate tumbling rhythms; sculpted electronic noise; more juxtaposition than harmony)". It's a thing. And I wasn't even defining it pejoratively!

Cool, but couldn't you describe a fair amount of jazz by black people the same way? In the same age group, but---maybe more in Chicago than Brooklyn?

Where black people making that kind of music are more concentrated, that is (or that's just where I here it more from, while not living in either city)

xp yo Sund4r Another guitar trip 4 U, 4 any1 who can dig thee 1981 Middle Eastern answer to 1969 John McLaughlin x Dick Dale's proud roots, lacking a better description, and I'm disgusted with myself for not saying more in these Pazz & Jop comments for 2014:

Omar Khorshid and His Group
Live in Australia 1981
Post-surf electric Eastern modal clarity in waves, wires (duh), and other forms.
Sound quality doesn't bother me at all, though if I knew his studio, suppose it might. Can always turn it up. The excitement of music and audience def cuts through.

Haven't got time to check if this is the whole thing, but here's at least some of the live album, with other excerpts also on YouTube:
http
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrQSA0buXmU&list=RDJrQSA0buXmU&start_radio=1&rv=JrQSA0buXmU&t=2

The "In the Garden" clip is wonderful!

Man, thanks for the Omar Khorshid mention, I wasn't familiar with him, he's awesome. Egyptian surf-Morricone guitar, good stuff. His tone is great and his solos are astounding. Like check him out here from about 2:55 on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STw2KAShz7E

Oh, you're welcome---also, I finally thought to check Amazon and see that he's got several albums there, incl. the Australian show.

Today’s tapes: Miles begins a 3-week tour of Japan with a pair of thrilling nights in Tokyo. 🇯🇵

Intensely funky and frequently disorienting, these 2 tapes capture a band intent on rebirth and on the path to assuming its final form. https://t.co/MlyAlmw1bL

— the Heat Warps (@theheatwarps) April 22, 2022

I love this shot of Mingus and Max Roach *in the audience* at Newport. Who’s set were they watching? 1962. pic.twitter.com/zsRX6WB6FD

— Brad Farberman (@BradFarberman) April 22, 2022

Reminding me of this good 1961 album:

Newport Rebels
Charles Mingus
Max Roach
Eric Dolphy
Roy Haynes
Jo Jones
Jazz Artists Guild
...AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow states: "In 1960 bassist Charles Mingus helped to organize an alternative Newport Jazz Festival in protest of Newport's conservative and increasingly commercial booking policy. The music on this LP (which has been reissued on CD) features some of the musicians who participated in Mingus's worthy if short-lived venture".[2]

Actually recorded in a New York studio, I think, but quite lively even if not live, and dig full cast:

Personnel
Roy Eldridge (tracks 1, 3 & 5), Booker Little (track 2), Benny Bailey (track 4) - trumpet
Jimmy Knepper (track 1), Julian Priester (track 2) - trombone
Eric Dolphy - alto saxophone (tracks 1 & 4)
Walter Benton - tenor saxophone (track 2)
Tommy Flanagan (tracks 1, 3 & 5), Kenny Dorham (track 4) - piano
Charles Mingus (tracks 1, 3 & 5), Peck Morrison (tracks 2 & 4) – bass
Jo Jones (all tracks), Max Roach (track 2) - drums
Abbey Lincoln - vocals (track 4)

Via the same links, check also (as we heat warp through electric Miles appearances from 1969 to 197?) the Brazil '74 shows with his three-guitar band (yo Sund4r)

dow, are you behind this site? I'm listening to the 1975.05.25 Rio gig right now and it sounds amazing.

That Paul Motian documentary is awesome. I could watch movies about these dudes playing jazz in NY all the time. I do wish they do some side thing and put together a collection of full performances via playlist on Youtube also. Seems kind of a cool thing that can be with so much archived material, probably take licensing to get the ECM stuff to happen.

Steve Swallow and Carla Bley are pretty awesome. I think they are pretty interesting people and have been tied to a whole lot of good music. That 1 hour interview one of the NY jazz school did with Swallow about his history is really good - he played with some of the OLD timers (pre swing) playing in Dixieland bands.

Looks like an interesting music scene and this documentary is a pretty neat look in.

I don’t really like a lot of Motian’s music under his own name (that trio with Frisell and Lovano made some of the least compelling music ever) but the documentary was pretty interesting. I liked him with Jarrett, with and without Redman.

I've never really had time to check out much of his stuff. I'm sure some of it is better than others but probably worth a hearing.

From the video, you can see Motian is a really different drummer. He does seem to like go from zero to smacking the crap out of some drums and cymbals. It kind of reminds me a bit of those odd rhythmic spikes someone like Monk would play. It's like listen to the beat HERE.

The guy I would like to know more about is Jack DeJohnette out of that ECM scene etc. That guy took a very different direction considering where jazz was at with fusion to go make some different spectrum stuff with the European ties. He's got a few different regular bands or at least worked together for quite a few years.

dow, are you behind this site? I'm listening to the 1975.05.25 Rio gig right now and it sounds amazing.

*1974.05.25

I was gonna say, don't think they've gotten to *those* '75 gigs yet, if he went back through Brazil after the (currently featured) Japan gigs, which, in his case, might be possible---and no, I'm not behind that site, except in the sense of running along behind, trying to keep up!

In 1970, just four months before his death, the avant-jazz saxophonist played two concerts to a rapturous crowd in France. A new 5xLP set collects the complete recordings for the first time.

New Chloe Jackson-Reynolds coming out this week.

I interviewed Flora Purim for Bandcamp. She's got a new album out, her first studio recordings in almost 20 years. Some interesting stories about Miles Davis, Chick Corea, George Duke and others.

Nice!

Preview tracks sound great. Glad to see Airto is still with us too, although apparently he doesn't play on this? I guess he is 80.

(although so is she, amazing)

Airto's on it. He's not playing the cuica, thankfully.

boooo

Would FP you but what's the point really

"What if we trapped a monkey in a paint can and shook it on the beat?"

Never change.

When I die and go to hell, I will hear soprano sax/cuica duos forever.

Today’s tape: The Miles Davis septet hits Kokura with a remarkably funky, downright jubilant pair of set featuring an “Ife” for the ages.

A night/day difference from the Agharta/Pangaea shows recorded just 2 days later.https://t.co/PSn8sLvqbl

— the Heat Warps (@theheatwarps) April 28, 2022

xpost Airto said that he and his friends loved Stan Getz, but considered the bossa nova albums to be "comedy records."

The East Village Other, 1966 pic.twitter.com/eTfr2bhZXN

— Kehinde 🇳🇬 (@kalonge93) April 28, 2022

xpost Airto said that he and his friends loved Stan Getz, but considered the bossa nova albums to be "comedy records."

Wait, Bryan McCann wrote a 33 1/3 about Getz/Gilberto and nobody told me?

That book has a lot of great context on Brazilian cultural history and the birth of bossa nova, and then its popularization in the States. It goes well beyond the circumstances of that particular record.
I'm listening to last year's compilation Directions in Music 1969 to 1973: Miles Davis his musicians and the birth of a new age of jazz. I already knew three of the tracks and I'm sure people on this thread would know more. The path the compilers chose seems to have been to emphasize the multiplicity of, uh, directions that the music took; there's almost nothing that you could imagine on a Miles album. So it's eye-opening but certainly not a smooth, coherent listen.

I can believe it. Some other stuff I’ve read by him is amazing.

His book Hello, Hello Brazil: Popular Music in the Making of Modern Brazil is incredibly good.

I can't believe I've never heard of this album before now, but I'm listening to "Night Train" saxophonist Jimmy Forrest's All The Gin Is Gone and it's fantastic. Forrest started out as an R&B player before turning to hard bop, and this album features Harold Mabern on piano, Grant Green (making his debut!) on guitar, Gene Ramey on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. It was recorded in 1959, but wasn't released until 1965. It's on Delmark, and is easy to find on all the streaming services.

Damn reminds me I used to see that in the Delmark catalog, but let myself fall of their mailing list----he also did Live At The Barrel with Miles Davis, and it's been around under several titles, vinyl and CD---here's some (with an mp3 link, also a download option right under the vid, like that's an official YouTube feature now, though I
m guessing not--some other tracks from this are also posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElgNAg2OtJ4

I'm curious and want to to know where to look on Larry Goldings' long discography. I'm betting a bunch of those records are worth hearing as I really like Bill Stewarts drumming with John Scofield, his drums really breathe and kinda got his own style. That trio record Golding did with Scofield and DeJohnette is really agressive too.

Goldings has done a bunch of records with Stewart on drums and the guitarist Peter Bernstein. I'm kind of curious to what that band sounds like and considering they got like 10+ records together or with some others, how it has changed over that long a period of time. Any takers?

Haven’t listened to all those records but did see that trio live and they were pretty damn good.

Brave New World Trio featuring David Murray (ts), Brad Jones (b) and Hamid Drake (d) will release their first album Seriana Promethea on May 20.

Album coming from virtuoso youtube sensations DOMi & J.D. Beck (sounds like Thundercat on there too), on Anderson Paak's label:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmRppchB8vs

Much respect to @thomaspinnock for this superb cover story on the electric period!

The roll call of former band members he interviewed for this piece is amazing but to be quoted among them is truly surreal. pic.twitter.com/lAuz3AxRH9

— the Heat Warps (@theheatwarps) May 7, 2022

I was reading a review of the Where Is Brooklyn re-issue and thought I'd give it a listen cos I'm only vaguely familiar with it and remembered that I love just about anything with a Grimes/Blackwell rhythm section

otm.

Did not know about this collab

https://s3.amazonaws.com/broadtime_thumbnails/409/418466446409/418466446409:1000.jpg

Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk [Deluxe Edition] Available in CD and LP Rel. Date: 05/20/2022

DISC: 1

1. Evidence (with Thelonious Monk) [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
2. In Walked Bud (with Thelonious Monk) [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
3. Blue Monk (with Thelonious Monk) [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
4. I Mean You (with Thelonious Monk) [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
5. Rhythm-A-Ning (with Thelonious Monk) [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
6. Purple Shades (with Thelonious Monk) [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers

DISC: 2

1. Evidence (Take 2) [with Thelonious Monk] [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
2. In Walked Bud (Take 2) [with Thelonious Monk] [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
3. Blue Monk (Take 9) [with Thelonious Monk] [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
4. I Mean You (Take 3) [with Thelonious Monk] [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
5. Rhythm-A-Ning (Take 2) [with Thelonious Monk] [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
6. Purple Shades (Take 4) [with Thelonious Monk] [2022 Remaster] - By Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers

In May of 1957, Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers went into the studio with Thelonious Monk to record a one-off album for Atlantic. The Jazz Messengers were a loose collective of young Jazz musicians, with a constantly rotating lineup to keep the music fresh and help launch new careers. In this iteration we find Art Blakey on drums, Thelonious Monk on piano, Johnny Griffin on tenor saxophone, Bill Hardman on trumpet and Spanky DeBrest on bass. Blakey had recorded with Monk on various occasions, but this was the first time Monk sat in with the Jazz Messengers. This also marks Thelonious Monk’s only appearance on Atlantic Records. The result is a true meeting of the minds, a beautiful union of Monk’s melodies with Blakey’s unshakable sense of swing. This 65th Anniversary deluxe edition includes an extra disc ofunreleased outtakes, celebrating the most sensational jazz collaboration of the 1950s.

Not sure if this belongs here or in the ambient thread but it's wonderful, therapeutic ambient jazz. Lynn Avery & Cole Pulice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZr8T86ujM8

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lynn-avery-cole-pulice-to-live-and-die-in-space-and-time/

Like almost everything they have done together, To Live & Die in Space & Time is as gentle as cherry blossoms on a spring breeze. Pulice plays saxophone and wind synthesizer, Avery plays piano and synthesizer, and both are credited with additional electronics, which they tend to daub on in translucent background layers. The music is too lush to be called minimal, at least by the term’s more austerely digital connotations, but they keep their tools simple, their tempos slow, and their playing unfussy. Channeling a mix of whimsy and wide-eyed wonder, they come off a little bit like contemporary heirs of Penguin Cafe Orchestra, a Brian Eno-produced group that spun bits of folk, jazz, and classical into a loose ambient weave; another reference point might be the new-age jazz of the British group Dif Juz’s 1985 album Extractions and their Elizabeth Fraser collaboration “Love Insane.”

Spanky DeBrest

not one, but TWO Mary Halvorson albums out today.

Both are tremendous! Exceeding my already-high expectations.

Guardian jazz album of the month: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/may/13/mary-halvorson-amaryllisbelladonna-review-new-landmarks-in-an-inimitable-jazz-discography

Amaryllis is extremely fucking tremendous indeed! I haven't even got to t'other one yet.

not really got anything incisive to say other than I think she's a singularly great artiste ploughing her own distinctive path and bits of it made me think of Carla Bley and George Lewis.

Both are glorious, Amaryllis esp! It does feel like she's having a bit of a moment currently.

It does feel like she's having a bit of a moment currently.

The music's great (I prefer the out-jazz one to the strings one, so far), but moving from Firehouse 12 to Nonesuch will do this for a person.

Seeing Charlie Hunter & Scott Amendola tomorrow, should be pretty fun live

Indexed, I've been bumping that Lynn Avery/Cole Pulice record since it came out a few months ago— really great stuff.

Yeah that one is really nice. I quite liked the label sampler Moon Glyph put out last year, though I've been slow to actually dig into the catalog: https://moonglyph.bandcamp.com/album/amethyst-new-sounds-from-moon-glyph-records

Not much of it is "jazz" I should mention

New Bad Plus album with the pianoless quartet lineup coming in September. Here's the first song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_Grt0-y4bM

It's good, but I don't see what makes this the Bad Plus rather than just the Chris Speed/Ben Monder/Reid Anderson/Dave King Quartet.

Sounds great (nice to hear some serious compression on the drums again, rather than the very unadorned jazz sound they've had on their last few recordings).

It's hard to articulate, but when I saw this lineup live it felt very "Bad Plus-y" throughout the whole night, although in a different way than with the trio. An intense focus on mood and melody rather than on soloing, in a way that's distinct from when I've seen the members in different groups, for one? And 100% of the tunes were originals by Reid or Dave.

It might make sense to think of this as a new band rather than "the Bad Plus", but it's very much a band and has a lot in common with the goals & aesthetic of the Bad Plus, in my mind.

And 100% of the tunes were originals by Reid or Dave.

Tbf this is actually not what the Bad Plus was mainly known for! This also sounds more focused on mood and melody than the Iverson-era group to me. It's nice, though!

That's true, to most people they're "that band that does jazz versions of Nirvana and Aphex Twin", even though they've probably always done at least as many originals as covers. And this band dispenses with the more "humorous" side of things, it's all pretty serious and emotional.

Monder is almost playing like he could be in an atmospheric postpunk group or on an ambient record.

Totally, his stuff was reaaally textural and in the background live, and even his solos were more like rock shredding, but kind of quiet and acting like white noise. Like no treble or transients at all. I'm pretty curious to hear how that sounds on the rest of the record.

RIP 55 Bar.

I didn't go there myself too often but still.

My latest Stereogum column is up. I interviewed South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, who told me he's been listening to Matthew Shipp and Andrew Hill and explained the spiritual concept of Ntu to me.

Oh yeah, RIP 55 Bar, RIP fusion. Glad I got to go there that one time and see Ari Hoenig.

(not that Ari Hoenig is fusion, but I guess I associate the 55 Bar more with that Wayne Krantz type thing)

one from thee aromatic tyme capsule, my friends: Richard C. Walls considers a Shepp platter I'd never heard of, for the earliest issue of Creem in for-now free archive (you may or may not have to create an account, as I already had before searching, but simple enough):https://archive.creem.com/article/1969/03/01/archie-shepp

I should really go see Makaya tonight, but could use a night in. I should really go though.

Thumbscrew tonight at Blues Alley

Latest episode of Jazz Police https://www.mixcloud.com/RepeaterRadio/jazz-police-live-with-stewart-smith-4/?fbclid=IwAR2EeplxrakwFZKIGwWcUQJz58GGGioyuvHfEKvA09hfOPYyu-Pg0_qDDyQ

Music from Brandon Seabrook, Cooper Moore, Gerald Cleaver, Kaja Draksler, Zoh Amba, Devin Brahja Waldman & Hamid Drake and much more!

New Cecil Taylor album out today — Respiration, a solo performance recorded by Polish radio in October 1968. One of the earliest known solo Cecil recordings — only Praxis, from April 1968, is earlier, and that's been out of print for decades.

great mix Stew, thanks for posting! the peachfuzz is a particularly nice find:

https://silentwater.bandcamp.com/album/peachinguinha

unperson, i really enjoyed the makhathini interview, will be ordering the record.

for my part i was excited to hear there was a new szun waves record on the way, but i was pretty underwhelmed by the sample track:

https://szunwaves.bandcamp.com/album/earth-patterns

Thanks Budo Jeru - I've reviewed the Peachfuzz album for the forthcoming Wire. Joao Almeida is doing loads of great stuff - definitely one to watch.

Don't think there's been much chat about Zoh Amba on here - really impressive young talent. Both her Tzadik and 577 albums are excellent and there's another on the way!

Re: Zoh Amba. Ok I’m inherently suspicious of overnight success—how does some one so young arrive in New York last autumn and then they’re playing with the cream of the NYC jazz crop? But I should shut up and listen first without prejudice.

I've listened to her two albums and so far I'm not amazed. Reminds me of when Assif Tsahar popped up 20 years ago or so and all I could hear when I listened to his music was his record collection — it was all imitation Ayler, imitation Coltrane, imitation Pharoah. In her case I hear a lot of Ayler and a little Charles Gayle, but there's not much there yet beyond waves of youthful energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rFCqxsdLaQ

This set (with Gabby Fluke-Mogul on violin and Luke Stewart and Tcheser Holmes of Irreversible Entanglements on bass and drums) is better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1HPp49HV6w

Take your point re the Ayler and Gaye influences - particularly apparent on the 577 set - but I like what she does with them and her rapport with Micah Thomas on piano is really strong. Can understand the wariness over too-much-too-soon hype, but she'll only get better. gabby fluke-mogul and Luke Stewart are killing it atm so look forward to checking this later.

Thread:

Hassan Ibn Ali was a virtuosic pianist whose mysterious style evokes images of gnashing gears and surreal bell choirs. The Philadelphia legend influenced Coltrane, Jimmy Heath, and Odean Pope, but was seldom recorded, releasing only one album in his lifetime. pic.twitter.com/mJO3WYwPM4

— WKCR-FM NY (@WKCRFM) May 28, 2022

Sorry for posting after the (Eastern) showtime, but just now saw it.

do any of you know anything about the (apparently) finnish WE JAZZ zine?

oh looks like Stew you actually wrote a piece for 'em?

I think both Stew and I have written for it. (I have a feature on Joel Ross in the latest issue, as well as a roundup of several recent albums on Posi-Tone.) It's a really good magazine - the new issue has a great, thought-provoking essay positing smooth jazz as a form of radical Black art, arguing that screechy avant-garde jazz is actually a somewhat reactionary style that plays into white bourgeois/middlebrow tastes while smooth jazz represents aspiration. I'd recommend buying the mag for that piece alone.

Yes, that's a really good piece. Could so easily have been tediously contrarian or reductively pseudo-Marxist (like that Jacobin piece), but it's subtly done and genuinely has you thinking about taste and aesthetics, while also introducing you to some interesting sounding music.

Really enjoying writing for We Jazz. They're open to all sorts of weird/obscure stuff, so I was able to go deep on Scottish free improvisation label Scatter for the first issue, and Pat Thomas's great lost jungle album from 1997 in the forthcoming one. Got a few other bits coming up too.

that's all very good to know, thanks you two.

speaking of pat thomas, here's an interesting newish one on 577 records. might not be for everybody but as a reactionary, middlebrow dimwit it suits me just fine :)

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

Cracking record this, as is his Scandinavia trio record that's also coming out on 577. Black Top played with Chris Corsano at Cafe Oto last week - really hope a recording comes out of that. I'll see Pat twice this weekend at Moers - with Ahmed and with Assif Tshasa. He's an incredible artist - an absolutely beautiful player and so open and free. Was great to see him get some decent prize money recently - he deserves it.

A thought re Francis Goodings' smooth jazz article, some of the stuff he describes sounds like it has a DIY home recorded feel which is quite appealing, even if it's a decade on from hypnagogic pop, chill wave etc. But it's probably more sonically interesting - and less smooth - than a lot of the coffee table nu-jazz stuff that's being touted by certain tastemakers.

Saw Birth last night (Joe Tomino aka drummer from Dub Trio/Joshua Smith/Jeremy Bleich) and it was an incredible set. As good as the Bad Plus or really anything I've seen in awhile, although it had a similar feel to the new TBP or Happy Apple in some ways.

In my mind they work in this upside-down way, where the saxophonist is constantly blowing but often in a quieter, background textural way and the real focus is on the rhythm section. Really on the drummer, who is incredible. He also fluidly incorporates his electronic thing too, where he grabs a mic and points it at a drum or cymbal as he's playing, which goes to his own mixer & effects setup where he's slamming faders and bringing it in and out with his playing, really cool.

Highly recommend catching them if you can, I think they're going Minneapolis (tonight) / Chicago / Detroit / Pittsburgh etc.

hmmm ... thinking about seeing them tonight, yeah

Just got Code Girl tickets for the 25th. Excited!

budo jeru, did you go?

Also had the thought while watching Birth that extended free playing is so much more satisfying when you know it will eventually resolve (elegantly) into a beat.

hi, no i didn't go. i got too tired.

do sincerely hope you continue to post about shows!

Saw a 1/2 hour doc on 1975 to 1993 DC label Black Fire records outside for free Saturday as part of the Home Rule Fest in Washington DC. Live music wise the event featured Doug Carn & band's Love Supreme homage (Carn was on the 70s Black Jazz label), David Murray and band's alternately out there and wistfully melodic jazz. TCB's uh out there bouncebeat go-go, and Black Fire records' Plunky & the Oneness of Juju's afro-funky, jazzy, go-go & a bit of old-school style rap. Not packed but a sizeable crowd. Record fair there too. Murray's band included Lafayette Gilchrist, Craig Harris, and others.

"out there gogo"?
...would very much like to hear...

Gilchrist is so great. I recorded a podcast interview with him but accidentally deleted the file.

Oh no. But yeah re Gilchrist. He was impressive

x-post- bouncebeat go-go rhythms pounded out rapidly on keyboards and rototom drums are not like traditional funk rooted go-go rhythms . TCB Bouncebeat Kings have some live shows on Youtube and on streaming services

David Murray's son Mingus Murray played guitar with him

Oh yeah, I saw Lafayette Gilchrist with David Murray as well at The Jazz Standard (RIP) years ago. Really good.

Catching up on Nicholas Payton's 'Smoke Sessions' album and it's fantastic. Killer line-up: Ron Carter, Karriem Riggins, and George Coleman. I think he's putting out some of the best records of his career in the last few years (and playing piano too!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5JHLmh9rb8

Will check, thanks----meanwhile, jazz is where you find it, and I'm smitten by this Sudanese ballad: hybrid guitar, normie rhythm guitar, bass, perc., just the right bits of tenor sax (most other tracks are faster, equally thoughtful grooves, and the finale has its own dynamic)::https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/track/jabana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XwKYYFvcDo
Izinkonjana - Nduduzo Makhathini Quartet live at Vermont Jazz Center

dow, cool record! Although it's weird that they call it "Electric Soul & Brass" when there are no brass instruments on it.

I'm eagerly anticipating seeing the Brian Blade Fellowship for the first time tomorrow. My band is playing afterwards and I will update if BB decides to sit in on cowbell. :)

Christian McBride is playing on Sunday, but I don't think I'll be able to make it unfortunately.

Cool. My man Alex Brown was playing with him for a while. Heard he was back in town but have yet to cross paths with him.

Jazz On A Summer's Day about to start on TCM.

really loving this brodie west quintet record from march:

https://astralbrodiewestquintet.bandcamp.com

My latest Stereogum column is up. I wrote about jazz movies after buying the Criterion Blu-Ray of 'Round Midnight and watching Clint Eastwood's Bird and re-watching Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues. Also, new releases from Aaron Parks, Matthew Shipp, Oliver Lake (with Sonic Liberation Front), Cecil Taylor (solo live from 1968), Freddie Hubbard (amazing live stuff from 1973), South African saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane, and others.

wow this I AM album is immense

Brian Blade & the Fellowship were absolutely incredible. They really just have their own world. He's such a master, really puts most other great drummers to shame in terms of dynamics and sheer musicality. Like, he picks his moments to go big, and no one else would pick those moments.

He's such a master, really puts most other great drummers to shame in terms of dynamics and sheer musicality. Like, he picks his moments to go big, and no one else would pick those moments.

Agree; I saw him years ago with Wayne Shorter's quartet and there was one moment when a piece seemed to be winding down and he decided that was when he was gonna take a solo that sounded like he was trying to hammer the kit apart. When he slammed his first huge snare hit, Shorter (who had been leaning against the piano, head down) snapped up and looked across the stage like he didn't know whether to laugh or just yelp in surprise. It was kinda hilarious, but of course the solo Blade built was absolutely brilliant, and ratcheted the entire set up to another level.

I’m in NYC for my first-ever Vision Festival (had wanted to go for years, never could). Tonight is the Wadada Leo Smith Celebration.

wow this I AM album is immense

― rob, Tuesday, June 21, 2022 2:05 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol i hated this

i did like the chosen few record from last year fwiw. but this new duo one just sounds like cosplay to me.

LP i'm loving today is the new joel ross, THE PARABLE OF THE POET. really nice harmonic stuff going on that is sure to please fans of classic-era abdullah ibrahim

Pretty cool feature on Freddy Hubbard on American Routes this past week I caught.

https://www.wwno.org/show/american-routes/2022-06-17/american-routes-shortcuts-freddie-hubbard

Cool dude, went through some serious BS.

funny, budo jeru, I was totally unimpressed by the Brodie West record— might have been my mood, might have been that I was expecting a completely different vibe based on the title and cover, but in the end, I just can't *remember* anything about it, even after a few listens.

I may have to turn in my jazz fan card but I didn’t know Hubbard is still alive.How long has it been since he’s played?

Hubbard died in 2008.

Ok really turning in my jazz fan card.

it seems like we can't agree on anything in this thread!

I saw him in an elevator once at The Collective so that must have been…must have been…

Early 90s. He was rehearsing with Betty Carter.

Guess it must have been 1990, for this album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTy9I79f4i8

See also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym_yvXemJpo

yeah, that's a good interview with Hubbard, and good musical excerpts for the context ( also good anyway, as expected)

Been a long time since I'd heard his hit "Backlash," and I think he alludes to some jazzbos thinking it's too commercial, of course---and some of them might have looked down on Lou Donaldson's striking "Blues Walk," which I'd never heard 'til it ended the hour of Hubbard's segment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liy9tw03p1I

Which reminds me of another American Routes interview: Bob Porter, talking about his book Soul J Jazz and playing good excerpts, also some whole tracks, by artists incl. Donaldson, Hank Crawford, a bunch of organ trios (had to have showmanship to stand out in all those, whom club runners loved to book cause only had to pay three guys, if any), also Grant Green, eventually some fusioneers.
Have seen mixed online reviews of the book, like jazzbos complaining about why all this Duke Ellington rehash because of connections w Wild Bill Davis etc, but having heard the interview and music therein, also a few more things like "Blues Walk" since, I'd like to read it---here's a page from Google Books, showing some of the artists he covers:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Soul_Jazz/XgeODQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1

Sorry I typo'd the title; it's Soul Jazz: Jazz in the Black Community, 1945-1975.

Here's the page I meant to link:

https://books.google.com/books/publisher/content?id=XgeODQAAQBAJ&pg=PT4&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&bul=1&sig=ACfU3U2vRoQeEKToXpi9yFKIMiheBQ6WSA&w=1280

The local station still plays some bad examples of this at times, but Porter showed me there was more to it (I did already enjoy Hank Crawford, esp. w Jimmy McGriff, also *some* Grant Green, Jimmy Smith, and guess Charles Earland would fit w some of the later artists he mentions).

The book was definitely not everything it could have been, but as a corrective to 50+ years of entrenched white critical narrative about which jazz “matters” and which jazz doesn’t, it’s fantastic that it exists at all.

here we go. recorded 2005, released 6/24, byard lancaster feat. khan jamal:

https://komosrecords.bandcamp.com/album/soul-unity

Yeah that Hubbard interview was an archive one, but they used it in last weeks show.

It's a really good show, I've listened to it over the years and they have covered a ton of stuff.

It's all old episodes now I think when they play them, but I love that Blues Before Sunrise show that was made out of Chicago too. They played some pretty crazy records on that one of blues and jazz.

This new album has taken a long time, and it’s still not ready, but Terrace Martin is producing it, and Thundercat, Robert Glasper and Kamasi Washington are gonna be on it, as is Kendrick Lamar. I’m looking to these guys for ideas, because this is their century, and I’m from the last century.

Yeah, Terrace Martin talked to me about the Herbie record last year. They’ve got hard drive after hard drive of material with absolutely head-spinning collaborators, but who knows when it’s gonna come out.

From American Routes' own archive, here's the streamable show with the Hubbard interview x music, in Hour 2---whole thing is pretty amazing (must dig up my ancient LP of Africa/Brass, though this listing reminds me I still need to get the complete sessions)http://americanroutes.wwno.org/archives/show/1278/Sounds-of-Freedom-Fontella-Bass-and-Freddie-Hubbard

Code Girl were a delight live, really tight and together while also stretching the songs out quite a bit in the solos. Amazing version of "Mexican War Streets" where Halvorson played a dazzling noisy solo using her looper and delay effects. My only gripe would be that it was impossible to see what she was doing behind her (two!) music stands.

what a nerd!

New Selebeyone just announced. I think this is the most advanced jazz-rap fusion out there, throwing 4/4 out the window and loading up on spectralism. The MCs are great too. Love the rhymes in Wolof. https://stevelehman.bandcamp.com/album/xaybu-the-unseen?from=fanpub_fnb

what a nerd!

Haha yeah she seems endearingly a bit like Fripp in terms of stage presence, a bit withdrawn and seated while the rest of the band stood, shredding a storm back in her corner.

https://division81records.bandcamp.com/

this new Isaiah Collier & Michael Shekwoaga (I Am Beyond) album is extremely good!

wow this I AM album is immense

― rob, Tuesday, June 21, 2022 2:05 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol i hated this

― budo jeru, Tuesday, June 21, 2022 4:42 PM (one week ago)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

and I'm actually curious what budo's objection was. I've had the "cosplay" reaction to some other nu-spiritual jazz stuff, but I thought this sounded pretty fresh

Yeah, I like it. Collier's doing good work — not wildly original, he's operating within a tradition, but it's clearly sincere.

The drummer is fucking ridiculously good.

Not sure about the use of reverb/delay. It feels like someone loaded up some Valhalla reverb and delay plugins and is just randomly pulling them up sometimes (usually too often, although then it feels weird when it goes back to the dry mix).

If you're going to take it there, it feels like it should be taken even further (like modulating the fx more, making it sound more musical). Also it's hard to do a dub mix on music that doesn't have any space.

The drummer is fucking ridiculously good.

this was my strongest impression too, not that I really know anything about drumming

sorry i never responded re: isaiah collier duo. i don't have a good answer, it just hit me weird. maybe will revisit. can't remember if i mentioned that i really loved the "cosmic transitions" LP from last year.

2022 first releases and reissues, hadn't heard about most of these:
https://perfectsounds.blogspot.com/2022/07/favorite-new-music-releases-and.html

smooth jazz as a form of radical Black art, arguing that screechy avant-garde jazz is actually a somewhat reactionary style that plays into white bourgeois/middlebrow tastes while smooth jazz represents aspiration.

Also of course, re some of the musical elements employed by artists discussed and linked on this & related threads:A catch-all thread for the current jazz scene in London, including Shabaka Hutchings, Yazz Ahmed, Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia, Camilla George, Theon Cross, Zara McFarlane, Daniel Casimir, SEED Ensemble,

(But I'll take the wilder stuff too, as will some of the people some of the time.)

Without having read that essay, I'd say that it would be easy to slip into the popism-as-rockism imitative fallacy of Authenticity, ignoring the subjective complexities of the actual listening experience.

thanks for that perfect sound link, stoked on the cyrille / parker / rava trio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKLT0KwpeXI

In my dives through Youtube, I came across a good one. This documentary "All You Need Is Jazz" from 1977 is well worth a watch. Lots of people show up and there is some excellent playing on the film. Worth a few if you have never seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM-q09ujllU

I really dug the George Shearing band clip. I guess put him on the list to check out. The lady jazz singer segment was pretty cool too, no idea who that might be. I was wondering if she was a UK singer.

smooth jazz as a form of radical Black art, arguing that screechy avant-garde jazz is actually a somewhat reactionary style that plays into white bourgeois/middlebrow tastes while smooth jazz represents aspiration.

Is the article readable online anywhere? Because this sounds like complete horseshit but I should probably read the original source first.

It's not, but here's a sample paragraph which kind of gets at the author's thesis:

No music involved with the record industry is free from commercialization, but the critical dismissal of smooth as overly commercial is revealing. Love is a revolutionary value. And against the backdrop of Black history in America, the desire for and celebration of Black material security is neither trivial nor necessarily reactionary. Jazz music which had seemed to encode or express Black political struggle, Black economic deprivation, or any kind of austere or esoteric spiritual doctrine had seemed acceptable to orthodox jazz critics and audiences. White listeners were willing to assimilate any amount of Black pain, historical suffering and political fury as entertainment, edification or both. But the turn toward Black love, optimism and worldly happiness was unpalatable and unassimilable to the hip, intellectual tastes of the jazz connoisseurs.

That last sentence, especially, goes rong, if you think of white heads among the loyal fans of, say, Sun Ra, Pharaoh Sanders, Lonnie Liston Smith, Kamasi Washington, Archie Shepp, Alice Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby, Andy Bey, or are these artists not Black (love, optimism, and [cosmic theatrical-poetic stylized idealist expression as a sensual-sensuous replenishment of] worldly happiness) for the doctrinaire (as anti-doctrinaire) author? This is what I suspected re popist-as-rockist fallacy etc.

And I've known plenty of whites who like smooth jazz, though the author may consider that they can't really get it/like it for bad reasons.

Yeah, almost every part of that sounds dubious to me. "White listeners" (or listeners of any race tbh) were not in significant numbers willing to assimilate any amount of challenging avant-garde jazz, fairly obviously, and were not averse to smooth jazz - it did not achieve mainstream commercial success without appealing to white listeners. If the Peter Brotzmanns of the world could assimilate the ideas in free jazz, surely artists from Steely Dan to Kenny G to whoever does the music for the Weather Channel have been able to assimilate smoother sounds for plenty of white listeners? Aspiring to material security is perfectly valid and respectable but was not some radical new idea for a popular, or even jazz, musician. And seeking respect from the intelligentsia, I'd that's even what free artists were doing, is no less aspirational. And like dow notes, identifying free jazz with struggle and strife and smooth jazz with love and optimism seems far too broad. Maybe there are some more compelling arguments and examples given on the article?

*if that's even what free artists were doing

I don't hate smooth jazz btw, nor do I unequivocally love free jazz.

even though i've been meaning to acquire that issue of the We Jazz zine, i have to admit that the quoted smooth jazz article sounds fucking dreadful

the champion of Nas said he had more street cred because he was more commercial, like his real people had to be

Other way around surely?

The article is more nuanced than smooth good, free bad - I don't think the writer thinks that at all - and it's much more substantial than that clickbait Jacobin article with its populist championing of Kenny G et al. Behind the provocative thesis is a deep dive into the strange world of obscure and private press smooth jazz which is where the real interest lies. I've yet to follow up the recommendations, but there's some stuff on there that definitely appeals along the lines of wonky homemade takes on slick commercial forms.

Caught both the Tord Gustavsen Trio and François Houle 4 (w Gordon Gdina, Gerry Hemingway, Mark Helias) Saturday night. Both really good. Gustavsen's group manages to really stretch out the tunes with a lot of sonic exploration while always keeping things ear-pleasing and relatively chill. Included takes on Bach's "Jesu meine freude" harmonization and Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne". Houle's group was a needed wake-up afterwards, really energetic modern creative music with a good balance between notated material and out improv. Gdina's playing is reminiscent of Sonny Sharrock at times. Kamasi Washington last night. Not quite as thrilling for me but a really fun time.

Looks amazing Sund4r. also definitely appeals along the lines of wonky homemade takes on slick commercial forms. Definitely!

Cool, Stew. I'm not at all averse to hearing an indie slant on smooth jazz.

Although I imagine that would make it less smooth.

The new Anna Butterss album is excellent: https://annabutterss.bandcamp.com/album/activities

Wow just heard title track (chess date piano trio groove ballad) of this new alb on radio:
https://armendonelian.bandcamp.com/album/fresh-start"> https://armendonelian.bandcamp.com/album/fresh-start

Flora Purim bootleg @ Terminal Island 1975, which “Purim persuaded the prison authorities to let her stage.” Feat. Airto, Cannonball Adderley, George Duke, Miroslaw Vitous, Raoul de Souza, & Ndugu Chanclerhttps://t.co/Ur2xHc41CG

— jeff (@jazyjef) July 12, 2022

wiki:

Purim was imprisoned at Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island in Los Angeles, California in August 1974 for cocaine possession; she was given the inmate number 2775. During her year and a half imprisonment from 1974 to 1976, she organized a concert on March 3, 1976, which brought in some famous musicians from the outside: Cannonball Adderley, George Duke, Airto Moreira, Miroslav Vitouš, Raul de Souza and Leon "Ndugu" Chancler. Purim usually performed these concerts with little or no rehearsal time, for about an hour. One performance was broadcast on KBCA FM (105.1), an L.A.-based jazz station. Among the tunes they performed were Chick Corea's "Light as a Feather", "500 Miles High", and "Celebration Suite". This was the first time such a co-operation between civilians and inmates had ever taken place.[15]

Damn. Whole angle I did not realize.

I'm interested in that smooth vs free jazz article because I love both and don't really understand why people have to pit sounds against one another, but oh well.

I mean, I'm from Philadelphia, I grew up listening to both Sun Ra and Grover Washington Jr....like the techno producers who call all electronic dance music techno, all jazz is jazz to me. Some of it I like, some of it I don't, but I've never really said, "I dislike this type of jazz."

That's good, but you may be an exception. Ken Barnes, a media consultant as well as music writer, once said that there are enough fans to make jazz radio a commercially viable format, but many are too intolerant of different subgenres, also of some artists within the subgenre they do favor.

It's not really a new thing, I suppose Wes Montgomery's last studio records fall into a 'smooth' category and were both very popular with the public.

'Charlie Parker with Strings'

EKU's station does quite a bit of jazz programming along side news and classical music. I like Jazz Night in a America, that show always has some good stuff. I rarely know of any of the music, but it is all pretty well done.

Oh yeah, college/Public Radio do a lot, but far as I know, it's still rare to find a commercial station with a consistently jazz-related format, one that lasts very long, anyway. (NPR itself used to originate/distribute more jazz, judging by dead links.)

Like they had a live performance of Kamasi Washington's The Epic, with just the right interview clips: posted for a while, but it's long gone----they do still have a little collection of KW performances from various stations' live-in-the-studio sessions.

Aye, I love my skronk, but I also love my tunes and my grooves, and I'm quite fond of some smooth jazz through hip-hop samples and the like. Certainly object to smooth less than I do tasteful designer coffee table stuff, whether its ECM at its reverb drenched fjord evoking/orientalist worst or Floating Points style ambient guff.

You and I may be the only ones who can't float with FP: always put me right to sleep, literally, like I never want music to do---though if I did, would be great, admittedly (rec to insomniacs, no lie).

I don't like FP.

But I also love a lot of ECM stuff, more on the Tibbetts and Eberhard Weber end of things than the orientalist stuff tho.

I find the Nordic ambient jazz stuff on ECM to be soporific too. But so much of that label is great, including the classical.

Don't get me wrong, some amazing music on ECM, but when it's bad...

My fave ECM is Conference of the Birds, also dig some by DeJohnette, among others.

Speak of the xpost devils:

Doom & Gloom guest post! @AtBestIsKorny takes a deep dive into the Hermeto Pascoal / Airto Moreira / Flora Purim universe via a bunch of great live rarities. https://t.co/Qg7EgroyuK pic.twitter.com/qziFdd5h1w

— Tyler Wilcox (@tywilc) July 12, 2022

My interest level is increased by degrees of Hermeto.

The new Anna Butterss album is excellent: https://annabutterss.bandcamp.com/album/activities

― rob, Sunday, 10 July 2022 14:00 (one week ago)

Seconded! Has that chunky technicolour mid-90s-Money-Mark vibe that's so pleasurable - similar to last year's Ben LaMar Gay album.

Sounding great this morning. This is the kind of thing I read ILM for.

My first thought on hearing Jeff Parker's The New Breed was "Money Mark!", and yes, this has a similar feel.

Ha that's interesting, I only vaguely recall what Money Mark sounds like, but Activities definitely wouldn't sound out of place on Intl Anthem (while being v distinct in its own right imo—I need to relisten to it, but iirc it's more notably more spare than LaMar Gay's & Parker's albums). I was impressed by how much of it is entirely solo.

New Chloe Jackson-Reynolds coming out this week.

― And liberty she pirouette (Sund4r), Tuesday, April 26, 2022 8:42 AM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

just getting to this. awesome. i love her work.

https://sr3323.bandcamp.com/album/the-spring-concert

Yeah, it's really good!

I woke up Saturday thinking of Money Mark's Keyboard Repair, will have to check this out, thanks!

"waves crash" sounds like ... terry riley. except instead of a reed organ it's somebody actually overdubbing herself with various recorders, flutes, and saxophones. very awesome.

Good comparison!

Late last night Archie Shepp was talking about how he and Herbie Nichols used to play sessions together in the downtown loft that Shepp and Baraka shared. Shepp begged Nichols to start a group, didn’t happen. Now I am sharing the Nichols intv with Shepp.https://t.co/7Rp8FjgDcP

— Jason Moran (@morethan88) July 15, 2022

My latest Stereogum column is out. I interviewed Moor Mother about her new album, Woody Shaw, Amina Claudine Myers, and much more, and reviewed new records by Tyshawn Sorey, Tarbaby, Tumi Mogorosi, Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity, Thandi Ntuli, Theo Croker and more.

Thought for a second that said you interviewed Woody Shaw and did a double take.

New Bennie Maupin/Adam Rudolph thing on Strut is killer: https://adamrudolph.bandcamp.com/album/symphonic-tone-poem-for-brother-yusef

(where killer = meditative, spacious, full of weird clatter)

two thumbs up

I just did a long interview with Rudolph for my podcast; link is here. We talked about that album, the concept of "world music," and a whole lot more.

That is great, many thanks.

I also want to thank you, unperson, for turning me onto Binker Golding's new record. It reminds me sometimes of Jarrett's 'Expectations,' which is my favorite of his from that period.

Just read a positive review of your new book the other day, unperson. Kudos!

Thanks! Where was it published? I think I've seen them all, but just in case...

Anna Butterss record is really dope, catching up with the thread and having a great time.

JazzTimes

New Life Trio's Visions of the Third Eye reviewed at @SpectrumCulture

As contemporary jazz albums go, it’s excellent. But as a historical artifact, it’s downright fascinating.

(@KeepersFinders)https://t.co/fHmW3ptwu2 pic.twitter.com/sdhBccbMFP

— Forced Exposure (@FORCEDEXPOSURE) July 11, 2022

I was interviewed for All About Jazz. It's pegged to my book, of course, but there's a lot of talk about The State Of Jazz, so, you know, check it out if you want.

How do you feel about being compared to Bernard Pivot and James Lipton?

OK, I guess. My wife met Lipton once and was surprised by how short he was. (Various sources have him between 5'6" and 5'9".)

Very cool interview- interesting thoughts.

a friend told me a funny story about being invited to witness a Lipton taping.

new Arkestra preview track sounds GREAT. album coming in oct.

https://sunrastrut.bandcamp.com/album/living-sky

James Brandon Lewis has signed to Anti- and released a new track featuring the Messthetics (guitarist Anthony Pirog, already a longtime JBL collaborator, and bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty, formerly of Fugazi).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2_9gR1y5zI

Oh man, I used to watch this series on the original/embryonic A&E, but missed this episode (mainly remember the science fiction one, w Gene Wolfe, Frederick Pohl, Harlan Ellison, more)

Ian Harrison, MOJO News Editor, just sent me this. #BringBackNightcap pic.twitter.com/wsfle2UUSS

— Andrew Male (@Andr6wMale) July 27, 2022

Revturn

OK! Awake Nu and boil the Brown Rice!
The next @MOJOmagazine How To Buy will be on...
Don Cherry! Solo, Old And New Dreams, Organic Music Society, Codona, NYC5, Summer House Sessions, the lot. Where to start, where to go next? You help is needed! RT's welcome. pic.twitter.com/hC9AhURpcD

— Andrew Male (@Andr6wMale) July 28, 2022

Comments and especially excerpts in Kevin Whitehead's Fresh Air coverage of Sorey's Mesmerism indicate more variety and shades of interest than I expected: an "Autumn Leaves" I didn't recognize even when he gave the title after playing it, and a couple I didn't know at all: Horace Silver's "Enchantment," where

they leave open space, but every part fits together drum choir-style. Bass becomes a percussion instrument like piano, drums and cymbals.

i was just coming hear to say the same thing, or nearly the same thing, which is that i like how it sounded much more than i was expecting to, and that the MR abrams-penned track piqued my interest

http://twitter.com/0wlred

Yes--- original line-up of thee string band Henri's Notions, some ov whom were my sometyme housemates, did a great version of title track. Otherwise, Braxton x Rivers blew my mynd, had to put it away for a while---listened again: yadda yadda my fave rave ECM evah https://t.co/BQIszf0w7U

— Don Allred (@0wlred) July 29, 2022

dow, are you 0wlred?

yep

New place called Hermana NYC has some serious acts booked.

They spelled Tomoki Sanders' name wrong on their calendar, though...

(Yes, Pharoah's son. He's pretty good in a semi-ambient, post-Kamasi sort of way.)

TITAN TO TACHYONS: NYC Jazz/Metal Quartet With Current/Ex Members Of Mr. Bungle, Orbweaver, Cleric, John Zorn, Imperial Triumphant Presents Vonals Album Via Tzadik Records; Tour Dates And Live Video Posted

New York City-based TITAN TO TACHYONS presents their second album, Vonals, now confirmed to see release through John Zorn’s Tzadik Records in September, today issuing the record’s cover art, track listing, a live video of the track “Wax Hypnotic,” and more.

TITAN TO TACHYONS is an instrumental experimental jazz-metal group led by New Zealand/New York composer and guitarist Sally Gates (ex-Orbweaver), which features Kenny Grohowski (Secret Chiefs 3, Imperial Triumphant, John Zorn), on the drums, and two bassists: Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Fantômas, Tomahawk) and Matt Hollenberg (Cleric, John Zorn). The quartet instrumentally depict the realms of surrealism and science-fiction through eclectic and improvisational passages, juxtaposed by fluid grooves and metallic flurries. Their debut LP, Cactides, was released through Nefarious Industries mid-2020 to critical acclaim, and now the band returns with its follow-up, Vonals.

With six new tracks encompassing more than forty-five minutes, TITAN TO TACHYONS’ Vonals is a mesmerizing and entrancing album, as alluring as it is unpredictable. Spaced-out free-flowing jams merge with explosive metallic outbursts as if the listener was watching a time-lapse video of the cosmos forming from an ominous jazz lounge in a David Lynch film. The dueling bass of Dunn and bass VI of Hollenberg create a web of intricately developed low-end flow over Grohowski’s hammering buildups and fills, while Gates’ instantly recognizable technical axemanship blooms with both finesse and volatility.

Vonals was recorded and mixed by Colin Marston at Menegroth, the Thousand Caves (Dysrhythmia, Krallice, Imperial Triumphant), mastered by Scott Hull at Masterdisk (Miles Davis, Steely Dan, Herbie Hancock), and completed with band photography by Naeemah Z. Maddox and cover paintings by Sally Gates.

Watch TITAN TO TACHYONS’ live performance of the album track “Wax Hypnotic,” filmed at NuBlu in New York City in April, at THIS LOCATION.

Tzadik Records will release the album on CD only, no digital release, on September 16th. Watch for additional updates to post over the weeks ahead.

Vonals Track Listing:
1. Neutron Wrangler
2. Vacuum Symmetry
3. Critical Paranoia
4. Wax Hypnotic
5. Close the Valve & Wait
6. Blue Thought Particles

TITAN TO TACHYONS has been performing throughout New York City over recent months and will support the release of Vonals with an East Coast tour running from September 28th through October 2nd. See the confirmed shows below and watch for the remaining venues to be confirmed and announced alongside details for a New York City release show for the album in the days ahead.

TITAN TO TACHYONS Tour Dates:
9/29/2022 etc. – Greensboro, NC w/ Cloutchaser
9/30/2022 Sabbath Brewing – Atlanta, GA w/ Dead Register, Shane Parish
10/01/2022 Jam Room Music Fest – Columbia, SC w/ Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Titus Andronicus, Shiner, more
10/02/2022 Gallery5 – Richmond, VA w/ Dumb Waiter, Bermuda Triangles

TITAN TO TACHYONS:
Sally Gates – guitar
Matt Hollenberg – bass VI
Trevor Dunn – bass
Kenny Grohowski – drums, percussion

https://titantotachyons.com
https://titantotachyons.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/titantotachyons
https://www.instagram.com/titantotachyons
https://www.tzadik.com
https://www.facebook.com/TzadikLabel
https://twitter.com/tzadik_label
https://tzadik.limitedrun.com/store

They're definitely not jazz, but the first album was good; I published (did not write) a review of it.

Kenny is a great drummer, nice guy and seems to play with everyone.

Stomu Takeishi is playing in my neighborhood tonight but I don’t know whether I will get over there.

You had me at Brandon Ross and Charlie Burnham and Warren Benbow.

TODAY'S THE DAY! The debut album by Breath Of Air (Brandon Ross on guitar, Charlie Burnham on violin, Warren Benbow on drums) is available everywhere! Get your copy straight from us on @Bandcamp:https://t.co/1xD7BftVGw pic.twitter.com/7QTpzUD4Nn

— burning ambulance (NOW A RECORD LABEL!) (@burn_amb) August 5, 2022

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/booker-little-out-front/

class album is this and it's a very thoroughly researched review with a lot of interesting stuff about the short lived Booker Little and his associations with other musicians, although it's always disappointing to find out someone you like was a bit of a melt! (joking of course)

Tzadik Records will release the album on CD only, no digital release, on September 16th. Watch for additional updates to post over the weeks ahead.

Minor quibble, but releasing CD-only records is extremely stupid. I'm sure the band will truly expand their audience.

Tzadik doesn’t do streaming either.

"Let's make our entire catalog completely inaccessible to a new generation of listeners. That's the ticket!"

I'm not sure what Zorn's whole deal is w/r/t Tzadik. I remember years ago someone explained that there were enough people who bought everything with his name on it that it subsidized the rest of the releases, but I doubt that's still the case. I'm sure that's the hole he poured his MacArthur money into. But he did some big project via PledgeMusic (and got fucked out of the donations), so maybe it's run as a nonprofit now or something.

Seems like it, from the label's FB bio:

TZADIK is a not-for-profit, cooperative record label, founded in 1995 by John Zorn in co-operation with Kazunori Sugiyama.
Tzadik is dedicated to releasing the best in avant garde and experimental music, presenting a worldwide community of contemporary musician-composers who find it difficult or impossible to release their music through more conventional channels. Tzadik believes most of all in the integrity of its artists. What you hear on Tzadik is the artists' vision undiluted.

Can Tzadik artists make their own streaming deals, like with Bandcamp (or via their own sites, for that matter)?

(Wonder if he'll get into this new vinyl thing.)

xp -- I did a label search for Tzadik on Spotify years ago and came up with a couple of albums. Very little though.

Can Tzadik artists make their own streaming deals, like with Bandcamp (or via their own sites, for that matter)?

No, but I believe the catalog is on exactly one streaming site — Qobuz.

(Wonder if he'll get into this new vinyl thing.)

He pressed a couple of catalog titles on vinyl to recoup the money lost in the whole PledgeMusic shitshow.

No, but I believe the catalog is on exactly one streaming site — Qobuz
.

I mean, as a curmudgeonly dickhead, I understand Zorn being one, too. It just seems a truly bizarre thing to be so gung-ho about, but then again, I think that e-readers steal your life force.

I've been listening a lot to the Yosuke Yamashita Trio (actually three different trios, since they changed saxophonists early on and changed drummers later) this summer, so I wrote a long thing about them on Substack.

Yamashita’s first trio, with Seiichi Nakamura on saxophones and Takeo Moriyama on drums, recorded their debut album, 1969’s Dancing Kojiki, in the basement of a building at Tokyo’s Waseda University that had been taken over by students. The disc opens with a hoarse, declamatory speech/introduction by a student organizer, after which the music launches as a piano-drums duo with all the ferocity of Cecil Taylor and Sunny Murray at the Café Montmartre in 1962 (and a similar rough, clanging sound). Nakamura, too, plays a role similar to that of Jimmy Lyons in Taylor’s groups; his lines are often more melodic and traditional than what the other two are playing, and he seems at times to float atop the churning ocean of sound they’re creating, though eventually he rises to a level of intensity equal to theirs. The album contains just two long pieces, the 16-minute “Theme” and the 17-minute “Mokujiki,” and Soejima writes, “There is a story that Yamashita actually set fire to the piano as he was playing. A battle between a fiery sound and a burning piano!” (Many years later, he would actually perform on a burning piano while wearing head-to-toe fire protection gear; you can see the clip on YouTube.) Nakamura left the group pretty quickly, replaced by Akira Sakata; this second lineup (and eventually a third, with Shota Koyama replacing Nakamura on drums) would tour extensively in Europe and make a bunch of albums in the ’70s, finally disbanding in 1983.

I’ve been listening to Yamashita’s trio records a lot this summer. He made close to a dozen albums with these three different lineups, and I’ve heard most of them at this point. The majority of their catalog was recorded live, often at European festivals in places like Montreux and Heidelberg. They had a few compositions they returned to regularly — “Chiasma,” “Hachi,” “Clay” (a dedication to Muhammad Ali), “Mitochondria” — and they delivered a blistering take on Albert Ayler’s “Ghosts” on both 1975’s Montreux Afterglow and the mind-blowing 1977 double LP Arashi, on which they were joined by second saxophonist Gerald Oshita and the Butoh dance troup Dairakudakan.

Another album, 1971’s Introducing Takeo Moriyama (later reissued as Gugan), was a real outlier in their catalog, as it added an ensemble called Brass 12, giving the music a unique free-jazz-big-band sound. They also recorded Distant Thunder, a live collaboration with German free jazz trumpeter Manfred Schoof, which began and ended with lengthy, fierce blowouts (“Mitochondria” and “Hachi”), and two solo pieces in the middle — Schoof playing Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight” and Yamashita performing the title piece. Just listening to the core trio, though, is going to be more than enough for even the hardiest listeners. Sakata is an insanely hard-blowing saxophonist with a flair for the dramatic, and he can solo at stunning length without ever seeming to flag.

(I interviewed Sakata by email in 2019, and when I asked about his playing style, he said, “I spent significant time thinking how I could stand on the same line with [legendary Japanese saxophonist] Sadao Watanabe. And I came up with a solution — not to do anything that he was doing, because I couldn’t do anything that other musicians could. This idea is actually based on the advice by Charlie Parker for the young saxophonists I read somewhere in his biography. He said, ‘Take the deepest breath you can ever take, and move your fingers as fast as you can.’ And I thought, ‘This is it!’”)

Yamashita matches his stamina, and has a melodic invention and lyricism that will almost certainly remind you of Cecil Taylor, but with a more romantic and boppish feeling at the heart of his conception. And Nakamura’s drumming is simultaneously insanely busy and obsessively precise; every strike lands like a dart hurled by a world champion who just happens to have eight arms. (Koyama, who took over in the late ’70s, has a more thrashing style.) Most of the time, their pieces run between 15 and 20 minutes, though the title track from Up To Date is a single 40-minute piece originally split across two sides of vinyl but restored on CD.

These records can be tough to find; only two, Clay and a self-titled 1973 recording that wasn’t actually released until 2012, are on streaming services, and most of them have never been released on US labels, though many have been remastered and reissued on CD in Japan in the 21st century. Still, they’re well worth the search. And if you can find a copy of Soejima’s book, it’s not only a perfect companion to the music, but a source of highly entertaining and illuminating insights into the history of this scene, which was effectively a parallel universe, not just mirroring what was going on in the US (and to a lesser degree Europe — the Japanese were interested in jazz, not non-idiomatic free improvisation of the type practiced by, for example, UK musicians) but creating something in their own voices.

I liked Yamashita's New York Trio

I haven't listened to any of those records but the lineup is definitely promising (Cecil McBee on bass, Pheeroan akLaff on drums).

I'm writing another goddamn book! I've just signed the contract to write In the Brewing Luminous: The Life and Music of Cecil Taylor for Wolke Verlag in Germany. (It'll be published in English.) If all goes well it'll be out in spring/summer 2024. Here's a picture of me and CT, from the Whitney Museum in 2016, when I interviewed him for The Wire:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZ4bzgPXgAEv38b.jpg

Excellent, ha CT in full Yoda mode in that pic

Awesome!!!!! Is this going to be the first Full length CT biography ever?

Yep. Supposedly someone else is working on one, but I think he's been "working on it" as long as I've been writing about music professionally, so...

nice, congrats!

RIP 75 year-old cellist Abdul Wadud who played with Julius Hemphill, Arthur Blythe, Frank Lowe, George Lewis, Oliver Lake, Sam Rivers, Cecil Taylor, David Murray, Chico Freeman, Anthony Davis, and James Newton, and Wynton Marsalis.

Congratulations on the CT bio, unperson! Very much looking forward to reading it.

Yep. Supposedly someone else is working on one, but I think he's been "working on it" as long as I've been writing about music professionally, so...

Sure, but research, interviews, fact-checking, follow-up interviews, fact-checking the follow-up interviews...that all takes time. The book he published in 1998 took maybe 8-10 years, and it remains a standard-bearer in this music for how comprehensively it documented that artist.

I'll bite: who yall talkin bout, and what standard-bearer did he write?

Ben Young, author of Dixonia: A bio-discography of Bill Dixon. Unfortunately, it's a pretty pricey book, but if you're a fan of Dixon's, it's worth it. Young had the advantage of working directly with Bill while assembling the book, and had access to Bill's archive of tapes, notes, letters, scores, and other documentation.

I've actually been thinking about buying a copy as research for this Taylor book, but yeah, it costs about $100 on eBay including shipping. Of course, I can write it off my taxes, but still.

Ben just loves making expensive things, books, vinyl, etc.

Yeah, I was amazed that Triple Point sent me MP3s of the Dixon/Taylor duos album to review for The Wire. The hilarious part? The MP3s were (very clean) needle drops; he didn't even make them from the digital master used to make the album!

That actually makes sense: pristine digital files would invite file-sharing moreso than needledrops.

That set, brilliant as it is, is frustrating for a) being an expensive vinyl-only release, and b) for not entirely adhering to Bill and Cecil's original vision of the set. Bill was a fan of CDs, and (as the liner notes point out) the idea was to release a box with two CDs, a folio of Bill's artwork, and a folio of Cecil's poetry. But no label at the time would touch it. Between 1992 and the Triple Point release, DVDs and Blu-Rays became a thing, potentially expanding the box's contents to include video of two of the concerts Bill and Cecil did in the summer of 1992 (both pro-shot, and both equal to the music on the records). And while the vinyl does sound amazing -- Triple Point releases are some of the quietest vinyl/most sensitively-mastered contemporary releases I've heard of this music -- I feel like there was a bit of a missed opportunity.

Ben just loves making expensive things, books, vinyl, etc.

Unless Ben is the owner of Greenwood Press, which I'm reasonably certain he's not, I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest he didn't set the book's price. But with regard to Triple Point, he works directly with the artists (or their estates), and they get paid -- they wouldn't have signed off on the releases unless the terms favored them. I've literally argued about this with collectors who might drop $100 on a rare used record, but balk at buying a Triple Point release -- in only one of those instances does the artist get a cut.

I know, I bought Triple Point releases too, because there was no alternative. Of course the artists should get paid! But why he couldn’t reissue them on CD or as downloads now. The artists can’t be getting paid now that the ultra limited vinyl runs are sold out and now trading only on the second hand market. I just hate people making music as expensive and as exclusive as possible.

By contrast, the “2Ts” box, when it became hard to find CD copies, is now a super affordable download!

None of the Triple Point releases are sold out (unless their website hasn't been updated). The only thing you can't still get is the signed New York Art Quartet box -- unsigned ones are still available. (Also, fun fact: that NYAQ box was nominated for a Grammy.)

class album is this and it's a very thoroughly researched review with a lot of interesting stuff about the short lived Booker Little and his associations with other musicians, although it's always disappointing to find out someone you like was a bit of a melt! (joking of course)

This Max Roach box has multiple albums including Booker Little that are named in the PF review. It has a lot of great music, including a session with Sonny Rollins that is unbelievable (I can't remember which disc, but everyone is trying to outdo each other when soloing).

Unperson, congrats on the book deal and I hope to read a Primer or a large review on all those recent Leo Smith box sets that haven't been covered yet in The Wire.

Congrats on the book deal!

Yes!

Oscar Peterson to appear on a commemorative Canadian dollar coin (along with symbols for a progression in Bb). First jazz player to appear on a national currency?

https://www.mint.ca/en/shop/coins/2022/2022-1-celebrating-oscar-peterson-colourized-special-wrap-roll

https://coins.thefuntimesguide.com/files/district-of-columbia-quarter.jpg

Ah, nice

Canada has a District of Columbia?

Haha, I sometimes do think that the Ottawa-Gatineau capital region should be its own autonomous district like DC, actually. I'm p sure Tarfumes was just pointing out that Duke appeared on a national currency earlier than Peterson did, though. This might still be the first ii/IV-V-/IV-IV-V-I progression to appear on a national currency.

Sorry, it's just ii-I (or V/IV) - IV - V - I, actually

There was a run of commemorative state quarters in the US, and when they ran out of states, other territories got commemorative quarters -- Guam, Puerto Rico, DC, etc. I was pleasantly surprised -- shocked, honestly -- that Duke was chosen for the DC quarter. I always check my change for Ellington quarters, and I keep the ones I find (only have two, though).

(Just checked my change again -- now I have three!)

Oh sorry, had brain fart!
Here are Oscar's coins, from coinweek.com

https://coinweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/peterson_700.jpg

Thelonious Monk (1959) Rehearsing in a New York loft with saxophonists Phil Woods and Charlie Rouse. pic.twitter.com/gfwTOMpWDG

— Sheet Music Library (PDF) (@LibrarySheet) August 14, 2022

Picture from the "Jazz Loft." There's a fine documentary on the place and it's residents. Here's my review:https://t.co/Il74IydA8a

— Frank Hudson (@Frank_Hudson) August 14, 2022

Click on pic to see Monk's hands and keys.

Great documentary that.

https://mcusercontent.com/252b821bb623c0544fd0dfc64/images/2b616747-85f8-f193-e32d-93da03f76ff5.jpg

Announcing Evocation, a live recording from master drummer Andrew Cyrille, innovative guitarist-reedist Elliott Sharp and pioneering electronic composer/performer Richard Teitelbaum, out Sept. 30 on Infrequent Seams.

Featuring a groundbreaking improv set from October 2011 at Roulette Intermedium's new Brooklyn home, this is the first release in a new series that highlights live exploratory sets from Thomas Buckner's Interpretations Series at the venue.

Another pre-order that is---o btw, the Connie Converse tribute album, mentioned on her thread, is in Tzadik's Spectrum series, and can be purchased at Amazon MP3 Store, also I think it's streamable on Amazon Unlimited, if you really wanna pay even more than Premium. Maybe this is permitted because Spectrum can be jazz-related, not the Zorncore.

Anyway, I'd like to hear this trio!

Really loving the Ayler Revelations box

The Cyrille/Sharp/Teitelbaum is available digitally:

http://andrewcyrilleelliottsharprichardteitelbaum.bandcamp.com/album/evocation

When I profiled Cecil Taylor for The Wire in 2016, I recorded four hours of conversation (one did not "interview" Cecil Taylor) over two days, and spent even more time with him without recording it. Anyway, I'm transcribing the entire thing now for the first time, and there's a lot of family lore, etc. — he talks about his grandfather — that didn't fit into the article, but will be great for the book.

Very much enjoying the DOMi & JD Beck album. They really made jazzy drum & bass and fusion hit for gen Z.

https://www.villagevoice.com/2022/08/19/smoking-harry-whitaker-a-village-jazz-story/

WBGO’s Michael BourneKnew it was coming but still the end of an era.

Also Creed Taylor, founder of both Impulse! and CTI. (He also worked for Bethlehem and Verve at various points.) Hard to imagine modern jazz without him. He was 93, and/but for some reason I assumed he'd been dead for years.

Holy shit — word is circulating on FB that Jaimie Branch has died. Just 39. Fucking fuck.

Yeah seeing it on Twitter & Instagram from people who would know...damn...just saw Fly or Die last summer, they were great

Fucking hell, that’s devastating. I saw Ryley Walkers tweet earlier and thought it was just a general tweet of appreciation, but seeing the following tweets from people in her orbit has been heartbreaking.

Very, very sad. Just saw the news, seems literally unbelievable.

Terrible.

Whoa

Sadly confirmed

At 9:21 pm on Monday, August 22, composer and trumpeter jaimie branch passed away in her home in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Her family, friends and community are heart broken. pic.twitter.com/nGAkHpfPab

— International Anthem (@intlanthem) August 23, 2022

Fuck

Saw her at Big Ears in March, one of the more wild and memorable shows there. What a tragedy.

Really nice piece from Nate Chinen here:

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/24/1119174908/jaimie-branch-trumpet-obituary

My latest podcast interview is up today — I talked to Vernon Reid about Ronald Shannon Jackson, the Isley Brothers, Bad Brains, and his new Free Form Funky Freqs record with Jamaaladeen Tacuma and G. Calvin Weston. Details here.

One of the things I am really going to miss about branch and this is something that really came through when I saw her live, was the sense that her life depended on what she was playing right at that moment. There are a lot of younger jazz players, a lot of whom I like, can seem a little measured almost tentative live, they don't grab the music by the collar and drag it around the way branch did and I am really going to miss it.

I'm really bummed I never saw her live

The Fly or Die live album thrilled me: I felt like I was there, in the middle of the audience and loving that (in headphones), loving the music too, despite quarantine and my usual hermit tendencies. It was a little too long and familiar after the first two FoD, but overall very refreshing. Hopefully there will be more of that, more from the studio too, and an album of the show that I think unperson mentioned on the International Anthem thread: Fly or Die with Harriet Tubman, omg. More Anteloper too--but she gave us so much already, these past few years.
Before I saw the news, came here last night to say thanks to James Blechh for that Harry Whitaker link! Great stuff.

Must check unperson's xxpost Vernon Reid interview---also:

Searching In Grenoble: The 1978 Solo Piano Concert is a previously unissued recording of jazz icon Mal Waldron's mesmerizing performance at the "Five Days of Jazz" series in Grenoble, France on March 23, 1978.
Waldron was Billie Holiday’s final accompanist, played on classic sessions with John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy among others, and recorded dozens of solo albums as a leader before his passing in 2002.

Originally produced by the legendary André Francís and transferred from the original Radio France tapes, this is the first official release of this music in cooperation with the Mal Waldron Estate and Ina (The Institut national de l'audiovisuel). The beautifully designed, deluxe 2-CD set includes photos by K. Abe, Brian McMillen and Raymond Ross; an extensive 24-page booklet with a heartfelt statement by Mal's daughter Mala Waldron, plus essays by producer/"Jazz Detective" Zev Feldman, journalist Adam Shatz and Ina's Pascal Rozat; and interviews with modern jazz piano luminaries Ran Blake and Matthew Shipp. Searching In Grenoble features classic Waldron originals such as "Soul Eyes" and "All Alone," and jazz standards "You Don't Know What Love Is," "It Could Happen to You" and "I Thought About You.”

The 2CD set will be available worldwide September 23rd on Tompkins Square (TSQ5906), and was produced for release by Zev Feldman and Josh Rosenthal.

Tompkins Square has released jazz recordings by Sonny Clark, Ran Blake, Calvin Keys, Bola Sete, Giuseppi Logan, Charles Gayle, and Bern Nix among others.

Pre-Order Links :

bandcamp / Amazon / Indie

Michael Bourne, remembered in Downbeat:

“‘I get paid to spin records,” is what Michael always told people, said Amy Niles, former president of WBGO and one of Bourne’s closest friends. “While that was true in some ways, it was the impact of how he crafted his stories through the music and his words that was really what he laid out for us all. Nothing was random in his life. You had to read his words the way he wrote them and hear the music as he presented it, but he always left the room for your interpretation, never telling you what you should see, hear or feel.

I was a huge fan of that guy. I believe Bobby Sanabria is doing a tribute to him this weekend.

Various musicians reporting on social media and elsewhere that Joey DeFrancesco has passed.

And his wife posted about it on his FB page so I guess it's true.

Nate Chinen weighs in on some transitions, but not this latest one.

Thanks, James. After reading that, I ended up subscribing to The Gig and got a chance to add Burning Ambulance, but already had it.

Wait, Louis Cato is now the leader of The Late Show Band?

Joey deFrancesco, what the fuck!

I was just recently going deep on that Miles Davis local TV interview where he first heard Joey play on high school, and listening to some of his records. And a Questlove interview with Christian Mcbride where they both say that Joey was the real prodigy in their arts high school (which included Kurt Rosenwinkel and Boyz II Men).

Good ol' CAPA still graduates gifted and strange kids, from what I've been told

I had McBride on my podcast last year and he talked a lot about his friendship with DeFrancesco (they had just put an album out together at the time).

Still at it!

Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya tonight in NYC pic.twitter.com/tn2Jj4bLKz

— jeff (@jazyjef) August 28, 2022

This was some nice skronk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmC4DGkUEAM

Young fresh skronk, thanks!
Reminds me:

#HBD to the legendary guitarist Sonny Sharrock, born this day August 27, in 1940. To celebrate link in bio for a short audio interview from 1993.#freejazz #jazzbirthdays #sonnysharrock pic.twitter.com/pdd4xyKUhL

— Arts for Art / Vision Festival (@artsforart) August 27, 2022

HB Sonny!

Joey DeFrancesco has passed.

RIP. I was lucky enough to see him play once with John McLaughlin and Dennis Chambers in San Sebastian, something like 30 years ago. Time flies ...

Zoh Amba is getting a lot of (IMO undeserved) push. Apparently there's a NY Times feature in the works.

Somebody I *still* need to check out

An early champion of “free form” jazz, Joe Harriott is now widely recognised as a major British Caribbean innovator. Here are five key albums from Harriott's catalogue 👀 https://t.co/Q3IdGpmp3n

— Jazzwise (@Jazzwise) August 30, 2022

the Indo-Jazz Suite is not a bad place to start at all

I have a 2CD set that has 4 of his albums but have never listened to it.

Hum Dono is fantastic, surprised it's not in that list.

yeah indeed

This week's Burning Ambulance newsletter contains the full, previously unpublished transcript of my 2019 interview with Jaimie Branch.

Zoh Amba is good and will only get better. She's been doing stuff with Luke Stewart and gabby fluke mogul, who are both powerhouses, so can't complain. Rather her getting hyped than some of the bland coffee table Gilles Peterson jazzers too many critics are going wild for.

This SSWAN album has been getting heavy rotation. Bit of a new generation supergroup with Jessica Ackerley, Patrick Shiroishi, Luke Stewart, Chris Williams and Jason Nazary. One of the most exciting things about these guys is their interest in sound based free improvisation, but imbued with a punky energy.

https://577records.bandcamp.com/album/sswan-invisibility-is-an-unnatural-disaster

Zoh Amba is good and will only get better. She's been doing stuff with Luke Stewart and gabby fluke mogul, who are both powerhouses, so can't complain. Rather her getting hyped than some of the bland coffee table Gilles Peterson jazzers too many critics are going wild for.

That YouTube clip with her and fluke-mogul is better than anything she's committed to disc thus far. I don't hate her by any means, but I've definitely had conversations with some elder free jazzers who are like "who is this little girl and in what universe does she deserve this hype-wave?"

She’s not originally from Tennessee is she? I just heard a YouTube clip of her talking and she sounds Yurpean as much as anything

I think it's good and natural for people to be excited about new players coming up - and it's kind of inevitable that the media will pick up on that. I know that can cause some resentment among others who have paid their dues for years and undeservedly been overlooked, but those dismissing her as a "little girl" sound pretty sexist tbh!

Yes, from Tennessee. Must admit the PR stuff about her growing up playing saxophone in the woods sounds a bit too mythic, but then if you've got the space, then it's a pretty good place to practice ha!

Advance track from the upcoming Thumbscrew is good: https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/multicolored-midnight-hd-24-96

checking how old abdullah ibrahim is (87) i discover that his birthname was "adolph" lol: hence "dollar" when he first lived and performed in europe in the 60s

Thumbscrew played a surprise show at Blues Alley in DC a couple months ago so so good. Three great composers: Mary Halvorson, current and future legend. Love Mike Formanek, his ECM albums were great and un-ECM. Tomas Fujisawa always impresses me.

checking how old abdullah ibrahim is (87) i discover that his birthname was "adolph" lol: hence "dollar" when he first lived and performed in europe in the 60s

― mark s, Thursday, September 1, 2022 7:25 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm just putting together abDULLAh / DOLLAr and it's blowing my mind ...

Woah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMwDdEGrt8E

Has anyone mentioned new Ron Carter doc coming soon on PBS?

Don't think so---will check local listings, thx

This guy! Bout time for collected works.

Phil Ranelin was born in Indianapolis in 1939, made a lot of creative music in Detroit (John McEntire remastered some of it), then relocated to Los Angeles in 1977, where he currently lives. Turned 83 in May.

Respect to the indie labels that have documented him over the years. pic.twitter.com/AmvdpcGwOQ

— jeff (@jazyjef) September 3, 2022

Correction: Phil Ranelin moved back to Indianapolis.

— jeff (@jazyjef) September 4, 2022

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFZ3e08BZ8YNWN-5BqyKXVggX69k9QfJHvQ-ke9stbnFVUBUi0f6rMkPav8KryVpbUohJt5VoftkUVvt3_iSJAZWtrCJs9c_r1hyVw-8yPxit11aQt9moVtyvG1FG2cxvxG5GsFDrwuFl1Kg6_BGhqRUOSysICx5cmxoUgf3vFEf43kEfr-nv5C03q5w/w400-h400/R-3806338-1392135791-9081.jpg
Survival Themes: Reggie Lucas solo album, w Mtume input, in the wake of Miles, but I like that the poster cautions us against expecting too much, so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, Description lays out Milesian-enough perimeters. anyway (but no they don't have a guy playing trumpet, wisely enough). Link is in comments:
https://zensurfingarcher.blogspot.com/2022/09/reggie-lucas-1975-survival-themes.html
And here's 23:12 of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5a6n9DJRoA

Remembering double bass master Wilbur Ware, who was born on this day in 1923. You could pick highlights with Thelonious, Sonny, Clifford, and others, but let’s hear it for ace The Chicago Sound, the only album he released as a leader during his lifetime. pic.twitter.com/vShI0alLXX

— Chris Monsen (@chris_monsen) September 8, 2022

It's finally here! Check out my new interactive discography at https://t.co/nEoSpeSI6W.
Listen to nearly 1,000 albums and get behind-the-scenes stories from yours truly. It's called the Ron Carter Universe - where Planet Elegance resides! #roncarterbassist #planetelegance pic.twitter.com/VUQZK5HK9i

— Ron Carter (@RonCarterBass) September 8, 2022

Listening a fair bit to the Jamaladeen Tacuma/Mary Halvorson collab; they connect p well:
https://jamaaladeentacuma.bandcamp.com/album/jamaaladeen-tacuma-mary-halvorson-strings-things

Have you heard the Young Philadelphians? Halvorson, Tacuma, Marc Ribot, and G. Calvin Weston on drums:

https://marcribot.bandcamp.com/album/the-young-philadelphians-live-in-tokyo

I hadn't! Hm, songs with Ribot singing (or vocalizing)? Might try it.

So that Titan to Tachyons album mentioned upthread comes out in... (checks notes)... three days, and I'll be damned if I can find a way to order it. It's not on the artist's bandcamp page, it's mentioned on the band's website but without a single link to where to buy it and the banner ad at the top of the page that looks like it will lead you to that simply routes you back to the exact page you were already on. It's mentioned at the bottom of the home page of Tzadik's website but, again, not a single link to where it can be ordered.

Can't say I've sought out a lot of Tzadik stuff, so maybe this is just par for the course, but this seems... less than optimal. I'd be pretty annoyed if I had a new album coming out in not only one single physical format, but without a place from which it could be ordered.

incl download and youtube

50 years ago tonight, Miles debuts a new 9-piece band with a scorched-earth closing set at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival.

With On the Corner still unreleased, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the crowd was remotely prepared for this music.https://t.co/FPyAp404sc

— Jeremy Erwin (@theheatwarps) September 11, 2022

Jeremy Erwin@theheatwarps
·
Sep 10
Replying to @theheatwarps
This is also the date on which Miles first encountered Pete Cosey, who helped engineer the previous day’s set from Art Ensemble of Chicago.

The complete interview with Cosey is a must-read. https://t.co/gpbqKB4lGl https://t.co/yAJoxVSP6z

— Don Allred (@0wlred) September 15, 2022

The amazing French label RogueArt is starting to put its catalog on Bandcamp. Only two titles so far; I hope they get the rest up soon.

https://rogueart1.bandcamp.com/

Fantastic interview. Zigaboo was going to play with Miles! Can't believe he (Cosey) was in Chicago this whole time.

https://www.halleonard.com/product/369515/new-standards-101-lead-sheets-by-women-composers

Interviewed Terri Lyne Carrington about that book for my next Stereogum column, which should be out next week.

Cool!

New Jeff Parker quartet live record from Eremite next month sounds really good atm— sample track here :

https://eremite.com/album/mte-76-77

Khan Jamal's "drum dance to the motherland" is being reissued (again). don't sleep on it. for US folks, i know it's available via stranded

https://www.aguirrerecords.com/products/khan-jamals-creative-arts-ensemble-drum-dance-to-the-motherland-lp

I'm interested in that Jeff Parker album for having Jay Bellerose on drums (if people don't know, he's a great studio drummer who's into minimalism, texture, and old weird drums), very 'west coast quartet'.

Yeah, and he was on Parker's International Anthem album The New Breed in 2016, also Allen Toussaint's remarkable jazz venture The Bright Mississippi in 2009---but hadn't taken in that he's also worked with allll these singers---what a discography:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Bellerose