Rolling Jazz Thread 2024

Cool!!

Jimmy Cobb on this Great Jazz Trio record has the greatest jazz bass drum sound I've ever heard

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

Gig at LPR was really good, particularly JBL/Messthetics and Irreversible Entanglements. Shabaka was a bit of a snooze though. Really not sure about this wafty new age direction he's going in. Too much of this tasteful ambient jazz about - it has none of the beauty or intensity of the spiritual jazz tradition it claims to be extending.

Lol, I must have been looking at a Discogs page for the wrong album because I kept listening to this going "how the fuck does Jimmy Cobb suddenly sound like Elvin", but of course it's Elvin Jones & Richard Davis on that Great Jazz Trio album. I was pretty blown away by "Eddie Gomez" too, makes much more sense now. What a record.

https://ahmedquartet.bandcamp.com/album/super-majnoon

Just a note that this is an insanely good record, bought it last night.

So I heard a song on the radio last night that I liked and Shazamed it and it was Joey Alexander — who I vaguely remember as the child prodigy who popped up on TV and elsewhere some years back. Didn't realize he had a going adult career. No idea what his critical standing is like, but I liked the vibe of the song. Anyway, this was the track (the studio version).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQM2a350TF4

Got tix to see the Blue Note Quintet on Fri, in addition to Kendrick Scott I'm most looking forward to hearing Joel Ross again.

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

(some insane playing on this session, first time seeing video of Kush Abadey, I wasn't familiar with him until that new Ethan Iverson record)

James Brandon Lewis has two albums coming out this winter/spring: a new quartet disc on Intakt with pianist Aruán Ortiz, bassist Brad Jones, and drummer Chad Taylor (I think it's their third album together), and a collaboration with the Messthetics (guitarist Anthony Pirog and bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty, both formerly of Fugazi) on Impulse.

That quartet is absolutely superb - saw them in London in November. Ortiz is such a fantastic pianist - managed to get a seat a foot away from him. Just a marvel too watch. Rest of the band not too shabby either, ha! Chad Taylor is one of the greatest drummers alive, deserves all the flowers.

Yeah, the quartet is great, and Lewis's duo project with Taylor is fantastic, too.

The Blue Note Quintet show was stunning, highly recommend catching the tour if you can. It's hard to imagine a better drummer than Kendrick Scott, he can play anything but has a Brian Blade level of musicality & restraint. Joel Ross delivered too (especially his dancing when he lays out and goes to the back of the stage). They really sounded like a band too, mostly originals until the last tune, which was a Monk tune smashed up with a Charlie Parker blues worked into the form.

Gerald Clayton kept triggering clips of jazz musicians being interviewed (Wayne Shorter was the only one I really recognized by voice), sometimes it was just a bridge between tunes and sometimes one person would play under the audio. Didn't always work imo, but it was a good way of not having any dead air or having to address the audience until the end. Wonder if they'll make a record.

Have we talked about this record here?

https://billorcutt.bandcamp.com/album/a-mouth-at-both-ends

Friend of mine just played the trio on the radio and it blew my top off.

hmm, will peep

Fuck yeah

(brings back seeing Herlin play this tune from a few inches away a few summers ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI4M7qzOTHo

Really enjoyed this Vinnie Sperazza post featuring legendary jazz drummers on early r&b singles. Heard Billy Hart talking about the same thing recently, how his first gigs were in r&b bands, which led to playing with singers, which led to all of the modern jazz gigs (and how the jazz bandleaders all hired him for his r&b and pop background).

The new Iyer/Oh/Sorey album is predictably great. What a fantastic trio.

Haven’t listened but can imagine.

Yeah, it's good. I've got an interview with Iyer running in my next Stereogum column, which will probably go live next week.

Been going in on some Al Foster records after being inspired by this Dan Weiss clip:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3LYW6kAwbk/

I went back to Joe Henderson's "So Near, So Far" Miles tribute record with Foster and John Scofield, and it's just as great as I remember. Foster is so creative and tight, especially with the hi-hat, I wouldn't be surprised if Bill Stewart got a lot from him.

I got to see Henderson and Foster play together, with George Mraz on bass, in 1997. It was great.

Wow

My latest Stereogum column is up; I interviewed Vijay Iyer, and reviewed new albums by James Brandon Lewis, Sullivan Fortner, and others. Lotta Scandinavians this month, so be warned.

I enjoyed your Rufus Reid interview (tried to go through that complete Monk set but wasn't feeling it for some reason, even though Billy Drummond is great)...it's really something how every musician talks about Sullivan Fortner these days, I've heard the same thing recently from Brad Mehldau, Aaron Parks, etc.

Some interesting records in there, especially that Otis Sandjo record.

The two tracks out from the upcoming Potter/Mehldau/Patitucci/Blade record are masterful, can't wait for that one.

I'm waiting to get the full album from the label. It's a hell of a lineup for sure.

https://wapo.st/49GLa8S

Washington Post interview with Iyer focusses mainly on Compassion album and recent live show with no mention of Arooj Aftab one

So the new Shabaka has dropped and... I'm really underwhelmed.

I'm all for beauty, but this current wave of chilled out ambient jazz just feels aimless and banal... over reliance on "vibes" but not much substance... I'm sure it's nice to put on while you do yoga, but Don Cherry it ain't!

Floating Points has a lot to answer for.

I like it! I've already heard the whole album (reviewed it for The Wire) and it's a whole lot better than the Andre 3000 thing, or the Vijay Iyer/Arooj Aftab/Shahzad Ismaily thing, or about half of what's come out on International Anthem in the last year. The tracks with two harp players are really beautiful, and it's got some really good guest vocalists. There's nothing aimless or haphazard about it — it's a tight record (11 tracks, 47 minutes) with a ton of guests including Jason Moran, Nduduzo Makhathini, and yeah, Andre 3000's on it but you wouldn't notice unless someone told you.

Haha. I'm feeling this more from the UK side of things, although I like a lot of it (the last Alabaster de Plume stuck with me, the previous Shabaka record didn't). The Ambrose Akinmusire LP is post-ECM ambient jazz done right (and I was gratified to see that Jakob Bro subbed for Bill Frisell on his tour, since Bro kicked off my obsession with this sort of thing and I felt like the AA record fit into that universe).

xp
How does it compare to Afrikan Culture? I never felt v compelled to listen to that a second time, but a fuller band would be more enticing

To me, the Ayer/Izmaily/Aftab thing is probably the best example of this kind of thing, especially live there was a continual bass pulse that kept if from being too floaty. Maybe I give this the benefit of the doubt cause I know that Iyer is a serious musician and not just slumming, which I think Hutchings does a bit (e.g. your interview with him where he says he wants to play “stupid sax” because he thinks playing complex music serves capitalism or something).

Yeah, aimless applies to Andre 3000's jams, but not so much the Shabaka. There's obviously intention and structure there, but it does seem to stop just as it's starting to go somewhere. Caught his set at NY Winter Jazz fest and found it pretty dull. There's no tension or bite to make the ostensibly beautiful sounds really soar.

I get why this chilled out minimalist/ambient thing is all the rage but I find it a total snooze! Can't help but feel there's a lot of reliance on spiritual jazz signifiers to give the music a sense of depth. At worst, it's some phoney new age bullshit.

Good to see I'm not the only one underwhelmed by the Iyer/Aftab/Ismaily - I like all the people involved, but I wonder how much lies behind studied ECM tastefulness. I'm also finding IA incredibly frustrating, particularly in its choice of UK acts. Doesn't seem right that a mediocrity like Alabaster DePlume, with his insufferable wide eye naif routine, gets to work with amazing Chicago musicians.

I get why this chilled out minimalist/ambient thing is all the rage but I find it a total snooze! Can't help but feel there's a lot of reliance on spiritual jazz signifiers to give the music a sense of depth. At worst, it's some phoney new age bullshit.

Moor Mother had a hilarious tweet the other day:

Just imagine if some of the folks playing spiritual jazz was actually spiritual

— poetry (@moormother) February 21, 2024

(Her new album is amazing, btw; Iyer's on it, and a bunch of other people. Not "jazz" exactly, but really, really strong stuff.)

Ha I saw that! She's OTM.

Very excited for her new album. She can do no wrong!

curious to hear the new shabaka album

i'm not familiar with all of his work, just sons of kemet and the comet is coming, but he has popped up on some other stuff. i like him, but there've been several times where i immediately clocked it was him because...he plays the same licks all the time? like i could hear a certain phrase and it's just immediately recognizable

Haha. I'm 100% in favor of that, my favorite horn player (Derrick "Kabuki" Shezbie) has 5 - 10 licks he deploys with the utmost sound, feel, & musicality and no one else can play those licks like him.

I think there's a conceptual divide where some musicians think true improvisation is playing something you've never played before, without a net, and others feel that's what the practice room is for and that you shouldn't try to play everything you hear if you don't know where it's going. Idk, I think licks = words and it's all in how you use them. Talk with them rather than recite a prepared speech.

yeah to be clear i'm not against it or criticizing him really, it's just SO noticeable to me compared to a lot of other horn players

i like him, but there've been several times where i immediately clocked it was him because...he plays the same licks all the time? like i could hear a certain phrase and it's just immediately recognizable

Allow me to introduce you to the work of Fred Anderson...

Ha I saw that! She's OTM.

Very excited for her new album. She can do no wrong!

(I have also had the distinct privilege of seeing her a LOT since we are both Philly jawns)

On the ambient turn... this review of Winter Jazz Fest makes some good observations. His argument - comforting music for troubled times - is solid enough, but that's the problem. If there's a time for jazz to be angry it's now. A lot of this new age ambient jazz comes across as hippy escapism. It's also not very interesting musically. I put on a Carlos Nino album and think that's cool, some nice grooves, some nice sounds, but it doesn't keep me engaged. But then that's maybe the point - it's background music to chill to. Perhaps I'm not temperamentally disposed to blissed out Californian vibes.
Of course any revolutionary movement needs collective joy, beauty, love - that's why the latest Irreversible Entanglements is so powerful. And I get that Shabaka, for example, has released plenty of politically charged music before (The third Sons Of Kemet album in particular) and has every right to follow his bliss. But still...

Sorry, didn't include the link: https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/02/28/jazz-ragas-for-restless-times/

I don’t really understand the fuss over Niño and am lukewarm on Hutchings’ latest efforts, but I am a little skeptical of the idea that a sound being projected onto some musicians betrays their stance on social or political issues.

That said, could it be possible that by making music that is calming, comforting, even contemplative, there is a desire for futurity being projected into the world? Why does music have to be “angry” to be read as in tune with political and social demands? And isn’t that more a problem with the subjective listener than the music itself?

To clarify, I'm not arguing that all music should be angry, noisy and political. Free jazz has always looked after the spirit - music as a healing force and all that. And it's always had space for the contemplative. By its very nature, jazz and improvised music is inherently subversive, a liberation technology as Moor Moor puts it. Or at least, any jazz and improvised music that is alive and real, and not just industry hyped pseudo spiritual jazz or sub ECM muzak.

And I'm not questioning Shabaka's political commitment - I really admire the way SOK brought anti-colonial, anti-racist politics to the edge of the mainstream. That glorious FUCK THE TORIES FUCK THE FASCISTS bit in My Queen Is Ada Eastman needs to be blasted from rooftops.

My beef is really with the wider ambient trend and the marketing of it. Again, it ties back to another recent Moor Mother tweet about flooding the market with ambient and soft indie so people remain asleep.

Yeah sorry I don’t buy that

What is “real” spiritual jazz? Does Camae Ayewa get to decide that for us?

Shiroishi has made deeply political records, full of feedback, skronk, and wailing that gets to the center of the goddamn earth. He also is one of the leaders of Fuubutsushi, a group that definitely makes ECM-style “vibes” music, albeit with a political bent, given samples used and song titles.

This whole oppositionality to what is seen as a burgeoning “trend” seems to me to be more about certain people acting like cops about what people can and can’t enjoy based on whether it meets some very subjective ideas of what spirituality is and can be.

Isn't "spiritual" a notoriously vague, even vacuous, term? To the point that people are often mocked for self-describing with it? It's kind of funny to assert that some people have this quality and others don't. Also I know everyone itt knows that original spiritual jazz was strongly detested for decades because genre purists thought it was "phoney new age bullshit" (not always without reason!)

By its very nature, jazz and improvised music is inherently subversive, a liberation technology

more like jazz music has always been an idea onto which the white jazz critic cannot resist projecting his politics, his ideas about authenticity, his hang ups and squabbles with other critics, ya feel me

and i don't mean that as a personal attack, and to be clear i really like having you around, Stew, but i think if there's been any kind of through line or 'essence' to jazz, it has to be this more than anything else

Yeah, Jay Korber's got 'em, and not only 70s Berlin---for inst:

AMR Jazz Festival
Geneva, Switzerland 1985

Sam Rivers - reeds, flute, piano
Alain Ginapé - guitar
Kevin Harris - bass
Steve McCraven - drums

Did not know Rivers ever worked w guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40eSQjo7XxM

jordan thank u for pointing the way toward the happy apple record, i've never heard them before and this album rules so much

i dug it too

Glad you checked it out & enjoyed! I'm going back to some of their older records, which are great but it's also convincing me that this might have captured their sound the best, miraculously. All it's missing is the shaggy dog banter that Dave King used to do between songs. The tunes have so much humor in them while still being deep though.

Listened to a podcast with the bassist where he said they have something like 150 tunes but have never written them down, and rely on people having taped their shows to remember many of them. They did a show recently and wanted to revive old tunes, and each of them suggested tunes that the others forgot having existed.

i don't miss dave king's banter tbh

I’ve loved the music of Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura for many years but this one is really hitting me, especially “Haru wo Matsu”: https://satokofujii.bandcamp.com/album/dog-days-of-summer

I've been a fan for years and years, too, even interviewed the two of them once. I just reviewed one of their other recent releases, Aloft, for The Wire. But the one I've been listening to the most lately, because my wife found it in the stacks and absolutely loves it, is Hyaku - One Hundred Dreams:

https://satokofujii.bandcamp.com/album/hyaku-one-hundred-dreams

It's a single hour-long piece divided into five movements, recorded in New York in 2022 with an incredible one-off band:

Ingrid Laubrock - tenor sax
Sara Schoenbeck - bassoon
Wadada Leo Smith - trumpet
Natsuki Tamura - trumpet
Ikue Mori - electronics
Satoko Fujii - piano
Brandon Lopez - bass
Tom Rainey - drums
Chris Corsano - drums

unperson's xpost column re Mike Smith's new book about 60s soul jazz etc, reminded me of

Funk Brother Dennis Coffey's psychedelic soul jazz sidetrip, rec to fans of Band of Gypsies, The Meters, and excitement.
---from Omnivore Records notes:

]One Night At Morey’s: 1968 is drawn from the residency at Morey Baker’s Showplace Lounge in Detroit by the Lyman Woodard Trio. The trio, comprising Coffey on guitar, brilliant organist Lyman Woodard, and drummer Melvin Davis, could be found at Morey’s once a week. They played to a dedicated, often repeat, audience so the band kept the repertoire fresh and changing. One Night At Morey’s: 1968 follows last year’s Hot Coffey In The D: Burnin’ At Morey Baker’s Showplace Lounge, released by Resonance Records, also drawn from the Morey’s residency, but with an entirely different track list.

All tracks on One Night At Morey’s: 1968 are previously unissued and come directly from the vaults of Dennis Coffey and producer partner, Mike Theodore. Tracks include original compositions, “Big City Lights,” “Mindbender,” and “Union Station,” as well as surprising and funky covers of “Billie’s Bounce” by Charlie Parker, “Burning Spear” by The Soul Strings, “Cissy Strut” by The Meters, “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles, “Groovin’” by The YoungRascals, and “I’m A Midnight Mover” by Wilson Pickett from the pen of both Pickett and Bobby Womack.

Holy shit, just getting around to the new Asher Gamedze, Constitution, this is incredible!

wow, this is cool, thank you.

i'm not so into the spoken word parts but the music is good enough to keep me hooked for the time being

Yeah, those interludes were probably my least favorite part, but the rest of it is so damn good that I can't get too hung up on them.

There's a newish venue, two months old, I think, on 19th Street now called Midnight Blue that seems to book pretty good bands but the one time I went there I arrived between sets and also didn't feel up to paying the $10 cover plus $25 minimum.

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

Teahm this was my brimful of Asher gateway on RJ 2020:

Asher Gamedze, Dialectic Soul:"Fundamentally, it is about the reclamation of the historical imperative. It is about the dialect of the soul & the spirit while it moves through history. The soul is dialectic. Motion is imperative. We keep moving." For instance, in the opening "Emergence Suite," tenor sax and trumpet can seize on moments all they like or or must, while bass & drums are like,"Yeah, yeah, that's good, that's good, come on now, mind your head, good." Also perfectly supportive of, never submissive to horn comments and slender, strong singing in "Siyabulela."
Then a witty, fabulistic stroll through enormity in "Interregnum," where "the hopscotch ended much as it began" along the way (Don't worry, that's almost all for the voices). "Eternality" is more work-out than bliss-out, but good between the couch potato headphones. "Hope In Azania" is adrenaline afterglow in second wind, not too hopeful, but reasonably so it seems; oh yeah Speculative Fourth" does eventually let a human sing along some more with the horns, for a little while, sorry anti-voxxers.
https://ashergamedze.bandcamp.com/album/dialectic-soul

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2422404092_10.jpg

Are you thinking of Turbulence and Pulse? Probably because it's on International Anthem:

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/turbulence-and-pulse

Forgive me if there's another one you meant, but this sounded like what you describe with the live tracks at the end.

Yes, thanks! Forgot that he was already on IA before Constitution.

There's a newish venue, two months old, I think, on 19th Street now called Midnight Blue that seems to book pretty good bands but the one time I went there I arrived between sets and also didn't feel up to paying the $10 cover plus $25 minimum.

The official announcement won't be coming until Tuesday, but:

On November 22, Blue Note Records will release of Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs’, a never-before-issued live recording of jazz legends McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson leading a stellar quartet with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Jack DeJohnette at the hallowed lost NYC jazz shrine, Slugs' Saloon, in 1966. The release was produced by Zev Feldman, Jack DeJohnette, and Lydia DeJohnette.

Forces of Nature includes an elaborate booklet with rare photos by Francis Wolff, Raymond Ross, and Robert Polillo; plus liner notes by esteemed author and critic Nate Chinen, and interviews and statements with DeJohnette, Jason Moran, Joe Lovano, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Nasheet Waits, and Terri Lyne Carrington. Originally recorded by the legendary engineer Orville O’Brien — who recorded classic 1960s jazz albums such as Freddie Hubbard’s The Night of the Cookers, Charles Tolliver’s Music Inc. and Alice Coltrane's Journey in Satchidananda — the tape has been in DeJohnette's personal archives for nearly 60 years. The 2-LP 180g vinyl set is transferred from the original tape reel and mastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab, who also mastered the 2-CD and digital.

good news for the henry grimes completists among us

I've listened to a little bit (the opening "In 'N Out" is 27 minutes long) and the recording quality is great.

Damn this sounds like a great night (Branford w/Robert Hurst, Herlin Riley, and Tain Watts sitting in)
https://vinniesperrazza.substack.com/p/belonging

Also apparently this got reissued and I'm curious to hear

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quest_(Mal_Waldron_album)