Rolling Jazz Thread 2024

I’m only halfway through my first spin but it’s really good so far

Chris DeVille wrote a cool piece for Stereogum about becoming a jazz fan, pegged to the James Brandon Lewis/Messthetics album that comes out this week.

Is it strange that reading about the JBL/Messthetics stuff always gets me excited, and then I find the tracks totally unremarkable?

And i like JBL!

I was just thinking the same thing

the Freitas album is sick, thanks for mentioning it

Listened to the Chris Potter/John Patitucci/Brad Mehldau/Brian Blade record a few times while traveling yesterday, it's great. I wonder if it will seem a little too straight-ahead for people in 2024 - no gimmicks, no big concept, just a record of originals played by the masters. It almost has a coziness to me because of that, feels sorta like a '90s record, but they're all just so in tune with each other and confident and killing, it's a pleasure to hear.

A jazzbo friend of mine said he thought it was kind of boring and by the numbers by their standards, but I'll def give it a listen.

I constantly confuse John Patitucci with John Petrucci, and wonder why all these jazz dudes are hanging with the Dream Theater dork.

I think that's what I'm getting at...like, yes, it is in a sense (especially if you're looking for something that *sounds* new or not like other jazz records). But their standards are so high that a 'boring' record from them is still beautiful. The details of their playing together are always worth hearing, and they make it look so easy.

no gimmicks, no big concept, just a record of originals played by the masters

This is almost exactly how I described it when writing it up for Stereogum this morning.

Aging rock act on new album: This time we wanted to go back to the basics

Listened to the Chris Potter/John Patitucci/Brad Mehldau/Brian Blade record

Scanning too quickly I read that as John Petrucci for a second and was like, uh.... then I saw Josh made the same mistake.

Just four guys in a woodshed

Throw John Pizzarelli in there

I had it on in a rental car when I was driving some co-workers somewhere, and there were moments when I could hear how it might sound a little 'smooth' to a civilian, and I wanted to say "no you don't understand, these guys are legends in the game, Brian Blade is crushing it here".

My latest Stereogum column is up. I wrote about the Black Art Jazz Collective and reviewed albums by Alice Coltrane, Charles Lloyd, James Brandon Lewis & the Messthetics, Chris Potter, Ivo Perelman, Cassie Kinoshi, Amaro Freitas, Fire!, Ill Considered and Cornelia Nilsson.

Some of you will have seen this already, but there's a Gofundme to help the great Steve Beresford out as he's going through a tough time. It's awful that a genius musician like Steve should be in such a position. An absolute pillar of the improvised music community who has played with everyone from Zorn to The Slits and is hugely supportive of younger musicians.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/musician-needs-a-hand

Would also recommend the latest album by his piano trio with Valentina Magaletti and Pieropaulo Martino - came out towards the end of last year so slipped through the tracks a little, but it's a terrific set.
https://valentinamagaletti.bandcamp.com/album/naize

I wish the Messthetics album had more improvisation and/or funkier. I think Anthony Pirog is doing a Danny Gatton thing and at the risk of revoking my DC credentials Gatton didn’t do much for me, skilled as he was.

Drummer I've been following for a while, Steve Lyman, has a record coming out with Donnie McCaslin, Jimmy Chamberlin (yes, the pumpkins drummer) Austin White and others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJe-fGIQL5U

(note, track is quiet for like the first 45-60 seconds)

He's a crazy good drummer, interesting to hear him put his multi-tempo concept thing into a musical context. It's too bad the drums sound kinda shitty on these tracks (not the playing, just the mixing). :(

Yeah I agree it's not the ideal sound - his drums sound much better in his videos imo!

Also, he apparently claims he is *not* using the "vector system" on that track, which just makes me thing maybe I don't really understand what the vector system is, lol

Enjoyed then new Mehldau/Blade/Potter/Pattituci a lot on first listen, although I got a bit fatigued after the first 3 tracks. Very strong spirit of Wayne Shorter coming through in the compositions and playing.

The Charles Lloyd record is a beauty, what a brilliant rhythm section (Moran/Grenadier/Blade). Haven't heard Moran in a minute, especially as a sideperson, and with the Potter record it's just a bounty of Blade.

90 minutes though, whew. This easily could have (and should have imo) been two albums.

Lloyd put out three albums the other year, and I don't think that experiment was particularly successful — Blue Note probably didn't want this one split up.

Ah, makes sense.

There are a lot of vibey tracks on here and I'm into that, but 'Booker's Garden' is a highlight. Some really crazy playing around the pulse, but so locked-in and together too.

The Julian Lage acoustic guitar album (w/Dave King still on drums) is really really nice.

I guess it's not all acoustic, but there are a lot of acoustic tracks. And he's been posting live videos of a bunch of the tunes (different takes from the record obv), and most of those are acoustic.

Just found out Emmet Cohen's playing here with his trio this weekend, I'm gonna go.

Ari Hoenig on fire right now!

This Herbie Hancock tour announcement reads like it was written with AI. As someone who used to work with the Relix folks (and even wrote a few pieces for the magazine), this makes me very sad.

Jazz legend Herbie Hancock has dropped a new slate of dates, which will take him on the road in the early fall. The impending run of concert appearances will occur throughout the U.S.’s Southern region and up the East Coast. Along the way, the headliner and his unannounced group of instrumental accompaniment will perform 12 concerts, leading up to a tour closer at the esteemed Massey Hall in Toronto on Oct. 1.

Hancock and company’s newly dropped schedule begins on Sept. 13 with the first of three Sunshine State appearances, which will roll out nightly with ensuing into Sept. 14 and 15. From there, the billed act moves onto Auburn, Ala., for a Sept. 17 follow-up at a TBA venue. Descending into the South, the tour will take the notable member of the Miles Davis Quintet to Nashville, Tenn., for an evening at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

From Music City, Hancock’s next live show arrives at the Wilson Center in Wilmington, N.C., on Sept. 21, with Sept. 22 presenting another gig, which time in Norfolk, Va. Another pair of North Carolina concerts prelude East Coast dates, following up shows in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, conjuring in Newark, N.J., before the Toronto finale.

News of Hancock’s September 2024 tour arrives after the announcement that the artist will pay tribute to 50 years of Head Hunters on Wednesday, August 14, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Adding to the intrigue, the event is billed to include a reunion lineup featuring Harvey Mason, Bennie Maupin, and Bill Summers, with Marcus Miller standing in for the late Paul Jackson.

holy shit, someone should get fired for that

Can you fire AI?

much like a bad middle manager, everyone hates AI, AI does a terrible job over and over again yet keeps getting chances and continues to fail upward

A collaborative program subtitled “Weaving Strands of Sound from Addis to Chicago,” that might answer the equation of AACM x Ethiopiques. The evening features an expanded version of cellist Tomeka Reid and double bassist Silvia Bolognesi’s Hear in Now group (bonus all-stars: violinist yuniya edi kwon and drummer Chad Taylor), in musical conversation with Qwanqwa, a supergroup of Ethiopian experimentalists. This could get great. (Wed 4/3, 8p @ Roulette, Downtown Bklyn - $25/$30)

Saw this on the Dada Strain email. I saw Ethiopian group Qwanqwa on their last US tour 2 years ago by themselves and they were great. This collaboration with them was probably good too. Qwanqwa are touring the US now too. Gonna see them in Alexandria, Virginia near Washington DC.

they are playing minneapolis later this month, i'm definitely considering going

with Marcus Miller standing in for the late Paul Jackson

Is this meant to imply that Herbie normally tours with a dead guy on bass?

RIP Tootie Heath

Oh! RIP. Great musician and very funny person.

new shane parish solo acoustic record (cf. tompkins sq. thread) w/ covers of "lonely woman" and "journey in satchidananda"

https://shaneparish.bandcamp.com/album/repertoire

RIP Tootie

voodoo chili recommended the new Josh Johnson album on a different rolling thread, but anyone who liked that rad Anna Butterss album or recent Jeff Parker stuff (JJ plays on the Enfield Tennis Academy record) would prob dig this: https://joshjohnsonmusic.bandcamp.com/album/unusual-object

The Emmet Cohen Trio show last weekend was fantastic, truly. He told some good Tootie Heath stories too (although of course he kept saying that all the best ones were wholly inappropriate to tell on stage).

Also really enjoyed watching this set w/Tootie, for the stage banter alone. He really had some deep New Orleans elements in his playing, moreso than any of the other famous Philly drummers, it's interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgAkz3uM-pM

Also had a good time going through the recordings Vinnie Sperazza mentions here:
https://vinniesperrazza.substack.com/p/for-albert-tootie-heath

That Josh Johnson album sounds great so far, a lot like Sam Gendel except less anti-jazz.

I'm liking it exponentially more than that new Kenny Garrett electronic record, sorry Kenny.

I went to see (ahmed) tonight, last night of a four-night residency at Cafe Oto in London. They were incredible and relentless.

very jealous

I do hope they reissue those earlier [Ahmed] LPs

Did anyone get that CD box set? I thought at first it was a straight reissue of the aforementioned LPs but I guess it's actually a recording of a 2022 residency.

I bought one at the show but haven’t unwrapped it yet. A friend who’s heard it was raving about it.