Rolling Jazz Thread 2024

"Blakey taught me how to play the drums when I play. Rhythm is it. It’s what makes soloists different, what makes Sonny Rollins or Bird so great. I understood how time worked when I left Art.”

– Branford Marsalis

I've now listened to all 2 hours of the David Murray/Questlove/Ray Angry album 'Plumb' now that it's streaming (what, was I going to buy the vinyl for $150?). It's good! Questlove isn't a jazz drummer, but I like the tension of hearing him in this context, since his whole thing is minimalism and not overplaying or stretching out. And when he plays a groove there's so much detail and weight in it. And just consistency of sound, it's kinda crazy how you can hear every Roots record in his bass drum (but it's also nice to hear the inconsistencies in this mode, he's human too).

Ray Angry is really the mvp, I'd never heard him before. Great keyboard & synth sounds (which is super rare for jazz pianists!), and he's really holding it all together on every cut with the basslines & chords, especially since they're all jams.

Thanks for the thoughts on that, I was curious when it came out but kind of stopped caring when I saw the only option was the $150 vinyl (not even a digital download option either, afaict).

Not to derail the thread, but this particular release (along with a few others I encountered in 2023) irks me where we've come to a point where the options are sort of pulling to the two extremes - either streaming only or catering to the vinyl fetishists at a ridiculous price point, with nothing in between. Like, hey guys, I dig your music and I'd really like to support you with more than the meager portions of pennies my streams will get you, but uh $150 ain't it dudes.

Agree 100%. If I could have bought that release on Bandcamp, I would have. But I wound up only listening to some of that, because when something is only on streaming platforms, my attention span gets a lot shorter — I'll listen to a track or two, then bail. If I put a CD on, I let it play through. Similarly, if I put a Blu-Ray in the player I'll watch a movie front to back. If I pull something up on Netflix, I might watch 15 minutes, get distracted, and quit.

Last year, Concord reissued Woody Shaw's debut album, Blackstone Legacy, on vinyl. It's a long double LP, so they had to cut a couple of minutes out of two of the longer tracks to fit it on a single CD (which I own). But fortunately, HDTracks.com had the digital files for the remastered reissue, giving me everything at full length.

Thanks for posting about Plumb I had no idea it was streaming, it's cool, man I love Murray and Ray Angry is great...not sure it really needs to be 2 plus hours, seems like it could been pretty great album as a normal length cd but what do I know

Jordan otm on Plum--where all the tracks are like 13-14 minutes long, except for all the tracks that are like 4 minutes and change, except for the one that's like 2:30, and it all seems right---can see how you might have to listen in chunks, unperson, but keep goin' back in!

from end of the year Noms thread:

Tracks:
Jason Kao Hwang--Dragon Carved Into Bone
Susan Alcorn, Septeto del Sur--El Derecho de Vivir en Paz
Alex Sadkin--Parker's Mood
Alex Sadkin--Bird of Paradise
(16/40)

JKH: electric violin, electric guitar, drum kit: fluid, fluent, digging in.
SA: pedal steel & combo: Chilean folk melodies x improv, with vocals on this one track, the best, I think.
AS: come for more from jazz pedal steelist xpost Dave Easley and drummer Jay Bellerose, stay for whole crew on "Parker's Mood," where everybody has the blues, especially that violin, and troubled ballad "Bird of Paradise." (For the second half Flight, Sadkin employs different line-up, more conventional-looking, but I didn't listen to much of that.)

From Rolling Psych Freak Drone 2023:

Co-sign on this year's Sunwatchers, fastnbulbous: once again they made my Uproxx ballot, and will be on others. This afternoon at nice quiet library, dipped a toe in two (out of three) of this year's 75 Dollar Bill reissues, from the beginning. A couple ov faves so far:

When my guitar part finally breaks form it’s just to signal the end. As for the long track that takes up the whole first side of this tape, it was named in homage to Najeeb, a young Tunisian man with Down Syndrome I’d met a few years earlier while traveling in Kairouan, Islam’s 4th holiest city. Najeeb would hang out at the cafe all day and the other guys would buy him sodas while he’d crack them up with fantastical and occasionally lewd bits about physical love, flying airplanes and tourists. Never missing an opportunity for a send up of the local religious piety, he’d attempt to order a drink you couldn’t get at this cafe, or anywhere as far as I know, وسكي بالحبرورش or “Whiskey with Hail." - CC

https://75dollarbill.bandcamp.com/track/whiskey-with-hail

I had seen Karen and Andrew playing around town and admired their playing, and finally got to meet them while playing amplified strings in a Tony Conrad ensemble circa 2012, right around when Rick and I were starting to play together. They were probably the first people to come rehearse with us and appear here on what has become our most often played (and recorded song) “WZN#3."
Andrew Lafkas: contrabass on "WZN#3"
Karen Waltuch: viola on "WZN#3"

https://75dollarbill.bandcamp.com/track/wzn-3

https://artsfuse.org/285195/the-18th-annual-francis-davis-jazz-poll-the-state-of-our-union-could-be-better/

Jazz critics poll of 2023 releases (with separate breakouts for Latin jazz, jazz vocalists, and more) . reissues . 159 critics contributed.

the top 10 of the top 50 albums list with Lewis at #1

James Brandon Lewis /Red Lily Quintet, For Mahalia, With Love (Tao Forms) 303.5 (47)
Jason Moran, From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes) 226 (32)
Steve Lehman & Orchestre National de Jazz, Ex Machina (Pi) 201.5 (30)
Tyshawn Sorey Trio, Continuing (Pi) 191.5 (32)
Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Dynamic Maximum Tension (Nonesuch) 186 (30)
Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden (Constellation) 183 (29)
Kris Davis, Diatom Ribbons Live at the Village Vanguard (Pyroclastic) 179 (28)
Henry Threadgill Ensemble, The Other One (Pi) 159 (27)
Jaimie Branch, Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((World War)) (International Anthem) 154.5 (23)
Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quintet, Hear the Light Singing (RogueArt) 133.5 (24)

Chuck Eddy is one of the critics. Didn’t think he was so into jazz.

He has gotten into jazz big time the last few years.

https://accidentalevolution.wordpress.com/2024/01/05/150-best-albums-of-2023/

Chuck Eddy list with 3 of top 4 being jazz ; plus long essay -

Jason Moran From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes)
Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra America: The Rough Cut (ESP-Disk)
Clairvoyance is the Dance Vol. 1 (Huveshta Rituals Belgium)
Lakecia Benjamin Phoenix (Whirlwind)

And oh yeah, there’s jazz too. Which, for all I know, Richard Meltzer might still listen to, to this day. And even if he doesn’t, it never died! I count at least 16 albums on my list (almost 11% — exact same percentage as metal, if you want a horse race), including three (= 75%) of my top four and 10 (= 25%) of my top 40. Read the credits and you’ll deduce that I clearly have a thing for saxophones, which is not to suggest other lead instruments aren’t honored as well.

The top two, especially, are illuminating. 48-year-old Houston pianist Jason Moran’s From the Dancehall to the Battlefield and 69-year-old Long Island (mostly alto) saxophonist Allen Lowe’s America: The Rough Cut are both loaded with blues and rags — you can tell; it’s right there in their song titles. Hillbilly music, too. In other words, they update the rock’n’roll of more than 100 years ago...

Half an hour of Cecil Taylor's big band, which appeared annually at Iridium for about five years in the early 2000s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1eCgBMMkmE

As I discovered when writing my book, this band was amazing, as close as Taylor ever got to Ellington-level orchestration, but no albums have ever been released even though a lot of the shows were recorded.

I was there for some of them!

Not in NYC for any of this weekend's multiple impressive Winter jazz conference gigs or the global ones at Drom & Lincoln Center alas. Today there's an impressive one-- Esperanza Spalding, Brandee Younger, Irreversible Entanglements, The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis. Website doesn't list Shabaka H, but he was listed elsewhere as part of this 6pm gig today at le Poisson Rouge

Sounds good, afraid I will be missing the whole thing once again as per usual.

Question for unperson, anybody: "Someday We'll All Be Free" and another track on on Eye of I sound like they incl. uncredited trumpet---could it be Kirk Knuffke's cornet, not making the Bandcamp annotations---or is JBL overdubbing the high end of his tenor, perhaps with pitch tweaking, other effects?
This and For Mahalia are currently my most played albums of any genre, any year.

Yeah, that's Knuffke. I don't know why he's not credited on the Bandcamp page for the album.

Wow, thanks! Also, the Glide reviewer keeps referring to Hoffman's "violin,' when credits have only "Cello/Pedals," which is certainly what it sounds like. But is violin on there as well or instead??

I have revived my podcast and interviewed pianist Ethan Iverson, who has a new album out on Friday. (It's good!)

Will listen. I got introduced to Joseph Branciforte on Pablo Held's podcast today, he's a recording engineer who has done a ton of records for Ben Monder, Tim Berne, etc. But he's also made a pair of gorgeous records with Theo Bleckmann where he's doing all the music live in a Max/MSP looping environment he made:

https://josephbrancifortetheobleckmann.bandcamp.com/album/lp2

And here he is covering this crazy Ben Monder tune on Rhodes and Moog, and he's also a ridiculous drummer? Come on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyBQTg3d6u8

Great interview, really enjoyed it. I like the 'singles' from the record too, looking forward to hearing the whole thing. The tunes are the most 'Bad Plus-y' I've heard from him in a long time, but that also makes the drumming sound a bit safe and me want to hear what Dave King would do.

I included some quotes from the podcast in my latest Stereogum column, which just went up. I cover some high-profile albums therein (Mary Halvorson, Keyon Harrold), but there are some lesser-known artists like Muriel Grossmann, Kirsten Edkins, and Tetragone that I hope people will check out, too.

This is coming in April, and as a huuuuuge fan of their first record, the sample bit just got me totally pumped

https://astralahmed.bandcamp.com/album/wood-blues

There's also a 5CD [Ahmed] box set coming out in April on the Swedish label Fönstret. I haven't heard it, but the label head tells me it's coming, so...

All I can see is this:

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

which is also deeply exciting to me

lol sorry, I got stoned— that last record came out this year! I had no idea because the group has several different Bandcamp pages.

Yeah, the 5CD set hasn't been announced yet, as the band haven't even signed off on the masters. But it's in process.

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.

FYI students can buy any available ticket to see the Maria Schneider Orchestra at Town Hall in NY tomorrow for only $22 - the box office will be open starting at noon. (They have a bunch left - not a lot but not few either.)

Given the way she sells her albums (only through her PledgeMusic site, which doesn't take Paypal, only credit cards) I'm surprised you don't have to actually seek her out on the street and ask nicely if you can please buy a ticket.

Artistshare

thanks for sharing that piece Stew, always nice when you post itt

Was away at the weekend. Thanks for your kind words about the piece. to answer your questions, I think [Ahmed] have a few shows around Big Ears. Likely to be an NYC date, maybe LA or SF, Chicago etc.
There will also be some Pat appearances before then, but not sure they've been announced yet, so don't want to get anyone in trouble!

Unrelated, but I noticed that Roulette's Wadada Leo Smith/Amina Claudine Myers gig next week is being webcast. That album is absolutely gorgeous, so I'm excited for that. Saw Wadada in Huddersfield last week, which was really great.
https://roulette.org/event/wadada-leo-smith-and-amina-claudine-myers/

Very refreshing profile, thanks Stew! Heard some revelatory [ahmed] on Bandcamp after tables' RJ mention, but hadn't checked backstory---intriguing mention of PT's other projects at end---

Nearly everything at Roulette is webcast and available on YouTube, recorded for posterity

Oh and they have an online audio archive going back to the 80s which scares me cause there’s so much in that rabbit hole I’ll have to quit my job and listen 24/7 to the exclusion of anything else

FYI, speaking of Ahmed, if you were like me and missed out on the first pressing, there’s another pressing of the 5xCD box available at their bandcamp.

FYI, speaking of Ahmed, if you were like me and missed out on the first pressing, there’s another pressing of the 5xCD box available at their bandcamp.

oops, sorry for the double post, got an error message for the first one and assumed it didn’t go through

I got that one, but wish they'd repress those first few LPs! Maybe if the response to the CD box is good, they'll consider it. Those have been on my wantlist for a while.

I think the CD box will do very well in the more leftfield EOY polls. Hope Astral and Umlaut reissue the earlier albums, but as they're both cottage industries it might take a while.

To be frank, a lot of the new UK jazz or jazz related music getting hyped or released by US labels is pretty mediocre. Too many promising young musicians stuck in a tasteful post Gilles Peterson "spiritual" jazz meets chilled out club music aesthetic (not to mention all the sub Ezra Collective party bands on the festival circuit). It's solidly 4/4, the tunes/riffs/arrangements are kinda basic, there's little space for improvisation. There's a lot of pastiche and even the stuff that does engage with more contemporary electronic sounds does it in a fairly reined in way. Not that I expect everyone to by wildly avant-garde, but as someone like Jeff Parker has shown, you can make accessible, groove-based music that's still interesting compositionally and allows the musicians to stretch out.

Anyway, it's great to see [Ahmed] hitting the states and rocking crowds at Big Ears et al. They're never going to have the commercial reach of artists with major label money behind them, but they'll get the enduring love. Pat has long worked with US musicians, but I think he appeals to the younger generation of players like Luke Stewart, Moor Mother, Chris Williams et al because he's a real one and he's open to working across and between genres.

[Ahmed] related news: the X-Ray Tet on Reading Group is something else. Pat and Seymour plus Edward George, Crystabel Riley, Edward George, Billy Steiger and Paul Abbott. Riley's recent solo drum release through Oto is superb too and Abbott is bringing it with his yPLO stuff. As Pat said, Abbott is the new Tony Oxley in terms of integrating electronics into his drum kit. Unlikely that a lot of this stuff will be accepted as "jazz" but it's where the innovation is: musicians who are very much engaged with the legacy of improvised and experimental musics while pushing forward.

This week's Burning Ambulance newsletter is a list of 50 great jazz albums from 1974. Most are easy enough to find on streaming services, but some will require extra searching. All are worth your time.

Super high quality Kurt Rosenwinkel set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WvexMiZ8dg

Braxton and bassist Dave Holland essaying three standards on the flip.

Apropos of this, can anyone explain why the Penguin Jazz Guide says (without any further discussion) that Anthony Braxton's recordings of standards is "problematic at best"? I've heard his Monk and one of the 1985 standards albums and didn't mind them at all, though I've got no loyalty to how these songs "should" be performed.

xp Great list re: 1974 jazz, Phil/unperson--had never heard McCoy Tyner's Sama Layuca, wow!

Might sound dumb, but McCoy Tyner is my jazz discovery of 2024. Obviously he's great on all the Trane records and his more canonized albums as a leader, but the recent Slugs' Saloon archival release w/ Henderson was a big epiphany for me this year. After listening to that one a few times, on a whim I played Henderson's Inner Urge (which I hadn't pulled out in years despite being my favorite of Henderson's Blue Note albums), paying special attention to Tyner, and it felt like I was hearing the album for the first time. It was as if suddenly I started noticing McCoy, if that makes sense. I think, given the company he kept, maybe he was an easy player to take for granted?

Wow I've always thought of him as a nearly overpowering presence on the records he's on, but that's interesting

can anyone explain why the Penguin Jazz Guide says (without any further discussion) that Anthony Braxton's recordings of standards is "problematic at best"?

I can't speak for the Penguin folks, but one thing I have noticed — and asked Braxton about when I interviewed him — is that when he makes a standards album, it's always also an album recorded with people he doesn't usually record with, rather than his working band of the moment (if he has one) or people from his regular pool of collaborators. And what he said was (in part),

many of the musicians who've come up with me aren't as experienced in bebop as some of the people I grew up with, or people from my generation. And so it's a combination of all of these factors. So one, I was trying to get out of my family, to work with people who are outside of that and plus, people who feel like me, in the sense of having a real love for the traditional repertoire. And so we'll come together and play that. I would still like to, hope to one day do a box set of 12 CDs of the music of Charlie Mingus. Or the music of Dizzy Gillespie. Certainly Dave Brubeck. All of the people that I've talked about since I made my first recording, I still listen to them and consider myself a student trying to better my understanding of their great work. And so, yes, you put your finger on it. I go outside of my family, to play with people who could be looked at as the quote-unquote the other. And this keeps me, as an old dog, on my toes. To fight to try to do better and to play with people that I haven't had a chance to play with, so I won't get too comfortable. Because I'm not interested in continuing with music if I can't find a surprise in my own playing.

Norma Winstone has very few mentions on ILM as far as I can see, but I for one am enjoying Wheeler With Words.

"can anyone explain why the Penguin Jazz Guide says (without any further discussion) that Anthony Braxton's recordings of standards is "problematic at best"?"

I would suspect it because Braxton will ignore the changes and play "free" in a lot of his solos while the band
continues to play the tune. At least that is what the 1985 recordings sound like to me. For all i know he is doing complex harmonic substitutions that i cant understand. But ya, i think Penguin Jazz Guide is implying that he is playing the songs "wrong"

Enjoying this episodic doc on Nik Baertsch's math-jazz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWwLRcu7N6Y

Ok I was not prepared for the sheer intensity of Forces of Nature (new the McCoy Tyner/Joe Henderson/Jack DeJohnette/Henry Grimes '66 live record). Jaw-dropping.

Apparently this is the earliest known recording of Jack DeJohnette...he often got described as a combination of Tony & Elvin, and that's never seemed more accurate than here in the best way, he's so sharp and burning, it's wild.

Unrelated, but I noticed that Roulette's Wadada Leo Smith/Amina Claudine Myers gig next week is being webcast. That album is absolutely gorgeous, so I'm excited for that. Saw Wadada in Huddersfield last week, which was really great.
https://roulette.org/event/wadada-leo-smith-and-amina-claudine-myers/

Went to this and bought the record at the merch section while I was there. Beautiful, and surprisingly, per Smith, this is the first time he and Myers have performed together in public. It was very moving to see them together.

That album was only the second time they'd recorded together — the first was on Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre's Humility in the Light of Creator, way back in 1969.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RwLdIiZk_8

Saw Sundance winning doc film Soundtrack to a Coup D’etat today. Well-made , long depressing and disturbing film about the US & Belgium & others having Congo’s post colonial prime minister Lumumba killed and the State Department sending Louis Armstrong to perform at the time there and Armstrong being upset that he was used. Also Abby Lincoln & Max Roach at the UN in 1961 protesting what was done . Lots of sad footage and details on man’s inhumanity to man, especially white people doing terrible things. Plus African politicians and soldiers bribed and used to carry out terrible stuff. But the jazz and the Congolese music is inspiring at least .

I have to write my year-end Stereogum column, which is the Best Jazz of 2024 roundup. But I don't want to just pick 10 albums. Instead I want to lay out 10 categories and write a paragraph about each that lists 5 representative albums, as follows (chosen albums not revealed here, sorry):

Archival Discoveries
Brooklyn Composers
Leaders Of The New School
New Age Spiritual Hippies
Nordics
Old-School Avant-Gardists
Pianists
South Africans
Traditionalists
What Do You Even Call That?

y/n did TRUE STORY make the South Africans?

xp I like that idea (and the category names).

Happy with Nordics as a category :)

Now I really want to play Jazz Jeopardy

What do we think of Eric Chenaux? If that’s jazz with vocals, then maybe I don’t hate all new jazz with vocals

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Monday, August 26, 2024 9:55 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Coming back to this, gorgeous weirdo idiosyncratic virtuoso guitar/vocal jazz songwriting. Love his woozy whammy pitch-bend guitar style, but maybe not the farty 8bit guitar synth tone on the firts track.

https://ericchenaux.bandcamp.com/album/delights-of-my-life

speaking of Happy With Nordics---couldn't resist, as backstory injoek, but I am happy as cautiously optimistic can be about the following, from free version of Nate Chinen's The Gig:

Some good news dropped out of the blue this week: JazzTimes Lives! This surprise announcement came via a Letter from the New Editor, David R. Adler, a former contributor to the magazine, and a longtime colleague and friend.

I wanted to extend my congrats, and I also had a few questions. So I connected briefly today with David, who spoke from his home in West Yorkshire, England.

The podcast follows; I haven't listened yet, hope all of that is free too.

If you’re wondering about the saga of JazzTimes and its corporate ownership, that’s a story for another time (and probably someone else’s to tell). You may recall that I wrote about the dismaying first chapter of the BeBop Channel era at The Gig:

As you’ll hear, David has a phased return underway for JazzTimes, starting small but with his usual high standards. He has his work cut out for him, but there’s nobody I’d trust more with the task.

I’ll have a couple more announcements related to jazz journalism in the coming days. But I wanted to get this out to you in a jiffy, as they say. Hope you enjoy it.

satkinsn
2h

Excellent! Who owns JT now?
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Nate Chinen
2h

A UK company called BGFG (By Gamers For Gamers)

26 m

Thanks. I somehow managed to not notice the audio you posted before I wrote

Was up in NYC this past Friday and the missus and I caught the end of Blacks' Myths w/ Luke Stewart (bass, electronics, mbira sounds) Trae Drummer & Jamal Moore (reeds & percussion), Cassie Watson Francillon (harp & electronics keyboard), Nicole Mitchell (flute & electronics), & Miriam Parker (movement artist dancer & in charge of video visuals showing behind them & staging) doing "Kemetic Hymns" @ the pyramid room in the "Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt 1876-Now" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some parts were noisy , some quieter w/ more mbira and harp sounds.

Luke Stewart >>>>>

in 2024 he's on the Janel Leppin LP on Cuneiform ("ensemble volcanic ash" -- which has a very Dogon AD vibe and name checks Abdul Wadud on the opening track) and the funky deconstructed contemporary henry threadgill-adjacent "unknown rivers" LP on pi as luke stewart silt trio. bunch of other stuff too i'm sure but those caught my attention

Luke Stewart's definitely a busy guy

He's in the David Murray Quartet too

Here's my year-end column for Stereogum, which is not a typical Top 10 list.

Nice list, I like how it's structured! Also kicking myself not knowing there was yet another Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few record from this year.

This second line-y Julian Lage/Bill Frisell version of Seven Come Eleven is so sick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnxNu4PyXrk

A while ago, I donated $150 to Ars Nova Workshop and endowed a seat at their live music venue, Solar Myth in Philadelphia. Today, they sent me a picture of the chair with its engraved plate. If you go there for a show, feel free to sit in it!

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lc2wlnvvy4glpigwako5zoty/bafkreic6e6b6w32zbrv6udoajyj2m4ljc4ek6l4ik5ircbwzpfselgvzoa@jpeg

xp enjoying that lage/frisell show a lot thanks, joey baron rules

I was not prepared for the sheer intensity of Forces of Nature

yeah this record is unbelievable

have been following the Lisbon experimental / improvised music scene at a distance ever since ilxor Stew hipped me to the PEACHFUZZ release (“Peachinguinha”) a few years back. lots of consistently good stuff from longstanding label Clean Feed as well as the more recently formed Robalo Music and Phonogram Unit (and i’m sure many more). here are some of my picks from this scene from 2024. hopefully you find something in here to love — or at least an avenue for further exploration.

Sonic Tender - Odd Objects (Robalo Music); glitchy, hypnotic repetitive piano/guitar/drums trio playing dense clusters à la Pat Thomas and [ahmed] albeit with a quiet intensity rather than a fiery roar
https://sonictender.bandcamp.com/album/odd-objects

Talagbusao - Talagbusao (Robalo Music); this is some real cerebral shit but with plenty of fire; creative, enigmatic, and maybe in the same universe as Henry Threadgill?
https://talagbusao.bandcamp.com/album/talagbusao

GARFO - Órdia (Robalo Music); fantastic acoustic quartet music playing trippy meditative minimalist pieces with beautiful horn arrangements; somewhat reminiscent of Johnny Dyani or perhaps the Necks if you squint
https://garfomusic.bandcamp.com/album/rdia

João Lencastre - Free Celebration (Robalo Music); exuberant covers of lesser-heard tunes by Ornette, Monk, and Herbie Nichols
https://joaolencastre.bandcamp.com/album/free-celebration

Luís Vicente Trio - Come Down Here (Clean Feed); ecstatic and kinetic free jazz drawing on capoeira and Don Cherry’s Old and New Dreams; excellent!!!
https://cleanfeedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/come-down-here

Pedro Melo Alves - Conundrum Vol. 1: itself through disappearance (Clean Feed); dark, synth-y, sometimes blasted pieces culled from five years of live improvisations
https://pedromeloalves.bandcamp.com/album/conundrum-vol-1-itself-through-disappearance

Linae - Continuum: Live at Smup (Phonogram Unit); on the free improv/art gallery end of things, with lots of deconstructed plinks and plenty of space
https://phonogramunit.bandcamp.com/album/continuum-live-at-smup-2

Thanks, budo! I hope to get to Lisbon and/or Jazz em Augusto soon to check out the scene there.

The Portuguese scene is very strong, and some Americans (Aaron Parks, Michael Formanek) have recently relocated there. I put out an album by saxophonist José Lencastre (brother of João, cited above) on my label a couple of years ago, featuring multiply overdubbed saxes and electronics:

https://joselencastre-bam.bandcamp.com/album/inner-voices

maybe next year your EOY list can have a The Portuguese section

i swear to god everybody there is named either José or João