Rollin' with the jazzthread, 2005

They still make jazz music?

haha Mr. Snrub SHUT UP

Best jazz record I've heard so far this year: Dave Holland Big Band Overtime
Only jazz record I've heard so far this year: Dave Holland Big Band Overtime

I've been taking an interest in the Criss Cross label for new straight-ahead stuff, though I haven't bought anything yet. I'd really like to pick up a couple of those Sam Yahel Trio discs.

I don't know much about newer jazz myself, though I'm starting to get into William Parker.

Jimmy Smith just died, apparently. WKCR (NYC) did a day-long tribute that I was really digging, especially (surprisingly) some of the more commercial stuff where he does pop/soul/blues material.

There's a new David Ware 3-CD live recording where he plays with a different drummer on each disc (Hamid Drake, Susie Ibarra, and Guillermo Brown--I hope I have all the spelling correct). I haven't heard it or anything. (For that matter, I haven't heard anything by him.)

Tomorrow I am playing "The Sermon" on repeat all day for Jimmy Smith. That is the SERIOUS shit.

I'm not a William Parker fan; he's interesting but that's as far as it goes. RS, as far as I can tell, Ware is the free-jazzin'est free-jazzer around, honking and squealing and getting real gone. I like Dao and I'm really interested in this live thing, I applied to review it for PopMatters but I don't think I'll get the gig.

I haven't heard enough William Parker to call myself a fan, but I do really like most of what I've heard of his playing. It stands out for me in a way that bass playing usually doesn't.

Ware will probably be too squonky for me, but I will give him a try eventually (if only something borrowed or downloaded).

I usually don't like Latin jazz, but I'm interested in this Dafnis Prieto CD. I'm pretty sure I saw him perform with Elio Villafranca, so if it's the right person (and it probably is, since he definitely appeard on Villafranca's debut CD), he's an especially fine drummer. (Sorry Ned, just looking for a way to avoid saying "really good.") Also, I just like the sound of his name.

RS you should try Gonzalo Rubalcaba. His record Paseo from last year had all the peeps raving, revisiting a lot of his favorite Cuban songs. I never heard it though. I think his record Supernova is pretty great (here is my corny-ass review of it, sorry for self-promotion but it's easier than recapitulating) but Inner Voyage is even more amazingly beautifully wonderful.

multi x-post

what lee morgan reissue are you referring to Øystein?

i've been real out of jazz for the past little bit, but this has sparked a tiny interest in me.

http://www.knowtheledge.net/buildanark_ps.htm

carlos nino was a staple of the LA underground hip hop scene in the late 90s and he always had a knack for getting interesting talent to perform. i wouldn't necessarily trust his musical skill, but he brought together a bunch of talented musicians for this project. it probably will sound like impulse era pharoah sanders, and will probably reek of patchuli, but for some reason i have an inkling to hear it.

Jonathan: sorry, it was just a name drawn out of a hat for a musician who's constantly being reissued (I'd rewrite that sentence, but I prefer it this way)

David S. Ware is frustrating to me; not because of his music, but because I have yet been able to find any of his albums without having to go for pexensive imports.
I heard the title track from his Corridors & Parallels album when it came out, and was REALLY impressed, so this is sad indeed. Probably time I just bite the rubicon and leap into the import stores.

it probably will sound like impulse era pharoah sanders
Mmmmmmmm, those are words that definitely poke at my interest!

I'm mostly interested in new jazz (can't remember the last reissue that I bought), but I haven't been keeping up with things at all. Partly it's because I moved away from downtown and there clearly is not a "jazz guy" at my new record store.

Anyway, over lunch I'm going to go get the new Mike Ladd album, which is not jazz but I have high hopes for it to be the best yet to come out of the Blue Series, and it's got Guillermo E. Brown, Shipp, etc. I can't remember if William Parker is on it.

Speaking of the Blue Series, I still haven't found the first Groundtruther album (Bobby Previte/Charlie Hunter/Greg Osby) but I think the second one is coming out soon with Previte/Hunter/DJ Logic. I'm not a big Logic fan or anything, but I'll bet this is the most stripped down/beat-oriented one, which I'm into.

Wait, there's a new Dave Holland Big Band album out? I really have lost touch with the scene.

it's out on feb 22, jordan. but i have it. nyah nyah. if we lived in the same town or something, we could arrange something...but nah, that's crazee talk.

Haha. You could come to the Digdown gig at the Harmony bar on the 19th, then I could get it FOUR DAYS EARLY.

Just tell me one thing...is Billy Kilson on it?

that would be much the same as the last Digdown gig: five minutes of talk, two hours of funk...actually, that was awesome

yeah I think it's the same lineup: drums Kilson, bass Holland, vibes Nelson, sax Hart, Gross, Potter, Smulyan, trumpet Haskins, Sipiagin, D. Eubanks, trombone R. Eubanks, Arons, Roseman

Blanket recommendation to everybody: check out the new Jason Moran disc, Same Mother, on Blue Note. It's either out now or by the end of the month. It's piano trio plus guitar, more or less a blues album - they do a version of Albert King's "I'll Play The Blues For You" that's killer.

William Parker's next, out in March or April on Thirsty Ear, is a piano trio disc (yes, he's still the bassist) that sounds like nothing else I've heard by him. It's very straightahead, but also very nice.

The David Ware triple-live thing is phenomenal, Disc Two (w/Hamid Drake) in particular. I wrote a full-page review of it for the March issue of the Wire.

I see myself buying a lot of those RVG reissues, Hill, Hutcherson and Sonny Clark for sure.

A Jason Moran blues album sounds cool. I really was not into that last live album.

I'm looking forward to Saturday. My band is playing at the Green Mill in Chicago and afterwards the Sabertooth Quartet is playing. They've got Ted Sirota on drums, whose Rebel Souls band made one of my favorite jazz albums of '04.

I haven't heard the live album, or the solo disc (Modernistic), but I really liked Black Stars, the disc he did with Sam Rivers, and his first one, Soundtrack To Human Motion.

Black Stars is great.

Anyone know anything about the Nojo/Sam Rivers album, City of Neighbourhoods? I don't know anything about Nojo. And as for Rivers, I own Crystals, but I don't know what his more recent work is like.

xpost Matt, if you were ultimately virtually disappointed by Gonzalo's Inner Voyage, I suppose I shouldn't mention Charlie Haden's Nocturne (on which GR plays, composes some, orchestrates some, along with Joe Lovano, and a number of panhispanic musicians and sounds) (allmusic's David Adler says it's a good example of "candlelit dinner music," and it glow-on is). So I won't.

oh yeah: what Jimmy Smith album should I get?

naw don I liked I.V. better than Supernova, I wanted to hear that Haden record but I always end up selling my Haden discs

I just heard some of that Dave Holland on the radio and I was kind of surprised I was enjoying it as much as I was (before they announced who it was).

xpost just listened to Jason Moran's SAME MOTHER. I woouldn't call it a blues album, although "I'll Play The Blues For You" is casually stupendous. And no, they don't try to beat Albert King at his own game. They (def. a they, not just Jason waving his baton) apply all the the funksoul science Blue Note was so known for, both when it did and did not deserve such rep. Somewhere, not too far away, Miles, Monk, Cannonball, Lee Morgan and others think this album is pretty god I think Holy Shit!

x post: the Holland album is weird, the songs are all...composition-y, with no actual tune or melody; but it sounds good!

"Composed-through," not "compositiony" (or scaredycat or stickupitsbum) is the polite term, Mr. 'Puss. (correction to my xpost: they think it's pretty good not pretty god). Jason's sorta cubistically assimilated different styles(can tell somebody's been listening to early Mingus and hip-hop, without biting either), so you hear 'em all at once from different angles rather than watching The Jazz Chef: "a little kiss of this, a little sprinkle that", but each track shows its own ID right away. Only thing is, it's hard for anything to follow this version of "I'll Play The Blues For You," so Mal Waldron's "Fire Waltz" just sneaks a quick smoke,which turns out to be a setup for suckerpunch of Prokofiev's "Field Of The Dead," from ALEXANDER NEVSKY. Rest are by Jason, except excellent ballad "Aubade," by Jason and Andrew Hill.

so I've got the first Moran disc and like it enough to keep coming back but it never quite does it for me. is Black Stars my next port of call, or something else? I don't need to hear Radiohead songs. and what about that Stefon Harris album?

I've also got the James Carter Django disc and love its highs but I want to hear more Carter than Django. which one next?

My favorite JC is Layin' In The Cut: like Same Mothers, it's progressive with guitars, rock-friendly but not what I'd call fusion. Also Coversin' With The Elders, guest incl. Lester Bowie and Harry Sweets Edison. No guitars, but you can see how his post-avant/aminstream with other-genre elements has been influenced by Lester's (they do a bit of the ska-bop LB did with the Skatalites, which even my friends who think they don't like ska or bop like). Live At Baker's Keyboard Lounge is mostly good (his band gets a little too laid back while he's getting hyperbolic on "Tricotism"). But mostly the band's real good and David Murray guests. If you like some of Chasin' The Gypsy, you might well like *some of Gardenias For Lady Day. Haven't heard his others. No Radiohead, I'm pretty sure (not that I'm not looking fwd to his Pavement tracks!)

Anyone heard the new William Parker on Aum Fidelity?

OOph, anyone picked up that latest Eldar Djangirov album?

I've seen him mentioned over on the Organissimo forum in the past, but never took any real notice. Seeing him on Conan O'Brian's show (of all places!) the other day just kicked me in the whomps. Damn kids with their ludicrous playing.
He seems to generally have a pretty good buzz going, but I can't help but fear that the album will be either too "clean" or an utter shredfest of horreur.

As someone who's just started playing the piano (at the age o' 24), I'm madly jealous.

For some reason all I'm listening to these days is Mobley's Soul Station and that Getz/Gilberto thing.

Is he an organ or piano player?

Soul Station was the only jazz album I felt like listening to for most of the past year, but now my interest is waxing again.

I'm listening to the people I saw and heard a lot of at the jazz festival my band played at (John Allred, Mark Braud, and Shannon Powell). I love the new John Scofield, and I picked up an older Mark Turner cd w/Brad Mehldau and Brian Blade on it that's pretty cool.

He's a pianist. He's seems to be getting a lot of hype these days, though I've seen a few people comment that they feel he's too young yet, i.e. still showing his influences rather too clearly.
The one song I heard sort of made me think of Oscar Peterson's "Goodbye, J.D." on We Get Requests, but with huge chords all over the place that brought Tyner to mind.

Is the new Scofield one of the "funk" outings? I'm very fond of "Time on my hands", but have yet to hear any other leader albums by him that I dig much. Stuff like "Uberjam" really doesn't work with me.

No no, totally not like Uberjam. It's a Ray Charles tribute complete with singers, arrangements, production, and fuckin' TASTE.

(see my thread: John Scofield - C/D, S&D)

I liked Scofield/Metheny's Grace Under Pressure: it was planned as a collab with Frisell, but he didn't show, for whatever reason. Maybe just the power of suggestion (knowing a little of the backstory), but it does seem Scofield/Frisell-ish (I like to imagine how Bill would have done it, and Pat seems influenced by the same notions?), when that would have meant something shrewder, if not more rigourous, than it might now (a little more Knitting Factory than Starbucks)(although your Starbucks may be cooler than mine). I've heard good tracks by the Brian Blade Fellowship; can't think of the album's title, but I think they only made one? Jordan, what band are you in?

Wait, isn't Grace Under Pressure actually a Scofield/Frisell album?? That would explain why it sounds Frisell-ish. :> The Pat Metheny one is 'I Can See Your House From Here', I think.

I like the Brian Blade Fellowship a lot. They did make two records, the first one with Jeff Parker on guitar and the second one (my favorite, although my friends who are into this sort of thing prefer the first one) with Kurt Rosenwinkel.

I saw Kurt Rosenwinkel once. I think he kind of stinks -- in a Joe-Satriani-of-jazz-guitar sort of way.

I'm in Mama Digdown's Brass Band btw, we just got back from doing the Ascona Jazzfest.

John Allred (from Harry Connick's band) ending up playing on the recording we did there, he's a sick man and I'm very excited to hear how it turned out.

Yeah, Rosenwinkel was intriguing for awhile and he sounds good on the Brian Blade stuff, but his album Heartcore is soooooo wanky and really turned me off.

Best-of list so far 2005:

1. Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio featuring Billy Bang, Live at the River East Art Center
2. Eddie Palmieri, Listen Here!
3. Joey DeFrancesco with Jimmy Smith, Legacy
4. Pat Metheny Group, The Way Up
5. Heloísa Fernandes, Fruto
6. Charles Lloyd, Jumping the Creek
7. Gianluigi Trovesi & Gianni Coscia, Round About Weill
8. Billy Bang, Vietnam: Reflections
9. Dave Holland Big Band, Over Time
10. Ron Blake, Sonic Tonic

oh and I found out that one of my former students, Woody Shaw III, wrote the liner notes for a reissue of his dad's Live at the Village Vanguard!

Oh and Sonny Rollins is coming to Madison this fall. Jordan?

Where's he playing?

I had fun when I went down to see him at Ravinia a few years ago. It was a totally loose goose band (Steve Jordan on drums, his standard electric bassist, a percussionist, and his nephew the shitty trombone player) and he would just start dancing around and playing tunes while the band tried to figure out what he was playing and when to come in.

haha awesome

he's playing at the overture center, big $$ presumably, but damn, SONNY ROLLINS.

You're right, I got it bassackwards about Grace Under Pressure: it was Metheny who dropped out, and Frisell who dropped in, and it seemed to relate to all three (not ones with Pat Metheny Group, but his more adventurous [or at least better] non-Group stuff, especially from early 80s) This thread started with listing of Blue Note RVGs: once I've gotten are Andrew Hill's Black Fire, which may not be as bold as some of his later work, I heard, but still get me right away: a distinctive voice, and can hear how he's a good influence on Jason Moran (would almost like to hear them together, but 9 jillion piano duets on Marian McPartland's show are enough). Also got Larry Young's RVGs, Mother Ship and Of Love And Peace (think there's an RVG edition of Unity too?) Speaking of Woody Shaw, local station played all of Live At The Keystone Vol. 3; if stuff that good is consigned to Vol. 3, I gotta check Vol. 1!

oh on above list, please put Miguel Zenón Jíbaro in at #9, move Holland to #10, drop Ron Blake

Haikunym's inclusion of Billy Bang's Vietnam Reflections sequel-- a monster that outshines the original (Aftermath)-- has me listening to it yet AGAIN. And yeah, this opening title cut is still magnificent.

Threadgill on flute = always the hottness. I don't think the Vietnamese music/musicians are very well-used, but more listens are indicated. It's beautiful...but Bang is better and more fearless when he plays with El'Zabar.

Haikunym did you get my e-mail?

no! send it to expresso2222@ gmail. com, please....

Right right sorry. Although I think I sent to that before but from my other account, balh balh balh.

1) Jordan, hey, some stuff I kept meaning to post on the New Orleans Brass Band thread: I really like Brotherhood Of Brass, with Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars crosstowning Boban Markovic Orkestar(whose Boban I Marko Balkan Brass Fest I got but haven't heard yet) and also Hasaballa, Egypt's finest and only Brass Brand. Hasaballa pops up on Mahmoud Fadi's The Drummer Of The Nile In Town, another good jaunt. 2) local station advises me that Jazz At Lincoln Center is actually not always Pseudo-Ellingtonia & authentic taxidermy. Orchestral version of A Love Supreme worked startling well; ditto orchestral Ornette, with Dewey Redman (a bit like Mingus, but good Mingus) And! Don't even nec. have to give the Orchestra something to do every damn time: just heard Bobby Hutcherson, with Andrew Hill, and then with the McCoy Tyner Trio, incl. Christian McBride and Al Foster. (Bobby & Trio on "African Village" grabbed my little attention spanner much quicker than he and Hill did, but the tape's since taken care of that.)3) Speaking of Sonny, he is or was gonna be at San Fran Jazz Festival and Monterey, with the Spanish Harlem Jazz Orchestra on at least one of those occasions, I think (listed in NYTimes some months ago)3) What are the best jazz releases of '05 so far? I haven't kept up.

Don for my take on your #3, look up and see the truth

Cool, Don. I remember being a little disappointed by the brass playing on that Brotherhood of Brass record, but I'm sure I'd like it more if I went back and listened to it with less expectation. Have you checked out any of the New Orleans stuff yet?

I don't know what the best '05 records are, I haven't been keeping up!

1) >>for my take on your #3

I don't know what's happening with my posts not showing up.I do wanna check several of yours, Matt, I was asking Jordan. Jazz ears can also enjoy Emmanuel Jal & Abdel Gadir Salim's Ceasefire, which is rap, singing, oud, electric guitar, sax, bass, keybs, violins, an amazing confluence of drums, and, uh, African.

UPDATE for the end of the year:

Completely in love with Fabiano de Castro's album Espacio Imaginario; great co-ed Brazilian jazz band with no fixed mooring, veers back and forth between weird wild lounge-ish stuff and hotter soloing, yay Sao Paulo go go go

Still waiting to hear the new Cuong Vu but I'll get it soon

Pat Metheny Group might move to #2 or slip to #10, not sure

Advance notification: Jazz on 3 - 2 December 2005

Definately a show not to be missed, format of the show - each critic selects 3 albums, they play tracks and have a discussion of what impressed them.

2 December 2005

Friday 2 December 2005 23:30-1:00 (Radio 3)
Jazz writer John Fordham and critic Steve Shepherd join Jez Nelson to discuss some of the best jazz releases of 2005.

[Available for 7 days after broadcast on demand via Listen Again - BBC Radio Player]

I haven't heard any more jazz records in the last two months. I still like jazz, though.

The only one I've been listening to besides old favorites is John Allred & Wycliffe Gordon - Head to Head. Ridiculous trombone pyrotechnics.

My favorites:

1. Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane: At Carnegie Hall
2. Billy Bang: Vietnam: Reflections
3. Craig Harris: Souls Within the Veil
4. Wayne Shorter Quartet: Beyond the Sound Barrier
5. Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra: Not in Our Name
6. Marc Ribot: Spiritual Unity
7. Sonny Rollins: Without a Song: The 9/11/Convert
8. Ibrahim Electric Meets Ray Anderson
9. David S. Ware: Live to the World
10. Greg Osby: Channel Three

I did make a jazz mix for a friend, though:

DOWN SOUTH

1. Careless Love, Preservation Hall Jazz Band
2. Over in Gloryland, Bob French's Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (feat. Sista Teedy, Davell Crawford, John Boutte, etc.)
3. Whoopin' Blues, Bob French's Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (feat. Kid Chocolate)
4. I Got A Woman, New Birth Brass Band (composed by Ray Charles)
5. Pop That Pussy, Rebirth Brass Band feat. (Cheeky Blakk)
6. Do Whatcha Wanna pt. III, Rebirth Brass Band

UP NORTH
7. The Truth, Handsome Boy Modeling School (feat. Roisin from Moloko & J-Live)
8. The Drum Thunder Suite, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
9. Sing a Song of Song, Kenny Garrett
10. Alabama, John Coltrane Quartet
11. I Set My Face to the Hillside, Tortoise
12. Paranoid Android, Brad Mehldau (composed by Radiohead)
13. Flim, The Bad Plus (composed by Aphex Twin)

I think the only 2005 jazz releases I've heard so far this year are Jenny Scheinman's 12 Songs and Scott Amendola Band's Believe, both of which are pretty good.

Is the latter widely released? I really dug on his playing in T.J. KIRK.

Holy shit, Jeff Parker + Nels Cline, I'm in.

It's not as out-there as you might expect from that line-up. But with Amendola behind the drums, you can expect subtly swinging rhythms that keep things moving along. The writing is also surprisingly good.

That's fortunate, because I prefer swinging rhythms and good writing to out-there.

Awesome- just thought you should know. Anyone heard the new Fieldwork (well not that new, about 6 months old)? I read a short review that made it sound interesting.

I haven't heard it, but I'm kinda skeptical of Vijay (or at least my ability to enjoy his records).

I haven't heard any of his records (except for part of that one about airport security post-9/11 that he did with Mike Ladd), but I saw him live once, which I had a hard time getting into, though I was kind of distracted because of who I was with, and it was somewhat dense and thorny. However, I love Humberto Elliott Kavee's drumming and I've been meaning to give Vijay a chance, and this seemed like a good place to start.

The new Fieldwork is decent; better than the one before, which didn't stick in my head at all. This one I can actually remember listening to. A better recent Pi release, though, is Steve Lehman's Demian As Posthuman.

surprised no one's mentioned the Claudia Quintet record on Cuneiform, with Chris Speed, John Hollenbeck, Drew Gress. very good, if you like the alasnoaxis/speed/pachora side of things