The dog trots freely thru the Rolling Jazz Canto Thread 2016

There were plenty of younger folks at the show, which possibly could be cuz it was a free concert at an art museum, but there were at least as many youths as there were old heads (like me).

Watching this Eric Lewis thing now, he's an interesting figure (and I've been checking for him ever since seeing him with Elvin Jones in the early '00s, he was the most thunderous pianist I've ever seen live):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLfq17MLPwc

Enjoying listening to Sheila Jordan on WBGO with Michael Bourne on Singers Unlimited. I always regret when I miss this show. She is telling great stories, about the late Mark Murphy, about how she came to record "You Are My Sunshine" with George Russell. Playing tonight at Cornelia Street with excellent piano and bass accompaniment.

I'm just getting into pianist Lisa Hilton, whose album covers make her seem like a smoothie who sings. Turns out she's decidedly not that—she's a swinging hard bop player, and her sidemen are killer: Jeremy Pelt, JD Allen, Terell Stafford, Larry Grenadier, Gregg August, Antonio Sanchez, Rudy Royston...these are all dudes whose work I love. She's put out 18 albums, but I think the last half dozen are the ones I need to dig into. Here's a video for the title track of her new one, Nocturnal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4W8lgbcVUQ

Cecil Taylor was in court over the $500,000 Kyoto Prize money he was swindled out of by a contractor "friend"; the guy fired his lawyer in court, apparently, so his sentencing was pushed back to March 4. Cecil's already gotten over $200,000 back, and will get the rest back when the guy's sentenced, apparently.

Very glad to see that he at least got some of the money back.

Next week's Kamasi Washington show at Webster Hall is sold out. As I've mentioned before, the room he's playing - the Grand Ballroom - holds 1500 people, which is more than every major/legendary NYC jazz club (Vanguard, Blue Note, Birdland, Iridium, the Stone, Minton's, Jazz Standard) put together. Crazy. I might try to get on the guest list, just to see what it's like to experience jazz in a crowd that size. (I don't do festivals.)

i was gonna say

Got a promo of The Comet Is Coming the other day - Shabaka Hutchings' (Sons of Kemet, Melt Yourself Down) new project. Saw, synths, and drums, playing osmische jazz. Very nice

kosmische

that sounds gooood

xp to ambulance:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/kamasi-washington-jazz-summerstage/

swangin'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqUzBfmLq9M

The new album by alto saxophonist Logan Richardson, Shift, comes out next week on Blue Note. It's his debut for the label, and the band is great: Pat Metheny on guitar, Jason Moran on piano, Harish Raghavan on bass, Nasheet Waits on drums. I didn't like his first two albums at all - way too intellectual and tricksy - but this one's really good. Recommended. Here's a really cool video for the track "Slow":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gftN8IQpp0k

xxxxxpost, sure wish I hadn't missed Sheila Jordan holding forth on WBGO. Here's a video of her on stage a few years ago, posted to promote a forthcoming show, which will promote a new CD of a 1991 show. She's swinging the early years of her saga, from sharing a birthday with Mickey Mouse, to getting vamped up at 14, the better to fake her way past the age limit at a Deetroit club, while chasin' the Bird. Her voice doesn't seem to have aged at all. She doesn't really need a band---does fine with just a bass, in several other shows I've heard, and on studio albums---but she's got a reet li'l combo here (also check the band she co-led with Steve Kuhn, made a couple of albums, at least)
http://nationalsawdust.org/event/theo-bleckmann-presents-sheila-jordan/

playlist is updated.

ILM's Rolling Jazz Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

Rough Guide To South African Jazz

Out March 25

Encompassing the marabi, kwela and jive styles of mid-twentieth century urban South African music, this compilation covers the sounds, styles, assemblages and musicians that reside under the umbrella of South African jazz – from the golden age of 1960s and 1970s to the new wave of musicians in the twenty years of post-apartheid democracy.

Recently re-issued releases from musician-in-exile Ndikho Xaba demonstrate the strong transatlantic dialogue between the civil rights movements in the USA and the anti-apartheid struggle through the language of jazz, with the rare single ‘KwaBulawayo’ as performed by his group The African Echoes. The Sowetan spiritual Afro-jazz of Batsumi on the track ‘Emampndweni’ contributes to the narrative of music at home during the height of apartheid in the 1970s and similarly slots into the category of undeservedly lesser-known artistry. From a period considered by some as the golden era of South African Jazz, these artists and their compositions are pertinent and vital reminders of the intrinsic link between this music and the dismantling of oppression.

One of the most prominent figures of the South African jazz movement is the composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, whose career spans over 50 years, including a performance at Nelson Mandela’s 1994 Presidential inauguration. Having played alongside Abdullah Ibrahim, the late Zim Ngqawana was a leading proponent of the exploration of free improvisation.

Gospel, hip-hop and electronic music now dominate mainstream music in South Africa. But against this backdrop, the new school of South African jazzers have embraced the diversity of musical output, with many making the crossover themselves. Bokani Dyer regularly performs with fellow band member and bassist Shane Cooper, in his electronic music alias Card On Spokes. Furthermore, it could be argued the trajectory of popular music in South Africa over the last twenty years is personified by Thandiswa Mazwai, who rose to prominence through her work with kwaito group Bongo Maffin in the mid-1990s, before going on to encompass gospel and delve into maskanda and electronic music in her solo career.

You only have to look at the success of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, Joy Of Jazz Festival in Johannesburg and the National Youth Jazz Festival to recognise the legacy of the pioneering musicians and the continuation of their collaborative spirit in the wealth of burgeoning jazz talent in South Africa.

Track List
01 African Jazz Pioneers: Yeka Yeka
02 Bokani Dyer: Vuvuzela
03 Allen Kwela: Seven Days Ago
04 Errol Dyers: Dindela
05 The African Echoes: KwaBulawayo
06 Kippie Moeketsi: Clarinet Kwela
07 McCoy Mrubata & Wessel Van Rensburg: Jikela Emaweni
08 Dolly Rathebe: Tlhapi Ke Noga
09 Thandiswa: Ntyilo Ntyilo
10 Zim Ngqawana: Ebhofolo (This Madness)
11 Batsumi: Emampondweni
12 Abdullah Ibrahim: Soweto
13 Brian Thusi: Dembese

World Music Network
6 Abbeville Mews, 88 Clapham Park Road
London, SW4 7BX www.worldmusic.net

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSqGkVlb9BI

I interviewed pianist Lisa Hilton, who's not on jazz critics' radar at all as far as I can tell, but she makes an album a year with some really impressive sidemen.

Think I've heard of her, maybe she was quoted in a story about somebody else---? Will check her music.
Before I forget, I heard Snarky Puppy on Jazz Night In America, while doing several other things, but they grabbed some of my attention on the fly, with goofy, sometimes dorky exuberance, reminding me of recent discussions on What Are You Listening To In 2016? of Larry Coryell's early excursions---haven't had time yet to revisit, but here's the set, on same page w recent xpost Eric Lewis etc.
http://www.npr.org/series/347174538/jazz-night-radio

Really good article comparing Snarky Puppy to Weather Report, Return to Forever, and the early '70s Maynard Ferguson band (who I've never heard).

those are good comparisons as far as "because we can" as a reason for existence.

(i'm reaaally not a fan, but it's true that high school musicians love them, and i probably would have loved them in high school)

I'm not a fan, either. I found their music pleasant enough while researching an article on them, but immediately deleted it all from my iPod once I turned in the piece. They're like Dream Theater to me: talented as hell, super nice guys, zero interest in ever listening to them.

I have avoided so far because I figured it was something like that.

totally. and i listened to Dream Theater in high school, because i was very concerned about being able to play well (and have been moving farther and farther away from that ever since).

cross-posted this to the rap thread but Corey Fonville is amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm38BpDahNs

Got this CTI Records 40th anniversary box set on eBay for $19 and free shipping:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FhtXiVuVL.jpg

Just got the Herbie Mann 2CD Live at the Whisky 1969: The Unreleased Masters in today's mail. Over two hours of brand-new music by the Sonny Sharrock/Roy Ayers/Steve Marcus/Miroslav Vitous/Bruno Carr band, plus Linda Sharrock, and they do versions of "Black Woman" and "Portrait of Linda in Three Colors, All Black." Can't wait to check it out tomorrow.

I set up a conversation between saxophonist Melissa Aldana (whose new album Back Home is really good, and comes out today) and one of her biggest influences, Sonny Rollins. Here's the link.

curious to hear what the 2cd is like, sounds like a great band

That Aldana/Rollins conversation is great!

thought i'd post this one from a now-old Herlin Riley record that i go back to all the time. the thing that Wynton does at 1:34 is so sick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ8WvqIyhlA

I have his newest album in my iPod but haven't listened to it yet.

ooooh i didn't know he had a new one. what's the deal, is it on Criss Cross again?

It's called New Direction; it's on Mack Avenue.

thanks. don't know many of those guys (looks like at least some are Lincoln Center?) but will definitely check it out.

i'm always waiting for that last track on Herlin albums where he goes full New Orleans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy3-A5lKtF4

This interview with tuba player/baritone saxophonist Howard Johnson, who played with Charles Mingus, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and tons of other people, is really worthwhile.

A new interview? Cool! Everything I've read before with him has been great.

great interview, ty

Feel like I read most or all of that before, despite the recent date. Still a great interview in any case, and did not know or had not registered the part about Walter Sear before.

Believe that interview is 3 years old. Still well worth reading though.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cdl-aYnW8AAVvQ8.jpg

I interviewed Cecil Taylor for the new issue of The Wire. Digital edition will be out later today, physical version in a couple of weeks. He was...something.

great photo!

he's 87, huh. Richard Davis is 86. can you believe Roy Haynes is 91? is he the last drummer of his generation still around?

can you believe Roy Haynes is 91? is he the last drummer of his generation still around?

Tootie Heath is still playing.

Have you interviewed him, Phil?

Heath? No, but I did review his most recent album (with Ethan Iverson). It was okay.

Will have to read that Cecil interview! From Scott McDowell's weekly e-newsletter, here's Thurston Moore's Underground Jazz Top Ten, originally published in Grand Royal, reposted here in '08, maybe, and the downloads I tried didn't work, but certainly heartfelt descriptions and detailed notes: http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=1801
The only one I hadn't heard of was Ric Colbert; McDowell adds:

It's full of impassioned playing, the band interconnected and very free, yet rooted in sturdy post-bop, punctuated by Colbeck's counterintuitive logic and note-hopping runs. Dyani's bass solo opening of the title track followed by the brassy fanfare of Ric's opening statement is chills-inducing, an intensely vulnerable passage of music, like there's something serious at stake. It's a beaut.

Ric Colbeck played on two Noah Howard records in the late '60s as well as Dave Burrell's La Vie de Boheme, all three beautiful gems in their own right. There's also an unreleased record under Ric Colbeck's own name that was scheduled for the Pixie label with the all-pro dream team of Sunny Murray, Sonny Sharrock, Byard Lancaster, Joel Freedman, Bennie Maupin and Sirone. It's criminal.

Rewind several years to 1963. after kicking around London playing traditional jazz, Ric sailed a small vessel with five friends from France to Miami. In a January 17th, 1970 interview with Melody Maker (posted on Richard Morton Jack's blog Galactic Ramble along with a bunch of other information on Colbeck), perhaps the only interview he ever gave, Ric tells the story:http://galacticramble.blogspot.com/2011/10/ric-colbeck-player-of-exceptional-power.html

"We landed there in September '63 on the day of the March on Washington. I went to Canada and hitch from Vancouver to Toronto, where I played with some local bands. There wasn't much happening, so I went to New York in 1964.

I had to have a job because of the work permit situation so I worked in a hip record store in the village and started to meet some interesting people.

Noah (Howard) and I started playing together, and I was living in Brooklyn with Rashied Ali on the next floor. It was all starting to happen, with a lot of people like Byard Lancaster, Dave Burrell, Sonny Sharrock and Norris Jones coming into town.

We played in a lot of lofts and at Slug's -- that was the main centre of activity. There was a lot of playing going on in cats' pads on the Lower East Side, with Trane and Pharaoh and Dewey Johnson [I imagine this is actually Dewey Redman -- .ed] all rehearsing there.

I think that the greatest single experience was to be able to hear Trane with three or four different bands at different stages of development. He was a very spiritual musician, who inspired a whole generation of players.

The experience of playing in New York is invaluable. Every musician should go there because that's where the music comes from, and there's something there that makes you play. You can't shuck--you must keep on going.

After one week in New York your playing changes. It's a very vibrant city when compared to London, where everything closes down early. If a musician is really serious he has to go and check out America. It's the genesis of what's happening.

It seems that you have to pay your dues in the States and then work in Europe. There's not much work in New York -- a lot of people won't come to hear the music because it reflects the state of the country and they don't want to be confronted by it. The music isn't deliberately programmatic--its' just the way we play, with that intensity."

Not much is known of Ric Colbeck's career after the early '70s, at least that I'm aware of. By all accounts he suffered from alcoholism, and that's what did him in finally, in 1981.

http://gallery.tinyletterapp.com/895a071ca3ab7365d5812792255f29a4cfaf5ed3/images/9029b574-bded-4b0e-8c28-b8e3d1de414c.jpg

can you believe Roy Haynes is 91? is he the last drummer of his generation still around?

Tootie Heath is still playing.

Jimmy Cobb too, 87 years old and still touring.