"Weird Means Something You Never Heard Before": Rolling Jazz D-bag Thread 2015

Post here when you gaze upon the Smalls Buddha.

Is this a place I can mention Moloch? Technically an avant-metal / noise band but a lot of free jazz greatness going on here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOAq5V219ys

sorry, the album's called Moloch. The band is Merkabah

I don't know shit about Russian jazz, but I got an album that kinda rules, so I wrote about it.

extremely relevant to this thread:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2bbMmLXhQtITdRiqRvy-yQ

listening to that 1607 record now and it sounds very nice, ty.

but for real everybody, you have to watch these Dave King videos.

wow "Dances" goes super hard.

Bunch of the top players in New York are Russian. How many can you name?

Alex Sipiagin...that's it, off top?

You got one. But what about Boris Kozlov?

Or Misha Tsiganov?

learned of this 2013 record via Dave King's really very funny blog/news page, the first track is up my alley (Mike from Happy Apple & Aaron Parks are on it):

http://sunnysidezone.com/album/north-hero

so far i'm listening to a lot more jazz in 2015 than i did in 2014.

Not familiar with that one, but I like Parks enough to give it a chance. I need to check out the second album by James Farm (his group with Joshua Redman).

Just got bassist Ben Wolfe's new one, The Whisperer; comes out on Posi-Tone end of next month. Stacy Dillard on saxophone, Orrin Evans on piano, Donald Edwards on drums, and Josh Evans on trumpet on one track. That's a pretty great modern-straightahead-mainstream lineup; I'm excited.

Winter Jazzfest this weekend. Anyone going?

prob gonna stop by at a few shows

Don't know how long this might be visible, so I'll paste instead of link---anybody heard the album??

Completely New Yet Pleasantly Familiar
Ornette Coleman’s ‘New Vocabulary’ is his first studio album since 1996.
By
Martin Johnson
Jan. 7, 2015 6:10 p.m. ET
With shockingly little advance publicity, a new recording featuring jazz great Ornette Coleman has been released. The album, “New Vocabulary” (System Dialing Recordings), became available late last month via the label’s website, and it features the innovative saxophonist and composer in a collective ensemble that includes trumpeter Jordan McLean, drummer Amir Ziv and keyboardist Adam Holzman.
The release comes at a time when new music from Mr. Coleman has grown scarce. He made a guest appearance on one track of “Road Shows Vol. 2” (Doxy), a 2011 release by fellow saxophone legend Sonny Rollins. His last official recording was “Sound Grammar” (Sound Grammar), a live recording from 2006, which received the Pulitzer Prize for music the following year. His last studio recording was “Sound Museum: Three Women” (Harmolodic/Verve) in 1996.

Mr. Coleman, who is 84, is one of the most pivotal figures in jazz history. In the late ’50s, he arrived on the scene, first in Los Angeles and then in New York, with an approach to music that loosened the rules of harmony and freed musicians to play more of what they felt. The approach was often called free jazz, a name taken from one of Mr. Coleman’s best recordings of the time. Later in the ’60s, he was one of the first jazz musicians to compose string quartets. His band in the ’70s produced classic recordings like “Science Fiction” (Columbia, 1971), and in 1976 he released his first recording with Prime Time, a band featuring electric guitars and basses that seamlessly combined jazz and funk.
Although its arrival was a surprise, the timing of the release of “New Vocabulary” is entirely appropriate. Mr. Coleman’s music was the subject of two heralded tributes in 2014. In October, The Bad Plus performed the entire “Science Fiction” recording in a series of concerts; in June, music luminaries including Mr. Coleman himself played his works in a Celebrate Brooklyn concert called “Celebrate Ornette.”
The new album was recorded in 2009. A year earlier, Mr. Coleman had attended the musical “Fela!” Afterward, he went backstage and met Mr. McLean, who was assistant musical director for the production and is a member of Antibalas, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Afrobeat band that arranged and performed the show’s music. The two men became friends, and Mr. Coleman invited Mr. McLean, who is 40, to his home to play music. Those sessions evolved to include Messrs. Ziv and Holzman, Mr. McLean’s bandmates in an electronic music group called Droid. Mr. Ziv, who is 43, has been a leading sideman for more than 20 years; his credits include work with Sean Lennon, Lauryn Hill, and Medeski, Martin and Wood. Mr. Holzman, who is 56 and leads several bands, has played with Miles Davis and Chaka Khan. Informal jamming gradually became more rigorous rehearsals as the musicians honed the 12 songs that appear on the recording.
“New Vocabulary” is a concise 42 minutes, and it begins with two spare tunes, “Baby Food” and “Sound Chemistry,” that contrast Mr. Coleman’s bright, often gleeful saxophone tone with electronic effects by Mr. McLean and piano from Mr. Holzman. From there the intensity picks up on pieces like “Alphabet,” “Bleeding,” “If it Takes a Hatchet” and “H20” as Mr. Ziv’s drumming becomes more prominent and both Mr. Coleman and Mr. McLean accent and play off of his driving rhythms. The album ends with “Gold is God’s Sex,” a ruminative piece that lends the recording a bit of symmetry.
Most Ornette Coleman projects offer either something completely new or something closely related to what he has done in the past. Prime Time and the band on “Sound Museum” were radical shifts. “Science Fiction,” built on the Blue Note recordings that preceded it, and “Sound Grammar” placed Coleman in a familiar setting—a quartet—with repertoire from his lengthy career. “New Vocabulary” does a little of both. Without directly quoting melodies, Mr. Coleman’s playing at times recalls his work in the early ’60s, early ’70s and late ’80s. Yet the backing is completely new for those who know his work only via recordings, and Mr. Coleman sounds energized by his bandmates. One can only hope it is a direction he will continue to pursue. Despite its under-the-radar launch, “New Vocabulary” is a valuable addition to Ornette Coleman’s extraordinary discography.

Would love to see this at the Paley Center. I've seen The Sound of Jazz and have an audiotape; also The Sound of Miles Davis was intriguingly excerpted on Night Music in the 80s, when Miles was a guest. Didn't know there was so much, must check YouTube:

Filming Sonic Emotion
Robert Herridge’s TV programs changed the way people viewed jazz.
By
Marc Myers
Jan. 14, 2015 6:38 p.m.

Halfway into “The Sound of Jazz”—an hourlong live CBS special that aired on Dec. 8, 1957—Billie Holiday did something impetuous that would change the way jazz and jazz musicians were viewed by TV audiences. As Count Basie and an all-star big band wailed away on “Dickie’s Dream,” the singer strolled into the studio, stood for a few moments nodding to the music, and then coolly walked over to the piano to talk to Basie while he was soloing. Four television cameras caught the drama.

Robert Herridge: Jazz on TV

The Paley Center for Media

Through Jan. 18

Minutes later, as Holiday sat on a stool and sang “Fine and Mellow” accompanied by a small group of musicians, the cameras zoomed in even closer, letting viewers see the pain on her face and the sly, loving glances she shot soloists. For a TV audience unfamiliar with jazz, Holiday became an emotional guide, providing a soulful narrative that helped viewers understand how they should feel about what they were seeing and hearing.

Much of the credit for the relaxed cinéma vérité camerawork of “The Sound of Jazz” belongs to Robert Herridge, a producer of TV dramas and a tireless champion of the performing arts. Four of his late-’50s TV jazz programs—“The Sound of Jazz,” “Frankie and Johnny,” “Jazz From Sixty-One” and “The Sound of Miles Davis”—will be screened at New York’s Paley Center for Media on Jan. 17 and 18. Watching them in crisp black-and-white from start to finish reveals much about jazz’s struggle for high-culture acceptance in the 1950s and Herridge’s passion for preserving and promoting the music.

By insisting that studio cameramen shop for drama in musicians’ faces, Herridge treated jazz as a theatrical performance on par with the staging of Shakespeare or Dostoyevsky. It was a bold move in 1957, when network television was largely a white medium that rarely featured modern jazz, let alone integrated ensembles. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie performed on TV together only once, on a local New York station in 1952, while Bobby Troup’s “Stars of Jazz,” which launched in 1956, was a Los Angeles TV showcase. After “The Sound of Jazz” aired, however, more reverential and dramatic programming followed, including “The Subject Is Jazz” (1958), “Jazz Scene USA” (1962), “Frankly Jazz” (1962-63) and “Jazz Casual” (1961-68). There also were four Timex All-Star Jazz Shows on CBS in the late ’50s, a pair of “Swing Into Spring” specials and jazz on talk shows hosted by Steve Allen.

Yet despite winning many of TV’s major awards during his career—including three Emmys—Herridge, who died in 1981 at age 67, is barely remembered today. Back in the ’50s, he pioneered the concept of television as open theater—placing talented actors in stripped-down sets while multiple cameras slid around capturing their live performances. In 1957, Herridge extended this concept to jazz, encouraging musicians to observe each other performing.

But Herridge would not have been able to attract the likes of Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, Lester Young, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Ben Webster, Ahmad Jamal and many others if not for jazz journalist Nat Hentoff. “Herridge had the idea for ‘The Sound of Jazz’ when he approached me and [New Yorker magazine critic] Whitney Balliett for musicians,” said Mr. Hentoff, 89, in a phone interview. “The first thing he said was, ‘Go after the people you want on the show. I don’t care if the audience knows their names. I just want it to be pure jazz.’”

Balliett, who often reviewed jazz, preferred to take a back-seat role as Mr. Hentoff called in favors. Once the artists were assembled, the next step was a lighting rehearsal a week before airing. “For a moment, the show was nearly scrapped,” recalled Mr. Hentoff. “A high-level CBS official sent Herridge a note telling him that he couldn’t put Billie on TV—that she had been in prison for drugs. Herridge was a deadly serious guy, especially when it came to the arts. He called the executive and told him that if this was his final insistence, everyone would leave and there would be no show. The executive backed off.”

Despite being told to dress casually for the broadcast, most of the musicians ignored Mr. Hentoff’s instructions. All were convinced that a network TV show would be a lavish affair. “Billie spent $500 on a dress and cursed me out when she discovered there wasn’t a glamorous set,” said Mr. Hentoff. “That may be why she walked onto the Basie set—to give Herridge more casual reality than he expected. But Herridge and the cameras ate it up. She kissed me after.”

Herridge told the cameramen to “get the faces” of the musicians and treat them like actors in a drama. He went so far as to tell them to ignore the voice of director Jack Smight in their headsets if they saw something special. “Herridge wanted the musicians to play to their peers, not to the cameras,” said Charles “Chiz” Schultz, 83, the show’s associate producer, in a phone interview. “It seemed insane to the musicians but it worked for TV.”

About a half-hour before going live at 5 p.m., no one could find eccentric pianist Thelonious Monk. “I went outside onto West 55th St. and looked up the block,” said Mr. Schultz. “Monk was standing there, with his arms and hands outstretched in front of him. It was raining, and when I made my way over and asked if he was all right, Monk said, ‘I need to feel what it’s like out here first.’ After a minute, he came with me. That was some kind of insight into Monk.”

In April 1959, Herridge filmed Miles Davis in an orchestral setting with Gil Evans conducting and then with his quintet, featuring John Coltrane, playing “So What” from Davis’s forthcoming album “Kind of Blue.” The hourlong “Sound of Miles Davis” aired in July 1960. Also in 1959, the half-hour television ballet “Frankie and Johnny” was taped featuring original music by Charles Mingus and performed live by a Mingus-led ensemble.

In September 1960, “Jazz From Sixty-One” was broadcast. The half-hour show featured the Ben Webster Sextet and the Ahmad Jamal Trio. Here, Herridge had Webster’s group play first and then surround the piano to watch and listen to Ahmad Jamal. Herridge’s cameras caught the drama as older jazz artists like Buck Clayton and Jo Jones stood entranced by Mr. Jamal’s swinging, delicate sound.

Among those on the set captured by the cameras was a 34-year-old Mr. Hentoff, a pipe clenched in his teeth, nodding happily in time to the music. Fortunately for jazz, Herridge knew that the music performed on TV would be more memorable if viewers could see the reactions of insiders who were hearing it.

Mr. Myers, a frequent contributor to the Journal, writes daily about music at JazzWax.com.

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JAZZ SAXOPHONE LEGEND ART PEPPER’S NEON ART LP SERIES
COMING TO CD FOR FIRST TIME ON OMNIVORE RECORDINGS
Omnivore released the sets on colored vinyl in 2012, and
now makes them available on CD and digital beginning February 17, 2015.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.— In 2012, Omnivore Recordings issued a series of unreleased music from jazz legend Art Pepper on colored vinyl. Now Omnivore, in conjunction with Laurie Pepper and Widow’s Taste Music, proudly offer these landmark recordings on CD and digital.
The jazz alto saxophonist, who was born in Covina, Calif. in 1925 and died in Los Angeles in 1982, placed second only to Charlie Parker in Downbeat magazine’s Readers Poll in 1952. Considered one of the pioneers of West Coast jazz, Pepper began his career on L.A.’s Central Avenue, a hotbed of black music, blues, and swing and made his name in Stan Kenton’s Big Band. Pepper also collaborated with Hoagy Carmichael, Art Farmer, Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard, and Johnny Griffin and led and recorded with his own ensembles. His career was repeatedly interrupted by prison stints related to his heroin addiction, but he embarked on comebacks each time, his superior level of musicianship never compromised. He co-authored his autobiography titled Straight Life: The Story of Art Pepper, with his wife, Laurie.
Neon Art: Volume One contains two tracks recorded at Parnell’s in Seattle, Wash., in 1981, with Art accompanied by Milcho Leviev (piano), David Williams (bass), and Carl Burnett (drums). “Red Car,” originally released on 1977’s The Trip, appears in a stunning 17-minute version, while “Blues for Blanche,” first heard on 1980’s So in Love, sees the original version expanded to 18 minutes. Street date for Volume One is February 17, 2015.
Neon Art: Volume Two includes three tunes drawn from the unissued performances of his 1981 tour of Japan. The album features Art’s composition “Mambo Koyama,” as well as his very personal and soulful rendition of the classic “Over the Rainbow” and the bebop workout “Allen’s Alley.” The band on Volume Two, which also appears on Volume Three, is composed of George Cables, piano; David Williams, bass; and Carl Burnett, drums. Volume Two hits the streets March 10.
Neon Art: Volume Three features three more tunes drawn from the unissued performances of his 1981 tour of Japan. Pepper funky originals “Make a List (Make a Wish)” and “Arthur’s Blues” are joined by the standard “Everything Happens to Me,” which has previously been recorded by Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday. Release date is April 7.
“Art hated the idea that people put jazz in a pigeonhole. He wanted to make people forget the categories and ‘make them open up and listen’,” says Laurie Pepper. The release of these three albums of previously unissued Art Pepper recordings, now available in all configurations, will allow anyone the ability to ‘open up and listen.’
The three albums, now available on CD and digital, as well as in their original colored vinyl, form an entry point into the multifaceted, colorful world of Art Pepper.
Track Listings:
Neon Art: Volume One
1. Red Car (16:52)
2. Blues for Blanche (17:57)
Neon Art: Volume Two
1. Mambo Koyama (18:39)
2. Over the Rainbow (14:37)
3. Allen’s Alley (9:17)
Neon Art: Volume Three
1. Make a List (Make a Wish) (24:41)
2. Everything Happens to Me (8:36)
3. Arthur’s Blues (10:29)
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Watch (and feel free to post) the video trailer:
http://youtu.be/JcnyuZ2tNcA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcnyuZ2tNcA&feature=youtu.be

**** EVENT UPDATE ****

We have had a HUGE response to the first two installments of our 5 Year Aniversary concert series. Since these are free events and space is limited we have set up an RSVP page linked below. Please help us get the word out and we hope to see you there!

RSVP for Marc Ribot Workshop & Performance 1/24, Sun Ra Workshop & Perfromance 1/31
http://northernspyrecords.com/rsvp-to-the-northern-spy-presents-at-sugarcube-events/

2015 marks Northern Spy’s fifth year of existence. To celebrate, we’ll be rolling out news about some amazing concerts throughout the year. The first two installments will take place at the SUGARCUBE, an inflatable performance space at the South Street Seaport (NYC). On January 24th, we’re featuring an improv workshop with guitarist Marc Ribot and performances by Loren Connor’s Haunted House and Ribot’s Ceramic Dog. On January 31st, we’re presenting a workshop and performance by none other than Marshall Allen and the Sun Ra Arkestra.

All workshops and performances are free to the public thanks to a grant from the Howard Hughes Foundation. Details below.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/uqnFCmEnIuHYwHYb7wnP3H2AOpcxckum5Yh8gFRqNqznwkp3QVT31Lj0LiU6r_DaAUDx5aKf-72ch4cjIZ2QOd37IF7hgiaCc6fglgPNNRtBY5LJfmMrTnoX6a9qYQQLoQ

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/5TJdSzwQsT8Sr2g4dZwbY_PZkrgsxAXgsPAfsPNro4E72NUMLY8ObMZ4Oz-bWIqMYC4Mg5tX21dhPdqAv8sjd2fNdlbZgzijckMFF1_Mxo9mhhM9kTZYgXKAeGWkkRY3aw

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24th

WORKSHOP: NORTHERN SPY PRESENTS
How To Jam with Marc Ribot

(2-4pm) FREE ADMISSION - please bring your instrument, an amp, or whatever you need to play along.

PERFORMANCE: NORTHERN SPY PRESENTS

(7-9pm) FREE ADMISSION
Loren Connors' Haunted House (7pm)
Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog (8pm)

w/ AdHoc DJs

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/88i3KU4m222bxy9kW2KeLK6svcGw5rcZ3YtIXecRLvUcuyIUW-hqkeWkFo8io6_UlKx0yFUvbSMNxhqxu5Fb1zx5y-Uttbcm8Y6G7bREKCt7qpw0HTOE6K3LBwztpZnzAg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/rtTVWksYJB67yM7qca1b35icE5JfRByTWaVnU54idastHg5TIDvxHWn05gojqvoN-ME4iTu9QKZ0XUfkjKbj4vi-nRhTOlkjzH_ikIRqbayChE7w7kb3BTKfqLbEXsFMvw

"Langille's emotional wails, coupled by the thundered music of Connors, Burnes, and Murgai, will hang on you like a specter, passing through you with the feeling of Antarctica and leaving you with the relentless sweat of Hades.” - Justin Spicer, KEXP

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31st

WORKSHOP: NORTHERN SPY PRESENTS
A Creative Workshop with Maestro Marshall Allen & members of the Sun Ra Arkestra

(2-4pm) FREE ADMISSION - talk and end of workshop jam - bring instruments

PERFORMANCE: NORTHERN SPY PRESENTS
(7-9pm) FREE ADMISSION
Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen

w/ AdHoc DJs

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ufpEvycbQZHFsADeL3Gi0Wy2uFKr6_MA0YnhQj5qbkUCBYq5fup3amceb88F6UoHlsrW6GNmCe5uSrf_bBpAykYczusTgClVknVF6r5Mb0_RyZNPm30FuY1GQD5y2W22sQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL3toajMHYTm0lsjRE3TINizIp7Mwngp-m&v=SJLy74CSsJI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_qilA78qxw&list=PL3toajMHYTm0lsjRE3TINizIp7Mwngp-m&index=2

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24th
WORKSHOP: NORTHERN SPY PRESENTS
How To Jam with Marc Ribot

(2-4pm) FREE ADMISSION - please bring your instrument, an amp, or whatever you need to play along.

so cool!!!

had never heard of sugarcube, that's a neat pop up
i'm working a show with Ribot for march that i'm kinda excited about

Better give us the info on that show, forks.

Speaking of March:

http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001tYsSGQ4DIIK54Z0o-rg0gpbftDndtQ6tLawkXpE5ZYrlVMA3zRzAaVHehrEfW3UiKq73Q2yxv2ZHrHvQ5RvT2WfSBNSzF-q5Lx95zKCqMGHX6YhH3jXFu91Vv9hONUuP4DVuj_GC-eM5I-LATOz7waCGPoa9SnJLhBF7px6LUDaPOGu1vtT-hmxGS8LJ1I9Qxr2yhQAGcZF6vKL2CFvZqxSqsRM_I2XxrUMTTKknjrQdbwZSiwZtOIbRLLXuMcbbI38uc1uW0OA6W3xNkoC7sfoJhQlGiy1f3cUKhe6tCz87LVMZWSdh3zpwXTQlF4M2vkYrp0maz-GEaIzNo7MwN04DunQ67hC3YxT07nMgNKFqZpyXtR5lk3dmBM-SPrVwNQuw9h7hsvE=&c=xJu3-nL9UfcJcmpMWZkcIXz_nI0vPdhSIBwj8PVYKOhAOQYfPKWiLA==&ch=vRSh_9oIlFVC4kGTLUI1PsbHjEwcHn4GUebXcNlEXJdUe149Aj7o4A==

John Coltrane "So Many Things: The European Tour 1961"
4-Disc Set coming March 10th

The John Coltrane Quintet featuring Eric Dolphy

A sequel to Miles Davis and John Coltrane "All Of You: The Last Tour 1960

"There are so many things to be considered in making music", John Coltrane told an interviewer during his first European tour as a bandleader in the autumn of 1961. "Many things on which I don't think I've reached a final conclusion."

Indeed, the music Coltrane made on this trip took audiences to the very cutting edge, leaving many questions unanswered, even for the saxophonists most ardent fans. For some he had taken the fundamentals of modern jazz to breaking point, thrusting it into "the realms of higher mathematics", as one bewildered journalist put it.

To others, Coltrane was the voice of progress, bravely reasserting the exploratory nature of jazz, daring to push his core repertoire through a process of continual reinvention, taking himself, his fellow players and those who flocked to hear him on an impassioned journey of discovery, night after night. Coltrane's performances were now akin to opening Pandora's Box. "There are all sorts of moods involved", wrote one partisan jazz writer of the tenorists playing during the tour: "deep power...warmth...gracefulness...so many things."

The impact of Coltrane and his regular quartet sidemen - pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Elvin Jones - was made doubly controversial by the leaders last-minute decision to add the formidable multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy, a musician who Coltrane regarded as a true kindred spirit but whose introduction the European audiences was to prove equally divisive.

Playing over 30 concert appearances in under three weeks, the band criss-crossed the continent from France to Finland, taking its message to far larger crowds than could be squeezed into its club sets back in the US.

These recordings have since acquired almost legendary status and have previously only been available in sporadic fashion, but for the first time ever, this new release collates tapes made by the quintet in Paris, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm, creating a truly sundering anthology of this short-lived band at its peak.

Newly remastered for optimum sound quality, along with examples of Coltrane's landmark compositions Naima and Impressions, this collection also includes the saxophonists only recording of Victor Young's theme Delilah and, as a bonus, a stunning rare "second house" performance of Coltrane's transformational anthem My Favourite Things taped in Stockholm.

This release features photographs, concert memorabilia and press clippings, and comes complete with an extensive booklet essay by award-winning British saxophonist and writer Simon Spillett.

John Coltrane (tenor and soprano sax)

Eric Dolphy (alto sax, bass clarinet, flute)

McCoy Tyner (piano)

Reggie Workman (bass)

Elvin Jones (drums)

CD 1:

L'Olympia, Paris, November 18th 1961 (First House)

1. Blue Train (Coltrane)

2. I Want To Talk About You (Eckstine)

3. Impressions (Coltrane)

4. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)

L'Olympia, Paris, November 18th 1961 (Second House)

5. I Want To Talk About You (Eckstine)

6. Blue Train (Coltrane)

CD 2:

L'Olympia, Paris, November 18th 1961 (Second House, cont.)

1. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)

Falkconercentret, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 20th 1961

2. Announcement

3. Delilah (Young)

4. Everytime We Say Goodbye (Porter)

5. Impressions (Coltrane)

6. Naima (Coltrane)

CD 3:

Falkonercentret, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 20th 1961 (cont.)

1. My Favourite Things (false starts)

2. Announcement by John Coltrane

3. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)

Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland, November 22nd 1961 (Second House)

4. Blue Train (Coltrane)

5. I Want To Talk About You (Eckstine)

6. Impressions (Coltrane)

7. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)

CD 4:

Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden, November 23rd 1961 (First House)

1. Blue Train (Coltrane)

2. Naima (Coltrane)

3. Impressions (Coltrane)

4. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)

Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden, November 23rd 1961 (Second House)

4. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)

# # #

Oops---that's from MVD Entertainment Group.

i'll drop ribot info here next week. tiny room, only about 120 people and i think a $20 ticket

pharaoh sanders doing a one night only show at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola for $30 - Small room and a nice opportunity

who's he playing with?!

Man, wish I could go down for that...I almost never check the JALC calendars, on the assumption they'll never have someone like Pharaoh.

The Times says he's there 1/29 through 2/1.

I saw him at a festival once and didn't love it, but I'm not the biggest Pharaoh fan anyway

forks what kind of Ribot show is that, trio? Solo?

we're announcing Monday but fuggit, the basics are already out there:

Thursday, March 26
MARC RIBOT and EMELINE MICHEL
The Music of FRANTZ CASSEUS - Father of Haitian Classical Guitar
At Greenwich House Music School - Part of The Uncharted Music Series
Showtime: 8:00 pm
Tickets: $25
Guitar legend Marc Ribot and Haitian songstress Emeline Michel pay tribute to Haitian classical guitar icon (and Ribot's mentor) Frantz Casseus.
As a teen, Marc Ribot played guitar in various garage bands while studying with his mentor, Haitian classical guitarist and composer Frantz Casseus. After moving to New York City in 1978, Ribot was a member of the soul/punk Realtones, and from 1984-1989, of John Lurie's Lounge Lizards. Between 1979 and 1985, Ribot also worked as a side musician with Tom Waits, Brother Jack McDuff, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Chuck Berry, and many others. Since then, he's become the go-to guitar guy for all kinds of roots-music adventurers: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp. Additional recording credits include Solomon Burke, Neko Case, Diana Krall, Beth Orton, Marianne Faithfull, Arto Lindsay, Caetano Veloso, Laurie Anderson, Susana Baca, McCoy Tyner, and (more recently) Joe Henry, Allen Toussaint, Norah Jones, Akiko Yano, The Black Keys, Jeff Bridges, Jolie Holland, Elton John and Leon Russell. Ribot frequently collaborates with producer T Bone Burnett, most notably on Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's Grammy Award-winning Raising Sand.
Artist Website: https://www.facebook.com/EmelineMichelMusic
Emeline Michel is the reigning queen of Haitian song: a captivating performer, versatile vocalist and one of the premier Haitian songwriters of her generation. She has recorded and appeared on concert stages throughout the Caribbean, Europe, and North and South America for over 20 years. Singing both in French and Haitian Creole, her nine albums have catapulted her to international acclaim. Beloved by Haitians for combining traditional rhythms with social, political and inspirational content, she is a member of a unique generation of Haitian musicians that emerged in the late 1980's and also includes guitarist/vocalist Beethova Obas and the bands Boukman Eksperyans and Boukan Guinen. This wave of artists emphasized complex themes, conscious lyrics, and a broad palette of musical styles. Jon Pareles of The New York Times called her "... the dancing ambassador with a voice serene and warm like a breeze."

http://www.jazz.org/dizzys/events/154576/Pharoah-Sanders

http://open.spotify.com/user/forksclovetofu/playlist/4banIC4hak3hItzJFNqzAo

Saw Pharoah once at Birdland and it was grebt

I saw him in the early 90s at Iridium (when it was still uptown). He had Cindy Blackman on drums and, I think, Ron Carter on bass. It was really good.

The reason I say I think Ron Carter was on bass is because I definitely saw Ron Carter with somebody at Iridium, but it might not have been the same night.

Oh wow Cindy Blackman. That's a musician I hadn't thought about for a while.

she's awesome

She's Rick James's niece.

Why is there no ILX celebrity sighting thread?

She came to my high school and did a clinic.

ok i don't follow this thread so i don't know if this is shit that's been talked about or whatever. look, i don't #listentojazz *that* much. except i listen to it on weekends mornings a lot. but i feel so cut off from "the jazz world" or whatever.

but so that brian blade & fellowship band album? LANDMARKS? so fucking good.

Whenever I think about Cindy Blackman I get mad about the gender stereotypes in the article the Onion did about her. While it's true that most people would not be enthralled at the prospect of a 45 minute guitar solo, using the drummer in a Tony Williams Lifetime tribute band in the "everywoman" role is super lazy and screams "did not do research".

The WHO Trio: The WHO Zoo
This is a late release from last year and is a trio of Wintsch/Hemingway/Oester (WHO), the album is split into Electric/Acoustic sides and it has grown on me a lot recently. Sometimes they sound a bit like The Necks but they tend to roam a bit more, which is sometimes frustrating, because some really nice passages break down too soon sometimes. i just thought it was worth mentioning because it wasn't on last year's thread and they are an excellent band.

Been doing some really interesting interviews this week. Talked to bassist Cecil McBee midweek (if you're not listening to The Cookers, get on that—all four of their albums smoke in a strictly-for-the-hardcore kind of way), and this afternoon I spent an hour on the phone with André Martinez Reed, who was a percussionist/drummer with Cecil Taylor, off and on, from about 1981 to 1992, and had some amazing stories to tell.

Wow, I didn't know Cecil McBee was still around! Love his playing with Andrew Hill, and on Marc Levin's The Dragon Suite.

xxxpost jaymc yeah some of us talked about Brian Blade Fellowship's Landmarks on I Don't Know etc (Rolling 2014 version of this thread). Good album.

Landmarks is amazing! It's grown on me and I love it, but it still doesn't top Season of Changes.

I just put the opening tape-effect track on a mix btw, wish there were more curveballs like that.

whoa, that Cindy Blackman story. she's an amazing drummer.

Got an interesting looking Braxton disc in today's mail - a reissue of Trio and Duet, from 1974; first track/side is Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet and other stuff, and Richard Teitelbaum on synth, doing one of his originals. The second side is Braxton and Dave Holland doing standards - "The Song Is You," "Embraceable You," "You Go To My Head," "On Green Dolphin Street," "I Remember You."

Also got the new Jeremy Pelt, which features him playing with two drummers - Billy Drummond and Victor Lewis. Not the guys I would ordinarily expect to double up, but I figure it'll be interesting - he does versions of Clifford Jordan's "Glass Bead Games" and Wayne Shorter's "Vonetta," but there's no saxophonist on the disc. I like Pelt a lot; looking forward to hearing this.

Bought Joe Henderson's At the Lighthouse last night—it's a reissue of his 1970 live album If You're Not Part of the Solution, You're Part of the Problem with a few extra tracks from the same shows added, and the band is absolutely killer: Henderson, Woody Shaw on trumpet, George Cables on Fender Rhodes, Ron McClure on bass, Lenny White on drums, and Tony Waters on congas on a few tracks. Really looking foward to listening to it.

impressive line up indeed

http://subculturenewyork.com/event/a-conversation-made-in-chicago/
A CONVERSATION WITH JACK DEJOHNETTE, MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS, AND HENRY THREADGILL
MON - 02/23/15
DOORS: 06:00 PM / SHOW: 06:30 PM

At Kitano for something called the Cuba Brazil New York Connection, or words to that effect

How was it?

great interview with Ndugu Chancler on my friend's new podcast: http://www.thetrapset.net/

Archie Shepp Attica Blues Orchestra: been wondering about this Grammy nominee, anybody heard it? Loved the original Attica Blues, haven't heard subsequent live versions, excerpted here, with additional material not on the original LP (although there was a 2-LP edition also, right?)Wondering about his later technical difficulties; this says "He still has some chops," which doesn't read all that reassuringly/reassured:
http://www.popmatters.com/review/180151-archie-shepp-attica-blues-orchestra-i-hear-the-sound/

I've heard it. It's OK, not great. When I interviewed Shepp last year, he mentioned that he likes the second version better.

Thanks. Have you heard Ornette's New Vocabulary?

I have not. I requested a copy from the label but it was never sent and right now I don't have a buying-music budget.

The New York-Cuba-Brazil Connection show was really good, three guys with tons of both straight jazz and Latin Jazz chops playing well together.

Has this been posted?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krDxhnaKD7Q

A+

Got some good stuff in today's mail:

Jim Snidero, Main Street (Savant): Snidero's an OK alto saxophonist - bluesy, melodic, nothing fancy - but he's got a killer band behind him: pianist Fabian Almazan, bassist Linda Oh, and drummer Rudy Royston. This disc is worth hearing just for those three. Out now.

Donny McCaslin, Fast Future (Greenleaf): McCaslin on tenor sax, Jason Lindner on piano and synths, Tim LeFebvre on electric bass, Mark Guiliana on drums, David Binney on vocals and synths (and producing), Nina Geiger on vocals, Nate Wood on guitar, Jana Dagdagan doing spoken word on one track. Strongly influenced by EDM, but also Weather Report (the vocals are wordless and remind me of "Nubian Sundance" from Mysterious Traveller); includes a version of Aphex Twin's "54 Cymru Beats." Out 3/31.

Myra Melford, Snowy Egret (Enja): Melford on piano, Ron Miles on cornet, Liberty Ellman on guitar, Stomu Takeishi on acoustic bass guitar, Tyshawn Sorey on drums. Haven't listened to this one yet, but the band intrigues me. Out 3/10.

Last one does look interesting. Ron Miles is great. And a couple of guys who play with Henry Threadgill.

This one is even better
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKL2It6XzHA

love me some myra melford

Donny McCaslin, Fast Future (Greenleaf)

urgh Greenleaf has pulled its samples off Soundcloud. This ticks a lot of boxes for me, thanks for the heads up

I'm hoping to premiere a track on Burning Ambulance. Will post a link if it happens.

those Jeremy Pelt tracks are great. the double drummer thing in a more or less straight-ahead context thing adds a lot, i like how it's mixed too.

btw i'm curious to hear Dave Douglas' upcoming record with Shigeto involved. i haven't listened to him in years, but it could be interesting to have a serious electronic producer (who's also a jazz musician) involved. i remember hearing some DD electric record that sounded like aimless fusion, hoping this one works.

Jay Babcock retweeted
Marc Urselli ‏@MarcUrselli

in the studio with #JohnZorn #Dreamers w/ #JoeyBaron #TrevorDunn #MarcRibot #JamieSaft #CyroBaptista #KennyWollesen

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-E6hjOIcAA9v-G.jpg

y'all know clean feed records have a stock clearance on at the moment?
skads of cool stuff on offer:
my picks:
WHO trio / joe morris & barre phillips duos / joe morris & nate wooley duos / whit dickey / rob brown trio / michael dessen trio / bass drum bone / tony malaby's tamarindo / rafael toral & davu seru
consume !

Second Tony Malaby's Tamarindo.

apart from the live cd with leo smith. love smith but he doesn't fit in that band

Burning Ambulance is streaming the new album by Finnish saxophonist Eero Koivistoinen—weirdly, it's on Svart, which is a Finnish label specializing in metal, psychedelic hard rock, doom, and occult folk music. (But they also put out that excellent Sonny Simmons album with the psych-rock group Moksha Samnyasin last year.)

About to dive deep into 70s fusion - I just ordered 5CD "Original Album Series" boxes by Stanley Clarke, Billy Cobham and Jean-Luc Ponty.

Was just thinking it's Tristano time again, and came across this mention on Tom Hull's site---no mention of Billy Bauer, but good anyway?

Lennie Tristano: Chicago April 1951 (1951 [2014], Uptown, 2CD): with disciples Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh, of course, a slightly stranger shade of bebop. A-

(Didn't Becker & Fagen produce an album for a combo co-led by Marsh? And he maybe took a turn on a Steely Dan album?)

Oh yeah, Apogee: http://www.allmusic.com/album/apogee-mw0000332933

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20150303/8d/e0/1a/c9/2206e44df2909a57e26cf1d4_274x280.jpg

CONCORD MUSIC GROUP CELEBRATES 40th ANNIVERSARY
OF LEGENDARY TONY BENNETT/BILL EVANS SESSIONS
WITH FOUR-LP BOX SET:
THE COMPLETE TONY BENNETT/BILL EVANS RECORDINGS
DUE OUT APRIL 28.

180-gram vinyl package contains alternate takes and bonus tracks.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Forty years ago, renowned entertainer Tony Bennett joined together with legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans for their first of two duet albums. The result was 1975’s The Tony Bennett / Bill Evans Album, followed by Together Again the following year. To celebrate this incredible coupling of talents, Fantasy Records, a unit of Concord Music Group, will release a deluxe, 180-gram vinyl box set. Venerated as a special moment in the history of jazz, the two albums, plus two discs’ worth of alternate takes and bonus tracks, are combined in this four-LP, 180-gram vinyl collection, The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings. Included is a collectible 12x12 photograph of the two musicians, as well as a deluxe 12-page booklet featuring rare images and extensive liner notes by Will Friedwald (co-author of Tony Bennett’s autobiography, The Good Life).

This unique pairing began with 1975’s The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album, recorded during an intimate session at Fantasy Studios (producer Helen Keane and an engineer were the only other people present). At work in equal partnership, Bennett and Evans selected the tunes, worked out the arrangements semi-spontaneously, and, later, picked the final takes to be used. Bennett recalls that the pair didn't even discuss song choices before the session: “I would name a tune, and Bill would say, ‘That's good, let’s do that.’ We'd find a key and then the two of us would work it out.”

The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album features a selection of classics from the Great American Songbook (“The Days of Wine and Roses,” “Young and Foolish,” “The Touch of Your Lips”), as well as a moving rendition of the Evans’ classic tune "Waltz for Debby" (with lyrics written by Gene Lees). A consistently enthusiastic and balanced musical team, Bennett and Evans shine both individually and in tandem.

Following the recording, the pair performed live on a number of occasions and made several television appearances, including a stop on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.

In 1976, Bennett and Evans returned to the studio for Together Again. Another low-lights, high-improv date of standards that opens with an Evans solo rendition of “The Bad and the Beautiful” and continues with such moving renditions of “Lucky to Be Me,” “You’re Nearer,” and “You Don't Know What Love Is.” Another Evans original, “The Two Lonely People” (with lyrics by Carol Hall), also graces the playlist.

Both sessions — in which Bennett and Evans recorded together in the same room, not in isolation booths (a recording preference that Bennett has practiced throughout his recording career)— yielded several fine alternate takes that are included, as well as bonus tracks from the second date.

With such palpable energy and nearly telepathic interplay, these recordings have garnered critical awe over the years since their release. London’s The Guardian noted in 2009, “The outcome of this intimate duet highlighted the sublime creative accompanist in Evans, and the deep jazz sensitivities of the vocal legend … the two sound as if they’re having the time of their lives.” The BBC mused, “It seems impossible that these two giants of understated musical sophistication went into the studio with no idea of what they would record … They plucked one definitive performance after another out of thin air to produce a nine-track album — called, with straightforward simplicity, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album — that was bettered only by its solitary follow-up, the following year’s Together Again.” AllMusic simply called the collaboration an “excellent jazz-pop hybrid in which both musicians were shown off to advantage.”

The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings joins several recent and forthcoming releases, celebrating the career of Bill Evans. Aside from a handful of reissued albums on vinyl, fans can also look forward to CD box set reissues The Complete Riverside Recordings and The Complete Fantasy Recordings this spring and fall, respectively. Also available is the highly acclaimed deluxe LP box set The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961, which hit store shelves in the fall of 2014.

maybe this will be the album that makes me understand the appeal of tony bennett?

Have you never previously heard the Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album?

i have not. i haven't heard all kinds of stuff. i take it this is something i should rectify? I'll queue it up now.

It's great IMO, but you kind of need low lights and a glass of whiskey to enjoy it

evans sounds great on contact but i guess i'm never gonna get bennett
and it's not an aversion to old white guys; i dig mel torme
bennett always sounds weirdly strained and uptight to me

I come at it from the opposite perspective, sort of; I remember finding Bennett innocuously pleasurable when he had his "Tony Bennett is hip now!" moment in the early '90s. (I bought the Steppin' Out album.) On the other hand, when he's not playing behind Miles Davis, Bill Evans puts me right the fuck to sleep. I will definitely be passing on this one.

good interview with Mike Clark here, it's interesting how conscious he was of getting typecast as a funk drummer with Herbie (to the point where he was reticent about taking the gig), and that even then he had to fight to get his signature linear on record: http://www.thetrapset.net/past-episodes/

*linear beats

that interview was very informative in terms of vocabulary! i liked how he talked frankly about what bores him too.

Mike Clark is the kind of drummer who makes me just want to give up. Psyched to listen to that interview though.

one of the best shows i saw in college was a band of his (billed as the Headhunters i think) with Larry Goldings, Paul Jackson, Bill Summers, Fred Wesley, and Skerik.

FWIW, listened to the beginning, and I like the host's point about jazz drummers who can't play funk, but I also find that I like Mike Clark playing funk much better than playing any "swing-feel" jazz.

when he's not playing behind Miles Davis, Bill Evans puts me right the fuck to sleep

And there was I thinking everybody digs Bill Evans

agreed, i looked up some clips of him playing straight-ahead on Youtube after listening to it. he sounds great and it's clearly where is heart is, but listening blind it could be any good jazz drummer (although to be fair, it was in the context of workshops with student combos). but his funk style is so distinct.

xp

iirc, Al Foster voiced a similar complaint, about his work with Miles not being where his heart was (brilliant at it though he was).

Bill Evans puts you to the best kind of sleep, is the thing

good call, Al Foster sounds sooo great and committed on those electric Miles records, but i really love his straight-ahead playing too. i like this one (ironically a Miles tribute):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Near,_So_Far_(Musings_for_Miles)

That one looks good; I haven't heard it, but will check it out. I really like his playing on Tommy Flanagan's Giant Steps; having only heard his electric Miles work at the time, I assumed it was a different Al Foster.

Love Al Foster w Miles, not that familiar otherwise. Evans was maybe better when responding to a leader or guest, rather than just leading his own basic combos. Also like his group's album with Stan Getz, speaking of quality snoozing/midnight mixed drink reveries.

I don't see how anyone could listen to his trio with motian and lafaro and say he was better as a sideman. Some opinions are just blatantly ridiculous.

haven't heard that, will check (said "maybe")

What Bill Evans did you not like? I don't want to be snarky about it, I'm just saying that's like the most famous bill Evans solo material so it might be premature to write him off if you haven't heard it. I'd start with the village vanguard material. With the lights low.

I heard the Vanguard material (in box form, not the original albums). Didn't do anything for me. I don't like his approach to the piano; I prefer players who swing harder, and have more of a feeling for the blues. It doesn't help that the trio also included Paul Motian, who might be my least favorite jazz drummer.

I understand what you're saying, because I felt almost exactly the same way when I was younger. I think the thing is if you listen to him wanting Wynton Kelly or Bobby Timmons or even his early idol Bud Powell, you're going to be disappointing. He does something else.

*disappointed

I think the first track I really loved was My Foolish Heart. I like him best on ballads and slower tunes -- there is something a little bit herky-jerky about his feel on mid-tempo swing sometimes, I just don't hold it against him anymore. I don't listen to Monk to hear someone shred Cherokee changes, I don't listen to Oscar Peterson to hear cerebral chord subs, and I don't listen to Chick Corea to feel heartbreak.

otm. I have problems with Paul Motian in other contexts as well, but as far as in the classic Bill Evans Trio lineup, he and Bill and Scott could do no wrong.

Well, to be fair, I'm not a piano trio guy at all, generally speaking. Red Garland, Ahmad Jamal, Matthew Shipp and Cecil Taylor are the only pianists I can listen to and not wish there was a horn player there to liven things up.

Tommy Flanagan is registering and hitting the Flag Post button from his grave.

Jason Moran's using his big group for this Kennedy Center concert (Moran is in DC a lot as he is Kennedy Center's Jazz curator):

Jason Moran's In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall, 1959
Saturday, March 28, 2015, 8:00 PM

Celebrate the legacy of Thelonious Monk as Jason Moran leads The Big Bandwagon in a full-length, multimedia work based on Monk's landmark 1959 concert at New York City's Town Hall

looks pretty great; moran's amazing live

this is the best thing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO0eT6pkNhk

It is.

nice.

I got to see Moran's trio with Sam Rivers guesting at Iridium...wow, 15 years ago, when that album they did together, Black Stars, came out. Great show.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_l0B6hUcAA8DqY.jpg

Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor at Ornette's 85th birthday party.

Love it.

Any more info on that? Can't find anything online

prob a private event?

Yeah, a private event. (N.B.: I wasn't there, though I have been to Ornette's apartment—that's where I interviewed him for his Wire cover story in 2009.)

Oh man I would have loved to have heard that. Glad they're both doing well - didn't Cecil turn 85 just a few months ago

Ornette birthday broadcast on WKCR today:
https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/wkcr/story/ornette-coleman-birthday-broadcast-monday-march-9

The second John Carter/Bobby Bradford album, Self Determination Music, has been remastered and reissued on CD. (I was supposed to write liner notes for it when it was being reissued on International Phonograph, as their first album Flight for Four was; unfortunately, that deal fell through and Ace in the UK decided to hold onto the rights, which means SDM is just in a plain ol' jewel case, not the fancy mini-LP reproduction sleeve Flight got.)

it's official, everybody hates jazz.

http://thejazzline.com/news/2015/03/jazz-least-popular-music-genre/

https://simpsonswiki.com/w/images/thumb/4/42/KJAZZ.png/250px-KJAZZ.png

i wish this was less boring. it's in that weird interzone between composed/produced electronic music and improvised music and it's just not very exciting as either one.

https://soundcloud.com/shigeto/dave-douglas-high-risk-ft-shigeto-molten-sunset

idk, it's cool i guess?

From WSJ: didn't know he was from the Chicago New Thing scene!

Review of Jack DeJohnette’s ‘Made in Chicago’
Jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette goes back to his roots by convening a band featuring all-star musicians from his early days in Chicago.
By
Martin Johnson
March 11, 2015 6:28 p.m. ET

Drummer Jack DeJohnette has been an integral part of the New York area jazz scene for more than 50 years, long enough to forget that he’s originally from Chicago. Before moving east, he participated in the band that gave birth to the Advancement for the Association of Creative Musicians, a collective that has nurtured several generations of great Chicago jazz musicians.

On his new recording, “Made in Chicago” (ECM Records), Mr. DeJohnette goes back to those roots by convening a band featuring all-star musicians from his early days in Chicago; he is joined by saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill and by pianist Muhal Richard Abrams. Each is a renowned innovator and leader who rarely plays sideman gigs. The recording documents an August 2013 concert by the band in Millennium Park during the Chicago Jazz Festival. The band will perform Thursday night at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and again this summer at the Newport Jazz Festival on Aug. 1.

In the early ’60s, Mr. DeJohnette, who is 72 years old, was a classmate of Mr. Threadgill, 71, and Mr. Mitchell, 74, at Wilson Junior College (now Kennedy-King College) on Chicago’s South Side. They played music together in school settings and at the many jam sessions that took place in the city’s jazz clubs and lounges. It was at one of these sessions that Mr. DeJohnette met Mr. Abrams, now 84, who led an ensemble called the Experimental Band; fittingly for its name, it functioned as a workshop for musicians with ideas that didn’t fit into the jazz mainstream. Messrs. DeJohnette, Threadgill and Mitchell all played in the band, which featured a varying roster of musicians and ultimately grew into the AACM in 1965.

The Chicago Jazz Festival invited Mr. DeJohnette to create a project of his choosing in honor of his appointment as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. On “Made in Chicago,” the four jazz greats are joined by veteran bassist Larry Gray, who is also a native of Chicago’s South Side.

The set list consists of Mr. Mitchell’s “Chant,” which has been staple of his repertoire for 40 years, and one less-familiar tune each by Messrs. Mitchell, Threadgill, Abrams and DeJohnette. It closes with an improvised jam. There are stellar moments throughout the recording. For instance, Mr. Mitchell’s tense coiled sounds are offset beautifully on “Chant” by Mr. Abrams’s ruminative piano chords. The pianist and the drummer engage in a powerful duet in Mr. DeJohnette’s “Museum of Time.” And Mr. Threadgill’s pungent alto saxophone is heard on several pieces.

But the record falls prey to the issues that mar many “supergroup” recordings. The product of only a few days of rehearsals, it is an uneven affair; there are moments of sublime synthesis followed quickly by moments where the playing feels measured and less assertive. Yet the best parts are intriguing. Save for some gems on imprints like Nessa and Delmark, Chicago’s avant-garde jazz scene of the ’60s was under-recorded, and this album—though made a half-century later—offers a glimpse into what might have been heard during some of those Experimental Band gigs.

At Mr. Abrams’s urging, Mr. DeJohnette moved to New York in 1964 and quickly found elite-level work, playing in bands led by saxophonists Jackie McLean, Charles Lloyd and Wayne Shorter. In 1969, he joined Miles Davis’s band, playing on the classic “Bitches Brew” sessions. During the ’70s, Mr. DeJohnette made his mark not only with his own group, Special Edition, a showcase for several up-and-coming saxophonists, but with New Directions, which featured such top players as guitarist John Abercrombie and trumpeter Lester Bowie. Much of Mr. DeJohnette’s time since the early ’80s has been spent performing with Keith Jarrett’s Standards Trio, which has become one of the most popular groups in jazz.

Messrs. Threadgill and Abrams also moved to New York in the early ’70s and still live there. Mr. Mitchell spent some time in Europe before settling first in Michigan and now in Oakland, Calif., where he teaches at Mills College. It is easy to hear the Chicago roots in their sound, but not so much in Mr. DeJohnette’s—and I suspect that is the point of “Made in Chicago.” He shows his Windy City side, and it adds a new, introductory chapter to the lengthy discography of a great jazz drummer.

Mr. Johnson writes about jazz for the Journal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/arts/music/50-years-on-association-for-advancement-of-creative-musicians-influences-jazz.html

NY Times covered them too.

___________________________________________

x-post

idk, it's cool i guess?

― lil urbane (Jordan), Wednesday, March 11, 2015

The question mark says it all. Haven't heard the effort yet. Saw Shigeto once and enjoyed but wasn't wowed.

gonna shill for my new york peeps and ask if you'd like to join me for a dual harp recital with an open bar for a $10 ticket:
http://www.greenwichhouse.org/announcements/uncharted-brandee-younger

Somehow missed that DeJohnette AACM connection myself until that Times Article. Guess I should have made a bigger dent in that George Lewis book.

Saw Made in Chicago last night, totally blown away, they were ragin', full on, one of the best shows I've ever seen

I should add that I love Shigeto, both on record (especially the most recent) and live.

Ted Gioia, who I haven't seen praise a living jazz musician in print in longer than I can remember, weeps for the 1950s again, this time because Verve has been absorbed into Interscope/Universal.

An adaptation of an extended Twitter blast (21 tweets in all):

Flippancy at Ted Gioia's expense aside, I have some serious thoughts about major labels and jazz. I kinda wish major labels would get out of the jazz business entirely, and leave it to the indies. Just let the catalogs lapse, and let the music shrug off the weight of history and move forward.

In the music’s perceived golden era (50s-60s), most (not all) of the best stuff was on indies Blue Note, Prestige, Impulse! & Verve. There were great records on Columbia, RCA & Warner, of course, but the indies were doing the lion’s share of the work. And majors haven’t really cared about jazz since the 70s. For 40 years, jazz has been independent (if not underground). The majors made their play later, buying the indies & reissuing their catalogs. That’s not creativity, it’s cannibalism. And it’s still like that. Reissue after reissue keeping decades-old catalogs alive, at the expense of new/living artists. Active players have to compete with Miles Davis boxes for listeners’ attention. And guess which gets a bigger marketing budget?

And OK, yeah, pop singers making boring albums of 80+ year old “standards” is a problem, too. But that’s just marketing – using the term “jazz” to grant prestige to boring crap that shouldn’t have been recorded at all. I can’t hear a difference between a Barry Manilow “standards” album and a Wayne Newton or Robert Goulet album of yore. But here’s the thing: JAZZ DOESN’T SELL. Like, it REALLY doesn’t sell. The average new jazz CD sells ~1000 copies. 5000 = triumph. So unless you’re running on the tightest of budgets, jazz CDs are a guaranteed money loser. So it’s UNDERSTANDABLE that the only “jazz” records majors are making are actually what used to be called “pop vocal” in the 60s. Major labels can’t tighten their budgets enough to make real (instrumental) jazz releases profitable. Too many salaries to pay.

Real jazz (creative, largely improvised instrumental music) is out there, being played for people who want to hear it. You’ve got to look to indie labels, though. Posi-Tone, AUM Fidelity, Pi Recordings, Criss Cross, Mack Avenue, Sunnyside, Delmark, Fresh Sound New Talent, HighNote, Smoke Sessions... So if you like jazz, don’t waste your time worrying about majors and their focus on history. The music’s alive…on indies. (S/O to Blue Note, ECM, Nonesuch, Impulse! & Okeh – major imprints doing lots of great work, too, of course.

Ornette Coleman's Beauty Is A Rare Thing: The Complete Atlantic Recordings box is being reissued on 3/31, in less-lavish packaging (a clamshell case, with the discs in slim cardboard sleeves). You do get the original booklet, though, and Amazon's got it for $40. If you don't already have it, it really is a must-own.

Pi Recordings is indeed a good example, and I was thinking about the valuable older indies when I saw the mention of Nessa on that xpost WSJ De Johnette piece, as one of the few labels (along with Delmark, which you also mentioned) to provide us with excellent evidence of the early 60s Chicago avant-jazz community.
Early evidence of spring led me to the Neon Art trilogy of previously unreleased Art Pepper albums, the press sheet for which I posted upthread. Nice roomy but never overblown live tracks, from Seattle and Japan, in 1981, and more indications that he seems to have been rolling right through his ninth life 'til its end, in '82. "Red Car" starts with terse, genial phrases, then gets rougher-edged, like a Noo Yawker putting his two cents in, maybe a cabbie in an old movie; later tracks find him going for more of a cool lyricism, hard bop, new thing, mambo, "Over the Rainbow," blues---here's most of the sheet again, minus the visuals:

Neon Art: Volume One contains two tracks recorded at Parnell’s in Seattle, Wash., in 1981, with Art accompanied by Milcho Leviev (piano), David Williams (bass), and Carl Burnett (drums). “Red Car,” originally released on 1977’s The Trip, appears in a stunning 17-minute version, while “Blues for Blanche,” first heard on 1980’s So in Love, sees the original version expanded to 18 minutes. Street date for Volume One is February 17, 2015.
Neon Art: Volume Two includes three tunes drawn from the unissued performances of his 1981 tour of Japan. The album features Art’s composition “Mambo Koyama,” as well as his very personal and soulful rendition of the classic “Over the Rainbow” and the bebop workout “Allen’s Alley.” The band on Volume Two, which also appears on Volume Three, is composed of George Cables, piano; David Williams, bass; and Carl Burnett, drums. Volume Two hits the streets March 10.
Neon Art: Volume Three features three more tunes drawn from the unissued performances of his 1981 tour of Japan. Pepper funky originals “Make a List (Make a Wish)” and “Arthur’s Blues” are joined by the standard “Everything Happens to Me,” which has previously been recorded by Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday. Release date is April 7.
“Art hated the idea that people put jazz in a pigeonhole. He wanted to make people forget the categories and ‘make them open up and listen’,” says Laurie Pepper. The release of these three albums of previously unissued Art Pepper recordings, now available in all configurations, will allow anyone the ability to ‘open up and listen.’
The three albums, now available on CD and digital, as well as in their original colored vinyl, form an entry point into the multifaceted, colorful world of Art Pepper.
Track Listings:
Neon Art: Volume One
1. Red Car (16:52)
2. Blues for Blanche (17:57)
Neon Art: Volume Two
1. Mambo Koyama (18:39)
2. Over the Rainbow (14:37)
3. Allen’s Alley (9:17)
Neon Art: Volume Three
1. Make a List (Make a Wish) (24:41)
2. Everything Happens to Me (8:36)
3. Arthur’s Blues (10:29)

Milcho Leviev (piano)new to me, and immediately engaging on "Red Car." I see that Pepper's a sideman on some of Leviev's own albums; anybody heard those??

i don't know anything about art pepper. is "neon art" a good place to start?

It shows his range and appeal, but he was pretty prolific, especially considering several stretches in prison, and I sure haven't heard it all. Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section, with Miles Davis's sidemen, is a good example of his 50s sound, but I'm more familiar with his later work, like one of his post-jail comebacks, Living Legend, where he's absorbed the influence of Trane, and he's got Hampton Hawes (always good to have more Hawes; he didn't exactly flood the market), Charlie Haden, and Shelly Manne. Also The Trip, with Elvin Jones etc.

he's a west coast guy though, right? that always sort of puts me off for some reason ...

Ornette reissue great news!

Speaking of Pepper and reissues, I would love to have Complete Vanguard reissued. That is fantastic stuff

RIP Bob Parlocha :(

I've decided to take a run at Bill Evans; bought 12 Classic Albums 1956-1962.

Here's the cover art (apologies for hugeness):

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81%2B2AiHgV7L.jpg

^ You can't get a much better collection than that - I've had to note down the link as that will make the perfect stocking filler for a few friends - a steal at that price. If you're still hungry after all that I can't recommend the Complete Sunday at the Village Vanguard highly enough.

Finally got onto that Bill Evans and Tony Bennett re-release. Sublime as I remember but I really love hearing the alternate takes and how much they differ at times to the originals. Geniuses at play.

Played my ancient (yet Digitally Remastered Chrome) tape of Pepper's xpost Living Legend again, and it still sounded fine---Hawes still doesn't soound quite like anybody else, even when he switches to electric piano; Haden co-stars, without showboating---and Straight Life is maybe even better. Pepper's alto is quicksilver, glancing off the original melody even while building/finding an intimate vibe, which is never too sentimental (what a version of "Nature Boy"). Shifts into atonality a few times, but it's never jarring; just something he's gotta do. Here he's got Tommy Flanagan, Red Mitchell and Billy Higgins. Must check his Spotify stash, esp. for So In Love, on Artist House, with Haden, Higgins, Ed Blackwell, George Cables. I'll also look on there for the Vanguard material.

Kevin Whitehead on Tony Malaby's Tubacello and Scorpion Eater, with promising excerpts:
http://www.npr.org/2015/03/18/393850257/saxophonist-tony-malabys-new-quartet-brings-out-his-rowdy-side

"Tain" Watts is remarkably chill & self-effacing to a fault in this interview: http://www.thetrapset.net/

Not sure why I expected any different?

Also listened to this Chris Potter video today, it's kinda cool to see the musicians rehearsing and Nate Smith is a bad-ass:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si-7m7u84Do

But then I followed it up with this Brian Blade Fellowship festival set, which makes CP's music seem cold & corny by comparison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP_-wwU-KQ8

Got a 3CD set in today's mail containing all six Max Roach +4 albums (including one originally credited to Booker Little) from 1958-59. Really interesting stuff; on a lot of the records, the lineup was Booker Little on trumpet, George Coleman on sax, Ray Draper on tuba, and Art Davis on bass.

wow, not sure if i've heard any of those records with tuba.

That's an amazing set, and the arrangements with Draper are stunning.

Don't know where to post so posting here:
http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-angeles/drummer-peter-erskine-on-whiplash-film.html

From Soul Jazz Records

http://www.soundsoftheuniverse.com/mailouts/img/main/600/w/tannersuitecover.low.jpg

Available in all good retail, internet and digital stores from next Monday or from us right now!

Soul Jazz Records/Universal Sound are releasing here the third album from deep jazz flautist and composer Lloyd McNeill (alongside the earlier ‘Asha’ and ‘Washington Suite’ - both now sold out).

Tanner Suite is one of the most beautiful and by far the rarest of all of McNeill’s records, a unique piece of music especially commissioned by the Smithsonian National Gallery Of Art in the late 1960s to accompany an exhibition of the work of Henry Ossawa Tanner, the first African-American painter ever to gain international success.

Tanner Suite was originally released in 1969 as a private individually numbered pressing of 1000 copies on McNeill’s own Asha Record company and has never been issued since. Soul Jazz Records new pressing of this album is also limited to 1000 copies each on vinyl and CD. Both editions come in heavyweight exact-replica hard tip-on USA card sleeve original artwork.

This beautiful and intense and set of pieces based around improvisation was the soundscape to the significant exhibition of Tanner's work, created at an important point in post-civil rights African-American self-definition. The music is both profound and spiritual.

Lloyd McNeill is flautist, composer and painter. As musician he studied with Eric Dolphy, played with Nina Simone, Mulatu Astatke, Nana Vasconceles, Ron Carter, Dom um Romao and Sabu Martinez. In the mid-1960s McNeill headed to Paris and became friends with Pablo Picasso.

more info/audio here: http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/index.php

ESP-Disk is reissuing the sole studio album by Last Exit (Peter Brötzmann/Sonny Sharrock/Bill Laswell/Ronald Shannon Jackson), Iron Path, on May 26. New cover art, but no bonus tracks. The album is way more Laswell-ized than their live discs, but it's still got moments of greatness. The press release calls it the beginning of a "partnership" with Laswell, so maybe the rest of their catalog will get reissued, too. When I interviewed him a couple of years ago, he said it would be easy to put it all into a box, if someone was willing to put up the money.

Yeah, that's great news. ESP's always had their periodic biz drama though...

Also from Soul Jazz: Pharoah Sanders, Elevation(1974)
info/audio:
http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/releases/?id=32694

And Michael White (electric violinist, great on John Lee Hooker's Never Get Out of The Blues Alive)
Spirit Dance(1972)
http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/releases/?id=32697

Spirit Dance and another of White's albums, Pneuma, were reissued by Impulse on a 2-for-1 CD a few years ago. I reviewed it at the time, called it "early '70s dashikis-and-shakers jazz." It's OK, not great.

Never heard his albums, but on Never Get Out of *These*(correction)Blues Alive, his violin rides the guitar boogie, like a harmonica sometimes, and on "TB Sheets," it's fluttering around, bumping, something trapped in the room, behind and over the Hook and Van Morrison.

Yay Myra Melford. Anybody heard Snowy Egret?

from WSJ:

Unusual Background, Unusually Good
By
Martin Johnson
March 23, 2015 5:42 p.m. ET

Myra Melford is one of the most interesting and underrated pianists in jazz today. Her work is both ambitious and accessible, full of bright, intense rhythms and complex harmonies. Yet she has remained at jazz’s margins. After participating in the downtown New York jazz subculture of the ’80s and ’90s and spending a year in India thanks to a Fulbright Scholarship in 2000, she relocated to Berkeley, Calif., teaching at the University of California and performing in the Bay Area.

Her work is on par with more celebrated players’, such as trumpeter Dave Douglas, pianist Jason Moran and saxophonist Joe Lovano, but she doesn’t do the things that enhance a jazz pianist’s profile. She hasn’t recorded a collection of classic repertoire, nor has she covered contemporary pop and rock tunes. Instead, she’s created works that take inspiration from the essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” by Albert Camus and the novel “The Woman in the Dunes” by Kobo Abe. The music on her new recording, “Snowy Egret” (Enja/Yellowbird), which is also the name of her newest band, is inspired by the “Memory of Fire” trilogy by the Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano.

In addition, starting Tuesday, she will perform for six nights at the Stone in New York, in a variety of different ensembles. The engagement amounts to a retrospective, as it will feature many of the bands she has led during her diverse career. Some of the highlights include performances by her sextet, Be Bread; two performances each by her quintets The Same River Twice and Snowy Egret; and a reunion of her trio from 25 years ago. A full schedule of concerts is at www.thestonenyc.com.

Ms. Melford, who is 58, was born in Evanston, Ill., and grew up in a Frank Lloyd Wright home there. That seems to inform her music, which is strikingly well structured and intelligently arranged. It’s always easy to hear what each instrument is doing and appreciate the often changing rhythms. Although not a member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Ms. Melford studied with Leroy Jenkins and Henry Threadgill, two of the musicians who figured prominently in the collective’s early days. Ms. Melford’s music shares the traits of many bands that emerged from the AACM. In her arrangements her use of space is similar to that of Air and Eight Bold Souls, while her willingness to use nontraditional jazz instruments mirrors, at a smaller scale, the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Most of her ensembles feature unusual instrumental combinations, which yield unique harmonies. For instance, the members of Snowy Egret are drummer Tyshawn Sorey, guitarist Liberty Ellman, cornetist Ron Miles and bassist Stomu Takeishi.

The music on the recording is lean, lithe and appealing. There are numerous passages where the unisons of cornet and guitar are contrasted with the more conventional rhythms of drums and piano. Mr. Sorey and Ms. Melford’s rousing duet drives the recording’s opening track, “Language,” then the two give way to pithy solos by Mr. Ellman and Mr. Miles that are augmented by undulating drumbeats by Mr. Sorey and propulsive riffing by the leader. “Language” is an up-tempo track, but the band is just as adept at turning elegant, slower numbers like “Night of Sorrow” into equally compelling music. Mr. Sorey’s subdued drumming and Mr. Miles’s brassy murmurs underpin graceful solos by Ms. Melford and Mr. Ellman.

Two of the other highlights from the recording build on the blues, another early influence of Ms. Melford’s. “First Protest” begins with 90 seconds of warp-speed piano clusters and furious drumming that give way to a bass line from Mr. Takeishi that is an abstraction of a bluesy beat. The beginning of “The Strawberry” takes its cues from classic barrelhouse piano before deftly shifting into a stuttering beat that vaguely recalls Argentine tango.

Ms. Melford’s background is unusual among jazz musicians; she’s participated in the jazz scenes of the Midwest, East Coast and West Coast, and there are elements of each locale in her sound. Her lack of media recognition hasn’t slowed her. “Snowy Egret” is her 21st release as a leader, and she has more than double that number as a sidewoman. She was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2013 and has won awards from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for her efforts in reworking the jazz program at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Fortunately there is a growing awareness of Ms. Melford’s considerable gifts, even if recognition still hasn’t permeated the mainstream jazz community.

Mr. Johnson writes about jazz for the Journal.

not yet; am very much looking forward to seeing her live later this year

Yeah, the new Melford album is really good. I just turned in a review to Jazziz; I profiled Melford for the mag a few years ago, too. Ellman and Takeishi (both of whom are also in Henry Threadgill's Zooid, it should be noted) are great on it.

This is a quick, quarterly reminder that all available tracks mentioned on this thread (and a few album selections) are being posted as updated to a thread-specific Spotify playlist that I'm maintaining. I just did a quick sweep prior to posting this message and updated as of today with everything that's been added on Spotify since it was first mentioned.... still no Myra Melford yet.

That playlist is currently a bit more than four hours of music and is clickable below. Give it a spin and subscribe if you want to listen along through the year.

Rolling Jazz 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

Never heard much Wes Montgomery, aside from the proto-smooth jazz, wondering about this---anybody heard the previous collection on this label?

RESONANCE RECORDS PRESENTS
IN THE BEGINNING
BY JAZZ GUITAR ICON WES MONTGOMERY,
A 26-TRACK COLLECTION OF
RARE AND NEVER-BEFORE-RELEASED
TRACKS SPANNING 1949-1958
ONLY THE THIRD ISSUE OF PREDOMINANTLY UNHEARD MONTGOMERY MATERIAL SINCE HIS PASSING IN 1968;
INCLUDES COMPLETE, NEWLY DISCOVERED 1955 RECORDING SESSION FOR EPIC RECORDS PRODUCED BY QUINCY JONES

In the Beginning due out May 12, 2015 in two-CD deluxe digi-pack and separate
three-LP set; features booklet with previously unpublished photos, plus essays and recollections from Quincy Jones, Pete Townshend,
Bill Milkowski, Ashley Kahn, producer Zev Feldman, and more.
Includes excerpts from unpublished autobiography by Buddy Montgomery.
Lots more info here:
https://t.e2ma.net/message/2xbzg/mdpv1d

Thanks for the playlist, forks! I'll make time for it soon (I hope)

wes montgomery is the shizznit; that sounds great

just threw some jimmy smith wes montgomery on that playlist, cuz why not

at the risk of spamming the board, here's the lineup of pertinent shows at NYC's SummerStage for the upcoming season:

FREE SHOWS featuring (in alphabetical order) ANDY BEY, CAMILLE THURMAN, CESÁRIA ÉVORA ORCHESTRA, DR. LONNIE SMITH, FANTASTIC NEGRITO, JEFF ‘TAIN’ WATTS, JOE LOVANO, KING SOLOMON HICKS, MICHAEL MWENSO, MYRA MELFORD, OLIVER LAKE BIG BAND, ROY AYERS, ROY HARGROVE, RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA, WYCLIFFE GORDON, and many more

• Saturday June 6 - Central Park - 3pm - Blue Note Jazz Festival with Meshell Ndegeocello + Roy Hargrove + Gabriel Garzón-Montano
• Sunday July 12 - Central Park - 3pm - Cesária Évora Orchestra + Mayra Andrade + Dino D'Santiago
• Sunday July 19 - Queensbridge Park, QNS - 4pm - Queens Family Day with Wycliffe Gordon and Friends + B-Love’s Hip Hop Jazzy Groove + Karisma Jay and Abundance
• Saturday July 25 - Central Park - 3pm - Bombino + Young Fathers + Fantastic Negrito
• Wednesday August 12 - Marcus Garvey Park, BX - 7pm - Mobile Mondays! Live: Everybody Loves Roy Ayers
• Friday August 21 - Marcus Garvey Park, BX - 6pm - The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival featuring Oliver Lake Big Band + King Solomon Hicks + Michela Taps: Bird Lives
• Saturday August 22 - Marcus Garvey Park, BX - 3pm - The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival featuring Dr. Lonnie Smith + Andy Bey + Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts + Camille Thurman
• Sunday August 23 - Tompkins Square Park, MN - 3pm - The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival featuring Joe Lovano + Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls + Myra Melford + Michael Mwenso

Sweet! Ditto this, hopefully
NPR Jazz Night In America series, streaming shortly

Cassandra Wilson Sings Billie Holiday

9pm ET / 6pm PT

• Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.

Esp. considering this, from Wall St J:

Review of ‘Coming Forth by Day’ by Cassandra Wilson: Tribute Album as Birthday Present
A recording that recasts Billie Holiday on the singer’s 100th birthday.
By Jim Fusilli
April 7, 2015 5:33 p.m. ET

Through their achievements at popular music’s highest level, Billie Holiday and Cassandra Wilson are peers across time. Accordingly, Ms. Wilson is free to pay homage to Holiday without fealty, and she does so on her new album, “Coming Forth by Day” (Legacy), by radically reinterpreting, with characteristic confidence and nonconformity, the Holiday canon. Its release this week coincides with the 100th anniversary of Holiday’s birth.

“Coming Forth by Day” isn’t a traditional jazz album, nor does it attempt to evoke the Lady Day music aficionados know through recordings and legend. Ms. Wilson, who is 59, went out of her way to avoid easy comparison to Holiday’s classic versions. During a phone conversation last week, she said she gave “zero thought” to a tribute that sought to capture the Holiday sound, adding that to do so would be, by the jazz musician’s code, an unacceptable affront to her memory. “In our world, that’s an insult.” She said, “I was always focusing on the artist and what she represents: extraordinary things.”
Cassandra Wilson ENLARGE
Cassandra Wilson Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Americana Music

Thus, Ms. Wilson’s understanding of Holiday goes well beyond the standard biography of the singer, who died at age 44. The typical telling portrays Holiday as a tragic figure abused by men and the drugs she used, whose mastery of tone, tempo and lyrical interpretation was either a birthright or an intuitive response to hardship rather than the result of supreme artistry refined through intelligence and dedication.

Ms. Wilson discounted what she called “the salacious.” “There’s a depth of musical knowledge as well as a knowledge of the psyche,” she said of Holiday. “She was an amazing musician, a genius, that opened up an entire world of vocalization.“

Imitation wouldn’t have suited Ms. Wilson, either by temperament—she has been going her own way since before her 1986 debut recording, “Point of View”—or by technique: Abbey Lincoln, Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan, rather than Holiday, can be seen as her influential predecessors. Liberated from a literal homage, Ms. Wilson sought an unorthodox team for the project. “Coming Forth by Day” was produced by Nick Launay, who is best known for his work with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Van Dyke Parks wrote the string arrangements, and Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and T Bone Burnett play guitars, along with Kevin Breit of Ms. Wilson’s band. The Bad Seeds’ Thomas Wydler and Martyn P. Casey on drums and bass, respectively, provide the core of the rhythm section. Frequent Wilson collaborators Jon Cowherd, on piano, and Robby Marshall, on reeds, round out the supporting musicians, and they nod to jazz in the indigo arrangements, which range from Mr. Parks’s gorgeous orchestral setting for “The Way You Look Tonight” to the slow-motion rumbling of “Billie’s Blues.” The latter recalls Ms. Wilson’s recasting on her earlier recordings of blues by Son House and Robert Johnson.

“Coming Forth by Day” is a loving but somber affair. Joy is muted and none of the album’s 12 tracks bounce or swing. Thus, these familiar songs, now made unfamiliar, prompt careful examination that suggests new meanings. Strings, electric bass and clarinet give “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” a different kind of lift, and Ms. Wilson’s chaotic take on “Good Morning Heartache” is anything but a bittersweet welcome to misery.

Throughout the album, she enters cautiously, as if she is waiting to see what evolves or how she can move the band where she thinks it needs to go. “Don’t Explain” picks up after Mr. Marshall’s saxophone solo brings out a dark chuckle from the singer, who instructs him to “say that one more time.” An almost unrecognizable “Crazy He Calls Me” is taken as a down-tempo blues with the band entering as if from a rehearsal. “Yeah. All of that,” she cajoles as the song takes form.

The stately reserve that can be characteristic of Ms. Wilson’s work is appropriate for the cinematic reading of “Strange Fruit,” a song about lynchings that Holiday introduced in 1939, and yet the band explodes in rage as the song drives to its end. Her exquisite performance in “These Foolish Things” emerges from a simple setting of drums, bass and guitar until Mr. Marshall enters with brief statements that usher her to the bridge.

The album closes with an enchanting original composition by Ms. Wilson inspired by what she called a “devastating” incident: the denial of Holiday‘s request to sing at the funeral of her estranged but longtime associate, the saxophonist Lester Young. In “Last Song (for Lester),” she sings from the point of view of Holiday, who is stung by the rebuke but believes she will be reunited in the afterlife with the man she dubbed “Prez.” Ms. Wilson said, “I’m a believer in the spirit world. We live inside what we created.”

She refuses to judge Holiday. “What a short life she lived,” she said, “but tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. Who is to say that it’s better to live longer? It’s quality over quantity, and she burned brightly.”

Mr. Fusilli is the Journal’s rock and pop music critic. Email him at jfusi✧✧✧@w✧✧.c✧✧ and follow him on Twitter @wsjrock.

Jazz Night In America is tonight!

Oh yeah, so far so good (and no imitations)
http://www.npr.org/event/music/396687392/cassandra-wilson-sings-billie-holiday

Violinist Charlie Burnham, of Blood Ulmer fame, is playing some deliriously deft solos, fit right into the calmly committed (in more ways than one!) "Crazy He Calls Me." he's distilling Van Dyke Parks' string arrangements on the album. Also on stage: Jon Cowherd, Kevin Breit, Lonnie Plaxico, some others I don't recognize. "All of me..."

O my GOFD. This will be archived (starting maybe later tonight) for one week.

i'm going to see Cecile McLoren Salvant do a Lady Day set tomorrow; pretty psyched. She's more or less my fave jazz vocalist of the moment.

That should be nice.

Took my longtime jazz fan Dad to see Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea last night at the Kennedy Center. They were at Carnegie hall the night before. 2 pianos and 2 synthesizers together. An hour and 10 minute set with a 15 minute encore. I liked the more melodic, lyrical stuff they did (Miles Davis "All Blues" plus a bit of Sketches from Spain) although the first number (Hancock made a mention of Corea emailing it to him earlier) which was challenging and had some classical bits along with noisy touches (Corea reaching inside his piano to pluck sounds) had its moments. The synth duet with ambient and almost techno and atmospheric found sound soundtrack-like touches was interesting also. Looks like the DC show was similar to NY based on this Pareles review in the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/arts/music/review-chick-corea-and-herbie-hancock-on-two-grand-pianos-at-carnegie-hall.html?ref=arts&_r=0

Going to see Rob Mazurek at the Jazz Gallery tonight - he's touring with both São Paulo Underground and Black Cube SP (which is SPU + violinist Thomas Rohrer), and told me via email that tonight's set will be SPU with Rohrer guesting for a few numbers, so both bands in one. Should be cool.

Mazurek set was killer—I shot video of a bunch of it, will post some on YouTube later this week.

Mazurek and company are in DC tonight. Here's video of them someone shot in Pittsburgh at the Warhol Museum. I like it more than I expected I would

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K71kVRZB3zs

Herbie & Chick with audience participation on Sketches of Spain with audience participation, a few weeks back

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

What did the audience do?

harmonize in separate groups, divided up by gender

oops re cut and paste typo

Part of that video may be Corea's "Spain", based on the piece from Sketches

Back to xpost Art Pepper, for the title track from So In Love. In contrast to the generic title, which might make you expect a ballad, the vibe is more like Coltrane's version of "Softly As In Morning Sunrise": plenty tuneful, and always with a thoughtful touch, but also uptempo and developmental (in this case, from hard bop to or toward new thing, again like Trane hitting his early 60s stride, but that's more about compatible sensibility than imitation---AP always sounds like a West Coast post-cool virtuoso of his generation). 11'38", feeling more like 5. With Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins, and George Cables.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_4jLzxD_Xw

Listened to this four times in a row--wish I could find a nice-price copy of the album (on Artist House).

Just got an advance DL of the upcoming debut from saxophonist Kamasi Washington. It's a 3CD set called The Epic, and it's coming out May 5 on Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label. It features a biggish band (trombone, piano, keyboards, two bassists, two drummers, and a vocalist), plus an orchestra and a choir. There's a lot to dig into, obviously - eight of the 15 tracks are over 10 minutes long. But so far it's pretty great.

I heard a little bit of that, just the samples online, sounds really cool, very curious to hear the whole thing.

really hoping i am still on the promo list for the DL of that 'epic' album.
i normally can't stand the brainfeeder style, but i heard a track off it, and melted.
absolutely up my street in regards to big scale psych-jazz-funk.

The more I dig into it, the more it reminds me of early '70s Pharoah Sanders...if he'd had the budget for an orchestra and choir. Very cool.

i dunno if this belongs in a jazz dude thread but when i got into the car last night, the public radio station was playing music i actually liked and i waited around to see what it was. turns out it is badbadnotgood (horrible band name btw). are they good? i have googled and see that they did something with ghostface and also have albums that are just them. any of them recommended over others? (i searched ilx and there were just random posts about them)

The more I dig into it, the more it reminds me of early '70s Pharoah Sanders...if he'd had the budget for an orchestra and choir. Very cool.

droooooool ..

i'm kind of a hater when it comes to BBNG, but that's mostly because of their huge success. listening to those Ghostface tracks, they know their way around the studio now, but i still don't like the drummer much. they can sound very college-y, like a jam band who loves trap beats & EDM, and there are so many killer musicians out there that it's a shame that these guys represent "jazz" to some kids.

that said i know they have some good tracks. the more restrained, the better.

btw i posted this on the New Orleans thread, but i got to see all of my N.O. jazz heroes over the weekend. Shannon Powell w/David Torkanowsky, Herlin Riley w/Wendell Brunious, and Leroy Jones w/Gerald French.

xp totally agree
the drumming was a little on the crowded side for my liking and i watched a live performance and was not feeling it but i did like the general concept from the one song i heard.

just wondered what their deal was. i had a similar experience with another band. when i went to see them live they were 1)sonically uninteresting and 2) wearing ridiculous costumes and it was enough to turn me off. like it was clear that more thought was put into the concept than the music.

very cool that you got to see your heroes! is your life complete now?

i've seen them many times, so it was mostly comforting to see them again. but i also played gig that was my ideal new orleans brass band show in terms of crowd/music/vibe. another hero (the snare drummer from Rebirth) came and approved and sat in a couple times, and i did think afterwards "i can stop playing this music now, after 13 years that was all i was looking for."

but i also played gig that was my ideal new orleans brass band show in terms of crowd/music/vibe. another hero (the snare drummer from Rebirth) came and approved and sat in a couple times, and i did think afterwards "i can stop playing this music now, after 13 years that was all i was looking for."
that's awesome! i believe this is what they call satisfaction.

As promised, live video of São Paulo Underground/Black Cube SP via Burning Ambulance...

UC Santa Cruz put some (most? all?) of Frank Kofsky's photos online:
http://digitalcollections.ucsc.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/Kofsky,%20Frank/mode/exact/page/1

Ayler, Coltrane, Dixon, Shepp, and a couple photos of Bennie Maupin with Marion Brown, among others.

Thanks,I was aware of him more as a writer in my ancient jazz mags (though a friend took some of this classes); didn't realize he took all those pix, some of which I'd come across fairly often (especially like the color of Bill Dixon).
From my "So In Love" comments
(in this case, from hard bop to or toward new thing, again like Trane hitting his early 60s stride, but that's more about compatible sensibility than imitation---AP always sounds like a West Coast post-cool virtuoso of his generation)
However---Jazz Casual, Ralph J. Gleason's Public TV show (mentioned in WSJ piece I posted upthread), has finally provided my first exposure to Pepper's less-assimilated Coltrane phase, in 1964. Not Clonetrane, but he starts with deep, sustained, vibrato-less tones, which become a drone, but with a certain sway, making its way from North Africa to Spain---the earliest version of "The Trip" I've heard, with an austerity in the mystique, which keeps it from being too portentous. He gets what makes Coltrane's sound in that era, incl. the self-discipline.
However pt. 2: During "The Trip," Pepper's pitch sometimes seems uncharacteristically off or strange, until he settles in with his combo, who have the bright, sometimes hairtrigger (but never annoying) responsiveness which he shares in the performances I'm more familiar with, from the 50s and 70s. After the interview, he compresses his ideas and into two shorter performances, adapting the Trane influence like several canny younger performers did later on, while Pepper worked out his own West Coast bop x post-Trane turns.
His guys here are also new to me: Frank Strazzeri on piano. Fred Marshall, bass and (yay) Bill Goodwin, drums. damn I'm so into drums these days, re every genre, every style

Bernard Stollman, founder of ESP-Disk Records, has died. Hard to even imagine what the present-day state of free/avant jazz would be had he not been willing to record people like Albert Ayler, Sunny Murray, Noah Howard et al. back in the 60s.

Doubt I'll make it but this gig looks particularly intriguing, http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001j3eyNJQuU-bbcRj0lV9Rvsg-P-awfnpy0rOUfMShyWDC_NO0JRIESd9fS_K9FiquSTmom3Nh1M1iNykWmU9meXkvwQjiOItWx-i7QezSF5oL5PbqXQkytrH4QoajqbfMNV-HxyyfXqTe7YUrtjpOdn9Fc29l8AxcUSUD8Tn2JFghUFVIZBz5kQ==&c=jpUTRE6950N151KQGVg4KtaW6BDU65XOF_YfuujVlx-HY8-KDspVVA==&ch=xlNZq7inTZVEO2bYk9RihpdCmLQHCEHRcRdepiBJ460_S2UrvZaDqQ==

What?Sorry. Anyway that was Jonathan Powell & nu Sangha at The Jazz Gallery

Below is link to JP's home page with info. Really like the rhythm section on this gig.

http://www.jonathanpowell.net/

Somebody please check this out & report back:
From WSJ

Free at First: The Audacious Journey of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians’ Review
Through a half-century, the AACM has grown from a collective of ambitious Chicago musicians to an engine of creative inspiration and practical outreach that has touched nearly all corners of modern music.

By Larry Blumenfeld
April 21, 2015 6:15 p.m. ET

Free at First: The Audacious Journey of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians

DuSable Museum of African American History

Through Sept. 6

Chicago

A portable oxygen tank, painted vivid colors and fashioned with a drumhead, sits near a wooden crutch adorned with bells, beads and wheels. These objects—improvised instruments and freestanding sculptures—were made by multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart from items found on the street. They make perfect sense among the 83 items in “Free at First: The Audacious Journey of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians,” an exhibition curated by Carol L. Adams and Janis Lane-Ewart at the DuSable Museum of African American History through Sept. 6, one of many events commemorating the 50th anniversary of an organization now best known by its abbreviation, AACM.

The AACM has long offered sustenance and support to musicians steeped in jazz tradition yet unwilling to be confined by it. Through a half-century, the organization has grown from a collective of ambitious Chicago musicians to an engine of creative inspiration and practical outreach that has touched nearly all corners of modern music.

Mr. Ewart, once the organization’s president, was mentored as a teenager in the late 1960s at the AACM’s music school, which is still in operation, free of charge, at Chicago State University. “The AACM was my birth mother for music, and in other ways,” he said in an interview.

The DuSable exhibition documents the AACM’s founding fathers through artifacts from the organization’s beginnings. Pianists Muhal Richard Abrams and Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall and trumpeter Phil Cohran had sent out postcards inviting leading Chicago musicians to meet on May 8, 1965, at Mr. Cohran’s South Side home to set the AACM’s course and credo.

“First of all, number one, there’s original music, only,” Mr. Abrams said at that gathering, according to “A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and Experimental Music,” a 2008 book by trombonist and composer George Lewis, also an important force in the AACM ranks. Mr. Lewis’s book framed the conditions that gave rise to this movement: A legendary South Side jazz and blues scene quickly evaporating; creative ferment demanding a broader jazz aesthetic; a transformation of African-American identity and its representations; and, above all, a dedication to wherever collective purpose and individualized composition might lead gifted musicians in a troubled yet genre-free world. (“Don’t give me a name,” Mr. Abrams has said about “jazz,” which is notably absent from the association’s name. “I’m not taking it.”)

The DuSable exhibition rightly places the AACM story within the long view of African-American history. Another museum exhibition, “The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now,” curated by Naomi Beckwith and Dieter Roelstraete and opening July 11 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, will frame the AACM in terms of boundary-breaking links between musicians and visual artists. That connection gets literal—the show will include paintings by Mr. Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell, a multireedist who was among the earliest AACM members.

Well beyond Chicago, the AACM (which includes a New York chapter, formed in the late 1970s by Mr. Abrams and pianist Amina Claudine Myers, among others) holds a singularly celebrated place. Its key members form a roll call of distinguished African-American musicians, with National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Fellowships, MacArthur Foundation grants and prestigious academic appointments: Mr. Abrams, still a formidable creative force at 84, whose early-1960s Experimental Band helped foster the organization; Mr. Lewis, now 62, the Edwin H. Case professor of American music at Columbia University; and, among others, multireedists Anthony Braxton, Joseph Jarman, Henry Threadgill and Mr. Mitchell, and trumpeters Wadada Leo Smith and the late Lester Bowie. These musicians’ individual expressions sound nothing alike, yet their careers trace a shared ascendance.

The AACM has in some ways been caricatured for contributions to jazz’s avant-garde. The deeper truth is that jazz’s mainstream is closer to the AACM’s ideas now than it was a half-century ago largely through the influence of the association’s musicians. The same can be said of the AACM’s effect on contemporary classical and electronic music, and within academia.

Whitney Balliett once quoted an unidentified AACM member: “If you take all the sounds of all the AACM musicians and put them together, that’s the AACM sound, but I don’t think anyone’s heard that yet.” Even so, this 50th anniversary year may approximate that experience.

Among the many Chicago events, an April 26 concert at the University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall will gather 50 AACM members, bridging continents and generations. Mr. Abrams’s Experimental Band will perform a rare reunion concert at this year’s Chicago Jazz Festival (Sept. 3). The Great Black Music Ensemble, the closest thing to an AACM house band, will play original scores to three commissioned dance pieces (Aug. 3). And the Museum of Contemporary Art will host performances from July through November, including Mr. Mitchell in four different trio settings (Sept. 27).

In New York next week, the new-music series “Interpretations” will present symphony and chamber works by AACM composers (April 28) and Messrs. Abrams, Lewis and Mitchell in trio (April 29). The AACM’s New York chapter will stage a four-concert festival in October.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lewis has transformed his AACM book into an opera, scheduled as a work-in-progress at Brooklyn’s Roulette (May 22-23) and the Contemporary Museum of Art Chicago (July 17): The museum will host its premiere in October.

It’s fitting that this anniversary celebration features so many personal takes on a shared legacy. As Mr. Abrams said in an interview, “the AACM is always expanding but in a specific way. It’s collecting individuals.”

Mr. Blumenfeld writes about jazz for the Journal. He also blogs at blogs.artinfo.com/blunotes.

And by "this," I don't mean Chitown activities only:
In New York next week, the new-music series “Interpretations” will present symphony and chamber works by AACM composers (April 28) and Messrs. Abrams, Lewis and Mitchell in trio (April 29)(and the October in NYC happenings o course).

Will try, especially Roulette event.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/arts/music/los-angeles-jazz-with-kamasi-washington-and-others.html?ref=arts

Ben Ratliff visits LA

I wanted to like that album more than I actually wound up liking it. It starts off incredibly strong; like I said above, at its best it's like if Pharoah Sanders circa 1972 had been given a budget for a choir and orchestra. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of songs with a solo female vocalist and watery lyrics about empowerment and The Struggle and blah blah blah, and those suck-diddly-uck. Not that those are unfit subjects for songs, but these are not good songs, and they take away from the strength of the project as a whole. I think I'm gonna keep the instrumental stuff in my iPod, though.

In other news, JD Allen has reformed his awesome trio (with bassist Gregg August and drummer Rudy Royston); their fifth album together, Graffiti (sixth if you count August's album Four By Six), comes out next month.

Re-re-(re?)issue of a set I hope to get this time around:

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20150430/d8/4c/da/47/17bd7f56ecf34d489bfdde6e_280x280.jpg
Out May 19; excerpt from press release:

The 15-disc box set presents the entire output that Monk recorded for Riverside between 1955 and 1961, and offers a striking picture of one of the most significant and colorful figures in jazz history. A comprehensive booklet completes the collection, offering rare photographs, discographical information, and GRAMMY® Award-winning notes by the late Orrin Keepnews, producer of the original recordings, who also researched and assembled this 1986 compilation.

Fans of the groundbreaking jazz pianist and composer will enjoy 153 performances — studio sessions, club and concert recordings — in chronological order. Also included are a legendary abandoned session with drummer Shelly Manne, as well as partial takes and in-studio conversation, all of which add to this unique portrait of a genius in action, at a time when Monk was gaining wide recognition. Running the gamut from unaccompanied solos to Monk’s celebrated 1959 orchestra concert at Town Hall, this collection features many of the most important jazz artists of our time, including John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, Max Roach, Clark Terry, Thad Jones, Charlie Rouse, Johnny Griffin, and Wilbur Ware.

...The Complete Riverside Recordings, which garnered GRAMMY® Awards for Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes at the 1988 ceremony, was given a five-star rating by Allmusic.com, which commented, “The Complete Riverside Recordings explores Monk’s genius with a certain degree of real-time analysis that simply listening to each of the individual albums from this era lacks . . . [The booklet] is indispensable in dispelling myths and making sense of the convoluted and seemingly random order in which many of these recordings have been previously issued.”

For a complete track listing, please visit the online media kit at:
http://mediakits-showcase.concordmusicgroup.com/p/monkcompleteriverside/

(Sorry, meant to remove that GRAMMY® shit)

Honestly, I'd rather buy this version, which is the original albums, minus all the alternate takes and whatnot, which I would never listen to anyway.

excited for tonight. arthur brooks and tarfumes the escape goat playing at my store. freedom music! plus, my pals the 23 quintet. even more freedom music!

Tarfumes is in the house...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/11169991_10153894317177137_2315843355851242327_n.jpg?oh=a06c2346244b36d830823dbcdeaccd64&oe=55CF0E92&__gda__=1436145351_9afc548fcdc93cfb5bfd367774751bb4

what a setup! dang

https://scontent-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/11182133_10153894350592137_2795457767915318266_n.jpg?oh=eb101c9cedb5de24c4053004645e299f&oe=55E017FE

https://scontent-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/11013164_10153280824160908_928124845931809422_n.jpg?oh=01c34acb04b692f847ed180d88254d2c&oe=55D8637C

sounds wonderful...

i love that you have rows of shonen jump

Thanks so much for having us, Scott! (And I think you'll really like Nightcaller)

In other news, JD Allen has reformed his awesome trio (with bassist Gregg August and drummer Rudy Royston); their fifth album together, Graffiti (sixth if you count August's album Four By Six), comes out next month.

Pitchfork reviewed the new Kamasi Washington album today, and overall they did a pretty good job of it, even throwing in the names of a few other jazz albums their readers should check out, but even though we all know damn well the only reason they ran it was because Washington played on Kendrick Lamar's album, three whole paragraphs of Lamar-related throat-clearing seems a little excessive when all that needed to be said was, "Kamasi Washington is a saxophonist who played on rapper Kendrick Lamar's new album."

Went to Jazz Standard last night to see drummer Johnathan Blake's "Gone But Not Forgotten Quartet" (named for his most recent album) with Chris Potter and Mark Turner on saxophones and Ben Street on bass. A really good set, all other people's tunes, including one by Blake's father, a violinist.

Spun The Epic last night, pretty good, I don't love the strings and choir vocals, they push the record into a kind a 70s-spangley outfit-show band territory, the tunes with actual lead vocals I enjoyed more than I thought I would, as long as I don't listen to closely to the lyrics, and basically, the record is just too long, but I mean the real meat of the record his playing & the band. Which in general is really great, for all the references in the Pfork review it doesn't feel overtly throwback. I'm sure I'll spend more time with it and I bet the band would be great live.

Side note: glad that the Pfork review shouted out the Pharaoh Sanders & Sao Paulo Underground records from last yr, when I was reading some of the pre-release hype of Washington's record I was thinking of those ones, which are really great and I don't know how many people have heard.

I've only heard one of them, because the other is vinyl-only (no digital files). But the one I heard, I liked a lot.

I have a thing for piano trios at the moment and have been loving the new Omer Klein album, well not that new - it came out in Feb but it isn't like modern piano trios get a media blitz. I previously got into him via his and bassist Cohen-Milo's Tzadik releases. I just love his piano style which I could lazily describe as Israeli/Duke Ellington, talking of Duke there is a wonderful interpretation of Azure on here as well.

oh it is called Fearless Friday

The Pitchfork review of Cecil Taylor's In Berlin '88 box is pretty good. I wonder how much jazz coverage they're planning to add to their mix, and whether they'll be any better at recognizing the genre's breadth than they are with metal ("We cover all kinds of metal - black, death, and doom!").

That is a good review, and is otm re: the 2CD European Orchestra coming back into print.

My only quibble with the review is "Then the set promptly went out of print" -- the box did, but the individual discs were available from 1989 until around 2007 or so.

The only parts of the set (aside from the physical box itself) that promptly went out of print were the two massive books (replete with photos, information, and recollections of the festival) that accompanied it -- and disappointingly, neither is reproduced for the download.

Was Legba Crossing available separately? Cause when I dug into the box (for The Wire), that was probably the disc that impressed me the most.

It was; I found my copy used, but I remember seeing it listed in the Cadence/NorthCountry catalog.

And yeah, it's a great disc, seriously underrated in his catalog (likely because he doesn't actually play on it), and definitely one of the more intriguing listens in that box.

What is it, orchestral? Describe please.

It's a large group, maybe 15 pieces or so, but it's not the constant high-density/high-velocity thing one might expect from a Cecil-related project. It's billed as his "Workshop Ensemble," and I only recognize two names -- pianist Paul Plimley, who went on to do great work as a leader; and violinist Harald Kimmig, who came as close as any musician did to filling Jimmy Lyons' shoes in Cecil's group (on Looking (Berlin Version) Corona, not on this set). But there's a sensitivity to dynamics here that I haven't heard -- in this particular sense -- on other Cecil records.

It's almost theatrical - there's one main vocalist, but there are moments where the whole group starts howling like a Greek chorus, and the music is very sparse, not a continuous thundering roar like most large "free jazz" ensembles. A bunch of little splinter cells playing, then going silent, then some other folks pick up the thread. Listening to it, you can absolutely imagine a really great dance group doing something fantastic with it.

Thanks, guys! That last bit rang a bell---I just now Googled Cecil Taylor choreography, and found several thing---incl this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAbAD8R3_9

Weird---I'll try again---it's captioned Cecil Taylor Unit With Dancers Live In Germany, on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAbAD8R3_94

Also his Perfect Sound Forever interview, where he talks about the early influence of dance:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/ceciltaylor.html

Yeah, I interviewed André Martinez, who was in the band at that time (early '80s) for Burning Ambulance. There's some more video, and some Soundcloud live stuff, at that link, plus a lot of really interesting stories from Martinez.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6568888/bruce-lundvall-blue-note-records-veteran-beloved-label-executive-dead-at-79

Yeah, I interviewed André Martinez, who was in the band at that time (early '80s) for Burning Ambulance. There's some more video, and some Soundcloud live stuff, at that link, plus a lot of really interesting stories from Martinez.

― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Tuesday, May 19, 2015 9:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's a great interview! Love the story about Cecil's reaction to Martinez' house remodeling.

And Martinez' playing on the Burning Poles video is fascinating, especially to hear him with Oxley.

An unearthed "Gingerbread Boy," rowdy and more adventurous than any version I can remember, from Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4---anybody heard all that yet?
http://www.npr.org/2015/05/26/409719330/songs-we-love-miles-davis-quintet-gingerbread-boy-live-at-newport

Yep, that was released a few years ago on this:
http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/miles-davis-quintet/music/vinyl-12-new/NJF3670702.html

And yeah, '67 was that band at its most adventurous/its peak.

I've got the Newport set. The '66/'67 stuff is great; so is a short '69 set where Wayne Shorter didn't show up (though that's already been released on Bitches Brew Live). The '71 and '73 sets are the real meat, for me, though, especially the '71 band with Ndugu Chancler on drums; that lineup was only together for one European tour and is totally un-documented, except on bootlegs.

In other news, I went to Birdland for the first time on Sunday, to see a group of all Posi-Tone artists: tenor saxophonist Tom Tallitsch was the leader, joined by David Gibson on trombone, Mike DiRubbo on alto sax, Brian Charette on piano (he's usually an organist), Peter Brendler on bass and Mark Ferber on drums. All but Gibson played on Tallitsch's new album All Together Now, so that's what they were celebrating, but they played some interesting versions of rock songs that don't appear on the record - they adapted Fleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman" in a cool bluesy way, and closed with a version of Frank Zappa's "Uncle Remus," which surprised me because I'd been talking to Charette about George Duke's '70s MPS albums before the set, and he recorded that tune on The Aura Will Prevail.

Kamasi Washington performs music from The Epic on Jazz Night In America. Starts at 9 Eastern, tonight:
http://www.npr.org/event/music/402062824/kamasi-washingtons-the-epic-in-concert?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nprmusic&utm_term=music&utm_content=20150527

"Askim": KW ripping holes in gutbuckets, amidst blissful strings, choir, with several drummers, a couple keyboardists, Thundercat's bass, others. Chat says one of the drummers set 30 mics, and sound is very clear.

Turntables and samplers coming to the fore, drums more hip-hop now and then, live choral theme recurring (damn who was that trumpet soloist) Volcano

Cool how the conga player, Tony Austin and other kit drummer, Miles Moseley on acoustic bass and the synth vamper come up with transitioning grooves behind soloing trombone, trumpet--and now keytar (Thundercat's back in there too).

ballad about his grandmother, "Henrietta Our Hero," sung by Patrice Quinn--"Had no armor, no weapon, but a power"---with his father, Rickey Washington, on flute, and a cast of thousands rolling and out, with no overload. Contemplation's rhythm.

Man, his father can play the hell out of the flute. This show will be posted tonight or tomorrow, says NPR host.

This is running 'til 11 Eastern. And NPR's Patrick says they recorded over two hours more.

Brandon playing a very nasty electronic keyboard solo now, lots of brown and yellow/YOLO

from the Funkadelikized portion to this section, incl. Miguel's improvised string cues---"like Phil Jackson calling plays," as one of the participants observes in chat, now that he can see more than he did on stage---and Leon Mobley's hand drums-- what we used to call "Afro-Cuban" (is that still a thing) to more of a Pharoah-meets-Sun Ra interlude. Can see how this kind of intense derivation might be too much in a three-disc studio album, but works pretty well in this concert experience (will check album).

Ascensionof voices, briefly! Will shut up now, they're almost through anyway.

na ga liveblog this, but:
Frisell group, "Up and Down The Mississippi"
http://livestream.com/jazz/Bill-Frisell-Highway-61-Friday

I didn't want to use Amazon, so I went elsewhere, and every online store I checked (Best Buy, DeepDiscount, Ninja Tune, ImportCDs, Dusty Groove, Barnes & Noble) had the Kamasi Washington set on back-order. Nobody selling it on eBay, either. I finally found it at Grooves Inc., a German site I've been buying from a lot lately; got the Sonny Rollins Complete Live at the Village Gate 1962 set I've been talking about on Facebook (six CDs of material that became Our Man in Jazz) and the complete studio recordings of the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet (so many alternate takes of "Mildama"!) from them. Anyway, good for Washington and Brainfeeder; they've obviously garnered a pretty sizable wave of attention for the album.

I picked it up the other day in my local HMV for £12; £3 cheaper than Amazon.

Really impressed so far; enjoying disc three the most, perhaps.

I wrote about the Sonny Rollins Complete Live at the Village Gate 1962 box for Burning Ambulance.

this Do the Math interview with Nicholas Payton is a really great read:

http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/interview-with-nicholas-payton.html

talks about coming up in New Orleans, good Brian Blade and Elvin Jones anecdotes, etc

this rang pretty loudly for me too:

I'm saying all White musicians who make a living playing Black music have a moral obligation to speak about racial injustice. By being silent on such issues, they are de facto supporting the supremacist and oppressive forces that enable privilege to them as White musicians while marginalizing people of color. And using Black culture to make financial gains without regard for the Black people who create it is racist.

I was just thinking today of how few white music stars have written songs criticizing the way police and prosecutors treat black people. "Hurricane" was one star taking up the cause of another, as was pointed out at the time of its release---but that's part of the point: even if he's got the means and acquires big name support, and the case gets thrown out, try., try again, if you've decided that you must make an example of him. The song covers the part of the process that had already happened by 1975, and of course he ended up spending decades in prison, despite the Madison Square Garden benefit, despite much long-term grassroots support thereafter. Not to say he was an angel, not to say he was even innocent, necessarily---but when the rest of the prosecution's case(s) fell apart, they went back to the race card: if nothing else, he was *motivated* to avenge the recent death of another black man, by killing whites. This argument was thrown out of court, and---despite any headline-grabbing aspect of Dylan's motives, despite the rich male sneering at "Miss Patty Valentine," other stuff---the song's point seemed sharper than ever.
Even better: Springsteen's "American Skin (41 Shots)," about Amadou Diallo, with a furious reaction from Lord Mayor Guiliani and the police establishment. Seems like it might be fairly risky for somebody playing a lot of monster concerts in that neck of the woods, especially in them days (or for that matter, if somebody wanted to screw with the Rolling Thunder Review, prob could have shook down Ramblin' Jack etc.)
Can't think of any white jazzers who have stepped up like that, maybe I'm missing somebody?

Oh yeah, should count "The House I Live In," performed by Frank Sinatra in a 40s film short about a schoolkid attacked for being Jewish in the wrong neighborhood. He left out the line (by Lewis Allan AKA Abel Meeropol, who also wrote "Strange Fruit" and adopted the Rosenbergs' sons) about "black and white," but singing away the bullies with "all races and religions" was enough to inspire the very young Sonny Rollins, who later recorded it, and also enough, as Tarfumes has observed, to "get him on HUAC's shitlist." Nervy move for someone whose early solo career still seemed like a pop bubble to many.

Just watched the first half of the HBO Sinatra documentary last night; they showed a clip from that movie. It wasn't subtle.

Not at all! I'm sure HUAC would agree. Prob still on YouTube.

Allaboutjazz.com mostly sucks these days, but this interview with pianist Dave Burrell is great.

I've been listening to Texas raised vocalist Leena Conquest who has sung with bassist William Parker. I like she and her band's takes on Curtis Mayfield

The fusion-y-jazz-rock cuts on the new Terence Blanchard album don't do much for me. He also has spoken word and more on it. Need to listen to this more.

Just found out Christian Scott is playing NYC on Thursday night - I haven't thought about him in forever. I feel like he was the Kamasi Washington of 2012, or tried to be, anyway...released an ambitious 2CD set that blended genres in a non-sucky way, but never quite got the attention of non-jazz writers.

Kamasi Washington tour dates:

July 30 Neumos, Seattle, WA
July 31 Pickathon Festival, Happy Valley, OR
August 6 Chop Shop, Charlotte, NC
August 7 Motorco, Durham, NC
August 8 Richmond Jazz Festival, Richmond, VA
August 9 San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, San Jose, CA
August 20 The Sinclair, Boston, MA
August 22 Blue, Portland, ME
August 24-25 Blue Note Jazz Club, New York, NY
August 26 Howard Theatre, Washington, DC
August 27 World Café Live, Philadelphia, PA
August 29 Soundstage, Baltimore, MD
September 15 Smith Center, Las Vegas, NV
September 18 Harlow's, Sacramento, CA
September 19 Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA

Right now on Livestream: Jazz From Lincoln Center, feat. The Dexter Gordon Legacy---George Cables, Lewis Nash, Joe Locke, Gerald Cameron (?) (bass), Abraham Burton, Jimmy Greene, opening with "Cheesecake" (Gordon's highest term of praise, or one of 'em)
http://livestream.com/jazz/Dexter-Gordon-Hall-of-Fame
Robust, tuneful, boiling (yay Nash)

Gerald *Cannon,* that is.

So good overall, but George Cables' solos are triggering my Art Pepper jones---did Cables or Pepper ever perform with Gordon?

O hell yes, at least early on: "At the age of 15, Pepper played with Dexter Gordon in (Lester) Young's band," according to jazz.com/encyclopedia, and later too, I hope. The Legacy's now high-stepping through "Long Tall Dexter."

Wau. Hope this makes the cut:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/arts/music/jazz-at-lincoln-center-and-sony-music-team-up-for-blue-engine-records.html?_r=0

Hope tonight's show is released, that is.

Cables was on Gordon's 70s comeback albums, I think.

This is a quick, mid-year reminder that all available tracks mentioned on this thread (and a handful of album selections from each listed) are being posted as updated to the thread-specific Spotify playlist. I just did a top-to-bottom sweep prior to posting this message and have updated as of today with everything that's been added on Spotify since it was first mentioned.

59 tracks, 7+ hours.

ILX's Rolling Jazz 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

Richard Brody ‏@tnyfrontrow 18h18 hours ago

Sonny Rollins and Don Cherry, in 1962, daring each other to go further out on the ledge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6e_z2dn69E

https://soundcloud.com/matana-roberts/01-untitled-n-1

more new matana roberts!

solo alto

cool stuff! she's coming to my town later this year and I look forward to hearing her

nice that's there's a spotify list of stuff itt!

I can recommend this one too, it's from a/the Danish jazz blog that mostly reviews Danish albums but this playlist is international http://jazznyt.blogspot.dk/2015/03/the-jazznyt-international-playlist-2015.html

Apart from this thread and the Danish blog, I don't know where to read about new jazz records - I've browsed some American magazines at the library and I used to subscribe to a Danish jazz magazine, but I guess it was a bit "nerdy" for my taste. I'd like some kind of overview of mainstream releases with reviews - not unlike what I get @P4k (like the reviews or not, it's a good overview of releases!). So any suggestions would be appreciated.

Try Bird Is The Worm - he does a weekly rundown, with links to stream tracks (usually Soundcloud or Bandcamp) wherever possible.

Looks cool, thanks!

Nytimes.com has a good range of jazz coverage.

http://burningambulance.com/
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2015/7/music

http://www.flowersinagun.com/category/jazz-2/
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/nate_chinen/index.html

good links, thanks!

Just saying that the new Tim Berne's Snakeoil album You've Been Watching Me is very essential.

Just got a package of the first six reissues from the Xanadu label. Listening to Albert Heath's Kwanza (The First), a killer 1973 set with all three Heath brothers, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Kenny Barron on piano (acoustic and electric), and Ted Dunbar on guitar. A nice mix of hard bop and slightly funkier grooves; highly recommended.

i DO like that album, hadn't thought of it in years; thanks for bringing it to mind

Interesting. Surely ilxor man alive has posted about that album somewhere here before. Believe Albert "Tootie" Heath has relocated to Santa Fe in the past few years.

Yeah, I wanna hear that album. Funny encounter with Heath, who grills his interviewer, for starters:http://www.npr.org/2015/03/14/392324106/albert-tootie-heath-drummer-extraordinaire-turns-the-tables

Thanks. Hopefully can listen to soon. Know from my own brief interactions with him and from two people who know him really well that he is very funny and is always ready to needle you/call you out if he thinks you are putting on some kind of act.

Haven't heard note one, but just saw that trombonist Ryan Keberle is leading a band of killer musicians/super nice people at Dizzy's tonight

Got the new album from saxophonist James Brandon Lewis in today's mail. He's young by jazz standards (born in 1983) but he can really pick a rhythm section. On his last album, he worked with William Parker and Gerald Cleaver (I wrote about it here); on the new one, he's got Jamaaladeen Tacuma and Rudy Royston backing him up. The last one was kinda melodic, gospel-ish free jazz; this one is funkier—Lewis claims it's a tribute to early '90s hip-hop. Also, there's a version of Don Cherry's "Bamako Love," from the Home Boy album.

this kamasi washington album -- it is quite impressive and i am just excited about well yea how "EPIC" it really is

at the same time though i don't know if it is the mixing on it or what but it sounds a little muddy? there are so many instruments at times and i am so used to a certain kind of classic blue note clarity w/ most of the jazz in my collection but i don't know. could just be it is exposing the limitations of my various modest stereo

very various modest stereo

Don't have time to watch the whole thing again right now, but seems like it's all still here, in robust x meticulous performance (exemplary live sound)
http://www.npr.org/event/music/402062824/kamasi-washingtons-the-epic-in-concer

Darius Jones wrote about his new album for Burning Ambulance; there's also an exclusive stream of a new track.

I have been playing the hell out of the latest Kris Davis album Save Your Breath, she is an awesome pianist and it is so brilliant. I was out walking earlier and was knocked off my feet by the appropriately titled Always Leave Them (Wanting More). Mucho gracias to the poster on piano thread that recommended it.

http://jazz.cbcb.umd.edu/

better start here tho': http://jazz.cbcb.umd.edu/pages/tutorial.html#1

Coming November 6, John Coltrane, A Love Supreme: The Complete Masters. A 3CD set; here's the track listing:

Disc 1
1. The Original Stereo Album, Impulse! AS-77 Part I Acknowledgement
2. The Original Stereo Album, Impulse! AS-77 Part II Resolution
3. The Original Stereo Album, Impulse! AS-77 Part III Pursuance
4. The Original Stereo Album, Impulse! AS-77 Part IV Psalm
5. Trane's Original Mono Reference Masters Part I Acknowledgement
6. Trane's Original Mono Reference Masters Part II Resolution
7. Trane's Original Mono Reference Masters Part III Pursuance
8. Trane's Original Mono Reference Masters Part IV Psalm

Disc 2
1. Day 1: December 9, 1964 Part I Acknowledgement undubbed version
2. Day 1: December 9, 1964 Part I Acknowledgement vocal overdub 2
3. Day 1: December 9, 1964 Part I Acknowledgement vocal overdub 3
4. Day 1: December 9, 1964 Part II Resolution take 1 / breakdown
5. Day 1: December 9, 1964 Part II Resolution take 2 / breakdown
6. Day 1: December 9, 1964 Part II Resolution take 3 / breakdown
7. Day 1: December 9, 1964 Part II Resolution take 4 / alternate
8. Day 1: December 9, 1964 Part II Resolution take 5 / breakdown
9. Day 1: December 9, 1964 Part II Resolution take 6 / breakdown
10. Day 1: December 9, 1964 Part IV Psalm undubbed version
11. Day 2: December 10, 1964 Part I - Acknowledgement take 1 / alternate
12. Day 2: December 10, 1964 Part I - Acknowledgement take 2 / alternate
13. Day 2: December 10, 1964 Part I - Acknowledgement take 3 / breakdown with studio dialogue
14. Day 2: December 10, 1964 Part I - Acknowledgement take 4 / alternate
15. Day 2: December 10, 1964 Part I - Acknowledgement take 5 / false start
16. Day 2: December 10, 1964 Part I - Acknowledgement take 6 / alternate

Disc 3
1. Live At Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes, July 26, 1965 Introduction by M.C. Andre Francis
2. Live At Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes, July 26, 1965 Part I - Acknowledgement (Live)
3. Live At Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes, July 26, 1965 Part II - Resolution (Live)
4. Live At Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes, July 26, 1965 Part III - Pursuance (Live)
5. Live At Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes, July 26, 1965 Part IV - Psalm (Live)

Some of those alternate studio takes are performed by a six-piece band that includes Archie Shepp and a second bassist whose name I forget (Sam Jones, I think).

The second bassist is Art Davis, who also played on Olé and Ascension (in addition to having a long and fruitful career where he played with everyone from Judy Garland to Bill Dixon).

Some of this was released on a previous two-disc "deluxe edition," which included the Antibes performance. But there's a fair amount of unreleased stuff here as well (mostly the breakdowns/false starts).

Yeah, this'll actually be my third copy of the live performance. But I'm still gonna buy it.

Played Same As You by Polar Bear last night at record club: http://devonrecordclub.com/2015/09/22/polar-bear-same-as-you-round-84-nicks-choice/

Trane's birthday today

Just been listening to the Monk/Trane/Hawkins album with that exquisite Abide With Me intro, it's one of the best.

http://jazzmuseuminharlem.org/today-in-jazz/happy-birthday-john-coltrane-frank-foster-and-ray-charles/

I bought the latest reissue of the amazing loft jazz compilation Wildflowers, and discovered they're using my review of the mid '90s Knitting Factory Records edition as liner notes:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CP2Kx4FU8AA4-Wr.jpg

Blows my mind that those records were originally released on Casablanca. When major labels had money to burn, they used to burn it on this music.

This is a quick, third-quarter reminder that all available tracks mentioned on this thread (and/or an album selection from each listed) are being updated to the thread-specific Spotify playlist as posted. I just did another top-to-bottom sweep prior to posting this message and have revised as of today with everything that's been added since first mentioned. Subscribe if you're into it!

It's 77 tracks, over 9 hours long.

Rolling Jazz 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

As is well-established at this point, I really like buying those multi-album budget CD boxes. I'm currently looking at two pairs - Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 - of the Seven Classic Albums boxes: Kenny Burrell and Johnny Griffin. I'll probably buy all four eventually, but right now I can only afford two. So should I buy:

1) both Kenny Burrell boxes
2) both Johnny Griffin boxes
3) one by each?

Does one of the Johnny Griffin boxes have Introducing Johnny Griffin? If so, definitely that one.

Yeah, the breakdowns are as follows:

Johnny Griffin - Seven Classic Albums Vol. 1: Johnny Griffin, The Tenor Scene, Tough Tenor Favorites, Studio Jazz Party, Battle Stations, White Gardenia, The Kerry Dancers
Johnny Griffin - Seven Classic Albums Vol. 2: Introducing Johnny Griffin, The Congregation, Blowin' Session, Johnny Griffin Sextet, Way Out, Little Giant, Big Soul Band

Kenny Burrell - Seven Classic Albums Vol. 1: Jazzmen: Detroit, Blue Lights Vol. 1, Blue Lights Vol. 2, On View at the Five Spot, A Night at the Village Vanguard, Weaver of Dreams, Bluesy Burrell
Kenny Burrell - Seven Classic Albums Vol. 2: Introducing Kenny Burrell, 2 Guitars, All Day Long, All Night Long, K.B. Blues, Earthy, Kenny Burrell

Dafnis Prieto and band's new Latin jazz effort Triangles and Circles

Finally listened...It's a decent jazz record.

Posted that on the Afro-Latin thread but it is probably better here

I'm only familiar with Introducing, but man, looking at the lineups on Blowin' Session (Coltrane, Blakey, Morgan, Mobley) and The Big Soul-Band (Pat Patrick!) I'm definitely gonna have to check that Vol. 2 box out.

I'm curious about the Burrell sets as well. My parents' first date was at a Kenny Burrell show; the least I could do is listen to a few of the guy's records.

xp

Actually, I flipped those by mistake - everything I listed (for each artist) as being on Vol. 1 is on Vol. 2, and vice versa.

I wound up buying each man's Vol. 1 set. If I like them enough, I'll go back for Vol. 2.

I am just saying that Burrell's Soulero is underrated imo, nothing groundbreaking about it but it still rules.

This Pitchfork list of "spiritual jazz" tracks from the late 60s/early 70s is decent, for a barely-scratching-the-surface sampler. I've never really liked Sun Ra, but the salute to Pharoah Sanders' Impulse! run ("the pinnacle of spiritual jazz, showing how the caustic fire music that he once embodied could be sublimated into a sound of exquisite beauty") is dead on.

RIP Phil Woods.

dang

Luis Vicente, Theo Ceccaldi, Valentin Ceccaldi & Marcelo Dos Reis - Chamber 4
^^^
This is getting better with every listen, it is stunningly beautiful in places and completely out there.

Reminds me, think I'll listen to Trane & Burrell again; don't remember it very well, but think it was pretty good (although if I can't remember an album co-starring Trane...?)

WBGO "Singers Unlimited" playing lots of Monk and versions of "Body and Soul" because of birthdays of Monk and composer Johnny Green yesterday.

Also, Oscar Brown, Jr. and Roy Kral. I believe Skot is a big fan of the latter.

Wondering if Phil or anyone like that has gotten ahold of Pete McCann's new release. I like what I have heard so far.

He's a current jazz guitarist that I think even man alive would like

Have not heard that, but I'm mildly intrigued.

The most interesting disc I've heard recently is the self-titled debut by Norwegian saxophonist Mette Henriette, coming out 11/20 on ECM. It's a two-CD set - the first disc is sax, piano and cello, while the second features a 13-member ensemble including six string players. The music is very quiet and atmospheric, but the pieces are often extremely short: there are 15 tracks on the first disc, and 20 on the second, and the longest is eight minutes, but the shortest is just 41 seconds.

Just streamed. First half is fine but second half is where the shredding really kicks in and never lets up.

Will check. Just determined that neither Henry Threadgill's In For A Penny, In For A Pound nor Steve Coleman's Synovial Joints are on Spotify---outrageous! May actually have to buy. What are they like?

Switch to Apple Music and you will hear the second one.

Listening to that Coleman album. Second track, "Celtic Cells," is great. Lyricless vocals and a cello joined by some sad horns, some kind of ethereal elegiac, not-quite dirge.

Detecting a tiny bit of some kind of otherworldly sf vibe as well.

Maybe I'll try the free trial

My xpost man----

ELEMENTAL MUSIC AND WIDOW’S TASTE MUSIC READY
ART PEPPER LIVE AT FAT TUESDAY’S
Previously unissued, remastered CD by alto sax great Art Pepper from an April, 1981 engagement at New York’s iconic jazz club out October 30.
Detailed booklet includes interviews, essays from Stepháne Ollivier, Steve Getz, Brian Priestly, John Koenig, and Laurie Pepper

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Art Pepper Live at Fat Tuesday’s features five extended live performances at the famed New York jazz club from the spring of 1981, Pepper’s most fertile period since his re-emergence onto the music scene in the mid-1970s, after years in prison and rehabilitation from drug addiction. Recorded April 15, 1981, the session featured Pepper flanked by a rhythm section composed of Pepper’s long-time associate, pianist Milcho Leviev, and two all-star guests, bassist George Mraz and drummer Al Foster.
Due out October 30, 2015 on Elemental Music (distributed in the U.S. by INGrooves), the package contains a 40-page booklet that includes: noted jazz historian and author Brian Priestley’s lengthy and probing 1980 interview with Pepper; an essay by French music scholar and journalist Stéphane Ollivier; producer Zev Feldman’s interview with Pepper’s widow, Laurie Pepper, who not only was her husband’s muse and closest collaborator, but who had vivid memories of the Fat Tuesday dates; a personal recollection by jazz producer John Koenig; and a first-person account by Fat Tuesday’s general manager, Steve Getz, of Pepper’s engagement at the club, as well as previously unpublished photographs by Laurie Pepper. The set will be available on CD and digital download.
According to producer Zev Feldman, the release of this album is a real stroke of luck; it could easily never have seen the light of day. Feldman explains, “In January of 2015, I received a phone call from Elemental’s CFO, Carlos Augustin, who informed me that label owner Jordi Soley had located a collector’s tape of Art Pepper recorded live at New York’s iconic jazz club, Fat Tuesday’s, in April of 1981.” The discovery of a previously unheard Art Pepper recording was a thrilling prospect for Elemental’s president, Jordi Soley, and for Feldman; Art Pepper is one of their absolute favorite jazz artists. Feldman continues, “I’ve been an Art Pepper fan since my early 20s when I was just starting my career in the music business and I discovered and was awestruck by his late-’70s to early ‘80s recordings.”
When Feldman learned of the existence of the tape and Soley and his team at Elemental had negotiated with Laurie Pepper to make it an official release, he determined to build the best album package possible to celebrate Pepper’s memory.
One of Feldman’s first moves was to bring in jazz producer John Koenig, who had worked with Pepper in the ‘70s, as an executive producer to work with Feldman on the album package and to bring to the project his memories of Art as a musician and as a man. And Feldman and the Elemental team assembled an outstanding array of voices, not only to place Pepper in historical perspective, but also to try to place listeners inside Fat Tuesday’s as the recording was made.
The recordings that make up this set, presented by Elemental Music and Widow’s Taste, represent Art Pepper — in his latest period — at his artistic peak. Having the benefit of a superb and sympathetic rhythm section, and in the intimacy of the leading New York jazz club whose management prided itself on creating a comfortable atmosphere for musicians so they could be at their best, Pepper was able to reach deep and produce some of his finest performances yet to be heard on record.
As Priestley has noted, “As with all of the major jazz soloists, the power of Pepper’s music outlives the circumstances in which it was created.” Art Pepper was an artist whose music embodied both transcendent beauty and powerful swing. His recorded output is celebrated decades after his death as art of the highest order. And the 1981 live engagement at Fat Tuesday’s in New York City that is presented on this album is among his finest recordings.
Pepper’s regrets regarding his own drug abuse are underscored in a poignant passage from the Priestley interview included in this album, in which Pepper recalled a conversation he had with one of his most important musical heroes, John Coltrane:
[We] [Pepper and Coltrane] became very good friends, and he told me, “You were given a gift by God, and to just ruin it by being a junkie, it’s really a crime. It wasn’t given to you just for your own selfish reason, it was given to you so that you could give it to the other people.” He had went through all those things and stopped, and that’s why he practiced continuously. And he said, “You’re a great player,” and that was the greatest compliment I’ve ever gotten in my life, for John Coltrane to say that. Because he is an idol of mine. So now I’m trying to give it.
The Band:
Pianist Milcho Leviev, from Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city, is not only a pianist, but a noted composer and arranger in both jazz and classical music. In the early 1970s, Leviev relocated to Los Angeles. He encountered Art Pepper in the Don Ellis Orchestra, where Leviev served as pianist and arranger. Leviev has also performed and recorded with John Klemmer, Roy Haynes, Dave Holland, Gerald Wilson and Jack Sheldon. In the early ‘80s, he was one of the founders of the band Free Flight.
Virtuoso Czech bassist George Mraz was a member of Oscar Peterson’s group, and has worked with Pepper Adams, Stan Getz, Michel Petrucciani, Stephane Grappelli, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Raney, Chet Baker and many other important jazz musicians. Mraz is featured prominently on Pepper’s legendary 1977 Village Vanguard recordings on Contemporary Records featuring Pepper, Mraz, pianist George Cables and drummer Elvin Jones.
Drummer Al Foster has been closely associated with Miles Davis, both during the 1970s and in the early ‘80s, when Davis returned to music after a hiatus of several years. Foster has also worked with a virtual Who’s Who of jazz: from Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson and Cannonball Adderley, to Freddie Hubbard, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver and many others. This is the only recording on record of Foster with Pepper.
The Repertoire:
“Rhythm-a-ning,” by Thelonious Monk, first appeared on the 1957 Riverside album Mulligan Meets Monk. It’s an angular yet rollicking, up-tempo groove based on so-called rhythm changes, which is to say, the chord changes of George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm.” The track begins at a high energy level but several choruses of melodic solos that even hark back to Art’s earliest saxophone influence, Lester Young. The urgent instrumental tone, though, is definitely early 1980s rather than mid-1950s and, after the first three minutes of the six-minute solo, there are instances of more distorted tones, sudden flurries and isolated use of upper-register screams.
Cole Porter’s 1929 song “What Is This Thing Called Love” has become a jazz standard. Here, Pepper takes it at a medium tempo, with avant-garde elements appearing from early on, integrated into passages that still harken back to the familiar Pepper sound heard earlier in his recorded output.
Benny Goodman used Gordon Jenkins’s 1935 composition “Goodbye” as the closing theme for his orchestra. Pepper had a great affinity for it and his approach is, as it always was when he played it, to take it as a very slow ballad full of moodiness and lyricism. This is typical of Pepper’s approach to ballads, where he was always at his finest and most expressive.
“Make a List, Make a Wish” and “Red Car” are both compositions by Pepper. “Make a List, Make a Wish” is typical modular/angular Pepper line that falls into a gospel-ish groove reminiscent of other tunes of the ’60s and ’70s like “Compared to What” as recorded by Les McCann and Eddie Harris.
“Red Car” is a Pepper composition he first recorded on The Trip in 1976. It’s a funk-gospel-infused, medium-tempo blues variant with a groove not unlike “Make a List, Make a Wish,” and gives all of the members of the band a chance to stretch out and play freely and without inhibition.
Art Pepper Live at Fat Tuesday’s is attractively designed by Burton Yount, who has created the artwork for many major jazz album packages, including Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane Live at Carnegie Hall, Wes Montgomery’s Echoes of Indiana Avenue and Bill Evans’ Live at Art D’Lugoff’s Top of the Gate for Resonance Records.

Brian Blade posted this video from last night's Wayne Shorter concert in San Francisco:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153762367818489

probably the first time I have been able to say "just came here to post that" in a jazz thread

lol, i saw dejohnette beat the shit out of a drum set like that a time or two

Not sure if this should be in the ECM thread, the Necks thread or here ... anyone caught Nik Bärtsch's Ronin live in recent years? I half-remember Stoa from an ECM phase ...

I have exactly one Dizzy Gillespie album not co-billed to Charlie Parker in my collection: a mid-60s live disc called Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac that I've listened to maybe twice. I'm currently in the mood to start digging into his discography. Where do I start? I know there's a 4CD Proper box that goes from 1939-50, but there are also 2CD and 3CD (respectively) RCA and Savoy sets that cover the 1940s and early 1950s. And is there an anthology of his mid-50s stuff that's worthwhile?

I have the 2CD RCA set, and can't recommend it highly enough. But tbh, that's as deeply as I've dug into his (non-Parker-co-billed) discography.

Wait, no, that's wrong...I also have this, and it's killer:
http://www.jazz.com/assets/2007/12/23/albumcoverDizzyGillespie-BigBandInConcert.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CR6i9ASWsAALxed.jpg

Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Miles Davis. I would listen to that album. If nothing else, it would be better than Porgy & Bess.

Flag PostNever change

He's only there trying to find out which one of them stole his shirt.

2016 NEA Jazz Masters announced; Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp on the list. That's gonna be some concert.

So I see that my man Pete McCann is touring his new album Range, with most of the dates seeming to be in Ohio, in particular Columbus. Don't recall if any you are out that way, but if so...

Phil, in the past I've enjoyed

Diz and Getz
Sonny Side Up
Jambo Caribe (warning: lots of high energy vocal stuff)
On the Sunny Side of the Street (live comp from 1952-59 with Don Byas and Joe Carroll)

I'd also try Sittin In and Duets.

Going to see JD Allen's trio (with Gregg August on bass and Johnathan Blake sitting in for Rudy Royston on drums) at Smoke on Friday night. They're gonna be there all weekend. Really looking forward to it - Graffiti is a great album, and I've never seen Allen live, though I've been a fan for about five years at this point.

second Diz and Getz

Going to see JD Allen's trio (with Gregg August on bass and Johnathan Blake sitting in for Rudy Royston on drums) at Smoke on Friday night. They're gonna be there all weekend. Really looking forward to it - /Graffiti/ is a great album, and I've never seen Allen live, though I've been a fan for about five years at this point.

I saw Blake's quartet from the Gone But Not Forgotten album - Mark Turner and Chris Potter on saxes, Ben Street on bass - at the Jazz Standard earlier this year.

Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, Mike Reed - Artifacts

This album is all takes of obscure gems from the AACM library and it absolutely rules.

this track off Jakob Bro's excellent Hymnotic/Salmodisk album is one of my favorites this year: https://soundcloud.com/jakobbro/06-exploding-suns

apparently free album download here http://jakobbro.com/web/album/hymnotic-salmodisk/

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20151103/22/54/ec/86/5c43c959353ce0eae6914c79_280x280.jpg

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Resonance Records is proud to release the CD edition of Wes Montgomery One Night In Indy, an exclusive 1959 live recording of the jazz-guitar great playing with the legendary jazz pianist Eddie Higgins and his trio in Indianapolis, Indiana. Available on January 15, 2016, the CD edition follows the release of the 12" LP limited-edition pressing for Record Store Day’s Black Friday event on November 27, 2015 (originally scheduled for last April’s Record Store Day event, but was held up due to a production snafu). Early in 2015, Resonance Records released the acclaimed In the Beginning, newly discovered recordings of Montgomery from 1949-1958.
In 2013, producer Zev Feldman was approached by the late, great Indiana photojournalist Duncan Schiedt with an enticing musical proposition (the two had become friends while working on the Wes Montgomery Echoes of Indiana 2012 Resonance release). Schiedt asked if Resonance would be interested in a prized recording he had in his possession — a 7" tape reel featuring a January 18, 1959 performance by Montgomery and the Eddie Higgins Trio, the only known documentation of any date featuring the guitarist and the pianist.

According to producer Feldman, Duncan and few of his friends ran a jazz club in Indianapolis known as the Indianapolis Jazz Club (or the I.J.C. known to locals). As Feldman describes in his essay included in the release, “The club was described to me as a group of people who had a common interest in jazz and who gathered to listen to records and host concerts.” Members of this club recorded this one-night-only performance of Wes Montgomery playing with the Eddie Higgins Trio. Feldman notes that Duncan “explained that this tape had been passed down to him by other members of the club, though no one had actually listened to it. Duncan was one of the last original members and hoped this tape would, one day, be released in partnership with the artists’ families.”
Resonance Records is pleased to honor this request and release One Night In Indy with the blessings of the Wes Montgomery Estate and Eddie Higgins’s widow, Meredith D’Ambrosio, whom Feldman found via Sunnyside Records president François Zalacain. This recording is a gift from Duncan Schiedt to Wes Montgomery fans, decades after the memorable performance.
The specially priced CD features just over 40 minutes of music. Accompanying these notable headliners is Chicago drum legend Walter Perkins (a former drummer for Ahmad Jamal’s trio before Vernell Fournier) and an unidentified bassist (to identify this musician Resonance consulted Higgins alumni Bob Cranshaw and John Bany, along with fellow Chicago bass legends from that era, to no avail).
Feldman notes, “I'm grateful to Duncan for his lasting friendship and for sharing this with the world to hear. It is nothing short of incredible that after decades of no new Montgomery music, Resonance has brought to light new documents that will help Wes's legacy live on — In the Beginning (2015), Echoes of Indiana Avenue (2012), and, thanks to Duncan, One Night In Indy.” Since releasing Echoes of Indiana Ave, Resonance has located additional of unreleased 1950’s archival Montgomery recordings and plans to release more music in late 2016/2017.
With his artistic sensibility of an Indianapolis cityscape view, Burton Yount designed the album cover. Mixing and sound restoration is by Fran Gala and executive producer George Klabin at the Resonance Records Studios.
Tracks:
1. Give Me the Simple Life (9:14)
2. Prelude to a Kiss (5:52)
3. Stompin’ at the Savoy (7:12)
4. Li’l Darling (8:09)
5. Ruby, My Dear (8:35)
6. You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To (2:51)

Resonance Records continues to bring archival recordings to light. Some past releases include the critically acclaimed 2015 Grammy Award-winning John Coltrane release Offering: Live at Temple University (best album notes, Ashley Kahn), Wes Montgomery In the Beginning, Charles Lloyd Manhattan Stories, and Bill Evans Live at Art D’Lugoff’sTop of the Gate. Located in Beverly Hills, CA, Resonance Records is a division of the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation, a California 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation created to discover the next jazz stars. Resonance Artists include Richard Galliano, Polly Gibbons, Tamir Hendelman, Christian Howes and Donald Vega.
For more information on Wes Montgomery One Night In Indy, please visit: www.ResonanceRecords.org
Hear an exclusive streaming track in PopMatters: popm.at/1k7IOY0

PopMatters link (they're streaming "Give Me the Simple Life")

Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, Mike Reed - Artifacts

This album is all takes of obscure gems from the AACM library and it absolutely rules.

― xelab, Tuesday, November 3, 2015 9:30 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

woohoo chicago! the AACM exhibit at the MCA was incredible (and closing this weekend iirc)

It is one of my fave albums of the year, it lives up to this thread's excellent title for sure.

randomly came across this Makaya McCraven album on Spotify, really enjoying it. very rhythm-focused, sounds like it's made up of live recordings chopped up into short (2 - 5 min) tracks, which is refreshing. also a friend of mine plays sax on it.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-moment

Have been loving the new Barry Altschul's 3Dom Factor alb The Unforseen. It is a fine album that is bookended by two outstanding improvisations, especially the opening 26 minute beast.

Altschul?! Who else is on it? Intriguing, thanks.

Jon Irabagon and Joe Fonda, i think it is their 2nd album as a trio, it is good shit.

Will have to check, thanks---I mostly know him from Circle, with Chick Corea and Dave Holland, and the Dave Holland Quartet's amazing Conference of the Birds: Altschul, Holland, Sam Rivers times Anthony Braxton...

he was also present on a great run of paul bley albums from the mid to late sixties (that new altschul thing does look interesting too!)

OK, now that the players on the new David Bowie album have been revealed, I'm pretty excited to hear it. The band includes Donny McCaslin on sax, Ben Monder on guitar, Jason Lindner on keyboards, Tim Lefebvre on bass and Mark Guiliana on drums. That's a band I'd listen to without Bowie around.

What?

First single comes out tomorrow. Very interested to hear it.

these people are playing two doors down from my store tonight. i'm going. i will always go see your worldfusionjazz suite if you are in town.

https://vimeo.com/137025243

How was that, Scott?
wow---just saw this, hoping to find some of the concert online:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/19/arts/music/review-celebrating-cecil-taylor-a-pianist-of-endless-influence.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-1&action=click&contentCollection=Music®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article

Yeah, people are worried because Taylor didn't show up for that (he was supposed to).

I just ordered the CD reissues of his two-volume early '80s solo album, Garden. When it was first released, the music was shuffled around; now, it's been split into first and second sets, exactly as it was performed on the night. The best price I've seen (about $22 per disc) was via the German site grooves-inc.com. Other places want nearly $40 for Vol. 1, $22 for Vol. 2.

I just got the reissued Garden discs, too (after waiting in vain for prices of used copies to dip below $75). Squidco has volume 1 for $18.

Taylor's absence at that event is worrying. I think his only public performance in the last 3-4 years was at Ornette's memorial service. I had tickets to see him in DC in 2013, but he cancelled (no reason given), and I didn't particularly want to see his replacement (Ahmad Jamal). Fortunately, I've seen him three times (twice solo, once in a duo with Elvin Jones).

Four times for me:

trio at the Village Vanguard with Dominic Duval on bass and Jackson Krall on drums in 1997
solo and trio with Duval and Tony Oxley on drums at Avery Fisher Hall (split set)
leading a large ensemble (26 musicians) at the Knitting Factory on Leonard Street in 2002
trio at Iridium with Henry Grimes on bass and Pheeroan akLaff on drums in 2006

Coleman Hawkins birthday celebration on WKCR right now.

Really interesting group performing at Smoke tonight: the Black Art Jazz Collective. Jeremy Pelt, trumpet; Wayne Escoffery, tenor saxophone; James Burton III, trombone; Xavier Davis, piano; Vicente Archer, bass; Johnathan Blake, drums. I like all those guys, and would love to check this set out, but $40 at the door is a little much for me.

Wow, would've loved to have seen those, particularly the trio with Duval and Oxley.

The duo with Elvin was really interesting. Elvin played with mallets for the whole set, and seemed kind of frail (it was a year before he died), but there was a quiet intensity that I hadn't heard in any of Cecil's other music (apart maybe from Conquistador! and the trio with Dixon and Oxley).

(xp)

"How was that, Scott?"

oh that show was nice. my fave thing was jake meginsky though. and he was all electronic and not jazz. there was a very cool solo sax guy i'd never heard. travis laplante. guess he lived in new york but now he's in vermont. maybe tarfumes knows him. cool circular breathing stuff.

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

Laplante is great. He's a member of Little Women along with Darius Jones. You might like them, Scott. Two albums on AUM Fidelity and an EP that I think was self-released. He's also got some group that's four wind instruments, but I can't remember the name.

I usually don't love Joshua Redman and I usually don't love Bad Plus, but I really like the Bad Plus w/ Joshua Redman record.

great live together too.

also, because there's some good jazz talk in the year end list thread and I wanna add it to the spotify list:

Tbh mostly this is just stuff I gleaned from the Kamasi thread as people were offering up alternatives.

Yeah, Sons of Kemet are a sax/tuba (playing fat funky basslines)/drums/drums combo from London. Their album Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do has a stripped-down, live feel that's really rhythmic and banging but also very melodically catchy. There's a lot of New Orleans and Lagos (and Port of Spain?) in the rhythms and Shabaka Hutchings' sax draws from slinky Ethio-jazz melodies and NYC skronk, but these disparate influences never seem at odds with each other. Like Lex said, very immediate, and very danceable too. Just a great, great record.

Polar Bear - Same As You: Another London combo (who share a drummer with SoK). Their album is similarly based on tight 4/4 rhythms and riffing sax, but more laid back and drawn out, dubby and atmospheric at times. (But you can skip the silly spoken word intro.)

Troyka - Ornithophobia: More Londoners (pattern emerging here) but they have a very different sound from Polar Bear and SoK, with a lot of fractured (post-?) rock rhythms, Dilla/FlyLo offbeat drums, and weird electronic sounds, sometimes sampled and edited together.

Makaya McCraven - In The Moment: McCraven is a Chicago drummer who recorded hours and hours of live performances and Teo Macero-ed them into an album. I guess other than Troyka these all have common thread of being very drums-first, although McCraven's drumming style has a more traditional swing to it but also much more of a hiphop feel too. A lot of this is stripped down to a sometimes-looped drums/bass/vibes rhythm section, while the featured soloists, who come and go, feel a bit secondary. The last track (posted below) even settles on a relaxed four-bar breakbeat loop with a chopped-off sax riff for most of its length, before gloriously emerging into a very wild, free solo at the other end.

Also been listening to 2013/2014 stuff from Melt Yourself Down (another London band in the same vein as Sons of Kemet and Polar Bear - I kind of get Pigbag vibes from them), Throttle Elevator Music (scuzzy rock with the boy Kamasi throwing skronk all over it, I like it way than the record he's getting attention for but oh well), Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpeter from the TPAB crew - the most trad record on this list, but his small band format allows him and the other players to shine - he's a very good balladeer), the first Sons of Kemet album (not quite as good as the new one but certainly worth your time), and some brass band stuff.

I still need to check out Matana Roberts.

As far as the Kamasi record itself, I guess the scope is admirable, but it just kind of strikes me as a decent post-bop record with a bunch of added bells and whistles that distract from the playing. I found myself wishing the choirs and strings (and vocalists tbh) would go away the whole time. I was was sold on it expecting something that sounded fresh and new, but at it's core it's very retro and I don't feel like it overcomes its influences, YMMV.
― The Reverend, Sunday, November 29, 2015 11:05 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

matana roberts is the real fuckin deal, although i've felt more like listening to her solo record this year than Part III of her thing
― j., Sunday, November 29, 2015 11:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

jazz albums i like from this year

charles lloyd - wild man dance
http://www.discogs.com/Charles-Lloyd-Wild-Man-Dance/master/839518

william parker / raining on the moon - great spirit
http://www.discogs.com/William-Parker-Raining-On-The-Moon-Great-Spirit/release/7622000

charenee wade - offering (the music of gil scott heron and brian jackson)
http://www.discogs.com/Charenee-Wade-Offering-The-Music-Of-Gil-Scott-Heron-And-Brian-Jackson/master/918297
― brimstead, Sunday, November 29, 2015 11:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just as a complete digression, if anyone's a fan of the whole Sons Of Kemet/ Polar Bear/ Melt Yourself Down skronk axis, they should check out the Comet Is Coming, which is a similar punky jazz/ blurt vibe with added pop and Krautrock vibes thrown in.
― Doran, Sunday, November 29, 2015 11:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nb the charles lloyd and william parker were recorded before 2015.
― brimstead, Sunday, November 29, 2015 11:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is my fav jazz record of the year
https://soundcloud.com/bk-music-pr/eternal-signs-milford-graves-bill-laswell
― ANU (sisilafami), Sunday, November 29, 2015 11:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This tune is blowing my mind right now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsYRfAcpdIE&list=RDrsYRfAcpdIE

You're right about that one. Will definitely get that album.

William Parker fans might like the Sonoluminescence Trio's Telling Stories. It's Parker with David Mott on bari sax and Jesse Stewart on percussion. They were great at the CD release over the summer too.

As we move to the end of the year, I'd like to drop a quick note to encourage any readers / lurkers / ilxors to post their favorite jazz tracks or albums from this year to the thread so that I can hoover them into the ongoing spotify playlist. Last chance for any accessible stragglers that may not already be in the lexicon.

I love the way Ethan Iverson mostly just works with triads and does so much with them on that tune.

You might also dig The Bad Plus with Bill Frisell at Newport 2012, in tribute to Paul Motion/Motian---I'm another who doesn't always get into TBP, Frisell, or M, for that matter, but this (full set) is pretty involving:
http://www.npr.org/event/music/158004697/the-bad-plus-with-bill-frisell-live-in-concert-newport-jazz-2012

oh and speaking of punky jazz/blurt vibe with added pop, I still love Boston baked jumping beans Guerilla Toss, especially their only(?) full-length album to date, Gay Disco, which astutely assimilates no wave, maybe The Magic Band and maybe Of Human Feelings-era Prime Time, cos there is the disco (but not too strictly; the drummer's always kicking it). Fave EP is 367 Equalizer. Nowadays, the female vocalist is more up front, sonically anyway. Lots of stuff here, maybe all of it:
https://guerillatoss.bandcamp.com/

Not from this year, but just saying William Parker's Double Sunrise Over Neptune is awesome.

This is some stuff from this year that I liked and might not have been mentioned thus far. I tried to filter out what I would consider probably only liked by me, the bands immediate family + 17 Norwegians, but some of it still might be a bit like that.

Prism Quartet - Heritage/Evolution Vol 1
Steel Bridge Trio - Different Clocks
David Chevallier - Standards & Avatars
Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, Mike Reed - Artifacts
Oliver Lake & William Parker - To Roy
Mostly Other People Do The Killing - Mauch Chunk
Dave Burrell, Garrison Fewell - New Earth
Myra Melford - Snowy Egret
Kris Davis Infrasound - Save Your Breath
Barry Altschul's 3dom Factor - Tales Of The Unforseen
Henry ThreadGill & Zooid - In For a Penny, In For a Pound

Still need to check out Melford and Altchul at least, thanks for the reminder (yeah, Lake & Parker too, prob all of 'em). And what's the Threadgill like? I've enjoyed several of his through the ages, but haven't heard any recent releases.

I am piss-poor at describing music, but I would describe the Threadgill as melodic and all over the place and nice!

Cool, thanks. New releases, Downbeat Editors' Picks:
http://www.downbeat.com/defaultl.asp?sect=reviews

I mostly only buy jazz cd's these days and none of it is from 2015. The last Brad Mehldau box is from this year but contains old material. Some great purchases this year are:

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0000/576/MI0000576132.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_250/MI0000/559/MI0000559870.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/575/MI0001575323.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

http://www.billfrisell.com/sites/default/files/images/discs/greg_cohen_goldenstate.jpg

This album only received five-star reviews and sounds definately like something to check out:

http://jakeheggie.com/content-wp/uploads/2015/09/Image-26-300x300.jpg

i love that Gnu High cover!!

gnu high, yes! was listening to that just earlier. been playing lots of things recently with dave holland in a supporting role, but still never checked out anything where he's leading... would guess conference of the birds would be the smart pick?

His long-running quintet (which, depending on the album, expands to a sextet, an octet, or a 13-member big band) is great. They have a bunch of albums on ECM and several more on Holland's own Dare2 label.

This is my first Dave Holland cd, definately looking for more after this one.

This 2015 album is very good, though not necessarily "jazz" (last track is very fusion-y though):

http://www.teuthida.com/productImages/full/21023.Full.jpg

Heard a radio replay of this supple tribute to Kenny Wheeler, still streaming: http://www.wbgo.org/blog/a-tribute-to-kenny-wheeler, where Gnu High is cited as his creative breakthrough.
Holland has done all kinds of things, almost like Charlie Haden, but for me, the DHQ listening breakthrough was Conference of the Birds. Got into the tuneful title track and cute "Q&A" right away, but Rivers x Braxton seemed a bridge and chorus too far/freaky on other tracks, despite repeated listenings. So I put it away, finally tried again, and loved the whole thing instantly, as I have ever since. What was my problem? Anyway, it's great. Don't know that it's the one to start with, necessarily (I'd enjoyed Rivers and Braxton's own, very individual records , but somehow the combination seemed overwhelming, boo-hoo).

thanks for the tips! was the presence of rivers/braxton that had me pointing in the conference of the birds direction, definitely need to seek it out (also the circle stuff with corea et al, only know the braxtonless a.r.c album from that period). re the haden mention, reminds me that holland has had some involvement with people like john hartford and vassar clements too.

The new Raoul Bjorkenheim/Ecstasy album is quite ace. It is one of them kind of "I am not normally a fan of this type of thing" things that I can't stop playing.

Burning Ambulance

Best Jazz of 2015:

25. Kirsten Edkins, Art and Soul
24. Milford Graves/Bill Laswell, Space/Time - Redemption
23. The Adam Larson Quintet, Selective Amnesia
22. The Thing, Shake
21. Rodrigo Amado, This is Our Language
20. Henry Threadgill Zooid, In for a Penny, In for a Pound
19. John Raymond, Foreign Territory
18. Blue Buddha, s/t
17. Stephen Haynes, Pomegranate
16. Dead Neanderthals, Endless Voids
15. Nick Hempton, Catch and Release
14. Terell Stafford, Brotherlee Love
13. Eddie Henderson, Collective Portrait
12. David Chesky/Jazz in the New Harmonic, Primal Scream
11. Mette Henriette, s/t
10. Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah, Stretch Music
9. Duane Eubanks, Things of That Particular Nature
8. Tom Tallitsch, All Together Now
7. James Brandon Lewis, Days of FreeMan
6. Matthew Shipp Trio, The Conduct of Jazz
5. Sonny Rollins, Complete Live at the Village Gate 1962
4. Chris Potter Underground Orchestra, Imaginary Cities
3. Jeremy Pelt, Tales, Musings and Other Reveries
2. Kamasi Washington, The Epic
1. JD Allen Trio, Graffiti

hehe, Kamasi at #2 kind of a statement too, right?

looks interesting though, don't think I've heard any of these albums

Any of you have small children who like jazz? I have to admit I don't know the first thing about it. In 30+ years of record collecting I've only acquired one jazz album -- Out to Lunch. Somehow though my 5 year old has gotten into it and loves for us to stream jazz on Pandora. I'm thinking of getting him a little bookshelf stereo for his bedroom for Christmas and maybe one or two jazz CDs. He hasn't expressed a preference for any particular style yet other than instrumental, but I wonder what you might suggest for one 2015 release and/or one classic release that would set a 5yo on the right path. Maybe one a little upbeat and one on the mellow side as he likes to listen to it as he's falling asleep too.

(I know getting someone started on CDs in 2015 might not make sense but I don't want him to own a digital device yet, plus I'm hoping to have a companion for record store visits down the road.)

I have long believed that little kids would enjoy Thelonious Monk and/or Ornette Coleman, because Monk plays piano in a way that a little kid can appreciate (it sounds weird and fun) and Coleman's melodies are extremely herky-jerky and energetic. So I would recommend Thelonious Monk's Monk, which actually contains a version of a children's song your kid may have heard (this would be an album you could play at bedtime too btw), and maybe Ornette's Change of the Century or This is Our Music for something more dance-around-the-room. I don't have any 2015 recommendations for a kid at this time.

Given the boomlet in music for children over the past 25 years (speaking as old-time CD storekeeper), there must be some jazz albums in there; try searching Amazon or whatever inclusive CD site you like. Blanking on specifics, except----Vince Guaraldi's Peanuts soundtracks? I know several people who say they first got into jazz, if not music itself, via those (think Keith Jarrett did some too). Something TV or maybe movie-related, whatever he's already into.

I could imagine a bit of album-era Ellington would be child friendly, especially Such Sweet Thunder which is very much a pop album of sorts.

My daughter responded well to jazz from like age 2-3, but then suddenly got into this weird thing where she insisted she only likes "kids' music" and jazz is "grownup music." Hoping that will pass quickly. OTOH a few weeks ago this came on and she really liked it and asked me to play it again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCeQ5E6gK9M

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0002/944/MI0002944139.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

Sure, if you want your kid to declare you a Suppressive Person when he/she hits teenagerdom...

The first music I remember getting into was Mancini's theme for Peter Gunn, about a detective who frequented jazz clubs (the manager of one was a shrewd source; I think of her when listening to Karin Krog). Tough stuff, none of that "Moon River." Also fascinated by the music that led into cigarette commercials, with some kind of semi-abstract art backdrop: just warm, open(?) strings and maybe a grace note, from a hollow-body electric guitar, I think, def unaccompanied.
Lester Bangs wrote that the first album he bought was TV Action Jazz, by guitarist Mundell Lowe. Anybody heard it? Or his others?

My son started listening to Miles Davis Kinda Blue, but not till high school. Not sure what other jazz he listens too

Bear in mind: http://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2009/06/jazz_and_dads_a_short_essay_1.html

Ha, yes, except in this case he's the one pushing it on me -- don't think I've ever played it in the house but at his request. Anyway thanks for all the suggestions; will check them out.

Kind of blue, monk time, favorite things, the blue Yusef all jump timing as albums I loved before I was a teen

Just saw this fantastic clip on Facebook - McCoy Tyner with Sonny Fortune, Calvin Hill and Alphonse Mouzon, live on WNET (NYC Channel 13) in 1971:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YvovU0vzoQ

cool, will definitely check that out. for a long time 'Enlightment' (w/Alphonse Mouzon) was the cd i would always look for in record stores but never find (and now of course i can listen to it on Spotify or whatever).

new Makaya McCraven, a more beat-oriented addendum to the main record (mastered by Daddy Kev no less): https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-moment-e-f-sides

After checking out various things from the eoy lists have been loving the Charles Lloyd + Stephen Haynes albums. Also been loving the absolutely brutal, but not mentioned anywhere Joe McPhee + Survival Unit III one, but that one will probably hurt a majority of ears!

Another one to throw into the EOY jazz pot :) http://thequietus.com/articles/19424-the-best-jazz-of-2015

Individual critics' ballots from this year's NPR Jazz Critics' Poll have been posted. Mine can be read here.

Thanks. Man, that Cecile McLorin Salvant record seems to be popular. I only know the one song Michael Bourne keeps pushing on WBGO, "The Stepsister's Lament," from Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

16. Dead Neanderthals, Endless Voids

wow. hadn't heard this.

Slowly starting to catch up with these. The Manthappa sounds v good; don't know how I slept on it.

Cecile's first album was a monster and she's among the best live vocalists I've ever seen but I cannot get into her release from this year.

Interesting. Will check out that first album, thanks.

Just downloaded two albums by bassist Konstantin Ionenko on the Russian label Fancy Music - $2 each on Bandcamp. Check http://bandcamp.com/burningambulance if you're interested.

xxp

probably need to check that first Cecile album because I loved her voice but found some of her mannerisms a bit forced and going into bad-pastiche territory on her latest.

Any Norwegians (or people who can read Norwegian) in the thread? I wrote the cover story for the new issue of Jazznytt, on Snarky Puppy:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CXK3-yhWAAAlnOi.jpg

I made some attempt to learn it several years ago, can still sort of read it with help of a dictionary obv.

I am really feeling that Tomeka Reid Quartet album, she was aces on the AACM album with Nicole Mitchell as well and joy of joys she has Halvorson on board.

http://hullworks.net/jazzpoll/15/critics.php
more end of year lists here than you can shake a shitty stick at!

Dig the new thread: The dog trots freely thru the Rolling Jazz Canto Thread 2016

I'm wrapping this thread up for the year. If I missed something or if a track comes available sometime in the future, bump here to let me know and I'll add.

Rolling Jazz 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist