"Music doesn't go seasonable to me." Rolling Jazz Dm7♭5 Thread 2017

'16 had its day, now it's passé

Lol @ thread title

I am still afraid the flat sign will break someone's browser, or even zing.

Actually it did seem to kill zing when I linked to other thread.

Finally, keep wanting to follow it with a G7b9.

I'll let you resolve to the (minor) tonic.

Linked FROM other thread

First BA review of the year, up tomorrow, will be of the Anna Högberg Attack album, which I totally missed in 2016. (Came out in April.) An all-female Swedish sextet led by a saxophonist who guested on the most recent album by The Thing, and is also a member of Fire! Orchestra.

I like it, although I'd totally forgotten about it until recently when quite a few people on blogs I read were voting it no.1 on their eoy lists.

Anna Högberg Attack review. Short version: It's not paradigm-shifting or anything, but it's enjoyable if you like '60s style free jazz.

been working with a sax & woodwinds guy for two years now and as we've worked closer together, my jazz listening has been rekindled (I grew up on jazz, my dad played in combos all through my youth). ran across this yesterday via the Fuckin' Record Reviews Tumblr, it was on their giant year-end list of links -- to my ears, it's really good, really just jamming but...I like me some jams

https://gospelofmars.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-trans-pecos

Steve Swell trombone | Gebhard Ullmann tenor saxophone and bass clarinet | Fred Lonberg-Holm cello and electronics | Michael Zerang drums

^^
this band aka The Chicago Plan have a killer album on Clean Feed. Good review of it here.
http://jazzandblues.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/the-chicago-plan-self-titled-clean-feed.html

gospel of mars is awesome! that fuckin record reviews list is a treasure every year

Who else is doing Winter JazzFest this weekend in NYC? I'm planning out Friday and it's packed. Saturday less so.
http://www.winterjazzfest.com/marathon1/
http://www.winterjazzfest.com/marathon2/

I never do it, can't really stay out that late, but I know many musicians love to go see as many of the other acts as they can.

my current plan on the 6th (and I'll likely miss a lot of these but i'll try) is Dayme Arocena, Dave Douglas/Shigeto, Andrew Cyrille, DeeDee Bridgwater/Theo Bleckmann/Jason Moran does Monk, Jim Black's Malamute, Battle Trance

There are some groups I'd really like to see, like Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Donny McCaslin's quartet, the Andrew Cyrille/Bill McHenry duo (I've seen them together before, as part of McHenry's quartet with Orrin Evans and Eric Revis), and Melissa Aldana's trio, but I don't think I'm gonna make it. Winter Jazzfest is just too manic for me.

I would go to all of those as well but yeah too much too soon.

there's a gazillion shows and tons of stuff (especially on Friday) that's counter-programmed against other things i wanna see. I think i'm just gonna walk around on Saturday and try things i don't know anything about.

Here's an incredible clip I've never seen before: Archie Shepp guesting with the Duke Ellington band in 1969.

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

They would have made a great duo or trio for def, in fact some of my fave Shepp stuff recently is his duo records with Mal Waldron.

i was looking something else up and this was on youtube and someone mentioned them here so i started to watch it but its really terrible. but maybe they are better now. or maybe it's one of those brian eno kinda things where it's an orchestra of amateurs and people who can't play. but why are there like 30 of them? are they indie rock people? i was gonna make a godspeed you black emperor joke but someone already did two years ago in the comments. i always think people should practice more before they play live but i'm old-fashioned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FC7-NWlTp8

There's a pretty good article about Winter Jazzfest in the Voice. (In related news, the Voice is starting to get good again. Yes, Christgau and SFJ are writing for them again, but I mean in spite of that.)

wow, don, that youtube channel is a goldmine. that footage of victoria spivey performing black snake blues... just completely amazing! what a lady! and then there's a whole concert by capt. john handy... subscribed!

Wait did don post recently? Oh you mean "Don"?

https://www.otrcat.com/images/Jack-Benny-Don-Wilson-otrcat.com.jpg
Oh, Don!

Wait did don post recently? Oh you mean "Don"?

― The Magnificent Galileo Seven (James Redd and the Blecchs)

you know i never figured out how to tell the difference between display names and real names, mr. blecchs.

Sorry, that was more about my own thought process than about you.

no apology necessary :)

You may call me Galileo.

king of night vision, king of insight

thank you shari lewis

Lol

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/files/2014/01/55825624.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p4drWtJ0Ug

hey scott, here's an overview of the Fire! lineup

Fire! Orchestra (since 2012)

Mats Gustafsson – baritone and slide sax, conduction
Johan Berthling – el bas
Andreas Werliin – drums
Mariam Wallentin – voice
Sofia Jernberg – voice
Anna Högberg – alto sax
Mette Rasmussen – alto sax
Lotte Anker – soprano and tenor sax
Jonas Kullhammar – braithophone, slide and bass sax
Goran Kajfes – cornet and slide trumpet
Niklas Barnö – trumpet
Mats Äleklint – trombone
Per-Åke Holmlander – tuba
Hild Sofie Tafjord – french horn
Andreas Berthling – electronics
Finn Loxbo – guitar
Julien Desprez – guitar
Martin Hederos – keyboards and violin
Mads Forsby – drums and electronics
Mikael Werliin – sound

not your average amateurs

how do you like this https://youtu.be/VE-w9kPIhg8 ?

i was actually looking up a mats gustafsson thing when i found that. i have heard stuff of his that i liked. but that live clip is terrible. it really is. so sloppy. the singers are sad. they need to lock themselves in a room for a decade and just play or something. it just sounds like a sad approximation of another time. surprised they don't have a sleigh bell virtuoso. i can't believe that they can listen to audio of that and think that they sound good. if it were just some ramshackle punk d.i.y. approach to "fire music" done as a lark it would be one thing, but it sounds like they have "ideas".

The Fire! Orchestra isn't for me either tbh, but I did like the Fire! trio album they recorded last year though. I'm not against big bands either, just not Them type ones.

that Matt Wilson's Big Happy Family release from last year is more like the modern type of big band I can get into.

i was looking something else up and this was on youtube and someone mentioned them here so i started to watch it but its really terrible. but maybe they are better now. or maybe it's one of those brian eno kinda things where it's an orchestra of amateurs and people who can't play. but why are there like 30 of them? are they indie rock people? i was gonna make a godspeed you black emperor joke but someone already did two years ago in the comments. i always think people should practice more before they play live but i'm old-fashioned.

This reminds me of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra's late '80s/early '90s stuff: "We need a JAZZ section! We need a COMPOSED section (some midtempo unison lines will do the trick)! We need a FREE IMPROV section! Or multiple FREE IMPROV sections! Different small groupings doing FREE IMPROV broken up by the COMPOSED unison lines!" To be fair, the LJCO stuff is pretty decent (and you might like them, Scott -- their much better rehearsed than Fire! Orchestra), but this is a chronic problem in this music, composers/bandleaders trying to desperately shoehorn as many of their "influences" as possible into long/large-scale works to the extent that it ends up as a clumsy collage of half-assed pseudo-homages.

when the one singer busts out a bad yoko impression i had to laugh a little. it was just lacking some yoko at that point.

maybe it just bugs me when i get the impression that people think it's EASY to do something like that. i mean it's hard to be a quartet and be in sync with the people you are playing with. or a trio! but 30 people....

i could definitely see them opening for someone like radiohead though. blowing minds.

Mention of the LJCO semi-reminded me of Gil Evans' The London Orchestra, actually The British Orchestra, who took it on the road in '83---this might be best suited for later tonight, but don't sleep on it---if don't show, they're doing "Little Wing", without trying to beat Hendrix at his own game, performance-wise anyway (they catch the vibe and pass it right along: no bogarting, despite the length). With John Surman and Ray Russell soloing, Mo Foster on bass, drums uncredited on my LP of 'em and here, other horns are into it without horning in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC6ERO815Bg

Here's the album I have---think performances of all these songs, from this set or other gigs, are currently on the 'Tube:

https://www.discogs.com/Gil-Evans-The-British-Orchestra/release/1650253

And speaking of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, NPR's still got several of his Newport sets, starting with this one from 2010, my first DJASS experience: http://www.npr.org/2010/08/07/128982169/darcy-james-argues-secret-society-in-concert-newport-jazz-festival-2010

first and best, if my memory serves me well

Hard to imagine something less appealing to me than a big band arrangement of a song from Hendrix's worst studio album.

Have you heard the jazz tribute to The Shaggs?

Ha, I have a copy of the whole Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix album. I remember liking it well enough.

Sorry, the ones above are from the same show, but here's the intended "Little Wing": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpXtc_iWyQ0

this is my jam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ3boiQ_UZA

those swede singers should listen to gil with urszula.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU-MUzq6kqM

Oh yeah, all of that. The xpost 70s Gil that got me the most was my first, There Comes A Time, so heavy and airborne. CD greatly expanded some tracks, but/and was even better.

i'm so in love with billy harper these days. need all billy harper. 1975 billy harper tony williams gil fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n22YMAhOqoE

yah, see there ya go don.

i'll stop now though. sorry jazzers!

man, i used to play that public theater volume so much years ago. i even had the tape for my walkman.

How do you feel about Anna Webber? Currently listening to the new (new-ish) release Binary w her "Simple Trio", and it sounds pretty solid – knotty & concise.

Allaboutjazz review:
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/binary-anna-webber-skirl-records-review-by-dave-wayne.php?width=375

Legendary jazz tuba dude Howard Johnson (there was an interview with him posted in the 2016 thread) has a new album coming out in March, with his band Gravity, which apparently features four tubas. Very interested to hear that.

Sorry, the ones above are from the same show, but here's the intended "Little Wing":

― dow

i'm still a big fan of the version of little wing by mr mcfall's chamber. tasteful, non-cheesy classical crossover!

xxpost Thanks, Scott! Here's one by and with Billy Harper: short but sweet, with some change-ups along the way, not disturbing the groove but as you'll see in the liner notes quoted here, Gil's reminded of the kind of songs that exotic dancers liked ("moody"). Trevor Koehler's on this perhaps pre-LSD but not pre-pot album (he played with Insect Trust, Lou Reed etc), also xpost Howard Johnson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvHcFZtBNog

Nat Hentoff is dead at 91. Can't even count how many albums I've owned with his liner notes in 'em. Spoke to him on the phone once, too. A genuine legend.

91 is old, travel the spaceways in peace and all, but man. Nat Hentoff is just a towering figure from an age whose towering figures are almost all gone.

ran across this this morning, I assume it made the '15 rolling jazz d-bags thread but I'd missed it so here it is - Charles Simic reminiscing about Slugs', some great memories and a couple of great pics

Thanks, link please.

Just got a PDF of this book:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41I94J4WPXL.jpg

Very interested to check it out. Soul jazz, and more generally what black audiences were listening to vs. what white (and many black) critics were focusing on, is a really under-discussed subject.

Cool. Is the author the WBGO jock who I was just listening to?

Of course he is.

Also, glad my Howard Johnson interview thread spanning had such a positive outcome.

In that same spirit, I will post this old, very interesting interview with Jay Leonhart that I just came across: http://jazztimes.com/articles/18702-jay-leonhart-overdue-ovation

Feel like I should just live blog this morning's WBGO listening.

Really dug Kurt Elling's guitar player on "Norwegian Wood," John McLean.

Lea Delaria's version of "Suffragette City" featuring Janis Siegel swung so hard I could have sworn it was Peggy Lee singing.

oops on link - here you go:

http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2015/07/29/sundays-at-slugs-ornette-coleman/

Thanks.

To continue the radio live blog: I never knew anything about Bobby Scott before. Very interesting to learn about.

Just realized Cyrus Chestnut is doing a solo show here this Friday in a nice small room. Not at all versed in him, but for $25 it seems like a safe bet, yes?

I saw him at Dizzy's when he was part of that Pavement project which was a mixed bag or blessing. Based on that I would definitely try to see him do his own thing in a small venue like you mention.

the latest Terrell Stafford "Forgive and Forget" is excellent.

Yeah, that is a good album. I liked his previous one, too - it was a Lee Morgan tribute, but the performances were good enough that it stood on its own and didn't just make me wish I was listening to Lee Morgan.

So apparently there's a new album out with the Matthew Shipp Trio called Piano Song. Anyone heard it?

Yeah, I've heard it; it's good. It's his final album for Thirsty Ear - Michael Bisio on bass and Newman Taylor Baker on drums, same as his last one, The Conduct of Jazz. Baker is a really swinging, conventional drummer compared to other guys he's had in the band, so the album is much less "free jazz" than a lot of his work.

I wound up skipping Winter Jazzfest entirely, but went out last night to see an excellent triple bill at the Cell Theatre in Manhattan.

First up was the James Brandon Lewis Trio (Luke Stewart on electric bass; Warren G. Crudup III on drums) with guest guitar from Anthony Pirog. They were great - funky and almost rocking at times, and Pirog was shredding all over the place.

The second group was an eight-piece ensemble that was just stacked with really good players - Rob Reddy on soprano saxophone; John Carlson on trumpet; Josh Roseman on trombone; Charlie Burnham on violin; Christopher Hoffman on cello; Marvin Sewell on guitar; Dom Richards on double bass; and Pheeroan akLaff on drums. The music was a really interesting blend of old-style jazz (it was a tribute to Sidney Bechet) and chamber music; Burnham got the best solos.

The last group was Harriet Tubman - Brandon Ross on guitar, Melvin Gibbs on bass, and JT Lewis on drums. Gibbs had some minor sound problems early on, but got it under control on the second song, and they tore it up. They play a kind of ambient, post-rockish jazz-metal; I guess I'd compare them to Blind Idiot God, with less of an emphasis on Riffs and more on creating a huge, room-filling, weather system-type sound. Their new album - their first studio recording in 15 years - comes out next month on Sunnyside. It's got Wadada Leo Smith on it, and liner notes from Greg Tate, who was at the show last night.

Very exciting report--sure hope the octet incl. Burnham makes an album (have they?), and looking fwd to the new release by Harriet Tubman, who tore it up at an otherwise sometimes tentative re-gathering of Threadgill-related line-ups on Jazz Night In America.

now THIS is electro-free jazz i can get behind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwF7uJF5YL0

Thanks Scott! Reminds me I need to check out Republic of Mars, based on (joanie loves chachi)'s rec and your response.

Another friend alerted me to the recent death of Charles "Bobo" Shaw, whom I've heard on several records, but didn't know all this:

an overview:http://stljazznotes.blogspot.com/2017/01/charles-bobo-shaw-1947-2017.html"> http://stljazznotes.blogspot.com/2017/01/charles-bobo-shaw-1947-2017.html

A pair of killer 1973 cuts from the Human Arts Ensemble:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AqJamdqkcI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hJ1OFu6mRM

An excellent 1978 recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weA2duvKbZo

A 1977 record he made with Lester Bowie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bCKNL8ejak

And a glimpse of him playing with a bunch of other drummers just a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqltK5d8qys

I first saw Bobo play in 1973 at Studio Rivbea, Sam Rivers's loft in SoHo, with the Black Artists Group, featuring Lester's brother Joe, future leader of Defunkt. I saw him gig around town a few more times in that jazz era of huge ambition and microscopic budgets, but didn't get to know him until late in the decade. Following the coterie success of the Lounge Lizards, many avant-garde jazz players started playing funk, like for dancing: Defunkt, Luther Thomas's Dazz, Oliver Lake's Jump Up, and a bunch more that either went unrecorded or were not recorded to their best advantage... Bobo was all over that scene, which was dominated by players from St. Louis.

The main venue for these outfits was the Squat Theater on 23rd Street, run by Hungarian expats including the parents of Eszter Balint (of Stranger Than Paradise fame, among other things)....

sorry, should have posted that first link this way:
http://stljazznotes.blogspot.com/2017/01/charles-bobo-shaw-1947-2017.html

Wynton Marsalis, clueless as ever, on facebook:

In the countdown to Friday's inauguration, I find myself being asked - at least once a day - whether or not I would agree to play at the festivities, if invited.

Yesterday, while fellowshipping with a number of college-aged youngsters, both my willingness to perform, and my interest in joining a protest were called into question. "Would I perform, if asked?" "Yes," I said. "Would you protest the accepted outcome of the election?" "No," I said, and quickly followed up with, "I'll at least wait for him (or them) to actually do something that I feel should be protested against.”

Well, not expecting these answers, the young people were extremely dissatisfied and became quite agitated. The conversation quickly shifted to what constitutes “selling out” and the somewhat rhetorical questioning of whether or not selling is a natural side effect of aging. It then detoured into uniformed suspicious speculation on the Electoral College, which gave way to pure conjecture about the role of Putin in the electronic balloting process. This, predictably, boiled down to a conclusion that the election itself was not legitimate (and by deduction, that voting itself is a waste of time).

It was all so sincere and heartfelt that the veteran in me had to smile, chuckle and shake my head. "What's funny?" they asked. I replied, "When a process yields results you really don't like, that's the perfect time to endorse that process. It proves your belief in the larger agenda. And that's why, if asked, I would be happy to play. As far as protesting goes, I did that on November 8th. The election was the protest."

It got me thinking about my great uncle, born in 1883 in rural Louisiana. He was known for going to vote on every Election Day, in spite of being turned away. He was said to be so persistent that after some absurdly large number of years, he was finally allowed to cast his vote. When I asked why he would return year after year to face that humiliation, he told me, "Make people cheat you to your face, son."

Being a child of the Civil Rights Movement, I grew up knowing that activists from all walks of life courageously faced injustice head on. They even had the theme song "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round." Being present was their calling card. I think that many of the people boycotting this inauguration seem to have forgotten our democratic mandate to participate and our responsibility to be present. Now is not the time for leaders to disappear and allow the national dialogue to be shifted away from the sometimes impossible negotiations of conflicting viewpoints that are essential to the well being of our democracy.
Participation is the way to honor all of the sacrifices of our ancestors and to create the world we would like to bequeath our descendants. Let's be present.

– Wynton

I bet if Trump went electric Wynton would be out there protesting.

I think his cut-off point of all music with a right to exist is about 1963 innit? He is an absolute tool when he talks politics or music.

The first installment of Ugly Beauty, my jazz column for Stereogum, just went live. Hopefully you'll find something you like.

Cool, thanks, will check out later.

nice, i'm enjoying going through these. really like the Shipp and the Art Hirahara so far. also going to check out a lot of stuff now that i realized that all the Criss Cross records have auto-generated videos on Youtube.

(really disliked that Henry Spencer thing, but whatevs)

also it's weird to me that contemporary jazz records that are essentially based on beats are still mixed like, well, jazz records. the cymbals/overheads are super upfront with the kick & snare de-emphasized, even though they are driving the music. thinking about this while listening to that Tom Tallitsch track. the Shipp recording does a good job of avoiding this, and sounds so much better than almost everything in the column.

lol Henry Spencer's track was the only one to grab me but I don't listen to much jazz, so...

that's a very well written column, enjoyed reading it a lot (although the music is not exactly to my taste)

it's gathered a lot of comments for a jazz column as well, but how odd that commenters on a "nerdy" music forum would exchange recommendations in the form of name-dropping only the most canonical of albums and artists that any google search/spotify playlist/Rolling Stone feature would lead you too

There's a new Led Bib album out today

http://www.rarenoiserecords.com/led-bib

been listening to some Herlin Riley today, his album from last year specifically and excellent it is.

that Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus one is another totally sick album from last year I completely missed despite it having the holy trinity of Halvorson/Davis/Fujiwara on board. I even read a couple of rave reviews but never got round to it.

RIP Jean Georgakarakos, the "G" in legendary free jazz label BYG Records.

i know this is last year but i am still listening to the yussef kamaal all the damn time

Been participating in the Twitter-based Music Writing Exercise, where you listen to an album you've never heard before every day in February and tweet your impressions. I've decided to spend the majority of the month rooting around Spotify for semi-forgotten '70s and '80s albums by relatively well-known players. Today I checked out Gary Bartz's Music is My Sanctuary, a 1977 album produced by the Mizell Brothers (the same guys who did Donald Byrd's disco-funk records, and Bobbi Humphrey's). It sounds like what you'd expect - smooth disco-funk jazz, with some vocals - but there are some really nice horn charts and weirdo arrangements on the track "Swing Thing," and the title track is really good.

Nate Chinen has left the NYT
https://deadline.com/2017/02/new-york-times-culture-desk-charles-isherwood-leaves-as-layoffs-loom-1201903894/

Chinen's doing (and commissioning) good work for WBGO:

http://wbgo.org/term/music

Yes and yes! Bummer that jazz is often awol at the times tho'.

Today I got hung up on young Larry Young in his pre-Miles/Jimi etc. 1960s, listening to Unity several times, incl. right now---Woody Shaw not only shines as performer, he contributes several ace tunes, plus the LY/Elvin Jones duet on "Monk's Dream." Joe Henderson's the least distinctive stylist here, but no prob, what with his rough-edged incisions--plus he wrote "If", one of my faves here, not that I don't favor them all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EWEOOztqIk

That is, Young and Jones are the only ones on "Monk's Dream", which works great.

Anybody heard the 2014 Japanese edition of this, with alt. takes of several titles? Do they add anything worth seeking out?

Finally, keep wanting to follow it with a G7b9.

G7#5 imo

Lol

I've tried and tried with Larry Young but his stuff's never really done it for me, except for Lawrence of Newark. And I want to like Unity, because I love Woody Shaw and Joe Henderson. But I don't know. I prefer more traditional, bluesy organists - John Patton, Baby Face Willette, Freddie Roach, et al.

I love 'Unity'.

Looking forward to checking out this Craig Taborn record w/Dave King, thanks pfork.

dow, be sure to check out Young's Into Somethin', from the previous year. Elvin plus Grant Green and (dramatic pause) Sam Rivers. Easily Unity's equal.

Will have to listen to it again---Elvin Jones seems under-mixed, also under-utilized, or maybe he chose to under-play, compared to Unity. Also, Green seems to alternate otm moments with coasting (which reminds me I've read that his own albums on Blue Note tended to the same, only moreso: here's a whole good album, there's a meh, here's a good, etc.). But yeah, I'll listen again, not like my attention span is always otm.

Not that I'm that crazy about Green's (Burrell's, Montgomery's) burble-y approach anyway, for the most part (not that I've heard their best work either, no doubt).If you're gonna do it that way, be Les Paul.

But hell yes, Sam Rivers spins out of and bears down on all these bouncy sounds!

agree somewhat re: Green. I don't think Jones is underplaying and/or holding back at all, but he is lower in the mix than on Unity -- or rather, Young is much higher in the mix. But yeah, Rivers is totally killer, and it's fascinating to hear him in this context.

Yeah, I wonder if he did anything else like this---kinda reminds me of what Sonny Sharrock does in the middle of Herbie Mann's corny "Philly Dog" on Live At The Whiskey, although Rivers has a lot more chops than Sharrock did then, and nothing on Young's album is like that toon.

What did you guys think of the Darcy James Argue from last year? I bought it on Bandcamp's ACLU day, eager to hear a 12-tone big band album. I've been playing it a fair bit; it's all at least interesting. I don't know if I'm as sold on some of the funk moves and don't really know what to make of the spoken bits.

I like Argue's first album, Infernal Machines, the best of all his work. The newest one is good, but I agree it doesn't all work as well as it could.

Great video of Woody Shaw's quintet live in France, 1979:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJTXfhIGy5w

What did you guys think of the Darcy James Argue from last year? I bought it on Bandcamp's ACLU day, eager to hear a 12-tone big band album. I've been playing it a fair bit; it's all at least interesting. I don't know if I'm as sold on some of the funk moves and don't really know what to make of the spoken bits.

From what I heard I thought it was...not good.

Never listened to anything after Infernal Machines, figured it was only going to go downhill from there.

I never heard all of Infernal Machines tbh. I better pick that up because I'm pretty into Argue's ideas. I also got this one, which I am pretty impressed with. There's a lot going on to listen for; not lightweight by any means. Some p sophisticated compositions; nice extended bowed bass techniques.

I just found out that Larry Coryell passed away Sunday. I think this hurts me more than any of the other musician deaths in recent memory.
http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/02/20/516245069/guitarist-larry-coryell-godfather-of-fusion-dies-at-73

You guys should Search! the first Count's Rock Band album.

Darcy James Argue is my favorite Smashing Pumpkins exposé

lol

http://roulette.org/event/commission-battle-trance-blade-of-love/
^excited about this. they were great the last time i saw them.

lol crüt

crüt otm throughout thread

Just got a promo of the new Christian Scott album. I really like what he's doing these days - he calls it "Stretch Music," but it's basically a cross between 80s Miles Davis (lush melodies, lots of synths) and trap music, with some New Orleans rhythms thrown in. This is the first of three albums he's going to release this year.

^I'm checking for this, for sure.

I know only slightly more than shit about jazz, however I like checking out new things that are charting high on the Rate Your Music charts and I saw this release currently as the #19 album of the year and was interested and wonder what you guys think.

Angles 9
Disappeared Behind the Sun
(Clean Feed Records)
Release Date: 01/17/2017

http://img.discogs.com/Ae7-ep9cUeoBnPbA6ZOO8pRW3UM=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-9732530-1485508634-6529.jpeg.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/0waUO5aFvi6QRglJrEzZht

As I said, I don't know much about jazz but I like this. Rather than attempt to explain why and make an idiot out of myself, here's what the label says:

Martin Kuchen’s nonet returns for more avant-jazz to dance to, confirming once again that creative music with political conscience can be festive, even considering the seriousness of the subject of this record. The title is an expression given to people who are taken away and put into solitary confinement, with its relatives knowing anything about the prisoners whereabouts. That’s what is happening usually in the Middle East, from Egypt to occupied Palestine. The melodies introduced by the compositions are very simple and very suggestive, leaving to the improvisations all the complexity and also the essential of the fireworks. And that’s what is the most important in “Disappeared Behind the Sun”, just like it was in the previous albums of Angles 9 and Angles 6. The refrains played by the large horn frontline with its African and Swedish folk connotations and the lively pulsation maintained by the rhythmic section have the power to seduce every sensible ear, and the connection to the most “difficult” parts follow in a natural way. It’s impossible not to like this challenging, energized and puzzling successor of three big bands, mixing it in a highly intelligent project: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, Carla Bley’s Jazz Composers Orchestra and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra are very much alive in this exciting new record of the best jazz played in Europe today.

That Stretch Music album by Christian Scott was fucking ace, so I'm fair glad he has committed to 3 new albums this year.

I enjoyed both Angles 9 and the Count's Rock Album.

Got a 2CD Donald Byrd compilation in today's mail: Love Has Come Around - The Elektra Records Anthology 1978-1982. I like Byrd's 1970s albums with the Mizell Brothers a lot; in fact, they're my favorite things in his catalog. But this stuff is straight-up disco, with the occasional short trumpet solo. I don't know if I can make it through two and a half hours of it.

This Salon article about the damage being done to NYC's jazz scene by the Times basically giving up on covering it is worth a read.

Will read later but I can well believe it

My February column for Stereogum is up. It's a special Black History Month edition, kinda.

xp vaguely tangential biz gossip to that jazz piece:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2017/02/22/fired-ny-times-drama-critic-fires-back/#3bada4176859

If you like the Count's Rock Band debut, also check Steve Marcus's Tomorrow Never Knows--back cover's messed up on my ancient yard sale LP, but guitarist sounds like Coryell. Also check yard sales for those early Eleventh House records (Coryell's gaudy fusion band), his early solo albums of course, and a live Free Spirits album that finally surfaced just a few years ago (not the suits-fucked-with Free Spirits studio album, which they disowned). Also Herbie Mann's Memphis Underground, with Coryell and Sharrock.

Oh, I'm definitely a fan of that last one!

http://www.everycontactleavesatrace.net/2016/09/06/the-process-marvin-tate-joseph-clayton-mills/

more of an audio collage, but oh boy

Good BBC WS Arts Hour on New Orleans here featuring the impressive Christian Scott. If it doesn't work in the US then the beeb will have to stop calling it World Service ffs!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04tbvlc

Christian Scott shares a fairly shocking personal anecdote about police harassment and there is a discussion about aggressive gentrification in NO, as well as music and stuff about the Mardis Gras. It is good stuff.

I'm working on setting up an interview with him for Burning Ambulance soon.

He comes across like someone with a shitload of good stories/opinions, so should be a good interviewee. He said something on that WS program about how he had inherited his grandad's position on the Mardis Gras parade, which is something I don't know much about - but it sounds way impressive.

Got all five Throttle Elevator Music CDs in the mail today. TEM is a studio-based project led by Gregory Howe, owner of the Wide Hive label. The two main bandmembers are Matt Montgomery (bass and piano) and Kamasi Washington (saxophone), with other folks cycling in and out depending on the album. The music is a mix of free jazz, dub, funk, and garage rock - kind of like The Thing, if they had keyboards and were into dub. The latest album, Retrorespective, is the last one, I think. It includes Ava Mendoza on guitar.

I'm enjoying the new David Weiss/Point of Departure album. I don't think it would be overpraise to say a lot of it scratches my Miles 2nd Quintet itches.

Went to the Jazz Standard last night to see George Coleman, with Charles McPherson as special guest. Jeb Patton on piano, David Wong on bass, George Coleman Jr. on drums. I also interviewed Coleman on Tuesday; that'll be up on Burning Ambulance next week. The set was all standards - McPherson opened it up with "What Is This Thing Called Love," then Coleman Sr. joined and they played a Latin-ish tune written by Lee Morgan (I didn't catch the title), "Crazeology," a ballad I think was called "Dedicated," and finally "A Night in Tunisia." They might have played one more tune, but that was when I left - I had a train to catch. It was a fun set. McPherson and Coleman have known each other for something like sixty years, and they played together pretty well, especially on the fast bebop stuff. But I think the ballad might have been my favorite piece of the night. The version of "Tunisia" wasn't great; Coleman Jr. didn't really have a grip on the rhythm (although he was really good on other tunes - he's a powerful, bomb-dropping player).

Cool, thanks

Here's my interview with George Coleman.

This Salon article about the damage being done to NYC's jazz scene by the Times basically giving up on covering it is worth a read.

― Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱)

fuck, i scrolled too far and accidentally hit the comments. :(

2CD Jaco Pastorius live album coming in April/May. It's a previously unreleased 1982 big band performance, 2 CDs or 3 LPs. I'm not a Jaco fan, but I'm sure lots of folks will be really excited about this.

Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock shred:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22i57u2eMDE

Just been blasting out that DEK trio album w/ K Vandermark on it, really blistering and delicate and quite extraordinarily good imo.

anyone get a chance to hear the (last?) arthur doyle record, which was released late last year? recordings are from 2012, doyle died in '14 i think. it's still blowing my mind, still my favorite buy of the last six months:

https://soundcloud.com/amishrecords/arthur-doyle-with-his-new-quiet-screamers-call-out

label hype:

On what would have been his 72nd birthday, Amish is very proud to announce 'First House' (AMI 048), the final recordings from free jazz legend and Birmingham, Alabama native, Arthur Doyle.

Recorded live at the Stone July 11, 2012, these six pieces are backed by His New Quiet Screamers, a Brooklyn-based ensemble adding muscle and movement to Doyle’s always already free, non-linear saxophone, flute and vocal lines.

Ben Ratliff has a really good write-up on Monk's Music on Pitchfork today.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22961-monks-music/

Thats the one that starts with a short + beautiful Abide With Me, It's an absolute personal fave is that album. Possibly a rare click for P4k coming from me.

He barely reviews the album, but it is an excellent read on Monk.

Thanks, Phil. Do you know where the thread title quote comes from?

Of this thread, to be clear

my rushed post - whilst cooking and drinking - probably sounds a bit uncharitable. FTR I thought that was a really great piece that took me right down a'57 wormhole and made me forget it was an album review was what I meant to say.

Google says it's a quote from Coleman Hawkins.

Yeah, exactly. Found it in the Robin Kelley Monk bio.

really appreciating the stereogum column, 誤訳侮辱. i used to keep up with jazz new releases via seth colter walls's semi-regular roundup on rhapsody, but that seems to be now defunct. glad pitchfork is reviewing jazz now, too.

The Arthur Doyle clip on Soundcloud was great!

Just received this link to Art Ensemble taking Ayler's "Ghosts" for a ride and vice-versa: they do their own thing without obliterating thee original, if that's even possible. Wish they'd done a whole album of Ayler. With Lester Bowie etc, 22 minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM-6-02mAz8

Just bought two more of those Complete Remastered Albums on Black Saint & Soul Note box sets: a third volume of David Murray and a second of Max Roach. (I have the first two Murray boxes, but don't have the first Roach box.)

The Murray includes Interboogieology, Live at Sweet Basil Vol. 1 and 2, Children, Southern Bells, and The Healers; the Roach has Pictures in a Frame, In the Light, Live at Vielharmonie Munich, Scott Free, Easy Winners, and It's Christmas Again.

Also picked up Cannonball Adderley's Complete Live in Tokyo 1963, a 2CD set with the band that included Nat Adderley, Yusef Lateef, Joe Zawinul, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes.

Thanks for the Monk link - excellent stuff. I always think of Geoff Dyer's But Beautiful whenever I read about Monk. For all the dubiety I have about that book, this passage on Monk is magnificent.

"You had to see Monk to hear his music properly. The most important instrument in the group - whatever the format - was his body. He didn't play the piano really. His body was his instrument and the piano was just a means of getting the sound out of his body at the rate and in the quantities he wanted. If you blotted out everything except his body you would think he was playing the drums, foot going up and down on the hi-hat, arms reaching over each other, His body fills in the gaps in the music; without seeing him it always sounds like something's missing but when you see him even piano solos acquire a sound as full as a quartets. The eye hears what the ear misses...

Part of jazz is the illusion of spontaneity and Monk played the piano as though he'd never seen one before. Came at it from all angles, using his elbows, taking chops at it, rippling through the keys like they were a deck of cards, fingers jabbing at them like they were hot to the touch or tottering around them like a woman in heels - playing it all wrong as far as classical piano went. Everything came out crooked, at an angle, not as you expected...Played with his fingers splayed, flattened out over the keys, fingertips almost looking like they were pointed upward when they should have been arched.

He played each note as if astonished by the previous one, as though every touch of his fingers on the keyboard was correcting an error and this touch in turn became an error to be corrected and so the tune never quite ended up the way it was meant to. Sometimes the song seemed to have turned itself inside out or to have been entirely constructed from mistakes...

If Monk had built a bridge he'd have taken away the bits that considered essential until all that was left were the decorative parts - but somehow he would have made the ornamentation absorb the strength of the supporting spars so it was like everything was built around what wasn't there. It shouldn't have held together but it did and the excitement came from the way that it looked like it might collapse at any moment..."

angelica sanchez,michael formanek,tyshawn sorey - float the edge

^^
on first spin this is sounding rather good.

I've downloaded it, but haven't listened to it yet.

In other news, I interviewed Paal Nilssen-Love (with bonus quotes from Mats Gustafsson) for Bandcamp.

Late last night on the radio, a couple of tracks by Jeremy Pelt feat. Ron Carter woke me up. Attractive description of the album here, I'll have to check out the whole thing:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2016/02/26/trumpeter-jeremy-pelt-collaborates-with-bass-great-ron-carter

Recently reviewed on Fresh Air, this is proving worthwhile:
Frank Carlberg Large Ensemble, Monk Dreams, Hallucinations and Nightmares

https://f-a-t-a-k-a.bandcamp.com/album/a-field-perpetually-at-the-edge-of-disorder

interesting context for John Tilbury

Yeah, that's a good one; I wrote about it for Burning Ambulance back in 2014.

http://dcist.com/2017/03/local_jazz_legend_buck_hill_dead_at.php

Buck Hill could have been a jazz big name playing in NY and touring, but he instead stayed in DC working as a Postal Service letter carrier by day, sax blower by night

There's a 2LP/2CD set of previously unreleased Thelonious Monk music - his soundtrack to Roger Vadim's 1960 movie Les Liaisons Dangereuses - coming out 4/22 on vinyl (for Record Store Day), and digitally on 5/19. I'm listening to it now, and it's fantastic. The band includes both Charlie Rouse and Barney Wilen on tenor sax, Sam Jones on bass, and Art Taylor on drums; it might be the swinging-est Monk music of that era, and the two-saxophone thing is totally unique, I think. The songs aren't that surprising: "Rhythm-a-Ning," "Crepuscule with Nellie," "Well, You Needn't," "Pannonica" (in both solo and quartet versions), "Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-are," and "Light Blue," but there's also a blues improvisation called "Six in One" and a solo version of "We'll Understand It Better By and By." And the recording quality is beautiful. This is pretty much a must-own.

My latest Stereogum column is live. Includes my thoughts on the whole Robert Glasper/Ethan Iverson thing, plus track premieres from Christian Scott and his former guitarist Matthew Stevens (and trombonist Joe Fiedler), and lots of other good stuff.

Hmmmm I wish I liked that Christian Scott track better, the last record had a nice sense of an active rhythm section w/one of the drummers playing samples. This is more static and reminds me of some of those old Graham Haynes records. It's also in that uncanny valley zone where it's so close to beat-based music that it really has to sound amazing. Still curious to hear the rest of the record though.

This album is definitely a programmed-rhythms mood piece, but eventually it seeps into your brain and takes over. It's his Tutu, in a way.

Get thee to Mezzrow, where still-back-from-the-dead Tootie Heath is playing tonight and tomorrow.

Also came to post that Cannonball Adderley's Fiddler On The Roof, which I heard on WKCR while waiting to pick up my daughter at band practice, is my new jam.

A good piece on that Monk soundtrack - http://wbgo.org/post/new-thelonious-monk-album-emerges-soundtrack-classic-french-film#stream/0

What did you guys think of the Darcy James Argue from last year? I bought it on Bandcamp's ACLU day, eager to hear a 12-tone big band album. I've been playing it a fair bit; it's all at least interesting. I don't know if I'm as sold on some of the funk moves and don't really know what to make of the spoken bits.

I've actually been really getting into this.

seeing 75 dollar bill and company tonight and jazz passengers tomorrow; living that roulette life

Seeing Supersilent (first NYC show since 2004!) and Matana Roberts (solo) tonight.

i'll be at supersilent as well, pretty psyched tho i hate that venue

That lineup sounds amazing!

RIP Arthur Blythe, after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease.

I have only heard a bit of his 70's - 80's stuff Lennox Ave, Illusions + In The Tradition and they are all a+. I should listen to some more really.

The Giant Is Awakened is such a killer album.

I have his first four Columbia albums, and the two India Navigation albums that were combined onto a single CD.

75 dollar bill were great though first hour was definitely superior to second. lotta sound!

Supersilent and Matana on the same bill is straight up unfair.

It was a really interesting show. Matana played solo, without the video projections, loop pedals, and other stuff that she's been using lately. Just horn and two microphones, one of which she used to monologue. She talked about the death of her parents, how her dad got her into avant-garde jazz (which she hated as a child), and other stuff. She also got the audience to hum on pitch, and conducted us with one arm while playing sax that harmonized with our humming.

Supersilent were everything I hoped they'd be. They started out really quiet and beautiful, with Arve Henriksen taking the lead as one of the other dudes filled in very soft Fender Rhodes around him. Gradually it got into an early 70s Tangerine Dream zone, but then it started to get louder and louder. By the 20 minute mark Henriksen had put on a headset mic and was ranting into it while the music sounded almost like Autechre - really loud and pounding/scorching in an abstract and almost arrhythmic way. Crazy stuff.

If I wasn't already jealous...

I did se Matana do something similar at an ATP (GY!BE, I think) - very sultry, bluesy and beat. She was captivating.

Recently on Jazz Night In America: (Georgia Anne) Muldrow Meets Mingus (with Jason Moran and full band). She is with the Afrocentric current that flows through underground hip-hop, avant-R&B and psychedelic soul... a singer, rapper and beat-making producer. Fits the Mingus selections pretty well. Stream it while you can: http://www.npr.org/event/music/521222975/muldrow-meets-mingus

She also got the audience to hum on pitch, and conducted us with one arm while playing sax that harmonized with our humming.

She did this when I saw her in 2013! About 40 cents above Bb iirc?

(I checked that with a tuner, to be clear. Not claiming to have identified the number of cents by ear, although I was lucky enough at guessing the approximate pitch.)

Which reminds me, this is posted now---another one from Night Lights, source of that Mal Waldron spotlight show I linked on last year's Rolling Jazz (still available, when I streamed it again recently):

In the 1980s a new generation of women jazz musicians emerged who expanded their predecessors’ push against the patriarchal boundaries of the jazz world. On this edition of Night Lights we’ll hear music from pianist Geri Allen, singer Cassandra Wilson, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, guitarist Emily Remler, and saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, as well as recordings from women who were already jazz veterans, including Marian McPartland, Carla Bley, and Joanne Brackeen. The only one I hadn't heard: Emily Remler, whom I skipped during her brief career(RIP), because she carried on about Wes Montgomery in several interviews, and in general seemed like such a zealous noob---but the track here is pretty startling; I better start catching up.
http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/jazz-women-1980s/
Still not really getting into Jane Ira Bloom though.

There's only one Remler album on Spotify, and it's called East to Wes. It's...fine. Good band - Hank Jones on piano, Buster Williams on bass, and Marvin "Smitty" Smith on drums.

75 dollar bill were great though first hour was definitely superior to second. lotta sound!

― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Tuesday, March 28, 2017 10:08 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark

this isn't really jazz content but i have to ask -- did Mind Over Mirrors open? If so, that would explain the first hour being better than the second, haha! (Unless 75 Dollar Bill played for 2 hours?!?)

xpost The track selected for Night Lights may or may not be all that representative, but she's playing rhythm-as-lead, zigzagging between the others without jostling; seemed closer to mid-60s live Velvet Underground or McGuinn getting ready for "Eight Miles High" than to Wes, but yeah some of his influence in there as well---also seemed like a track Mary Halvorson might be into.

xp to lechera: they played for two hours! but with a lotta very solid guest artists including jim pugliese, cheryl kingan and karen waltuch... most of the show was nine musicians. ended with everybody walking through the crowd shaking maracas and too much time on ilx but all i could think was
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f163/courtneykaehler/maracas.jpg

damn that sounds awesome
1) i love maracas and 2) i am going to see them a week from saturday!!

to clarify, them = the band, not maracas
i have my own maracas at home to shake whenever i please (tbh i injured my right elbow and broke a cymbal with my maraca-enthusiasm so i am taking it a little easier these days)

you should bring your maracas with you they might get a workout.
Both sets were enjoyable but the second was more noisy and generally less filled with moments of rapture. They did a lot of 3-d sound, wandering in the audience type stuff.

am i on the outside in reading 75 dollar bill as "jazz"? I suppose they're technically "new music" or "instrumental" but i kinda lump all that stuff together these days, at least as far as my internal genre meter goes.

I def wouldn't call it jazz -- probably somewhere on the improvised/experimental spectrum, which is sort of a sonic catch-all whereas jazz has traditions and whatnot.

Showing up to the show armed w my maracas is both appealing and the most embarrassing possible thing I could do. Can't throw them in my bag without giving myself away, gotta commit or submit!

Did Mind Over Mirrors open?

nah, just jumped directly in with both feet and did a duet with rick and che
they closed with an ornette coleman song for the first half with chanting. loads o fun.

https://soundcloud.com/emptyeditions/sets/last-signs-of-speed

not jazz, I don't know what to call it

I interviewed trumpeter Christian Scott for Burning Ambulance. He's doing 3 albums this year; the first one comes out today.

Will check that---first of all, came here to exclaim over last night's rerun of Piano Jazz, with Mose Allison in 1988, at 62 and the top of his game---zingy ruminations of course, but as usual what really gets me going is the playing; a couple of times he even comes off something like the Professor Longhair of bop, like on a 4/4 "Tennessee Waltz" (McPartland's right in there too on that 'un)---stream the whole thing here:http://www.npr.org/2013/04/05/176333998/mose-allison-on-piano-jazz

Meanwhile over on Night Lights, last night's fabulous new Dorothy Ashby show hasn't been posted yet, but here's the recent one on Nica and others: http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/nicas-tempo-hipsters-flipsters-onthescenesters/

Mainly the ace compositions dedicated to her.

Word From Mose has been my fave MA album so far, he was absolutely classic! I really dig his accent as well.

Night Lights' aforementioned Dorothy Ashby saga is now posted: http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/fantastic-jazz-harp-dorothy-ashby/ On the earliest sides, the flute is most effective with long sustained notes around the harp, but more occasional tootling can get in the way (and sounds like the suits have her kinda mixed down on some of the early fluteless segments, like she's basically backing the male flautist), but lots of upfront Ashby too, especially with just bass and drums, that's all she needs--later things get more cosmic, but never too filigree, and when she starts singing, look out now.

Tonght's Night Lights is on Herbie Hancock in the 60s.

Very interesting Bad Plus news; Ethan Iverson is leaving, and Orrin Evans is replacing him. I'll be honest - I've never listened to the Bad Plus. I've always meant to at least check them out, but just never gotten around to it. But now I want to - both the original trio and the new incarnation. And this article, by Nate Chinen, is fantastic - really revealing quotes from everyone.

That is crazy. Haven't read the article yet, but seems a tiny bit weird to keep it going, since they've made such a big deal about it being a real band whose members are essential to the identity. But Dave King's got kids to feed and web series to make and I'm sure this is his main source of income, so no shade.

That is crazy. Haven't read the article yet, but seems a tiny bit weird to keep it going

How I felt as well

Wow, good jazz drama in that article! I always wondered how DK felt about some of those things, and I now I know.

When they were explaining that the primary musical forces were Anderson and King, it reminded me of that famous Rolling Stones story where Mick Jagger called Charlie Watts "my drummer" and Watts punched him in the face and said "You're my fucking singer!"

In unrelated news, I interviewed saxophonist Dayna Stephens for Burning Ambulance.

ILM's 2017 Rolling Jazz Thread Spotify Playlist

New Kamasi Washington track sounds p good: http://www.factmag.com/2017/04/12/kamasi-washington-harmony-of-difference-shares-13-minute-single-truth/

Bought two albums on Bandcamp today: Duo Palindrome 2002 vols. 1 and 2, by Andrew Cyrille and Anthony Braxton. They're as amazing as you might expect.

https://intaktrec.bandcamp.com/album/duo-palindrome-2002-vol-1
https://intaktrec.bandcamp.com/album/duo-palindrome-2002-vol-2

He is a great drummer. My current fave album featuring Cyrille is the Stuff Smith tribute album with Billy Bang/Sun Ra from '92, although tbh it is probably more down to Bang I like it.

RIP Allan Holdsworth, fuck.

Holdsworth was always a "one of these days" artist for me - I'm only familiar with his work with Soft Machine and Tony Williams. But just last week, he put out a 12CD box with remasters of all his solo albums, and it's on Spotify, so I guess I'll give some of that a listen.

^yeah, me too.

As noted elsewhere, spent countless hours listening to his cohort, Ollie Halsall, so should probably give him equal time.

I lasted about 5 songs - two from his first solo album, IOU, and three from Metal Fatigue. He was clearly an amazing player, but his sound and style were totally Not For Me; he basically sounds like a cyborg Frank Zappa. And he picked some of the most faceless, generic vocalists I've ever heard, almost as if he knew he needed a singer for marketing purposes, but didn't want any actual competition for the spotlight.

That said, I have heard him in three different contexts as a sideman - with Soft Machine, with Tony Williams Lifetime, and on Jean-Luc Ponty's Enigmatic Ocean - and liked him fine all three times.

What about Tempest?

Back in 2015 Cuneiform put out a live album by the Holdsworth lineup of Soft Machine; I reviewed it for The Wire:

SOFT MACHINE
Switzerland 1974
Cuneiform CD/DVD, DL
Soft Machine started out as a psychedelic jazz-rock act in the 1960s; their best work was all thick organ washes with stinging horns on top, in the same vein as contemporaneous King Crimson but less disciplined. By the time of this live recording, though, three core members (drummer and sometime vocalist Robert Wyatt, bassist Hugh Hopper, and saxophonist Elton Dean) had departed, leaving keyboardist Mike Ratledge to gradually fill the lineup with players of a more showoffy, fusiony bent. The spongy, trance-like side-long jams of 1969’s Third were abandoned, replaced by a twitchily amped-up prog-fusion-boogie that sat squarely in between the Mahavishnu Orchestra and the Fripp-Cross-Wetton-Bruford lineup of Crimson. This live recording from the Montreux Jazz Festival is dominated by guitarist Allan Holdsworth and by material that would appear on 1975’s Bundles, the only Soft Machine album to feature him (and this lineup). It kicks off with the nearly 17-minute “Hazard Profile,” divided into five subsections in the studio but here presented as a solid slab. It moves from a hard-riffing opening, with Holdsworth tearing up the fretboard, to a somewhat delicate Ratledge piano solo, to a spotlight turn for saxophonist Karl Jenkins, and on and on. The rest of the pieces are significantly shorter, generally taking one idea and beating it into the ground in a brutally efficient manner, then moving on, with frequently seamless transitions. “Ealing Comedy” is a particular highlight, a mind-roastingly distorted Roy Babbington bass solo that’ll be as much fun for fans of Japanese garage-rockers High Rise as prog freaks. “Land of the Bag Snake” finds Holdsworth taking an almost cartoonishly fleet solo, while the brief “Joint” is a free-form eruption of synth noises and jackhammer drums from John Marshall. For all its complexity and high energy, though, the music is distressingly unmemorable; both Crimson and Mahavishnu had better melodies, which is probably why Soft Machine’s present-day cult is significantly smaller than theirs.
PHIL FREEMAN

that tempest bbc concert with both halsall and holdsworth is quite fine, though i'm not generally a fan... something about his tone, i don't know.

From Rolling Reissues a while back:

Guitar Legend Allan Holdsworth 12 CD Box Set Collection and Accompanying Double CD Collection
THE MAN WHO CHANGED GUITAR FOREVER Box Set
EIDOLON-a 2-CD Best Of
To Be Released on Manifesto Records on April 7th.

Los Angeles, CA-based Manifesto Records will release a new, complete 12-CD box set by guitar innovator, jazz, and progressive rock legend Allan Holdsworth titled The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever, along with a 2-CD updated and expanded “best of” collection selected by the artist, titled Eidolon.
Manifesto Records referenced the box set’s seemingly portentous title from the cover story title featuring Holdsworth in Guitar Player magazine’s April 2008 edition. Given his humble nature, Holdsworth is a bit embarrassed by the title and finds the notion that he changed “guitar forever,” somewhat overblown—more befitting of names like Orville Gibson, Leo Fender, or Ned Steinberger.
Holdsworth, born in Bradford England in 1946, embarked on a solo career as composer and bandleader exclusively in 1979. Holdsworth’s career as producer, bandleader, and lead composer is documented in this box set, and with the artist’s 28-track selection of favorites in Eidolon. Both packages include extensive liner notes, and an updated 2016 interview with Holdsworth discussing each release, his history, and approach to the instrument.

From 1982 through 2003, Holdsworth recorded a dozen albums that have been lovingly put together for The Man Who From 1982 through 2003, Holdsworth recorded a dozen albums that have been lovingly put together for The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever collection. Featured on the box set are eleven remastered studio albums, starting with the 1982 studio release, Allan Holdsworth, I.O.U., and the archival 2003 live release, Then!, recorded live in Tokyo in 1990. All feature additional bonus tracks added for special editions or the original Japan releases, along with the original artwork and studio credits. Also included are the Grammy-nominated Road Games, (1983), Metal Fatigue (1985), Sand (1987), Secrets (1989), Wardenclyffe Tower (1992), Hard Hat Area (1993), None Too Soon (1996), The Sixteen Men of Tain (2000), and Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie (2001).

Holdsworth has been recognized by many of the world’s most accomplished and unique rock and jazz guitar virtuosos. Luminaries including Eddie Van Halen, Carlos Santana, Frank Zappa, Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Joe Satriani, Tom Morello universally expressed reverence and astonishment at Holdsworth’s pioneering approach to his playing and vast vocabulary of “uncommon” chord voicings.

He further expanded the guitar’s orchestral potential with a range of electronic effects, then moved on to become one of the early innovators of guitar-based synthesizer controllers. In the nearly five decades Holdsworth has been touring, collaborating, and recording, he has created an immense sonic and musical legacy.

In the ‘70s he played with legendary Miles Davis drummer, Tony Williams and Cream bassist Jack Bruce as the band Lifetime, and toured with Soft Machine. He worked with former Yes and King Crimson drummer, Bill Bruford’s first solo project, Feels Good To Me, and subsequent recordings with Jean-Luc Ponty, and Gong. Bruford suggested Allan for the progressive-rock “supergroup,” U.K., which, along with Bruford, also featured John Wetton and Eddie Jobson.
Both The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever and Eidolon will become precious to those who love the world’s great guitarists. Fans of deeply unique, sonically rich and pristine recordings of great musicians taking their music to the next level and beyond, will also be in awe of these collections.

#####
www.Manifesto.com | facebook.com/allanholdsworthmusic

Given his humble nature, Holdsworth is a bit embarrassed by the title and finds the notion that he changed “guitar forever,” somewhat overblown—more befitting of names like Orville Gibson, Leo Fender, or Ned Steinberger.

https://www.altpress.com/news/entry/limp_bizkits_fred_durst_hosts_a_weekly_jazz_night_in_la

The moniker for the weekly jazz showings? "Fred'z With A Z."

had a look at the recent Ugly Beauty columns - really good stuff!

Thanks! New one coming Friday!

Franck Biyong‏
@franckbiyong1

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"Jazz is the only music where the same note can be played night after night, but differently." - Ornette Coleman

Beyond certain points, if it's still different, gotta be jazz---is the way I take it.

I've really enjoyed Christian Sands Reach album this morn, it is more "nice" than groundbreaking - but I have plenty of room for that. The choice of covering a tune from An American Tail seems odd, but it is actually works fine!

Yeah, that's a good record - I meant to fit it into my Stereogum column, but wound up reviewing it for the NYC Jazz Record instead.

I'm probably selling him short by using the "nice" word, there is at least one hip-hop influenced experiment on there.

https://knockdown.center/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/17349780_10158609256325107_6143989830872634039_o.jpg

(From Luaka Bop---see their site for tickets, album, single below)

Alice Coltrane Tribute show on May 21st!
RBMA Festival New York As you may have heard, we are working very hard on a large celebration of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda. This year marks the 80th year since she was born, and the tenth year after she passed to another place. We just announced a large tribute concert and ceremony in her honor, which will take place In New York at the stunning performance and arts space called The Knockdown Center, as part of Red Bull Music Academy Festival New York. The first part of the show (that we are involved with) is inspired by the Sunday ceremonies Alice held at her Sai Anantam Ashram in California. Timed to coincide with sundown, the powerful, spiritual music will be performed by an ensemble led by music director Surya Botofasina, who grew up at the Ashram. The latter half will be a concert led by her son, Ravi Coltrane, featuring an all-star band playing music from throughout Alice's career. Tickets are available here.

A few weeks prior to that, we will be releasing the compilation of her spiritual music, which we told you about last time. Titled World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, it features a lot of beautiful artwork, photos and essays. You can pre-order it here.

Ps. if you have read this far, you may also find it interesting to learn that we have a handful of the very limited Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda 7"s we made for the "Come Together" Record Fair last weekend. If you would like to order one, you can do so

i'm pretty psyched about that show, dunno if i can make it tho

I've talked about this trio before, here's a tour plan that might give you a chance to see them live:

http://i.imgur.com/loWzaGJ.png

Going to see Vijay Iyer's trio at the Village Vanguard in a couple of weeks (writing a story on him).

Cool. Remember to ask him about the Fibonacci numbers.

My latest Stereogum column is live. I talk about Arthur Blythe, the Bad Plus (and Orrin Evans), the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, jazz Record Store Day releases, and a whole lot more.

another good column

but I think maybe I don't like hard bop :'(

Yes, very well done.

friend in CPH is re-issuing this marc levin lp. i'm stoked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p-6NkzK47g&feature=share&app=desktop

marc levin doesn't have his own thread here !! c'mon guys let's start a thread and go through his discography and talk about how cool bill dixon is and stuff it'll be great yeah ??

So, turns out the aforementioned Alice Coltrane comp out next month draws from four cassettes that Alice released between 1982 and 1995 on a tiny local label devoted to Vedic teachings. The music is astounding.So says Hua Hsu here (with good overview of her work):http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/24/alice-coltranes-devotional-music Apparently her kids got her into synthesizers, extending her range, rather than replacing the other instruments.

Yeah, three of the four cassettes have previously been released on CD in their entirety - I own two - and the rumor I read somewhere is that the compilation is a prelude to reissuing all four. I hope that's the case, 'cause the music is fantastic.

Whoa

marc levin doesn't have his own thread here !! c'mon guys let's start a thread and go through his discography and talk about how cool bill dixon is and stuff it'll be great yeah ??

Fun fact: all of the percussion on Dixon's Intents and Purposes was completely notated, right down to the sticking patterns.

Apparently, Mosaic Records is not doing too well at the moment. The following was posted on the Organissimo and Steve Hoffman forums:

A few years ago I had promised myself never to post here again (hm, never say never...), but this is too important in my opinion: earlier today I've been in contact with Mosaic's Scott Wenzel and he told me that they're in very bad shape. Their customer base is dying and, of course, downloading isn't helping - for those wondering why downloads aren't offered by Mosaic: no record company, big or small, is allowing them to offer downloads, the licensing agreements are for CD only. And as for vinyl releases, it seems some (most?) of the record labels they're dealing with are hesitant to license stuff for release on LP. Jazz is a niche market and apparently younger people are not that interested, even less so because of that download situation. Let's hope this is not going to be end of Mosaic after 34 years... By the way, before anyone starts wondering if posting this is a good idea, Scott explicitly asked me to tell everyone I know about their situation.

Ugh. Their sets are fantastic (the Braxton box finally cracked his music open for me), but they definitely don't do a good job of marketing them.

their website led me to an interview wherein i learned that jack black is charlie haden's son-in-law.

FPing you for not knowing that before

j/k

If it wasn't for them, I would never have known who Denny Zeitlin was.

(NB He is a real person, not a creation of Alex in NYC)

but they definitely don't do a good job of marketing them.

Yeah, it used to be they could just put a single ad in DownBeat to reach 90% of their customer base. They didn't need to know much about marketing.

I only hear about new sets by lurking on the Steve Hoffman forums or just by checking the Mosaic site every couple of weeks.

the thing is, maybe jazz is a niche market, but i think young people are definitely interested in purchasing jazz in a variety of formats.

i just think it's particularly hard to sell "the complete X recordings of Y on the Z label in chronological order [year]-[year]" (especially the pre-war stuff)

I'm on their email list. I definitely agree that the chronological boxes seem designed for archivists, not music fans, but there are some sets they have out now that I'd love to own (the Oliver Nelson big band one, the Ahmad Jamal one, the Mingus live one), and those are things where a well-placed Pitchfork review could really move some copies.

maybe i'm an anomaly, but i spent a lot of time and money when i was a teenager buying new cds. i was something of a completist and i felt that it was important for my jazz self-education to have the complete charlie parker on savoy/dial, all the early louis armstrong i could get, and tons of compilations on document of old blues and hillbilly music. plus all the yazoo / shanachie stuff like eddie lang, et al.

it's funny that the post upthread says "apparently young people are not that interested" -- bc it was precisely my youthful exuberance that made me feel like i needed to have all this stuff (which i guess i did need, idk)

anyway, nowadays there's such an inundation of "previously unreleased recordings from X" that i'm overwhelmed, and i wouldn't say mosaic is presenting the most compelling stuff of that ilk. my local jazz station has a good amount of specialty shows that deal with pre-war stuff, very nerdy like, all this "kai winding on the obscure X label from may 17, 1936, with so and so on piano. later that year, the same arrangement would be recorded for the Y label, which had better distribution and today it's the one most people are familiar with, though so and so on piano was unable to record for that date, and for that reason the earlier recording is etc etc etc"

so that's how i get my kicks on pre-war jazz, and i wouldn't say pre-war jazz is an area i'm especially interested in exploring via specialty cd box sets when there's all this other crazy stuff coming out (ayler's unreleased recordings for bird notes e.g.)

the oliver nelson and mingus for sure!

i'm surprised by how many millennials i meet, or say people under 22, who come into record stores and for some reason NEED to have "the abstract truth" or "mingus ah hum" (on vinyl of course). i definitely think a "best new reissue" would do a lot for some of the (perceived as) hipper not-old-timey things that mosaic is putting out.

it's funny that the post upthread says "apparently young people are not that interested" -- bc it was precisely my youthful exuberance that made me feel like i needed to have all this stuff (which i guess i did need, idk)

Yeah, I'd think younger people would be more of a target audience. Older folks might be more likely to take a pass, e.g., "I already have the early '60s Art Blakey Jazz Messengers records; what do I need a box with six alternate takes for?"

I definitely agree that the chronological boxes seem designed for archivists

But also this. "Why do I need all the alternate takes of 'The Chess Players' on CD when I have this cool original vinyl pressing of The Big Beat?"

ts: $100 for 6 x cd set of complete 1950s hank mobley cuts on blue note / $100 for og '57 mono blue note press of s/t

Another wrinkle is the public domain sets. There's a couple of Real Gone boxes that add up to a good portion of the Mosaic Mobley set, for about $75 cheaper.

^^Just what I was going to mention, the public domain stuff - in the UK at least, there is SO MUCH great jazz on CD that is public domain and/or totally dirt cheap, enough listening for a lifetime, that full price specialist import CD box sets really seem like an unnecessary expense, no matter how great.

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/27/525541596/first-listen-the-ecstatic-music-of-alice-coltrane-turiyasangitananda
^ does what it says on the tin

one track in and holy fuck

A lot of good points about Mosaic on this thread---in the late 80s, they used send me catalogs and newsletters which seemed lavish---the slick paper, the fonts, the layouts, incl. big amazing photos---the only thing I ever bought (since, for instance, I already had all those Mingus LPs for 99 cents each, via the Great Vinyl Dump of that era) was The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Herbie Nichols, on three CDs, with an incredible book, of course---it was and is everything I hoped for and more, after reading Four Lives In The BeBop Business.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91fa5pO1jSL._SL1500_.jpg

The latest from Mosaic (via their mailing list):

Dear Mosaic Friend,

In this time and place, the Mosaic business model is becoming harder and harder to sustain in this rapidly changing world. We aren't sure what the future will hold for us, but we want to let all of you know how much we appreciate that your support has allowed us to constantly make our dreams come true with set after set and that we intend to persevere. The way we operate may change but our mandate remains steadfast.

Charlie Lourie and I started Mosaic Records in 1982 and our first releases were in 1983. The company was almost an afterthought. The idea of definitive boxed sets of complete recordings by jazz masters at a crucial time in their careers was a small part of a proposal that we made to Capitol Records in 1982 to relaunch the Blue Note label. Even before Capitol turned us down, it occurred to me one night that the release of these boxed sets could be a business unto itself if we made them deluxe, hand-numbered limited editions sold directly to the public.

Our first release was The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk, which came about because I'd found about 25 minutes of excellent unissued Monk on Blue Note. It was too short for an album and I was obsessed with how to get this music released. . It then dawned on me that all of this important material needed to be retransferred and assembled in chronological order as a significant historic document. I solved my problem of releasing those 25 minutes of Monk music and Mosaic Records was born. We had a wonderful run of projects. The Tina Brooks, Herbie Nichols, Serge Chaloff, Count Basie and Nat Cole sets were among those that were especially near and dear to our hearts.

Charlie was my best friend and working together was a joy. Mosaic was slow getting started and it took a few years before we could even draw a meager salary. I remember during those lean years worrying if we could afford to put out a Tina Brooks set. Charlie looked at me in amazement. "Isn't that why we started this thing - to do what's important without anyone telling us no?!" He only had to say it once.

In 1989, we moved out of Charlie's basement and into our own facility. Scott Wenzel joined us in 1987. We added employees as the business grew. We started issuing sets on CD as well as LP and eventually had our own website.

We lost Charlie to scleroderma on December 31, 2000. We managed to keep the tone and spirit of the company up to the level that Charlie created and continued to put out thoroughly researched vital sets of importance in jazz history. But in the early 2000s, the record business began to shrink and morph for a variety of reasons and we were forced to downsize our staff, move to smaller quarters and reduce the flow of sets.

We've always tried to be diligent about warning you when sets were running low so you wouldn't miss out on titles that you wanted. But at this point, some sets which are temporarily out of stock may not be pressed again. We are not certain how Mosaic Records will continue going forward or how many more sets we will be able to create and release. We've got a lot of great plans but few resources.

Scott and I want to thank every single person who has supported us, made suggestions, given advice and shown us such love and affection. If you are thinking about acquiring a certain set, now's the time.

- - Michael Cuscuna

The next JD Allen album, Radio Flyer, features his regular trio (Gregg August on bass, Rudy Royston on drums), plus Liberty Ellman on guitar. I'm pretty excited.

Also, Ambrose Akinmusire's upcoming double CD features all new songs recorded live at the Village Vanguard. I've heard about half of it so far; it's strong.

^^Just what I was going to mention, the public domain stuff - in the UK at least, there is SO MUCH great jazz on CD that is public domain and/or totally dirt cheap, enough listening for a lifetime, that full price specialist import CD box sets really seem like an unnecessary expense, no matter how great.

― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Thursday, April 27, 2017 4:28 PM (three weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Listening to the Real Gone Jazz 4CD Hank Mobley Eight Classic Albums. Dirt cheap, sure, but one of the albums was apparently mastered from a skipping CD, and another from a low-bitrate MP3 source. I'm not enough of a Mobley fan to shell out for the Mosaic set. Caveat emptor with these public domain dealies.

(I didn't have any such problems with the Real Gone 10CD Art Blakey 19 Classic Albums, fwiw.)

My Stereogum column (which goes up tomorrow) talks about the Mosaic news, and the public-domain-cheapo-boxes thing. I'll post a link when it's live.

As promised, my latest Stereogum column. Pay particular attention to that jaimie branch album, 'cause it fucking rules.

You're right about the Branch. I just bought it. The Montgomery/Kelly track sounded really good too. I look forward to the rest, esp Cuong Vu.

scrolling through Bandcamp's jazz releases...new Matthew Shipp on a Polish label?

http://bandcamp.for-tune.pl/album/not-bound

first track is tremendous, a lot of room & air in it -- flute, piano, drums and bass -- just really wonderful

http://bandcamp.for-tune.pl/album/not-bound

there is loads of good stuff on this thread + the linked column, would also vouch for the Montgomery/Kelly(I especially love this one right now), Cuong Vu/Frissell and Nicole Mitchell recent live albums.

Ha-ha. wow: the best and maybe only relatively longform jazz commentary by xgau I've ever come across---I don't agree with all of these opinions as such, and maybe he wouldn't either now, but certainly finds and builds on a groove. which is 1971 as hell, lemme tellya (and his descriptions do make me want to check out all of the albums here that I still haven't heard, esp. that last Coryell he digs)
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/jazz-71.php

Going to the Vision Festival tomorrow night, 20 years after the first time I attended. Looking forward to it.

would love to hear how that goes! Report back!

Saw Andre 3000 at the Vision Festival tonight (attending, not performing).

Went back to the Vision Festival last night, saw drummer Whit Dickey's trio with Matt Shipp on piano and Mat Maneri on viola. They've got a really great new album out on AUM Fidelity which they were celebrating.

There were some last-minute substitutions in the lineup: poet Tracie Morris was supposed to appear with guitarist Marvin Sewell, but he dropped out and Vijay Iyer subbed in (on piano). Also, the final act of the night was supposed to be a trio of Charles Gayle on sax, William Parker on bass, and Marvin TA Thompson on drums, but Gayle (who lives in Buffalo now) didn't show up, allegedly because his plane was delayed a half hour and he got impatient and went back home. So Joe McPhee took the sax spot, and Matt Shipp joined, making it a quartet.

The headline GQ slapped on this Christian Scott interview is awful, but the piece itself is great. He really gets to explain his persona and his art in detail. Well worth a read.

Also, the final act of the night was supposed to be a trio of Charles Gayle on sax, William Parker on bass, and Marvin TA Thompson on drums, but Gayle (who lives in Buffalo now) didn't show up, allegedly because his plane was delayed a half hour and he got impatient and went back home. So Joe McPhee took the sax spot, and Matt Shipp joined, making it a quartet.

what a quartet!!!

yeah, sounds fun!

Just bought 2 of the 3 albums Jason Moran has for sale on Bandcamp - the live trio date from the Village Vanguard, and the one with Mary Halvorson on guitar and Ron Miles on cornet. Gonna be interviewing him for the site soon.

he's the best; i can't think of anytime i've seen him live where i haven't been impressed.

Yeah, I saw him in the early 2000s at the Iridium, with Sam Rivers. It was fantastic.

Speaking of Bandcamp, did y'all see this On Bandcamp Daily?
"FMP Records’ Free Jazz Legacy is Alive and Well at Destination: OUT"
https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/06/07/destination-out-feature/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_content=Destination%20Out

just blasting out that lost Monk soundtrack to roger Vadim's Les Liaisons Dangereuses movie. I love it so far.

It is essentially slow contemplative versions of numbers from Brilliant Corners, Monk's Dream and the Art Blakey album.

This was touching (Gary Burton): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7DadW138UE

Although I think there's also something touching about old jazz musicians not being able to play like they used to, but having the full weight of experience and history on their side.

(and his mom's 101!)

"Pay particular attention to that jaimie branch album, 'cause it fucking rules."

yeah, fine album is that.

I've been spinning it a lot, incl. this morning. More fun than Nickelback, I concluded.

(After reading an article advocating for Nickelback as good simple fun music)

This Jack DeJohnette/Scofield/Grenadier/Medeski album is really really enjoyable. Just feels really good.

https://hudson-music.bandcamp.com/releases

yeah the first track is especially brilliant

Hm, that group is playing here Saturday as part of the jazz festival. Maybe I should note that one down.

I find the first track a little too abstract and too long but I really like the playing.

so you like it then!

Hm, that group is playing here Saturday as part of the jazz festival. Maybe I should note that one down.

Ha, well, there are a lot of interesting things happening so I'm trying to pick. After listening, though, this will be a priority. Wow @ Scofield's solos on "Lay Lady Lay". "Song for World Forgiveness" was a highlight for me, too. I'll admit to skipping through the tracks with vocals.

Tremendous profile of Craig Taborn in this week's New York Times Magazine.

This is really nice too, although I'm sure they're going to take down the video and re-upload it so the url doesn't work anymore, because they do that every single time. Brian Blade is always a joy to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_9MyPALmYM

(Old and New Dreams tribute w/Joshua Redman, Ron Miles, Scott Colley, and Blade)

pharaoh sanders tonight

New Stereogum column is up. I hope Cooper-Moore doesn't get mad that I called him "somewhere between hillbilly and holy fool"...

That NYT Craig Taborn profile was a really interesting portrait of the artist as a social recluse, without the mythologising b/s that sometimes goes with that type of thing. His Daylight Ghosts + Ljubljana (w/Gustafsson) are both sick albums imo.

just noticed there is another Craig Taborn (w/Ikue Mori recorded live at Village Vanguard '16) album out on Tzadik.

Going to see Ambrose Akinmusire at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Pretty psyched, as his newest live album is really good. Unfortunately, that's about all I can afford among the plethora of good stuff. But I do plan to check out some of the free stuff.

I really think the Hudson show from last night was among the better shows I've ever seen! All four guys were killing it and the sound was great, which is not always the case in that space. They brought their own engineer, which probably helped. I expected great things from Scofield and deJohnette but Medeski blew me away. He had three keyboards: an acoustic piano, an organ (Hammond?), and an electronic keyboard. (The programme said "synth"; might have been a Fender Rhodes with a tonne of pedals?). (I obv can't ID keyboards as well as guitars.) With the latter, he got way noisier than he does on the album. I sometimes felt like I was hearing polytonality during the jams, with Medeski playing in a different key than the other guys? Scofield could get a really piercing, penetrating sound while staying fairly clean and clear. DeJohnette maintained a light touch throughout.

I love DeJohnette, he has got to be one of the greatest living drummers rn

He sounded great, yeah.

Wasn't he on a recent (past few years) tribute to Herbie Hancock at the Kennedy Center?

Him and Vinnie Colaiuta both

Haven't listened to that Hudson album yet, but intrigued by the personnel and what you guys are saying, despite the fact that it has (at least) two Dylan songs and one Band song, which might otherwise put me off in a jazz context.

Listening to that xpost Old And New Dreams trib to a trib on the radio (Jazz Night In America): "It became less of an Ornette cover band and more about their own music", and this gets more involving as it slows down and digs in---more about the present musos' own playing (esp. bass and drums, for me).

Scott Colley's arco bass is damn near bass sax at the moment---backstory here: http://www.npr.org/event/music/533834836/still-dreaming-joshua-redmans-tribute-to-a-tribute

J. Redman's "Blues For Charlie" with Ron Miles' cornet taking a stroll, whole crew sidling up to shifty tempi, kinda Mingus so far, good finale.

"Charlie" as in Haden, not Mingus tho

thanks for another inspiring column, phil - that BJ Jansen album got me back into hard bop!

RIP Geri Allen :(

I need to dig into her catalog; I really only know her from the two albums she did with Ornette Coleman. Right now I'm listening to the 2016 album she did with David Murray and Terri Lynne Carrington (no bassist).

Hm. Guy in my neighborhood plays bass with Teri Lynne Carrington. Now wondering if he played with Geri Allen as well.

Nope

should i go see oliver lake tonight?

Sure.

Lots of nice Geri Allen tributes on Facebook, from the usual suspects and others as well.

Yeah, Lake is good. I saw his steel pan band once, and his new album with a string quartet is really interesting (and enjoyable).

I have been listening to Geri Allen's recording of Mary Lou Williams Zodiac Suite, today. And the In The Year of the Dragon album w/ Haden, Motian. RIP again :(

Yeah those last three are all gone now

I mean that last trio *sigh*

Hey, Kirk Lightsey is at Smalls tonight, which might be a good thing to go see under the circumstances. Actually last time I saw him another great pianist had just passed way, John Hicks, and he invited us all to head over to the memorial with him after the show.

xp That sounds promising. He's playing with Hamid Drake, Josh Abrams, and Ed Wilkerson (who I am not familiar with) which is also promising.

Been having a good festival so far: going to see Bad Plus tonight. Last night, I saw Sonoluminescence Trio (David Mott, Jesse Stewart, William Parker), who were really great, better than the first time I saw them, probably, with a lot of variety and dynamics and even some memorable melodic and rhythmic hooks. Mott integrated his circular breathing and multiphonic techniques into the improv really effectively. Stewart is probably one of my favourite percussionists going right now, on kit as well as waterphone; Parker was obv fantastic, playing a variety of instruments, two of which I couldn't identify, as well as singing on one piece. I picked up their brand-new LP. I can't play the LP until I reunite with my turntable in the fall but the mp3s sound excellent. It's a two-track analogue live (in Ottawa!) recording with a lot of warmth. The day before, I saw the Garry Elliott Quartet play totally straight-ahead stuff, which was really nice for a change.

Let us know how nu-Bad Plus is.

Orrin Evans isn't joining until sometime next year; it's still Iverson at the piano.

Yeah, tbh, I wouldn't have shelled out if Iverson wasn't still with them. As it is, I figure it'll be the last time I see this lineup.

Yeah, tbh, I wouldn't have shelled out if Iverson wasn't still with them.

Really? I'm a much bigger fan of Evans than Iverson; I'll definitely be checking out the revamped lineup.

The guy you need to see before it's too late is Ethan's buddy Tootie Heath

I don't know Evans's work. I'll check out the revamped lineup but I'm paying to see a band that I have loved live and on record; Iverson is a key part of that band.

Seen Evans and his man Donald Edwards, both with the Mingus Band and in other contexts, they have always delivered.

Btw, unperson, other than the Branch, which is top-tier, I liked the Nicole Mitchell from your May column quite a bit. I'll check out the June column soon.

From Evans' own back catalog, I recommend Captain Black Big Band, Freedom, Flip the Script, and Mother's Touch; you should also definitely check out his trio Tarbaby with Eric Revis and Nasheet Waits. The End of Fear and The Ballad of Sam Langford are both great.

And thanks for reading!

He's great as a sideman on some of those Ralph Peterson records. And he has some Criss Cross records with great bands (also w/Peterson). I haven't heard any of the Tarbaby stuff but have been meaning to check it out.

I wonder what TBP would sound like with Eric Lewis on piano...he probably doesn't have the right aesthetic, but his playing is so ridiculous. He's on the Herlin Riley record that I listen to to hype myself up every time I have to play a jazz gig.

"Have to"

Lewis just put out a trio album on Sunnyside last year with Reginald Veal on bass and Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums. It's pretty good.

http://sunnysidezone.com/album/and-to-the-republic

Oh it's definitely "have to", I don't seek them out. If someone calls me, that's on them. :)

Had a pretty fun one the other night though.

I can understand

for the record, the Heath Brothers have shows on July 11 to 16 at the Vanguard; worth catching if you haven't yet
https://www.villagevanguard.com/schedule

Jeb Patton and David Wong are the go-to sidemen for old-timers, I guess. I saw them with Houston Person and Charles McPherson at the Jazz Standard not long ago. Might have to go to that Vanguard run, though; I like Heath's 70s albums for Xanadu that were recently reissued.

Reminds me, I picked up Jimmy Heath's I Walked With Giants at the library for what shoulda been briefness considering the homework, got totally hooked---such range and depth and clarity---quite the gateway to an era, several eras biz-wise, Lord knows. Will def get back to this one.https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/i-walked-with-giants-jimmy-heath/1111436662#productInfoTabs

Not just "gateway" for the noobs; it schooled my old jaded ass too.

Are you going to see Catharsis tonight, Sund4r?

Today's least likely song title: a snappy little noise/grindcore tune called "Bill Evans":

https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/track/bill-evans

I'm not that familiar with Catharsis so I didn't pick up a ticket. Worth checking out, I take it? Bad Plus was really good. They went further out with their version of "Mandy" (of all things), with Iverson pounding frantically at tone clusters on the keyboard! A nice light moment afterwards when Anderson said "that was closer to Manilow's original conception for the song, before the corporate guys got involved". The version of "Maps" was pretty intense too; that one especially barely seems related to the song tbh. I've been listening to the album since then (although they did a lot of other material live).

I am partial to Catharsis because they are all nice people in addition to being great players. The drummer and the sax player/multi-instrumentalist who is touring with them in this configuration are particularly fun to watch.

I loved their Azul Infinito album w/ Camila Meza's lovely vox from last year.

I love the part in the Jimmy Heath book where he assigns everybody a nickname and man alive's old guitar teacher was called Texas Ted.

https://ottawajazzscene.ca/news/11668-our-2017-ottawa-jazz-festival-poll-listeners-want-commitment

And for one listener, the music was simply “too progressive for me. Even their renditions of a Cyndi Lauper and Barry Manilow songs”.

Wait, that listener wasn't you, was it?

I just bought the new totally fab Eric Revis album Sing Me Some Cry w/ Vandermark + Kris Davis on board, sick album!

Yeah, that's a good one. Revis has been doing really interesting stuff on Clean Feed for about five years now.

yep, and I think Kris Davis has been the only constant in his changing trios/4tets for the last few albums. Probably one of the other reasons why they are all so excellent.

busy thread; just updated the playlist for the half year marker.

ILM's Rolling Jazz Thread 2017 Spotify Playlist

Ravi Coltrane's performing his mom's music the next two nights at the Jazz Gallery. Tomorrow only, Brandee Younger's gonna be on harp. I might try to get to that, if NJ Transit will let me.

BTW, today was 50 years of Trane's passing. I understand Ravi's half-sister Michelle was in the audience at The Jazz Standard this weekend for Conrad Herwig's Latin Side Of Coltrane tribute.

********ALERT!******
On Monday stumbled across this excellent new vocalese record called The Passion of Charlie Parker. More later

Wow, will have to check that. So---what are the best albums issued this year? Incl. reissues, but I'm really wanting to turn over a new leaf, and find some new new never-before issues---I feel so guilty for neglecting those--- though so far am avidly digging Fly or Die by Jaimie Branch, thanks to this thread.

My picks:

Matthew Shipp Trio, Piano Song
Camilla George Quartet, Isang
Christopher Zuar Orchestra, Musings
Craig Taborn, Daylight Ghosts
Harriet Tubman, Araminta
Ken Fowser, Now Hear This!
Christian Scott, Ruler Rebel and Diaspora
Matthew Stevens, Preverbal
Hermon Mehari, Bleu
Preservation Hall Jazz Band, So It Is
Dayna Stephens, Gratitude
Jaimie Branch, Fly Or Die
Nick Mazzarella/Tomeka Reid, Signaling
Yazz Ahmed, La Saboteuse
Ambrose Akinmusire, A Rift in Decorum
JD Allen, Radio Flyer
Jeremy Pelt, Make Noise!
Nicole Johanntgen, Henry
Binker & Moses, Journey to the Mountain of Forever
Zem Audu, Spirits
OK:KO, Land E
Chris Potter, The Dreamer is the Dream

thanks for that

Sweet, thanks! Great to know there's a new Harriet Tubman---they were my fave at Very Very Threadgill. Will also check Ambrose, Jeremy Pelt, and all the rest, I hope (ditto that album of Bird-inspired vocalese),

Pay special attention to the Camilla George and Zem Audu albums - African immigrants (to London and NYC, respectively) making the music their own. The Yazz Ahmed is amazing, too.

always nice to have some more food for thought, unperson.

I have been belatedly honouring the Trane 50th deathiversary with mainly A Love Supreme, Ascension and his Duke Ellington album today B-)

Two Ornette Coleman albums that have never been on CD before, not even in Japan, are being released in September. Crisis and Ornette At 12 are coming out as a 2-for-1 from Real Gone Music. Fully remastered, new liner notes, artwork nicely reproduced, etc., etc.

Pre-order link.

Haven't heard Ornette At 12 but Crisis was the first OC that I can remember for grabbing and holding me all the way through on first listen---maybe because it was live, in that moment, in that weird year, and via the acoustics of that venue---NYU? Uh, OK! With Dad's grinding yet unfettered violin, Denardo's drums clattering like a music stand falling over, but in the right place): But if it’s a puzzle that Ornette at 12 has not been previously reissued, it’s a downright mystery why 1972’s Crisis also hasn’t come out; recorded live in 1969 at N.Y.U. with a killer band of Redman, Haden, Denardo, and Don Cherry on flute and trumpet, it takes its place with Broken Shadows and Science Fiction as one of Ornette’s great small group recordings of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The version of Haden’s “Song for Che” is one of the best on record, the rendition of “Broken Shadows” here is simply beautiful...and the addition of Don Cherry—fresh from his own experiments in Indian and African music—spices up what is already a pretty heady brew. True--it went well with Lebanese Blonde hash.

Thanks for that list. I'll try to keep up!

My latest Stereogum column is up.

Night Lights radio schools me again: personifying the swing-to-bop persuasion and keeping it young and lean into the late 20th Century, guitarist Mary Osborne was mentored by Charlie Christian, def assimilated him and Django, but developed her own spare, lyrical intensity---the unaccompanied "Sophisticated Lady" here makes me think of Art Pepper--NL catches her situations with Coleman Hawkins, Clark Terry, Tyree Glenn, Mary Lou Williams, but her basic thing is more like the King Cole Trio turned around, when there's a piano at all (bass is electric on last track here), but she doesn't need much--here's the posted show and set list:
http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/mary-osborne-queen-jazz-guitar/

Postwar Jazz: An Arbitrary Roadmap---motorvated by Gary Giddens' '02 two-part article of the same title (still on villagevoice.com), somebody compiled a listening companion, which now seems most readily available as a series of videos (though a few have been removed)---quite a range of highs and deeps, no lows that I've found so far:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIyXZgKyp_k9tyxjEevBD9TiE04D9jAGP

I saw the Stretch Orchestra on the weekend. From what I knew of Brubeck and Stewart, and from the fact that this was part of a chamber music festival, I was expecting some out improv on acoustic instruments, but it was a really fun set of energetic rocking fusion, with Brubeck playing electric cello with a bunch of pedals, and Breit on electric guitar and mandolin with a tonne of effects as well. (It still definitely went out harmonically and timbrally but there was always a groove and a hook.) I bought the 2012 CD, which seems to have won a Juno for best instrumental recording. It's pretty enjoyable; even gets a bit folky at times.

https://www.thenation.com/article/mal-waldrons-ecstatic-minimalism/

There is a beautiful and evocative Adam Shatz essay on Mal Waldron in The Nation, here.

I just thought it was worth pointing out that although he mentions Waldron's Satie influences, he neglects to add that his Plays Satie album from '83 is sublime.

That's a great article. That live recording of Seagulls is really quite something.

I don't suppose anyone has the Travellin in Soul Time record? The CD is currently going for eye-watering amounts.

Xpost thanks, reminds me of this excellent excursion: http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/soul-eyes-early-mal-waldron-songbook/

I cannot stop listening to this:

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

I have been on a bit of a Mingus tip recently, Mingus At Antibes (also w/ Dolphy + Bud Powell on board!) is the one I've been blasting.

That clip is great!

I interviewed Jason Moran for Bandcamp.

The newish Joshua Abrams/Natural Information Society album (Simultonality)is very pretty, probably their best yet imo.

Yeah, that's a good record. And in related news, Abrams' label, Eremite, has started putting its awesome back catalog up on Bandcamp.

http://eremiterecords.bandcamp.com

Jemeel Moondoc's New World Pygmies and Revolt of the Negro Lawn Jockeys are must-own, IMO. Noah Howard's Patterns/Message to South Africa is also great, and that Peter Brötzmann double disc, Never Too Late But Always Too Early, is a blast.

Love the group Town & Country that Abrams played in, especially their second alb It All Has to Do With It

oh wow! Just been listening to Denys Baptiste's The Late Trane for the 2nd time. Wasn't really feeling it the other day, but fuck! definitely am feeling it today!

That Mal Waldron article got me listening to the excellent album <i>Meditations</i> on Youtube. Is there any way to get a digital version of this? Or even something cheaper than the expensive import? It's not even on Spotify.

Slsk or t0rrentz probably your next best bet, as far as I know. His legacy doesn't seem to have been too well served so far.

Somehow I typed "Spotify" instead of "Soulseek". I couldn't find it on Soulseek.

it might be worth trying again, it is definitely on there.

Oh, I should update about seeing Ambrose Akinmusire: fantastic! It was all stuff from the live album. The only weakness really is the piano player, which also struck me with the live album. He certainly fits well at times, but his soloing and accompaniment often didn't seem to gel or just seemed a little like he's fresh out of music school. Everyone else was great. Akinmusire is a really sensitive player, for lack of a better description.

Posted this in the Afro-jazz thread by mistake:

Drummer Eric Harland is leading a really hot band for two nights at the Jazz Standard next week - Walter Smith III on tenor sax, Taylor Eigsti on piano, Harish Raghavan on bass. (Both Smith and Raghavan also play in Ambrose Akinmusire's band.) I'm hoping to catch one of their sets.

I love the short but joyous dub reggae segment at the end of Dusk Dawn on the Denys Baptiste' Trane album. And it isn't even near the best track. It's a reet fucking album!

This is not from 2017 but worth mentioning (I didn't see it come up in a search): the 2014 album Spiral Mercury of the Chicago/São Paulo Underground (one of Rob Mazurek's groups) featuring Pharoah Sanders is pretty good! Basically sort of what you'd expect if you're familiar with the Chicago Underground, Pharoah's playing, and mixing that with a Brazilian influence. I haven't heard the other album they did called Primative Jupiter.

Yeah, I've heard the one that's available on CD, but not the one that's vinyl-only.

Looks like the vinyl-only one is not available digitally at all. But it also seems that half of it might be on the CD album, since 2/4 tracks share song titles with the CD.

oh man, spiral mercury is great

say, has anyone seen the current Sun Ra Arkestra? They're playing this weekend in SF... am I an idiot if I don't go or is it just a bit of fun?

well I went to see the Arkestra and they were a blast. Just 2 solid hours of great music and a warm, generous vibe. Singer was very good - her rapport with Allen was a great anchor for the show. I feel like Ra would be happy and proud to see his band continue some 25 years since his passing.

2nd jazz/dub reggae track in a week I've heard is Roots Music's cover of Threadgill's Bermuda Blues. it is ok, but you simply can't fuck with the original!

Right now digging the current Steve Coleman: https://stevecoleman.bandcamp.com/album/morphogenesis
Before that, Harriet Tubman x Wadada Leo Smith (just ordered the CD):
http://sunnysidezone.com/album/araminta
Might order Miles Okazaki's Trickster
https://milesokazaki.bandcamp.com/releases
Though the live versions and studio excerpts are grabbing me more than those full-length studio tracks
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJq-zBbCa8jNjbCisRZbYYlMXSzwX6Av3

Thanks to Phil's Stereogum column for these last two (and he prob. mentioned Coleman as well)

The headline of this article is so bad but it's actually a really good article, lots to delve into here:

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/forget-old-europe-15-european-jazz-musicians-you-need-to-know-about-reinier-baas-by-enrico-bettinello.php

I didn't write about Coleman for Stereogum (I'm not much of a fan) but I did review it for The Wire. Among other things, I said:

Coleman invites it, but comparing the music on Morphogenesis to boxing does him no favors. There’s plenty of dazzling footwork on display, but very few punches being thrown. He’s a razor-sharp player and composer who can be heard thinking about every note, and this is very beautiful music, but it lacks the unhinged, reckless, swinging side that boxing and the best jazz share. Which only proves that inspiration is just a starting point: it’s what you do with it that matters.

Oh huh, I went to college with the percussionist on that Steve Coleman record.

New Stereogum column up. I talk about Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, Burnt Sugar, Cyrus Chestnut, Russell Malone, Enrico Rava, and a bunch of other folks.

Thanks for the heads-up on a new Matt Wilson.

I assume Morgan Guerin is Roland Guerin's son?

Seems like a safe bet. I'm not familiar with Roland Guerin's work, though.

I liked Sorey's good humour towards that lot: Thx Pitchfork. Next time I'll try to do at least 1.4 better.

He's probably my favorite New Orleans bassist, mostly from seeing him play with Shannon Powell. He's also on various Marsalis things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV8yJa6Rk90

I interviewed Michael Ehlers of Eremite Records for Bandcamp. The dude has some great stories. The line that made me laugh out loud was this one: "[Scott] Cashman was a teaching assistant to Archie Shepp at UMASS Amherst in the ’90s who went to Paris for a while to do a dissertation on expatriate American musicians and met Sunny [Murray] over there. When he got back he’s like, ‘I told Sunny all about you and your label’ and I’m like, ‘Don’t give that dude my number.’"

"Rather than indulge his misplaced ambition to make a bebop record,"

I would have been more interested in this^

Henry Threadgill was on WKCR this evening talking about and listening to Monk. Hardly heard any of it except for a great, nearly 20 minute version of "Evidence" recorded in Mainz.

The Art Ensemble of Chicago are playing NYC in October - with Joseph Jarman!

hi jazz thread ... jazz dummy in a mostly jazz-less town here. but the Ari Hoenig Trio is coming to play a show this fall.

should i be excited?

Sure, he's technically a great player and usually puts together a good band. He does have kind of a way of speaking that verges on eccentric- a wee bit louder than needed, as if he has headphones on, or as if talking to himself whist unaware that anyone else is there. I am thinking of seeing him soon with some Brazilians. Oh, Chico Pinheiro. If Chico is on the gig then you must go.

Yes! He's one of the most entertaining drummers to watch live this side of Dave King.

I tend to agree, although my two current most exciting drummers to watch are both Brazilians, not really on any "mainstream" jazz radar, I don't think, Rafael Barata and Edu Ribeiro, the latter living in Brazil and rarely playing here.

thanks y'all!

he'll be accompanied by Nitai Hershkovits and Or Bareket on this tour, says his website

?

No idea. But Ari himself is good enough that you should go.

Looks like I'm going to see Threadgill on 9/23 (he's premiering a new long form work for a new 15-member ensemble) and the Art Ensemble on 10/6. Woo-hoo!

Good for you

Based on a quick search those guys playing with Ari H seem to keep pretty good company. Please go and report back.

I just got a new album from Or Bareket in the mail; it's pretty nice - sort of world-jazz rhythm-driven stuff. I'll be writing it up for Stereogum.

Wondering about this---anybody heard it?!

WILLIAMS LIFETIME FEATURING JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, TONY
TITLE
Live In New York 1969
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
HI HAT
CATALOG #
HH 3084CD
GENRE
JAZZ
RELEASE DATE
8/11/2017

Tony Williams Lifetime, featuring John McLaughlin, live from New York, November 1969. Having fearlessly merged rock rhythms with jazz during a close association with Miles Davis, in 1969 the great Tony Williams founded Lifetime, featuring John McLaughlin at his innovative best, and the mighty organist Larry Young. The trio instantly won acclaim for their fiery, uncompromising improvisations, which are typified on this amazing performance. Recorded for radio broadcast in New York at the close of the year, the FM entire broadcast is presented here, digitally remastered, with background notes and images.
---from http://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/williams-lifetime-featuring-john-mclaughlin-tony-live-in-new-york-196-cd/HH.3084CD.html Has track list too.

WILLIAMS LIFETIME FEATURING JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, TONY

This formatting hurt my head a little. That said, wow!

lifetime is a flat circle apparently

hey jazz bags, my brother released an album of original jazz composistions:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5DvnFSK9BBQJkmoyhMb8JF

My latest Stereogum column is live. I talk about the new Kamasi Washington EP, the Ornette Coleman Ornette At 12/Crisis reissue, and a bunch of other stuff, including a jazz vocal album I didn't hate(!).

Thank you for another great column, Phil--that Sam Bardfeld trio is esp grabbing my ear:
https://sambardfeld.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-enthusiasms

I've been digging into Ben Monder's work a little. The album he did with Sunny Kim last year sounds really nice on Spotify, with a lot of ambient guitar. Previous album with Theo Bleckmann unsurprisingly good.

Reminds me of this recent listing in The New Yorker:

NIGHT LIFE JAZZ AND STANDARDS
Ben Monder Trio
Monder may be decades younger than the visionary drummer Andrew Cyrille, but the venturesome guitarist found common ground with the older legend on the 2015 release “Amorphae.” Joining them is the saxophonist Tony Malaby, a tough-minded improviser who will add poetic grit to the mix.

(Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia St. 212-989-9319. Sept. 9.)

Now in the home stretch of David Murray and Aki Takase's 2017 Cherry Sakura, getting into it more than expected, given the absence of any other players, but good range of moods and material---also, Murray applies his bass clarinet to the exuberant suavity of "Let's Cool One", back to tenor for the elegant elegy "Nobuko", some out incidents too.

Incisive homage in part to Rollins, Coltrane, Tyner, Ibrahim on Long March To Freedom, the finale---and now Spotify is hustling me right into "Goldfisch" by Tama (Jan Roder / Oliver Steidle / Aki Takase): excellent fun.

Another 2017 release: ERR Guitar, by Elliott Sharp with Mary Halvorson and Marc Ribot. No other instruments, and none missed, for a while longer than expected, because these three are compatible, establishing an extended sonic vocabulary, incl. occasional Spanish chords, zig-zag repartee, pedals I think, Sharrockian slide, modulation in mid-run or as run (no electronic thingies of course, just peg-twisting), a whole lotta pluckin/, pickin', chirpin goin' on (coulda used more chords, Spanish or whatever), kinda thin but not too, unlike ny attention level at times, but they kept bringing me back, though I couldn't say where, since these 12 might as well have been one track---almost, but extended finale "Kernel Panic" does finally bring some (some) distortion and heat
Given the limits of first listens, this 65-minute set is pretty agreeable, on the whole---and immediately upstaged by Nels Cline's "So Hard It Hurts/Touching", conceptually and expressively. Oh, Spotify!

I really like (wildly eclectic + brilliant) guitarist Vítor Rua and The Metaphysical Angels' Do Androids Dream Of Electric Guitars double album. Specifically the CD1 solo album, rather than the quartet version. But it is all very good really.

Will check those out, dow!

i dig that vitor rua album!

whoa def need to hear that Cline and that Ribot/Halvorson/Sharp thing

hi jazz thread ... jazz dummy in a mostly jazz-less town here. but the Ari Hoenig Trio is coming to play a show this fall.

should i be excited?

― alpine static, Thursday, September 7, 2017 10:32 PM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes, hoenig live is a great experience, lots of fun

Totally smitten by Jane Ira Bloom's Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson, thanks to the description in Phil's column---and as he indicates, if he likes a soprano sax-led album, you better know it's something special. The whole combo is strong, but I hear Bobby Previte as co-leader here, and he's not even loud, just part of the life-force pulsing through the tireless play of Dickinson's mind on and in the world (though if there were no Dickinson connection spelled out or interpolated--- the latter via Deborah Rush's piquant, overheard [tho' could be mixed a little louder w no harm] intro lines on Disc 2----would still be shades of autumn sunshine indoors and out.
Gotta catch up on her catalog. Was already thinking that before I knew about this, when Night Lights recently re-ran their "Jazz Women Artists of the 80s", incl. a track from JIA'sMighty Lights, with Haden, Blackwell and Hersch.

https://dennisgonzalez.bandcamp.com/album/tsiibil-chaaltun

Some absolutely chill, eastern influenced fusion here, which is stunningly beautiful imo

Bought that after a listen or two and played it a lot today. Very enjoyable. The bassist is the secret star. Are some of the rhythms looped?

I'm usually not that interested in Lenny White, Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea, or Joe Henderson, but earlier tonight, I was dithering around as usual, when this caught and held my attention (something about the timing, letting notes settle in, no overselling, or complacency either)> Griffith Park's "Guernica" live (I may have heard the studio version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCx61tPhsT0

And with some of the same vibe, though maybe funkier in a tensile way, Our Point Of View's 2015 show on Jazz Night In America, now in progress once more: Together, Robert Glasper, Ambrose Akinmusire, Marcus Strickland, Lionel Loueke, Derrick Hodge and Kendrick Scott are known as Our Point of View. WBGO and Jazz Night In America presented the only East Coast appearance of the band in late 2014, at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City

Oh, one person in Griffith Park I do usually like is Freddie Hubbard---even his version of "Birdland", for chrissake.

Forgot the main point of my xpost, which was the Our Point link, sorry!
http://www.npr.org/event/music/382286193/our-point-of-view-a-blue-note-supergroup

(That more recent supergroup also incl. some I don't usually go for, namely Glasper and Loueke.)

Our Point of View is now called the Blue Note All-Stars (taking over the name from a mid 90s group that had Tim Hagans, Greg Osby, Javon Jackson, Kevin Hays, Essiet Essiet and Bill Stewart). They just put out their album; it's pretty decent.

love loueke and glasper, was unfamiliar with that band tho!

In case people haven't seen it, Herbie Hancock sitting in with Chris Dave/Glasper/Kamasi/etc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AQOnYrjIYM

on first listen, new Kamasi very nice: an EP to follow The Epic is confident contrast, kind of evening breezy but no slacking, and a touch of the epic on extended finale-- and once again, the set is more about overall effect than providing backdrops for heroic solos.

Though the solos are not shy.

Got Ivo Perelman's six new albums in today's mail. Some of them seem interesting on the surface: there's a trio with Matt Shipp and Nate Wooley, a quartet with Shipp, William Parker and Bobby Kapp; and a double disc of duos with Shipp.

But all weekend, you got the sense that the good stuff was happening onstage — not much of the music’s live-wire energy was penetrating the audience or getting passed around. In a way, this festival was running in a different, almost opposing, direction from its inspiration.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/arts/music/october-revolution-jazz-contemporary-music.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmusic&action=click&contentCollection=music®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPla
Hope some copious recordings show up.

Calling this "The October Revolution" (the name of the 1964 event came from the co-producer Peter Sabino, not from Bill Dixon) seems more about branding than anything else, particularly (as the review points out) given the fact that this festival did not seem to be about building any sort of community, nor exposing little-known (relatively speaking) artists.

I read that article twice and still don't understand what the criticism was. it sounds like it was a great festival with amazing performers that I would (and have already) pay dearly to see.

I think the criticism centers around using the name of a festival (1964) whose aim (among others) was to begin to organize musicians to fight for better working conditions, and a situation that would benefit them all, for a festival (2017) that threw some prominent, long-established names on a bill and charged $95 admission.

I have no doubt that some of the performances were wonderful, and a different name/association might have been appropriate. This gives the appearance of piggybacking off a previous festival's influence and notoriety while ignoring what made that festival influential.

makes sense put that way. I can't imagine that pulling a festival off successfully is easy in any way. Maybe there will be something to build off of for the future.

eastern influenced fusion

On this tip, you might like this. My second cousin is the bandleader but I think I would consider it very good regardless. The guitarist, Occhipinti, really rips.

Because I would rather edit an audio file than transcribe an interview, I have launched a Burning Ambulance podcast. The first episode (runs ~45 minutes) features an interview with Roscoe Mitchell. The next one will feature Matthew Shipp, and will be up in two weeks.

Great! I've been looking for more good musician interview podcasts.

I stumbled across a few from this clarinet player who put out a few Tzadik records back in the day, looks like he talks to lots of younger (in jazz years) musicians like Tyshawn, Tyondai Braxton, Greg Fox, etc: http://www.5049records.com/podcast/

Yeah, I mentioned him in the intro to my last Stereogum column; the Tyshawn and Iverson interviews he did were really good.

Oh yeah, that's probably how I found it. :)

Now available on iTunes, too.

New Ricardo Gallo solo piano album from last year, sounding good so far. (2016, but since I'm the only one who ever mentions him. . .)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si6bq083Kjg

been enjoying the guitar work of matthew stevens lately, both on his own preverbal and on chet doxas's rich in symbols. oh, and he played on the last esperanza spalding album? and in the NEXT collective? well, i'll be.

He was also on every Christian Scott album through Stretch Music.

http://www.boweryboogie.com/2017/10/councilman-introduces-bill-rename-williamsburg-bridge-sonny-rollins/

I never found a jazz outlet that suited me, so my contemporary jazz listening is quite random. Anyhow, here are some 2017 albums I like:

Enji - Mongolian Song
https://open.spotify.com/album/30DpqD3Rk0hNwt6uxL5FKV
Apparently she's a Mongolian singer who can do throat singing. I couldn't find any reviews when I stumbled upon it, but I like the sound of her voice, which has a hint of amateurishness to my ears and keeps this from being a nostalgic exercise in vocal jazz. Billy Hart plays the drums, that's how I found it.

Julian Erdem - Little Flower
https://open.spotify.com/album/2Txu2HWIOEND2h4pS6YTdi
This is my kind of jazz, pensive and understated for the most part. I don't know who Erdem is, but Thomas Morgan plays the bass and I like his style.

Yazz Ahmed - La Saboteuse
https://open.spotify.com/album/0JdGIi4Bds7fIM8ROdnjS2
Was this mentioned upthread? Sounds pretty much like what you'd imagine from the title, so it's kind of orientalist jazz - but very well played and with a great live feeling. Again I've no idea what it is, but it sounds like a bunch of Americans playing Ethiopian music to me. I might be completely off the mark, but I enjoy the songs.

Fabiano do Nascimento - Tempo Dos Mestes
https://open.spotify.com/album/1CyZGaZV6S6dp2dKRUPdqi
Not-real-jazz-alert. This was mentioned on a brazilian music thread, it's guitar based but not as traditional as I initially thought it would be. For me, it goes to some psychedelic and emotional places. I like it a lot.

loved Nascimento's 2015 album Dança do Tempo, will be checking that out for sure.

Vijay now the director of Ojai Festival, commentary and links to performances here http://wbgo.org/post/jazz-night-america-ojai-music-festival-vijay-iyer-showcases-improvisation#stream/0
For instance, His festival program felt righteous, boundless, often supercharged. Repertoire by Bach and Stravinsky shared airspace with new chamber works by flutist Nicole Mitchell. Iyer performed a riveting duo set with one of his mentors, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The trio, comprising three additional mentors — pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and trombonist/electronic artist George Lewis, all elder statesmen in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians — performed an hourlong concert free of any premeditated impulse, let alone a written score. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp9MoWVWkjo&list=PLLfIG4c7wGmh6St3W4_h_NeP5aSM2eMPl