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

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

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

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

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

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

xp

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

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

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

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

RIP Phil Woods.

dang

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe I'll try the free trial

My xpost man----

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Flag PostNever change

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

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

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

Phil, in the past I've enjoyed

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

I'd also try Sittin In and Duets.

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

second Diz and Getz

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

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

Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, Mike Reed - Artifacts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, Mike Reed - Artifacts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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