Rolling Jazz Thread 2022

Indexed, I've been bumping that Lynn Avery/Cole Pulice record since it came out a few months ago— really great stuff.

Yeah that one is really nice. I quite liked the label sampler Moon Glyph put out last year, though I've been slow to actually dig into the catalog: https://moonglyph.bandcamp.com/album/amethyst-new-sounds-from-moon-glyph-records

Not much of it is "jazz" I should mention

New Bad Plus album with the pianoless quartet lineup coming in September. Here's the first song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_Grt0-y4bM

It's good, but I don't see what makes this the Bad Plus rather than just the Chris Speed/Ben Monder/Reid Anderson/Dave King Quartet.

Sounds great (nice to hear some serious compression on the drums again, rather than the very unadorned jazz sound they've had on their last few recordings).

It's hard to articulate, but when I saw this lineup live it felt very "Bad Plus-y" throughout the whole night, although in a different way than with the trio. An intense focus on mood and melody rather than on soloing, in a way that's distinct from when I've seen the members in different groups, for one? And 100% of the tunes were originals by Reid or Dave.

It might make sense to think of this as a new band rather than "the Bad Plus", but it's very much a band and has a lot in common with the goals & aesthetic of the Bad Plus, in my mind.

And 100% of the tunes were originals by Reid or Dave.

Tbf this is actually not what the Bad Plus was mainly known for! This also sounds more focused on mood and melody than the Iverson-era group to me. It's nice, though!

That's true, to most people they're "that band that does jazz versions of Nirvana and Aphex Twin", even though they've probably always done at least as many originals as covers. And this band dispenses with the more "humorous" side of things, it's all pretty serious and emotional.

Monder is almost playing like he could be in an atmospheric postpunk group or on an ambient record.

Totally, his stuff was reaaally textural and in the background live, and even his solos were more like rock shredding, but kind of quiet and acting like white noise. Like no treble or transients at all. I'm pretty curious to hear how that sounds on the rest of the record.

RIP 55 Bar.

I didn't go there myself too often but still.

My latest Stereogum column is up. I interviewed South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, who told me he's been listening to Matthew Shipp and Andrew Hill and explained the spiritual concept of Ntu to me.

Oh yeah, RIP 55 Bar, RIP fusion. Glad I got to go there that one time and see Ari Hoenig.

(not that Ari Hoenig is fusion, but I guess I associate the 55 Bar more with that Wayne Krantz type thing)

one from thee aromatic tyme capsule, my friends: Richard C. Walls considers a Shepp platter I'd never heard of, for the earliest issue of Creem in for-now free archive (you may or may not have to create an account, as I already had before searching, but simple enough):https://archive.creem.com/article/1969/03/01/archie-shepp

I should really go see Makaya tonight, but could use a night in. I should really go though.

Thumbscrew tonight at Blues Alley

Latest episode of Jazz Police https://www.mixcloud.com/RepeaterRadio/jazz-police-live-with-stewart-smith-4/?fbclid=IwAR2EeplxrakwFZKIGwWcUQJz58GGGioyuvHfEKvA09hfOPYyu-Pg0_qDDyQ

Music from Brandon Seabrook, Cooper Moore, Gerald Cleaver, Kaja Draksler, Zoh Amba, Devin Brahja Waldman & Hamid Drake and much more!

New Cecil Taylor album out today — Respiration, a solo performance recorded by Polish radio in October 1968. One of the earliest known solo Cecil recordings — only Praxis, from April 1968, is earlier, and that's been out of print for decades.

great mix Stew, thanks for posting! the peachfuzz is a particularly nice find:

https://silentwater.bandcamp.com/album/peachinguinha

unperson, i really enjoyed the makhathini interview, will be ordering the record.

for my part i was excited to hear there was a new szun waves record on the way, but i was pretty underwhelmed by the sample track:

https://szunwaves.bandcamp.com/album/earth-patterns

Thanks Budo Jeru - I've reviewed the Peachfuzz album for the forthcoming Wire. Joao Almeida is doing loads of great stuff - definitely one to watch.

Don't think there's been much chat about Zoh Amba on here - really impressive young talent. Both her Tzadik and 577 albums are excellent and there's another on the way!

Re: Zoh Amba. Ok I’m inherently suspicious of overnight success—how does some one so young arrive in New York last autumn and then they’re playing with the cream of the NYC jazz crop? But I should shut up and listen first without prejudice.

I've listened to her two albums and so far I'm not amazed. Reminds me of when Assif Tsahar popped up 20 years ago or so and all I could hear when I listened to his music was his record collection — it was all imitation Ayler, imitation Coltrane, imitation Pharoah. In her case I hear a lot of Ayler and a little Charles Gayle, but there's not much there yet beyond waves of youthful energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rFCqxsdLaQ

This set (with Gabby Fluke-Mogul on violin and Luke Stewart and Tcheser Holmes of Irreversible Entanglements on bass and drums) is better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1HPp49HV6w

Take your point re the Ayler and Gaye influences - particularly apparent on the 577 set - but I like what she does with them and her rapport with Micah Thomas on piano is really strong. Can understand the wariness over too-much-too-soon hype, but she'll only get better. gabby fluke-mogul and Luke Stewart are killing it atm so look forward to checking this later.

Thread:

Hassan Ibn Ali was a virtuosic pianist whose mysterious style evokes images of gnashing gears and surreal bell choirs. The Philadelphia legend influenced Coltrane, Jimmy Heath, and Odean Pope, but was seldom recorded, releasing only one album in his lifetime. pic.twitter.com/mJO3WYwPM4

— WKCR-FM NY (@WKCRFM) May 28, 2022

Sorry for posting after the (Eastern) showtime, but just now saw it.

do any of you know anything about the (apparently) finnish WE JAZZ zine?

oh looks like Stew you actually wrote a piece for 'em?

I think both Stew and I have written for it. (I have a feature on Joel Ross in the latest issue, as well as a roundup of several recent albums on Posi-Tone.) It's a really good magazine - the new issue has a great, thought-provoking essay positing smooth jazz as a form of radical Black art, arguing that screechy avant-garde jazz is actually a somewhat reactionary style that plays into white bourgeois/middlebrow tastes while smooth jazz represents aspiration. I'd recommend buying the mag for that piece alone.

Yes, that's a really good piece. Could so easily have been tediously contrarian or reductively pseudo-Marxist (like that Jacobin piece), but it's subtly done and genuinely has you thinking about taste and aesthetics, while also introducing you to some interesting sounding music.

Really enjoying writing for We Jazz. They're open to all sorts of weird/obscure stuff, so I was able to go deep on Scottish free improvisation label Scatter for the first issue, and Pat Thomas's great lost jungle album from 1997 in the forthcoming one. Got a few other bits coming up too.

that's all very good to know, thanks you two.

speaking of pat thomas, here's an interesting newish one on 577 records. might not be for everybody but as a reactionary, middlebrow dimwit it suits me just fine :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCJHGYIOT-8

Cracking record this, as is his Scandinavia trio record that's also coming out on 577. Black Top played with Chris Corsano at Cafe Oto last week - really hope a recording comes out of that. I'll see Pat twice this weekend at Moers - with Ahmed and with Assif Tshasa. He's an incredible artist - an absolutely beautiful player and so open and free. Was great to see him get some decent prize money recently - he deserves it.

A thought re Francis Goodings' smooth jazz article, some of the stuff he describes sounds like it has a DIY home recorded feel which is quite appealing, even if it's a decade on from hypnagogic pop, chill wave etc. But it's probably more sonically interesting - and less smooth - than a lot of the coffee table nu-jazz stuff that's being touted by certain tastemakers.

Saw Birth last night (Joe Tomino aka drummer from Dub Trio/Joshua Smith/Jeremy Bleich) and it was an incredible set. As good as the Bad Plus or really anything I've seen in awhile, although it had a similar feel to the new TBP or Happy Apple in some ways.

In my mind they work in this upside-down way, where the saxophonist is constantly blowing but often in a quieter, background textural way and the real focus is on the rhythm section. Really on the drummer, who is incredible. He also fluidly incorporates his electronic thing too, where he grabs a mic and points it at a drum or cymbal as he's playing, which goes to his own mixer & effects setup where he's slamming faders and bringing it in and out with his playing, really cool.

Highly recommend catching them if you can, I think they're going Minneapolis (tonight) / Chicago / Detroit / Pittsburgh etc.

hmmm ... thinking about seeing them tonight, yeah

Just got Code Girl tickets for the 25th. Excited!

budo jeru, did you go?

Also had the thought while watching Birth that extended free playing is so much more satisfying when you know it will eventually resolve (elegantly) into a beat.

hi, no i didn't go. i got too tired.

do sincerely hope you continue to post about shows!

Saw a 1/2 hour doc on 1975 to 1993 DC label Black Fire records outside for free Saturday as part of the Home Rule Fest in Washington DC. Live music wise the event featured Doug Carn & band's Love Supreme homage (Carn was on the 70s Black Jazz label), David Murray and band's alternately out there and wistfully melodic jazz. TCB's uh out there bouncebeat go-go, and Black Fire records' Plunky & the Oneness of Juju's afro-funky, jazzy, go-go & a bit of old-school style rap. Not packed but a sizeable crowd. Record fair there too. Murray's band included Lafayette Gilchrist, Craig Harris, and others.

"out there gogo"?
...would very much like to hear...

Gilchrist is so great. I recorded a podcast interview with him but accidentally deleted the file.

Oh no. But yeah re Gilchrist. He was impressive

x-post- bouncebeat go-go rhythms pounded out rapidly on keyboards and rototom drums are not like traditional funk rooted go-go rhythms . TCB Bouncebeat Kings have some live shows on Youtube and on streaming services

David Murray's son Mingus Murray played guitar with him

Oh yeah, I saw Lafayette Gilchrist with David Murray as well at The Jazz Standard (RIP) years ago. Really good.

Catching up on Nicholas Payton's 'Smoke Sessions' album and it's fantastic. Killer line-up: Ron Carter, Karriem Riggins, and George Coleman. I think he's putting out some of the best records of his career in the last few years (and playing piano too!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5JHLmh9rb8

Will check, thanks----meanwhile, jazz is where you find it, and I'm smitten by this Sudanese ballad: hybrid guitar, normie rhythm guitar, bass, perc., just the right bits of tenor sax (most other tracks are faster, equally thoughtful grooves, and the finale has its own dynamic)::https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/track/jabana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XwKYYFvcDo
Izinkonjana - Nduduzo Makhathini Quartet live at Vermont Jazz Center

dow, cool record! Although it's weird that they call it "Electric Soul & Brass" when there are no brass instruments on it.

I'm eagerly anticipating seeing the Brian Blade Fellowship for the first time tomorrow. My band is playing afterwards and I will update if BB decides to sit in on cowbell. :)

Christian McBride is playing on Sunday, but I don't think I'll be able to make it unfortunately.