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

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