Rolling Jazz Thread 2018

jason moran is coming to the walker in april. an acquaintance of mine is one of the curators and what she's told has me real stoked.

The exhibition will highlight Moran’s mixed-media “set” installations STAGED: Savoy Ballroom 1 and STAGED: Three Deuces (both 2015), sculptural vignettes based on storied music venues from past eras that were his acclaimed contributions to the 2015 Venice Biennale. The exhibition will also premiere a new sculptural commission as part of this series. The presentation also features a selection of Moran’s most recent charcoal drawings and time-based media works from his long-standing collaborations, or sets, with visual artists including Lorna Simpson, Glenn Ligon, and Theaster Gates. In-gallery performances and a new commission for the stage will be orchestrated during the run of the show to complement the gallery presentation.

https://walkerart.org/calendar/2018/jason-moran

and then there's this "sonic universe project" feat. wadada leo smith and roscoe mitchell

An all-star lineup of master jazz innovators spanning three cities (Minneapolis, New York, and Chicago) and two generations creates a new sextet for an exclusive Walker engagement. The ensemble includes visionary trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith, a transformative figure in jazz; powerhouse saxophonist/composer Roscoe Mitchell, a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago; Hamid Drake, one of the great drummers working in jazz and global music today; Oliver Lake, longtime member of the World Saxophone Quartet; bassist Anthony Cox, one of Minnesota’s most in-demand musicians for years; and composer/flutist/saxophonist Douglas Ewart, who helped bring these master musicians together.

90 minutes

World Premiere

https://walkerart.org/calendar/2018/sonic-universe-project-douglas-ewartwadada-leo-smithroscoe-mitchelloliver-lakeanthony-coxhamid-drake

jazzfest marathon suggestions for tonight?

Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity, Jaimie Branch's Fly Or Die (unfortunately they're playing opposite each other), Donny McCaslin's quartet.

I'm hoping to see the Harriet Tubman-plays-Free Jazz show tomorrow night.

i had mccaslin and branch boldfaced too
other potential hits: Ches Smith, Sons of Kemet, ONYX collective, MAST, Blaque Dynamite
the only thing i'm really hyped to see is the 11pm Nicole Mitchell piece with Jason Moran, may need to get there early
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/arts/music/nicole-mitchell-black-earth-ensemble-mandorla-awakening.html

I interviewed Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Yazz Ahmed yesterday for the next Burning Ambulance podcast - it'll be going live in a week, on 1/19.

Well huh, Wynton's son makes beats: https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/meet-standing-on-the-corner-the-post-genre-crew-whose-music-speaks-a-secret-language/

JM: Honestly, I have an extremely antagonistic relationship with hip-hop.

Think he said that just to keep his dad off his back?

Here's a link to my interview with Hutchings (who's on the cover of the new issue of The Wire, btw), Garcia and Ahmed.

Coming soon: Preemo's Club Henny at Lincoln Center

NPR are streaming the new Sunwatchers album

(as well as Julian Lage's)

Oh, thanks. I was a little underwhelmed by the advance JL single "Roger the Dodger" but I'm definitely interested in listening to this.

This is just what I want tonight, actually.

My latest podcast is up - I interviewed Orrin Evans, who is now the pianist in The Bad Plus.

nice

Finally, this is legit and remastered from original: live in '65 Paris, Wes is into Trane, shadowed by Harold Mabern, and later Johnny Griffin shows up, intriguingly enough (astute excerpts and comments by Kevin Whitehead)https://www.npr.org/2018/01/31/582118519/in-paris-recording-guitarist-wes-montgomery-shows-his-head-for-melody

Yeah, that's a great album.

A bit of a row in Germany over the Echo Jazz awards ceremony – best newcomer winner Anna-Lena Schnabel wasn't allowed to perform any of her own music. The producers rejected her piece "Plop" :-) and four other suggestions, and they asked her to do her version of Horace Silver's "Peace" instead. The show was televised on NDR, a non-commercial broadcaster, which denies censorship and says it wanted "the young generation" included on the show... just not playing anything written after 1959.

German public media are usually open-minded about new jazz afaik – they filmed Schnabel's full concert below, and public media told her side of the story first in a documentary where they accused themselves of censorship. It's a good system. Enjoy!

- http://www.3sat.de/mediathek/?mode=play&obj=69772
Anna-Lena Schnabel @ JazzBaltica: online til 20 Oct 2018

I had no idea that a new Bad Plus album w/Orrin Evans came out weeks ago, hadn't heard a single thing about it until listening to your podcast. The three tracks on soundcloud are cool, if maybe not quite as distinctive-sounding? Don't love how the drums were recorded/mixed on this one.

Listening to some Orrin Evans stuff on Spotify today, the trio with Christian McBride and Karriem Riggins is nice.

I heard the clips of that Wes Montgomery record on NPR and it sounds burning, never heard it before I don't think.

Pretty sure I'd only heard OE as a sideperson before, like on Ralph Peterson records.

Also, while I'm sure it wouldn't be ideal in some ways, I'd love to hear a version of the Bad Plus with Eric Lewis on piano.

I'm still getting my head around the Bad Plus continuing with the same name without Iverson. I'll listen, though.

my local public radio jazz station is usually pretty trad but has one show on a weeknight that does more "adventurous" stuff

they played a band called The Comet is Coming? British, and sort of electronic, jazz, R&B hybrid...wouldn't be out of place on an old Thirsty Ear comp

Yeah, The Comet Is Coming is one of Shabaka Hutchings' projects.

ah i'm really enjoying it

Just got the promo of the next Sons of Kemet album, their debut for Impulse!. The cover art is wild.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVc_N_3VoAASHZj.jpg

Anyone have any thoughts on Badbadnotgood? I randomly watched a What's in My Bag video with them and liked their taste and what they had to say. Where is a good place to start with them?

their album with ghostface is great! no idea about their regular stuff

Yeah, I haven't checked them out yet either. I may get to see them this summer, though - I'm hoping to get press access to the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, and they're playing.

they seem to skirt the line between jazz and Budos Band type stuff

I was a hater when they first blew up, because they were goofy college kids who made a video doing jammy covers of Odd Future beats and sent it to Tyler, then they were playing festivals doing jammy covers of EDM tracks.

But I've got to give it up, they matured and learned some restraint, and that 'IV' album is pretty cool. Nice '70s-style production, the collabs with Colin Stetson and Samuel Herring work, lots of attention to sound and texture. Good for them!

Gurls: Norwegian trio at the poppier end of the spectrum I guess, though pretty understated with sax + bass + vox only; opened here for a-ha (!) a few days ago; album just released. Quite enjoying this in the middle of the night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDqBG1jrR9Y

The lineup for this year's Vision Festival is out, and it's amazing. I would go every night if I could, but it's in Brooklyn so I'm almost certainly gonna miss the whole damn thing. Get there if you can.

https://www.artsforart.org/vf23lineup.html

Is this the first Vision fest to not feature a William Parker-led band? I see he's joining a few groups but his relative absence seems a bit conspicuous given his involvement in previous festivals

Might make the trip once day passes are announced. Ambrose Akinmusire has become one of my favorite trumpeters. He and Mehldau are both incredible here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BKVfbwI3X4

Definitely enjoyed that

yup, that was great

My latest Stereogum column is up. I talk about the Bad Plus, GoGo Penguin, and a bunch of other stuff, including a book on 1970s jazz that kinda disappointed me.

Re Parker and Vision Fest, doesn't seem so odd, especially as many of his regular bandmates are presenting their own projects. He's maybe taking a backseat from leader projects atm? Or perhaps he's cooking something big up. He has an album coming out soon with his wife Patricia Nicholson on his own Centering records.

Electronic Press Kit for new David Murray/Saul Williams alb, out 2/16, anybody heard the whole thing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbgAmvDz6fQ

Yeah (I was trying to get Murray on my podcast, but the publicist totally dropped the ball). It's pretty good. I wrote about it in this month's Stereogum column (linked above):

Saxophonist David Murray met poet Saul Williams at Amiri Baraka’s memorial service in 2014. The day after hearing Williams read, Murray knew he wanted to make an album with him. Four years later, here it is, billed as a tribute to Mehmet “Memo” Uluğ, a major figure on the Turkish jazz scene. The core band includes Orrin Evans on piano, Jaribu Shahid on bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums, with additional contributions from Jason Moran (on Fender Rhodes), Murray’s son Mingus on guitar, Craig Harris on trombone, and Aytac Dogan on kanun, a zither-like Turkish instrument. Williams discourses on a variety of subjects, some political, others more celebratory of life. On “A Mirror Of Youth,” Williams’ impassioned delivery — and his vocal timbre — remind me of Black Thought, while the band behind him goes just as hard, without ever abandoning melody. Murray, like Archie Shepp, has always been a living bridge between avant-garde jazz and its roots in blues and swing; he can scream like Albert Ayler, or sing low like Coleman Hawkins, and here he’s in a hard bop mode, spinning out passionate lines that always keep one foot on the ground.

"This group is smoking, but wouldn't it be even better if they had someone sorta-rapping-but-not-really-rapping on top? Like slam poetry, you know?" - no jazz fan ever

I interviewed Tony Allen for Down Beat.

The new issue of The Wire is out today; I wrote the cover story on Mary Halvorson, reviewed Anthony Braxton's new 11CD box set (first line, which I can't believe they kept: "Anthony Braxton has developed gigantism") and the new Sons of Kemet album, and profiled French avant-metal band Chaos Echoes, who have an album coming out that's a collaboration with Mats Gustafsson.

Wow, I've really liked a lot of what I know from Halvorson and am curious about the Braxton. (Marking some midterms with essays about Braxton rn, actually!)

anyone recommend a good 2018 spotify list to follow?

this one has lots of good stuff, but it's mostly Danish https://open.spotify.com/user/jazzyniels/playlist/1KpooeZNb18FltdeWgWlSy

Nels Cline 4 jam concisely on song from new album, info and live-in-studio vid link here:
https://www.stereogum.com/1986225/the-nels-cline-4-imperfect-10/music/?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral
Mainly of interest to me for the Cline solo, also like the way its momentum lifts the full group at end (but mainly his solo).

That sounds surprisingly similar to, like, John Scofield w/Medeski Martin & Wood. I like it, that's a very funky 5/4. Tom Rainey is fun to watch.

Oh yeah, I like this. Cline and Lage in the same band! I've been enjoying the Lage album a lot too; will buy it.

Oh no I am thinking of Jon Raney and Doug Raney, sons of Jimmy Raney, never mind.

So there's jazz guitarists Julian Lage and also Lage Lund, huh (the latter is married to a singer I went to college with).

Yes. This is often discussed. I believe Julian Lage was a protégé of or at least studied under a guitar teacher named Randy Vincent who has written some good books but employs a very stretchy, risky, Johnny Smith-like left hand technique, so it wasn’t totally surprising when the student developed some kind of tendinitis.

Lage has tendonitis at such a young age? Man.

I saw Arun Ghosh a week ago and funnily enough he closed with a cover of "Tomorrow Never Knows" - mostly a showcase for the rhythm section tho, which is the least jazzy part of his combo. Still, hearing a horn section blare those verses was cool.

He was very great and high energy overall.

just listening to Gabriel Zucker's Weighting. A top notch piano/trumpet/sax quartet with the godlike T Sorey on drums, excellent stuff!

Yeah, that’s a good one. I reviewed it twice, by mistake (had an assignment for Down Beat and then the NYC Jazz Record’s editor dropped it on me, too).

dow, here are just some of the ones that have grabbed me this year:

tyshawn sorey - pillars
amaro freitas - rasif
cecile mclorin salvant - the window
dave holland, evan parker, craig taiborn & ches smith - uncharted territories
james brandon lewis, chad taylor - radiant imprints
jamie saft quartet - blue dream
lionel loueke - the journey
makaya mccraven - universal beings
halvorson / frisell - the girl with the flaxen hair
halvorson / lee - seed triangular
miles okazaki - work (i.e. the complete monk songbook)
salim washington - dogon revisited
steve coleman - live at the village vanguard
william parker - voices fall from the sky

but i feel like i'm not even close to doing enough listening yet.

halvorson has released a shitload under her name or groups this year, these are not even her major releases, i happened to like them more, though.

the james brandon lewis duo record is premised on a strategy of working later-career trane fragments into very songlike new music, so it definitely has a strain of familiarity to it but it feels remarkably vital. he's doing a lot of different things in recent records too.

some of these are literally huge - 2+ hours, 3 hours, 6 hours. i feel like the bandcamp era has really had an effect on artists w.r.t. freedom of release.

"mystic beings" by baczkowski / nace / corsano just rips in exactly the right way for me right now. i think this might make it into my top 5 albums of the year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss7n8irdYXM

Thanks, niels and j.! Esp. intrigued by mention of duo dub strategy.

Of the list above, I like these a lot:

tyshawn sorey - pillars
amaro freitas - rasif
dave holland, evan parker, craig taiborn & ches smith - uncharted territories
james brandon lewis, chad taylor - radiant imprints
makaya mccraven - universal beings
salim washington - dogon revisited

Lewis has a fantastic new record coming out in February that features his working trio (bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Warren Trae Crudup III) plus Jaimie Branch on trumpet and Anthony Pirog on guitar. I'm hoping to interview him for The Wire with that as the hook.

Just got a package from Dave Douglas's Greenleaf Music label. They sent me that 8CD live set by his quintet that I mentioned upthread, and Uplift: Twelve Pieces for Positive Action, which features Douglas on trumpet, Joe Lovano on saxes, Mary Halvorson and Julian Lage on guitars, Bill Laswell on bass, and Ian Chang on drums and electronics. The twelve tracks were originally released one a month exclusively to people who subscribed to Greenleaf via Bandcamp (which I don't), but now they've been compiled.

The live Douglas box has me revisiting that band's three studio albums - Be Still from 2012, Time Travel from 2013, and Brazen Heart from 2015. That was a fantastic band.

Watching this Nick Payton Tiny Desk (w/Jonathan Barber on drums, who I like a lot from Jeremy Pelt's stuff). I wondered how some of the stuff on his trio record with both trumpet and Rhodes was recorded (since he's playing both), like which one was played live with the group and which was overdubbed, but I guess it makes a lot more sense that he was playing both at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_dSlxgD2Fo

Also, when you don't have brushes with you, just using your hands rather than sticks is an amazing choice.

That Makaya McCraven album is a revelation.

brings to mind Sonny Rollins somehow

Checking out Sam Harris's Harmony. He's a pianist who plays with Ambrose Akinmusire, Logan Richardson, Melissa Aldana, Rudy Rosyton and others, and this album is really something. It's a five-track, 30-minute trio performance (Martin Nevin on bass, Craig Weinrib on drums) that's more or less a continuous suite. He combines heavy, clanging blues with avant-garde exploration and melodic frills in a way that reminds me of Keith Jarrett, kinda, but I don't really like Keith Jarrett much, and I like this a lot. As far as I know, it's only available on Bandcamp, and it's well worth the $10.

http://samharrismusic.bandcamp.com/album/harmony

I like it, he reminds me of Dave Burrell somewhat, who is a bit of an old grand master of heavy, clanging blues with avant-garde exploration.

https://the1959project.com/

Natalie Weiner is doing this look at jazz in NYC 60 years ago effort. With postings every day she says. She posted photos and more re a Rollins/Mingus doublebill at the Five Spot

just picked up the LP/DVD combo for this https://hypnoticbrassfilm.com/ yesterday, haven't listened yet. Was unfortunately not able to find any Shabaka Hutchings-related vinyl at Amoeba SF :(

that Nick Payton set upthread is great, what releases does he have that are similar/worth picking up?

I've heard some previous albums by the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - felt like they lived up to their name a little too much but maybe I'll give them another chance.

The Heritage EP is my favorite, agree they can get a bit same-y

who else is doing winterjazzfest with me? Some great sets in the offing!

I don’t feel like I can stay our late enough to make it worthwhile but tell me more. Also, seriously thinking of going to Birdland tonight

I'm considering going but may not make it. I really want to see these shows:

Thursday, January 10 - Gary Bartz Plays Another Earth with Pharoah Sanders; Nubya Garcia opening
Friday, January 11 - Marathon, Night 1 (I'm hoping to see Ezra Collective, Makaya McCraven, and Aaron Parks' Little Big)
Saturday, January 12 - Marathon, Night 2 (I'm hoping to see Anteloper, Nubya Garcia, and Irreversible Entanglements)

I have 12 nominations left for the ILM poll if anyone has used up their noms and wants any jazz/improv/classical/avant on the ballot.

i heard a cut from makaya mccraven's universal beings today and was honestly quite blown away. and i never expected i'd be taken in by a jazz record like that.

What was the name of the song? I'm way behind in checking out the last few MM things

Not sure if this is the right thread, but the new Jeff Parker album is phenomenal

Yeah, Universal Beings is wonderful.

xp the song was "suite haus"! i haven't yet listened to the full album but i'll get to it soon i hope

The mew mccraven gil scott heron project sounded great live. Cant wait to chow down on the album.

I've just discovered McCraven's CHICAGOxLONDON mixtape from 2018 which is fantastic. Lots of lovely Rhodes piano.

i heard a cut from makaya mccraven's universal beings today and was honestly quite blown away. and i never expected i'd be taken in by a jazz record like that.

― dyl, Monday, January 20, 2020 11:30 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

thank you for this, this track is incredible

Universal Anthem is where it's at!!

i mean International Anthem!!!!
lol

anyway it's a great record label https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/

Something I was shockingly old when I learned (this week, in fact): this isn't a jazz-centric rebrand of the guitar soli-type label from a few years ago. Obviously I was confusing it with Imaginational Anthem

This revive has really brought my “should I start a dedicated McCraven or an International Anthem thread?” dilemma to a head. Anyone have a preference?

I like label threads because you can talk about more stuff in there. I made one for Soundway records and do not regret it :)

Also IA are really doing an amazing job elevating their artists to the international level, like it's kind of amazing

It really is, and it's nice that they're so thoroughly Chicago-focused.

That's my fave track on Universal Beings.

McCraven thread is overdue imo

I agree and will probably make one anyway when the GSH thing drops, but in the meantime: International Anthem: S/D

Too late to vote but fwiw I too like the idea of a dedicated thread. I thought about starting a similar one for Astral Spirits but, err, didn't

astral spirits is such a sick label start the thread

intl anthem thread good too, keep up the good work posters