Rolling Jazz Thread 2018

Oh right, I've probably made the same post at least three times, huh. Too much time on ilx.

Think he did some work and took some posture lessons so that the tendonitis/tendinitis (seems both spellings are acceptable) has abated

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

― grawlix (unperson)

Enjoyed the Braxton piece. Good choice of word given the size of this release (and his back catalogue!). I'm tempted but it's $150 on his Bandcamp.

Listening to lots of Henri Texier. He's got a swarmingly intimidating catalogue but current favourites are Varech (obvs) and his Suite Africaine, with Aldo Roman and Louis Sclavis.

Listening to the Julian Lage record and enjoying it, I like the folky/pop feel. S/o to Kenny Wollesen, the only drummer in jazz who tunes his snare way down.

Kind reminds me of some Scofield and Ribot records, which is a good thing.

Milford Graves followed by Mary Halvorson on the front cover of the Wire, it's almost like it's a jazz magazine.

I thought Mary's recent Tzadik album is really brilliant, one of her best yet.

This one?
http://www.tzadik.com/index.php?catalog=8356

Also - wow, I didn't know Zorn was working toward an endpoint:
After 13 years and 32 CDs Zorn’s expansive “Book of Angels” project is now complete! This final installment presents the last 10 unrecorded compositions from “Masada Book Two” and the variety, drama and lyricism is just as strong as the very first volume. Mary Halvorson, a longtime Masada fan and one of the most acclaimed guitarists of her generation, leads a dynamic quartet featuring Miles Okazaki, Drew Gress and Tomas Fujiwara. The music is intense, wild and incredibly varied—a beautiful and fitting conclusion to this historic Masada series—hailed as one of Zorn’s best!

yep, and even in such a giganto series it's quite right to say this is one of the best!

The folk/pop feel of the Lage also reminds me of some mid-period Frisell stuff.

Joe Lovano is playing Wednesday to Friday at my local jazz club, I feel like going

Whaaaat, there is a new Brian Blade Fellowship album from Nov 2017, and it didn't make last year's thread (or this one)? I'm very disappointed in all of you (and Blue Note).
http://www.bluenote.com/artists/brian-blade/body-and-shadow

Yep; I wrote about it for Stereogum back in September:

Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band, Body And Shadow (Blue Note)
Drummer Brian Blade’s latest release might be the shortest jazz album of 2017: nine tracks in under 32 minutes. The group — Myron Walden on alto sax and bass clarinet, Melvin Butler on tenor sax, guitarist Dave Devine, pianist Jon Cowherd, and bassist Chris Thomas — has been together for 20 years. This is their fifth release. They’ve never been a traditional jazz group; their debut was produced by Daniel Lanois, and their music has always had a wafting, atmospheric feel. They incorporate elements of country, blues and gospel into their slow-walking compositions, and solos are subued, though still vibrantly alive. There are some interesting structural experiments here; the title piece is played three times (“Morning,” “Night” and “Noon”), and there are two back-to-back versions of the spiritual “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” — a solo take that sounds like it’s played on a harmonium or accordion, and a full-band version. “Broken Leg Days” has one of those meandering, slowly building seesaw melodies that seem to dominate 21st century jazz, but when Blade brings the drums crashing in, he ups the energy level about five notches in an instant. This is a very enjoyable way to spend a half hour.

Listening now and it's pretty and Fellowship-y, it does sound like their most minimal and restrained one yet though. Also found this review which is pretty brutal, ha: https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/brian-blade-fellowship-band/

NPR covered it! At least I think that’s where I heard about it

Tbh, that album was one of my biggest disappointments of 2017, but only because I loved Landmarks so much.

Nate Chinen has a book coming out in August. It looks interesting.

That does look promising.

Hi jaymc! I get that, it is pretty slight. It's funny, the last couple (totally essential) BBF albums each had one or more tracks that were super restrained, no solos, and those were my favorites (like 'Stoner Hill' on Season of Changes, or 'Embers' on Landmarks). But on this one, every track except one is like that, except maybe not as a strong, and I wish they would play a little more.

I will buy that Nate Chinen book, looks good

Now I wanna hear the new BBF, sounds up my alley. I love when I read a "negative" review and think "that sounds great"

On a Bill Stewart listening kick today. Solo album from 2015 called Space Squid (great), most recent Larry Goldings Trio (kinda boring), that John Scofield one from a couple years ago with Joe Lovano and Larry Grenadier (pretty great).

My latest Stereogum column is up. Watch out - I think one of the streaming tracks is set to autoplay.

That Jeremy Pelt track is burning. Even the cajon solo works.

Really really like this Patrick Zimmerli thing too.

Today I'm enjoying Bill Stewart's Incandescence (from a decade ago), cool double-keyboard trio. Drums, organ, and either Rhodes or piano (or sometimes piano + accordion).

I've been jamming the new Frisell today, good stuff

I guess I have uncool taste in jazz in that I often prefer the kinda... subtle stuff

Re: the comments below Phil's column, Kurt Rosenwinkel's tone has never bothered me, and I actually recall liking him on the few tracks he played on on Chris Potter's Vertigo album

David Ake is a new name to me but I'm liking this track a lot. Monder's guitar at about 4 minutes in is certainly...unexpected

I don't keep up with new jazz releases as much as I would like but I'm still very much attached to ECM. Jakob Bro's first two (trio) albums for the label immediately won me over and I was worried that the addition of a trumpeter on his latest, Returnings, would undermine the music's oneiric dolefulness. Except said trumpeter is Palle Mikkelborg, whose downcast playing fits Bro's compositions like a glove, and the couple of pieces that he penned for the album do not draw our attention away from its overall flow, which is exactly as should be. The less overtly tonal, processional title track (co-written by Bro and Mikkelborg) is the only one that stands out, bringing to mind Edward Vesala, but its intimations of a far-off catastrophe are needed in this potentially too genteel context. Good stuff, overall – I should probably explore Bro's pre-ECM output as well.

I didn't know about the Frisell. A solo electric guitar album from is pretty much exactly what I want; sounding good so far. Also, Roscoe Mitchell's album with the Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra Ride the Wind just arrived. Looking forward to it.

The Mitchell/MTAO is really good!

xp I've seen Bro live with Mikkelborg a twice, both great so I am looking forward to listening!

you might want to check out Balladeering which is one of my favorite albums
https://open.spotify.com/album/3dsUvkEtccETDqWcXUUXxh

The only Mikkelborg I have is Miles Davis's Aura, which PM composed, arranged and produced, with a big band incl. NHØP and John Mclaughlin: it's like "What if Miles and Gil plugged in and kept it tasteful." Good of its kind for sure.

Just did an hour+ interview with Billy Cobham for the Burning Ambulance podcast - it'll be live on 4/13. Awesome guy - had stories about Miles, McLaughlin/Mahavishnu (McLaughlin can apparently be kinda shady at times), the Fania All-Stars, and much, much more.

Cool! Really enjoyed his Trap Set interview.

Today I'm listening to all the versions of 'So What' from that new Miles Quintet bootleg series thing. Spoiler alert - they keep getting better.

http://i8.cmail19.com/ei/i/79/EB4/FC8/222203/csimport/r-1260625-1360137078-7003-jpeg_7.jpg

Soul Jazz Records EVENTS Horace Tapscott: Musical Griot Documentary TOMORROW Wed 28 March 2pm Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image
TOMORROW AFTERNOON!
Exclusive screening + After-film discussion panel including Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records)

This event is FREE - info here
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/session-thirteen-horace-tapscott-musical-griot-rebirth-is-necessary-tickets-43055887318

Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square

London WC1H 0PD

Going back to Jeff Parker's 'The New Breed' and this is so my shit. Maybe one of the best blends of jazz + electronic music, and many have tried and failed.

(also holy shit, that record has sold a ton on Bandcamp alone, good for him for tapping into the 'chill beats' economy perhaps)

Guardian focus on the British Jazz scene:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/08/british-jazz-invasion-moses-boyd-matthew-halsall-nubya-garcia?CMP=share_btn_tw

xp thanks for heads up on the Parker, totally missed that when it came out

Billy Cobham podcast is going up on Friday, and I just taped the next one this morning. It's with Dave Burrell, who played at Cecil Taylor's funeral yesterday. We talked about that, and about a bunch of his projects, including the whole free jazz migration to Paris in 1969/70 and what he'll be doing at the Vision Festival this year. It's a really interesting interview, and it'll be up on 4/27.

I finally listened to all of Code Girl and I am really liking this, wow. "The Unexpected Natural Phenomenon" is probably the biggest standout rn.

Nels Cline 4 live stream rn: https://www.facebook.com/PasteMusicAndDaytrotter/videos/10156393536779529/

Cline album sounds good, and it looks like a proper Blue Note record to boot

I posted about it on the 'third stream' thread but I really like that Patrick Zimmerli record, now that it's out. Seems mostly through-composed, and I'm sure that there's a lot of harmonic and conceptual stuff that I'm not getting, but the good thing is that it's a very pleasant listen without worrying about any of that. Also it's one of the best sounding jazz recordings I've heard in a minute.

This makes some good points and clarifies some turns in the discography I got discouraged from taking---also, re the mention of Cosey etc. at the end, what he'd like to hear in the Bootleg Series, reminds me of a rare PC interview, in which he casually mentioned his own onstage tape recorder tour mascot, sometimes pulled those cassettes out from a shoebox under the bed, listened to them 'til he fell asleep---wonder who has the rights to those, if they still exist (think I may still have a few x-generation dubs via Goldmine Magazinec ca. late 80s-early 90s). Um, anyway:
https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/04/19/do-we-need-another-miles-davis-box-set/?utm_source=Village+Voice+Music&utm_campaign=0bc3f4529c-Music+Newsletter+1%2F19%2F2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_58e5ed4fcb-0bc3f4529c-58804241

Yeah, the last 3 paragraphs of that piece are the only parts I care about. Here's what I'd like to see show up in the Bootleg Series:

• a multi-disc set from the 1971 European tour featuring the Gary Bartz/Keith Jarrett/Michael Henderson/Mtume/Leon "Ndugu" Chancler version of the band (a few tracks are on Vol. 4)
• a multi-disc set of the non-Agharta/Pangaea dates from the 1975 Japanese tour
• a multi-disc set of We Want Miles-era shows

I don't think any of those are likely to happen, though, because Sony seems to prefer focusing on acoustic Miles. I mean, that Freedom Jazz Dance set was basically a "super deluxe edition" of Miles Smiles. I've played it exactly once.

Were the shows from the We Want Miles era what resulted in Star People? If so I wouldn’t mind hearing that. I’m fairly fond of that record.

Agreed about Jeff Parker's "The New Breed", it's wonderful. It has a kind of "Mark's Keyboard Repair" quality that I love; the last track, with his daughter - I think - singing, is a treat. International Anthem (the label) really delivering lately*: "In the Moment" by Makaya McCraven (also feat. Parker) is great, and the Irreversible Entanglements album is fantastic.

*"lately" to me, these days, can mean any time in last five years.

My latest Stereogum column is up. I talk about Cecil Taylor, Billy Cobham, those two new Kamasi Washington songs, Sons of Kemet, and a bunch of other stuff.

Oh wow, cool that you reviewed Paw@n's record. He used to come sit in with a group I played with when he was, idk, 10? 13? Had a really nice sound even then, glad he's doing the thing.