Rolling Jazz Thread 2018

talking of him - I've been listening to an obscure Shorter tribute album from '83 - Shorter by Two - by piano duo Kirk Lightsey & Harold Danko, it's very good imo - the version of marie antoinette even had my eyes tapping their feet!

That sounds cool.

Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko has died. His 2017 album December Avenue with David Virelles on piano, Reuben Rogers on bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums is fantastic.

https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/img/SitkN2ZTRmNrRVYwSFdzT3JHYmF0dz09/a3469264455-10.jpg

Don Cherry
Home Boy, Sister Out
WEWANTSOUNDS
**Features the classic disco-not-disco tune, 'I Walk'!**

Don Cherry's downtown Paris funk masterwork produced in 1985 by Ramuntcho Matta and originally released by Barclay in France only, finally gets a worldwide reissue on Wewantsounds. Featuring French post-punk muse Elli Medeiros, avant garde poet Brion Gysin and cult Senegalese drummer Abdoulaye Prosper Niang (Xalam), this is a unique soundbite of Paris in the early 80s at its coolest when funk, jazz and new wave were mingling with sounds from Africa, Jamaica and Latin America. Newly Remastered, the album is augmented by a second LP worth of bonus tracks!
More info, audio:
https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/don-cherry-home-boy-sister-out

https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/img/Z1YyMS9iemJ4WVhKcDY2dXRSSGt0dz09/c6qyfg-waaun0hj.jpg

LP
Don Cherry
Music, Wisdom, Love
FINDERS KEEPERS

Reaching a near-mythical status amongst fans of free jazz’s most worldly intrepid explorer, these seldom heard Paris soundtrack sessions known as ‘Music, Wisdom, Love’ have evaded collectors’ grasps and confused historians for exactly 50 years. Instigated in Paris in 1967 and filmed during Don’s downtime on a visit to the Chat qui Pêche nightclub in March 1967 (where he played with Karl Berger, Henri Texier and Jacques Thollot), the bulk of this cinematic portrait was filmed on the streets of Paris under the direction of creative all-rounders Jean-Noël Delamarre and Nathalie Perrey who, as their careers bloomed, would become pivotal figures in underground French cinema - straddling La Nouvelle Vague, adult entertainment and cinema fantastique in what can only be described as speedball cinema.

Available for the first time ever and licensed from producer and director Jean-Noel Delamarre himself.

More info, audio:
https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/music-wisdom-love

They've also got Brown Rice and Mu Part I.

So it turns out that all of those and a lot more DC are on Spotify, but I'd never heard of HBSO orMWL.

Saw Tony Allen last night at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. He had the band from The Source and was playing all that music. Harpist Brandee Younger opened the show, doing duos with a bassist whose name escapes me. Great show.

In which Robert Glasper (whose music I don't even like that much, FTR) eats Lauryn Hill alive and spits out the bones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54WECf1ioeY?t=26m57s

That was good. Even I've heard some stories from people who have played in her band.

I don't know much about Kip Hanrahan but back in the 80s I bought two remarkable albums released on his American Clave label, Astor Piazzolla's Tango Zero Hour and Conjure, settings for x delivery of Ishmael Reed's words, with David Murray, Allen Toussaint, Taj Mahal, Billy Hart, Steve Swallow(one of my favorites, incl. singing, is "The Wardrobe Master of Paradise," which always seemed like a working man's portrait of Sun Ra).
Haven't heard about KH in a long time, but wondering about this new album, Crescent Moon Waning---from his comments in press release:
This record is informed by the music that preceded it, and it is critical of it (otherwise there'd be no reason to make it), but it is in itself, of course, a new music. As far as a "culmination" or "completion", on any second (or ninth) thought you realize that there never really is one, we all have so much more music waiting to be made. Oh, and parenthetically, I guess, we only make records and music when there are records and music demanding to be made. I hope that makes sense.

There is, though, a particular tone, instantly recognizable as ours, that's clear and remains constant, remains audible, through the records and years. It's something many of the players pointed out at different times, independent of each other. This tonal continuity is a little amusing in a way, as "Crescent Moon Waning" was recorded with the instruments and voices tuned to 432 rather than the expected 440. The change in tuning was our playing with different possible human scales (pun intended). It's funny, but it seems to most of us on the record that the 432 tuning makes everything seem a little slower and more relaxed, regardless of how fast and busy the music is.

Crescent Moon Waning was recorded between August 2015 and December 2016 in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The last track on the album is live and was recorded October 1984 in Nancy, France.

A list of the players on "Crescent Moon Waning" in order of appearance: Kip Hanrahan; Michael Chambers, Dick Kondas; Brandon Ross; Luisito Quintero; Robby Ameen; Yunior Terry; Charles Neville; Lucia Ameen; Milton Cardona; Anthony Carrillo; Richie Flores; Andy Gonzalez; Steve Swallow; Xiomara Laugart; Fernando Saunders; Josh Sinton; Alfredo Triff; J.D. Allen; Miss Jennifer Hernandez; Roberto Poveda; David Rodriguez; Craig Handy; Lucy Penabaz; Giacomo Merega; Grayson Hugh; Senti Toy; Ignacio Berroa; Giovanni Hidalgo; Steve Berrios; Jack Bruce; Chico Freeman; Mario Rivera

It was produced by Kip Hanrahan and Michael Chambers with Leijia Hanrahan as executive producer and Dick Kondas and Robby Ameen as co-producers.

A breakdown of the players on each song is available upon request, as is a few pages of additional information about each of the players.

One particular note about one of the players: Charles Neville is a constant presence on this record, a kind of Greek chorus throughout, constantly offering alternative melodies to that of the singer, of the words, as well as a constant musical commentary on what was going on in the rest of the song. He was a central figure in our group of musicians, sharing and contributing to the music, frustrations angers and the ultimate celebrations, of our musical "project" for 35 years. He passed away last week, and we already miss him. His deep presence on this record changes the way I now hear some of the music on it.

xp also on Conjure: Carla Bley, Olu Dara, Milton Cardona, quite a few more. Haven't yet heard the follow-ups, Cab Calloway Stands In For The Moon (Bobby Womack joins Murray Toussaint & Co), and Bad Mouth(ditto Billy Bang, Alvin Youngblood Hart etc), but I will---all three are on Spotify, for inst.

Last night, dithering around like a dizzy bizzy bee---and Sundays are always kinda weird at best---I found my attention and pleasure principle repeatedly pulled into a performance-and-interview episode of Jazz Night In America:, feat. drummer-composer Allison Miller and her group Boom Tic Boom (think it's usually spelled "Tic" not "Tick," which I dig), incl. " Miller alongside violinist Jenny Scheinman, cornetist Kirk Knuffke, clarinetist Jeff Lederer, pianist Carmen Staaf and bassist Tony Scherr." Jazz, no question, but/and I get how she credits Prince as inspiration (reminding me, though don't think she mentioned it, that P. hired Clare Fischer to arrange and conduct). The "melodic drumming" thing demonstrated here---in a spotlight studio segment, as well as all through the BTB set---she traces to Africa, and shows how she has no prob w melody as written, then responds to vocal interpretation/
So here's all that, 56:08's worth, just posted, I think:
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/639233311/more-than-keeping-time-a-melodic-drumming-demo

Also, from a couple of years ago, when her most recent album was released, here she is on WBGO, with Myra Melford and Todd Sickafoose instead of Staaf and Scherr---also got Ben Goldberg on clarinet:
http://www.wbgo.org/post/many-dimensions-drummer-composer-and-bandleader-allison-miller-checkout#stream/0

Goldberg in stead of Lederer, not along with, though I'd like to hear that too.

I cannot help but think this album cover is going to rebound really badly on Mr. Deutsch. Especially since the record comes out November 2. I really hope he reconsiders between now and then.

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

Was worried that was going to be about Josh Deutsch

Ouch @ that cover

digging this complete set of every monk composition played by miles okazaki on guitar:

https://okazakiwork.bandcamp.com/album/work-complete-volumes-1-6

Poll! I'm liking this as well tbh, he doesn't just play the notes, there is a strong essence of Monk in these interpretations.

he has to realise now he must do the complete works of Bud Powell!

The Young Mothers - Morose
(Self Sabotage Records)

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/DmVvfMDXgAEFr5f.jpg

Got the CD direct from Super Secret Records. Mothers of Invention meets Mother's Finest at an indie hip-hop show? Regardless, they're bad mothers alright - free Jazz from Austin with more than enough skronk for the hesher that I am.

https://open.spotify.com/album/3HwMEbG9tky1gkRl1QDdnP?si=Tuvy_S1ZQYWVxqOxP9tftg
https://selfsabotagerecords.bandcamp.com/album/morose
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/morose/1395589943

They don't usually bother to vocalize, but when they do, they can---good comments on the opener, and the closer is even a mellow skronkfest ballad, not at all too long at five minutes and change (though most cuts are far shorter, without ever skimping). And the Funkadelic, Sharrock traces are well-digested---good shit, thanks!
(PS: currently finding that Spotify, despite its stingy payments, servers the artists pretty well soundwise, though that hasn't always been the case.)

There's a pretty amazing Mingus box set coming out in November from BBE (the label that did that J-Jazz compilation and the Tohru Aizawa Quartet album). It's a live recording from Detroit 1973, with Joe Gardner on trumpet, John Stubblefield on sax, Don Pullen on piano, and Roy Brooks on drums. It's about four hours of music spread across five CDs (it was a radio broadcast, so there's also a 40-minute track that includes an interview with Brooks and listener phone calls). Since it was recorded for radio (on a 16-track unit owned by the venue), it sounds great. Highly recommended.

CD 1
1. Pithecanthropus Erectus (Long Version)
2. The Man Who Never Sleeps
3. Peggy's Blue Skylight

CD 2
1. Introduction by Bud Spangler/Celia
2. Bud Spangler Interview with Roy Brooks and Commentary

CD 3
1. C Jam Blues
2. Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk
3. Dizzy Profile

CD 4
1. Noddin' Ya Head Blues
2. Celia (Alternate Take)

CD 5
1. Dizzy Profile (Alternate Take)
2. Strata Gallery Announcement by Bud Spangler / Radio Broadcast WDET FM

Digital-only bonus track:
1. Pithecanthropus Erectus (Alternate Take)

https://bbemusic.bandcamp.com/album/jazz-in-detroit-strata-concert-gallery-46-selden

Thanks! Reminds me---since I can't find the J-Jazz thread, will post this here:
BBE Music is proud to present the next instalment in the J Jazz Masterclass Series: ‘East Plants’ by Takeo Moriyama, one of Japan’s finest jazz drummers.
A genuine ‘under the radar’ album known only to a handful of Japanese jazz collectors, ‘East Plants’ is now available once more, reissued for the first time as a double 180g LP, with exact reproductions of the original artwork, obi strip and insert. It also comes with the original notes fully translated. ‘East Plants’ is also available as CD and digital formats. This reissue is fully endorsed by Takeo Moriyama himself.
Originally released in 1983 on the Japanese VAP label, ‘East Plants’ is an essential album in the J Jazz canon. It’s an album that distills several key characteristics of Moriyama’s music: clearly articulated and inventive rhythms, open yet orderly arrangements, and an accessible groove balanced with a graceful control.
PS: heard an amazing "It Might As Well Be Spring" on the radio last night---turned out to be Woody Shaw, shoulda known. Think the too-cool DJ mumbled that it was from a comp called Winter Jazz.

Randomly Spotify-surfed onto a 2007 album with Bruce Hornsby, Christian McBride, and Jack DeJohnette playing acoustic jazz over distorted, high-passed drum loops. And it's kinda great?

Pretty sure this is not the first time I've "discovered" this record, my memory can be so bad.

My new Stereogum column is up.

Also, I just taped a podcast interview with Ethan Iverson and Mark Turner that'll be out next week, and it's a fucking blast.

Lots of intriguing descriptions there, thanks---speaking of Alice Coltrane reissues, Amazon's also got Carnegie Hall '71, listed as a May 2018 release.

Yeah, that's a bootleg of a WQXR radio broadcast that's been in circulation forever. Probably mastered from an MP3.

is it good?

Will catch up with the column.

I'm missing her performance tonight but I just checked out the 2017 album Live at Jazz Room Cortez by Satoko Fujii Quartet on Spotify and thought it was fantastic.

in related news, I absolutely love the This Is It !(satoko fujii, natsuki tamura, takashi itani) 1538 album, the opening track absolutely rips it up!

Yeah, I reviewed 1538 in last month's column; I've been a Satoko Fujii fan for quite a while. I interviewed her for Global Rhythm magazine in 2007 or 2008.

I once bumped into Russ Abbot, having a piss outside Batley Frontiers variety club in '87 fwiw!

i recently picked up a solo satoko fujii disc, part of i guess a release-a-month thing this year she's doing, and it's terrific

Just heard a long, fascinatingly developmental, never Imposing nor into-the-weeds performance by Randy Weston's African Rhythms Trio---another murmuring DJ, but think it was from their Zep Tepi. Must check out all of that---the only Weston I ever owned was Carnival: some of my friends agreed that the title track sounded like an endless soundtrack for a Navy recruitment PSA, dunno if that was right, though I knew what they meant. But "Tribute To Duke Ellington"---homage as launching pad for appropriate inventions, shadowy sidewalk figures from a calmly visionary piano--shut us all up, ditto the moonlight miles of "Mystery of Love": 17 minutes, guided by the flute of Billy Harper. Whole thing rec. live at Montreux, 1974.

I listened to this this morning and really enjoyed it: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/500-chains. Didn't focus on the content of the text but the overall sound is pretty good. Only thing I might change is the voice on "One Thousand Butterflies". They describe it as

Seven pieces of animated, dynamic & melodic, colorful quartet music that sound, to our ears, like Andre 3000 (the balladeer) backed by a Mardi Gras marching band channeling Chicago style post rock & free jazz...

Bluesy guitar lines that aren't particularly complex but work really well imo.

Yes, and a friend directed me to his previous '18 release, pretty amazing:

"Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun" is as much a 'greatest hits' as it is a 'debut album' for Ben LaMar Gay. It's a collection of music composed, performed & produced by the anomalous Southside Chicago-born, sometimes Brazil-residing artist, compiled from 7 albums he made over the last 7 years but never made the effort to actually release.

With its title taken from the mantra Ben repeats across several tracks on "Grapes" (1 of the 7 aforementioned albums), "Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun" is our effort to channel the rainbow of sonic expressions, art & poetry beaming from the ark of his unreleased catalogue into a cohesive & communicable compilation. It's as good of an introduction to Ben LaMar Gay as we could fit onto a single LP. To call it "eclectic" would only scratch the surface. This music is everything.
credits
released May 4, 2018
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/downtown-castles-can-never-block-the-sun

Also, I just taped a podcast interview with Ethan Iverson and Mark Turner that'll be out next week, and it's a fucking blast.

Enjoyed this, although I chuckled at "I don't think anyone involved in hip music is happy about the existence of New Age" -- oh Ethan, if you only knew how wrong you are.

I posted this sad news about Jerry Gonzalez on some other threads, but not sure if you folks saw it--

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/latin/8477603/jerry-gonzalez-dies-trumpeter-dead

Latin jazz trumpeter Jerry González has reportedly died at age 69, according to The Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) and local reports.

González reportedly died after a fire blazed through his first-floor home in Madrid around midnight on Monday (Oct. 1...González, who was of Puerto Rican parentage, was born in East Harlem and grew up in The Bronx. He was a member of Eddie Palmieri’s band early in his career, then joined Manny Oquendo’s Conjunto Libre with his brother, bassist Andy González. Andy was also by his side in The Fort Apache Band, which he formed in 1979.

After appearing in Spanish director Fernando Trueba’s 2000 Latin jazz documentary Calle 54, Jerry González moved to Madrid. There, he formed a quartet, El Comando de la Clave, and recorded and performed with both jazz and flamenco musicians

Sad, but thanks for the update---here's Nate Chinen's appealing description of a Fort Apache gig (that I'll have to look for on the 'Tube):
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/arts/music/jerry-gonzalez-the-fort-apache-band-at-the-blue-note.html

The Elemental Music label is putting out some great previously unreleased live material by Dexter Gordon and Woody Shaw; they started with Tokyo 1975 and Tokyo 1981 by Shaw, and the next two, coming later this month, are Espace Cardin 1977 by Gordon and Bremen 1983 by Shaw. I mean, obviously they're strictly for diehard fans, but I've become a big Shaw fan over the last few years and this new one - it's a two-CD set - sounds phenomenal. The band is Mulgrew Miller on piano, Stafford James on bass, and Tony Reedus on drums. The Gordon band might be even better - Al Haig on piano (the only recording of him with Gordon), Pierre Michelot on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums. Those latter two were on Gordon's album Our Man In Paris in 1963, with Bud Powell on piano.

Sounds good, thanks. Did you get your press copy of the Dexter bio yet?

No, not yet. Forgot all about it, actually. Hope it shows up soon!

Tompkins Square is pleased to announce our new association with jazz saxophonist and educator, Dr. Teodross Avery.

Avery, currently head of Jazz Studies at the California State University Dominguez Hills, has played with everyone from Art Farmer, Hank Jones, Roy Ayers and Roy Hargrove to Lauryn Hill and Amy Winehouse.

His most recent album, Post Modern Trap Music, is a duo collaboration with drummer Marvin "Bugalu" Smith (Sun Ra, Archie Shepp, Chet Baker) in the spirit of duo albums of the 1960’s and 70’s such as John Coltrane’s Interstellar Space and Frank Lowe & Rashied Ali’s Duo Exchange.

** Avery & Smith will play a very special one-off show at Smalls in NYC on October 20th, 4:30pm. **

Avery's Tompkins Square debut, a Coltrane program recorded live in Oakland, will be released in 2019.
Buy Post Modern Trap Music on CD via Tompkins Square by simply sending $15 via PayPal using this link ($25 x-US)https://www.paypal.me/TompkinsSquare

Spotify

Apple

https://www.teodrossavery.com/bio/

saw Mats Gustafsson and his Fire trio yesterday at a small club, such great, fun, visceral playing - very rocky, slightly noisy, funky, groovy, recommended

I'm going to be seeing them in Oslo at the end of November, at Rune Grammofon's 20th anniversary concert. (Also on the bill: Maja Rajtke, Motorpsycho, and the Hedvig Mollestad Trio.) Very excited.

New ECM disc coming up:Lebroba: Andrew Cyrille/Wadada Leo Smith/Bill Frisell

Wow, is that three releases Frisell is on this year now? I listen to Music IS all the time but haven't got around to the Halvorson collab yet.

There are more Frisell releases from this year. On October 12, a new Wayne Horvitz album will come out with Frisell on it called "Those who remain". There was a vinyl-only release with Skuli Sverrisson too but that stuff is pricey.