Rolling Jazz Thread 2018

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.

Yeah, dude is hard to keep up with.

I've been listening Lebroba today, and if you liked Cyrille's last one with Frisell - Declaration of Musical Independence - this will work for you. The one with Halvorson is brilliant and inspired me to check out loads of Johnny Smith as well.

Yeah, Lebobra is great. I'm a Frisell skeptic most of the time, but him, Cyrille, and Wadada is a fantastic combination. I also recently dug out the Ginger Baker Trio's Going Back Home (Baker, Frisell, and Charlie Haden on bass) which is from 1994 and holds up very well. The group's second album, Falling Off The Roof, is disappointing by comparison.

I love Frisell's overall sound but I'm almost never on board with the actual music. I think I like him best as a sideman.

He does so much, and I really like some of it, but other things, mainly the Americana, suffers by comparison with the original or well-established versions: ol' rugged songs, suddenly super-tasteful, genteel, even. But some of this is pretty effective; Osby stalwart in the river o' reverie, for inst---rerun on Jazz Night In America last weekend:
September 10, 20157:32 PM ET
For the past two years, the remarkably versatile guitarist Bill Frisell has curated Jazz at Lincoln Center's Roots of Americana series. For the final performance of the series, he took a crowd back to the Mississippi River Delta, the great incubator of American music, with a performance titled "Up and Down the Mississippi: Traveling Highway 61." It's his way of exploring music from New Orleans jazz to Delta blues, Bob Dylan to Bix Beiderbecke.

Jazz Night In America takes in the show at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, featuring Greg Osby (saxophone), Craig Taborn (piano) and Rudy Royston (drums).
https://www.npr.org/2015/09/10/439294839/up-and-down-the-mississippi-with-bill-frisell

But overall kinda prefer this:
https://www.npr.org/2012/08/08/158004697/the-bad-plus-with-bill-frisell-live-in-concert-newport-jazz-2012

Posted press sheet upthread about the latest album w Lloyd & Marvels, here's two sets from Lincoln Center:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMSVYi4FD5o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x302QukiQc

When you've got Greg Osby, Craig Taborn, and Rudy Royston, you're 99 percent of the way there already.

I really don't like that Lloyd band/project, but none of his music really does it for me. The 60s albums had their moments, but never really achieved liftoff.

Apparently David Murray was at my brass band gig last night

Say what?

He was playing at the new jazz spot (!) down the block and came by afterwards, I hear he was into it

Alright! What's the name of your band?
Reminds me of this on Twitter:
DavidMurray
October 5 at 11:14 PM ·
When told of the passing of Bluiett I was in a car crossing the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to Saint Paul. Hamiet was mightier than that river,born and died on that river,but accomplished so much in his extraordinary life.His passion for music and wit allowed him to rise up and become not only the undisputed best Baritone player in the entire history of Jazz,but one of our greatest conceptializers. Hamiet Bluiett was a Chief,my mentor,my friend and my brother.We will miss him deeply.Like the Mississippi his legacy will flow through us forever.
This is good on Bluiett and what he brought to WSQ (text here, w link to audio, which incl. quotes and music excerpts):
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/10/05/533784788/hamiet-bluiett-giant-of-the-baritone-sax-has-died-at-78

Mama Digdown's Brass Band

Don't know if this will work but here's a clip someone posted from the set:
https://www.facebook.com/jjminer/videos/10108630286353847/

There's a box set that gathers six of the earliest World Saxophone Quartet albums. Here's the Amazon link, but you can get it cheaper elsewhere. I bought it a month or so back and it's fucking amazing.

Oho, thx
xxp That totally works!! Is there arco bass in there also, or is it all the tuba? Good shit.