Rolling Jazz Thread 2018

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.

Those prices aren't bad at all, esp. if you get it from one of the Amazon dealers, rather than Am itself.

All tuba (sousaphone). Thanks!

The one with Halvorson is brilliant and inspired me to check out loads of Johnny Smith as well.

same

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.

This sounds awesome!

I am not normally a big fan of piano trios, but Brazilian pianist Amaro Freitas's album Rasif, which comes out 10/19, is really interesting. He almost reminds me of Matthew Shipp, but he's got a unique thing all his own going on. There are two advance tracks on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kVWGIg2hsI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=937Ooyyrfmg

wow yeah, that sounds v interesting

esp title track

His Sangue Negro album is good stuff as well, very much like his style.

Brian Marsella Trio - Outspoken: The Music of the Legendary Hasaan
^^^^
as a massive fan of the short lived brilliance of the Legendary Hasaan - I'm interested in this one.

Milford Graves' legendary 1976 album Bäbi, featuring Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover on saxes, is being reissued by the Corbett vs. Dempsey label, with bonus material from 1969. It's not up on the label's website yet, but there's an ad for it in the new issue of The Wire, which came out digitally today.

yesssssssssss

new lionel loueke album is excellent

Such great news about the Milford reissue. And supposedly CvD are also preparing a reissue of the 1966 Yale duos with Don Pullen.

Yeah, Babi has been top of my want-as-a-physical-object list since Ornette Coleman's Crisis finally got put out on disc.

Deffo hope the Pullen duos follow (there are two live albs by them? think I have a vinyl-rip of one of them), the Andrew Cyrille duo too, an affordable edition of the Japanese stuff.

And while we're at it, Alabama Feeling also

Thom Jurek's review of the "new" live album by Jakob Bro otm:

There is so much here, in terms of melodic inference as well as articulation, that the music is mesmerizing. Who needs journeyman fireworks when the creation of music from these seasoned collaborators is so utterly compelling?

it's not bebop and unperson will probably find it too subtle, but for me it's as good as music gets

trio is on tour, currently in North America, highly recommend seeing them, a meditative and life-affirming experience (dates: https://www.ecmrecords.com/artists/1435047311/jakob-bro )