Make a Jazz Noise Here

[king ubu]

Speaking of recent losses - Idris Muhammad has died a few days ago, too
http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2014/07/idris_muhammad_legendary_new_o.html

Caught him live in the early noughtes when he was with Ahmad Jamal's trio, which toured with George Coleman - great memories!

Here's a favourite track of mine - the master take is on Lou Donaldson's "The Scorpion" - great disc (though I'm not too big on Poppa Lou due to his extremely narrow-mindedness and arrogant stance all things jazz):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_JixzY-KE6Q

give the drummer some! give the funky drummer some!

[Karl Henning]

Drummer Frankie Dunlop has reportedly died early in July - been playing some of those Monk albums he's on this morning - to my ears, he was the perfect match for Monk's music, his playing has that dancing thing that Monk had (and did).

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Love the "Pannonica" on that album.

Thread Duty:

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[Bogey]

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A must that many do not consider so, IMO

[king ubu]

Yes, "It Club" gets most of the fanfare amongst the Columbia live albums it seems, but this one's indeed terrific!

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Anyone know the Vandermark 5? I picked up their album Acoustic Machine:



This is smokin' hot, within a context that ranges from meditative to frantic. Of particular excellence is the playing of the trombonist, Jeb Bishop.

[torut]

Anyone know the Vandermark 5? I picked up their album Acoustic Machine:



This is smokin' hot, within a context that ranges from meditative to frantic. Of particular excellence is the playing of the trombonist, Jeb Bishop.

I don't have many, but The Horse Jumps and the Ship is Gone is one of my favorite free jazz albums. The line-up is Vandermark 5 + special guests (Magnus Broo - trumpet, Havard Wiik - piano.) It is really wild and Vandermark's riffs are very powerful. Other than Vandermark 5, I like the duo album with Paal Nilssen-Love (Chicago Volume) and the album with The Thing (Immediate Sounds).

[Bogey]

From 1955:



The Cannon (alto sax)
Nat Adderley (trumpet)
Jerome Richardson (tenor sax)
Cecil Payne (baritone sax)
John Williams (piano)*
Paul Chambers (bass)
Jimmy Cleveland or J. J. Johnson (trobone)


* Not the Star Wars John Williams who did a lot of jazz back in the day, but John Thomas Williams who sat in with the likes of Getz and Adderly.
http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/2011/01/an_old_bit_of_confusion.html
Kenny Clarke or Max Roach (drums)
arranged by Quincy Jones

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

First listen to Brad Mehldau's solo album, Elegiac Cycle.



Wow, this is really something. I'm not sure if this can be properly described as jazz: it sounds like some modern classical, some Romantic pianism, and some jazz techniques all thrown into a blender and mixed together. Somehow, these disparate ingredients get along harmoniously.

[Brian]

Listening to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers' live album Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, I was surprised to hear a pretty straightforward cover of Ernesto Lecuona's "Andaluza," under the new title of "The Breeze and I".

[king ubu]

If you want more Lecuona, check out this fine one (OOP but I guess it's around):
Danza Negra - Ramón Valle Plays Ernesto Lecuona

Been playing jazz and jazz only these past few days ... first, started with this one which I just got:



Aki Takase - Flying Soul (Intakt)

chamber jazz w/three Frenchmen: Louis Sclavis (cl/bcl), Dominique Pifarély (v), Vincent Courtois (vc) - pretty good!
here's a short review from Fordman in The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/30/aki-takase-la-planete-flying-soul-review

then went on with a new arrival by Monk:

Thelonious Monk - Olympia - Mar. 6th, 1965

a double disc on LaserLight - recordings from the vaults of French radio, the mid sixties quartet with Charlie Rouse, Larry Gales and Ben Riley - okay, lots of routine creeping into the music at this point (I love the slightly earlier albums with the late Frankie Dunlop on traps! he's giving the music lots of kicks and lets it dance in a way no other Monk drummer did), but this one's pretty good to my (Monk completist) ears and Ben Riley is uber-hip, really ... that snappy sound, minimal set (I guess), very good! (Gales might be the one real weak spot, at least solo-wise ... I'm not at all opposed to bass solos, but his are ... well, okay, but rarely more than that).

Then most of a day some Ray Bryant - much of it easy-going and rather sligth (though he made some other ones that I really adore, just didn't revisit those this time 'round):



Ray Bryant - Ray Bryant Trio Plays the Complete Little Susie (Lonehill)
Ray Bryant - The Madison Square with a Hollywood Beat (Collectables twofer)
Ray Bryant - Groove House (Collectables)
Ray Bryant - Ray Bryant Trio with Jimmy Rowser & Ben Riley: Complete Recordings (Lonehill twofer)
Ray Bryant - Soul (Collectables)

now the final three are pretty good ... Rowser again isn't the most inspired bass player, but he's rock solid and Bryant really is in charge ... but Lonehill's sound isn't that stable - no idea what they sourced this from, might be smarter to get other reissues of these (not sure if there are Japanese ones or just the 90s Collectables ones, but those I played sound pretty okay to my ears, the Lonehill doesn't). The first one is pretty good, too - adding the "Little Susie" single (parts 1 & 2, he later made parts 3 & 4 for Columbia, don't have that one) to an early trio album ... but when I say he made better albums, I mean the Prestige ones from the same time frame (one trio, one solo titled "Alone with the Blues"), and I'd also throw in the live album from Montreux on Atlantic (seventies, I think). On "Madison" you get some tiring voicovers/directions, but also some good spots by Harry Edison, Buddy Tate and Al Grey/Urbie Green/Benny Morton (three dates, one of 'em present at a time, while Sweets and Tate are there all the way through). Elsewhere you get poppy stuff, twangy guitar on some of "Groove House", easy tinkling piano ... but brother Tommy is very good on bass and really roots stuff - best so on "Soul", where for most tracks he's joined by Walter Perkins, a truly unsung great of modern jazz drumming, and it's quite a pleasure to hear him offering his own kind of back beat on some of the more basic tracks. The album offers the whole Bryant enchilada: catchy soul jazz, slow ballads, blues, pop/movie stuff ("Goldfinger") ... and also a good take of "Please Send Me Someone to Love" (I love Percy Mayfield!)

Then on with some later (more substantial ones):



Ray Bryant - All Blues (Pablo)
Ray Bryant - Somewhere in France (Label M, a live solo gig from 1993)
Ray Bryant - Ray's Tribute to his Jazz Piano Fans (now this one's really good!)

Other stuff played after that:



Horace Tapscott - Dissent or Descent
Billy Strayhorn - Out of the Shadows (Storyville 7CD box, a large tribute with many artists performing Strayhorn's music, including his own 1961 Paris albums)

Then (including all day yesterday) Teddy Wilson:



This is another 8 disc box by Storyville - "Solo Big Band" isn't the proper title, on the back of the box it also gives trio, sextet (and more, I think ... there are trio + guests shows included, too). In short, you get half an hour of Wilson's big band (radio transcriptions from 1939), a lengthy, glorious solo segment (1939/40, again transcriptions), a lengthy sextet date (Emmett Berry, Benny Morton, Edmond Hall), then on discs 3-5 you get mostly trio dates from 1952-56 (one from 1959) with various rhythm sections, two with guests: Dizzy Gillespie and Coleman Hawkins (doing a tune each separately and then a "jam session" together), J.J. Johnson/Kai Winding and Hank d'Amico (same procedure again), you also get a good date with Edmond Hall added to the trio ... and you get one 1945 all stars sextet date with Charlie Shavers, Red Norvo and Remo Palmieri (not sure why that one's programmed out of sequence in the midst of the trio segment ... guess they wanted to make disc 4 the one with guests and that sextet date ... but Hall pops up on disc 3 already).

On discs 6-8 you get mostly late trio music (1979/80), very good stuff, too! There's also a short 1968 date (more from that year is on a separate Storyville disc that was skipped for this box, alas), and to cap things off, there's a love solo date. Wonderful piano playing, for sure!

In between the two "halfs" of the Storyville box, I played the entirety of this one:



The Complete Verve Recordings of the Teddy Wilson Trio (Mosaic, 5CD)

more wonderful piano playing there ... all the sessions with Jo Jones are great, but the very first short one with Buddy Rich is pretty perfect, too!

Now another Mosaic set:

The Complete Master Jazz Piano Series (4CD)

some info on contents here:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-complete-master-jazz-piano-series-mw0000918770

[Henk]

*
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Released today. Essential stuff.

[Mookalafalas]

I've hardly listened to jazz since I got the serious classical bug about a year and a half ago--but suddenly I got the urge...
Just played Miles "Someday My Prince Will Come"
   Now playing blues--Robert Johnson
   Queued up---Monks Dream

[Mookalafalas]

Listening to Jelly Roll Mortons Hot Peppers recordings of the 1920s.  The versions in the Membran "Classic Jazz" big box have unbelievably good sound.  I can't believe they are from the 1920s.  Much better than the King Oliver, Bessie Smith, and most other stuff I've heard from that era.  Wonderfully fun and lively music, with lots of variety and playfulness.

[Ken B]

I've hardly listened to jazz since I got the serious classical bug about a year and a half ago--but suddenly I got the urge...
Just played Miles "Someday My Prince Will Come"
   Now playing blues--Robert Johnson
   Queued up---Monks Dream

Come back to us Al!

[Mookalafalas]

Come back to us Al!

  It may take a while.  I"m reading Gary Giddin's "Visions of Jazz".  He's a terrific writer.  He really makes you want to listen to all the stuff he talks about--and he talks about a lot of stuff!
      However....my Brilliant Bach is due to arrive at any minute. That could snap be back to classical pretty quickly

[Ken B]

  It may take a while.  I"m reading Gary Giddin's "Visions of Jazz".  He's a terrific writer.  He really makes you want to listen to all the stuff he talks about--and he talks about a lot of stuff!
      However....my Brilliant Bach is due to arrive at any minute. That could snap be back to classical pretty quickly

That's what Mirror Image said. Now look at him, a broken soul who thinks Barber means only a man who cuts hair, and who says "gesundheit" when when Shostakovich is mentioned.

[Mookalafalas]

That's what Mirror Image said. Now look at him, a broken soul who thinks Barber means only a man who cuts hair, and who says "gesundheit" when when Shostakovich is mentioned.

  No fear there. I'm a guy who wants to know everything--eventually.  If I love something, I still have to keep moving on because there is so much out there still to experience. I know a lot more about jazz than classical, but I still don't know very much about it. But jazz is only lake Michigan. Classical is the Pacific. It'll keep me busy for the rest of my life, I suppose.
   If I excited about film or literature again, however, I'll probably just disappear from the boards for a couple of years.

[North Star]

  No fear there. I'm a guy who wants to know everything--eventually.  If I love something, I still have to keep moving on because there is so much out there still to experience. I know a lot more about jazz than classical, but I still don't know very much about it. But jazz is only lake Michigan. Classical is the Pacific. It'll keep me busy for the rest of my life, I suppose.
   If I excited about film or literature again, however, I'll probably just disappear from the boards for a couple of years.

Hey, we have topics for all that here. 

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Ahmad Jamal has long been a fave but it'd really only been his 50's era music (the entire decade) that really turned me on. In the 50's he seemed his own man, highly individual and not afraid to flaunt it. But next came three-and-a-half decades of a loosening of the individuality in favor of a style more easily swayed by the musical trends, at least that's the way I hear it (for example: a pop-inspired electric bass throughout the 80's).

But next came a renaissance in the mid 90's and 2000's which seemed a return to his roots. A trio of "Essence" albums kicked it off (1994-98) and the old Jamal was back.

There's just over a minute of slow intro before the main course:




https://www.youtube.com/v/E1bP5zXqvg0




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[torut]

Ahmad Jamal has long been a fave but it'd really only been his 50's era music (the entire decade) that really turned me on. In the 50's he seemed his own man, highly individual and not afraid to flaunt it. But next came three-and-a-half decades of a loosening of the individuality in favor of a style more easily swayed by the musical trends, at least that's the way I hear it (for example: a pop-inspired electric bass throughout the 80's).

But next came a renaissance in the mid 90's and 2000's which seemed a return to his roots. A trio of "Essence" albums kicked it off (1994-98) and the old Jamal was back.

There's just over a minute of slow intro before the main course:




https://www.youtube.com/v/E1bP5zXqvg0

That's very nice, but The Awakening (1970) is very good as well. I don't think his individuality is lost here. It is one of my favorite Jazz piano albums.
https://www.youtube.com/v/5f6x-laLDeY