Make a Jazz Noise Here

[escher]

i'd like to know what you guys think of this piece
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noVTbHmB76k

the more i listen to it the more the more i think of the music that Shorter, Hancock, Henderson etc were doing ten-fifteen years later. I wonder if Shorter was influenced in some way by Teddy Charles.

[escher]

blessed relief is one of my favorite pieces talking of the jazzy side of zappa.

Here's another one (actually two, kung fu and rdnzl in the best version i've heard)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWUiN03dL38
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NmZOtmZR24

[Grazioso]

i'd like to know what you guys think of this piece
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noVTbHmB76k

the more i listen to it the more the more i think of the music that Shorter, Hancock, Henderson etc were doing ten-fifteen years later. I wonder if Shorter was influenced in some way by Teddy Charles.

Very interesting! Yes, the parallels are very striking, in terms of harmony and sparseness. It reminds me a lot of this classic album

[escher]

Very interesting! Yes, the parallels are very striking, in terms of harmony and sparseness. It reminds me a lot of this classic album

yes it's a good comparison also for me 

Leon: Booker Ervin is great, and greatly underrated (i prefer him even to Sonny Rollins). I would add to your list The trance



The title track (that i think now it's available only in the album Setting the pace with Dexter Gordon) is
my favorite of him
http://www.divshare.com/download/11888618-509

[jowcol]

"Booker Ervin's tenor is like a giant steamroller of a brush, painting huge patterns on a canvas as wide and high as the sky."

--Ira Gitler

Booker Ervin is another in a line of Texas Tenor saxophonists.  Arnett Cobb, James Clay, David "Fathead" Newman, Ornette Coleman (an altoist but still having these traits) and Booker Ervin all share certain qualities in their playing: a big, warm, but edgy, sound, a strong sense of swing and their soloing, no matter how high they may soar into the upper reaches of chordal harmonies their playing is always rooted in The Blues.

Booker Ervin started out playing trombone but picked up the tennor sax while in the army and taught himself enough after a year to begin getting work.  He went back to Texas and gigged some with James Clay before going off to Boston and studying at what would become the Berklee School of Music.  Eventually he made his way to New York and got the gig with Charles Mingus, the band in which he made his name.  Booker Ervin managed to hold his own between Mingus and Eric Dolphy, no small feat, and emerge with a distinctive sound and recognizable style.  He went on to make a number of records under his own name, which include these as a quartet of CDs that would form the core of a Booker Ervin collection:

The Freedom Book



The Song Book



The Blues Book



Space Book



These dates were recorded between 1963-1964 and while The Blues Book is a quintet with Carmell Jones on trumpet,  for the rest Ervin chose to work with a quartet.   Ervin used three different pianists on these records, but Jaki Byard, on The Freedom Book and Space Book is the most engaging and stylistically simpatico member.   The other pianists were Tommy Flanagan (The Song Book) and Gildo Mahones (Blues Book).   The rhythm section is comprised of Richard Davis and Alan Dawson on all four.  Ervin shows himself very capable at writing jazz tunes that display both melodic and harmonic ingenuity as well as being flexible and inspiring vehicles for sololing.

Booker Ervin also worked some in Europe and with other Mingus alumni like Horace Parlan and Dannie Richmond.  But no matter in what setting he is found, Ervin's playing can always displays those quintessential Texas qualities of a big, warm, but edgy, sound, a strong sense of swing and rooted in The Blues, despite his obvious modernistic bent. 

He died just short of his 40th birthday and left this world too soon but not before leaving behind a rich recorded legacy.

Good choices-- the Freedom Book is a great album-- A Day to Mourn is a really haunting piece, and Alan Dawson (who taught Tony Williams, among other things) is, IMO, a truly underrated drummer.

[escher]

what's the problem on Ervin now?

[jowcol]

what's the problem on Ervin now?

Well, he did die before having a chance to play with Weather Report....

[karlhenning]

"The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive-Ass Slippers"

[Mirror Image]

The world lost a great jazz pianist when Michel Petrucciani passed away...

http://www.youtube.com/v/EHwL4AAffzA

This is one of the finest solo jazz piano pieces I know. It sounds to me like almost a requiem of sorts. Truly gorgeous.

[Mirror Image]

Did anybody get a chance to listen to the Michel Petrucciani piece I submitted? I think it's gorgeous. He really was a master. What's so remarkable about him wasn't his size, but just how incredible his playing is despite his health problems (he had a rare bone disease that stunned his growth). I've read stories that his bones were so fragile that he actually has broke his fingers on numerous occasions and had to wait for them to heal up just to be able to play again. Such dedication he had to music. An inspiration for us all.

[karlhenning]

Is this jazz, really? Dunno, but it's cold and damp here in Boston, and I need some fire:

[asin]B000002AHM[/asin]

[bwv 1080]

Is this jazz, really? Dunno, but it's cold and damp here in Boston, and I need some fire:

[asin]B000002AHM[/asin]

Must be my CG snobbery talking (i.e. no pick), but Paco de Lucia stands so far above McLaughlin and Dimeola on that disc, you might as well just get one of his solo albums

[bwv 1080]

great Oscar Peterson rendition of Jobim's Wave

http://www.youtube.com/v/f44qgQA1B-g

[Mirror Image]

Hey Leon,

Did you get a chance to listen to this?

http://www.youtube.com/v/EHwL4AAffzA

Do you like this piece? What do you think about Michel Petrucciani? I think he was one of the greatest European jazz pianists that ever lived.

[jowcol]

Is this jazz, really? Dunno, but it's cold and damp here in Boston, and I need some fire:

[asin]B000002AHM[/asin]

Wow.  That brought back some memories.  I particularly love the  the song Mediterranean Sundance that opened the live album. So  I dusted off my vinyl of this album and Di Meola's Elegant Gypsy.  On the latter, the studio version of that song  was a duet with Di Meola and De Lucia.  )

http://www.youtube.com/v/hhccIfevjCU


I tried to listen to more of Elegant Gypsy-- it may be Di Meola's most solid solo album from the 70s in the fusion daze.  A couple cuts I liked, but after a while I rememembered why I didn't feel the need to get that latter album (or his other albums from that period)  on CD.  His technique is amazing, but there is a certain sterility to my ears.   I can't say I really liked his Piazzolla albums that much, but was delighed to see him showing homage to the man.

Still, thanks much for blast from the past.

[bwv 1080]

perhaps the most underrated jazz-funk of the 70s

http://www.youtube.com/v/AdNrOyNlDF8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/v/g2ZEtWA-N9w&feature=related

[Mirror Image]

I agree with you that Michel Petrucciani was one of the greatest European jazz pianists - and I listened to this clip.  It was very nice.  But I've never been a huge fan of solo piano jazz; it is my least favorite setting and I much prefer jazz played in a small group.  The piano trio is a fantastic setting, as well as quartet and I've heard Petrucciani with Charles Lloyd in a series of CDs thay made in the 1980s which I enjoy more than the solo piece.

But he was a great artist and had to deal with some serious obstacles which makes his achievement all the more impressive.

A few of other European pianists I like are Bobo Stenson, Enrico Pieranunzi and Stefano Bollani.

Thanks for posting the Michel Petrucciani clip.

I agree on all counts.

I'm not really a fan of solo piano anyway, regardless of the style, but I thought this particular work showed a different side to Petrucciani that doesn't get that much attention, though he made several more solo recordings in the years to come (Promenade with Duke, 100 Hearts). His trio recordings on Blue Note and Owl Records were outstanding. He really came alive in the trio setting and I enjoy jazz with small groups too, but I'm a fan of big band, so I do like that big kind of sound as well. Anyway, Petrucciani was such a great player and so were the other pianists you mentioned. I'm very familiar with all their work. I also like Marcin Wasilewski who is still young pianist on the scene but has played with Tomasz Stanko on such albums as Suspended Night and Lontano. There's a lot of jazz talent in Europe that has yet to be fully tapped into by the United States. A shame really, but given what a cultural wasteland this country is, it's not all that surprising.

[Robert]

Did anybody get a chance to listen to the Michel Petrucciani piece I submitted? I think it's gorgeous. He really was a master. What's so remarkable about him wasn't his size, but just how incredible his playing is despite his health problems (he had a rare bone disease that stunned his growth). I've read stories that his bones were so fragile that he actually has broke his fingers on numerous occasions and had to wait for them to heal up just to be able to play again. Such dedication he had to music. An inspiration for us all.

I loved him.  I saw him many times at the village vanguard when I lived in N.Y.  It was really weird to watch Peter Erskine carry him on and off the stage.   He had these huge blocks on the piano pedals....He died so young.  A MAJOR loss....

[Robert]

Well, he did die before having a chance to play with Weather Report....

I believe you are incorrect, he did play with Weather Report.....

[Mirror Image]

I loved him.  I saw him many times at the village vanguard when I lived in N.Y.  It was really weird to watch Peter Erskine carry him on and off the stage.   He had these huge blocks on the piano pedals....He died so young.  A MAJOR loss....

Yes, I agree on all counts. Those wooden blocks, which were custom built for him, were designed to mash the sustain pedal and the other one was for the sostenuto pedal, because, obviously, he couldn't reach them.