What Jazz are you listening to now?

Started by Gurn Blanston, June 12, 2015, 06:16:31 AM

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SimonNZ

#2420


Charlie Byrd - Byrd In The Wind (1959)
Egberto Gismonti - Dança das Cabeças (1977)

Artem

#2421
Late period Chet Baker.
[asin]B00026KPDY[/asin]

James

Action is the only truth

king ubu

#2423
Started a chronological MJQ survey (incl. write-ups in German) that I plan to continue in coming weeks/months (with a long travel/vacation break) ... played the early Dee Gee/Hi-Lo (later on Savoy) sessions, the Prestige material and some closely associated stuff:



The first is the Denon/Savoy disc (or one of its incarnations) with the early sides (1951/52, nominally still led by Bags) - I actually have it on this disc (which is worth a fiver or a tener, too - done by the people behind the "Jazz in Paris" series):
https://www.amazon.de/Early-Mjq-Jackson-Milt/dp/B00007M9KC

The second contains Jackson's lone session as a leader on Blue Note - it's the MJQ with Lou Donaldson added. Alfred Lion was impressed by Poppa Lou (not quite Poppa back then I guess?) and he was recording as a leader within a few weeks, but Jackson only made one more appearance (on the wonderful "Hank Mobley and His All Stars", were even a lousy instrument doesn't stop him). Jackson had of course participated in a couple of Monk sessions previously - they're amongst the best in Monk's entire catalogue.



The MJQ sans Lewis, who was replaced by Blossom Dearie, also made a session with Annie Ross ... it contains two saccharine ballads and two nice pieces - actually Annie's take on "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" is better than the MJQ one. On the Parker set, there are two cuts (plus a sign-off "52nd Street Theme") that have Bird sitting in with the MJQ - they're his show, and they're great.



Associated listening ... some early Bags with Sonny Stitt (eight tracks) and with Lewis, bassist brother Al Jackson, Klook and Chano Pozo (four tracks), the Stitt from either late 1947 or early 1948 (not as late as the discographies say, as Stitt was sitting in jail at that time: "Stitt was arrested in Detroit for illegal sale of narcotics, convicted, sentenced to two years in prison and subsequently incarcerated at the prison unit at U.S. Public Health Service facility at Lexington, Kentucky, from March 10, 1948 until September 9, 1949. It was during this period that Miles Davis sought Stitt to no avail for what became the first of the Birth of the Cool recordings." (from Zan Stewarts liner notes to the Stitt Mosaic box).

Either way, these are in no way essential records ... the best session on the disc is likely the one with Stitt replacing Illinois Jacquet (session led by Russell Jacquet) where the great sound of that swinging little band is featured (one that sounds much bigger than the number of its members would have you except).



Then the Prestige stuff ... played from the box left, above ... and squeezed in the live broadcasts with a splendid Ben Webster and expert backing that is quite different in that it does not rely on arrangements much.

Some cool covers (first one is a Swedish EP of the first MJQ Prestige session):





The first MJQ Prestige date was later coupled with a pretty nice Milt Jackson Quintet session with Horace Silver on piano (and Heath/Clarke) plus Henry Boozier on trumpet. "Django" couples the second and third session (skipping the one with Rollins, that is). The title cut is one of the greatest achievements of John Lewis, starting with a dirge-like section, than building tension and releasing it ... most effective, and very touching, even after all these years and all the great versions heard (i.e. from "The Jazzet Plays John Lewis" or Grant Green's "Idle Moments").



The first actual LP by the MJQ was their last effort for Prestige (earlier, their sessions were done for 78 rpms, EPs, 10" LPs and then repacked onto 12 inchers). It's a gorgeous album indeed, so far easily their crowning achievement (other than "Django", of course) - "Concorde" is the second fugal experiment by Lewis and works much better than "Vendome" (which lacks some of the jazzy/swinging qualitiy that they were after) With Silver at the piano and new drummer Connie Kay on board - this was then Jackson's first actual long player, I think (at the same time he started recording for Savoy as a leader or co-leader, too, and there usually he was reunited with Kenny Clarke ...)

Will go into 1956 next ... actually also played these, before starting to tackle things chronolocigally:



And finally, I played some more Les McCann over the weekend as well - both new arrivals and gap fillers as far as McCann's early years go:



Just "The Shampoo" from the second, as I've had a Japanese reissue of "In New York" for a while (there, the horns of Blue Mitchell, Frank Haynes and Stanley Turrentine are added - the return deal for borrowing Mr. T. to Pacific was that McCann played on a T album for Blue Note, the wonderful "That's Where It's At")
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

SimonNZ

^Loving the MJQ commentary and looking forward to reading more. I don't know that Annie Ross record - is it now a part of something else? Anyway I went and played another of her albums:



Annie Ross - A Handful Of Songs (1964)

king ubu

Quote from: SimonNZ on September 18, 2017, 10:05:43 PM
^Loving the MJQ commentary and looking forward to reading more. I don't know that Annie Ross record - is it now a part of something else? Anyway I went and played another of her albums:



Annie Ross - A Handful Of Songs (1964)

Thanks! In German I'm really writing up stuff ... quoting/abusing liner notes and such, of course:
http://forum.rollingstone.de/foren/topic/the-modern-jazz-quartet/
I'm actually enjoying this a lot, some of the stuff I've never yet listened to (the Atlantic Mosaic box for instance - knew the most important albums on their own previously), some I am revisiting after quite a while. One thing though: the band sounded brilliantly and from what you read was really using dynamics when they played live. That cannot be properly reproduced on rekkid, even less so when Atlantic was your label ... they always had a kind of muddy sound in my opinion (but on the other hand they really figured out what to do with the LP format fast, which Prestige never quite managed, their goal was mostly just to fill up two 20 minutes sides ... that's unfair I know, they have lots of glorious music and plenty of it works wonderfully as albums, but in general I still think it's true).

Anyway, this was the continuation last night:



The group's Atlantic debut, to me, is a major step forward - a brilliant album that really works the LP format. Mosaic uses the mono masters for both first albums, and they offer the three cuts (two from "Fontessa", one from the barn) that differed on the stereo edition. For the "Fontessa" cuts, the sound is downright awful, for the barn cut, there's some low flutter ... mono rules, for jazz and pop anyway, reissues should much more often have used mono I feel (that's how people heard it back then, that's how it played on air, that's how it had punch and warmth and was in yo' face).

The second one has a downright gorgeous blues on in with "Two Deegrees East, Three Degrees West" (used as a title track to another great leader- and motherless album in early 1956, with Lewis and Heath and three west coasters: Bill Perkins, Jim Hall, Chico Hamilton). The rest is sketchy, some of it very nice, some less interesting, and the three cuts with Giuffre are merely sketches that alas fail to make proper use of the lovely sonic addition of his woody clarinet. Too bad they never really got to work together - like this, to me, it's a missed opportunity, alas.



Then it was on to this again, the two 1956 portions ... and wow, these guys from SDR and SWF (now SWR) knew how caputure the sound! Due to late time I switched to headphones, and sonics on the first four cuts are outstanding, you really get an idea of the dynamics here. On track five, a band is added, things get a bit cute ... tracks 6 and 7 then are with the Edelhagen big band added, they're ok, but not really great - two of the group's best tunes, "Bluesology" and "Django", but they don't profit all that much from the added horns and stuff. But it's nice to hear Kay kick a big band (he was session drummer for many of Atlantic's R&B dates, so he know how to kick and how to handle backbeats and all that).

https://youtu.be/FczhlHFGvNA

In Sindelfingen, on the same package tour, some 23 minutes of music by Miles Davis, Lester Young, the MJQ and the Edelhagen big band were captured. Sounds intriguing? It certainly is, the thought alone of having the two jazz musicians that best embody the power of vulnerability on the same stage is fascinating, but alas, the results result falls somewhat flat. Miles is in okay shape, but Pres shows little interest in shaping a coherent solo. The MJQ is present in the two long jams, but Jackson alas doesn't get to solo in the first. In the second, I guess the stomping drummer is the one from the Edelhagen band (Losin has a line-up: http://www.plosin.com/MilesAhead/Disco.aspx?id=YoungBox) - and his work is quite boring compared to Connie Kay on the above disc. The alto solo would likely be by Reinhardt, the baritone is clear (Helmut Brandt, a fine musician), no idea who the second trumpet soloist is.

The Annie Ross tracks (two good ones, two schlocky ones) can be found as a bonus on this pretty odd disc:

[asin]B00KJHRGCE[/asin]
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

James

Action is the only truth

Spineur

Booker Ervin, The freedom book

[asin]B000OLHG52[/asin]

Feathers Thomas Enhco

[asin]B00T8N4IHQ[/asin]

James

Action is the only truth

SimonNZ



David Murray - Speaking In Tongues (1999)

James

Action is the only truth

Spineur

#2431
Recent acquisition: Lathe of Heaven; Mark Turner quartet (2014)
Mark Turner, Tenor Sax
Avishai Cohen, Trumpet
Joe Martin, double bass
Marcus Gilmore, Drums

[asin]B00LG92ET4[/asin]

On most compositions on this CD, the tenor sax and the trumpet play some beautiful harmonic progression of chords not often heard on jazz CDs.  Most classical music lovers would appreciate this.  The rythmic section is there to keep everybody in line.


James

Action is the only truth

SimonNZ

#2433


David Murray - Yonn-De (1999)
Tomasz Stanko - Soul Of Things (2002)

James

Action is the only truth

SimonNZ

#2435


Johnny Hodges - Castle Rock (1955)
Oliver Nelson - The Kennedy Dream (1967)

James

Action is the only truth

SimonNZ

#2437


Elvin Jones - Time Capsule (1977)
Medeski Martin & Wood – Zaebos: John Zorn's Book of Angels Volume 11 (2008)

king ubu

my MJQ listen went on for a bit:



The soundtrack for "Sait-on jamais" (No Sun in Venice) is pretty nice and moody and explores Lewis' love for Italian music a bit more ... to the left one of the European EPs (there were three, plus the LP, all using the same design but in different cover), to the right the US edition. In the middle, there's the album simply titled "Modern Jazz Quartet" - this is very straight, no experiments, road-tested repertoire, lots of blowing.



In 1957, the MJQ was part of the Granz tour package that was documented on several "In the Opera House" albums (Ella Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins/Roy Eldridge, Stan Getz/J.J. Johnson), sharing the bill with the Oscar Peterson trio (with original bassist of the once Dizzy Gillespie rhythm section that turned into the MJQ, Ray Brown). They do some down to earth stuff, probably picking up vibes from the audience. They were then again also documented over in Europe ... the NDR disc is half an hour short and offers the studio re-creation of half of a live set, including announcements by Lewis. Better because longer and not fake is the Cologne concert on the disc to the right. 70 minutes in good audio (at least as good as what the Atlantic studio produced ... they really weren't too much into hi-fi there, it seems) and a varied programme including complex stuff making use of baroque means, blues, blowing vehicles.



The second album from the Music Inn is pretty nice, its highlight a reunion (after their 1953 Prestige session) with Sonny Rollins who sits in on live versions of "Bags' Groove" and "A Night in Tunisia". He's in jesting mood for the former, while the later gets somewhat more serious. Not a fully successful meeting, but good fun indeed. The quartet part (done sans audience) is nice. The SWR disc contains some more cuts from 1957 and 1958 which I played in sequence. The last cuts from 1958 include a funky blues dedicated to German jazz critic Joachim Ernst Berendt, as well as Jackson doing a solo version of "Tenderly" (Berendt's idea actually).
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

king ubu



John Lewis - Improvised Meditations & Excursions

Understated, but very nice!
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/