What Jazz are you listening to now?

[George]

First spin. CD 01 earlier, CD 2 now. Lovely sound and performance.

[SimonNZ]

Sons of Kemet - Your Queen is a Reptile 92018)

[Alek Hidell]

I've fallen shamefully behind not only in this thread, but in the entire forum. Mea culpa!

Last coupla days:



And speaking of being ashamed, I confess that I only recently learned of this existence of this record. How did I manage to miss it?



I've avoided a lot of Powell's music because I've always read about his recorded legacy being rather uneven, especially in his later years when he was really falling apart both emotionally and physically (not that he'd ever been all that healthy at any time in his tragic adult life). But this one, recorded in Paris in 1961 with Pierre Michelot and Kenny Clarke (but not released until 1965), is very fine, a tribute from one bop pioneer to another.

[king ubu]

You can safely check out all of Bud Powell's works on Blue Note - whenever he worked with Alfred Lion, it seems things went well. With Verve, there's glorious stuff and less so ... the late recordings are indeed a mixed bunch, his two RCA albums are too contended to my liking, as if he's holding back (or, as too often with RCA at that time, the suits told him to keep things short and easy), but "Portrait of Thelonious" and also the Essen concert (actually that was the Oscar Pettiford trio w/Bud and Klook, and for the second half special guest Coleman Hawkins in great shape) are both a safe bet. This is the latest incarnation of the Essen concert (I have it on an old Black Lion CD):
https://www.jazzmessengers.com/en/10535/bud-powell/powell-pettiford-clarke-1960-essen-grugahalle

Regarding thread duty, not much time for listening at home these days as I'm at concerts almost every night (not yesterday, but I had an all classical listening programme). If live counts, I caught most of a duo set by pianists Alexander Hawkins (from Oxford) and Yves Theiler (from Zurich), paying tribute to Cecil Taylor, on Thursday (had to leave early as I had a ticket that same night for a new suite of orchestrated Berwald songs and Mahler 4 at Tonhalle, with Lisa Larsson and Lahav Shani - the new orchestrations are by Rolf Martinsson, who was in attendance as it was the very first performance, the entire thing being commissioned by Tonhalle for their 150 yrs jubilee, and Larsson having sought in the archives, finding some songs that were, it seems, never before performed).

Monday night, it was Sylvie Courvoisier (p) & Julian Sartorius (d) for the first set, and then for the second they were joined by Tom Arthurs (t) to accompany Teju Cole, who read some of his stuff and showed some of his pictures.

And Friday last week, the opening of the on-going festival (will be there again tonight and prob. tomorrow for closing, too) was with Kaja Draksler/Petter Eldh/Christian Lillinger and then second Peter Bruun's All Too Human.

Tonight's schedule is:
- Joey Baron/Robin Schulkowsky (percussion duo)
- Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog
- District Five (a young local quartet)

Tomorrow:
- AKSHAM (a new project by singer Elina Duni and pianist Marc Perrenoud, with David Encho-t, Florent Nisse-b and Fred Pasqua-d)
- Théo Ceccaldi "Freaks"

[SimonNZ]

Shirley Scott - Like Cozy (1960)
Joe Pass - Song For Ellen (1992)



Lee Konitz - Frescalalto (2017)
Impossible Gentlemen - Let's Get Deluxe (2016)

[SimonNZ]

v/a - The Passion Of Charlie Parker (2017)

[SimonNZ]

Mel Torme - It's A Blue World (1956)
Ambrose Akinmusire - Origami Harvest (2018)

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

New(ish) one from the incomparable Susanne Abbuehl

[Brian]

Mel Torme - It's A Blue World (1956)
Ambrose Akinmusire - Origami Harvest (2018)

I know it's not fair, but every time I see the name Mel Tormé I can only think of one thing: the movie Top Secret!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_RwIt3a8xs

[king ubu]

Winged Serpents: Six Encomiums for Cecil Taylor (Tzadik)
Ambrose Akinmusire - Origami Harvest (Blue Note)

The Taylor hommage has solos by Craig Taborn, Sylvie Courvoisier, Brian Marsella, Kris Davis, Aruán Ortiz and Anthony Coleman.
And why the fuck is Marcus Gilmore not mentioned on the cover of the Akinmusire, when he may be about the most important player here?



A Pride of Lions - The Bridge Sessions 08 (The Bridge Sessions)
Don Byron/Aruán Ortiz - Random Dances and (A)Tonalities (Intakt)

A Pride of Lions consists of Daunik Lazro, Joe McPhee, Joshua Abrams, Guillaume Séguron and Chad Taylor, heard them play at Météo festival in Mulhouse, the gig on the album is probably a wee bit better.
The Byron/Ortiz is the only one I've played before, it's very, very nice (but from Ortiz' quickly released Intakt albums, maybe his solo album is my favourite still)


Heard this band twice this year, so it's time I give the album a spin, too:



David Murray feat. Saul Williams - Blues for Memo (Motema)

[king ubu]

another first spin

[king ubu]

The Monk is fantastic - definitely amongst the very best from his Columbia years. Rouse in fine shape, and Ore/Dunlop driving the truck in a manner that almost swings it off the road at times ... Monk does some improvising, it seems, not just going through the notions as so often (still, even when he does just that, I enjoy listening). The Jack Sels set is very nicely done, a disc of rarities (some released tracks from EPs and LPs) and radio recordings, and a disc of prev. unissued live tracks. The man has a mighty sound and is kind of outside the usual timeline, at moments honking in a Hawkins/Webster/Jacquet line, then swinging à la Zoot (but with so much more edge to the tone) ... oozing personality, yet it's really quite unclear what it's all about, that personality. It's about jazz though, and about swinging, and it's not afraid of forward-looking stuff. Among the sidemen you'll get folks such as Sadi, Phil Catherine, Lou Bennett and a few others, including some rather unknown but pretty fine Dutch jazzers like Jean Fanis (p) or Ado Broodboom (t) (only on two tracks taken from the EP "Bongo Jazz", which Sels shared with Lucky Thompson, though you only get one of them soloing per track - the Thompson solo cuts are on the Fresh Sound set containing the "Complete Parisian Small Group Sessions 1956-1959", which of course duplicates all the music put as part of the "Original Vogue Masters" and "Jazz in Paris" series, but I still had to get it, for the few additional things to be found there).

[SimonNZ]

Another play of this, which, fwiw, Wire magazine has named their album of the year.

[king ubu]

Another play of this, which, fwiw, Wire magazine has named their album of the year.

Proof that even the best can fail ... it's pretty samey and for that too long - just as their live set at Météo festival this summer ... great stuff but if you keep extending it and playing more, even if the floor seems to ask for it, you can overdo. I liked their first two albums better, but they weren't on (re-born) Impulse (which should not at all be a reason for Wire to not notice them). Regarding Wire, the invisible jukebox with Melvin Gibbs in the December issue is very much worth reading!

And regarding Jack Sels and his style, he makes me think of Ronnie Scott (who was probably quite a bit more modern in his own playing, while with Sels it's more that he makes it fit with the modern surroundings) and also of Bengt Jaedig. Both, and Sels too, leave the impression that they're kinda driving a wild beast of a car (the tenor saxophone is the wildest, after all!) and are at times just lucky that they're not gliding off the road.

[king ubu]

A bootleg released in 2017, alas in so-so sound - wish it were re-done by someone with access to the INA archives, but there never was all that much jazz coming from those parts (and earlier series that did exist were eventually stopped as being bootlegs, too ... not sure about the status of the Frémeaux "Live in Paris" series, which usually has mighty good sound). But no matter what, musically, this is excellent stuff!

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Lester Young in Washington D.C., Vol. 1

[SimonNZ]

Proof that even the best can fail ... it's pretty samey and for that too long - just as their live set at Météo festival this summer ... great stuff but if you keep extending it and playing more, even if the floor seems to ask for it, you can overdo. I liked their first two albums better, but they weren't on (re-born) Impulse (which should not at all be a reason for Wire to not notice them). Regarding Wire, the invisible jukebox with Melvin Gibbs in the December issue is very much worth reading!

And regarding Jack Sels and his style, he makes me think of Ronnie Scott (who was probably quite a bit more modern in his own playing, while with Sels it's more that he makes it fit with the modern surroundings) and also of Bengt Jaedig. Both, and Sels too, leave the impression that they're kinda driving a wild beast of a car (the tenor saxophone is the wildest, after all!) and are at times just lucky that they're not gliding off the road.

I miss the way Invisible Jukebox used to throw truly  random things at the interviewees whereas now they're tailored to their biography.

Nevertheless I'll check that one out. Thanks.

[king ubu]

I miss the way Invisible Jukebox used to throw truly  random things at the interviewees whereas now they're tailored to their biography.

Nevertheless I'll check that one out. Thanks.

True dat! However, at best, both variants can be a fine read. The new issue also has a story on the London Improvisers Orchestra (about/of which I know hardly anything so far).

[SimonNZ]

Zoot Sims - Quietly There (1984)

[SimonNZ]

Sonny Rollins - Now's The Time (1964)