Topic: What Jazz are you listening to now?

[aligreto]

Definitely grab
1. At Carnegie Hall,
2. Brubeck And Rushing,
3. Time Further Out,
4. Time Out, and
5. Gone with the Wind (those are my personal top five in order from 1 to 5).

Take Five 
Thank you for the recommendations; much appreciated.

[aligreto]

It speaks to the overall strength of the Brubeck discography that whenever there's a discussion of favorite albums of his the responses cover such a wide variety.

I agree on "Carnegie Hall", "Time Out" and "Time Further Out", but would throw in "Jazz Impressions of Japan" as a top choice, and "Brubeck Time", which includes Paul Desmond's delightful tribute to/impression of "Audrey" (Hepburn of course).

Either way, it's hard to go wrong with Brubeck's classic quartet with Desmond - the main question is: how much of it do you need? If you want a lot, grab the box with the complete Columbia Studio Albums - it's curretnly down to 40€ on aDE:

https://www.amazon.de/Complete-Columbia-Studio-Albums-Collection/dp/B0077PPQGO/

There's of course more to Brubeck than that ... the early Fantasy recordings with Desmond are glorious, there's some trio, solo and octet music as well (some of it pretty ... let's call it "academic"), and there are a few quartet recordings with clarinetist Bill Smith in place of Desmond (of which "Brubeck à la Mode" may be the finest?). There is also one with Dave van Kriedt (a sideman from early days) added to the quartet, which is fine, "Re-Union".

In addition to these Fantasy recordings, there's some more good music on Columbia, including the live albums not covered in teh box, and then the one with Gerry Mulligan following Desmond - alas not easy to find. On Atlantic then, there's one with Desmond and Mulligan that was, I think, my very first Brubeck (it's part of my dad's record collection), and it's pretty good and lots of fun, "Together Again for the First Time". There's also a rather odd one with Anthony Braxton and Lee Konitz (one track in common, Konitz on two more, Braxton one one), "All The Things You Are". Either way, Brubeck gets slammed unfairly quite often in jazz circles ... I don't want to be part of those that do so!

Thank you both for the comments and recommendations; again, much appreciated.

[George]

Thank you both for the comments and recommendations; again, much appreciated.

For Time Out, this Hybrid SACD/CD has superb mastering: https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/83633/Dave_Brubeck_Quartet-Time_Out-Hybrid_Multichannel_SACD

[aligreto]

For Time Out, this Hybrid SACD/CD has superb mastering: https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/83633/Dave_Brubeck_Quartet-Time_Out-Hybrid_Multichannel_SACD

Thank you for that my friend.

[George]

Thank you for that my friend.

My pleasure. 

[Mirror Image]

Now playing:

Miles Davis: Sorcerer (Mobile Fidelity Hybrid SACD)



I own all of these Miles MFSL Hybrid SACDs so far and have been thoroughly impressed with them all. I really hope Seven Steps to Heaven (my favorite Miles album) gets the MFSL treatment next. Porgy and Bess (another favorite Miles album of mine) was released in February of this year.

[SimonNZ]

Seven Steps to Heaven (my favorite Miles album)

Interesting choice. What is it about that one that gets it the no.1 spot?

now:



Gene Quill ‎– 3 Bones And A Quill (1958)

[Brian]

First listen via streaming:

[Brian]

Just noticed the album cover lists 5 of the 6 sextet members. Guess the drummer wasn't famous enough to go on there. He's some nobody named Max Roach 

[Brian]

That was a bit of a letdown - the all-star cast just puts in a pretty routine hard bop effort. Not a ton of soul or fire.

No trying:

[George]

Just noticed the album cover lists 5 of the 6 sextet members. Guess the drummer wasn't famous enough to go on there. He's some nobody named Max Roach 

If only they had credited him on the cover. He coulda been somebody.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Johnny Griffin with Strings and Brass: White Gardenia, A Tribute to Billie Holiday

[king ubu]

Just noticed the album cover lists 5 of the 6 sextet members. Guess the drummer wasn't famous enough to go on there. He's some nobody named Max Roach 

Not sure, may be a contractual thing? He was with Mercury/EmArcy at that time, though not exclusively it seems, as he made an album each for Argo ("Max") and Riverside ("Deeds Not Words") in 1958, and one more for Time ("Award-Winning Drummer") a year later. Still, from 1956 to 1960 it seems he was signed to Mercury. Though on the back of the original LP (as seen on discogs), there's only a notice about Johnson taking part courtesy of Columbia (now J.J. Johnson's Columbia recordings - not the one with Kai Winding, but all the others! - are quite something!)

--

Lately, been on vacation for a few days, found time to listen to some great stuff, too:



Upon my return, a couple of things had arrived that got their first spins in the past days (had the entire week off, but got home on Wednesday, as I had a ticket for Rudolf Buchbinder on Thursday):




The new ones from Resonance are nice. I think the Wes is their fifth instalment, a very worthwhile enterprise for sure! You get quartets (g-p-b-d), organ trios (g-org-d) and sextets (Dave Baker-tb and Dave Young-ts added, plus a bass - just two tracks) on the first disc, and on the second disc a whole lot of p-g-b trios. Line-Ups (other than the two horns) are unknown, there's some guessing going on in the liner notes. Melvin Rhyne is prob. the organist (and likely on piano on other cuts), the brothers Monk (b) and Buddy (p) are possibly involved, and so are Carl Perkins, Earl Van Riper, John Bunch (p), Mingo Jones (b), Paul Parker and Sonny Johnson (d). The Bill Evans is an audience tape, but it's listenable and the music is pretty darn good! This to me is kind of the "default" Evans trio that sometimes bores me a bit (Fantasy albums, too many of 'em), but this release (like the previous Resonance set by the same trio, "Live at Art d'Lugoff's Top of the Gate", rec. 1968 and thus even earlier in the band's existence) is yet again a strong case to question that judgment!

The Togashi discs are nice, the one with Steve Lacy more down my alley, but I thought I'd just get both (they are subtitled "Paris Session" Vols. 1 & 2, rec. a week apart in Paris in November 1991). Got quite a few Togashi discs lately, with some mighty good bands (more with Lacy, but also with Don Cherry, Masabumi Kikuchi). The new Art Ensemble then is a bit of a mixed bunch, we get an extended group with a few more horns and a full string section (several of them were part of the Roscoe Mitchell w/strings group that I saw on tour a few years ago), the second disc has the band in a fine concert, the first has a dozen of mostly shorter pieces, including three with poetry read by Moor Mother and three more including a (classically trained, it seems) male singer. Takes a moment to get used to, but as a sum of what the group was and is about, it's very convincing, I found. Also it does have a different air from Roscoe Mitchell's own projects, which are somehow, I find, more focussed, high-energy things, while here you get the openness of the AEoC, that Chicago vibe that just lets things happen, not forcing anything ... I love both, and I'm happy to have this as another strong late work, next to "Bells for the South Side", Mitchell's opus magnum released on ECM a couple of years ago.

Also played these, first spins in the case of the two Dizzy albums (that "Concert of the Century" I found while browsing through discs in la feltrinelli in Milano, wasn't aware of it, it's a great document for sure, Dizzy in fine form, James Moody on fire, Milt Jackson, Hank Jones, Ray Brown and Philly Joe Jones riding and driving them along) and the Peacock:




The Dizzy at Onkel Pö is good fun, very groovy ... Schneider's own is terrific, I was a bit less fond of the recording with the SWR Big Band (one of the remaining - I think there at least still four or even more! - german radio big bands, they're technically good, but often a bit too clean for my liking, and with Schneider, while clean is okay, you need a lot of feeling, lyrical qualities, that most folks propably can't just turn on by pulling a switch) ... the new Blake/Lee is amazing, as was to be expected. It needs more time to really sink in, but I just love that duo!

[San Antone]

I'm not a fan of Eddie Gomez; his tone does not appeal to me and he plays too much in the upper range.  Almost all other of Evans' bassists were better, IMO.

For me, his LaFaro trio is the best, obviously, but then his last with Marc Johnson is next.

That Sonny Rollins looks interesting.

[Mirror Image]

I'm not a fan of Eddie Gomez; his tone does not appeal to me and he plays too much in the upper range.  Almost all other of Evans' bassists were better, IMO.

For me, his LaFaro trio is the best, obviously, but then his last with Marc Johnson is next.

That Sonny Rollins looks interesting.

I can certainly agree with this. I wish Chuck Israels performed more in Evans’ trio.

[Mirror Image]

Interesting choice. What is it about that one that gets it the no.1 spot?

Seven Steps to Heaven has always been a special album for me and a lot of it boils down to the pieces themselves. The ballads on this album are just incredible. The more uptempo pieces like the title track and Joshua are deeply infectious. The album just has everything that I love about Miles Davis rolled into one. I find no weak links the album.

[king ubu]

I'm not a fan of Eddie Gomez; his tone does not appeal to me and he plays too much in the upper range.  Almost all other of Evans' bassists were better, IMO.

For me, his LaFaro trio is the best, obviously, but then his last with Marc Johnson is next.

Hm, but then LaFaro plays quite a bit in the upper register, too? I do generally agree though - and I love the final trio with Johnson, that's when Evans re-gained all that fire that he lost in the years with Gomez/Morell, or so it seems.

That Sonny Rollins looks interesting.

It's outstanding! The music made the rounds on bit-torrent sites, and I have no clue how the pirates would really know the exact dates and all (they certainly got nothing straight from RCA, but maybe they were in touch with someone who has access or had session info from the source, who knows) ... anyway, the playing by Rollins is a constant marvel, and Don Cherry is so much better and more involved than on the three cuts RCA chose for the album. Also, Bob Cranshaw is fantastic here - I'm not a big fa of his, and in fact he's so involved here I find it hard to believe it's him (though there's no reason to doubt that, and the sound and phrasing fits anyway, it's the level of involvedness that is unusual I find). We needn't talk about Billy Higgins, he's fantastic anyway.

--

Just played the Paris material with Donald Byrd and Nathan Davis from this:



Another pirate thing ... the "Last Date" with Mengelberg/Schols/Bennink should still be rather easy to find, the Paris date I think was never really official, then there's the halp LP that Mengelberg/Bennink put out on ICP, which is almost impossible to obtain (unless you were as crazy as me and went for the big ICP box).

[San Antone]

Hm, but then LaFaro plays quite a bit in the upper register, too? I do generally agree though - and I love the final trio with Johnson, that's when Evans re-gained all that fire that he lost in the years with Gomez/Morell, or so it seems.

LaFaro did not use a bridge pickup, so his tone is much better - and I am not just talking about soloing. 

[king ubu]

LaFaro did not use a bridge pickup, so his tone is much better - and I am not just talking about soloing.

Okay, understood - and indeed the tone of Gomez (and many other bass players from that period) is not how I like a bass to sound.

[SimonNZ]

Charlie Mariano and Jerry Dodgion Sextet - Beauties of 1918 (1957)