What Jazz are you listening to now?

[king ubu]

One more by Evan Parker - before I'm off for a musical evening at a friend's who asked me to bring some stuff by Evan Parker ... this one is plain brilliant, a spontaneous one-off by Parker (ts) with Peter Evans (t), Alexander Hawkins (p), John Edwards (b) and Hamid Drake (d). The group what had never performed in this line-up ... but the music gels right away, is playful and serious, light-hearted and heavy, groovy and free ... just the way I like contemporary improvised music, I guess!

[Brian]

Over the years I have dipped an infrequent toe into the sea of Jazz;  my investigation of Monk emerged from the chance of running across (and reading through) the Robin Kelley bio.  But he rapidly became both a listening obsession and a composer/performer hero.

Yes, which albums have you been listening to?

I'm with you both; in jazz, if I had to choose "composer/performer heroes," they would be Monk and Mingus.

[Karl Henning]

Yes, which albums have you been listening to?

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On the last, Monk plays only on the title track (but, there are two takes, and thus different solos).

[Brian]

Karl, be sure to stop by the Monkastery thread!
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,24811.0.html

[Karl Henning]

It is hard to go wrong with Monk.     His recorded output is consistently excellent.  It really comes down to which tenor you like better - for me, I've always liked the Charlie Rouse recordings eventho many people are critical of him, unfairly so, imo.

Also, the early Blue Note recordings are mandatory, imo, and often overlooked in favor of the Riverside and later Columbia stuff. 

Bottomline - it is all fantastic music

Yes.  I love Rouse's playing.

[SimonNZ]

Larry Young - Testifying (1960)
Etta Jones - Something Nice (1960)

[Mirror Image]

I really just mentioned my favourites ... but "Never Let Me Go" and - to my ears even more so - "Dearly Beloved" are mighty good, too, as is the Prestige CD-twofer with two more albums. But I like the extra spice added by Kenny Burrell on "Hustlin'" (he's one of my top favourite jazz guitarists) and even more I love the added sweat and grease on the live recording.

As news of Claus Ogerman's death in March has now been officially put out, I've spent the last three hours digging for CDs and playing tracks he arranged for the likes of Solomon Burke, Ben E. King, Jimmy Smith, Tom Jobim (the debut album) ... and then proceeded with this one in its entirety:



Now proceeding with this (only four tracks by Ogerman, the rest by Don Sebesky and one by João Donato):



After that, I will end up the day with this:



Actually, this (for those who knew: unexpected) re-appearance of Ogerman as arranger was, if memory doesn't play tricks on me, the album that finally had me dig Ogerman, kind of ... my rigorous teenage self would not give vocalists much credit and looked down on any "pop" kind of arrangements or "with strings" settings (the Clifford Brown album being a notable exception). But as I knew Diana Krall from very early on (my dad brought home her second album before she got any bigger press, the third was the Nat Cole tribute that was kind of a breakthrough, I think) and liked her and kept following her, I grew to really really love her first diva rekkid (as I call 'em), arranged by Johnny Mandel, and also bought the follow-up with Ogerman ... it's a classy affair, for sure, and the title track is just gorgeous (though all in all, I still prefer the Manel-arranged "When I Look In Your Eyes", it just has the better/more fun tunes, I find).

Speaking of jazz recordings with string arrangements, do you know Harold Land's album Lazy Afternoon? If you don't, you should...

https://www.youtube.com/v/2xlflIl5-kU

[Mirror Image]

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On the last, Monk plays only on the title track (but, there are two takes, and thus different solos).

All great stuff, Karl. Happy listening to you. Love that title track to Bags' Groove.

[king ubu]

Speaking of jazz recordings with string arrangements, do you know Harold Land's album Lazy Afternoon? If you don't, you should...

https://www.youtube.com/v/2xlflIl5-kU

I have a copy of it thanks to some friend ... but it's been ages since I listened to it. Will have to dig it up.

Either way, I enjoy quite a few w/strings recordings by now ... most notably Ben Webster's! There's also a great recording by Ken McIntyre with a string quartet (I think, at least it's just a few strings players) added.

[king ubu]

[Spineur]

Django retrospective box CD 2

[king ubu]

Disc three with the albums "Goin' Out of My Head" (one of the few of his that you really don't need, I think ... though some of Oliver Nelson's arrangements are fun and of course Montgomery's playing is perfect as always) and "Tequila" (arranged mostly by the late Claus Ogerman)

[SimonNZ]

Larry Young - Young Blues (1960)
Al Sears - Swing's The Thing (1960)

[Dee Sharp]

John Coltrane: Blue Train (1957) A favourite.

[king ubu]

more from the Wes Montgomery box ... this one in full:



also the Ogerman tracks from "Willow Weep for Me", and the full albums "Movin' Wes" and "Bumpin'"

now two Bill Evans albums arranged by Ogerman (there's one more at least, which I don't have):



to be followed by this (not the original cover, but this is the edition I have):

[SimonNZ]

The Three Sounds - Here We Come (1960)
Budd Johnson - Let's Swing (1960)

[king ubu]

Budd Johnson was one bad m-f! Hell of a player!

Played more Ogerman (semi-)kitsch/schlock last night:



from this twofer - the Voices album has a great rhythm section and pretty fine arrangements but mostly crappy music, the strings album has better material bus lesser arrangements (Russ Garcia) and a rhythm section not worth mentioning:



ended the day with more crappy stuff ... funky, but not quite enough meat to the bone (Ogerman again, of course):

[George]

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus (first spin)

[SimonNZ]

Willis Jackson - In My Solitude (1961)
Betty Roche - Lightly And Politely (1961)

[king ubu]

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus (first spin)

I hope it was a revelation!

What a great album that is, with Roach firing all cylinders on "St. Thomas", with Rollins doing his motivic improvisation on "Blue 7", the perfect ballad artistry of "You Don't Know What Love Is" ...

Desert island album!