What Jazz are you listening to now?

[NikF]

Lee Konitz With Warne Marsh.

[asin]B00000IILA[/asin]

[NikF]

Ed Bickert: Bye Bye Baby.



I'm enamoured by his take on Strayhorn's 'A Flower is a Lovesome Thing'.

e: and now Lennie Tristano: The New Tristano.

[asin]B000GFLIFU[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

Ed Bickert: Bye Bye Baby.



I'm enamoured by his take on Strayhorn's 'A Flower is a Lovesome Thing'.

A great player and, IMHO, extremely underrated. The guy can make a Telecaster swing like no other.

[NikF]

A great player and, IMHO, extremely underrated. The guy can make a Telecaster swing like no other.

You got it.
And for years he was playing that Tele with the stock single coil neck pickup which helped give him his sound. But then he replaced it with a humbucker. And what happened to his sound? - nothing, he still sounded like Ed Bickert. That kind of ability is where it's at. 

[SimonNZ]

Gallery - s/t (1981)
Don Thompson - Winter Mist (1990)

[bwv 1080]

Avi Bortnick is a monster

[NikF]

Stephen D. Anderson: Remembering the Rain - The Music of Bill Evans.

[asin]B000HEWFS4[/asin]

[NikF]

Modern Jazz Quartet: Fontessa.

[asin]B0000C24KB[/asin]

I had misplaced this, but now it is found and I'm having a grand time with it.

[Mirror Image]

You got it.
And for years he was playing that Tele with the stock single coil neck pickup which helped give him his sound. But then he replaced it with a humbucker. And what happened to his sound? - nothing, he still sounded like Ed Bickert. That kind of ability is where it's at. 

That's true. The only problem I have with Ed Bickert (and this is out of his hands) is his albums are extremely difficult to find and when you do find them they are outrageously priced.

[king ubu]

Don't have any leader albums of Ed Bickert's, but the ones he made with Paul Desmond are pure bliss!

Re: MJQ and underrated, ya know, it's funny, I guess on a jazz board they'd rather be seen as overrated ... at least they were quite succesful and gotten probably too formulaic as time went by. I like them, but it took me a while, to be honest. I love the bluesy side of Milt Jackson, which alas doesn't come to the fore in MJQ all that often, but I love John Lewis' neat piano playing very much as well. Not sure which would be my favourite albums, but I guess I tend to slightly favour the early Prestiges (there was a four disc set of their Prestige and - much later - Pablo output) over the Atlantics, but then "Lonely Woman" is another favourite for sure. I did eventually buy the Mosaic box to have all the Atlantics in one place, never managed to get them all separately.

[SimonNZ]

William Parker - O'Neal's Porch (2001)

[Ghost Sonata]

Picked this up at Goodwill and though von Essen was unknown to me, it was no mistake; now looking for vols 1 & 2.  Some of his work, though by no means all, recalls the Paul Winter Consort.  Really excellent stuff.

[asin] B000066NYO[/asin]

[NikF]

That's true. The only problem I have with Ed Bickert (and this is out of his hands) is his albums are extremely difficult to find and when you do find them they are outrageously priced.

You're right, some are priced extortionately. I got most of mine years ago from a radio station that was swapping formats, but I also got a couple from a Tower Records that had a whole floor and staff dedicated to jazz.

Don't have any leader albums of Ed Bickert's, but the ones he made with Paul Desmond are pure bliss!

Yeah, although Desmond isn't at the peak of his powers he's still got 'it'. And Bickert is a fine match indeed, in part the way he leaves space and the cool, elegant manner he makes his entrances and exits.

Re: MJQ and underrated, ya know, it's funny, I guess on a jazz board they'd rather be seen as overrated ... at least they were quite succesful and gotten probably too formulaic as time went by. I like them, but it took me a while, to be honest. I love the bluesy side of Milt Jackson, which alas doesn't come to the fore in MJQ all that often, but I love John Lewis' neat piano playing very much as well. Not sure which would be my favourite albums, but I guess I tend to slightly favour the early Prestiges (there was a four disc set of their Prestige and - much later - Pablo output) over the Atlantics, but then "Lonely Woman" is another favourite for sure. I did eventually buy the Mosaic box to have all the Atlantics in one place, never managed to get them all separately.

That's a good insight into the MJQ. And I'm kind of picky about them, but the stuff of theirs I like I really like.

Picked this up at Goodwill and though von Essen was unknown to me, it was no mistake; now looking for vols 1 & 2.  Some of his work, though by no means all, recalls the Paul Winter Consort.  Really excellent stuff.

[asin] B000066NYO[/asin]

Hope you find the other two volumes; I know how great it is to almost stumble upon a new and interesting find.



Right now I'm sticking with guitar and listening to -

Howard Roberts: Good Pickin's.

[asin]B000CIXCDC[/asin]

Cheesy cover aside (although I think there's nothing wrong with it at all ) and that my taste in jazz is kind of conservative, this is a nice cool late 1950s recording featuring performances that stop well short of perfunctory and perhaps at moments even reach forward. A consistent pleasure throughout.

[Karl Henning]

[asin]B000CIXCDC[/asin]

Cheesy cover aside (although I think there's nothing wrong with it at all )

You kidding? The guitar's in the way.

[George]

You kidding? The guitar's in the way.

I can still make out a G String. 

[Karl Henning]

I can still make out a G String. 

Sol man!

[NikF]

You kidding? The guitar's in the way.

I was trying not to even hint at that.  

Anyway, it was shot by a guy called William Rossler, who apart from being a photographer was also a cartoonist and a Nebula award nominated Science Fiction author. And he came up with the title of the Harlan Ellison tale 'I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream'. All in all, quite an interesting character.

e: I got his name wrong, it's William Rotsler. And after looking him up online just now it appears he had another career I was previously unaware of. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rotsler

[NikF]

Chet Baker: Chet Is Back!

[asin]B01BWKZS44[/asin]

I'm liking the playing of Rene Thomas on this. And the sound of his guitar is cool.

[SimonNZ]

Vijay Iyer - Bloodsutra (2003)
Mario Pavone - Deez To Blues (2006)

[bwv 1080]

https://www.youtube.com/v/DfS7QkxywDU