What Jazz are you listening to now?

[San Antone]

Great to see Gary McFarland getting some play time!  He is a guy I love, and have collected everything he put out.  There has been a recent DVD detailing his life/music and tragic death that you should look up if you a fan, "This is Gary McFarland".  I knew Lyle Mays at North Texas and enjoy his work, of course mainly the band with Pat Metheny, but his solo stuff is more imaginative, imo.

[San Antone]

Personnel: Lee Morgan: trumpet; Wayne Shorter: tenor saxophone; Grant Green: guitar; Herbie Hancock: piano; Reginald Workman: bass; Billy Higgins: drums.

It's a shame Morgan didn't follow the path of this music farther. The subsequent commercial success of The Sidewinder may have made such exploration less desirable in the short run. And his murder at the hands of his common-law wife, Helen More, in February 1972, made the short run and the long run one and the same, even as he once again seemed to be pushing outward (as evidenced by the 1971 Blue Note album that came to be called The Last Session). Still, we have in Search a shining example of the great trumpeter stretching into modernist fields. It is perhaps fitting, given the exploratory tone of the record, and its title track, in particular, that we must imagine what might have come next. (AllAboutJazz By MATT MARSHALL, February 12, 2010)

I am watching a documentary about Lee Morgan based on an interview with Helen More shortly before her own death in 1995.  More interesting than it might sound.

[Spineur]

Wynonie Harris from the Jazz en vogue box

[Spineur]

Continuing the jazz en vogue box with this 1941 recording
Charlie Christian at Minton's

[Brian]

Everyone stop what you're doing and read this incredible interview with Quincy Jones.

Particularly amusing: the story about getting in a car with Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, and Al Hibbler.... with Tatum and Hibbler driving!

[San Antone]

Terje Rypdal : Lux Aeterna

Terje Rypdal guitar
Palle Mikkelborg trumpet
Iver Kleive church organ
Åshild Stubø Gundersen soprano
Bergen Chamber Ensemble
Kjell Seim conductor
Recorded live July 19, 2000 at Molde Domkirke



One of his more interesting recordings, imo.

[San Antone]

CARTOGRAPHY : ARVE HENRIKSEN

Release date: 12.11.2010
ECM 2086

A shifting cast of characters, with live sampling man and album co-producer Jan Bang at the centre, provides a series of soundscapes, an ambient-experimental map of moods, for the uniquely liquid, singing trumpet lines of Arve Henriksen to scale and explore. Some tracks are recorded live in concert, others are studio creations. Singer David Sylvian reads his own poetry on two cuts.

[Alek Hidell]

Now that's a great one. Those two ECMs you mentioned (Lux Aeterna and Cartography) are very fine too.

Here's a couple I gave ear to today:

 

On the latter: I think Coming Down the Mountain is still my favorite of the Large One's albums, but this double-disc live recording of two concerts in Massachusetts is probably my next fave.

[San Antone]

 

On the latter: I think Coming Down the Mountain is still my favorite of the Large One's albums, but this double-disc live recording of two concerts in Massachusetts is probably my next fave.

Nice.  Good stuff!

[SimonNZ]

Dick Cary and The Dixieland Doodlers - s/t (1959)
Charlie Mariano - Mariano (1954)



Dollar Brand - Good News From Africa (1973)
Shelly Manne - More Swinging Sounds (1957)

[Alek Hidell]

Mentioned it yesterday, was prompted to listen to it today:



Plus ...

 

[Spineur]

Following San Antone, King Ubu & Alek Hidell, I got this Tomasz Stanko CD, which was composed after his mother death.  There is a mystic etheral and introspective atmosphere which permmeates the CD, something which isnt usually associated to rythmic jazz.

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[Alek Hidell]

Following San Antone, King Ubu & Alek Hidell, I got this Tomasz Stanko CD, which was composed after his mother death.  There is a mystic etheral and introspective atmosphere which permmeates the CD, something which isnt usually associated to rythmic jazz.

Is this your first encounter with Stańko, Spineur? If so, I can tell you that all of his other ECM albums are easily recommendable (though I haven't yet heard the two recent ones with his New York Quartet) - my favorites being Litania, From the Green Hill, and Lontano. (Of those, Lontano is the closest in sound and style to Leosia, the other two featuring larger ensembles.)

[Spineur]

Is this your first encounter with Stańko, Spineur? If so, I can tell you that all of his other ECM albums are easily recommendable (though I haven't yet heard the two recent ones with his New York Quartet) - my favorites being Litania, From the Green Hill, and Lontano. (Of those, Lontano is the closest in sound and style to Leosia, the other two featuring larger ensembles.)

Yes ! It is the very first time I listened to Stanko.  I knew there was a jazz scene in Poland from my trip a few summers back, but I didnt expect anything that good !

[king ubu]

Following San Antone, King Ubu & Alek Hidell, I got this Tomasz Stanko CD, which was composed after his mother death.  There is a mystic etheral and introspective atmosphere which permmeates the CD, something which isnt usually associated to rythmic jazz.

That's cool! Actually, I've been lazy posting lately (too many things going on), but this here one got its first spin last night, coincidentally:



And @Alek Hidell: Barry (and Maya, too) sat in the row behind me (me first, them second) during the recent Schumann/Schubert concert here, with Isabelle Faust doing the Schumann concerto. Took me a while to figure out who that elderly dude was again, but when I spotted Maya, it was clear. They were waiting next to the stage entrance during the break, guess they know some of the musicians in the band (the Zurich Chamber Orchestra it was).

[SimonNZ]

Clare Fischer - Machaca (1979)
Out Of The Blue - Live At Mt. Fuji (1986)

[Alek Hidell]

And @Alek Hidell: Barry (and Maya, too) sat in the row behind me (me first, them second) during the recent Schumann/Schubert concert here, with Isabelle Faust doing the Schumann concerto. Took me a while to figure out who that elderly dude was again, but when I spotted Maya, it was clear. They were waiting next to the stage entrance during the break, guess they know some of the musicians in the band (the Zurich Chamber Orchestra it was).

[Plans trip to Zurich] Once again, k.u., I am in awe of the music (and people) you get to see live.

Yes ! It is the very first time I listened to Stanko.  I knew there was a jazz scene in Poland from my trip a few summers back, but I didnt expect anything that good !

Here's another one to investigate:



It's from 1965 (recorded on the very day I was born, IIRC), so it's Stańko as a young man of 23 - a sideman in Komeda's band. The music here is not at all similar to Leosia, but don't let that stop you! This is a classic.

But if you should want more from the same quartet that recorded Leosia and can overlook its ugly cover, there is also this one (although I think it's OOP):



(The title may be a little hard to read: it's Bosonossa and Other Ballads.) It was recorded a year or so before Leosia and includes some of the same material, and while (for me) it's not on the same exalted level as the ECM recording, it's still quite worthwhile - Stańko's coiled, brooding tone is very much in evidence.

[king ubu]

[Plans trip to Zurich] Once again, k.u., I am in awe of the music (and people) you get to see live.

There's lots of money around here ... and some people that actually make use of it 

Here's another one to investigate:



It's from 1965 (recorded on the very day I was born, IIRC), so it's Stańko as a young man of 23 - a sideman in Komeda's band. The music here is not at all similar to Leosia, but don't let that stop you! This is a classic.

But if you should want more from the same quartet that recorded Leosia and can overlook its ugly cover, there is also this one (although I think it's OOP):



(The title may be a little hard to read: it's Bosonossa and Other Ballads.) It was recorded a year or so before Leosia and includes some of the same material, and while (for me) it's not on the same exalted level as the ECM recording, it's still quite worthwhile - Stańko's coiled, brooding tone is very much in evidence.

Second these recommendations! "Bossonossa" may indeed be pretty difficult to find.

For early Stanko, his first three albums (I think?) are all brilliant as well: "Music for K" (Polskie Nagrania, 1970), "Purple Sun" (Calig, 1973 - not on CD, I think) and "Twet" (Polskie Nagrania, 1975).  The first and third were boxed up here (with three more, of which I find only one one, the third, listenable, but it's been a while since I tried the later ones):

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The box usually goes for too much money, but I guess with some patience you should be able to find it in a 50ish price-range (I did, but that was several years ago).


--


Thread duty - first listen of a 2017 release I only just got



Heard Ottaviano and Alexander Hawkins together in a Moholo project in Ravenna in June 2016 ... also chatted with Hawkins about Ottaviano (the year before, Hawkins was the pianist on the duo set of an Ottaviano double disc which paid homage to Steve Lacy, "Forgotten Matches: The Worlds of Steve lacy (1934-2014)", the other disc is in quartet w/Glenn Ferris, Giovanni Maier and Cristiano Calcagnile - the later I've heard live in Novara with Vinnie Golia about a year ago, another great concert - although actually Bobby Bradford was the main draw for me but he had to cancel due to an accident ...)

Either way, Ottaviano is somewhat too ... structured and a wee bit too mainstream for that Moholo/Blue Notes/Brotherhood groove, but these two albums on Dodicilune are very good - not least thanks to Hawkins' presence. I consider Hawkins a friend and look forward to hearing him again in March at artacts in Austria, where he's going to play with the quartet he forms with Elaine Mitchener (they have an outstanding disc out on Intakt, released in December I think, but the tour to kick off the record only started in January in London).

[San Antone]

Miles Davis & John Coltrane : The Complete Columbia Recordings 1955-1961

CD 4 | The Kind of Blue sessions

[San Antone]

Miles Davis & John Coltrane : The Complete Columbia Recordings 1955-1961

CD 4 | The Kind of Blue sessions

Listening to Kind of Blue was inspired by my re-reading the Ashley Kahn book on the making of this classic recording.  2019 will be the 60th anniversary of its release, and what is amazing is how well it holds up.  No, that is an understatement - not only does it hold up but it still sounds current and remains a document of jazz composing and performance at the highest level.