What Jazz are you listening to now?

[George]

Joe Pass: Blues for Fred.

[asin]B0002ZYDO2[/asin]

Wish I could play guitar the way Astaire could dance.

In the rain?

[Alek Hidell]

Just started this:



Only on disc one, but it's great fun so far. My first experience with Breuker's music. What a tight ensemble the Kollektief was!

[king ubu]

In the rain?

Sheesh no, that was Gene Kelly ... totally different type of guitar player that would be. Much more guts, but a big loss of elegance ... say Tal Farlow (Fred) vs. Grant Green (Gene) 

The Breuker box has arrived here a few weeks back, it's very nicely done, with comments on all the music and more ... I've played only three or four discs so far though. Also got the big ICP box around the same time, which covers earliest Breuker too, but have not progressed far there yet, either.

[SimonNZ]

Chrome Hill - The Explorer (2018)

[Alek Hidell]

That Breuker box is still proving to be quite enjoyable (I'm now on disc four). Such variety!

Anyway, in addition to that:

 

I also listened to Jon Hassell's Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street - but I'm not sure that's really jazz. In the same ballpark, maybe - or maybe in the parking lot outside the stadium.

[SimonNZ]

^Must listen to The Dark Tree again. Maybe later today.

now:



Marty Ehrlich - Trio Exaltation (2018)

[Brian]

Wow. Never knew they recorded together. Have to look for that...

They recorded two albums together but do NOT get that one. Young is on his last legs, barely able to blow the horn, and although Sweets does his best, it's just heartbreaking to hear Lester barely able to keep his lips on the mouthpiece.

If you still want it, I plan to sell mine so hit me up!

Pres and Sweets, on the other hand, is a stone cold classic that you gotta hear.

[king ubu]

They recorded two albums together but do NOT get that one. Young is on his last legs, barely able to blow the horn, and although Sweets does his best, it's just heartbreaking to hear Lester barely able to keep his lips on the mouthpiece.

If you still want it, I plan to sell mine so hit me up!

Pres and Sweets, on the other hand, is a stone cold classic that you gotta hear.

Agreed ... and "Laughing to Keep from Crying" (what an apt title, but was that intentional back at the time?) is another near disaster.

The "main" part of Edison and Young's work together is of course OT Basie, so yeah, of course they recorded together 

--

Thread duty - bought yesterday (planning to hit one night at the upcoming Willisau festival), when this group is playing, followed by James Blood Ulmer & The Thing:



Good!

[king ubu]

Brilliant stuff - as was to be expected ... unclassifiable, somewhat darkish, loose yet very organized, free yet full of mighty grooves, playful yet tight ... I am still unable to really grasp what Threadgill is doing, but I have a hunch he is really suspending time.

[SimonNZ]

Mel Powell - Borderline (1955)
Koby Israelite - Orobas: John Zorn's Book Of Angels, Vol.4 (2006)



Miles Davis - Blue Moods (1955)
Miles Davis - Blue Haze (1955)

[king ubu]

First spin ... this grew out of a duo project by Dave Holland and Evan Parker and evolved into a trio w/Ches Smith and eventually a quartet w/Craig Taborn. There's *a lot* of music to absorb, but four tracks (of 23) into it, I'm enjoying this quite some. Smith can be heard on vibes in addition to drums/percussion (cover just says "percussions", so maybe he'll be coming up with more surprising stuff later on?), Taborn on piano, organ, keys (aren't the former two "keys" as well?) & electronics, Parker sticks to tenor (which is cool in my book). Good to see Holland get out of the zone he's made himself comfy in for the past decades (and got kinda boring to my ears, though his contribution to Anouar Brahem's latest album was quite an ear-opener already, different type of "free" vibe there, but Holland is great). We get plenty of duos and trios in all kinds of combinations (i.e. vibes-organ, bass-perc, tenor-bass etc., piano-bass-perc, tenor-piano-bass etc.) and some quartets of course. Only three of the 23 tracks are actual tunes (two by Smith, one by Holland), the rest is improvised.

I've heard Parker quite a few times in the past years and got to hear his deep Coltrane roots (pre-free Coltrane that is, I guess around 1962-mid 65). He has a beautiful way of channelling that and absorbing it into his own way, whimsical at times, gruff at others, but his tone is really gorgeous (which is basically why I don't miss the soprano ... he still plays it, but I guess whenever he travels, he sticks to tenor these days, be it with Barry Guy, be it with the Schlippenbach Trio).

[Alek Hidell]

First spin ... this grew out of a duo project by Dave Holland and Evan Parker and evolved into a trio w/Ches Smith and eventually a quartet w/Craig Taborn. There's *a lot* of music to absorb, but four tracks (of 23) into it, I'm enjoying this quite some. Smith can be heard on vibes in addition to drums/percussion (cover just says "percussions", so maybe he'll be coming up with more surprising stuff later on?), Taborn on piano, organ, keys (aren't the former two "keys" as well?) & electronics, Parker sticks to tenor (which is cool in my book). Good to see Holland get out of the zone he's made himself comfy in for the past decades (and got kinda boring to my ears, though his contribution to Anouar Brahem's latest album was quite an ear-opener already, different type of "free" vibe there, but Holland is great). We get plenty of duos and trios in all kinds of combinations (i.e. vibes-organ, bass-perc, tenor-bass etc., piano-bass-perc, tenor-piano-bass etc.) and some quartets of course. Only three of the 23 tracks are actual tunes (two by Smith, one by Holland), the rest is improvised.

I've heard Parker quite a few times in the past years and got to hear his deep Coltrane roots (pre-free Coltrane that is, I guess around 1962-mid 65). He has a beautiful way of channelling that and absorbing it into his own way, whimsical at times, gruff at others, but his tone is really gorgeous (which is basically why I don't miss the soprano ... he still plays it, but I guess whenever he travels, he sticks to tenor these days, be it with Barry Guy, be it with the Schlippenbach Trio).

I just got that one, too. Looking forward to hearing it (as well as the latest Brahem).

[king ubu]

I just got that one, too. Looking forward to hearing it (as well as the latest Brahem).

The Brahem is outstanding!

This one, now nearing the end of disc two (it's generous at twice 65 minutes on CD, it's out as a triple LP as well - chosen from six hours of music!), is pretty darn good, some parts of it are great, and there's interest in all of it, I think. Some of it will need more time to flourish I assume, but somehow to me it strongly feels like it's Evan & Dave's show, with two good sidemen adding spice (I dig Craig Taborn a lot, am a bit less fond of Ches Smith's playing). They could have gone the duo way indeed (as Parker did with Barry Guy, another double disc set on Intakt that's probably better than this new one, but they're not really albums one needs to compare), but the trios and quartets are fun. The varying line-ups thus create a broad sonic spread, but at the same time make it a bit hard to hear the full thing as a unity.

[king ubu]

First listens, both ... right now into "Old Locks" only, the new one line-up for later tonight. Got these together with the other new one ("Dirt ... and More Dirt"), had somehow missed picking up "Old Locks", the first one by the ensemble Double Up, for which Threadgill composes (it's very clearly his music) but does not play. Doubled are the saxes (Curtis MacDonald and Roman Filiú, both on alto) and the pianos (Jason Moran, David Virelles), add to that tuba, cello and drums (the former two from Threadgill's other, small group Zooid: Jose Davila and Christopher Hoffman, the later new to the Threadgill orbit I think, Craig Weinrib, also unknown to me so far).

On the new one, we even get three pianers (Moran does not appear anymore, the new ones are David Bryant and Luis Perdomo), the rest of the band is the same. Both sax players have a rather similar sound, both lack the bite and acidity that Threadgill brings in - he is there again playing on "Dirt", next to the other two, but don't ask me to vouch for when he is soloing (the others I don't know so I cannot tell them apart really ... and the same more or less goes for the pianists, though possibly I'd dare to say that on #3 of "Old Locks", that's Jason Moran playing that long and quite great solo).

Anyway, I guess Threadgill at this point is about suspension of just about everything - except suspense, that is! His tunes have come full of dark hues and are quite richly textured (although the Double Up band makes me miss Liberty Ellman's guitar - he is with Zooid and he's again on "Dirt", too), stuttering grooves that really have me wonder how they can ever get these right - and right they do get them, same as in Zooid, it's all quite beyond explanation but there's a mighty and really deep groove going on for most of the time, fractured and fragmented, yet very hypnotizing!

I really do love Henry Threadgill's music madly!

[SimonNZ]

Johnny Griffin - The Big Soul Band (1960)
Muggsy Spanier - And His Dixieland All Stars at Club Hangover: 1953-54

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Hamp and Getz on KCSM right now! (added to list)

[Andante]

Cannonball Adderley and the small groups. 

[George]

[SimonNZ]

Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy – Journey Without End (1972)
Lynn Cassiers - Imaginary Band (2018)



Victor Gould - Earthlings (2018)

[king ubu]

Gave all of these a first spin yesterday and the day before ... the French stuff by Grant Green is marred by lousy drummers, also Clarence Palmer who's playing on the Antibes session (four very long tracks starting at the end of disc one) is kinda forgetting to take a breath much of the time ... but Grant Green, yeah! Larry Ridley is on bass in the Paris radio studio's concert hall and Don Lamond does his professional best to lock in, but it never quite happens (though Michael Cuscuna claims otherwise in his note in the ample-as-usual booklet) - for one, he freaks up the beat with his very first entry on the opening James Brown tune, kicking in on the second beat and turning it all around ... ouch! The Sound on the studio date is excellent, on the Antibes session not so, but very listenable. And there, in addition to Green, you get Claude Bartee on tenor who's on fire, too! The four long tracks were taken from two days (with one day in between), two each - they may represent the full sets, I don't know (didn't yet read all through the booklet but that piece of info may be missing either way).

The Oil Can Harry's recording is a most welcome addition to Green's discography, being from 1975 and thus from after his recording career had effectively ended. Sound is okay, it's very lively, you feel almost like being in that club, and the band really locks in and is bringing on all the funk. There's a drop-dead gorgeous extended (26 minutes) take on "Insensatez".

The Michael Adkins disc, recorded and mixed and (liners written) in 2008 has only appeared in January of this year and is most impressive, as is its predecessor on Hat (2007's "Rotator", Adkins only disc released within a useful amount of time, it seems - his debut, which I don't know, was done in 2000 and came out in 2005 - this "new" one is only his third release so far. The band is the same as on the 2007 recording with the exception of Larry Grenadier taking over on bass. The late Paul Motian is on drums and Russ Lossing on piano.