What Jazz are you listening to now?

[George]

I bought this 2018 paper sleeve release
https://www.importcds.com/complete-amazing-bud-powell/600753824498

And it's the Blue Note Rudy Van Gelder editions. Remaster from 2001 I think. Rudy being Rudy - sounded great for the time. Will be playing Vol. 2 in about an hour

Edit: but I am doing the listening in a car on the car stereo.

Thanks, Brian, the info above is all I need to know. 

[Brian]

Thanks, Brian, the info above is all I need to know.

Quick correction, Vols. 4 and 5 are not Rudy's 2001 version but "digital transfer by Ron McMaster."

[George]

Quick correction, Vols. 4 and 5 are not Rudy's 2001 version but "digital transfer by Ron McMaster."

Thanks. I actually wish Ron mastered the whole thing.

[George]

First spin.

[SimonNZ]

Eberhard Weber - Stages In A Long Journey (2007)

[king ubu]

Thanks. I actually wish Ron mastered the whole thing.

You can still look for the excellent old complete BN/Roost set, which comes with very good liners and includes the two Roost sessions - the first is with the classics Bud/Russell/Roach trio (though not as outstanding as Bud's BN output ... it rings true again with Bud: whenever he was w/Lion, he was a notch or two above what he did with other labels/producers). One of the Roost sessions (I believe that first one) ran at wrong speed on all previous US issues (and since, I think there were only Japanese reissues, guess they'd have fixed it, but having both that old box and the RVGs of Vols. 1-5, I feel like I have my ass covered ... oh, yes, "Bud Plays Bird" too - not a BN date originally but later reissued when it all came together under the EMI/Capitol roof).

It's around for small change, actually:
https://www.discogs.com/Bud-Powell-The-Complete-Blue-Note-And-Roost-Recordings/release/2507674


--

Lately:



The Amina is an effin' masterpiece, un-effin'-believable I missed out on this till this week! The Motian is great, gotta love Poo ... yup, you got that right, that's Masabumi "Poo" Kikuchi, no scatology involved, but lots of grunting and moaning (much worse than with Keith or Glenn), but it's part of the game and the game is totally unique and enriching!



The Lancaster was the perfect foil for the dogged heath yesterday, some mean Sonny Sharrock and a great rhythm section ... excellent album by an unjustly neglected musician. The Buddy Rich compiles live recordings made by one of the late 70s band's saxophonists, pretty good sound and exciting music. It gets too much at length, I guess, but one CD at the time, the late 60s/70s BR big band was amazing - a hell of a powerhouse!



Had a friend over for dinner and music listening last night, and one of the things we played in full was the Wadada/Kowald/Sommer disc on FMP ... he took it with him to copy it (I think it's quite hard to find, or it costs too much, I overpayed some a year or two ago, but it's so wonderful I don't regret) ... the Gordon Beck is a solo from the 90s or 00s - very good from what I heard (first four cuts, interrupted by going upstairs to catch a bit more of the amazing total lunar eclipse that took place last night. He left it with me for further exploration (we're both just really discovering Beck ... I knew his wonderful duo albums with Helen Merrill and then some, but hardly anything of his as a leader). Other stuff we played tracks by: the ICP box (the Herbie Nichols album to be more precise), the Breuker box (the final concert, first disc), Gétatchèw Mèkurya and his amazing Ethiopian saxophone, James Brown w/Louis Bellson (arr. Oliver Nelson), Tethered Moon ("Poo" again - the "First Meeting" album on Winter & Winter is outstanding!), and for closers, we watched the Kowald solo improvisation that's included on the 2002 Vision Fest compilation CD/DVD.



Late night, since my friend did mention Jason Roebke in some context, I played "Cinema Spiral" for the very fist time, now repeating at decent volume ... and enjoying the outstanding group of musicians quite some (Josh Berman, Jeb Bishop, Greg Ward, Keefe Jackson, Jason Stein, Jason Adasiewicz, Roebke, Mike Reed).

[George]

Thanks for the info, king ubu!

[SimonNZ]

Charles Lloyd - Jumping The Creek (2004)
Ornette Coleman - Sound Museum: Three Women (1996)

both with Geri Allen on piano

[SimonNZ]

Robin Williamson - The Seed-at-Zero (2000)
Howard Roberts - Good Pickin's (1959)

[SimonNZ]

Michael Mantler - Folly Seeing All This (1993)
George Lewis - Oh Didn't He Ramble (1959)

[San Antone]

A playlist of the four recordings of Bill Evans' first great trio with Scott Lafaro and Paul Motian.



Even though Bill Evans made fifty recordings as a leader during his lifetime I don't think he ever surpassed these four.

[king ubu]

Lots of Tomasz Stanko these days - very sad to hear of his passing on Sunday.

[San Antone]

Lots of Tomasz Stanko these days - very sad to hear of his passing on Sunday.

Didn't know; great loos and very sad news.

[SimonNZ]

Damn. I hadn't heard either.

playing now:



Tomasz Stanko - Matka Joanna (1995)

RIP

[Brian]

Listening to the Bud Powell Blue Note box - particularly Vols. 3 and 4 - has taught me how much like Thelonious Monk he is, and how much they must have learned from and influenced each other. Safe to say the Monkish bits have been my favorite tracks, along with the ballad "Time Waits" and most of the disc with Sonny Rollins.

[king ubu]

Didn't know; great loos and very sad news.

Yes indeed - was lucky to catch him twice when he toured with the Polish Quartet, and then late 2016 when he appeared at the 50th b-day concert of Globe Unity at Jazzfest Berlin. On that later occasion, he seemed really frail already - although as far as I understand, lung cancer was diagnosed only this spring. Well, he was 76, he had a long and I hope good for him career - and he left us with so much music! Stuff I played includes these:



That's "Music for K", his 1970 debut - it took him three years it seems to convince the suits at Polskie Nagrania Muza to record his group. The group he was forced, kinda, to start, when his escape to the US of A together with Krzysztof Komeda didn't work out as planned. I also revisited some early/mid 60s tracks by Stanko with Komeda's group. He sounds a lot like Miles at that point, but by 1970 he certainly had his act together. The quintet disbanded in late 1974 after three albums (its third on Calig, "Purple Sun", is on my shelves, too - a favourite!), and then Stanko did some collaborative stuff like "TWET". He worked with various bands and musicians, not leading his own group for the rest of the seventies and the eighties I think - this included work with Edvard Vesala's band as well as with Cecil Taylor.



ECM made a first record with Stanko already in the seventies ("Balladyna"), but it was with 1997's "Litania", an album length, gorgeous tribute to Komeda, that Stanko got his big break. The album to this day remains a favourite in this house and led me to start exploring some of Komeda's music. But his ECM catalogue is rich indeed. "Matka Joanna" is stark and simple, "Leosia" is a masterpiece, so is "Litania" ... and then there are the three albums with the Polish Quartet, of which "Lontano" is the one that so far made it to the player again. Finally, in his last years, he led a new group called the New York Quartet. Their second album was his last release as we now know, "December Avenue". I only bought it early this year, but it quickly became a favourite, too.

[San Antone]

Listening to the Bud Powell Blue Note box - particularly Vols. 3 and 4 - has taught me how much like Thelonious Monk he is, and how much they must have learned from and influenced each other. Safe to say the Monkish bits have been my favorite tracks, along with the ballad "Time Waits" and most of the disc with Sonny Rollins.

Monk and Powell were close friends, from what I've read, Powell was younger by seven years and something like a protege of Monk's. 

[San Antone]

River: The Joni Letters is a 2007 album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock.  Reissued in 2017 with bonus tracks, that's what I'm listening to.

"Court and Spark" (featuring Norah Jones) – 7:35
"Edith and the Kingpin" (featuring Tina Turner) – 6:32
"Both Sides, Now" – 7:38
"River" (featuring Corinne Bailey Rae) – 5:25
"Sweet Bird" – 8:15
"Tea Leaf Prophecy" (featuring Joni Mitchell) (Joni Mitchell, Larry Klein) – 6:34
"Solitude" (Eddie DeLange, Duke Ellington, Irving Mills) – 5:42
"Amelia" (featuring Luciana Souza) – 7:26
"Nefertiti" (Wayne Shorter) – 7:30
"The Jungle Line" (featuring Leonard Cohen) – 5:00

Bonus tracks:
"A Case of You" – 7:36
"All I Want" (with Sonya Kitchell) – 4:15
"Harlem in Havana"
"I Had a King"

Herbie Hancock – piano
Wayne Shorter – soprano and tenor saxophone
Dave Holland – bass
Lionel Loueke – guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Larry Klein - bass on "All I Want"

[Alek Hidell]

Lots of Stańko for me too. RIP.

     

[SimonNZ]

Thomasz Stanko - Leosia (1996)
Bobby Scott - Plays The Music Of Leonard Bernstein (1959)



Frances Faye - Sings Folk Songs (1957)