What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Alek Hidell]

I've never heard anything by the "other" George Lewis - I'm familiar with the trombonist (well, some of his work - scarcely all of it) but not the clarinetist. Need to rectify that.

No jazz today, I'm afraid, but yesterday:



Instinctual Eye (Kevin Norton / Frode Gjerstad / Nick Stephens): Born in Brooklyn (Barking Hoop, 2006)



The Serge Chaloff Sextet: Boston Blow-Up! (Capitol, 1955)

SimonNZ's posts are putting me in a mind to hear some Giuffre ... may do that soon.

[SimonNZ]

I've never heard anything by the "other" George Lewis - I'm familiar with the trombonist (well, some of his work - scarcely all of it) but not the clarinetist. Need to rectify that.

Interesting. I'm not sure I know the trombonist. Any recommendations?

For the clarinetist be sure to check out the stone cold classic Jazz Funeral In New Orleans.

[Alek Hidell]

Interesting. I'm not sure I know the trombonist. Any recommendations?

For the clarinetist be sure to check out the stone cold classic Jazz Funeral In New Orleans.

A couple come to mind right away:

[asin]B002WPZ9U2[/asin]
The title track here is one of the most moving pieces of music I know, featuring two extraordinary solos by Ewart and Lewis.



He's a sideman on this one, obviously - and unfortunately it's also OOP. (Hat Hut keeps saying they're going to re-release it. But they haven't done so yet, AFAIK.) But if you can track it down, it's well worth it - surely one of Braxton's best albums. The opening cut, "Composition 40F / Composition 23J," is amazing. (The quartet is rounded out by Dave Holland and Barry Altschul.)

Lewis' own Shadowgraph, from 1978 (featuring such luminaries as Roscoe Mitchell, Leroy Jenkins, and Muhal Richard Abrams), is generally considered one of his best, but I haven't heard it.

All of the above are from the 1970s. Lewis is still alive and active, so I imagine there is a lot more worth hearing - I have one or two other, more recent releases but haven't heard them in a long time and can't really hazard a recommendation there. As I said, I'm barely aware of a lot of what he's done. I bet our man king ubu could make some suggestions.

Thanks for the George (clarinetist) Lewis recommendation - I'll look for it!

[NikF]

Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh.

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Warne Marsh

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[XB-70 Valkyrie]

KPFK is a very interesting radio station in the HELL A area, with a fascinating jazz show called Rise that airs from 12-3AM on Monday mornings. The show has always tended toward free jazz and the avant-garde with more traditional jazz mixed in. http://www.kpfk.org/on-air/rise-with-mark-maxwell/

We listen nearly every week. Here are a couple revelations from last night's (this morning's) show:

Seraphic Light with Daniel Carter, William Parker, and Matthew Shipp:



Blue Maqams with ud player Anouar Brahem, Dave Holland, et al.

Just received these last week and they are deeply engaging disks, currently rewarding repeated listening. Highly recommended! Seraphic Light is more on the free jazz side, while Blue Maqams is somewhat slower paced, often contemplative, but no less adventurous, especially in the use of the oud surrounded by more traditional jazz instruments (piano, bass, drums).

[king ubu]

Re: George Lewis (tb)

A couple come to mind right away:

[asin]B002WPZ9U2[/asin]
The title track here is one of the most moving pieces of music I know, featuring two extraordinary solos by Ewart and Lewis.



He's a sideman on this one, obviously - and unfortunately it's also OOP. (Hat Hut keeps saying they're going to re-release it. But they haven't done so yet, AFAIK.) But if you can track it down, it's well worth it - surely one of Braxton's best albums. The opening cut, "Composition 40F / Composition 23J," is amazing. (The quartet is rounded out by Dave Holland and Barry Altschul.)

Lewis' own Shadowgraph, from 1978 (featuring such luminaries as Roscoe Mitchell, Leroy Jenkins, and Muhal Richard Abrams), is generally considered one of his best, but I haven't heard it.

All of the above are from the 1970s. Lewis is still alive and active, so I imagine there is a lot more worth hearing - I have one or two other, more recent releases but haven't heard them in a long time and can't really hazard a recommendation there. As I said, I'm barely aware of a lot of what he's done. I bet our man king ubu could make some suggestions.

Thanks for the George (clarinetist) Lewis recommendation - I'll look for it!

Not too many other recommendations I can make, really. I thought of "For Charles Parker" first thing, and the Braxton surely is terrific, too - and there's also "Quintet (Basel) 1977"! The Parker record can be found in the CAM box dedicated to Lewis' Black Saint/Soul Note albums.

Two great ones are "Change of Season" and "Dutch Masters" (both on Soul Note and both in the Lewis as well as the Lacy larger groups CAM boxes).



Disc-by-disc info can be found here:
https://www.jazzmessengers.com/en/13625/george-lewis/the-complete-remastered-recordings-5-cd

Lewis also turned up on several Zorn-related releases, most notably again two Hat albums, "News for Lulu" and "More News for Lulu", in trio with Zorn and Bill Frisell. He's also on "Yankees" with Zorn and the great Derek Bailey. Then there's a fairly recent one, "Sonic Rivers" (Tzadik, 2014) with Wadada Leo Smith and Zorn.

If you're into large-group free improv/new msuic/electro-acoustic stuff, "Sequel" in Intakt may be for you (I've not felt like playing it often yet, so the jury is still out, or rather I guess I'll remain somewhat hesitant about it).

The Chicago connection got revived, too ... "Streaming" on Pi is for those that like that stuff (trio with Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell), and the "SoundDance" two-disc set (Pi as well) has duo sets by Muhal/Fred Anderson and Muhal/Lewis, with the later adding electronics.

I guess basically, he kinda developed from a great trombone player into a conceptualist (and historian, with his book on the AACM) that returns to playing every now and then.

If this all doesn't sound very enthusiastic, that's because that's not how I feel about him in general, but many of the rekkids mentioned are mighty good indeed! For the fun quota, I'd go with "Dutch Masters" and "Change of Seasons" first; for the Braxton quota with Dortmund, for the free improv probably with "Yankees" or the recent Wadada/Zorn/Lewis, for the large scale work quota with "Sequel", for the Chi-connection with "Streaming" or some other earlier stuff which I don't quite know all that well myself yet ... and for the one classic Lewis album, with the Charlie Parker disc.

--

Thread duty: just returned from Mulhouse, where I visited the Météo festival for the third time in a row, and as usual heard a vast amount of music, some of it excellent, some of it good, some of it less than that ... report in German (including bad smartphone snapshots and names in bold type) over here:
http://forum.rollingstone.de/foren/topic/2018-jazzgigs-konzerte-festivals/page/9/#post-10567126

On the excellent side:
Michi Yagi (my discovery of the festival and responsible for the best and one more of the finest concerts, one solo, the other, even better, in duio with Tony Buck on drums), Mette Rasmussen

On the very good side:
David Murray (with Saul Williams, and with the great drummer Nasheet Waits), a combo of Daunik Lazro and Joe McPhee (with the wonderful Chad Taylor on drums, Joshua Abrams on bass and guimbri, and Guillaume Seguron on bass), Peter Evans (solo and with his group), Pascal Niggenkemper solo

On the okay side:
Pat Thomas, Sons of Kemet (actually they were better, but the set was 90 minutes and got a bit tiresome), Nicole Mitchell solo (i was hoping for more actually, as I enjoy what I've heard of hers so far), the Berlin based Splitter Orchestra (with their second concert the day after a disastrous first one, see below), Tony Buck in duo with fellows drummer Charles Hayward), the rehash of This Heat (headed by Hayward and Charles Bullen) under the moniker "This Is Not This Heat" (the closing set Saturday night, too lound and again too long).

On the less-so side:
Jon Rose (solo and with a combo featuring John Greaves and Chris Cutler), a rather large group of French improvisers headed by Jacques Di Donato/Xavier Charles, Spiltter Orchestra doing a piece by Jean-Luc Guionnet (it just didn't happen), Wolgang Mitterer doing a messy piece of his own on a restored 18c organ that just doesn't sound too good for this type of stuff).

--

Stuff played after my return on Sunday, all acquired there:

[king ubu]

Was eyeing the Steeplechase studio box by LTD for years (it has sessions from 1974-76), and finally have found it priced cheaply enough that it made it safely through customs ... and at the same time I also got this one, recorded live at ENS in Paris in 1973 with Sonny Grey (t) and the fine working unit that was the Georges Arvanitas Trio (the leader on piano, Jacky Samson on bass and Charles Saudrais on drums). Good stuff!

[king ubu]

After her so-so solo set at last week's Météo / Mulhouse Music Festival, I need to relisten to the two Nicole Mitchell albums I have so far - the first one, which I played last last night, is pretty ambitious, but it works very nicely. The second is more of a blowing date with a fine band (Jason Adasiewicz on vibes, Joshua Abrams on bass, Frank Rosaly on drums, Calvin Gantt adding spoken words on the tenth and final cut, titled "Fred Anderson").

[king ubu]

George Coleman on tenor, with the great Catalonian pianist Tete Montoliu - recorded in 1977, CD with the above picture from 1989 (it was reissued with original art in Japan in 2015 as well).

[king ubu]

Hino-Kikuchi Duo - Edges (Sony Japan, 2007)

[Alek Hidell]

Some classic Ornette:



Along with some Maneri (Joe, that is) that I hadn't heard in a long time.

[NikF]

Hank Garland: Jazz Winds from a New Direction.

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An all time favourite.

[SimonNZ]

An all time favourite.

That alone piqued my curiosity, but then I noticed it has Gary Burton, whose discography including wide and varied sideman work I'm determined to hear in full, makes it essential.

but right now:



Stuff Smith - Have Violin, Will Swing (1957)
Sun Ra - Jazz By Sun Ra (1957)

[king ubu]

Stuff Smith rulz! Gotta repeat that until the world will finally know ...

What's that Monk quote (not sure it's real, but I think I got it from the Monk "Abécédaire" published by Lenka Lente in France recently): "Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years."

[NikF]

That alone piqued my curiosity, but then I noticed it has Gary Burton, whose discography including wide and varied sideman work I'm determined to hear in full, makes it essential.

but right now:



Stuff Smith - Have Violin, Will Swing (1957)
Sun Ra - Jazz By Sun Ra (1957)

That's a big task, but a cool one. And I'm sure it'll be rewarding. In fact, I think I remember you doing similar before with the films of Ken Loach? In any case, enjoy!

Re: Stuff Smith - I'm quite sure I've only heard 'Together!' which he recorded with Herb Ellis - and I thought it was great.

[Alek Hidell]

Stuff Smith rulz! Gotta repeat that until the world will finally know ...

What's that Monk quote (not sure it's real, but I think I got it from the Monk "Abécédaire" published by Lenka Lente in France recently): "Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years."

Well, I guess I'ma hafta check out Stuff Smith. I think I've said before that sometimes I almost wish there could be a multi-year moratorium on new recordings just so I could catch up a little on older ones.

Re the Monk quote (apocryphal or not), there's a statement in a similar spirit from Varèse: "Contrary to general belief, an artist is never ahead of his time but most people are far behind theirs."

TD:
 

Henri Texier Strada Sextet: Alerte à l'eau (2007)
Anthony Braxton / William Parker / Milford Graves: Beyond Quantum (2008)

[NikF]

Stephen D. Anderson: The Music of Bill Evans.

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The playing is great and is sensitive to Evans as a whole. If there's one aspect I sometimes find slightly distracting, it's in the guitar sound - although that's perhaps more about what I'm usually accustomed to hearing.

[Alek Hidell]

Today ...

 

Eberhard Weber: Résumé (2013)
Conrad Bauer / Peter Kowald / Günter Sommer: Between Heaven and Earth (2002)

[SimonNZ]

Teddy Wilson - The Impeccable Mr Wilson (1956)
The Modern Jazz Quartet and The Oscar Peterson Trio - At The Opera House (1957)

[NikF]

^The Modern Jazz Quartet and The Oscar Peterson Trio - At The Opera House (1957) - I don't know this. But cool, something to look forward to.