What Jazz are you listening to now?

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

king ubu and SimonNZ - do you guys own all your music or do you stream? If the former, your collections must be massive.

Not only that, but how do you find the time??? Since November of last year, I acquired about 20 new CDs and I digitized about as many LPs (some of which had been on my shelves neglected for 20+ years!). I still feel buried under this mass of music, and yet I still have a huge pile of tempting stuff on my wish list. I have been holding off buying new things for a while, because it is simply too wasteful to do so while I have barely (or not at all) heard many recordings I already own.

[George]

A lot of the first time "discovery" listening I do is via YT. I then decide what Iwant to buy or at least to know what to grab when they present themselves.

OK, so you only own some of the albums you post here?

[SimonNZ]

OK, so you only own some of the albums you post here?

I had an impressive jazz collection which over the last three or four years I had to sell off when I fell on hard-ish times. I had to sell of my even larger classical collection, half of which got previously stolen anyway, and have gotten out of the habit of classical listening since then. 75% of my listening lately has been filling in gaps in my jazz knowledge and creating lists of must buys for when I'm back in funds - though I have slowly and carefully started reacquiring some essentials.

[George]

I had an impressive jazz collection which over the last three or four years I had to sell off when I fell on hard-ish times. I had to sell of my even larger classical collection, half of which got previously stolen anyway, and have gotten out of the habit of classical listening since then. 75% of my listening lately has been filling in gaps in my jazz knowledge and creating lists of must buys for when I'm back in funds - though I have slowly and carefully started reacquiring some essentials.

Man, so sorry to hear that. Hope things improve for you soon.

[SimonNZ]

Thanks. I'm okay, though. Things are slowly coming right.

playing now: the first Atlantic Ornette I haven't heard before:

[San Antone]

Thanks. I'm okay, though. Things are slowly coming right.

playing now: the first Atlantic Ornette I haven't heard before:

Not really an Ornette album; it was released without his involvement, "comprising outtakes from recording sessions of 1959 to 1961 for The Shape of Jazz to Come, This Is Our Music, Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, and Ornette!"

Still probably good listening.

[San Antone]

Since you mentioned Ornette Coleman, I'll dive into this set:



Those early Atlantic sides are his best stuff, IMO.  One thing about him, he always could swing.  Fathead told some funny stories about him when they were both in high school.  He was playing out, even back then.  People would hide his horn at jam sessions.   

[San Antone]

From Ornette Coleman to this release from May 2018:



Joshua Redman : Still Dreaming (feat. Ron Miles, Scott Colley & Brian Blade)

Transmission and legacy are at the heart of jazz. Even in the more radical moments, or even the revolutionary ones, jazz musicians have always, one way or another, paid tribute to their elders. With Still Dreaming, Joshua Redman only confirms that. With trumpet player Ron Miles, bass player Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade, the saxophonist drives a quartet which pays homage to Old and New Dreams, a band that performed together between 1975 and 1987, co-led by his late father, the saxophonist Dewey Redman.

Along with Redman the group also included bassist Charlie Haden, cornet player Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell.  All of the members were former sidemen of Ornette Coleman, and the group played a mix of Coleman's compositions and originals by the band members.

They released two records on the German jazz label ECM: a self-titled release in 1979 and Playing, recorded live, a year later. These discs were book-ended by a pair of discs on the Italian Black Saint label: a studio record from 1976 (also self-titled) and 1987's A Tribute to Blackwell, capturing the quartet's final concert at a birthday celebration for Blackwell.

The music on this CD is really very good, which is not all that surprising given that at least three of the four musicians are among the best players of their generation (the jury is still out, IMO, on Ron Miles).  Old and New Dreams was an interesting band, which started out as a tribute band to Ornette Coleman made up of his former sidemen, but which ultimately transcended that identity.  Their recorded output included only a few recordings, spanning more than a decade.  Charlie Haden and Dewey Redman created O&ND after their stint in Keith Jarrett's American Quartet, which occupied most of their time from 1971-1976 (when that band self-destructed, although CDs from their last marathon session would continue to come out until 1979).  O&ND must have been a more congenial group dynamic after control-freak Jarrett finally gave up trying to corral Haden and Redman (both of whom were struggling with substance abuse) and dealing with the attendant clash of personalities. 

So what we have is a tribute band of a tribute band, but the music is, as I said at the start, really very good.

[George]

Thanks. I'm okay, though. Things are slowly coming right.

Glad to hear it!

[king ubu]

king ubu and SimonNZ - do you guys own all your music or do you stream? If the former, your collections must be massive.

I own almost everything I mention here, yes. Started collecting jazz in my early teens, with pocket money (and money earned in school holiday jobs ... also it must have been funny for some of my totally uninterested relatives to get me "Cannonball in Europe" for my birthday - parents, obviously, were into a lot of music and still are, knocking on wood - going to see "Don Giovanni" with them today). Anyway, when I started buying jazz classics, in the early/mid 90s, lots of the initial run of 1987-89 "McMaster" Blue Note reissues were still around, Fantasy was alive and kicking and keeping their reissues available for many years (which had me miss out on quite a few, as after the sale to Concord thinks went down really fast and all of the stock was gone within months it seems ... Fantasy means the catalogues of Prestige, Riverside, Contemporary, Pablo and their sublabels such as Moodsville/Swingville, Jazzland, Old Time Jazz ... and it included several smaller labels, too, such as Mingus/Roach's Debut, and of course Fantasy itself, which in the mid 50s did some interesting jazz productions in San Francisco, most famous of course the early albums by Dave Brubeck, but Cal Tjader, Brew Moore and a few others were receiving the funny coloured vinyl treatment Fantasy was famous for at that time).

Anyway, yep, serious collection disorder, fostered for a bit more than 25 years now. Would it be jazz only, things would still be kind of okay (with, I guess, somewhere between 5 and 10 thousand discs), but since around 10 years ago I started delving into classical seriously, it got out of hand a bit (hum, understatement of the week, glad my better half is not reading this  ), with another five digit number that will probably keep me busy until the end of my (or the, who knows) times (which does, quite obviously, not mean that I'm not buying new stuff all the time ...)

[George]

I own almost everything I mention here, yes. Started collecting jazz in my early teens, with pocket money (and money earned in school holiday jobs ... also it must have been funny for some of my totally uninterested relatives to get me "Cannonball in Europe" for my birthday - parents, obviously, were into a lot of music and still are, knocking on wood - going to see "Don Giovanni" with them today). Anyway, when I started buying jazz classics, in the early/mid 90s, lots of the initial run of 1987-89 "McMaster" Blue Note reissues were still around, Fantasy was alive and kicking and keeping their reissues available for many years (which had me miss out on quite a few, as after the sale to Concord thinks went down really fast and all of the stock was gone within months it seems ... Fantasy means the catalogues of Prestige, Riverside, Contemporary, Pablo and their sublabels such as Moodsville/Swingville, Jazzland, Old Time Jazz ... and it included several smaller labels, too, such as Mingus/Roach's Debut, and of course Fantasy itself, which in the mid 50s did some interesting jazz productions in San Francisco, most famous of course the early albums by Dave Brubeck, but Cal Tjader, Brew Moore and a few others were receiving the funny coloured vinyl treatment Fantasy was famous for at that time).

Anyway, yep, serious collection disorder, fostered for a bit more than 25 years now. Would it be jazz only, things would still be kind of okay (with, I guess, somewhere between 5 and 10 thousand discs), but since around 10 years ago I started delving into classical seriously, it got out of hand a bit (hum, understatement of the week, glad my better half is not reading this  ), with another five digit number that will probably keep me busy until the end of my (or the, who knows) times (which does, quite obviously, not mean that I'm not buying new stuff all the time ...)

Thanks for sharing that.

I have some of McMaster's work and enjoy it.

[king ubu]

I have some of McMaster's work and enjoy it.

I did "upgrade" (or downgrade?) plenty of the Blue Notes later on to RVGs (and in some case to expanded reissues), or got box-sets and gave away (in earlier days sold, but usually for a  drink among friends) duplicates ... but yeah, still a lot of those late 80s Blue Notes on my shelves and no issue sound- or otherwise (but clearly I'm not into audiophile markets).

[San Antone]

Mare Nostrum III : Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano & Jan Lundgren

Their first collaboration, entitled Mare Nostrum in 2007, was really rather magical. So, it was hardly surprising that Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano and Jan Lundgren returned with Mare Nostrum II in 2016, an album that was just as superb as the last. The Sardinian trumpeter, French accordionist and Swedish pianist once again displayed their natural sense of lyricism and poetry in their highly refined jazz through reinterpretations of pieces by the likes of Satie and Monteverdi... But good things always come in threes; after having recorded Volume I in Italy and Volume II in France, it seemed only logical that this album was recorded in Sweden to complete the trilogy. In the middle of Winter 2019, Fresu, Galliano and Lundgren met up once again to mix their personal compositions together for Volume III as well as integrating two covers of soundtracks – Norman Jewison's The Windmills of Your Mind by Michel Legrand for The Thomas Crown Affair and Quincy Jones's Love Theme from The Getaway from Sam Peckinpah's The Getaway. Their partnership reaches new heights, the spaces feel even more comfortable and the musicality of their improvisations is multiplied tenfold. © Clotilde Maréchal/Qobuz

Nice music.

[George]

I did "upgrade" (or downgrade?) plenty of the Blue Notes later on to RVGs (and in some case to expanded reissues), or got box-sets and gave away (in earlier days sold, but usually for a  drink among friends) duplicates ... but yeah, still a lot of those late 80s Blue Notes on my shelves and no issue sound- or otherwise (but clearly I'm not into audiophile markets).

From those that I have compared, I would say the RVGs are downgrades.

Much of my Jazz was bought after the audiophile bug bit, so my first copy of many Jazz classics was an audiophile mastering. I own less Jazz than classical or rock, but just about every disc sounds great.

[king ubu]

From those that I have compared, I would say the RVGs are downgrades.

Early Monk and early Bud were upgrades to the old transfers, for "Birth of the Cool", the RVG was the first using rediscovered master sources ... in many other cases, they sound different rather than better or worse I think (on my non-audiophile equipment ... I know expensive equipment may rule out plenty of releases and I'm happy not to suffer from that) - and in plenty of cases the RVGs were my first editions if albums. The recent Japanese SHM may be substantially better, but I stuck to ones with new tracks/takes ...

[San Antone]

Wynton Marsalis  - Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson


Written for the Ken Burns film about Jack Johnson this recording by Wynton Marsalis is very fine.  A mix of country blues, early jazz and original Marsalis compositions it offers plenty of great blowing as well as composed songs.

[San Antone]

That Jack Johnson CD (above) is really better than I remembered. 



Wynton Marsalis has come under some criticism for his fairly hard line stance about "what is jazz" - but I think he is the only musician of his generation who is remotely in the same league as Duke Ellington, Mingus and others who were not only great stylists but great composers and who led great bands.

Marsalis has written extended works like Blood on the Fields, Congo Square and others, while also leading first rate hard bop groups.  He has released CDs focusing on the music of a specific jazz master, e.g. Monk, Jelly Roll and Mingus, and some inspired collaborations with Willie Nelson and Eric Clapton. 

Finishing up with the Unforgivable Blackness and turning to his Live at the Vanguard box, which features his septet.

[SimonNZ]

^love that Wynton at the Vanguard set

now:



Yusef Lateef - The Diverse Yusef Lateef  (1969)
Yusef Lateef - Suite 16 (1970)



Freddie Hubbard - Sing Me A Song Of Songmy (1970)
Carmen McRae - Just A Little Lovin' (1970)



Ray Bryant - MCMLXX (1970)

[San Antone]

Wynton Marsalis Septet : Mr. Jelly Lord

Fifteen classic stomps and blues by Jelly Roll Morton, including "King Porter Stomp" and "The Pearls," give Wynton the opportunity to demonstrate that the music of this New Orleans jazz pioneer remains as modern as tomorrow. Wynton performs here with fellow New Orleans natives Kent Jordan (flute), Reginald Veal (bass), Herlin Riley (drums), Don Vappie (banjo), and Harry Connick, Jr. (piano). And don't miss Wynton's duet with pianist Eric Reed on "Tom Cat Blues," recorded on the same sort of wax cylinder equipment that Jelly Roll Morton used on his first recordings in the early years of the 20th century.

Love this record.

[San Antone]

Marsalis : Thick in the South (Soul Gestures In Southern Blue, Vol. 1)

A blues cycle for quintet and sextet that, as Wynton says of the title track to THICK IN THE SOUTH, comprises "a condition, a location, an attitude, a pulchritudinous proposition, and an occurrence," SOUL GESTURES IN SOUTHERN BLUE ranges through the full glory of the blues tradition. Among other things, it introduces us to the Uptown Ruler, a mythic New Orleans hero whose "persona is obviously multifaceted," Wynton remarks, because he is "accepted without question in the houses of worship . . . [and] ill repute." Most of all, the cycle reveals the complex human message of the low moaning blues that echoes in the foghorn of a riverboat, the lament of a spiritual, or the simmering dishes of a home cooked meal. The performers include Marcus Roberts on piano, Bob Hurst or Reginald Veal on bass, Jeff "Tain" Watts or Herlin Riley on drums, Todd Williams and Wes Anderson on saxophones, and Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, with special appearances, on THICK IN THE SOUTH, by two of jazz's greatest virtuosos, drummer Elvin Jones and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson.

This is the first of three volumes in this series focusing on the Blues and Southern tropes.  Hard Bop style and using either his quintet or expanded, as is this group, with special guests.  Critical opinion was mixed but I think they represent a good degree of compositional thinking.  The heads are more arranged than usual but there is still ample room for soloists to stretch out.