What Jazz are you listening to now?

[SimonNZ]

I'd say jump straight into the deep end with Black Saint And The Sinner Lady.

[Alek Hidell]

Been catching up on some Steve Lacy recordings that I have but never heard.

     

Of these, the middle two impressed me more. Evidence is relatively early, from 1962, a piano-less quartet with Cherry, Carl Brown (who?), and Billy Higgins; its only drawback is that it's brief (even for a recording from the LP days): about 34 minutes. The 5 x Monk, recorded live in 1994, is one of his many solo recordings, the title being of course a tribute to Monk's own 5 x Monk x 5 album from 1959: here it's five Monk tunes followed by five of Lacy's - a bit of a risk, one would think, following five of the master's compositions with five of his own, instead of intermingling them as one might expect, but Lacy's own pieces stand up quite well. He was a master too, after all.

[San Antone]

Hmm, the only Mingus I have is Ah Um, and that didn't click for me. Is there a better place to start with him? That 1959 set you just posted, perhaps?

If you didn't care for Ah Um, the 1959 "complete" sessions is more of the same.  The other recording from 1959, Mingus Dynasty, is a very good album, less famous than Ah Um.

I agree with Brian, if Ah Um did not do it for you, Mingus may not be your cup of tea.  But before giving up, try Let My Children Hear Music. It might be more interesting to you since it features orchestral music written by Mingus, and has less of the hardness of his smaller groups.

One more thought about Ah Um - "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is as good as jazz composing gets, IMO.

[T. D.]

After hearing Bud Powell on Mingus at Antibes, had to spin some of this:


[Added] Money Jungle is a really strange recording, and Mingus's playing is the weirdest thing about it. My first reaction upon purchase (which was blind, based on personnel alone) was "WTF"? I've gotten to kind of like it, but don't listen frequently.

[JBS]

Is it you who I recommended the Mingus-Ellington-Roach trio album to and then you didn't like it?

Thanks to all three of you. Yes, that was me. But with three headliners, there's several ways to spread the blame on that one.

Best thing is before I do anything, I need to break out Ah Um again and give it another chance. It's been a few years since I played it last.

[modified]

Pat Metheny: Question And Answer (1990)

[San Antone]

[George]

SACD

Mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray

[San Antone]

[San Antone]

[San Antone]

Black, Brown and Beige was at the time of its debut Ellington's most misunderstood and under appreciated work.  The 1943 Carnegie Hall Concert live recording presents the work in its only Ellington-led complete form.  But after the initial critical trashing of the work he performed it once more, and then removed it from his band's book except for the song "Come Sunday", a feature for Johnny Hodges, or less often as a female vocal number. Fifteen years would pass before Ellington would again attempt to record the work in some kind of complete fashion, but he cut the "Beige" movement entirely, and re-wrote parts of "Black" and "Brown".  That album featured Mahalia Jackson, and despite the abridged nature of the recording it is still an important document of this work.

More than six decades would pass before Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra would present the work in its original form, with orchestrations meticulously re-created from the original Ellington manuscript (which was more of a sketch), an almost complete set of instrumental parts and filling in the gaps with transcriptions of the 1943 recording.  Despite this recording's somewhat fragile provenance, this recording which was released in 2020, from a live concert in 2018, presents the work in SOTA sound, performed by by musicians who revere Ellington's style and have the chops to execute the music as it was intended.  This recording along and the 1943 concert bookend the other less important recordings.

There are two other quasi complete recordings, one an orchestral version released on Naxos (2013) and one by the Claude Bolling Jazz Orchestra (1990) - but both of these have interpretive problems.

The Naxos recording by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra led by JoAnn Falletta is edited down to about 18 minutes from the 45 minute work and presents the music in a strait-laced performance by an orchestra that ignores the jazz nature of the work.  This recording is valuable for the inclusion of three of Ellington's other long form works, Harlem, Three Black Kings and The River Suite (arr. R. Collier for orchestra), which I do not think appear on any other recordings.  But I take these performances with a grain of salt since the ensemble is attempting to play them in a fashion unintended, and probably undesired, by Ellington.

While Claude Bolling's group is made up of jazz players, and it constitutes a noble effort, Bolling's recording was nullified by the release of the work by the JALC band.

[T. D.]

   

[San Antone]

[George]

Finally had time to get around to this.

[San Antone]

Finally had time to get around to this.

Close to my favorite of the "Complete" boxes; On The Corner Complete might edge it out, but I love them both.

[Henk]

Close to my favorite of the "Complete" boxes; On The Corner Complete might edge it out, but I love them both.

That would be my view too. This box seems interesting.
I have some second quintet series. I like them too.

[Henk]

Sun Ra, Atlantis

Bought quite a lot Sun Ra some time ago. Atlantis I have only on mp3, but I haven't given it a serious listen yet.

[San Antone]

[San Antone]

Excellent!

[Alek Hidell]

Still traversing some Lacy: as the cover indicates, another of his solo recordings.