What Jazz are you listening to now?

[SimonNZ]

Heh."sick and dangerous" is...a compliment?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Heh."sick and dangerous" is...a compliment?

In Bayou region Louisiana, it means impeccable and well-constructed artistic presentation of dark aesthetics.

[vers la flamme]

Keith Jarrett Trio: Standard, Vol. 2

Damn, nice. A lot better than the first volume, I think. I got this at a record store in Athens GA last month but never listened to it until now.

[T. D.]

[KevinP]

How are these Sun Ra titles?

[T. D.]

How are these Sun Ra titles?

Very good.
The Modern Harmonic reissue of A Fireside Chat... has excellent sound quality and an awesome studio version of Nuclear War. The other tracks have a lot of Ra playing organ, only the long title piece is really "outside" (and in spades  ).

Sleeping Beauty is a great "chillout Ra" studio album a la Lanquidity. Three pieces with vocals: Springtime Again and Door of the Cosmos are of course classics and the title tune is good too.

You can listen to everything at the estimable Sun Ra bandcamp page

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/ .

Sleeping Beauty, which seems scarce on CD (I have it in the Art Yard in a Box collection) has many bonus tracks via the DL reissue at bandcamp. In my experience the bandcamp reissues (done in collaboration with Sun Ra LLC and the Sun Ra Archive) are the gold standard for sound quality.

[71 dB]

Clifford Brown - Brown and Roach / Jam Sessions

[vers la flamme]

Clifford Brown - Brown and Roach / Jam Sessions

What a coincidence; I just picked up Clifford Brown & Max Roach at Decatur CD in downtown Decatur, Georgia today. Have not yet listened to it.

Now playing:



Benny Golson: New Time, New 'Tet

Found this at the library and picked it up, knowing nothing about it except that I dig Benny's work with the Jazz Messengers. I didn't realize at the time that this album was recorded half a century later in 2009; the saxophonist was age 79 on these sessions. That being said I am surprised how much I'm enjoying it. Very solid post-bop jazz, with very very good sound quality (though maybe I'm just so used to analog sound, listening to nothing but music recorded in the '50s and '60s for the past month or two).

[VonStupp]

I'm Just a Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody
Louis Prima with Sam Butera and the Witnesses

Love Keely Smith's intrusive backing vocals here.
VS

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Escapade - James Spaulding.

[SimonNZ]

For no good reason I haven't played this album in years.

[vers la flamme]

For no good reason I haven't played this album in years.

I've been getting back into it lately too.

Now here's one I haven't played in years:



John Coltrane: Blue Train

Stunning band on this one. With the exception of Trane being Trane, this is very straight Blue Note bop, executed miraculously. A VERY young Lee Morgan (all of 19 years old) plays beautifully on this session.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Giant Steps doesn't  really appeal to me. I certainly belong to a minority group.

[71 dB]

Disc 2 from "The complete Max Roach 1958-1962"

Unfortunately the most interesting album here "Rich versus Roach" is badly incomplete. Only 3 tracks of 8 included! All other 8 albums here are complete, most of it is standard jazz without epic drum solos. This 4 CD box was a massive disappointment for me and I haven't listened to it for years... Buying jazz I REALLY like is very very very difficult.

So, not 9 full albums + bonus cuts and the cover art sayd, but 8 full albums + bonus cuts. False advertising.

[T. D.]

Giant Steps doesn't  really appeal to me. I certainly belong to a minority group.

I don't love that album, either. Listen occasionally, but basically only when I throw the Atlantic box set (which I enjoy) in the changer.

Even more heretically, Blue Trane has never done anything for me and I almost never revisit it. 

I do listen to a lot of Coltrane, but almost all post-Prestige/BN and skewed toward Impulse! material.

[vers la flamme]

I don't love that album, either. Listen occasionally, but basically only when I throw the Atlantic box set (which I enjoy) in the changer.

Even more heretically, Blue Trane has never done anything for me and I almost never revisit it. 

I do listen to a lot of Coltrane, but almost all post-Prestige/BN and skewed toward Impulse! material.

I think I'm more a fan of Impulse era Trane too. I love Giant Steps, Blue Train and My Favorite Things, but I kind of burned myself out on all of them from way too much listening over the years. Have not heard any of his Prestige releases.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Manhattan Melodies - Eric Reed.

[KevinP]

Coltrane is one of those musicians I love and respect, but I also associate him more with my early explorations in jazz 40 years ago. These days, I'm more likely to listen to his wife (in whom I had zero interest back then).

I can appreciate the difficulty of improvising the changes to Giant Steps, but the album as a whole was never a favourite. Blue Train, ditto, I don't think Coltrane really fit into the Blue Note mold. With that and the Prestige recordings, he had undeniably found his voice but hadn't quite found his canvas yet.

When I do listen, I also gravitate towards the Impulse material. (Even then, the very late period, post-Tyner, bored me, though I have been thinking it might be time to revist those titles.)

[T. D.]

I've also gotten into Alice Coltrane the past few years. Listened to this album last week.



Love the cover photo, but dare not post it to the "best looking CD/LP" thread for fear of flames. 

[JBS]

I've also gotten into Alice Coltrane the past few years. Listened to this album last week.



Love the cover photo, but dare not post it to the "best looking CD/LP" thread for fear of flames. 

The photo is great, but text color and typeface choices seem wrong to me: they clash with and block out the photo.

I'm not sure if I have anything by Alice C. Any specific album by her you would suggest as a first one?

As for John, I like almost all the stuff I've heard from him, including Giant Steps and Night Train--except Love Supreme.