What Jazz are you listening to now?

[king ubu]

Need to add a comment to the long post above, didn't have time yesterday ... those Polish Radio Jazz Archives releases are mighty nice, the Jazz Jamboree however don't really succeed in grouping it all in a sensible way (the Komeda and Namyslowski sets are both spread over two of the volumes), the Griffin is from the same festival (the 1963 edition), yet Vol. 2 of the compilations holds two more tracks (nearly 40 minutes more) from one of his (several, I guess) sets there.

It's definitely great to have almost three hours of new prime Johnny Griffin though, that's for sure, and Kenny Drew is mighty fine as well! Much of the music comes with the rhythm section of the Pim Jacobs Trio (that is: Wim Overgaauw-g, Ruud [not Rudi!] Jacobs-b), which by turn is heard accompanying Pim's wife, Rita Reys, on the first of the Jamboree 1963 discs (a 40 minute set of 13 tunes, pretty effin' nice! Do look for the two Reys release on Freshsound if you're interested in her, one's a double). The absence of drums is no issue for the little giant of course, his own time is rock solid (as can be heard in his unaccompanied cadenzas (which are also familiar to those who know his 1958 live recordings with Monk). Some tracks have Griffin/Drew with another rhythm section in the more common format (b/d).

Several of the other releases are brand new ... and many of them on Resonance Records, which has brought us some fine historical finds already. The new Larry Young set is a double disc (in the same format/packaging as the recent Sony Sets by Erroll Garner and Weather Report), the booklet looks nice, with some fine photos, but I've not read any of these booklets yet, had so many things to do over the weekend, I just listened to the music in the background. The finest cuts on the Young set present him with the Nathan Davis Quartet, including its leader on tenor, Woody Shaw on trumpet and Billy Brooks on drums. This is a seriously great addition to the all-too-small Larry Young discography!

The one that really blew me away though is the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis set, which comes with a huuuuge booklet - it contains music from the very first public appearances in 1966 by this new big band at the Village Vanguard, and while the playing may be somewhat sloppier than on their Solid State recordings, it also has the extra edge and raw excitement of the live gig (similar to the fantastic TCB release of their 1969 concert in Basel/Basle, Switzerland). I love that band very much anyways, the Mosaic box with all their Solid State recordings and that Basle 1969 set are perennial favourites in my house. All the greater to have this new 1966 set to add to it (note that some of it was on an unauthorized - single - disc released by Alan Grant before).

The Wes Montgomery is already the third one put out by Resonance, and this might be my favourite of the three - it's a set by Wes with the trio of Eddie Higgins, in a very relaxed live setting. (I was a bit disappointed by last year's two-disc-set "In the Beginning" to be frank, but that may have been because of too high expectations on my end.)

The new ones by Getz/Gilberto and Stan Getz come from the same gig, Joanne Brackeen is on piano - fine band, but I need to listen to these while not already falling asleep ...

The Blue Mitchell/Sonny Red is the latest from Uptown's, a recording from the Left Bank Jazz Society holdings. Uptown is of course another label that has brought to the fore some amazing stuff. This is a pretty mellow set (though Red as usual has that slighty bitter, somewhat stinging tone, not unpleasant at all), notably with a fine performance by Joe Chambers on drums (one of the most musical of drummers in jazz).

The Chris McGregor is a wonderful album, a full big band from 1963, including musicians such as Kippie Moeketsi (playing lots of clarinet here!), Nick Moyake, Barney Rachabane, and Dudu Pukwana. It's on the short side (just a bit over half an hour), but it's very sweet to have it available in a proper edition finally!

[SimonNZ]

Dave Holland - The Conference Of The Birds (1973)



Art Blakey - Holiday For Skins Vol.1 (1958)

[king ubu]

finally, here's my english report on 5 Nights with Peter Brötzmann - 75th Birthday Anniversary:
http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/14653-what-live-music-are-you-going-to-see-tonight/&do=findComment&comment=1481726
I hope I didn't make too many awkward translation mistakes (I first wrote a report in German, as linked a couple of posts further up)

Ending the day with some Eric Dolphy:



the Paris 1964 recordings

[SimonNZ]

^Great blog post - thanks very much for sharing it. Looks like a great time.

playing now:



Elvin Jones - Poly-Currents (1970)

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Ahmad Jamal, The Essence Part 2. Every note AJ plays tells a story. Every...single...note...




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[Karl Henning]

http://www.youtube.com/v/FJrUBEtoNQU

[James]

https://www.youtube.com/v/077dbTqosUA

[king ubu]

[SimonNZ]

Benny Goodman - Live At Carnegie Hall 1938

I've never quite loved this set as much as the guidebooks tell me I should. Plenty of strong tracks, but much of it I find it more "time capsule" than "timeless" - unlike, say, the trio sessions with Krupa and Wilson.



Ron Carter - Blues Farm (1973)



Bobby Hutcherson - Solo / Quartet (1982)

[king ubu]

lately, lots of South African stuff while commuting ... tracks from various albums and compilation albums that I've put onto my memory card ... amongst them The Drive, The Heshoo Beshoo Group, Gwigwi Mrwebi, Winston "Mankunku" Ngozi, The Soul Jazzmen (with Duku Makasi and Tete Mbambisa), The Soul Giants (with Dennis Mpale and Barney Rachabane), The Movers (with Lulu Masilela), and more

[SimonNZ]

Gary Burton - Generations (2004)

[SimonNZ]

Mal Waldron - Mal/4 (1958)



Jaki Byard - Here's Jaki (1961)

[king ubu]

Love Mal Waldron and Jaki Byard! 

Here, into disc 3 of this wonnerful box:

[asin]B00ZGUI6BE[/asin]
alas, there's an issue with one loud skip (CD player skip) that's on the JATP disc (it's disc 9, that famous early concert with Nat on piano - I've got it on two other editions and from my first impression the one included on Hip-O-Select's "Riffin': The Decca, JATP, Keynote & Mercury Recordings" sounds quite a bit better indeed, they might have used the much older remaster from the "Complete Jazz at the Philharmonic 1944-49" box from the nineties again (that box is a treasure trove, nonetheless).

and then there's the issue with the final disc (#12), the second DVD, containing a documentary that, alas will, stop around 1:15 or 1:19 hrs (both these problems were reported by the one amazon customer feedback over on amazon.it, and my box has them, too, however I already received a reply from a guy at Universal that he'll try and find out if there's indeed a correct DVD availalbe, the CD I don't mind much).

as for the contents, this is an LP-sized box, containing ten discs of music and two DVDs, a hardcover book with plenty of photographs and a long note telling the story of Nat's life (I've not read much yet) - discs 1-8 contain a genereous career overview (the main drawing point for me, I have various single discs, as well as the "Riffin'" and the Capitol Transcriptions three-disc sets), disc 9 has that JATP concert, disc 10 is a disc of rarities (outtakes etc.), and the DVDs are made up of some TV stuff (#11) and the aforementioned documentary (#12)

it's been very cheap over at aDE as well as JPC for a few weeks now, guess it didn't really sell all that well, but who knows:
http://www.amazon.de/Nat-King-Cole-Autobiography-Ltd-Edt/dp/B00ZGUI6BE/
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/jazz/detail/-/art/nat-king-cole-nat-king-cole-his-musical-autobiography/hnum/7766359

[king ubu]

starting to explore this Tzadik box set, reissuing most of Hasidic New Wave's recordings for Knitting Factory, and adding a disc of rarities and live recordings - just starting with the second album

[king ubu]

next one:



enjoyable music, for sure!

[Bogey]

Benny Goodman - Live At Carnegie Hall 1938

I've never quite loved this set as much as the guidebooks tell me I should. Plenty of strong tracks, but much of it I find it more "time capsule" than "timeless" - unlike, say, the trio sessions with Krupa and Wilson.

Excellent take on this set.  When I bought it, I though it would be a water shed listening experience, but I found I enjoyed all the other Goodman I had on the shelf more so. 

[king ubu]

"Honeysuckle Rose" remains a unique experience nonetheless!

Now playing:

[king ubu]

[SimonNZ]

Dizzy Reece - Blues In Trinity (1958)

[Artem]

Listened to these two new purchases tonight:

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On the first listen the Third Plane didn't sound particularly inspired. Evans' disk was better.