What Jazz are you listening to now?

[VonStupp]

Swingle Singers
A Cappella Amadeus: A Mozart Celebration

I can't say I have purposefully sat down and listened to the Swingle Singers of any generation. I know their tell-tale style, and once thought they were the vocal ensemble singing in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, my first exposure to that type of singing.

This recording is from the Jonathan Rathbone era, after Ward Swingle retired, although he is listed as music advisor here. I sort of miss the overdubbing / double tracking vocal quality of the older era. This later group uses vocalized bass and percussion instead of actual instruments.

My father-in-law gifted me this set years ago with a Manhattan Transfer anthology. Since the girls are at home this week with me, I though I would sit down and give them a listen.
VS

From this set:

[Henk]

Hill's final album. It's wonderful. Hill kept evolving til the end of his life, his music a sublime art and turning into imo what could be rightly described as 'holy' in some way at the end, but not without the creative spirit of fire. He performed at a church in 2007 I guess his final public performace:

Brandon Lewis's latest and it's great.

[ando]

Crash! Crash (1978, Wifon cassette)
Re-listening now. I initially came across this cassette transfer uploaded to the Tube on my way home today. Every track kept me surprisingly intrigued. Yeah, they're a kind of Weather Report redo but without the sometimes-baffling excursions. And they keep the funk at a high priority. The audio transfer is far from optimal. Might nab a vinyl copy.

[brewski]

Swingle Singers
A Cappella Amadeus: A Mozart Celebration

I can't say I have purposefully sat down and listened to the Swingle Singers of any generation. I know their tell-tale style, and once thought they were the vocal ensemble singing in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, my first exposure to that type of singing.

This recording is from the Jonathan Rathbone era, after Ward Swingle retired, although he is listed as music advisor here. I sort of miss the overdubbing / double tracking vocal quality of the older era. This later group uses vocalized bass and percussion instead of actual instruments.

My father-in-law gifted me this set years ago with a Manhattan Transfer anthology. Since the girls are at home this week with me, I though I would sit down and give them a listen.
VS

From this set:

A legendary group. I haven't heard most of these recordings, but it looks like they are worth sampling.

-Bruce

[brewski]

Andy Bey: Pretty Girl - Can't thank the friend enough who introduced me to Andy Bey.

-Bruce

[VonStupp]

Swingle Singers
A Cappella Amadeus: A Mozart Celebration

I can't say I have purposefully sat down and listened to the Swingle Singers of any generation. I know their tell-tale style, and once thought they were the vocal ensemble singing in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, my first exposure to that type of singing.

My father-in-law gifted me this set years ago with a Manhattan Transfer anthology. Since the girls are at home this week with me, I though I would sit down and give them a listen.

Swingle Singers
Bach Hits Back

No wonder the early Swingle Singers focused on Bach; it is as if his music is tailor-made for their particular style. Oddly, the chorales are sung straight, but Bist du bei mir is given the full vocal-jazz treatment.
VS

From this set:

[VonStupp]

A legendary group. I haven't heard most of these recordings, but it looks like they are worth sampling.
-Bruce

It takes an open mind to accept the fusion of classical and jazz; not for everyone, I am sure.

A lot of the old performances are on YouTube. The newer stuff has playlists too:
VS

Swingle Singers YouTube playlist

[brewski]

It takes an open mind to accept the fusion of classical and jazz; not for everyone, I am sure.

A lot of the old performances are on YouTube. The newer stuff has playlists too:
VS

Swingle Singers YouTube playlist

Thank you. My first encounter with them was in Berio's Sinfonia, and only later did I backtrack to find some of their other, earlier recordings.

-Bruce

[ando]

boss tenor gene ammons (1960, prestige)
Doug Watkins, bass
Ray Barretto, congas
Arthur Taylor, drums
Tommy Flanagan, piano
Gene Ammons, tenor sax

[ando]

Antiphon Alfa Mist (2017, Various)
Mellow, drum n bass/hip hop influenced jazz session. Disc gets a bigger following as time goes on.

[VonStupp]

Swingle Singers
1812

What an odd addition. Some tracks are live, some are studio. The live tracks sound a little pushy from The SS, and the singers sound tired; all true aspects of a live performance.

Only a couple 'doo-wah' type songs here; all encore pieces such as the 1812 Overture, the William Tell Overture, and Clair de lune. Oddly they perform Debussy's Trois Chansons straight.

The rest are pure vocal jazz settings of The Beatles and musicals. This outing reminds me of The King's Singers lighter fare recordings; for The Swingle Singers, without much of what made them famous and why many come to listen.
VS

From this set:

[VonStupp]

Swingle Singers
Around the World: Folk Songs

The last of this set, and another which reminds me of The King's Singers. Here, the singers mimic indigenous instruments mixed with their vocal-jazz stylings.
VS

From this set:

[AnotherSpin]

Shchedrivky are Ukrainian folk songs performed on New Year's Eve, i.e. on the Generous Evening. According to Christmas and New Year's customs, shchedrivkas, like carols, glorify the host and his family. The most well-known shchedrivka performed by The Swingle Singers:

https://youtu.be/hIT303fYf8A?si=RLyoqRWSJ5vAqSyO

[ando]

Live at the Barbican, London Brad Mehldau & Mark Giuliana (2013, JZM)
Mehldau, keyboards
Guiliana, drums, percussion, loops

[ando]

The Touch Of Your Lips Chet Baker (1979, SteepleChase)
Hushed but poignant playing by everyone on this studio session.

Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, bass
Doug Raney, guitar
Chet Baker, trumpet

[Artem]

That's a great Baker's disk. I got it not too long ago and it quickly became my favorite.

[ando]

Ghosts Peter Evans Quintet (2011, More Is More)

Tom Blancarte, bass
Jim Black, drums
Carlos Homs, piano
Peter Evans, trumpet, piccolo
Sam Pluta, electronics, live mixing

This disc established a rep as one of the albums leading jazz in a new direction in the 2010s. (It'd make a great Paul Schrader soundtrack.) I'm all about an album (or any work of art, for that matter) having a discernable though-line and, as we all know, the opaque language of ghosts precludes such an approach. But Ibsen did it. Why can't we? These are compelling fragments to an indecipherable whole, imo; though it does wrap up my 2023 quite well.

[ando]

The Remarkable Carmell Jones Carmell Jones Quintet (1961, World Pacific)

Gary Peacock, bass
Leon Pettis, drums
Frank Strazzeri, piano
Harold Land, tenor sax
Carmell Jones, trumpet

[ando]

Conception (1956, Esquire/Prestige)
Early 50s hodge-podge of leaders and dates on the same label. Hodge-podge of greats, though.
full lineup

[AnotherSpin]

Perfect fusion album from 70s. With Jan Hammer, Zbigniew Seifert, Jack Bruce.