What Jazz are you listening to now?

[San Antone]

I loved it so much, I bought it's 24 CD big brother last year:



https://www.allmusic.com/album/centennial-edition-complete-rca-victor-recordings-1927-1973-mw0000602902

I got that, maybe 12-15 years ago, via file sharing (which I also haven't done in about that long). Great set, but hard to find, and usually very expensive.  Another great set of recordings are the Carnegie Hall concerts, 1943-1947.  There are four 2CD releases, which have decent sound and include some real gems, like the only complete original Black, Brown and Beige (which Ellington never played/recorded complete again) in the 1943 twofer.

[Karl Henning]

The Glenn Miller Band, "Opus One"

[T. D.]

Cheapo (UA) version of Complete Riverside box. I was listening to the first half a couple of weeks ago, now going for some of the later discs.

[SimonNZ]

Dexter Gordon with Junior Mance at Montreux (1970)
Walt Dickerson - Unity (1964)

[San Antone]

[SimonNZ]

^huh. Don't think I've ever heard of that one.

[San Antone]

^huh. Don't think I've ever heard of that one.

An extended composition about which The New York Times had this to say:

The "Deep South Suite" is an exceptional work from 1946. It's easy to hear why Ellington never played it much; it's dissonant and intense. Why he never recorded it is more of a mystery, except that Ellington occasionally abandoned works in the rush to complete the next piece. The suite was, for the time, extremely modern and self-consciously American, with train motifs filtering through its four sections. The second section, "Hearsay," experiments with cross-fertilization, mixing a ballad with a gorgeous Ellingtonian (or Strayhorn) melody, melancholic and heavy, with almost metallic dissonances in the reeds. And the final section, "Happy Go Lucky Local" -- best known in its translation as a rhythm-and-blues tune, "Night Train" -- is a masterpiece of talking trumpets blending with riffs and gleaming dissonances.

The recording I posted is a compilation of various live performances.

Another great Ellington long form work is Reminiscing in Tempo - which is hard to find.  Written for his mother, and panned by John Hammond among others, he rarely it played afterwards.  It has since come to be appreciated as much better than originally thought.

It is on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/v/nb0SrmxExDw

Released on four 78s, I don't think it was ever re-recorded, but can be found on a couple of compilation CDs.

[T. D.]

Bought this some years ago. Didn't meet expectations for whatever reason and I more or less forgot about it after a couple of listens. Giving the set another spin.
[Added] Enjoying it much more this go-round, fortunately.

[T. D.]

R.I.P. Lee Konitz

Posted this recently, but will listen again to the fabulous session with Konitz, Tristano, Gene Ramey and Art Taylor, The Sing Song Room, Confucius Restaurant, NYC, 6/11/55

[San Antone]

Ellington's take on Shakespeare

[San Antone]

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Was largely unfamiliar with Mary Lou Williams until I received this a few days ago. WOW!!!

Mary Lou Williams Nite Life

[T. D.]

Mingus Atlantic box (Rhino)

[San Antone]

Mingus Atlantic box (Rhino)

A good box set:

- Pithecanthropu Erectus (1956)
- The Clown (1957)
- Blues And Roots (1959)
- Mingus At Antibes (1960)
- Tonight at Noon (1961)
- Oh Yeah (1962)

Three of those are among his best work.  But his Impulse (Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus & Black Saint and Sinner Lady) and Columbia (Ah Um, Tijuana Moods, Let My Children Hear Music) recordings are necessary to complete the picture.

[T. D.]

Yeah, the only one of those I lack is Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus; dunno why, since I never met an Impulse! release I didn't like... Also have a few others: Great Concert, the Mosaic Jazz Workshop 64-65 and a strange French release Pithycanthropus Erectus. I even read his autobiography Beneath the Underdog, which is on the unusual side and not likely to be to everyone's taste, as well as the more orthodox Krin Gabbard bio.

[San Antone]

Yeah, the only one of those I lack is Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus; dunno why, since I never met an Impulse! release I didn't like... Also have a few others: Great Concert, the Mosaic Jazz Workshop 64-65 and a strange French release Pithycanthropus Erectus. I even read his autobiography Beneath the Underdog, which is on the unusual side.

I bought Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus when it first came out, mainly because of the cover art, and realized that he was someone I wanted to hear as many of his recordings as I could get my hands on.  His stuff after Let My Children Hear Music is spotty - but the two Changes albums are worthwhile, although I thought the recorded acoustic was a little bland.

Mingus is among my top five jazz artists - a major composer/arranger/bandleader - not to mention bass player.  I read Beneath the Underdog a long time ago and thought it was self-indulgent to the point of exhaustion.  Except for very few jazz autobiographies, I avoid them.  Louis Armstrong was an amazing writer, though, and his two books are well-worth reading.  Duke Ellington's Music is My Mistress is pretty good as well.  Mezz Mezzrow's book, Really the Blues, is a classic of the genre.

[San Antone]

Nice to have all the extras and alternate takes from, arguably, his strongest period.

[T. D.]

I'm not qualified to rank jazz artists, but Mingus is certainly near my very top. I'm highly ambivalent about his personality, but he did bring a passion to his music that gave it tremendous impact. I should hear more of his early Debut material, but there's "so much music, so little time...".

Jazz autobiographies are definitely high-risk. I enjoy the "warts and all" ones, of which Hampton Hawes's Raise up off me and Art Pepper's Straight Life are IMO classic. I don't regret reading Mingus's, but agree on the self-indulgence and frankly skimmed through the second half at warp speed just to get it over with.

[JBS]

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?

[Brian]

Ah Um is probably the best starting point honestly. It's a good introduction to his soundworld's placement between Ellington big band luxury and divinely inspired improvisatory chaos. The freedom he gives his players in such tightly wound charts is a thing of fascination to me. I think he's as close as an improv band player ever got to being a modernist composer at the same time. But Ah Um has some super catchy accessible stuff.

My intro to Mingus was Tijuana Moods, which is so personal and so weird and so out-of-nowhere insane that listening to it my first thought was "I'm so glad nobody else is here." It certainly would decide if you like him or not!

Mingus x5 is a great album but very mixed. Some of the cuts are remakes of previous tunes (including a couple from Ah Um) but with higher energy and virtuosity. Others are really weird modernist essays...like imagine if Bartok tried to write a ballad.

Blues and Roots is probably the single most accessible of his albums I think. It's all his wild riffs on the classic blues. There is some fun fun stuff in there. If you don't like it don't try more Mingus.

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