Rolling 2011 thread where I buy and listen to jazz albums for the first time ever

it was you that said spotify was good for jazz, algerian goalkeeper...

as a side note, what does the g in kenny g stand for?

Great?

gettofuck

i was thinking 'god'

you're a weird dude, hermann g neuname xp

cos if you were called kenny god you probably wouldn't want to draw attention to your surname.

well whenever i hear kenny g i think get tae fuck and turn it off

xp

ilxor you should have a read at http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=79981

one specific recommendation for ilxor, knowing your taste:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vw6OpGtF1Ps/TA4Maea5dII/AAAAAAAAAMQ/srtVGML4YPk/s320/Africanasia.jpg
Also features much of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, whose work both solo and as a group is probably worth exploring for you.

max roach - percussion bitter sweet

huh never even heard of Claude Delcloo, much less that particular record. but I am a huge fan of Actuel's vinyl reissues of that era of stuff (AEC, Shepp, etc.)

Kenny G = Kenny Gorelick.

You can see why he went with just "G"

Hey, I think I heard that Claude Decloo on the radio once and missed what it was, and I've been trying to figure it out since then. It's pretty great.

in 2009/2010 i picked up more jazz than anything else.

predominantly this involved the miles davis legacy reissues, and a lot of RVG reissues as they were cheap-n-cheerful in my local fopp.
while i have read the comments elsewhere re the RVG reissues the simple fact of the matter is that they are readily available, and for newcomers like me, are an easy way-in to discovering what area of jazz suits my requirements the best.
as for recommendations ?

well, i fell hard for the in a silent way > on the corner era of davis, which basically provides an album for every mood.
not ventured too much into the pre IASW stuff other than a kind of blue of course.

but my faves seems to all hang off donald byrd; from his groovy funk of royal flush and the cat walk, to the experimental but sublime beauty of a new perspective, before he delved into the more fusion styled electric byrd, these albums are never far from the stereo.

and to think i had decided that in 2011 i was going to try and get back into the modern world, as this stuff can become very addictive once you tune in, so threads like this can become very dangerous !

true!

mark u need to hear the second quintet stiff just prior to in a silent way. Best. Music. Ever

i actually forgot, i have gone back from IASW : filles de .. & miles in the sky

clearly i need to spend more time with them.

I wrote about tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec on BurningAmbulance.com today. He was a 1940s guy who made a comeback, recording five albums' worth of material in 1961 and 1962, then died of cancer. All his albums are worth hearing, as is a two-CD compilation of non-album jukebox singles. Here's the link.

ILXOR just buy http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Columbia-Album-Collection/dp/B00305GXWG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295875874&sr=8-1

that's not a bad deal, actually... 52 albums, $300, something like $5 and change per album O_O

i got it last year for xmas (2009 xmas) £70 i think the price was.

it's £126 in the UK now http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/11876982/The-Complete-Columbia-Album-Collection/Product.html?ptsl=1&ob=Price&fb=0&;searchstring=miles+davis+complete&searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&urlrefer=search

or £394 from Amazon LOL

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Columbia-Album-Collection-Miles/dp/B00305GXWG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1295880815&sr=8-3

Think I'll go with the last option there. ;)

don't those all come in cardboard sleeves that come apart ?
a local shop had a bunch of them in a cut-out promo drawer and just picking them up to look @ condition of the sleeve/cd resulted in the sleeve coming apart where the glue had been applied.

They fixed that problem I think - but yeah, check out all the one-star reviews at http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002EOF7U8/ref=s9_simh_gw_p15_d0_i2

I'm happy just picking up all the Miles albums one by one (they're cheap used...) and taking my time, I think. Shelled out $3 for Water Babies over the weekend, which I don't think anyone's recommended thus far. Looks like mid '70s Miles. Thoughts?

My initial thought was "Whoa -- that cover art would NOT fly in 2011..."

I love Water Babies (it's actually a 60s album). It's not as canonical, but it's got good examples of both the 60s style and the transition into the more rock-influenced stuff.

The last track (Dual Mr. Anthony Tillman Williams Process) is one of my favorite Miles things.

Yeah, Water Babies is totally overlooked 'cause it was recorded in '67/'68 but not released until '76, when Miles was in his hermit phase.

not released until '76

Ah, so that explains why I thought it was mid '70s -- checked the copyright date on the CD.

yeah water babies is actually my fave 60s era record

Listening to Weather Report's Live in Tokyo (2CD version) for the first time today. If, like me, you think of Weather Report as the makers of shitty, "funky" prog-fuzak, you really need to hear this, Skronky and rockin' - it's like Miles circa 1970 (Live-Evil, not Jack Johnson), minus Miles, basically.

If, like me, you think of Weather Report as the makers of shitty, "funky" prog-fuzak, you really need to hear this

Lol - ok, i'll take the bait.

i do kinda love the phrase "prog-fuzak"

would also really stump for weather report capo joe zawinul's self-titled debut (i think?) album....recommended if you like "in a silent way" by miles

jaco sux tho

to the experimental but sublime beauty of a new perspective

omg this album. so awesome

that would be a way better title

Guys I will post my impressions of some more jazz albums soon. I've heard about a half-dozen things I've enjoyed once apiece, really need to sit down and sink my teeth into one of them in more depth... there's so much to hear!

yeah this thread has kinda gone nuts since yr last post afaik

YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO IT ALL NOW
[but srsly, don't get burnt out on it, take it slow, feel the vibrations]

Ornette Coleman – The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516itKL5IwL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

I’ve picked up a dozen or so jazz albums in the last week or so, most of them recommendations from this thread, and given many of them a cursory listen (with varying degrees of intrigue, which I’ll get to in time). This album by Ornette Coleman immediately bowled me over, though, and gets better with each spin.

I’ve heard various asides about this album’s significance over the year, mainly that it’s thought of as a “blueprint” for free jazz, or a groundbreaking record of sorts, due to the lack of melodic structure underneath the sax and trumpet parts (hope I’m somewhat on target with that...), and I can hear the appeal. Ornette’s playing doesn’t feel tied down to anything because I’m not hearing anything that could possibly hold it back. The bass and drum parts provide a sense of rhythm, but nothing melodic to instruct Ornette what to play, which scales to follow, or where to take each of these pieces.

One of the biggest things that stands out about this album is the interplay between Ornette’s sax and Don Cherry’s trumpet playing (had to check out the liners to get his name). I hear them often playing essentially the same parts but not quite in sync, one of them coming onto a note, or series of notes, just a split-second before the other, which I find wonderfully pleasing and exciting. Occasionally, one of them takes center stage. I find the playing extremely varied in mood as well: for example, the frantic and spazzy runs on “Eventually” followed by the nearly 10 minutes of peace on “Peace” -- no better title for that tune, surely!

I’m guessing due to the overlapping trumpet and sax parts that The Shape of Jazz to Come was written before it was played, but I do get an overwhelming sense of improvisation, exploration and freedom in Ornette’s playing here. It doesn’t sound like he’s reading sheet music while playing, just closing his eyes and then playing what comes to him in the moment.

Whatever the case, I absolutely love this album. Love it love it love it. More, please!

Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰

ilxor, in most jazz there is a written "head" or melody that the melodic instruments play together usually at the beginning and end of a song, and then a set of chord changes they improvise over. Ornette's move was to keep that "head" but to remove the chord changes. So you're right that at the beginning and end they're playing a written part, but after that they're improvising and in a looser/freer way than on almost all jazz records up to that point.

That makes sense, kinda... at some point I'll clearly need to read up and understand music and jazz theory a bit more.

lol, tbh, you could read ornette's explanations of these things for a decade and not really decode what he's talking about. His interviews are fun to read, but they are pretty out there.

like this:
The key represents the scale that you’re shooting but it doesn’t represent the quality of how long it takes to get rid of the notes of the key that you’re in. For some reason there’s at least, I would say, five notes that is always free of some key, and because of that it kind of slows down what we call improvising because, the improvising is the name of the key but the notes are different than the key. For instance what I’m trying to say about they key of the notes. When you’re shooting, when you’re playing within the rules, it’s not the same thing as when you’re playing the sound. Because the sound is mostly dominated by the name of the key that you’re in. But, if you’re in the key of C, you know, there’s not a C sharp and there’s not a B flat. So all of those things have something to do with how you transform, what I would say has something to do with the tonic. And transposing things from a dominant seventh to a fourth or a fifth or a sixth like that, that doesn’t have anything to do with nothing but your brain. Everything else has something to do with your eyes and your ears.
that's actually one of the more straightforward quotes

hurting otm

Ornette is one of my favorite interview subjects ever

Anyone seen the Derrida interviews Coleman thing?

http://itself.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/theotherslanguage.pdf