"If That Arm Heals, It Ought To Be Broken Again" 2008 Jazz D Minor Bags Thread

Picked up Matthew Shipp's Nu-Bop today.

Basically sounds like dude had been listening to a bunch of Aphex Twin and wanted to play around with techno-jazz. It's pretty good, stays kinetic enough that it never veers into Smooth territory even though the 9 tracks are basically 9 variations on a theme. A bit repetitive, but I dig it.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080225/stillman

^ hilarious albert ayler story in http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080225/stillman

oops

basically "i got really high and listened to albert ayler and had great insights about western civilization" but it's fun

I love Nu Bop!

I just ordered the David S. Ware album from last year. Have high expectations.

I need to get back to seeing live jazz again. I've gotten lazy.

Haven't heard Nu-Bop in forever, but the bassline on the title track is sick.

I just ordered the new Nik Bartsch disc!

Went to 55 Bar to see Lew Soloff- it was his birthday so he had a few special guests play with him- many of whom the doorman charged a cover! Big guy walks up with a trumpet and says "I'm Jon Faddis, former director of the Jazz Orchestra at Lincoln Center" and the Dan-Hedaya-crossed-with-Stifler-looking doorman holds out his hand and says "And I'm Paul R4mirez, pleased to meet you, but you still gotta pay ten bucks." Other guest was Jerry Vivino (who I never realized was a different person from his brother Jimmy)

When they got started, John Faddis played "Happy Birthday" at him, then Lew called "Equinox", then they played "How High The Moon" followed by "My Funny Valentine" dedicated to his daughter. Sort of ended with "Night In Tunisia" but then they fooled around with a tango -"La Cumparsita"- I think, and then on some kind of "Hava Nagila" crossed with "St. James Infirmary," I don't think the band even knew what the tune was.

Lew has a great way of sort of starting with kind of lazy bleat and then getting louder and more forceful as he goes along. Lew and Jon had a little bit of a contest during "Tunisia," I think Jon kind of won, he was channeling Diz. I like that about jazz, that bigtime cats play the same corny tunes that Jordan played in Jazz 101 and they make it sound so good.

Took my dad (the jazz fan in the family who grew up in NY seeing shows at Bop City and such) Tuesday night out to 1,900 seat Strathmore in suburban Md./DC to see the 50th anniversary Monterey Jazz Festival on tour (54 United States shows; in Jersey tonight and tomorrow) with pianist Benny Green, James Moody, Terence Blanchard, bassist Derrick Hodge, drummer Kendrick Scott and singer Nnena Freelon...

Nice, well-balanced show---Moody's bad jokes, vocalese and nice blowing; trumpeter Blanchard's somber New Orleans cuts from his latest effort; a Coltrane number; fine young 20-somethings Hodge and Scott and pianist Green who looks like he's 18 but is older; Freelon closing with "Misty"

I have missed Blanchard on recent headlining gigs and this taste of his playing made me that much more eager to see him in a headline role sometime.

I got the whole set of those Jazz Icons DVDs last year, but never dug into 'em until now. Took home Art Blakey (Belgium, 1958, one month after Moanin' was recorded) and Thelonious Monk (Norway and Denmark, 1966). Watched the Blakey last night. Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Bobby Timmons, Jymie Merritt, and Blakey, just tearing through "Moanin'" and "A Night In Tunisia" and four or five other pieces - 55 minutes all together. Fucking killer, killer stuff. I could listen to Lee Morgan all day every day for a year.

Nice. I've only been to the 55 Bar once, to see Ari Hoenig's band, but it was cool.

I saw the the Monterey tour when I was a freshman in college, and it was Nick Payton's quintet w/Cedar Walton, Randy Brecker, sax dude I can't remember the name of, etc..

I got that Nik Bartsch cd (Holon) and listened to the first two cuts on the way to work this morning. It's so sick...it's as much Steve Reich as anything relating to jazz (the closest parallels might be some M-Base shit or Vijay Ayer, but this is much more composed and cinematic than that), but who cares what you call it.

Picking apart the time signatures almost feels like doing a crossword puzzle or something.

Yeah, Ronin albums are scarily beautiful. Do you have the earlier ones? He switched to piano from Fender Rhodes on this new one.

No, I only have the new one and Stoa (which I think was all piano as well). The older tracks on his myspace sound great, less complicated and funkier.

Herbie Hancock is a friend of Listening Post, so we were delighted when he took Album of the Year honors at this year's Grammys even though 87.7 percent of this blog's readers think the awards don't matter, and the ceremony must, by its very nature, honor the John Mayers of the world over its Mark E. Smiths.

But apparently, lots of people base album buying decisions on the award. His win has proven a boon to sales, bumping River: The Joni Letters 967 percent to number 5 on the Billboard 200 chart -- Hancock's highest result ever in his long, storied career, which now includes 12 of the trophies.

Tomorrow night, Hancock will perform on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

"Tell that to your new leader- Leno!"

Sold 54,000 before Grammys and that same amount in the week after, and now more

I almost bought it...but I didn't.

So far I would list my favoritest things I've heard like this:

1. Cuong Vu, Vu-Tet
2. Steven Bernstein, Diaspora Suite (Miles-ish space funk, but Jewisher)
3. Louie Bellson and Clark Terry, Louie and Clark Expedition 2 (big-band corny stuff but really good and kinda forward-looking -- Duke Ellington once said Bellson was the world's greatest musician and he was married to Pearl Bailey so that's good enough for me, jack)
4. Matana Roberts, The Chicago Project (only had it for a couple of days, moving up quickly)
5. Cowboys From Hell, Monster Rodeo (metal-jazz from Switzerland, covers of the "Halloween" theme and straight-up beat-jacks from "Eye of the Tiger", so amazing)
6. Jason Kao Hwang/Edge, Stories Before Within (Third Stream weirdness, kinda good while shoveling at midnight)
7. The Wrong Object, Stories From the Shed (Zappa Tribute Band goes jazz-legit LOL)
8. François Ingold Trio, Fat Free (v.nice)
9. Keith Marks, Foreign Funk (jazz flautist gets down with "Axel F"...but actually better than that sounds)
10. Joe Locke Quartet, Sticks and Strings (I'm a sucker for vibes)

okay my copy of Maceo Parker's Roots and Grooves just arrived and it is SHIT HOT Y'ALL. He's playing with the Cologne big band WDR; one disc of Ray Charles covers, one disc of good old Maceo funk stuff including an 18 minute "Pass the Peas." Dude can still play the holy hell out of that saxophone, it's like he hasn't aged a day. WOW BLAM ZING.

Mo' Roots & Southern Exposure are classics. Life on Planet Groove is a good time too, though I haven't heard it for years.

I keep almost buying Life on Planet Groove at Strictly Discs, they always have it there...but then something else catches my eye.

Meeting Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley while working as a snack-bar clerk in Newark Airport was one of the greatest things to happen to teenaged me.

'A Beginner's Guide to Coltrane on Impulse'

yeah I've been into Bernstein's Diaspora too. Saw this great footage from early '60s this week of Anita O'Day live in Japan, swinging--whatever that means--hard and looking cooler than anyone in history. Also found the Free Form Funky Freqs' Urban Mythology really far better than I would've guessed.

Have you guys heard about Andrew D'Angelo? He has brain cancer, no insurance...there's been a bunch of benefits, I was going to go to one in Chicago yesterday but didn't make it. He's blogging about it pretty extensively, which is kind of fascinating.

Peter Margasak was blogging enthusiastically about D'Angelo on his Chicago Reader Post No Bills blog and conveying the health news-- blurring the lines between edgy postbop and noise rock--

Jazz and more critic Howard Mandel in a comment to Christgau's posting re the demise of No Depression magazine on the NAJP website

Essentially the same circumstances resulted in the demise in print form of Mississippi Rag, the long-running mag covering traditional jazz, and with increases in US postage probably threatens publications I've worked for such as Rhythm (formerly RhythmMusic) and SignalToNoise (though that one's currently in expansionist mode -- how does publisher/editor Pete Gershon do it?). Other periodicals covering "marginal music" (American roots, world music, jazz and classical are marginal, not fundimental?) must be at risk, too. Will readers migrate to the websites or issues put out in pdf form? And most important to writers and photographers: Will online-only publications pay contributors as the print versions did? Robert Christgau is right that grants and funders are not known in this realm. Does the NAJP have ideas about addressing the problem, or are arts journalists just going to watch this happen, helplessly? If we're to go with the flow, at least let's build platforms that allow professionalism on the web to assert itself as worthy of and able to attract financial support.

http://www.najp.org/articles/2008/02/no-depression-lets-hope-so.html

Mandel blogs about 2008 releases - http://www.artsjournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz/2008/02/best_records_of_2008.html#more

Holy Smokes. I just found this bunch of videos at the library called Jazz Casual, hosted by Ralph J. Gleason, with all kinds of great players on them. I took home two, the first being Jimmy Witherspoon with Ben Webster and the Vince Guaraldi Trio, the second Count Basie leading a quartet with Sonny Payne and Freddie Green, but it seems like they are all worth watching.

I just wish there was a better view of the front of Freddie's guitar so I could see him make those famous three note "Freddie Green chords."

hey does anyone on here groove on arthur blythe? i've gotten three of his albums - illusions, blythe spirit, and basic blythe -- and i think he's becoming one of my fav jazz dudes ever...perfect for me, a great mix of free jazz "out there" stuff with really curious and idiosyncratic "in there" trad moves...like maybe if you made a comparison to rock guitarist he would be robert quine, sort of bridging the classic/modern gap really nicely...plus he's not like super revered by collectors so you can pick up the vinyl for under $5!

Blythe is a knockout on the early Horace Tapscott LPs-- seek "The Giant is Awakened"... It's one of the first (if not the very first) sessions featuring "Black Arthur"

This music is not my cup of tea (but it might be yours), but I still find Villafranca an amazing pianist to see live.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/eliovillafranca

He was more-or-less based in Philadelphia for a while, but Philadelphia couldn't keep him any more than Cuba could.

My favorite Blythe, for decades now, has always been Lenox Aveneue Breakdown from 1979, which has a very cool Latin bulgalu feel at its root, somoehow.

(Wow, this Elio Villafranca stuff is really boring. All that skill and this is what he does. I don't understand musicians.)

xp Or at least that's how it's always felt to me.

Here's Christgau's take on it:

Lenox Avenue Breakdown [Columbia, 1979]
I prefer this to, say, Blythe's more conventionally "free" Bush Baby (on Adelphi) because--thanks to Jack DeJohnette, Guillermo Franco, and the lilt of Blythe's theme vamps--its passion for popular rhythms enables it to say something about them. The sinuous Latin groove of "Down San Diego Way" wends through three of the four tracks. But while the California opener is unfailingly sunny, the groove runs into two-way traffic on the title tune and suffers further cross-comment on the bluesy "Slidin' Through" before disappearing into "Odessa." Just as Steely Dan's lyrics (and chord changes, I suppose) work against the surface mellowness of the music, so the strength of the groove here is challenged and transformed by solo voices and alien rhythms without ever being defeated, much less exploited for its "accessibility." And if we're interested, all this conflict helps us understand why music like Bush Baby exists. A

thx chuck yeah my friend said real good things about lenox ave and bush baby i'll have to track them down...is blood ulmer on those? he's on illusions and i kinda like the choppy hard r&b feel he brings to it

i like some of the blythe stuff with bob stewart on tuba + joey baron, but haven't spent a ton of time with it.

Michael Bourne on WBGO talking to this cool-singing Abbey Lincoln-protegee named Libby York.

I have no idea what made me click this thread, but I just recently happened to find this record: Lenox Avenue Breakdown [Columbia, 1979] in a cutout bin for a dollar. I am glad to hear it is good.

Maybe you clicked because you wanted to learn the voicing of the elusive Jazz D Minor Bag Chord?

A couple of notable 2007 releases that I'm just now coming around to:

Joan Stiles - Hurly-Burly
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0nfixzu5ldhe

Great piano-led sextet in a Monkish mood.

The Blueprint Project with Han Bennink - People I Like
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:k9foxzlgld6e

A bit more abstract, Dutch-influenced trio with Han Bennink on drums.

I have no idea what made me click this thread, but I just recently happened to find this record: Lenox Avenue Breakdown [Columbia, 1979] in a cutout bin for a dollar. I am glad to hear it is good.

-- roxymuzak, Sunday, March 30, 2008 5:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

i'm sooo jealous that's supposed to be the best one!!!!!

Bennink is duetting with Brotzmann here later this month. I already have a stiffie.

Spring Jazz film series at the Library of Congress in DC on the next 4 Wednesdays for free. This Wednesday April 2 at 7 p.m.:

Imagine the Sound (Sphinx Productions, 1981). Dir Ron Mann. (90 min, color, DVD)

preceded by:

Jazz--Rhythms of Freedom (JAK Films, 2007). Dir Mike Welt. (32 min, color, DigiBeta video)

Ron Mann's recently restored version of his now classic 1981 documentary features interviews and beautifully shot studio performances by four free-jazz firebrands: pianist Paul Bley, trumpeter Bill Dixon, saxophonist Archie Shepp and pianist Cecil Taylor.

Preceded by the short film Jazz--Rhythms of Freedom , one of 94 historical documentaries recently produced by Lucasfilm, which explores the use of jazz as a tool for liberation with profiles of contemporary musicians Billy Taylor, Kahil El'Zabar and Joe McPhee.

Bennink is duetting with Brotzmann here later this month. I already have a stiffie.

-- Oilyrags, Monday, March 31, 2008 4:15 PM

dude i have never heard either one of these dudes in life but i am amped

Yeah, hard to go wrong with that line-up. I like the CD that Brotzmann did with Hamid Drake, The Dried Rat-Dog

I went to see Han Bennink at Tonic last year on Hurting's recommendation. Hurting ended up not going, but my friend and I really enjoyed the show, especially the duets with Anthony Coleman.