Rolling Jazz Thread 2013

Discussion of the death of jazz, why so-and-so isn't a real jazz musician, etc., etc.

So who's going to Winter Jazzfest? I'm thinking about it; here's what I'm hoping to catch:

FRIDAY 1/11
7:30pm - Yosvany Terry Quintet (THE BITTER END)
8:15pm - Michael Attias (CULTURE PROJECT THEATER)
9:15pm - Jaimeo Brown’s Transcendence (ZINC BAR)

SATURDAY 1/12
7:00pm - Michael Formanek (CULTURE PROJECT THEATER)
7:45pm - Ari Hoenig Group (SULLIVAN HALL)
8:30pm - The Cookers (LE POISSON ROUGE)
9:45pm - Rudresh Mahanthappa's Gamak (LPR)

Found a Roy Haynes album, Love Letters from 2002, in a I-don't-want-these-somebody-take-'em pile at work. It's a collection of standards, which I've complained about in the past, but I'm enjoying it. It features several different bands:

1) Joshua Redman, tenor sax; Kenny Barron, piano; Christian McBride, bass; Haynes
2) Barron, McBride, Haynes
3) John Scofield, guitar; David Kikoski, piano; Dave Holland, bass; Haynes
4) Scofield, Holland, Haynes
5) Haynes solo on one track

Would listen.

Never make it to the Winter Jazzfest but somebody was talking it up to me last weekend. Just looked at the lineup and there is definitely stuff I would like to see although there were some artists on the bio page I couldn't find on the schedule page.

Oh wait, I was looking at the 2012 bios.

Looks like I'm also gonna be going to the David S. Ware memorial service/concert tomorrow night in Manhattan (St. Peter's Church, Lexington & 54th, 7 PM). Performances by:

Cooper–Moore (solo harp)

William Parker ("special presentation")

Muhammad Ali & Darius Jones (sax/drums duo)

Joe Morris & Warren Smith (guitar/drums duo)

Andrew Cyrille, Daniel Carter, Joe Morris: (sax/bass/drums trio)

Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Guillermo E. Brown (piano/bass/drums trio performing compositions by David S. Ware)

I wrote up the new Colin Stetson/Mats Gustafsson saxophone duos CD, Stones, for Burning Ambulance.

Can any jazz-bos point me to their (or other good) Best of 2012 lists? Been browsing some outlets' but haven't hit anything i hadn't heard that's blown my mind yet. Michael Wollny comes closest i guess.

http://jazztimes.com/articles/67663-jazztimes-top-50-cds-individual-ballots

There's a really good interview with JD Allen (maybe my favorite living saxophonist) in the new issue of Down Beat. I almost never find anything interesting in that magazine, but this is well worth reading. Apparently, his next album will feature a pianist, after four trio discs in a row.

that gustafsson/stetson record sounds good!

I've been really into this Steve Reid/Kieran Hebden/Mats Gustafsson Live at the South Bank record recently.

more lists: http://members.jazzjournalists.org/2012best

Got a download of the studio debut by trumpeter David Weiss's Point of Departure band, Venture Inward, the other day. It's their first album for Posi-Tone after two live discs, Snuck In and Snuck Out, on Sunnyside. They're a repertory band, but the tunes they perform are a pretty interesting selection—Andrew Hill's "Erato" (from Pax), Herbie Hancock's "I Have a Dream" (from The Prisoner), Miles Davis's "Paraphernalia" and "Black Comedy" (from Miles in the Sky), Charles Tolliver's "Revillot," and some tunes by the much more obscure Kenny Cox and the Contemporary Jazz Quintet, who made two Blue Note albums in 1968-69. It's really good stuff—Weiss on trumpet, JD Allen on sax, Nir Felder on guitar, bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Jamire Williams. It'll be out in late February.

Jose James came through

really, what's the record like? "it's all over your body" is great but the rhythm section carries it. might be the best use of chris dave + pino on record yet.

I've been really into this Steve Reid/Kieran Hebden/Mats Gustafsson Live at the South Bank record recently.

Help me like it. What does it do for you? I want to like it- I like the concept- but it sounds dull and samey and undynamic to me.

IDK man, put it on in the background and give it some time to build? I don't think it's exactly supposed to be "dynamic" in a striking way, more fluid and gradually changing.

Listened to the new Jeremy Pelt album, Water and Earth, this morning. It's a big change from his last four albums with his acoustic quintet - this one features organ and electric piano, occasional electric bass, female vocals (a lead on one song, a wordless chorus on the opening track), and Pelt even plays through a wah-wah or some other sound-altering device at a few points. If his last few albums were sometimes too clearly indebted to the Miles Davis quintet of 1965-68, this one owes a little bit to Filles de Kilimanjaro and the second half of Water Babies, but also reminds me of Joe Henderson's The Elements. It's really good stuff; Pelt is a major talent. Out next week on High Note.

nothing against jeremy pelt (whom i like), but it gives me a headache when jazz musicians pull the same 40+ year old moves to make an 'electric' album (effects pedals on horns, funk beats, Rhodes, etc). also thinking of dave douglas, robert glasper, etc.

not that there is necessarily a great way to incorporate recent electronic music innovations with real improvisation -- when i think about records by jazz musicians who have really gotten their head around electronics (nicholas payton, craig taborn maybe, archie pelago?) it usually just makes me want to listen to straight electronic/dance/r&b/whatever. Thundercat's record found a nice midpoint between some serious group playing and a sound/production-oriented vibe, haven't listened to it recently though.

OTM I feel the same way about most jazz incorporation of electronics.

I recently actually went to a show where a jazz trumpeter did a "noise" thing that involved playing a standard through tons of effects, looping pedals, etc. and turning it into noise, and in the end I just found the fact that the standard melody was there at all distracting.

Jazz Gallery reopening tonight at their new location in the Flatiron District. Good band tonight, Alex Brown on piano with his brother Zach on bass, Mike Rodriguez on trumpet and the dynamic duo of Eric Doob and Paulo Stagnaro on drums and percussion.

/street_team

Interesting Twitter tirade from Eric "ELEW" Lewis, a pianist who had a decent career in the jazz mainstream (played in Wynton Marsalis's band, etc.) but has since embarked on a somewhat showbizzy career playing solo piano versions of rock tunes. I like his stuff - it reminds me of Matt Shipp - but the jazz press pretty much turns up their nose at him. Here's what he had to say:

Its really sad to devote ones life to an Art form and be ignored on the basis of some Petty bias. Nancy has been trying to get press, and airplay from ALL these Jazz stations and Jazz shows since my record came out. We went to @jalcnyc I hand delivered a cd to the dude over there who runs the radio show and he has cold blown us off. I mean this AINT Hip Hop or Rock or Pop. Whats up with all the Hate? I mean there is so much i can share with the community at a historical level, Elvin, Wynton, Hendricks. Students and jazz fans would love to know some in depth stories about traveling and working with JAZZ LEGENDS. Why does the pop world have me performing with them and the JAZZ world ignore me? I mean i opened for @joshgroban and played ARENAS solo piano! Does anyone know how hard that was? Serious pressure trying to keep a gig and playing for people who are NOT Jazz listeners. But did @DownBeatMag or @JazzTimes cover it? No. Im contributing to the Story of American Jazz in a MIGHTY way and the people who are tasked with doing their part are being IGNORANT. I come from the Hood. Camden NJ. I should be the one acting all IGNORANT. I guess if i were to behave like a scary RAPPER or something these Jazz journalists would LOVE me. But when i have my manager contact these individuals like a pro i get treated WORSE than if I was trying to get on AMERICAS GOT TALENT and AGT treated me GREAT. And so did @joshgroban and so did Lil Wayne and Dave Matthews. When I bought advertising in Downbeat and Jazztimes NOBODY Discriminated. And if I was to buy ADVERTISING on these fundraiser needing radio stations, there would be no Discrimination against my dollar. So this is the situation huh? Jazz. And They wonder why I made Rockjazz. I don't need them financially speaking. Im CHALLENGING them to be what they are supposed to be and do what they are supposed to do. For JAZZ. Ive been wondering what it is that I need to do or tell Nancy but basically, like everything else, I gotta put LAMES on blast. Inner Urge. Solo piano. People are Strange. Stride. Complexions. Prepared Piano. Thanksgiving. Original Jazz Piano Composition. Please Play. It sounds good. Must I BEG? @checkoutjazz @nprmusic Is that what Im reduced to at THIS point? Is that what is needed? Sad. If Im wrong, I'd LOVE to know where. And if you're just gonna be silent and Ignorant, I ll be sure to tweet that too. I mean what do i have to lose. Brother gotta put on a monkey suit just to be a part of his own MUSIC. Get it? It aint my preference to have to be this way but the level of Ignorance basically requires this brute force method. Not just gonna let these LAMES be the sole voice by me forfeiting my AMERICAN right to raise HELL about the type of Hypocrisy they are trafficking in. I settle musical ISSUES at the Jam Sessions. Can YOU Play??? Bottom Line. Show due RESPECT. Period. DO your freaking Job. Report the NEWS. You see this? (link to photo)THIS is what Jazz complaining looks like. But here I am complaining to THEM about the same thing! CRAZY! They want more job opportunities but most can't really play. The environment isn't sharply competitive because every Tom Dick and Harry is on Jazz Radio sounding OK and every year either HERBIE or CHICK win a Grammy. BORING. They invalidate the commercial music on LAME grounds, and FAIL to realize that the other musics ARE at least as valid as the MEDIOCRE Jazz that is TYPICALLY found in clubs and radio, WORLDWIDE. Whatever. Im just lashing out today. Having a little fun. Im gonna jam tonite and burn baby burn. Oscar gig gettin booked. Rock and Win.

there's a really interesting and extensive interview with him on Do the Math: http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/2012/10/five-questions-for-eric-lewis.html

i'll always have love for eric lewis -- he was in the group when i saw elvin jones around '01, and playing the single most burning, intense piano solo i've ever heard live.

Looking forward to reading that interview, and the post above it, which I just now only skimmed, momentarily confusing jalc with jaymc. I met a guy once that lives in my neighborhood who started out as a jazz guitar player and now instead sells all those instructional DVDs about fingerstyle arrangements of Stevie Wonder tunes. He had the variant beef about how nobody knew who he was when he was playing the hard stuff but now he is much higher profile.

on one hand his current persona feels corny, and it's not a good look to seem like you're transparently grasping for crossover $$$ (ie "R0ckjazz", Coldplay covers, etc). on the other hand, he's certainly under no obligation to keep struggling in the straight-ahead jazz world for no money, and i hope he finds whatever success he's looking for. i definitely know some super bitter jazz musicians who think their talent & experience somehow entitles them to a career playing straight-ahead jazz, and constantly post rants on facebook about how "real music" isn't valued any more. also not a good look.

FWIW, I tried some recent Eric Lewis after seeing him on an EOY list (maybe from Philadelphia City Paper), but it didn't make much of an impression on me. From what I remember it did seem a little too pop for anyone to expect jazz publications to pick up on it in a big way, but I admit my memory of what it sounded like is hazy. (I think I've checked him out previously as well. I definitely remember seeing his name years back, playing at the Painted Bride, etc. but I've never seen him perform.)

definitely know some super bitter jazz musicians who think their talent & experience somehow entitles them to a career playing straight-ahead jazz, and constantly post rants on facebook about how "real music" isn't valued any more. also not a good look.

― keef qua keef (Jordan), Thursday, January 24, 2013 2:16 PM (10 minutes ago)

P lame rant imo. You have wide commercial success and you're mad because the miniscule jazz world isn't singing your praises?

Also to knock Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock winning grammies (often for for crossover albums) in the same breath.

You left out knocking the mediocre jazz that is found in the clubs. I mean, how can he be sure?

Also, listening to this dude now and really not feeling it at all. Jazz-rock Liberace. #countmeamongthehaters

i don't know that he really has much in the way of 'wide commercial success' though, and at the same time he's getting backlash from the jazz world where he's paid serious dues.

i have no interest in listening to his current stuff either, but i wish you could have heard him with elvin.

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, but I'm trying to figure out who the characters are in this (maybe apocryphal?) story that I only very vaguely remember: bandleader asks for a drum solo, drummer goes off, bandleader tells drummer to start over and play it at half speed--doing so, bandleader says, is actually more challenging/beautiful/etc. I'm probably butchering the tale, but does anyone know? Is Buddy Rich involved? This came up in conversation recently and it's bugging me. Don't want, of course, to butcher it any longer. Thanks in advance and sorry for the little thread hijack.

it was monk + frankie dunlop:
http://shipdrummer.blogspot.com/2011/04/frankie-dunlop-on-monk.html

Yes!!! Thank you so much. God, that is an excellent read.

Tom Hull year end list always turns me on to jazz things.
sent away for his #2 (jazz) from last year by The Group (Ahmed Abdullah, Marion Brown, Billy Bang, Sirone, Fred Hopkins, Andrew Cyrille) - Live (1986, NYC)
i like all those guys think this would appeal to Ornette fans. just listening now for the first time and it sounds great

frankie dunlop is prob my favorite non-canonized drummer

The Group album is excellent. All the players are great, but for me, things really take off when Billy Bang solos. Beautiful version of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.

No Business is such a great label - everything they put out is worth hearing. The Liudius Makunius/Barry Guy CD, Lava, is fantastic - hugely inventive and elemental sax and bass duet. There's also a terrific album by Bobby Bradford and a top notch band of Scandinavian free jazzers.

thx for the recs, Stew
i only know Barry Guy from Amalgam's Prayer for Peace but that's enough to make me know i need to hear Lava
and no doubt - Mr. Bang is playing his freaking heart out on this Group show

NoBusiness sends me everything they put out (CDs, and CD-Rs of the vinyl-only stuff). Unfortunately, the package that included that Group CD was completely destroyed by rain - the booklets were all melted onto the CDs. Would have liked to hear it.

Wayne Shorter's new album streaming here, for a little while:
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/27/170099510/first-listen-wayne-shorter-without-a-net?ft=3&f=126134671&sc=nl&cc=jn-20130203
Also, an intriguing interview, with excerpts of this 'n' that--downloadable, even:
http://www.npr.org/2013/02/02/170882668/wayne-shorter-on-jazz-how-do-you-rehearse-the-unknown

Wow, the Shorter is sounding great so far.

Looks like a pretty good band. Will have to check it out.

that's been his working band for a WHILE now. They're sick.

Pretty much the only jazz eminence gris whose new releases I still look forward to

The quartet's been together 12 years now. I interviewed Brian Blade last week - it'll be up on Blue Note's website on Tuesday.

They must be playing in places I can't get into.

I don't think they do many club or theater shows outside NYC - mostly festivals. I saw them in 2011 at Town Hall.

Flushing Town Hall?

No, probably not, because in that case I might have gone.

Anat Cohen on Fresh Air now: started with a slow, sly "La Vie En Rose", based on Louis Armstrong's version, with her clarinet instead of trumpet, keeping the orig duet w trombone (Wycliffe Gordon here), plus a more modern beat, though not too much--instantly killing me. Also demonstrates how she applies a touch of her tenor sax technique to the clarinet's lower register. Plus The Three Cohens Sextet, of course--anyway, here tis (can download it too) http://www.npr.org/2013/02/06/171176294/anat-cohen-bringing-the-clarinet-to-the-world

Also this tonight at 9 p.m. EST
http://www.npr.org/event/music/170717638/chris-potter-quartet-live-at-the-village-vanguard

Speaking of downloads and The Three Cohens, their Newport '12 set is still posted:
http://www.npr.org/event/music/158020922/three-cohens-live-in-concert-newport-jazz-2012

Who are the other two Cohens, her brother and the bass player with the same name as him?

Oh, I didn't know about the one who plays saxophone

kinda cool that john patitucci has gone from being associated with one of the corniest, least-loved eras of jazz ('80s fusion/Elektrik Band/GRP) to being in one of the most respected acoustic quartets out there.

OTM. I've heard good things about when he plays R&B gigs on electric too, although I haven't seen for myself.

I love how you can always really hear the room in VV recordings, and because of all the famous recordings there, you wind up hearing echoes of them in new ones.

really love this record by nathan hanson and brian roessler, discovered via Destination:Out
http://nhbr.bandcamp.com/album/selenographia

digging into the jose james record and i'm really, really feeling it. there's a lot more chris dave than i expected too (it's killing that i don't have track-by-track credits for this record....you'd think blue note of all labels would post them somewhere!).

I've been digging through criss cross stuff on Spotify a lot lately, and I'm kind of surprised by how many one-offs there are by randos featuring sick backing bands who seem to be playing at 80%. It's always like "Introducing Jorm Stiegmuller" feat Brian Blade, Peter Bernstein, Christian McBride and Chris Potter. Tight but forgettable record of standards/bop classics/dated-sounding "modern" originals.

OTOH I have been revisiting Tim Warfield's releases on Criss Cross (got into him briefly after seeing him with Nicholas Payton once), and I really like them -- very straight ahead, but band just has a vibe. Cyrus Chestnut, Clarence Penn, Tarus Mateen, Terrell Stafford on the one I'm listening to right now

lol @ "introducing jorm stiegmuller".

copying my list of criss cross faves from the 2012 thread:

billy drummond, dubai
clarence penn, penn's landing
ralph peterson, the art of war
melvin rhyne, mel's spell
conrad herwig & brian lynch, que viva coltrane
herlin riley, cream of the crescent

btw my favorite tim warfield is on that christian mcbride record, 'a family affair'. have you heard that? the opening track is one of my all-time faves, and it's got some other serious cuts.

Warfield's got a new one out this week with Nicholas Payton (who's become such a loudmouth asshole it actually dissuades me from listening to his playing), Cyrus Chestnut, Rodney Whitaker and Clarence Penn. I'm hoping to give it a listen soon, and might interview Warfield for Burning Ambulance.

So far this year very impressed with new Omar Sosa (homage to Kind of Blue but in afrocuban style), Teri Lyne Carrington (homage to Money Jungle), and Hiromi (2013 on these shores so I'm counting it). Some other stuff too -- that Wayne Shorter sounds all right to me, but Patricia Barber is not something that can be listened to casually so I'm still up in the air about her new one.

Released last year but I'm making my way through Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers now. First disc has string quartet and piano all over it. A few 'free' sections but all is planned, the intense passages you usually get with that kind of music are cut-off, but this is just the kind of mix between classical ensemble and improvisation I'm interested in.

Just starting...choosing this thread as a notepad of lame impressions if I have anymore.

Title almost made me spit my iced tea out:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KO7MgTorL._SY300_.jpg

Listening to it now. It may very well end up working as an introduction to Shipp.

It's a good compilation, but the title (and the art) have to be a deliberate, very dry joke.

I haven't read it yet, but there's a big article on Jason Moran in this week's New Yorker (not available online).

Definitely worth a listen.
http://www.freshselects.net/darryl-reeves-dillaquarium-jazz-covers

Got a new album by tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens in the mail yesterday - well, new as in it's a 2013 release, but it was recorded in 2010. The band is Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, Jaleel Shaw on alto sax, Taylor Eigsti on piano, Joe Sanders on bass, Justin Brown on drums, and Gretchen Parlato sings on two tracks. I liked Stephens' last album, so I'm interested to hear this one. It's called That Nepenthetic Place, and it comes out mid-April.

This is sort of interesting/depressing:
http://robbennion.com/wordpress/how-much-money-do-jazz-musicians-make/

Hurting, that's why you have to start taking guitar lessons again, to do your part. Or come to Terraza 7 every once in a while. Tonight you can see Ari Hoenig- in case you missed him at the Winter Jazzfest mentioned upthread- play a duet with that quietly intense guitar genius from the island of Guadeloupe, Jean-Christophe Maillard. Tomorrow there is a bass player who plays with the guy who is linked in that article, Greg Diamond, who might end up showing up so you can ask him about the pie chart.

Sorry, he didn't play guitar last night but another instrument, some kind of custom-made eight-string bass saz.

IDK, I looked up that guy and he looks a bit too natty dread for my taste. Does his music sound like his hair looks?

Are you sure about that? I couldn't find him on this thread: GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER...

Answer to second question: no.

Almost forgot to post this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfDoAofL_hw

?

What day is today?

Jazzday?

(tho never you mind me, i'm still listenin' to synth pop at the mo:)

Bargain Day.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Despite the rastaesque appearance, Hurting, in this case you would be very wrong to judge a book by its cover, he plays with an icy precision, as if his fingers were transmitting the results of the cold equations directly from brain to instrument.

Sorry, just wanted to say The Cold Equations.

Anyway, tonight at the same venue, my bass playing neighbor and a few cats from Paquita D'Rivera's band. They are playing a few Coltrane tunes but surprisingly not Equinox.

ingrid laubrock, 'anti-house':

http://www.instantjazz.com/instantjazz-cd.php?id=2081
http://www.freejazzblog.org/2013/03/ingrid-laubrock-anti-house-strong-place.html

from last year, just reviewed on stef's freejazz site. sounds very nice! good to hear mary halvorson in a group with a piano.

just reviewed in the nyt too i guess

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/arts/music/albums-by-kris-davis-and-ingrid-laubrock.html?pagewanted=all

Listening to Barry Altschul's The 3dom Factor, a trio date featuring Jon Irabagon on tenor sax, Joe Fonda on bass, and Altschul on drums. For anyone who doesn't know, Altschul is a fucking amazing drummer who was part of Sam Rivers' 1970s trio, Anthony Braxton's quartet as heard on Five Pieces 1975 and The Montreux/Berlin Concerts, the band on Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds, the group Circle (with Braxton, Holland and Chick Corea), and on and on. He worked with Irabagon (who's best known as 1/4 of Mostly Other People Do The Killing) on the saxophonist's album Foxy in 2010, and he and Fonda have been part of the FAB Trio with violinist Billy Bang for decades. This is a killer album of free-but-swinging post-bop with amazing solos from everybody. Highly recommended.

jessie used to teach hindustani classical music when i was at uni, he never liked me very much, but i was always in awe of his playing and teaching, here he is playing with seb rochford and others, really great music, i love this sound!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvNSXDQP-uc&feature=youtube_gdata

I've bought a bunch of stuff by saxophonist Tim Warfield from eMusic and Amazon MP3 in the last couple of weeks - six albums in all - and I'm interviewing him tomorrow. He's a straightahead tenor player who works with Nicholas Payton, Orrin Evans and guys like that.

yeah we discuss him upthread a bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qwv2f5m0xM

tight

the fellowship always kind of surprises me, inasmuch as they don't sound like what I would imagine a Blade-led group to sound like (i.e. they're not what I imagined his taste to be)

how so?

or have you forgotten:

http://https%3A//s3.amazonaws.com/webassets.ticketmob.com/LS/images/ShowPosters/MamaRosaPosterweb.jpg

http://irockjazz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/brianblade_mamarosa_albumcover.jpg

idk, his playing is so hip and edgy, and their sound is relatively easy-going

btw is it just me or does that piano have kind of an odd sound

i love that he's a folkie at heart and that the fellowship is so melody-based. my favorite band in jazz.

he's def my favorite working drummer in jazz

there are so many hip, super-accomplished drummers these days but he's got that elvin thing where he can just kill you with one hit.

yeah I think there are probably more killer jazz drummers than ever in terms of versatility and chops and groove, but he all that plus a ridiculous amount of style

I guess I attribute the first part of that to the proliferation of jazz schools?

i wonder how much could be attributed to Youtube, like young kids watching gospel chops videos for inspiration/competition/ideas before they get to musical school.

Never listened to Darcy James Argue before but I'm really enjoying this: http://www.npr.org/2013/04/21/177514421/first-listen-darcy-james-argues-secret-society-brooklyn-babylon

I don't actually like it very much, compared with their last album. But I need to give it another chance or two.

Infernal Machines is the last album? Is it similar?

I am really close to really digging the new Rudresh Mahanthappa, but I can't quite get into the way it sounds -- it has that shiny metallic 90s jazz sound that I thought had mostly died out. I hate the way the drums are recorded to sound more like rock drums.

gave up on it and decided to listen to some Kadri Gopalnath instead, guy was a motherfucker on the sax

I just came here to say that I heart Hurting's new name

I didn't know anyone else here was into Kadri Gopalnath! What were you listening to? (Don't know Mahanthappa's work. Maybe I'll try some.)

yeah I started getting into carnatic music in general and then discovered him just by poking around. Right now I'm listening to this live thing on Spotify, part of the "Gems of Carnatic Music" series. It says it's 2006 but there's no venue listed.

i think rudresh is good but somehow i haven't been able to make myself stick with the last several albums now.

Hey New Yorkers, Burnt Sugar with go-go musicians free Thursday May 16 (tonight) for 2 shows at David Rubenstein Atrium; then in W. DC
Monday May 20. Could be good.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/44299/drums-along-the-potomac-may-20-at-the-kennedy-center

Listening to the new Terence Blanchard album, Magnetic; comes out 5/28 and features guest spots from Ravi Coltrane, Ron Carter and Lionel Loueke in addition to the core band (Brice Winston on tenor, Fabian Almazan on piano, Joshua Crumbly on bass, Kendrick Scott on drums). Pretty hot stuff, not as moody as some of his previous records (which I also liked).

Also, I just ordered one of those Complete Black Saint & Soul Note Recordings boxes, this one by Muhal Richard Abrams. Eight CDs for $40 including shipping, and it seems to be mostly big band/orchestra stuff. Intrigued to hear it; I know almost nothing about Abrams' work, so this is basically a starting point for me.

The Hearinga Suite is pretty nice.

Thread of missing Mulgrew Miller.

Only 57 I think. Too young to go.

https://soundcloud.com/tedsirota/sets/philly-joe-jones-rutgers

Like this guitarist a lot, has a new record coming out with Ches Smith on drums:
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/premiere-nick-millevoi-and-ed-ricart-quartet-linive

New site dedicated to Lowell Davidson, including two newly-discovered recordings.

Been listening to this Jemeel Moondoc Trio record from 1982, with Ed Blackwell on drums. I love his drumming so much. I've actually loved his drumming pretty much as long as I have been listening to jazz, since when I first heard him on Ornette Coleman records.

moldy figs i'm selling

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/1002774_10152351567117137_759853895_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/994826_10152351567107137_797887888_n.jpg

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https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1005714_10152351567277137_484649340_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1009751_10152351567357137_1394383775_n.jpg

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I would have sex with all this cool jazz, if I actually had a working turntable and stero right now.

debated keeping the red norvo trio EP just in case i decided to become a Mingus completist, but i don't think i have enough time or money to become a Mingus completist. plus, i have the collected trio 2XLP and i think that's probably good for me. the original math rockers.

the defranco/tristano and the chico hamilton trio records in particular intrigue me

spent hours last night reading about SEECO Records and DAWN Records. that's where i'm at. stuck in the 50's.

http://www.bsnpubs.com/latin/seeco.html

http://www.bsnpubs.com/latin/dawn.html

would like to be a dawn records completist, but again, time, money...

Just got a download of the new Nick Hempton Band CD, Odd Man Out. It's coming out on 8/13 (available digitally starting 7/30). It's his second for Posi-Tone, third overall. He's an alto saxophonist, originally from Australia but living/working in NYC since 2004. The band is a quartet (piano, bass, drums) but they add a trombonist on several tracks here. His music is straightahead, mostly uptempo hard bop and blues (he's on Posi-Tone), but his tone is clean and the band is tight, and I always like his albums.

I saw that guy downtown at B-flat a few months ago, subbing for the regular guy on their jazz night, he was pretty good. There are a few Aussie jazz musicians around town along with people who may have lived down there and may have been married to some of them at some point, a few of them are named Matt, playing piano and having spiky hair. The elder statesman of the down under scene is actually a Kiwi, I believe, Mike Nock.

I posted on Facebook that with his new beard, he kinda looks like Jandek:

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Prev. unreleased Benny Carter-arr. tracks incl on Sarah Vaughn's Sophisticated Lady: The Duke Ellington Songbook CollectionThis linked press release ends w link to mediakit, which links to
a Soundcloud stash: http://e2.ma/message/6g1af/mdpv1d

what the hell: http://mediakits.concordmusicgroup.com/p/sophisticated-lady/listen.html

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20130720/29/f9/d0/dd/e4e97ecae3c8a4f07d495040_360x360.jpg

Does anyone else ever go through long phases of jazz "burnout"? Maybe it's just because I started listening to jazz so young and listened so obsessively, but lately I find most jazz just doesn't scratch the right itch for me.

*raises hand*

It's weird too, the way I perceive a lot of jazz seems to have changed, like it used to feel like this edgy sonic adventure for me, and now it feels more meandery and self-indulgent. I'm massively generalizing of course.

In my case, I will still happily go see a show, but sometimes have little inclination to put on an album or listen to the radio.

I'm sure it's also age -- I don't have that many opportunities to just sit down with a good pair of headphones and really get INTO a record, and sometimes jazz requires that.

Sometimes for me I think "I should be learning how to play these tunes, not just listening for enjoyment."

totally. but then every now and then i get burnt out on electronic music too, and i just want to hear people play instruments really well.

i guess i look at it as a common vocabulary that's there for musicians to communicate with & learn, but after a point it's like, ok, what are you going to do with it? maybe it's not the end goal. and these days everyone plays everything, but you still find some jazz musicians with that true believer mentality, where it's like a holy quest to develop your voice and lead bands and gripe about the state of jazz. and that's a beautiful thing in a way, but a rough career choice.

discovered there was a new bob james/david sanborn record bc of nate chinen's smooth jazz piece in the nyt; it's acoustic and brubeck-y, which would feel cynical if it weren't holy christ incredible. steve gadd on drums.

i don't really get him but i think of bob james as the smooth jazz guy who also hires good drummers ("take it to the mardi gras" etc). i once bought an acoustic trio record of his because it had billy kilson (who makes weird smooth jazz records of his own) on it.

i tried to listen to that a bit, it's nice overall but I can't take David Sanborn's saxy sax tone

Bob James is underrated though, at least among the anti-smooth-jazz crowd.

Only Bob James I've heard was Explosions, which is tremendous. Apparently, he never went back to that well.

the theme from taxi is a stone classic

I don't get burned out on jazz as a whole, but I definitely get burned out on certain types of jazz, mostly because I know (or communicate with via FB & Twitter) a bunch of other jazz critics and they all get worked up over the same artists at the same time, most of whom I hate or find boring/unappealing. So I go listen to unhip jazz for pure musical pleasure - stuff on Criss Cross or Posi-Tone, mostly, and some Fresh Sound New Talent releases. Shit that has no appeal to New York Times writers, and that is not represented by Fully Altered Media.

Hurting if you had come to Terazza tonight you might have cured your jazz blues. I think you would really like the drummer.

who?

Eric Doob.

Some great arco bass playing right now.

yeah, checking this guy out on youtube now, he is my kind of drummer

Does anyone else ever go through long phases of jazz "burnout"? Maybe it's just because I started listening to jazz so young and listened so obsessively, but lately I find most jazz just doesn't scratch the right itch for me.

i haven't, i think, but i've gone through long periods where i didn't listen to that much, and then came back and found it refreshing. but i've noticed that it seemed more gripping to me when i was younger and more in touch with performing. after a certain point i wasn't so much 'listening along', as if playing myself.

but then i kind of stopped doing that with other kinds of music too.

i think this might relate to my having an easier interest in free improv. around the time my jazz listening first dwindled in a big way, i was trying to get more into post-60s 'serious' jazz of various sorts, so, you know, buying matthew shipp and evan parker and whatever records, and got a little miffed that it often sounded to me like pointless playing - just playing whatever for whatever arbitrary reasons. when i came back to some more recent stuff in the past few years, though - and leaning a bit more euro, a bit less coltraney, and a bit less jazz-musicians-can-play-pop-see!! - it felt easier to just listen, let them be what they were and hear them with interest.

yeah I definitely think it has something to do with (not) playing for me too -- I used to really "ride" the solos partly because I wanted to tap into what made them work I guess. But it was a very visceral experience at the time. I used to just hole up in the college library basement where the listening stations were and I'd get pretty intense in the little cubicles -- probably was making ridiculous faces, twitching, moving in funny ways, etc. I was 100% serious about it.

I guess all intense musical enjoyment requires a little bit of fantasy and a little bit of suspension of disbelief.

Meanwhile back in Queens, just realized the eagerly awaited new house drum set has arrived.

sweet, what kind of kit?

Custom made, called Maelo, guy teaches at the collective I think.

fwiw enjoying the Farmers By Nature records, had never checked them out (Taborn/Parker/Cleaver)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlnq9S07i9w

via checking out eric doob, i'm seeing this as n/a on trumpet and kevin mcdonald on bone

also if i haven't mentioned it, the Inbetweens have a great new album out:

http://theinbetweens.bandcamp.com/

(nyc guitar/acoustic bass/drums trio, dope mix of interplay/melody/psych/etc)

his drumming has a lot of "bounce" to it, which complements the trombone really nicely.

Jordan my band also recorded at Seaside Lounge and I know the guy who recorded that.

nice, it sounds good. the drummer of that band also plays with my homies youngbl00d br@ss band, the guitarist has done tours with another friend's band, etc.

Bass player in that video, Jorge Roeder, was also on the gig last night, which was the classic version of Victor Prieto's trio, without any guest stars, although there are many good configurations. Trumpet player in video just had a birthday a week and a half ago.

/jazzdb

My friend and neighbor, the awesome bass player Edward Perez, is bringing two different projects to Terraza 7 in Jackson Heights this week, tonight a Latin Jazz gig- featuring Eric Doob on drums- and then Friday his Peruvian project with a vocalist, Festejation. /street_team

Newport Jazz is streaming on this NPR page this weekend; no hours posted for these bills yet, but prob starts noon EST, though I'll be checking all through the morn. Can also check archives from prev. years here. The cast:
http://www.npr.org/event/music/156120628/newport-jazz-festival

Correction: Festejation gig- featuring Eric D on drums again- is tomorrow, Saturday, not tonight.

Robert Glasper Experiment kicking off NPR's Newport stream---audio only so far, but sounds good.

brisk, steady 'n' atmospheric---"I'm a reasonable man, get off my case/na na na, naaah", sez vocoder. Piano solo.

Been getting kinda snoozy---electronics compressed, now the piano's flowers---

Awright, waking up to the Bill Charlap Trio with Anat Cohen and Bob Wilbur--also a few audio glitches to keep me on my toes.

Unusual to have two distinctive clarinets: Wilber's blues tone--even spiraling through "Jitterbug Waltz"--times Anat Cohen's occasional interpolation of her saxophone approach--both players' vpices reflected in Charlap's rolling detail, Peter Washington's bass, Kenny Washington's drummms.

aww, "Summertime", too safe a choice! Sounds good though (of course).

maybe a little too pleasant a set, ultimately---here's the Terence Blanchard Quintet, with the return of Lionel Lueke's electric guitar: promising surges.

Lionel Louke provided the best solo so far, in any set--the rest of it got cluttered eventually--but here's the Mary Halvorson Quintet, briefly, with "Hemmorrhaging Smiles", which she promises will be "upbeat", and maybe one other.

Loueke!

"Hemorrhaging"! What a nasty word.

Halvorson's guitar is just sweetly flexible at first, then wave forms shimmer and smoke.

Rez Abbasi Trio, another micro-set: his guitar's stuttering cogently (leading with his thumb?), then fingerpicking, bending sustained notes--going to his Two Rivers project with oud, sax, drums, bass (arco at the start)

Two Rivers is Amir ElSaffir's band of course, sorry--a continuity of the Middle Eastern x jazz tonality and dynamics though.

AlSaffar's trumpet matches the oud, in between leaps into overview of the emsemble (dry air between swaying colors and textures)

ah god, edit. later

Back for the end of Danny McCaslin Group: earthy, skronky, lithe, tuneful enough, brushing by the beehive (fuzz,reverb). Now another stealthy excerpt from Amir Ali, who followed Rez Abbasi Trio and Amir ElSaffar's Two Rivers yesterday--this guy plays a 72-string zither, some other instruments, also I think he's the sinuous singer I'm hearing now (bass & drums in there too natch--jazz caravan yall)(No, the vocal's another bit from ElSaffar, is the announcer's latest claim). Next up: Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra, Jim Hall Trio with former teen prodigy and still guitarist Julian Lage, and Wayne Shorter Quarter with Herbie Hancock.

You mean Donny McCaslin don't you, Don? Haven't listened to a note of this yet but enjoying your live blogging.

Right, Donny not Danny (obvious by now: I need some new glasses). Dirty Dozen with organ/analog-sounding synth/piano and drums, rolling the opener like good P-Funk.

followed by a Latin boulevard stroll, then something more reflective but not laidback (smoke 'em if you got 'em), to a medley/mashup of a song they plausibly attribute to Louis Armstrong, "Shake Rattle and Roll", and "When The Saints Go Marching In." Hopefully will be archived; several of these sets already are.

Eddie P with two trumpets and two trombones.

Yeah, I really love this when the horns speak up, even in the background; otherwise.... Ed: "Hey you, wake up!" So I'm not the only one.

But now, in the encore, he's featuring some kind of---tamboura? It has several European variants, not just Indian, so maybe--anyway, even though I'm no longer a fan of drone, for the most part, this right here is beguiling (and the horns come ripping in again)

As for Jim Hall Trio w Julian Lage, as I said while ago on the Jazz Guitar Poll (thanx to James B), (I'll have to try this set again later[when it's posted]; kinda spare-to-sparse/clean or just plain subtle for me right off). Feared the same of Wayne and Herbie, who could sometimes bring out each other's insularity bakc in Quintet days, but (with H.H. soon enough slipping the keys to Shorter regular Danilo Perez), the WS Quartet set has non-stop low-key dynamics, dang near subliminal speedbumps, even. All sounds like the same song; prob is; no prob. Shorter's bassist and drummer,John Patitucci and Brian Blade, also seem much more up front and responsive than Hall's Scott Colley and Lewis Nash (as the Hall Trio set ends, it's startling to hear a tiny bit of Nash with the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars on another stage, to be reminded of what an inspired showman he can be; check prev. years' NPR archives for more evidence).Speaking of which, they just posted all of the livestream sets, incl. some I haven't heard yet:
http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?thingId=92839666

Well not all, not yet(?), but most of the ones I enjoyed.

Filling a gap in my own knowledge - checking out Woody Shaw's Columbia albums on Spotify, starting with Rosewood.

I always had trouble getting into Woody Shaw -- he seems to be kind of revered among players, but I don't quite feel it. Same with Tom Harrell.

I'm definitely liking him. I can see why people claim he's overshadowed by Freddie Hubbard - he's definitely in that Hubbard/Lee Morgan, post-Clifford Brown lineage of hot trumpeters. By the end of the day I'll know if I need to pick up that Complete Columbia Albums box. Some people are selling it on Amazon for $16 - for a six-disc set, you can't really beat that price.

hi jazz guys

phil linked a kinda depressing but good essay about the state of jazz and how it's not really a living culture anymore

also spotify told me i should listen to Erroll Garner and obv he is old jazz but how delightful, what a great piano player

The essay in question

The paragraphs that spoke to me the most, because of all the theoretically perfectly listenable yet in fact totally spirit-crushing albums I get sent:

It’s a bubble to this extent: almost no educated lay listener can name even a half-dozen jazz musicians active today. Most of the names they would mention – singers like Diana Krall, Nikki Yanofsky, Michael Bublé, even instrumentalists like the pop-jazz trumpet player Chris Botti – would not normally be mentioned in positive terms by most jazz fans. The names fans do get excited about – the trumpeter Dave Douglas, the saxophonists Donny McCaslin and Chris Potter, the guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel – could not mean less to a general audience. And frankly they’re not missing much.

Well, that’s harsh. All the musicians I just named are clever improvisers. They keep finding inventive little things to do. This season electric keyboards are big. Last year, or perhaps it was the year before, it was turntable DJs in otherwise straight-ahead acoustic bands. For several years before that, pianists were banished in favour of guitars as the main chording instrument in a band. The constants have been odd time signatures and long, intricate vamps. It’s a little dry, but they all seem to be concentrating mightily while they play. Everyone’s playing is so clean and tidy you could eat off it. And if a half hour later you’re hungry again, because by God you will be, there’s always more of the exact same on offer.

Jazz isn’t dead, it has simply ceased to matter to the broader culture. If you live in any medium-sized Canadian city I could take you to hear some jazz tonight, played competently or better. New York keeps getting reinforcements as musicians arrive from around the world to play the latest orthodoxies. Here on my iPod I have a new album by a Chilean tenor saxophonist in her mid-20s, Melissa Aldana, called Second Cycle. Aldana plays with a kind of ostentatious bookishness. In the opening bars of her first solo she quotes “I Mean You,” a Thelonious Monk tune from 1948, and “Chasin’ the Trane,” a John Coltrane line from 1961. Eventually she quotes a few dozen other old tunes. So apparently they have iTunes in Chile now. Her trumpeter, Gordon Au, is genuinely clever, relaxed and unpredictable. I’ll be keeping an eye out for him. The drummer is a chatterbox, always with the snare drum rat-tat-tat, but so are most drummers these days. It’s a perfectly good session. It’s certainly jazz. I find myself thinking that a lot as I listen to recent recordings, often because Peter Hum mentioned them on his blog. “Yes,” I say to myself, “that is definitely jazz.” Then I try to imagine urging it on my friends who are not big jazz fans, and I can’t imagine wasting their time with it.

They keep finding inventive little things to do.
that's cold

also It’s certainly jazz.

that's a shitty dismissive excerpt (it would be easy to write reductive "it's certainly _____" reviews about any kind of music), but there's a some truth in there, sure. i don't listen to much new jazz anymore, but there are still fresh strains, right? the article even mentions austin peralta but doesn't talk about brainfeeder or how some jazz musicians are engaging with the vanguard of hip-hop/electronic/r&b.

and just because no one cares doesn't mean it's not still a living tradition.

totally! seems vital afaict -- i just thought those two sentences were really condescending to the people who play this sort of music and i singled them out for ice coldness, not because i thought they were true.

hmm, actually reading the article now, i pretty much agree with the stuff about the old hard knocks/apprenticeship system vs the academic system having largely replaced it.

feel like i had a unique mix, since richard davis tried to create that old-school serious atmosphere within a university. not everyone appreciated that, i did. not that it turned me into a great (or even good) jazz musician, but i learned tons of lessons that stuck with me.

I think there's a lot wrong with that essay although it has some good points

there's definitely something to the fact that the university has replaced the club as the main training ground of jazz, but I'm not convinced it's such a mournful transition. It's funny that he picks Iverson as an example, since Bad Plus are one of the better examples of a jazz group being "relevant" to young audiences in recent years. I think he's probably wrong about bjork fans not downloading jazz bjork covers actually (mehldau radiohead covers seem pretty popular with radiohead fans), in fact I think he misunderstands the way this generation listens to and experiences music.

Also I find his "through the 90s" version of the narrative weird, since the standard cranky critic narrative used to be that some time in the early to mid 60s musicians increasingly abandoned jazz "tradition" (and their audiences) for the avant garde, and then came jazz fusion, leaving a split between dried up old "traditionalist" dudes playing to dwindling crowds and return to forever packing mid-sized venues for noisy garbage. And then came the 80s and the Marsalis retrenchment -- a laudable but slightly limp imitation of the past. I don't really believe that there's a huge decline in the number of Americans who could name more than three respected jazz musicians between the 90s and now, and if there is, it's probably more because of Herbie doing Rockit and shit like that.

there's definitely something to the fact that the university has replaced the club as the main training ground of jazz, but I'm not convinced it's such a mournful transition.

Based on what it's turned the music into, you bet it is. I think that guy doesn't go hard enough on young (and not-so-young) players and their total inability to write a memorable melody. The fewer normal people listen to jazz, the fewer jazz musicians feel obligated to write music normal people might like.

I don't think it's "turned the music" into anything. Like I said, the kind of decline you're talking about (assuming it's a decline) happened before jazz moved to academia. A lot of the talent went to fusion and avant garde, and those who were left mostly played things boring and retrograde (probably in part to please the fans who were pissed about the changes). What are the great non-fusion, non-out jazz records of the late 70s/early 80s? Jazz wasn't a college sport yet at that time.

Well, based on what I heard today I would definitely nominate Woody Shaw's Columbia albums as holding it down for non-fusion, non-out jazz in the late '70s and early '80s. I'd have to do a lot more listening than I've done to nominate more people (other than, say, Keith Jarrett), but I'm sure there's tons of stuff I've just never heard.

Woody Shaw is not a guy that comes to mind with the phrase "memorable melodies"

Actually, you know who was writing great melodies in the 70s and 80s? George Benson. Chuck Mangione. Grover Washington Jr. I.e. guys that jazz critics shat on. Jazz critics insist on things being in the smallest, most impossible box -- you can't make money, you can't go pop, you can't go outside, you can't go fusion, you have to come up in the clubs under the tutelage of magical old black men, even if those clubs are disappearing and the social function they once served is no longer relevant and they're basically just guidebook stops for tourists. You can't go pop but you have to write "memorable melodies."

Eh we should just listen to what we like, do our bit to support it---spread the word, thank the players, actually spend some money on it--- "normal" people can like it or not, I hear jazz influences in various approaches to jam, hip-hop, dancetronica, metal, etc., which lured some of their fans to various albums actually labeled as Jazz when I worked in a CD store, when there were such things, whether at my suggestion or not. And even those who were like "No! My parents like jazz, not me!" didn't forsake the jazzy non-jazz (they just stopped buying everything, as Napster etc. got more easily accessible).

Just last week I wrote about a saxophonist I like a lot, and compared him to Grover Washington Jr. And you wanna talk pop? He plays in John Mayer's band!
Http://burningambulance.com/2013/08/05/bob-reynolds/

“Yes,” I say to myself, “that is definitely jazz.”

Reminded me of what Bill Dixon said in reference to Montgomery Burns' Jazz: "Now, what they did was to present jazz music as jazz music — not as music but as a genre of music. Some of us think we do music and actually believe that."

don otm

Lol Montgomery Burns jazz

New/upcoming albums I'm gonna be auditioning today:

Gavin Templeton, In Series (Templeton on alto sax, Perry Smith on guitar, Matt Politano on piano, Sam Minaie on bass, Matt Mayhall on drums). Now playing - so far it's exactly the "odd time signatures and long, intricate vamps...a little dry, but they all seem to be concentrating mightily while they play...so clean and tidy you could eat off it" described above. I'm on track 3 and can't remember how track 1 went.
Bryn Roberts, Fables (Roberts on piano, Seamus Blake on tenor and - ugh- soprano sax, Orlando LeFleming on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums). I like Blake and Blake, so I'm looking forward to this one.
Dave King Trucking Company, Adopted Highway (Chris Speed and Brandon Wozniak on tenor saxes, Erik Fratzke on guitar, Adam Linz on bass, King on drums). I liked this group's last album; it kinda rocked, a little.
Ivo Perelman, One (Perelman on tenor sax, Joe Morris on electric bass, Balazs Pandi on drums). Pandi is a Hungarian drummer whose background is in metal and hardcore punk; this is Morris's first time playing electric bass on record. I anticipate Painkiller-esque loudness, but at great length, 'cause this is Perelman, and he likes to fill up a CD.
Steamboat Switzerland, Zeitschrei (Dominik Blum on Hammond C3, Marino Pliakas on bass, Lucas Niggli on drums). All compositions by drummer Michael Wertmüller. I anticipate lots of free skronkin'.

Hurting 2 too

OK, so far I've made it through the Templeton (totally unmemorable except for one semi-skronky sax solo, and I can't remember anything else about the track or the album) and the Roberts (way too much soprano sax for my liking, but a couple of nice tunes and Roberts is a pleasing if not immediately striking pianist) and the Steamboat Switzerland (seemed designed to be as annoying as possible - lots of lengthy, high-pitched squealing sounds from the organ) and am now listening to the Perelman, which is pretty much what I expected it to be - a loud free jazz blare-up. Perelman is not a subtle player, like, ever.

Went to see Nick Hempton (alto and tenor sax) at Smalls tonight - record release show for his new album. (I interviewed him last week.) It was a fun show; all material from the new album, plus one song from his first. For the second set, they were joined by the trombonist who plays on the new record.

q:

what are, like, the bands now?

reading through ol freejazz-stef's review site, i'm kind of weary of the one million and one duo and trio and etc etc recordings. is it partly an economic thing? rare to maintain a stable band now, since that would call for regular gigging or even touring?

Yeah, there are hardly any "bands" now, except The Thing. (Who have a new album coming in October, mercifully without a stunt-casting vocalist.)

Think there are some big bands, often on a Monday or a Sunday night.

Thanks for the Bob Reynolds tip. I'm enjoying this. It's excellent packing music.

What other not-difficult-but-not-fluffy jazz releases should I check out? This is the sort of thing I could throw on a lot, I think.

I had a really gifted private student who was a big John Mayer fan. He actually got me interested in looking into Mayer's work a little more. (I haven't done so yet but this gives me more reason to do so.)

(The guy was coming to me to learn theory and to read notated music and for some basic classical chops. He wouldn't have needed me to help him with his guitar skills, otherwise.)

Check out Nick Hempton, the guy I saw last night. His new album Odd Man Out is really good. Here's a Spotify link:

http://open.spotify.com/album/771eKFYIhlUdTt9DDqm7Mt

you should just read 誤訳侮辱's site, he reviews those all the time

Link?

burningambulance.com

Fair warning, I also write about metal a lot.

i don't think that's a minus for sndr

Right, I want to take tentative steps into this jazz thread, and further into current jazz as a whole.

My current 'status' as a jazz fan is appreciative but naive dilettante. I have a load of Miles Davis albums gathered over 15+ years, plus the usual bits from similar eras - albums by Dave Brubeck, Jon Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Vince Guaraldi, Lee Morgan, Weather Report. I also have a couple of Giles Peterson compilations of British 60s stuff (Michael Garrick etc) which I love. Then there's a massive gap through the late 70s, all the 80s, and the 90s (bar Modern Day Jazz Stories by Courtney Pine), until the mid-00s, when I have various things by e.s.t, Polar Bear, Jaga Jazzist, Acoustic Ladyland, Portico Quartet, Dave Douglas, Empirical. This year I'm loving the Melt Yourself Down album, which is only tangentially jazz, but still...

I want to know what's new and good (doesn't everyone?). I guess Polar Bear and the related groups that orbit them are my favourite thing; stuff that feels contemporary and now but without being gimmicky or self-consciously difficult.

Speaking of The Thing, I need to check out all their stuff: The Cherry Thing, with Neneh Cherry, was a fave of 2012. Nothing else satisfies in quite the same way, although it's somewhat like Jayne Cortez & the Firespitters, who sometimes featured Ornette Coleman. I'm also instantly intrigued by these excerpts of previously unreleased live sax trio S.O.S.--John Surman, Mike Osborne, and Alan Skidmore. Never cared much about Surman before (on McLaughlin's Extrapolation and a few others), but Whitehead seems right about intimations of a pre-World Saxophone Quartet: the harmonies, the folk motifs, at least in soundbites, are tantalizing. Download and links here: http://www.npr.org/2013/08/20/198076754/looking-for-the-next-one-reveals-an-underappreciated-sax-trio

Anybody heard the S.O.S. studio album? Only one, according to Whitehead.

there are definitely bands, right? robert glasper trio, the bad +, the inbetweens, tarbaby, vijay iyer's group, that darcy james argue band? is the dave holland quintet still active, or jon hollenbeck's claudia quintet?

Don't forget that Wayne Shorter Quartet that's been mentioned before.

Was just gonna say: http://www.npr.org/event/music/208274665/wayne-shorter-quartet-with-herbie-hancock-live-in-concert-newport-jazz-2013

I just got a new Claudia Quintet album in the mail and it had 40% membership turnover from the last album. So I'm kinda disinclined to count that - seems more like a convenient name he's using than an actual cohesive working band. But yeah, there are definitely working bands around—the JD Allen Trio is still functioning, there's the Vijay Iyer Trio (who do nothing for me, but they're out there), Tarbaby, the William Parker Quartet convenes from time to time, Matt Shipp has a steady trio...

Best Thing records IMO are their two Japanese live albums with Jim O'Rourke and Otomo Yoshihide. Some awesome improv guitar noise on there, as well as some stunning moments of tense quiet. Also the one they did with Barry Guy on No Business, Metal (not that easy to get, but there's a fantastic live clip on youtube). Their own albums are really good, but the extra element brings out the best in them.

Gustafsson's best this year (so far!), and one that will definitely appeal to those who dug Cherry Thing, is the Fire Orchestra. That's his heavy psych rock trio augmented by two amazing female singers and a top drawer big band of Scandinavian jazz/improv players. Fantastic big band free jazz/improv/avant-rock/blues...

Wayne Shorter album seconded - it's a beaut.

New album by Roscoe Mitchell, John Edwards and Tony Marsh on Cafe Oto's label is fantastic too. An intense listen, but well worth it. Mitchell is still amazing; his compositional sense is some next level shit.

That Fire! Orchestra album is killer—reminds me of Burnt Sugar in some ways. I disagree that the Thing require guests to achieve their full potential. Bag It! and Action Jazz are my favorites, though Garage is really good too. I also liked Gustafsson's album with Colin Webster on Rune Grammofon.

and how could i forget my favorite band, the brian blade fellowship.

haha! i heard the SOS thing on the radio yesterday and bumped the brit folk thread this morning because that was the part of their sound that i find so rarely

i didn't think to put it here!

I should qualify my statement above. I don't mean that the core Thing albums don't see them achieve their full potential, just that I enjoy the results of throwing another element in. But yeah, Action Jazz and Bag It! are terrific.

And this just in - a new Thing album due in November on Rune Gramofon called Boot! (excellent title). According to the press release: 'Throughout, they transform their roots, combining their own free jazz and punk aesthetics with elements of Ethiopian music, soul, funk and noise, and re-work album-oriented material by jazz icons, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington.' Sweet!

I'll need to check me some Burnt Sugar. Greg Tate's band? Any particular recommendations?

I got a press release about that new Thing album the other day—very excited to hear it.

Also excited to devote a week or so to listening to the upcoming 8CD William Parker boxed set on AUM Fidelity—100 percent previously unreleased live recordings, half of them by the Quartet and others by other groups (a septet that's the Quartet + 3, a 12-piece, and a set by a re-constituted In Order To Survive, his 1990s band).

Regarding Burnt Sugar, here are what I consider the essential titles:

Blood On The Leaf
the 3CD That Depends On What You Know set: The Sirens Return/Keep It Real 'Til It Flatlines, The Crepescularium and Fubractive 'Til Antiquity Suite
Black Sex Yall: Liberation & Bloody Random Violets (this might be my favorite of their albums; it's definitely their most "rock")
The Rites: Conductions Inspired By Stravinsky's Le Sacre Du Printemps (the group is conducted by Butch Morris, and Pete Cosey guests on guitar)
If You Can't Dazzle Them With Your Brilliance, Baffle Them With Your Blisluth (a double live CD, includes a Vision Festival performance I was at)
All Ya Needs That Negrocity

There are some other titles on their site (burntsugarindex.com) that I think are less essential.

Also, the two main dudes, Greg Tate and Jared Nickerson, submitted to a career-spanning interview for Burning Ambulance issue 5, which you can buy here if you want.

Thanks for the info. I shall investigate further.

Yes, that Parker box looks quite something. I finally got to see him play this year in a duet with Daniel Carter on sax and piano (!). Amazing.

I'm a big fan of the Burning Ambulance website, but it would be a bit pricey to order the mag from the UK and I don't have a kindle or equivalent. Is there a pdf version?

That SOS record has caused more simultaneous thread revivals than the the Lou Reed/John Cale radio reunion on WPIX.

Parker box looks amazing. Can't wait for that one.

The ebook version should be readable on almost any computer; it's a generic file format, I think.

Nice, thanks!

Another band, the SYOTOS Band, is playing tonight at Dizzy's.

http://www.freejazzblog.org/2013/08/adam-lane-goes-traditional.html

some new/old adam lane (of 'ashcan rantings' a few years back) recordings

ilx's own Tarfumes is playing with Arthur Brooks this month! i might have to try and make that.

Thinking about going to see drummer turned singing drummer -there's hope for you Hurting!- Tony Jefferson at The Bar Next Door tonight.

Would be great to see you there, Scott! In fact, I may make a run up to your store earlier that afternoon.

xp

OK, so in the next few months some biggish jazz names are coming to town (we don't get a whole lot of those here, despite a pretty good jazz scene around the university). Any thoughts on whether it's worth the money for Dave Douglas or Anat Cohen? I saw Douglas years ago with Charms of the Night Sky and really liked it, but I haven't heard what he's doing lately. Cohen, I've liked what I've heard here and there, but I don't have a strong sense of her.

I'm inclined to go to both, as much to show general jazz support as anything else.

Douglas's current quintet (with Jon Irabagon on sax, Matt Mitchell on piano, Linda Oh on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums) is fantastic. Their latest album, Time Travel, kills, and Royston is probably my favorite drummer around right now (mostly for his work with the JD Allen Trio). You should definitely go see him. I'm not a big fan of Cohen's work; feels kinda faceless to me.

I never quite love Douglas's records but I'd definitely see him live and he always has a good band.

also yeah I don't particularly care for Anat Cohen

Cool, thanks. I'll buy some Douglas tickets, maybe hold off on Cohen and listen to her a little more to decide.

Have never seen Dave Douglas but have seen some of those current band members so I would third that recommendation.

i haven't listened to DD in awhile, but i really liked his quintet with chris potter/james genus/uri caine/clarence penn, and that's the only band i live.

saw live, duh

something about anat cohen's phrasing reminds me of the video of that robot playing giant steps

xp, oh yeah that was the band on Leap of Faith, which is the first Dave Douglas record I heard and the one I like the most, it's actually a really good record

oh right, that's the other one i really like. i think it has no piano + ben perowsky on drums, who i love. his trio record is a secret classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LRMxQX3D9s
(not my favorite track on it but it's the one on youtube)

oh yeah sorry, didn't really read your post carefully and LOF definitely has no piano and i think ben perowsky on drums, yes

Don't really know from AC but I'm not a big fan of the trumpet playing brother- don't know from the third sibling- but reluctant to say a thing negative in a public forum about these future Grammy winners.

Charity shop near me has got loads of jazz records in. Didn't have time to look in any real way but grabbed some Jazz Messengers albums. Kind of housebound at the mo, but gonna try to get out for a peek. Get anxious at the thought of hidden gems being bought by folks who aren't me. :(

xp, I kind of felt a little bit bad about knocking AC. I feel bad about knocking any living jazz player too much -- it's such a meager industry to begin with and everyone needs all the help they can get.

You know who is great though, the other Avishai Cohen, the bass player.

Yes on both counts. Also, I know drummers love the bass player's percussionist. Can't spell his name, iateemai, or something like that.

I feel bad about knocking any living jazz player too much -- it's such a meager industry to begin with and everyone needs all the help they can get.

I disagree. There are lots of players—entire schools of jazz, in fact—who should be actively discouraged, or at least convinced to change course, because (I think) what they're playing is driving, or at least keeping, audiences away.

this dude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcajf4GHwCU

Still can't spell his name but found a 108 page bachelor's thesis about Avishai.
(Xp)

Yeah, Itamar, that's it.

pretty common israeli name, as is avishai (obviously!)

for some reason thought the bassist ac played with danilo perez. Maybe I just saw them live together, don't see him on any of the records.

nm he was on Panamonk

This is fucking AWESOME:

http://o.scdn.co/300/0e6378ce0cd4dee06184f79c4b16602e5a783e8a

I was a little skeptical of it, like "Oh, Drake and some euro rando" but this guy is an incredible guitarist and the vibe between them is totally there

it has the energy of that one great late night stoned college jam session that you are never able to replicate again

How widely do you guys interpret jazz? Just because I saw not one but two copies of Gil Scott-Herons's The Bottle. which for a small scottish town is weird. Of course, Heron was born here, and his Dad played for Celtic, but still...

Anyone heard the Sons Of Kemet album? Seb Roachford group; two drummers, clarinet, and tuba. The tuba essentially plays acid-house-y bass, like a didgeridoo emulating a 303. Wicked fun. Very danceable.

Yep, I really like it. Always admired Seb Rochford as a drummer, but found his groups a little underwhelming: trained musos trying to do simple rock riffs but not really being dumb or noisy enough. But the double drum action on this is great, plus that fat tuba and Shabaka Hutchings' African-Caribbean melodic sensibility.

ooh that sounds good!!

it is good!! https://soundcloud.com/sons-of-kemet

Yeah, I liked it - a lot of fun.

Yeah, outside Polar Bear and Acoustic Ladyland his other groups have left me cold; didn't get Fulborn Teversham. But this is great fun, really enjoyable.

This is good!

I've been getting my jazz on properly for the first time in my life. I'm starting to get a bit addicted. As well as obvious stuff like the Shape Of Jazz To Come, A Love Supreme etc, I'm currently digging Abdullah Ibrahim - Water From An Ancient Well which is fairly mellow, but never boring and very beautiful in places)

Macarthur Foundation Genius grant winners announced, including:

Jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer is another recipient working a narrow artistic niche: “The business of making hit records is not the business we’re in,” the 41-year-old New Yorker says. “I don’t even see it as a business.”

It is “something larger,” he says. “In a way it’s not about success.”

Iyer performs regularly, and his work aims to help broaden the cultural conversation. Consider Iyer’s latest recording, “Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dream Project,” which sets harrowing yet poetic recollections of returned warriors against haunting violin and piano scores.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/macarthur-foundation-awards-24-genius-grants/2013/09/24/d16de652-2555-11e3-ad0d-b7c8d2a594b9_story.html?hpid=z4

dog latin, you should check Ibrahim's album Ekaya, the one that got me into his music; it's the also name of his group now (or at least recently). Just got this press release:

SCANDINAVIAN FREE JAZZ, GARAGE TRIO, THE THING, SHARE "INDIA"

NEW ALBUM, BOOT!, OUT NOV. 12 ON THE THING RECORDS

THE THING PLAY THE GUGGENHEIM IN NEW YORK - WED. NOV. 20
Scandinavian free jazz, garage trio, The Thing -- Mats Gustafsson (bass, baritone, tenor and soprano saxophones), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (electric bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) - are releasing BOOT!, their most hard-hitting, open and epic release to date, on November 12th. It follows their collaborative release with Neneh Cherry, 2012's The Cherry Thing (Smalltown Supersound), and is their sixth studio album and the first album on their own label, The Thing Records. With dedicated fans in the rock, noise and jazz communities, BOOT! takes The Thing's music to new, uncompromising levels and continues to solidify The Thing's special and important position in the contemporary independent music world.
Recorded over three intense days, BOOT! breathes life and energy, capturing the deep riffs and distorted activities of the electric bass, the attack of the snare drum, the depth of the bass sax and epic lines of the tenor sax. It marks an important development in the trio's endless search of musical poetic meltdowns. Throughout, they transform their roots, combine their own free jazz and punk aesthetics with elements of Ethiopian music, soul, funk and noise, and re-work album-oriented material by Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. Take a listen via "India," premiered yesterday via The FADER.
STREAM/SHARE THE THING'S "INDIA" -

https://soundcloud.com/thingjazz/india
"'India,' their cover of John Coltrane's gorgeous piece from Impressions, swings pretty heavily with some raw sax and some incredibly excitable drums." - The FADER

Formed in 1999 and named after Don Cherry, The Thing are known for playing a variety of compositions, including material by PJ Harvey, The White Stripes, The Stooges, The Sonics, The Cramps, Lightning Bolt, The Ex and many more. They transformed the music of these other artists into a contemporary context, making it their own. As individuals or as a group, they have collaborated with those including, Peter Brötzmann, Sonic Youth, Jim O'Rourke, Thurston Moore, David Grubbs, Eye, The Ex, Pat Metheny, Arto Lindsay, Steve Reid, Kieran Hebden, Merzbow, Christian Marclay, The Nomads, Guy Picciotto, Neneh Cherry and more.
on Wednesday, November 20th, those in New York can see The Thing live at a special show at the Guggenheim curated by John Corbett and Christopher Wool. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/1bGdV72

this is nice stuff:

http://www.npr.org/event/music/237080011/matt-ulerys-loom-tiny-desk-concert

i know the drummer, he's really great.

really like that Jordan

Will check it out. Speaking of drummers, check this out: hum.uchicago.edu/orgs/review/60th/pdfs/38sorrentino.pdf Look for "Do the drummers in black hoods rumble anything out of their drums?"

Just ordered the Woody Shaw and Dexter Gordon Complete Columbia Albums boxes - 7 CDs for Gordon, 6 for Shaw. I listened to some of each on Spotify before pulling the trigger - seems like pretty great stuff.

Also just shot some video interviews with Matthew Shipp and William Parker tonight in Parker's apartment - I'll have a piece up on Burning Ambulance next week with the two of them talking about David Ware, on Ware's birthday (11/7).

Sad to hear that Frank Wess passed on Wednesday at the age of 91. RIP, Frank. http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2013/10/31/rip-frank-wess-d-c-jazz-flutist-and-tenor-saxophonist/

Memorial on WKCR right now.

Guess it started yesterday and will go on for much of today.

With Joe Cohn on guitar and Jackie Williams on drums right now.

Phil Schaap schooling us now.

Atomic Basie time.

Sorry, that's over now it's Battle Royal.

u guys which of the year's christian mcbride records do u like better

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18706-matana-roberts-coin-coin-chapter-two-mississippi-moonchile/

the next chapter of coin coin is out!!

chapter one was transcendent

Anyone heard Satelliti? Italian electronic / jazz duo - details & music here: http://www.satelliti.org/ and also here: http://satelliti.bandcamp.com/

The album (Transistor) was out last week and is really good; driving, jazzy, 70s fusion stuff with swirling keys and lots of early electronica bubbling underneath. Quite krauty, but definitely feels more jazz than anything else. Meant to be intense live, in a Bitches Brew in a nightclub way.

Matthew Shipp's (solo) Piano Sutras and his collaboration with Guillermo E. Brown, Telephone Popcorn, are both great. I would just post this to a Matthew Shipp thread but there is none and I haven't got enough to say about him to justify starting one.

Piano Sutras feels more expansive than One (but that is to say what exactly, considering how minimalist One was?). I haven't quite got a handle on it, but I love recognizing the moves he makes that are so simple and yet so distinctively his own. I think I'd need some music theory to describe them more concretely than that.

Title track of Telephone Popcorn is hilariously Raesque.

man that wayne shorter album this year. snooze. right? mad respect to the man, tho. he's a living legend.

dow: just saw your recommendation. cheers, i'll check it out.

i knew this guitarist when he lived in town for a minute, his record is pretty fiery: http://lukepolipnick.bandcamp.com/album/luke-polipnick-group-episodes

http://www.freejazzblog.org/2013/08/adam-lane-goes-traditional.html

finally got a chance to hear one of these new/old adam lane albums, 'oh freedom', some good loose blowing on it.

The Burning Ambulance 25 Best Jazz Albums of 2013 are rolling out in five parts. Here are #s 25-21.

hmm, that jeremy pelt track is on some erik truffaz vibes. can't decide if i'm into it or not. the drumming is the best part.

i'd love to check out the tim warfield and chris potter records when i get a chance.

I really wish ECM would put their shit on Spotify so I could embed something from the Potter.

I forgot that I have an eMusic subscription, and it just sparked back into life after I suspended it for three months, so I downloaded three Donald Byrd albums: Street Lady, Stepping into Tomorrow and Places and Spaces.

Anyone heard the Dawn of Midi album, Dysnomia? Not sure if it's jazz or postrock or just really, really minimal. 9 songs, 46 minutes, piano, bass, drums, recorded live, feels like one long track. Reminds me of The Necks, Fugazi, VERY minimal techno perhaps. Very metronomic, repetitive, subdued, but absolutely fascinating. Know almost nothing about them.

Yeah, I like it a lot. If you like it, you should check out early albums (the ones not on ECM) by Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, who do a similar thing but slightly more organic-sounding, even though they're driven by electric rather than acoustic piano.

I wish I liked Dawn of Midi more than I do.

Currently enjoying Next Collective, Cover Art: songs by D'Angelo, Kanye/Jay-Z, N*E*R*D, Pearl Jam, Stereolab, Meshell Ndegeocello, Bon Iver, Dido, and Little Dragon.

heh, here's another Cover Art that came out this year: http://hellfyreclub.bandcamp.com/album/cover-art

Well-said
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/12/the-quietly-revolutionary-guitar-of-jim-hall.html(Forgot Hall was in Jimmy Giuffre 3, who turned out to be quite the forerunners of atmospheric woodsy etc. Here they are, performing "The Train and the River" in Jazz On A Summer's Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfLsEH4csQ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfLsEH4csQ4 So good.

What happened there---sorry, here they are with *Hall*, not Brookmeyer (this is the original recording)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-4ZqhHOFsM

The Burning Ambulance 25 Best Jazz Albums of 2013:

25. Meg Okura and the Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble, Music of Ryuichi Sakamoto
24. Tim Warfield, Eye of the Beholder
23. Tarbaby, Ballad of Sam Langford
22. Chris Potter, The Sirens
21. Jeremy Pelt, Water and Earth
20. David Ake, Bridges
19. Joel Harrison 19, Infinite Possibility
18. JD Allen, Grace
17. Miles Davis, Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2
16. Melodic Art-Tet, Melodic Art-Tet
15. Various Artists, Long Story Short
14. Nicolas Masson/Roberto Pianca/Emanuele Maniscanco, Third Reel
13. Rich Halley 4, Crossing the Passes
12. Little Women, Lung
11. Dead Neanderthals, ...And It Ended Badly
10. William Parker, Wood Flute Songs
9. Dave Douglas Quintet, Time Travel
8. Michael Bates/Samuel Blaser Quintet, One From None
7. Aaron Parks, Arborescence
6. Matthew Shipp, Piano Sutras
5. Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile
4. Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Slippery Rock
3. Ghost Train Orchestra, Book of Rhapsodies
2. Hush Point, Hush Point
1. Nick Hempton, Odd Man Out

nice. i got excited thinking that the aaron parks was a new group record, oh well.

judging from your list i think you would dig this record i posted upthread.

Cool; I like the people in his band. I'll check it out as soon as The Wire tops off my Paypal account.

Francis Davis, with comments on the year in Jazz and overall poll results (agree w his disappointed minority opinion of the latest Shorter), but I prefer reading about his own choices and comments on same (damn, a New York Art Quartet box?!)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/bestmusic2013/2013/12/18/252001963/wayne-shorter-and-the-years-other-passing-scenery

I'm on his side w/r/t Shorter too (that album was never even in contention for my ballot).

oh shit there was a new mary halvorson?

There several mary halvorson cd´s this year.
i guess this one was too late for Davis´ list:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxBE7SyKzoA
It was reviewed at Stef´s freejazz blog.

There was also a bass/guitar release on Intakt with Halvorson and Stephen Crumb calles ´Super 8´.
A new Meg Okura cd? Nice.

Started new thread, hopefully the title will not confuse you: I don't know what they mean when they say 'swing hard' anyway. Rolling Jazz Dflat 2014 Thread