ILX0RS: JAZZ IS THE TEACHER. YEAH, IT'S A JAZZ THING >> THE ILM JAZZ LISTENING CLUB! [NEW CHOICES EVERY WEDNESDAY!]

Sidewinder is the shit; great album.

Damn, I really enjoy Sidewinder so much.... awesome interplay between trumpet Morgan, saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist Barry Harris, bass player Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Billy Higgins... it "fizzes" all the way through.

Interesting background to this album and a sad ending for Lee Morgan:

"Lee Morgan, like many jazzmen, had a tenuous relationship with hard drugs that was as long as his jazz career. For long periods of his life heroin ruled him and when he would kick the habit for a year or two much of the time was spent getting his chops back. The Sidewinder, his most famous and successful album, came out during one of these breaks which was catalyzed when Morgan heard a tribute show for him on the radio that was made with the assumption he was dead. His heroin addiction continued off and on until 1972 when in between sets at a club he got involved in a three-way argument involving his girlfriend, his drug dealer and himself. It must have been one hell of an argument because it ended with Morgan being shot in the heart by his girlfriend."

He was only 33

A real tragedy, who knows what he could have done.

no sign of Ronan or Ward's choices.... tempted to choose 2 more myself.

Week 1:
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane - Self Titled (1962)
Miles Davies - Birth Of The Cool (1957)
Ben Neill - Tryptical (1996)

Week 2:
Pharoah Sanders - Karma (1969)
Bobby Hutcherson - Components (1965)
Lonnie Liston Smith & the Cosmic Echoes - Expansions (1974)

Week 3:
John Coltrane - Africa/Brass
McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy
Wayne Shorter - Juju

Friday Bonus 7 May / 14 May
John Coltrane - Ascension
Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder

...is what we've had so far. Faves for me have been: Miles "BOTC", Pharoah "Karma", Coltrane "Africa/Brass" and Lee Morgan "Sidewinder".

every wednesday you say?

Really enjoying this week's choices!

doing mine now...

lol @ Ronan still not getting around to posting his picks, even after posting "doing mine now..." 8 hours ago.

i'm busy/away till Thursday so not gonna check in till late next week. let you guys sort it out between Ronan, Ward, whomever.

ronan better hurry as ward will be posting his on tuesday as the rota says

obv, good weather in London today and imminent BBQ would be a good time to queue some early evening jazz and funk. : )

pfunk dunno if yr kidding or not abt 'rotas' but all this talk of deadlines and whatnot goes against the whole jazz spirit imho - ronan will, i'm sure, hit us up w/ something tasty v shortly, we can let em marinade for a few days and then sometime next week i'll drop my 3 fucking corkers and evrything will be sweet

Guys I'm v sorry, my Internet has been giving probs, I rang o2 yday and it's still a bit fucked. That's why i said I was doing it then it never appeared...I'm on my iPhone now. I'm going to try plugging in to router to see if that works.

could I swap places with ward maybe? my net is still screwed up and it'd be nice to upload pics etc and not do it in a crap rushed way due to 1994 era dial up reliability i'm getting now

ok, gimme an hour and or two - i'm not sure how to post spotify links, and i know my choices are all on spotify (i checked!), so might need some help w/ that

my net is sort of working now so i can give it a go actually, if you'd rather wait? don't want to rush your own selection.

whichever suits you of course (sorry everyone for this huge confusion!)

go for it ronan!

Okay I'm home in an hour or so and then good to go...

sorry for the delay all, here goes...

#1 Miles Davis-Get Up With It

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/m/miles-davis/album-get-up-with-it.jpg

http://open.spotify.com/album/0CFS3jvFwutIt5ewGIa7Sq

picked this because i guess this era miles is what got me into jazz...the sparse loneliness of this record is really amazing, total night music.

#2 Robert Wyatt-Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard

http://www.dominorecordco.com/images/artists/robert_wyatt/1024_540/ruthistranger.jpg

hope i'm not pushing the definition too much here and i know robert wyatt always sounds like robert wyatt...but couldn't call this anything but jazz. great warm grooves all the way through, my favourite track definitely "solar flares", something about that type of groove that always feels dramatic.

http://open.spotify.com/user/iamronan/playlist/7hmF7tkGFHf6iRNpvyhRKt

#3 OST-Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (I can't find a pic for this)

And to go a little more classical, I just find this a really perfect collection of the sort of jazz I prob don't listen to enough of. I'm prob mostly on the electric stuff but these records are so beautiful, taken all together this record has this carefree thing going on that seems somewhere between happiness and just total pointlessness. Good to listen to in the sun, preferably walking somewhere after a few beers...(obv if you've not seen the film then you need to watch that now too!)

http://open.spotify.com/album/6jx6fgoP5qB4eFldGIXl9D

Hope you all enjoy these and apologies if these are total no brainer obvious choices...

certainly pushing the limits there, but sweet picks imo! not familiar with stardust memories, so i'll check that out.

just got time to Miles' "He Loved Him Madly" is one of the best things ever, and I am eternally thankful to have come across it. Also Eno's fave Miles track.

Havent heard the other two, but can imagine what the Woody Allen OST is like, and he chooses well. Thnks Ronan, looking frwd to spending time on these later this week.

just got time to say...

once again sorry for such delay on this, i had a pretty mental work week after two extra unplanned days in spain, then net connection fucked for ages.

tannenbaum post your funk picks

ronan, love the robert wyatt and the miles, dunno the latter but will check it out!

hey ronan, hadn't heard that STARDUST MEMORIES comp before, enjoyed it v much, esp. django's Body and Soul - as you say, 'carefree' is the word - when i worked in that big jazz dept, i had quite a few customers who were convinced that the sean penn character in SWEET AND LOWDOWN was a real person, often had to fight to convince them o/wise

hey tannenbaum/pfunk, im gonna post my three on friday, if thats ok w/ everyone

its all up to tannenbaum! its his club.

Updated Spotify Playlist please subscribe

are there django albums worth checking? love the feel of some of that stuff...

this is a nice set at a sweet price:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electric-Years-Django-Reinhardt/dp/B000VEA29Y

but there's so much cheap django floating around and most of it is pretty gd - proper's box set gives you a lot for yr dollar, tho' the sound is variable, as you might expect:

http://www.properuk.com/artists.php?action=alview&alid=1555

ok, i'm gonna post my picks to get this thread back on track, hope that's call w/ everyone

http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/mcshowa/cabinet/00163099/img34847971.jpg

MOTION by Lee Konitz. Lee Konitz alto sax. Sonny Dallas bass. Elvin Jones drums. 1961.
Lee and Elvin and Sonny, just three soulful guys swinging through the changes on a set of standards, one inspired afternoon nearly fifty years ago. Lee’s alto sounding all papery and liquidy, the bass walking, the drums and cymbals clicking in a zillion different directions, poetry in constant motion/transformation, the possibilities endless.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61P7XT7TEAL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

THE BAPTISED TRAVELLER by Tony Oxley Quintet. Tony Oxley drums. Kenny Wheeler trumpet, flugelhorn. Evan Parker tenor sax. Derek Bailey guitar. Jeff Cline bass. 1969.
Oxley had played drums in the army, Bailey had played with Morecambe and Wise, Parker had played with science and Kenny Wheeler had played at being Canadian. How could this alb fucking fail? Back in 1969 Columbia/CBS were hip/desperate enough to release this to - well, WHO? Even now it seems impossible to work out what cld be the exact demographic group for this earlyish parp of European out/free music. Yeah it’s tough-goddamm-stuff baby, but worth sticking w/ imho - there is structure here as well as freedom, and apart from anything else, you’ll get to hear Bailey basically inventing the next twenty years of awkward gtr scrape right in front of yr furry little ears.

http://www.jazz.com/assets/2008/6/11/albumcoverWeatherReport-Sweetnighter.jpg

SWEETNIGHTER by Weather Report. Joe Zawinul keyboards. Wayne Shorter tenor and soprano sax. Miroslav Vitous bass. Alphonso Johnson, Eric Gravatt drums. Dom Um Romao percussion. 1973.
Picked this one cos I hear that Nels Cline has just covered ‘Boogie Woogie Waltz’; ‘cos I thought it would be nice to spin Wayne Shorter in a non-Blue Note/acoustic context; ‘cos I absolutely adore the whole sound-drift of this alb - the leckeyboards, the tinkling metronomic percussion, the funky basslines, that palm-fronded tropical fusion vibe, quite hypnagog, in its own way. Easily my favourite Weather Report disc, slick but not yet as smeary and washy as their more aimless later recs.

all of these recs are on spotify btw

and they look like this

http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/mcshowa/cabinet/00163099/img34847971.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61P7XT7TEAL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

http://www.jazz.com/assets/2008/6/11/albumcoverWeatherReport-Sweetnighter.jpg

Tannenbaum (who is away i think) said i was to do a friday bonus but i think i'll leave it since you had to post yours early.

dunno the 1st 2 and never liked the weather report but will give it a shot!

Regarding the Oxley album, could I just offer a FUCK YEAHHHHHHH

Cave17Matt: 26 May
Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC): 2 June
tylerw: 9 June
Sparkle Motion: 16 June
forksclovetofu: 23 June
Turangalila: 30 June
tannenbaum: 7 July
Pfunk: 15 July
Elephant Rob: 22 July

also, pfunk you can do friday bonus this week. I still haven't got around to listening to Ronan and Ward's picks.

ok!

Not really listening to a lot of jazz these days, but can I just say that Sonny Dallas's bass playing on "Motion" would be on my shortlist of nominations for the most underrated recorded performance by a jazz musician ever? Nobody seems to talk about Dallas but for me that's a masterclass in how to play small group jazz bass.

Hey where are this Wednesday's picks?

Cave17Matt - jazz please!

can i get in on this

Cave17Matt: 26 May
Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC): 2 June
tylerw: 9 June
Sparkle Motion: 16 June
forksclovetofu: 23 June
Turangalila: 30 June
tannenbaum: 7 July
Pfunk: 15 July
Elephant Rob: 22 July
Deej: 29 July

i'll do the friday bonus then

yeah go ahead; I pm'd Cave17Matt but this thread is all over the place in terms of timekeeping

Andrew Hill - Point Of Departure
http://www.honestjons.com/doc_library/Originals/27398.jpg
AMG Review

Pianist and composer Andrew Hill is perhaps known more for this date than any other in his catalogue -- and with good reason. Hill's complex compositions straddled many lines in the early to mid-1960s and crossed over many. Point of Departure, with its all-star lineup (even then), took jazz and wrote a new book on it, excluding nothing. With Eric Dolphy and Joe Henderson on saxophones (Dolphy also played clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute), Richard Davis on bass, Tony Williams on drums, and Kenny Dorham on trumpet, this was a cast created for a jazz fire dance. From the opening moments of "Refuge," with its complex minor mode intro that moves headlong via Hill's large, open chords that flat sevenths, ninths, and even 11ths in their striding to move through the mode, into a wellspring of angular hard bop and minor-key blues. Hill's solo is first and it cooks along in the upper middle register, almost all right hand ministrations, creating with his left a virtual counterpoint for Davis and a skittering wash of notes for Williams. The horn solos in are all from the hard bop book, but Dolphy cuts his close to the bone with an edgy tone. "New Monastery," which some mistake for an avant-garde tune, is actually a rewrite of bop minimalism extended by a diminished minor mode and an intervallic sequence that, while clipped, moves very quickly. Dorham solos to connect the dots of the knotty frontline melody and, in his wake, leaves the space open for Dolphy, who blows edgy, blue, and true into the center, as Hill jumps to create a maelstrom by vamping with augmented and suspended chords. Hill chills it out with gorgeous legato phrasing and a left-hand ostinato that cuts through the murk in the harmony. When Henderson takes his break, he just glides into the chromatically elegant space created by Hill, and it's suddenly a new tune. This disc is full of moments like this. In Hill's compositional world, everything is up for grabs. It just has to be taken a piece at a time, and not by leaving your fingerprints all over everything. In "Dedication," where he takes the piano solo further out melodically than on the rest of the album combined, he does so gradually. You cannot remember his starting point, only that there has been a transformation. This is a stellar date, essential for any representative jazz collection, and a record that, in the 21st century, still points the way to the future for jazz.

Spotify Link

hah i didn't realise that pic was so big

now the pic has disappeared
http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/h/hill_andrew_pointofde_101b.jpg

Whoopsie! Haven't been on ILX at all, forgot. But I'll do one coming up sometime.