Rolling Jazz Thread 2013

“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.