Rolling Jazz Thread 2020

By which I mean Spike Wilner's (augmented) Smalls Sextet right now I guess.

JC Styles emceeing. It might has well be Smalls or Mezzrow.

People keep switching out instruments every couple of minutes. Right now only one I recognize is Mimi Jones on bass.

Daughter of jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb—last surviving member of the historic ‘Kind of Blue’ band—has launched a crowdfunding project to cover her father’s medical and living expenses. https://t.co/G4fqK0p5ZV

— Ted Gioia (@tedgioia) February 3, 2020

https://www.wbgo.org/post/legacy-lawrence-lo-leathers-lives-joyous-tribute-and-new-foundation#stream/0

Will not forget how to spell JC Stylles name again.

Chinen on the next Newport:
https://www.wbgo.org/post/ageless-masters-fiery-and-comers-newport-jazz-festival-unveils-its-first-wave#stream/0

https://amirthakidambi.bandcamp.com/album/from-untruth

missed this last year, really hits the spot

i know you guys aren't generally into more accessible vocal jazz covers but i am digging the new Kat Edmonson and this cover of "When You Wish Upon a Star" particularly. Yacouba Sissoko on kora and Deep Singh on tabla!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRj_0FTa0SM

American Masters, starting Tues.:
Discover the man behind the legend. With full access to the Miles Davis Estate, the film features never-before-seen footage, including studio outtakes from his recording sessions, rare photos and new interviews.
https://aptv.org/schedule/detail.php?epid=2378952

I caught Billy Harper’s quintet last night in SF. I’d hoped to get a chance to see him for years and he did not disappoint. He sounded fresh and full of energy, with a good band behind him. Very lucky happenstance.

This Moses Boyd album is hot hot hot. Love this stuff. London is a happening place right now.

https://youtu.be/eiAV0zQipLY

yep it's a brilliant album. Boyd on where he was at when he was making it:

As its title suggests, though, Dark Matter is concerned with more than just movement and sound. “I was reflecting on what had been going on at the time of writing, and it was Brexit madness and the Windrush scandal,” Boyd says. “There was a constant cloud around me. I was thinking, ‘Am I even British if they can deport people like my [West Indian] grandparents? Do we even matter if Grenfell can burn with people in it, and then get covered up institutionally?’

This Afropunk interview with him is good: https://afropunk.com/2020/02/moses-boyd-afropunk-interview/

Now UK jazz is having a sustained spell of creativity y'all should check out pianist Alexander Hawkins. He's recently been touring with Braxton and their band has been getting rave reviews and I think some of his albums are underrated, like his trio one, step wide, step deep and his solo from last year.

Speaking of UK Jazz, went to see Yazz Ahmed at Church of Sound last Friday and that was a stellar show, moving away a bit from her more abrasive earlier stuff into spiritual jazz w/ copious middle eastern influences. Warning: there are certain bits of the new album that sound a bit like Zappa, if that's an immediate turn-off.

trigger warning: Zappa influence

Just discovered an album I didn't know about from last year - the self-titled debut by Tenor Triage, a group featuring Michael Eaton, James Brandon Lewis, and Sean Sonderegger on tenor saxes, Brad Jones on bass and Calvin Weston on drums. It came out in September on Ropeadope. It's pretty good, raucous (as you might expect) semi-harmolodic jazz-funk. Bern Nix was in the group too, but died before they could record this album.

new jeremy cunningham album is great ft jeff parker makaya mccraven and others

I've been meaning to check that one out.

Yeah, damn; there's some heavy shit on that album

Great chordless trio in my neighborhood tonight.

John Ellis, Ricky Rodriguez and Jimmy Macbride.

that Yazz Ahmed album from last year is indeed splendid

Ok, help me because I can't remember the name of this tune. Thinking it's a hard bop classic, I can hear the original with trumpet, but it's driving me crazy. 32 bars with a bluesy A section.

I feel a little shameful because I was hate-watching Stanton Moore, but it's ok because David Torkanowsky is one of my very favorite piano players. Here's the tune:
https://youtu.be/Z7wSxD7RDkM?t=1007

I prefer the Stan Moore who played in Zakary Thaks.

Name that tune though

totally loving The Complete Blue Note Recordings of the Tina Brooks Quintets at the moment, which I think is something that has been out of print for a while. He was obviously a huge talent whose career was sadly pissed away because of his heroin addiction and rep for unreliability, so my awareness of him wasn't so good before hearing this collection.

I need to check that set out; I don't know Brooks' work very well.

it features some star studded quintets including Sonny Clark, Freddie Hubbard, Art Blakey, Paul Chambers, Lee Morgan.. poor guy was such a mess and apparently a bit awkward and shy as well that he only managed to have one album released in his lifetime.

Name that tune though

Ah ok, figured it out -- Herbie Hancock's Driftin'.

Off his very first record as a leader. I was thinking it would be a horn player's record or maybe Art Blakey, because I could hear the trumpet & sax in my head, and was looking up Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan tunes (and it is Freddie Hubbard & Dexter Gordon in front).

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/

this label is on fire rn!

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/to-cy-lee-instrumentals-vol-1

The music of "To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1" contains naturally elegant orchestration wrapped around something visceral and primordial. Swirled inside the 11 pieces are shades of Japanese Min’yo folk, Celtic folk, the Ethio-jazz of saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya and hints of the pan-human ‘ancient music’ that sat underneath Arthur Russell’s melodies on First Thought, Best Thought. The music is filled with space, inspired, he says, by computer games and Japanese animation, particularly Joe Hisaishi’s.

this is exquisite

nice! was just going to ask about that one--it hasn't crossed my radar at all, but Mekurya, Arthur Russell, and Castle in the Sky are all among my favorite things and I didn't expect to ever see them grouped in a music blurb

btw, I don't care where we talk about IA, but there is this thread if you missed it: International Anthem: S/D

bookmark added

Listening to this Alabaster DePlume now. Excellent and heavy as hell. I can totally hear the Ethio influence.

Also, why wasn't I named Alabaster DePlume, ffs?

yeah Whiskey Story Time is Ethio-folk as fuck. Very nice.

Supposed to go see Christian Scott at the Blue Note in NYC tomorrow night. No news of a cancellation yet...

Yeah this is great, IA strikes again. Interesting that they're signing London records now.

Was supposed to see Jamie Branch tonight, weighing out if I should go out or not. May be the last chance to see live music for months. I'm honestly kind of shook and don't know how to process at the moment.

If it's easy to get to, absolutely go. My qualms w/r/t the Scott show is that it'll require two trains (NJ Transit, followed by the subway) in each direction. Also, NY's governor just said all gatherings over 500 are banned, and all gatherings of fewer than 500 (like a jazz club) must reduce admission by 50%. So they're only going to be letting like 60 people into the club and I don't know if guest list will get priority.

https://longsongrecords.bandcamp.com/album/solar-winds

new Raoul Björkenheim Trane themed guitar violin quartet is good.

Hm, making me think a bit of Sonny Sharrock?

I like Björkenheim generally, and that's an interesting concept. Might check that one out.

yeah some fine Sonny Sharrock energy bubbling up on occasions!

Mike Longo’s got the virus.

hi phil, got an “industry” (for lack of a better word) question for you: have you ever had any contact with william parker, or his people, or know anything about what that’s about ?

there’s an email address on his website, but i’m not sure how he’d react to me, a stranger, cold inquiring about releasing some tapes he has in his possession of some unreleased recordings with don cherry.

Yeah, I'm pretty close with William, actually. Drop a line to centeringmusic at earthlink dot net. He'll get back to you one way or the other.