Rolling Jazz Thread 2022

I always try to see Murray live when he comes to town, but I only have maybe a dozen or so of his releases, exclusive of the WSQ albums.

The “Waltz Again” album with Lafayette Gilchrist is one of my favorites.

I thought he was still living in NYC but it sounds like he moved to France some years ago (in the '00s or '10s?)

Not sure if he's scaled back his U.S. appearances because of that, but I was glad to catch at least one set. If he comes through again, I'll be sure to catch him.

Oh wow, didn't know about some of those in your beginner's guide to Murray, thanks. Last one reminds me (re Caribbean) of his mighty guest shots on The Skatalites'Hip-Bop-Ska. Got a bunch of MRE, WSQ, Dark Star (he's usually to be found on YouTube with the live Dead, too), several of your picks, Clarinet Summit, and Plays Nat King Cole en Español is just incredible, even for him: his string charts alone are worth the price of admission.
I used to get the impression, back when I tried to keep up with such things, that he seemed to be taken for granted, maybe because so many albums (Branford seemed annoyed by the release schedule, and in fact that's the only Murray comment I've seen by him, typically enough).

Been digging the new-ish Hawkins, featuring a number of other great players.
https://alexanderhawkinsintakt.bandcamp.com/album/break-a-vase-2

If I may, the latest episode of Jazz Police with music from the late, great Dennis Gonzalez, Tomas Fujiwara (absolutely ripping solo from Mary Halvorson folks), Myra Melford, Flower-Corsano, GOATFACE! and much more.

https://www.mixcloud.com/RepeaterRadio/stewart-smith-presnts-jazz-police-live-gateshead-uk-1/

xp

it's a really good album. I think this is the first time I've seen him mentioned on here despite him being a longtime Shabaka Hutchings collaborator and done lots of good to brilliant releases since at least 2013. I was starting to think he got cancelled for doing that album with [redacted anti-vaxxer crank] last year!

Hawkins is great I follow him religiously. Never seen him live sadly.

He's performing with Hafez Modirzadeh in Glasgow in a couple of weeks, doing the Facets material. Really psyched for that. Also Decoy coming up at Cafe Oto - Hawkins unleashes the full cosmic power of the Hammond B3.

that sounds excellent!

well they both sound good, but especially the Modirzadeh gig. Be interesting hearing him filling in for Sorey.

I saw the new Bad Plus in a pretty small venue in Madison WI, and it was fantastic. All originals (all by Reid & Dave), mostly from the upcoming quartet record (out in Sept. apparently).

At first I was distracted by Monder's guitar tone in context -- no highs, zero attack, pretty quiet, kept getting lost in the low mids of the bass and sax. But I think it's partially just his thing, and also maybe trying not to act like a piano replacement? It was very much a background thing, sometimes doubling the sax, sometimes the bass, and even when he was shredding it was sort of a white noise element. Kinda cool and different how it just blended into everything, or maybe I was just sitting in a bad spot. I'm curious how it's mixed on record.

Anyway everyone sounded very committed and distinctly Bad Plus-y (which highlights their aesthetic even more in a way), and now I think this was a better move than trying to find another piano player. Highly recommend catching them if you can.

(also my wife & I got into a long conversation with Monder after the show, super nice dude)

Nubya Garcia just finished a string of tour dates opening for Khruangbin (a really good combination, to my ear) and is headlining Le Poisson Rouge in NYC tomorrow night. I interviewed her about getting back to the US for the first time since, I think, 2018 in my latest Stereogum column.

(He is great to talk to, I have done so many times)

I think I met him once after a gig at the Jazz Gallery, and I interviewed him once for The Wire. He is a very nice, soft-spoken dude.

I know this is the jazz thread, but I just need to make note that I find it *super weird* that Khruangbin don't have any actual Thai people in their band?

Has the recent Smalls "controversy" come up here yet?

No, but for the record I am pro-Smalls, and found that aside to be a weird sour note in an otherwise excellent piece.

For those not paying attention, Gio Russonello (a writer I like a lot) wrote a NY Times feature on new jazz and jazz-adjacent venues, some of which sound really cool. But for some reason, he felt the need to throw in a shot at Smalls:

At Smalls Jazz Club, the storied West Village basement, purebred jazz jam sessions still stretch into the wee hours on a nightly basis, inheriting some of the infectious, insidery energy that existed in its truest form into the 1990s at clubs like Bradley’s. But today it’s hard to argue that Smalls is the right destination for hearing the most cutting-edge sounds.

And although they don’t usually say it publicly, seasoned players have come to agree that the code of conduct at Smalls’ jam sessions went a little flimsy after the 2018 death of Roy Hargrove. His frequent presence as an elder there had helped to keep the bar high, even as the room had come to be filled with musicians whose hands-on experience of jazz arrived mostly through the distorted lens of formal education.

Spike himself wrote a rebuttal as did Sasha Berliner.

Great looking compilation of post-war British jazz, featuring Shake Keane, Joe Harriott, Ronnie Scott et al.

https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/i-had-the-craziest-dream-modern-jazz-and-hard-bop-in-post-war-london-vol-1?from=fanpub_fb

[tiny thread] Missed this from last week. Great stuff, showing the ongoing fragmentation of 21c art, "we contain multitudes." However NYC is also where true bebop still lives, and IMHO there was no need to take a swipe at Smalls... https://t.co/aXUmRcbuVa

— Ethan Iverson (@ethan_iverson) March 22, 2022

otm

the distorted lens of formal education

Um anyway---some new and recent Sunnyside jazz---think I only recognize Matt Slocum? At least muh lens is ok.
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Sunnyside-in-Early-Spring.html?soid=1101632560908&aid=rOF0xfVkkdY

Oh wow--should check spam folder more often:

https://artistshare.blob.core.windows.net/artists/001/1/images/11079.jpg?1648595335444

and other news via artistshare: http://artistshare.blob.core.windows.net/artists/019/19/downloads/03-23-2022.html

My dad's 1968(?) Down Beat review of the Tony Williams with Larry Young and John McLaughlin performing at the Village Vanguard. Since he (famously) hated rock, dad praises the musicians, but undersells it. Me--I'd cut off a toe to hear that show... pic.twitter.com/1OJ4nAvOOZ

— Fitz Gitler (@techdef) March 29, 2022

Wonder what Dad thought of their NYC gig w Jack Bruce? Now that's what I call heavy.

okay ill admit it, when i was younger i thought that every time someone on a jazz record was credited for "vibes" it meant they hung out at the recording session and made everything feel cool

— Fritz Pape (@fritzpape) March 31, 2022

If only!

Lol

“Wow, musicians really liked hanging out with that Milt Jackson guy!”

tapes?

Archie Shepp Quintet with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III, & Beaver Harris (Jimmy Garrison n.p.), Copenhagen, October 1967

📸 Jan Persson / Getty Images pic.twitter.com/WaEt0DI3eG

— jeff (@jazyjef) April 2, 2022

Oh, here they all are:

Archie Shepp Quintet with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III, Beaver Harris, & Jimmy Garrison, Copenhagen, October 1967

📸 Jan Persson / Getty Images pic.twitter.com/eDOF4Yf1ko

— jeff (@jazyjef) April 2, 2022

Archie Shepp & Roswell Rudd, Copenhagen, October 1967

📸 Jan Persson / Getty Images pic.twitter.com/AkWacHY2fT

— jeff (@jazyjef) April 1, 2022

these were my cheap record finds today O_O

Tidy little pile of jazzers from the chazzer, all early pressings from the 50s/60s pic.twitter.com/F4OhatDX0g

— fell into a green dream (@Mount_Analogue) April 2, 2022

all super-clean and sounding ~incredible~

braggin' with the miles davis quintet

nice find. are they all english pressings?

also, does chazzer mean charity shop?

yes and yes! the blue notes are US, but the Miles are all first UK pressings

That’s a sweet haul.

real good.

Jerome Harris was born in Queens, NY on this day in 1953. He’s 69 today. pic.twitter.com/is8QSr04vN

— jeff (@jazyjef) April 5, 2022

From Nonesuch:

Mary Halvorson
Amaryllis & Belladonna
Available May 13
Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer, and MacArthur fellow Mary Halvorson makes her Nonesuch debut with two albums, Amaryllis and Belladonna . The two suites, which Halvorson describes as "modular and interlocking," come in a two-LP vinyl set or as two separate CDs and digital albums. Amaryllis is a six-song suite performed by a newly formed sextet of master improvisers; the Mivos string quartet joins for three of the songs, making this the largest ensemble for which Halvorson has written to date. Belladonna is a set of five compositions written for Halvorson on guitar plus the Mivos Quartet, whose parts are through-composed and augmented by Halvorson's guitar improvisations.

http://maryhalvorson.lnk.to/AmaryllisBelladonna?eml=2022March18/5645359/6011771&etsubid=33248291

Links to advance track on bandcamp etc., also video.

49 years ago tonight, Pete Cosey makes his debut as a member of Miles’ massive 10-piece live band.

The tape’s a brief one (2 songs, 33 minutes) but Cosey’s solo in “Ife” is the equivalent of a new universe being created in real time. https://t.co/ZhKfNMHhaO

— the Heat Warps (@theheatwarps) April 6, 2022

Via the same links, check also (as we heat warp through electric Miles appearances from 1969 to 197?) the Brazil '74 shows with his three-guitar band (yo Sund4r)

Oh, I will look into that. And yeah, the advance Halvorson track is great, actually p tuneful and groovy for her. I heard it some time ago.

Where hs the Heat Warps been my whole life damn

Ornette Coleman's two albums for Contemporary are now back on CD and LP as "Genesis Of Genius" - just the kind of grandiose title his records got early on. Back then, Ornette's champions made extravagant claims on his behalf - that his tunes would become classics, that jazz would never be the same, that his quartet was the hottest thing on New York's incandescent 1959 jazz scene. The thing about Ornette is all that hype turned out to be true.

i always forget it's shelly manne playing drums on "tomorrow is the question!" -- such a weird choice.

!

I got a copy of that box the other day. Nice packaging, but it's interesting to me that there's no alternate takes from those sessions or anything else — would have been cool if they'd included Live at the Hillcrest Club 1958 (released under Paul Bley's name) as bonus material.

i always forget it's shelly manne playing drums on "tomorrow is the question!" -- such a weird choice.

Not so weird surely? Manne sounds right at home on Way Out West, and from there it's not that much of a leap to those first couple of Ornette recs also from way out west). Some of these cats could play on anything.