Rolling Jazz Thread 2019

I hear it's gonna expand beyond London this year.

Tuba player Theon Cross (of Sons of Kemet) has a solo album, Fyah, coming out February 15. On 6 of 8 tracks it's just him, Nubya Garcia on sax, and Moses Boyd on drums; on the other two they add another saxophonist, electric guitar, trombone, and percussion. Really good stuff.

https://theoncross.bandcamp.com/album/fyah

Great album cover, too:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0979737946_10.jpg

The NPR Jazz Critics' Poll results are out: https://www.npr.org/2019/01/05/682193795/the-2018-npr-music-jazz-critics-poll

My ballot:

NEW RELEASES
Makaya McCraven, Universal Beings (International Anthem)
Sons of Kemet, Your Queen Is a Reptile (Impulse!)
Kamasi Washington, Heaven and Earth (Young Turks)
We Out Here (Brownswood)
Camilla George, The People Could Fly (Ubuntu)
Andrew Cyrille, Lebroba (ECM)
Ingrid Laubrock, Contemporary Chaos Practices (Intakt)
Nicole Mitchell, Maroon Cloud (FPE)
Maisha, There Is a Place (Brownswood)
Henry Threadgill 14 or 15 Kestra: Agg, Dirt . . . and More Dirt (Pi)

REISSUES/HISTORICAL
J-Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan, 1969-1984 (BBE)
Wes Montgomery, In Paris: The Definitive ORTF Recording (Resonance)
Milford Graves, Bäbi (Corbett vs. Dempsey)

VOCAL
No choice.

DEBUT
Maisha, There Is a Place (Brownswood)

LATIN
No choice.

good vocal one is D Virelles Singer's Grove album that he recorded with a load of Cuban talent.

So anyone read that Dexter Gordon book yet?

Thought Phil did

Yeah, it's good - lots of inside-the-industry stuff and discussion of aspects of Gordon's life not made known to jazz journalists at the time ('cause Gordon didn't want to talk about them). One omission I found interesting - she talks about his post-prison comeback album Daddy Plays the Horn, but entirely omits Dexter Blows Hot and Cool, which came out the same year (1955) and is one of my favorite of his records. Oh, well.

Is there much about their time in Cuernavaca?

Some, yeah. A lot about his time in Scandinavia, too. One thing I thought was really interesting was how they created the whole "Dexter Returns to America!" myth in the mid '70s - in fact, he'd been coming back for gigs about once a year the whole time he was living in Europe, but she somehow sold it as his "return from exile" or whatever. It's a really great look at how legends are created.

lucas gillan's re-imagining of the third herbie nichols record was a nice recent find for me

https://lucasgillan.bandcamp.com/album/chit-chatting-with-herbie

Yeah, I'm gonna be talking about that one on Stereogum later this month.

Copying and pasting this here from my Facebook page:

Wayne Shorter topping the NPR jazz critics' poll (I didn't vote for it) is one of the starkest "what critics like vs. what the public likes" splits in a while, I think, because the music was totally inaccessible unless you were willing to drop at least $55 (Amazon's price for the 3CD version). Which is fine, whatever. Critics gonna critic. (I don't know if they mailed physical copies to bigger-name writers, but *I* only got MP3s and a PDF.)

It's more interesting to me that Blue Note, a label that's really good about getting most of its catalog out there digitally - they regularly tweet that some obscure catalog title or another has been added to Spotify and iTunes - decided Wayne Shorter was strictly for the luxury market. I mean, it's not like you NEED the comic. It's not connected to the music in any way.

Would the album have done as well with reviewers if it hadn't been packaged as this grand objay dart? Was this the jazz equivalent of Kanye West flying pop journalists to Wyoming to hear 20 minutes of music in the company of celebrities?

Cool, thanks unperson. Might read that one on vacation.

I probably said this on last year's thread but I talked to that tuba player at his gig a few months ago. Super nice dude, and as I was watching him I was like "I bet this dude loves Nat (my friend from Youngblood Brass Band)", and he was like yup, he's the whole reason I started playing.

Wayne Shorter topping the NPR jazz critics' poll (I didn't vote for it) is one of the starkest "what critics like vs. what the public likes" splits in a while, I think, because the music was totally inaccessible unless you were willing to drop at least $55 (Amazon's price for the 3CD version). Which is fine, whatever. Critics gonna critic. (I don't know if they mailed physical copies to bigger-name writers, but *I* only got MP3s and a PDF.)

― grawlix (unperson)

i mean that really seems like an npr thing. i remember a couple years ago when they went all-in talking about how great the savory collection was. it's streaming - if you have apple music. otherwise, forget it - i don't think anybody's even bothered to pirate that shit, which makes it serious long-tail stuff.

rym has the shorter at 26 ratings and one review, which starts off by calling it "generally disappointing". (for comparison, "kids see ghosts" has 12,522 ratings, and "your queen is a reptile" has 2,552.) on the other hand, it at least appears to have been pirated.

this also, by the way, makes the wayne shorter album both less heard on rym and lower rated than the new squirrel nut zippers album. did you know the squirrel nut zippers had a new album? 44 people on rym did!

been listening to the trygve seim album from last year, helsinki songs, lately. i know he's well established but i hadn't known him, it's nice to hear a solid ECMy album every now and again.

dude's got hella beard and flowing tresses

Listening to the new Resonance Records Eric Dolphy set, Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions. It's the albums Conversations and Iron Man, plus an additional 85 minutes of previously unreleased alternate takes. One of the best things about it, to my ear, is that the old albums have been remastered in mono, and sound incredibly vivid.

Phil, you need to bring up this question of critics with Harold Mabern when you interview him, I’m sure he will have a lot to say. Ask him about Calvin Newborn as well.

Rest in peace, Alvin Fielder.

RIP.

Speaking of Dexter, this morning Michael Bourne is playing some stuff he recorded with Eddie Jefferson that I hadn't known about before.

Such as "Lester's Trip to the Moon."

First night of the winter jazzfest marathon last night mostly spent at Subculture, where I caught Ghost Train Orchestra playing Moondog (remarkably good; can't wait for the album!), Joel Ross (noteworthy vibraphone player; technically strong band that didn't click for me), Theo Bleckmann and The Westerlies (doing a social justice project, utterly beautiful)

Will likely go to the Medeski Martin and Wood/Alarm Will Sound show at Brooklyn Steel later this week; album didn't leave much of a mark but figure it's worth the trip

Love Ghost Train Orchestra; don't care much for Bleckmann but it's part of my larger antipathy to jazz vocals.

oh i've been a bleckmann fan for almost twenty years now; that guy can do no wrong by me.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/01/12-new-jazz-artists-to-watch-in-2019.html
How many do you recognize?

i can co-sign Camila, both Sashas, Jaimie Branch and Chris Beck.

I like this video I just found on Veronica Swift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l69lHOONHCM

Have been aware of Camila for the better part of a decade so don't really think of her as a New Artist.

Branch is great, Connie Han is OK, and I like Barber and Beck. I don't care about any of the singers, obviously.

Then perhaps you will ignore me saying I just enjoyed seeing Gabrielle Stravelli perform her new Willie Nelson tribute album at Birdland, where I sat next to fellow Bob Dorough enthusiast Daryl Sherman. Wish I could have stayed for the second set and then gone upstairs to see Kurt Elling, although I did peek through the window of that show for a bit on my way in and out.

Oh yeah, Will Friedwald was apparently there too.

Maybe I should post about on semi-dormant Jazz Vocalist thread or even Rolling Country, but I can't run fast enough to jump on that boxcar.

Thanks for the jazz vocalists posts. I am fine with them whichever thread you use.

Thanks. I did a double take for a second, because even though I am completely clear on who you two posters are, your screennames are sufficiently similar that I have to read carefully otherwise I might misattribute.

Anyway, even though I didn’t have to time to go see Kurt Elling other than lingering in the lobby for a second, I will say that I am finally warming up to him after keeping him at a distance for quite a while because his voice sounded too good, too rich. I like the Mark Murphy element of his singing, for one thing.

albatre - the fall of the damned

^^^
been enjoying this one today. Late '18 release on Clean Feed and it is an earbleeding noise metal trio that you might like if Ground Zero was a thing to you.

when I say noise metal I meant an Ornette influenced jazz metal thing!

Thanx unperson for citing We Out Here on Pazz & Jop thread: bandcamp page proved quite refreshing in itself and as gateway. Speaking of Nubya Garcia, "Source" ended up making my own P&J Singles:
https://nubyagarcia.bandcamp.com/track/source And your Sons of Kemet album pick provided another Single, "My Queen is Anna Julia Cooper":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HapYxFBF_Lk

Got around to watching/listening to the LP/DVD combo for this https://hypnoticbrassfilm.com/ - film is a good overview of their background and approach, album is about what you would expect based on the film. It does differ from other releases I've heard of theirs in that there's a fair amount of rapping on it, and it's clear these guys are hip hop generation through and through, in the rhythms and riffs they tend to lean on. Oddly, it seems like there's very little improvisation in their output, no one ever really takes solos nor do they go in for any collective free-blowing, so not sure how jazzy I would say this is really. Maybe that's just a function of being a brass band idk.

I think it's just a function of Hypnotic. I like them alright if I remember to not think of it in relation to New Orleans brass bands in any way. They're just very specific (highly arranged, not very loud or high energy, etc).

def very highly arranged

Are Bill Charlap and Danny Huston the same person?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DwVh0HUUwAAGVfE.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DwVh0HXUwAAT399.jpg

That sounds really interesting, calzino. Ground Zero was a thing for me. I'll look for it.

Yeah, thanks for the tip. James B, please feel free to post about the Willie Nelson (or whatever) on RC 2019 (or wherever). Nelson's recent Sinatra trib has jazz-related appeal. Bluesy version of "What Is This Thing Called Love" keeps prowling my head, with Norah Jones slipping along there too. She's proved an effective duet partner-around-the-edges over the years, in the Willie Zone, where she's not Snorah, just cool.

I wanna give some love to the excellent new release by Bugge Wesseltoft & Prins Thomas album. Been a regular feature on my commutes this past month - love the textural feel of it, the precise layered groove construction on the tracks around the Jarrett-esque noodles and vamps on the keys. Very fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvNrjN2d90

^^^this was very nice to listen to driving through the desert at night

i am digging this guy Kassa Overall's new album, Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz; decent hip hop/jazz fusion, fun and easy to enjoy
https://www.kassaoverall.com
https://open.spotify.com/album/6tSHSLgLy19DgFpzKHrrJv?si=lIUlmcSXQKCdlGBAl4XJXQ

He's doing a show with Jason Moran at the Jazz Gallery next week; I'm planning to go.

So what about this young French lady who sings “Giant Steps” and “Frevo” who was at Winter Jazzfest, Camille Bertault?

Recently discovered this:
https://img.discogs.com/fTncE1EcrY_WFJxu39TnvPboVY4=/fit-in/600x596/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-9094566-1486511406-4176.jpeg.jpg

Great relatively unknown singer--sort of a female chet baker with a few Ella-like touches. I skip Body and Soul and Stormy Weather--never want to hear those songs again--but otherwise really nice stuff. Great, great guitar work by Barney Kessel dominating the accompaniment.

So the local station carries the public radio-distributed Jazz For The New Millenium, run by the author of the same-title book. All time fave ep likely to remain the first heard, feat. Stevie Wonder's frequently headspinning guest shots on jazz albums: no idea he did so many, or any.
This may be a unique tack, because all the others I've heard are adventures of a sideman-and-occasional leader (well, except Dave Holland, but even that incl. a lot of side gigs).
Recent faves incl. Cecil McBee: earliest sides played, from the early 60s, I think (the host tends to murmur), present him as arriving fully formed, though the most exciting cuts were with the Leaders, one from his most (not very) album as a leader, and omg w the Cookers, from their 2012 release, covering Jazz Messengers-era Shorter. Nothing retro about that track.
Speaking of which, last night Wycliffe Gordon demonstrated diff ways to adjust and reinforce vintage and vintage-y frameworks via application of heat, at various degrees and angles. I usually don't care about trombones, but damn (ace choice of and by clarinet players too).

most (not very) *recent* album as a leader, I meant to say.

I interviewed McBee a few years ago for The Wire. He's amazing, and the Cookers are as anti-nostalgic as you can get. I got to see them live once; they were killer.

Miles Okazaki's new album after doing entire Monk songbook sounds brilliant after 1st listen

I had a McBee album from the 70s (can't remember the name) where on one track he was upposedly playing two basses at once. Never could work it out...

highly recommend the LP "euganea" by upperground orchestra, released earlier this month. opening track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pko-IfO6MQ

for lovers of the electro-free, definitely hyper-frenetic at times, but enough focus and precision and (above all) ecstatic epiphanies so as to keep me zoned in

take the journey

an hour of cecil mcbee? sounds cool, just got into him fairly recently (more recently than the japanese clothing label named after him, put it that way) - actually looking at my timestamps just about a year ago? i have been listening to a _lot_ of jazz in the past year - latest listens are max andrzejewski (thanks bandcamp) playing the music of robert wyatt and "sahib's jazz party" by sahib shihab.

https://milesokazaki.bandcamp.com/album/the-sky-below

this new Miles Okazaki lp is my absolute fave at the moment, feel like i need to listen to all his previous lps although I'm familiar with The Trickster and the huuuge Monk one.

xpost Matana Robert's bandcamp page for Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis provides an overview within the overview of her series design, which does seem grand, but right off I'm digging the prismatic inside voices of all players,singers, and Roberts' own vividly succinct talker, walker, runner, leapfrogger, eyewitness, refugee, sender, occupant, for whom Willie Nelson's "still is still moving to me" also seems to apply. bandcamp mentions "historical" and "diaristic" sources sep, but in effect they merge here (incl. music and other history of the Bluff City and elsewhere, as that Old Man River just goes muddin' along. The album is firmly grounded in layers, currents, even breezes of association----jazz precedents, sonically central, in ways the hip will recognize, also sprout fresh details from moment to moment (a Buddhist sawmill drone might be bow of bass x keys of accordion; no gamelan is listed, so might be bells and ?, theres's also a harmolodic hoedown and sort of washboard fiddle and oh yeah that must be sax x clarinet)(also 'ppreciate how the drummer shifts terrain when nec.) Funny secular ending, no slacking,
https://matana-roberts.bandcamp.com/album/coin-coin-chapter-four-memphis

Her label Constellation has a really good deal going right now - you can get the first three Coin Coin albums 3-for-2 (so $24 CAD for the bundle) plus another $12 for the new one, and then they're giving people 15% off all orders through November 30. Including shipping to the US, you can get all four CDs for well under $40 US.

Wow, thanks for the Max Andrzejewski recommendation; amazing stuff. An Ivor Cutler song in there too.

travis laplante live two nights ago was one of the better and more intense shows i saw this year; his new one, human, is very much of a piece with his prior work and just as affecting
https://travislaplante.bandcamp.com/

Copped a few "Jazz Casual" episodes to watch, including this killer performance/conversation with Cannonball Adderley, such fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi0OMG4xAko

I interviewed Peter Brötzmann for Bandcamp - he's got a new solo album out that's all versions of jazz standards like "I Surrender, Dear," "Con Alma," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," etc., etc. We talked about his relationship to the jazz tradition and his favorite versions of these old songs.

Nice ulysses, I have the Coltrane quartet one on dvd somewhere.

Xpost, per that Brotz interview, I would love for him to do a set of standards with Waits & Revis backing him up (as much as I love Parker & Drake) cuz that's a trio that has played a bunch but somehow I don't think has ever made a record? Unless I missed it which is certainly possible.

Excited for the new solo lp

Which reminds me I saw Brotz & Waits as duo 15 yrs ago and in the middle of the set Waits stood up and walked out of the room. Brotz kept playing like nothing had happened, in fact it was so smooth it seemed almost planned, like Waits was going to like him have a solo spot and in the meantime dip out for a smoke. 5 or 10 minutes later Waits came back, sit back behind the drums and immediately started playing again.

I had to leave so I never figured out what happened. 10 yrs later I ran into Waits at a bar and I asked him what was up with that and he goes

"Oh I got food poisoning and had to go puke"

No, as far as I know the Brotz/Revis/Waits trio has only ever recorded one track, on the 5CD live box Long Story Short. (Of course, that one track is close to 40 minutes long...

My new Stereogum column just went up; I talk about the ECM 50th anniversary concert, the death of Gerry Teekens, and a bunch of new albums.

Will check that, but before I forget: speaking of Coltrane, what does anybody here think of Blue World?

No, as far as I know the Brotz/Revis/Waits trio has only ever recorded one track, on the 5CD live box Long Story Short. (Of course, that one track is close to 40 minutes long...

Ahh I have the other 5CD box 3 Nights In Oslo

^great Waits story, ty

yeah, what a champ !

Nice writing on Gerry Teekens, Phil. I read an interview with him today online, from a couple of years back. He was reluctant in accepting that interview and didn't want to be interviewed at home (actually I never read an interview with him before).

y'know, i haven't even TRIED blue world yet, which is ridiculous. Going in.

Psyched to have ordered the new Muriel Grossmann. I’ve been blown away by everything I’ve heard so far from her.

yikes who wrote this copy tho https://murielgrossmann.bandcamp.com/album/reverence

My new Stereogum column just went up; I talk about the ECM 50th anniversary concert, the death of Gerry Teekens, and a bunch of new albums.

― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Thursday, November 21, 2019 3:32 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not to get all Steve Hoffman here, but how would you describe the sq on the est Live in Gothenburg release?

It's on a par with their other releases. Certainly not a bootleg or anything. I wouldn't be surprised if it had been recorded with an eye toward release at the time.

Excellent. Thanks! Will order it tonight. I loved Live in Hamburg and don't recall the sound quality on that one bugging me too much, so if it's on par with that, I'm sure it'll be fine.

The 10 best jazz albums of 2019, according to me (via Stereogum):

https://www.stereogum.com/2067204/best-jazz-albums-2019/franchises/2019-in-review/

10. Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom, Glitter Wolf
9. Branford Marsalis Quartet, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul
8. Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis
7. SEED Ensemble, Driftglass
6. Victor Gould, Thoughts Become Things
5. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Ancestral Recall
4. Theon Cross, Fyah
3. Jeremy Pelt, Jeremy Pelt the Artist
2. Yazz Ahmed, Polyhymnia
1. Jaimie Branch, Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise

First listen to the Jaimie Branch and holy shit at Prayer for Amerikkka.

Thanks for the list, unperson. I've only heard the Matana Roberts (my first encounter with her music; by no means the last).

Nice. The real winners for me this year were Tomeka Reid and the Comet Is Coming releases.

No idea which thread to mention it on, but the Sarathy Korwar album is super interesting

anyone like Marilyn Mazur's Shamania? I love it!

Glitter Wolf and Fly Or Die II made my uproxx list, Coin Coin Dance Chapter Four: Memphis will be on the Nashville Scene ballot, at least in my hacked-in category of Related. The uprxx was mostly jazz, mostly thanx to this thread, may post later.

Oops still need to listen to this:

The musicians featured are Marc Edwards, Warren Smith, Michael TA Thompson, Mara Rosenbloom, Stephen Gauci, Eriq Robinson, Theodore Woodward, Faye Kilburn and William Hooker.

Symphonie Of Flowers is available on 2LP, CD and digital and shows how William Hooker has been recognized as one of the most innovative musicians and drummers of his generation, leading a variety of ensembles within the worlds of free jazz, experimental, and new music. Hooker's prior collaborators range from avant-garde jazz musicians to indie rock legends like Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. On his latest work, “Symphonie of Flowers”, Hooker weaves three sections into a whole, or a “symphonie” of sorts. As he says, “the piece begins and ends with the drum…my instrument. Its rhythm and variations of timbre are the stabilizing element.”

Read more about the album and order your copy here.https://orgmusic.com/william-hooker-symphonie-of-flowers/

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/junius-paul-ism-interview

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/ism

New album by the trio Birth, first in 15 years:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6Z7TQTuAiH5myCaHokhl4i?si=P6vTX7dLQtOE8tZQ-KAg4w

Features drummer extraordinaire Joe Tomino from Dub Trio. They absolutely blew minds when I saw them in '00 and they were doing sort of live jungle that would dissolve into free jazz. Happy Apple energy.

This album rules.

anyone like Marilyn Mazur's Shamania? I love it!

― calzino, Wednesday, December 11, 2019 7:44 AM bookmarkflaglink

Tuomas has nominated it on the ILM poll.... "Force of nature" is right!

- https://marilynmazur.bandcamp.com/album/shamania

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2819965007_7.jpg

I'm afraid the only band member I knew much about was the pianist Makiko Hirabayashi, who's been part of the Danish jazz scene for many years.

Marilyn Mazur has hardly done any interviews recently. There's one in Die Tageszeitung – she talks about her early experimental group the Primi Band, and working in the U.S. in the late '80s:

It all happened very quickly. I played with the Gil Evans Orchestra, including Wayne Shorter, and I was on tour for three years without a break. Then Miles asked if I wanted to tour with him again. But I couldn't anymore, I just wanted to go home and do my own thing and cancelled.
How did he react?
He wasn't used to people turning him down, and he was upset. As much as I loved playing with him, Miles' music had become so strange to me. Back then he was very popular, his sound was also macho. I've never used the term to refer to Miles, but it's true. The atmosphere on stage was not very communicative, everyone had their role.
– (taz.de)

haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else, so posting here as it may be of interest: earlier this year austrian label black-monk reissued franz koglmann's "flaps" and "opium for franz" on both vinyl and CD.

i've found it incredibly difficult to track down even an mp3 rip of "opium for franz" (to say nothing to say of an original LP), so this is most welcome !

looks like some of the european distributors still have copies, but americans might have better luck sending an email directly to the label.

http://www.blackmonk.at/blog

Opium/For Franz was reissued on CD in ‘99 or 2000, but it was a needledrop. Curious if this new reissue (the vinyl, particularly) is mastered from a different source.

anyone like Marilyn Mazur's Shamania? I love it!

This is great New Year's Day morning music.

Time for new thread?

Indeed.

Rolling Jazz Thread 2020

Brad Mehldau - Finding Gabriel is really hitting me, kind of adventurous in a low key MOR way, a lot of electronics and synth textures, jazz-meets-Brian-Wilson vocal arrangements

I was going to say that I've been checking this out yesterday and today and loving it, then saw that I apparently actually posted that I liked it literally a year ago.

I like Jon Batiste a lot more than I used to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyds04mi_Z0

He put out a couple of short live albums recently that I liked, one more than the other.

he's always a good time live.