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

yeah, is that Pharoah and Joe Henderson? I also like her piano work, so yeah Ptah is great.

yeah yeah yeah

was just listening to a verrrry cool Alice Coltrane episode of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz from the early 80s, I think. really fun stuff -- and alice comes across as maybe a little more lucid/down to earth than she sometimes sounds in other interviews i've heard. mcpartland is such a fun interviewer -- she is kind of spacey herself, but seems to get a lot of enjoyment out of talking/playing with other musicians.

Yes! I've heard that. You know what's amazing, too? Those private recordings she did of chants. I know a lot of people are put off by the synths, but something like "Journey to Satchidananda" (a choral re-arrangement of the same composition from World Galaxy) from "Glorious Chants" sounds like a funeral chant for the end of the world.

i haven't delved into the post-70s stuff -- is it even on CD?

Only 'Glorious Chants' as far as I know. It's probably the weirdest thing I've ever heard from her. I found it on il oxumare.

Oh snap! Il Oxumare has a trove of post-70s Alice! I guess I hadn't been there in a long time.

rofl @ who forgot his week started today

tannenbaum: 7 July
Pfunk: 15 July
Elephant Rob: 22 July
Deej: 29 July

is jazz club still going? tannenbaum didnt take his shot last week, so he can take my turn and we move a week back?

I think tannenbaum is taking my turn so will wait

Am posting first thing tomorrow.

woohoo

sorry all.... by ILM time/priority is shot at the moment while I'm trying to get lots of other stuff done irl.

pfunk doing a great job in running Jazz Club, so props & thanks

here are my three:

The Buddy Rich Big Band "Big Swing Face" (1967)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/614-SjvjwIL.jpg

Spotify link

Non-Spotift link

Big Swing Face is a 1967 live album by Buddy Rich and his big band. Big Swing Face not only reissues the second recording by Buddy Rich & His Big Band but doubles the program with nine previously unissued performances from the same engagement at the Chez Club in Hollywood. Rich's orchestra was in its early prime, displaying a very impressive ensemble sound, charts by Bill Holman, Shorty Rogers, Bob Florence, Bill Potts and others, and such soloists as altoist Ernie Watts (a newcomer), trumpeter Bobby Shew, Jay Corre on tenor and the remarkable drummer/leader. Even with the presence of "Norwegian Wood" and "The Beat Goes On" (the latter features Rich's teenage daughter Cathe on a vocal), this is very much a swinging set. Rich has some outstanding solos and lots of drum breaks but does not hog the spotlight; he was justifiably proud of his band.

Max Roach, His Chorus & Orchestra "It's Time" (1962)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/375644445_0b99db09bc.jpg

Spotify link

Non-Spotify link

A truly massive album, both in terms of the ambition behind it and the performances on it. Max Roach's suite-of-sorts combines a jazz septet with a vocal choir comprised of 16 singers, and musically Roach is just about leaving his hardbop roots behind for something that is neither post-bop nor avant garde, nor commercial, and somehow all three at the same time, resulting in an album that stands pretty much on its own in terms of originality. He is, however, laying much of the groundwork later taken up by Donald Byrd (on A New Perspective) and Andrew Hill (on Lift Every Voice), but Roach is staying clear of the more obvious blues/gospel influence. Rather than giving mere "ooh/aah" backing or reciting lyrics, the choir functions as a multi-textured musical instrument itself, complementing the musicians on an equal footing and often providing a strangely otherworldly atmosphere, as when the voices answer to Julian Priester's trombone on "Another Valley" and "Living Room", or provide a near Ligeti-ish introduction to "Sunday Afternoon". On "It's Time", the voices underpin outlandish, intense solos from saxophonist Clifford Jordan and from Roach himself.

A strange, but important and compelling, and ultimately a very rewarding album that stands with Roach's finest recordings from the early 1960s.

Herbie Hancock "Sextant" (1973)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Yiq7NbXrL._SS500_.jpg

Spotify link

Non Spotify link

AMG When Herbie Hancock left Warner Bros. in 1971 after releasing three musically sound but critically and commercially underappreciated albums -- The Crossing, Mwandishi, and Fat Albert's Groove -- he was struggling. At odds with a jazz establishment that longed for his return to his Blue Note sound and a fierce consciousness struggle with free music and the full-on embrace of electricity since his tenure with Miles Davis, Hancock was clearly looking for a voice. Before diving into the commercial waters that would become Headhunters in 1973, Hancock and his tough group (including Billy Hart, Julian Priester, Dr. Eddie Henderson, Bennie Maupin, and Buster Williams) cut this gem for their new label, Columbia. Like its Warner predecessors, the album features a kind of post-modal, free impressionism while gracing the edges of funk. The three long tracks are exploratory investigations into the nature of how mode and interval can be boiled down into a minimal stew and then extrapolated upon for soloing and "riffing." In fact, in many cases, the interval becomes the riff, as is evidenced by "Rain Dance." The piece that revealed the true funk direction, however, was "Hidden Shadows," with its choppy basslines and heavy percussion -- aided by the inclusion of Dr. Patrick Gleeson and Buck Clarke. Dave Rubinson's production brought Hancock's piano more into line with the rhythm section, allowing for a unified front in the more abstract sections of these tunes. The true masterpiece on the album, though, is "Hornets," an eclectic, electric ride through both the dark modal ambience of Miles' In a Silent Way and post-Coltrane harmonic aesthetics. The groove is in place, but it gets turned inside out by Priester and Maupin on more than one occasion and Hancock just bleats with the synth in sections. Over 19 minutes in length, it can be brutally intense, but is more often than not stunningly beautiful. It provides a glimpse into the music that became Headhunters, but doesn't fully explain it, making this disc, like its Warner predecessors, true and welcome mysteries in Hancock's long career. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

hurrah

Sextant is an all time fave in any genre, but also one of the more pure attempts at 'fusion' in the sense of its use of electronics, funk, and jazz--all three seem to be present alongside one another without diluting the others' identities.

One of the greatest albums ever made.

Herman, I'm going to post now. I assume that's okay since no one has posted all week :/

Though I was exposed to the traditional stuff from a young age, I got most excited by jazz when I discovered Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders (plus "On the Corner"), and I'm still very non-purist in my jazz tastes. I particularly love the kind of stuff discussed in this thread.

1. Yusuf Lateef, "Eastern Sounds" (1961)

http://blogs.opb.org/kmhd/files/2009/12/yusef2.jpg

Thom Jurek, AMG:

One of multi-instrumentalist and composer Yusef Lateef's most enduring recordings, Eastern Sounds was one of the last recordings made by the band that Lateef shared with pianist Barry Harris after the band moved to New York from Detroit, where the jazz scene was already dying. Lateef had long been interested in Eastern music, long before John Coltrane had ever shown any public interest anyway, so this Moodsville session (which meant it was supposed to be a laid-back ballad-like record), recorded in 1961, was drenched in Lateef's current explorations of Eastern mode and interval, as well as tonal and polytonal improvisation. That he could do so within a context that was accessible, and even "pretty," is an accomplishment that stands today. The quartet was rounded out by the inimitable Lex Humphries on drums -- whose brushwork was among the most deft and inventive of any player in the music with the possible exception of Connie Kay from the Modern Jazz Quartet -- and bass and rabat player Ernie Farrow. The set kicks off with "The Plum Blossom," a sweet oboe and flute piece that comes from an Eastern scale and works in repetitive rhythms and a single D minor mode to move through a blues progression and into something a bit more exotic, which sets up the oboe-driven "Blues for the Orient." Never has Barry Harris' playing stood up with more restraint to such striking effect than it does here. He moves the piece along with striking ostinatos and arpeggios that hold the center of the tune rather than stretch it. Lateef moans softly on the oboe as the rhythm section doubles, then triples, then half times the beat until it all feels like a drone. There are two cinematic themes here -- he cut themes from the films Spartacus and The Robe, which are strikingly, hauntingly beautiful -- revealing just how important accessibility was to Lateef. And not in the sense of selling out, but more in terms of bringing people to this music he was not only playing, but discovering as well. (Listen to Les Baxter and to the early-'60s recordings of Lateef -- which ones are more musically enduring?) However, the themes set up the deep blues and wondrous ballad extrapolations Lateef was working on, like "Don't Blame Me" and "Purple Flower," which add such depth and dimension to the Eastern-flavored music that it is hard to imagine them coming from the same band. Awesome.

2. Don Cherry, "Brown Rice" (1975)

http://www.parisdjs.com/images/covers/mind_radio_show/Don_Cherry-Brown_Rice_b.jpg

Steve Huey, AMG:

If Eternal Rhythm was Don Cherry's world fusion masterpiece of the '60s, then Brown Rice is its equivalent for the '70s. But where Eternal Rhythm set global influences in a free jazz framework, Brown Rice's core sound is substantially different, wedding Indian, African, and Arabic music to Miles Davis' electrified jazz-rock innovations. And although purists will likely react here the same way they did to post-Bitches Brew Davis, Brown Rice is a stunning success by any other standard. By turns hypnotic and exhilarating, the record sounds utterly otherworldly: the polyrhythmic grooves are deep and driving, the soloing spiritual and free, and the plentiful recording effects trippy and mysterious. The various ethnic influences lift the album's already mystical atmosphere to a whole new plane, plus Cherry adds mostly non-English vocals on three of the four tracks, whispering cryptic incantations that make the pieces resemble rituals of some alien shaman. The title cut has since become an acid jazz/rare-groove classic, filtering Charlie Haden's acoustic bass through a wah-wah pedal and melding it with psychedelic electric piano riffs, electric bongos, wordless female vocals, short snippets of tenor saxophonist Frank Lowe's free jazz screeching, and, of course, Cherry's whispers and trumpet. Closer "Degi-Degi" works a similarly mind-bending mixture, but the middle two pieces ("Malkauns" and "Chenrezig") are lengthy explorations where Cherry's languid trumpet solos echo off into infinity. Of all his world fusion efforts, Brown Rice is the most accessible entry point into Cherry's borderless ideal, jelling into a personal, unique, and seamless vision that's at once primitive and futuristic in the best possible senses of both words. While Cherry would record a great deal of fine work in the years to come, he would never quite reach this level of wild invention again.

3. Steve Reid, "Nova" (1976)

http://file.blog-shinjuku-jazz.diskunion.net/nova.jpg

Rob Ferrier, AMG:

This is an astounding record by an artist who has been criminally neglected. The list of those who could make out jazz funky is a short one. Ornette of course springs to mind as do the musicians of the Art Ensemble and their Chicago brethren. Drummer Steve Reid must now be added to that list. From the swaggering thunder of "Lions of Juda," to the gentler songs that close this album, there's nary a misstep. This music is as beautiful and dangerous as a shower of broken glass -- just when you think you've got a song figured out, this clever group of largely unsung musicians heightens the tension and takes things careening off in an unexpected direction. Have no fear though, these men are always nothing if not firmly in control. This is a wonderful document of a long vanished New York scene that was long on every emotion, not just fury. Find this album and buy it.

aye thats ok, tannenbaum missed his week so took mine and i go after deej

excellent choices btw. Dont know that steve reid album but i look forward to hearing it

Oh man, Nova is great, I'm sure you will love it. IIRC you already know and like Rhythmatism?

i believe deej is up

come on deej post your albums! ;)

Anyone up for restarting this?

OH SHIT

getting this together. have it up soon

AG, did you ever listen to Nova?

I think so, I dont recall much about it as it was so long ago. Will listen again after deej's picks

ok shall we resume this? Figured it might help ilxor out finding stuff if so I'll take weds. Who else wants a week?

i'm in!

Feb 2 - Algerian Goalkeeper
Feb 9 - Ilxor

Who else wants a shot? deej can have a go when he is unbanned if he still wants to

shakey? tuomas? ilx jazz crew?

okay wait deej and whiney are both banned now? someone explain this to me

but sure I'll take a week

also it's March now fyi

they were 51'd a few weeks ago

oh yeah

March 2 - Algerian Goalkeeper
March 9 - Ilxor
March 16 - Shakey Mo

did they have an img bomb war or something

Infact this is better

March 2 - Shakey Mo
March 9 - Ilxor
March 16 - Algerian Goalkeeper

you have a couple of days to select picks. email me and I'll get you spotify links (i only have your old email the one you never use i forget your proper one)

they have a beef thats been going on over ilx threads and they picked up 51 sb's. it just so happened they got it at the same time. dont think it was anything major. they must be due back v soon

you alright with this weeks picks?

I think ice cr?m has volunteered via pm. I didn't get your email to reply to. I'll send you those spotify links when it's your go. I will put you in before me.

March 2 - Shakey Mo
March 9 - Ilxor
March 16 - ice cr?m
March 23 - Algerian Goalie

hey goalkeeper- can u plz bump me toward the bottom of the list as it fills up? thx

ok
ice cr?m you want to swap places with ilxor?

i wouldn't mind a crack at this

Awesome, you're in!

March 2 - Shakey Mo
March 9 - Ilxor
March 16 - ice cr?m
March 23 - Ride
March 30 Algerian Goalie

switch spots w/ me AG

not if you have measles

I'll give it a shot...but I'm very much a jazz noob/novice. If that disqualifies me, I'll just happily join in the listening/following.

no way-- we're in the same boat!

ok it seems ice cr?m didnt volunteer it was just shaky webmailing me WITHOUT LEAVING AN EMAIL TO REPLY TO

March 2 - Shakey Mo
March 9 - Ilxor
March 16 - Algerian Goalie
March 23 - Ride
March 30 - xtian DC

ilxor youre staying there unless 1 of the other 2 want to swap with you!

webmail tuomas, im sure he will want a shot.

shakey you should post your albums tonight, will be weds here by then anyway.