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

just got time to say...

once again sorry for such delay on this, i had a pretty mental work week after two extra unplanned days in spain, then net connection fucked for ages.

tannenbaum post your funk picks

ronan, love the robert wyatt and the miles, dunno the latter but will check it out!

hey ronan, hadn't heard that STARDUST MEMORIES comp before, enjoyed it v much, esp. django's Body and Soul - as you say, 'carefree' is the word - when i worked in that big jazz dept, i had quite a few customers who were convinced that the sean penn character in SWEET AND LOWDOWN was a real person, often had to fight to convince them o/wise

hey tannenbaum/pfunk, im gonna post my three on friday, if thats ok w/ everyone

its all up to tannenbaum! its his club.

Updated Spotify Playlist please subscribe

are there django albums worth checking? love the feel of some of that stuff...

this is a nice set at a sweet price:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electric-Years-Django-Reinhardt/dp/B000VEA29Y

but there's so much cheap django floating around and most of it is pretty gd - proper's box set gives you a lot for yr dollar, tho' the sound is variable, as you might expect:

http://www.properuk.com/artists.php?action=alview&alid=1555

ok, i'm gonna post my picks to get this thread back on track, hope that's call w/ everyone

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MOTION by Lee Konitz. Lee Konitz alto sax. Sonny Dallas bass. Elvin Jones drums. 1961.
Lee and Elvin and Sonny, just three soulful guys swinging through the changes on a set of standards, one inspired afternoon nearly fifty years ago. Lee’s alto sounding all papery and liquidy, the bass walking, the drums and cymbals clicking in a zillion different directions, poetry in constant motion/transformation, the possibilities endless.

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THE BAPTISED TRAVELLER by Tony Oxley Quintet. Tony Oxley drums. Kenny Wheeler trumpet, flugelhorn. Evan Parker tenor sax. Derek Bailey guitar. Jeff Cline bass. 1969.
Oxley had played drums in the army, Bailey had played with Morecambe and Wise, Parker had played with science and Kenny Wheeler had played at being Canadian. How could this alb fucking fail? Back in 1969 Columbia/CBS were hip/desperate enough to release this to - well, WHO? Even now it seems impossible to work out what cld be the exact demographic group for this earlyish parp of European out/free music. Yeah it’s tough-goddamm-stuff baby, but worth sticking w/ imho - there is structure here as well as freedom, and apart from anything else, you’ll get to hear Bailey basically inventing the next twenty years of awkward gtr scrape right in front of yr furry little ears.

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SWEETNIGHTER by Weather Report. Joe Zawinul keyboards. Wayne Shorter tenor and soprano sax. Miroslav Vitous bass. Alphonso Johnson, Eric Gravatt drums. Dom Um Romao percussion. 1973.
Picked this one cos I hear that Nels Cline has just covered ‘Boogie Woogie Waltz’; ‘cos I thought it would be nice to spin Wayne Shorter in a non-Blue Note/acoustic context; ‘cos I absolutely adore the whole sound-drift of this alb - the leckeyboards, the tinkling metronomic percussion, the funky basslines, that palm-fronded tropical fusion vibe, quite hypnagog, in its own way. Easily my favourite Weather Report disc, slick but not yet as smeary and washy as their more aimless later recs.

all of these recs are on spotify btw

and they look like this

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http://www.jazz.com/assets/2008/6/11/albumcoverWeatherReport-Sweetnighter.jpg

Tannenbaum (who is away i think) said i was to do a friday bonus but i think i'll leave it since you had to post yours early.

dunno the 1st 2 and never liked the weather report but will give it a shot!

Regarding the Oxley album, could I just offer a FUCK YEAHHHHHHH

Cave17Matt: 26 May
Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC): 2 June
tylerw: 9 June
Sparkle Motion: 16 June
forksclovetofu: 23 June
Turangalila: 30 June
tannenbaum: 7 July
Pfunk: 15 July
Elephant Rob: 22 July

also, pfunk you can do friday bonus this week. I still haven't got around to listening to Ronan and Ward's picks.

ok!

Not really listening to a lot of jazz these days, but can I just say that Sonny Dallas's bass playing on "Motion" would be on my shortlist of nominations for the most underrated recorded performance by a jazz musician ever? Nobody seems to talk about Dallas but for me that's a masterclass in how to play small group jazz bass.

Hey where are this Wednesday's picks?

Cave17Matt - jazz please!

can i get in on this

Cave17Matt: 26 May
Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC): 2 June
tylerw: 9 June
Sparkle Motion: 16 June
forksclovetofu: 23 June
Turangalila: 30 June
tannenbaum: 7 July
Pfunk: 15 July
Elephant Rob: 22 July
Deej: 29 July

i'll do the friday bonus then

yeah go ahead; I pm'd Cave17Matt but this thread is all over the place in terms of timekeeping

Andrew Hill - Point Of Departure
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AMG Review

Pianist and composer Andrew Hill is perhaps known more for this date than any other in his catalogue -- and with good reason. Hill's complex compositions straddled many lines in the early to mid-1960s and crossed over many. Point of Departure, with its all-star lineup (even then), took jazz and wrote a new book on it, excluding nothing. With Eric Dolphy and Joe Henderson on saxophones (Dolphy also played clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute), Richard Davis on bass, Tony Williams on drums, and Kenny Dorham on trumpet, this was a cast created for a jazz fire dance. From the opening moments of "Refuge," with its complex minor mode intro that moves headlong via Hill's large, open chords that flat sevenths, ninths, and even 11ths in their striding to move through the mode, into a wellspring of angular hard bop and minor-key blues. Hill's solo is first and it cooks along in the upper middle register, almost all right hand ministrations, creating with his left a virtual counterpoint for Davis and a skittering wash of notes for Williams. The horn solos in are all from the hard bop book, but Dolphy cuts his close to the bone with an edgy tone. "New Monastery," which some mistake for an avant-garde tune, is actually a rewrite of bop minimalism extended by a diminished minor mode and an intervallic sequence that, while clipped, moves very quickly. Dorham solos to connect the dots of the knotty frontline melody and, in his wake, leaves the space open for Dolphy, who blows edgy, blue, and true into the center, as Hill jumps to create a maelstrom by vamping with augmented and suspended chords. Hill chills it out with gorgeous legato phrasing and a left-hand ostinato that cuts through the murk in the harmony. When Henderson takes his break, he just glides into the chromatically elegant space created by Hill, and it's suddenly a new tune. This disc is full of moments like this. In Hill's compositional world, everything is up for grabs. It just has to be taken a piece at a time, and not by leaving your fingerprints all over everything. In "Dedication," where he takes the piano solo further out melodically than on the rest of the album combined, he does so gradually. You cannot remember his starting point, only that there has been a transformation. This is a stellar date, essential for any representative jazz collection, and a record that, in the 21st century, still points the way to the future for jazz.

Spotify Link

hah i didn't realise that pic was so big

now the pic has disappeared
http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/h/hill_andrew_pointofde_101b.jpg

Whoopsie! Haven't been on ILX at all, forgot. But I'll do one coming up sometime.

post them now its still your week

That went well

Really into Lee Konitz "Motion" after 2 listens, am slowly falling in love with it.

Gave the Weather Report a quick listen, but at the time was too upbeat for my mood. Didn't click too much with the Wyatt. Haven't had a chance to listen to the Miles again (but already know and love "He Loved Him Madly"), or Tony Oxley or Andrew Hill.

Gotta make time for Miles, Oxley and Andrew Hill this week.

But thanks, Ward for the Lee Konitz!! Really nice take on some standards; understated class all the way through.

and I've pm'd WmC who's due today

Hi WmC

Need you on the Jazz Listening Club. Your 3 picks please!

ah, this snuck up on me

ok, it will be closer to the end of the day US time

cool.

Did anyone like the Andrew Hill album?

I worked on making picks instead of doing paying work.

You guys almost got Anthony Braxton's Dortmund (Quartet) 1976, which I'm listening to now while I fiddle with all this stuff and which is FANTASTIC.

1) George Lewis - Homage to Charles Parker (1979)

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AMG Review by Michael G. Nastos
This tribute to bop icon Charlie Parker is not a program of his famous tunes but a representation of his spirit that still exists. Through means of improvised music with a variety of significant signposts, George Lewis offers two 18-minute texture pieces that display a haunting quality by combining natural elements and electronically generated waves of sound, passion, and a little fury. Moog synthesizer programmer Richard Teitelbaum provides the landscape, pianist Anthony Davis the skyscapes, and Douglas Ewart on alto sax and bass clarinet provides the Bird-like characteristics. Lewis, on trombone and electronics, directs the ensemble from within this quiet storm's eye. "Blues" starts with tonal fragmented phrases in no time with trombone, bass clarinet, and piano circling Teitelbaum's occasional synthesized insertions. The inquisitive nature of the counterpointed horns is strikingly bold and pervasive, as if Parker was cueing various icons of blues legends like Leadbelly, Howlin' Wolf, and T-Bone Walker to speak up for themselves. Long-held tones in the midsection lead to Teitelbaum's spacey, blue, Sun Ra-like touches. The title cut starts with reverent, spiritual, hovering washes from cymbals and soft synths, and a languid alto solo from Ewart signifies the ghost of Bird has arrived. Davis plays some absolutely gorgeous piano, like delicate beacons of light cutting through fog, while an organ-sounding synth urges a more sweeping piano solo. Lewis, on a poignant trombone, waxes lyrical and poetic, aware of the transfiguration of bop while addressing its contemporary, contemplative needs. Pretty stunning music. As heavy and stylistically different as this music is, the point is clear and well-taken. Lewis and his group make a statement unique in creative jazz and unto itself. This is an important recording in many ways, and a magnum opus for the leader.

2) Frank Zappa - The Grand Wazoo (1973)

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AMG Review by Steve Huey
Like its immediate predecessor, Waka/Jawaka, The Grand Wazoo was a largely instrumental jazz rock album recorded during Frank Zappa's convalescence from injuries sustained after being pushed off a concert stage. While Zappa contributes some guitar solos and occasional vocals, the focus is more on his skills as a composer and arranger. Most of the five selections supposedly form a musical representation of a story told in the liner notes about two warring musical factions, but the bottom line is that, overall, the compositions here are more memorably melodic and consistently engaging than Waka/Jawaka. The instrumentation is somewhat unique in the Zappa catalog as well, with the band more of a chamber jazz orchestra than a compact rock unit; over 20 musicians and vocalists contribute to the record. While Hot Rats is still the peak of Zappa's jazz-rock fusion efforts, The Grand Wazoo comes close, and it's essential for anyone interested in Zappa's instrumental works.

3) The Peter Brötzmann Octet - Machine Gun (1968)

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AMG Review by Joslyn Layne
This historic free jazz album is a heavy-impact sonic assault so aggressive it still knocks listeners back on their heels decades later. Recorded in May 1968, Machine Gun captures some top European improvisers at the beginning of their influential careers, and is regarded by some as the first European -- not just German or British -- jazz recording. Originally self-released by Peter Brötzmann, the album eventually came out on the FMP label, and set a new high-water mark for free jazz and "energy music" that few have approached since. Brötzmann is joined on sax by British stalwart Evan Parker and Dutch reedsman Willem Breuker (before Breuker moved away from free music, his lungs were as powerful as Brötzmann's). The rest of the group consists of drummers Han Bennink (Dutch) and Sven-Åke Johansson (Swedish), Belgian pianist Fred van Hove, and bassists Peter Kowald (German) and Buschi Niebergall (Swiss). Brötzmann leads this octet in a notoriously concentrated dose of the relentless hard blowing so often characteristic of his music. While Brötzmann has played this powerfully on albums since, never again is it with a group of this size playing just as hard with him. The players declare and exercise their right to bellow and wail all they want; they both send up the stereotype of free playing as simply screaming, and unapologetically revel in it. The sound of Machine Gun is just as aggressive and battering as its namesake, blowing apart all that's timid, immovable, or proper with an unrepentant and furious finality. The years have not managed to temper this fiery furnace blast from hell; it's just as relentless and shocking an assault now as it was then. Even stout-hearted listeners will nearly be sent into hiding -- much like standing outside during a violent storm, withstanding this kind of fierce energy is a primal thrill.

i wondered when someone would post machine gun!

The Lewis and Brötzmann are available at the iTunes store. Beyond that, I got nuthin'. We don't do Spotify over here.

I really really hope that everybody who hasn't heard Homage to Charles Parker will track this down, listen hard, and then tell me you weren't moved to tears.

Spotify has The Machine Gun Sessions

recs don't really get me blubbing unless they have other, personal, associations, but agree that the Lewis is a fantastic disc (in fact all of his albs on black saint from this period are well worth checkin', imho - and am also pretty partial to YANKEES, the trio alb he made w/ bailey and zorn a cpl of years later)

THE GRAND WAZOO is prob zappa's best approximation of a pure jazz fusion rec (much more than HOT RATS, wtf?) - doesn't hurt that yer man doesn't sing on it

MACHINE GUN is one of those unassailable classics i don't actually listen to that often - among Brotz albs i tend to spin NIPPLES (again, cos of bailey) or SCHWARWALDFAHRT, the alb of duets he recorded w/ han bennink out in the black forest, lotsa wood and water sounds amongst the blatting

nice choices, wmc - and im pleased the konitz is hitting the spot, tannenbaum

That's some neato picks; hadn't heard of any of those.

ha i'm listening to Machine gun now by coincidence. it's so weird. but i sure love han bennink

and the record is awesome also of course. weird and awesome

I was googling around yesterday to see if the Lewis album was easy to ::cough:: FIND ::cough::, and came across a dude's blog with a live concert from Moers recorded roughly the same time as the album.

I listened to the show last night and it's really good -- both pieces are stretched out considerably, "Homage" to 36 minutes. The track listing is RONG though. The real listing is

1. Homage to Charles Parker
2. Blues
3. some piece I'm not familiar with

What other Zappa albums sound like this? Waka/Jawaka and Hot Rats? This is the first album of his I've heard that I like unreservedly. In fact, I love it.

Thanks for recommending the Lewis too. It is really beautiful and very original.

That's some lineup on the Brotzmann. It's definitely intense. I'll have to listen some more before saying more or forming a clear opinion. It's surely not the first European jazz recording, unless Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt did all their recording in America?

What other Zappa albums sound like this? Waka/Jawaka and Hot Rats?

Pretty much. Waka/Jawaka is most similar to Grand Wazoo, being from the same period. There's a 2CD live album from this period, Wazoo, with a 20-piece band, and a single CD live album, Imaginary Diseases, with a smaller 10-piece. Even the Petit Wazoo band was expensive to tour, so there weren't a lot of live shows from this period.

If you're interested in digging a little deeper and are more interested (like I am) in FZ the bandleader and composer than in FZ the smut/comedy songwriter, I'd recommend You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 2 (the almighty Helsinki concert, 1974) and Make a Jazz Noise Here (1988 tour).

Oh, and the Jean-Luc Ponty album King Kong (1970), which is Ponty playing FZ compositions + one original. Zappa produced and arranged it, and played on one track.

tylerw: 9 June
Sparkle Motion: 16 June
forksclovetofu: 23 June
Turangalila: 30 June
tannenbaum: 7 July
Pfunk: 15 July
Elephant Rob: 22 July
Deej: 29 July

tylerw are you here?

ohhh shit yes i am. i'll post mine tomorrow!