"Music doesn't go seasonable to me." Rolling Jazz Dm7♭5 Thread 2017

wow, don, that youtube channel is a goldmine. that footage of victoria spivey performing black snake blues... just completely amazing! what a lady! and then there's a whole concert by capt. john handy... subscribed!

Wait did don post recently? Oh you mean "Don"?

https://www.otrcat.com/images/Jack-Benny-Don-Wilson-otrcat.com.jpg
Oh, Don!

Wait did don post recently? Oh you mean "Don"?

― The Magnificent Galileo Seven (James Redd and the Blecchs)

you know i never figured out how to tell the difference between display names and real names, mr. blecchs.

Sorry, that was more about my own thought process than about you.

no apology necessary :)

You may call me Galileo.

king of night vision, king of insight

thank you shari lewis

Lol

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/files/2014/01/55825624.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p4drWtJ0Ug

hey scott, here's an overview of the Fire! lineup

Fire! Orchestra (since 2012)

Mats Gustafsson – baritone and slide sax, conduction
Johan Berthling – el bas
Andreas Werliin – drums
Mariam Wallentin – voice
Sofia Jernberg – voice
Anna Högberg – alto sax
Mette Rasmussen – alto sax
Lotte Anker – soprano and tenor sax
Jonas Kullhammar – braithophone, slide and bass sax
Goran Kajfes – cornet and slide trumpet
Niklas Barnö – trumpet
Mats Äleklint – trombone
Per-Åke Holmlander – tuba
Hild Sofie Tafjord – french horn
Andreas Berthling – electronics
Finn Loxbo – guitar
Julien Desprez – guitar
Martin Hederos – keyboards and violin
Mads Forsby – drums and electronics
Mikael Werliin – sound

not your average amateurs

how do you like this https://youtu.be/VE-w9kPIhg8 ?

i was actually looking up a mats gustafsson thing when i found that. i have heard stuff of his that i liked. but that live clip is terrible. it really is. so sloppy. the singers are sad. they need to lock themselves in a room for a decade and just play or something. it just sounds like a sad approximation of another time. surprised they don't have a sleigh bell virtuoso. i can't believe that they can listen to audio of that and think that they sound good. if it were just some ramshackle punk d.i.y. approach to "fire music" done as a lark it would be one thing, but it sounds like they have "ideas".

The Fire! Orchestra isn't for me either tbh, but I did like the Fire! trio album they recorded last year though. I'm not against big bands either, just not Them type ones.

that Matt Wilson's Big Happy Family release from last year is more like the modern type of big band I can get into.

i was looking something else up and this was on youtube and someone mentioned them here so i started to watch it but its really terrible. but maybe they are better now. or maybe it's one of those brian eno kinda things where it's an orchestra of amateurs and people who can't play. but why are there like 30 of them? are they indie rock people? i was gonna make a godspeed you black emperor joke but someone already did two years ago in the comments. i always think people should practice more before they play live but i'm old-fashioned.

This reminds me of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra's late '80s/early '90s stuff: "We need a JAZZ section! We need a COMPOSED section (some midtempo unison lines will do the trick)! We need a FREE IMPROV section! Or multiple FREE IMPROV sections! Different small groupings doing FREE IMPROV broken up by the COMPOSED unison lines!" To be fair, the LJCO stuff is pretty decent (and you might like them, Scott -- their much better rehearsed than Fire! Orchestra), but this is a chronic problem in this music, composers/bandleaders trying to desperately shoehorn as many of their "influences" as possible into long/large-scale works to the extent that it ends up as a clumsy collage of half-assed pseudo-homages.

when the one singer busts out a bad yoko impression i had to laugh a little. it was just lacking some yoko at that point.

maybe it just bugs me when i get the impression that people think it's EASY to do something like that. i mean it's hard to be a quartet and be in sync with the people you are playing with. or a trio! but 30 people....

i could definitely see them opening for someone like radiohead though. blowing minds.

Mention of the LJCO semi-reminded me of Gil Evans' The London Orchestra, actually The British Orchestra, who took it on the road in '83---this might be best suited for later tonight, but don't sleep on it---if don't show, they're doing "Little Wing", without trying to beat Hendrix at his own game, performance-wise anyway (they catch the vibe and pass it right along: no bogarting, despite the length). With John Surman and Ray Russell soloing, Mo Foster on bass, drums uncredited on my LP of 'em and here, other horns are into it without horning in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC6ERO815Bg

Here's the album I have---think performances of all these songs, from this set or other gigs, are currently on the 'Tube:

https://www.discogs.com/Gil-Evans-The-British-Orchestra/release/1650253

And speaking of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, NPR's still got several of his Newport sets, starting with this one from 2010, my first DJASS experience: http://www.npr.org/2010/08/07/128982169/darcy-james-argues-secret-society-in-concert-newport-jazz-festival-2010

first and best, if my memory serves me well

Hard to imagine something less appealing to me than a big band arrangement of a song from Hendrix's worst studio album.

Have you heard the jazz tribute to The Shaggs?

Ha, I have a copy of the whole Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix album. I remember liking it well enough.

Sorry, the ones above are from the same show, but here's the intended "Little Wing": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpXtc_iWyQ0

this is my jam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ3boiQ_UZA

those swede singers should listen to gil with urszula.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU-MUzq6kqM

Oh yeah, all of that. The xpost 70s Gil that got me the most was my first, There Comes A Time, so heavy and airborne. CD greatly expanded some tracks, but/and was even better.

i'm so in love with billy harper these days. need all billy harper. 1975 billy harper tony williams gil fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n22YMAhOqoE

yah, see there ya go don.

i'll stop now though. sorry jazzers!

man, i used to play that public theater volume so much years ago. i even had the tape for my walkman.

How do you feel about Anna Webber? Currently listening to the new (new-ish) release Binary w her "Simple Trio", and it sounds pretty solid – knotty & concise.

Allaboutjazz review:
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/binary-anna-webber-skirl-records-review-by-dave-wayne.php?width=375

Legendary jazz tuba dude Howard Johnson (there was an interview with him posted in the 2016 thread) has a new album coming out in March, with his band Gravity, which apparently features four tubas. Very interested to hear that.

Sorry, the ones above are from the same show, but here's the intended "Little Wing":

― dow

i'm still a big fan of the version of little wing by mr mcfall's chamber. tasteful, non-cheesy classical crossover!

xxpost Thanks, Scott! Here's one by and with Billy Harper: short but sweet, with some change-ups along the way, not disturbing the groove but as you'll see in the liner notes quoted here, Gil's reminded of the kind of songs that exotic dancers liked ("moody"). Trevor Koehler's on this perhaps pre-LSD but not pre-pot album (he played with Insect Trust, Lou Reed etc), also xpost Howard Johnson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvHcFZtBNog

Nat Hentoff is dead at 91. Can't even count how many albums I've owned with his liner notes in 'em. Spoke to him on the phone once, too. A genuine legend.

91 is old, travel the spaceways in peace and all, but man. Nat Hentoff is just a towering figure from an age whose towering figures are almost all gone.

ran across this this morning, I assume it made the '15 rolling jazz d-bags thread but I'd missed it so here it is - Charles Simic reminiscing about Slugs', some great memories and a couple of great pics

Thanks, link please.

Just got a PDF of this book:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41I94J4WPXL.jpg

Very interested to check it out. Soul jazz, and more generally what black audiences were listening to vs. what white (and many black) critics were focusing on, is a really under-discussed subject.

Cool. Is the author the WBGO jock who I was just listening to?

Of course he is.

Also, glad my Howard Johnson interview thread spanning had such a positive outcome.

In that same spirit, I will post this old, very interesting interview with Jay Leonhart that I just came across: http://jazztimes.com/articles/18702-jay-leonhart-overdue-ovation

Feel like I should just live blog this morning's WBGO listening.

Really dug Kurt Elling's guitar player on "Norwegian Wood," John McLean.

Lea Delaria's version of "Suffragette City" featuring Janis Siegel swung so hard I could have sworn it was Peggy Lee singing.

Also for those compiling your year-end lists, this playlist includes all the available tracks on this thread, organized roughly chronologically in order of mention:

ILM's 2017 Rolling Jazz Thread Spotify Playlist

ulysses if you don't like it then i'd be shocked

it's good!

Thanks for the playlist, ulysses.

Salute!

I like the Zara McFarlane one too, ty

I normally hate jazz vocals, but two vocal records really clicked with me this year - the McFarlane and the new Cecile McLorin Salvant. And Alicia Hall Moran (Jason Moran's wife) just threw an album up on Bandcamp tonight - Harriet Tubman is her backing band on at least 3 tracks. It's $20, like her husband's work, but I think I'm gonna spring for it just so I can write about it in January's Stereogum column.

Would FP you for disliking Jazz Vocals but I guess you’re not the only one.

Which reminds me, RIP Kevin Mahogany

wait, what?

oh man, i missed that. i really don't know anything about the guy, but i used to listen to a jazz radio station like 20 years ago that played mahogany's "oh! gee!" a lot, and i have a lot of residual fondness for him because of it.

My podcast interview with Stanley Cowell is live now.

two vocal records really clicked with me this year

ONE OF US, ONE OF US

Hilary Gardner & Ehud Asherie's The Late Set might be a bit too much of a mannered + polite Jazz Vocal album for some folk, but I find it quite elegant and lovely.

_two vocal records really clicked with me this year_


ONE OF US, ONE OF US

(whispers into the wind)
(I don't like most jazz vocals either...........)

A friend on FB has just posted "RIP Roswell Rudd" but without a confirming link at the moment.

Aw, fuck, I hope not but I wouldn't be surprised. When I was interviewing him last month it was like a whisper from the grave.

would like to see that cecile mclorin salvant on more people's best of lists.

Just heard a track from this on NTS (Beatrice Dillon) and now I need to track it down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharoah_Sanders_Live...

Doesn't look like it's easily available digitally unfortunately.

Richard Williams
‏ @rwilliams1947
8h8 hours ago

RIP great trombonist Roswell Rudd, 82. Going to remember him by listening to School Days, Four for Trane, New York Art Quartet, New York Eye & Ear Control, Liberation Music Orchestra (“We Shall Overcome”!), JCOA, etc. A vital figure in the ‘60s new jazz. Even if reports of his death are wrong, this seems like a good list for the weekend.

Oh and just heard this, mostly re RR's 2016 album work:
https://www.npr.org/2017/12/22/572609610/trombonist-roswell-rudd-packs-a-lot-of-wisdom-into-every-note-of-embrace

this should be right up any spiritual hat head's alley:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7CRS4CTIm4E5uUcwSoQ2pL
^^Spiritual Jazz 7: Islam

This could be called chamber jazz, but these excerpts set off little lights in my morning fog, hocketing and all (beats the Radiohead I've heard, anyway): https://www.npr.org/2017/12/28/574044466/marta-s-nchez-creates-a-truly-international-sound-with-danza-imposible

Definitely; this is what I said about it for Stereogum:

Marta Sanchez, a pianist from Spain who’s lived in New York since 2011, recorded her third album with a great band: saxophonists Roman Filiu and Jerome Sabbagh, bassist Rick Rosato, and drummer Daniel Dor. Despite being written for a traditional jazz quintet, the compositions have a weird energy that reminds me of modern classical and/or abstract electronic music. The title track, “Danza Imposible,” begins with a just slightly off horn figure over a hypnotic piano melody. When the two saxophones begin to go their separate ways, coexisting without exactly harmonizing, Sanchez, Rosato and Dor create a lurching, fractured rhythmic bed for them. Her piano style is extremely delicate, but focused at the same time; she’s got a lot of power that she holds in reserve for just the right moment.

I see it has already been noted itt that ECM is streaming - it's fantastic!!

first albums I saved were Streams by Jakob Bro (with Thomas Morgan and Joey Baron), Swept Away by Marc Johnson and Eliane Elias (with Joey Baron and Joe Lovano) and One is the Other by Billy Hart Quartet (BH, Ethan Iverson, Ben Street and Mark Turner)

Crazy story about busted water pipe at Mezzrow.