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

Ha, idk, track seems cool to me.

Finally listened to the Rez Abbasi album twice today and, yeah, that's something else. I was a fan of 2005's Snake Charmer, and saw him live a couple of times and even hung out with him briefly, but never kept up for some reason.

Went to see Kate Gentile at the Jazz Gallery last night. Not my thing, but I had a nice conversation with her afterwards.

Ralph Towner album is lovely. Dude is 77!

Here's a chunk of the Kate Gentile Quartet set I saw Tuesday night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7aTlyOfrJo

liking this Joseph Shabason track a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCnLG6VoSTo

The Wire assigns genre-specific charts to individual writers for their year-end issue (the big top 50 is voted on by all the staff and contributors); they gave me the jazz list, so here it is:

1. Yazz Ahmed, La Saboteuse (Naim Audio)
2. Jaimie Branch, Fly Or Die (International Anthem)
3. Camilla George Quartet, Isang (Ubuntu Music)
4. Christian Scott, The Centennial Trilogy (Ropeadope)
5. Irreversible Entanglements, s/t (International Anthem)
6. Vijay Iyer Sextet, Far From Over (ECM)
7. Tyshawn Sorey, Verisimilitude (Pi)
8. Kamasi Washington, Harmony Of Difference (Young Turks)
9. Harriet Tubman, Araminta (Sunnyside)
10. JD Allen, Radio Flyer (Savant)

Interesting: I listened to the Branch a lot over the summer; I should probably pull it out again.

That and Harriet Tubman will prob be on my Pazz & Jop (maybe some of those others if I make time to listen)

The Branch album is great and the Harriet Tubman was just bubbling under my top ten, which is here:

http://thequietus.com/articles/23721-best-jazz-2017-top-ten-jaimie-branch-pat-thomas-alice-coltrane-nicole-mitchell

Thanks, Stew! Several there I hadn't heard of, well def check out Irreversible Entanglements (on bandcamp) for a start. Alice Coltrane sounds bluesy to me, or maybe it's mainly the voice of experience. Cosmic and transcendent (state of being as a work in progress for most if not all mortals) should mean you've been around, so that's part of her appeal.

thanks for highlighting that Pat Thomas album as well, Stew.

Collocutor was on the Vinyl Factory eoy list, sounds good to me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zShH8IJiUyI

A pleasure! Pat Thomas is incredible. Also really dug this 90s live recording of him with Lol Coxhill, playing wonky samples and synth as well as piano. The label, Scatter, has archived its releases on bandcamp - loads of great stuff to check out from Steve Beresford to a gorgeous Derek Bailey live set. https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/one-night-in-glasgow

Will check that for sure, thanks again. Somebody in Brussels just sent me this Swedish doc excerpt, mainly Don Cherry, Blood Ulmer, and Rashied Ali live (one of the comments says the doc also incl. shots of Moki Cherry's textiles, and judging from the visuals here, overall might be mainly about DC's life in Sweden, though he comments briefly here on scuffling in mid-60s NYC, cabaret cards, few gigs for the Coleman Quartet, food & lodging etc.) It's 9-10 minutes, but much content. h
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S9eGFOcBEY&index=21&list=RD1JG4_4xQYck
(lot of other wild stuff on this page)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S9eGFOcBEY&index=21&list=RD1JG4_4xQYck

That post isn't playing on my Firefox, but it is on Chrome.

And that one I was raving about upthread (in this case, Jane Ira Bloom's Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson) is Top Ten too, far as I'm concerned.

RIP Sunny Murray. I revived his own thread.

A sequence of tweets from Vijay Iyer (apologies in advance if there are any formatting fuckups):

As we can all see, and as @ImaniUzuri and several others have pointed out, there are almost no women on this festival program. 1/ https://t.co/EYq7IoPYmy

— vijay iyer (@vijayiyer) December 9, 2017

Because of this, while I will honor our commitment tonight, I am donating my fee to Women of Color in the Arts, @WOCAonline 2/

— vijay iyer (@vijayiyer) December 9, 2017

When more women are given curatorial power in the arts, situations like this will ultimately be the exception, rather than the norm. 3/

— vijay iyer (@vijayiyer) December 9, 2017

So please consider making a charitable donation to an organization that is actively working toward that goal.https://t.co/3f8oMYeLek

— vijay iyer (@vijayiyer) December 9, 2017

Intrigued by this new venue 75 Club, at 75 Murray. Same address also seems to host some Wilbur’s Warehouse related events.

http://75clubnyc.com/
https://tribecacitizen.com/2017/10/12/a-new-jazz-club/

Even though you can’t play anymore, it must bring you some satisfaction to know that you gave people so much through your music.
Not really.
http://www.vulture.com/2017/12/jazz-icon-sonny-rollins-on-giving-up-playing-and-his-legacy.html

Amazing interview

Yes, very inspiring

And yet in parts surprisingly close to that New Yorker piece everyone got so pissed off about...

Which New Yorker piece is that?

This one:
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/sonny-rollins-words

Sonny himself thought it was funny.

That Vulture interview is iconic.

I got an assignment to review the new album by Swedish saxophonist Bernt Rosengren, and I liked it a lot - so much so that I ordered his three previous albums, all recorded with the same band and for the same label, from Sweden. They just arrived today, and I'm very much looking forward to checking them out. Two of them feature a mix of standards and originals, but one is entirely made up of pieces by other Swedish jazz musicians, which ought to be cool.

I wrote up the best jazz albums of 2017 for Stereogum.

thanks for the lists unperson, checking out these albums today

My friend who is a lover of clarinet music is going to be in NYC in January. What gigs shall I point him to?

Ken Peplowski, if he is playing.

Maybe the Ear Inn Earegulars or whatever they are called

Or something at Mona’s

Yeah, definitely Dennis Lichtman at Mona’s.

Tuesday’s at 11 til late

Thanks!

This story about Irvin Mayfield just keeps getting more remarkable, not always in a good way---The Great Jazzby doesn't say all of it, but (despite music, saga-wise it's better reading than hearing; I missed some of the audio version while some while trying to absorb previous):
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/12/18/571718936/irvin-mayfield-new-orleans-jazz-pillar-indicted-for-laundering-library-funds

I saw Dave King w/the Chris Speed trio last night in a tiny gallery space, truly a great set. They had some tunes that operate in an interesting zone of 'free', but with a lot of rhythmic information. Honestly wasn't sure at times if there was a consistent pulse or if they were just playing shapes that would at times converge and stop on a dime.

I can't think of anyone else who I'd rather hear play drums in this context, DK just has so much intention and emotion behind it, he's a joy to watch even for civilians who would never normally mess with avant-garde gallery jazz.

I'm listening to their album and it's a good representation, but of course this sort of thing is much better in the room.

Funny, another writer I know was there and he hates King; he said on FB that his playing basically wrecked the whole set for him.

Haha, I would love to read that.

I'll quote him without naming him:

"Disconcerting for the almost instant visceral dislike I had to King's antics behind the kit, so much so [that at] this point I'm pretty sure it's me & not him. Chops are there, but in the service of this hyperactive compulsion to strike nearly every surface w/ dynamics & subtlety a distant afterthought. There were times when he outright drowned Speed out. Only a single energy improv piece that set several of the blue-hairs dining in the audience on edge & had King once again banging away w/ a goofy grin. The rest was open-ended, smoothly-contoured freebop salvaged by Speed's focus & Tordini's flexibility."

I liked the album, and wouldn't mind checking the group out live at some point.

i don't know if i can accurately judge King because he's such a "thing" in minneapolis

early happy apple was a force of nature

He was busy, sort of an uninterrupted free-time flow, but I thought it was extremely dynamic and subtle (which is not easy to do with that kind of density). Lots of brushes. Only the occasional bass drum or hi-hat bomb, which really stood out and was usually locked in with the bass or sax in a way I didn't see coming.

And god forbid someone seem like they're enjoying themselves playing jazz.

I have been heavily listening to that Jimmy Lyons & Sunny Murray Trio, Jump Up album this last week. He was one hell of a drummer, ffs! It was sad to read in an obituary that in his last years he was struggling to get by on benefits and bootlegging his own music for extra cash.

Not heard the Dave King album but another drummer bandleader I like at the moment is Billy Mintz, his Ugly Beautiful album is brilliant.

Sonny Rollins‏ @sonnyrollins 22h22 hours ago

On February 16, Craft Recordings will release a deluxe edition of Way Out West, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the recording session.

I also notice there is a campaign to name a bridge after him. I really love Way Out West, it's just perfect.