Rolling Jazz Thread 2018

xp admittedly I'm a moldy old fig, but I think contemporary jazz could stand to hew a little closer to the "gravity of the past"

I don't really get that opinion, there are plenty of really good players out there playing trad standards if that's your thing.

But is anyone outside of (maybe?) Downbeat writing about them?

And I'm not bemoaning the dearth of people playing trad standards (which sounds boring to me), I just think the knowledge of that particular corpus and its fundamental use as a jumping-off point for improvisation is a useful tool, just as knowledge of a simple Chuck Berry riff can lead to a psychedelic sidelong jam. I'm not waiting for Shabaka Hutchings to bust out "Embraceable You" or anything (though I bet that would be nice)

Really loving Universal Beings by Makaya McCraven
feels like some Hutchings influence here compared

hahaha influenced in that he actually plays on half the record apparently!

Christian McBride's New Jawn is a fantastic album, best thing I've heard by him so far.

https://wearethreefour.bandcamp.com/album/estrela

there's a nice off-kilter tropicalia quality to Portuguese guitarist Norberto Lobo's alb here.

I saw this Eric Hofbauer tour on Monday night (solo set + trio with Denison and Kruger + trio +1 [with Linsey Wellman here]): https://www.erichofbauer.com/shows. It was wonderful, the kind of guitar noodling I could listen to all day by a jazz virtuoso who could thrown in a standard like "Dexterity" (reminiscent of Lenny Breau's interpretation) while also getting into spaces that were almost reminiscent of Derek Bailey. I bought his 2016 solo CD Ghost Fret, which also seems v good.

I like Hofbauer a lot. His Prehistoric Jazz albums (interpretations of pieces by Stravinsky, Ives, Messaien, and most recently Ellington's "Reminiscing In Tempo") are great. He wrote a piece for my site about an early Seattle trumpeter/composer, Frank Waldron, back in June.

We used to be co-workers, actually. I saw "Prehistoric Jazz" live and it was great.

Really loving Universal Beings by Makaya McCraven
feels like some Hutchings influence here compared

― Greta Van Fleek (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, October 26, 2018 11:52 AM (four days ago)

this album is awesome

yeah i'm super into it...amazingly strong all the way through for how long it is

NPR are streaming the new Sunwatchers album

― Dinsdale, Thursday, January 25, 2018 4:25 PM (nine months ago)

wild

xp
I read Nate Chinen's review in pitchfork and was intrigued, thought I'd sample a couple tracks on bandcamp and ended up listening to the entire thing

Looking forward to checking out that new Christian McBride and going through some of Sonny Fortune's solo stuff. I love him on Agharta and some '70s Elvin Jones records, but have never really checked out anything else.

Ok I'm not feeling the McBride or Sunwatchers, but loving listening to Sonny Fortune. Starting at Last Night at Sweet Rhythm, which feels exactly like catching a great set, and going backwards.

Haven't listened to them in a long time (my friend had 'em, and he don't get around much anymore), but in the 70s we dug Long Before Our Fathers Cried, Awakening, and Waves of Dreams (those last two on Horizon, which provided lush cover art and sometimes insanely-for-a-jazz-label swag, like gatefold pouches full of highest-quality-printed pix, notes, sheet music...)

insanely-for-a-jazz-label-*lavish,* that is.

I've only ever heard Fortune on other people's albums (Miles, McCoy Tyner), will check out those 70s albums if they're on Spotify.

not on spotify but the awakening album is AAAAAAAAAAAmazing particularly sunshower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fH_FANAywg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f40QEnMm9Y

yooooo homie :) :) :)

Roy Hargrove dead of cardiac arrest at 49. Holy shit.

What?!

Listening to a lot of Hargrove today, obviously. I never paid much attention to him in the 90s (except for the Habana album, which was amazing), but I did get to see him live once, at Sonny Rollins' 80th birthday concert. His hard bop style is reminding me a lot of Lee Morgan - virtuosic and could play basically anything. He's got a real feel for Latin grooves, too.

Never saw him, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit.

I was actually thinking about going to see him at the Jazz Gallery next month. Now I'm wondering if the rest of the band - Jaleel Shaw on alto saxophone, Orrin Evans on piano, Eric Revis on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums - will do some kind of tribute to him.

no doubt. Actually haven't been to the Jazz Gallery since they moved.

There was never really a Hargrove album that I connected with deeply, but his parts/phrasing/multi-tracking on D'Angelo's records are just perfection. Wouldn't be the same without him.

I saw Hargrove play with Herbie, Michael Brecker & Terri Lyne Carrington during their 'Directions in Music' tour. Can't remember who played bass. The show was fantastic, much better and more fun than the CD released at the time. It was at Chicago's symphony hall, and 2/3 of the audience, who I assumed were symphony season ticket holders, got up left the second the set came to a close. Then the band came back on and they jammed out Chameleon and a few others tunes for another 30 minutes. The band was just having a blast, and it carried through to the audience that was left.

Did see Terell Stafford recently at least. And used to see a bass player who worked with Terri Lyne Carrington all the time when he and his brother lived in the neighborhood. Sorry, that's all I got.

I've liked Stafford's last couple of albums a lot. I should see him one of these days.

I saw him in an interesting context, at the Jazz Vespers at St. Peter's. Would be good to see him properly in a club.

Yes, their name was what drew me in, but the Austrian trio Cowboys From Hell - sax, electric bass, drums, and loads of electronics - are pretty good. Jazz, rock, dub, and synthwave all swirled into one big roar that's kind of like a cross between The Thing and Shining (the Norwegian industrial-jazz-metal act), with a dash of crazed fusion and the occasional burst of funk bass. Their new album Running Man came out on Friday; I'm listening to it on Spotify.

Brad Mehldau Trio's record from this year (Seymour Reads the Constitution!) is really great. Feels effortlessly so, they're all so good.

Side note I was listening to 'Great Day', which I now know is a Paul McCartney song, but had to check because that melody really sounds like Cruisin' (Smokey Robinson).

New Szun Waves live album is v enjoyable: https://szunwaves.bandcamp.com/album/szun-waves-live-from-space

heck yeah

I interviewed JD Allen for the Burning Ambulance podcast.

Cool, thanks

This is from 2014 but I'd never seen it before and it made me laugh.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dr1XLpvXgAcYQTq.jpg

Gagg, those Jarrett sounds! "aaawww aaaawwww yaaaaawwwwwww" etc

Tompkins Square's 2017 2LP reissue sold out in a flash. Today, we released a 2CD version featuring six additional previously unreleased false starts and alternate takes, plus numerous previously unseen photographs.

BUY 2CD SET

Praise for Sonny Clark Trio : The 1960 Time Sessions :

"Top Ten Jazz Reissue of the Year"
-- NPR Jazz Critics Poll

"Here he states his own themes and commands his own space, letting the light of his major harmonies vie with the darkness of his blues."
-- The New York Times, 12/1/17

"The remastering has given the sound an intimate new presence."
-- Downbeat - 4.5 / 5 stars

"Tompkins Square has certainly done right by Clark's legacy, with new liner notes and a high quality pressing." - Clifford Allen (NYC Jazz Record)

"Top Five Jazz Reissue of the Year"
-- NYC Jazz Record

"You'll like the sound . . . Easily and highly recommended !"
-- Michael Fremer, Analog Planet

"Now you can hear the real thing again, hipper than ever."
-- PopMatters (8/10)

"This is the way jazz re-releases should be done."
-- All About Jazz

Sonny Clark's reputation as one of the finest jazz pianists of his era has grown in recent years, with many folks rediscovering his classic Blue Note recordings like 'Cool Struttin', 'Dial 'S' for Sonny', 'Leapin' and Lopin', as well as session work with Lee Morgan, Grant Green and others. Cut down by heroin addiction at age 31 in 1961, Clark's legacy continues to expand.

The Time sessions were produced by the late Bob Shad, owner of Time and Mainstream Records. The reissue includes the original Time album re-mastered from the original tapes by Dave Donnelly, plus an extra disc of 12 alternate takes. Nat Hentoff wrote the original liner notes, included in the reissue package, and former New York Times critic Ben Ratliff contributes a new 3500-word essay. The set was produced for reissue by Mia Apatow (Time Records) and Josh Rosenthal (Tompkins Square).

Sorry about some of those blurbs, in retrospect. Good album tho.

Haven't heard the added false starts and alt takes, however.

Saw JD Allen’s new trio tonight at the Jazz Gallery. The bassist and drummer were both about 19 or 20, and he guided them a little - clapping to give the drummer the tempo, nodding or verbally confirming when solos shouldbegin or end - but it was a good, high-energy set full of bluesy tunes that swung hard (some of which I recognized from his albums) and a couple of ballads. He took a longish unaccompanied solo that was really nice. They reprised the first tune to end the set, which was cool. And no sheet music on the bandstand! That might have been a first in Jazz Gallery history.

On the radio, just now listened to a rerun of this: http://www.wbgo.org/post/jazz-night-america-ojai-music-festival-vijay-iyer-showcases-improvisation#stream/0 Iyer is or was the music director of the festival, presenting a good range,reportedly, though this show spotlights his own compositions---so far, Tyshawn Sorey's drums are what grabbed my attention and kept me listening for more, as so often happens with drummers, And if I never get past the drums, at least I got them.
Oh yeah, this page also eventually provides a link to this event(kind of burying the lede):
...pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and trombonist/electronic artist George Lewis, all elder statesmen in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians — performed an hourlong concert free of any premeditated impulse, let alone a written score.

Recently read a long featured review of the new movie Green Book, based on the real-life adventures of Don Shirley---somebody I used to read about in Downbeat eons ago, but don't think I've ever heard him--reviewer seemed very impressed by his music; are any of y'all familiar with it??

Dave Douglas recorded a four-night stand at the Jazz Standard in 2015, and released all eight sets digitally on Bandcamp. Now they've been packed into an 8CD box, which is available for $50, the same price as the digital set:

https://davedouglas.bandcamp.com/album/brazen-heart-live-at-jazz-standard-complete

I'm seriously considering buying it. It's a really hot band: Jon Irabagon on sax, Matt Mitchell on piano, Linda Oh on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums.

Always see her billed as Linda May Han Oh these days.

Just got two Arthur Blythe multi-album reissues in the mail: the first has 1982's Elaborations, 1983's Light Blue: Arthur Blythe Plays Thelonious Monk and 1985's Put Sunshine In It, and the second has 1986's Da-Da and 1988's Basic Blythe. The same label (BGO) reissued his first four (1979's Lenox Avenue Breakdown, 1980's In The Tradition and Illusions, and 1981's Blythe Spirit) as a two-CD set in 2016, so his entire Columbia catalog is now remastered and back in print, which is awesome.

"Lenox Avenue Breakdown, 1980's In The Tradition and Illusions"

fucking brilliant trio of albums there!

I love Arthur Blythe so much, Illusions & Lenox are all timers for me