Rolling Jazz Thread 2019

Spotify recommendations served me up a song by Alison Miller's Boom Tic Boom

I like the song, is she worth checking out?

Yeah, new album coming out February 1 and it's quite good.

https://allisonmiller.bandcamp.com/album/glitter-wolf

The band is Jenny Scheinman on violin, Kirk Knuffke on cornet, Ben Goldberg on clarinet, Myra Melford on piano, Todd Sickafoose on bass, and Miller on drums.

david murray & dave burrell, in concert '92

^^^ ^^^
this is what I'm loving today, it's a right set.

Oh yeah, discovered Allison Miller last summer---from RJ 2018:

Last night, dithering around like a dizzy bizzy bee---and Sundays are always kinda weird at best---I found my attention and pleasure principle repeatedly pulled into a performance-and-interview episode of Jazz Night In America:, feat. drummer-composer Allison Miller and her group Boom Tic Boom (think it's usually spelled "Tic" not "Tick," which I dig), incl. " Miller alongside violinist Jenny Scheinman, cornetist Kirk Knuffke, clarinetist Jeff Lederer, pianist Carmen Staaf and bassist Tony Scherr." Jazz, no question, but/and I get how she credits Prince as inspiration (reminding me, though don't think she mentioned it, that P. hired Clare Fischer to arrange and conduct). The "melodic drumming" thing demonstrated here---in a spotlight studio segment, as well as all through the BTB set---she traces to Africa, and shows how she has no prob w melody as written, then responds to vocal interpretation/
So here's all that, 56:08's worth, just posted, I think:
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/639233311/more-than-keeping-time-a-melodic-drumming-demo

Also, from a couple of years ago, when her most recent album was released, here she is on WBGO, with Myra Melford and Todd Sickafoose instead of Staaf and Scherr---also got Ben Goldberg on clarinet:
http://www.wbgo.org/post/many-dimensions-drummer-composer-and-bandleader-allison-miller-checkout#stream/0

Pre-orders are now open for the next Matthew Shipp Trio album, Signature, out 2/15 on ESP-Disk.

My wife designed the CD package, and painted the painting on the cover:

http://www.espdisk.com/image/cache/catalog/shippsignature_1500x1500-750x750.jpg

nice. looking forward to seeing Shipp at Roulette later this year.

Listening to ILX Listen: 2019

I finally bought Threadgill's Dirt... and More Dirt (making use of Christmas gift cards) and, four tracks in, it sounds like the noise in my head.

― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Monday, January 14, 2019 8:12 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agree! i love this record. does anybody else get mingus vibes or am i delusional / stupid

the roiling horn arrangements in particular, the swells, the dissonance, the building tensions around a simple theme that seem to grow and grow

i could only find reference to mingus in a pi recordings press release:

As a composer and improviser, Henry sees artistic process and product as inseparable, the essence of jazz. Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus strove toward the same goal. Rooted in that history, Henry’s solutions have taken radical new tacks.

i feel as though you can hear the influence of both "such sweet thunder" and "black saint" in the "dirt" recording

man alive, just came across a really interesting album with Ted in it.

A snapshot of jazz 60 years ago, every day.

https://the1959project.com

Huh, Kokoroko's "Abusey Junction" is at almost 20 million views on Youtube. Judging by the comments, it seems like the the algorithm smiled on it.

I've been wondering about that track. It has 3.9 million Spotify plays, too, which is 10x more than any other track on We Out Here. I assumed it was on Spotify's State of Jazz playlist or something. (I mean, I like it a lot, but still.)

They've got a four-track EP coming soon that's great. ("Abusey Junction" is on it.)

Went to the Jazz Gallery last night to see Jason Moran and drummer Kassa Overall. It was Overall's show - he's doing a residency at the Gallery where once a month he brings in a different pianist. The next one is with Aaron Parks, on Valentine's Day. Anyway, last night's show turned into a trio set with the addition of Evan Flory-Barnes on bass. A photo:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DxPXyYdVYAAEdB8.jpg

xxp Yeah, I like it a lot too. Just interesting that it quietly racked up so many listens by jazz standards. I can imagine loads of guitarists having it on repeat.

Judging by the comments, it seems like the the algorithm smiled on it.

― jmm, Friday, January 18, 2019 5:19 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yep, AJ shows up in my youtube sidebar recs constantly.

thinking about hitting one of those kassa shows; you recommend it unperson?

Definitely. The upcoming pianists are Aaron Parks (February); Sullivan Fortner (March); Kris Davis (April); Craig Taborn (May); and some kind of finale event over two nights in June.

So---just heard a rerun of last spring's Jazz Night In America session w Jazzmeia Horn---thought she might turn out a bit contrived, but no, or not in a bad way, just over under sideways down around and yet straight ahead at all times, assimilating Cassandra Wilson's strategies, maybe---also Betty Carter's, like the way all three interact with their small groups, in Horn's case here, sometimes glancing off the musus, sometimes seeing and raising, sometimes shutting up for a while. "People Make The World Go Around" was true enough to the original, bittersweet lyrics, but also she went allll around the park, without getting lost Robust, agile, not too long-winded. How's the album?

Also, speaking of last spring, did I mention this? Awesome, and unlike the Horn set, whole thing's posted:
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/23/596004201/jane-bunnett-and-maqueque-the-new-queens-of-afro-cuban-jazz

"musos," not "musus,", sorry player guys

Greg Ward's Rogue Parade band Stomping Off from Greenwood album is quite ace. I remember liking a Mingus tribute alb he did a couple years back as well.

Yeah, I've been following Ward's career for almost a decade now and the new album is really good. I wrote about it here.

I put together a Spotify playlist of all five albums by the Norwegian jazz quartet Cortex (Thomas Johansson on trumpet, Kristoffer Berre Alberts on saxophones, Ola Høyer on bass, Gard Nilssen on drums). Here's a link.

Wayne Shorter's Emanon is now streaming on Spotify (and presumably other services as well).

Just heard Kevin Whitehead's Fresh Air take on the new Eric Dolphy collection, Musical Prophet, mentioned upthread by unperson. It gathers prev. released from a couple of albums with outtakes etc, and KW says some of the best versions made the original cut, but great sound, as unperson says, and cool to have them all together, esp. duets w bassist Richard Davis, also sessions w Woody Shaw and Bobby Hutcherson and larger groups. More info here: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/eric-dolphy-musical-prophet-resonance-review-784055/

If you want to hear Branford Marsalis talk about why Kamasi Washington and Christian Scott aren't jazz, check out my latest podcast:

https://simplecast.com/s/784800dd

He also talks about his time with Sting, playing with the Grateful Dead, and how it took him seven years to get good at playing classical music.

The lineup for Gilles Peterson's We Out Here festival (August 15-18) looks amazing:

https://www.weoutherefestival.com/lineup

Gary Bartz
Matthew Herbert
Tirzah
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids
The Comet Is Coming
Sons of Kemet
Lee Fields & The Expressions
Nubya Garcia
Kojey Radical
Hailu Mergia
A Certain RatioMXMJoY
Moses Boyd Exodus
Steam Down Orchestra
Kokoroko
Children of Zeus
Yazmin Lacey
Kaidi Tatham
Theon Cross Fyah
Joe Armon-Jones
Maisha
Auntie Flo
Skinny Pelembe
Tawiah
Alabaster dePlume

yeah, that looks dope as fuck

Christ. And in August so can actually go.

Listening to the new Christian Scott album Ancestral Recall - it's great, of course. A single disc, and more organic/less trap than the trilogy, but still definitely him. Out in late March.

Did this on Nashville saxophonist-producer JayVe Montgomery and his current project, Abstract Black

man alive, have you heard Hamiet Bluiett live album with Ted on it? It’s great.

I had a very jazzy weekend. Played two nights at the Green Mill, but on Saturday there was some excitement after the show because Anderson Paak was playing across the street. While the next band was setting up I got to meet Makaya McCraven, who was super chill. Then we had to give up one of our band booths to make some room for Kamasi Washington, Maurice Brown and crew. AP came by for a little bit too, but I didn't notice him sitting behind me.

I stayed for the first set (1 - 2 am) and Kamasi didn't sit in, but Maurice B and he killed it. Btw the late night band was the successor to Sabertooth, Pat Mallinger's band with Pete Benson on organ (who is absolutely insane) and a great drummer I hadn't heard before, Samuel Jewell.

dang

Sounds awesome, v envious.
Heard a very nice "Nardis" last night on radio: Cannonball A feat. Blue Mitchell, who especially impressed with shadings into the endpoint, without ever imitating Miles. What other Blue Mitchell (his albums or on someone else's) should I check?

I mostly know him from those great early Horace Silver records

His Riverside albums from 1959-60 are really good, especially Big Six, Out of the Blue, Blue Soul and Blue's Moods. Killer bands on all of those.

Kamasi Washington, Maurice Brown and crew. AP came by for a little bit too, but I didn't notice him sitting behind me.

lol i was skimming and misread this as Kamasi Washington was sitting behind you and I was like goddamn how do you not notice Kamasi Washington?

It's true, he is hard to miss

Saxophonist/flutist Anna Webber's 'Clockwise', is an homage to some of her favourite 20th Century composers as seen through the lens of their works for percussion.
For the project, Webber researched and analyzed various percussion compositions by Iannis Xenakis, Morton Feldman, Edgard Varése, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Milton Babbitt, and John Cage, isolating particular moments that could be extracted and developed into new works.

love this so far, and would listen to any band with Tordini, M Mitchell , Ches Smith anyway, but this is really good.

Yeah, it's an interesting record - I wrote about it for my Stereogum column, which will be running later today I think.

Looking for Charles Lloyd on Bandcamp, found Manhattan Stories (2014), comprised of
Two 1965 New York Concerts, Disc 1 recorded at Judson Hall & Disc 2 recorded at Slugs' Saloon.

A remarkable and previously unrecorded quartet featuring three jazz giants: guitarist Gábor Szabó, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Pete La Roca.

'It was a specific time and place'; Lloyd told Manhattan Stories annotator Don Heckman. 'We all felt like the boundaries were being dissolved and we could do or try anything. This is a music of freedom and wonder -- we were young and on the move.' Which is just what the sample track, "Sweet Georgia Brown," sounds like (17' 49", but quite spritely). Especially digging the interplay of guitar and sax, bass and cymbals, also succinct solos, esp. PLR's and Szabo's---the latter bright and brittle, autumn leaves, but def not drifting. What other Szabo should I check? Used to see his LPs...
https://charleslloyd.bandcamp.com/

Here's my Stereogum column. I talk about Theon Cross, James Brandon Lewis, Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom, Lioness, Jeremy Pelt, Chris Potter, Anna Webber, Joe Fiedler, Maurice Louca, Itamar Borochov, Brent Birckhead, Miho Hazama, OK:KO, Matt Brewer, and Tom Rainey.

Thanks, Phil. Don (do you guys have a father named Ike?), see this thread: Gabor Szabo: Who Cares About His MIddle Eastern Modalities Aside From Me And Hurting?

Interesting that Maurice Louca has gone jazz. His last was egyptian dance music, great album. Looking forward to hearing it.

Something Ethan Iverson said on Twitter got me to check out the Brecker Brothers' Heavy Metal Be-Bop (an album I'd never heard before). I like a lot of 70s fusion - I have albums by Billy Cobham, Jean-Luc Ponty, Al DiMeola, Return to Forever, Weather Report and probably some others in my (digital) Walkman - but this shit is a step too far. This shit is gross.

the Maurice Louca album is very pretty and the vocal track is nice, it is quite a short and slight album - but definitely worth a listen I think.

xxp

you should check out the Anna Weber alb fred, the king of denmark part of the suite is probably the best new music I've heard this year!