Rolling Jazz Thread 2019

Likewise xp

These guys really need to tour my hemisphere. Australia would be good but i’d Gladly sell a limb to get to japan if they got there.

from Omnivore (who should have also mentioned that he's playing with Hank Jones, Billy Higgins, Charlie Haden, Al Foster, and George Cables on these albums):

Art Pepper
Promise Kept: The Complete Artists House Recordings

Release date: September 13, 2019

Pre-Order 5-CD Boxed Set $55.98

Digital Available Sept. 13
Description
The Complete Art Pepper Artists House Sessions.

“Art Pepper had had a brilliant career as a jazz soloist and band leader until the mid-1950s when he started using heroin. After that, incarcerations and treatments in prisons and hospitals, kept him off the stages and out of the studios. He was only able to record sporadically until he got (relatively) sober in Synanon in 1972, and married Laurie—me. Then, in the last ten years of his life, he composed, recorded, and toured more ambitiously than ever before, focused on securing his place among the true jazz greats—where he knew he belonged.”

—from the liner notes by Laurie Pepper

Producer John Snyder had always wanted to record Pepper and booked him into a week at the Village Vanguard in New York. At the time, Pepper was under contract to Contemporary Records and label head, Les Koenig, decided he would record the gigs, quashing any notion Snyder had of doing the same. However, Art promised Snyder that he’d record an album for Snyder’s label, Artists House, at some point down the road. Together they wound up making four.

Here for the first time are the complete Artists House sessions including 21 previously unissued takes. The original albums drawn from these sessions, So In Love, Artworks, New York Album, and Stardust, have been remastered and expanded with additional takes, some having appeared previously on releases such as The Complete Galaxy Recordings and Artists House—Complete (download only), while some appear here for the first time.

Laurie Pepper has provided liner notes and photographs she took at the sessions. Altogether, this is the most comprehensive window into the Artists House sessions ever likely to be.

“John and Art both kept their promises. John brought Art into the wider world; he put him on the road. Just as he said he would, he brought him to New York and to the Village Vanguard, got his picture in the papers, got him on the radio. From Art, John got his dearest wish. He made these 32 recordings.”

—from the liner notes by Laurie Pepper

5-CD / Digital Track List:

Disc 1 – So In Love:

Straight No Chaser (Take 3)
Blues For Blanche
So In Love
Diane
Stardust

Bonus Tracks:

Yesterdays (Take 2)
Landscape
Straight No Chaser (Take 4)*

Disc 2 – Artworks:

Body And Soul
Anthropology (Take 2)
Desafinado (Take 2)
Donna Lee
You Go To My Head
Blues For Blanche (Alternate A)

Bonus Tracks:

Desafinado (Take 1)*
Anthropology (Take 1)*
Donna Lee (Alternate A)
Blues For Blanche (Alternate B)
You Go To My Head (Alternate A)

Disc 3 – New York Album:

A Night In Tunisia (Take 2)
Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)
Straight, No Chaser (Take 2)
Duo Blues
My Friend John

Bonus Tracks:

Johnny’s Blues
A Night In Tunisia (Take 1)*
Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be) (Clarinet)
Straight, No Chaser (Take 1)*
My Friend John (Alternate B)

Disc 4 – Stardust:

My Friend John (Alternate A)
Tin Tin Deo
Stardust (Alternate A)
In A Mellow Tone (Take 2)

Bonus Tracks:

Art’s Sweet Blues
But Beautiful (Take 1)
You Go To My Head (Alternate B)*
Yesterdays (Take 3)*
Stardust (Alternate B)*
In A Mellow Tone (Take 1)*

Disc 5 – Sessions:

Blues For Blanche (Alternate C)*
Yesterdays (Take 1)
My Friend John (Take 1 – Long False Start)*
My Friend John (Take 2 – False Start)*
Blues For Blanche (Alternate D)*
Stardust (Long False Start)*
Donna Lee (Alternate B)
But Beautiful (Take 2)
A Night In Tunisia (Take 3)
Blues For Blanche (Alternate E)
Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be) (Alternate Sax Take)*

* Previously unissued.

Cool. Learned in recent years that Laurie Pepper played a major part in the writing of Straight Life, which is a big part of why it is so good.

Art Pepper is one of those dudes I wish I liked better than I do.

I just interviewed George Cables for an upcoming podcast. We talked about Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, and Dexter Gordon...but not Art Pepper.

(can't resist posting this, sorry) Cables played with him quite a bit, always well, far as I've ever heard. Here there are with one of my faves from the forthcoming, a remarkably justified 11'40" of "So In Love":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_4jLzxD_Xw

(Haden and Higgins are on there too.)

Yeah, the Nérija album is great, as was their EP from a few years ago. I love Shirley Tetteh's guitar playing. There's something about them that remonds me of bands like Rip Rig & Panic - I can imagine a young Neneh Cherry bouncing around with them at a GLC festival in the early 80s.

Going to the Jazz Gallery tonight to see Taylor Ho Bynum's 9-Tette:

Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet, compositions
Jim Hobbs - alto saxophone
Ingrid Laubrock - tenor & soprano saxophones
Bill Lowe – bass trombone, tuba
Mary Halvorson - electric guitar
Tomeka Reid - cello
Ken Filiano - acoustic bass
Stomu Takeishi - electric bass
Tomas Fujiwara - drums

They've got an album coming out next month that's really good, so I'm looking forward to hearing the music live.

show all messages, ctrl + f, 'ill considered', not found.

A shame, as vol. 6 is pretty damn good.

I might have talked about them in last year's thread - I've been a fan for a while. I wrote about them here. They've got a new one coming pretty soon.

Good stuff, thanks.

Bits of vol. 6 reminded me of Jan Garbarek's halcyon days ca. Afric Pepperbird. I'm a sucker for that sound.

Encouraging take on Coltrane's soundtrack of re-recordings,Blue World out Sept. 27:
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/16/751516859/a-lost-album-from-john-coltrane-is-found-with-thanks-to-a-french-canadian-direct

Also encouraging: most of the excerpts from Abdullah Ibrahim's The Balance, out now--stream /read about it here:
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/06/748739170/the-balance-abdullah-ibrahim-is-deeply-rooted-yet-sounds-like-no-one-else

I thought about going to see Ibrahim at the Jazz Standard. The album's good, if a little low-key.

I'm no Lettuce fan but this Adam Deitch record is really enjoyable, in a classic soul jazz vein. It sounds amazing too.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4zIoDg3T014z7nstlEliQ8?si=kIn9FI9lRDGIOj14rOa8VQ

A lot of nice stuff on the new Kevin Hays/Lionel Loueke album Hope: https://kevinhays-lionelloueke.bandcamp.com/album/hope . A good mix of uptempo material that might suggest West African rhythmic influences (?) like "Violeta" and "Aziza"; slower, delicate instrumental material; and vocal songs.

show all messages, ctrl + f, 'ill considered', not found.

A shame, as vol. 6 is pretty damn good.

― pomenitul, maandag 19 augustus 2019 16:22 (two weeks ago)

The earliest known film of Miles Davis performing, on French TV in 1957, has recently been unearthed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdrjmm46YgY

That's Barney Wilen on tenor sax, René Urtreger on piano, Pierre Michelot on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums.

Love those last two

In other Miles news, I reviewed the "lost" 80s album Rubberband for Stereogum. Short version: If you like '80s Miles, it's pretty good, just skip over all the tracks with vocalists.

Yeah, been wondering about that.

I bought the Art Ensemble of Chicago's We Are On The Edge mostly because of the instrumentation, as much or more than the players, as listed by grawlix way upthread---on headphones, especially, you will hear all of this (call it chamber jazz and para-jazz, maybe most of it through-composed, though it's a vast chamber...
Roscoe Mitchell – sopranino, soprano and alto saxophones
Famoudou Don Moye – drums, congas, djembe, dundun, gongs, Congo bells, bendir, triangles, Thai bells, shakers
Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa) – voice, poetry (Disc One #3, 4, 10)
Rodolfo Cordova-Lebron – voice (Disc One #1, 6, 9)
Hugh Ragin – trumpets, flugelhorn, Thai bells
Fred Berry – trumpet, flugelhorn
Nicole Mitchell – piccolo, flute, bass flute
Christina Wheeler – voice, Array mbira, autoharp, Q-Chord, Moog Theremini, sampler, electronics
Jean Cook – violin
Edward Yoon Kwon – viola
Tomeka Reid – cello
Silvia Bolognesi – bass
Jaribu Shahid – bass, tuned brass bowls
Junius Paul – bass
Dudù Kouaté – djembe, tama/talking drum, calabashes, kanjira, whistles, chimes, bells and small percussions (Disc One only)
Enoch Williamson – bongos, congas, djembe, kenkeni, okonkolo, Congo bells, chekeré, shakers, tama/talking drum
Titos Sompa – vocals, congas, mbira, Congo bells, cuica, shakers
Stephen Rush – conductor
... a canopied chamber: you want the forests of the lost homeland, of Earth, here's just some of what that could feel like, in terms of levels and degrees of light, like that album title, incl shade, shading, shades, nuances growing and standing this way and that, with apprehension and awe and alertness require d at all times.

The first 25 minutes or so seemed way too slow the first time I listened, but then the boombox immediately started replaying Disc I--during which I had grabbed a coffee and pumped up the volume---and this time I was immediately grabbed by the forest floor momentum, which goes to big bustling "Chi-Congo 50," def recalling the history of Chicago and the Congo, and Congo Square gets mentioned by Moor Mother, who is invaluable here.

Her exhortation of the title track takes some acerbic turns, like yeah we went forth into bold idealistic adventures, quests---and then "back to the projects," where yeah gotta organize, share what we've learned, but still here we are back in the projects (which might be grant-writing etc. art projects as well as housing projects). Immediately followed, about half-an-hour in, by "I Greet You With Open Arms," also with a somewhat disconcerting Octavia E. Butler, Toni Morrison vibe or zone: she puts the moor in mother alright, but not mad at ya, just that Mama's got some rules, (is the way I take her sound as much as words).

She might be a disciplinary influence on the slightly hushed, so-far-orderly anticipation of travelers swarming into "Oasis at Dusk"---also those who greet them---and I still haven't gotten to Disc 2, the live performance, with some of these titles and more.

Several tracks are here:
[https://artensembleofchicago.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-on-the-edge-a-50th-anniversary-celebration

Moor Mother is fantastic, but seriously intimidating. Have you heard her group Irreversible Entanglements? It's more Ayler-esque free jazz and her going full-on revolutionary up front.

That's some great Kenny Clarke footage

xpost Thanks! OMG here's Irreversible Entanglements on International Anthem's bandcamp, along with Jaimie Branch and Makaya McCraven and several performers also on We Are On The Edge:

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/ I'll brace myself...

I was contacted today by someone I respect in the music field, who is trying to figure out why labels aren't interested in a jazz session he produced. I tried to give some frank advice, and pass it on here in case it might be of interest to others in a similar situation. pic.twitter.com/0N3FChqBy2

— Ted Gioia (@tedgioia) September 5, 2019

The sample track from the new Rez Abbasi is p cool. He's still mining the same intricate South Asian-jazz fusion territory and gets good results. Mrdangam/ghatam/kanjira as well as drum kit : https://rezabbasi.bandcamp.com/album/a-throw-of-dice

He’s not wrong.

Really love this one from Samuel Prather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PJmCT0Ykio

Any Frode Haltli fans here? Border Woods is quite lovely, probably my favourite thing he's done since Passing Images.

wikipedia says that somebody found a copy of the second album by hasaan ibn ali, previously believed to have been destroyed in a late '70s warehouse fire? and that it might be released? god i would love to hear this!

Bumming about Harold Mabern

George Coleman's got an album coming out next week that's probably Mabern's final studio session, unless there's stuff in the vault or other things that haven't been released yet. It's just called The Quartet, on Smoke Sessions, and it's all standards.

https://soundcloud.com/highnote-savant-records/bookendz-from-blue-dawn-blue-nights

latest Wallace Roney album is well cool

this came out in June. solo piano. it is astonishing.

https://akitakase.bandcamp.com/album/hokusai

(duo piano on track #3, with Schlippenbach playin in, which is actually how I ran across this)

her Thema Prima album is p great as well

https://krisdavis.bandcamp.com/album/diatom-ribbons

new Kris Davis album Diatom Ribbons has some nice vox from Esperanza Spalding, a turntablist, the voice of Cecil Taylor talking about how music saved his life on the opening track.

Got a podcast interview with her going up on Friday.

Cool.

Feel like maybe I put the whammy on Harold Mabern by suggesting that you interview him.

Stephen Haynes / Damon Smith / Matt Crane / Jeff Platz – “Theory of Colors”

^^^
exquisite album is this, when a track came on from a shuffle i thought i was listening to some prime Sunny Murray or Spontaneous Music Ensemble or something .. beautiful stuff.

https://ollihirvonen.bandcamp.com/album/displace

new Olli Hirvonen album is nuff good! The McLaughlin/Coryell comparisons are fair but a lot of other interesting influences are in there.

yesssssssssssss... https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/fly-or-die-ii-bird-dogs-of-paradise

Going to see Branch perform today - free outdoor concert in some crappy little park near Houston Street. It's with her other group - Luke Stewart (of James Brandon Lewis's trio) on bass and Mike Pride on drums.

Wow, that Jaimie Branch.

(not a huge fan of the trumpet playing tbh, but everything else is great)

dunno if people rate him as classical, jazz, experimental or what but i LOVE travis laplante and he has a new album out at the start of next month
https://travislaplante.bandcamp.com/album/human

NYC premiere show in the LES on 11/7
http://www.galeriezurcher.com/spip.php?page=article&id_article=1622

Wiil check it, thanks!
Speaking of bandcamp, all of xpost Taylor Ho Bynum 9-tette's The Ambiguity Manifesto is on there now:
https://taylorhobynum.bandcamp.com/album/the-ambiguity-manifesto
Was going to name particular favorites, but even/especially the longest tracks, at 17:18 and 18:25, make it pretty hard to do---maybe the finale, "unreal/real (for old music," for the blend of moods, vibes.

Some of it might be too relaxed, though (not a whole track, but here and there within---few edits wouldn't hurt, seems like)(but that's a first impression)

Yeah, that Bynum record is really good. I caught the record release show at the Jazz Gallery, which given the personnel and their relative busy-ness was likely to be a rare event. It was a blast.

Makaya McCraven just played a very good set with Jeff Parker of Tortoise at the Lodge Room in Los Angeles.

The best song was the first, an unreleased track called "In These Times," which sounded like a collaboration between Steve Reich and Eddie Hazel.