Rolling Jazz Thread 2020

I bugged out early so missed McCraven last night, but apparently it was an incredible band: Marquis Hill on trumpet, Greg Ward on alto sax, I'm not sure who on tenor sax, Brandee Younger on harp, Joel Ross on vibes, Junius Paul on bass...

I'm trying for Steve Lehman + Craig Taborn, Brandee Younger, the Cookers, and Nduduzo Makhathini tonight.

X-post to J, I do know iLe, from Calle 13, and her musical interests seem broad.

I did find a Miguel Zenon Instagram post from Christmas morning where he posted a photo of albums - Bad Bunny x100pre and Fran Sinatra- Only the Lonely and said eclectic Christmas list this year and then described them as #1 albums 61 years apart both killers

Unperson: waiting out front at Brandee now!

Couldn’t get into Webster Hall because of something I forgot I had in my bag, so I’m at Subculture for The Cookers and so I don’t miss Nduduzo Makhathini down the block in an hour.

Ndusuzo is dope

Yeah, his set was fantastic. The Cookers were really good too - they had Ralph Peterson on drums instead of Billy Hart, and he was hitting hard.

Saw Uri Caine and a vocal choir do this at Zurcher; it was shockingly good... learned a lot too!
http://downbeat.com/news/detail/uri-caine-pays-tribute-to-octavius-catto

Caught Kat Edmonson doing her thing, which included a lovely, lilting samba-d out cover of 'just like heaven'

Theo Croker's set was very enjoyable but I think i like his band better when he's not playing!

The late Jimmy Heath featured on WKCR-FM all day today.

Okay, not quite. Only during the jazz shows

http://hullworks.net/jazzpoll/19/

NPR Jazz Critics poll by voter

Jimmy Heath, age 21

Paris Jazz Festival, May 1948 pic.twitter.com/IvCnVhvKUY

— Sonny Rollins Bridge (@RollinsBridge) January 19, 2020

he looks so young and suave in this pic from '48. RIP

Webber/Morris Big Band album is really good (I know Webber has some big fans on this board)
like a distilled, crystalline mingus

Oh hey there was a Comet Is Coming Tiny Desk --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpfpYTmohAk

Nice!

Vijay Iyer's going to be at the Jazz Standard next week, with Linda Oh on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, and on Saturday 2/1, Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet. The trio has an album coming out later this year and will be premiering the new music.

This is a really good piece.

Wow

Think about that kind of thing all the time.

i really hated it but i'll only say that i really didn't appreciate the snide dismissals of george shearing and buddy rich

Yeah that wasn't good imo. Sounds like his main beef is with hacky writers of tv & movies. He should try watching some movies about painters and see if the level of understanding gets any better or less cliched.

The visual arts get an equally shitty rep from pop culture portrayals yeah, dunno why that would make criticism invalid?

Yeah, I like Shuja Haider a great deal, but this is not one of his better pieces. I don't think it's meant to be a particularly serious effort, but if you're going to tackle the negative portrayal of jazz fans you need to go a bit deeper: The Committments, Jerry Maguire etc. In a UK context, I can understand the residual dislike of the 80s style mag approach to jazz, which was often fetishistic and ignored contemporary developments. He does touch on the racialised and class aspects of this, but it's something that could be developed further.
Having said all that, we also have to accept that real life jazz fans can be awful snobs. At Vision last year, I found myself stuck behind some blowhard who loudly expressed his disdain towards Patricia Nicholson's compering (I'd like to see this jabroni putting an incredible festival together for 25 years) and groaned performatively when Quincey Troupe gave shout outs to Whitney Houston, Beyonce et al during his set. That sort of nonsense makes me embarrassed to be a jazz fan. Unlike your movie jazz guy, this guy clearly knew his jazz, but his refusal to see the connections to black pop smacked of the old white-guys-as-arbiters-of-authenticity trope.

Lawrence Leathers tribute streaming right now from Dizzy's is cooking. What a band.

By which I mean Spike Wilner's (augmented) Smalls Sextet right now I guess.

JC Styles emceeing. It might has well be Smalls or Mezzrow.

People keep switching out instruments every couple of minutes. Right now only one I recognize is Mimi Jones on bass.

Daughter of jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb—last surviving member of the historic ‘Kind of Blue’ band—has launched a crowdfunding project to cover her father’s medical and living expenses. https://t.co/G4fqK0p5ZV

— Ted Gioia (@tedgioia) February 3, 2020

https://www.wbgo.org/post/legacy-lawrence-lo-leathers-lives-joyous-tribute-and-new-foundation#stream/0

Will not forget how to spell JC Stylles name again.

Chinen on the next Newport:
https://www.wbgo.org/post/ageless-masters-fiery-and-comers-newport-jazz-festival-unveils-its-first-wave#stream/0

https://amirthakidambi.bandcamp.com/album/from-untruth

missed this last year, really hits the spot

i know you guys aren't generally into more accessible vocal jazz covers but i am digging the new Kat Edmonson and this cover of "When You Wish Upon a Star" particularly. Yacouba Sissoko on kora and Deep Singh on tabla!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRj_0FTa0SM

American Masters, starting Tues.:
Discover the man behind the legend. With full access to the Miles Davis Estate, the film features never-before-seen footage, including studio outtakes from his recording sessions, rare photos and new interviews.
https://aptv.org/schedule/detail.php?epid=2378952

I caught Billy Harper’s quintet last night in SF. I’d hoped to get a chance to see him for years and he did not disappoint. He sounded fresh and full of energy, with a good band behind him. Very lucky happenstance.

This Moses Boyd album is hot hot hot. Love this stuff. London is a happening place right now.

https://youtu.be/eiAV0zQipLY

yep it's a brilliant album. Boyd on where he was at when he was making it:

As its title suggests, though, Dark Matter is concerned with more than just movement and sound. “I was reflecting on what had been going on at the time of writing, and it was Brexit madness and the Windrush scandal,” Boyd says. “There was a constant cloud around me. I was thinking, ‘Am I even British if they can deport people like my [West Indian] grandparents? Do we even matter if Grenfell can burn with people in it, and then get covered up institutionally?’

This Afropunk interview with him is good: https://afropunk.com/2020/02/moses-boyd-afropunk-interview/

Now UK jazz is having a sustained spell of creativity y'all should check out pianist Alexander Hawkins. He's recently been touring with Braxton and their band has been getting rave reviews and I think some of his albums are underrated, like his trio one, step wide, step deep and his solo from last year.

Speaking of UK Jazz, went to see Yazz Ahmed at Church of Sound last Friday and that was a stellar show, moving away a bit from her more abrasive earlier stuff into spiritual jazz w/ copious middle eastern influences. Warning: there are certain bits of the new album that sound a bit like Zappa, if that's an immediate turn-off.

trigger warning: Zappa influence

Just discovered an album I didn't know about from last year - the self-titled debut by Tenor Triage, a group featuring Michael Eaton, James Brandon Lewis, and Sean Sonderegger on tenor saxes, Brad Jones on bass and Calvin Weston on drums. It came out in September on Ropeadope. It's pretty good, raucous (as you might expect) semi-harmolodic jazz-funk. Bern Nix was in the group too, but died before they could record this album.

new jeremy cunningham album is great ft jeff parker makaya mccraven and others

I've been meaning to check that one out.

Yeah, damn; there's some heavy shit on that album

Great chordless trio in my neighborhood tonight.

John Ellis, Ricky Rodriguez and Jimmy Macbride.

that Yazz Ahmed album from last year is indeed splendid

Ok, help me because I can't remember the name of this tune. Thinking it's a hard bop classic, I can hear the original with trumpet, but it's driving me crazy. 32 bars with a bluesy A section.

I feel a little shameful because I was hate-watching Stanton Moore, but it's ok because David Torkanowsky is one of my very favorite piano players. Here's the tune:
https://youtu.be/Z7wSxD7RDkM?t=1007

I prefer the Stan Moore who played in Zakary Thaks.

Name that tune though

totally loving The Complete Blue Note Recordings of the Tina Brooks Quintets at the moment, which I think is something that has been out of print for a while. He was obviously a huge talent whose career was sadly pissed away because of his heroin addiction and rep for unreliability, so my awareness of him wasn't so good before hearing this collection.

bass gettin' lonely, some subterranean blues suggested, crisp kinda-Spanish strings say, "That's the breaks, bass." I'll shut up now.

lol no PBKR. I meant the Scando acoustic-skronk meisters with Gard Nilssen on the sticks latest album called Legal Tender! But I wouldn't be surprised if there is some vague connection or influence there!

― calzino, Saturday, December 19, 2020 5:59 AM (sixteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thanks, this Cortex is great as well.

Great band at Smalls right now.

Will prob just take their word for the Metheny, but the rest of this looks pretty appealing: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/21/the-10-best-jazz-albums-of-2020. Some Brits I hadn't heard of, though did already know several now on Blue Note Re:Imagined, and glad to see it here---not as far-ranging as Soul Jazz Records comp Kaleidoscope, but v. fortifying.

Was it here that someone rec'd the Shiroishi 'Descension' record? It's making my afternoon, such deeply felt playing and processing.

hell yeah @ braxton / chadbourne

Dave Kikowski playing Xmas tunes at Smalls right now in a duet with Matt Clohesy.

Was it here that someone rec'd the Shiroishi 'Descension' record? It's making my afternoon, such deeply felt playing and processing.

I'm not super familiar with Shiroishi, but I reviewed a duo album he did with drummer Dylan Fujioka, Neba Neba, for The Wire this summer. Pretty good stuff.

Really appreciate this thread guys

cool! well, this is the first track of the Shiroishi I was talking about— the feedback mostly cuts out after the first minute, and it becomes just absolutely rending stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uow-5jtdVdE

Nice dreamier/ECM-ier approach on this Fuubutsushi (風物詩) collab btw Shiroishi/Jusell/Prymek/Sage on Cached Media (all tracked separately in self-iso this summer and released in September):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWzDuxyISy4

Trumpet player encounters all that shit jazz:

I am furious!!! We see this crap happening all the time, but it hits different when it hits home!!! I typically try to keep things positive, but nothing about this video is positive.
The lady in this video assaulted my 14-year-old son and me as we came down from our room in the @arlohotels Arlo Soho to get breakfast. This person quote on quote “lost” her iPhone, and apparently, my son magically acquired it, which merely ridiculous. This incident went on for five more minutes, me protecting my son from this lunatic. She scratched me; she Tackled and grabbed him. He is a child!!! Now watch it again. This lady is not even a guest at the hotel. She checked out of the hotel on the 23rd of December; today is the 26th. Now watch as the manager advocates for the lady who is not even a hotel guest, insisting and attempting to use his managerial authority to force my son to show his phone to this random lady. He actually empowered her!!! He didn't even consider the fact we were actually the guests! Now think about the trauma that my son now has to carry, only coming downstairs to have box day brunch with his dad. Then... her phone was magically returned by an Uber driver a few minutes after this incident. No apology from her after this traumatic situation to my son, not me. No apologies from the establishment. This shit happens so often. It needs to stop!!! If anyone recognizes this person, please tag or DM. (NYPD:charges have since been upgraded, search is on for this apparent tourist.) video on https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJR6LviHFkd/?utm_source=ig_embed

jeeeeeeeeezus, how ugly.

Pertinent recent New York Mag piece along the same lines:
https://www.thecut.com/article/montclair-new-jersey-permit-karen.html

That Keyon Harrold story made the news. It's getting around.

Countering that news, a little bit, this is coming up:
In 1977, the first Jazz Alive New Year's Eve special was broadcast live from The Cookery and The Village Gate. The tradition continues with Toast of the Nation, NPR's annual holiday special that rings in the New Year with jazz.

This year features some of the best jazz collectives performing today. Hear four solid hours of festive music from the Catherine Russell Trio (recorded live at Dizzy's Club at Jazz At Lincoln Center), The Jazz Gallery All-Stars (recorded live at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), KOKOROKO (recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall in London) and Pink Martini (recorded live from bandleader Thomas Lauderdale's home).
News followed by links to prev. live sets from all participants:
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/28/948032453/toast-of-the-nation-202
Will listen for the sake of KOKOROKO and Jazz Gallery All-Stars, whom I didn't know about, but incl. Miguel Zenón, alto; Melissa Aldana, tenor; Joel Ross, vibraphone; Charles Altura, guitar; Aaron Parks, piano; Ben Williams, bass; Kendrick Scott, drums; Jessica Boykin-Settles, vocals.) Will give the other bands a shot also.

Couldn't find a good thread to bump for this, but there's a new Maceo Parker album in 2020 and it's a great example of the form (the form being Maceo Parker albums). It's also one of his New Orleans-y albums, in terms of the players and the tune selection.

new thread?

Rolling Jazz Thread 2021